Haunted

Shen Hui was in no hurry to press on. He simply walked at an unhurried pace, letting the heavy snow cover his head.

The icy wind swept up snowflakes, like countless tiny blades grazing his cheeks.

Other than the sound of wind and snow, there was no other movement around him.

Heaven and earth seemed wrapped up in this blizzard, leaving only him and the swirling white that filled the sky.

As he walked, the sound of an infant crying suddenly drifted through the wind and snow.

The cry was thin and shrill, coming and going, as though the wind had carried it from afar.

Shen Hui did not stop walking. He pretended not to hear it.

After proceeding a little farther, he indeed found a shallow hollow beneath the mountain wall ahead.

The hollow sheltered it from the wind, and a swaddling bundle lay there.

The bundle was wrapped in dark blue cloth, dusted with a thin layer of snow. The infant inside was crying itself hoarse.

Shen Hui approached and lowered his gaze.

The infant in the bundle was fair and plump, with exceedingly adorable features. She appeared to be a baby girl.

Strangely enough, the moment the child saw Shen Hui, her crying abruptly stopped.

She blinked up at him with a pair of bright black eyes, then suddenly stretched a tiny hand out of the swaddling clothes toward him.

Shen Hui did not reach back.

As the saying went, where something was abnormal, there had to be a demon at work.

In this frozen, snowbound land, there was not a single footprint around. Where could this infant possibly have come from?

Granted, these were hard times, and the cruel custom of abandoning baby girls did indeed exist among the common folk.

But this was a desolate