sad

Where God protects, no one else is allowed to peek.

Gao Tinghan showed anxiety on his face for the first time. He held his breath and stared at the unchanging deduction in his hand.

Time passed by little by little, and no pictures were presented in the deduction.

From the moment Yan Chan and her group stepped out of Fengdu Ghost Market, Gao Tinghan could no longer find any trace of them.

He had no choice but to wait patiently since he hadn't stopped it in advance.

The spider rolled over and hit Gao Tinghan's leg. It didn't hurt much, but he still frowned.

Gao Tinghan was originally squatting on the Skeleton Mountain, but now he stood up in a gloomy mood, pinching the spider's body with two fingers.

He was still looking towards the direction of Shiyatan, wondering what he was thinking.

"Aren't you going to leave?" Seeing that struggling was useless, the spider simply collapsed and swayed in the air.

"...My legs are numb." He had been squatting for three days and suddenly stood up. He didn't feel dizzy, which meant he was in good health.

Although it is difficult to tell whether the puppet is good or bad when it is motionless.

Gao Tinghan did not look embarrassed, but rather quite solemn.

Not eating, not drinking, not sleeping, is nothing to him.

"This body is becoming increasingly difficult to use." Gao Tinghan clenched his five fingers into a fist in front of his eyes. He could even distinguish the noise of stiff joints amidst the sound of the leather gloves being squeezed.

His heart grew heavier, and he was completely immersed in memories.

The finger was just the beginning. Gao Tinghan knew that he was one step closer to death.

"I didn't expect them to have the key to Fengdu Ghost Market. What a mistake, don't you think?"

Gao Tinghan pretended not to hear and said, "I found you a cave with good feng shui."

"The spider tilted its head and followed his fingers to his shoulder.

It stood up with all its legs and looked straight ahead with a proud and confident look.

Gao Tinghan didn't say anything else, but just took it to the "cave with good feng shui".

There is wind, water, and caves.

Of course he knew that this stupid spider couldn't understand what people meant by "good feng shui" with his brain.

So he just acted "absurd" for once.

"Go ahead." Gao Tinghan raised his arm slightly so that the spider could slide down to the ground like a slide.

“…”

Gao Tinghan looked down at the spider's strange movements in confusion, "What are you doing?"

"Ouch! Your glove bit my butt." It bent one leg and rubbed it behind.

Under normal circumstances, Gao Tinghan might have been so angry that he laughed, but today his face was very serious, and even the corners of his mouth were pursed into a straight line.

He really was in no mood to joke with the spider, so he just said a few perfunctory words.

"I'm leaving." He still stared at the direction of Shiyatan and said these seemingly ordinary words very calmly.

"Let's go." The spider skillfully climbed back onto Gao Tinghan and rubbed his head with his feet.

"He shook his sleeves in confusion, and the spider lying on them saw stars.

"What I mean is that you stay here." Gao Tinghan lowered his eyes and explained.

"You want to leave me!" The spider bit his sleeve tightly, and the words came out of its mouth like wind.

"...No." He closed his eyes, and the fingertips hanging at his sides curled up slightly.

This was the first time he felt guilty about lying.

"We are family, and family members should be together, right?" Although the spider did not understand what family meant, it could vaguely feel that this was a very important and intimate relationship.

Just like Dahuang and Erhuang next door.

The two dogs hang out together all day long.

......

"Look." Gao Tinghan opened his palm, and a ball of light with a gilded pattern lay quietly on it.

"It's a firefly." The spirit's ethereal fingers lightly touched the ball of light. If it got any closer, it would have passed through it.

She looked at the blue fireflies with nostalgia and surprise, which was like the light emitted by forget-me-nots blooming at the bottom of a pond.

Seeing her joy, Gao Tinghan threw the ball of light in his hand up.

At first, there was only a tiny point of light in the field of vision, but it was there, motionless and extinguished, like a star accidentally blown to the bottom of a pool by the wind.

Hold your breath for the first séance, then the second, the third...

Fireflies cut through the thick and impenetrable darkness.

She seemed to have forgotten her situation and just wanted to stretch out her hands to grasp the faint light. She didn't even dare to breathe heavily, for fear of scaring away the tiny stars that had fallen to the bottom of the pool.

Gao Tinghan wanted to raise his arm but it dropped down weakly, and his eyes also dropped down, staring blankly at his arm.

In the end, it just turned into a sigh.

"You're using the magic weapon that imprisons monsters to catch fireflies. It's really a waste of the talent." Jiang Ling was not complaining, he was just teasing.

"Call the spirit, I...call the spirit!" Gao Tinghan's words stopped abruptly. He looked around desperately searching for her suddenly disappeared figure.

His legs moved with difficulty as if they were filled with lead, but he did not give up easily. Gao Tinghan did not want to give up this body at this moment.

He hadn't yet... touched her again.

The pool water rushed in and completely enveloped his body. Gao Tinghan lay on his back in the water, unwilling to close his eyes for a moment.

"Why did you chase me away..." he murmured, letting the water from the pond seep into his eyes. This... could be considered crying.

He smiled aggrievedly and just floated there, waiting for an answer.

"Leave now, you still have a chance to survive." Her ethereal voice came from all directions. She could no longer maintain her spiritual state for much longer.

Jiang Ling had already seen through him and was trying to come here with his broken puppet body. The longer he stayed in the pool, the more unable to move his body would become.

If Gao Tinghan still doesn't leave here in the end, he will never be able to get out.

"One of you and I has to survive..." Jing Ling calmly chose a future that she believed was beautiful.

She didn't know that no matter what she chose, Gao Tinghan would not be able to escape death.

As early as the last time Gao Tinghan came, he gave Jiang Ling two choices.

One is to live.

The second is death.

Gao Tinghan concealed the fact that he would also die in both scenarios, as he did not want to become a shackle that interfered with the spirit's choice.

But Jiang Ling was not willing to linger on like an ordinary person. She did not think too long and decisively chose the second path.

"Let me be willful for once."

Gao Tinghanxi whispered, "Help me."

Spider:∠(°ゝ°)

Its enlarged body was just enough to drag Gao Tinghan away.

It was not difficult to find the place where Jiang Ling was sleeping. In the deepest part of the ruined palace, she was leaning on a chair with her eyes closed.

Gao Tinghan's fingertips paused slightly in the air, like a tentative butterfly, gently touching the skin on her cheek, which was so cold.

The lifeless look caught his eyes, and all he felt was heartache.

There is not much space to move freely here, and the rest of the place is filled with water.

The spider shrank its body again, first carefully touching the hem of the spirit's clothes, and then crawling on her bent legs.

"I won't leave you alone anymore." At that moment, he seemed to be about to cry, but this body was so cruel that it refused to let him even shed a single tear.

"I will stay with you until I die."

Gao Tinghan gently held her in his arms, his trembling hands wrapped around Jiang Ling's body.

A large piece of blue-gray robe was draped over the spirit, trying to warm her freezing body.

At first, only his shoulders trembled slightly, like a leaf in the Cave of Ten Thousand Demons swaying in the wind. Then, his throat seemed to be strangled by something, and his sobs were locked in his chest.

His eyes were red and his knuckles were white. For a moment, Gao Tinghan wanted to curl up. The cold seemed to spread to his body, and he shivered with cold.

He used to be the one who least believed in fate, and he still remembered how he once scoffed at the art of deduction.

Now he is helpless and can only rely on the thing he despises the most.

The spirit's deduction skills were much more sophisticated than his, and he had doubted several times whether his deduction was wrong and whether the ending was not that bad.

He hoped to improve his deduction skills over and over again without getting tired of it, but the results he got were the same.

Killing Prince Crow was his rebellion against fate, but he never imagined that this would also happen in the future he deduced.

The only thing he could do now was to wait, wait for Wu Chunlai to arrive.

Gao Tinghan was unwilling to accept his fate.

Since the destined future has changed once, why can't it change again because of him?

————

"Is it okay to hang it here?" Yan Chan climbed onto the ladder, holding the red silk high in her hand, and asked Uncle Chen who was crossing his arms across his chest.

"A little more to the left, a little more to the left, a little more." He directed Yan Chan unsatisfiedly, and did not relax his brow until the red silk was placed in the center.

"Yes, yes, stop." He hurriedly called out to Yan Chan to stop, otherwise it would go astray again.

"Then I'll hang up." Yan Chan did not forget to ask again. She didn't want to do anything in vain.

The red silk suddenly fell from the eaves like a waterfall, the bottom swaying in the wind, carrying a hint of the salty and humid smell of the seaside.

It complements the "囍" character that has just been pasted on the lintel.

"That's right, why is there only one little girl coming back with you, and the other two?" Uncle Chen asked curiously, chewing some fruits in his mouth.

"It's a long story..." Yan Chan was about to tell her story when she was interrupted by Uncle Chen.

"Then I'll make it short."

"..." Yan Chan looked speechlessly at Uncle Chen's face, which was stuffed with fruits and vegetables. "Wu Chun said he wanted to go back to Fengdu Ghost Market, and Shi Guiyi followed him out of concern."

"Really?" Uncle Chen said suspiciously. He still remembered that before Yan Chan left, Shi Guiyi's attitude towards Yan Chan seemed a little different.

Yan Chan nodded casually, not taking it too seriously, still looking around to see if there was anything missing in the house.

"!!" She slapped her head, as if suddenly realizing, "My candle!"

Yan Chan hurried out, her voice scattered by the wind. She turned around and said, "Uncle Chen, remember to help me stop Guan Zheng! Don't let her come over here!"

She had to get back before dark.