Wen Qi was not surprised at all, and asked calmly: "I need details. Where did you first encounter the evil god? What prompted you to invite it home? How many wishes has it helped you fulfill over the years? What reward does it want?"

Having already spoken, the rest of the conversation was much easier. Tan Yingying recalled and said softly, "My background is very poor. I came from a mountain village and only have a junior high school education. It's not that I don't want to study, but my family won't let me."

Tan Yingying said: "People in the mountains value boys over girls. They think it's useless for girls to study so much. It's better for them to help with housework at home. When they are 16 or 17 years old, they can get married and bring home a dowry to their sons as capital for marrying a wife and building a house."

This is what happened to Tan Yingying's parents.

In fact, her academic performance was very good and she had no problem getting into the key high school in the town, but she didn't even have the opportunity to take the high school entrance examination.

On the day of the high school entrance examination, Tan Yingying was locked in the woodshed by her parents. The copper-locked door was not opened until the sun went down. But Tan Yingying didn't want to come out anymore. She could see the end of her future life at a glance.

After that, Tan Yingying became the family's nanny. She had to get up before dawn to cook, herd cattle, go into the mountains to chop wood, collect herbs, and pick fruits... People living in the mountains depend on the mountains for their survival.

Until one day, Tan Yingying encountered heavy rain on the mountain. She was in a hurry to go home and didn't pay attention to her feet, so she slipped down the hillside. She thought she was going to die, but she was not afraid at the time. Her first reaction was relief.

But after sliding down a few meters, she stopped. Coincidentally, she fell on a stone platform only one meter wide. Behind her was a half-meter-high stone cave with a stone statue standing in the cave.

Tan Yingying was stunned for several seconds before she came to her senses. She then realized that she was afraid. It was the instinctive fear of death.

Because it was raining heavily, she couldn't see how far she was from the ground, so she could only try her best to squeeze herself into the half-meter-high cave. Fortunately, she was very thin and small at that time, so she could just squeeze herself in.

The space inside the cave is larger than it looks from the outside. After entering, Tan Yingying can curl up, turn around, and lean against the wall of the cave, making herself feel more secure.

She wiped the water off her face awkwardly and looked at the statue.

No one knew when the stone statue was placed here, and it was covered with dead branches. Tan Yingying didn't know whether she was curious or simply bewitched, she actually reached out and pulled the branches off the stone statue, revealing its face, which looked like a Bodhisattva.

Tan Yingying didn't know much about gods and Buddhas, but she had an instinctive reverence for them. She knelt awkwardly, bowed to the Buddha, and poured out all her troubles. Finally, she made a wish: "Please help me, Buddha. I want to leave the mountains and see the outside world."

She had been holding these words in her heart for too long, but she had never found the right person to talk to. Today, she finally let them out. Her father didn't love her, and her mother only treated her as a commodity. Tan Yingying wondered every day how she could get out of this family.

Perhaps, dying here is also a good choice.

Tan Yingying was lost in thought and did not notice that the stone statue's eyes lit up slightly and turned slightly to look at her.

I don’t know how long it took, but the heavy rain finally stopped.

Tan Yingying crawled out of the cave and looked down. It wasn't that high, only about five or six meters, and there were tree roots and vines around it, so she thought she could climb down.

But she overestimated her strength.

I don't know if it was because I stayed in the cave for too long, or because I had a fever from the rain. Anyway, Tan Yingying's hands and feet were weak, and her feet were firmly planted, but her hands slipped and she fell down.

At that moment, Tan Yingying's mind went blank. She thought she was going to die if she fell headfirst. But unexpectedly, she felt her ankle tighten after falling less than half a meter, and she was hung in the air.

Tan Yingying's heart was pounding. The feeling of struggling on the edge of death was really too scary. She began to shout for help, but the possibility of anyone being in the mountains after the rain was too small.

She even began to fantasize that by the time she was found, she would have turned into a mummy.

But the reality was far more fortunate than she had imagined, and Tan Yingying was rescued the next morning.

"The man who saved me was a fellow traveler and my father now." Tan Yingying's eyes showed some admiration. "He was a very good man. He took me away from the mountains, adopted me as his daughter, took care of me like his own daughter, and sent me to school. He was afraid that I would feel uncomfortable, so he never married."

Hearing this, Wen Qi frowned. No one would devote himself to a stranger to this extent, unless he was abnormal.

Zhang Ke was also surprised. He had met Tan Yingying's father, and the two of them didn't seem like a half-time father and daughter when they got along. And when Tan Yingying was adopted, she was already sixteen or seventeen, right? How could they develop a deep father-daughter relationship? Tan Yingying knew what they were wondering about. The warmth in her eyes faded, and a bit of loneliness rose. "Yes, it's all because of that evil god."

After being adopted, Tan Yingying lived a very happy life. She thought that this was what heaven was like.

"That day was the happiest day in my memory. My father took me to the amusement park, where we rode the carousel and the Ferris wheel and ate hamburgers... I had only seen these things in books before." Tan Yingying sighed, "Now I think about it, I was really easy to satisfy myself back then."

“Now…” Tan Yingying’s eyes darkened, and she continued, “That night when I returned home, the evil god entered my dream for the first time.”

At that time, Tan Yingying really thought she was dreaming. A vague shadow appeared in the dream and asked her if she liked her current life. Tan Yingying said very honestly that she liked it.

The shadow asked her again, "Do you remember the wish you made to the Bodhisattva in the mountains? Now your wish has come true."

In the dream, Tan Yingying was confused. She subconsciously felt that her wish had come true and she should fulfill it, but she had no idea how to do it... Then, when she woke up the next day, she just thought that the dream was too strange, but she didn't take it to heart.

A few days later, her father completed the admission procedures for her and she finally returned to campus.

But on the first day of Tan Yingying's school, her father had a car accident on the way to school.

Tan Yingying fell into a coma on the spot and met the evil god again in her dream.

This time, the evil god was not so polite. He said bluntly: "I can take you out of the mountains, and I can also send you back."

This sentence kept repeating throughout the dream. Tan Yingying was quickly awakened, and after waking up, she anxiously called for her father. Her father was indeed standing beside her bed, but the way he looked at her was very unfamiliar, and there was also some confusion.

It seemed as if he didn't understand why he, a young man in his early thirties, would adopt a daughter who was almost an adult.

Tan Yingying didn't dare to cry anymore. She carefully observed her father's expression, worried that the evil god in her dream had taken away all her father's love for her.

This seemed to be the case. Dad didn't say a word to her and just turned and left.

Tan Yingying was about to cry again. She crawled into the quilt and whispered while crying, "I promise you, I will fulfill my wish right away. You give my father back to me."

The evil god was satisfied. For the first time, he had contact with her outside of a dream. The voice seemed to ring directly in her mind, "Do as I say."

Tan Yingying choked up and nodded repeatedly.

The evil god said, "When you are discharged from the hospital, find a piece of fine locust wood, make a tablet, and carve a rose on it."

Tan Yingying fell asleep unknowingly. When she opened her eyes again, her father had become the gentle father he used to be.

She felt as if she had had a nightmare, but she didn't dare to ignore the dream. She still did what the evil spirit said, and her father accidentally saw the tablet during the process, but her father didn't get angry or ask any more questions. He even took the initiative to open up a corner at home to worship the tablet.

From that moment on, Tan Yingying knew that her father was indeed the father given to her by the evil god.

"My father and I burned incense and offered sacrifices to the tablets every day, without missing a day." Tan Yingying said: "Until I went to college, my father fell seriously ill and needed surgery, but we didn't have that much money. Then, I made a wish to the evil god. I wanted a lot of money."

"The evil god replied to me directly. I followed his instructions and entered the entertainment industry. I became famous on my first talent show and earned enough money to pay for my father's surgery. I originally planned to quit when I had money, but I couldn't bear to leave the stage and the cheers of my fans. I wanted more people to like me."

"But I found that in the entertainment industry where there are so many beautiful women, my appearance has no advantage at all, so I made a wish to become more beautiful. After becoming more beautiful, I felt that my voice conditions were not very good, and my creative ability was not very good..."

"I was completely lost in the endless stream of wishes, the rising popularity, and the applause and praise from those around me," said Tan Yingying. "I even forgot that fulfilling a wish comes at a price."

Tan Yingying took a deep breath. "Until two months ago, when I was rehearsing at a concert, the evil god's voice rang in my mind again. It said..." Tan Yingying trembled uncontrollably. "It said that I was too greedy. It wanted to take back everything it gave me, including my life."

"It has planted vines in my body. When the vines bloom, that is when I will pay the price."

Zhang Ke subconsciously looked at Tan Yingying's face. On her left cheek, a rose was about to take shape. He was so scared that he hurriedly said, "Master Wen! Please save her!"

Wen Qi hesitated for two seconds before saying, "I roughly know what the true form of this evil god is. The flower vines on your body should be the vines of orange roses, representing expanding desires. This evil god is using you as fertilizer."