299: A broken mirror cannot be mended, and spilled water cannot be gathered up again.

She looked at Father Lin's forced smile, into the worry Mother Lin couldn't hide in her eyes, and caught a glimpse of Lin Ran's lowered eyelashes.

The stifling feeling in her chest surged again, heavier than before.

This meal was filled with a mix of emotions.

After the meal, Shang Wan Ning helped clear the dishes and chatted with Father Lin and Mother Lin for a while before getting up to leave.

Lin Ran walked her to the courtyard gate.

The night air was slightly cool, and the streetlights had dimmed to a faint yellow.

"Your Majesty~" Lin Ran said helplessly.

"Why must you do this?"

Shang Wan Ning waved her hand and interrupted her. The night blurred the expression on her face. "I'm happy to. Your parents are very good."

She paused for a moment, as if wanting to say something, but in the end, it only turned into one sentence. "I will always be your fallback."

This time, 'Underworld' was changed to 'I'. But a broken mirror is hard to mend, and spilt water cannot be recovered; everything was already too late.

After saying that, without waiting for Lin Ran's response, Shang Wan Ning turned around, and her figure quickly merged into the void and disappeared.

Lin Ran stood at the door, looking at the empty street corner, and tightened her coat.

The evening breeze blew, carrying the cool air of early autumn, and also scattering the last bit of moisture in her eyes.

She took a deep breath, looked back with a smile on her face again, and pushed open the door. "Dad, Mom, I'm back. Let's go watch TV."

Lin Ran stayed at home for a week, accompanying her parents to buy groceries, cook, take walks, and play chess; the days were as plain as warm water.

The smiles on Father Lin's and Mother Lin's faces never stopped, and the wrinkles at the corners of their eyes smoothed out.

Only occasionally when they looked at her, a hidden reluctance would still quietly slip out, making Lin Ran's heart ache.

In the second week, she flew to C City to meet Yan Tingting and Xie Chi for a meal.

The location was a copper pot hotpot restaurant in the old city area that had been open for over a decade. It was full of life, and they used to come here often after working late.

When Lin Ran arrived, Yan Tingting and Xie Chi were already there. Yan Tingting was sharp-eyed and waved through the steam: "Captain Lin, over here."

Lin Ran walked over and sat down. Yan Tingting leaned in, her eyes sparkling as she looked her up and down, clicking her tongue: "My god, Captain Lin, what brand of preservative did you eat?"

"It's been nearly ten years, and look at me, the wrinkles at the corners of my eyes could crush a mosquito. How do you still look the same as when you were first transferred to the Special Affairs Bureau, so fresh and radiant?"

Her words were pure envy. She reached out to pinch Captain Lin's face but was laughingly swatted away by Lin Ran.

Xie Chi pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, his gaze behind the lenses also filled with inquiry.

He was now a group leader in the live-streaming department of Underworld Culture Media Co., Ltd. The calm air of a forensic doctor was still there, just with a bit of corporate exhaustion added.

"Indeed, with Captain Lin's state, people would believe she's in her early twenties. For those of us who cultivate, even at the second stage, we can't handle staying up late, working overtime, and losing hair." Xie Chi pointed at his hairline, half-joking and half-serious.

The pot bubbled, and the red oil churned.

Lin Ran cooked some tripe for them and smiled, not picking up on that topic: "How did the first group of the Criminal Police Squad turn out later?"

Yan Tingting started her rant: "Don't even mention it. You were so impressive when you were transferred. The well-connected person who came later had little skill but a huge ego."

"Last month, the 'Ghostly Labyrinth' in the south of the city went wrong, and all the white-clothed ghosts escaped. They shifted the blame onto us ordinary people and docked half a month's bonus from me. It's infuriating."

She gulped down a mouthful of ice-cold beer. "It's still better working with Captain Lin. Even if we see ghosts, at least we don't take the fall for others."

Xie Chi picked up a slice of mutton and dipped it in sesame sauce: "The live-streaming department is also competitive. Nowadays, the audience has picky tastes. Just catching small ghosts isn't exciting enough; they insist on 'The Ring'-style plots."

"Last time we asked Director Ming Xuan to make a guest appearance as the 'Senior Sister in Red,' she almost tore down the studio." He shook his head, looking like the past was too painful to recall.

"By the way, Captain Lin, are you doing okay at that 'Headquarters'?" he asked tentatively, his eyes filled with curiosity about the mysterious "Headquarters."

"Headquarters?"

Lin Ran's hand holding the chopsticks paused for a moment, and the mutton fell back into the pot. "Yeah, it's fine. Managing archives, quite leisurely."

She glossed over it and used the serving chopsticks to fish out that piece of mutton for Xie Chi. "Try it, it's cooked."

Yan Tingting continued cooking meat lightheartedly.

"Leisurely is good. Not like us, fighting wits and courage with monsters and ghosts every day. Forensic Doctor Xie, the company the Underworld opened, the benefits are great, right?"

"Looking at your complexion... uh, it doesn't seem that great?" She saw Xie Chi's dark circles and changed her tune.

Xie Chi smiled bitterly: "The benefits are good, plenty of incense offerings. But I can't handle the 007 schedule!"

"The one above~" He made a "shh" gesture, "has high demands, and a... well, quite a unique temper. Revising a plan eight times is the norm."

The three of them chatted while eating. It was mostly Yan Tingting ranting about work, Xie Chi chiming in, and Lin Ran listening most of the time with a faint smile on her lips.

Under the warm yellow light, the steam rose, as if they had returned to the days when they worked hard together.

Only the transcendent peace deep in Lin Ran's eyes made Xie Chi always feel something wasn't quite right... Netherworld, Jiaotai Palace.

A water mirror hung in mid-air, clearly reflecting the hotpot restaurant in the mortal world.

The steam and voices seemed able to penetrate the mirror, and the focus in the mirror was firmly locked on table number eight where Lin Ran was.

Shang Wan Ning reclined on a soft couch, her middle finger twining around a strand of long hair. Her nightgown was loose, revealing a small part of her collarbone.

She stared at Lin Ran in the mirror, who was currently fishing out meat for Xie Chi, her cheeks puffing out slightly.

[Hmph, that brat Xie Chi, he's smiling so much his gums are showing. ARan even gave him meat; even I haven't had that treatment.]

That sour feeling in her heart surged up. The Empress grabbed a silk handkerchief by the couch and stuffed it into her mouth as if to vent, grinding it hard with her back teeth.

[Damn Judge, damn filth. They make it so I can't go to the mortal world for a meal openly and can only watch from here.]

"Oh~"

A lazy voice suddenly rang out.

Meng Jiang was leaning against the doorframe at some point, her green robes like water, her fingertips holding a fragment circulating with chaotic aura.

She was admiring Her Majesty's "heroic posture" of biting the handkerchief with great interest.

"I can smell the sourness even through the water mirror. Isn't he just ARan's old partner? Look how angry our Majesty is."

Sister Meng paced in and casually tossed the xuan pin gate fragment onto the low table beside Shang Wan Ning.

Shang Wan Ning quickly spat out the handkerchief that had been bitten with teeth marks and gave Meng Jiang an annoyed look.

"Sister Meng, it's easy for you to say. How many times have you and ARan been close behind my back?"

"Now that she's back in the human world, you're fine with it, not even seeing her off."

"Cold and heartless."

Meng Jiang raised an eyebrow, walked to the water mirror, looked at Lin Ran's profile in the mirror, and pursed her red lips slightly.

"Who said I don't care about ARan?"

She flipped her fingertips, and a palm-sized white jade bottle appeared in her palm. The bottle was engraved with the pattern of the flower of the other shore, and a translucent liquid sloshed inside.