Luo Yuan had her own room in the courtyard of the shrine, but she spent most of her time not in that room, and preferred instead to stay inside the shrine. This place that felt mysterious and frightening to others was where she felt the safest.

The aloof clan deity, wearing an aloof face, did things that were not aloof at all, even showing faint traces of something clingy.

Luo Yuan would occasionally return to her own room at night to rest quietly, but before long, she would sense the clan deity silently floating from the shrine to her room, floating to her side without saying a word, just drifting there beside her. Then she would be hooked back to the shrine to keep him company.

If he was this afraid of loneliness, how had he survived all those years before? Luo Yuan held onto the white sleeve and returned to the shrine, watching the clan deity sit unmoving like a statue through the whole night. When she did not take the initiative to do anything, the clan deity was always like this. Only when she made some movement would he be drawn to her, as if the statue came to life.

Every time she saw the deity’s full divine aura, Luo Yuan felt an indescribable stirring in her heart. The long night felt like a long lifetime. She rested her head on the deity’s knee, curled up beside him, listening to the whispering night wind outside.

She touched the deity’s sleeve, reaching her hand inside to explore aimlessly. She touched his hand and arm. Beneath this white garment, his form most of the time was not much different from an ordinary human’s, only that no one dared covet or explore it. Luo Yuan quietly touched his hand inside the sleeve and thought of the first time she met him, when countless red threads had wriggled out from his sleeve. She was a little curious where those red threads came from.

Were they hidden inside his body? Or inside his arm?

Since she was not stopped, she slowly continued to explore bit by bit. Fortunately, the sleeve was wide, letting her fuss around however she pleased. As she touched and touched, both her arms reached fully inside. Suddenly, she felt that the arm she had been touching disappeared!

Her suddenly empty hands were bound by the threads inside the sleeve, that sense of restraint extremely clear. Startled, she sat halfway up and, without thinking, pulled her hands out of the white sleeve. Sure enough, her hands were covered in dense red threads.

These eerie red threads that could once slice a person into pieces were now just like ordinary red strings, loosely tied around her fingers and arms, with many knots—bowknots, no less.

The clan deity had his eyes closed.

“Er-ge?” Luo Yuan shook the red threads on her hands. They did not move at all.

She couldn’t help laughing. She pushed aside the wide sleeve and directly stuck her head inside—she wanted to see what it looked like in there.

Within the white world, red threads tangled in chaos, their source nowhere to be found. She tried to grab the threads to tidy them, but saw them suddenly wriggle as if alive.

“Ah!”

Covered by the sleeve over half her body, the wife let out a playful cry, her hair messy as she pulled herself out of the sleeve. The clan deity glanced once, then closed his eyes again, as if pretending he hadn’t done anything.

This time, not only her hands and arms—even her hair and neck were covered in red threads. Luo Yuan’s neat, tidy hair was tied into scattered bowknots by the red threads, looking absurdly comical.

Touching her own hair, she thought that this cold-faced Erge was definitely laughing inside.

“Er-ge, they’re tied into dead knots, I can’t undo them.” She had tried for a long time but couldn’t untangle the threads on her hands. If it had been an ordinary tangle of threads, she would have solved it easily with her patience. But these threads were alive—the more she tried to untie them, the tighter they bound her, clearly refusing to let her undo them.

“Er-ge?”

“Hahaha!” Luo Yuan laughed, because a red thread was tapping at her ear—it tickled. She burrowed straight into the deity’s arms, rubbing against him mindlessly, almost diving into his clothes. Only then did the red threads finally untie themselves and return obediently to the inside of his sleeve.

After finally getting rid of the threads, Luo Yuan reached out again to touch the deity’s hand, pulling that flawless hand out of the sleeve.

“Er-ge, where do the red threads come from?”

As if to answer her question, the hand resting in her palm suddenly scattered into a handful of fine, soft red threads.

Bright in color, with a silky-smooth texture like flowing water. Luo Yuan followed that handful of threads, not even knowing what she was thinking, and casually tied them into a ruyi knot.

Ah, she accidentally tied Er-ge’s hand into a knot.

The clan deity opened his eyes and looked at her, then at the bright red ruyi knot.

Luo Yuan held up the ruyi knot, wondering which part of the hand this belonged to, feeling a bit uneasy. “Er-ge can return to your original form, right?”

Then she was pulled into that chaotic black world, where she saw the clan deity who could smile. This place was the world inside the clan deity’s statue, the source of his power. Other than their wedding night and that one time afterward, Luo Yuan had never come here again. She suspected there must be something special about this place.

Suddenly pulled inside, Luo Yuan saw the gentle, smiling clan deity, and joy rose uncontrollably in her heart.

“Such a mischievous wife.” The clan deity lifted her up, smiling teasingly.

“I learned it from Er-ge.” Luo Yuan wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. In the past, she had depended on her younger sister, always in the position of taking care and protecting. The word “mischievous” had always been far from her—something only those who were cherished had the privilege to be. And now, unknowingly, she had changed a little.

“I should have died long ago. You gave me a new life.” Luo Yuan lowered her head to gaze at the clan deity holding her, cupping his face and kissing him devoutly.

Sometimes she had a terrifying greed, wanting to possess him completely, even devour him, melt him.

The clan deity tilted his head slightly under her kiss. He raised a hand to push her forehead away, speaking with a note of helpless feeling, “Here, overly intense emotions will influence me. Relax a little, An. You don’t want to be melted and devoured by me, do you?”

Luo Yuan stared at him without blinking, licking her lips. “…I do.”

The clan deity: “….”

Luo Yuan: “Right now, I think even if I had been devoured back then and turned into nourishment, that would have been fine.” At least, better than dying in prison at the hands of the adjudicator’s execution.

“Such a child.” The clan deity let her rest her head on his shoulder and patted her back. “My wife whom I waited for so long should cherish herself well.”

Luo Yuan awoke in the shrine to find a ruyi knot wrapped around her hand—the one she had casually woven yesterday using the clan deity’s red threads. The bright, beautiful red threads wrapped around her wrist like an exquisite bracelet.

───♡───

Life in the old residence was regular and cut off from the world. Suddenly leaving the residence and crossing the forest back into the bustling modern city, Luo Yuan unexpectedly felt a little unaccustomed—unaccustomed to the place she had lived for more than twenty years.

This time she returned to Yulin District to visit her sister’s grave. Because it was her sister’s birthday, she brought the flowers her sister liked and specially made a small cake. The cake design was chosen by the clan deity. He watched her finish it and pack it, then personally sent her to the gate of the old residence, touching her face before letting her go, perhaps sensing her heavy mood.

Since it was not a traditional day for visiting graves, the enormous cemetery in Yulin District had very few people. From the entrance onward, after walking for a long time, she hadn’t seen a single person. Only Minghui accompanied her, holding an umbrella to shield her from the sun.

Minghui was quieter than Minghuang, meticulous in everything she did. She held the umbrella carefully, afraid of accidentally letting even a sliver of sunlight fall on her. On such a bright, sunny day, even a cemetery lost its usual gloominess. Luo Yuan walked forward slowly holding the flowers and cake, looking at the rows of gravestones bathed in sunlight, somewhat lost in thought.

A boy of eighteen or nineteen walked toward them. Tall and handsome, he stepped aside when he saw them. Suddenly, his gaze paused on Minghui, and he called uncertainly, “Qin Minghui?”

Minghui looked up in surprise. “Qin Zhi!”

Luo Yuan was now very sensitive to the surname Qin. Hearing that this boy was also surnamed Qin and knew Minghui, she immediately guessed he might be a member of the Qin clan as well. However, the Qin family followed generational characters in their names—three characters, and those of Minghui’s generation should have the character “Ming” in the middle. Yet his name had only two characters.

The doubt flashed briefly through her mind. Luo Yuan stopped walking, thoughtfully giving Minghui space to speak with him for a moment.

“I heard you were selected as a candidate for shinu. Why are you here?”

Minghui did not mention Luo Yuan’s identity, only said vaguely, “I’m accompanying an older sister to visit a grave. You? You’re here for a grave visit too?”

Qin Zhi: “Mm.”

Minghui glanced at Luo Yuan, then asked another question, “How have you been recently? I heard you graduated with very good grades. After graduating, the clan should have arranged work for you, right?”

Qin Zhi was silent for a moment, then let out a bitter smile. “No. But it’s fine.”

After their brief conversation, the two passed by each other.

Luo Yuan glanced back and softly asked with a smile, “Is he your classmate?”

Minghui’s face reddened a little. “Mm. The younger members of our Qin family usually study at the family’s private school. Oh—right, his name is Qin Zhi. He’s also part of the Qin family.”

Luo Yuan: “Really? Qin Zhi? This is my first time seeing a two-character name.”

Hearing her say that, Minghui hesitated, then spoke haltingly, “His branch is a bit special. Starting several hundred years ago, their names have always been two characters. They don’t participate in our generational naming system. Their branch has very, very few people and has always been on the edge of the family. Now… only he is left.”

At this point, Minghui showed a trace of sympathy.

Qin Zhi, who had shown no reaction, walked to the entrance of the cemetery. He did not leave directly. He quickly found a car parked nearby. Thinking of the person he had seen standing under the black umbrella earlier, he confirmed that person’s identity in his heart. That should be the lady who had recently been the subject of intense rumors within the clan—the wife chosen by the clan deity.

That cold-blooded, inhuman monster also had a wife, like a human? Did it understand human love? How ridiculous! Qin Zhi lowered his eyes, rubbing the phone in his pocket before finally taking it out and sending several messages.

Luo Yuan placed the flowers and cake before her sister’s grave. Gazing at her sister’s brilliant smiling face in the photo, she couldn’t help reaching out to touch it. Though both of them had died, their circumstances were completely different. The dead could not meet again, and regrets could never be mended.

In the farewell letter her sister left behind, she apologized again and again, saying she was sorry, saying that her only concern at the moment of death had been her.

“Don’t worry about your jiejie anymore. Jiejie is living very well now. I hope Xiaojing is too.”

At noon, when the sunlight was at its brightest, they walked out of the cemetery. Minghui asked, “Sister An, are we going back now?”

“No. Let’s buy a few things first. It’s rare for me to come out.” As Luo Yuan spoke, she suddenly heard loud, arrogant shouting and cursing.

“You bastard, if you’ve got the guts, run again! Go on, run! You think you can hide after offending me? I’ll beat you to death!”

A young man with silver-gray dyed hair stood with several thugs at the corner near the cemetery, shouting curses while beating someone. Following the movement of their kicking feet, Luo Yuan saw Qin Zhi curled up on the ground, letting out muffled groans of pain.