Chapter 142, Chapter Forty-Three: The Lost Manor
"Heh...heh..."
The warm bedside lamp turned on, and Cheng Yuzhou got up, reaching out to Li Yufei, "What's wrong, Feifei? Did you have a nightmare?"
He wanted to hug her, but before his fingertips could even touch her, she suddenly pushed him away.
Those fox-like eyes contracted and expanded back and forth, their pupils filled with a mixture of shock and anger.
Cheng Yuzhou was taken aback, and slowly withdrew his hand. "...Feifei?"
"Leave me alone." Li Yufei rolled out of bed. "Go to sleep by yourself."
She slipped into the bathroom in her slippers, her back damp and covered in a cold sweat.
Li Yufei took a shower and stood in front of the mirror, not going out immediately.
She was panting, her emotions still unsettled.
Tonight's nightmare was filled with black and red threads, tangled and wrapped around her entire body. They tightened and cut into her skin, writhing like leeches as they burrowed into her body.
Even after waking up, the scene still sent chills down Li Yufei's spine.
She opened her phone again, kissed the shrine, and hoped that what happened last night was just part of a dream.
However, when the front-facing camera is turned on, the entire screen is filled with moving black and red.
Li Yufei gritted her teeth, slammed her phone down on the sink, and glared at the mirror with hatred.
In the mirror, her soul was a blend of gold and red, pure and flawless, without a trace of impurity, just as she had seen over the years.
Cheng Yuzhou —
She trusted him so much that she was at odds with Song Xiaona for his sake. In the end, it wasn't Song Xiaona who went insane, but her!
Cheng Yuzhou, Cheng Yuzhou! How dare he treat her like this!
The soul reflected in the mirror surged and throbbed, like a raging fire, burning fiercely.
Thinking about the comfort she had given Cheng Yuzhou over the years, and the things she had said to Song Xiaona, Li Yufei felt utterly ridiculous.
She stood firmly on his side, but how much had he hidden from her and how much had he brainwashed her? He just didn't trust her, treating her like an AI pet, only caring about feeding her the commands he wanted?
Li Yufei was filled with hatred, wishing she could tear him apart alive. But then she suddenly realized why Song Xiaona had always run away from Cheng Yuzhou like a mouse seeing a cat all these years.
She wasn't afraid of him, she was afraid of being brainwashed.
Given Li Yufei's personality, she would definitely go to Cheng Yuzhou and get to the bottom of things.
But looking at the lines on the screen that were entangled with souls, Li Yufei hesitated.
Will there be an answer...?
Will questioning Cheng Yuzhou result in an answer, or will it add another dark line to her soul?
The result is obvious.
Li Yufei could not bear the thought of being brainwashed by Cheng Yuzhou and continuing to be intimate with him.
Now, she can't suppress her overwhelming anger even if she looks at Cheng Yuzhou for a second.
Bang--
Li Yufei opened the bathroom door and immediately saw Cheng Yuzhou standing guard at the door.
He looked worried, his face filled with concern. "Feifei, are you alright?"
Ha, is she alright?
How could he even ask such a question!
If she's not good, is he planning to brainwash her again?
Li Yufei controlled her breathing and said coldly, "An'an must be scared after just experiencing the Holy War. I plan to stay with her for the next few days."
She quickly packed two pieces of clothing and was about to leave when she finished speaking.
Cheng Yuzhou was taken aback: "Now? You're going to her place at this hour?"
Li Yufei ignored her, went out on her own, and slammed the door shut behind her.
Cheng Yuzhou stopped in his tracks, intending to see her off.
He stood before the closed door, and for a moment, he felt as if he had returned to ten years ago.
That's how they were back then. No, back then, Li Yufei's eyes held apology, wavering, and inner conflict when she looked at him, but tonight, her eyes were filled with anger and undisguised disgust.
what happened?
What went wrong...?
Li Yufei used a marital argument as an excuse to stay overnight next door to Wang An'an.
That night, she kept comparing her reflection in the camera and in the mirror.
The black and red lines will only appear in the camera lens and will not be visible to the naked eye.
She didn't understand why this was happening. Could electronic devices capture things that are invisible to the human eye? Like those legendary photos of ghosts?
Li Yufei had no idea when these lines appeared.
She only uses the divine card during the Holy War, and naturally, she wouldn't take out her phone to take a selfie during the Holy War.
When Li Yufei first saw these red lines, she was unsure what color the soul originally was, and she tried to record each person's soul.
It was on that occasion that she discovered that the soul could not leave an image, and she never filmed again.
If it weren't for Wang An'an, she would never have discovered it.
Did Cheng Yuzhou really brainwash her...? What did he put into her brain?
Cheng Yuzhou has good communication skills, and Li Yufei just can't figure out what he has to brainwash her to get her to compromise on.
Did he do something filthy and despicable to her? She knew that the more refined a man appeared on the surface, the more dissolute he was underneath!
What's going on with Wang An'an?
She's only been here for less than a week, how could she have been brainwashed? What's so brainwashing about a little girl who doesn't know anything!
...Yeah, what is there about Wang An'an that can be brainwashed?
Li Yufei frowned. Wang An'an trusted them completely, believing whatever they said. She posed no threat to Cheng Yuzhou. Did Cheng Yuzhou need to brainwash her?
Perhaps the black and red color wasn't brainwashing; perhaps it was just proof of being corrupted by ghost stories, or perhaps it was a count of participation in a holy war, with each participation adding a new line.
Or perhaps Cheng Yuzhou exudes a ghostly aura, leaving this mark on everyone who comes into contact with him...
In an instant, Li Yufei found countless reasons for Cheng Yuzhou.
However, this only made her more angry and frustrated:
She trusted him so much that she never doubted him, no matter what others said.
Why did you lie to her...?
New message notifications kept popping up on my phone.
Cheng Yuzhou sent her seven or eight messages in total:
[How is An'an?]
[Thank you for your hard work, Feifei. Would you like me to make some late-night snacks and bring them down?]
...
Are you asleep?
...
I'm still awake. Is there anything I can help with? I'll come right away.
Looking at the last message, Li Yufei's throat tightened.
She hovered over the "Delete Contact" button for several minutes before finally choosing to block the message.
She couldn't alert him, nor could she harbor any more illusions about Cheng Yuzhou, as this would seriously impair her judgment.
Wake up! Song Xiaona had warned her long ago that Cheng Yuzhou was definitely not innocent. Maybe there was no Yanzi at all, and the whole manor was a staged performance by him. He wanted to use all of this to… to…
What does he want to do?
What is he trying to do?! What exactly is he trying to do?!
Brainwashing her is one thing, but why not even spare an innocent girl like Wang An'an? What exactly did he brainwash An'an with?
The reasons why others were brainwashed are hard to trace, but Wang An'an has only been in there for a short time, and Li Yufei has thought through every detail of their encounter.
Cheng Yuzhou first met Wang An'an on the night Wang An'an entered the ghost story;
The first thing he said to Wang An'an was...
I don't remember.
It's been almost a week, and who can remember what the first thing their colleague said to them was last Wednesday morning?
Normally, shouldn't we greet each other?
Li Yufei pondered deeply.
She remembered that Wang An'an mentioned a conman pretending to be her boyfriend, and that's when Cheng Yuzhou joined the conversation.
Wang An'an spoke with such conviction that she was completely bewildered.
She said the swindler's name was...
Li Yufei was taken aback.
What was that swindler's name again?
"Sister Yufei."
A soft knock came at the door. Li Yufei turned around abruptly and heard a cautious call from outside: "Sister Yufei, are you awake?"
Upon opening the door, Wang An'an first examined Li Yufei's condition before suggesting, "You're awake? Want to go to Mass together?"
Li Yufei then realized that it was already morning without her noticing.
“…I won’t go,” she said.
"Are you still angry with your brother-in-law?" Wang An'an asked hesitantly. "What should I say if he asks you about it later?"
“Just say I’m sleeping.” She used the excuse of marital quarrel to tell Wang An’an. Li Yufei said awkwardly, “He doesn’t know that I’m giving him the silent treatment. Just say you don’t want to be alone, so you want me to keep you company.”
"That's alright, but how come my brother-in-law didn't know you were angry? I thought he was a sensitive man, how could he not even notice you were angry?"
"Well……"
Li Yufei didn't know why, but from childhood to adulthood, she was always caught when she lied.
Even Wang An'an, who blindly trusted her, now looks at her with suspicion, feeling that the logic is flawed.
Fortunately, she had a high level of trust in Wang An'an, so Wang An'an didn't dwell on it too much. "Sister Yufei, it's fine if you don't go to Mass, but what about the goddess parade tonight?"
Li Yufei was taken aback.
Oh no, she forgot about it.
"We'll talk about that later." She wasn't in the mood to think about that right now.
"Don't you need to get your makeup and hair done earlier?"
"No rush, there's still a whole day left. So what if I go on a tour without makeup?" Li Yufei brushed it off for a moment, then remembered something else. "By the way, An'an, what was the name of the man you told me about when you first came here?"
"A man?" Wang An'an asked, puzzled.
"It's that liar you mentioned, the one who impersonated my boyfriend."
"Oh, I think there was such a person." Wang An'an recalled, "I've kind of forgotten his name, what was it again... Hmm, since you suddenly asked me, I can't remember right away."
Li Yufei asked in surprise, "You can't remember?"
"That's impossible, An'an." She couldn't help but put her hand on Wang An'an's shoulder. "Think about it again. You repeated his name several times that day."
"...Um, I really can't remember. How about I tell you when I think of it?"
Looking into Wang An'an's blank eyes, Li Yufei felt a chill run down her spine.
She checked Wang An'an's phone, and the two were surprised to find that there were no scammers on Wang An'an's contact list at all.
Wang An'an kept repeating "How could this be?" and refreshed the page repeatedly for a long time, but she still couldn't find the man she remembered.
At this point, the truth about Cheng Yuzhou's brainwashing of Wang An'an was revealed.
Why did he do that? Was it out of jealousy?
But she still has memories of at least nine ex-boyfriends in her mind, so what's the point of erasing just one?
She didn't understand; she really didn't understand what Cheng Yuzhou was thinking!
After taking Wang An'an to Mass, Li Yufei waited in the room for a while, making sure to avoid Cheng Yuzhou leaving at the same time, and then walked towards the front door alone.
She held the effigy and her phone. At this time, the entire manor was deserted; everyone was in the chapel celebrating Mass.
The floor-to-ceiling windows of the castle chapel clearly show the worshippers sitting inside. Li Yufei stands diagonally under the shade of a tree, which is Cheng Yuzhou's blind spot on the altar.
She turned on the camera facing the window and kissed the shrine.
The next moment, the spirits inside the chapel appeared on the phone screen.
Black and red threads appeared on the screen, one, two... threads wrapped around every soul!
More or less, lines bind everyone's soul; remove the phone, and those red lines disappear, leaving only a light and graceful soul.
The people in this castle, both in soul and body, are all turned towards Cheng Yuzhou; both in soul and body, they have completely become Cheng Yuzhou's puppets.
Li Yufei gritted her teeth, turned around, and ran out of the manor.
The answer she sought was not here. The entire manor was filled only with dolls brainwashed by Cheng Yuzhou; the person she was looking for was not here.
Public transportation was suspended, and the driver was still listening to Cheng Yuzhou preach in the manor.
Li Yufei turned towards the garage, where Cheng Yuzhou had her electric scooter keys again! She wondered if he had charged them when she last came back!
The unspeakable breakdown made her extremely irritable, and in her moment of difficulty, she actually came up with a quick-thinking idea.
Li Yufei turned and ran towards the horse farm.
She remembered that the castle had horses.
Good news, Arima.
The bad news is, she can't ride.
Li Yufei met the eyes of the smallest white horse, tried to hold its neck, and climbed onto it.
The moment the horse's mane was touched, the white horse shook its head and snorted.
Ugh, it stinks! How awful!
Li Yufei frantically fiddled with the horse for a long time, sweating profusely, but still couldn't get on.
Finally, she hugged the stable pillar and climbed to the top of the pillar like a flag being raised. She then used her hands to alternately grasp the crossbeams of the stable roof and hoisted herself directly above the horse's back like climbing a ladder.
She hung in the air, legs spread wide, carefully aiming at the horse's back—
let go.
Ouch! The saddle is so hard!
My pubic bone is going to crack! I should have worn two sanitary pads beforehand!
The stable wasn't high, and after falling, she was only thirty or forty centimeters from the horse's back, but Li Yufei still felt so much pain that her vision went black and tears streamed down her face.
Beast! A beast indeed! Cheng Yuzhou, the beast—
Fuck your mother... uh, that's not very respectful to Aunt Fang, fuck his father... she doesn't want to fuck Cheng Yandong.
Ugh, that beast Cheng Yuzhou!
He couldn't make her legs clench in bed, but the bastard things he did off the bed made her legs clench in pain. Damn it… uh no, his dad… ahhhhhh… anyway, she fucked Cheng Yuzhou!!
The bells rang a second time, marking the end of today's morning mass.
Second Church Chapel
As Song Xiaona left with "The Covenant" in her lap, she caught a glimpse of what appeared to be an argument at the door.
They're far away; it sounds like the Cheng School has arrived.
Song Xiaona didn't bother with it, but there were an unusually large number of people blocking her way today, which affected her passage.
"What are you all doing?" she called out as she walked towards the crowd. "Don't block the intersection."
"Miss Song!" Upon seeing her, the Song faction members who had gathered immediately made way, exclaiming excitedly, "They're too arrogant! They actually walked right into our church!"
"Miss Song, arrest her! Otherwise, they'll really think the people of the Second Church are easy to bully!"
As the crowd dispersed, Song Xiaona, who had walked to the front, suddenly stopped.
She looked at the woman standing under the streetlight with surprise.
The woman crossed one arm, lowered her head slightly, and awkwardly looked up at her.
Her hair was a mess, not even tied with a hair tie, and it was blowing wildly in the wind.
The man entered the Second Church alone, carrying nothing but a white horse.
Upon seeing her, she spoke awkwardly, calling out softly, "Song... Song Xiaona."
Before she could even speak, Song Xiaona knew her purpose just from her attire and her stuttering "Song Xiaona".
A sudden sense of lightness washed over her. Song Xiaona let out a long sigh of relief.
It's like someone who has been walking alone in the dark for three years, finally seeing the light of a companion.
She has always preferred working independently and scoffed at collaboration, but this battle of isolation and helplessness has lasted far too long.
She trusted no one, dared not trust anyone. Even her boyfriend, who was determined to die, was instantly brainwashed and manipulated by Cheng Yuzhou, turning against her. She couldn't even trust herself, unsure if she had also become Cheng Yuzhou's puppet.
Three years, a thousand days and nights, Song Xiaona was exhausted and on the verge of collapse, almost giving up.
Fortunately, just before she was exhausted, a glimmer of light finally shone through this seemingly endless battle.
Li Yufei, she finally came to see her.
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