Chapter 72 shows the phrase, "...who will let go first."

Lin Fei then took two steps back, leaning against the bookshelf to make some space for the two people in the middle.

Indeed, this study, which is small enough for two people to barely turn around in, is now crammed with three people.

Qiu Tong was saved from falling because Lin Feiran supported her, but the other person was more unlucky.

He landed suddenly, and as he lost his balance, he instinctively reached for a chair, but with a soft thud, he missed and stumbled into a bookshelf right next to him.

"ha."

Ru Xian chuckled, arms crossed, and with a quick movement of his foot, the chair he had hooked fell back to its original position.

Qiu Tong turned around upon hearing the sound, gasped softly, and quickly stepped forward to ask, "Senior Brother Wei, are you alright?"

Wei Changzai shook his head and stood up, his expression not much changed, as if he hadn't bumped into anyone.

He glanced at the man on the table out of the corner of his eye, lowered his gaze, turned around, and nodded slightly to Lin Feiran, his forehead bearing a clear red mark from the banging.

"Fellow Daoist Wen, what a coincidence."

"A chance encounter." Lin Feiran smiled, but couldn't help but feel annoyed inwardly.

This is too much of a coincidence. Although his name is Changzai, he doesn't have to be there all the time. If we keep bumping into each other like this, I'm afraid I'll have to look under the bed every night before I go to sleep, because I'm afraid he'll be there telling me it's a "coincidence."

Lin Feiran's thoughts drifted, but he immediately stopped. Just as he was about to mention the matter of reviewing the papers to the two of them, he heard Ru Xian's cold voice say, "Is it a real coincidence or a fake one? You humans are always hard to tell the truth."

Wei Changzai did not turn around, but raised his slightly long eyes and looked only at Lin Feiran.

Regardless of his inner thoughts, he always maintained a distant and polite demeanor on the surface. Even when facing people like Taihui, he could still address them as "elder" without changing his expression.

But when faced with this contracted demon, he didn't even want to look at it; it was a natural aversion and... an unfounded killing intent.

Previously unaware, he thought this man was just someone Lin Feiran casually placed under her protection, nothing special. After all, she always acted this way; whoever asked her for help, she would always lend a hand.

Just like some cats and dogs, just like the useless sinking tide.

This was something Lin Feiran would do, and something she wanted to do, so he never said much and never stopped her.

But the contracted demons are different. Once a contract is formed, they become special and must be in the same place at all times.

The effect of the bond of spiritual connection is far superior to that of the Love Bean, but the two parties must be of different races, one being human and the other demon. Humans cannot form a bond with each other; otherwise, why would he be chosen to be the first?

He ignored Ru Xian's words, but if Lin Feiran asked, he would answer truthfully.

This was definitely not a coincidence.

When he and Qiu Tong were passing through the market, they overheard a group of people mentioning the female cultivator who had defeated Han Shan Jun in a literary contest. At that moment, he was certain that this person was Lin Feiran, so he followed her. However, something happened along the way, and when he caught up with her again, only the two of them were hiding in the shadows in the inn.

He remained noncommittal, but Qiu Tong couldn't stand it any longer. She frowned, put her hands on her hips, and said, "What do you mean by that, fellow Daoist? Do you suspect that we've been following you? We've been searching for flowers ever since the bell rang, and we've never seen you before. You're of high rank, so why would we need to come with you?"

Ru Xian's gaze shifted to Qiu Tong, her smile lingering, and she said meaningfully, "I'm talking about the human race."

Qiu Tong was startled and quickly glanced at Wei Changzai, but he seemed to misunderstand her and explained to her, "This is a demon, and he is Fellow Daoist Wen's contracted demon."

"What?! You actually became a contracted demon to a human?!" Qiu Tong looked at Ru Xian in disbelief and couldn't help but ask, "Is there some life-or-death crisis you're in?"

For demons, forming a pact with humans is a painful compromise made with blood and tears. Unless they are desperate, no demon would be willing to have the pact of subjugation inscribed on their body.

Ru Xian's smile remained, but her gaze towards her had cooled considerably.

"etc."

Lin Feiran stood on the outermost side, taking in everyone's expressions. For some reason, he felt that he was the calmest person at the moment, so he stepped forward to mediate.

Gentlemen, the more urgent task now is to break through this yellow door number one.

After she finished speaking, no one else spoke. Even Lin Feiran herself was a little surprised that they actually gave her face.

"Please take a look at this couplet on the door. You will have to guess the characters. Perhaps the answer can be found in the book."

The space was cramped, so Lin Feiran and the other two slowly moved around and asked Qiu Tong and Wei Changzai to look at the door panel. Only then did they put aside their grudges and begin to search through the books, preparing to solve the problem.

As Qiu Tong flipped through the pages, she said, "I've only ever seen rooms where you can't leave without doing something in storybooks. Is it like in the books, where you can't leave unless you're in love, or you can't leave unless you kiss?"

The demon race has always been unconventional and unruly. Qiu Tong didn't realize anything was wrong after she spoke, and even pondered how to use it, secretly glancing at Wei Changzai.

She never expected that such a casual remark would cause the other two to stop in their tracks.

As the hand that was turning the pages of a book stopped, Wei Changzai hesitated as he turned around. Just as his heart was filled with emotion, Lin Feiran carefully passed between the two of them and walked single-mindedly to the lonely bed.

She examined it closely and suddenly said, "The bed is not flat, the cushions are sunken, and the ink on the desk is not dry. This is clearly a study that someone has lived in, and the owner may still be in the room."

Qiu Tong immediately looked around, her voice lowering slightly: "Where...where could that person be hiding?"

Without hesitation, Lin Feiran bent down and half-squatted, lifting the hanging bed sheet with one hand, and the group immediately met a pair of angry eyes.

"Ah!" Qiu Tong's face turned pale instantly. She hurriedly tried to back away, but there was nowhere to retreat. She crashed into the bookshelf, making a few teeth-grinding creaking sounds.

The man had extremely large eyes, mostly black with little white in the sockets, and saliva dripped constantly from the corners of his mouth. His face was covered with a thin layer of frost, and he kept turning his head to look at them, which was very strange.

After everyone noticed him, he began to move rustlingly, as if he wanted to crawl out from under the bed, but he seemed to be wary of something.

Lin Feiran was closest to him when he suddenly reached out and grabbed her, tearing the carefully embroidered hem of her robe into pieces. Three sharp finger marks were also left on the bricks on the ground, which was quite horrifying.

As Ru Xian raised her eyebrows slightly and sat up straight, Wei Changzai turned her head to look at her, her brows furrowing slightly.

Qiu Tong gripped the bookshelf, covering her face with the books, and asked cautiously, "Fellow Daoist Wen, are you alright?"

"It's nothing."

Lin Feiran did not get up. She looked around thoughtfully, then suddenly drew her disciple's sword and stood it beside the bed. With a slight turn of the hilt, the blade reflected the light of the pearl into the bed.

The small patch of light was enough to make him see his entire body shape as he moved around, without disturbing him.

It was an extremely thin body, with sparse, yellowish hair and a pale face, like a withered tree stripped of all its life force, cracked and fragile, ready to break and die at any moment. His limbs were twisted and contorted, and the rustling sound just now was him moving out from under the bed by using his twisted joints.

At this moment, he did the same, wriggling away from the light source, and then opened his mouth to roar hoarsely at her, trying to intimidate her.

Lin Feiran's eyes flickered slightly. He slowly sheathed his sword, stood up, ignored the rustling sounds under the bed, walked to the table, gently patted his leg which was falling like hailstones onto the chair, and sat down on the chair after seeing that he had put it away.

She took a deep breath and recalled the man's appearance: his arms were bent, his legs were twisted, and he struggled to get up in a strange posture, walking towards the bookshelf on his right.

Ru Xian sat on the table with her legs drawn up, her eyes slightly open. Wei Chang silently made room for her to pass, but Qiu Tong immediately darted to the other side, trembling as she asked, "Fellow Daoist Wen, have you been assimilated?!"

Lin Feiran remained silent, walking in this strange posture to the right-hand bookshelf. He then pulled out three books from the second-to-last shelf on the left, and did the same thing again, pushing over the wooden chair, squatting down, and taking out three books from the third shelf in the same posture.

During this time, almost no one spoke to disturb her; even the movement under the bed stopped, and people just stared at her with their big eyes.

After taking all four bookshelves, Lin Feiran was already sweating profusely. She sat down at the table and distributed the books she had taken out to the group: "These are probably all we have."

The group took it, and she opened the book in her hand. The cover had the words "Medical Seal Script" written on it. The contents of the book were mostly strange and unusual diseases, so it should be a rubbing of a medical book.

The page that was turned over the most in the book was marked with a symptom of wind-cold.

Colds, chills, leaf disease, frostbite... As time went on, the symptoms gradually worsened from the initial cold, and the number of symptoms gradually increased, so the name of the disease changed accordingly, and finally it stopped at the simple word "cold syndrome".

Lin Feiran paused for a moment, then looked under the bed. It turned out that the person was not mutated, but had contracted a cold-related illness.

Those afflicted with cold syndrome will have dilated pupils and photophobia, an icy white tongue, and a flat and slow pulse. Initially, they will only feel cold in their body, and their blood vessels will gradually congeal. Heating and adding clothes will not help. Subsequently, their blood vessels will become icy, their limbs will become weak, and their bones will become brittle, like a withered flower or a dead tree. Gradually, they will become numb and go downwards. First, their throat and tongue will break, then their bones, then their heart and lungs, and finally all five internal organs will turn into dust. Their body will melt like snow water and disappear.

She pursed her lips, unsure of what to think. Ru Xian leaned forward slightly and handed the book in her hand to her.

It was a diary, presumably written by the person under the bed. His name was not recorded, but it contained records from the beginning of his illness to the present day.

At first, his family thought he had caught a cold and asked doctors for help, but the cold did not get better and worse. They consulted many famous doctors, but none of them could help him.

In his cold, he thought of warming himself in the sun, but he only felt colder the more he basked in the sun, and he couldn't even hold a pen. His family thought he had an incurable disease, and in their grief, they made plans to see him off in his final moments.

Until one day, when his family was talking to him, clusters of tiny ice shards suddenly shot out, piercing his eyelids, his cheeks, and his arms. It happened so suddenly that his numb body didn't even notice anything. His family was so frightened that they left the room, shouting that the evil spirit had gone away.

Later, they found a Taoist priest from somewhere. He said that this disease was a punishment from heaven, and that he should not be killed, but he should not be treated kindly either, otherwise it would bring disaster to his family. So the group of people hurriedly sprinkled several bowls of talisman water on him, and disregarding his frail body, they bent him a few times and stuffed him into this small room, where he never saw the light of day again.

Oblivious to the changing seasons and the passing of time, his resentment gradually softened, turning into bitterness. Later, he believed the words of the Taoist priest and prayed to heaven for forgiveness every day. Gradually, even the slightest remorse disappeared, leaving only numbness.

After contracting this disease, he could survive without even eating; perhaps he was indeed transformed from some kind of evil spirit.

The words stopped abruptly, and nothing more was said.

Not only Lin Feiran, but all four people in the room had different feelings after reading the booklet.

She pondered quietly, then looked at the wooden door couplet again, and turned to Qiu Tong, asking, "Do you still have Osmanthus in your genealogy chart?"

Qiu Tong shook her head: "I used it halfway through."

After reading the booklet, she felt very depressed. Everyone knew that the wife of the Prince of Qingping suffered from a cold. Could her mother end up like this person, neither human nor ghost?

“I have two branches.” Wei Changzai took out a golden osmanthus from the Book of Flowers and gave it to her, then casually asked, “When we came out of Tianzhu, I remember that Fellow Daoist Wen also had a branch. Did you use it?”

Lin Feiran nodded without explaining further. He took two steps back to make room for her, and then looked to the side with great sensitivity. The demon's robe was of the civil and military style, narrow on the left and wide on the right, with gold rings around both wrists. However, a jade ring hung from the narrow sleeve, and a few golden spots were faintly visible on the wide sleeve.

It was a black wristband woven with osmanthus blossoms. He was a demon, without the Book of Flowers, and could not use the Flower Game. It was no longer necessary to guess where the osmanthus blossoms on it came from.

He forced himself to look away and gaze at Lin Feiran. She raised her hand to stroke the fragrant osmanthus branch, then opened the empty drawer and picked up the pearl on the table.

“I have a hypothesis, but we need to put this pearl in the cabinet to verify it. There will be a moment of darkness in between, and he might do something. If you all disagree, I will think of another way.”

Ru Xian remained expressionless, simply nodding and saying, "Do whatever you want, I have no objection."

Wei Changzai also spoke up: "Okay."

Qiu Tong didn't object, but she stepped out from behind Wei Changzai, stood behind Lin Fei, grabbed her sleeve, closed her eyes and said, "Fellow Daoist Wen, you'd better hurry!"

Lin Feiran glanced at them, pursed her lips and smiled gently: "You can stand behind me."

After saying that, she sealed the pearl in the cabinet, and the room instantly fell into darkness. The rustling sound immediately broke through the bed curtains and rushed towards Lin Feiran without hesitation.

As the voice drew closer, Qiu Tong hurriedly hugged Lin Feiran's waist, exclaiming, "He...he's here!"

Something touched her leg, but Lin Feiran neither lowered her head nor lifted her leg. The golden osmanthus in her hand had already been activated to bloom, and tiny osmanthus seeds floated up to the low roof, shining a ray of sunlight.

It was the warm autumn sun, not scorching or dazzling, but shining through a thin layer, enough to dispel the chill from anyone who came.

The man gripped Lin Feiran's calf tightly, his tearing motion momentarily halting. He looked up at the sunlight, and in a daze, warm tears rushed out before any thought could escape his eyes.

"Ah, ah..."

His throat and tongue were shattered, and he could only make indistinct breathy sounds, each one filled with such joy and longing.

Under the satiated warmth of the sun, he let go of his hands. Unable to lie flat due to his twisted body, he shifted his position, adopting the same strange posture, like a spider that had been busy all night and finally spun its web at sunrise.

The frost covering his face did not fade but instead grew back, with clusters of ice crystals emerging. He shivered, but still tried to stretch his body and get more of the long-lost sunlight.

You cannot go out without sunlight.

In a dark room, there is no sunlight; he can only be trapped here for ten years, a hundred years, until he dies.

Humans are still human. No matter how much we deny it, if we have been in darkness for too long, the hope that bursts in our eyes when we suddenly see a ray of sunlight will be the same.

Lin Feiran watched quietly, then suddenly bent down, supporting his thin back with one hand and his strangely bent legs with the other, and lifted him up, bringing him closer to the warm sun.

He turned to look at Lin Feiran, the warmth of human skin seeping through his tattered clothes was shockingly hot, and the tears that had just stopped welled up again, a broken sob escaping his throat.

He is a human being, not a demon.

With a clang, the wooden plank on the low door fell off, and the tightly closed wooden door creaked open a crack. The door was now open, but no one paid any attention.

Lin Feiran lifted him up, her expression serious and calm. She seemed ordinary, but her whole being exuded a strange radiance that was unforgettable.

Qiu Tong stared blankly from behind, seemingly deeply moved, her eyes slightly red.

Wei Changzai also looked up, a warm light shining in his calm, dark eyes, all his coldness gone, and his eyes reflected her figure, the light shimmering gently.

Ru Xian propped her chin up, gazing at the sunlight, then turned to look at Lin Feiran, her eyes softening more than ever before.

With a dripping sound, the figure in his hand began to melt and drip down, like solid ice that had been scorched by a raging fire for a long time, which could no longer resist and could only flow down in a rustling sound.

He dipped the melted liquid in his clothes and wrote "Thank you" on it. He then quietly looked at the low, oppressive roof. Before long, only a few tattered pieces of clothing remained hanging on his arms.

He was so light, as if he were just a skeleton, even lighter than her disciple's sword. Now that the water had dissipated, he didn't feel much of a reality.

Lin Feiran withdrew her hand and stood still for a few breaths. She felt no sorrow, only a faint sense of regret, lamenting the undeserved disaster and the fragility of life.

Life is full of hardships and ups and downs, but in the end, it is nothing more than a handful of bones.

Ru Xian stepped down from the table, unwilling to see her expression, and changed the subject, asking, "Tell me, is what happened in this room true or false?"

Lin Feiran said with certainty, "It's true. He has been trapped somewhere in the human world for a long time. The Holy Spirit brought him to this world to seek a solution. Perhaps, it's also to tell us something."

She walked to the desk and raised her hand to stroke the last sentence of the diary.

The Grandmaster once said, "Just like the blooming of flowers, the setting of the moon, and the rising of the sun, these cannot be changed by my words; you need to see them. Once you see them, flowers will bloom; once you see them, fish will swim in the lake."

As long as you raise the light, you can see everything hidden in the shadows; as long as you stand up, you can see the insignificant people beneath the grandeur.

Is this what he meant by seeing?

What else is there that she hasn't seen?

Her gaze lingered on the word "selected," and remained fixed on it for a long time.

Finally, Lin Feiran put the "Medical Manual" and the diary into his pocket, and looked at the other two: "Now that the door is open, would you two still like to come with us?"

Qiu Tong immediately replied, "Of course!"

At the same time, Ru Xian also said, "No."

Lin Feiran sighed softly and looked at Wei Changzai: "And you?"

Before he could finish speaking, Ru Xian laughed coldly, grabbed Lin Feiran's wrist, and leaped into the darkness behind the door. In a flash, Wei Changzai reached out, and Lin Feiran was stuck between the light and darkness, becoming the elastic rope between the two.

Lin Feiran: "...Who will let go first?"

Author's Note: Lin Feiran: A Faint Sense of Death

The last time I combined two chapters, it was supposed to be updated on Wednesday, but it was moved to Thursday. I didn't give a sick note, so I'm giving out a red envelope in this chapter as compensation.