Pei Ji, the Eastern Depot's commander and the Nine-Thousand-Year-Old, was sentenced to three thousand six hundred cuts in the first year of Chongzhen's reign.
I lived through two lifetimes just to change that ending.
But standing in the heavy snow, he gave me the most perilous chance to survive in the coldest possible tone, then sent himself to the execution ground with his own hands.
Only later did I learn that he could hear my thoughts. He knew I had lived another life for him, and he knew every detail of my painstaking rescue plan.
He knew everything, yet still told me, “Go back.”
I wouldn't leave. I stayed with him through all three thousand six hundred cuts. Then I closed my eyes and returned to the winter before he died.
This time, I won't let him face it alone.
