Ten diligent days: the fields are still

Chapter 312 Thunderbolt

Yuan Lai was walking alone on the winding mountain road. The cold wind whistling through the mountains penetrated her thin clothes and blew deep into her bones. She couldn't help but shiver.

To minimize unnecessary contact with humans, Wangshan had always maintained numerous barriers. Yuan Lai stretched out a hand, groping in the air, fearing he might accidentally bump into one of the invisible barriers.

She walked smoothly all the way to the halfway point of the mountain, even catching sight of the old, dilapidated warehouse from afar. From beginning to end, the mysterious barrier remained completely untouched.

"As the weather gets warmer, more and more people go up the mountain to play, so the niche has deliberately closed the barrier. It's quite considerate." Yuan Lai thought to himself.

Until she walked near the warehouse, she was even more confused. The warehouse, which was always closed on weekdays, was now crowded with people.

I saw those people standing there in neat rows, all with their heads tilted up, motionless like sculptures.

This strange scene made Yuan Lai feel creepy.

In the warehouse, a man suddenly spotted Yuan Lai not far away and shouted, "Who are you?"

Because it was dark at night, Yuan Lai could not see the man's face clearly. He could only roughly make out that he was a tall and burly man.

Faced with the question, Yuan Lai quickly responded loudly: "I am An An's friend, and I came to visit her."

"You don't come to visit someone after dark! Get down the mountain!"

Yuan Lai didn't answer. He hid under the dense leaves, slowly moved his body, and quietly walked up the mountain.

The warehouse worker sighed, "It's not my fault. She insisted on going up there."

"Lord Huaxuan is blaming us, but Old Yu and you are all witnesses."

No one answered in the warehouse. Upon closer inspection, I realized that those neatly arranged objects were not people at all, but lifelike wooden sculptures.

Old Yu was sitting at the innermost part of the warehouse, lighting a white candle and concentrating on carving a doll.

"Oh, if I had known, I wouldn't have saved that girl. It was just a matter of one thought, one thought."

Old Yu sighed and hummed a mysterious chant. The song drifted into Yuan Lai's ears.

"Whose good person is singing so late at night?"

An ordinary person would have been scared away long ago, but Yuan Lai was quite familiar with the road ahead. He took two steps at a time and finally saw the great hall standing on the mountain. Next to it was the house where the niche and An An lived.

Although it was called a hall, it was just a western-style building moved from somewhere else. There were many long objects hanging on the trees outside the house. Yuan Lai almost fell off the mountain when he took a closer look.

The tree is densely covered with snakes! Snakes of all colors, lengths, and patterns.

These snakes gathered together, tangled together, making Yuan Lai's scalp tingle.

Do these snakes come to the mountain to hold a meeting after hibernation?

Yuan Lai walked away from the big tree, stepped onto the stone steps, and knocked on the door of the house under the niche.

For a long time, no one responded.

"Under the niche?"

Seeing that the door was ajar, Yuan Lai pushed it open and walked in.

The room was still full of snakes lying on the ground. Yuan Lai looked inside and saw An An kneeling alone among the snakes, his eyes covered with a white cloth, his head lowered, his fists folded in front of his chest, and he was still muttering something.

"An'an? An'an!"

Yuan Lai tried to go into the room and wake An An up.

A figure slowly approached Yuan Lai, and quickly covered her mouth with his broad and powerful palm. The other arm tightly embraced her waist and quickly took her away from the scene.

After landing, Yuan Lai quickly reacted and pried open the hand that was covering her mouth. "Qi Rong, didn't Zhao Zhao say you were attending a funeral? How come you are in Wangshan?"

However, Qi Rong acted out of character and did not smile gently at her. He just stared at her silently. His deep eyes seemed to hide endless secrets. His lips were tightly closed and he said nothing.

Yuan Lai keenly realized that something was unusual. She calmed herself down and quickly reviewed the series of recent events in her mind.

Suddenly, an unbelievable thought came to her mind, and her voice trembled with fear: "The niche... is dead?!!"

Qi Rong nodded slightly, "We didn't intend to let you know about this. Who would have known that you would have chased us here on your own?"

This news was like a bolt from the blue for Yuan Lai. She was completely stunned and staggered back a few steps involuntarily, finally falling down on a cold big rock.

Tears instantly blurred her vision, and she murmured to herself, "How could this happen? He's a great demon! Demons have long lifespans, how could this happen so suddenly?"

Qi Rong sighed and explained, "For An An's sake, he ran around looking for medicine. He also spent a lot of energy gathering the necessary things for treatment. He was already exhausted both physically and mentally at the back of the steep gate. It's a relief that he's been able to hold on until now."

As Yuan Lai listened to Qi Rong's story, the memories of her past interactions with Kanxia became blurry. She had never cared about Kanxia before, and she was still very afraid of him because of the warehouse incident.

But Kanxia has always been helping her. If it weren't for Kanxia, ​​the red envelope wouldn't be possible...

Red envelope! Thinking of the red envelope, Yuan Lai suddenly realized why the ark was so confident that it would only take one night and he would return her a lively red envelope.

Is it possible?

Yuan Lai looked at Qi Rong helplessly. How she longed to catch a hint of negative answer in Qi Rong's eyes.

However, Qi Rong just nodded slightly, but this simple action hit her heart like a heavy hammer.

Yuan Lai finally confirmed his horrible suspicion—the man under the shroud had actually sacrificed his own life in exchange for the red envelope's glimmer of hope. Recalling the scene of An An feeding him the pill last night, everything became clear.

"When did you know about this?" Yuan Lai asked in a trembling voice, tears welling up in his eyes.

Qi Rong cast his gaze towards the mist curling up from the distant mountain stream, tears flickering in his eyes, "That was the moment An An contacted me to come and pick you up."

"He told me that, firstly, it was because of Li Dan, he felt sorry for you. Secondly, it was because of my heart, An An finally recovered. So, he felt that what he did was worth it."

Hearing this, Yuan Lai choked up and said, "But Li Dan originally belonged to him! And I've already forgiven him! How is it worth it to sacrifice my life like this?!"

Qi Rong simply asked back softly, "Then, can you really just watch Hong Bao die?"

……

These words flashed through Yuan Lai's mind like a flash of lightning, leaving her stunned for a moment.

Yes, wasn't the reason she sought out Kanxia's help precisely because she hoped he could save Hongbao's life? And now, knowing that Kanxia had paid such a huge price for this, she was here questioning whether it was worth it. Wasn't this pure asshole behavior?