Huo Ning quickly pushed the door open and stepped inside. A tall, slender silver-haired boy was holding a freshly peeled apple, sitting beside Grandma Song. He turned his head just then, locking eyes with Huo Ning.  

The moment their gazes met, Huo Ning froze in place.  

Her heart ached uncontrollably, a sour, throbbing pain spreading through her chest. It felt as though all the blood in her body had reversed its flow in that instant.  

Her throat tightened, and her eyes stung.  

Slowly, she clenched her fingers into her palm, taking a long moment to steady her emotions.  

This body still carried some residual reactions when facing the people and things most dear to its original owner.  

But a reaction this intense was a first.  

This beautiful boy before her must have held an incredibly important place in the original owner’s heart.  

The boy stood up and smiled at her, his eyes brimming with complicated emotions.  

“Sister Ningning,” he called out softly.  

Huo Ning gave a quiet hum in response.  

She didn’t recognize him, but she could tell—this bright-eyed, silver-haired boy was a cat demon.  

Though she didn’t understand why this cat demon was so devoted to her (original owner’s) grandmother, since he meant no harm, Huo Ning decided to let it be.  

She didn’t say anything more, afraid of slipping up.  

The boy across from her watched her expectantly, as if hoping she would speak further.  

Hoping she would say something more.  

But she said nothing.  

Her gaze didn’t waver in the slightest—so direct it was almost piercing.  

Bit by bit, the light in the boy’s eyes dimmed. His lips pressed together, and though he tried hard to control it, the sadness still seeped through as his lashes lowered.  

The sight made Song Xingwen sigh heavily.  

Unable to bear it, he said to Huo Ning, “Bai Ye has been incredibly thoughtful. He comes every day to take care of your grandmother. Your cousin and I aren’t the best at conversation, but this kid always manages to cheer your grandma up.”  

Grandma Song’s eyes were warm and affectionate, her gaze at Huo Ning carrying a hint of encouragement. “Yes, Xiao Ye is gentle, considerate, and very handsome too.”  

Huo Ning: “…”  

Why were they suddenly promoting him to her?  

But with her grandmother and uncle having gone this far, staying silent any longer would have been too unreasonable.  

A smile bloomed on her face, her expression open and sincere. “Bai Ye, thank you.”

Bai Ye’s lips moved slightly, as if he had a lot he wanted to say.  

But in the end, he only replied, “After my parents passed, Grandma has always taken care of me.”  

“Sister Ningning, everything I’ve done is what I should do. You don’t need to thank me.”  

Song Xingwen watched from the side, feeling a pang of discomfort, his chest tight.  

Bai Ye’s words were clearly meant to keep Ningning from feeling burdened.  

He wasn’t blind—he could see that Bai Ye had feelings for his niece.  

But back then, Ningning had been so insecure about the marks on her face that she believed she wasn’t good enough for Bai Ye, even avoiding him when they crossed paths.  

Now, though, Ningning’s face had healed.  

So why was she still unwilling to talk to him?  

Grandma noticed the strange tension between the two.  

Bai Ye’s despondent expression tugged at her heart.  

Unable to bear it, and recalling that there had once been something between these two, Grandma Song decided to play matchmaker.  

“Ningning, you haven’t bought your toiletries yet, have you?” she said. “Xiao Ye knows this area well. Let him take you around. Don’t worry, your uncle is here with me.”  

Seeing the hopeful look in her grandmother’s eyes, Huo Ning couldn’t bring herself to refuse.  

The words of rejection lingered on her tongue but were swallowed back in the end.  

She nodded and smiled at Bai Ye. “Then I’ll trouble you.”  

Bai Ye’s lashes lowered slightly. “It’s no trouble.”  

The two left the ward and took the elevator downstairs.  

When they reached the intersection across the street, Huo Ning turned back, her gaze lingering on the hospital shrouded in ghostly energy.  

Bai Ye stood beside her, his eyes darkening as he glanced at her. “Sister Ningning, what are you looking at?”  

Huo Ning withdrew her gaze, her voice indifferent. “Nothing. Let’s go.”  

Bai Ye led her into New World Plaza, the largest shopping mall nearby. “Sister Ningning, why did you come back so suddenly?”  

Huo Ning unlocked her phone as she replied, “Sister Zhenzhen said Grandma was sick. I was worried, so I came back to check on her. Why?”  

Bai Ye smiled faintly, the corner of his lips lifting slightly.  

“Nothing. I was just curious—aren’t you streaming anymore? You should be pretty busy lately.”  

Huo Ning paused mid-step, her gaze fixing on Bai Ye.  

“You’ve watched my streams?”

Bai Ye smiled, his eyes shimmering with fragmented light, the corners of his lips drooping slightly. The delicate fragility of the young man was palpable.  

“I’ve watched every one of your streams. Even the ones from before.”  

His voice lowered, his throat tightening, his eyes stinging as he spoke with difficulty, “You… aren’t really my Sister Ningning, are you?”  

When he watched her streams, he had already felt that she wasn’t the same.  

So he had asked Song Zhen to call Huo Ning, to bring her back from Jiangcheng.  

Before seeing her, he had told himself that maybe he was mistaken—that perhaps she had just changed a little because her face had healed.  

But the moment he saw her in the hospital room, from the way she spoke to him, he knew.  

She wasn’t Sister Ningning.  

Huo Ning’s smile faded bit by bit.  

Her gaze was calm as still water as she watched Bai Ye quietly, not denying it. “So you already knew.”  

“Then your cultivation must be more than just five hundred years.”  

“Or rather, you’ve been hiding your true strength. The five hundred years of cultivation—was that just what you wanted me to see?”  

Bai Ye shook his head, smiling bitterly. “You’ve misunderstood. I really am just an ordinary cat demon with five hundred years of cultivation.”  

His eyes were filled with melancholy, his heart aching faintly.  

“It’s just… you made one mistake.”  

“Sister Ningning hated me. She would never have spoken to me so calmly.”  

“What did you say? She hated you?”  

Huo Ning laughed.  

Even if she were the most emotionally dense person in the world, she knew that hatred didn’t provoke reactions like this.  

Huo Ning suddenly remembered—the original owner had a secret Weibo account.  

Its homepage was filled, line after line, with the words of someone who loved another but could never have them.

Since the posts were all made late at night, she had initially assumed it was just the original owner venting during melancholic moments and didn’t pay much attention.  

Besides, none of the posts mentioned any names, so there was no way to trace who they were about.  

But now, looking at Bai Ye’s face and recalling the lingering ache in the original owner’s heart when their eyes met, she understood.  

Those Weibo posts were written for him.  

She also understood why the original owner had been so desperate to remove the “Karma Sores” from her face.  

Huo Ning sighed.  

She glanced at Bai Ye, then thought of the countless confessions of a young girl’s heart scattered across that Weibo account. For a moment, her emotions were complicated.  

“She didn’t hate you. It’s just… you two were never meant to be.”  

She didn’t tell him about how the original owner had consulted countless doctors, even racking up three million in debt, just to feel worthy of him.  

There was no point.  

The original owner was already gone.  

Besides, Huo Ning suspected that if the original owner were still here, she might not have wanted Bai Ye to know any of this.  

Bai Ye’s heart clenched violently, the pain so sharp he nearly lost his balance.  

His hand gripped the escalator railing tightly, veins standing out on his wrist, tears pooling in his eyes.  

“Then… where is she now?”  

Huo Ning’s gaze was heavy as she delivered the cruel truth.  

“She’s dead.”