Chapter 1

The day Jack Sullivan was admitted to the ICU, I broke up with him, tired of living in constant danger by his side. I left the country and got married.

While he was struggling for his life, I didn't even visit him once.

He hated me to the bone.

Three years later, his grandfather dragged him back to their hometown to exhume and rebury the remains from an unmarked grave.

Jack held a wrist bone in his hand and said coldly, "Rachel Sullivan, why couldn't it have been you who died?"

But he didn't know.

The skeleton he was picking up with his own hands was mine.

...

July had just arrived when a heavy rainstorm hit, washing away my grave.

It rained for several days. As soon as the sky cleared, I saw a figure stumbling towards me, step by step.

I sat in front of the tombstone and greeted Grandpa, but I watched as he slowly crouched down, digging at the soil bit by bit with his aged hands, trying to rebury my coffin.

"Oh, my poor child! What are we going to do?" he lamented.

My heart ached. I wanted to help Grandpa up and tell him it was okay, but my hand passed right through his body.

I kept forgetting that I had been dead for three years.

As Grandpa continued digging, a sudden clarity flashed in his cloudy eyes. He muttered to himself, "A wet grave won't do. Rachel won't rest in peace... We need to exhume the remains and rebury them. Yes, that's it."

He then shakily pulled out his phone from his pocket. The old man's fingers were stiff, pausing after each number, but he persevered and dialed his grandson's number.

"Jack, come back quickly! It's an emergency!"

I tried to stop Grandpa when he dialed that familiar number, but as a mere soul, I could do nothing. So I could only clasp my hands together and silently pray that Jack wouldn't come.

"Grandpa, what's wrong? Don't worry, I'll take leave and come right away."

...My last hope died.

After hanging up, Grandpa sat dazed for a while, then stood up and stumbled towards home.

"Grandpa! You've really done it this time! Didn't we agree to keep it a secret?" I knew Grandpa couldn't hear me, but I couldn't help nagging as I followed behind him.

Before I knew it, I had followed Grandpa back home.

I was both surprised and delighted. For the past three years, I could only move within ten meters of my grave. It had been suffocating.

I hovered near Grandpa's shoulder, as if I were still alive.

Over the years, Jack had repeatedly suggested that Grandpa move to the city with him, but each time Grandpa refused.

Jack thought Grandpa just couldn't bear to leave his hometown, but I understood. Grandpa was afraid the little girl he had raised since childhood would be lonely, so he stayed here.

The next day, Jack arrived. He looked rushed and disheveled, clearly having traveled in haste.

He crouched down to be at eye level with Grandpa, who was sitting, and carefully checked if he had any injuries.

"Grandpa, are you alright? What happened? Why did you call me back so urgently?"

Grandpa's gaze was somewhat unfocused, and he spoke haltingly but with obvious anxiety: "Wet grave... not good, move... need to move... exhume!"

Exhuming remains, also known as bone washing, refers to the ritual of opening a grave years after burial, collecting the remains, and reburying them.

Jack frowned. Having grown up with his grandfather, he naturally understood some of the techniques of exhuming remains, but he didn't understand. His parents' ashes were buried in a cemetery after cremation, so whose bones did Grandpa want to exhume?

I floated in front of Jack, my hand gently caressing his face. The man before me had grown thinner, darker, with unshaven stubble on his face.

"Jack? So this is your home."

I saw a beautiful woman appear at the door, her voice filled with intimacy and dependence.

Jack nodded in response and continued questioning Grandpa, "Grandpa, whose bones are we exhuming?"

Grandpa's eyes were still somewhat confused as he spoke unclearly.

"It's... Ra...chel."

My mind went blank, and I froze in place.

Then I heard Jack laugh coldly.

"Her? Good riddance."