Chapter 33 No one can hurt me...
While observing, Ling Qiu glanced at the time; it was already 6:45 PM, and the explosion would occur at 7:00 PM.
But her father was busy deleting records, and her mother was busy destroying documents; neither of them showed any sign of leaving.
The thought that she would soon witness them being blown up caused Ling Qiu to suddenly break down.
"Go! Why aren't you leaving?! Go!!!" she yelled, "Forget about these things! What are these things! Go!!!"
Her screams gradually escalated into desperate, hysterical screams.
"Go away!!!!" She tried to pull the two apart, but her hands just kept passing through their bodies. They couldn't see her, hear her, or touch her.
Why aren't you leaving?!
Ling Qiu was completely immersed in the situation. She had forgotten that she was just an observer in this matter. Why? She was standing right here, so why couldn't she change the ending she already knew?
"Go, Mom!!!" Ling Qiu screamed. She didn't understand them. What difference would destroying these things make? The most important thing was to save their lives, wasn't it?
Only by staying alive can we slowly figure out a solution later! They're a family; what problem can't they solve together?
“I think I heard Qiuqiu calling me…” Ling Baihe suddenly turned around, her gaze searching for a certain spot, landing on Ling Qiu’s face, where it met Ling Qiu’s confused look.
Ling Qiu froze, and for a moment, she seemed to exchange a brief glance with her mother.
"We don't have much time left." Ling Mo's voice pulled Ling Baihe back to reality. "You go first. I'll delete your files."
Ling Baihe slowly withdrew her gaze, adjusted her glasses, and calmly replied, "Only I have the authority to destroy these documents."
Seeing her mother turn back to continue destroying the documents, Ling Qiu suddenly calmed down. No, she came here to find out the truth about what happened back then.
This is just a video recording from the past; it doesn't even exist...
She straightened up and strode over to her mother, wanting to see what exactly her mother wanted to destroy.
In front of Ling Baihe, the information on the screen was disappearing rapidly, and even though Ling Qiu was trying hard to see it clearly, he could not see it clearly at all.
Ling Qiu knew, of course, that this was a cult that had sprung up back then, and her mother had specifically told her not to get close to those people.
Lingqiu always thought that her mother's instructions were just like other mothers telling their children not to talk to strangers. She never expected that her mother would have so much information about cults.
She squinted; the information on the screen was flashing too fast for her to see clearly. Just then, the screen paused for a moment.
Ling Qiu finally saw a photo clearly. It showed several people in black coats pointing in a direction and talking. A little girl was standing in the direction they were pointing.
Wait, this little girl looks like...
"These people have been eyeing Qiuqiu since back then." Ling Baihe's voice rang out. She sneered, her sharp gaze turning even colder. "These scumbags don't even dare to lay a finger on my daughter."
Ling Qiu choked up. The little girl in the photo was actually her, but she had no recollection of when or where the photo had been taken.
Ling Baihe quickly destroyed the photo, but a second before that, Ling Qiu saw the red armbands peeking out from under the cuffs of those people's black coats.
On one of the red armbands, she saw a symbol.
Ling Qiu's gaze was immediately drawn to the symbol. She felt it looked very familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before...
Red armbands, cults...
Wait, she remembered!
Isn't this the symbol of the Temple?!
The cult that suddenly disappeared more than a decade ago is actually the Temple that has recently reappeared!?
So, does that mean Huanyu is colluding with a cult?
What is the purpose?
"I knew it. So that's why the company suddenly relaxed restrictions on freelancers." Ling Baihe said mockingly. "If I'm not mistaken, most of the people who stayed at the company today, including their families, are probably freelancers."
Ling Mo's matter was almost resolved. He glanced back and said, "You mean, they want to use this as an excuse to eliminate free agents in large numbers?"
Ling Baihe shook her head: "These hyenas are not as hostile to lower-class free people as they seem. They want to sacrifice free people to achieve their own goals."
"Sacrifice?" Ling Mo was stunned. "That's absurd."
“…Perhaps it’s not absurd.” Ling Baihe pursed her lips. “Amo, there’s something I haven’t told you yet. I originally wanted to wait until I found out some clues before telling you, but now it seems there’s no chance at all.”
She turned to look at him. "I've always felt that this cult isn't just a pretext for inciting people. There really is something like that in this cult. Do you understand what I mean?"
"You mean..." Ling Mo said incredulously, "Something like an evil god? A ghost?"
"Pretty much. I once accidentally glimpsed Mambora talking to a cloud of black mist. I don't know how to describe that phenomenon. It was definitely not a hologram, nor any other kind of technological means. That guy's voice was extremely strange. It was definitely not human."
Her mother's words were like a cold needle, piercing Ling Qiu deeply and chilling her to the bone.
Non-human creatures, cult organizations, isn't that... Cyrus?
Ling Qiu inevitably recalled the first night she brought Cyrus home, when she saw the ghostly face picture of the temple on the computer, and the smile on Cyrus's face matched that face.
Could it be... that Cyrus is an evil god, the master of the temple, and that his sudden appearance before her is because of the unfinished sacrifice from over a decade ago?
According to her mother, she was originally on the list of those to be sacrificed, but her parents removed her from the list and saved her from being sacrificed.
So, more than a decade later, Cyrus came to her. He sought her out to complete the sacrifice he had made years ago.
“Human sacrifices should provide that thing with a lot of power.” Ling Baihe’s voice continued, “And obviously, the higher-ups at Huanyu know about that thing’s power and have reached an agreement with it. They provide sacrifices to it and will also receive something in return.”
"If... if that's the case..." Ling Mo's expression became chaotic. He never expected things to turn out this way. "Even if we remove Qiu Qiu from the situation, won't that thing come back to her?"
“Therefore, I must ensure that Huanyu’s conspiracy fails completely,” Ling Baihe said. “This sacrifice has strict requirements on time and number of people. Now everyone is trapped in the building, and there are people watching outside. They will never allow the number of people to change… Therefore, we can only manipulate the timing.”
"You mean..."
“They will never let the time be delayed, so we will bring it forward.” Ling Baihe’s eyes grew colder and more resolute. “I will never let anything happen to my daughter.”
The explosion was a pre-ordained event, and the movements of everyone in the building were under control. Even if these people could not survive, they could not become sacrifices to the evil.
“Okay, whatever decision you make, I will be there for you,” Ling Mo said. “It’s just a pity that we will never be able to see Qiuqiu again, nor will we be able to fulfill our last wishes.”
"I really hope that Qiuqiu will discover our work in the future," Ling Mo murmured.
Ling Baihe shook her head: "It's impossible. The chip will be destroyed directly after the explosion."
“That’s true…” Ling Mo gave a wry smile.
He watched as his wife went ahead to change the course of the explosion, and after turning to the sky and whispering a prayer, he resolutely followed in her footsteps.
Ling Qiu stepped forward and heard her father whisper, "Qiu Qiu, it's in the oak grove. I hope that one day when you go back there, you will be able to find it."
Ling Qiu was stunned. The oak pile was a playground-like place near her kindergarten when she was a child, a place that was almost exclusively frequented by free people.
Her parents left something for her in the oak pile.
Ling Qiu took several deep breaths, watching the hands on the clock change second by second. She knew when the explosion would happen, and every minute was endless torment for her.
She gazed at her mother and father's figures with almost greedy eyes until her eyes stung and tears blurred her vision again. She clenched her teeth, barely daring to look anymore...
Then she heard a soft, smug voice: "It worked."
A violent roar shattered his eardrums, and all Ling Qiu could see was endless flames and the figures of his parents seemingly huddled together.
Her tears flowed uncontrollably like beads from a broken string, but her eyes no longer held pity, but resentment.
The truth of the whole incident is this: the explosion back then was not an accident at all. More than ten years ago, her parents were killed by Huanyu's top management in collusion with an evil god. In the ten minutes after they learned the truth, they did their best to protect her.
Ling Qiu wiped away her tears and took deep breaths to calm herself down.
Therefore, it is very likely that Cyrus is that evil god. The sacrifice back then failed, so the cult disappeared. But now, Cyrus has reappeared, and the temple has risen again.
He found her, surely to complete that unfinished sacrifice from many years ago?
She had previously held the attitude that as long as her wish could be fulfilled, being sacrificed wouldn't matter. Even if she only had two years left to live, those were precious two years that her parents had fought for her.
How can we just hand it over to that monster like this...?
That guy could clearly be considered the enemy who killed her parents.
The scene slowly shifts away, the blinding firelight dissipates, and in its place is Ling Qiu's dimly lit room. After searching the room thoroughly, she discovers that Cyrus is nowhere to be found.
Where did He go? Surely He didn't hide because he felt guilty...?
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