Chapter 648: Grandaughter
"It would be inconvenient for you to wash all of these yourself."
Despite his words, Lana stubbornly carried the dishes to the kitchen and washed every utensil. Only after everything had been cleaned and placed properly did she finally follow Grandpa Chen.
Soon, the two of them arrived upstairs.
Lana found herself standing in front of a single room. There was something strangely quiet about the place, and a faint chill brushed against her skin as Grandpa Chen motioned for her to open the door.
With a hint of anticipation, Lana reached for the handle and pushed it open. The moment the door swung inward, she saw a strange wand floating silently in the air.
Lana’s eyes widened slightly. A peculiar sense of familiarity washed over her, so strong that she instinctively stared at the object for several seconds.
’Why does this feel familiar?’
Behind her, Grandpa Chen looked at the wand, and his eyes appeared even more moist than before. He took a slow, deep breath before turning toward Lana.
"This is what I am willing to sell you. The price is one thousand kilograms of Ethereum gold. If you do not have enough right now, you can come back and take it later."
Lana paused before answering, "I have the gold right now."
With a casual wave of her hand, a massive wall of gold suddenly appeared behind her. The golden surface reflected the dim light of the room, illuminating the surrounding walls with a warm glow.
Grandpa Chen stared at it in astonishment. His mouth opened slightly, but for several seconds, no words came out.
Finally, he stammered, "I... Lana..."
After a moment, he seemed to regain his composure and sighed.
"All right. Once the five days are over, leave. Do not linger here anymore."
Lana nodded, but before leaving the room, her attention was caught by a nearby painting. She glanced at it curiously.
The painting depicted a strange globe, and just beneath it was a small cut. Something about the image immediately caught her attention. Lana slowly walked toward it and raised her hand, intending to touch the painting.
Before her fingers could make contact, Grandpa Chen’s voice came from outside. "Come downstairs, Lana."
Lana paused. "All right."
She lowered her hand, but just before turning away, she briefly touched the surface of the painting with her fingertips.
A strange sensation passed through her body. However, she did not linger. She quickly followed Grandpa Chen downstairs.
Once they reached the lower floor, Grandpa Chen handed her the item. "Now leave. Do not linger here anymore."
Lana nodded, accepted the item, and walked outside.
The moment she stepped out, the cold air brushed against her face. She lifted her head and stared at the vast sky above her, still somewhat stunned by everything that had happened.
"Wow. I really cannot believe it."
Mr Crow, who had been accompanying her, could not help but ask,
"Lana, what exactly cannot you believe? That old man’s temper? He was certainly temperamental. Honestly, why did you flatter him so much? If I were in your place, I would have slapped him hard. What kind of attitude did that guy even have?"
Lana merely chuckled as she continued walking. "He was, after all, the creator of this ghost domain."
The moment she said those words, Mr Crow froze. "What did you say?"
Lana shrugged. "He was the creator."
Mr Crow stared at her in disbelief. "How do you know that?"
Lana chuckled softly.
"First of all, there was that globe painting I saw when he went downstairs. If you had looked closely, you would have realised that it was almost exactly like our current world. There was only one major difference. All of the countries had different names."
She paused for a moment, her expression becoming more serious as she recalled what she had seen.
"When I touched the painting, I saw the old man who had created it. Then I saw him using that painting as a reference to build the buildings within the ghost domain. Finally, I saw him taking a photograph and hiding it behind the painting."
She added, "The reason he even let me in was that I called him grandpa."
Mr Crow remained silent for a moment before frowning.
"And if you had not called him Grandpa, he would not even have given you a single scrap of the gift?"
Lana nodded. "Exactly."
Mr Crow’s expression became increasingly strange. "Does he have some kind of grandpa fetish?"
For a moment, Lana fell silent. She slowly turned her head toward him, her expression becoming stern.
"Mr Crow, you had better not speak like that in the future."
Mr Crow immediately fell quiet. Lana sighed before continuing. "It was because he thought I resembled his granddaughter a little."
Mr Crow paused. "His granddaughter?"
Lana nodded.
"Yes. Just now, when I touched the painting, I realised that the photograph he had tucked behind it was a picture of him and his granddaughter in the original human world."
He had been quite an evil person until his granddaughter was born. He doted on her granddaughter, who became his only source of light.
However, his granddaughter eventually died because of the heavy karma he had accumulated throughout his life.
Unable to accept her death and consumed by grief and hatred, he eventually created this ghost domain in order to avenge his granddaughter.
He began gathering the humans who had died in the real world and brought their souls into this place, allowing them to rest within the ghost domain.
However, somewhere along the way, he encountered his granddaughter once again. She had returned to deliver one final message to him.
"Grandfather, if you truly consider me your granddaughter, then stop this massacre."
Those words eventually made him stop.
Afterward, he retired to an old courtyard and began living there quietly.
As for his granddaughter, since she entered the cycle of reincarnation every hundred years, he kept the door of his courtyard open, always waiting for her to visit him again.
And that granddaughter was as filial as well.
Even after losing all her memories through reincarnation, something deep within her soul still remembered him. Subconsciously, she would always find her way back to his courtyard.