〈三〉

──Will I be able to meet you again…?

Trying to reach out to the back of Taizan Fukun, my fingertips sliced through the air. Shut out from the realm of dreams into reality, the sudden change caused my consciousness to lag behind for a moment.

“Where… am I?”

Unable to comprehend where I was, Natsuki’s voice, rasping, escaped. My body was completely cold, and I shivered.

I didn’t know where I was, but it was cold. It was perhaps even colder than ‘Gray Dust Abode’ before dawn.

Moreover, my body felt unusually heavy. As I tried to lift myself, it became apparent that something was wrong. I had not been lying on a normal futon but on a stone slab.

Upon closer inspection, I realized I was in the familiar shrine hall of the Lan family. However, it was my first time sleeping on a stone coffin. Normally, I would visit to pay respects and offer incense.

“Why… was I sleeping here?”

When I tried to speak, my voice was terribly hoarse. My throat burned with thirst.

“Isn’t Kafuka here? Water… I wonder if there’s any water somewhere?”

I tried to slide off the stone coffin and get up, but only then did I notice that my clothes were strange. Instead of the usual robes that changed color with the season, I was dressed in plain white attire, much like something one would wear at a funeral.

“What… is going on?”

My head filled with questions, and just as I was wondering, the door of the shrine hall creaked open. The cold wind from outside was sharp, yet refreshing.

Along with the wind came my servant, Kafuka.

“Oh, you’re here, Kafuka… Do you have any water? I’m dying of thirst…”

I pressed my throat, desperately trying to communicate, but it seemed Kafuka didn’t understand.

“Y-Young Miss!? Could it be… Could you have turned into a Jiangshi?!”

Quickly stepping back, Kafuka tore off a talisman from the shrine walls and slammed it onto my forehead while shouting “Repelling Evil Spirit!”

(What in the world is happening?)

I suppressed the urge to reprimand my servant for this unreasonable behavior and removed the talisman from my forehead.

“Kafuka… please calm down and answer me. Otherwise, I’ll reduce your salary.”

“If you don’t get paid by the Young Miss, I’ll have to return to the main house… But Young Miss, you don’t look like a Jiangshi. You seem just like before.”

“Who’s a Jiangshi? I remember tripping on the gate of the Taizhuang Temple. Now explain how I ended up sleeping in a shrine hall.”

Kafuka finally calmed down, and in his usual manner, summarized the events. He told me that after I lost consciousness at the Taizhuang Temple, he had taken me back to the ‘Gray Dust Abode.’ The main house was contacted, and a doctor confirmed my death.

“And of course, I informed the Purple Consort in the rear palace that you wouldn’t be able to visit.”

It seemed that my father could not immediately accept the news of my death. In this region, bodies are traditionally kept for a while before being buried. Kafuka told me they kept me in ‘Gray Dust Abode’ for three days before moving me to the shrine hall early this morning. It was a close call.

If I had been buried in the stone coffin, I wouldn’t have been able to escape so easily.

“So, after I hit my head hard, I was no longer breathing, and the doctor confirmed I was dead… and now I’m here, preserved in the shrine hall, is that right?”

“There was no pulse… look, like this.”

Just moments ago, Kafuka had been terrified, but now, with an air of confidence, he placed his fingers on my wrist. The resolute manner of his actions suggested he felt certain he was right. But after a moment, his expression shifted in confusion.

“Huh? There’s a pulse? But… there was no pulse before!”

“Hehehe… It must have been because of the shock. I was in a near-death state, so my pulse was extremely faint. Kafuka, now you understand, I’m not dead, right?”

While I reassured my servant with a smile, internally, I couldn’t hide my anxiety.

(Three days! It took three days to clear that pile of bamboo slips!)

No wonder my body felt heavy. I recalled the urgent nagging of Taizan Fukun and couldn’t help but clutch my head. Or perhaps, the three days that had passed weren’t due to the scribe work but because I had been gazing at the candles? The silence in the courtroom and the smile of Taizan Fukun from that moment made me feel as though I had aged a decade.

“Young Miss? Are you feeling unwell? Should I call for a doctor?”

“Wait, Kafuka. I’m just thirsty and hungry. We’re at Taizhuang Temple, aren’t we? Let’s return, drink some water, and dry my hair… Then we’ll go to Jun Fan Lou!”

I declared firmly and left the ancestral shrine.

† † †

I learned of the nickname “Resurrected Daughter of the Underworld” after I was so hungry that I stopped the carriage at a tavern, ate until I was full, and completed a Five-character regulated verse that had been interrupted earlier. I felt quite pleased.

However, what awaited me after indulging in a pleasant sleep in my own futon was a summons from my father.

Naturally, my father thought I had died.

After all, the doctor had confirmed my death, and I had been dead for three days. Even though my healthy daughter’s sudden death was hard to believe, they couldn’t just leave my body unattended.

My father had planned to notify the Purple Consort and my older brother, who was working in a different region, and proceed with funeral arrangements. But then came a report that I had disappeared from the shrine hall after supposedly being dead, and rumors of me wandering the streets alive surfaced.

My father was shocked, nearly losing his breath, and immediately summoned me back to the family home.

Thus, in a room of the Lan estate on Dongmen Road, I stood listening to my father’s scolding.

“You not marrying and pretending to be a scribe is fine for now. Su Tok said I should marry you off quickly… but if you stay at the secondary residence, she won’t complain so much.”

Su Tok was my father’s second wife, whom he had recently married. In our country, surnames don’t change after marriage, so she’s still called Su Tok by her maiden name. Su Tok disliked me and wanted to marry me off quickly and kick me out of the house. In noble families, the first wife holds more authority, and daughters like me, even if a second wife, can’t easily oppose their stepmother’s wishes.

That was the main reason why I avoided my family home.

“However… the Zhu family broke off the engagement, and then my daughter collapsed and died at the Taizhuang Temple. Now she’s alive again, wandering the streets and being called the Resurrected Daughter of the Underworld. Summer Moon, try to understand your father’s position!”

My father reprimanded me smoothly and without pause, which was more impressive than I had expected.

“Father, I’m sorry. But I hadn’t eaten anything for so long, I was terribly hungry… I felt like I might die again.”

I bowed my head meekly, but honestly, I didn’t feel like I had died. After all, I had been working in the underworld, constantly writing in the record book. Even though I had forgotten to eat due to my intense focus, I didn’t feel hungry in the underworld. Now that I had eaten at the tavern, my stomach hurt like never before.

I wasn’t in a condition to visit my family immediately, and I had completely forgotten about my father.

If I had been the kind of daughter who would have softened her father’s heart, this would have been much easier. But my father was well aware of my independent nature.

“Why am I, after dying and coming back from the underworld, supporting a daughter who won’t even show her face to her parents…”

“You’re absolutely right.”

Kafuka, who had been standing behind me, agreed with my father. Given his earlier shock at my supposed death, I could tell that he had been deeply affected by it.

(It’s understandable… But no matter how I turn, I’m surrounded by enemies. No one is on my side.)

Just then, the messenger from my sister, the Purple Consort, arrived.

“Father, a letter has come from Lady Zhi Xian Fei asking about the Young Miss’s condition. What should I do?”

While Kafuka spoke with the messenger at the door, my father, still with a displeased look on his face, replied.

“I’ve already told her that you are unwell and cannot attend the rear palace. It’s too late to go to the city today, but you can go tomorrow.”