Homeward Journey Consultation Center

Chen Mu (male lead)

· On the surface: A gentle, deeply empathetic 28-year-old therapist. Rational and composed, he’s a reliable “ferryman” in the eyes of his clients.

· Secret: He himself is a “living corpse.” Three years ago, his fiancée, Lin Wanqing, died in an accident. His obsession is “understanding the words she left unspoken before she died.” He opened a counseling center both to help others like him and to study how obsessions work, hoping to find a way to resolve his own.

· Traits: His obsession has given him a special ability. Through touch, he can sense fragments of the most intense emotional images within another person’s obsession, but doing so drains his mental strength severely.

· Lin Wanqing (female lead / central figure)

· Deceased, but present throughout the story. Her character is gradually pieced together through Chen Mu’s memories, hallucinations, and later investigations. She was sunny and loved life, but seemed to be hiding a secret. The truth about her death is the greatest mystery in the book.

· Zhao Zhengyi (male supporting character)

· A 35-year-old criminal investigation captain and Chen Mu’s senior from university. He’s a regular at the counseling center, often bringing Chen Mu cases involving “suspects with abnormal behavior” for profiling. He has sharp instincts and has long suspected that Chen Mu and his “living corpse” clients are unusual, but out of trust and friendship, he never says so. He is the bridge between the “abnormal world” and the “normal world.”