Chapter 54: Qi Yu, Turn Around and Look at Me

Qi Yu's pace gradually slowed, feeling the evening breeze brushing against his face, seeing the tips of Ling Wu's hair glowing gold under the streetlights, watching his tall, thin back advance into the bustling crowd, staring at him intently; the sudden silence in his ears gave one an illusory feeling of escaping reality.

"Ling Wu, turn around!"

Suddenly, Qi Yu spoke, shattering this sense of illusion.

Ling Wu turned his head at the sound; amidst the bustling crowd and brilliant lights, he wore a thin, well-fitted white shirt, his refined figure standing out prominently, sleeves rolled up to his wrist bones, holding an ice cream in his hand, his pair of black eyes cold and clear as he looked at the phone camera Qi Yu had raised.

"Click!"

Qi Yu pressed the shutter button, freezing this frame for eternity.

His phone's resolution was very poor; it was a photo where everything except Ling Wu was blurry, making the entire Maple Forest Avenue look dim and sinking, but the person in the center of the frame, perhaps due to his exceptional appearance, was unaffected and looked surprisingly good.

Ling Wu's gaze narrowed slightly, and in the sultry night of midsummer, his voice became much gentler: "What's wrong?"

"Qi Yu, were you just taking a picture of me?"

Qi Yu felt the embarrassment of being caught, but his tone was very calm: "I wasn't."

Ling Wu: "Then why were you pointing your phone camera at me?"

Tsk.

Qi Yu felt that Ling Wu tonight was a bit difficult to handle.

"........" Qi Yu lowered his thick eyelashes, ripples rising in his deep brown eyes: "I was taking a selfie, wanting to ask if you wanted to join."

【The villain is even blushing】

【Quickly tell the second male lead that you were just taking a picture of him!】

【The villain probably thinks the phone resolution is bad and the photo didn't turn out well, so he's embarrassed to show it to the second male lead】

【This crazy, wealth-disparity-ridden world makes everything sky-high in price, making my villain unable to even afford a decent phone; enough, I feel bad for you!】

Qi Yu answered a call; perhaps because of what Ling Wu had said at the food stall earlier, he deliberately put the phone on speaker: "How is your health?"

"Still don't want me to come over?"

Grandma Liu was exasperated: "What are you coming over for?! Studying is the most important thing, don't spend all your time thinking about an old woman like me."

"Little Yu, have the results for your Academy test come out yet?"

Qi Yu: "They're out, third place."

Grandma Liu praised him: "That's very good."

"Don't you dare slack off."

【Laughing to death hahaha.... turns out even the villain can't escape the curse of being asked about grades】

【Grandma Liu's words are all about: study hard and make progress every day!】

After the call ended, they strolled through the night market once more before leaving Maple Forest Avenue.

The night was already very deep, and they were close to the Lower City District; Maple Forest Avenue and Tonggang Avenue were only two streets apart. Qi Yu said: "It's hard to hail a cab back to the Academy from here at night, do you want to sleep at my place?"

"No." Ling Wu shook his head: "I have a villa nearby, I won't be going back to the Academy tonight."

Qi Yu: "Do you want me to walk you there?"

Ling Wu smiled: "Isn't there a stage play performance at the Art Association tomorrow? Your role is much bigger than my nominal immortal one, get some good rest."

"I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Mm." Qi Yu: "See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

The two walked in opposite directions. Before Qi Yu had taken many steps, Ling Wu called out to him, imitating him from earlier: "Qi Yu, turn around and look at me."

He held up his phone, back turned to Qi Yu without looking back, saw him turn around through the screen, pressed the shutter button, and froze the frame of the two of them together.

Qi Yu clearly saw him take a photo.

A photo of the two of them together for the first time.

"I'll send you the photo later, I'm off."

Ling Wu put away his phone and waved at him.

The youth's figure disappeared into the crowd for a long time, leaving Qi Yu standing there stunned for a long while, his heart filled to the brim, realizing only then: "...... Okay."

Ling Wu returned to the villa.

The interior of the villa was a very simple European style, adopting a black, white, and gray color scheme throughout; the space was empty, not looking like a place inhabited year-round.

Ling Wu walked to the second floor and used his iris to unlock the door to a corner room. Inside, one wall was lined with guns and ammunition, the other side had some rare chemical reagents, and on the magnetic blackboard in the middle, several photos were held up by magnets.

The people in those photos were all different.

And all were marked with a red X.

That X was not an unknown variable in a mathematical equation; it was a simple, brutal mark declaring death, like the soul-snatching brush wielded by the King of Hell in the Life and Death Ledger.

Hanging on the wall facing the door was a portrait. The woman in the portrait had eyebrows like paintings, exquisite and beautiful features, hair like a waterfall cascading over her shoulders, eyes deep and gentle, her smile containing endless warmth.

Looking closely, Ling Wu resembled that face by thirty percent.

"Mom."

"I miss you very much."

Ling Wu said this while looking at the portrait.

Ling Wu knew that his expression at this moment must be extremely cold and strange, like an Asura demon crawling out of hell, ready to wreak havoc on the human world at any time.

He let his darkest emotions run wild.

Until he watched with his own eyes as the portrait began to bleed; blood flowed from Ling Tingwan's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, and the blood quickly spread to his feet. The entire villa turned scarlet, as if constructed from flesh and blood; the ceiling was peeled-off skin, the floor was ghastly white bone, and the furniture was various scattered organs.

Such scenes had played out countless times.

They were terrifying nightmares that haunted his midnight dreams, nightmares that entangled his soul.

"I know this is a hallucination."

Ling Wu lit a cigarette and took a drag with his lips: "Portraits don't bleed."

He stepped just like that onto the ground piled with white bones, walked up to that blackboard, and took one of the photographs down from it with a single hand.

"Mother, today is July 31st, 9 days until your memorial day; I will not let a single one of the people who killed you go."

Ling Wu tried to soften his expression with a smile, just like any other time in the past, but this time it was no longer effortless; the expression was twisted, pale, and repulsive...

He held the photograph in his hand and stuck it onto the wall.

The man's face on the photograph was illuminated to a ghastly white.

"He is the first, and he will absolutely not be the last. Mother, I will send him to hell to repent very soon. It is laughable that a person like him actually believes in gods and buddhas; let's see if the gods and buddhas he regards as his supreme faith can snatch his lowly life from my hands."

Ling Wu admired the photograph on the wall marked with a red cross, picked up a dart, and threw it; the photograph was pierced through, right in the throat. Outside the window, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, like the startling white light of a sword of justice piercing the darkness.

Inside the room, light and darkness intertwined.

Lightning streaked across again and again, the flickering scene like an old disc player, repeating incessantly; beneath the massive thunder, the photograph pinned by the dart was revealed—

It was the face of Yin Cilan.