Don't provoke mentally ill people in the infinite flow genre!

No matter how many years pass, Yi Zanglan still remembers the layout and topography of the orphanage. She remembers every plant, every tree, and every room there clearly.

Because she had promised Yi Yuncen that she would take over the orphanage when he got too old to work.

How did that kind woman, who bravely broke with her family and benefited the world with kindness, end up with this ruthless thief?

Perhaps, it is some kind of divine guidance.

She was sixteen when she betrayed Raven, and until she was twenty, when they were separated by death, she had only spent four short years with Yi Yuncen.

But those four years were enough to heal the wounds she had endured, teaching her to be gentle and peaceful, to accompany and protect, and ultimately to become the complete person she is today.

—What kind of name is 057? How about you take my surname Yi and be named Yi Zanglan, which means wind hidden in the mountains, okay?

—It's okay, everyone has a past. Let bygones be bygones. You can keep those secrets forever and just be my Lanlan.

Of course, if you'd like, you can call me Mom, just like they do.

Yi Zanglan had wondered countless times if none of this would have happened if she hadn't gone far away to study and work that year.

She could nip it all in the bud, she could save the orphanage on that night of raging fire, and save Yi Yuncen and the six children.

But she returned too late, only to find a ruin and seven charred corpses.

Why?

Why must it be Yi Yuncen?

Shouldn't kind people live to be a hundred years old?

Unfortunately, fate is fickle, and heaven is blind; nothing in this world is fair.

……

Smoke and dust filled the air. The two camphor trees in front of the courtyard had been burned to a crisp. The little girl who had just woken up Yi Canglan was curled up in a small ball, a knife stuck in her chest, and was already dead under the tree.

Yes, both Yi Yuncen and the six children were first harmed in a premeditated manner, losing their ability to resist and escape, and then burned alive.

Yi Zanglan stumbled and ran to the room at the end of the road, where the doors and windows were locked with iron chains, leaving only a crack so that she could barely see what was inside.

Yi Yuncen's clothes were tattered, and his tendons in his hands and feet had been severed. He was crawling on the ground with difficulty, leaving two shocking bloodstains behind him.

For a fleeting moment, she looked up and seemed to meet Yi Zanglan's gaze.

"Lanlan!" she cried, her voice hoarse with tears streaming down her face. "It hurts so much, it really hurts so much! When will you come back? Please come back and save me! Lanlan... Lanlan! It hurts so much!!!"

It felt like a thousand-pound boulder was pressing on his chest, and he was in so much pain that he couldn't breathe. Yi Canglan gripped the iron chain on the door tightly with both hands. The skin on his palms was already burned and torn, but he didn't seem to notice.

She looked around blankly, but there were no tools around that could break down the door.

The flames gradually engulfed the entire house and continued to spread outwards, threatening to set it ablaze as well.

"Lanlan!" Yi Yuncen cried in despair, "Are you going to abandon me? Will you forget me after I die? Will you regret not being able to save me today?"

"You will regret this. There will be no one waiting for you to come home anymore! You will become a wandering ghost with nowhere to go, and you will live a life worse than death, suffering day and night!"

"You'll regret my death for the rest of your life!!!"

The flames quickly enveloped Yi Zanglan, and she suddenly knelt down. A pair of golden eyes were reflected in her vision, so clear in the flames. They were not Yi Yuncen's eyes, yet they looked exactly like Yi Yuncen's eyes.

It felt as if hundreds or thousands of fine needles were piercing my mind, sending a continuous, sharp pain through me. My consciousness was being eroded little by little, and I was sinking into a daze. The boundary of my lucidity was slowly dissolving and dissipating along with this pain.

"...You're right, I will feel guilty about your death for the rest of my life."

Yi Zanglan trembled all over, tears welling up in her eyes but ultimately not falling.

"But I also know you wouldn't say that to me," she murmured, "because you wouldn't want me to feel guilty."

"What you want is for me to live a good life."

She braced herself with her hands on the ground and slowly rose, but the invisible force still held her, trying to force her to kneel down again.

"Don't worry, I've done everything I could," she whispered. "Those who plotted against you, those who fueled the fire, those who smeared your reputation... I've killed them all. They'll all be buried with you."

"You know, even if I'm destined for hell, I'll never have any regrets."

Before she finished speaking, she had already stood up straight, her back taut, without bending down even a fraction.

The wind carried the cracking sound of flames devouring the beams and pillars, and ashes fell in a flurry, like an endless elegy.

＊＊＊＊＊＊

Yi Zanglan opened her eyes.

The lights came back on, and everything around her was normal. It was still the same hotel room, and she was unharmed.

Apart from a lingering headache, it was as if nothing had happened; she had simply had an overly vivid dream.

But when she turned her head, she found that Ling Ye, who was lying next to her, had disappeared.

The blankets still bore their original marks, and the shoes were under the bed; there was absolutely no reason for him to leave the room at this time.

Yi Zanglan quickly calmed down, touched the bracelet on her wrist, and glanced at the system interface.

[Faith in the God of Life: 10]

[Follower [Yi Zanglan]'s Spirit Value: 90]

Perhaps the malice in this game was too severe, because the silver bracelet turned a deep black, and extremely unusually, there were faint, thread-like dark red lines winding upwards.

But she didn't have time to think about those things right now; her immediate priority was to find Ling Ye.

She got out of bed and looked around the room.

The door was locked, and the clothing fibers that had been deliberately tucked into the door crack were still in place, neither moved nor fallen off.

There were no extra footprints or bloodstains left on the carpet, the toilet was as before, and the water in the sink had evaporated.

...Yi Zanglan finally stopped in front of the wardrobe.

She clearly remembered that the wardrobe was originally a light brown similar to walnut wood, but now the color has darkened significantly, presenting a reddish-brown color resembling cherry wood.

Furthermore, the original black pull rings on the wardrobe have been changed to a glossy dark gold.

She tried to pull the door knocker, but the wardrobe door seemed to be locked and she couldn't open it no matter what she did.

At the same time, the stabbing pain in my head returned, wave after wave, as if it were a warning in some sense.

What warning? Tell her to focus on herself and not meddle in other people's business?

Yi Zanglan impatiently looked away. She remained silent for a long time, then suddenly rolled up her sleeves and kicked the cabinet door hard.