Chapter 34: Thirty-Three: Life (Combined)

Thirty-Three: Life (Combined)

"Hmm, right by the balcony is perfect, it can get more photosynthesis—oh, I almost forgot there's no sun here." Lin Ling placed a pot of bright red Stone Leek on the balcony. He poked his head out to check the sky outside, then dejectedly carried the flower back to the table. "Forget it, just leave it on the viewing stand; it looks quite nice there too."

Lin Ling stroked the flower's tender stems and petals; the texture was as delicate as a young girl's skin, and the fragrance was dark and lingering, leaving a scent on his fingers. This vibrant Other Shore Flower seemed to have a mind of its own; faced with the shop owner's flirtatiousness, it was weak and fearful, not daring to resist.

Wei Jiang stood far off to the side, stealing glances and not daring to approach, his gaze fixed intently on the pot of flowers Lin Ling had placed on the table.

"Sigh, don't worry, it won't bite anymore." Lin Ling noticed Wei Jiang's wary expression and immediately waved his hand with a smile.

"Yes." Hearing Lin Ling's words, Wei Jiang finally dared to approach slowly, though he still kept a certain distance and did not touch it like Lin Ling had.

Subsequently, Wei Jiang's gaze turned to the other side of the cabin, toward a blurry, giant black shadow. One could vaguely make out a female silhouette, and in his eyes, this shadow was wrapped in incalculable sin, though it was restrained and condensed within its body.

The other party had appeared suddenly today. As soon as she appeared, she was holding a pot of harmless flowers. Lin Ling, who had just woken up, saw the pot in her hands and immediately walked up with a chuckle, as if he had run into a delivery person bringing a package to his door, saying, "Thanks for the hard work, delivering things so early in the morning." They seemed quite familiar with each other.

After deciding on the placement of the flowerpot, Lin Ling turned back to continue his conversation with the shadow: "You go back now. I've already finished the upgrade for you, so it will be more convenient for you to act in the future, right?"

The black shadow nodded, bowed respectfully, and then dissipated into a whirlwind.

"Boss, this... let's call it a person for now, who is this person?" Wei Jiang asked curiously.

"It's a product our little shop is launching into the external market. I just performed some product value-added processing on it," Lin Ling said after a moment's thought.

Wei Jiang opened his mouth, "So that really was a Blessing, wasn't it?"

"It was just an Avatar, it is everywhere." Lin Ling waved his hand, having no intention of explaining further; it seemed that explaining would make him feel it was too much trouble.

Creak—

The shop's door was gently pushed open by a pair of fair hands. The woman who walked in had a straight posture, short, spirited hair, and was dressed in a capable manner—a suit, straight-leg trousers, and flat shoes. She looked like a very professional office worker.

"Xiaoyu." Seeing the visitor, Wei Jiang immediately smiled.

"Disturbing you again, Lin Laoban. This time I'm just here specifically to see Wei Jiang." Yu Lianyun first bowed respectfully to Lin Ling, then stated her purpose.

Lin Ling nodded with a smile and said, "You two chat." Then he walked over to the ownerless Shrine, pulled a small, innocent black cat out of the deep darkness, carried it to the recliner, lay down to rest, and started petting the cat.

The black cat remained blank-faced from start to finish, its eyes devoid of joy or sorrow, as if it had grown accustomed to this kind of life. Soon, being resigned to its fate, it lay in Lin Ling's arms and continued to sleep, letting Lin Ling's rough technique work on it.

"How do you feel now after moving in here with Lin Laoban?" Yu Lianyun asked her colleague and senior who had returned to work after death.

Wei Jiang laughed heartily: "Lin Laoban is a very good person; everything is quite nice."

Hearing Wei Jiang's assessment, Yu Lianyun was slightly silent. How was this different from her impression? Could it be that he hadn't discovered the nasty side of Lin Laoban's personality yet?

"Aside from not being able to show my face in public anymore, having to abandon my original identity, and severing ties with everyone from my past life, working here is actually quite leisurely. At least it's much better than the job of a Mysterious Investigator, running around every day, going through fire and water." Wei Jiang appeared very open-minded. "Besides, I didn't have any family to begin with, so there's basically nothing to miss. If anything, being able to work leisurely here now is a kind of relief."

Yu Lianyun looked into Wei Jiang's eyes; the other party's sincerity was written all over his face, and she finally began to feel at ease.

Immediately, her gaze was drawn to the pot of flowers on Lin Ling's table. Suddenly, her eyes filled with terror. She looked at Wei Jiang, somewhat agitated, and pointed at the bright red, dripping-wet flower: "This... isn't this..."

"I'm not sure either." Wei Jiang spread his hands helplessly. "But it looks like it has already been subdued by the boss."

Hearing this, Yu Lianyun's heart trembled. Looking back at Lin Ling, who was peacefully petting the cat, she felt that the owner of this Forest Cabin was becoming increasingly unfathomable.

Who could have imagined that the culprit who razed the Xuanmi Group headquarters to the ground, wiped out hundreds of Mysterious Investigators, and caused a magnitude-six earthquake in Tianfu City was, at this moment, transformed into a harmless little flower, placed by Lin Ling on the corner of a table in this little shop.

Wei Jiang changed the subject: "By the way, have you received any calls from strangers lately?"

"Strangers?" Yu Lianyun slowly came back to her senses. She recalled for a moment and shook her head, "No."

"I see..." Wei Jiang nodded. He didn't know how far the guest from a few days ago had gotten, but they shouldn't have encountered danger yet.

Yu Lianyun asked curiously: "Is there a problem?"

Wei Jiang was silent for a moment and said: "If someone calls you for help later, just choose according to your own situation and wishes. You don't need to worry about anything else."

Hearing Wei Jiang's words, Yu Lianyun immediately guessed the gist of it: "You gave my phone number to someone else?"

"Yes, I'm very sorry. This might cause you some trouble."

Yu Lianyun smiled and shook her head. "The reason I'm still willing to stay in the Xuanmi Group now is naturally because I want to help others who were once like me. Of course, I won't act rashly; I know my own limits."

Xinchaji is a time-honored tea restaurant in Shenzhou. It is the only one of its kind with no other branches, which is why Li Jiahong was so concise when reporting the address of the meeting place.

Like his wife Jiang Gu, almost all the members of the Mysterious Society she participated in during her university years were dead. Their husbands or wives had lost their significant others and children. Back then, in order to investigate the society, Li Jiahong had tried his best to pull all the family members still in Shenzhou into a WeChat group to share what they knew about the mysterious society.

It's just that when most people in the group learned that the deaths of their partners and the disappearances of their children were related to supernatural events, these family members either thought Li Jiahong was crazy and simply blocked the group chat, never to interact again, or they were skeptical or simply believed him and were willing to accompany Li Jiahong in doing some investigations.

However, this group chat was never active; if Li Jiahong didn't speak, no one else would speak either.

Ever since he set off for Litaishi to investigate the children's disappearances in depth, Li Jiahong hadn't spoken in the group for a long time.

Sending out the meeting message this morning, Li Jiahong was prepared for the possibility that no one would come.

Sure enough, when the appointed time arrived, only one person showed up at the scene—a female family member. After waiting for about another half hour, another person came dragging their feet, and that person's expression upon arrival was cold and unfriendly.

"Old Huang, you came!" Li Jiahong was exceptionally happy to see the person, because in his memory, this giant of a man, over 1.9 meters tall, was the type of family member in the group who absolutely refused to believe that the children's disappearances were related to supernatural events. But now that the other party was actually willing to come, could it be that he had changed his mind?

However, the person Li Jiahong called Old Huang directly swatted away the hand Li Jiahong reached out, and said with a cold look in his eyes: "Li Jiahong, I hope you stop using the children's disappearances to exploit our feelings. Also, I didn't come here specifically for you today; I just happened to be nearby for business, so I stopped by to take a look. I didn't expect there would actually be another idiot willing to listen to your ghost stories."

"Old Huang, listen to me, I have... although I can't prove all of that, it is indeed true..." Li Jiahong was stunned for a moment and wanted to persuade the other party to listen to his explanation, but he was quickly interrupted by the man's angry voice.

"True my ass!" The man's eyes were red as he grabbed Li Jiahong's shoulders tightly, gritting his teeth and saying, "The truth is that our children are never coming back! They are already dead!"

"Your son has been missing for fifteen years, her child for twelve years, and my daughter for nineteen years! If everything you say is the truth, then after so many years, do you think they can still be alive? Trafficked children don't even live for ten years on average in the hands of traffickers! Our children have been gone for twelve, fifteen, nineteen years—how could they possibly still be alive!? How do you expect me to believe they are alive!?" The man grabbed Li Jiahong by the collar, suddenly unable to control his emotions, and shouted furiously, "They are already dead!"

Everyone in the restaurant quieted down upon hearing the man's words, and all eyes were focused on Li Jiahong and the man.

"Tao-ge, Jiahong-ge, please don't be like this. Can you both just calm down?" The family member who arrived first quickly stood up to act as a peacemaker, urging the two, whose emotions were gradually becoming agitated, not to argue.

"Huang Qitao, you have to believe in hope..." Li Jiahong's mood was also not calm. Even when he heard the other party say his child was already dead, he felt an unprecedented, intense anger and couldn't quite control himself. But when he saw the other party's grief-stricken eyes, he understood that the other party was just as miserable as he was.

"Believe in hope?" Huang Qitao laughed. He released Li Jiahong's collar, his steps staggering backward a few times, and he barely managed to steady himself against a chair to avoid falling. He lifted the pant leg of his right trouser, revealing the prosthetic limb hidden inside, and said with a dejected expression, "I once believed in hope too, but I broke my leg searching for her, yet she still couldn't come back... Later, I felt that even finding her remains would be a stroke of luck."

Supported by the other bereaved family member, Huang Qitao sat down and said with a despondent look in his eyes: "At first I was looking for her, later I was looking for it. Tell me, does this count as giving up?"

"I can't even find the remains." Huang Qitao's eyes were red, and it was unclear whether they held hatred or kindness, his lips trembling. "I'm a damn cripple!"

"Now I don't even look forward to whether I can find her remains; it's meaningless." Huang Qitao wiped away his tears and snot. He stood up, walked over to Li Jiahong, and patted Li Jiahong's chest. "Search your conscience. Sometimes don't think your love is so great. You only lost one person; you still have your parents on both sides, you are still very lucky, your wife is still here... Instead of spending time on a settled fact, you'd be better off using the remaining time to accompany your family."

After saying this, Huang Qitao pushed Li Jiahong aside and left like a normal person.

"Jiahong-ge, are you okay?" Seeing Li Jiahong's dazed expression, the only family member willing to believe in Li Jiahong came to his side and asked with concern.

Li Jiahong's rapid breathing was a reflection of his inner state—extremely unsettled. He shed two lines of hot tears in silence, then hurriedly wiped them away, forcing himself to maintain his turbulent state of mind, and gave the other person an ugly smile: "I'm sorry, Mrs. Xue Hanlei, let's... let's go somewhere else to talk."

After speaking, he immediately stood up and bowed earnestly to apologize to the others in the restaurant, only then leaving the restaurant with the support of Xue Hanlei, switching instead to a fast-food burger joint one kilometer away, where they sat down in a corner of the shop.

"Brother Li Jiahong, are you alright?" seeing that Li Jiahong's expression was still somewhat wooden, Xue Hanlei asked with some concern.

Li Jiahong shook his head slowly, "I'm fine."

Rubbing his nose, he glanced at the environment and only then realized he had come to a burger joint, smiling at Xue Hanlei: "Whatever you want to eat or drink, feel free to order; it was my failure today that made you look bad too, it's my treat."

Xue Hanlei smiled slightly, she glanced at the menu on the wall, looking somewhat playful, and said: "Then I really will order, I won't stand on ceremony with you."

Li Jiahong was amused by her demeanor, knowing she was doing this on purpose to ease his melancholy mood; he coughed lightly, tried hard to pull himself together, nodded, and his tone became a bit firmer: "Mm, feel free to order whatever you like."

Afterwards, the two enjoyed a satisfying fast-food meal; perhaps fried food really can bring people happiness, as Li Jiahong's mood had indeed improved quite a bit, and he prepared to start getting to the main point.

"Actually, the reason I called everyone here this time is because I really have made a major discovery." Li Jiahong opened his messenger bag, took out a laminated letter from inside, handed the letter to Xue Hanlei to look at, and said while doing so, "The Huogu are real; I learned some important information from someone who once escaped from a Huogu Lair..."

Xue Hanlei read with focus while listening intently to the investigative experiences Li Jiahong had gone through over these days, as he recounted everything in detail and shared his own conclusions and conjectures with her.

After Xue Hanlei finished reading the contents recorded on the letter, she couldn't help but feel a soreness in her nose and her eyes turned red; at the thought of her child's life and death being uncertain in the hands of unknown creatures, the pain that had been pent up in her heart and difficult to vent suddenly erupted in distress.

After listening to Li Jiahong's words and learning that Li Jiahong wanted to find the Huogu Tomb on Earth, Xue Hanlei couldn't help but ask Li Jiahong: "Then do you have any clues about the Huogu Tomb right now?"

Li Jiahong said truthfully: "No."

"No clues..." Xue Hanlei murmured.

Seeing this, Li Jiahong hurriedly said: "But rest assured, there will be progress soon."

"How soon is soon?" Xue Hanlei asked.

Li Jiahong was stunned.

Xue Hanlei also seemed to realize her lapse in composure and hurriedly apologized.

Li Jiahong did not mind, and even asked her not to bow her head to him, as she had done nothing wrong, then he asked: "Mrs. Xue, didn't you also have information you collected yourself that you wanted to share this time?"

Hearing this, Xue Hanlei revealed a stiff smile: "No... I won't embarrass myself; what you collected basically overlaps with mine, and is much more detailed than mine." She nervously hid her sachet.

Li Jiahong took her at her word and smiled understandingly, "It's fine, everyone has their own perspective, we were originally here to discuss things with each other..."