Whispers of Fate (Shui Long Yin)

A Shui pulled the silver hairpin from her bun and silently watched Tang Lici's retreating figure.

He was always... so indulgent...

But Tang Lici's affection was sometimes light, sometimes heavy; sometimes genuine, sometimes feigned... and sometimes... it was harmful.

That silver hairpin—she couldn't wear it, couldn't put it away, couldn't discard it. Clutching it in her hand until it pricked her fingers painfully, she suddenly realized that what Tang Lici truly wanted was for her to suffer for him.

He enjoyed seeing her and Feng Feng in pain, in sorrow—better yet, dying for him.

Tang Lici arrived at the gates of Wangting Manor and lightly knocked a few times with the door ring. Before long, a little girl with twin buns opened the gate and looked at him curiously. "You are...?" Tang Lici's expression was gentle as he bent down and spoke softly, "I'm here to see someone. Is there an uncle with a red snake tattoo on his face in your household? I'm his friend."

The girl, no more than thirteen or fourteen, nodded. "Uncle is sleeping in the cage, but Sister said no one is allowed to come see him." Tang Lici's voice grew even softer. "What must I do to see him?" The girl smiled with childlike innocence. "Sister said to play a game with me. If you win, I'll let you in to see him."

"A game? What kind of game?" Tang Lici smiled. The little girl before him, with almond-shaped eyes and dark hair, was quite adorable. "What's your name?" The girl pointed at her own nose. "I'm Guan'er. What's your name?" Tang Lici's brows curved gently. "My surname is Tang—Tang Lici."

"Brother Tang," Guan'er opened the gate a crack and beckoned, "come in." Tang Lici looked past her. Beyond the gate was not a garden but a shallow pool of water, not deep but filled with a pungent odor. A thin rope stretched across the water, leading to the roof on the opposite side. Clearly, the pool was not to be touched, while the simple, elegant building on the other side exuded tranquility, as if devoid of any presence.

Guan'er leaped onto the rope and pulled something from her sleeve, clutching it in her hand. "We'll roll dice. If your number is higher than mine, you move forward. If mine is higher, you move back." She spoke very seriously. "If you retreat to where there's no rope left, you jump into the pool. If I let you reach the other side, I'll jump in." Tang Lici clapped his hands. "Agreed."

Guan'er retreated to the far end of the rope, while Tang Lici sprang onto it. Two zhang apart, the rope swayed slightly beneath their feet, their reflections trembling in the water below."Begin!" Guan'er raised her right hand high and let go, two dice tumbling into the pool. Their gazes flickered simultaneously—she had rolled a "six" and a "one." But it was only a fleeting glance. The dice bubbled up a layer of white foam in the water, obscuring the numbers as if they were dissolving. Guan'er clapped her hands and cried, "Hurry, hurry! If the dice disappear, we won't be able to play anymore."

Tang Lici smiled faintly, flicking his sleeve. The two dice suddenly shot out of the water. Before they could land in his hand, they flipped midair and plunged back into the pool. Their eyes darted again—a "six" and a "three." Tang Lici took two steps forward, raising his hand with a smile. "Your turn."

Guan'er rolled her eyes twice. "Hmph, why didn't you just grab them?" Tang Lici replied softly, "I'm afraid it would hurt." Guan'er shook her head, fishing out two more dice from her sleeve and tossing them into the water. The original pair had already been half-dissolved by the pool, their numbers completely illegible. The new dice floated briefly before settling—a "three" and a "five."

Tang Lici flicked his sleeve, hands behind his back. The water splashed upward with a splash , and the two dice leaped into the air, spraying dozens of droplets toward Guan'er. Startled, she jumped back to avoid the water, only to see the dice reveal two sixes. She froze.

In the moment she had jumped, Tang Lici had already closed the distance by four steps, his face wearing a gentle smile. "Apologies, but I win again."

Guan'er reached into her sleeve once more, pulling out fresh dice. "This time, I won’t let you win!" She released them into the water, and they landed—two sixes, the highest possible roll. Tang Lici smiled faintly.

Suddenly, Guan'er's vision blurred—Tang Lici's face was right in front of hers, nose to nose. She shrieked and scrambled backward, but he shadowed her effortlessly, maintaining their proximity. His eyes loomed unnaturally large and dark before her, like a deep black pool from which a monstrous beast was about to emerge. His voice was soft as he murmured, "Guan'er, playing games is fine. But before you cheat, you should make sure the person you're playing with won’t suddenly tell you… 'I quit.'"

A soft snap sounded. Guan'er let out a cry as she spat a mouthful of blood into the pool, watching it sizzle into white smoke upon contact with the water. Tang Lici had lightly struck her chest. He picked her up and placed her by the doorway behind the rope, patting her head before pushing the door open and stepping inside.

Like a broken doll, she lay motionless at the entrance, staring up at the blue sky and the sun.

He hadn’t thrown her into the pool. Nor had he killed her.

Though she was only fourteen, she had already killed many people.

Guan'er's chest rose and fell as she gasped for breath, her vision wide and empty—no one in sight.

Behind her, the room was empty. Tang Lici had pushed open the door to a shrine—yet there was no Buddha statue on the altar. In the dim depths behind the curtains, where the Buddha should have been enshrined, hung a portrait of a woman. Had Tang Lici’s gaze not been so sharp, he might not have noticed it at all. Before the portrait, a stick of incense had just burned out, its faint fragrance still lingering in the air.Tang Lici examined the portrait carefully. It was an uncanny likeness, painted with extraordinary skill and even mixed with rare pigments, giving it a somewhat oil-painting-like quality. In his opinion, it was most likely painted by Liu Yan. The portrait depicted a young girl in a pink dress. Her features bore a resemblance to Xifang Tao, yet it wasn’t her.

She appeared slightly younger than Xifang Tao, her hair tied in a loose bun with a few dark strands cascading down her chest. She wore a familiar peach-colored dress, identical to the one Xifang Tao often wore. The girl had a delicate, pointed chin, the picture of a lovely oval face, her eyelashes lowered as if gazing at the ground. On the right side of her neck was a small black mole. According to the painting, she sat beneath a peach blossom tree, its flowers in full, radiant bloom, petals scattered across the ground, blending with her peach-colored dress—a scene so tender it seemed dreamlike.

But this portrait was not a real scene.

It was a sketch of the girl, with the background added afterward. Tang Lici stared intently at the portrait. Judging by its original composition, the girl sat with her eyes closed, leaning against something, her hair slightly disheveled, her posture stiff—likely… a corpse.

If Liu Yan had painted a portrait of a corpse, and Xifang Tao had hung it here for worship, then the girl in the painting must have been extraordinary. Judging by the traces around the shrine, the portrait had been enshrined here for quite some time. Wangting Manor had served as a stronghold for the Dissolute Shop for years—could it have been solely to worship this portrait?

The surroundings were utterly silent. Tang Lici stood before the portrait for a while before suddenly reaching out, taking it down, and tucking it into his robes. He then passed through the rear door and exited the shrine.

Behind the shrine lay a garden—rock formations, flowing streams, exotic flowers, towering trees—all meticulously arranged to create a breathtaking wonderland, as if every marvel of the world had been condensed into this modest yet exquisite space. Tang Lici raised his brows and smiled faintly. The person who designed this courtyard was truly remarkable. Yet, despite its fairy-tale beauty, the garden remained devoid of people, the entire place like an empty manor.

Was Shen Langhun truly in this manor? Tang Lici pushed aside the branches of winter plum trees and saw, beneath the cover of rocks and foliage, a scattering of corpses—no fewer than twenty or thirty. Most were Demon Soul Death Warriors clad in black embroidered bodysuits, while a few others lay motionless, their identities unknown. The bodies bore no visible wounds, save for a single red mark at the center of their brows. Tang Lici looked up and spotted an iron cage suspended amidst the trees, its exterior densely covered in withered brown venomous snakes—so thickly that he had initially missed it. Inside the cage, a faint figure seemed to stir.