Morning and evening
Not only did Jin Xilu leave the Jiang family quietly, but she even took the orange cat with her without Jiang Yilin's knowledge.
Late at night, Jiang Yi sat on the window railing, clutching a plain black rubber band tightly in her hand, gazing forlornly at the Jin family's dark little tofu shop, her tone filled with hatred: "Tell me, why did she want to leave?"
The calico cat retracted its outstretched paw, trembling as it wanted to comfort the deity but dared not approach. Finally, frightened by the deity's gaze, it looked somewhat aggrieved and meowed.
"Don't pretend, you can speak human language." Jiang Yilin leaned against the wooden window, his hands not holding onto anything beside him. His left leg was stretched out and pressed against his right leg, which was crossed. In the moonlight, the wind blew his white hair, which covered his eyes. His lips were very pale. He licked them but got no relief. Instead, he bit his lower lip until he tore open the wound, and dark red blood beads oozed out.
He tasted blood again; it was awful.
"Meow, what? Sanhua, I really don't know anything! She disappeared when I woke up!" Sanhua saw that the god was bleeding and jumped forward anxiously, scratching at his pants with her paws, trying to climb up.
In the end, the god kicked it away, preventing it from getting close. Sanhua was helpless. This was the third night that Jinxi Luli had opened. She couldn't sleep at all these past few nights, sitting on the window all night long, and her self-torture methods were getting worse and worse. Sanhua was really worried about the god's mental state.
They were worried that if Kim Hee-ro didn't return, the gods would go mad.
Despite Jiang Yilin's seemingly privileged status in town, where everyone seems to do everything they can to get what she wants, Sanhua knows that it's all just a facade; Shenming is actually quite insecure.
He felt guilty towards everyone in the town. Sanhua knew that the god always had a heart that longed to escape oppression. If he could, Jiang Yilin would rather not be human, but live as a tree, an ancient tree that could protect the town from disaster.
"Meow, don't be sad. You've lost the orange cat, but you still have me." After being kicked away for the fourth time, the gods finally allowed Sanhua to stay by his side. Sanhua took a nap, lay down at his feet, and pressed her soft body against his trouser leg.
Jiang Yilin didn't respond. After hearing the carefree calico cat purring in its sleep, he helplessly patted his sleeves, jumped off the windowsill, picked up the cat, and put it back on the bed. His sleeve brushed against the green glass lamp by the bedside, without a speck of dust, but the lamp's light was indeed getting dimmer day by day. He had checked it; the lamp wasn't broken, but it had lost its luster.
Just like the glass lamp, the spiritual power on his body was also fading day by day, which was not a good thing.
Since Kim Hee-ro returned, he had a vague feeling that it wasn't as simple as she said. She wouldn't just come back to take back the house because she missed her grandmother; there was another mysterious force guiding her.
It was no secret that he couldn't sleep. He had already started having insomnia before Kim Hee-ro returned, and his insomnia symptoms were relieved as soon as she came back.
But now that she's left again, he's started having sleepless nights again. Every time he closes his eyes, he sees her with red eyes, holding scissors and stabbing him, shouting angrily as she leaves, "Let me go, Jiang Yilin!"
Jiang Yilin licked the wound on his lips, didn't turn on the hallway light, and went downstairs in the dark. He was the only person in the entire building, like a white ghost floating in the building. His footsteps were lighter than falling snowflakes. He arrived at the door with ease.
He pushed open the door and walked into the real old reception room. The layout here hadn't changed since He Min's death. He rarely came in. Subconsciously, he resented his parents because they weren't normal people, which was why they gave birth to him, this monster.
Jiang Yilin came in and raised his hand, knocking over a row of books on the bookshelf in one go. His fingertips lingered on the last green-covered book, but before he could touch it, he was drawn to the sound of rain hitting the window. He withdrew his hand, turned around, and walked towards the windowsill. He opened the window, and the cold wind rushed into his collar. He did not dodge it, and snowflakes mixed with rain fell on his eyelashes.
"It wasn't my imagination, it really is snowing." Jiang Yilin's expression quickly shifted from initial bewilderment to a state of alertness and defense. He stood frozen in place, his fingers, red from the cold, stubbornly gripping the window frame, his dark eyes devoid of light, staring intently at the puddles on the ground.
He quickly accepted this reality. After standing for a while, the icy water slid down the old window frame and into his sleeves. He seemed not to feel the temperature. He didn't stop even after slamming the window shut. He immediately returned to the bookshelf and pulled out a green-covered book. There was a black dot under the empty space. He pressed the dot and the bookshelf began to move to the left. A rusty red key appeared on the ground.
Jiang Yilin picked up the key, put the bookshelf back in its original place, took back the cellar key, and his next step was to find the cellar door in time. He had read in He Min's book before about the raging fire of the sacred mountain that swallowed up the entire town with three earth-shattering roars. The first roar came when people were full of hope, the second roar was when snowflakes fell, and the third roar was when the trees blocked out the sun.
Jiang Yilin rolled up the matchbox, struck a match, and a faint flame illuminated half of his ashen face. His bloodless lips held their breath until he stepped down the stone steps. The flame in his hand flickered with his steps, and his face, which was sometimes bright and sometimes dim, suddenly froze. The orange-red light made him look somewhat eerie. Suddenly, a pitiful smile appeared on his face, simply because he thought of Jin Xilu.
"Mom, isn't it ridiculous? In the end, he's the one who's been with me the longest. I didn't understand Jiang Lianyin before, but now I feel sorry for him."
Jiang Yilin was hallucinating. He saw a woman with long, black hair that dragged on the ground, dressed in green, kneeling on the ground. Upon hearing footsteps, she immediately looked up, her eyes filled with longing for the faint light of a match. Only when she could see the man's face through the light did she realize that she had seen a ghost. The woman immediately lowered her head as if she had seen a ghost, hugged herself, trembling and panting as she angrily cursed, "Get out! Jiang Lianyin, get out of here! Just pretend I'm dead!"
Jiang Yilin coldly stared at the illusion before her. She walked over by stepping on the woman's hair, kicking the empty straw mat with her leg. Just as she was about to step on the woman's face, the elegant face turned into sewage that was washed away in an instant. Everything in the cellar returned to normal, except for the damp and musty smell in the air that lingered for a long time.
The last time I entered this cellar was the night Kim Hee-ro escaped.
Jiang Yilin used He Min's books as leverage to lure Jiang Lianyin in, and then used himself as bait to imprison Jiang Lianyin together in the dark cellar for three days, allowing Jin Xilu to successfully escape.
The fourth match went out. Jiang Yilin let himself sink into the darkness, calming his mind and clearing away the filthy thoughts controlled by his genes.
He was not Jiang Lianyin, and he would never let Jin Xilu suffer the same pain that He Min had experienced. As he thought this, another voice kept popping into his mind.
"Eat her, eat her face, eat her heart, that's the only way you can keep her."
He was tormented by his own inner turmoil, and knelt down, his knees scraping against the stone. As soon as he lit a match, he rushed to the wooden tea table not far away. He gripped the kerosene lamp tightly, his hands trembling as he brought the flame closer to it, completely unaware that the whole box of matches in his pocket had long since slipped away. Now, all he had in his hand was his only source of light.
Fortunately, the kerosene lamp wick was lit, and a dim light emanating from the lamp enveloped Jiang Yilin. He breathed heavily, wiping the sweat rolling down his forehead, and his previously unfocused eyes were finally able to see things clearly.
This is why he dared not enter the cellar. Perhaps it was because He Min was too obsessed with the past, but whenever he approached the cellar, he would be tormented by his own dark and true inner thoughts.
It was getting late, almost dawn, and he didn't have much time left. He needed to hurry and search the wall for clues to break the curse and prophecy. Jiang Yilin picked up the kerosene lamp, stood up, and moved step by step, using the dim light of the kerosene lamp to scan the delicate blood characters on the wall.
These were all written by He Min in her own blood while she was trapped for countless days and nights. Now, looking at these blood-written words, one can feel the writer's deep regret, wishing that her blood could soak through the wall and break down these dead things that imprisoned her.
Her prophecies have already begun to come true; the first earth-shattering sound of hope has already been heard on the first day of the Lunar New Year.
Lai Xi knocked on the Jiang family's door early in the morning. "Clan leader, clan leader! Are you home?"
He knocked for five minutes, but the house remained completely silent. No one responded. Lai Xi paced anxiously, worried that he couldn't contact Jin Xilu and would have to ask the clan chief. Suddenly, his eyes swept over the decorative stones in the courtyard.
He immediately slapped his forehead, deciding to use some tricks. He had nothing else, but his strength was one of the best in town. Just as he spread his legs, sticking his buttocks up, and raised his hands above his head to gather strength to lift the stone, the door opened gently.
Lai Xi was dumbfounded. He hadn't done anything yet, and when he opened the door, he didn't see anyone. He muttered in surprise, "Huh? Could it have been blown open by the wind? That's impossible. I knocked on the door for so long and no one answered."
"Meow." You idiot.
Hearing the meow, Lai Xi finally realized what was happening and looked down. Sure enough, there was a fat cat under the door, rolling its eyes and licking its fur. Hey! He almost forgot that there was not only the clan leader in the house, but also the two cats that the clan leader kept.
"Good morning, Sanhua. Is the clan leader home? I've been knocking for so long and no one has answered." Laixi dusted off his hands and followed Sanhua's directions into the house.
Lai Xi hasn't been back to the Jiang family home these past few days because of the holiday. Nothing in the Jiang family home has changed. Even the paper-cut window decorations on the windowsill were pasted there by his own hand. The flowers in the vase on the table are wilting now because no one has changed the water for several days.
"Meow, meow!" Sanhua jumped onto the coffee table in the living room and anxiously grabbed Laixi's sleeve with her paws. If she wasn't afraid that Laixi would suddenly speak human language and scare this silly human, Sanhua would really want to boldly speak up and talk to this big, silly girl.
I'm so angry! What time is it? Your clan leader is already unconscious behind the sofa, and all you can see is this bottle of dying flowers.
Just as Sanhua finished complaining in her mind, she heard a terrifying scream. Then it seemed like something had shot up to the ceiling. When the cat looked closely, it was hard to describe the inner thoughts of a cat seeing a tall man standing on the coffee table with his fingers raised in a delicate, effeminate pose.
Just like the shock a person feels when they see a sow climbing a tree, the cat couldn't help but let out a suppressed laugh: Wow, cool, it's an agile human!
"Oh my god! What is this thing!" Lai Xi shuddered and quickly withdrew her raised pinky finger, patted her chest, and guiltily put down her other foot, trying to learn to walk upright on her own two legs. She tentatively touched the floor with her toes, and only stood up again after finding that it was okay.
"What did I just kick? Why is it wriggling? What kind of creature is the Jiang family raising that I don't know about?" Lai Xi blurted out in a string of words when she was nervous, not giving anyone a chance to interrupt.
Jiang Yilin was finally awakened by his noisy voice. His gray knuckles twitched, and he grabbed a cushion from the side and threw it in the direction of the sound. His tone was not friendly and revealed murderous intent: "Shut up!"
"Chief, you're here!"
"What are you doing here?" Jiang Yilin rolled over on the floor, shielding her eyes from the light with her arm, curling up into a ball like a withdrawn butterfly, unwilling to face others.
"Oh right, I almost forgot the important matter. Clan leader, do you know where Xilu went?"
Hearing her name, Jiang Yilin instantly woke up. He stared at the ceiling as the white mist in front of him was torn apart, and his consciousness gradually gathered. The dark circles under his eyes reflected his unwillingness.
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