Ink Descends

Who said people could be reincarnated after they died?

Nuan Xi, a junior ghost clerk at the Third Side Hall, clutched her handkerchief and ground her teeth.

There are ten Halls of Yama and five Ghost Emperor Mansions. I would even have been happy to be posted out to guide travelers around the Three Rivers and Naihe Bridge. So why was I assigned to the Third Side Hall, where the hall lord is extremely sharp-tongued and impossible to serve?

I only wanted to take a little part-time job and earn some pocket money. How come Painted-Skin Ghosts, Buddha's Hand Brushes, and one thing after another keep showing up at my door, haunting me?

Lord Weituo is as gentle as mist. Young master, who are you?

Pomegranate blossoms dye the blue sky above the road. Young man, where have you come from?

It's hard to be a well-behaved little ghost clerk these days. All she can do is take things as they come and slowly make her way through the underworld.

A pool of silver fire, eight feet of white silk, painted into the Three Rivers and Naihe Bridge.

Rows of clear water, rugged inkstones, ground into a pool of dark ink.

The scrolls and books record mostly stories of gifted scholars and beautiful women, but here there are only ghosts, monsters, immortals, and demons.

Grudges and loves, tangled among all things, bewildered by the ease with which a thousand calamities can arise. Human or not, all it takes is a change of world for the drama of parting and reunion to unfold.

"I thought I had no desires left in this life, only karmic burdens flying everywhere. But I failed to account for the unpredictability of life and death, and the changes in people's hearts." He picked up his brush and rolled back his sleeves, graceful as a startled swan.

"I waited quietly through the years, thinking that if I gave everything, this mortal world would be at peace. Who knew it would be better not to think, better not to hope?" His eyes lowered, and he sat quietly, at ease.

"I never saw that all the joys, anger, sorrows, and happiness in this world begin with love and hate. So what if I see through it all? Once I have fallen in love, I will accept it." His red lips parted slightly as he stood alone, peerless in the world.

With ink laid down and marks left behind, what I want to tell is this story.

Prologue

Hello, everyone! I'm Ye Yu Molian. You can also call me Qian Ye~

It's been four years since I last returned to Jinjiang, and I can't say I'm not bewildered. But I've always wanted to write a story like this. Perhaps the prose won't be dazzling and the plot won't be grand, but it might seep into people's hearts without their noticing. After reading the plot and finishing the ending, perhaps you'll still look back on it with a faint nostalgia, even feel as if you experienced it yourself.

Since I'm a student, and one of those people who'd die without handwriting things, as well as a perfectionist, I write quite slowly.

I've tentatively decided to update Molian once a week, on Saturdays~

Lastly, thanks to a certain friend for making the cover so carefully o(∩_∩)o

That's it! Love you all, mwah~