Fire
Before Ding Dayong could react, he was punched hard. Blood flowed from his nose. He wiped it away, took two steps back, and pointed at Chen Miao, cursing, "Damn it, I'll beat you to death!"
"You want to know where that woman is? I'm not telling you. If you want to see her again, wait until your next life."
As he spoke, he rushed forward as if his life depended on it, grabbed Chen Miao's shoulders tightly with both hands, and pushed him into the deep well behind him with all his might.
"You want to find her? Then die! I'll grant your wish."
Chen Miao was not to be outdone. She grabbed his neck with one hand and his hair with the other, and while the two were struggling, she kicked him hard.
"You want to find her? Then die!" These words kept echoing in his mind, over and over again. He gritted his teeth, and bloodshot veins gradually appeared in his eyes. A sharp pain shot through his heart.
Chen Miao roared, "Death? Do you even know what death is? Do you understand?"
"I've already died once, and I wouldn't mind dying again for her, even if it means my soul is scattered to the winds!"
The two were evenly matched in strength, but Ding Dayong was slightly older and could not match Chen Miao in terms of endurance.
The latter tightened her grip on his neck, her eyes filled with resentment, and she held him tightly as if she had lost her mind, all her anger surging towards him.
“You…” Ding Dayong was already on his tiptoes, his cheeks flushed red. He tried to pry Chen Miao’s hands off, but after struggling for a while, he found that he could not budge them at all.
Just as he was about to lose his breath, the female ghost, who had been standing to the side in shock and disbelief, quickly floated to Chen Miao's side. When she tried to pull away his hand that was gripping Ding Dayong, she discovered that her fingertips had passed straight through the two of them.
She couldn't stop Chen Miao.
Just like how Chen Miao couldn't protect Yu Xi back then.
All they could do was scream helplessly.
"Let him go! If you strangle him, how is that any different from him killing innocent people?"
"Didn't you promise to help me get justice? You can't go back on your word."
"The most important thing now is to obtain evidence, bring Ding Dayong to justice, and clear the names of the women who were victimized."
Chen Miao forced out a few words through his teeth, "He deserves all of this. He could die a thousand times and it wouldn't be enough to appease his hatred."
Seeing that she couldn't persuade him, the female ghost suddenly remembered the person he had been asking Ding Dayong about before his outburst. With a try-it-and-see attitude, she floated in front of Chen Miao and shouted, "Think of Yu Xi, she's still waiting for you to save her!"
"Yu Xi!" Chen Miao repeated, his reason slowly returning. He slowly loosened his grip on Ding Dayong's neck, muttering to himself, "Yes, I still have to save Xiaoyu. I can't die yet, I can't die yet..."
Seeing him pick up the bag of bones, the female ghost stumbled to her feet and walked toward the door. Ding Dayong, his face turning blue from being choked, was panting heavily and had no strength left to chase after him.
She didn't know why Chen Miao kept repeating things like "I can't die, I have to save Xiaoyu".
It's a very strange ghost. It's clearly dead, but it maintains a form that people in the human world can see, yet it desperately wants to come back to life and save someone.
"Hey! Where are you going?" As if cursed, she couldn't leave Ding Dayong's house. Every time she drifted here, it was as if an invisible barrier blocked her inside, trapping her in this small space.
The moment she hit it, a splitting headache spread throughout her body, and over time, she no longer dared to try to leave.
This time, as she watched Chen Miao's figure gradually disappear at the end of the road at the door, she closed her eyes and recklessly crashed into that invisible barrier, only to find that she was actually able to get out.
She escaped the doorway and stepped into the world beyond the threshold.
Before she could even feel happy for long, she hurriedly flew towards Chen Miao, chattering in his ear, "What are you going to do now?"
"Save the little fish!"
"Where can we go to rescue her? Do you even know where she is?"
"Save the little fish!"
“Everyone in this village is on the same page as Ding Dayong. If you go there alone, you're just going to your death.”
"Save the little fish!"
Are you even listening to me?
"Save the little fish!"
Chen Miao kept repeating this sentence, walking towards the factory with the speed of the wind. He had a keen sense that Yu Xi must be there, waiting for him in that direction, waiting for him to take her away.
"He's hopeless!" The female ghost helplessly covered her forehead for a moment. Seeing that she couldn't wake him up, Chen Miao seemed to be possessed. He only had this one command in his mind and kept trying to save Yu Xi.
"Do you have your phone? Call the police first!" the female ghost reminded him, but it was no use. Chen Miao ignored her and stopped in front of the factory gate.
The factory, which was operating normally in the morning, was now wide open, but there was not a sound of machinery, no one in sight, and the silence was chilling.
Chen Miao walked in decisively. He had faced this familiar scene alone more than once. He felt no fear, only worry for Yu Xi.
"Wow, you're here so fast."
"It seems that Ding Dayong is not capable enough on his own; he can't even handle this one person."
"Could he have survived this long without us?"
"Ding Dayong is still unreliable; we have to take action ourselves."
"If it weren't for the fact that his newly acquired wife is a college student and can lend me his house so I can have a child, I wouldn't have come."
A group of burly men sized up the people who appeared at the door and began to chatter amongst themselves. Each of them held a wooden stick as thick as a baby's wrist. Behind them, Chen Miao spotted Yu Xi, who was tied to a wooden chair with hemp rope. She had her head down, and her long hair covered her face, making it impossible to see her expression.
Chen Miao placed the bag of remains aside and told the female ghost, "Take good care of your things."
The female ghost frowned worriedly, "There are so many of them, can you manage all by yourself?"
"Maybe we should just go find a rescue team, at least it'll be safer."
"I said I'm going to save Xiaoyu." Chen Miao stubbornly turned his head away, took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, picked up a rusty machine part, and walked towards the group of people.
He was alone, yet his imposing aura was in no way inferior to that of his opponent.
Huang, the executive who was suspended above the factory machine, was awakened by the noise of a fight. His mouth was stuffed with silk cloth, his hands were bound, and his feet were dangling in the air. He looked down at the people on the ground who were working hard, and he tried to say something urgently by sobbing.
Especially when he saw Chen Miao lose his defense and be struck hard on the back of the head from behind, blood immediately flowing out, he struggled anxiously, trying to free himself from the ropes and rush over to help Chen Miao.
Although Chen Miao frequented the gym and possessed some real skills, he was still overwhelmed by the sheer number of people attacking him.
They could barely cope with their attacks. After a few rounds, thanks to Chen Miao's ruthless and death-defying spirit, almost all of them were seriously injured. Faced with this madman-like figure in front of them, they were too scared to go forward again.
No one had reached the point where they were so close that they would risk their lives for Ding Dayong; it was all just a profitable partnership.
They would scatter at the slightest threat or disturbance.
"If we can't kill you, we can at least burn you to death!" someone said, starting to close the factory gates and gesturing for the others to step back and leave.
"But Brother Ding said that woman is for a few of us. Don't you want to leave a child for your family?"
Seeing that he was unwilling to leave, the man who was in a hurry to close the door spat out, "You're about to lose your life, and you still want to have a child? I'm looking after myself first. What's the use of having a beautiful woman if you're dead?"
"He's blocking that woman's way like a mad dog, and you still dare to go forward?"
Hearing him say that, and then looking up at Chen Miao standing in the darkness, who was gripping a rusty, bloodstained iron rod tightly, standing less than a meter away from Yu Xi, his eyes hidden in the shadows staring intently at them.
"Let's go, let's go." The man said, pushing the door open with them. The factory gate slammed shut the moment he left.
The lights inside the factory immediately dimmed, and in the darkness, with a 'clang,' Chen Miao released the iron rod he had been holding and groped his way toward Yu Xi.
"Little Fish, don't be afraid! I'm coming!" He was almost crying, and he no longer had the strength to support himself. He knelt on the ground and walked step by step toward Yu Xi.
Suddenly, bright yellow flames engulfed the entire factory, and the overwhelming fire swept in, with thick black smoke mixed with a pungent smell drifting over.
As the fire intensified, the rope suspending Huang, who was hanging in mid-air, broke, causing him to fall straight down onto a pile of silkworm silk. Fortunately, the silk caught him; otherwise, at that height, he would have been either killed or at least partially paralyzed.
When he came to his senses and climbed off the silk, he saw Chen Miao lying on the ground, carrying Yu Xi on his back, using his hands to move his whole body towards a place where the fire was weaker. Every time he moved, he left several bloody finger marks.
Yu Xi remained unconscious, completely unaware of what had happened. She leaned steadily against Chen Miao's back, just as comfortably as when she had suffered heatstroke while wearing a mascot costume and lay on his firm back.
"Chen Miao, are you alright?" Huang shouted, but the latter ignored him completely, only taking Yu Xi to a temporarily safe place and then gesturing for him to hurry up.
Huang, the executive, lowered his body and continued, "The driver will definitely bring the police to rescue us. We will not be defeated here like this."
"Cough cough cough—" The thick smoke made it hard for him to breathe. He stopped talking, squatted down against the corner of the wall, covered his mouth and nose with one hand, and fanned away the thick smoke coming towards him with the other.
Chen Miao ignored him, carefully pulling the person behind him into his arms, afraid that the spreading fire would hurt her in the slightest. Large tears fell onto Yu Xi's cheeks.
"Little fish, I'm here to save you. Don't be afraid, you will survive, you will..."
Yu Xi felt the warm tears dripping down her cheeks. She tried to open her eyes. The fire around her was getting bigger and bigger, just like when she and Meng Chou were trapped in the car accident.
And then the person holding her in his arms said the same words again. In a daze, she seemed to see Meng Chou again, his face overlapping with Chen Miao who was holding her.
“I know who you are…” Yu Xi raised her arm with all her might and wiped away the tears from the corner of his eyes. “I should have known.”
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