~~The Truth is Revealed~~

The system’s announcement along with the appearance of the time limit caught Chai Gang by complete surprise.

But, nevermind these. His head felt dizzy with the desire to know what the truth is really behind all of this.

Grabbing the diary and medical record, Chai Gang’s face was full of hesitation.

Chu Han obviously knew the truth, but he left Chai Gang with such a large psychological shadow towards him, that he simply couldn’t dare to open his mouth and ask him.

“This is the older sister’s diary, not long ago it changed into the younger brother’s.”

In the indifferent voice, there was a trace of feebleness, Chai Gang subconciously turned his head, only to realise that to his surprise, the stifling energy that had made him feel like he was choking, had suddenly vanished!

Seeing the familiar silhouette of the person bracing his head on his hand, with a pale look on his face, Chai Gang called out with uncertainty. “Su… Su Mo?”

“It’s me.”

Su Mo didn’t get up, and with a feeble voice explained, “Tan Le doesn’t have an abused older sister. The real freaks are the He Wanzhou father and daughter pair.”

Chai Gang completely missed Su Mo’s explanation, because he instantly jumped up and yelled out, “You’re back! Su Mo~a, do you know about what just happened? You were possessed by a ghost! And also….”

“Don’t worry, he won’t ever appear again.”

Su Mo obviously wouldn’t explain Chu Han’s existence, swiching the topic he spoke, “Read out loud the contents of the diary.”

“Ah…. Okay, okay!”

Although Su Mo had gone “back to normal”, the psychological shadow that he had left on him wouldn’t be easily erased. At that moment, even though he had a hundred questions in his head, he had no choice but to suppress them and not ask.

“20th July 1969: Mommy said that tomorrow she would take me to go see Uncle and older sister. Older sister is also very beautiful, I really like them. I am already 10 years old, an adult, I won’t let Mommy feel worried ever again….”

…….

10th September 1970: It’s been a year, I’ve been having nightmares every single night. In the nightmares, I’m always hearing my Mom letting out a terrifying scream. My Mom is always crying, I’m so scared….

10th October 1970: After school, older sister secretly took me to the basement. She took out a lot of rats from a box, the rats always bight me, so sore…

12th March 1971: Today is my birthday, but the puppy that my Mom gave me last year suddenly disappeared…

15th April 1971: My blind Uncle is really scary. Why is he always hitting my Mom? I really want to charge in and save my Mom, but, but….

16th May 1972: In the night, my Mom secretly told me that tomorrow we will be leaving this family. We’re finally leaving, I’m so happy….

18th May 1972: Wuwu,^[1]Crying sound my Mom and I were caught and brought back. Uncle has been talking with my Mom for a long time already, Mom came back in the evening and hugged me, crying. I’m such a good-for-nothing, useless….

20th May 1973: Mom’s legs! Blind Uncle hit Mom really badly! I’ll kill him, I’ll kill their whole family!

…….

15th May 1974: I’m not sick! I’m perfectly normal! Mommy, don’t be afraid…

16th May 1974: Mommy, I’ll avenge you…”

After reading that, Chai Gang’s eyes were red with a look of fury and the veins on his hands were visibly pulsing.

“How evil! Worthless piece of shit!”

He furiously threw the diary onto the floor. Chai Gang, who had fallen into a fit of rage started cursing like a sailor, pouring out the fury that he felt in his heart.

Su Mo was still sitting on the wooden chair. His face was indifferent that you couldn’t even see the slightest bit of sadness on it.

After a few minutes, Chai Gang had to force himself to once more calm down. After he had calmed he spoke in disbelief, “So, Tan Le and his Mom are actually the ones being abused?”

Su Mo nodded his head. “Do you still have the picture?”

Chai Gang quickly took out the picture.

“Huh?”

The picture had actually changed again!

Su Mo took the picture. The family of four that was originally in the photo had disappeared, and in its place was an elegant and beautiful girl. The girl was also hugging a boy to her chest, a smart and cute boy. In the picture, the warm morning sun was peppered on the girl’s body, as she doted on the boy in her arms. The picture looked very sweet and harmonious.

“The key is in Pandora’s hand….”

Looking at the photo, Su Mo’s pale face seemed lost in thought.

“Ah!”

Yelling out suddenly, Chai Gang’s face was white, “Oh no, oh no! We don’t even have three hours left! If we don’t leave then we’ll all be finished! Su Mo~a, why are you stilll sitting in a daze? We must quickly go!”

“Go?”

Su Mo still didn’t move, “Do you know how to leave this place?”

“Eh? Is it…. very difficult?”

Good thing he wasn’t stupid enough to instantly answer ‘Walk out’, otherwise he really would have seemed to have become an idiot.

The system had given them a whole three hours. If it was as simple as just leaving, then there wouldn’t be the so calleed ‘elimination’. The crutical point was that it didn’t stop at them merely leaving, but they also had to take Tan Le with them!

Even though the whole truth had been revealed, even if Tan Le was actually the one being abused, it’s just that when Chai Gang thought back on the young boy that was sucking on the lollipop, he couldn’t help but instantly feel aprehensive.

Especially….

Hastily picking up the medical report, Chai Gang blurted out, “I almost forgot. This guy is also crazy!”

On the medical report it was stated very plainly: 20 May 1974, Tan Le was diagnosed with severe hypchondria in the psychiatric department of XXX’s highest class hospital. Moderate mania and severe mental distortion.

It wasn’t fake that there was something weird going on with the He Wanzhou father and daughter, however since they had been torturing him for years on end, it wasn’t strange that his psyche was also twisted, maybe even more so than the father and daughter. So even if you were to sympathise with him, thinking about bringing along such a small weirdo, just made one feel a sense of dread.

As if he was able to hear what Chai Gang was worried about, Su Mo with his hand still supporting his forehead tiredly spoke, “Don’t worry. He won’t be stirring up anymore trouble.”

“What do you mean?”

Seeing Su Mo’s tired expression, Chai Gang couldn’t help but worriedly ask, “Big brother Su, are you okay?”

Since little brother Su Mo had changed into Big brother Su, the change in the form of address was the responsibility of Chu Han, and the fact that he didn’t immediately call out ‘Uncle Su’ was already a small mercy in itself.

Su Mo shook his head to signal that he was fine, but he still didn’t get up.

Su Mo is known as the leader of the four demons of the imperial city, and 90% of that is caused by and because of Chu Han.

But everytime that Chu Han comes out, it’s always a difficult ordeal for Su Mo to deal with.
There’s no need to doubt that Chu Han was a formidable force, however, his physical constitution wasn’t that much better in comparison to Su Mo’s, but every time that Chu Han appeared he would extract some of his life essence. This kind of life where your life essence is being used up, would anyone be able to bear it for long?

This time in particular , in order to settle Tan Le, Chu Han took control of the body for several hours for the first time ever, so the amount he consumed could not be said to be a little. Su Mo was very well aware, that by Buddha’s grace, even if he experienced that type of endless consumption of his life force, he’d still be able to live until 30 years old.

But… so what?

For Su Mo who had almost no desires, death is just another option, as simple as talking or walking.

But he naturally wouldn’t say this to Chai Gang who was a stranger, all that Su Mo would tell Chai Gang is that at this moment Tan Le was already unconcious, and that he was in the other room.

“Really?”

Feeling in high spirits, Chai Gang volunteered himself up, “Then I’ll be the one to carry him out, wait here until you feel better and then we can all go out together!”

Su Mo’s expression suddenly became strange, “Are you sure?”

“This is nothing man!”

Paying no mind to his hand waving him off, Chai Gang turned around and walked towards the other door.

Su Mo made as if to speak, then stopped. In the end he decided not to stop him.

Chai Gang opened the room’s door; he suddenly went stiff as a board in the doorway, not daring to move an inch….

What did he see?

He breathed in a mouthful of cold air, Chai Gang’s eyes opened wide as he stared. ——— He was so siezed with terror that he began to shake horribly!

He went soft at the knees, his eyes rolling back. A ‘thud’ rang out as Chai Gang instantly passed out from fright!

The thick scent of blood hit you in the face, Su Mo who was following along, gazed from the wide open door, his expression complicated.

It was a butterfly, a ‘blood butterfly’ that was in full bloom….

With a pot of cold water beeing poured over his head, Chai Gang instantly shot up, coughing violently.

Looking around at a loss, while Su Mo stood infront of him with a cold expression. Lying with him, side-by-side was none other than Tan Le, who had fallen into a deep sleep.

Also, after Chai Gang had regained conciousness, he behaved entirely normal, as if he didn’t see Tan Le. Instead his gaze seemed to be frozen, fixated on Su Mo.

“That. Did you do that?”

His terrified eyes were looking at the door to the room that was tightly closed, Chai Gang’s face was full of shock and fury.

Su Mo neither admitted it, nor denied it.

“Demon, you are a Demon!”

Su Mo disdained explaining himself, and instead flashed his teeth with a cold smile, “Right now you have two choices: First one is, you die here; Second one is, you grab him, and you come with me.”

His face continued to change colours, but in the end, the desire to live triumphed over all else. Like a rubber ball that had lost it’s air, Chai Gang silently picked up Tan Le without uttering another word.

Opening the door, the two of them once more made their way back down the passageway.

This time the passageway was no longer devoid of all things. Not only did it have very many doors, but on the walls there also appeared many twisted and distorted oil paintings.

After searching through a few of the rooms at full speed, and not finding any enemies. The two of them arrived in front of the stairs. ——- The stairway that led to the ground floor also suddenly appeared.

Going downstairs, they once more found themselves in the main hall.

“What about everyone else?”

The main hall was devoid of a single person, causing him to remember the scenes that he had seen earlier of Dai Xingzhang’s dead body and Mark’s blood-curdling scream, Chai Gang couldn’t refrain from feeling a sense of panic, “Is it….. that they’re all dead?”

Su Mo was just about to answer when the sound of a girl sobbing was suddenly heard from the inside of the passageway to their right.

Chai Gang’s eyes lit up as he quickly put down Tan Le and rushed towards the passageway!

The sound of the crying was coming from inside a room in the right corridor. After opening the door to the room, he called out pleasantly surprised, “Lanlan? It’s you! Are you okay?”

He wasn’t wrong. Huddled in a corner, shivering and crying was indeed Lu Lanlan.

Hearing the familiar voice, Lu Lanlan’s head jolted up.

“Wuwu^[2]crying noise….. Brother Chai, you guys finally came back, I was so scared!”

Lu Lanlan staggered to her feet and like a pear blossom burdened with raindrops^[3]Chinese idiom meaning, tear-stained face of a beauty, flung herself onto Chai Gang.

It’s just that….

Just as Chai Gang was getting ready to receive it, his arm was tugged at by Su Mo.
At that same moment the cold gleam of a dagger appeared between the two of them!

“Hey hey! What are you doing? She’s Lu Lanlan, our comrade!” Chai Gang urged.

Lu Lanlan was also startled and shrank back into the corner of the wall, staring at Su Mo with a gaze full of fear.

“Comrade?”

Su Mo gave a cold smile, “If she really is our comrade, then Dai Xingzhang wouldn’t have died.”

“You, your’e defacing me with a bunch of lies! Brother Dai, Brother Dai, he…. wuwu. He suddenly disappeared, I also didn’t know where he went!” Lu Lanlan cried even more sorrowfully.

At first he looked dumbfounded, but after thinking of something, Chai Gang’s eyes openend wide in disbelief, “No ways, is it really her?”

Su Mo calmly responded, “Yes, she is the very guide that has been hiding this whole time!”

~~~~~

Smol Aries here:
Yeah guys, Uni gets a girl hard… Really sorry about how bad I am at being consistent. So since I’m now on a holiday, and unable to find a part time job, I’ll be trying to stay on top of this… (tongue in cheeck emoji)