By the time more spectators arrived, Zhi Yan had swiftly removed the servant girl's outer layer and wrapped herself in it.

"You!" Zhi Yan turned around to see a matronly woman dressed extravagantly in an assortment of colors pointing at her with a fan. As their eyes met, the color drained from the woman's face. "Zhi Yan?"

"Madam Zhi, please calm down. It isn't good for your health," murmured a servant next to her, to which the woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. Madam Zhi, huh?

"Greetings, Madam Zhi," she said calmly, contrasting Madam Zhi's still-pale complexion. Zhi Yan glanced down at the servant girl still on the ground at her feet. "It seems I startled her after waking from my nap. My apologies for the disturbance, Madam Zhi."

"A nap, you say?"

Zhi Yan nodded. "By the well. Although, I don't recall much before that. I seem quite fatigued, so I must ask Madam Zhi to excuse my departure." She smiled at the three accompanying servants. "Now, who will guide me to my quarters?"

No servant spoke, all avoiding eye contact or focusing on Madam Zhi. The woman herself wore an unreadable expression as she observed Zhi Yan. Zhi Yan returned the gaze with a serene calmness that seemed to irk Madam Zhi even more. "...A-Lei, escort the young miss to her room," she finally instructed.

A short, scrawny servant immediately straightened up and gestured for Zhi Yan to follow him. Zhi Yan bowed her head at Madam Zhi before leisurely breezing past the woman, not missing how her hand clenched onto the fan as if about to break it.

Finally, the two turned a corner and entered a small, dilapidated courtyard. Leaves lay strewn all across the stone tiles, an old bamboo broom sat leaning against a stone table and a small seat. She noted chips in the stone walls and missing tiles from the eaves hanging above the doorway. "This is the Young Miss's residence," A-Lei said, clearing his throat.

They stood facing each other awkwardly, with A-Lei looking nervous. "Are you not going to open the door for me?"

"Ah, right! Of course, of course! Here you are." The inside was even worse. There was barely any furniture except a bed, a rickety wooden chair, and a desk. Cobwebs littered every nook and cranny, covered in a fine layer of dust. Walking over to the bed, Zhi Yan could see discolored patches sewn onto the thin bedspreads.

A-Lei watched nervously from the corner of his eye. He had never truly interacted with the Young Miss before, but he had heard the rumors. Zhi Yan was a spineless, timid mouse that had no qi, no talent, and thus no use. An unfortunate product of Master Zhi's first marriage and an eyesore hidden away in the manor. Before, A-Lei assumed the rumors to be true as she kept mostly to her residence, quietly agreeing with everything said about her. But now it seemed that the Zhi Mansion gossip had missed some key pieces of context. Her silence was neither timid nor obedient. It was more of a detached aloofness that matched a serene calmness about her, exuding subtle confidence.

"Why is my room not cleaned?" Zhi Yan had sat down on the bed and was inspecting something between her fingertips. "Who was supposed to clean it?"

"A-Lei does not know," A-Lei admitted, internally cringing. "But if the Young Miss wishes, I can arrange for someone t-"

"No need," Zhi Yan interjected softly. "I simply wanted to know."

"A-Lei can go look and report back this afternoon?"

Zhi Yan hummed, engrossed with the patches on the blanket. "Bring the afternoon tea as well."

A-Lei nodded before bowing and bidding her farewell. He sighed in his heart; he had a feeling that the manor was about to get a lot more interesting.

As soon as Zhi Yan heard the yard door close, she stood up and walked over to the cracked mirror sitting on the desk. An apathetic face stared back at her. The color had returned to her cheeks, though her now-dried hair hung in front of her face, revealing some truth to the ghost accusation. She had phoenix-shaped eyes and a round little mouth that sat daintily upon her face, giving her a languid sort of look when she gazed at herself. In terms of stature, she was of average height, similar to how she was in her original body. Interestingly enough, even her name was the same. The only main difference was the numerous amount of scars and callouses that littered her hands and arms compared to her previous lack of any because of...qi.

She flicked two fingers in a quick swiping motion at a leaf on the windowsill. The leaf lay unaffected. Then she tried the tiny comb on the desk. Nothing. Flexing her hands, she could only feel hairs and whispers circulating within her meridians. That's right, if I had any substantial amount of qi, it wouldn't have been so hard to get out of that disgusting well.

After trying a couple more times with several different objects around the room, though she would deny it affecting her in any way, Zhi Yan finally sat down again, drained. It felt odd like her body was empty, void of something that should have been there. Yet, she reminded herself, many people lived like this.

Pushing the doors open to the yard, she absentmindedly waved her hand at the broom, and unsurprisingly, nothing happened, reminding Zhi Yan of her current situation. She tsked and walked over to the broom in the corner.

Right as she finished, a loud clanking came from the bronze door knockers, and A-Lei stepped through the doors. "Young Miss, I have your afternoon tea and your answers..." He trailed off, his statement turning into more of a question as he looked around the now-cleanly swept courtyard.

Zhi Yan waved a hand lazily, urging the man to continue as she rested her head on her chin.

"Well," the wiry man said, setting the tray down on the table. "To answer the Young Miss's question, your servants are Qiu Rong and Pan Li."

At the two names, a sharp stab of pain flared up in her chest before dissipating just as quickly. Huh. She took a sip of the tea, commenting it was barely lukewarm at best, to which A-Lei visibly cringed. "And where are they?"

He hesitated, a bead of sweat dripping down his neck. "I..."

She tilted her head before taking another sip. There was something about her gaze that unsettled him. It was blank, devoid of all emotion, yet he could feel it peeling him apart like a tangerine. No, it was more invasive. He felt like she was looking down upon a specimen that she was about to skin. "...This servant ventures that they might be at Young Master Zhi's residence."

"Leave me be." Zhi Yan stared at the piles of leaves swept to the sides of the yard, thinking. Staying here was nothing but trouble, yet there was a sign telling her that she couldn't leave just yet.

Once the man left, she closed her eyes, concentrating on following the flicker of qi that she'd felt before, and her surroundings melted away as Zhi Yan allowed herself to be pulled away by the streams of energy. When she opened her eyes again, she was in a plain filled with white flowers with a figure kneeling in the distance. The culprit.

Taking her time, she walked closer until she was standing in front of the figure. The figure on the ground looked up, surprised and then joyful. It was Zhi Yan, the original body's soul. "Are you an immortal?"

Zhi Yan nodded, disinterestedly. "I’m assuming that I’m down here for a reason."

"No." She looked down at her hands, almost in an ashamed manner. "I-I couldn't possibly ask anything from an immortal."

The muscle above Zhi Yan's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Weak and cowardly. "No. You do. You barely have any qi, yet you use the remaining drop of it to pull me here. Somehow."

Embarrassed, the mortal Zhi Yan twisted her clothes in her hands. Finally, she whispered more to herself, "I always want to be free from this torment. Free from them."

Zhi Yan's eyes flickered about the space surrounding the girl as tendrils of white smoke left her body. But it was not the white smoke that caught her eye. Ropes of thorny red smoke coiled around the girl, and she watched as the girl unknowingly clawed at her throat as if trying to relieve herself. Mortals were really their own biggest downfall. "I can see remnants of resentful energy on you. It traps you."

"I'd be a fool not to hate them."

"Would killing them free you then?"

The girl let out a sharp, sad, and pained laugh. "What could you do with a body lacking in qi? Remember, Immortal Zhi Yan, you are in my body, now."

The twitch above Zhi Yan's brow was back. "Revenge is the most effective way to dispel resentful energy."

She flashed her a mirthful smile. "I guess I'm only human after all. But it isn't the best way, is it?"

"No. Though for you and your soul," Zhi Yan stepped forward and pressed her pointer finger on her forehead. In a burst of white light, the girl shattered into a thousand tiny little shards like pieces of a ceramic vase before a gust of wind swept her away. "Forgetting is."

Now it was only her in the field. Humming, she looked around the field of flowers, ignoring the biting pain that slowly crept its way around her body like the tendrils of smoke.

"I will fulfill your wish. May Old Lady Meng take care of you." Zhi Yan whispered into the wind. And then with a wave of her robes, she herself disappeared in a flash of light.

Later that night on the other side of the Zhi Manor, a teacup shattered against the wall.

"THOSE USELESS SAVAGES COULD NOT EVEN GET RID OF ONE GIRL! ONE STUPID AND WEAK GIRL!" screamed Madam Zhi. She was a scary sight to behold, her face white with the rage that she had to suppress the whole entire day.

"M-Madam, Madam Zhi, please calm down," cried one of her main attendants, flinching as the woman sent a comb flying at the nearest servant girl.

"I want this matter handled before the trials and Kong-er's birthday. So find me the girl. Am I clear?" The woman spat out. Immediately, the guards and the rest of the servants nodded and hurriedly dismissed themselves from the room.

"Madam Zhi, you need not worry," murmured an elderly servant named Rong Mei in her ear. She was one of Madam Zhi's servants that she had brought over when she married into the Zhi family. "What could that weak girl do anyway?"

Madam Zhi sat down with a huff, her chest still heaving up and down from her previous outburst. "I can't help but worry. I don't even know how that freak got out of that well." Groaning, she rubbed her temple and sipped on the tea handed to her. 

After a second, her voice harsh and cold echoed in the now-empty room. "No, I've made it this far."