Prelude - Withered Summer

In the early nineties, On a poster plastered to the wall of a street-side beauty salon, the Heavenly King Guo, sporting a side-parted hairstyle and wearing a bright red batwing shirt, was smiling. From the speakers of a nearby shop, the new song by the Heavenly King Liu, "Legend of the Hungry Wolf," played on a loop.

The streets were bustling with crowds, and the snack stalls emitted a mixed aroma of hot and sour glass noodles and deep-fried sesame balls. The blaring sounds of "The boss of Jiangnan Leather Factory has run away" and "For one dollar, you can't lose, you can't be cheated" rose and fell in succession. Beneath the eaves of the nearby tiled houses hung red banners inscribed with the words: "Great Luck in the Year of the Monkey, Happy New Year."

However, the focus of the people today remained fixed on a piece of news on the second page of the "XX Commercial Daily." The title of this report instantly captured the eyes of countless people; to use a popular term from the future, it would have gone viral in seconds.

The title was a mere six characters: Virgin Gives Birth to Child!!

Fortunately, the editor had not entirely abandoned their integrity, and the subsequent content honestly explained the ins and outs of the story.

It stated that there was a young girl who had neither gone swimming nor spent the night away from home. Initially, she simply thought her period was irregular and didn't pay it any mind. Because she had fainted in class multiple times and examinations of her head revealed no issues, she was sent home to recuperate.

Then, one night, her mother discovered the girl opening the refrigerator to eat raw meat, and her belly began to swell rapidly. Only then did they consider the possibility of pregnancy, but when they went to the hospital for an examination, it was discovered that she was still a virgin (an interview transcript with the director of the gynecology department at an authoritative Grade-A hospital was attached here).

Those who saw the report reacted in various ways: some marveled in wonder, others scoffed, believing the girl must have been promiscuous and bribed the doctor to lie, while others denounced the editor for having no bottom line, fabricating stories and tarnishing the reputation of a respectable provincial newspaper.

Yet, what no one knew was that one week later, the reporter responsible for the story jumped to his death in the middle of the night without warning. A month later, the gynecologist who had been interviewed accidentally pricked herself with a needle during surgery, contracted a severe infection, and died.

Before she died, she had inadvertently mentioned to others that the girl was incredibly sinister; she didn't cry or make a fuss while giving birth, but instead maintained a bizarre smile the entire time. The key was that the thing she gave birth to was strange to the extreme—it was actually a...

As for the girl in question, she withered away like a dying plant that very summer before mysteriously disappearing.

Six months later, an infant was left at the gate of the local orphanage. Inside the baby's swaddling clothes was ten thousand yuan and a note. On the note, only three characters were written, which presumably served as the infant's name:

Fang Linyan.

A thousand words and ten thousand phrases condensed into only three: I miss you all!