Si Jiangchen was holding a cigarette obliquely between his lips. With his hands in his pockets, he followed behind me.
Seeing me frowning, he suddenly hooked my neck from behind and gave my lips a fleeting kiss.
"Don't worry. Just go and make a scene," he said in a low voice full of indulgence, as if I were a naughty kid doted on by adults.
My face instantly flushed bright red, and my heart started pounding uncontrollably.
In the twenty years I'd lived, the most frequent words my grandpa said to me were, "Xiao He, keep a low profile, or we'll have to run away again!"
We couldn't show off or do as we pleased because the Du family was hot on our heels. My grandpa and I always had to be cautious.
At the slightest sign of trouble, we had to flee.
No one had ever said such words to me, allowing me to act recklessly.
I pursed my lips, still lingering with the faint smell of tobacco, and looked up at the frosted glass door of Room 1214.
Above the door hung an old elm plaque with four turquoise official - script characters reading "The highest goodness is like water."
The glass door was locked with a deadbolt. The compass in my hand tilted even more. The red needle tip was already touching the bottom of the dial, and the tail was sticking up high, indicating that there was an extremely powerful spiritual consciousness inside!
I glanced at Si Jiangchen. He just gave me a doting smile and nodded.
I put the compass back into my backpack, looked at the smoke alarm on the ceiling, and said, "Lend me your lighter."
I held out my hand.
Si Jiangchen took out a windproof Zippo lighter from his pocket and handed it to me. Then, without waiting for me to say anything, he directly picked me up by the waist and let me sit on his shoulders like a child.
I was startled by his action, but then a warm feeling welled up in my heart... He understood what I wanted to do without me saying a word. Was this what they called "being on the same wavelength"?
Looking at his neatly - groomed, thick black hair, I couldn't help but reach out and mess it up.
"Hehe," Si Jiangchen just chuckled softly, then turned his head and gave my thigh a gentle bite. "If you keep being naughty, we'll go home right now."
There was a strong sense of danger in his words, which scared me into quickly regaining my senses. I opened the heavy lighter in my hand. With just a flick, the flint ignited the cotton wick, and a blue flame rose.
I raised my hand and carefully brought the small flame close to the smoke detector.
The red indicator light flashed twice, and immediately an ear - piercing alarm sounded. At the same time, a spray of water burst out in an umbrella shape.
"Fire! Run for your lives!!"
In coordination with the alarm, I shouted into the room of 1214, which was only illuminated by emergency lights. "The fire is raging!! If you don't come out now, you'll be burned alive!"
It was midsummer. The water from the fire sprinkler system splashed on my face and body, feeling extremely cool and comfortable. (Kids, don't imitate Xiao He. This is a sneaky trick to force bad guys out.)
"Tap, tap, tap..."
I heard hurried footsteps coming from inside the glass door. Then the lock clicked, and the door was opened from the inside.
An old man with disheveled hair and wrinkled face appeared in the darkness.
He saw me and Si Jiangchen at a glance and was immediately startled. "Little witch, how could you possibly find this place?"
That old man was Li Chengxian.
However, compared to the first time I saw him, he seemed to have aged twenty or thirty years.
He never expected that I could find his hiding place so quickly. He thought he had done everything flawlessly, and this office had never had any connection with the spa.
"I have the power of money!"
Of course, I wouldn't tell him that it was just a phone call from Si Jiangchen. In fact, if I had calmed down and searched carefully, I could have found the location within half a day.
"Cut the crap. Have you kept my grandpa's soul safe?" Li Chengxian suddenly sneered and asked me.
"Of course. My grandpa will recover tomorrow!"
Although I didn't know why Li Chengxian asked this, thinking that I wouldn't have to pay the sky - high ICU bed fee anymore, I was naturally overjoyed.
"Recover?!"
Li Chengxian still sneered. Through the glass door, he looked eerie. "I advise you to let him die. Otherwise, you won't survive!"
"Nonsense!"
I didn't believe a single word Li Chengxian said.
How could his words of provocation destroy the deep love my grandpa had for me?!
"Hehe... Your fate is destined to be full of separation and killing. How tough do you think Du Wenzhong's life is that he has been with you for so long and hasn't been killed by you yet? Why... huh?"
Li Chengxian pointed at me sinisterly, then at Si Jiangchen who was holding me, and said, "Don't forget, the Du family has been raising corpses for the royal family since ancient times. You're a Du, and Du Wenzhong is also a Du... Hey, kid!"
He grinned at Si Jiangchen in an overbearing way. "If you don't want to die young, stay away from this little witch! You'll die!"
"Are you crazy, you old Taoist priest!"
I struggled to get off Si Jiangchen's shoulders. We came here to cause trouble for him, but now he was pestering me!
"You've killed so many people. You're the one who should die!"
This bastard not only imprisoned people's souls but also raised corpses and flying - head gu worms in this place. Moreover, judging from the continuous tilting of my compass, he might even be offering some powerful deity.
Judging from Li Chengxian's current state, the deity he offered was probably an evil one that would absorb his essence!
Otherwise, how could he have aged so much to look like a seventy - or eighty - year - old man in just a few days?
As I was speaking, I made the hand gesture of the Yin Five Thunder Spell with both hands.
No matter what kind of deity was inside, he and Li Chengxian would have to bear the divine punishment of the Five Thunder Spell together!!
"...The Yin Five Thunder Spell? Little witch! How dare you...?!"
When Li Chengxian saw me making the hand gesture of the Yin Five Thunder Spell, his face instantly turned extremely ugly. He suddenly took out a green - glowing talisman from his Taoist robe, stuffed it into his mouth, and pounded his chest three times with his fist. "Woo——!"
A long, ox - like roar came from Li Chengxian's nose. I vaguely saw a blue - black - bodied Dharma image appear behind him, with red hair, fangs, and a huge eye on its forehead. When it looked at me, my heart almost stopped beating!!
The wrinkled skin on Li Chengxian's body instantly plumped up. The full blood vessels made his body swell a bit. Taking advantage of the fact that I was suppressed by the power of the Dharma image and couldn't move, he reached out to grab my neck. Suddenly, a large, well - defined hand blocked in front of me and caught Li Chengxian's wrist just in time.
"If you dare to lay a finger on Xiao He again, I'll break your neck!"
Si Jiangchen's voice was cold. With a "creak," he actually broke Li Chengxian's wrist into two pieces.