Chapter 78 Nightmare

The corners of Luo Zhaohan's lips, with his back to him and perfectly hidden by the firelight and darkness, quietly curved into a very shallow arc that was almost doting and playful.

The corners of her eyes and eyebrows were stained with a very gentle smile that she herself was not aware of.

It was like she had glimpsed a secret treasure in the world that was extremely precious and belonged only to her. The sweetness brought by the secret was mixed with a hint of hidden pride, which lingered on her heart.

She even deliberately slowed down her pace to ensure that the weak light could fall steadily on the small space behind her where the person was having difficulty walking.

In the flickering firelight, her fair earlobes were already as if soaked in rouge and were incredibly hot.

The secret passage under the dry well was narrow and cold, with a mixture of earthy smell and the rotten smell of old rotten wood, weighing heavily on people's lungs.

Pei Ji was almost pushed and staggered forward, with every step he took being on the edge of collapse.

Cold sweat had already soaked through several layers of underwear, clinging to my body with a sticky ache, and the damp chill stirred even deeper shivers. My vision was a hazy blur, and my hearing and senses were sluggish and erratic under the onslaught of the tidal wave of pain. Only the faint, brief flicker of a tinderbox could occasionally pierce this boundless chaos.

In the fleeting light, the only thing he could clearly make out was a subtle but extremely eye-catching golden light in Luo Zhaohan's hair.

It’s the golden hairpin with pearls hanging down.

As she walked quickly, it swayed gently in her black hair, and the slender beads flashed with needle-like light in the extremely limited light, like the only eye-catching beacon in the boundless sea of ​​ink.

The pain was like a bloodthirsty beast, bringing with it ever more ferocious waves of backlash, trying to tear his sanity apart and drown it.

He clenched his teeth tightly and tasted the rich sweet smell of rust.

"Lord Pei," Luo Zhaohan's cold and steady voice seemed to penetrate the heavy curtain, appearing unusually clear in the chaotic perception, "Are you so embarrassed?" Her tone carried a hint of deliberate temptation.

His chaotic thoughts were pierced by these clear words. Pei Ji almost relied on instinct, using up the last bit of clarity and strength he had left, and squeezed out an extremely dry word from between his clenched teeth. His voice was hoarse like sandpaper rubbing against him:

"yes."

This sound drained the remaining air from his chest, yet it seemed to nail the last shred of his sanity to reality with iron chains. Upon hearing this, the icy ripples in Luo Zhaohan's eyes, stirred by his sudden intrusion, instantly calmed, like the smooth surface of water after a stone was dropped.

His undisguised affirmation sounded like a silent signal to her - his embarrassment was genuine, so embarrassment that he was unable to conceal it, but it also showed that his weak defense at the moment was not a disguised trap.

A barely perceptible glimmer of light passed through her deep pupils, and her tense shoulders relaxed a tiny bit.

Almost as soon as Pei Ji said "yes", an extremely clear thought flashed into Luo Zhaohan's mind like lightning.

"How much of what I said to Sun Honglei just now did you hear?" Her voice was still steady, but her speaking speed was obviously a moment faster than usual. Every word was clear and carried a direct and piercing meaning that could not be avoided.

Like pouring ice water into boiling oil!

Pei Ji's chaotic mind was pierced by these words, and it exploded instantly! The surging pain seemed to freeze for a moment!

He heard it!

The piercing despair and desperate coldness in that voice, every word carried scorching temperature and heavy power, which were imprinted in his chaotic memory. Now, when Luo Zhaohan asked him coldly, it suddenly surged out clearly!

Boundless shame was like the most vicious whip, lashing Pei Ji's mind and self-esteem, which were on the verge of collapse.

He could even clearly recall the moment when he regained consciousness from his confusion, how he was shocked by the resolute voice, and how he moved a few steps closer in that dark corner with such despicable prying thoughts!

His face, already livid with pain, suddenly flushed red, even to his ears, before fading back to a deathly pale color! Under the immense impact, a surge of blood rushed to his throat, which he swallowed tightly, causing his Adam's apple to roll painfully several times.

The footsteps suddenly quickened, and he almost stumbled and tried to rush past Luo Zhaohan to the front, just wanting to escape from this embarrassing situation, and he didn't dare to look at the contemptuous look she might have at this moment.

"Miss Luo, Miss Luo!" In his haste, he could barely speak, the flame of shame burning his mind. "I am despicable..." This admission was like cutting out his heart, every word was stained with blood. "Just now...just now it was indeed..."

He couldn't say any more. Unworthy! How could his actions be worthy of her calmness at that moment, the clear sharpness in her eyes, and her determination to gamble her own fate?

He just felt like a rat in the gutter waiting for the light, so despicable!

"Stop." Luo Zhaohan's voice was calm, but it had a penetrating power that chilled people to the bone marrow, nailing Pei Ji to the spot as if struck by lightning.

The secret passage was narrow, and the two people were only a few steps apart.

Pei Ji stood stiffly with his back to Luo Zhaohan, his body trembling slightly, as if on the verge of collapse under the immense shock and pain. A thick shadow enveloped him, and his back seemed unusually frail and weak.

Suddenly, with great difficulty, he slowly turned around. Ignoring the exploding pain in his body and the blackening vision, he took a deep breath. The air he inhaled felt like ice shards, stinging his lungs painfully.

Holding on to his remaining strength and shaky consciousness, he ducked towards Luo Zhaohan.

He actually bowed very solemnly with his fists clasped!

His back was bent into a deformed arc, unable to fully achieve due to the pain. His voice was hoarse from forcibly suppressing the pain that threatened to burst out of his throat. Every word seemed to be torn out from boiling lava, carrying a scorching weight:

"Pei Ji was the first to offend the young lady... It was tantamount to eavesdropping... It was truly despicable! The young lady saved my life today... But I had no sense of shame... Such behavior... I am ashamed to face it... Please forgive me, young lady!"

He maintained this precarious bow, unable to utter another word. His entire body was straining against the dual pressures of excruciating pain and dizziness, each breath akin to walking on the edge of a knife.

In the flickering firelight, Luo Zhaohan could clearly see the twisted look of pain on his pale face and the cold sweat rolling down his forehead. He could also clearly see the sincere shame and apology that was struggling to be revealed in those almost out-of-focus eyes.

There are no false excuses, no flimsy justifications, only the revelation of one's own filthiness and the solemn confession of guilt.

Luo Zhaohan didn't show the anger or contempt she'd imagined. Her silence was but a moment's pause. Her diamond-shaped lips moved slightly, even curling upwards in an extremely subtle, fleeting arc.

It was not sarcasm, nor was it understanding, but more like a kind of insightful understanding with a bit of amusement - as if to say: It is a novelty that you are so embarrassed to expose your heart to me.

"Let's go." She uttered a single, crisp word, breaking the silence. Her voice, as clear as ice, dispelled the awkwardness that had just settled in. Her gaze swept over his forced, painful posture, the urgency evident.

Pei Ji felt as if he had been pardoned, yet he was powerless to respond. The immense shame and the cumulative pain in his body had almost drained him of all thought, leaving only vague instinct driving his heavy legs: follow that fading light, follow the blurry figure in front of him, the moon-white hem of his sleeves. Go! Never stop! To stop would be to sink completely!

He clenched his teeth, the sweet taste between his lips and teeth becoming even stronger. The light from the firelight flickered and faded violently with Luo Zhaohan's steps. The darkness at the edge of his vision was like a wriggling living thing, greedily devouring the last light source.

His steps were light, as if he was walking on clouds, yet he was also stuck in the mud.

"Pei Ji." Luo Zhaohan's voice sounded faintly in the darkness ahead, with a calm power that penetrated the fog.

"...Yes." He used all his strength to squeeze out a hoarse response. The sound was like a fragment squeezed out from the depths of his lungs.

"Do you believe that people have past lives and present lives?"

This abrupt question was like a stone thrown into a dry well, causing a brief ripple in Pei Ji's consciousness, which had been burned and turned sticky.

Past life and present life? A trace of extremely complex pain, condensed from countless years, flashed across his gray eyes, like a past that had sunk into the abyss and suddenly pierced the surface of the water.

Without the slightest hesitation, almost instinctively, a clear syllable burst out from between the cracked lips and teeth, carrying the heavy power of the embers of life:

"letter!"

A single word, resounding, reverberated through the dark passage. That voice held a deep, marrow-deep conviction that he himself hadn't even noticed, as if this knowledge had already been seared into the depths of his soul.

Luo Zhaohan's back seemed to pause very slightly.

She still didn't look back and continued walking forward, but the clear voice flowed like the gurgling of an icy spring, depicting a distant and unfamiliar picture:

"Maybe it was in a previous life."

"I was probably in a mess at that time."

"It was an autumn day, too..." Her voice carried a faint echo, as if through smoke and dust. "Maybe the rain hasn't stopped yet... or maybe it stopped a while ago? I can't remember."

"It's very damp and cold."

"I was probably covered in mud and looked haggard, standing in front of the Dali Temple, beating the drum again and again..."

"Is your voice hoarse? Or have you been crying?"

"No one paid any attention to me. The guards were like stone statues in a temple..."

"There were only the pointing and whispering of onlookers..."

Her tone was calm and uneventful, as if she were telling the story of an indifferent bystander, with only the emphasis on the words "in front of the Dali Temple" being barely perceptible.

"They all said that the Shaoqing inside was surnamed Pei..."

"He is a good official who cares about the people..."

"Back then, Pei Ji should have been a good official, right?" Boom——

It was like a thunderbolt that exploded without warning in the deepest part of the soul.

Pei Ji felt the blood in his body suddenly flow backwards! His chaotic mind, filled with only intense pain and darkness, was suddenly struck by a thunderbolt that tore through the universe!

Those fragmented, blurred, and dream fragments that haunted him repeatedly like a thorn in his tarsal bone, yet he could never be freed from them—the gray sky, the touch of icy raindrops, a blurry, slender figure kneeling and begging in front of the majestic and oppressive vermilion lacquer gate…the desperate cries that appeared in countless dreams, the source of pain that he tried to see clearly countless times but was always covered by thick fog!

It was her?!

It turned out to be Luo Zhaohan?

The powerful impact, mixed with indescribable shock and a sense of fate, was like a huge wave that instantly broke through the dams of his consciousness that he had struggled to maintain!

"It's you...!" Pei Ji cried out, his voice shrill and broken! He didn't even notice that his footsteps had subconsciously rushed towards the fading light and towards Luo Zhaohan's thin back!

He had only one thought in his mind: he had to ask, he had to confirm!

The woman who sought justice in the rain!

That desperate scream!

That pain, blurred by rain and tears but always etched deep in his nightmares, was it the injustice of her past life?

Why was she beating the drum? What injustice had she suffered that made her cry out in despair?

Just when he rushed to within a step of her, with his fingertips almost touching the edge of the moon-white dress—

Bang!

The soil under my feet loosened!

The weakness and excruciating pain in his legs, which had long accumulated to the limit, suddenly erupted! His knee felt like it had been shattered by an invisible hammer! Before he could even utter a muffled groan, his body completely lost its balance and he fell heavily forward to his knees.

The fishy and sweet taste that was suppressed in the throat could no longer be suppressed and turned into a burning torrent!

"puff--!"

at the same time--

hiss……

The last faint spark of the only remaining tinder in Luo Zhaohan's hand suddenly exploded into a small bright spot, and then it trembled and shook unwillingly like the wings of a dying butterfly.

Completely extinguished!

The boundless, pure and suffocating darkness, like the inky sea water formed by billions of tons of ice, collapsed and instantly swallowed up the narrow earth and stone secret passage, as well as Pei Ji who fell to the ground, and Luo Zhaohan who stood in the center of the darkness.

"Luo...Luo Zhaohan?!" Pei Ji stretched out his hand, his five fingers grasping in vain at the void, but his grasp came up empty. His body swayed heavily due to the sudden loss of balance, and his knees hit the damp and cold earth wall. The severe pain mixed with the chaos of the burning drug hit his shaky mind even more violently.

Almost the next second after he called out in panic, a slightly cool but extremely steady hand suddenly reached out from the darkness and firmly and almost forcefully grasped his cold and stiff wrist!

That hand, with unquestionable strength, suddenly pulled up his staggering body!

There was a slight pause, and then he felt a supporting force from his shoulder - it was Luo Zhaohan, who helped his crooked center of gravity find its fulcrum again.

Pei Ji's chaotic mind was like boiling water.

The powerful pull and support was like an icy torrent, briefly penetrating his senses paralyzed by pain.

However, what followed was an even more intense chaos and dizziness! What did Luo Zhaohan's face look like in the darkness? He didn't know! He only felt the countless red-hot needles stirring frantically in his muscles, bones, and flesh! A fishy and sweet taste surged in his throat!

But one thought remained: ask! He had to get to the bottom of it! The nightmare that had tormented him for half his life, and now had finally found its master!