Chapter 14: Far From As Calm As He Appeared

It was clear that the black flame had caused him to fall into “bewitchment,” but the one who appeared in the “bewitchment” at this time was this little boy.

It seemed contradictory, but combined with the little boy’s voice he heard when the black flame devoured the white soul mass before, he could roughly guess: either this little boy was disguised as the black flame, or the black flame was driving this little boy.

Either way, this little ghost and the black flame were in cahoots.

Simple, solve them all.

Xu Huai lowered his eyes and placed the thumb of his right hand on his ring and little fingers. Unexpectedly, as soon as he made this movement, the child hissed as if he had eyes on the top of his head.

He stopped crying and just stared straight at Xu Huai with red eyes.

This ghost was more alert than Xu Huai had imagined.

Sensing Xu Huai’s intention to kill him, the child took a step back, and the bright lights in the corridor began to flicker as if there was a bad connection.

Xu Huai narrowed his eyes, thinking that this broken child was impolite, and the flickering lights hurt his eyes.

But after not flickering for long, the corridor lights suddenly dimmed, and the surroundings fell into darkness. After about three or four seconds, when the lights flickered on again, Xu Huai wasn’t surprised to find that the child was gone from the corridor.

He was the only one left in the hospital corridor, empty and deserted.

Now, not only had he not found Xie Jing, but the child had also hidden himself.

What a pain.

Since they were both hiding, he might as well find one of them.

Xu Huai looked around and finally locked onto a branch that extended into the corridor window.

Whether finding a person or a ghost, divination was a more convenient method of seeking answers.

The tools for divination weren’t limited to copper coins or the like. You just needed something that could be defined as Yin and Yang. For example, the leaf Xu Huai was holding now, which he had just picked from the tree branch by the window.

Xu Huai defined the raised part with the veins as Yin and the smoother side as Yang. He casually raised his hand and tossed it. The leaf drew a trace in the air and finally landed on the ground.

He saw that one side of the leaf on the ground showed the veins, two Yang and one Yin.

Seeing this image, Xu Huai already had a clue in his mind. He paused and turned around.

The Xun hexagram is located in the southeast.

It was still a bit difficult to find someone directly by direction inside a building. At this time, Xu Huai’s southeast direction was lined with identical wards, and searching them one by one would take too much time.

The Xun hexagram also symbolizes the number four, so he could start searching from the wards related to the number four.

Xu Huai rubbed his fingers.

This floor was the sixth floor, and there were only twelve single wards on each floor. There would only be three wards related to the number four.

Xu Huai glanced at the ward number plates beside him, took a long stride, and walked forward.

–And the closest one was 604.

Xu Huai’s search for 604 was unusually easy. He didn’t know if the child ghost had a pang of conscience or if he was a little broken after realizing that no one wanted to play with him, but he didn’t cause any trouble during Xu Huai’s journey to 604.

So when Xu Huai opened the door and saw Xie Jing inside the ward, he froze and took a step back.

“Bewitchment” is created by ghosts. It’s a dream in which ghosts gradually consume people’s consciousness by amplifying their inner desires, instilling fear, and absorbing human emotions.

Xu Huai didn’t think that his true inner desires would be amplified to this extent.

The layout of the ward was completely different from what it had been originally. The bed, bedside table, windows, fluorescent lights, and some small objects were all shattered as if destroyed by some great force, leaving only pitiful remnants lying in the corners.

With such damage, the room’s electrical system couldn’t have survived. The only source of light, the object that allowed Xu Huai to see that the person inside was Xie Jing, was a white candle.

And behind the white candle, Xie Jing, whom Xu Huai was looking for, was kneeling in the center of the room. Countless thin red lines hanging down from who knows where were wrapped around Xie Jing’s body, wrists, neck, waist… binding him so that he couldn’t move.

And Xie Jing was also hanging his head, his eyes closed, obviously unconscious.

At this moment, the flame of the white candle, which had already burned halfway down, flickered because Xu Huai opened the door. The coldness that had been blocked outside the door surged in, enveloping the candlelight and causing the already weak flame to flicker and dim.

All the light in the room began to fade, and the darkness and shadows grew increasingly intense. They seemed to be conscious, slowly swimming towards Xie Jing, who was bound by red lines in the center of the room.

That’s not right, he couldn’t let the candle go out.

Realizing something, Xu Huai stepped forward and blocked the door with his body, but the moment one foot entered the room, a powerful force pushed him from behind.

Xu Huai was caught off guard and stumbled, being pushed into the ward.

“Thud.”

The sound of the door closing came from behind. Xu Huai steadied himself and turned around, finding that there was no longer a “door” where he had come in. There was only a solid wall.

He was locked in this room.

Xu Huai remained vigilant and didn’t rashly approach Xie Jing.

He followed one of the red lines wrapped around Xie Jing’s body, raised his head, and looked up, finding that the end of the red line had disappeared into the ceiling. If he didn’t find a way to break open the ceiling, he wouldn’t be able to see the source at all.

Xu Huai didn’t know if it was because his sixth sense was malfunctioning again, but in this strange room and environment, he couldn’t feel any danger at all.

Not only did he not feel any danger, but…

Xu Huai finally made a move, walking towards Xie Jing. He stopped when he was about an arm’s length away from Xie Jing.

He squatted down and hooked one of the hanging red lines with his finger, gazing at it intently.

Instead, he felt a strange sense of familiarity.

The flame of the white candle seemed to respond to something as Xu Huai approached, suddenly leaping high into the air. The sudden increase in brightness also allowed Xu Huai to see Xie Jing’s current situation.

Xie Jing’s waist and abdomen seemed to have been pierced by something. Blood flowed from the wound on his waist, mixing with the red lines tangled on the ground. The blood eventually gathered at the base of the white candle, already dyeing half of the candle base red.

Xu Huai’s pupils shrank, and a chill ran up his spine.

The location of the wound on Xie Jing’s waist and abdomen was precisely the same as in his dream this afternoon.

The next moment, all the red lines wrapped around Xie Jing’s neck snapped. As the lines supporting his neck broke, the red lines wrapped around other positions also seemed to be just decorations, falling off as Xie Jing fell to the ground.

The moment Xu Huai caught Xie Jing, a picture suddenly appeared in his mind: the red lines, the wound, and the location of the candle were all the same as what was in front of him.

The only difference was that those things didn’t appear in the ward, but in a cold cave, and the one wrapped in red lines wasn’t Xie Jing…

It was him.

As soon as this thought arose, Xu Huai’s head suddenly ached violently. He struggled to open his eyes.

Xu Huai suddenly sat up from the single ward bed, using the warm yellow light of the bedside lamp to see Xie Jing sleeping peacefully on the bed.

The pristine white ceiling had an intact fluorescent light hanging from it. The bathroom door, the windows, everything was in its original place.

Xu Huai subconsciously pinched his wrist, and pain came from his skin—he couldn’t feel pain in “bewitchment.” He was indeed back in his own body now.

He had found Xie Jing and come out of “bewitchment.”

But his heart was still beating fast. The realization that the person who should have been wrapped in red ropes in “bewitchment” was himself gave Xu Huai too much of a shock.

Click.

Xu Huai’s movements awakened the black-haired man on the bed. At this time, his face was still sleepy. He sat up and looked at Xu Huai with concern: “Xu Huai, are you okay?”

Xie Jing’s voice pulled Xu Huai’s scattered thoughts together, and his somewhat unfocused eyes gradually came into focus.

“…I.”

To be honest, not so good.

Xu Huai got up from the single cot and said, “It’s okay.”

Xie Jing: “After you tore up the paper doll by the bed, you almost fainted. I caught you, and then you fell into a coma. I couldn’t wake you up no matter what I did, and you’ve been sleeping until now. This series of reactions doesn’t look like it’s okay.”

Xu Huai was speechless for a moment, secretly thinking that he had guessed seven or eight tenths of the truth.

The ghost flame licked him, captivating him with its bewitchment.

Xie Jing: “I called the medical staff at the time. A group of white coats surrounded you and looked at you for a long time, and concluded that you were asleep.”

“Sleeping very soundly.”

Xu Huai: “…”

To outsiders, a person trapped in “bewitchment” appears no different from one who is sleeping.

“Did I scare you?” Xu Huai couldn’t think of any other words to use in this context, so he could only say, “Sorry.”

And: “Thank you.”

Xie Jing looked at Xu Huai without speaking, but his eyes became even more intense.

Xu Huai didn’t intend to care about Xie Jing’s reaction. He maintained the same expression as before and got up from the bed as if he had just taken a very long nap.

In fact, Xu Huai was far from as calm as he seemed.

Complex and chaotic thoughts were knotted in his brain, and an invisible sense of anxiety spread in his heart.

Xu Huai walked straight to the window, put his hand on the window, and bent down to look at the glass. The warding-off-evil talisman he had drawn before and the dispelling-evil talisman on the ground were all in their original places.

Xu Huai pinched himself, using the pain he felt to confirm again. Now, from the moment he opened his eyes, he was outside of “bewitchment.”

From the time he got up from the bed to the window, the almost tangible gaze behind Xu Huai had never left him.

“Is there something wrong with what you drew before?”

Xie Jing’s low, slightly lazy voice reached his ears. Xu Huai forced himself to ignore the inexplicable tingling that rose at the base of his ear and shook his head.

“No, I’m just checking.” Xu Huai straightened up from the window, approached the bed, and came to Xie Jing’s side. “Is there anything else that doesn’t feel right in your body?”

Xie Jing: “My joints are still a little sore.”

Perhaps because of the fever, Xie Jing rolled up the sleeves of his long-sleeved hospital gown, revealing his forearm. Xu Huai could see the purplish-blue marks on Xie Jing’s arm at a glance. But they had faded a lot, almost gone.

Xu Huai: “Yes, it’s because of the fever. You’ll feel a little better after sleeping tomorrow.”

After Xu Huai finished speaking, he looked up and met Xie Jing’s gaze, seeing him looking at himself intently. “What’s wrong?”

This time, it was Xie Jing who avoided Xu Huai’s gaze: “…”

Xie Jing: “It’s nothing.”

Xu Huai looked at Xie Jing’s slightly sharp eyebrows when he wasn’t smiling, wondering why this employer seemed to have something to say but was hesitating.

Xu Huai cast another questioning look.

Xie Jing said, “Are you really okay after suddenly fainting before?”

So that was it.

Xu Huai shook his head: “I’ve had this happen before. I’ll be fine after sleeping. Don’t worry.”

Xie Jing: “Okay.”

Xu Huai looked up at the clock on the wall and said, “It’s still a long time before dawn. You rest for a while longer. I’ll go get a glass of water outside.”