The following day, late at night.

The quiet streets were nearly deserted, save for the flickering glow of a cigarette in an alleyway and the lights of a vending machine flashing with each spoken word.

"After returning to the hotel yesterday, Huai Shi slept through the night and well into the next day. He then ordered a ten-person family bucket through room service and holed up in his room to watch two movies and half a new anime series.

After six in the evening, he searched online for discount coupons for the latest FPS game. He also got into a two-hundred-plus-post argument over the balance of a mobile game on a forum. Then, he asked on Zhihu whether he should wear a suit to a formal event. When he decided to buy one, he discovered it was too late. Most stores in Jinling had closed for the evening. Ah, now he's looking up the phone number for the nearest suit rental shop..."

"If you ask me, your little brother is truly remarkable. He shows no signs of that sorrowful, miserable state you mentioned, with the inability to eat or sleep due to depression. He's got much better mental fortitude than some bald Cowherd."

Hearing the sardonic words from the vending machine, Liu DongLi's expression twitched, and he couldn't help but sigh deeply. "Can't you insult me a little less?"

"I think for a scumbag who still uses his ex-girlfriend as a tool after breaking up, such words are but a gentle breeze. What's wrong? Does he even understand what 'shame' and 'decency' mean?"

"..."

His face growing more helpless, Liu DongLi endured his ex-girlfriend's mockery and cold violence through the vending machine until its indifferent voice finally vented its annoyance. Then he spoke up, "I know you have a bone to pick with me, but no matter what, I'm still your customer, right?"

"Oh, so you mean you don't need me to use my insider privileges to give you a discount?"

"No, please, ma'am, I was wrong!"

Liu DongLi's spine bent under the weight of money. "Just treat me like a scumbag and scold me some more! If you're happy scolding me, then you'll have the motivation to work. If you don't feel it's enough, I'll scold myself for you. This Liu fellow is no good..."

"Hmph, as long as you know."

The vending machine jolted, and a can of drink dropped out. "This is what you asked for—the information about what happened to the Yin's family back then."

Upon opening the empty can, a thick roll of paper slid out.

"Truly the work of Tomorrow's News." Liu DongLi clicked his tongue in admiration. "But it's still quite inconvenient to always use this method—can't we meet face-to-face to talk about it?"

The vending machine let out a cold laugh. "Forget it. I'm afraid I might not be able to resist slashing your face a few times..."

In the silence, Liu DongLi sighed as he looked down at the information on the paper, his expression growing grimmer.

"Is this for real?"

"What do you think?"

The voice from the vending machine spoke indifferently, "Speaking of ugliness, who knows how many events, dozens of times more vile than this, happen in such declining families. To preserve power, such things are merely commonplace trifles, not even requiring concealment. Anyway, only meddlers like you would bother to dig this kind of thing up from old records."

Smoking a cigarette, Liu DongLi sighed softly, "Caught up in such an affair... that poor girl..."

Flipping through the records in his hand, he could almost picture the events that befell the Yin's family over two decades ago—the transformation that thrust Ai Qing into the abyss she inhabits today.

Back then, the Yin's family was rapidly ascending after gaining control of several border trade channels. Unfortunately, their numbers were thin.

Compared to the many family members, there were few with the talent to Sublimate. Aside from Sublimators recruited from outside, there was astonishingly only one Sublimator from their own lineage in that generation.

No matter the effort and preparation, Sublimation remained an elusive event for most people.

It was like Ai Qing's father. He was brimming with Source Substance and had the highest potential among his peers. Yet, he still lingered on the edge of that barrier for over a decade. After exhausting all hope, he dejectedly withdrew, pushed outside the family's core.

Years later, he married a well-known cello performer, and the couple enjoyed a harmonious relationship. After losing the chance to become a Sublimator, he instead found happiness in the ordinary world and later had a daughter with his wife.

Yin Qing.

She inherited not only plentiful Source Substance from her father but also her mother's exceptional talent for the cello. At her mother's strong insistence, Yin Qing lived a life away from the Yin's family. To protect her daughter's life, her mother stood firm against the old master's wishes and eventually moved out of the Yin's family home to go to Xinhai.

All for the sake of letting her daughter have a normal life.

As a mother, she did everything within her power.

That was, until the day the Yin Family's only Sublimator at the time was gravely injured in a conflict and lay near death. Once he died, the Yin Family would lose control of their stakes in the border exchanges, leaving them ripe for the picking by outsiders who had coveted them for a long time.

Without a Sublimator, they wouldn't even be eligible to compete.

Smoking, Liu DongLi narrowed his eyes as he looked at the records on the paper. "So, there was a car accident?"

"Yes, a car accident with no suspicious circumstances."

The cold voice from the vending machine said, "To celebrate their daughter's win at a competition, the family of three went to the zoo for a joyful day. On the way back, they collided with a malfunctioning truck. The scene was horrific.

And the result was just as you would expect."

When she awoke from the sudden unconsciousness and agony, she could no longer feel her lower body.

She began to cry out, instinctively calling for her mother, but there was no response.

And then she saw the breathless, pale face—the woman who, at the last moment before the impact, had thrown herself in front of her, shielding her from the collision.

Sudden grief and death—an unmitigated human tragedy.

In that sudden despair, her father, who crawled out of the shattered car frame, clutched his lifeless wife and cried his heart out, weeping hopelessly, calling out her name.

No one answered anymore.

Yet, as his world crumbled to pieces and his heart nearly broke from grief, the miracle he had long hoped for unexpectedly descended upon him.

He had finally crossed that once-unattainable threshold and achieved Sublimation.

Thus, Ai Qing, engulfed in fear, witnessed the man—her father—holding his wife's corpse and weeping, suddenly freeze in place. His expression twisted, and then, with an expression both utterly absurd and hideous... he broke into a smile of pure ecstasy.

Like the ugly grin of a Ghoul.

"..."

After watching the surveillance footage from the vending machine, Liu DongLi fell silent. After a long pause, he lit the cigarette at the corner of his mouth and sighed raspily, "From that day on, she began to hate Sublimators, didn't she?"

She hated her own father and the family that murdered her mother. After losing everything, she instinctively began to hate it all. But what was more sickening was that, because of this, she discovered she herself had the potential for Sublimation.

If not for this deep-seated resistance and disgust, she likely would have long possessed talent surpassing her father's.

To her, this world was like a cold joke. Absurd beyond mention.

Liu DongLi shook his head with pity. "Just managing to hold on until now must have taken all her strength."

"But what does that have to do with you, you bald Cowherd?"

The vending machine asked indifferently, "How deeply do you intend to get involved before you're satisfied? Or are you planning to tell me that Huai Shi is your long-lost brother?"

Liu DongLi paused for a while and couldn't help shaking his head. "Don't give him too much credit. How could he have genes as good-looking as mine!"

"After all these years, your vanity is still as nauseating as ever, second only to when you're trying to hide something—like right now."

The voice behind the vending machine grew impatient, "If I were you, I'd get myself to Shambhala for surgery now. At least that would help you live a few more years, instead of suddenly dropping dead on the street one day and becoming a nuisance to passersby."

"Don't be like that, I just..."

Liu DongLi hesitated, then finally sighed in resignation, "I'm just trying to be a good person."

"If you want to be a good person, why not die sooner and donate your estate to the Border Children's Medical Fund? That's definitely more moving than what you're doing. You might even have your story made into a movie after you're gone: how an ex-Executioner from the Yuan An army became a loving caretaker for border children. That's better than becoming a Cowherd and wasting your precious life on a career that's basically being a kindergarten teacher!"

That cold, sharp voice paused for an instant, then its sound became indistinct.

"Liu DongLi, your time is short."

"I know."

"This is meaningless."

"I know that too."

Liu DongLi smoked, his shoulders shrugged, and he laughed. "But I can't just let that unlucky kid go through it alone, can I?"

"..."

"I know you're concerned about me, thanks. But no matter what, I have to do what I can."

Liu DongLi removed the cigarette from his lips and crushed it out under his foot. "I often feel Huai Shi and I were very similar back in my day. But actually, Huai Shi is much stronger than I was. If I'd had his resilience and courage, I certainly wouldn't have chosen to run away and end up in this state. Every time I see him striving so hard to live, it makes me feel ashamed of myself, unable to face who I've become.

But I think if I can help him even a little, then this final stretch of my retired life, lived on borrowed time, might also be meaningful, right?"

The vending machine did not speak again.

There was a rumbling sound, and something heavy fell inside the machine. A large box landed behind the flap of the retrieval slot.

Liu DongLi laboriously dragged out the box, which was more than half his height. He placed it on the ground and skillfully unzipped it, revealing the cold gleam of iron nestled in foam padding.

He was stunned for a moment, then broke into a grin.

"Thanks."

"Go waste your life, idiot," the vending machine said coldly in farewell. "I hope you die soon in a sweet dream. That would be better than continuing to suffer in this world."

The lights on the vending machine went out, and it fell silent.

After a long silence, Liu DongLi smiled. He zipped up the case, hoisted the long, slender case onto his shoulder, and swayed as he walked into the darkness at the end of the road.

Only a faint singing voice could be heard.

"Oh, children lost in the night..." That husky humming faded into the distance: "Oh, children lost in the night, wait for the light of day."

The long night stretched on.

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