342 Hostage

The woman was trying her best to control her anger. She had sacrificed a lot for this ritual and she would not allow it to be interrupted. But just as the ritual was about to be completed, she realized it was her daughter who was behind all the disruptions. Being betrayed by your own family, that was a bad feeling.

“Zhuang Qing, you’re a grown up now. Ever since your father passed away, I rarely intervene in your business so I hope that you will stop meddling into mine, okay?” Her mother’s words felt so unfamiliar, this was not how she remembered her mother. Everything started to change since the ritual started.

They didn’t see their father’s soul return and her mother started to change into this person that she could not recognize, this terrified Zhuang Qing. Her mouth opened but no words came out. There was another secret inside her heart, one that she didn’t dare to tell her mother.

As if afraid of waking the youngest daughter, the mother kept her voice low but the disappointment in her voice cut Zhuang Qing’s heart like knives. “Do not go near your father’s room ever again.” With that, the mother snatched the cleaver away from Zhuang Qing and left.

Silence returned to the living room. After a long time, Zhuang Qing said as if to herself, “But… There's another part to this dream. I dreamt that it was not dad who died in the car accident but we did. We are dreaming of him, he’s also thinking of us. Whenever I see him in my dream, he looks that much older.” Her hand touched the bedroom door as if caressing her father’s arm, “We all miss you very much, I have no idea whether we are doing the correct thing or not. I have a feeling that if the ritual is successful, you’ll only end up in greater pain.” Zhuang Qing didn’t open the door and left quietly.

“They should have all retired to bed already, we better hurry and leave.” The middle-aged man said worriedly, “If they see me in this state, they’ll really think I’m a ghost.”

“We should wait. They said that they had heard footsteps around the house at night, I want to see what the thing that they have summoned to this place really is.” Han Fei promised Zhuang Ren that he would look after his family. Furthermore, Zhuang Ren was still alive in real life so the thing which was summoned was definitely not Zhuang Ren. If Han Fei wanted to gain the trust of Zhuang Ren’s family, the easiest way was for him to use Spirit Farer on the real Zhuang Ren. The manager had edited the memory of Zhuang Qing’s family and made them suffer in this painful loop. But if they were reunited with the real Zhuang Ren, the loop might be broken.

This family also pulled at Han Fei’s heartstrings. The father in real life threw himself fully into the death game to search for his family, losing all of his reputation and money. The mother and daughters employed some kind of summoning ritual in the cryptic world to try to save their father and husband. Even though their memories were different, both parties were using their own ways to save each other.

For the Butterfly, they were nothing but tools, but they were trying their best to resist against their destiny. As an observer, Han Fei was quite affected by what he saw.

Zhuang Ren’s wife and daughters died many years ago, that was a fact. The only thing he could do now was perhaps to relay the family’s memories and emotions to the other party.

“When a living person has too much to bear, it’ll be hard for them to move on. Many people understand this common sense but many are more than willing to stay in the past, perhaps that is the beauty of human foolishness.” At that moment, footsteps came from the living room again. This footstep was distinct from the rest, it sounded like someone was moving on tiptoe.

‘The family of 3 should be asleep already, so who is in the living room?’ Even a sleep-walker wouldn’t make such a curious movement sound. Han Fei eased open the bedroom door and saw something flickering in the dark living room.

10 seconds later, the footsteps came closer. A woman appeared between the couch and the television. She moved around with only her tips touching the ground. It felt like she was being carried by some kind of force as she moved around the living room like a marionette.

“Is that a ghost?” The middle-aged man who looked more like a ghost asked with fear. The middle-aged man spoke softly but even so it still attracted the attention of the woman in the living room. The pale face turned slowly. With her leg dragging on the ground, she charged towards the bedroom. Their eyes met, and Han Fei recognized this woman. “Zhuang Ren’s youngest daughter? Why is it her?”

Han Fei was familiar with this face, but how did she end up like this? Was it related to the figurine that the mother placed inside her room earlier?

So far, Zhuang Ren’s family had acted normally. Han Fei had seen their pictures in real life, one could easily imagine that they had been given a second chance at life here. But now something was clearly wrong with the youngest daughter. Her face was blanched but the scariest thing was her eyes. There were black threads in them like someone was controlling these threads to manipulate her line of sight.

When Han Fei saw the girl, she saw Han Fei as well. Han Fei closed the door and had the middle-aged man block the door with his body.

The footsteps outside disappeared. Several minutes later, Han Fei looked out the gap again, what he saw was a curtain of hair.

‘She doesn’t have eyes on the back of her head, so how did she expect to see anything like this…’ Then Han Fei suddenly realized something and he looked up. There was a ghost face looking at him from the ceiling!

The woman and the middle-aged man saw the face as well. The two of them retreated subconsciously while Han Fei took out a hilt. ‘What can you do with a hilt?’

The ghost clearly didn’t sense the danger in the hilt as well. It looked closely at Han Fei. Then the lock jumbled, it wanted to enter the bedroom!

The woman and the middle-aged man were so nervous that they didn’t dare to speak but Han Fei voluntarily opened the door, like he was trying to invite the ghost in. With the woman and the middle-aged man watching with confusion, Han Fei’s blade fell on the ghost face. The face shattered like a mask. Then Han Fei’s arm which was imbued with Soul Poison grabbed the thing by its neck and dragged it into the bedroom like a hostage. “Be quiet, if you dare to wake anyone up inside this house, there will be hell to pay.” With the buff from masterful acting, Han Fei’s face was colored by ruthlessness and madness. He looked even more dangerous than the ghost at that moment.