Chapter Ninety-Three: Haunted House 26

"Why won’t the door open?" Rongrong tried pushing it again, confusion in her voice.

Su Man frowned. Could this not be Jinghua’s obsession realm at all?

A thought flashed through her mind, and she quickly made arrangements. "You two check the first and second floors and see if there’s anyone else left. I’ll go take a look at the third floor!"

No matter who remained, this place had to be that person’s obsession realm. Su Man had a bad feeling about it; what she feared most was finding that no one was left at all.

After giving the orders, she ignored the two of them and raced upstairs. The first room she checked was Aiji’s.

The small room was already empty, with only the white curtains drifting in the wind.

Not Aiji.

Su Man now had a rather unpleasant guess. Madam Jinghua did have an obsession realm, but it had formed as a smaller realm under the influence of an enormously powerful one. Was this realm the only one of its kind, or was this place an endlessly nested accumulation of realms?

If it was the latter, then this was truly troublesome. Beneath this great realm, who knew how many smaller realms of obsession might be hidden.

Still, one thing could now be confirmed: at least Aiji’s realm was not among them. Aiji had simply been a person who appeared within Jinghua’s obsession realm, and when Jinghua’s realm vanished, she disappeared with it.

Now it was only a matter of whether Qingnian and Rongrong had found anything.

"Ah!!"

A deep, sudden cry of alarm came from downstairs.

It was Qingnian.

Su Man turned at once and ran out. Had they found something new?

By the time she followed the sound to the first floor, Rongrong was there as well. Seeing Su Man approach, she looked on the verge of tears. "We split up to search. He said he’d check the first floor, and when I heard the noise and came down, it was like this. What do we do?"

She was only a journalist. If this were a war of words, she would have had all the confidence in the world. But in this situation, she truly did not know what to do.

Right before their eyes, Su Man saw someone she very much did not want to see again: Qian Ji. He was gripping Qingnian by the throat, and Qingnian’s face had turned red, already on the verge of rolling his eyes back and suffocating.

Or rather, it could not simply be called Qian Ji anymore. It was a three-headed fused monstrosity.

On one neck were Granny, Qian Ji, and Hu Nian, all three heads still intact.

Even now, those three heads were still speaking. First came Granny’s voice: "My dear grandson must live."

Then Hu Nian: "Xiao Chai is a good boy. I must protect him."

And after that, Qian Ji spoke with a crazed edge: "I won’t die. The one who lives to the very end will be me. I must live. I’m the one who gets the last laugh! I still have a bright future ahead of me. As long as I kill you all, no one will ever learn about my past again. I can truly have a new life. I will definitely live better than everyone else."

"Oh dear, it looks like the obsession realm the streamer has entered is extremely strong. This little boy died full of unwillingness, and that powerful obsession has been nurtured by the realm and brought back to life."

"Tsk, this is bad. There will be no end to it. If the streamer still can’t find the true master of this obsession, I’m afraid he’ll end up spending the rest of his days here."

"Growing old and dying here would almost be fortunate. If he gets killed, that would be a real pity."

The viewers who had not yet left the stream began chattering again.

Su Man took in all those comments, and her heart sank.

Hu Chai was absolutely the toughest little cockroach she had ever seen. His obsession with surviving was stronger than that of ninety-nine percent of the people in this world.

If only he had put that resolve toward the right path, he would have been a remarkable talent. What a shame.

But now was not the time to regret that. "Save him first."

Su Man shoved Rongrong, who was staring blankly at Hu Chai. "He’s no longer your brother, and he’s no longer your father. Hesitating will get people killed."

Rongrong’s eyes dimmed, but she quickly pulled herself together. She understood that already.

Su Man controlled her dagger and sent it flying, striking Qian Ji’s wrist. Qian Ji cried out in pain and released Qingnian. Qingnian collapsed onto the floor, face streaked with tears and snot, but he still did not dare let his guard down for even a moment. Though his vision was blurry, he crawled toward Su Man and the others on all fours, his voice hoarse as he begged, "Save me..."

Qian Ji, like a newly born monstrosity, wavered from Su Man’s strike and lost his target. Seizing the opening, Su Man grabbed Qingnian under the jaw, dragged him out at once, and slammed the door shut.

The three of them crouched in an empty room, gasping for breath.

"What do we do now?" Rongrong’s eyes were red. She kept telling herself she should not let personal feelings interfere, but that was her father, and her brother, whom she had known for so long.

Su Man did not say what to do. Instead, she told them about this obsession realm, then added, "If Hu Chai’s obsession is truly about living, then we’re in serious trouble."

She had no way of truly bringing Hu Chai back to life.

What was worse, Hu Chai already bore hostility toward them. It was utterly disastrous.

After a brief pause, Su Man asked another question. "Aside from him, you didn’t see anyone else, did you?"

Rongrong shook her head. She had not seen anyone.

Qingnian also said, "I only saw him."

After that, the three of them fell silent again.

And then, at that very moment, within the space that had been so quiet one could have heard a pin drop, another sound suddenly arose.

"Xiao Ji, Xiao Ji, come out and eat."

Someone knocked on the door from outside, and an utterly unfamiliar woman’s voice rang out.

The three of them instantly straightened, alert and wary.

The door was not locked. After speaking, the woman paused for two seconds, then opened it and walked in. "Xiao Ji..."

She looked to be around thirty, with a gentle, refined face. Before she had even finished speaking, she saw Su Man and the others, and surprise appeared on her features. "And you are?"

"Xiao Ji’s classmates," Su Man answered at once.

The woman froze, then smiled softly. "Oh, so you’re Xiao Ji’s classmates. That boy really is something, not even telling me when classmates come over. Come eat with us later, all of you. Don’t be shy."

With that, she closed the door again and left in embarrassment.

"Who was that? Why has another person shown up?" Rongrong asked in a low voice only after the door had shut with a heavy thud.

Su Man guessed, "Qian Ji’s mother."

Qingnian was silent for a moment, then nodded with certainty. "It was Qian Ji’s mother. I’ve seen her before."

As soon as he said that, Su Man and Rongrong both turned to look at him. "Where have you seen her?"

Su Man had gone through every photograph in this house, and she had never seen a picture of Qian Ji’s biological mother.

Qingnian fell silent again, but in the end he still did not hide it. "When I was little. She looked exactly the same as she did when I saw her back then."

Without even looking, one could imagine the expression of shock on Su Man’s and Rongrong’s faces, so he simply spilled it all out himself. "Actually, I know Qian Ji. We were childhood neighbors."