Chapter 118, Chapter Nineteen: The Lost Manor
In her youthful arrogance, Li Yufei got into many fights.
She doesn't care about being retaliated against. As the saying goes, if you have a clear conscience, you have nothing to fear. She always has a good reason for taking action. It may not be entirely righteous, but it is always necessary. As long as she has a clear conscience, that's enough.
But now, she feels guilty.
Tap tap, tap tap tap...
A ghost is knocking on the door.
"What's the panic? It's embarrassing!" Song Xiaona cursed silently, tearing apart the two hands that were tightly gripping her, leaving eight deep nail marks on her forearms.
Thank goodness the scallops that swallowed two manicured nails, otherwise there would have been ten.
Song Xiaona pulled her hand away and patted Li Yufei, urging her to speak.
Li Yufei kept shrinking behind Song Xiaona, circling around looking for a hole to crawl into.
Looking at her useless appearance, Song Xiaona glared at her and said loudly, "She just finished applying body lotion and will have to wait another 20 minutes. You should go back first, and she will go back to her room by herself in a while."
There was a moment of silence outside the door, then a reply came: "Okay."
As the footsteps faded into the distance and the door closed, Li Yufei slumped onto the sofa.
"Is there any need to be so scared?" Song Xiaona asked, puzzled. "He can't possibly eat you."
"What's so strange about him eating people now!"
"He's not going to eat you."
“Why wouldn’t he eat me?” Li Yufei pinched the broken end of her manicure. “Maybe he became a vengeful ghost after he died because of me. He came back to take revenge on me.”
Song Xiaona was stunned: "Are you serious? Cheng Yuzhou is getting revenge on you?"
"Otherwise what!"
"Isn't this clearly a case of unrequited love between a ghost and a human?"
"Are you serious?" Li Yufei asked in surprise. "Song Xiaona, someone's died. You're so love-struck! What's on your mind all day?"
Song Xiaona couldn't catch her breath; she never imagined she'd be called love-struck by someone like Li Yufei.
"Wake up," Li Yufei lectured her. "Think about how I treated him before. Even if I were more beautiful, if you were in my shoes, would you want to talk to me even if you were dead?"
“I didn’t want to while I was alive.” Song Xiaona frowned. “Then where is the real Zheng Jianbin?”
"He... should be alright."
Do you know where he is?
“I don’t know. But I asked him through the dead ant what happens when a person is possessed. He said something like, ‘Maybe he’s still in that body; maybe the game is over, and he’s been kicked out of the manor and gone back outside.’”
That sounded a bit strange. Song Xiaona frowned. "You believe him just because he says so?"
Li Yufei pouted and twirled her hair, "I don't think he's lying to me."
Cheng Yuzhou's answer was intriguing, and Song Xiaona pondered it for a while, sensing something unusual about it.
If Cheng Yuzhou was just trying to comfort Li Yufei, he didn't need to give two answers. He could either say that Zheng Jianbin was still inside her body or that they had returned outside. He could just make up one to appease Li Yufei.
Why did he say that?
Are there multiple different types of possession? Depending on the method of possession, the host will have different outcomes?
Based on this calculation, is it really possible that Zheng Jianbin survived unharmed?
Cheng Yuzhou has gone so far as to torture and kill innocent people, so how could he possibly let go of Zheng Jianbin, his rival in love?
Wait a minute—Song Xiaona was shocked by her own numb thoughts.
Having only been here for a few days, she had already come to regard "murder" as commonplace.
It's not just Cheng Yuzhou who's gone mad, has she gone mad too? How could a normal person kill someone just out of jealousy?
Cheng Yuzhou was a law-abiding citizen during his lifetime. Apart from love, his values were more upright than hers and Li Yufei's combined.
Would he kill someone so casually...?
Would someone who has always obeyed the law suddenly and easily take another person's life without any psychological burden?
Is killing really that easy?
Song Xiaona doesn't consider herself someone bound by morality or emotions, but she can't bring herself to commit malicious murder.
Furthermore, killing Zheng Jianbin is somewhat justifiable, but what benefit would it bring to Cheng Yuzhou to imprison so many unrelated innocent people?
Is it really for the purpose of establishing a sect and forming a Psyche Church?
Ah, he is definitely not a true Psyche believer. What believer would build their bedroom on the seventh floor and the church on the first floor?
How could a man who tramples the gods underfoot possibly have faith in them?
Psyche is just a figure of speech; what he truly idolizes is common knowledge. So why keep so many outsiders trapped in his and Li Yufei's marital home and let them disturb him?
Something's not right.
"I need to take a shower right away." Li Yufei stood up. "Can I use your bathroom?"
"Taking a shower now?"
“He’s not Zheng Jianbin,” Li Yufei said, taking off her clothes. “You said I put on body lotion. When we get back, he’ll smell that I don’t have the scent of shower gel on me and he’ll know I’m lying immediately.”
"If he's really here to get revenge on you, why are you still worried about all this? Rather than letting him torment you, it's better to confront him directly and make things quick."
“I just think a normal person would be entitled to take revenge on me, but what if, as you said, he’s love-struck?” Li Yufei pursed her lips. “When he was alive, he wasn’t just your average love-struck person.”
"Li Yufei".
"Hmm?" She tied her hair up and looked back at her.
Song Xiaona sneered, "Is this really you, so hesitant and indecisive?"
"None of your business..." It really was none of her business.
"I'll hurry up, don't keep rushing me." Li Yufei glared at her and went into the bathroom. "It's not like I'm the only one who knows him here. If you can't wait, go and confront him yourself."
If Song Xiaona and Cheng Yuzhou could be considered "acquaintances," then Song Xiaona would have confronted Cheng Yuzhou herself long ago, instead of relying on Li Yufei.
However, their relationship was exceptionally bad. Song Xiaona was self-aware enough that she not only couldn't go to Cheng Yuzhou, but also had to try her best to avoid being alone with him.
Cheng Yuzhou has always hated her, despising her like a rival in love, and will never let her go.
After taking a shower in Song Xiaona's bathroom, Li Yufei was tossed a towel by Song Xiaona. "We're meeting at the entrance this afternoon. I have some ideas about the 'holy war' the day after tomorrow."
What are your thoughts?
"Wait until everyone's here, so I don't have to repeat myself."
"Okay." Li Yufei returned to the seventh floor wrapped in a bath towel.
She tiptoed and pushed open the door.
There was no one in sight, but the sound of a television could be heard.
The TV screen was lit up, showing some program. Li Yufei didn't see anyone, so she breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to close the door.
"You're back."
"Whoa!" She turned around abruptly, and Zheng Jianbin suddenly appeared behind her, where no one had been a moment before.
The tall, thin man was only twenty centimeters away from her, and Li Yufei's knees buckled; she was genuinely startled.
"When did you appear! How come I didn't see you before?"
“I was watching TV on the sofa,” Cheng Yuzhou took a half step back. “Did I scare you?”
"I was so scared I almost had a heart attack." Li Yufei clutched her chest as she walked past him.
Cheng Yuzhou followed behind her. "I put the smoothie in the fridge. The egg waffles are a bit cold, should I heat them up in the oven?"
"Huh? Ah..." Li Yufei stammered and nodded, "Okay."
She sat down on the sofa. The TV was paused. She glanced at it and her eyes widened instantly. "Isn't this my video?!"
Li Yufei suddenly turned around and asked Cheng Yuzhou in the kitchen, "Is the TV connected to the internet?"
"No, not yet." Cheng Yuzhou squatted down and opened the oven. "This is a locally downloaded video. I only discovered it while waiting for you. What a coincidence that someone downloaded your channel on this TV."
Saying "what a coincidence" is just him talking about himself.
Li Yufei pursed her lips, picked up the remote control, glanced at the menu, and then stopped.
Most of the software's functions were cached. Among them, all the videos she had posted before coming to the manor were downloaded offline, not just those from six years ago.
Li Yufei scrolled through the selections.
Under each video, likes, favorites, and hearts were lit up.
She kept pressing the remote control buttons, sliding forward and then backward.
No matter how many pages I flipped through, I couldn't find a single grayed-out like or favorite button.
From her first video released nine years ago to her latest episode a week ago, a total of 428 episodes, every button has been painted red.
Neatly arranged red hearts stood before Li Yufei's eyes, without exception or omission.
She suddenly remembered the morning they met again, when he disguised himself as Zheng Jianbin and said to her:
"I upset you last night, and I wanted to buy you something to make it up to you, so I watched your video."
I just glanced at a few.
Liar...big liar.
The screen was filled with likes and hearts. She couldn't imagine how Cheng Yuzhou had sat alone in the empty bridal chamber for the past six years, watching her day after day, over and over again.
He's so considerate and attentive, and he works in the business unit, so he must have noticed that her data was sluggish for a period of time.
He discovered this, so he couldn't just give her a like; he would try to tip her, and then he discovered—
All of his financial accounts were closed.
The name Cheng Yuzhou was only briefly mentioned twice in financial news before being erased from the world's memory.
He will be here, in front of her video, once again clearly experiencing the meaning of death.
At the same time, she was frantically selling the things he had given her, trying to erase his traces from her life little by little.
bite--
The oven emitted a soft hissing sound.
A rich, sweet aroma of eggs wafted out as Cheng Yuzhou walked over with egg waffles and shaved ice. Li Yufei hurriedly pressed the back button, returning to the interface he had just paused.
“I was worried you were about to have your period, so I only bought a small portion of smoothie.” Cheng Yuzhou placed the items on the coffee table in front of her. “If I had known you were going to see Miss Song, I should have brought them some too.”
Li Yufei took it, masking her emotions with her voice, "You're my boyfriend, why are you bringing her something!"
"You two even applied body lotion to each other," Cheng Yuzhou said with a smile. "Actually, you two are quite close."
"Intimacy..." What a lame excuse Song Xiaona came up with!
She couldn't very well object, because if she did, she wouldn't be able to explain why she went to see Song Xiaona.
Li Yufei felt a lump in her throat, unable to swallow it. She scooped up a spoonful of shaved ice and used it to help her swallow it down.
That's awful Song Xiaona, making her act like some kind of arrogant person!
Cheng Yuzhou teased from the side, "When I wasn't around, you two spent time alone together, did you two argue?"
“Heh,” Li Yufei said expressionlessly, “Without a man around, provoking me alone is suicide. She knows that.”
"So what did you talk about?" Cheng Yuzhou asked casually, then realized, "Sorry, it was probably just girls talking."
“She’s always on business trips, jet lag is making her go through menopause, and she’s supposed to be a girl? It’s disgusting.” Li Yufei shook her spoon in disgust. “What can we talk about? It’s always the same old business, the holy war the day after tomorrow, what to do after that. I don’t want to talk to her. She’s never known how to respect people. Every time I ask her something, she’ll say something sarcastic and stupid.”
Cheng Yuzhou frowned. "Did she really say that?"
"Yeah! When no one's around, she completely reveals her true colors and becomes even more outrageous. That woman is two-faced and a total slut." Li Yufei got angry again. When Song Xiaona was cursing her earlier, she was so busy feeling guilty that she forgot to hit her.
I deeply regret it.
“I’ve also gotten a general idea of Miss Song’s character. Her behavior these past few days has been quite different from before,” Cheng Yuzhou advised. “Feifei, do you remember how she treated her boyfriend those two days when Dean was injured? I don’t mean to slander her, but these are extraordinary times, so we should be careful.”
Zheng Jianbin would never say such a thing.
Li Yufei disliked men who gossiped about women behind their backs. Although Song Xiaona wasn't a woman but a slut, Li Yufei still felt strange when several of her boyfriends joined in on the insults directed at Song Xiaona.
Cheng Yuzhou is different.
He was bullied by Song Xiaona a lot during elementary school, especially after he helped her testify and expose Song Xiaona. During that period, whenever Li Yufei wasn't paying attention, Cheng Yuzhou would be scolded and beaten by Song Xiaona.
Just for helping Cheng Yuzhou, Li Yufei received more than a dozen "Little Warrior of Righteousness and Courage" certificates.
Having such a tragic childhood, Li Yufei fully understands his disgust for Song Xiaona.
"You don't need to tell me, of course I know."
Cheng Yuzhou was different from other men. In the anti-Song Xiaona alliance, he was a veteran and her trusted advisor, and was qualified to gossip about her behind her back.
"But she said she's got ideas about holy war and wants us to go see her this afternoon." Li Yufei glanced at the TV in front of her and quickened her eating.
The discovery on TV left her with mixed feelings. After returning from Song Xiaona's place, her original intention to test Cheng Yuzhou began to waver.
After discovering his identity, she was in a state of confusion. She didn't know how to face him to begin with, and now she was even more confused.
What exactly is Cheng Yuzhou thinking?
If he wasn't seeking revenge, why didn't he reveal his identity? What exactly is this manor all about, and is it related to him?
And what should they do next...?
Many problems were clogging her mind like silt; she needed to avoid him and sort out her thoughts.
Li Yufei finished her meal quickly, stood up, and said, "I'm going to take a nap. Remember to wake me up this afternoon."
"Okay." Cheng Yuzhou watched her go into the room.
Her back view seemed hurried, her brows were tightly furrowed, and her eyes were still avoiding eye contact with him.
She was confused; she didn't want to face him; she needed her own space.
Cheng Yuzhou did not follow them and stayed in the living room.
His gaze returned to the glass, and he scraped up the remaining slush at the bottom.
The translucent ice crystals melted quickly on the spoon.
She said she hated Song Xiaona and didn't want to see her at all, but she would still listen to Song Xiaona.
Jam mixed with melted ice, thinly remaining on the cheap plastic spoon.
Cheng Yuzhou looked at it for a long time before putting it in his mouth.
His tongue rested on the bottom of the spoon, and the TV remote fell beside him.
He turned off the volume, pressed play, and the paused screen started moving. A charming and beautiful female blogger sat in front of the camera, holding up the advertiser's product.
There was no sound, only the subtitles at the bottom played silently:
"Long time no see, my darlings! It's time for our super-sharp-tongued review again~"
Today we're reviewing body lotion from brand A.
"The absorption time of body lotion varies from person to person. For those with oily skin, we recommend 15-20 minutes, while for those with dry skin, it's 5-10 minutes."
She squeezed out a little and applied it to her arm, showing it to the camera. "My personal habit is to wait about 13 minutes. Let's wait 13 minutes and then look at the comparison effect."
The melted shaved ice washed over my mouth and flowed coolly down my esophagus.
Cheng Yuzhou pressed the power button, and the video went dark in front of him.
"It will take another 20 minutes."
She knew perfectly well that he wasn't Zheng Jianbin, so she made a point of taking a shower at Song Xiaona's place.
This is carelessness;
Or perhaps he wasn't good enough to her, making her think he didn't even know her skincare routine.
-----------------------
The author's note: It was undoubtedly carelessness.
But never mind, who's right and who's wrong? My love-struck husband will decide for himself.
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