Song Yueyao and Jiang Zhiyu had already changed into their costumes and were preparing to make their entrance.
The script had assigned them supporting roles: yamen runners.
After the husband and wife fought desperately with the villain for a long time, going through untold hardships to finally beat the villain to the ground, only then would the yamen runners arrive, fashionably late.
Their only job was to escort the human traffickers away, and that would be the end of it.
They were the spitting image of those characters who seem completely useless but have to make an appearance anyway.
Halfway there, the two bumped into Yan Xingxiao, who had hurriedly turned back.
"Escort Leader Yan, why are you back?!"
This time, clear anger was visible in Song Yueyao's bright eyes.
The yamen runner uniform accentuated her imposing figure, and the heroic spirit between her brows was scorching. Even Yan Xingxiao could not help but be intimidated by her aura, instinctively raising his hands to protect his head.
"I don't know either!" He hurriedly pulled the talisman paper from his chest. "The guiding talisman Young Master Jiang gave me suddenly went out halfway there!"
Jiang Zhiyu took the talisman paper, his fingertips brushing over its surface, and his expression suddenly turned grave.
"This is bad! I'm afraid someone has set up a barrier in this forest."
At the same time.
Deep in the woods, Chai Xiaomi was passionately acting out her seventh act.
In a "Keyun-style" state of delirium: "My child... where is my child?"
Her trembling hands brushed over her empty embrace, then she suddenly clutched her face. Her eyes were red, and her voice was filled with a shattered sense of panic.
Wu Li leaned against a tree trunk, not saying a word, quietly watching her act.
His expression was as speechless as it could possibly be.
Chai Xiaomi could no longer stand it. After all, he was the child's father; he ought to show a little anxiety. How could he not be in character at all?
What was more, he still had a line of dialogue he hadn't said yet!
She darted in front of him, grabbed his shoulders with both hands, and shook him excitedly. "Husband... where is our child? Husband!"
She shook him until the silver ornaments in his hair and his earrings jingled. Under his deep, cold, and warning gaze, Chai Xiaomi finally let go awkwardly, winking and making faces to remind him to say his lines.
The place where the ghost infant was buried was not far away. Any rustle of the wind or grass might be detected by it.
If they were going to put on a show, they had to go all the way.
Wu Li's lips twitched slightly. He extended a single finger and slowly tilted her chin up.
"Rest assured, Madam, I will definitely find her."
His voice dropped low. The dark hair falling by his temples made his face look even paler and colder, brushing against the upward slant of his eyes in the wind.
A dark gleam of paranoia flashed in the depths of his heterochromatic eyes, locking intensely onto hers.
"As long as it is someone I am looking for, even if they become a ghost, I will chase them into hell."
As his words fell, he curled his lips into a pure yet demonic smile at her.
His voice was crisp and bone-chillingly gentle, yet inexplicably terrifying.
Chai Xiaomi was stunned.
...Why was he adding his own lines?
The second half of that sentence clearly wasn't written in the script.
But to be honest, it was a brilliant addition.
The obsession of lifetime after lifetime, unending even in death, was instantly brought to life by his acting.
Good for you, Lili. It was a pity he wasn't born in her era; otherwise, with those looks and those acting skills, he would be a top-tier celebrity in minutes.
"Good acting, you get a bonus chicken leg," Chai Xiaomi praised him by mouthing the words.
With this scene finished, she turned and walked toward the pre-arranged spot where the infant was buried.
In her memory, it was on the high slope not far ahead.
Their group had specifically come to leave a mark beforehand; there was a giant, strangely shaped, protruding rock there.
However, Chai Xiaomi wandered around in circles a few times and still could not find that rock.
And the scenery around her seemed to remain entirely unchanged.
Chai Xiaomi gradually felt her blood run cold, and two words faintly floated in her mind.
Could it be... a ghost wall?
She casually picked up a dead branch and drew a circle on the trunk of a ginkgo tree she passed by as a mark.
After that, every time she encountered a ginkgo tree, she carved a circle on it.
After walking for a long time, Chai Xiaomi's legs gradually grew sore. She looked up, only to see the trunk of a tall ginkgo tree ahead densely covered with over a dozen carved circles.
"Li... Lili..." She swallowed hard. "Have we... been going around in circles this whole time?"
There was no response.
She turned her head to look, and her fingers suddenly loosened. The branch used to draw the circles slipped through her fingers.
There was no one beside her.
The shaded forest, which had just had decent lighting, was instantly enveloped as if by a heavy, dark cloud.
Amidst the overlapping shadows of the trees, a dark figure seemed to flash quickly in the gloomy depths.
The surroundings were unnaturally quiet; even the chirping of insects and the sound of the wind had disappeared.
Chai Xiaomi felt as though she could hear her own heartbeat pounding like a drum in her ears.
"Lili, where are you?" She looked around in panic, stumbling back a few steps until her spine pressed against a huge mountain rock. The cold, hard touch made her shudder, and she slowly crouched down, curling into a ball.
The current situation was far, far more bizarre than a mere ghost wall.
The shadows in the forest suddenly twisted. Right in front of her, a blinding white light suddenly exploded, condensing into a massive orb of light.
Chai Xiaomi widened her eyes.
Within the light, a giant fox-like creature was slowly standing up.
Its fur was a corpse-like pale white. Nine long tails swayed behind it like writhing pythons, and the tip of each tail split open to reveal bright red, eye-like markings that were leisurely rolling around.
It turned its face toward her.
Thick, dark liquid constantly oozed from the snout on its fox-like face. Its eyes were completely pitch-black with no whites, yet she could feel them staring fixedly right at her.
Chai Xiaomi pressed her back tightly against the rock. With a sideways glance, she actually saw a crack in the rock about one person wide, just enough for her to slip through.
The winding path between the rock crevices in the valley led to secluded depths; perhaps it could lead to another exit.
This was a survival exit!
Just at that moment—
"Waah— Waah—"
She heard the clear, crisp sounds of a baby crying.
By the front paws of the nine-tailed demonic beast, only about two meters away.
The ghost infant was right there in that pile of leaves!
Chai Xiaomi's heart skipped a beat. The crying was heart-wrenching. The ghost infant was also terrified by this overwhelming demonic aura. That cry was born of genuine fear; it was a call, a plea for help, and even more so, an urgent begging.
It was begging over and over again: Please don't abandon me...
"Little Eight," Chai Xiaomi stood frozen in place, murmuring softly.
This was the nickname she had given it at the end of the script.
Its true name was supposed to be given by its loving parents after it reincarnated.
But once a name was called out, a bond had taken root.
This soft, airy call drifted into the ghost infant's ears along with the wind.
It actually slowly stopped crying.
As if it suddenly firmly believed—Mother would definitely come.
The intense demonic aura had almost solidified into something tangible. It shivered so violently that the pile of dead leaves covering it trembled as well.
However, from amidst that rustling, trembling pile of leaves, a tiny, wrinkled hand slowly reached out.
Even though little ghosts possessed a natural fear of demonic beasts—after all, a demonic beast could swallow it in a single bite, obliterating its soul in a mere breath's time.
But it still held its little hand high.
There seemed to be an obsession deeper than fear, heavier than existence itself.
Even if its soul were to scatter and perish, it was entirely fearless.
Chai Xiaomi's heart clenched.
God save her, why wasn't this plot following the script she had written!
All she was supposed to do was defeat the human trafficker played by Escort Leader Yan to successfully rescue the ghost baby. How did her opponent suddenly turn into this colossal monster?!
Someone tell her right now, is there some higher-dimensional lifeform manipulating the plot?!
Chai Xiaomi looked back, glancing one last time at the narrow escape crevice behind her.
She gritted her teeth.
Forget it!
"Little Eight." She took a deep breath. Her voice was trembling, yet it suddenly rose with determination.
"Hang on! Mommy is coming to save you!!!"
