Jiang Yue didn't sleep that night.
How could she? Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Zhao Lianhua's broken neck. Every time silence fell, she heard those words echoing in her skull.
*"You killed me. You BOTH killed me."*
Lin Haoran and Xu Meilin had murdered someone before her.
She wasn't their first victim. She was just the latest.
At 3 AM, Jiang Yue sat cross-legged on her bed with her laptop open, diving deep into the internet's memory. News archives. Social media posts. University forums. Anything and everything related to Zhao Lianhua.
The official story was simple: Graduate student commits suicide due to academic pressure. Case closed. Family grieves. Life moves on.
But the unofficial story? That was far more interesting.
Jiang Yue found a thread on an anonymous forum dated two years ago:
**[DELETED USER]:** Does anyone else think the Zhao Lianhua case is suspicious? She was top of her class. Had a great internship lined up. Why would she suddenly kill herself?
**[DELETED USER]:** I heard she was dating someone rich. Maybe he dumped her?
**[DELETED USER]:** My roommate said she saw Zhao Lianhua arguing with some guy outside the library the week before she died. Tall, handsome, expensive clothes. Sound familiar?
**[DELETED USER]:** Stop spreading rumors. The police already investigated. It was suicide.
**[THREAD LOCKED BY MODERATOR]**
Jiang Yue's eyes narrowed.
Tall. Handsome. Expensive clothes.
Lin Haoran.
She kept digging.
An hour later, she found gold—a cached version of a deleted social media post from Zhao Lianhua's account, posted three days before her death:
*"Some people wear masks so well you forget they're monsters underneath. But I have proof now. I have everything. And I'm not afraid anymore."*
Proof. Zhao Lianhua had proof of something.
And three days later, she was dead.
Jiang Yue leaned back, her mind racing.
If Zhao Lianhua had evidence against Lin Haoran—evidence serious enough to kill for—then where was it now? Had they destroyed it? Or was it still out there, waiting to be found?
She needed more information. She needed to know exactly what happened.
She needed to talk to a ghost.
---
The next morning, Jiang Yue skipped breakfast.
Instead, she made her way to the old library building on the east side of campus—the one that had been closed for renovation two years ago and never reopened. According to the forums, this was where Zhao Lianhua had been found.
The building was surrounded by construction fencing, but Jiang Yue found a gap and slipped through easily. The front doors were chained shut, but a side window had been left unlocked.
She climbed inside.
The interior was dark and dusty, filled with abandoned bookshelves and scattered papers. Sunlight filtered through grimy windows, casting long shadows across the floor.
Shadows that moved on their own.
Jiang Yue tensed as she felt them—the dead, watching her from every corner. There were more of them here than anywhere else on campus. They lingered between shelves, drifted through walls, stared at her with hollow eyes.
This place was thick with death.
"Zhao Lianhua," she called out, her voice echoing in the empty space. "I know you're here. I made you a promise last night. I intend to keep it. But I need your help."
Silence.
Then—
**"You came."**
The temperature dropped ten degrees. Frost crept across the nearest bookshelf. And Zhao Lianhua materialized before her, still wearing that torn red dress, her neck still bent at that horrible angle.
But she looked... calmer. More present.
**"I didn't think you would actually come."**
"I keep my promises," Jiang Yue said. "Now tell me everything. How did you know Lin Haoran? What did he do to you? And what was the proof you mentioned in your post?"
Zhao Lianhua's ghostly form flickered.
**"We were dating. For six months. He made me feel special—like I was the only woman in the world."** Her laugh was bitter and hollow. **"I didn't know he was already engaged to someone else. A woman from a wealthy family. An arranged marriage for business purposes."**
Jiang Yue frowned. "Engaged? But Lin Haoran wasn't engaged when I met him."
**"The engagement fell through. The woman's family found out about his... hobbies... and called it off."** Zhao Lianhua's eyes burned with hatred. **"I was one of those hobbies. He collected women, used them, and threw them away. But I made the mistake of fighting back."**
"What did you do?"
**"I found evidence. Financial records. Photos. Messages. He was embezzling money from his family's company, funneling it to offshore accounts. Millions. If I had gone public, his family would have disowned him. His career would have been over."**
"So he killed you to keep you quiet."
**"Not just him."** Zhao Lianhua's form twisted with rage. **"That woman—Xu Meilin. She helped him. She lured me to this building. Said she wanted to help me, that she was on my side. And while I was distracted, he came up behind me and—"**
Her hand went to her broken neck.
Jiang Yue felt sick.
Xu Meilin. Her best friend of fifteen years. The woman who smiled at her every day, who sent her cute text messages, who acted like she genuinely cared.
She had helped murder someone in cold blood.
And then, two years later, she had done the same thing to Jiang Yue.
"Where's the evidence now?" Jiang Yue asked, her voice steady despite the fury burning in her chest. "You said you had financial records, photos, messages. Where are they?"
**"Hidden. I knew they might try to silence me, so I made copies and hid them somewhere they would never think to look."** Zhao Lianhua's ghost drifted closer. **"There's a storage unit on the outskirts of the city. Number 247. The key is buried in a box under the third oak tree in Riverside Park. I put everything there the day before I died."**
Jiang Yue committed the information to memory.
"I'll find it. I'll use it to destroy them."
**"That's not enough."**
"What?"
**"Destroying their reputation isn't enough. Ruining their careers isn't enough."** Zhao Lianhua's eyes blazed with ghostly fire. **"I want them to SUFFER. I want them to feel what I felt—the terror, the betrayal, the helplessness. I want them to know what it's like to have everything stolen from them."**
Jiang Yue met the ghost's gaze without flinching.
"Trust me," she said quietly. "By the time I'm done with them, they'll wish they had died instead of me."
For the first time, Zhao Lianhua smiled.
It was not a pleasant smile.
**"Good. Then we have a deal, living one. I'll help you where I can. The dead see many things the living miss."** Her form began to fade. **"But be careful. They're not the only monsters you need to worry about. Something else is watching you. Something hungry."**
Before Jiang Yue could ask what she meant, the ghost was gone.
And something else took her place.
---
The shadows in the library began to move.
Not drift. Not flicker. Move—with purpose, with intent, converging toward the center of the room where Jiang Yue stood.
The temperature didn't just drop; it plummeted. Her breath came out in visible puffs. Frost spread across the floor in fractal patterns, creeping toward her feet.
And then she heard it.
A voice. Not like Zhao Lianhua's ghostly whisper. This was something else entirely—deep, resonant, and wrong in a way that made her bones ache.
**"THERE YOU ARE."**
The shadows merged, rising from the floor like a tide of darkness. They took shape—vaguely humanoid but too tall, too thin, with limbs that bent in impossible directions and a face that was nothing but a gaping void.
**"I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU, LITTLE RETURNER. YOU SLIPPED THROUGH THE CRACKS. YOU ESCAPED WHEN YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED."**
Jiang Yue's survival instincts screamed at her to run, but she forced herself to stand her ground.
"What are you?"
**"I AM WHAT WAITS AT THE BOUNDARY. I AM WHAT COLLECTS THE SOULS THAT TRY TO FLEE DEATH."** The entity leaned closer, and she could feel the void of its face pulling at her, trying to draw her in. **"YOU WERE MINE. YOU DIED. YOUR SOUL SHOULD HAVE PASSED TO ME. BUT INSTEAD, YOU RAN BACK TO THE LIVING WORLD."**
"I didn't choose to come back. I just... woke up."
**"IT DOESN'T MATTER. A DEBT IS OWED. A SOUL IS OWED."** The entity's form pulsed with dark energy. **"I WILL HAVE WHAT BELONGS TO ME. IF NOT YOURS, THEN OTHERS. FOR EVERY DAY YOU REMAIN IN THE LIVING WORLD, I WILL TAKE SOMEONE ELSE IN YOUR PLACE."**
Jiang Yue's blood ran cold.
"You're lying."
**"AM I?"** The entity laughed—a horrible, grinding sound. **"LOOK OUTSIDE, LITTLE RETURNER. LOOK AND SEE WHAT YOUR ESCAPE HAS COST."**
Against her better judgment, Jiang Yue ran to the nearest window and looked out at the campus.
At first, everything seemed normal. Students walking to class. Professors chatting on benches.
Then she saw them.
Dark tendrils, invisible to everyone else, snaking through the crowd. They wrapped around random students, professors, staff—anyone who happened to be in their path. The people didn't seem to notice, but Jiang Yue could see the way their faces paled, the way their steps faltered, the way life slowly drained from their eyes.
One student collapsed.
Then another.
Then three more.
Screams began to echo across the campus as people rushed to help their fallen classmates, not understanding what was happening.
**"EVERY DAY,"** the entity repeated. **"UNLESS YOU GIVE YOURSELF TO ME, I WILL TAKE ONE HUNDRED SOULS. TWO HUNDRED. A THOUSAND. HOWEVER MANY IT TAKES TO BALANCE THE SCALES."**
"Stop it!" Jiang Yue whirled around to face the entity. "Stop hurting them! They didn't do anything!"
**"THEN COME WITH ME. SURRENDER YOUR SOUL. END THIS NOW."**
Jiang Yue's hands clenched into fists.
She thought of Lin Haoran. Of Xu Meilin. Of the justice she had promised Zhao Lianhua. Of all the plans she had made, all the revenge she had yet to claim.
If she died now, they would win. They would get away with everything.
But if innocent people kept dying because of her...
"There has to be another way," she said desperately. "There has to be something else I can give you. Something else that would satisfy the debt."
The entity paused.
**"...PERHAPS."**
"Tell me."
**"THE BOUNDARY REQUIRES BALANCE. YOU ESCAPED DEATH, SO DEATH MUST BE FED."** The entity's void-face tilted, considering. **"IF YOU WERE TO SEND OTHER SOULS IN YOUR PLACE—SOULS THAT DESERVE TO DIE, SOULS STAINED WITH SIN—THE DEBT COULD BE PAID GRADUALLY."**
Jiang Yue's stomach turned.
"You want me to kill people?"
**"I WANT YOU TO DELIVER JUSTICE. THERE ARE MANY MONSTERS WEARING HUMAN SKIN IN THIS WORLD, LITTLE RETURNER. MURDERERS. RAPISTS. PREDATORS WHO ESCAPE MORTAL LAW. SEND THEIR SOULS TO ME, AND I WILL SPARE THE INNOCENT."**
It was a devil's bargain. She knew that. Trading her humanity for survival, becoming a killer to avoid becoming a victim.
But what choice did she have?
"How many?" she asked quietly. "How many souls to clear the debt?"
**"ONE HUNDRED. THAT IS THE PRICE OF YOUR RETURN. ONE HUNDRED GUILTY SOULS, AND YOU WILL BE FREE."**
One hundred kills.
One hundred deaths on her hands.
The weight of it pressed down on her shoulders like a physical force.
"And if I refuse? If I find another way to stop you?"
The entity laughed again.
**"THEN I WILL TAKE EVERYONE YOU LOVE. EVERYONE YOU CARE ABOUT. EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER SHOWN YOU KINDNESS. I WILL DRAIN THIS ENTIRE CITY DRY IF I MUST."** It began to fade, dissolving back into shadows. **"YOU HAVE UNTIL SUNSET TO DECIDE. IF NO GUILTY SOUL IS DELIVERED BY THEN, I WILL TAKE TEN INNOCENT ONES INSTEAD."**
Then it was gone.
Jiang Yue stood alone in the abandoned library, her mind spinning.
Sunset. She had until sunset to find and kill someone who deserved to die.
This was insane. This was absolutely insane.
She couldn't just go around murdering people, no matter how guilty they were. She wasn't a killer. She wasn't—
*Lin Haoran's face as he watched her drown.*
*Xu Meilin waving goodbye.*
*Zhao Lianhua's broken neck.*
Actually... maybe she was a killer. Maybe she had it in her all along. She had certainly fantasized about it enough times since waking up in the past.
But she couldn't just kill Lin Haoran or Xu Meilin right now. It would be too obvious. She would be caught immediately.
She needed someone else. Someone whose death wouldn't be traced back to her.
Her phone buzzed.
She looked at the screen and saw a text from an unknown number:
*"I told you there was something following you back. Ready to talk now? - Feng Yichen"*
Below the message was an address.
Jiang Yue stared at the text for a long moment.
Then she grabbed her bag and headed for the exit.
She had questions, and apparently, Feng Yichen had answers.
---
The address led to a nondescript building in the business district—the kind of place you would walk past a hundred times without ever noticing. Gray walls, no signage, windows that reflected everything and revealed nothing.
Jiang Yue pushed through the front door and found herself in a sleek, modern lobby. A receptionist sat behind a marble desk, typing on a computer that seemed to have far more screens than any normal computer should.
"Jiang Yue?" the receptionist asked without looking up.
"Yes."
"Consultant Feng is expecting you. Take the elevator to the thirteenth floor."
Jiang Yue's eyebrow rose. "Most buildings skip the thirteenth floor."
The receptionist finally looked up, and Jiang Yue noticed her eyes were an unnatural shade of silver.
"Most buildings don't deal with what we deal with." She smiled, revealing teeth that were just slightly too sharp. "Have a pleasant visit."
Jiang Yue decided not to ask any more questions.
The elevator ride was silent except for a soft musical hum that seemed to vibrate in her bones. When the doors opened on the thirteenth floor, she stepped out into what looked like a cross between a police station, a research lab, and an occult library.
Desks covered in strange equipment lined the walls. Bookshelves held ancient texts alongside modern tablets. Maps with glowing pins covered every available surface. And the people working here—they all had that same strange energy, that same otherworldly quality.
"Ah, you made it!"
Feng Yichen appeared from behind a towering stack of files, looking far too cheerful for someone who apparently worked in a secret supernatural government agency.
"Nice place," Jiang Yue said flatly. "Very 'Men in Black meets Hogwarts.'"
"I'll take that as a compliment." He gestured for her to follow him. "Come. We should talk in private."
He led her to a corner office with glass walls that somehow blocked all sound from outside. The moment the door closed, the chaos of the main floor disappeared, replaced by perfect silence.
"Sit," he offered, pointing to a chair across from his desk.
Jiang Yue remained standing.
"Start talking. What is that thing following me? Why can I see ghosts now? And how do you know about my rebirth?"
Feng Yichen settled into his own chair, steepling his fingers.
"The thing following you is called a Boundary Keeper. They patrol the line between life and death, collecting souls that try to escape their fate. When you died and returned, you essentially stole from one of them. They tend to take that personally."
"It said I owe it one hundred souls."
"That sounds about right. The Boundary requires balance. Your life was taken from the death count, so something has to replace it."
"And the ghost sight?"
"A side effect of crossing the Boundary. You technically died, which means you gained access to the frequencies the dead exist on. It's permanent, by the way. You'll see ghosts for the rest of your life."
Jiang Yue processed this information with remarkable calm. "And you? How do you know all of this?"
"I died too," Feng Yichen said simply. "Seven years ago. Car accident. I was clinically dead for four minutes before they brought me back." He smiled, and for the first time, it reached his eyes. "I've been able to see the dead ever since. The Bureau recruited me when I started asking too many questions about things I shouldn't be able to see."
"The Bureau?"
"Special Investigations Bureau. We handle supernatural incidents—ghosts, demons, curses, entities from beyond the Boundary. Things that would cause mass panic if the public knew about them." He leaned forward. "And occasionally, we help people like you."
"Help how?"
"The Boundary Keeper gave you a choice: surrender your soul, or deliver guilty ones in your place. We can help with the second option."
Jiang Yue's eyes narrowed. "You want me to become an assassin?"
"I want you to become an agent." Feng Yichen pulled a folder from his desk and slid it toward her. "There are monsters in this world, Miss Jiang. Human monsters who prey on the innocent, who use their power to escape justice, who leave a trail of victims everywhere they go. The legal system can't touch them. But we can."
Jiang Yue opened the folder.
Inside was a photograph of a middle-aged man in an expensive suit. His face was cruel, his smile predatory. The dossier described him in clinical detail:
**Name:** Wei Jianguo
**Occupation:** CEO of Wei Industries
**Crimes:** Human trafficking, forced labor, suspected of multiple murders (unproven)
**Victims:** Estimated 200+ over 15 years
**Status:** Protected by government connections, untouchable by law
"Wei Jianguo," Feng Yichen said. "He runs a network that kidnaps young women from rural areas and forces them into slavery—domestic, industrial, and sexual. We've been tracking him for years, but his political connections make him impossible to arrest."
Jiang Yue stared at the photograph.
Two hundred victims. Fifteen years of evil. And the law couldn't touch him.
"If I kill him," she said slowly, "his soul goes to the Boundary Keeper. One down, ninety-nine to go."
"Exactly. And as a bonus, you'd be saving countless future victims." Feng Yichen spread his hands. "It's a win-win situation."
"There's always a catch."
"The catch is that you'd be working for us. Following our rules, taking our assignments, operating under our supervision." He smiled. "We can't have rogue soul collectors running around unsupervised. Bad for public safety."
Jiang Yue considered this.
On one hand, she would be tying herself to a secret government organization with unknown motives. That sounded like a terrible idea.
On the other hand, she needed to kill one hundred guilty people anyway, and having access to intelligence, resources, and backup sounded a lot better than trying to do it alone.
Plus, if these people really were monsters like Wei Jianguo... was it really murder? Or was it justice?
*Zhao Lianhua's broken neck.*
*Her own lungs filling with water.*
*The innocent students collapsing on campus.*
"I have conditions," she said.
Feng Yichen's smile widened. "I'm listening."
"First, I choose my own targets. If you give me a mission, I can refuse if I don't agree with it."
"Reasonable. Next?"
"Second, I want access to all information you have on Lin Haoran and Xu Meilin. They killed someone two years ago—a woman named Zhao Lianhua—and they killed me in my original timeline. I want everything you know about them."
Something flickered in Feng Yichen's eyes. "You're planning to go after them."
"They're guilty souls, aren't they? Seems like they qualify."
"They do. But personal vengeance can cloud judgment. Are you sure you can handle this professionally?"
Jiang Yue met his gaze without flinching.
"They drowned me while my best friend waved goodbye. I think I've earned the right to handle this however I want."
A long pause.
Then Feng Yichen laughed—a genuine, delighted laugh.
"I like you, Jiang Yue. You've got spine." He extended his hand. "Welcome to the Bureau. We'll have someone draw up the paperwork."
Jiang Yue shook his hand.
"One more thing," she said. "The Boundary Keeper said I have until sunset to deliver my first soul, or it takes ten innocent people instead."
Feng Yichen checked his watch. "That gives us about four hours. Wei Jianguo has a meeting at his warehouse in the industrial district this afternoon." He stood and grabbed his jacket. "Shall we?"
The warehouse was exactly what Jiang Yue expected -a gray, nondescript building surrounded by chain-link fencing and security cameras. The kind of place where terrible things happened behind closed doors.
She and Feng Yichen watched from a car parked across the street, observing the guards patrolling the perimeter.
"So what's the plan?" she asked. "Walk in the front door and ask nicely if he'd like to die?"
"Something like that." Feng Yichen reached into the back seat and pulled out a case. Inside were two guns, several knives, and something that looked like a taser but definitely wasn't. "Wei Jianguo has a meeting with his lieutenants in about an hour. All his top people will be inside. Security will be focused on the meeting room."
"And we go in the back?"
"We go in the back." He handed her one of the guns.
"Ever fired one of these?"
"No."
"It's simple. Point and shoot. The safety's here, the trigger's here. Don't point it at anything you don't want to kill."
Jiang Yue took the gun. It was heavier than she expected.
"Is this really necessary? I mean, shouldn't you have trained assassins for this kind of thing?"
"The Bureau has many resources, but you're the one who owes a soul debt. The kill has to be yours, or it doesn't count." Feng Yichen checked his own weapon. "I'm just here as backup. And to make sure you don't get killed on your first day."
"How comforting."
They waited until the meeting began-Jiang Yue could see expensive cars pulling up, well-dressed criminals walking inside like they owned the world. Then, when the front was clear, they slipped out of the car and made their way to the back of the warehouse.
The back door was guarded by a single man who never saw Feng Yichen coming. One moment he was standing, the next he was unconscious on the ground.
"How did you do that?" Jiang Yue whispered.
"Practice." Feng Yichen opened the door. "Stay behind me."
They moved through the warehouse in silence. Jiang Yue's heart pounded in her chest, but her hands were steady. Strange-she had expected to be terrified. Instead, she felt... focused. Alert. Alive.
Maybe dying and coming back changed a person.
They found Wei Jianguo in a private office on the second floor, reviewing documents while his lieutenants met below. He looked up when they entered, his expression shifting from surprise to anger.
"Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?"
Feng Yichen stepped aside, gesturing for Jiang Yue to step forward.
"This is your show," he said quietly.
Jiang Yue raised the gun and pointed it at Wei Jianguo's chest.
The man's eyes widened. "Wait. Wait! Do you know who I am? I have connections! I have money! Whatever they're paying you, I'll double it!"
"I'm not being paid," Jiang Yue said. "And I don't care about your connections."
"Then what do you want?!"
She thought about the two hundred victims. The women kidnapped and enslaved. The lives destroyed. The suffering that would continue if this man kept breathing.
She thought about Zhao Lianhua. About herself, drowning in the river. About all the innocent people who would die if she didn't do this.
"I want justice," she said.
And she pulled the trigger.
The gunshot echoed through the warehouse.
Wei Jianguo collapsed, a red stain spreading across his expensive shirt. His eyes went wide with shock, then empty with death.
For a moment, Jiang Yue just stood there, staring at the body.
She had just killed someone.
She had just taken a human life.
She waited for the guilt to hit her. The horror. The regret.
It didn't come.
Instead, she felt... lighter. Like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
"How do you feel?" Feng Yichen asked.
"I thought I would feel terrible," she admitted. "But I don't. Is that wrong?"
"Wei Jianguo destroyed hundreds of lives without a moment of remorse. The fact that you're questioning your own moral response proves you're not like him." Feng Yichen placed a hand on her shoulder. "Some people deserve to die, Jiang Yue. The world is better without them."
Shouts came from below. Someone had heard the gunshot.
"Time to go," Feng Yichen said.
They slipped out the way they came, leaving chaos in their wake.
They made it back to the car just as the sun began to set.
Jiang Yue watched the orange light spill across the city, painting everything in shades of fire. And then she felt it-a cold presence brushing against her consciousness.
"ONE SOUL DELIVERED," the Boundary Keeper's voice whispered in her mind. "NINETY-NINE REMAIN. THE DEBT CONTINUES."
Then the presence was gone.
Jiang Yue let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
"Ninety-nine to go," she murmured.
"We'll get there," Feng Yichen said, starting the car. "One monster at a time."
As they drove back toward the city, Jiang Yue's phone buzzed with a text from Xu Meilin:
"Yue Yue! Where have you been all day? Lin Haoran is throwing a party this weekend and he specifically asked if you were coming! He seems really interested in you! (≧ω≦)"
Jiang Yue stared at the message with cold eyes.
Lin Haoran was "interested" in her. Of course he was. He was a predator, and she was his target.
But this time, the predator had no idea that his prey had fangs.
She typed back a response:
"Tell him I'll definitely be there. I'm looking forward to getting to know him better. (_)♡"
She pressed send and smiled.
The game was just beginning.
END OF CHAPTER 2
Next Chapter Preview:
Jiang Yue attends Lin Haoran's party, playing the role of innocent prey while gathering intelligence on his crimes. Meanwhile, Zhao Lianhua's ghost reveals more secrets about the night she died, and Jiang Yue discovers that Lin Haoran's corruption runs far deeper than embezzlement. The evidence is out there -and she's going to find it.