Late April brought several heavy rains to the capital.
It was said that the downpours in the suburbs were even fiercer, with thunder and lightning that shook the earth. Rumor had it that a bolt from the heavens struck a hilltop, obliterating it entirely.
For the past two days, the rain had been relentless. Achan hadn’t opened her shop or gone out to buy food.
By evening, hunger gnawed at her stomach. She dragged herself out of bed and rummaged through the cupboard for some snacks she’d bought earlier to quell her hunger.
Tonight, the rain seemed to pour even harder. Would it ease by tomorrow? Amid the clamor of the downpour, she faintly heard a knock at the door.
Had she misheard?
Achan hesitated, then grabbed an oil lamp and descended the stairs.
As she reached the ground floor, the knocking grew clearer.
Who would come looking for her in this weather?
“Who’s there?” she called, standing by the door.
After a long pause, a voice answered from outside, “It’s... me...”
It was Madam Chen’s voice.
Achan’s hand lingered on the latch for a moment, but she lifted it and opened the door.
As the door swung open, the scent of rain mingled with an unpleasant earthy tang and a faint stench flooded in.
Madam Chen stood in the rain, cloaked in a cape. Though she wore a hood, she was soaked through.
It had been only a dozen days since they last met, yet it felt like a lifetime. One stood inside the door, the other outside.
By the light of the oil lamp, Achan gazed at Madam Chen, silent in the rain, like a lifeless stone. After a long moment, she sighed softly, “Chen Hui, come in.”
Madam Chen stepped over the threshold and entered the house.
Achan closed the door but didn’t offer her a towel to dry off or invite her to sit. She only said quietly, “Take off the cape.”
“It’ll... scare you.”
“Since I let you in, I’m not afraid.”
Madam Chen untied the cord of her cape, letting it fall to the floor, revealing her current state.
As she had warned, it was terrifying.
Her exposed face, neck, and hands were marred with rotting black patches, the source of the faint stench.
More precisely, it was the smell of a corpse.
From the moment she entered, Madam Chen hadn’t taken a single breath, nor had her heart beaten.
A few days ago, a living corpse had bitten through her neck, and she had already died.
Her consciousness had plunged into eternal darkness, yet she hadn’t remained lost forever. At some point, she “awakened.”
Gradually, she recalled her name, what had happened, and the fact of her own death.
She could even sense that she had been buried in the earth, the heavy soil pressing down on her, though it didn’t affect her. It only kept her from moving.
Then the rain began, followed by thunder.
The pit where she was buried was blasted open by lightning, and she crawled out, leaving that place behind.
At first, she didn’t realize her state. But as she passed a small ditch, she glanced down and saw her reflection in the water.
Her face was rotting.
Terrified by her own appearance, she stumbled onto the main road, snatched a cape from someone, and fled.
Later, she pretended to have a severe skin disease and slipped into the city. She thought that even if she was dead, she should die in her own home to avoid troubling others.
But as she reached her doorstep in the pouring rain, she caught a scent, the fragrance that had sustained her through despair.
She hadn’t wanted to see Ji Chan, fearing she’d frighten her.
Yet her body moved as if beyond her control, drawn to the scent.
Ji Chan opened the door and let her in...
Seeing Madam Chen’s current state, how could it not be clear? She was dead, transformed into a living corpse, yet one that hadn’t fully turned.
She retained her memories from life, more human than any living corpse Achan had ever seen. But because she hadn’t fully turned, her body continued to rot.
If left unchecked, she would watch herself decay completely.
“What happened?” Achan asked.
Madam Chen saw no fear in Achan’s eyes, as if she easily accepted this version of her.
“I...” Madam Chen opened her mouth, “This story, if told from the beginning, might be a bit long.”
“No matter.” Achan pointed to a chair behind her. “Sit. We have the whole night to talk.”
Where to begin with the past? Perhaps when Chen Hui was still a young girl, not yet of age.
Back then, her father was the chancellor of Mingzhou Academy, one of the four great academies, a renowned scholar.
One day, her father returned home elated, telling her and her mother that he had taken on a highly gifted student. The student excelled in every way, though his parents had passed away, and the grandparents who raised him were also gone.
Her mother didn’t mind, even suggesting her father bring the student home for meals to save some money.
That was how Chen Hui met Yan Liru.
They met as youths, grew to know and care for each other, and eventually became engaged with their parents’ blessing.
Later, her father’s old colleague recommended him for the position of Chancellor of the National University, and their family moved to the capital. Yan Liru, who had already earned the rank of provincial scholar, joined them.
On the journey, Chen Hui rescued a girl heading to the capital to find her family. The girl was about her age, gaunt and pitiable. Chen Hui pleaded with her father to bring her along.
It was just one of the many people she’d helped over the years.
Chen Hui never imagined that this girl, named Fang Yu, would change her life.
In the capital, the girl went to find her father, and Yan Liru left with Chen Hui’s family.
Later, by chance, Chen Hui saw Fang Yu again at a banquet. She had become the only daughter of the Marquis of Zhenbei, adored by the noble ladies.
The once frail, vulnerable girl seemed to have stepped into a different life.
Chen Hui didn’t approach, not wanting to disturb her new life, but Fang Yu called out to her.
New to the capital and friendless, Chen Hui found her first friend in Fang Yu. They ate together, lived together, bought matching clothes, exchanged beautiful jewelry, and shared their little secrets.
Then one day, Yan Liru and Fang Yu came to her home together.
He knelt before her father, confessing that he had saved Fang Yu from drowning, seen her body, and felt obligated to take responsibility by marrying her.
And what about me?
Chen Hui still remembered the despair and pain that flooded her heart when she heard the news.
She couldn’t understand why this had happened, why it had to be her.
Her father was furious but couldn’t blame Yan Liru, who had only acted to save someone.
The engagement was broken off, and her fiancé became another’s husband.
Later, her father was impeached by numerous court officials over an article he wrote. The Emperor banished him from the capital, and on the journey, they encountered a demon calamity.
Chen Hui’s eyes were filled with lifelessness as she said, “Only before I died did I learn that my family’s deaths weren’t an accident. Fang Yu orchestrated it all. The monster that killed my family was a living corpse she raised. In the end, I was bitten to death by that same living corpse.”
Achan listened to Chen Hui’s story, an inexplicable heaviness settling in her chest.
She seemed to understand just how much despair Chen Hui had endured through all this.
“So, what role did Yan Liru play in this story?” Achan asked.
Chen Hui was silent for a long while before saying, “An accomplice.”
“Before I died, he came. When the living corpse bit through my neck, I wasn’t dead yet. I heard him say to find a good feng shui spot to bury me, haha...”
Chen Hui burst into uncontrollable laughter, though her face couldn’t form a smile.
She laughed until she wanted to cry, but she could no longer shed tears.
“Why did you come to me tonight?” Achan asked.
“I only followed the scent and ended up here. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“Scent?” Achan frowned.
“The incense pellet you gave me, I was so hungry when I was taken that I ate it. I don’t know why, but that scent was so alluring.”
Achan stood and retrieved an incense pellet mixed with dragon bone powder from the shelf, “This one?”
“Yes.” Madam Chen’s eyes locked onto the pellet, as if she might lunge for it.
But she restrained herself, not moving an inch.
Achan handed her the incense pellet. Madam Chen didn’t hesitate, popping it into her mouth and swallowing it without chewing.
After a moment, Achan wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but one of the rotting patches on Madam Chen’s face seemed to shrink slightly.
Achan leaned closer and realized it wasn’t her imagination.
“How could this be?” she murmured.
This incense pellet, aside from dragon bone powder, contained no special ingredients. It had a pleasant fragrance and a minor quirk: clothes fumigated with it wouldn’t get wet in the rain.
This odd property had no effect on humans, just a bit of fun.
Yet as a living corpse, Madam Chen craved this pellet, likely because of the dragon bone powder.
She had swallowed a pellet containing dragon bone powder before her death, then was bitten by a living corpse. After death, she became a living corpse but didn’t fully turn. This might not be a coincidence.
Perhaps the dragon bone powder, by some chance, was absorbed by her, halting the full transformation.
The power of dragons permeates their entire being, including their bones.
The bones of a fourth-realm dragon hold immense power, but it’s not something the living can absorb. What about the dead?
No one had ever tried.
No one would feed precious dragon bone powder to a dying person, then let a living corpse bite them.
In the brief time Achan pondered, one of the smaller patches on Madam Chen’s face vanished entirely.
“It’s really being absorbed,” Achan said, a mix of surprise and worry.
She was thrilled her guess was correct, Chen Hui could indeed absorb the energy in dragon bone powder. With enough of it, she might even return to a normal appearance.
The problem was, there wasn’t enough dragon bone powder.
A fourth-realm dragon was something even Achan, as a fox demon, had never dared to challenge.
Now, a dragon, or someone like Bai Xiuming with dragon bones, was equally dangerous.
Bai Xiuming had just withdrawn the spies watching her. If he learned there was a living corpse in her home, his first move wouldn’t be to listen to her explanation.
When he suspected she was a demon, his attitude had already made it clear, he had no mercy for demons or ghosts.
Achan never believed that just because Bai Xiuming was kinder to her now, she could tell him everything.
That would be courting death.
Under Achan’s astonished gaze, Madam Chen touched her face. When she extended her hand, she noticed a rotting black patch on her finger had disappeared.
She examined it over and over, confirming it was truly gone.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“The incense pellet contains dragon bone powder. The power in the dragon bones might temporarily restore your body to normal, but...”
“But what?”
“To maintain that state, you’d likely need to keep consuming dragon bone powder, and that’s incredibly rare,” Achan said with difficulty.
“I see... then forget it.”
Chen Hui looked down at her hand, now like normal human skin, struggling to form a smile, “Being able to see you again, to say these things, is enough. I’m already a dead person.”
“If you let it go, you’ll die again. Don’t you feel unwilling?” Achan asked.
Chen Hui said faintly, “Of course I’m unwilling. My entire family was murdered, yet their family lives freely and happily. It’s too unfair.”
“But sometimes, people have to accept their fate. Don’t force what can’t be forced.”
Achan looked at Chen Hui, who claimed she didn’t want to force things. She wasn’t truly resigned; she just didn’t want to burden her.
Achan couldn’t help but recall her time in the mountains, when her grandmother scolded her for being stubborn, chasing things she could never have.
All she wanted was to see her parents.
Even as she grew, even after she died, even after she was reborn, that desire never changed.
Perhaps she would never change, always chasing what she shouldn’t.
“I have a way, perhaps it can help you,” Achan said.
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