Chapter 314: Scandalous

The blue velvet had a unique texture. The moment his fingertips touched it, he felt a tingling sensation, as if a tiny electric current passed through his whole body. Qi Fei tried to get up, but was tripped by the silky velvet cloth beneath him, as if he had lost most of his strength. The blue velvet was like a net, invisibly binding him.

Strangely, he didn't resist this binding in his heart, and even greedily wanted to lie on it. His cheek pressed against the surface of the velvet; those extremely fine and soft fluff were just like a girl's cheek, bringing him endless joy of rubbing against each other.

In an instant, he missed Zhong Kui so much, fantasizing that this blue velvet was her. The more he missed her, the more fervent the restlessness in his heart became. Miraculously, Zhong Kui's alluring face really appeared on the velvet, becoming more and more real, more and more within reach, and finally, he could really touch her face.

Qi Fei only felt his heart was about to jump out. He reached out his hand tremblingly, muttering: "Forgive me."

These words didn't seem to come from his mouth, like a heart flowing, but he was certain Zhong Kui could hear them.

"Love me, trust me without reservation, as if we are one, sharing a body. Our souls are intertwined, inseparable..." Zhong Kui's voice was ethereal and alluring, lingering in his mind like smoke and fog, full of magic that could not be refused.

Qi Fei sank into it completely, falling, happy, hoping it would always be like this, with no past, no future, just like a speck of dust in the universe, existing, neither born nor destroyed.

Just when the last bit of his remaining reason was about to dissipate, Zhong Kui's face suddenly changed. Black thorns began to grow from her fair skin. Those thorns kept growing outward, distorting her entire face. Her mouth began to grow outward, becoming extremely hard. This was a monster. The black thorns revealed their complete shape; they were black feathers, one by one, flashing with green fluorescence. The monster was not a monster, but a black swan—Zhong Kui had become a black swan.

Blue velvet... black swan... Qi Fei's mind was filled with these two images, as if awakening certain perceptions of another world. This perception shattered all the hallucinatory light and shadow. This world suddenly had gravity, making him fall rapidly.

Qi Fei was startled and fell to the ground in a mess. There was a chaotic noise all around. He rubbed his sore arm and stood up. His blurred vision gradually became clear. Looking around, it was still shrouded in twilight, and messy paintings and ghostly sculpture afterimages were everywhere, as if forming a barrier, trapping him in the magic barrier just now.

He remembered that he had brought two paintings to this rental house in Sanwu Town in the afternoon, wanting to experience the mysteries within the two paintings personally. He didn't know why, but looking at the two paintings on the left and right, it was like looking at flowers in the fog, and he actually fell asleep while looking.

That dream was so absurd and yet so real that he still felt his ears hot and his heart beating fast after waking up, difficult to calm down.

There was a knock on the door outside, followed by a "creak" as it was pushed open. The autumn wind swept by, and a strand of long hair was raised from the crack of the door.

"Zhong Kui?" Qi Fei blurted out.

"Pop!" With the crisp sound of the switch, an equally crisp sound came: "Brother Fei, it's me, what Zhong Kui!" Wu Shanqiu's face appeared in Qi Fei's line of sight.

Qi Fei blushed and said: "Why are you here?"

"Ha? You mysteriously said you wanted to go out for a while, and you hadn't returned even though it was already dark. I finally found out you came in this direction, so I came to care about you, didn't I?" Wu Shanqiu said while looking at Qi Fei, surprised: "Brother Fei, do you have a fever? Why do you look so hot and humid?"

"I accidentally fell asleep, it's fine." Qi Fei tried to make himself look normal and said, "It seems my artistic talent is still insufficient. I originally thought that in this environment, I could have some discoveries about Wu Xingzhou and Ge Ming's paintings, but..."

"But you fell asleep? Haha..." Wu Shanqiu didn't hide her mockery. "Brother Fei, such mysterious things as art are simply not suitable for you. By the way, I have something to find you for." She gave Qi Fei a report. "A new report written by Xiao Cai. He went to investigate Wu Shulan's situation and has new discoveries."

Qi Fei opened the report, looked at the neatly formatted and detailed content, and laughed: "This guy Cai Ding is not bad; he actually likes writing materials."

"Ha, I'm also curious. How can there be someone in this world who likes writing materials?" Wu Shanqiu said. "But it's indeed quite attentive. He actually managed to pry open the mouths of those stubborn old people in the Wu family clan and found out some news. Do you still remember Wu Chongyue's hesitant look when he talked about expelling Wu Shulan from the clan genealogy?"

Qi Fei tried to concentrate and scanned, couldn't help but mutter: "Wu Shulan had a child out of wedlock?"

"To be precise, it was an illegitimate daughter. It is said that when she was young, she eloped with someone and was abandoned, got pregnant, and returned to Sanwu Town alone. At that time, everyone's concepts were still very conservative. Having a child out of wedlock was considered a scandalous thing. At that time, they were going to expel Wu Shulan from the clan, but this matter was stopped by Wu Chongyue."

"The Wu clan genealogy is very valuable; it is valuable in the literal sense. Many assets in Sanwu Town belong to the Wu clan, and clan members have dividends. Wu Shulan was pregnant with a child and had no job at the time. If she were expelled, it would be equivalent to cutting off her source of income."

"Looking at it this way, Wu Chongyue is not bad." Qi Fei flipped through the report. Cai Ding wrote it very clearly, and Wu Shanqiu understood it very well.

"I'm saying, he's not a bad person. But this matter always had elders in the clan who were dissatisfied, and for so many years, someone always raised objections. Regarding the matter of expelling from the genealogy, I asked about the situation at that time. It was indeed not Wu Chongyue who started it. It was because those old guys finally found conclusive evidence, saying that because Wu Shulan was a slut and served as a volunteer in the ancestral hall, she offended the ancestors, so Wu Xingzhou died suddenly in the ancestral hall. This was the punishment of the ancestors. Wu Chongyue had no choice but to agree to dispose of Wu Shulan." Wu Shanqiu said. "Sigh, what era is this? How can there still be such absurd things."

"Strange, the day we went to Wu Shulan's house, she was clearly living alone. Where is her daughter?" Qi Fei had just finished speaking when he flipped to the second page and saw the content. "Oh, so that's it. She even abandoned her daughter? This is too exaggerated, right?"

"Right, it's really a group of villains. It is said that not long after she gave birth, she took the child and left Sanwu Town. Everyone thought she wouldn't come back, but she came back alone. This matter was another crime in the clan." Wu Shanqiu said. ===== CHAPTER 315 =====