Chapter 292: A Family Should Be Reunited, That Old Photograph

Feng Yuhuai breathed in the meaty fragrance permeating the air, intoxicated and greedy; that scent did not even need skinning and bleeding to emerge from her roommates' soft hair, their fair necks, and even the warm breath they exhaled.

From a culinary perspective, they needed no extra seasoning—they had already been marinated to the bone.

Next, Feng Yuhuai caught a whiff of a richer bone fragrance; though the scent lingered only an instant, its aroma remained in the air long after.

Like endless temptation, it stimulated her as she kept her head down, not daring to lift it; her throat bobbed involuntarily as she swallowed saliva nonstop.

"Was it Father? Did Father just come, and leave again?"

Feng Yuhuai identified the person by scent; she forced down the hunger in her heart with great effort, her eyes full of warm affection, her gaze carefully scanning each friend's features, then gently settling on the road where Feng Ju had disappeared.

At this moment, a profound enlightenment transcending worldly meaning surged in Feng Yuhuai's heart:

"Since we good friends all long to stay by each other's side forever, then a family must surely long even more to be reunited and never separate."

Zhang Liyou looked at Feng Yuhuai's deeply affectionate gaze directed at her, and inexplicably, that heart-pounding eerie feeling from just now rose again; she opened her mouth, about to say something.

"Hey, you few are in Class 1, Grade 10, right? Your luck is pretty good. Come over and take a photo with the school leaders and Professor Zuo Bai."

A minor leader from the Academic Affairs Office ran over and waved at the group, rudely cutting off Zhang Liyou's words on the tip of her tongue, and also cutting off Feng Yuhuai's life epiphany ascending to a new realm.

Feng Yuhuai's group came at the call and obediently stood at the edge of the camera lens.

Although Feng Yuhuai had already stood out on campus and achieved some success, these school leaders before her did not know who she was at all.

She likewise did not know these school leaders who rarely appeared before students, nor did she know Professor Zuo Bai, who was surrounded in the center.

And this group of strangers, at the moment facing the camera, miraculously needed no guidance at all; each naturally bloomed into a beautiful smiling face a hundred times more radiant than their usual genuine smiles.

Perhaps this confirmed Detective Li Xiang's words—the camera would become an accomplice to the 【Mask】.

It was not that the camera helped the 【Mask】, but because under the camera, everyone would become a... fake mask!!!

The photo was soon taken; the school leaders huddled together and retreated collectively like a tide.

Feng Yuhuai's gaze followed their departing backs; she slightly furrowed her brow, staring confusedly at their departing backs.

She lightly sniffed, catching in the lingering scent a trace of an extremely faint, almost imperceptible familiar smell.

She would never forget this scent; it was the deepest scent imprinted in the depths of her memory.

She would never forget everything that happened that day in the dark underground basement of that clinic; the room had been filled with this scent back then.

Xiao Juan gently tugged at Feng Yuhuai's clothes and said softly, "The photo is taken; let's go back to the dorm."

Feng Yuhuai's drifting thoughts gently nodded.

At this moment, Cui Cui ran back quickly like a gust of wind.

As soon as the photo was taken just now, Cui Cui ran off; she had a lively personality and was used to giving everyone a fright, so her roommates were used to it and paid no mind.

Cui Cui ran back and shouted loudly, "Oh, why didn't you wait for me?"

After speaking, she was not angry at all; instead, she openly spread her hands and said excitedly, "Look, I got something back for everyone."

Several people curiously looked at Cui Cui's palm and saw her holding out a photograph flatly in her hand—a photo she had just boldly asked the photographer for.

Cui Cui handed the photo to everyone while smiling and complaining:

"That photographer clearly took several photos in a row; I wore my mouth out talking, and he only reluctantly gave me one that didn't turn out well. But luckily, we're all beautiful, so no matter how you take it, we're all beauties. Hehe."

Zhang Liyou looked down at the photo; it was just an ordinary instant photo. Because of overexposure, the figures in the center were somewhat hazy, as if covered with a light gauze, while the corners of the photo unexpectedly remained clear.

It was as if those at the corners had become the protagonists, while the protagonists in the middle had blurred into the background.

Zhang Liyou looked down, lost in thought; she looked at the corner of the photo—the four of them stood in a row, forming a corner.

Feng Yuhuai stood quietly on the innermost side, leaning against an unknown school leader, her smile dignified and sweet.

But perhaps because she happened to stand near the overexposed aperture, her profile was rendered somewhat blurry by the soft halo of light, giving a faint sense of unreality, as if she did not partake of mortal food and fireworks.

Next to Feng Yuhuai was Xiao Juan, who habitually held Feng Yuhuai's arm gently, her head slightly tilted toward Feng Yuhuai, her smile shy and bashful.

Next to Xiao Juan was Cui Cui, who stretched her arms out as far as possible, forming a straight line across the backs of the four heads, as if to hug everyone together forever, laughing heartily with several buck teeth showing.

And she herself stood at the outermost edge, leaning against a tree; beneath the tree was reflected the shadow of the several people merged into one.

The soft halo, the merged shadows, four figures leaning tightly together, shrunk into a corner... everything seemed ordinary, yet inadvertently touched Zhang Liyou's heartstrings, and her eye sockets involuntarily moistened.

The moistened eye sockets blurred the photo and also made time hazy; Zhang Liyou felt a sudden inexplicable pain, and she suddenly had an uneasy premonition that this scene frozen in the photo would remain forever at this moment and never appear again in the future.

Just like that yellowed old photo in memory, carefully kept and locked in the bottom layer of a box, yet the key to unlock it could never be... found again.

Could not find the matching key to unlock the Lock.

At the same moment, inside the Second Prison of District Nine, high-tech security systems replaced traditional key locks.

Before a metal door requiring iris verification, a bloody eyeball was cruelly stuffed into the iris recognition device; the heavy metal door opened, but could not be closed again.

A head missing an eyeball rolled onto the ground beneath the door, round and round, stuck in the door crack, like a child's lost ball accidentally stuck under a bedroom door.

But this was no place for play; only a group of prisoners, soaked through, with blood drops constantly dripping from their clothes and hair.

They unrestrainedly released the madness and excitement in their hearts, laughing at the surveillance camera above their heads in a pool of blood like a group of children gone wild with play.

And their "toys" were those prison guard badges... dolls?! cruelly torn apart and shattered into pieces!!

End of Chapter