“A-Xiu…..”

Surrounded by ghosts, Lord Hong pressed his forehead to Li Xiu’s. At this moment, he looked almost like a genuine human being.

“Li Yu is not me, but I am Li Yu,” he said to Li Xiu word by word.

“I remember everything. I am here because of you.”

As he spoke, he smiled at Li Xiu. 

“I’ve always really, really wanted to be with you—”

Before Lord Hong finished speaking, he stopped abruptly because of a small fire rising in his chest.

He opened his eyes in confusion, first looking at Li Xiu, and then lowering his head to look at his own body. A bit of fire was spreading from the ghost’s heart, starting from a small cluster of bean-like flames that burned vigorously.

It seemed like only a second passed before Lord Hong’s body was enveloped in dazzling, scorching firelight.

“A…..Xiu…..”

It happened so fast that he couldn’t react.

Lord Hong reached his hands out to Li Xiu, but the flames rapidly engulfed his arms. A stream of hot air spurted out from the burning monster, almost scalding Li Xiu’s cheek.

In that moment, Li Xiu could only stand there blankly and watch everything happening in front of him, unable to make any response.

It was so strange, he thought.

How had the terrifying, powerful, monstrous Lord Hong suddenly burst into flames.

Then he saw the figure behind Lord Hong: There was almost no good piece of flesh left on Fang Qian’an’s body. Looking like a bloody gourd, the boy stood shakily behind Lord Hong, still holding a candle in his hand.

That was the candle Teacher Xu had given Li Xiu before. And right now, it had been lit.

Not long ago, when Li Xiu had reached out and tried to pull Fang Qian’an out of the blood, Li Xiu took the opportunity to secretly hand the candle hidden in his sleeve to the boy, who was about to be swallowed by monsters.

That was the last resort left by Li Xiu to Fang Qian’an.

If his gege was set on killing Fang Qian’an, perhaps Fang Qian’an could give Teacher Xu’s candle a try.

But Li Xiu never expected that Fang Qian’an would desperately return to the ghost world even after escaping. He had even found an opportunity to light the candle and poke it into Lord Hong’s body.

It was just obviously such a weak flame, ah…..

The flames quickly spread from Lord Hong’s body to the floor. The monster that had brought them endless pain was like cardboard soaked in oil, and was instantly engulfed in the hot, manic flames.

Amid the scorching, unnaturally bright firelight, Fang Qian’an shouted at Li Xiu: “Such a monster — don’t believe it, ah!”

Lord Hong’s body gradually became indistinct as it burned.

“Ge…..Gege?”

Li Xiu had to admit that he was scared. He subconsciously started to rush forward to slap the flames on Lord Hong away, but in the next second, an unseen force suddenly struck and pushed Li Xiu away.

Immediately after, Fang Qian’an also flew up and fell heavily near Li Xiu. His body rolled several times before it stopped.

“Fang Qian’an!” Li Xiu screamed, crawling over on his hands and knees.

He turned Fang Qian’an over and checked his breathing in terror…..although it was weak, the boy was still alive.

Li Xiu breathed a sigh of relief.

“You still like him more, ah.”

A hoarse sigh sounded. Li Xiu turned around with tears in his eyes, at a loss as he looked at the monster that was engulfed in flames — Lord Hong was like a burning human figure now. Behind him, countless twisted shadows roiled wildly, screaming as they were swallowed by merciless tongues of fire and dispersed.

“Ge…..n-no…..listen to me…..I…..”

Li Xiu shuffled a few steps toward Lord Hong on his knees. However, a scorching blaze suddenly erupted between him and Lord Hong, forming a long wall of fire. Another wave of heat hit, and Li Xiu fell backward uncontrollably.

The air began to grow extremely hot, and the pungent smell unique to burning wood and fabric billowed out, rushing toward Li Xiu.

“Forget it.”

Li Xiu suddenly heard a nearly inaudible sigh from Lord Hong.

He was gradually engulfed by the incredibly bright flames. At that last second before his figure completely disappeared, Lord Hong smiled.

Whoosh—

Then, the illusion before Li Xiu’s eyes abruptly dissipated.

Accompanied by harsh shattering sounds and the explosion of some unknown objects, innumerable flames sprung up around Li Xiu, emitting dazzling light. Thick smoke rose up, and everything around him was distorted by the heat. Li Xiu coughed and choked, just then realizing that he was standing in the Xiao family villa.

He’d actually returned to reality? Why?! Was the other party unable to confine Li Xiu in the other world because of the flames? Or…..revenge?

Countless thoughts passed through Li Xiu’s mind, but he had no time to think, because at that moment, the villa had become a complete inferno. The thick smoke and high temperature made it extremely difficult for Li Xiu to breathe. With every breath he took, his nose and lungs burned. Innumerable flying sparks landed on him, but Li Xiu couldn’t even feel the sting.

In the thick smoke, he touched Fang Qian’an’s body beside him, then pulled off his sleeve and tied it around the boy’s mouth and nose.

Li Xiu used all of his strength to walk Fang Qian’an toward where he remembered the door should be.

He muttered faintly: “Fang Qian’an…..you’d better……wake up quickly.”

Although he tried his best, his vision still grew uncontrollably blurry.

The fire and smoke was everywhere. Caught off guard by the fire, Li Xiu had inhaled so much smoke that he was losing his sight.

Was he really about to die now? Li Xiu thought desperately.

The overwhelming fear of death made him subconsciously hug Fang Qian’an. There was another roar as a wall of fire struck directly toward Li Xiu.

Li Xiu closed his eyes. He was unable to hold on any longer. Consciousness left his body.

But at the last moment before he fell unconscious, he vaguely felt something covering him.

It was wet and cold.

There was a strong smell of blood.

Was this an illusion?

Why was he seeing Fang Qian’an’s unconscious body split down the middle and then…..wrap around him……

Finally, darkness swallowed Li Xiu whole.

*

*

One year later — 

City A’s First People’s Hospital, in a special ward.

“Teacher Xu, I got the admission notice.” Li Xiu sat upright at the bedside, saying seriously to the man in the bed, “Qinghua and Jingbei. I finally chose Jingbei.”

He lowered his eyes and placed the admission notice in the man’s motionless hand.

Teacher Xu lay silently in bed, as if asleep. A life support machine beeped regularly beside his bed.

Qiao Yang stood behind Li Xiu, sniffling.

His eyes were a bit red.

“If Teacher could wake up, he would be extremely happy to know that you were admitted to Jingbei University,” Qiao Yang said to Li Xiu.

“En.” Li Xiu nodded.

In fact, his nose was also a little sore, but he didn’t want to cry again now. In order to conceal his emotions, Li Xiu turned his attention back to Teacher Xu.

The man had been in a vegetative state for a year. Each time he came to visit Teacher Xu, he would be unconscious like this. But Li Xiu had an inexplicable intuition. When he showed the admission notice to him today, the man’s face seemed more at peace and relaxed than ever before.

A year before, a fire broke out in the Xiao family villa and it was razed to the ground.

And Fang Qian’an and Li Xiu were found unconscious next to the inferno. Judging from the traces left behind, the two had just barely escaped while supporting each other. Considering the severity of the fire, it was a miracle that they were able to leave the villa alive.

It wasn’t that no one ever wondered why Li Xiu and Fang Qian’an had appeared next to the villa, and some also suspected them of starting the fire. However, after an investigation by the fire department, it was determined that the aging circuits of the long-uninhabited villa had caused the fire naturally.

Considering Fang Qian’an’s unique status and Qiao Yang’s appearance later on, no one investigated why Li Xiu and Fang Qian’an had appeared in the villa. The incident was brushed off.

Moreover, people’s attention at that time was indeed not allocated to an insignificant fire in an abandoned house. After all, the biggest news of the day was that, due to faulty construction methods, the tallest skyscraper in City A experienced a chemical reaction that occurred between the waterproof coating and fireproof material, which resulted in a serious chemical poisoning incident that resulted in a large number of innocent people being injured and hospitalized.

Yes, Teacher Xu’s disciple used this method to reasonably explain the zombie incident that night.

Later, Li Xiu learned from Qiao Yang that the living corpses in the building that night had all returned to normal.

“Teacher used talismans to seal their life veins…..so when the poison was detoxified at dawn, most of them were still able to turn back into humans. But it was precisely because of this that Teacher Xu was so weak that night.”

Qiao Yang wiped away tears as he explained this to Li Xiu.

After the Xiao family villa fire, all of the evil spirits that had originally occupied the haunted house were dispersed.

Xu Qinghe fell into a coma due to his life candle being lit, but luckily, perhaps because the candle didn’t burn out completely, or perhaps for some reason they didn’t know, Teacher Xu didn’t die, but fell into a deep coma.

However, it would take a long time to bring his lost soul back, so Teacher Xu was still in a vegetative state at this point.

Teacher Xu’s coma became a large stone weighing on everyone’s hearts.

But aside from that, everything seemed to be going in a good direction.

After the fire, Li Xiu never saw a ghost again. According to the news from spiritual practitioners, all the evil spirits sealed there had dissipated without a trace. The nightmare named Lord Hong seemed to have finally met his demise in the Xiao family villa.

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Chapter 57 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 59