When Xu Zhihan woke, the first thing he heard was crying.
It was soft, coming through the hospital room door in broken bursts.
"Dad, is there really no hope for my brother?"
The voice sounded sorrowful, but the way it lingered on the last word was too deliberate.
Xu Zhihan opened his eyes and stared at the white ceiling for a few seconds.
He didn't move right away.
This body was in terrible shape.
His chest felt tight, his throat hurt, and a needle was embedded in the back of his hand. Even the slightest breath felt like tiny thorns stabbing his lungs. The machine beside him kept beeping, grating on his nerves.
Someone outside the door said quietly, "The doctor has already issued a critical condition notice. At best, he won't last beyond tonight."
It was a middle-aged man's voice.
Calm, weary, with a trace of impatience he couldn't quite suppress.
A woman soon chimed in. "Chengyuan, I'm not being heartless. Keeping Zhihan alive like this only makes him suffer. The doctor said there's little point in continuing resuscitation."
Xu Zhihan's eyelids twitched.
A flood of memories suddenly poured into his mind.
This body was also named Xu Zhihan.
Twenty-one years old.
The eldest son of the Xu Family.
Sickly, quiet, and unlikable.
His birth mother had died young. After his father remarried, life in the Xu Family grew harder with every passing year. On the surface, he was still the family's eldest young master. In reality, even the servants dared whisper behind his back that he wouldn't live much longer.
That afternoon, he had fallen ill at the Xu Family home and been taken to the hospital.
After several hours of resuscitation, the original Xu Zhihan had died.
The person waking now was someone else.
Xu Zhihan lowered his gaze to the needle in his hand.
Before he crossed into this world, he hadn't needed anything like this to stay alive.
He had once sat upon a divine throne, passing judgment on departed souls, sinners, and traitors. Countless people had knelt before him, and none had dared lift their heads to meet his eyes.
Now, even raising a hand took effort.
Xu Zhihan gave a short cough.
He tasted blood in his throat.
A nuisance.
The voices outside continued.
"But what about my brother's engagement?" a young man asked between sniffles. "The Gu family hasn't formally called it off yet. If he really doesn't make it..."
He stopped there.
The woman soothed him gently. "Mingji, don't let your thoughts run wild. Your brother's health matters most right now."
Xu Zhihan listened without much expression.
Mattered most?
How easily those words rolled off her tongue.
If they truly thought he mattered, they wouldn't be standing outside discussing whether to give up treatment. Nor would they be eyeing his engagement before he had even drawn his last breath.
Xu Zhihan braced himself on his elbows and tried to sit up.
The moment he exerted himself, pain tore through his chest. He paused for two seconds, endured the dizziness, and slowly leaned back against the headboard.
Silence fell outside for a moment.
Then the hospital room door opened.
The first person to enter was a woman.
She was around forty, neatly dressed, with reddened eyes. When she saw Xu Zhihan awake, she faltered, almost failing to keep her expression in place.
It lasted only an instant.
Anyone else probably would have missed it.
Xu Zhihan saw it.
He also saw the many black threads wrapped around her.
They wound from her shoulders to her wrists and hung down from her neck, dark and steeped in a foul aura.
Sin lines.
He knew them well.
Every guilty deed a person committed, every life they harmed, and every debt they owed left a mark upon their soul.
The woman before him bore heavy sin lines.
She had harmed people.
And more than once.
The woman hurried to his bedside, her voice softening. "Zhihan, you're awake? Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere? Mom will get the doctor."
She reached out to touch his forehead.
Xu Zhihan turned his head away.
Her hand froze in midair.
Two more people entered.
One was a middle-aged man with a suit jacket draped over his arm and a frown on his face. Seeing Xu Zhihan awake brought little joy to his expression. Instead, he looked as though a troublesome matter had suddenly returned.
Xu Chengyuan.
The father of Xu Zhihan's current body.
A young man stood beside him, his eyes red. He had a fresh-faced appearance and wore just the right amount of concern on his face.
Xu Mingji.
The moment he saw Xu Zhihan, tears spilled from his eyes.
"You're finally awake. I was scared to death."
Xu Zhihan looked at him.
The sin lines on Xu Mingji were lighter than the woman's, but he wasn't clean either. Several fine threads coiled around his wrist, one of them connected to the bag of medication beside Xu Zhihan's hand.
Xu Zhihan's gaze grew a little colder.
It seemed this body's years of illness hadn't been entirely down to bad luck.
Xu Chengyuan approached, his tone reasonably steady. "Good, you're awake. Don't make trouble. The doctor said you can't handle any agitation right now."
Xu Zhihan didn't respond.
He had only just woken, and his body was weak. He couldn't be bothered to waste his strength.
The woman sat by the bed and continued pretending to be gentle. "Zhihan, don't scare Mom like that. The doctor said you were in danger. Your father and I were worried sick."
Mom.
As that word reached his ears, Xu Zhihan suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.
That emotion wasn't his.
It was something the original owner had left behind.
The original Xu Zhihan had feared this woman and despised her. Yet somewhere deep inside, he had still harbored a pitiful sliver of hope.
Hope that one day, she would truly care about him, just once.
Hope that she would speak a single word in his defense before Xu Chengyuan.
But she never had.
Not even once.
Xu Zhihan found it irritating.
He disliked these lingering emotions, clinging to his heart, impossible to tear away and utterly useless.
The woman was still watching him.
Xu Zhihan finally spoke, his voice slightly hoarse. "What's your name?"
The room fell silent for a moment.
Xu Mingji froze.
A flicker of embarrassment crossed the woman's face before she quickly smiled again. "Zhihan, what's wrong? I'm Zhou Man."
Zhou Man.
As she spoke that name, the black threads around her neck suddenly stirred.
Xu Zhihan saw a blurred face emerge behind her.
It belonged to a middle-aged woman with a pallid, bluish face, strangulation marks on her neck, and part of her right little finger missing.
She had not died peacefully.
She stared at Zhou Man, her lips opening and closing.
Save me.
Xu Zhihan lowered his eyes.
Barely awake, and already faced with a debt to the dead. What timing.
When he remained silent, Zhou Man's voice softened further. "Are you still groggy? Don't think too much right now. Mom will get the doctor."
Xu Zhihan raised his eyes to her. "Don't call yourself that."
Zhou Man's expression stiffened.
Xu Chengyuan's face immediately darkened. "Xu Zhihan, you've only just woken up, and you're already saying things like this?"
Xu Zhihan looked at him. "Noisy."
That single word made Xu Chengyuan's expression even uglier.
Xu Mingji immediately stepped forward, his voice thick with tears. "Please don't be like this. Mom has been by your side these past few days. She's really worried about you."
Xu Zhihan glanced at him.
"Your crying is a little fake."
Xu Mingji's tears stalled in his eyes.
He seemed so unprepared for Xu Zhihan to say that that he momentarily forgot to act hurt.
Zhou Man hurried to smooth things over. "Zhihan, you're unwell. Don't get angry with Mingji. He's only concerned about you."
Xu Zhihan ignored her.
His gaze settled on Zhou Man's right hand.
The sin lines were heaviest there.
At the ends of those black threads trailed the dead woman's spectral form. She stared fixedly at Zhou Man, resentment seeping out of her little by little.
After watching for a moment, Xu Zhihan suddenly asked, "Did a woman die in the backyard of the Xu Family's old residence twelve years ago?"
Zhou Man's face instantly went white.
Every sound in the room stopped.
Xu Chengyuan frowned. "What nonsense are you talking about?"
Xu Zhihan continued, "Her surname was He. Part of her right little finger was missing. Before she died, she came to you and begged you to spare her daughter."
Zhou Man sprang to her feet, knocking over the chair behind her.
The chair hit the floor with a crash.
Her reaction was far too strong.
Xu Mingji instinctively steadied her. "Mom?"
Zhou Man's lips trembled, but she quickly forced herself to speak. "Zhihan, did someone tell you some nonsense? You've only just woken up, and your head isn't clear yet. Don't say such frightening things."
Xu Zhihan coughed softly.
The taste of blood rose in his throat again.
He pressed a hand to his chest and endured the discomfort.
This body was truly in terrible shape.
Even saying a few words took effort.
But the woman's spectral form was still crying.
Her crying gave him a headache.
Xu Zhihan had never had much patience. Now he had even less.
"You know perfectly well whether I'm talking nonsense."
The last trace of color drained from Zhou Man's face.
Xu Chengyuan also sensed something was wrong. He glanced at Zhou Man and lowered his voice. "Zhou Man, what's going on?"
Zhou Man immediately shook her head. "Nothing of the sort happened. His illness has left him confused."
Xu Mingji hurriedly added, "Dad, my brother has only just been resuscitated. He might not be fully conscious yet. Let's get the doctor first."
Watching this family scramble to cover things up, Xu Zhihan suddenly lost interest.
Humans always had so much to say after doing wrong.
Misunderstandings, accidents, ignorance, lack of intent.
But the dead didn't lie.
Zhou Man took a step back, as though trying to put more distance between herself and Xu Zhihan.
Just then, the lights in the hospital room flickered twice.
The sky outside was overcast, and the room suddenly grew colder.
Zhou Man froze.
She couldn't see the spectral form behind her, but she could feel something winding around her neck. She raised her hands to claw at it, her breathing growing rapid.
"Chengyuan, I... I can't breathe..."
Xu Chengyuan's expression changed. He caught her and shouted toward the door for a doctor.
Xu Mingji was so frightened that even the pitch of his crying changed.
Xu Zhihan sat on the bed with a very cold gaze.
The dead woman had already leaped onto Zhou Man's back, her hands gripping the latter's neck as her resentment grew heavier and heavier.
If this continued, Zhou Man would die right here.
Xu Zhihan did not care about Zhou Man's life.
Yet he was still lying in the hospital right now, and his body could not support too much commotion. A debt owed to the dead could be settled slowly; there was no need to stir up a bunch of trouble the moment he woke up.
He raised his hand with the intravenous needle in it, his fingertips gently tapping the edge of the bed.
The sound was not loud, yet it made the chill in the room pause for a split second.
"Step back."
The soul's shadow paused abruptly.
As if she finally realized who the person on the bed was, her resentment shrank back, and she slowly let go of Zhou Man.
The next moment, Zhou Man's legs went soft, and she fell directly to her knees in front of the hospital bed.
Xu Mingji shrieked, "Mom!"
Xu Chengyuan did not even manage to catch her.
Zhou Man knelt on the ground, gasping for breath, her forehead covered in cold sweat. She looked up at Xu Zhihan, genuine terror finally appearing in the depths of her eyes.
Xu Zhihan leaned against the head of the bed, his complexion pale, a trace of blood that had not been wiped clean still lingering at the corner of his lips.
He looked very weak.
Yet Zhou Man did not dare to approach him again.
The ward was a complete mess.
Xu Chengyuan called for a doctor, Xu Mingji helped Zhou Man up, and nurses hurried in from outside the door.
Xu Zhihan only found it noisy.
He lowered his head to look at Zhou Man kneeling beside the bed, watching the black Sin Line on her body ripple bit by bit, and also watching the debts owed to the dead that had been suppressed for many years finally wake up.
Zhou Man asked in a trembling voice, "Zhihan, what on earth is wrong with you?"
Xu Zhihan did not answer this question.
He merely looked at her, his tone so calm it was almost devoid of emotion.
"You've killed people."