“Once you open this book, there’s no turning back.” Hong Ling’s fingertips traced the marriage contract. The cinnabar characters burned on the paper, and five blurred face-shaped outlines emerged from the spreading ink.
Bai Yu’e clutched a peach blossom petal, trembling. “But none of the first five made it through their probation...”
“They wouldn’t behave.” Hong Ling’s eyes curved into crescent moons as she smiled. She lightly tapped the back of his neck with a fingernail, then suddenly seized his wrist and pressed it against the page. “Look at the pattern in the corner of this marriage contract...”
He lowered his head and saw tiny words concealed in the dark red design: [Once the sixth term is complete, the contract is fulfilled and the soul returns].
“How do you know all this... What does it even mean?” He jerked his hand away, but the petal burned a searing pain into his palm.
“It means you’re the last one.” Hong Ling drifted beside the thread-bound book. As her red dress swept over its pages, a peach blossom mark identical to the one on the back of his neck suddenly appeared on the cover. “The first five were only bait to nurture the contract. You’re the one who can break my seal.”
“Then... do I get health insurance and a retirement plan?” He stared at the red ink on the marriage contract, his voice trembling. Then he noticed the cinnabar at the tip of the brush seeping between his fingers and into his veins.
Hong Ling laughed so hard her whole body shook. “If you die during the probation period, you get one free revival. But after you come back, you’ll have to guard that coffin for me.”
As the brush touched down, countless shattered memories flooded his mind, ending on a yellowed orphanage register with a peach blossom drawn beside his name. He frowned in pain, only to see a red figure in the mirror slipping a petal into his collar. The mark on his neck suddenly began to bleed.
“Remember this, husband: you think you chose the book? The truth is, the book chose you a thousand years ago.”
Put it on the bookshelf and wait and see. Is there any relationship between the heroine and her previous husbands? [What] Shuang Jie?