Chapter 79: Ghost

"In your previous life...what injustice did you suffer?" These words were like a rusty and blunt knife, which he uttered one by one through his clenched teeth, and blood foam silently overflowed between his lips and teeth.

Every word required immense willpower, and a tearing murmur emanated from the depths of his throat. "Tell me, who made you... cry..."

In the darkness, he could almost feel Luo Zhaohan leaning against his side, his thin body suddenly stiffening.

Then, an indescribable and tremendous force slammed into the arm that he was leaning on - it was Luo Zhaohan who suddenly shook off the hand that was supporting him when he asked him without any preparation. His body staggered to the side uncontrollably and hit the cold and hard earth wall on the other side!

The dull sound of impact was particularly harsh in the dead silence.

Dust fell down.

Pei Ji was thrown out of control, and his already confused thoughts became even more blank.

The intense pain from the drug, mixed with the intense dizziness, hit the dam of his consciousness like a wave. But he held on to that shaky bit of consciousness, like a drowning man grabbing a piece of driftwood.

The only thing left in his mind was Luo Zhaohan's final, air-piercing question: "Did you also dream of me crying?"

"...I dreamed..." Pei Ji's throat made a hoarse sound, and the broken voice was like a broken string. "I dreamed...that you were crying and begging...saying that you were wronged...it was very cold...there was no one in front of the Dali Temple..."

He spoke incoherently and chaotically, trying to describe the fragments of the nightmare that had plagued him for years.

This confusing description failed to express any comfort. Instead, it was like a red-hot iron, stabbing once again into Luo Zhaohan's bloody heart, which had just been torn open by him!

A surge of rage suddenly overwhelmed Pei Ji's remaining rationality! He hated his own incompetence! He hated the weakness of this body under the torment of the poison! He hated his useless state, unable to even utter a clear and complete sentence. Not only could he not find the truth, he might even irritate and hurt her again!

"Ugh..." He suddenly shook off the vague feeling of wanting to get closer, and his body slammed heavily into the earth wall behind him, causing more dust to fall.

He forced himself to turn his head and clench his teeth! The sharp pain of his tongue being pierced mixed with a mouthful of rusty sweetness rushed out!

puff--!

The sharp stinging pain finally split the chaos! Pei Ji relied on the clarity supported by the smell of blood, and with the last bit of strength, he screamed in a trembling voice: "Quick... knock me out now... don't let me hurt you!"

The secret passage fell into dead silence.

This brief silence was more suffocating than any torture.

Pei Ji stared wide-eyed in the darkness, and all he saw was the all-consuming darkness.

No response? Was she hurt? Frightened by her own loss of control? His heart felt like it had been hollowed out by an ice pick, and a surge of panic threatened to overwhelm him.

In this despairing silence—

“Woo…”

An extremely faint, suppressed sob, like the dying cry of a wounded cub, came from the direction where Luo Zhaohan had just bumped into, extremely difficult and uncontrollable!

The voice was low, dull, and with the sound of broken air flow as if the throat was being strangled. It was as short as a whimper and then forcibly blocked, but was forcibly squeezed out from between the fingers or the larynx in the next moment!

Is it her? She's crying?!

It was like the fiercest flames were instantly frozen into ice that had lasted for billions of years! All of Pei Ji's suffering, drowsiness, excruciating pain, and the little clarity he had gained from biting his tongue, shattered when he caught the sound of the sobs that he had tried so hard to suppress but eventually leaked out!

His mind went blank!

Like a puppet being pulled by the sobbing, his body stumbled forward before his mind could react, and his hands desperately grabbed towards the source of the sound in the extreme chaos and darkness!

His fingertips touched a cold, wet wall of earth, and his hands were stained with slippery moss. He groped forward like a madman, almost frantically!

Touched it!

Clothes! It was smooth, slightly cool, and damp silk! He hurriedly reached up along the fabric, his palm passing over the slender and trembling shoulder line, and his fingertips touched a cold and wet texture in the darkness - it was the cheek!

Pei Ji's hands began to tremble violently as if they were frostbitten! He clumsily placed his entire palm on Luo Zhaohan's cheek. His palm and fingertips felt a hot wetness on the cold skin!

Was she really...crying?

This realization was like a devastating tsunami, completely knocking him over and drowning him in an instant!

"Miss Luo! I'm sorry... I... I'm a bastard... I've lost my mind... I'm..." Pei Ji's throat was blocked by a huge sob, and the sob was like a red-hot sharp knife stabbing into his heart! He spoke incoherently, repeating his apology instinctively. His hands trembled slightly, but he tried to wipe her tears very gently. The hot tears under his palms were like boiling lava, burning his fingertips. "Don't cry... Please don't..."

His response was more rapid sobbing.

The sobs that had been suppressed for too long, as if imprisoned in an icy abyss for years, finally found a chance to vent, like a flood that broke through a dam, and could no longer be stopped from dissipating into the heavy darkness.

His frantic apology seemed to fall completely on empty air. In the darkness, Luo Zhaohan shook his head violently, the movement moving the fingers that had frozen on his cheek.

"No... I don't blame you..." Her voice finally trembled with a hoarseness and uneven breathing after tears, "That was not... a dream..."

She took a deep breath, trying to calm the sobs choking her throat. Every word she spoke was like walking on icy ridges, cold and difficult. "That was me in my last life."

Luo Zhaohan's voice drifted in the darkness, as if coming through the thick ice:

"After the Luo family's so-called 'treason case'... there were 173 members of the entire family..."

The voice carried the dull pain of a knife cutting into one's bones.

"They're all dead."

"I'm the only one left."

"Wandering around the sealed, barricaded Fuyuan General's Mansion."

She paused, a tiny, suppressed sob coming from her throat.

"Like a lonely soul that refuses to leave."

"Waiting."

In the darkness, she seemed to be shaking her head very slightly.

"What are you waiting for?"

"I'm probably waiting for those people in the mansion... Dad, Mom, Brother, and the little girl Guihua who always gets spanked by Mom for sneaking snacks from the kitchen... They'll eventually come back to pick me up, right?"

"The mansion is still the same... but not the same. Dad's rosewood sword rack has fallen to the ground, and Mom's favorite green gauze cabinet has a hole in it. The draft blowing through the hall sounds like a ghost crying."

"There was dust everywhere."

"It's cold...it's huge...it's empty...it's like an iron cage..."

There was another moment of silence.

Footsteps! Slow, powerful, and meticulous footsteps! Coming from far away.

“…When I heard those footsteps…”

Luo Zhaohan's voice was suddenly tinged with a faint flame that suddenly burned out after despair, with a hint of unbelievable unreality, and his voice seemed to be floating.

"Oh my god... I thought it was them! They heard my wish! They came to get me!"

"I tried to open my eyes..." She took a deep breath, as if being pulled back to that moment of great despair.

"But I saw you."

Pei Ji felt the cheek muscles under her palm suddenly tense! It was as if she also saw again at that moment the figure who suddenly appeared in her desperate situation that day - himself!

"You were wearing a dark blue Dali Temple official uniform... I remember there were spots of mud on the hem of your robe." Her voice was like a frozen memory being torn apart again, "There were dead grass and mud on your boots..."

Every description struck Pei Ji's heart.

"You stood there in the thick layer of dust that looked like snow powder..."

She paused, the huge suppressed fear and despair surged up again, "Look at my eyes..."

She seemed unable to describe his expression at that moment. The overwhelming emotional impact made her take a deep breath before continuing, each word carrying an indelible heaviness:

"You said to me, 'Your humble servant Pei Ji... failed to live up to General Luo's trust... failed to clear the General's Mansion of the injustice..."

His voice was like the sharpest ice cone, smashing the illusory ice of expectation in Luo Zhaohan's heart into pieces!

"You stand there..."

Luo Zhaohan's voice suddenly rose, with a sharpness that felt like the soul was being split by great fear and absurdity!

"You actually knelt down before me—an orphan girl kneeling in the dust, waiting to die! Before the soul of this 'criminal minister' who was convicted of treason and whose body was still warm! With a thud, you knelt down heavily!"

"Then!" Luo Zhaohan's voice was shaking. "Your forehead hit the cold floor tiles! There was a loud thud!"

With a 'bang' sound!

"You told me, 'I am incompetent... I have broken my promise... I deserve death...'"

"You must kowtow and make amends to these wronged souls of 'traitors'!"

boom--!

Pei Ji felt as if a thousand thunderbolts were exploding in his head! The heavy kneeling posture, the image of prostrating himself before the wronged souls in the mansion! Like the most turbulent torrent, it fiercely shattered the foggy nightmare in his mind!

It turns out that those were not imaginary fragments left over from a dream!

Was that the last step he actually took in his previous life?

He went! In that hopeless ruin, in front of the real Luo Zhaohan, with a muddy body of the Dali Temple Shaoqing, facing the only bloodline after the destruction of the Luo family, and also facing the unspeakable wronged souls in the mansion, with the heaviest, most humble, and most thorough attitude -

Kneel down!

Bow!

Atonement!

Admit this "sin" of powerlessness?

But this belated and even humiliating apology was a shame for Luo Zhaohan, who was heartbroken and waiting to die.

"I understand..." Luo Zhaohan's voice was filled with overwhelming despair and deep fatigue, as if his soul had been completely drained away, leaving only boundless cold and ashes. "So you tried your best..."

"If even the Junior Minister of the Dali Temple is powerless to resolve this injustice, what else can we do to resolve it..."

"I can't blame you...really..." The voice faded away, leaving only a dead silence. "It's just that I have no more worries in this world...I don't need to wait any longer..."

The last bit of weak fire that supported her was the thought of "waiting for someone to pick her up", but it was crushed by Pei Ji's kneeling, which was heavy with sorrow but completely declared the end.

The family's grievances were as heavy as a mountain, buried deep in the earth. This man, struggling to survive, had finally reached the end of his road.

Pei Ji stood stiffly in the endless darkness, his palm still pressing on her cold tear marks.

The scorching temperature seemed to have burned into his bones.

Pei Ji stood in front of the huge despair, feeling no coldness, but instead a sharp pain as if his bones were being burned by karmic fire - for this dead end, and also for her despair.

He straightened his spine, which was almost crushed by the pressure, and let the blood oozing from the wound on his forehead slide down, mixing with the blue veins on his forehead that were bulging from trying so hard.

His voice was not loud, but it was like an iron chisel striking ice, with the sound that only a string about to break could produce:

"The blood of the Luo family will not be shed in vain! The injustice will eventually be redressed! If the heaven is blind," he stared at the pair of eyes that had lost all luster in the shadows, "I, Pei Ji, will be the knife that breaks the iron curtain! I will risk my life to seek justice for Zhong Gu!" Every word was bitten in the blood foam.

Without waiting for her to react, his tone suddenly changed, forcibly suppressing the sweet taste in his throat, revealing a sense of relief and comfort that was incompatible with his resolute attitude: "If you fail and die, young lady, there is no need to worry about you, and there is no need to feel guilty."

He raised his head slightly, his sight seeming to penetrate the rotten dark roof of the general's mansion and cast on a certain origin that was illusory yet actually existed. "But... it's just returning to where I came from." His voice became low, like a long whistle before a returning wild goose folded its wings.

Luo Zhaohan in the corner was shocked!

The forced despair she'd pretended was suddenly ripped apart by these unexpected words. With great effort, she raised her head, her despair-clouded vision, through the hazy light of tears, finally catching a clear glimpse of his face for the first time—no longer the majestic and solemn symbol of the Dali Temple's official robes, but a living being on the verge of being torn apart and dried out.

His face was pale, his eyes were bloodshot, his boots were soaked in sweat and dust, and covered in mud, and there were several inconspicuous cuts on the collar of his robe that were obviously torn and scratched in haste.

Everything is silently telling the hardships of the journey and the struggle in desperate situations.

A huge confusion instantly overwhelmed the sadness.

"You..." A hoarse voice was squeezed out of his throat with difficulty, "Why on earth... would you do this for us?"

"That 'place we came from,'" her voice trembled even more violently due to the great uncertainty. "Where exactly is that?"

It seemed as if there was a thread pulling at me, and that place seemed even more unreachable than the abyss before my eyes.

Pei Ji's expression suddenly became extremely complicated, and there was a hint of heart-pounding distance and depth in his heavy fatigue, as if a part of his soul had broken free from his body and returned to where it came from.

He was silent for several breaths, so long that Luo Zhaohan almost thought he would not answer. Then he spoke as if he had exhausted the last bit of his energy:

"When the dust settles..." His gaze fell on her face again, with a strange warmth, but also suffocated by the heavy reality, "If you and I are still alive, I will tell you again."

As soon as the words fell.

“Wow!!!”

The dam, suppressed to the limit, suddenly collapsed! The accumulated despair of the entire family, the collapse of all beliefs, and the huge impact of this heavy and incomprehensible protection was like magma finding the only way to break through.

Luo Zhaohan suddenly fell forward, curled up on the ground, his fingers digging into the cold cracks in the bricks, and let out a heart-wrenching cry that he had never heard in his two lives.