I felt my mind go completely blank, and the world before my eyes was replaced by darkness.
I couldn't see anything. Only Minsit's aura of death lingered around me. It seemed that if I reached out, I could grab Xue Jingyue, could touch the Fatty.
I didn't know if I had reached out, but I was sure my soul had left my body again.
That brief moment of blankness faded, and my mind filled with what had happened at the Love Tree.
I had grabbed those two ghosts and pushed them into the past. I had killed them, dealt with them at the source, and saved Jin Haifeng and the Fatty.
I had saved the Fatty that time.
Then I had saved him again when I encountered the Nian Beast.
Once, then twice. There would be a third time.
That was what I told myself.
Though a faint voice inside me was arguing otherwise.
I remembered Jin Haifeng's death, and the people from Greenleaf who had died alongside him.
No, that was different!
The people from Greenleaf had been prepared to die. I hadn't been so attached to Jin Haifeng.
The Fatty was different to me!
I felt the darkness before my eyes recede, too.
I saw the kitchen.
My soul was still unsettled, and Minsit's aura hadn't disappeared.
My heart suddenly began to race.
The Fatty lay on a stainless-steel counter, surrounded by the ghost chefs who had died long ago.
They raised their knives. I knew what would happen next.
For a moment, I forgot I was seeing this under the influence of Minsit's mark. I lunged forward, trying to stop them.
My soul seemed to move, but I was still standing off to the side, forced to watch as their knives fell again.
Without Xue Jingyue's influence,