The CEO Bought the Villa With the Ghost Cultivator Inside novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Midnight

The pier boards were wet with dew, and the lake lay black and flat under a thin moon.

Meiyin stood at the end of the pier in her coat, with the white pin in her right hand.

Bai Ling stood two steps behind her.

She had put on the white inner robe and the silver-grey outer one for the first time in weeks, and her long hair hung loose to her hips.

She looked exactly as she had looked coming out of the mirror, except for her eyes.

"What are the words?" Meiyin asked.

"I will say them once.

You repeat them, and mean them."

Bai Ling spoke them very softly, in the old language, then again in plain modern speech.

Meiyin listened.

Then she faced the water.

Her phone said 11:59.

The lake lapped at the pilings.

She felt very small, and very stubborn, and completely sure.

"I, Gu Meiyin, daughter of Shen Yuwei, who was Su Wanyin," she said.

Her voice shook, and she steadied it.

"I stand at the water where Bai Ling swore.

I thank her for the wait.

The wait is over.

I release her from the oath."

The pin flared in her fist.

White light ran up her arm and out across the lake, and every paper lantern from the night of the pier lit again at once, all along the shore.

Behind her, Bai Ling made a sound.

It was not a word.

Meiyin turned.

Bai Ling was standing very straight.

The faint shimmer that had always clung to her edges had gone.

She looked solid, and plain, and tired, and entirely alive.

She put a hand flat against her own chest.

"It is quiet," she said.

"What is?"

"Everything.

There is nothing pulling at me."

She stared at her hand.

Tears began to run down her face without a sound.

"Come," Meiyin said.

She took her by the wrist.

They ran up the lawn together, past the dark kitchen windows, around the corner of the house and down the gravel drive.

The two stone lions stood on the gate pillars with the moon on their backs.

The iron gate stood open.

Meiyin stopped at the line of the old stone threshold.

Bai Ling stopped beside her, breathing hard.

"Go on," Meiyin said.

Bai Ling put out one foot.

It hovered over the stone, trembling.

Then she set it down on the road outside, in the dust, with a small gentle scuff.

She stood there on the public road in the moonlight.

Nothing happened.

← Chapter 20 · All chapters · Chapter 22 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend