Lifeline
Fan Yu grabbed the notebook at hand and slapped Yi Ning on the head like playing whack-a-mole. "Idiot! You said too much! She is not Lai Siyuan. An ordinary mortal cannot know so many things about the underworld." He snorted and let out a few breaths of anger.
"How could I lie to Xiaowu!" Yi Ning held his head in his hands, muttering softly, without dodging.
"Okay, okay, I've said it all. Xiao Hei, if you keep hitting him, Heining will become even more stupid." Meng Meng sighed and raised his palm slightly, moving Fan Yu's hand that was holding the notebook away from Yiining's head through the air.
"She has been stupid for a long time." Fan Yu rolled his eyes and threw the notebook aside. Xie Ling covered his mouth and laughed secretly.
Yi Ning playfully stuck out his tongue at Fan Yu, quickly walked behind Meng Meng, hugged her arm, and said coquettishly, "Mother Meng is still good to me."
"You." Meng Meng raised her slender finger and poked the cat's forehead. Her voice was gentle, but there was a hint of smile in it. "I'm not afraid of heaven or earth, but I'm afraid of Lai Siyuan."
This poke hit Yi Ning's heart. Her smile paused, she drooped her eyelashes, pouted and said nothing.
The room fell silent, and Meng Meng continued to fiddle with the tea set in front of her as if nothing had happened. The aroma of tea filled the air, and she beckoned the three children to sit down and drink tea. The three of them sat down at the same time, then hesitated for a moment before simultaneously picking up their teacups.
Meng Meng smiled and said, "It's pure, drink it without worry."
It took three hands to hold the teacup steady.
After finishing his drink, Fan Yu placed the teacup upside down on the tea tray and tapped the wooden tabletop with his knuckles. "These police officers are so inefficient! We helped them find the body, but now they still can't find any useful clues. They're such losers."
Xie Ling, spinning his cup, retorted, "You can't blame these little guys for being slow. If you have to blame someone, blame the vengeful spirit that's involved in this case. It's secretly erasing all traces of those being manipulated, making the case even more difficult."
Yi Ning clenched his fist and said angrily, "That's right! Damn the resentful ghost, it forced me to rely on my nose to find the corpse. I'm not a dog, and the smell still hurts my nose. I wish I could use magic to check the fate of the cause and effect."
As she spoke, she formed a hand seal and prepared to cast a spell. Meng Meng was quick-witted and raised his hand to stop her movement: "Ning Ning!"
Meng Meng's tone was gentle but tolerant of rejection: "The vengeful spirits belong neither to the mortal world nor to the underworld. They hide in the cracks of the mortal world. They tempt people to kill, devour souls, and use karma to obscure cause and effect. If the lifeline is broken, using magic to track them down will only backfire."
"You suffered a loss last time, why haven't you learned your lesson yet?"
Yi Ning puffed out his cheeks, holding his face in his hands and sighing, "It's eaten both the karma and the soul, and we can't touch it. If we rely on those people to investigate, how long will it take? Are we waiting for more children to get into trouble?"
Fan Yu agreed: "Yes, Meng Ma, we have to do something. If we don't get rid of the resentful ghost, the soul will dissipate."
Meng Meng's expression shifted slightly. She poured more tea for Xie Ling and Yi Ning, her silver hair swaying in the breeze from the curtains. Her voice was as light and ethereal as a mountain spirit. "This matter is indeed urgent. Ning Ning, your status is quite special. This matter will depend on you to resolve it. Don't be too unruly."
She raised her hand and gently stroked Yi Ning's forehead to help cover her breath. "I'll help you cover up your immortal aura for now. The Heavenly Dao shouldn't cause you any trouble."
Yi Ning scratched her head with a playful smile, "Oh, I'm embarrassed to suddenly be given so much hope." She raised her eyebrows and changed her tone, "What should I do? As expected, being too capable is not a good thing. I can't be here without me!"
Her tone was frivolous, with an upward sound at the end, and she looked like she deserved a beating. She didn't look like someone who could shoulder such a heavy responsibility.
Fan Yu rolled his eyes and tutted, "Come on, if it weren't for your demonic aura that could circumvent the laws of heaven, who would dare to count on you? You haven't even accomplished anything yet, so why are you showing off?"
The red moon shone through the window lattice into the room. Two teacups were filled with steam. The warm breeze outside suddenly stopped, and the ripples in the water in the teacups swayed. Meng Meng realized something and raised his head slightly to look out the window. A hint of doubt appeared in his pupilless eyes.
The wind picked up again, bringing with it an inexplicable chill. A few scraps of paper drifted silently in, spinning in the air. Xie Ling reached out to catch them, gathering the fluttering pieces of paper in his palm.
Yi Ning and Fan Yu immediately leaned over. Yi Ning said, "Why is there another flower list? Too many people have died tragically recently."
Xie Ling raised her eyebrows. There were quite a few flower albums this time, actually three in total. She spread out her hands and placed the three albums on the wooden table. The paper was yellowed, and the names, birthdates, deaths, and places were written on it. A hint of resentment could be seen from it. The resentment of people who died an unnatural death always lasts for a long time.
They are all very capable, and Yi Ning has a complicated identity, so they are mainly responsible for guiding the souls of those who died in an unnatural way and handling all incidents caused by resentful ghosts in the human world.
The three albums were arranged according to the time of death: 28, 41, and 9 years old. The first two were relatively normal, but the subtle changes in the third album attracted everyone's attention.
Fan Yu's face was solemn, his eyes fixed on the gradually fading words on the flower album, "Another child is about to be eaten by it!"
Meng Meng raised his eyes to look at Yi Ning: "Ning Ning, hurry!"
Yi Nian quickly grabbed the flower album, pushed his hands up and climbed out of the window, made a hand gesture and appeared directly above the city from the underworld. He deftly changed into his original form, and his white cat claws lightly stepped on the water tank on the roof of the building.
The night wind blew, and the city sky cast an eerie halo under the moonlight. The city was a forest of tall buildings, neon lights flashing, and everything seemed normal. No one knew what dangerous secrets lay hidden within.
She held the flower album in her mouth. The edges of the paper had begun to turn gray, and the handwriting of the names on the album was becoming increasingly faint. It might be completely erased in the next second. The causal clues on it had become so faint that they were almost untraceable.
“It’s too late!”
She gritted her teeth and leaped suddenly. The cat's shadow flashed through the air and fell into the night. She followed the lifeline that was almost dissipated and quickly shuttled between the buildings.
The wind whistled in my ears, and a cow cat was running on the rooftop. Its figure kept changing between jumps. It suddenly braked and landed on an empty rooftop. The cat's shadow flashed and turned into a human form.
Yi looked forward fiercely, baring his teeth and showing his ferocious look.
"Damn it."
The flower album in the mouth completely dissipated, and the child's soul was completely eaten.
The wind blew the ends of her hair, lifting the white hair on her forehead. Yi Ning closed her eyes and felt the human breath flowing in the city. It was very close, and she tried to find the possessed human.
That person must have a dark soul, filled with foul evil thoughts.
The old town was overcrowded, and their horoscopes were as intricate and complex as a knotted ball of yarn. Yi Ning sat cross-legged on the railing in frustration, sighing, "What good are your four hundred years of cultivation?"
Her face turned pale as her demonic power weakened.
Reluctantly, Yi Ning burned his demonic power to explore the area. Just when he was about to give up, a slight movement suddenly came from below.
She suddenly opened her eyes.
Xiaowu!
She remembered the feeling of Wu Siqi's fortune line, which was clean and straightforward. He was a person with a very light fate. After she secretly changed the fortune book, it was obvious that his fate had become no longer thin and fragile.
But now, that causal line seemed to have been pulled by something, and it was intermittent, stained gray and black, as if it was soaked in muddy water. Part of it was even so blurred that it was almost invisible and about to break.
"Something's wrong." Her eyes darkened, and she stood up almost instinctively, turning into a cat-like shadow and leaping off the rooftop. She kept leaping over the electric lights, not daring to stop for a moment.
Because of a change in work, Wu Siqi has been working overtime until late recently. He dragged his tired body out of the subway.
Summer has completely arrived and the night wind has become hot.
The discovery of a young child's body in a sandpit at a children's playground that hadn't even opened yet was exposed by online media. The missing children case suddenly became a sensational serial murder case, and all the parents in the city became panic-stricken.
They wrote letters to the mayor's mailbox requesting more community police patrols and more security posts in schools. Colleagues with children in the company all refused to work overtime and left work early to go home to pick up their children.
The entire workload fell on Wu Siqi and other unmarried, childless employees. The workload had multiplied, and she hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in almost a month.
Because of the vicious incident, there are fewer people going out at night. There are also fewer people on the way home after overtime work, and the streets are deserted.
The late-night snack stalls that usually become bustling after the summer begins are now deserted. Police cars patrol the streets frequently, and the flashing red and blue lights make people panic.
Wu Siqi looked at her watch. It was already past ten o'clock. She was so busy today that she had no time to eat dinner. She packed a bowl of lean meat porridge from the late-night snack stall at the intersection as dinner.
She walked slowly, holding the plastic bag languidly between two fingers, the bag swaying back and forth.
"Finally it's Friday. I can get a good sleep tomorrow." Wu Siqi yawned and walked into the alley leisurely.
Whenever he stepped into this alley, Wu Siqi would think of the little black cat Sheriff who came and went without a trace. It seemed as if he was being left alone by it. Occasionally, the cat would suddenly run into his house and stay for two days, and then suddenly run away and disappear for several days.
Aren't only tabby cats allowed to roam free with their owners? How could a psychopath like a cow cat do the same? When Wu Siqi thought of this, he couldn't help but look forward to it. He wondered if the kitten would be there when he got home tonight.
It would be nice if she was here tomorrow, Saturday. She doesn’t have to rush to bed and I can play with her for a while.
It appears occasionally like this, and it seems that I can't affect it. Every time it comes back, it is very healthy, with shiny fur and a strong body. It doesn't look like it has suffered or starved outside.
For some reason, all the street lights in the alley were off today. She didn't know if it was a power outage or a broken parallel circuit. She could only see the road clearly with the help of moonlight.
She didn't take it seriously and continued walking slowly. Occasionally, she accidentally stepped on the manhole cover, but she didn't obediently pat herself.
She didn't know if it was the wind that attracted the alley, but as soon as she walked into the alley, the wind hit her in the face, making her pull her clothes together. It was so quiet all around that she felt a little uneasy.
It was that feeling again, the feeling of being stared at that hadn't appeared in a long time.
She felt a chill on the back of her neck, and she clutched the plastic bag tightly in her hand and began to quicken her pace. The alley was empty, cold, and eerily quiet, with only the tapping sound of her leather heels on the concrete floor.
When he was halfway down the alley, he suddenly heard a second sound of footsteps behind him. Wu Siqi's heart tightened, he swallowed, and walked faster.
The footsteps were getting faster and closer, and the rhythm of their steps was almost the same as hers, following her like a shadow.
Wu Siqi even started running, her heart almost jumping out of her chest, cold sweat oozing from the tip of her tall nose. She didn't dare look back, but stared straight ahead, staring at the light outside the alley.
She hadn't exercised for a long time, and the two steps of jogging made her breathless. She gritted her teeth and ran out. The moment she rushed out of the alley, she looked back for some reason.
Under the dim moonlight, the alley was empty and deserted.
She was gasping for breath, her heart beating violently, not sure if it was from being scared or running. She glanced around the alley, her peripheral vision catching sight of a few cardboard boxes by the wall.
There is a shadow behind the cardboard box.
A man stood still, staring at her intently.
Wu Siqi's pupils shrank, his violently beating heart stopped, and he almost forgot to breathe.
The next second, the shadow moved and rushed towards her, its arms spread out unnaturally, and its joints made creepy crackling sounds.
Only with the light of the street lamp outside did she see that it was a man.
This face! He is the intern at the children's park!
At this moment, his face had no expression, his eyeballs were bloodshot, his facial features were wooden, and it was so weird that it made people creepy.
She wanted to turn around and run away, but her muscles were so tense that she couldn't move at all. She stood there in a daze, as if she was mesmerized.
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