Secret

The kitchen was almost completely bare. It didn't have what she was looking for.

So she turned her gaze to the room next door, which was piled high with firewood.

King Yama wore a mask...

Zheng Wuyou had always suspected that this person was Zhu Li, but he'd said he was the keeper of the rules.

And what did it mean to wear a mask?

With a creak, she carefully pushed open the door to what looked like a woodshed.

The instant she stepped inside,

it was as if she'd triggered some mechanism. All the neatly stacked firewood came tumbling to the floor.

The black, uneven walls behind the pile were exposed before her.

Zheng Wuyou stood frozen in place. She drew a deep breath and stared in disbelief at the three walls in front of her.

Her eyes were filled with complicated emotions. As her mind went blank, she clenched her fists.

All three walls facing the doorway were covered with women's belongings.

A red bellyband, torn in half... A pair of floral cloth shoes, about a size 34...

And all kinds of ornate accessories for women.

Earrings with gemstone pendants, an embroidered cattail fan half covered in dirt, and more...

Among them were the books Madam Zhao used to carry around in her hands...

Not one of the belongings here was intact.

It was as if they were telling her how desperate those women must have been in the final moment, when their beloved possessions were taken from them after they'd been trapped here forever...

The scene before Zheng Wuyou made her understand in an instant.

The ones trapped here today weren't the people of Zhu Village, but every woman who had been trafficked here.

King Yama wore a mask...

Not a false, hypocritical one.

It was the mask of countless women—unyielding and fearless...

They wanted to raze this place to the ground.

As Zheng Wuyou stood there, shaken, her heart was a tangle of emotions.

She was completely immersed in this overwhelming rush of feeling.

So much so that she failed to notice the faint, delicate sounds coming from behind her.

At first, they were barely audible...

But as time passed, they grew clearer and clearer.

Even so, Zheng Wuyou remained oblivious.

Until a pair of strong hands suddenly reached out from behind...

One hand covered her mouth and nose.

The other swiftly yanked her behind the nearby pile of firewood.

Then the person crouched down with her.

The hands quickly grabbed bundles of tightly bound firewood and methodically stacked them in front of the two of them.

Before long,

the wood had formed a narrow, semicircular wall around them.

As the person behind her stacked the wood...

Zheng Wuyou caught sight of a familiar glimpse of dark blue fabric.

A name flashed through her mind. Miao Laisheng!

What was going on?

Full of questions, Zheng Wuyou could only think to herself with his hand over her mouth and nose.

I clearly told him to stay in the Main Hall and keep a close eye on everything Zhu Li does.

Why has he followed me here instead?

At the same time, she could clearly feel Miao Laisheng's warm breath brushing over the top of her head.

She also noticed that he was deliberately controlling and slowing his breathing.

Did something happen in the Main Hall?

Everything had happened so suddenly that Zheng Wuyou hadn't even had time to react.

At that moment, she had nearly fallen into the arms of the person behind her.

No...

Too close...

Still startled, Zheng Wuyou was about to struggle free and put some distance between them.

But from the corner of her eye, through a gap in the woodpile, she spotted another familiar figure entering from outside.

Familiar, but not quite.

The half-head on the ground had the same eyes she'd met on her first night.

The half-person, half-head seemed to be searching for something, or perhaps it was just wandering aimlessly around the woodshed.

Zheng Wuyou felt the hand covering her mouth and nose tighten...

The half-head scraped back and forth across the rough floor.

It made a horrifying scritch, scritch sound.

A long, gruesome red streak was left in its wake.

The blood trail writhed across the floor like a poisonous snake.

And mixed into the scarlet blood were streaks of pale, viscous matter.

Brains...

The sight made her stomach churn.

The half-person shadow on the ground groped blindly ahead, like a blind man.

Its paper-white hands trembled as it stretched them out and flailed wildly in the air, as if trying to grab something to support its tottering body.

At last, its fingers touched the pile of firewood closest to the door, and it plunged both hands deep into the wood.

As it stirred the pile with all its might, the neatly stacked firewood instantly became a mess.

The dry logs clashed and scraped against one another, crackling loudly until the sound filled the whole room.

Even after disturbing the pile, the figure didn't stop. It moved slowly along the wood, inch by inch, toward the wall opposite the door.

Its shape grew more and more indistinct, then gradually disappeared from Zheng Wuyou's view.

The gaps between the logs were so narrow that Zheng Wuyou could only stare at the wall directly in front of her, her heart full of unease.

The rustling beside her didn't stop.

That half-person, half-head was still in the room.

It seemed to be looking for her...

Because their secret had been exposed!

Zheng Wuyou felt the person behind her gently pull her waist backward with his left hand, drawing her a few centimeters closer to him.

She was just about to lower her head and pry his left hand from around her waist.

Just one second later,

those pale hands shot through the gap in the firewood that she'd been watching.

They were mere inches from her wide-open eyes.

Zheng Wuyou swallowed.

The shadow outside the gap was reflected in her dilated pupils.

Even with Miao Laisheng's right hand over her mouth and nose, she didn't dare breathe too quickly.

She was afraid of drawing its attention.

If Miao Laisheng hadn't been here, she might have been done for.

The hands seemed to go berserk when they failed to find their target, frantically stirring the pile of firewood in front of them.

But Miao Laisheng had stacked the logs with great care. Even when the bottom ones collapsed, they still concealed the two of them.

Zheng Wuyou let the splinters rain down on her face.

She could only close her eyes to keep them out.

After what felt like several endless minutes, the room finally fell silent.

If those hands had reached just a little farther in,

she would have been a lamb delivered right into its grasp.

They stayed frozen in that position. Then, in unspoken agreement, they waited silently for several more minutes.

Only then did Zheng Wuyou feel the left hand around her waist slowly loosen its hold.

The tension in her nerves eased a little.

The hand over her face withdrew as well, and she began to steady her hurried breathing.

Their position was still awkward, though, because of the pile of firewood.

Without realizing it, their breathing fell into sync.

"I'm a little nervous," Zheng Wuyou murmured.

The breath of the person behind her brushed over the top of her head. "What are you nervous about?"

"Cut me some slack. A girl's bound to react when she sees a handsome guy."