Leaving Ying An to play by himself in the room, Chu Jiuer returned to the living room to watch TV.
She had barely sat down when the doorbell rang again.
She was forced to get up and go answer the door.
“Li… Sister Li, what are you doing here…”
Seeing who it was, Chu Jiuer smiled awkwardly, feeling a little guilty.
She had claimed she was taking Ying An out to play, yet she had left him in the room playing computer games.
There was no way she could explain this to Li Jue.
“Where’s Xiao An?”
“He…”
Chu Jiuer swallowed.
“Don’t rush. Come in and sit for a while. Just sit for a while.”
Li Jue stepped inside.
She looked around, searching for any sign of Ying An.
Chu Jiuer poured her a glass of water and pulled her down to sit.
“Xiao An only just got here. Let him play a little longer, all right? Sister Li is beautiful and kindhearted. You’ll definitely agree, won’t you?”
“Still stalling for time for him? Spoiling him like this—what are you trying to do?”
“Aiya, your little brother is my little brother too. Of course I have to spoil him. Besides, I have something to tell you.”
Li Jue frowned.
She did not like Chu Jiuer saying it that way.
Ying An belonged only to her.
In her eyes he was far more than just a little brother.
Certain parts of her relationship with the boy could never be shared with anyone else.
But they had been friends for more than a thousand years.
And by seniority, Ying An could only call her sister.
It was only reasonable.
She did not want to argue.
“What is it?”
“Ekui has committed another crime. We’ve tracked his hiding place to an area very close to you. The capture operation will happen in three days. But the specialist the Secret Society sent this time isn’t very skilled. If something unexpected happens, we might need your support.”
“Why don’t you go yourself?”
“I’m lazy.”
***
“Wabba wabba, wabba wabba.”
Crazy Dave, wearing a cooking pot on his head, finished rattling off a string of gibberish.
The game map shifted from night to the pool—Ying An’s favorite.
Ying An was wearing Chu Jiuer’s several-thousand-yuan gaming headset.
The electronics here were far more complete than at home, and the immersion was intense, pulling his entire focus into the fierce battle against the zombies.
He had no idea someone had entered the room.
Only when someone lifted the headset from his head did Ying An turn around in confusion.
Seeing Li Jue’s fierce face, he broke out in a cold sweat.
“Si… Sister, what are you doing here?”
“I came to check on you. Is Xiao An having fun?”
“Fun… No, not fun… I, I only played for a little while…”
“Then should Sister wait while you play a bit longer?”
Li Jue rested one hand on Ying An’s shoulder and pressed down slightly, hard enough to make him wince in pain.
“No need, no need. I’ll shut it off right now.”
Ying An shut down the game with a bitter expression, turned off the computer, and then asked curiously, “Sister, when did you get here?”
“I’ve been here for a while. Chu Jiuer was stalling for you. Lying, sneaking onto the computer, and even teaming up with another woman to deceive Sister. Xiao An has really learned some skills. I should send you to a tutoring class so you won’t have so much free time every day.”
“No, no!”
Ying An threw his arms around Li Jue’s waist and pleaded pitifully, nearly in tears.
“I won’t dare again. Don’t send me to tutoring class. Please, I know I was wrong.”
“Now you know you were wrong? First come home with Sister. We’ll settle accounts once we’re there.”
Li Jue pulled Ying An out of the room.
When Chu Jiuer saw them emerge, Li Jue shot her a glare.
Chu Jiuer felt endlessly awkward, like a member of a criminal gang watching the ringleader get arrested while remaining powerless to help, and half-afraid the “police” would take her in as well.
“How about… staying for a meal?” She scratched her head and offered the suggestion.
“You know how to cook?”
“We can order takeout, or I can take you out to eat.”
“Forget it. I still need to take the little guy home for questioning.”
Li Jue tugged on Ying An’s hand as she spoke.
He followed behind her with his head lowered, one wrist held tightly in her grip.
“Say goodbye to your Sister Jiuer.”
“Goodbye, Sister Jiuer.”
Chu Jiuer waved as she saw them off.
“Goodbye, Xiao An. Come play again next time.”
Li Jue led Ying An out the door, not forgetting to turn back and warn Chu Jiuer one last time.
“Also, if I find out again that you’ve been secretly letting Xiao An play games, you’ll face the consequences yourself.”
***
At night, beside Dewen Road in Shenchuan, inside an abandoned unfinished building.
The man sat on the topmost empty floor.
It had never been finished.
The concrete floor was covered in sand and gravel.
There were no doors or windows—only a large square gap in the wall.
Through the opening one could see the distant city brightly lit, noisy and prosperous.
Although his body had been strengthened by blood essence, the injuries from that time still had not fully healed.
The memory of being struck by that terrifying flame still made Xu E’s heart tremble with lingering fear whenever he thought of it.
He tore open a piece of bread and took a large bite.
Several empty beer bottles lay beside him.
Life on the run was miserable, but it was still better than being dead.
After barely filling his stomach, he sat on the edge of the rooftop, took the photo from his pocket, and glanced at it.
Fortunately he had earlier coated it with a protective film of demon power; otherwise it would have burned just like his clothes.
Even so, there were still some carbonized black marks on the photo.
It was a family portrait of three people standing in a sea of flowers, an old windmill in the background.
The woman smiled brightly and brilliantly.
The child was thin and small.
Xu E, two hundred and seventy-one years old.
Decades earlier he had still been an ordinary worker on a construction site in Shenchuan.
Although he had lived nearly three hundred years, he had always kept a low profile, never possessing the ambition to make serious money.
In the demon world he was an obscure nobody, and equally insignificant among humans.
In terms of a demon’s lifespan he was already in his twilight years.
Though his appearance remained that of a human not yet forty, he had in truth reached the final stage of his life.
Clearly a demon, yet his three-hundred-year existence had been lived no differently from the ordinary mortals one saw everywhere.
Before he had even reached a hundred he had already lost every relative and friend.
The more than a hundred years that followed had been a lonely, solitary journey.
He neither stole nor robbed, strictly obeyed the rules of both the human and demon worlds, and often helped those who were suffering.
Quite a few humans and demons had received his aid.
The first time he met Huang Ruowen was on a gray, rainy day.
The woman was holding a child and sheltering under the eaves, her face filled with anxiety and panic.
When he asked if she needed help, she barely hesitated before getting into the car.
She was warm, kind, hardworking, and capable.
Two lonely, wounded souls drew close to each other.
That was the happiest period of his life.
The woman’s child was diligent and sensible.
Although not of his blood, the boy took his surname and called him father.
The lifespan left to him was already no different from a mortal’s.
The aging of his body meant he no longer possessed superhuman strength.
He completely regarded himself as an ordinary person, wanting only to live out his remaining days in peace, watch the child marry and establish a career, and then die of old age together with his wife.
But fate was capricious.
There had never been such a thing as fairness, and it would not, simply because the first half of his life had been lonely and bitter, allow his happiness to last a little longer at the end.