“You, this scholar, with your penniless, shabby look, you even dare to covet my family’s young miss! My young miss is noble and precious, her beauty like that of a celestial maiden, she eats dragon liver and phoenix marrow, wears silk and satin, and you? If my young miss were to follow you, she would suffer hardships as vast as the heavens! A mangy dog dreaming of eating swan meat, how could there be such a good thing for you? Hurry and find a mirror and take a look at yourself, I ptui!”

The quick-witted maid planted her hands on her hips, glaring fiercely.

The scholar in long robes was unbearably ashamed. He said, “I… even though I have nothing to my name, I sincerely admire the young miss. If I could have the young miss’s company, I would give everything I have to provide for her well!”

The maid lifted her brows and gave a cold snort, speaking sharply and fast, mocking, “Give everything you have? What do you even have—this set of ragged, tattered clothes? Or that tiny little life of yours!”

Standing to the side, the young miss in white finally couldn’t hold back. She stopped her loyal maid from continuing, glanced at the scholar with half shyness and half affection, and said, “The scholar has a sincere heart. With just this alone, it already surpasses countless silks, satins, gold, and jade.”

The maid stomped her feet in anger, repeatedly shouting, “Miss, miss! Aiya, my miss! You’ve let this scholar bewitch your mind!”

—Who knows what drama this was, the cliché plot of a wealthy young miss falling in love with a poor scholar. No matter how the loyal maid tried to obstruct them in every way, she still couldn’t stop the miss from wanting to lower herself and marry him. What a pity.

Luo Yuan held a pot of flowers, standing behind the flower shop owner, watching this short clip on TV together with her. When it cut to commercials midway, the chubby shop owner, still unsatisfied, turned her head and discovered a customer had come in, holding a pot of flowers and waiting behind her. She quickly showed a smile to assist.

This flower shop was at the end of an old street near a small market, the space cramped, with many flowerpots placed chaotically and crowding outside the shop. If people squeezed in like this it would definitely feel uncomfortable, but flowers didn’t need a large room. They only needed sunlight, soil, and some nutrients to grow well. In this small place where there wasn’t much room to spread out, the flowers bloomed with a bright, exuberant splendor.

Luo Yuan had been buying things nearby and happened to pass by. With just one glance she saw a red single-petaled camellia among the piles of pots and unconsciously walked over.

A small pot of camellia, with two red-petaled, golden-stamen flowers held up by the leaves. Luo Yuan bought it, and as she carried the pot of flowers back to the place she had temporarily rented, she couldn’t help zoning out, thinking of that old residence, and of the clan deity.

Thinking back on those five months felt like a dream, illusory.

She had already left the old residence for several days. That day, a car had taken her to Yubei District—next to Yulin District, where she used to live. Because in the records she was already an executed death-row inmate, the man who brought her away had thoughtfully prepared a new ID and a sum of money for her.

In the car, that man kept trying to figure out her identity, wanting to know what she had done in the Qin family’s old residence, and what had happened between her and that legendary clan deity of the Qin family.

He was a shrewd person. Just from the clan daughter’s sentence—“You desecrated our god”—who knew how much he had imagined, assuming Luo Yuan definitely wasn’t simple. If she had really done something sacrilegious, how could she have left safely? With a bit of calculating thought, he felt that befriending her might bring good fortune, so the identity he prepared for her was very proper, and the money was generous. Although Luo Yuan felt unworthy of receiving it, she still accepted it. She couldn’t get her old things back, and she truly needed these now.

However, because of the clan daughter’s obvious disgust toward her, the man didn’t dare get too close to her, afraid of truly angering those two high-status Qin clan daughters.

After that day, Luo Yuan was completely severed from the Qin family. She carried her new identity alone, found a place to stay for the time being, and began to do the thing she hadn’t had time to accomplish before.

She wanted to kill someone.

That person was named Ma Junmao, a lawyer.

───♡───

Luo Yuan carried a bag of instant food and the flower back to the small room she had rented temporarily. The room was tiny and bare, with nothing besides a bed and a table. The quilt and clothes were neatly folded to one side, and her daily necessities were pitifully few.

She sat on the only chair, facing the window. The newly bought flower sat on the table before her. Luo Yuan watered it a little, then tore open the packaging and ate bread.

Her phone suddenly lit up, showing a new email received—from an “information consulting” company. Information consulting companies were basically private investigators; they took on private investigation requests that weren’t exactly aboveboard. Most of the money Luo Yuan had received was spent here—she had hired them to track Ma Junmao’s whereabouts and gather other information.

After Ma Junmao’s three friends were killed, even though the murderer—Luo Yuan—had already been caught, Ma Junmao still quickly left the home he used to live in and settled in Yubei District. It had to be said this was a stroke of fate; Luo Yuan didn’t need to risk returning to Yulin District and saved a lot of trouble.

Opening the email, it listed Ma Junmao’s schedule. He had gone out today to discuss work, then had a meal with the employer of a case he was handling, and afterward went to a club to exercise.

Before this, Ma Junmao had cut off social contact for a long stretch. He barely even liked going out, probably scared senseless by the brutal deaths of his three friends. Although the murderer who killed them had been caught, he had done plenty of those kinds of things himself—who knew if a second or third lunatic like that would show up? A man who had done too many guilty deeds was bound to be frightened and uneasy.

But his fear had only lasted those few months. Now he had clearly already walked out of that shadow and returned to the life he used to have.

But she had not walked out of that shadow, and she never would in this lifetime.

Ma Junmao lived in a high-end residential neighborhood, where the entrance and exit of outsiders were managed very strictly. Luo Yuan could only look for opportunities when he went out. His schedule for work, relaxation, and entertainment was fairly regular. After waiting patiently for a while, Luo Yuan finally decided to act on a night when he went to the bar to unwind and hunt for women. In the past several weeks, every Saturday night, Ma Junmao would go alone to a bar called “Deep Color.”

Last time, she hadn’t even thought about killing before she actually acted, but this time, after deep thought, she was still especially nervous right before the deed.

Before her younger sister died, she had been a timid, weak, soft-hearted person. But even the most timid and weak person, when the thing they most wanted to protect was destroyed, could turn into a man-eating beast.

Three days in advance, Luo Yuan went to Deep Color Bar to look for a job. They weren’t hiring, but after Luo Yuan pleaded several times and even offered to reduce her pay, the owner finally agreed. It was a somewhat chaotic bar. Many young men and women worked there as temps, two of them looking barely older than kids. On Luo Yuan’s first day, she kept her head down moving boxes of alcohol and cleaning.

One temporary worker, a very young girl dressed extremely revealingly with a rebellious expression, took one look at Luo Yuan’s honest, timid appearance and even specially told her a few things to watch out for—don’t go to the liveliest front area, don’t go to certain private rooms upstairs, because the people there played too wildly.

“Just looking at you, I know you can’t handle it. Don’t run over and scare yourself. If those customers drag you in to do something, no one will hear. Someone like you—if you can do other kinds of work, don’t work in a messy place like this.”

The young girl’s concern was hidden under her heavy makeup.

Luo Yuan thought of her own younger sister again. Her heart went sore and soft, her eyes growing wet, and she thanked the kind girl.

On Saturday, before heading to work at the bar, Luo Yuan transplanted the pot of red camellia she had bought into a small flowerbed nearby. The flower had bloomed another two blossoms, blooming beautifully. Touching the soft, fragrant red petals, Luo Yuan watered it for the last time.

At night, Deep Color Bar was very lively. The drunken lawyer, entirely different from his usual well-dressed self, was boldly flirting with strange girls at his side. He sat in a corner flirting with someone, paying absolutely no attention to what the server delivering his drink looked like. Under the bar’s hazy and dim lighting, he felt himself floating—that was the side effect of alcohol. Seems like I drank too much, he thought, but paid it no mind at all.

Tonight’s drinks were even more intoxicating than usual.

Luo Yuan took off her vest and led the drunken Ma Junmao out the back door into the bar’s rear alley. She had added something to the drink she’d served him, so his mind was unclear, and he was easily led out by her.

Ma Junmao smelled the stench of the garbage bins, and a wave of nausea hit him. He retched loudly, and after vomiting, he sobered up a little. He saw a woman in front of him. He couldn’t see her face clearly, but she was very close, asking him, “Do you still remember Luo Yujing?”

Luo Yujing? Who?

Ma Junmao’s alcohol-numbed brain took a moment before recalling who that was. He had played around with plenty of little girls with his friends. This Luo Yujing wasn’t special—just fragile. Heard she’d committed suicide from depression. She had an older sister, a crazy woman who killed his three friends, gave him nightmares for days, and even made him move houses.

Who knew it would be such trouble? If he’d known earlier, he wouldn’t have messed with that little girl, leaving himself with all this mess.

“I asked those three people before—asked if they regretted it, if they felt sorry toward Yujing… One of them said giving me money was enough to settle it, one of them said he didn’t even know who Yujing was… You people did that kind of thing to her, and you don’t even know her name. She was a person, my most important younger sister, not your toy, do you understand? You really deserve to die! What right do you have? What right?!”

The knife quivered at his throat. Seeing Luo Yuan’s face clearly, Ma Junmao finally reacted to what was happening—fear sobered him up several points. His heart constricted. He didn’t know whether this was someone who had already died coming back for revenge, or the escaped murderer. Swallowing several times, he tried to explain, “Wait, I… I didn’t do anything, didn’t she kill herself? What does that have to do with me? You already killed three people, even if you want a life in return, it’s already enough…”

Luo Yuan suddenly laughed, tears streaming down her face. “Yes, you didn’t kill her, you didn’t kill her—You all just worked together and ate her! You eat people, you are the real man-eating demons!”

As she shouted harshly, she drove the knife into Ma Junmao’s belly.

───♡───

“Have you seen Sister An?”

The girl with the lip piercing and heavy makeup held a bottle of alcohol, casually asking her coworker.

That person had also drunk a bit too much. After thinking for a moment, he said, “I think she just went out the back door with some guy?”

“Hah? Don’t tell me she got dragged away by some drunk customer? Damn, I told her to be careful, how does she still have no sense of danger!”

The young girl cursed as she headed toward the back door.

Ma Junmao let out a cry of pain, tears and snot rolling all over his face. Luo Yuan’s expression was like crying yet laughing, and she stabbed him once more without the slightest hesitation.

Just as she was preparing to give Ma Junmao the final blow, the back door was suddenly pulled open. The heavily made-up young girl appeared behind the door. Her hesitant, worried gaze froze instantly when she saw the murder taking place beside the trash bins.

“Ah—!”

A sharp scream, and the back door slammed shut.

Taking advantage of the moment when Luo Yuan was stunned and turned her head back, the twice-stabbed Ma Junmao suddenly grabbed the knife in her hand, reversed it, and plunged it into her chest. Then he shoved her away forcefully, clutching his stomach wound as he staggered forward.

“Help… murder!”

Blood gushed from Luo Yuan’s chest. The overwhelming pain made her unable to get up and chase immediately. That stab had likely struck a vital spot—she could barely stand. Watching Ma Junmao about to escape, she clenched her teeth, her expression twisted in fury as she tried to stand, only to collapse to the ground again.

The back alley reeked of alcohol and garbage. From here, one could see a corner of the tall beacon-tower of the bustling city, neon lights flickering and illuminating the night sky, yet this place was very dark, very dark. If she died here, it would truly be like a rat dying beside a pile of trash.

Luo Yuan leaned against the wall, watching Ma Junmao’s back grow farther and farther away. Rage and unwillingness burned her eyes blood-red.

Suddenly, she felt as if a flurry of snow had fallen before her eyes, landing on her eyelids, cool and light. A corner of an ethereal long sleeve that seemed to glow pure white drifted gently before her.

“Clan… deity?” Luo Yuan was stunned.

“You are about to die.”

The clan deity lowered his head to look at her. “To express gratitude for your previous companionship, I will allow you to make one request.”

Luo Yuan almost thought this was her hallucination. Only when she reached out and grasped that immaculate sleeve did she confirm the figure before her wasn’t an illusion. Her twisted expression slowly softened. Looking at the clan deity, she said, “Then I ask you… please devour that Ma Junmao from earlier.”

The clan deity’s face still seemed to bear a gentle smile as he said warmly, “Although that man is filled with malice, he does not possess ‘evil.’”

Luo Yuan remembered—what the clan deity could devour was evil. Only one who had killed would have “evil.”

She gripped the sleeve tightly, her chest rising and falling, speaking urgently, “I’m about to die. Once I die… then you can devour him, right?”

The clan deity nodded with a smile. “If that is the case, then as you wish.”

Luo Yuan finally showed a relaxed smile and quietly lay there, gazing at him.

Seeing her blood-stained hand fall weakly to her side, the clan deity raised his hand and closed her eyes, which had lost their spirit yet still remained open. Then, rising with the wind, he dragged countless scarlet threads and devoured the fleeing man ahead until nothing remained.

The pure-white figure dispersed into the pitch-black alley.