Chapter 363: The Rest of Life is Long

Outside Nanling, Luosha appeared in front of the police team waiting on the periphery.

Its appearance alone made Liu Tong realize that Qi Fei and Zhong Kui had an accident, and he immediately led the police team to follow Luosha toward the labyrinth.

Passing through the labyrinth, there was nothing in the grotto except the Bixi and the wordless stele.

"Liu Dui, did we find the wrong place?" Wu Shanqiu asked with suspicion.

And Liu Tong looked at Luosha, as if reading the meaning in its amber eyes, and said: "This is the place it wants to bring us."

As soon as the words fell, as if time had turned back, the stele fell again, revealing a pitch-black cave entrance.

Luosha jumped into this black cave entrance without hesitation, and Wu Shanqiu was the first human to enter it.

When she arrived at the underground palace, it was still raging with fire, but unfortunately, Qi Fei was the only one who was awake.

When he saw Luosha appear, he said to Zhong Kui in his arms: "Kui, you promised Luosha that you would go to Zizai Shan to find it and Apo. You cannot break your promise."

…………

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it was another spring. Wu Shanqiu appeared in the office of the Criminal Police Brigade as usual. Every morning, she would habitually look at that empty workstation and sigh in disappointment.

"What are you doing, sighing early in the morning?" Liu Tong's voice came from behind.

Wu Shanqiu turned her head: "Liu Dui, Fei Ge is still guarding Zhong Kui in the hospital. How long do you plan to give him a vacation? It's not like he can stop working just because Zhong Kui doesn't wake up."

As they were talking, both of their phones rang at the same time.

Liu Tong took out his phone to look, and before he could say anything, Wu Shanqiu on the opposite side blurted out: "32.0, 118. I have already memorized this coordinate of the technical department by heart. It seems they still haven't cracked Zhong Xiaoyu's password."

The police brought back Zhong Xiaoyu's USB drive from Xi He's underground palace, but three months had passed, and the password still couldn't be cracked.

Liu Tong looked at the impatient Wu Shanqiu and smiled: "We haven't made no progress. At least we know this password is 17 digits long. I asked AI, if it's a 17-digit password, leaving aside special symbols, even if they are all numbers, there are ten quadrillion possibilities. How can it be easy to crack?"

In the hospital room, Qi Fei guarded Zhong Kui. On the bedside table were the gifts Zhong Kui gave him—that dilapidated compass, the snowman music box, the specimen of the myna. These gifts were like Zhong Kui herself, eerie and playful.

Qi Fei was unshaven, with a head of messy hair, looking like a different person from the high-spirited appearance three months ago.

Qi Dongjun went out to find top experts, but all usable treatment methods were used, and Zhong Kui was still in a deep coma, showing no signs of waking up.

The phone rang. He knew it was the automatic message from Zhong Xiaoyu's USB drive again. Luo Yang told him that according to the password rules designed by Zhong Xiaoyu, only the person who entered it could unlock it.

However, this person who could unlock it had fallen into a deep sleep with Zhong Kui.

He held Zhong Kui's cold hand. Three months of coma had already caused the muscles in her arms to show signs of atrophy, even thinner than before.

In a trance, his feet were rubbed by something furry. He lowered his head and was pleasantly surprised to find it was Luosha, who didn't know when it had entered the hospital room.

Strangely, ever since they were rescued from Nanling, Luosha really returned to Zizai Shan as Zhong Kui said. For these three months, neither it nor Meng Apo had come to visit Zhong Kui.

Qi Fei had never doubted the loyalty of Meng Apo and Luosha to Zhong Kui, but he didn't understand why such a cold method was used.

With the appearance of Luosha, Meng Apo appeared before him.

In Qi Fei's surprised gaze, she stretched out her withered hand and handed over a yellow paper iris.

"Did Zhong Kui ask you to give this to me?" Qi Fei took the iris and asked blankly.

"It was Zhong Xiaoyu," Meng Apo's answer was beyond Qi Fei's expectation, "In Zizai Shan, I saw with my own eyes that she and the Master reached a reconciliation, planning to join forces to eliminate Xi He. At that time, the Master was prepared to sacrifice himself, and no matter how I persuaded him, he wouldn't turn back. Just when I didn't know what to do, Zhong Xiaoyu suddenly appeared and gave me this origami, saying that if one day the Master couldn't wake up, let me give this to you in the spring. But it must be three months after the Master fell into a coma; giving it to you early would only kill her. I had no other choice but to believe her. I hope what she said is true." Speaking of this, the corners of Meng Apo's mouth twitched slightly, "The rest is up to you."

Qi Fei looked at the iris and vaguely saw handwriting on the inside of the paper. He hurriedly unfolded it and saw that it was still a string of numbers. This was a string of numbers that looked irregular at first glance, but Qi Fei wouldn't forget that this was the latitude and longitude coordinate of the small wooden house in Zizai Shan that Zhong Kui told him at the beginning. However, how could this coordinate wake up Zhong Kui?

"Ding..." His phone received a message again, still the automatic message triggered by the cracked USB drive, the familiar latitude and longitude numbers.

"Latitude and longitude..." Qi Fei muttered, "They said the password set by Zhong Xiaoyu is 17 digits long." Thinking of this, he hurriedly counted the number of digits on the iris origami. Sure enough, it was exactly 17 digits.

In the Nancheng Police Station, everyone was surprised by Qi Fei who suddenly rushed in. He tightly gripped a piece of yellow paper and headed straight for the technical department.

His trembling fingers tapped the numbers on the paper one by one. As the Enter key was pressed, the interface that always had a password error pop-up window showed different content for the first time in three months.

The USB drive contained a video recorded by Zhong Xiaoyu, as well as many file packages marked with Zhong Kui.

Zhong Xiaoyu in the video faced the camera, as if facing Qi Fei at this moment: "Qi Fei, you can see me, which means everything is going according to plan. Forgive me for letting Meng Apo give you the password after three months. Zhong Kui forcibly awakening the Iris personality inevitably led to damage to my brain neurons. This kind of damage requires at least three months to recover. For ordinary people, this kind of damage means amnesia, but for me, this is an opportunity to destroy each of my personalities. Like a phoenix nirvana, it must experience the raging fire to be burned to ashes. And the one who is reborn can only be one person. I chose Zhong Kui because in this world, she is the only one of my three personalities who is loved by others, because you are waiting for her. The USB drive contains the method to wake her up and all the materials to build her world. Wake her up and tell her all the stories. This video will only be played once. After you finish watching it, I will disappear with the video forever. Goodbye, Qi Fei, I wish you happiness."

The video became a black screen, and Zhong Xiaoyu truly disappeared in the true sense.

"Farewell, Zhong Xiaoyu," Qi Fei muttered.

In the hospital room, the spring light shone on the iris on Zhong Kui's bedside. She slowly opened her eyes, saw Qi Fei's face, and raised her hand weakly: "Qi Fei, I seem to have had a very long nightmare."

Qi Fei grabbed it, pressed her hand against his warm cheek, and said softly: "Kui, the dream is over, the rest of our lives is still very long..."