Chapter 164: Tong Yin

She leaned back against her chair and let her eyes drift shut.

"Na na na na na~ na na~"

"Na na na na na~ na ah~"

"Na na na na na~ na ah..."

The folk tune rose into the air once more.

Across from her, Lily of the Valley watched Tong Yin in silence as she sang the ballad over and over.

"Sing it once more, and then you’re free to go back and rest."

The moment Tong Yin finished, Linglan spoke up with that instruction.

Tong Yin let out a soft, dismissive scoff, ignoring Linglan and refusing to give her any attention.

This time, after a sip of water to steady herself, she made no move to keep singing.

She simply didn’t feel like it anymore.

The two of them sat aboard the Ferris wheel, slowly rising toward its highest point, the whole park spread out below through the clear glass walls.

Though Tong Yin had never claimed to be a particularly good person herself, she still felt a familiar pang of guilt each time she watched her own countrymen exposed and captured because of the songs she’d been forced to sing.

Sometimes she found herself wondering — if she simply died, would that put an end to it? Would no one else fall prey to those creatures because of her voice again?

"Tong Yin, I’m warning you — don’t even entertain the idea of dying. Even if you tried to kill yourself, this park has more than enough ways to drag you right back."

"And honestly... I doubt you’d particularly enjoy finding out what becomes of you as some kind of discarded outcast, would you?"

Linglan’s words snapped Tong Yin sharply out of her private spiral of thought.

Tong Yin turned to look at her. "I don’t need you reminding me of anything."

"I intend to live a good, long life — long enough to watch every single one of you suffer someday."

"Is that so? Well, I suppose that’s for the best, then."

Linglan offered a faint smile and smoothly changed the subject. "All right, hurry along and sing once more — this really will be the last one. You can head back and rest the moment you’re done."

"Lan Ruoling, you really don’t have a heart in you at all, do you?"

Tong Yin clenched her fists tightly in her lap, forcing her emotions back down.

Linglan didn’t respond, treating the remark as though Tong Yin were simply muttering to herself. She leaned back and let her eyes fall shut once more, thoroughly exhausted from the sleepless night behind her.

Tong Yin drew in a slow breath, composed herself, and carried the ballad through to its end.

Once the final note faded, Linglan reached over and pressed a button inside the carriage, and the Ferris wheel began its slow descent back toward the ground.

Tong Yin had no interest in sharing the same space with Linglan for even a moment longer. The instant they touched down, she rose, pushed the door open, and stepped outside on her own.

Linglan made no move to stop her — the black vests stationed outside would see to that regardless, and both of them knew perfectly well Tong Yin had nowhere left to run, nor any real intention of trying.

After sitting alone a while longer, Linglan finally rose and stepped outside herself, only to find Tong Yin standing a short distance away, her back turned.

"Tong Yin, staying alive matters more than anything else, don’t you think? There’s no point dwelling on things that won’t change. This place is where we belong now, whether we like it or not."

Tong Yin didn’t turn to face her.

She simply let the black-vested attendant lead her away without protest.

A place to belong? This was nothing of the sort to her.

She still had a home somewhere out there — a family who loved her dearly. So what was this supposed to be instead?

She would never become like Lan Ruoling, someone willing to cast aside even her own given name so completely.

Tong Yin held fast to the belief that someday, somehow, she would find her way back home.

Watching her go, Linglan let out a quiet laugh, thinking privately that Tong Yin was hopelessly naive. How could people like the two of them ever truly leave this amusement park behind?

They had both been abandoned long ago.

...

Back inside the shelter, Lin Yun let out another yawn. The ballad had finally ended for the night, and she could at last settle in to rest.

The strange singing had continued for a full five days straight. Counting the earlier rainy stretch as well, they’d now spent a total of eleven days trapped within the amusement park.

Tonight marked the evening of that eleventh day.

The storm had originally been forecast to last only two days, yet it had dragged on for eight or nine instead.

Still, in a way, that had worked in her favor — sparing her from venturing back out among all those unsettling tourists and shadier characters roaming the grounds.

By now, Lin Yun had grown thoroughly accustomed to sleeping through the day and staying active through the night instead.

She let out a sigh. What now, then? The rain outside had finally stopped — did that mean the park might reopen tomorrow? How could the storm have ended so abruptly, out of nowhere?

She’d been fairly certain, just the day before, that more rain was still expected tomorrow.

Ding.

Song Xizheng: "Sister Lin, are you asleep yet? I can’t fall asleep at all — what do I do?!"

Song Xizheng: "This rain is seriously the worst."

Lin Yun replied, "Haven’t slept a wink myself. I’m wide awake right now, if anything. Honestly, it’s exhausting."

Song Xizheng: "The rain stopping so suddenly feels off to me. I’ve got a hunch there’ll be another one of those song performances tonight. Feels almost deliberate — like they wanted to lull us into letting our guard down."

Song Xizheng: "Makes sense too — everyone’s been on high alert these past few days, so the folk songs barely caught anyone. Didn’t hear a peep from the floats last night, come to think of it."

Lin Yun said, "Your read on this seems pretty spot-on. Keep me posted the moment the float starts moving — it’s getting a little dull just sitting here otherwise."

Song Xizheng: "You got it, Sister Lin. Leave it to me."

Even so, the two of them waited all the way until four in the morning, and still no sign of the song returned.

Just when they’d both nearly convinced themselves they were in the clear for the night, the melody suddenly rose up once more.

Song Xizheng: "Sister Lin! It’s moving! The float’s on the move! The folk song’s back too. Knew it’d show up eventually tonight, but man, I did not expect it to take this long — it’s already four in the morning."

Lin Yun replied, "They’re clearly waiting for us to lower our guard. The rain’s finally stopped, after all, and the park reopens tomorrow — everyone’s bound to force themselves to sleep tonight just to get back on schedule."

She added, "I might struggle to fall asleep at first myself, but that could shift right around this exact hour."

Song Xizheng: "Bunch of sneaky old bastards. I’m already crouched by the window watching. I’ll fill you in shortly."

Song Xizheng leaned in close against the glass, tracking every bit of movement outside.

The green vests had vanished from sight entirely — only the black creature remained, still wandering its slow, familiar loop around the grounds.

Come to think of it, the creature had been knocking far less frequently the past couple of nights, and hadn’t bothered at all these last two — likely because it had simply given up, unable to open the doors regardless.

The woman in the black vest climbed down off the float and stood waiting quietly to one side.

Before long, sure enough, a handful of unfortunate souls came shuffling slowly forward, eyes shut tight, drawn helplessly toward the float.

Song Xizheng: "..."

The singing cut off abruptly, and the small group of entranced victims simply stood frozen in place, only to be dragged one by one into the waiting vehicle by a man in a black vest.

...

"Satisfied now, are you?" Tong Yin asked suddenly, watching the scene unfold beyond the glass.

Linglan set down the now-wilted lily of the valley she’d been holding and replied, "I’m not sure I follow what you mean by that."

Tong Yin spun around and swept the flower clean off the table, sending it tumbling to the floor. "What exactly are you pretending at here, Lan Ruoling? What is this whole act supposed to be?"

"Could you please just drop that superior little attitude of yours for once? Stop pretending like you’re the one who’s sacrificed so much for everyone else."

"Even if it hadn’t been you back then, someone else would’ve simply taken your place as Lily of the Valley instead! You’re not nearly as special or irreplaceable as you seem to think you are!"

Linglan lifted her gaze to meet Tong Yin’s. "Sing it one more time, and then you can go."

"Enough with these pointless little digs. If the master happens to overhear you talking like this, you’ll find yourself right back down in that dungeon before the night’s out."

Tong Yin’s hands balled tightly around the fabric of her own clothes, fighting down the urge to drive her fist straight into Linglan’s face.

"Tong Yin, being honest with yourself will serve you better in the long run, believe me. The more trouble you stir up, the more you’ll suffer for it in the end."

Linglan let out a soft sigh and looked away, no longer bothering to meet Tong Yin’s furious expression head-on.

There were certain things she simply couldn’t say aloud — things she knew better than to even try explaining.

Tong Yin stared at Lily of the Valley for a long, silent moment before finally bursting into a bitter laugh. "You really are something else, you know that..."

But just as quickly, as though some new thought had crossed her mind, her lips curled into a faint smirk, and she began to sing once more, calling on her ability in full: