Chapter 4 - The First Autumn

The black leaves stopped moving.

Silence.

Not the ordinary silence of midnight.

But an ancient silence.

The kind that existed before the first star was born.

Mingyuan stood in the center of his apartment, surrounded by hundreds of floating leaves.

The mark on his chest burned hotter.

枯叶.

His knees weakened.

Then the world disappeared.

He stood beneath a sky painted crimson.

The air smelled of rain and old memories.

Before him stretched an endless sea of autumn trees.

Black leaves drifted slowly from their branches.

Each leaf carried a memory.

Each leaf carried a lifetime.

And each leaf belonged to him.

A voice echoed behind him.

"Do you remember this place?"

Mingyuan turned.

Ah-Miao stood there.

White robes.

Long dark hair.

Golden eyes filled with sadness.

She looked exactly as she had in the dream.

Yet somehow… more real.

As if this place belonged to her.

"No…" he whispered.

"But I should."

Ah-Miao smiled.

A sorrowful smile.

"You always say that."

The words struck his heart.

Again.

Always.

As though he had heard them countless times before.

She walked past him.

The black leaves moved aside for her.

Like subjects bowing before their queen.

"This is where your memories sleep."

Mingyuan looked around.

The forest suddenly felt endless.

"All of this… belongs to me?"

"To us."

The answer made him pause.

To us.

Not to him.

To both of them.

He looked at her.

She seemed distant.

Lonely.

Like someone who had been waiting for a very long time.

"Who are you?"

Ah-Miao lowered her eyes.

For a moment, she looked as though she wanted to answer.

Then she simply said:

"Someone who has forgotten you many times."

Silence.

The wind blew.

Another leaf fell.

The moment it touched the ground

A memory appeared.

A small village.

Autumn.

A little girl laughing.

A young man beside her.

Mingyuan.

They were holding hands.

The girl looked up.

"Promise you'll never leave."

The young Mingyuan smiled.

"I promise."

The memory shattered.

Another leaf fell.

A mountain temple.

Rain.

A woman in white crying.

Ah-Miao.

An older Mingyuan stood before her.

"If we meet again…"

She couldn't finish.

Mingyuan gently touched her face.

"Then we'll fall in love again."

The memory broke apart.

Another leaf.

Another life.

Another goodbye.

A battlefield.

Snow.

Blood.

Ah-Miao held a dying Mingyuan in her arms.

Tears ran down her cheeks.

"Please don't leave me."

Mingyuan smiled weakly.

"I'll come back."

"How do you know?"

He looked at the falling leaves.

"Because I always do."

Darkness.

Another memory.

Another death.

Another autumn.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Mingyuan staggered backward.

His chest hurt.

Not from the curse.

From grief.

Thousands of years.

Thousands of promises.

Thousands of endings.

And every single one had led here.

To this forest.

To this woman.

To this loneliness.

He looked at Ah-Miao.

"How many times?"

She didn't answer.

"How many lives have we lived?"

Still silence.

Finally, she whispered:

"Too many."

The words broke him.

He suddenly understood something.

He had been lonely long before this life.

Long before this city.

Long before he was born.

He had been lonely for centuries.

Because every autumn

He remembered.

And every winter

He lost her again.

"Why?"

His voice trembled.

"Why does this keep happening to us?"

Ah-Miao's eyes filled with tears.

For the first time, she looked afraid.

"Because we broke a rule."

The wind stopped.

Even the leaves became still.

"What rule?"

She looked directly at him.

And said the words that would change everything.

"We tried to become immortal."

Silence.

The forest trembled.

Somewhere in the distance

A bell rang.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Ah-Miao's expression changed.

Fear.

Real fear.

"No…"

"What is it?"

She looked toward the dark horizon.

"It's too early."

The bell rang again.

The ground began shaking.

Black leaves burst into the sky.

A massive crack appeared above them.

The crimson heavens split apart.

And from within the darkness

Something looked back.

Two enormous golden eyes.

Ancient.

Endless.

Watching.

Waiting.

Mingyuan couldn't breathe.

The creature beyond the sky smiled.

Then a voice echoed across the entire forest.

A voice older than Heaven itself.

"The Lord of the Underworld remembers."

The leaves froze.

"The Divine One has awakened."

Another pause.

Then

"The Final Autumn has begun."

The sky shattered.

Ah-Miao grabbed Mingyuan's hand.

For the first time, there was panic in her eyes.

"Run."

"What?"

"Run!"

The forest erupted.

The memories began burning.

Leaves turned to ash.

The world itself started collapsing.

Mingyuan looked at her.

"What's happening?"

She held his hand tightly.

As though she were afraid to let go.

As though she had lost him before.

Many times.

Too many times.

Tears filled her eyes.

"They're coming for us again."

"Who?"

Ah-Miao looked toward the broken sky.

Her voice became a whisper.

Filled with terror.

"The ones who made us forget."

Darkness swallowed everything.

And somewhere beyond the dying forest

a single black leaf fell from the World Tree.

For the first time in ten thousand years.

Its final leaf had begun to descend.

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