Task 5

Red stood there for a long time holding the black dog. He wondered if the boy could have avoided death. If he had driven him away earlier, would his ending have been different?

"Hmm..." The black dog, waiting impatiently at his feet, began to growl in dissatisfaction. "Stop it, Arms, I'm still thinking." Red stared at the floor as if his soul had left his body. He pulled the rope in his hand to signal the black dog to be quiet.

Arms really stopped making noises, and even lay down on the tip of Red's shoe in a flattering manner, with his front paws resting on the edge of his trouser leg.

After a long time, Red suddenly came back to his senses, stretched his stiff body, and began to laugh nervously.

After thinking about it, he finally came up with a reassuring answer - Li Xuan's death was inevitable, and not only would he die, but the entire Li family would not be able to escape.

Coming to this conclusion was like solving the homework assigned by the teacher in the past. For Red, the answer must be correct.

He laughed for a while, until Arms got up from the ground and looked at him puzzledly.

Then he started crying again.

"Father, I understand you so well and I'm so much like you. Why don't you just look me in the eye?"

Red rarely spoke, but unfortunately the only listener around him now was a beast who couldn't understand his tears.

"Okay, Arms, eat." Red reached out to wipe the half-dried liquid off his face, loosened the rope and said to the black dog. Arms cried out, drooling and rushed to the sofa, dragging his big meal to the ground.

Red watched all this with indifference until Arms licked the last trace of blood on the ground with a grunt, then walked back to Red with a lingering look on his face.

"It's so dirty, go wash it." He lowered his eyes and looked at the hair and blood plasma on the corner of Arms' mouth, and said with some disgust.

The black dog swung its tail and walked out of the small room with an air of pride. After it left, the heavy dark red curtains rose, and sunlight filtered in from the French windows, casting a shadow on the exquisite carpet beside the window.

This is still a clean room, as if no outsiders have ever entered.

...

Red went to District 8 alone, and soon after he set off, he received a "review order" from his father.

The decision-making group of the headquarters issued a review order to the Lu family in District 8 on the grounds of eliminating hidden dangers. This order took less than half an hour from drafting to formal issuance.

Red arrived at the gate of the Lu family mansion without any obstruction and ran into the old housekeeper who was trimming the grass.

"Who are you?" The old housekeeper was stunned when he suddenly appeared. He put down the pruning pliers in his hand and asked, "What's going on?"

Red pushed his scattered long hair behind his ears, did not answer the old butler's question, and walked straight in.

"Wait! Sir, you can't go in without your permission!" The old butler threw the pliers under the grass in a hurry and walked quickly towards Red.

"Please wait a moment!" Seeing that Red had no intention of stopping and instead walked faster, the old butler wanted to reach out to stop him.

"Stand still."

With a curse, no one disturbed Red as he searched the mansion. He began to wander around at a leisurely pace, opening doors one by one and looking at each room. Occasionally, he would stop to admire a painting or ornament he liked.

A set of tea sets in the reception room caught his attention. Reid reached out and picked up a moon-white teacup, examining it carefully for a long time, as if he was looking through it at something else.

Then he somehow put the teacup into his pocket.

The house was too big and he moved slowly, so by the time he finally stopped in front of a row of bookshelves, it was almost sunset outside.

Red's eyes swept across each shelf of the bookshelf one by one, and then he reached out for a black-handled pen with gold patterns on the second bookshelf on the left.

Instead of picking it up, he twisted the pen halfway counterclockwise. With a creak, the bookshelf swung outward, revealing a full-height door at the back that was almost integrated with the wall.

Red curled his lips and stepped through the door. Behind the door was a semicircular platform, and beyond that, nothing was left. It was dim, so it was hard to see what was around. A long staircase curved downwards from the edge of the platform.

Red walked down the long steps and found various patterns carved on both sides, which looked like the contents of some kind of continuous picture album. He looked at a few steps without understanding them, so he looked away.

Every time he walked down a step, the lights of the next step would light up at his feet. Red's eyes were attracted by the warm light of those lights, and he unknowingly reached the bottom of the long steps.

"Click" the heels of his short boots made a crisp sound when they hit the ground. Only then did he realize that this basement was not covered with soft carpets like other common basements.

Red looked up and tried to find the light switch. As soon as he reached out to the wall, he was blinded by the sudden yellow light. He immediately put his hands in front of his eyes and tilted his head to adapt.

"Who?" A hoarse voice suddenly sounded in front of him. Red was shocked and immediately put down his hands and looked over.

He thought he would find the "other secrets of the Lu family" that Li Xuan mentioned here, but he didn't expect to meet Ying Yungui.

"You..." Reid let out a short exclamation from his throat in surprise. When he realized that the other party didn't like him making a sound, he didn't see any similar dissatisfaction on Ying Yungui's face.

What he saw carefully was Ying Yungui sitting up from the soft sofa with sleepy eyes.

After seeing the face of the person clearly, Ying Yungui frowned, his voice still dull as if he had just woken up: "Why are you here?" As if he wanted to know the situation immediately, he waved his hand perfunctorily, "Just tell me directly." He meant that Red didn't need to report to him in writing as before.

Red loosened his fingers inadvertently, fluttered his eyelashes twice, and whispered, "Investigation order." He only said three words and then kept silent.

While waiting for Ying Yungui's reaction, Red's palms kept sweating. He was very nervous and a little scared. He was afraid that Ying would be unhappy, and that this would make him even more disgusted with him.

So he didn't even dare to look the other person in the eye.

"..." Ying Yungui silently opened the file, then let out a barely audible sigh, "I fell asleep and didn't see it. Did your dad ask you to come?"

Red nodded without saying anything.

"Is the review finished?" Ying Yungui asked with a silent yawn.

Red paused, then nodded again, still saying nothing.

"Then let's go back."

Red couldn't remember how he left the Lu family. When he was on his way back to District 12 and remembered that the old butler's curse had not been lifted, it was already pitch black outside.

...

After confirming that Reid had left, Ying Yungui reached out and touched the wall of the basement. The scene in this space suddenly changed. The wallpaper turned into dust and disappeared in the blink of an eye, revealing its original appearance.

Further away, the patterns and lights on both sides of the long steps that were used to confuse the vision disappeared.

Ying Yungui quickly walked over to where the sofa had been, scratched a crack across its surface with his fingertips, and then reached out and pulled a person out from the crack. "How are you? Are you okay?" he asked.

Molly's already pale face was stained a bit purple-red by the energy fluctuations. She looked down at the vanishing spatial crack, coughed a few times, and said, "Fortunately, I wasn't in there for long. Nothing serious happened."

"If you weren't here, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to escape." Morrill shuddered at the thought of what would happen to him if he was caught here by Ryan's family.

After she recovered, she asked Ying Yungui, "Why did you come to the Lu family at this time? Isn't this a coincidence?"

Ying Yungui sneered: "How is that possible? Youchen asked me to come here to pick you up."

——

After Shi Youchen cleaned himself up, he took the note and went to the basement where the "empty" body was stored.

When Ying Yungui opened his eyes, he felt a tingling sensation in his thighs. As he sat up, his waist loosened and he nearly fell back.

"How come I didn't know you had this hobby?" He stroked the curly hair, his voice terribly hoarse.

Shi Youchen freed one hand and stuffed the note into his mouth without stopping.

Ying Yungui pursed his lips around the note and hummed, his hands resting on the cool countertop. His head tilted back in pleasure. "Youchen...deeper..." he began, the note in his mouth falling to the ground.

After hearing his request, the person under him lowered his head even lower and made an indistinct sound.

"Ah" Ying Yungui's scalp was numb with pleasure and he couldn't help but gasp. Shi Youchen looked up and kissed him while helping him to cum with her hands.

After the mixed breathing in the room calmed down, Ying Yungui hugged Shi Youchen's shoulders, buried his head in his wet neck and hummed softly: "You are still like this after taking a shower. This is unlike you."

Shi Youchen touched his messy hair and said, "Not feeling well? Then don't do it anymore."

Ying Yungui turned his head away and rubbed the thin skin with his prickly hair: "It feels so good. I'll help you next time if you want it again."

"Okay." Shi Youchen patted his shoulder and said, "Let's get down to business. Before those people find you, get rid of the Crow Totem first." Ying Yungui looked up reluctantly and said, "Okay, everything is as you wish."

"You should know that Raven Totem is a little different. It can't be the same as before."

Ying Yungui's eyes darkened for a moment, but he just turned his head away so Shi Youchen didn't notice.

"I know, I've been there."

Both of them knew that the Raven Totem was fundamentally different from other totems.

As tangible objects that gradually developed from anchor points, the previous tigers and scorpions have been endlessly absorbing and devouring the surrounding energy since their birth, and the range of devourment has been continuously spreading outward, so their surfaces are covered with a layer of "fog".

Just like the fog of the tiger totem is the Sanye Temple, the fog of the scorpion totem is the rainforest deep underground.

The Crow Totem not only does not actively devour the surrounding energy, but instead develops a sense of imprisonment during the growth of heaven and earth, fixing and restricting its own origin to a certain place.

During the long process of development, the cage chosen by Crow Totem for itself continued to evolve and take shape, and the final concrete result was the basement of the Lu family's current mansion.

Ying Yungui said, "In the original world line, I didn't have direct contact with that place. I only heard about it after I became a super-evolved experimental subject."

"Maybe it's my father's spirit appearing. A few years ago, after I left the health consultation office of the headquarters, I resonated with the power of crows."