Without any further incidents, Lin Yuan arrived safely in the imperial capital.

She said goodbye to the sentinel beside her and returned home.

Pushing open the heavy gate, walking through the desolate courtyard, the little crab hid in the entrance hall, poking her head out to greet her.

Seeing Lin Yuan carrying a large box, Guo Suo hurriedly reached out to take it, her fingers touching the cage, and she recoiled as if electrocuted.

“Wh- what’s inside?” The little girl’s face was pale, she almost wanted to drop the box. “It feels a little scary, is it… is it something similar to me?”

Guo Suo keenly sensed a powerful will curled up inside this not-so-large box.

This evoked some of her past memories. Many years ago, when she had still been living in the contaminated zone, muddle-headed.

In that bizarre world, there had also been a similar, powerful will. It was the core of the entire zone, so powerful that all the beings living there feared it, restrained by it.

This box brought back by miss, although not entirely the same, also faintly carried a bit of the aura that belonged to a “Pillar,” making her feel afraid.

“It’s a gardener, the gardener I hired,” Lin Yuan didn’t say anything more, nor did she explain why the gardener was in a box, she just instructed Xiao Suo, “Prepare a room for him, with a balcony, a room with plenty of sunlight.”

She took off her dust-covered shoes and coat, and walked barefoot up the wooden stairs.

The little crab, carrying the box, called out to her from the bottom of the stairs, tilting her head up slightly, asking hesitantly, “Miss, was your trip this time smooth?”

A hint of worry was on her small, fair face, and genuine concern in her bright, almond-shaped eyes.

Smooth? Lin Yuan thought.

After several twists and turns, she had seen the darkest world, and had almost died there.

She remembered that at the moment she was dying, the only thing she had missed was this desolate and quiet house.

And the thing she had been most worried about, was this little crab secretly living in her house.

At that time, lying in Ni Ji’s arms, she had almost wanted to entrust her little crab to him.

“The one inside is a gardener,” Lin Yuan suddenly said, “also… family. He’ll live with us from now on, just like you.”

Just like you, a family member.

Family.

Only after saying this word did she think about its meaning.

This was her home.

Although desolate and quiet, it was a place called home.

Those who lived here, would also become her so-called family. Becoming people she was attached to, who also cared about her.

Lin Yuan filled her heart with this beautiful word, as if filling a small part of that huge void in her chest.

Returning to her attic, opening the window, she buried herself in the soft mattress.

The wind blew in from the window, the moonlight looked very gentle.

The exhaustion from the long journey dissipated in this familiar, small space, as if this world was quiet and peaceful, without any troubles.

Lin Yuan lay on the bed and reached out to touch the orca doll’s head on the bedside table.

She took it down, revealing the small wooden box it was guarding.

Lin Yuan sat up, took off the heart-shaped pendant around her neck, and compared it to the groove on the box.

The size didn’t seem right.

The necklace pendant Windsor had given her was originally an ordinary heart-shaped stone. Ever since it was touched by the Golden Tree’s tears, it had turned from an ordinary little stone into a pure golden heart.

Lin Yuan’s goal in going to the Golden Tree Contaminated Zone was to find the gem that could be embedded into the box.

But the situation in the Rose Camp at the time hadn’t allowed her to think about her own matters, only after everything was over, after the contaminated zone disintegrated, did she remember that she hadn’t found the gem she was looking for.

She hadn’t gotten anything else from the Golden Tree Contaminated Zone, so she tried putting the golden heart into the groove on the box.

In the groove on the old wooden box, where the phantom image of the Golden Tree had once appeared, she placed the golden, heart-shaped pendant.

The moment Lin Yuan’s fingers left it, the golden heart melted into a liquid.

The golden liquid flowed, seamlessly filling the small groove right before Lin Yuan’s eyes.

The phantom image of the Golden Tree appeared again, above the groove filled with golden liquid.

The miniature golden trunk slowly rotated, the golden branches and leaves swaying in the air, gently colliding, making a pleasant sound, as if Windsor was singing that cheerful song.

The golden gem was embedded in the groove, a perfect fit, golden veins spreading on the wooden box, like drawing a map, from beneath the brilliant Golden Tree, along the patterns on the wooden box, towards the next empty slot.

There, a golden light lit up the empty groove, and above it, a single eye appeared, that eye, blankly open in the air, its gaze empty, as if blind, a bloody tear slowly rolling down.

The phantom image of that eye represented a new Contaminated Zone.

Blind Eye.

Lin Yuan stared at the image of the eye for a long time, for a moment, she couldn’t figure out which area it represented.

She took the golden pendant back, the golden liquid transforming again, returning to its heart shape, and she wore it around her neck.

Lin Yuan lay back on the bed, gently touching the pendant on her chest, and closed her eyes.

Thinking of everything she had seen in the Golden Tree Contaminated Zone.

The grotesque bull-headed creatures, the pig-faced butcher, the giant spores.

The breeding farm where humans were imprisoned in cages to lay eggs, the Rose Camp repeating the same cycle for four hundred years, the giant, writhing, crimson egg in the cave, herself, her abdomen pierced…

Those dark images slowly settled in her mind. Like a long-ago nightmare.

Having gone through such a near-death experience, the massive blood loss, her body turning cold, her soul sinking into the dark abyss… she felt like she had become worse.

Something seemed to be awakening deep inside her body, making her feel colder, stranger, harder to control at times.

She didn’t know if she was becoming more like a monster.

But it wasn’t all bad, she had experienced many things, gained many emotions she had never felt before.

She had tasted anger and reluctance, had also experienced joy and happiness, understood the reliability of companions, and learned to sympathize with her suffering compatriots.

Thinking about it, it seemed like she was more like a human again, a true flesh and blood body that had experienced a full range of emotions.

Lin Yuan touched the spot on her abdomen that had been pierced, picked up the little orca doll, and held it in her arms.

A strange sense of familiarity rose, as if she had once held a little orca like this, and slept sweetly.

When was that? Lin Yuan, her eyes open, thought for a long time, but couldn’t remember.

Lin Yuan, holding the soft orca, lying in bed at home, had a dream.

In that dream, everywhere were crimson, pulsing blood vessels.

She was in a deep, dark place underground, her tentacles wriggling and crawling.

In the darkness, the tentacles captured a body.

It was a human, different from any human she had ever known.

He was exceptionally soft, emitting an alluring scent, tasting sweet.

Fragmented images of a golden tree and crimson blood vessels flickered before her eyes.

Perhaps this was an illusion, she didn’t know whose, she didn’t know when the tentacles had captured it, it remained in her subconsciousness, appearing in her dream.

The tentacles tightly wrapped around their prey, not letting him struggle free.

Lin Yuan heard a strange voice in the darkness. After a while, she realized it was her own.

“Come here,” she heard herself saying to the captured prey, “let me see what you look like.”

She heard the sound of the tentacles wriggling, the prey’s struggling gasps.

She couldn’t see the prey’s face, it was as if she had no eyes.

“Don’t resist, I’ll be gentle with you, I won’t hurt you,” she heard herself say joyfully.

Lin Yuan suddenly woke up from her dream, the orca doll falling from her arms.

The sky outside was already bright, the bright sunlight shining into the overgrown courtyard, dispelling that sticky, ambiguous dream.

Lin Yuan rubbed her face, she didn’t understand why she had such a dream.

Too absurd, yet too real, as if it was something someone had experienced in an illusion.

She thought about it carefully, when she had been trapped in the illusion created by the crimson egg in that cave, she hadn’t seen such a shameful scene.

Lin Yuan touched her chest, thankfully, thankfully, it was just her own absurd dream, it wouldn’t be seen by anyone else, like a certain sentinel, for example.

After breakfast that day, after asking Xiao Suo, Lin Yuan went to the auxiliary building to see the new gardener.

Xun Hua had been placed in a room with a balcony, a room with ample sunlight.

There were two buildings in Lin Yuan’s courtyard, the main building and the auxiliary building, with countless empty rooms. Only a few people lived there, very empty, so spacious that Lin Yuan had to walk for a long time before reaching Xun Hua’s room.

Xun Hua, who had been brought home in a box, was wrapped in a large blanket, curled up on the balcony, basking in the sun.

Lin Yuan sat with him on the balcony for a while.

From here, she could see a large part of the courtyard.

The sunlight in the sky was brilliant, driving away the lingering gloom.

The overgrown courtyard bathed in the bright sunlight, the sounds of insects and birds chirping filling the air, various small wild animals running around in the grass.

A groundhog poked its round head out from under a tree root, rubbed its little paws, and quickly disappeared again.

Xun Hua on the balcony, wrapped in a thick blanket, his short silver hair exposed, bathed in the bright sunlight, motionless.

The body beneath the blanket seemed to have recovered considerably, he seemed to have grown his limbs back.

Lin Yuan sat with him for a long time, watching the little groundhog burrowing in and out of the ground, finding it very amusing.

“You… don’t think I’m dirty?” A muffled voice came from under the blanket.

“Are you mistaken?” Lin Yuan thought for a moment and said with certainty, “It’s not you who’s dirty, it’s those people, that world.”

She didn’t say anything more, hung the golden necklace on the window, and left.

The pure gold, illuminated by the sunlight, shimmered by the window.

After Lin Yuan returned, the number of visitors suddenly increased.

First came Nicole and several other Guide friends.

It was the newly appointed gardener who opened the door for them.

“My, my god, where did you find this gardener?” Nicole, even after sitting down in the living room, was still craning her neck to look outside.

The gardener who had just led them in was wearing a silver mask, only his sharp jawline and tightly pursed lips exposed, his short silver hair neatly combed back, his limbs slender, gloves on his hands, a scarf around his neck, his mannerisms carrying an elegance that only came from old, aristocratic families.

He didn’t look like a gardener at all, more like a nobleman from a centuries-old world.

Only, he was a little aloof, not very talkative, he led the guests into the living room, bowed slightly, and silently retreated back to the courtyard.

Under a large tree, teasing a groundhog emerging from its hole with food.

“Yes, his skills are quite good. Your courtyard, although still a little barren, is much better than it was last time, it truly has a unique wild charm now,” Shu Jingtong praised.

“I was lucky to have run into him, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to hire him,” Lin Yuan said.

Next came Roy, her colleague from the Special Research Department.

“I couldn’t believe my ears,” Roy’s expression was incredibly exaggerated, his words almost incoherent. “It’s all over the White Tower, the No. 77 Contaminated Zone actually collapsed. The one who opened the door was a Guide, and the one who caused the Contaminated Zone to collapse was also a Guide.”

“The moment I heard it, I knew it was you, other than you, no other Guide could do this kind of thing.”

“It’s unprecedented, explosive news, everyone’s talking about it, even Her Majesty has expressed her interest, and has specifically contacted our Special Research Department.”

Roy, his throat dry from talking, took the tea offered by Xiao Suo, thanked her, and took a sip.

“Mm, this tea is not bad, only, why is this courtyard of yours so desolate? Why don’t you hire someone to take care of it, I thought this was a haunted house when I came in.”

Lin Yuan replied, “I’ve already hired a gardener. It’ll be better soon.”

Roy, successfully diverted, started to care about the young woman’s living situation.

“Too few people. Such a large residence, you should have more people, it would be more lively, and also safer, you should have maids, butlers, bodyguards, and chefs…”

“Ah, no, that’s not what I’m trying to say, you promised me you wouldn’t go to the No. 77 Contaminated Zone, why did you sneak in?”

“Do you even know how dangerous that place is?”

“Were you injured? I’ve applied for subsidies and vacation time for you.”

“Stay home during this period, attend more balls, meet some decent sentinels, and stop running around.”

After seeing off the nagging Roy, Lin Yuan received a new guest.

It was a sentinel, one of his arms missing, so thin he looked emaciated, but a resilient strength lingered in his eyes, not erased even after years of hardship.

When he saw Lin Yuan at the door, he knelt down on one knee, lifted her fingers, and kissed them.

“This is the most respectful etiquette in our family,” the sentinel stood up. “My name is Yun Luo, do you remember me?”

Lin Yuan remembered him, when she had helped him out of the cage in the Golden Tree Contaminated Zone, he had been severely injured from torture, looking helpless, pathetic, and incredibly weak.

But now he had cleaned himself up, his eyes regaining the resilience of a warrior, standing before her as a sentinel.

“I remember you,” Lin Yuan extended her hand. “We promised to see each other again, alive.”

Their hands touched, lightly clasping.

Both of their palms were warm, alive, neither of them had died in that dark place, as promised, they were meeting again in the sunlight.

Lin Yuan asked about the injury on Yun Luo’s arm.

“It’s okay, as long as I’m willing to spend the money, I can get a mechanical arm attached,” Yun Luo moved his severed arm calmly. “Compared to being able to make it out of that place alive, losing an arm isn’t a big deal.”

He left a gift, his address, and an invitation, hoping Lin Yuan would come visit him sometime.

Other than Yun Luo, quite a few other sentinels came to visit, several of them had escaped from the No. 77 Contaminated Zone, having heard about the situation, they came specifically to express their gratitude.

Some noble families also sent banquet invitations, probably having heard the recent news, curious, also wanting to see what kind of Guide could open a contaminated zone that no one had been able to conquer for hundreds of years.

Lin Yuan, after a short while of enjoying this novelty, became impatient, closing her door to visitors, no longer receiving the endless stream of guests.

She nestled in the living room, enjoying the various sweets stored at home, drinking the tea Xiao Suo made for her.

Xiao Suo’s tea-making skills were becoming more and more refined, and the pastries were very delicious.

The new gardener was planting a rose bush by the window.

He loosened the soil, transplanted it, and watered it. The rose bush, under the moonlight, shook its branches, looking tender and vibrant, as if it had already taken root and sprouted, about to bloom.

The new gardener, after finishing his work, glanced at Lin Yuan, who was sitting in the living room, holding a teacup.

“Have you really not noticed?”

Lin Yuan, her mouth full of cookies, hadn’t had time to swallow yet, her cheeks puffed out. “Notice what?” she asked, her voice muffled.

“You should be able to sense it,” Xun Hua sighed, “He’s come several times, every time, he would stand in that alley for a long time, watching the others come and go, looking a little pitiful.”

“Yes, I’m talking about the orca.”