Agarwood Like Crumbs (Immortal Samsara)

Chapter 12: Doubtful

That night, Tang Zhou slept restlessly. When the sky outside started getting brighter, he was suddenly woken up by the sound of a flute. The sound was sorrowful and the flute player sounded like they had endless misery to tell. Tang Zhou put on his robes and silently crept outside. No one had visited the courtyard last night, yet there's a big pit in the ground.

He held his sword scabbard and crept closer.

There was a shallow layer of petals, which Master Shen had buried yesterday, except the petals were wrinkled and dry. He brushed aside the soil with a sword, and it revealed a hand underneath, looking as white as ceramic.

The person buried under there might still be alive!

Tang Zhou didn't have a hoe or something else to dig with, so he could only use his sword. Fortunately, the person wasn't buried very deeply, and a person's face slowly appeared. He stretched out his hand and placed it under the person's nose, but there weren't any signs of breathing. Tang Zhou lifted his sleeves and gently wiped off the sand on the person's face.

It was a girl's face, with sleek eyebrows and a smile in the corner of her mouth, and looked like she was alive.

Tang Zhou's hand paused, suddenly hearing footsteps behind him. He immediately turned around, knitting his eyebrows a little, "How did you get out?"

YanDan held up the ripped-up talisman, "I was talking to Xiang Jun, the paper talismans were too ugly and it would be better to rip them up. She immediately ripped it up." She got closer to the pit, looking at the person inside, and whispered softly, "What are you doing? Are you trying to destroy or hide the body?"

Tang Zhou looked at her, "Don't you think that the person inside the pit looks like someone you know well?"

YanDan knelt to take a closer look, "Yeah, I think we might've seen her somewhere before..."
"... This person looks just like you."

YanDan jumped a little in shock and stood up, "When you say that, she sure does look similar. But why would there be someone who looks identical to me in this world?"

Tang Zhou replied slowly, "Not only does she look similar, your spiritual auras are also the same. Do you really believe that there would be a person like this?" YanDan looked at the woman buried in the pit and murmured, "Definitely not." She looked really sad and slowly raised her head, saying, "That means... that I've already died but don't know of it yet?"

Tang Zhou was silent, but YanDan's face grew pale, muttering, "I see, I see..." She suddenly turned around and grabbed Tang Zhou's sleeves, "I'm like this because of you! How do you plan on paying me back?" Her fingers were turning pale and she started bleeding, "If it weren't for you... if it weren't for you, then how would I have ended up here?"

She looked sad and her eyes held a sort of despair that he'd never seen before.

Tang Zhou didn't pull away, he didn't try to pull away, only asking, "What do I owe you? What do you want from me?"

YanDan stared at him and said slowly, "You owe me half a heart and I want you to give it back... please give it back..." Her voice had already gone from a warm tone to a crying tone, which made it even sadder.

Tang Zhou was inexplicably horrified and stepped back. He didn't know why, but his head suddenly started hurting.

He opened his eyes and found himself lying on the bed in the guest room and a pillow was knocked to the floor. He sat up and rubbed his eyes until he was fully awake. It turns out that that was just a dream. But why would he choose to dream of YanDan, of all people? It really is a nightmare within a nightmare. He got up from bed, rinsed his face with the water from the basin, and slowly put on his robes.