I was a top-tier kept woman, spoiled rotten by Pei Zhou while I was alive to the point that I cared about no one else.
I casually mentioned that I liked looking at the sea, and he bought me an entire private island and named it after me.
I complained that high heels rubbed my feet raw, so he kept a pair of slippers in every luxury car for me.
Wherever we went, he would even crouch down to help me change my shoes.
Even if I happened to see a discontinued limited-edition handbag in the middle of the night, he could immediately board his private jet overseas and have it placed beside my pillow before dawn.
So even as a ghost, I couldn't possibly allow myself to carry an outdated handbag.
But Pei Zhou had spoiled me into being completely useless.
I couldn't lift anything heavy, and I had no idea how to make a living.
Even after being dead for six years, I hadn't earned a single piece of underworld currency.
I had no choice but to pawn all my jewelry in exchange for a chance to return to the mortal world and find my husband.
After all, before I died, Pei Zhou had once held me in his arms and cried so hard that he vomited blood.
“Suìsuì, I supported you while you were alive. Even after you die, I'll still support you.”
“Every year on the anniversary of your death, I'll burn the latest handbags for you.”
But the moment I flew into the house that had once been our bridal chamber, comments appeared before my eyes:
【The male lead's white moonlight has been dead for six years.
He finally agreed to marry the female lead!】
【He didn't just throw away all the belongings of his deceased wife.
He even renovated their bridal chamber.
Looks like he's truly moved on.】
I stared blankly at the living room.
The wedding photo on the wall had been replaced with a photo of him and another woman.
She held the cat I had raised with my own hands.
She was wearing my wedding ring and smiling as she asked,
“Did you really love her that much before?”
He lowered his head and kissed her, his voice indifferent.
“She was just someone who died. Why bring her up?”
I tightened my grip around the return-to-the-living-world token that had cost me my entire fortune to obtain.
After a long while, I slowly loosened my fingers.
Right.
It had been six years.
He needed to start a new life too.
……
I stood there for a very long time.
So long that the scented candle on the coffee table had burned down considerably before Lin Wantang finally pushed Pei Zhou away gently.
“Stop. Yuan Bao is watching.”
The Ragdoll cat in her arms lazily flicked its tail.
That was Yuan Bao.
Six years ago, when I rescued it from a torrential downpour, it had been no bigger than my palm.
Its entire body was so dirty that I couldn't even tell what color its fur was.
Pei Zhou hated cats shedding fur and refused to let me keep it.
I sat outside the door with the kitten in my arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
He stood there with a cold expression, arguing with me for ten whole minutes before finally giving in.
He took off his coat and wrapped both me and the kitten inside it.
“Jiang Sui, you're only acting this spoiled because you know I can't bear to do anything to you.”
Later, the person who had hated Yuan Bao the most ended up buying it an entire wall of canned food.
Now Yuan Bao was curled up in Lin Wantang's arms, wearing a pink collar she had knitted herself.
I flew over and crouched in front of it.
“Yuan Bao.”
It suddenly opened its eyes and stared straight at me.
My heart jolted.
I reached out to stroke it.
But my fingertips passed straight through its head.
As if it had sensed something, Yuan Bao suddenly jumped out of Lin Wantang's arms, circled around me, and began meowing incessantly.
“What is it?”
Lin Wantang bent down to pick it up.
Yuan Bao arched its back instead, raised its claws, and raked them hard across the back of her hand.
She cried out softly in pain.
Pei Zhou's expression immediately darkened.
“Yuan Bao.”
Just two words, and the cat froze.
Once, Yuan Bao had ruined one of my dresses with its claws, and I had been so angry that I threatened to throw it out.
Pei Zhou had held me on his lap and coaxed me.
“Why are you arguing with a cat? It's still so small.”
Now, he pulled Lin Wantang's hand toward him and lowered his head to examine the wound.
The scratches were shallow, barely drawing a little blood.
But he still fetched the first-aid kit, disinfected the wound himself, and carefully put a bandage over it.
His movements were as patient as though he were touching something fragile.
I lowered my head and looked at my own hands.
When I was alive, even a tiny cut from peeling fruit would make Pei Zhou's face darken as he called a doctor in the middle of the night.
I used to laugh at him for making such a fuss over nothing.
He would take my hand and kiss it again and again.
“Your blood is precious. Even seeing a single drop makes my heart ache.”
So it turned out those words had never belonged to me alone.
Lin Wantang glanced at his profile and suddenly asked,
“Wouldn't it be inappropriate to hang our wedding photo here?”
Pei Zhou didn't look up.
“What's inappropriate about it?”
“After all, this is the house where you and Miss Jiang used to live.”
She paused.
“I'm worried she might mind.”
I hurriedly waved my hands.
“I don't mind.”
But they couldn't hear me.
Pei Zhou closed the first-aid kit and said calmly,
“A house is meant for the living.”
The brief sentence pierced the heart that had stopped beating long ago.
Lin Wantang smiled and leaned into his arms.
“Then can I have the dressing room upstairs too?”
“Yes.”
“What about the garden?”
“Change it however you like.”
“What should we do with the things she left behind?”
This time, Pei Zhou finally fell silent.
Without realizing it, I held my breath too.
After a long while, he looked at the sealed cardboard box in the corner.
“Throw them away.”
I stared at it blankly.
A corner of a red scarf was sticking out through the gap in the box.
It was the first scarf I had ever learned to knit, with crooked stitches that looked like centipedes.
And yet Pei Zhou had worn it for five years.
He couldn't even bear to put it away in summer.
Now, it was just like me.
It had expired.
## 2
The next day, the housekeeping staff arrived.
They carried the last few boxes down from the attic.
My clothes, photographs, perfumes, even the jewelry cabinet Pei Zhou had specially commissioned for me—all of them were piled up in the yard.
I followed behind them, constantly reminding them,
“Be careful. That's expensive.”
“Don't fold that dress. It'll leave creases.”
“Oh, don't put the photos face down. My face will look chubby.”
After saying all that, I suddenly fell silent.
They couldn't hear me.
No one needed these things anymore either.
Lin Wantang stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, choosing designs.
“Can we turn this into a music room?”
Pei Zhou was looking through some documents and casually answered,
“Sure.”
She pointed upstairs again.
“I don't like the old bedroom. The colors are too bright.”
That room had been chosen by me.
I liked things lively.
Burgundy curtains, warm yellow walls.
Pei Zhou liked black, white, and gray, yet he had still let me turn the entire house into a color palette.
His friends laughed at him for losing all sense of taste.
He would wrap an arm around my waist and say without changing expression,
“If my wife likes it, then that's the highest form of taste.”
Lin Wantang acted coquettishly.
“Can we change everything to white?”
“Yes.”
“What about the bed?”
“Change it all.”
She happily ran over and kissed him.
Pei Zhou didn't avoid her.
I floated upstairs and took one last look at the bedroom.
There was a faint scratch on the headboard.
In the second year of our marriage, I had suddenly gotten the urge to carve our names into it.
Pei Zhou had called me childish.
Yet when I woke up in the middle of the night, I found him crouching beside the bed, holding a small knife and carving each stroke carefully.
Pei Zhou loves Jiang Sui.
For one lifetime, for all eternity.
Later, I complained that his handwriting was ugly and teased him about it for more than half a year.
Now, when the workers lifted the bed, they asked whether they should keep it.
Pei Zhou stood outside the door, not even bothering to look.
“Get rid of it.”
When the electric saw started up, I instinctively covered my ears.
Sawdust flew through the air, and the inscription was cut right through the middle.
Pei Zhou loves Jiang Sui.
For one lifetime, for all eternity.
It turned out that a lifetime and all eternity were only worth six years.
At dusk, the last garbage truck drove away.
I clung to the back of the truck, wanting to retrieve one photograph from the pile of discarded belongings.
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't reach it.
The truck drove out through the gates.
I chased after it for a long way.
Only when my ghostly body began to burn did I remember that the return-to-the-living-world token had a limited range.
I couldn't get too far away from Pei Zhou.
All I could do was watch helplessly as the truck disappeared.
When I returned, Pei Zhou was in the kitchen.
His shirt sleeves were rolled up as he bent over a pot of sweet soup.
Lin Wantang leaned against the doorway and asked with a smile,
“President Pei can cook too?”
“I only know how to make this.”
“Why?”
The hand holding the ladle paused.
“I learned it a long time ago.”
When I saw the osmanthus fermented-rice soup simmering in the pot, my eyes suddenly stung.
Whenever I had no appetite, this was the only thing I could manage to eat.
A man who could burn even a fried egg had sought out more than ten chefs just to learn how to make it.
The first time he succeeded, he carried it to my bedside, his ears red from nervousness.
“Try it.”
I deliberately frowned and said it tasted terrible.
His lips tightened, and he turned around to pour it out.
I hurriedly wrapped my arms around his waist, laughing so hard I could barely breathe.
“I was kidding.”
“Pei Zhou, you make it better than anyone.”
Now, he placed the bowl of sweet soup in front of Lin Wantang.
She took a sip and frowned.
“It's too sweet. I don't like it.”
Pei Zhou was silent for two seconds.
Then he picked it up and poured it straight into the trash.
Along with the past I had once believed he would never forget.
Everything was thrown away.
## 3
The return-to-the-living-world token allowed me to enter dreams three times in total.
Originally, I hadn't planned to use it.
Pei Zhou already had a new life.
Appearing in his dreams would only make things difficult for him.
But that night, he got drunk.
He leaned against the sofa, his tie hanging crookedly, exhaustion etched between his brows.
Lin Wantang sat beside him, wiping his face as she asked softly,
“Why did you drink so much?”
“I was entertaining clients.”
“Were you like this before too?”
Pei Zhou closed his eyes and didn't answer.
She seemed a little jealous.
“I heard that when Miss Jiang was alive, you never got drunk.”
I couldn't help nodding.
That was true.
His tolerance for alcohol was actually very good.
But I hated the smell of alcohol.
Every time I smelled it, I would wrinkle my nose.
After that, no matter how important the drinking party was, he would only take a tiny sip.
His friends used to tease him for being afraid of his wife.
He had even been rather proud of it.
“Someone keeps me in line. Jealous?”
Now there was no one left to keep him in line.
He could drink himself senseless, skip dinner, and casually toss his stomach medicine into a drawer.
I floated in front of him and crouched down.
Pei Zhou had lost a lot of weight.
There were heavy dark circles beneath his eyes, and there was a scar on the web between the thumb and index finger of his right hand that I had never seen before.
I wanted to touch it.
But my fingers passed right through his face.
After Lin Wantang helped him back to the bedroom, I tightened my grip around the first dream-entry talisman.
Forget it.
I'd only take a look.
The moment the dream opened, everything around me transformed into that private island.
The sea breeze was gentle, and the setting sun bathed the beach in gold.
This was the birthday gift Pei Zhou had given me when I turned twenty-two.
I stood barefoot by the sea and saw him approaching from a distance.
Still wearing a black shirt, his tall figure straight and his hair perfectly neat.
In the dream, I had a body.
I lifted my skirt and ran toward him.
“Husband.”
He stopped.
I stopped too.
Before, all it took was one call from me for him to immediately open his arms and welcome me.
Even if he were an entire street away, he would come toward me.
This time, he simply stood there.
His gaze was so unfamiliar that I didn't dare move any closer.
I forced a smile.
“I didn't come to bother you on purpose.”
“It's just that inflation in the underworld has gotten so bad lately. Underworld currency has lost its value, and I don't know how to make a living. I'm so poor that I can't even afford a handbag.”
Pei Zhou looked at me.
“So?”
“You promised before that every year, you'd burn the latest models for me.”
“Jiang Sui.”
He cut me off.
“It's been six years.”
The sea breeze suddenly turned cold.
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