Floating to your side (24)

Following the lit screen of the phone, Shen Tang saw a familiar picture.

This painting is indeed the one she gave to Liu Ling before!

The other party wanted her painting for the award? The more Shen Tang thought about it, the more she felt that the heroine in this world had strayed a million miles from the original plot.

The more he thought about it, the more surprised he became. He repeated the question in his mind at a very slow pace: "Is this painting really drawn by Xiaoling? No, is it really Xiaoling who brought it to you for the selection?"

The person in charge looked at her strangely and said, "Of course. If you don't use your own paintings, are you going to use other people's paintings?"

Shen Tang was silent, staring at the picture on the mobile phone screen for a long time, but still did not tell the relationship between this painting and herself. Maybe the heroine did this for some reason. If she said it directly, would it disrupt the other party's plan?

Just as Shen Tang began to have wild thoughts, the old man appeared behind her again. This time he still brought a plate of food, but his eyes quickly fell on the bowl that the person in charge had accidentally stained with blood when eating crabs. A look of satisfaction flashed in his eyes.

"Today is Xiaoling's celebration banquet. You are his friends. Eat more. I have enough food!" The old man spoke with a fake smile, but at the same time he slowly put the food in his hand back on the table. Apart from that, he didn't say anything else. It was so normal that it couldn't be more normal, but Shen Tang still felt that something was wrong.

Watching everyone at the table start eating, Shen Tang glanced at the new dishes. After looking at them for a while, she finally realized that something was wrong.

The dishes on the table were all very irritating. Recalling Wen Ting's words, Shen Tang felt more and more that the owner of this restaurant had invited people with a purpose. To put it bluntly, perhaps Liu Ling's celebration banquet was also part of the other party's plan.

"Xiaotang, if you don't eat now, we will finish all the dishes!" The person in charge continued to use chopsticks to pick up the Chinese dishes, teasing her in a slightly joking tone.

"But Shen Tang hasn't come down yet. Don't you think it's strange?"

The girl frowned, somewhat puzzled. Normally, shouldn't the celebration banquet start after everyone has arrived? But now, Shen Tang, the protagonist of the celebration banquet, has not arrived yet, and these people have already started eating the dishes on the table. It seems a bit unreasonable.

"Hey, Xiaoling said she would come down, so don't bother with her, let's eat our food." Seeing this, the boy sitting opposite Shen Tang picked up a crab and was about to put it in Shen Tang's bowl, but she quickly dodged him.

Shen Tang sat calmly in his seat, but his eyes quickly glanced over the bowls of the people at the table. He didn't know until he saw it, and his heart was shocked.

Except for her who hadn't touched her bowl and chopsticks yet and Liu Ling who hadn't appeared yet, the bowls and chopsticks of the people at the table were more or less stained with blood. However, these people seemed to be unaware of it and were still tirelessly chewing the food in their bowls, even eating like some extremely hungry beasts.

"What do you mean? I gave you food, why didn't you take it?" The boy sitting opposite Shen Tang stood up in dissatisfaction, his emotions fluctuated greatly, as if Shen Tang had done something evil. In this regard, she could only smile awkwardly and explain a few words.

"Sorry, I'm allergic to seafood."

Although she was talking like this, Shen Tang had already realized the real source of her uneasiness. It was the group of people sitting in front of her. Although they looked the same as the members of the club she had seen when she was camping, their behavior was deliberately guiding her to eat the food on the table in front of her. If it was really as Wen Ting said, there was a formation next to the table, and she was the last person to open the formation when everyone else left blood on the tableware.

There are many ways to make her bleed, and an accidental cut while eating is even more difficult to detect.

"I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well today and don't feel like eating. If you think the food is delicious, you can eat it first," Shen Tang put aside the chopsticks she had been holding. As soon as she put down the chopsticks, everyone at the table slowly turned their eyes to her.

Whether it was the person in charge or the boy who explained the painting to her earlier, they all looked at her blankly, and their hands holding the chopsticks stopped in the air. The next second, everyone around the table began to stare at Shen Tang and repeated the same sentence over and over again, "Why don't you eat?"

"Why don't you eat?" A group of people began to push the dishes on the table towards Shen Tang. Their dark eyes did not cast any shadows, and they just kept asking Shen Tang the same question over and over again like machines.

"Yeah, why not? I'm really looking forward to you eating the food here!"

A voice came from above, Shen Tang turned his head immediately, his pupils dilated rapidly when he saw the scene in front of him.

"Wen Ting, what's wrong with you?!"

Liu Ling walked down the stairs from the second floor slowly, holding a lantern made of unknown material. Liu Ling looked at her with a smile on her face, and inside the thick shell of the lantern, Shen Tang saw the strong evil spirit that belonged to Wen Ting. However, he seemed to be trapped at this time. Although the sound could be heard from the lantern, his whole body could not leave the lantern and float to her side like before.

"What's wrong? Your question is very strange, Xiaotang." Liu Ling blinked, raised the lantern with one hand, and slowly touched her lips with the other hand. "This is my new pet, of course I will treat him well. I haven't seen a soul like this for a long time. The evil spirit on his body is so strong. It would be great if I could use it to replenish my body."

"Liu Ling!" Shen Tang snorted, and looked at her coldly with his dark eyes under his bangs, "This joke is not funny."

"But I'm not joking. Didn't I tell you the last time I met you that I wanted to play with him, but you have always been unwilling to let me have contact with him. I had no choice but to resort to this last resort," Liu Ling shrugged, her tone full of amusement, which made Shen Tang frown even more tightly.

Liu Ling is very strange now. She is not as sunny and gentle as before. Instead, her whole body is filled with a strange aura, as if... she is a different person.

Thinking back to the various abnormal behaviors of Liu Ling when he saw her again after leaving her home, the string that Shen Tang had been missing in his mind finally rang.

"No, you are not Liu Ling. Who are you?" Shen Tang hurriedly took a few steps back, looking at Liu Ling warily while keeping a vigilant eye on the people at that table.

If the person in front of me is not the real Liu Ling, then the people at this table are probably not real members of the painting club.

"Oh my, have you been discovered?"

"Liu Ling" sighed helplessly and raised the lantern in her hand. At the same time, the owner of the store appeared silently beside "Liu Ling" and took the lantern from the other party with his fingers like a dead tree.

"Bingo! You discovered it earlier than most people, but unfortunately, it's useless even if you discovered it!" "Liu Ling" slowly twisted her face into a weird smile, and she tilted her head slightly to look at Shen Tang, "I'm not completely your Xiao Ling, but I am the exclusive soul of the master."

gentlemen?

Shen Tang looked at the two people in front of her coldly. As she guessed, the old man was not a relative at all, but a sorcerer who was waiting in the store. As for why he targeted her and Wen Ting, Ah Piao, who occupied Liu Ling's body, said that the sorcerer was targeting the evil spirit in Wen Ting, otherwise he would not have gone to the trouble to set up a trap for them.

"You just said that you are not completely Xiao Ling. What do you mean? If you are not Liu Ling, then where is the real Liu Ling?"

Liu Ling stared at Shen Tang's face and suddenly laughed happily, "Mu Tang, Mu Tang, have you always thought that you are the one who understands me the most in the world? What a pity, you trusted me so much, but I still played you around!"

"To tell you the truth, I am Liu Ling, but I am not completely Liu Ling." The girl slowly put her hand on the old man's shoulder and said with curved eyes, "I am the part that you took out from the real Liu Ling's body, but I'm sorry to disappoint you. I am the part that likes to do bad things the most~"

"Only people with unstable minds will have part of their souls extracted by the master. If you want to blame someone, just blame Liu Ling for being useless. She obviously treats you as a good friend, but she is jealous of your talent for painting and your academic performance." "Liu Ling" smiled and bent over. "In fact, you should thank me for what you have now. I told her all the secrets in her heart!"

Although Shen Tang was a little surprised, she didn't show any panic on her face. She just looked at the person in front of her calmly, "What do you want to do? If you hate me, you can come at me. What do you want to do to an innocent soul!"

The lantern must be something special, otherwise, with Wen Ting's ability to control ghost babies, how could he easily let someone lock them up? Shen Tang thought about everything quickly, tensed his body, and was ready to rush to the old man and snatch the lantern.

"You led us here, it shouldn't just be to capture Wen Ting, right?" Shen Tang deliberately diverted the attention of the two people in front of her to herself. She turned her head gently, "That formation is your real purpose!"

"You are quite smart, but sometimes being too smart is not a good thing." The old man, who had not spoken a word, finally opened his eyes and looked at her with approval after Shen Tang spoke. "The yin-yang eyes are a good talent, but it's a pity that they are not used perfectly."

"But it doesn't matter. Once you become part of this formation, I can use all your strength!" A gleam of light flashed in the old man's slit-like eyes. He stroked his beard and shook the lantern in his hand.