Ji Xinyue, seeing the scene before her, froze for a moment. The bullets seemed bound by some force, giving off a soft white glow there, so even at night she could see clearly.
What froze her wasn't the bullets suspended motionless in the air. It was the woman standing in the moonlight with her back to her, dressed all in snow-white.
Mei Ya and the few accomplices beside her, seeing such an eerie scene, were also stunned. Coming to her senses, her face turned vicious, and she shouted, "Take her out too."
They raised the weapons in their hands and fired at A-Xin. The bullets' flight was too fast for the naked eye to see. But about a meter in front of A-Xin, they came to a standstill again, as if there were a layer of transparent wall there, coated with glue, sticking the bullets fast.
Mei Ya felt something was wrong. A moment ago they'd only seen a flicker before this ethereal, phantom-like white-clad woman appeared in front of them. The other seemed to have materialized out of thin air, and dressed all in white—she wasn't a ghost, was she?
Mei Ya and her accomplices went pale in an instant.
In their line of work, sooner or later, you'd run into deaths. Especially in these little mountain villages that bought women—those stubborn, disobedient women, some with their legs broken, who still thought of escaping, mostly met the end of being beaten to death alive.
There were also those who, unable to escape and unable to make peace with it, simply took their own lives. Some jumped down wells at home; some climbed mountains like this and leapt straight off the cliff to their deaths. If ghosts truly existed in this world, they could only be those dead women.
"Run!"
Mei Ya made an instant decision: since they could do nothing about this strange woman who'd suddenly appeared, best to flee first.
But how could A-Xin let them go? The moment they turned, the bullets that had been suspended motionless in the air moved. They changed direction and flew straight at Mei Ya and the others. Their speed was lightning-fast; the few of them couldn't dodge at all. Just as the bullets were about to bury themselves in their foreheads, everyone's pupils dilated, not a trace of color on their faces, the weapons in their hands dropping to the ground in fright.
At that moment, the bullets veered down a little and buried themselves straight into their knees. Several screams rang out. Mei Ya and the others collapsed to the ground, blood pouring from their knees, watching A-Xin with faces full of terror.
This wasn't human, was it?
A-Xin waved a hand at them, and all the weapons in their hands came flying over to her. This action sent another chill through their hearts. A ghost—was this really a ghost? A vengeful ghost?
A-Xin held those things and glanced at them, then, under the few people's terrified gazes, casually crushed them—those real weapons were kneaded into a single lump. Mei Ya and the others, watching this, had already given up hope of escaping.
Ji Xinyue finally came to her senses and raced to A-Xin, asking nervously, "A-Xin, is it you?"
"What did you call me?" A-Xin turned her head, finding it a little strange. Did this soul know her?
Ji Xinyue's lips moved. This fall shouldn't have knocked her head, should it—why had she forgotten her again! Of course, she didn't mind any of that; as long as A-Xin came, she was satisfied.
She immediately broke into a brilliant smile. "I'm calling you A-Xin. Is that all right?"
"Of course it's all right."
Ji Xinyue stepped closer again, stretched out both hands toward A-Xin, and said pitifully, "Then can you give me a hug?" She'd nearly been turned into a sieve; now she needed A-Xin's hug to comfort her.
A-Xin: "..."
Though she found it strange, A-Xin still walked over a bit, intending to hug the other. Was this a soul that very much needed a comforting hug? Ji Xinyue had already beaten her to it, wrapping her arms around A-Xin. In the instant she did, she found it a little odd—A-Xin clearly had a body, yet she couldn't feel any warmth from it. Of course, it wasn't hot, nor was it cold either. The feeling of holding her was a bit like holding wind, ready to drift away at any moment, so she held on even tighter.
"Hugged enough?"
"No." Ji Xinyue answered with a grin. "Not enough. A whole lifetime wouldn't be enough. I want to keep holding you—is that all right?"
A-Xin was slightly taken aback, then answered, "If that's what you want, then of course."
"Of course it's what I want. Every day I'm alive, I want it—there's never a moment I don't. I thought that if I kept busy, I wouldn't think of you, that I could get through the time without you. A whole lifetime—busy and bustling, tense and rushed—and in the blink of an eye, it'd be over."
"But I underestimated just how important you are in my heart. Even when I'm busy, my mind is still on you. No matter what, I can't shake you off, can't forget you. You always slip unbidden into my thoughts—the way you smile faintly at me, it's truly bewitching."
A-Xin was somewhat moved. This soul's words let her feel a measure of heartache and sorrow. She patted Ji Xinyue. "From now on I'll be with you. Don't be sad."
"I know you'll be with me." The corner of Ji Xinyue's mouth curved into a smile. "You came for me, after all. A-Xin, I know it—this lifetime, since you've come, you'll surely be with me through this whole life. Let me tell you—this life, I've had my memories since I was born. Perhaps, after going through a few more worlds, I'll be able to recall our past—recall how we began. By then, we can be together forever."
A-Xin understood.
Between the two of them, there must be some past.
It was she who'd forgotten.
"A-Xin, I really like you."
Ji Xinyue didn't want it to be like the last world, waiting so long before the two got together. She'd thought it through beforehand: if A-Xin could come, she'd tell her at once—she really, really liked her. The kind of like where she wanted to be together life after life. She didn't want to waste another second; she only wanted to be with her every single moment.
She'd also figured it out: once she confessed to A-Xin, it would awaken A-Xin's love for her. Just what kind of past, and what kind of love, could have made A-Xin place such a powerful curse upon herself? She badly wanted to know now, desperately wanted to return to their original world and be together forever and ever, never again having to wait bitterly in every world. If the reincarnation cycle were to continue, she'd probably have all her memories from birth every time.
This was fortune, and misfortune.
After confessing, she could clearly feel A-Xin's love for her. For instance, the gaze that had been slightly unfamiliar before had changed, returning to the one she knew—and A-Xin had held her even tighter.
The smile at the corner of her mouth still wouldn't close. Just like this—she loved this feeling. With A-Xin holding her, she no longer felt this world was cold.
Mei Ya and the others, knees still bleeding, stared dumbly at the scene before them. They were still bleeding, and these two were showing off their affection?
Ji Xinyue seemed to have forgotten Mei Ya and the rest. These traffickers were no good people to begin with. So what if they bled a little? They wouldn't die. And even if they did, she'd only say "serves them right." If A-Xin wanted their lives, she'd surely have just made the bullets blow their dog heads apart. Now she'd only crippled their legs, which meant she had no intention of taking their lives. That made sense too—dying like that would let them off too easy. If A-Xin wanted them dead without anyone finding out, how simple would that be? She just wanted to keep them around, to let them live on in pain.
"Will they be crippled?"
"Yes. The bullets have already pierced their kneecaps. With some force applied, they're shattered. With power wrapping it, no one will be able to detect it was a bullet. You can tell the others they accidentally shattered their own kneecaps." A-Xin said indifferently, "Is that all right?"
"It's fine, it's fine." Ji Xinyue said hurriedly. That was best.
Mm. Traffickers had done so much evil—shattering their kneecaps to powder while walking; that was retribution.
She let go of A-Xin but still held her hand, and only now did she carefully study this otherworldly, ethereal face. It was even better-looking than every time she'd seen it before—a beauty so great there were no words left to describe it.
She asked, a little curious, "This time, what are you, A-Xin? Could it be that this world really does have ghosts and spirits?"
"This world does have ghosts and spirits, but the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is thin. Even spirits that cultivate for over a thousand years can't take form. There are ghosts and goblins, but their power is very weak—they can't harm people."
"And me..." A-Xin paused. "This is what I look like. I didn't find a suitable trader." There were surely those willing to exchange their bodies with her—she just deemed them unsuitable. She didn't want to use a villager's body. The traffickers' bodies, even less so—traffickers were greedy and inhuman; she had no wish to give them any benefit.
The villagers were a pack of uncivilized beasts; trading with beasts was even less to her liking.
Since this soul had recognized her, she needn't trouble herself to find a body to approach the other. Using her original form to be with her was just the same.
"This is you, A-Xin?"
"Mm."
Ji Xinyue asked again, "Then why can't I feel any warmth—though you're not cold either?"
"Right now I should count as a spirit-essence type, which can also be called a divine spirit-body."
Ji Xinyue seemed to understand a bit. "Can it also be called a soul?"
"Far higher-grade than a soul."
"Then where's your body?" There was an urgency within Ji Xinyue; she badly wanted to know. She didn't believe A-Xin had no body. Even the spirits in the mountains had original bodies.
Why didn't A-Xin?
"It can't get away."
Ji Xinyue had thought of many reasons; she never imagined A-Xin would answer like this. Can't... can't get away? Her body couldn't get away? She stared, deeply confused—what did that mean? So A-Xin's body was busy doing some great thing, that it actually couldn't get away?
Since the body still existed, Ji Xinyue didn't ask further.
She remembered the matter at hand and hurriedly took out her phone to call Yun Shao, telling him everything here, indicating that she had the evidence to arrest Mei Ya and these traffickers. Take them back, interrogate them properly, and surely much could be wrung out of them.
"The police are right over here. They'll rush over to take these people away soon," Ji Xinyue said.
If Mei Ya hadn't tricked them into the village for the transaction, exposing evidence of her trafficker identity partway, she wouldn't have needed to follow into the village at all. These traffickers were very cunning; before they revealed their true faces, if the police stopped them for questioning, the girls who'd been kept in the dark would even speak up for them. Without evidence, the police were in a real bind. Things like this were many in the world—they couldn't all be handled.
"What are you thinking about?"
Ji Xinyue took handcuffs out of her bag and cuffed these people, then said, "Traffickers can never all be caught. As long as little mountain villages like this exist, those depraved traffickers who profit from human trafficking will go on existing forever."
"A-Xin, do you think what I do might be a wasted effort?" Setting everything else aside, what she loathed most were these beasts who'd never evolved into humans.
They had the look of humans, but the things they did were no different from wild beasts. The village lacked girls; even wives had to be bought. Yet if someone in the village gave birth to a girl, that girl's fate was mostly to be thrown straight into a manure pit or a water cistern and killed outright. She'd been to many such little mountain villages—the women were all bought from outside.
"No." A-Xin took Ji Xinyue's hand and led her down the mountain, saying, "What you've done has already helped many people. You've done very well."
Ji Xinyue was embarrassed by the praise. Really, she wasn't that good. She just couldn't stand it—what she thought, she did.
"If only there were really a way to punish these little-mountain-village people, that would be good." Ji Xinyue sighed. "Earlier I met a girl who'd run out partway. She told me her story."
"She'd been sold to a forty-year-old disabled man in some village; the man's hands didn't work well. Because she resisted fiercely, in the end it was the man's mother who personally helped him force her. While she was being forced, the man's mother even said, 'Who didn't come up this way?' It turned out the man's mother had once been trafficked into this village too. As I listened, I thought—when she first arrived, she must have tried to escape too. Why has she now become an accomplice in this village, helping these people abuse those pitiful girls?"
"Is it that she's gone numb, that she's been assimilated, or that because her own life is already like this, she means, full of malice, to drag everyone else down into the water too?"
Ji Xinyue led A-Xin back to the village; it was deep night by now.
Most of the villagers had already gone to sleep. Faintly, she heard the sound of struggling and weeping. She pulled A-Xin and ran fast, and without a word, kicked a door open.
The scene before her was a young woman pinned beneath a burly, broad-backed man. Because the woman was struggling with all her might, the man had slapped her across the face several times, and she was sobbing in muffled cries.
The man cursed foully, "You stinking bitch, you've been here a year and still won't behave. Damn it, hurry up and spread your legs."
Ji Xinyue saw that there was even a chain around the woman's ankle, and her eyes stung. She charged forward and, with one kick, sent that man flying.