Chapter 95: Meeting

My heart sank to the very bottom at once, and I knew I had been exposed for certain.

As expected, a look of contempt flickered across the face of the thousand-year-old female ghost. Then she drifted to the row of paper figures opposite me.

With a light wave of her hand toward the oil lamps, every lamp in that row was extinguished.

When a man dies, his lamp goes out. The moment that row of lamps was snuffed, I could clearly feel the paper figures holding them seem to lose all color, growing far more shriveled than before.

Then the ghost drifted to the row of lamps where I was. Without another word, she waved her hand lightly again. I only felt the world go dark, and all the candlelight on this side was extinguished as well.

Wisps of white smoke curled up from the wicks, as though my own soul were drifting out of the lamp.

Just when I thought I was about to be torn to pieces and scattered to the winds, the flame of the lamp I was in dimmed for only a few seconds, then flared back to life.

It was those crucial few seconds that let me escape the inspection of that evil spirit.

It turned out that when the ghost waved her hand, there was still a patch of blue flame at the base of the wick in the lamp where I was, and it had not been fully extinguished. As the woman turned away, it slowly began to burn again.

Though the lamp went out and then came back on, those few seconds of darkness were enough to leave me utterly weak all over, as if I had already died once.

Having walked through the gates of hell, I stared fixedly at the woman’s retreating back, praying she would not turn around again. But heaven seemed determined to make a mockery of me. When she reached the doorway, she stopped, and just like before, stood quietly before the threshold.

“Who are you!”

A voice filled with terror and shock came from the doorway. Hearing that clear, bright voice, my heart began racing again.

It was Bai Xiaoli. Why had Bai Xiaoli come here?

I had not expected her to come looking for me so late. I had assumed Granny Wan would have warned her in advance, but it seemed Granny Wan must have forgotten.

Through the back of the thousand-year-old spirit, I saw Bai Xiaoli standing face-to-face with it.

In the moonlight, the two of them looked almost identical. Bai Xiaoli’s face was full of shock and fear, her beautiful eyes wide open. Clearly, she had never imagined that in this world she would encounter someone who looked so much like her.

I could not see the thousand-year-old spirit’s expression, but from her body language alone, her mood was far from calm.

“Who are you? Where is my fiancé, Pi Yangxi?” Bai Xiaoli quickly recovered from her shock, her fear gone as anger replaced it. She glared at the thousand-year-old spirit and said, “You’re the one who has tried again and again to harm my Brother Yangxi, aren’t you?”

To be honest, hearing Bai Xiaoli say that touched me.

The thousand-year-old spirit kept her gaze fixed on Bai Xiaoli. After a long silence, she finally said flatly, “He is not your fiancé.”

Bai Xiaoli, both furious and worried, said, “Pi Yangxi is my fiancé. Who are you exactly? Where is my Brother Yangxi?”

The thousand-year-old spirit said coldly, “Pi Yangxi is already dead.” When she said this, I could not detect the slightest emotion in her tone—neither excitement nor regret.

But the moment Bai Xiaoli heard those words, her face went deathly pale. She shoved the woman in front of her aside and rushed into the house. When Bai Xiaoli saw my body lying on the straw mat, she actually started trembling. Then she could no longer hold herself back and collapsed over me, sobbing bitterly.

I was startled by her reaction. It was so naturally heartfelt, nothing like an act. It seemed Granny Wan had not told Bai Xiaoli what had happened during the day, and Bai Xiaoli truly believed I was dead.

Under the dim candlelight, Bai Xiaoli’s tears fell one drop after another onto my body. Suddenly, she stood up, picked up a handful of joss paper from the floor, and stormed outside.

What was this girl about to do?

Seeing Bai Xiaoli react like this, I was confused and worried all at once, my gaze following her closely.

The thousand-year-old spirit at the doorway still had not left. She simply watched Bai Xiaoli rush out, her eyes fixed on her from beginning to end. For so long, she had not even noticed that there was still one oil lamp burning inside the room.

“You damned ghost, it was you who killed my fiancé, wasn’t it?” Bai Xiaoli stared fixedly at the woman wrapped in red silk in front of her, her pale-red lips trembling nonstop, whether from fury or grief, I could not tell.

“Yes, it was me. I did it for your own good,” the woman said in the same calm tone.

Bai Xiaoli looked as though fire might erupt from her eyes. At that moment, I felt waves of chilling malice rising from her body, enough to make one’s blood run cold.