Le Jun’s hair stood on end from fright, and he nearly jumped out of his skin.
He yanked his hand back at once, so nervous that he stumbled over his words. “Y-You’re awake? I mean, you’re finally awake... I just, I just saw that your hair was messy. I didn’t mean to touch you...”
He stammered through an explanation, but the girl paid him no mind.
Her gaze had already shifted toward the iron door.
Le Jun turned to look as well.
Inside the pitch-black doorway, hideous clay heads jostled to poke out one after another. Their razor-toothed mouths split wide toward both cheeks, horrifying as a horde of man-eating fiends surging from the gates of hell.
A shudder ran through Le Jun’s heart, yet he couldn’t help letting out a breath of relief.
Good, they arrived right on time.
Yet a second later, he was shocked by his own thoughts.
Wait, what was with “right on time”?
Could it be that being despised by this girl was more terrifying than man-eating fiends?
When that thought crossed his mind, Le Jun actually gave it a serious comparison, after which he fell silent.
Perhaps, roughly speaking... compared to the former, he would rather face these man-eating fiends.
At this moment, Ye Li had no time to spare for the boy’s conflicted feelings.
Her mind was consumed with doubt.
Why?
If her guess was right, Luo Jiajia and the others had all died within the illusions, which was why each of them had perished so bizarrely, gruesomely, and silently.
Yet Ye Li had already been dragged into an illusion by Wen Xue, so why hadn’t Wen Xue killed her, instead answering her questions and dispelling her doubts?
Was it because she wasn’t a direct culprit in Wen Xue’s death, so she had been spared?
Yet if that were true, why were these man-eating “mud figures” still here? Why was the ghost domain trapping them still here?
Ye Li was thoroughly perplexed, feeling that everything reeked of a jarring dissonance.
Frowning, she began to carefully retrace everything she had experienced in the illusion just now.
There had to be some crucial clue she had missed.
...Wait!
A thought struck Ye Li, and her eyes lit up.
Back in the illusion, though Wen Xue had looked terrifying when she appeared, her demeanor had been remarkably calm.
Even while arguing with Ye Li, she had shown no radical emotional swings, nothing like an entity consumed by boundless malice and deep-seated rancor.
If she bore no resentment, why would she trap them here?
And then there were the words Wen Xue said before they parted.
She had said, “Maybe you’re right. But I still stand by my choice...”
Her choice...
Ye Li worked to untangle the jumbled thoughts in her head. She felt she was on the verge of reaching the truth, just a single step away from uncovering the answer...
Meanwhile, the pack of ravenous “mud figures” had already scrambled onto the rooftop, swarming toward the two of them.
Beside her, Le Jun saw the girl frowning in deep, solemn contemplation. Not daring to disturb her, he could only grip the broken javelin and step forward with trembling legs.
Watching the boy firmly shield her even while knowing it was futile, a thought suddenly surfaced in Ye Li’s mind.
Like a sudden clap of thunder tearing through the chaotic fog of her mind, the dense haze cleared away in an instant.
Snapping back to reality, Ye Li grabbed Le Jun’s clothes and urgently demanded, “You said you and Qi Yezhou had a conflict before. What was it?!”
“Huh?”
Le Jun was stunned by her question, confused as to why she would suddenly bring this up at a life-or-death juncture, but he still answered truthfully.
“It’s just... rumors had it that the guaranteed admission spot for Qing University was reserved for him. But last month I received notice that the spot was ultimately given to me. He probably couldn’t stomach it, so he came to argue with me.”
He still remembered that they had argued fiercely back then, nearly coming to blows.
That was it!
Ye Li curved her lips into a smile, her eyes glittering with excitement.
“I’ve found the answer!”
At this moment, all the clues clicked together seamlessly like interlocking gears.
Every question had its answer!
Le Jun, however, was even more bewildered. “What... what answer?”
Instead of answering, Ye Li asked, “Where is the diary? Where is Wen Xue’s diary?”
Le Jun blinked, doing his best to keep up with her pace. “In the backpack behind you.”
Ye Li hastily slid the backpack off and fished out the red notebook from inside.
“Qi Yezhou, come out!” Raising the notebook high in one hand, she shouted into the empty air, “Aren’t you looking for Wen Xue? I know where she is!”
At that moment, the “mud figures” had already scrambled right before them. Just as they were about to pounce to gnaw on their flesh and hollow out their entrails, the moment Ye Li’s shout echoed out, all the monsters suddenly dissolved into smoke and scattered with the wind, as though they had never existed.
In their place, a handsome, slender figure stood before them.
It was none other than Qi Yezhou, whom they had found no trace of earlier!
Le Jun watched this scene in complete bewilderment, unable to make head or tail of the situation.
Ye Li, however, smiled. “You’ve finally decided to show yourself?”
Qi Yezhou’s expression was icy. Staring intently at the notebook in the girl’s hand, he demanded in a cold voice, “Where is she? Why do you have her diary?”
Ye Li said calmly, “She’s right here. I just saw her moments ago. She gave me the diary too. It’s just that she doesn’t want to see you.”
“Why? Why wouldn’t she see me?” Qi Yezhou’s eyes widened, a surge of madness welling in their depths.
“Why wouldn’t she see you? You should know better than anyone!” Ye Li said. “She told me that even now, she stands by her choice. Right up until her death, she never thought about harming a single soul. But what about you? How many people have you killed just to vent your rage?”
“That’s because you all deserved to die!” Qi Yezhou roared, his eyes blood-red. “Xiao Xue was such a kind, optimistic person, yet you people drove her to her death! Every last one of you deserved to die!”
Ye Li shrugged, neither confirming nor denying his accusation.
Whether he was venting his wrath or seeking vengeance, everyone had to take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences that followed.
“How did you figure out it was me?” Qi Yezhou suddenly gave her an odd look. “Did Xiao Xue tell you that too?”
“No, it was because of him!” Ye Li pointed at Le Jun, who was still completely lost and acting as a background prop. “Everyone trapped here had ties to Wen Xue—except him.”
She had seen no trace of Le Jun in Wen Xue’s memories. Since everyone else trapped in the ghost domain was here for a specific reason, Le Jun’s presence was simply too out of place.
Only when she shifted the source of the conflict from Wen Xue to Qi Yezhou did everything fall neatly into place.
From start to finish, Wen Xue harbored no hatred—only bewilderment toward this world and human nature.
This ghost domain was indeed born because of her, yet she wasn’t the one controlling it.
The one controlling this ghost domain from the very beginning had been Qi Yezhou all along!
Rate on N.U.
