The dark blue flames that branched out from the candles and surrounded Zhaocai gradually shrank.
Zhaocai looked at Ning Yitao with great resentment and said, "You're not planning to stay up all night tonight to punish those villagers, are you?"
Ning Yitao replied as a matter of course:
"Otherwise?"
Zhaocai rolled on the table and groaned, "Let me sleep for a while. I want to sleep."
Ning Yitao didn't spoil him. She picked up Zhaocai, who was trying to be lazy, and threatened,
"I didn't draw the yin energy condensed from the underworld for you to be lazy. Even if you're on your last breath, after absorbing this yin energy, you'll be alive and kicking in an instant. Hurry up and get to work."
Zhaocai, who was lifted up and lectured, hung his head and felt sad on his own.
When the dark blue flames completely extinguished, Zhaocai nimbly jumped off the table, transformed into a human form, and then into the appearance of a child.
Zhaocai curled his lips and said awkwardly,
"Although you've changed a little, I quite like you like this now. You have more of a human touch. It's not like before. I always thought you were high and mighty and putting on airs."
Ning Yitao couldn't help but laugh. She stroked his head and said sinisterly, "So in your eyes, I'm just putting on airs. You finally told the truth today."
Zhaocai immediately started to act stupid and quickly changed the topic. Suddenly, he thought of the text message Ning Yitao had just received. He pretended to be dejected and said,
"I like Taotao no matter what she looks like. It's just that I'm going to see that annoying person, Ji Wangqiu, again. He always harasses me."
Zhaocai took the opportunity to complain.
Ning Yitao's lips curled up slightly as she said with a faint smile, "It's not right to tell on others."
As for Ji Wangqiu, who always said he was going to look for Ning Yitao, he had never come once. He really wanted to come, but he was always held back.
However, no one cared whether he came or not.
Since that time when Ning Yitao was deceived by Ji Wangqiu, she had never believed a single word that came out of his mouth.
As for the current Ji Wangqiu, he was alone in the confinement room...
************
In the dim room, Ji Wangqiu sat in the corner of the room. The entire room had no decorations.
It had the feeling of being completely bare. It was like being in prison. There was only a small window at the bottom of the iron door to deliver food.
There wasn't even a bed in the room. The environment was even worse than prison.
Ji Wangqiu hung his head and silently hid in the dark corner of the room.
But upon closer inspection, Ji Wangqiu wasn't deep in thought as he hung his head. His brows were slightly furrowed, and his expression carried a hidden pain.
Under his black clothes, it seemed like something was moving, and it would move with each heartbeat.
But every time it moved, Ji Wangqiu's brows would tighten, and his body was covered in cold sweat.
Ji Wangqiu only felt that his entire body was cold, and he was in pain all over. It was as if he was being bitten by an invisible beast. Every part of his body was enduring unbearable pain. His body involuntarily trembled, his limbs cramped, and his eyes were empty and expressionless, filled with a sense of numbness.
This place wasn't prison. It was just a confinement room specially built by the Ji family.
The confinement room was built underground. The long and empty corridor was empty, and there was no sound. All the doors were tightly shut, and there was not a single glimmer of light.
No one knew that Ji Wangqiu, the heir of the Ji family, who was so glorious on the outside, would actually live in this damp and small confinement room when he returned home. He had no dignity at all.
The Ji family's influence spanned both the underworld and the white world. No matter who it was, they wanted to hug the Ji family's thigh.
But no one knew why. In just a short period of ten years, the Ji family had quickly taken over both the underworld and the white world and had infiltrated their influence.
At the beginning, there were other jealous forces who had once joined hands to completely uproot the Ji family, whose foundation was not stable yet.
But they had all died a strange death overnight. However, the cause of death was a car accident and illness. There was no way to find any flaws.
But this battle directly allowed the Ji family to establish a firm foothold in City W.
As for the Ji family, the people outside only knew that the Ji family had many branches. It was a large family.
As for why they wanted to lock up Ji Wangqiu, the only eldest son of the Ji family, no one knew.
At this moment, there was the sound of heavy dragging chains outside the confinement room.
"Bang, bang, bang." The sound of knocking echoed in the corridor. There was even an echo. It was like a vengeful soul asking for their life by their ear.
After that, a small window at the bottom of the large door was opened.
The sound of rust rubbing against the floor was sharp and ear-piercing, making people's hair stand on end.
A boxed lunch was slowly pushed out from the small window.
Ji Wangqiu turned his head with difficulty to look at the window. Sitting on the ground, he saw a pair of feet through the window.
There were two complete cut scars on the ankles of that pair of feet. However, what connected the ankles and calves was not a scar, but ugly black sutures.
What did not match that pair of large feet was a child's voice that came from behind the door. He said, "It's time for dinner."
After he finished speaking, there was another sound of dragging chains. That pair of feet didn't seem to be affected at all when they walked.
The sound gradually faded until it disappeared.
Ji Wangqiu didn't have any desire to eat at all. He only felt pain, pain that seeped into his bones.
He tried his best to think of beautiful things, trying to find a chance to breathe in the pain.
As for beautiful things, the first thing that came to Ji Wangqiu's mind was Ning Yitao.
At the thought of seeing Ning Yitao tomorrow, Ji Wangqiu's eyes sparkled, and there was a faint smile on his lips.
During difficult times, Ji Wangqiu couldn't help but think of Ning Yitao. It had already become an obsession. It might be guilt, or it might be regret.
But he had truly completely broken Ning Yitao's heart.
Ji Wangqiu tilted his body and fell on the cold floor. As the weather was about to enter winter, he was only wearing thin clothes. The coldness seeping from the basement floor seeped into his body.
Ji Wangqiu closed his eyes with a smile on his face. He had finally endured the most painful time. He softly muttered to himself,
"Sleep. When you wake up, you'll be able to see Taotao tomorrow."
The world was so quiet that it seemed like only he was left.
*************
Ning Yitao didn't sleep the entire night. Zhaocai's face revealed a look of exhaustion.
Ning Yitao, who had stayed up all night, had a curved pair of eyes. She didn't look like she had stayed up all night. She was still full of energy. She praised Zhaocai and said,
"You really helped a lot this time. What reward do you want?"
Zhaocai's eyes immediately lit up. His eyes rolled around, as if he was thinking of something. He pretended to be shy and stammered,
"If Taotao says so, then I won't be sleepy. Since that's the case, I want that vase in Duan Qinghuai's office. No matter what you put in it, it will continuously appear. I still remember the feeling of eating a 'buffet' in it until now."
As he said that, his saliva was about to flow out. Zhaocai was already recalling the scene in his mind.
Ning Yitao didn't completely agree to Zhaocai. She only promised him that she would help him ask Duan Qinghuai. After all, it was his thing.
But after getting this answer from Ning Yitao, Zhaocai had already started to be happy in advance. He foolishly laughed and blurted out,
"Taotao, as long as you open your mouth, he'll give you anything."
Ning Yitao was stunned when she heard that. She thought,
"Will he really give me anything?"
But she immediately dispelled the idea of having wrong thoughts. She reminded herself that Duan Qinghuai had already drawn a clear line with her. He already had a secret that he couldn't tell her.
Ning Yitao didn't have any sense of security when it came to feelings. She didn't dare to give her heart out. Every time she gave her heart out, it was never returned completely. Moreover, Duan Qinghuai had never clearly expressed his thoughts.
After Ning Yitao got out of her last memory, she took many days to calm down the heart that would throb every time she saw Duan Qinghuai. She didn't want to give her heart out only to be trampled on mercilessly again and again.
And the way to prevent this from happening was to cut off all feelings. Ning Yitao only wanted to protect herself, but at the same time, she also envied the frankness and courage of others when it came to feelings.
"Just what do I need to do to be firmly and continuously loved?"
Regarding this question, Ning Yitao wanted to know, but at the same time, she also didn't believe that there was such a thing in this world. Or rather, she didn't believe that such a thing would happen to her.