Chapter 12: The Scroll

"That's my mother," Meiyin said.

"Shen Yuwei.

She bought the pin at nineteen.

She said it was the only thing at the stall that felt like hers."

Bai Ling did not move.

Her eyes were fixed on the photograph, and her hand had gone cold in Meiyin's.

"Where was this taken?"

"I don't know.

Somewhere with a lake.

She always said she dreamed about a house on a lake."

"And she died."

"When I was twelve.

Eighteen years ago.

She was forty-two.

She had a heart condition nobody caught."

Bai Ling swallowed, but said nothing.

Meiyin turned the page and held the album open on her knees, and the silence stretched.

"She hummed the song," Meiyin said slowly.

"The one you hum.

Where did you really learn it?"

Bai Ling looked at her at last.

Her face was bare.

There was not one wall left in it.

"Come with me," she said.

"Where?"

"Into the mirror.

There is something I must show you, and I cannot say it first.

I do not think you would believe me if I said it."

"Bai Ling..."

"Please."

It was the first time she had said it without the word mistress after.

Meiyin heard the difference.

She put the album down on the rug very carefully.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The CEO Bought the Villa With the Ghost Cultivator Inside from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.