Chapter 248
In the end, Xiao Li failed to enter between Sun Qilin and Tang Huaqing. After he came, the two of them only exchanged polite words.
For example:
Sun Qilin murmured, “I don’t know when the rain will stop.”
Tang replied, “You should be worried about whether it will stop.”
“Mr Tang, stop joking. It is inevitable for it to stop. The difference lies in the world after the rain.”
“……”
Xiao Li looked to the left and right and felt bored. He listened to them being polite to each other for a while and planned to leave. Fortunately, before he brought it up, Tang Huating gave up on his purpose of looking for Sun Qilin this time. He took the initiative to leave and declined Sun Qilin’s offer to send him off.
Only Sun Qilin and Xiao Li were left in the pavilion. He turned around and stared at Xiao Li carefully. Then he said politely, “Let’s go, I’ll take you back. w.a.n.g Huai and the others should be back.”
“There is no need to send me. I remember the way back.”
Sun Qilin was choked up for a second. The other person was simply the best at killing a topic. Before he could think of anything, he heard Xiao Li ask again, “Tang Huaqing wants you to join the Judges?”
Sun Qilin, “……”
Even if he guessed it, there was no need to ask in such a straightforward manner, okay? He hesitated for a moment but still replied honestly. “Yes, I refused. I don’t want to partic.i.p.ate in the game between G.o.ds. As far as I know, the G.o.d of the underworld isn’t good to his followers. It is quite possible for him to turn his face after success.”
“However, his goal isn’t me. It is my grandfather, the current head of the family. I am just a junior. They need the help of my grandfather to find something and hope that he can bring the Sun family to join them. I don’t know the rest.”
Sun Qilin didn’t seem to like the Judges and gave Xiao Li a clean accounting of the matter. Sun Qilin seemed to notice Xiao Li’s gaze and shrugged nonchalantly. “In any case, even if you don’t ask me now, w.a.n.g Huai will come and ask me later. Rather than being annoyed by him for a long time, I might as well tell you now.”
Xiao Li didn’t look at this person. He stared at the lotus leaves in the pond in front of him. There was too much rain on the green leaves. Then he suddenly asked, “What happened in your house?”
Sun Qilin smiled. “I’m not very clear. I can only say that it scares me and it isn’t inferior to any instance world.”
Xiao Li could clearly see that the other person trembled when he said this sentence.
***
By the time Xiao Li came back, everyone had returned. They chose the largest guest room to gather in. w.a.n.g Huai was sitting in the hammock while the others stood or sat around a table. He looked around and didn’t find Shen Chenzhi.
Xiao Li went to the hammock and motioned for w.a.n.g Huai to move to the side. Old w.a.n.g raised his head innocently but he still moved to a corner for him. “What did you do?”
Xiao Li tried to sum it up. “Disturbed Sun Qilin and Tang Huaqing.”
w.a.n.g Huai, “k2026;k2026;”
“k2026;What? Them? Are you serious?”
Xiao Li replied, “The two of them were alone and separated when they saw me. There was some inexplicable embarra.s.sment in their actions.”
Then he repeated everything that just happened.
“… d.a.m.n, I say, your t.i.tle is too far off the mark. You deserve to be the one who spread the rumor about Lie’s love for the G.o.ddess of beauty.” w.a.n.g Huai was finally able to remove the shocked expression from his face but the solemn expression was still in his eyes. He simply said, “The Judges are a guest of the Sun family and more importance is attached to them than us.”
Gong Mingming followed his words. “The simplest evidence is—”
She was originally leaning against the window with a bottle of beer in her hand. Now she turned to open the window and the wind and rain poured into the room immediately. Gong Mingming didn’t seem to notice as she faced the other courtyard and continued, “In the evening, they have a dinner party to greet the Judges while we are left here.”
Looking out the window from here, she could vaguely see the lights of the tall building in the distance and people walking back and forth through the heavy rain curtain.
Luo Shan said, “It would be really bad news for us if the Sun family really fell to the Judges. However, we are still here so the situation isn’t completely clear.
Gong Mingming’s phone vibrated at this moment. She answered a call and went outside.
Xiao Li stretched out his legs and used his toes to support himself against the ground. He swayed the hammock back and forth like a spring.
w.a.n.g Huai stood up from the hammock in a timely manner and said to them, “There is the symbol you made me pay attention to some time ago. Since the release of the final mission, I have noticed several similar symbols. Some have been resolved by us while some have been taken away directly by the Judges.”
“The effect of this symbol is to promote the transformation of ghosts into fierce ghosts. At the peak of the transformation, energy will be drawn from the ghosts. In one case, a reincarnator was monitoring it and happened to catch a member of the Judges.”
“They believe in the G.o.d of the underworld and death. Their goal is to bring this glory into reality and greet their lords on the day the well collapses—”
w.a.n.g Huai was halfway through his words when he was interrupted by Gong Mingming hastily rushing in. Gong Mingming held her mobile phone in her hand. “Did you hear any crying?”
“Crying?”
The room abruptly became quiet. Everyone held their breaths but they couldn’t distinguish the so-called crying from the sound of the rain. Ye Zeqing and Luo Shan shook their heads.
Gong Mingming pointed to her mobile phone. “I answered a call just now. It was a friend talking about what happened on their side. I asked the reincarnator who went to help but she suddenly said there was crying on my side.”
Xiao Li took out his mobile phone and called Ye Zeqing. Ye Zeqing picked up. Xiao Li turned on the speaker mode and put his phone in his lap. Gong Mingming closed the windows and doors to isolate the sound of the rain outside.
At first, everyone heard nothing. They listened carefully for around a minute before Xiao Li could barely distinguish the crying on the phone. The sound was very different from that of the weeping woman. If the weeping woman’s crying was filled with vague resentment, this sound was like a baby’s scream. It wasn’t crying or laughing. It was filled with a type of pure viciousness.
Xiao Li turned off his phone. The sound was buried by the rain in reality and nothing could be heard clearly.
“Is it a baby crying?” w.a.n.g Huai quickly speculated. “A baby spirit?”
Ye Zeqing denied this speculation. “It definitely can’t be a baby spirit. The strength of the Sun family means they will never be so embarra.s.sed by a baby spirit. However—”
He suddenly stopped talking and turned to look at the door. He took a defensive posture like a ghost was approaching outside the door. His example made the others straightened as they waited for the arrival of the thing outside.
Knock, knock, knock.
Rhythmic knocks were heard at the door. At first, the reincarnators didn’t answer. They exchanged a look and Luo Shan gripped a compa.s.s item in her hand. The knock on the door was heard three times again. Knock, knock, knock.
Gong Mingming was closest to the door. She bent over and asked, “Who is it?”
“It’s me, the steward.” The man at the door answered in a flat voice. “Guests, the masters have prepared a dinner for you today. Please come with me.”
Gong Mingming heard this familiar voice but still maintained her vigilance. She opened the door with a posture where she could jump away at any time. The person standing at the door was the steward who opened the door to Xiao Li.
The corridor belonging to the guest room was very dark. There were no lights such as incandescent lamps installed. Combined with the open-air slippery road, ordinary people would carry something like a flashlight. However, the steward’s hands were empty. He wasn’t holding a flashlight or lantern. He spoke with a wooden face, “Guests, please come with me.”
Xiao Li stared into the housekeeper’s eyes. He always felt that this person was different from what he saw when he first came in but he couldn’t tell where it was different. His changes should be very small, so small that only Xiao Li’s intuition gave him a hint. However, no specific changes could be found for the moment.
Gong Mingming fiddled with her long hair. “Why did the Sun family suddenly invite us? Isn’t today the day when they are drinking with Mr Tang?”
“The master’s matter isn’t something I am qualified to comment on.” The steward lowered his head and repeated the sentence for the third time. “Please come with me.”
“Wait a minute.” Gong Mingming turned around and exchanged a look with everyone in the room. Then she opened the door cleanly. “I have to trouble you to lead the way.
The steward walked in front but the reincarnators behind him had to use lighting tools. In addition to the flashlights of Gong Mingming and the others, the small lightbulb consciously jumped out and floated in the air half a metre ahead of Xiao Li, illuminating the way forward.
Heavy rain made the corridor very slippery. Even with the lighting, Xiao Li almost fell down several times. w.a.n.g Huai was standing beside him and helped him avoid the mistake of doing the splits.
The reincarnators with the lights found it so difficult to walk yet the old steward in front of them moved forward very smoothly in the dark.
Ye Zeqing couldn’t help asking, “Mr Steward, it’s so dark here. Don’t you need the lights?”
The steward replied without turning back, “No need, I can see.”
Ye Zeqing stared at the darkness in front of him and repeated in a mocking manner, “You can see?”
The old housekeeper kept nodding as he moved. His nodding posture was very strange. From behind, a normal person would lean forward when nodding. However, his head was completely straight with no arc.
Ye Zeqing still wanted to say something but Xiao Li held his shoulder and shut him up.
He turned his head to Xiao Li’s side and lowered his voice, whispering, “Before he came and knocked on the door, I faintly sensed a ghost approaching. This is a phenomenon I have never encountered before.”
“I think… he is becoming a ghost.”
Xiao Li listened silently. As they pa.s.sed by a puddle, he pointed to the old steward’s legs. “Did you see it?”
Ye Zeqing’s pupils shrank and he nodded. Just now, they saw that on the edge of where the light reached, the old housekeeper’s foot was sprained.
Maybe it shouldn’t be called a sprained foot. His entire instep was sprained. For ordinary people, their bones would be broken. However, he continued walking like nothing happened until he returned to flat ground and his feet returned to their ordinary state. This didn’t affect his walking at all.
This was why he walked stably.
Xiao Li’s eyes focused on the other person’s feet and he finally found what was wrong. The steward’s feet were becoming smaller. To use a popular metaphor, his feet had changed from size 41 to size 37 but his shoes hadn’t changed. Thus, it was hard to spot.
It was because the housekeeper’s shoes were too big that he was so awkward when walking.
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