Traction

The nanny hurriedly went to the window and pushed it hard, but the locked glass wouldn't budge. How could any air be getting in?

She pushed with all her might, several times, until she was sure it was locked and wouldn't budge. Then she straightened up and slowly walked back to Yu Xi's side, trembling as she spoke, "Mr. Yu, the window has been closed the whole time. No wind can come in, so how could the curtains be moving?"

"Moreover, I've been standing here for so long and haven't felt a breath of wind."

She shook the curtains and searched around. "I clean the house every day, and I clean every nook and cranny, but I haven't seen any mice."

Yu Xi laughed and said, "But I clearly saw the curtains move, and they sway slightly every day, as if they were responding to me because they were afraid I was lonely."

"It's like someone has always been with me."

The nanny was a believer in metaphysics. She believed that ghosts and gods really existed in the world, but she had never seen such a thing happen with her own eyes. When Yu Xi said these words, she took several steps back in fright, getting further and further away from the window, until the distance was far enough that she felt it was a safe distance before she stopped.

"Mr. Yu, are you sure you're not mistaken?"

Yu Xi shook her head, refuting her words once again, "I'm sure I wouldn't be mistaken." Then, as if hope had instantly ignited in her eyes, she turned and asked, "Do you think it might be A-Chou who came to see me?"

After she finished speaking, Meng Chou immediately floated to her side and kept repeating, "Yes, it's me, it's me, it really is me."

"Little Fish, I've come to see you. I begged the ghost messenger to let me stay until after you give birth, then I'll leave."

"But now that I see you and the child are safe and sound, I am even more reluctant to leave you. The thought of not being able to see you again makes me feel even more sad."

"I am so sorry that I couldn't keep my promise and couldn't be by your side and the baby's side."

He floated to Yu Xi's side and called her name, "Little Fish".

At that very moment, Yu Xi looked up and met his gaze. Yu Xi's heart suddenly raced, and he lost his rhythm.

Same as before, yet different from before.

This time, their eyes could no longer reflect each other.

Everything has changed, except for love.

Meng Chou looked down at her, gazing into her eyes, his eyes never leaving her for a moment. He mentally sketched her image, afraid he would forget, so he tried his best to remember it.

“Ms. Yu, maybe it really is Mr. Meng who came back to see you and the baby.” After Yu Xi said this, the nanny analyzed, “If it were any other ghost, it would definitely be trying to scare people. But you said it has been with you and hasn’t done anything to harm you and the baby, so I think it must be Mr. Meng.”

As she spoke, she retreated towards the door.

Yu Xi was so engrossed in talking to herself that she didn't notice that she had walked out.

The moment the door closed, the nanny leaned against the wall, trembling as she took out her phone and dialed Meng Yun's number. She then mustered her courage and glanced at Yu Xi, who was staring blankly out the window, her head tilted back.

When the call connected, she said haltingly, "Mr. Meng, I've noticed that Ms. Yu's emotional state is a bit off. If you have time, could you come and check on her?"

"She said she could see the curtains in the room moving, but the windows were always closed and there was no wind..."

The nanny didn't want to continue the conversation. Meng Yun, on the other end of the line, hadn't said a word since the call connected until the other party explained the reason. Only then did he say, "Okay, I understand. I'll be right there."

Along with his voice came his secretary's anxious question, "This meeting is very important, do we really need to rush over now?"

With a 'snap', the file was slammed shut, and the phone call ended at the same time.

The walls inside the room rippled and began to twist and deform, like a calm pool of water suddenly being broken, plotting to unleash a storm.

Meng Chou knew that Bai Wuchang had come to urge him to go back. He also knew that the agreed time to go back had long passed, and that it was already a sign of leniency that Bai Wuchang came to take him back before the appointed time.

He could no longer utter the words of pleading to stay in this world a little longer.

"Now that the agreed time has passed, let's go back." With a light stroke of his long, sharp fingernail, Bai Wuchang created a bottomless tunnel in front of Meng Chou.

He floated away from Yu Xi and looked into the tunnel. The dark, boundless sky was mixed with a deep red, blood-like color. A dirt road, barely wide enough for one person to pass through, was lined with spider lilies. This dirt road was suspended in the air above the tunnel. Below the road was a sea of ​​molten lava, with bubbles rising from it every now and then bursting and disappearing in just a few seconds.

The rising heat hit us in the face, and the road was so narrow that if we weren't careful, we would fall and our souls would be buried in the sea of ​​fire.

A scream rang out, and a spirit fell from the road not far away, landing with a 'plop' in the lava. There were thousands of these roads, and on each one, a spirit was carefully making its way forward.

Countless roads lead to one place—the underworld.

Bai Wujian stared at the falling people and said with a cold laugh, "Those were people who committed all kinds of evil deeds in their lives, thinking that they could be reborn as humans after walking this path."

As he spoke, he suddenly moved closer to Meng Chou, his pale face suddenly very close to him, and the coldness of someone who had never seen the sun for many years also drifted over, which would inevitably make anyone who saw him feel terrified.

"If you do evil in life, you must pay for it after death. However, this is inherently unfair. Those who do evil in life should suffer the consequences before they die. Otherwise, they will have to walk this terrifying road in the underworld. With each step they take, the evil they did in life will return to them thousands of times over."

"That kind of pain, that kind of torment, is enough to make them stumble and fall."

Therefore, no evil person can pass through this road smoothly.

Instead of being frightened, Meng Chou smiled and said, "That would be perfect. I've experienced even more torment than those people."

"Things like them shouldn't even be alive."

As Bai Wuchang spoke, his long, sharp fingernails rested on his shoulder, pushing him onto the road. "It's time for you to go too."

"You are but a soul, why linger on things that do not belong to you?"

What seemed like a gentle push actually exerted a heavy force, leaving Meng Chou with no choice but to be pushed onto that road.

He looked back reluctantly, but Yu Xi's figure disappeared from his sight as the tunnel gradually closed.

The moment he stepped onto this dirt road, a force propelled him forward, making it impossible for him to turn back or retreat; he could only move forward.

All around him were souls in the same predicament as him, and one was falling every second. As each soul fell, the dirt road beneath his feet collapsed.

Before long, the clods of earth would float up from the sea of ​​fire again, coalescing in the air to form a road, and the spider lilies would quickly sprout, grow, and bloom on both sides of the road.

The whole process took no more than a few seconds.

Meng Chou walked forward resolutely. With each step, scenes of his love with Yu Xi flashed through his mind: moments when they snuggled on the sofa watching a movie together and were moved to tears by the plot; scenes when they happily embraced each other after earning their first pot of gold with their startup company; scenes when they playfully teased each other as they gradually expanded their villa...

The fragments of his memories formed an invisible thread, tightly pulling him forward steadily.

At the same time, Meng Yun suspended the meeting and drove hurriedly to the hospital. After Yu Xi gave birth, he learned about many cases of postpartum depression.

Meng Chou's death, the loneliness of having no one to accompany him, and a child who is very much like Meng Chou.

These things were enough to crush Yu Xi's heart, especially since that beating heart was given to her by Meng Chou.

The moment Meng Chou left, Yu Xi snapped out of her daze and turned to pick up Meng Qingze, who was lying in the cradle. The little one stayed quietly in her arms, neither crying nor making a fuss.

She felt the child's body heat seeping through the blanket, warming her.

But as she looked down to get a closer look at the child's face, he opened his eyes, those eyes that were so similar to Meng Chou's, and stared at her.

In an instant, Yu Xi saw Meng Chou's carefree smile. That handsome face closed its eyes in her arms and never opened them again.

Painful memories flooded back like a tidal wave, and an electric shock-like sense of detachment swept over me once again.

Her breathing quickened, her fingertips slowly grew cold, and the chill spread throughout her body. She couldn't look directly into those eyes, and she was afraid of reliving the car accident scene from that day.

The bloody scene surrounded her, enveloping her, and the pungent smell still lingers in her memory.

Yu Xi didn't know what was wrong with her; she suddenly felt a sense of disgust towards the child. She hated and was afraid to look into his eyes.

The nanny had just returned from the phone call when she saw Yu Xi covered by a quilt, and the baby wrapped in it was unusually silent, his little face already turning blue, not crying, just staring at Yu Xi.

"Sweetie, let Mommy take you with me."

"You look so much like him, how can you look so much like him? But I've already lost him, I'm so tired, I really want to rest."

At the critical moment, the nanny snatched Meng Qingze from her hands, lifted the thick quilt covering his nose, and turned to run out the door, only to bump into Meng Yun who was rushing over.

Before the latter could react, the nanny, holding the baby, hid behind him and said, "Mr. Meng, President Yu, President Yu... she wants to suffocate the baby."

“I just noticed that President Yu was not in a good state. Luckily, I turned around and took a look, otherwise this child would have…” She didn’t continue, but saw Meng Qingze, who was wrapped in a quilt, raising his hand to grab her collar.

"Little Fish, listen to me..." Meng Yun waved her hand, signaling the nanny to take the baby out first, and spoke softly to her.

Yu Xi interrupted him, "Don't call me that, it's disgusting!"

Do you think you're like him?