Was I in a coma or awake? It felt like I was somewhere in between, hearing a lot of strange sounds. Strange images floated in front of my eyes.
The crying was loud, as if a child was wailing in pain. The sound grew louder, followed by other arguing voices.
"I can't have this child, he can't be with me."
That was a man's voice, sounding young but firm. Then came a cold laugh from a woman.
"Whether you want him or not, I can't afford to raise him, you can just throw him away."
"You b*tch! Clearly here to extort money from me, believe me, I'll kill you."
The man started to rage, and his voice intertwined with the child's crying, sounding deeper.
"I am a prostitute. You spent money on me and even got a son, isn't that good? Buy one, get one free."
The darkness in front of me was still covering everything, but in the center of the darkness, it gradually dispersed. Slowly, a flower as red as blood began to bloom. I saw a small figure standing in the blood-colored flower, slowly tilting his head, as if trying to tell me something.
But I couldn't hear him clearly. I couldn't understand him. It felt as if there was a thick wall separating us, a wall that couldn't be crossed.
"Who are you?"
I wanted to ask, but couldn't find my voice.
Then the blood-red flower fully bloomed, and the small figure in front of me was pierced by countless sharp knives. The body disintegrated, the crying abruptly stopped, and only blood continued to flow...
"Phew!"
I suddenly opened my eyes, the scene in the secret room appeared before me, and I saw the fat guy, Luo Yong and the others standing in front of me. The blood in their eyes had faded, and the air around didn't seem so cold anymore.
"Fat guy..."
I spoke, I could actually hear my voice. I touched my ear in surprise, finding some fresh blood marks, but my hearing seemed to have recovered. I looked at Zhuozi squatting next to me, his eyes were open, although they were bloodshot, there seemed to be no serious problem.
"It's all good."
The fat guy said simply. I shook my head, leaned against the wall and slowly stood up, looking around in surprise and asked, "Why am I not dead?"
"Because if the blood-relatives' evil spirit spell is broken, they cannot stay in the mortal world for a long time. When the spell is lifted, they only have two options, either return to the underworld in time, to atone for their sins. Or have their souls scattered, facing the fate of complete disappearance. You are lucky, that evil spirit reached its time limit when it was trying to kill you, a fate that made it ultimately disperse, saving your life. However, I really didn't expect that Gu Yu actually turned his own son into an evil spirit!"
Zhuozi shook his head and said.
"I knew."
Ice-cold, I stood up leaning against the wall, and walked towards Gu Yu, who was tied up not far away.
He sat on the ground, Luo Yong was holding a knife on the side. When I walked closer, without looking up, he said directly, "I won't help you to get out, give up on that thought."
But the next moment, what met him was a fist to his face, I hurt my limbs. My hand was weak, but I still tightly clenched my fist and knocked Gu Yu to the ground.
"Haha, it's alright if you want to use force! To the victor go the spoils, I accept my defeat. But don't think that beating me up will make me help you get out, since I can't report back to Ling Yao anyway once we're out, we might as well all die here. It's better to die once and for all, hahaha!"
He laughed wantonly, as if he was carefree and unburdened. I took a step forward, grabbed his collar, and said sternly, "I'm not hitting you to make you help us get out, it's because of your son that I'm hitting you."
As soon as I said this, Gu Yu's face changed instantly, then he looked up at me.
"My son, what do you know..."
Gu Yu concealed his previous nonchalance, now looking fierce and ferocious, scolding me.
"I just had a dream, maybe it was a dream my son entrusted to me before his soul scattered. He was the result of a one-night stand between you and a prostitute, right?"
I stood firm, and just this one sentence completely baffled Gu Yu.
"How did you know that?" he asked, staring at me in surprise.
"Later, the woman didn't want the child. She threw the child to you. You didn't want it either, so... so, damn it, you killed your own son. No wonder your son is so resentful, because it's you he wants to take revenge on! For self-preservation, you trapped it in a paper talisman. You used blood magic. And now, you want your son to take the brunt for you. Damn it, are you even human?"
I kicked him in the face heavily, but Gu Yu remained silent, not uttering a word even as he fell to the ground.
"Xiaoshan, what's going on?" the fat man asked, puzzled.
"I had a dream when I was just coming to after losing consciousness. Maybe it was the little demon sending me a message. Gu Yu and the woman who gave birth to the baby had a relationship, and unexpectedly, they had a son. In the end, neither of them wanted the child, and Gu Yu ended up killing him!"
I added another kick to his face, still fuming.
"Damn it. Are you even human?" the fat man cursed along with me.
Gu Yu remained calm, hanging his head, and didn't speak for a long time. I was furious. It was said that a tiger would not eat its own cubs, but I never thought there would be someone who actually killed their own son. No matter how cunning and treacherous a man might be, there are two things he must not do be unfilial to his parents and harm his own son.
"I didn't kill him!" Gu Yu suddenly spoke softly after a long while.
"What?" Hearing him speak, we looked up to him.
"I said I didn't kill him. I didn't kill my son," Gu Yu shook his head, his face full of sorrow. "I took my son until he was two years old. Honestly, at first, I really didn't want to raise him because I didn't have the ability to take care of him. I was very young at that time, and sometimes I couldn't even take care of myself. I couldn't even have enough to eat, how could I have the money to look after a child. But I still raised him for two years, and I loved him very much. I never thought I could be a father, but I realized it later. He is my flesh and blood. He is my son, and I want to raise him for the rest of my life!"
"Then why did he still die later? You said it wasn't you who killed him, then who was it?" the fat man pointed to him and asked.
"The damn human trafficker did it!" Gu Yu suddenly burst out screaming, "When my son was two years old, he was taken away. I chased for a month, asked for a lot of help through connections, and finally saw the child who had been disfigured beyond recognition. The traffickers said my son kept crying, so they smothered him with their hands. They didn't expect to smother my son to death after covering his mouth for too long. Afraid of being discovered, they decided to cut him up and throw him into the river. My son wasn't killed by me, but, indeed, I didn't take good care of him. Later, I asked someone to call back his soul, wanting to keep him as a little ghost by my side. But my son's grudges were too great, and when his soul was brought back, he turned into a fierce ghost. In desperation, I could only use blood magic to confine him by my side. If I die, my son's soul will also be gone. Today, there was really no other way, so I had to let him out..."
After speaking, Gu Yu covered his face and cried in pain, sometimes men don't cry not because they can't, but because they don't want to talk about truly heart-wrenching matters.
"If it weren't for me being outnumbered and injured, how could I have let my son out! I really had no other choice..."
Gu Yu wailed, and as I stood there, I was dumbstruck. My chest felt tight, and it was me who had caused Gu Yu and the Pale-faced Specter to suffer. It was I who designed this deadly battle, and if we didn't interfere, perhaps Gu Yu wouldn't have been pushed to a dead end. If he hadn't been pushed to a dead end, he wouldn't have released his son's soul.
So, in fact, I was the one who harmed his son...
The fat man noticed that I didn't look right and asked, "Xiaoshan, are you okay?"
But I couldn't hear anything, my head was throbbing, and it felt like countless voices were ringing in my ears in restlessness.
"Little hill, little hill..."
The shouts of the fat guy and the others seemed to be getting further and further away from me.
"If it weren't for my plot, that child wouldn't have lost his life. That's why it keeps haunting me in my dreams, because it hates me. It's my fault, it's me..."
At twenty, I hadn't seen much of the world and still retained an immature mind. Justice, kindness, all those beautiful things, became the sharpest daggers in my soul at that moment.
Heinous, I never thought I would be labeled as such.
I blacked out again, falling unconscious once more...