Inside the carriage, the pitch-black shadow beneath Lan Shiwen's feet gradually faded. The voluptuous woman seated by the wall vanished with it, like a drop of ink dissolving into the sea, leaving no trace behind.
"—Ying Shouren?"
Lan Shiwen's face darkened. He looked toward Ning Zhe, who sat beside Feng Yushu. Ning Zhe was still leaning against the wall in the same pose as when he had been toying with the pocket watch, but his palm was empty. The watch that held the sword of [Tingxiao] was now in Lan Shiwen's hand.
But the next instant, Lan Shiwen felt his hand go empty.
The pocket watch had vanished.
Ning Zhe had vanished from the carriage as well. The camera in Miao Miaomiao's hands was still replaying images it had recorded in the past, but its little LCD screen now showed only a row of empty seats.
"Huh?" Miao Miaomiao froze and looked down at the camera in her hands, puzzled. "What was I doing just now?"
Right. Lan Shiwen said that if I helped him with something, he could bring A Wei back—
"I did what you asked. Where's A Wei?" Miao Miaomiao stood up clutching the camera, her face anxious.
Her boyfriend, Ding Wei, and another man aboard the train had been given painted faces by the Ghost Pen at the Righteous Manor, turning them into Black and White Impermanence. Then the train had departed. Now that they were no longer human, they could never return.
She had agreed to bring the camera and board the Ascendant Train with Lan Shiwen again for one reason: to save Ding Wei, who had become a ghost officer.
"Something unexpected happened." Lan Shiwen sighed and offered Miao Miaomiao no further explanation.
He was probably the only person in the world who could