Seeing her smile, Old Yang smiled too, as if he had found salvation.
Huai Shi sadly flipped the page.
But looking further down, the memories became fragmented. A succession of shattered images followed, filled with pain, fear, and unease, until at last, a figure appeared: a mocking smile, straw-yellow hair, and a pair of Red Gloves that Huai Shi would never forget.
"Then, it's settled." As its fingers spread open, they covered Old Yang's face.
An icy sensation poured into Old Yang's very marrow.
What followed were continuous nightmares and dazes. More and more fragments of memory emerged. It was as if Old Yang were drunk; he maintained his daily life, but increasingly, he devolved into a walking dead, often unaware of what he was doing.
"Huai Shi, are you going to make it? Twenty seconds left!" Raven urged.
"Almost, almost!" Huai Shi, seeing the candle nearly burnt out, frantically flipped onward. Fragments, fragments, more fragments: delivering meals to the hospital, making bank transfers, calling to press for final payments, and then, receiving a phone call...
"The Tachibana Group's welcome party is short a cellist, right? Leave it to me... You've met that kid Huai Shi, haven't you? His skills are solid, right? Yeah, right, consider it done."
After ending the call, Old Yang smugly crossed his legs. He hung up, pulled out a notebook to jot down the essentials, and sent Huai Shi a text message: 'That kid will jump for joy when he finds out.'
Only, while writing down the address, his expression suddenly stiffened.
The address he sent was entirely different from the one he had just noted.
Then, he dialed an unknown number, reporting robotically, "Courier number 4 in position."
"Good. Come to me," a hoarse laugh rasped from the phone.
Old Yang stood up and picked up his keys.
In that instant, a gust of wind swept through, and the candlelight wavered. The last gleam flickered precariously.
A strand of black hair silently entwined around Huai Shi's ankle, bringing an icy touch, as if her ankle were frozen solid. It crept upwards, probing...
In an instant, half of Huai Shi's body went numb.
"Damn it, how can the waves of the Sea of Silver reach this far... Huai Shi, come back, immediately!" Raven's angry voice came through. "You're ensnared!"
"Almost there, so close! I've nearly found it..." Huai Shi had no time to respond. She flipped the book's pages faster, but the countless strands of hair extended with increasing speed, evading the candlelight. They grew behind her, spreading, twining around her limbs, tighter and tighter.
Meanwhile, Old Yang was driving, heading east along the main road, then turning left onto Coastal Great Avenue... Huai Shi scanned even faster, hearing the distant sound of the ocean tide.
The black hair wound around her neck and tightened. She couldn't breathe.
The candle flame quivered, its last sliver of light about to be extinguished.
Old Yang had parked. He exited the underground parking lot, his movements agonizingly slow to Huai Shi. He turned left, went up, climbing the stairs.
Huai Shi felt her vertebrae groaning. The hair slithered upwards, across her face, about to burrow into her eyes, nose, and mouth.
Death Perception struck her, like being plunged into a frigid sea, chilling her gradually from the inside out.
In that moment, she saw Old Yang push open a door.
In the darkness beyond the door, a familiar face was revealed.
Just at that moment, the candle went out.
Darkness surged like a fountain, engulfing her.
In the final instant, an invisible force tugged at her, pulling her upward. She burst through the pitch-black mist as if on a reverse rollercoaster, speeding upward. But then, a strand of black hair drifted up, coiling around her ankle like a rope, yanking her down.
"Off with you!" Huai Shi used her last ounce of strength. An invisible axe chopped down, severing the dark hair.
In the moment she lost consciousness, she only heard an angry scream echoing through the darkness.
When she opened her eyes once more, she was back in the familiar living room. She bent over, violently vomiting the last bit of food from her stomach, Raven's scolding ringing in her ears.
"Are you out of your mind?! You were so close! Just a little bit more, and you would have been assimilated by that place! Left to keep company with those monstrous things in the Level 27 Hell forever!"
She glared at Huai Shi. "That thing has remembered you! Don't even think about going back there again until you break through to the Fifth Stage and become Coronated!"
"I found it..." Huai Shi gasped desperately, saliva and tears streaming down her face, yet her eyes shone with a terrifying brightness, like high beams on a highway through Hell.
"I found him..."
She murmured hoarsely, "I found him!"