As the man stared at the scythe in sheer terror, his mind a complete blank, a figure came stumbling toward him from the distance. The person was covered in wounds, a deep scar slashing diagonally across their left cheek.

“Xiaoyu…” The newcomer called out Ming Xiaoyu’s name from afar. Seeing that the man sitting beneath the tree didn't react to the sound, the figure helplessly hurried a few steps closer, placing a hand on Xiaoyu’s shoulder, gasping for breath, “Xiaoyu, are you alright? It’s good you’re unharmed. Ah Li is fine too; she said you protected both her and Xing’er.”

The man slowly turned his head, looking blankly at the person standing before him. Past memories surfaced in his mind like slides in a projector, one image following the next. He had shared a bowl of noodles with this person, worn the same piece of clothing, sat together by the Shore of the Departed waiting for dawn, and even fought side-by-side through the valleys of life and death...

“Xiao Shu?” The man snapped back to reality, his expression tinged with disbelief as he looked at his companion. After a long pause, he finally managed to call out the name.

“Yes, it’s me, Xiao Shu. What’s wrong with you? You seem to have lost your memory!” Xiao Shu held up five fingers, waving them in front of Xiaoyu’s eyes. Seeing his vacant gaze and complete lack of reaction, she frowned with worry.

“No, no, I’m fine!” Xiaoyu scrambled to his feet, snatching the scythe from the ground, intending to leave this place with Xiao Shu.

But Xiao Shu wasn’t in a hurry to go. She grabbed Xiaoyu’s wrist, took the scythe that seemed to have materialized from nowhere, and asked curiously, “Where did you pick this up? We certainly didn’t bring anything like this when we arrived.”

“Oh,” Xiaoyu stammered, “it was just lying by the edge of this pool. I saw it when I woke up and just grabbed it. Might be useful on the way back.” Before he finished speaking, Xiaoyu lowered his head, avoiding Xiao Shu’s sharp gaze. The words etched on the scythe flickered in his mind, but when he secretly flipped the blade over, the writing had vanished without a trace, the polished surface reflecting only the surrounding peach trees, otherwise unremarkable.

“It’s good you’re alright. Ah Li is injured. She told me there was a healing spring nearby, so I looked for it. And there you were, sitting by the pool—that’s wonderful! We all thought you were dead!” As she spoke, Xiao Shu cheerfully nudged Xiaoyu’s shoulder with her fist. Xiaoyu took half a step back, remaining completely unresponsive to his companion’s joyous display.

“Are you really okay?” Seeing Xiaoyu’s dull, wooden demeanor, Xiao Shu felt something was terribly wrong, asking him repeatedly, “How did you end up here? Do you remember what happened after the spiders retreated into the cave?”

Xiaoyu looked up at the sky, striving to recall that final memory. “When the spiders swarmed out, the shackles on Xing’er’s feet suddenly broke. We all fled deeper into the cave, but you ran out toward the area thickest with spiders. Then, we were backed into a dead end. I jumped onto a stalactite with Ah Li to take cover, leaving Xing’er alone to face thousands of spiders. After I secured Ah Li, I jumped back and pulled off all the spiders crawling on Xing’er’s face. His eyes looked injured—then I knew nothing more.”

After hearing Xiaoyu’s account, Xiao Shu let out a long sigh. She rested one hand on Xiaoyu’s shoulder and said earnestly, “Now I can finally relax, knowing you’re alive. When I ran outside the cave, I ran into the one person I least wanted to see. He entered the cavern with several zombies, burned all the spiders to death, and rescued Xing’er, only leaving Ah Li to me. Ah Li said you were completely covered by spiders and collapsed, and then nobody could see you anymore. I searched the entire cavern, thought the spiders had completely devoured you, and knelt there weeping hysterically.”