Chapter 72
Chapter Seventy-Two
From that day on, my relationship with Shang Mang began to change slightly. He still wouldn't wait for me, but I could feel that his attention was always on me. That was enough. I couldn't find him every day; I could only find him when he wanted to see me. And when he didn't want to see me, I didn't even know where he was.
I'm so depressed.
This was the fifteenth day we spent together. I was about to leave when Zhou Xiuqi stopped me. Zhou Xiuqi had never cared where I was going, so I was quite surprised when he stopped me.
I turned around and asked, "What's wrong, senior brother?"
Zhou Xiuqi released my hand and looked at me: "From today onwards, you will stay here."
I was stunned. His tone wasn't a question, but a command, and he rarely gave me orders. This serious command—what was about to happen?
"Is something about to happen?" I asked.
Zhou Xiuqi didn't hide anything from me and said directly, "I have gathered the Taoist priests, and we will destroy the ghost fetus the day after tomorrow." As soon as he finished speaking, I felt that his eyes were strange, and he was observing me.
I won't tell you unless I ask Zhou Xiuqi. I asked him, and that's when he told me.
So his glance was unnecessary; normally, he'd just glance and move on. The extra look could only mean one thing: I'd always thought he didn't know where I'd been recently, but now it seems he did. And he'd been holding back from asking, but now he was reminding me.
Zhou Xiuqi and I looked at each other. His eyes always held a calm judgment, and no one noticed the small section of red robe in the corner.
I no longer care about right and wrong, good and evil.
"Senior brother, don't worry, I won't let him kill you," I replied calmly. In the corner, the red-robed figure vanished. Shang Mang clenched his fists, filled with rage. His heart burned with the fury of being deceived. He knew she had ulterior motives, yet he foolishly believed her. Stupid, idiot.
Shang Mang tore his red robe and threw it on the ground, then stepped over it.
...
I took a breath before continuing, "You'll think I'm crazy if I say anything now, but I have to tell you, senior brother."
“I don’t belong to this world. I come from the 21st century. I was a college student who died of a heart attack. I don’t even know if I really died of a heart attack. Anyway, I came into this world and was born to my current parents.”
"I don't understand what the system wants me to do. The task the system gave me is to make you fall in love with me. I don't know how long you'll remember this, but it won't be long. This book is about to reach its finale."
"I cannot let my end be just like this."
After I finished speaking, I exhaled a breath of stale air. Regardless of whether Zhou Xiuqi could understand what I said, I had said it, and it felt so good.
Zhou Xiuqi lowered his head. It felt so familiar; it was as if someone had said something similar before. His mind was blank, yet the familiarity lingered for countless moments, so even if the system wanted to delete it, it couldn't completely erase it.
Zhou Xiuqi pursed her lips: "But he's a ghost child."
I clenched my fist, gritted my teeth, and retorted, "The meaning you gave him is what he deserves; he should have his own meaning." I felt inexplicably resentful, as if my own plan had been rejected.
I don't want to say any more. War is starting the day after tomorrow, and I don't have many days left to live. Under these circumstances, I have absolutely no desire to waste words or explain myself to anyone.
Ignoring Zhou Xiuqi's unspeakable expression, I rushed out and ran towards the place I had arranged to meet Shang Mang. He has such a bad temper; if I'm late, he definitely won't be there. We've been friends for over ten days, so we're practically friends, right? Waiting a little while shouldn't be a big problem for a friend.
A faint sense of anticipation lingered in my heart.
Until I ran to that place, looked at the empty streets, and ate a mouthful of dust.
Standing still, I gasped for breath. My heart pounded as I ran. I looked up. So what if they didn't wait for me? So what if the plan never went through and I was stuck in the same place? So what if I died? Who's afraid of who?
I left this place. Ever since the ghost child was born, all the shops in Lin'an have been open, but you can't see anyone; people are lying on the ground.
He walked into a liquor store, picked up a few jars of liquor, and tossed his purse onto the counter.
I've never even drunk alcohol before. When I opened the bottle, the smell of alcohol hit me like the back of my hand. I exclaimed, "This smell is awful!"
I didn't want to smell it, so I pinched my nose and put it in my mouth. It burned and stung my throat, and I choked and coughed repeatedly.
The wine spilled all over my clothes and face. What bad luck!
I smashed the wine jar on the ground in a fit of rage, staring hopelessly at the familiar yet unfamiliar sky. Was I about to die? Was I about to lose all hope?
I opened another can, poured it into my mouth, and it burned with spiciness. My eyes were red and burning: "Eat shit, you damn Shang Mang! It's just that I was a little late, and you didn't even wait for me."
"Eat shit, I curse you to eat shit, eat shit."
I drank from day to night, slumped on the steps, and had a dream. Someone was vaguely approaching me. I clenched my fists, afraid it might be someone with ill intentions. I squinted, but couldn't see clearly, so I opened my eyes. After a couple of seconds, the person looked so familiar.
I jumped up from the ground: "Shang Mang, what are you doing here?"
Shang Mang tilted his head and grinned, "Just passing by." Every time he smiled like that, it looked incredibly fake and ugly; I'd never told him. Perhaps he thought it looked good.
Since I'm in a dream, I have nothing to hide. I said, half-laughing and half-crying, "Your smile is so fake, what a waste of your good looks."
Shang Mang suddenly reached out his hand, but then lowered it when he was very close to her. My heart skipped a beat.
Shang Mang stood there and asked, "Why are you crying?"
A gust of wind blew by, and my face felt a little cool. It turned out that I had tears on my face, so I quickly raised my hand to wipe them clean.
I paused and said, "Because I can't go home." The Shang Mang in my dream was a hundred times better than the real Shang Mang; he was so gentle.
In front of her, Shang Mang pointed in a direction and said, "Your house."
I understood where he meant. Where wasn't my home? I reached out and touched his arm, then changed direction. His arm was tense.
“I have two homes. The home I want to go back to is very, very far away from here, and going back requires fulfilling a condition, which I failed. So I can’t go back.” The way to go home is simple: make Zhou Xiuqi fall in love with me. As long as he falls in love with me, that’s enough. I can use a spell to force him. But I always feel that this method goes against my principles.
It doesn't seem so important to break the rules and survive here. If I were a bad person to begin with, I wouldn't need to think about it so much.
I looked at Shang Mang: "Shang Mang, I'll play the bad guy with you."
"I've never been a bad person before; the system's character setting for me is that of a bad person." He muttered to himself, his eyelids drooping, even in his dreams he felt sleepy. Was it because he was about to die?
"It's so lonely being a bad person all by yourself, I'll keep you company." I said this without any reaction.
Suddenly, something flashed in my eyes, startling me. I looked over and saw the ring on his finger was shimmering; the ring even glowed.
How unique.
I leaned closer: "Your ring lights up?"
Shang Mang hurriedly stepped back: "Get out of the way."
I looked up and saw Shang Mang's brows furrowed uncomfortably, as if he were in a bad mood: "What's wrong with you?"
Shang Mang looked back at her: "Being a bad person will result in being pierced by a thousand arrows, having your soul scattered, and never being able to redeem yourself..." He listed several evil endings in a row, which annoyed me. Who said that bad people can only have bad endings? Why can't we just kill all the good guys?
I grabbed his hand, hooked my little finger around his, and said, "Even if my soul is scattered, I'll still think of you." Then I chuckled and leaned back, "After all, we're friends." I stamped his thumb with a smile and said, "Pinky promise, a hundred years without changing, or you'll have to eat shit." At this point, I burst out laughing.
“In this world, I have loving parents, a kind older brother, and a sister-in-law. But in another world, my grandmother is still waiting for me; she only has me left.” I covered my eyes and said, “If I can’t go back, there’s no point in living.”
My voice trembled: "The people here are all very kind to me, but I still want to go back. Isn't that a bad thing?"
After a long pause, Shang Mang finally spoke: "You are tolerant of everything in the world, but you cannot tolerate yourself."
I lifted my chin, tears streaming down my face: "How did you know that?"
Shang Mang turned his face away: "I saw it in the notebook."
The notebook... the notebook at home? I nodded, then asked, "You've been to my house?"
Shang Mang gritted his teeth: "Yes."
Looking at his frustrated expression, I said, "What's with that look? It's like I'm forcing you. I'm the one who's really frustrated right now, okay?"
My vision grew increasingly blurry, and I lay in my arms, silent forever.
Shang Mang stared at Meng Yuan's body for a long time before turning and leaving.
The next day, I woke up on the steps, sneezed violently, and actually fell asleep on the steps. I got up and went to the place where Shang Mang and I had agreed to meet the day before, but I still didn't see him.
I'm a little disappointed. But it's a gamble after all, so even if I'm disappointed, there's nothing I can do about it.
As I turned around, I saw a little boy across the street banging on the door. There weren't many people left in Lin'an, and that house was tightly shut; I hadn't seen it open in the past few days.
Either they're all dead, or they're deliberately not opening it.
I went up to him to tell him to stop knocking, but the door creaked open and the little boy was unexpectedly knocked to the ground. He raised his hand, probably hitting his nose.
I walked to the side and could see the little boy's profile; he was thin and pale.
The group inside cautiously looked around, then shouted menacingly, "Don't come back, or we'll kill you."
The little boy said in a muffled voice, "My brother didn't cheat!"
The person inside rolled their eyes: "Everyone's almost dead, what are you still worried about cheating for, kid? Get lost. Don't bring bad luck. Nobody listens to you now, and nobody will listen to a brat like you in the future."
The little boy got up from the ground: "My brother didn't cheat."
My gaze shifted downwards, and I saw a hole in his cloth shoes, revealing raw flesh inside, with blood seeping through the shoes.
Unable to reason with him from inside the door, and seeing him lift his foot to come up again, the man angrily said, "You won't leave, huh? Then we'll beat you to death." The door was pushed open, and several tall, burly men surrounded the child.
He was about to hit her with a wooden stick in his hand.
It's outrageous how these beasts dare to beat a child like that; I can't stand by and watch.
I tiptoed over, summoned Calamity to prop up the wooden stick, and pushed it back hard, standing in front of the little boy. The burly men, who dared not offend the Taoist priest the most, saw the sword in my hand and took a few steps back: "Taoist priest, it's not that we want to bully the weak, it's just that this child is too ungrateful. He's been beating us for days; if that ghost fetus is summoned, how will we survive?"
I couldn't be bothered to pay attention to him, so I turned my back, grabbed the little boy's hand, and walked away.
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