At this very moment, there were still two hours until the Hour of the Rabbit.
Certain things had undergone new changes tonight, making it difficult to tell whether they were traps or another kind of opportunity.
The Li residence, already blurred in his memories, rose once more in his mind. Its vermilion gates, deep courtyards, covered corridors, rear garden... Back then, he had nearly lost his life here.
Beneath a moon so red it had turned nearly black, Ji Li stepped into the snow and walked alone down this road against the wind.
The Ghost Bride's attitude was extremely ambiguous. Before the wedding day, he had to figure out her intentions, even if only a little.
To him, this was not a choice, but a path he had already decided upon.
Thus, at exactly three o'clock on January 8, Ji Li crossed the most dangerous stretch of road and came closer to the Li residence than ever before.
The road ahead held neither danger nor clues, only the pure act of walking through a snowstorm.
As the road he was on neared its end, he suddenly recalled that a few months ago, there seemed to have been a conflict between humans and ghosts here.
Back then, Tong Guan and Chang Nian, the married couple, had survived to the end, though it seemed they had not resolved the matter of that ghost.
Stepping over bluestone slabs buried beneath snow, his view gradually shifted from a bare wall to a broader street.
Two stone lions draped in snow stood guard before a residence, staring down the pitch-black street as they welcomed and saw off visitors.
A pair of tattered lanterns swayed in the wind beneath either side of the eaves. Their damaged oil paper had dried and cracked, rustling softly.
Two dust-covered