The statue of the Goddess of Santu stood tall, her robes falling like flowing clouds.
Her posture was graceful, seemingly moving yet still in the flickering candlelight.
Hongxiao knelt and bowed devoutly.
She prayed silently in her heart: Goddess of Santu, could you grant this little demon one more wish? I am willing to trade my own demonic power in exchange for Xiaoman to see the light again.
The beautiful statue looked down with lowered eyes, a faint smile playing on her lips, both compassionate and distant.
Suddenly, a thick fog rolled in around her.
A lazy and noble chuckle could vaguely be heard:
"It is you again, little fox."
"You have just taken human form. What can this little bit of power do? It is not enough to trade for a pair of eyes."
The voice was half-smiling, seemingly carrying a hint of pity.
"However, seeing your sincerity, at most, I can use your power to bring back a little bit of light for him."
Hongxiao was overjoyed: "Thank you, Goddess of Santu, thank you, Goddess of Santu!"
The candlelight flickered, and the thick fog permeated the air.
A slender figure knelt in the fog, kowtowing repeatedly.
Her red dress was like fire, her dark hair trailing on the ground.
After finishing her wish, she hurried back.
Xiaoman was still hidden in a corner by her, secretly listening to Lady Xiangyun playing the guzheng. Calculating the time, the performance was almost over, and she could not let her secret be exposed.
Meanwhile.
Beneath a corridor in the Phantom Sound Pavilion, the zither music came to an abrupt halt.
Xiaoman's tightly closed eyes twitched as his eyelashes fluttered slightly.
The music stopped too suddenly, catching people off guard.
Immediately after, there was a girl's panicked scream.
He suddenly opened his eyes.
To his surprise, a faint glimmer of light pierced through his vision.
Without time to think, he hurriedly got up, stumbling and groping his way toward that bit of light and the sound.
He fell several times along the way, hastily scrambling back up, staggering forward without daring to stop.
Along the way, he vaguely heard people sighing:
"So she can make a sound. I really thought she was a little mute."
"How pitiful. She plays the zither so well, yet she still cannot escape receiving guests."
"That person is someone the entire Thousand Fog Town cannot afford to offend. Madam Liu has no choice either."
So what if he could not be offended?
Hearing that desperate crying and screaming, Xiaoman felt as if his heart was being cut by a knife.
Even if it were just an innocent woman being coerced, he absolutely could not sit idly by, let alone the fact that she was... the person he liked.
Relying on that faint light, he stumbled into the room, happened to touch a vase by the wall, instinctively grabbed it, and charged toward the man's voice.
In the chaos, his waist suddenly tightened.
Someone had stopped him.
He could not care about anything else; his mind was entirely focused on saving his beloved woman.
But the vase in his hand was suddenly snatched away, and then the grip on his waist loosened. A limp, unconscious body crashed into his arms. Xiaoman felt the tear stains on her face and, without a word, hugged her and ran outside.
Hongxiao watched Xiaoman rescue the unconscious Xiangyun and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
On one hand, she rejoiced that Xiaoman had not smashed anyone and caused a disaster, otherwise he would definitely be kicked out by Madam Liu.
On the other hand, she was glad that Lady Xiangyun was safe; after all, she had saved her and Xiaoman once before.
Lady Xiangyun could not receive guests.
But it did not matter to her.
She was a courtesan anyway, and she could take this opportunity to absorb some of the man's vital essence to maintain her human form.
However, she underestimated the dead drunk man in front of her. His methods of torturing people were varied, and he actually carried a magical artifact on him. She could not even absorb his vital essence.
Having just lost her demonic power, she had no ability to protect herself.
It was as if a peony in full bloom was being cruelly plucked apart bit by bit.
Even its petals were ruthlessly crushed.
Hongxiao could never have imagined that after that night, she would no longer exist in the Phantom Sound Pavilion.
She was treated as a corpse and casually thrown into the lake.
For Xiaoman's sake, she fought desperately to survive.
Unfortunately, having suffered such severe trauma, it was difficult for her body to maintain a human form for long. Most of the time, she could only revert to her original form of a little fox.
Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, for she was actually able to speak the human language.
After recovering in the outskirts for a period of time.
When she arrived outside the woodshed in the form of a little fox, she saw two figures inside.
Xiangyun was holding a bowl of wontons, carefully blowing on them to cool them for Xiaoman. She was also earnestly telling him the layout of the Phantom Sound Pavilion and the placement of every item, reminding him to be careful not to bump into things.
The steaming heat from the wontons in the bowl drifted past the two of them, weaving into a heartwarming scene.
Both of them seemed to have a tacit understanding, never again bringing up their past traumas.
Hongxiao quietly wiped away her tears with her paw.
How wonderful.
Xiaoman finally had someone to take care of him. The heart she had kept suspended for so long could finally settle.
Suddenly, a crystal-clear water droplet fell from the air and landed on the top of the little fox's head.
Hongxiao looked up blankly.
It turned out that it was raining.
But it was so strange. Why was the raindrop that hit her head warm?
...
The evening breeze blew gently.
The young girl buried herself in the young man's embrace, remaining silent for a long time.
Tears fell silently.
Wu Li wrapped his arms around the slightly trembling body in his embrace, gently rubbing the back of her head, his lips pulling down in a dejected pout. "I told you not to be sad. If I had known, I wouldn't have brought you to see this."
"Wounds will always heal. It's all in the past."
"Although wounds will heal, the pain is etched into the bones." Chai Xiaomi lifted her tear-blurred face. The misty moisture reflected a blurry young man, whose hazy silhouette was still so handsome. "Lili, is belated heartache too useless?"
He looked down at her, his voice deep. "As far as I am concerned, there is no such thing as being belated. If this heartache is a gift that only comes after suffering, then I would gladly endure all the pain."
Who knew that after he said this, she would curse in anger.
"Gladly endure my foot!"
He really did not know how to comfort people and was at somewhat of a loss.
So he thought about it seriously and asked, "How about I go beat up Xiaoman? To help you vent your anger."
Pausing for a moment, he strictly added, "I mean the male Xiaoman, not the female Xiaoman."
Chai Xiaomi, with tears in her eyes, said, "Why would you go hit him? He did nothing wrong in saving someone."
Wu Li was dissatisfied. "Who told him to save the wrong person."
It was all because he saved the wrong person that the fox suffered, and precisely because the fox suffered, his wife was here shedding tears over it.
Tsk.
One or two of them, why were they all so stupid.
If it were him, even if he lost all five senses, he would never mistake his beloved.
There is always only one sun.
"Get it straight who the villain in this story is. The one doing evil is clearly someone else, especially that Ouyang Huai!" Chai Xiaomi gritted her teeth in anger. She had seen that the drunken VIP was none other than Ouyang Rui's father.
"I can't wait to slaughter him!"
Her eyes were red as she choked out the vicious words.
Wu Li gladly curled his lips, cracking his knuckles. "That's too simple. I'll go twist his head off right now and let you kick it like a ball, okay?"
As long as it could make her calm down, he could use any ruthless method. This was what he excelled at anyway.
Chai Xiaomi hurriedly held him back. Although they were angry words, they also carried a bit of truth, but she hadn't forgotten the white cat's plan for tomorrow night, and it was even less possible to let Wu Li act as the executioner.
"Wait! I was just saying it casually, don't take it seriously. Evil people will naturally be punished by heaven."
"The blood on my hands is no less than his." Wu Li gently raised his lips. "I am also an evil person. It is only logical for the wicked to devour the wicked."
"No, you are not."
Chai Xiaomi pulled his hand to her chest, holding it tightly.
Taking her double standards to the absolute extreme, she said, "You are different from the rest. You have me. I come with my own purifying effect. All I have to do is wipe it clean for you."
The more he killed, the heavier his malevolent aura would become. Falling into darkness and suffering a deadly backlash would be his inevitable fate.
She could not allow that to happen.
He looked down, watching her earnestly huff a few warm breaths against his palm before rubbing her sleeve back and forth over it, as if trying her hardest to scrub away some invisible grime.
Her little cheeks were puffed out, looking incredibly serious.
"I've wiped it clean for you. You can't get it dirty again, understand?"
Wu Li was slightly taken aback.
It made sense. In the future, this hand of his would still need to pinch her cheeks, hold her waist, stroke her hair, and even cover that...
His eyes darkened, and his fingers curled instinctively.
Indeed, he couldn't carelessly let himself be stained with filth anymore.
Otherwise, how could he touch his cleanliness-loving girl without any reservations?
