Chapter 132
Chapter 132
The rain pattered on, sometimes heavier, sometimes lighter, rising and falling with the mood of Fuzhu, who was watching TV downstairs.
An awkward silence spread across the desk.
Only after truly experiencing it did Qin Ying understand embarrassment. She hid behind the mirror and refused to show her face.
Han Lie only felt as if a furnace had taken up residence in the left side of his chest, melting him from the inside out.
Forcing himself to calm down, he leaped onto the tissue box.
He tore a corner from a tissue and dragged it over beside the mirror.
“Supreme Deity.”
He called out, then pushed the scrap of tissue forward.
A slender, fair hand shot out, grabbed the tissue, and pulled it back behind the mirror.
Only after a long while did Qin Ying emerge from behind the mirror, having wrapped the tissue around herself into a simple straight skirt.
“Thank you!”
She forced herself to pretend none of what had happened earlier had happened.
Han Lie understood exactly how she felt, so he also forced himself to suppress his reaction.
Both of them independently chose selective amnesia and deleted a certain segment of memory.
Qin Ying stood in front of the mirror and carefully examined her current body.
If she had not personally participated in the Soul-Container Consecration, she truly could not have imagined that this breathing body with a heartbeat had still been a Wooden Puppet two hours ago.
Qin Ying pinched her own cheek. It hurt a little, and her sense of touch and perception were no different from an ordinary person’s.
Then she checked each of her joints.
Clutching the tissue covering her body, she pressed her palm against the mirror and said with emotion, “I can go to your world with you now.”
At her words, Han Lie’s already wildly pounding heart fell even further out of rhythm.
After a moment of silence, he lowered his head and said softly, “I will protect you well.”
Qin Ying was just about to answer when the phone on the desk began to ring.
She could not see who was calling.
She simply had no idea how to leave the Soul-Container Wooden Puppet in her current state.
The hollow space in the puppet’s abdomen had been covered by skin. If she wanted to separate from this Soul-Container Wooden Puppet, did she have to cut open the abdominal cavity and remove the consecrated contents?
That was far too horrifying.
The thought of leaving had only just appeared when she felt as though a thread had been tied to her navel.
Her soul was tugged by that invisible thread, pulled from one end to the other.
Her vision blurred. After a faint wave of dizziness and discomfort, her sight refocused, and her consciousness had already returned to her real body.
The Soul-Container body on the desk swayed twice, then toppled backward as if dead. Han Lie rushed over and caught it.
The annoying ringtone was still blaring. The person on the other end clearly had no intention of stopping until the call went through.
Qin Ying glanced at the phone and saw that the caller was Qin Zhiguo.
Judging by the time, he should have already learned about the illegal racing case reported to the police using Huang Jun’s phone number.
Qin Ying had only just asked him to investigate Huang Jun, and right after that, something had happened to Huang Jun.
It was only natural for Qin Zhiguo to suspect Qin Ying.
But Qin Ying was not particularly guilty. She had handled the matter cleanly. Huang Jun’s phone and body had both been destroyed thoroughly.
As soon as she answered, Qin Zhiguo’s lowered voice came through. “Something happened to Huang Jun. Does it have anything to do with you?”
Qin Zhiguo was driving while smoking, and his question was very direct.
Qin Ying replied, “What? I don’t know anything about that.”
She denied it flatly. Even if Qin Zhiguo’s instincts told him there was no such thing as such a coincidence in this world, he could not find any evidence for the moment.
Qin Ying tidied up the disinfectant cotton and fruit knife on the desk, answering with a beaming smile.
“In your heart, Uncle, am I some kind of thug? I’m very law-abiding. I wouldn’t do anything out of line.”
“Don’t worry.”
Qin Zhiguo would be damned if he believed her. Qin Ying had never been well-behaved since she was little. If a boy had done all the things she had, his legs would have been broken five or six times over.
That was what he thought, but in the end, he still left her some face.
In the end, he only warned her over the phone, “If Huang Jun committed a crime, the law will punish him. Don’t act recklessly!”
“If I find out you’ve broken the law, even if you’re my niece, I absolutely won’t let you off.”
Hearing that he was about to hang up, Qin Ying stopped him. “Uncle, don’t hang up yet.”
“I dreamed about my mom yesterday. Do you know anything about her lately?”
“Has she been doing well after remarrying?”
The other end of the phone fell silent for a very, very long time.
Just when Qin Ying thought Qin Zhiguo would not answer, he said, “After she remarried, she went abroad. There hasn’t been any news.”
“She doesn’t miss you, so don’t miss her either. Don’t ask about her again.”
Qin Zhiguo hung up in an exceptionally stiff tone.
He gripped the steering wheel, a cigarette between his index and middle fingers that had almost burned down to the butt.
Suddenly, he was seized by a heart-rending coughing fit, and he had no choice but to pull over on the mountain road.
His face had turned purplish-blue. When the coughing stopped, he wiped the corners of his eyes and irritably threw away the cigarette in his hand.
On the other end of the call, Qin Ying set down her phone indifferently.
He was lying. Qin Zhiguo was lying.
Qin Ying took a deep breath and forced herself to pull her thoughts away.
A clanging sound came from the staircase.
The Huodou Wangcai was dragging its dog bowl upstairs, licked so clean it gleamed.
It was mealtime, and the little dog, who could not tolerate the slightest hunger, did not want to lower itself and ask Qin Ying for food.
So it brought over its dog bowl and left her to guess and understand on her own.
The noise it made was so loud that it woke the Thunderbird sleeping on a Ham Sausage wrapper.
The Thunderbird turned its head to look at the unfamiliar surroundings, then began chirping in a quavering voice.
In the living room, the Hou watching TV all covered their ears in unison.
That chatterbox bird from Golden Saddle Mountain truly haunted them like a lingering ghost.
The Thunderbird had no understanding whatsoever of the Hou’s suffering. It flapped its wings, took flight, and, while singing, stumbled its way up to the second floor.
It flew straight to Qin Ying’s shoulder and rubbed against her, then ran off to peck at the fur on Han Lie’s tail.
When it saw the Consecration Puppet in his arms, it let out an even more delighted string of chirps.
The little bird was noisy, but it was truly warm and lively. It successfully pulled Qin Ying out of her poor mood.
She let out a long breath and glanced at the Consecration Puppet in Han Lie’s arms.
Then she unlocked her phone and began shopping online.
For Han Lie, and for herself, she would prepare what they needed for their upcoming journey into the Box.
She would follow Han Lie into the Box and personally search for whatever secret was hidden between the two worlds.
And find out, once and for all… how to grasp the door handle.