Ah Xiu..."
In the den of ghosts, Lord Hong lowered his head and rested his forehead against Li Xiu's. At this moment, he looked almost like a real human.
"Li Yu is not me, but I am Li Yu."
He spoke to Li Xiu word by word.
"I remember everything. I showed up for you."
As he spoke, he smiled at Li Xiu.
"I've always wanted so badly to be with you—"
Before Lord Hong could finish his words, a spark of fire rose from his chest, which stopped him abruptly.
Its eyes widened in confusion, first looking at Li Xiu, then lowering its head to look at its own body. A spark of fire spread from the ghost's heart, starting as a small, bean-sized flame before blazing fiercely.
It seemed like only a second had passed before Lord Hong's body was enveloped in dazzling, scorching flames.
"A…Xiu…"
It happened so fast that it was almost impossible to react.
Lord Hong stretched out his hand toward Li Xiu, but the flames quickly engulfed his arm. A stream of hot air gushed out from the burning monster, almost burning Li Xiu's cheek.
For a while, Li Xiu could only stand there blankly and watch everything happening in front of him, but he was unable to make any response.
It's so weird.
He thought.
Why did Lord Red, who is so terrifying, powerful, and weird, suddenly catch fire?
Then he saw the figure behind Lord Hong: Fang Qianquan, a boy with almost no good flesh on his body, who looked like a blood gourd, standing staggeringly beside Lord Hong, still holding the candle in one hand.
That was the candle that Teacher Xu had given to Li Xiu before, and now, the candle was lit.
Not long ago, when Li Xiu reached out to try to pull Fang Qianan out of the blood, he took the opportunity to secretly hand the candle hidden in his sleeve to the boy who was about to be swallowed by the monster.
That was the last escape route Li Xiu left for Fang Qianan. If his brother was determined to kill Fang Qianan, perhaps Fang Qianan could still borrow Teacher Xu's candle to fight.
But Li Xiu did not expect that Fang Qianan would still desperately return to the ghost den after escaping. He even found an opportunity to light a candle and poke it into Lord Hong's body.
It's just such a faint flame...
The flames quickly spread along Lord Red's body to the ground. The monsters that had brought them endless pain were like cardboard soaked in tung oil. In an instant, they were completely engulfed by the hot and raging flames.
"Don't believe what this monster says!"
In the scorching and extremely bright firelight, Fang Qianan roared at Li Xiu.
At this time, Lord Hong's body gradually became blurred due to the burning.
"Brother, brother?"
Li Xiu had to admit that he was terrified and subconsciously wanted to rush forward to slap the fire off Mr. Hong's body, but the next second an invisible force came and pushed Li Xiu out.
Immediately afterwards, Fang Qianan also flew up and fell heavily not far from Li Xiu. His body rolled several times and then stopped moving.
"Fang Qianan!"
Li Xiu screamed and crawled over using her hands and feet.
He turned Fang Qianan over and checked his breath in fear... Although it was weak, the boy was indeed still alive.
Li Xiu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"You still like him more."
A hoarse sigh was heard, and Li Xiu turned around with tears in his eyes, looking at the monster that had been engulfed in flames at a loss - Lord Hong was like a burning human figure at this time, and behind him, countless twisted shadows were rolling and screaming like crazy, and then were swallowed by the ruthless flames and dissipated.
"Brother... no, no... listen to me... I..."
Li Xiu took a few steps toward Master Hong, but a burst of scorching flames suddenly exploded between him and Master Hong, forming a long wall of fire. Another wave of heat hit, and Li Xiu fell backward uncontrollably.
The air began to become extremely hot, and the unique pungent smell of burning wood and fabric rolled up and rushed towards Li Xiu.
"never mind."
Li Xiu suddenly heard an inaudible sigh, which came from Lord Hong.
Gradually engulfed by the extremely bright flames, in the last second before its figure completely disappeared, it suddenly smiled.
"Bang--"
Then, the illusion in Li Xiu's vision suddenly disappeared.
Accompanied by a sharp cracking sound and the explosion of some unknown object, countless flames rose around Li Xiu, emitting a dazzling light. Thick smoke rose up, and everything around him was distorted by the heat wave. Li Xiu coughed uncontrollably, and then found himself standing in the Xiao family villa without knowing when.
He actually returned to reality?! Why? Was the flames no longer enough to keep Li Xiu captive in the other world? Or was it... revenge?
Countless questions raced through Li Xiu's mind, but he had no time to think about them. The villa was now a complete fire scene. The thick smoke and high temperature made it extremely difficult for Li Xiu to breathe. With every breath, he could feel his nose and lungs burning. Countless sparks flew up and landed on Li Xiu, but he didn't even feel the sting.
In the thick smoke, he felt Fang Qianan's limp body beside him, then pulled off his sleeves and tied them around the boy's mouth and nose.
Li Xiu used all her strength to support the other person and walked towards the direction of the gate in her memory.
"Fang Qianan...you'd better...wake up quickly..."
He mumbled incoherently.
Although he had used all his strength, his vision still became uncontrollably blurred.
There was fire and smoke everywhere. Li Xiu was caught off guard by the fire and inhaled too much smoke, and her vision began to blur.
Is he really going to die now?
Li Xiu thought desperately.
The immense fear before his death made him involuntarily hug Fang Qianan tightly. With another roar, a wall of fire rose up and attacked Li Xiu directly.
Li Xiu closed her eyes, unable to hold on any longer, and her consciousness left her body.
…
However, in the last moment before he fell into coma, Li Xiu vaguely felt that something was covering him.
Wet and cold.
There was a strong smell of blood.
Is it an illusion?
He thought.
Why did he see Fang Qianan, who was already unconscious, split open from the middle of his body, and then... wrapped around him...
The darkness finally completely engulfed Li Xiu.
*
One year later——
In a special ward of the First People's Hospital of City A.
"Teacher Xu, I received the acceptance letter." Li Xiuduan sat upright beside the hospital bed and said seriously to the man on the bed, "... Between Qinghua and Jingbei, I finally chose Jingbei."
He lowered his eyes and placed the acceptance letter next to the man's motionless hand.
Teacher Xu lay quietly in bed, seemingly asleep, while the life-support equipment beside his bed emitted a regular beeping sound.
Qiao Yang stood behind Li Xiu and sniffed.
His eyes were a little red.
"If the teacher could wake up, he would be so happy to know that you were admitted to Jingbei."
Qiao Yang said to Li Xiu.
"Um."
Li Xiu nodded.
In fact, his nose was a little sore, but he didn't want to cry again at this time. In order to hide his emotions, Li Xiu turned his gaze back to Teacher Xu.
The man had been in a vegetative state for a year. Every time he came to see Teacher Xu, he was always in this deep sleep. But Li Xiu had an inexplicable feeling. When he showed the teacher the admission letter today, the man's face seemed more peaceful and relaxed than ever before.
…
A year ago, a fire broke out in the Xiao family villa, and the entire villa was completely razed to the ground.
Fang Qianan and Li Xiu were found unconscious near the fire. Judging from the traces left behind, the two of them had barely escaped the fire by supporting each other. Compared to the severity of the fire, it was a miracle that the two of them were able to leave the Xiao family villa alive.
It wasn't that no one had ever wondered why Li Xiu and Fang Qian'an had inexplicably appeared next to the Xiao family villa, and some suspected they had set the fire. However, a fire department investigation later confirmed that the fire was caused by the villa's long-term absence, which had led to the aging of the electrical circuits.
Considering Fang Qianan's special status and Qiao Yang's subsequent intervention, no one questioned the reason why Li Xiu and Fang Qianan appeared at the villa. The matter was simply brushed aside.
Furthermore, everyone's attention was simply too focused to be on a trivial abandoned building fire. After all, the biggest news of the day was that in City A's most luxurious skyscraper, due to improper construction methods, a chemical reaction between waterproofing paint and fireproofing materials occurred, causing severe chemical poisoning and sending a large number of innocent people to the hospital.
That's right, Teacher Xu's school used this method to reasonably explain the zombie incident that night.
Later, Li Xiu learned from Qiao Yang that the zombies in the building that night had all returned to normal.
"The teacher sealed their vital meridians with talisman paper... so after daybreak, when the poison was removed, most of them could still transform back into humans. But it was also because of this that the teacher was so weak that night."
Qiao Yang was wiping his tears while explaining to Li Xiu.
After the fire in the Xiao family villa, the evil spirit that had been lingering in the haunted house completely dissipated.
Xu Qinghe fell into a coma because his life candle was lit, but fortunately, perhaps because the life candle had not yet completely burned out, or for some reason they had no way of knowing, Teacher Xu did not die from his soul being scattered, but just fell into a deep coma.
However, it takes a long time to restore the lost soul, so to date, Teacher Xu is still in a vegetative state.
Teacher Xu's coma became a huge stone weighing on everyone's heart.
But other than that, everything seems to be going in the right direction.
After the fire, Li Xiu never saw a ghost again. According to news from the Xuanmen, all the evil spirits sealed within had completely dissipated without a trace. The nightmare known as Master Hong seemed to have finally come to an end with the fire at the Xiao family villa.