Holding a lantern, guiding souls across, Lady Hou comes from the underworld.

Night fell, and heavy snow began to fall.

The inner garden of the Mu Mansion, the warm pavilion by the Ting River.

Just as the maid added charcoal to the stove, a voice announced from outside the door.

"lady!"

Madam Fan, the matriarch of the Mu family, was watching her eldest daughter, Mu Tingting, do embroidery when she heard the sound, and her eyes twitched inexplicably.

"What is it?"

The servant hesitated before stammering, "Something happened in the front yard... Steward Zhou said he wants you to go there in person."

Mu Tingting, who was standing to the side, also put down her embroidery frame and frowned in displeasure.

"It's already this late, what matter requires Madam's personal attention?"

The servant's legs suddenly went weak, and he knelt on the ground, replying in a trembling voice, "It's...it's Miss Xia! She's back!"

Upon hearing this, Madam Fan's back stiffened, and her face instantly turned deathly pale.

-

The main hall of the Mu residence was tightly closed.

The veranda outside the hall was filled with servants whispering and gossiping.

"Chuntao, I remember you were the one who delivered the food that day. Are you sure you saw it clearly?"

"How can someone who's dead possibly come back to life?"

"The gatekeeper said she was still covered in black mud from outside the city, as if... she had just crawled out of the ground!"

"Could ghosts really exist in this world?"

"Chuntao...say something! Are you scared out of your wits?"

"Don't ask her anymore. I heard that Butler Zhou secretly led people to bury the body. I guess only he knows the truth about this—"

"cough!"

As soon as the mistress, Madam Fan, arrived, everyone immediately dispersed to the sides, not daring to speak again.

"Where is Butler Zhou?"

"Madam, Butler Zhou... he's still inside, he hasn't come out yet."

Fan paused, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back.

After a moment, she took off the Buddhist prayer beads from her wrist, held them in her hand, looked at the heavy hall door, and then ordered, "Disperse. No one is allowed to enter without my permission."

Inside the hall, illuminated by tall candles, a woman sat gracefully, her face blurred and her figure slender.

Hearing the sound, she didn't even raise her head, her eyes remaining fixed coldly on one spot.

Following her gaze, the usually composed and mature Butler Zhou was found prostrate on the ground, trembling.

"There's a ghost..."

"Madam, ghosts really do exist in this world!"

"She...she...is back!"

Upon seeing Fan's figure, he practically crawled to her on all fours, his incoherent words filled with panic.

Madam Fan frowned deeply, about to rebuke him.

However, when she saw the woman's face clearly in the hall, her blood ran cold.

"Xi Mo..."

In the candlelight, the woman's face was pale, her eyes were cold, and there was a touch of red at the corner of her eyes. She did not appear flirtatious, but had her own unique style.

Although she was only wearing a moon-white blouse and her upper body was covered in mud, the satin shoes embroidered with lotus flowers on her feet were all too familiar.

With just one glance, the guilty-looking Madam Fan couldn't help but take a few steps back.

"How is this possible? You already..."

"No, you are not Xia Ximo at all."

"Who exactly are you?"

She forced herself to remain calm, patted her chest, and felt a mixture of fear and suspicion.

Faced with a series of weak and feeble questions, Xia Ximo remained unmoved, sitting there quietly without saying a word.

But the more this happened, the more flustered Fan became.

She never believed in ghosts or gods, let alone that the dead could come back to life.

But how can we explain what's happening right now?

How could someone whose body was completely stiff suddenly come back to life?

In the silence, the candlelight flickered, creating an eerie and mysterious atmosphere.

Xia Ximo finally spoke, his voice cold and otherworldly.

"My father is Xia Qing, the renowned General Who Protects the Nation. My mother's surname is Mu. She was the number one female painter in Daqi and was also the only eldest daughter of this family..."

"My name, Xi Mo, was given to me by my maternal grandfather. It means 'cherishing ink'."

"You ask who I am? Then I'll start from six years ago and explain everything to you."

Her tone was icy, as if she were stating something that had nothing to do with her.

Fan Shi couldn't stop trembling all over.

Six years ago, General Xia Qing sacrificed his life for his country, and his wife, Mu, also died for her husband, leaving behind their ten-year-old orphan daughter, Xia Ximo, who was taken in and raised in the household of her uncle, Mu Zheng.

The orphaned girl of the Xia family is frail and sickly, suffering from a deficiency syndrome. She needs to be nourished with expensive medicinal herbs every day, which costs a great deal.

If it weren't for the fact that she had been betrothed to the eldest son of Renxuan Marquis, one of the founding marquises, since childhood and received the care of the marquis's family, the Mu family would not have been able to support her at that time.

The Mu family had produced many elegant and refined scholars in the past, but unfortunately, they had few descendants. In this generation, only Mu Zheng remained as a male descendant.

Mu Zheng, however, was naive and unambitious, and spent half his life in mediocrity, only managing to become an eighth-rank official in the imperial court.

Recommended by Marquis Renxuan, he was exceptionally promoted by the emperor to the position of Vice Minister of the Chancellery and went to the capital to take up his post. From then on, his career progressed rapidly.

The Mu family prospered because of the Marquis's mansion, but Xia Ximo's fate also took a turn because of it.

Four years ago, when the wife of Marquis Renxuan traveled south and passed through Xiling County, she thought of General Xia's orphan and wanted to see him in person.

However, Xia Ximo caught a cold that day and was bedridden.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity, Madam Fan devised a plan and had her daughter, Mu Tingting, who was the same age as her cousin, meet with the Lady of the Marquis in place of her.

After that, Xia Ximo's status in the Mu family plummeted. Fan Shi used the excuse of "quietly recuperating and not seeing outsiders" to banish her to a secluded courtyard, disregarding her life and death.

This whole scheme was originally intended to succeed only when Mu Tingting married into the Marquis's mansion under the name Xia Ximo.

Unfortunately, something went wrong halfway through.

Three days ago, Xia Ximo froze to death in a side courtyard. When the maid found her, her body was already stiff.

The Fan family secretly sent people to bury the body overnight, thinking that this would cover their tracks and ensure they would have no worries.

Who would have thought that the dead would return on their own?

Listening to Xia Ximo indifferently recount one past event after another, it was as if he were a judge in the underworld, ruthlessly reciting his verdict.

Fan felt cold all over and, unable to suppress her fear, slumped down in a chair.

She fiddled with the prayer beads in her hand, closed her eyes in pain, as if struggling with something.

"Xi Mo... it is indeed your aunt who has wronged you."

"But since things have come to this, I can only... make the best of a bad situation."

His words were ambiguous, and although his face was full of guilt, there was a hidden murderous intent flickering in his eyes.

"If Lady Renxuan finds out that our Mu family deceived her back then, the consequences will be unimaginable."

"You are also unfortunate, having lost both parents at a young age and suffering from poor health. Even if you marry into a noble family, what good future do you have?"

"It would be better to—grant your sister's wish."

As soon as she finished speaking, Madam Fan suddenly stood up, her right hand gripping a jade ornament, almost about to smash it at Xia Ximo…

At that moment, a gust of cold wind suddenly rose from the ground and knocked her to the ground.

The jade stone fell and shattered in two.

Butler Zhou cried out, terrified, and immediately crawled under the table, trembling like a leaf.

Fan was stunned on the ground. Seeing that the gust of cold wind was still swirling around her, she couldn't help but scream.

Only Xia Ximo stood up indifferently, looking down at them with cold eyes.

Her slender figure, reflected on the ground, exuded an unassailable and imposing aura.

Do you know what "a persistent ghost" means?

Fan's face turned ashen, and he felt a tightness in his throat, unable to utter a sound.

Xia Ximo continued, "Then do you remember that you have three lives on your conscience?"