Who knows where Jin San is? Who knows what really happened? No one knows—not even Jin San himself.

  "You damn thing, just leave like this, leaving us orphans and widows. How are we supposed to live?"

  It was a woman's voice—again, a woman's voice, and this time it was one of those heart-wrenching, soul-shattering cries. Jin San felt a headache coming on, but he couldn't move, not even to open his eyes.

  "You leave and leave without leaving anything behind. You good-for-nothing!" The woman continued, voicing her grievances, and it seemed like she was angrily spping something. Jin San couldn't move his body, couldn't open his eyes, but his ears heard everything clearly. The spping sound came from right beside him.

  "Mother, mother, please stop crying. You're scaring my little sister."

  Finally, there was a man's voice—though it sounded very young, so it must have been a child.

  "I haven't even started on you two! Your father's dead, and you two can't even cry. Instead, you're just standing there in the way, heartless little things!" As soon as the woman finished speaking, Jin San heard two sharp sps, followed by the cries of two children. Jin San understood at once that the woman had struck the children.

  The woman continued her compints, while the children kept crying, their voices raw with distress. But Jin San couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to move, to open his eyes. He needed to understand where he was now. He remembered the desert, the endless stretch of sand. He recalled all the bizarre things he'd experienced—the strange, round person he had encountered, the soothing sound of the rattle drum, and that skeletal hand. All of these images were burned into his mind, and now, he was desperate to make sense of it all.

  Jin San finally opened his eyes. The numbness made him realize that his body still had sensation. He tried to move a bit; his body could move. Jin San breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't dead; he was still alive. But... where was this?

  Jin San clearly saw a beam with a basket tied to it; it looked like a room, Jin San was sure of it. He moved his neck a bit and reached out with both hands to support the wooden boards on either side.

  The boards weren't high, and his hands just barely reached them. Jin San didn't understand why there were two boards on the sides, but it didn't matter. He finally sat up; his body was still a bit sore, but fortunately, it had mostly returned to normal.

  The woman was still cursing, and the children were still crying; Jin San finally got a good look at them.

  The woman had a naturally perfect figure. Even though she wore a simple dress, it couldn't hide her enchanting body. Her skin was very fair, her eyes very bright, her lips very red, her fingers very slender, and her hair very bck. Jin San couldn't find a single fw in her; he had to admit she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

  But those two children... Jin San really couldn't believe they were the woman's children because they didn't look like her at all, and they were even quite unattractive. However, Jin San felt a sense of déjà vu.

  Déjà vu? Jin San suddenly thought of himself. Himself? Jin San rubbed his eyes hard; maybe it was an illusion. How could they possibly look like him? The boy looked to be around ten years old, and the girl was slightly younger, about seven or eight. The two children were hugging each other and crying softly.

  Jin San had to shake his head. He wasn't seeing things; they really did look like him, and very much so. What was going on? Jin San lowered his head.

  The coffin was made of some kind of wood that couldn't be identified, but it looked somewhat worn, as if someone had used it before. As for who had used it, Jin San didn't know, but he knew that this coffin now belonged to him.

  Jin San didn't expect to be lying in the coffin all this time, so he let out a scream that even scared himself: "Ah!"