The floorboards groaned beneath my feet as I shifted my weight. The ink had dried on the last name I wrote: Yu Meixiu.
I didn't know who she was. Not clearly. But when I saw the name scrawled on the corner of Bai Ningwei's old prescription, something tugged at me. Like a shadow brushing past my shoulder.
Not a memory, just a vague feeling.
[Investigation Progress: 12%]
[Soul Token Retrieval Locked until 70%]
[Warning: Idle delay beyond 14 days will result in cycle restart.]
I glared at the floating words. The System, as usual, was all bark and no warmth. Not that I expected sympathy from a program built to enforce punishment.
"Idle delay," I muttered. "Try getting poisoned and see how fast you move."
The screen blinked off, unimpressed.
I set the brush down carefully. The strokes on the scroll were uneven, but legible. I didn't know if Bai Ningwei's hands had ever held a brush before. Probably. She'd been educated, at least on paper. Her handwriting was too neat for a servant, too careless for a scholar.
Bits and pieces of her life drifted through my mind, not as memories, but as… hints. Faint impressions.
She liked red bean buns, disliked being touched on the back of her neck, and once snuck into a pear orchard with a friend whose face I couldn't see. That was all I had. No full story. Just fragments, like leaves scattered across a courtyard after a storm.
And none of them told me who wanted her dead.
————
Downstairs, Old Scholar Lin was muttering about taxes again.
"The emperor wants new roads," he complained, holding a scroll at arm's length. "What was wrong with the old roads? I've used the same one to the latrine for thirty years. Never once fell into a pit."
"You're not important enough to deserve one," I replied, stepping into the room.
"You're right," he sighed dramatically. "If I were important, I wouldn't be here listening to you breathe."
I poured two cups of tea and set one in front of him. He sniffed it, nodded, and downed the whole thing in one gulp.
Then he peered at me over the rim. "Still no ghosts whispering secrets in your dreams?"
"If they are, they speak in riddles and leave before sunrise."
"Maybe you're cursed."
"Maybe you talk too much."
He snorted and motioned to the pile of records beside him. "Found a list of the Bai family's old servants. Most were dismissed last year. Some found other houses. A few… disappeared."
"Anyone with access to the pharmacy?"
He rubbed his beard. "There was a young woman - Yu Meixiu. Started as a laundry maid, but rose fast. Took over managing medicines for a while."
"Do you know where she is now?"
He shrugged. "Last I heard, she left to work at the Shen estate. But that was months ago."
I held back a sigh. The Shen estate again.
The last time I'd gone, Shen Qingyan made it clear he didn't want loose ends and that I was one of them. But this wasn't about him. It wasn't even about me.
This was Bai Ningwei's story, and I was just trying to finish the last chapter.
————
Later that evening, I walked down to the river market, where the lantern stalls were open late and the steam from boiled peanuts floated in the air.
I bought a meat bun, ate it too quickly and wandered to the outer edges where the lights didn't reach.
Somewhere beyond the crowd, a thin voice called out.
"Spirit stones! Fortunes read! Souls untroubled!"
The old man behind the stall looked like he'd been carved from wax. His beard was stained yellow from tea and smoke, and his eyes gleamed with something between knowledge and madness.
I paused.
"You look tired, Miss," he said. "Carrying two fates on your shoulders?"
My fingers twitched. "Just one. It's heavy enough."
He grinned, revealing three teeth. "That one's not yours."
I didn't respond.
He pulled out a board and tossed three stones across it. One landed upright. The others rolled away.
"Ah," he said. "Your soul's been split. Punished. You walk in someone else's name, but the chain is still tied to your real one."
The hair on my arms rose. "Do you say that to everyone?"
He leaned closer. "Only the ones who don't belong."
My hand drifted to the cinnabar mark on my cheek. It was always cold.
"Do you want to remember?" he asked.
"I want to understand," I said. "There's a difference."
He nodded solemnly. "That's harder."
"Figured."
I turned to leave, but before I could disappear into the crowd, he called out.
"There's something you lost. Not a memory. A choice."
I froze.
"You'll get it back," he said. "But only if you stop pretending this life doesn't matter."
Then he laughed. Loud and wild.
I walked away quickly.
————
Back in the shop, the ink stone sat dry again. My scroll was still open, the names waiting.
I sat down and stared at them.
Yu Meixiu. Bai Ruolan. Shen Qingyan.
I didn't know who I was yet. Not truly. But this life-Bai Ningwei's pain, her humiliation, her quiet strength- it wasn't something I could dismiss. The more I learned about her, the more I began to feel like we shared something beyond just a body.
Maybe it was the fact that she died alone. Or that no one believed her. Or maybe because, even now, people kept trying to write her story without asking.
[Reminder: Task deadline – 7 days remaining.]
"I know," I muttered. "I'm working on it."
I dipped my brush into fresh ink and began writing again. This time, not just names.
I wrote questions. Motives. Possibilities. A timeline. I pinned it to the wall. The small upstairs room began to look less like a place to sleep and more like a war chamber.
I was still weak. Still healing. But I wasn't helpless.
This life wasn't mine but it was the only one I had right now.
And if I had to suffer for crimes I didn't remember, I would make sure someone paid for the ones I could still uncover.
————
Outside, the wind whispered past the rooftop like it knew something I didn't.
I looked out the window. The sky was dark, but the stars were bright.
Somewhere beyond this world, I knew there was a reason for all this.
But right now?
Right now, Bai Ningwei deserved justice.
And I intended to give it to her