Dong Fangxiao opened his eyes blankly and looked around. The familiar courtyard of the Zhong Mansion made him feel dazed for a moment.
He instinctively looked down at his own body. There was no cotton wool and no rough stitches. It was undoubtedly his original strong and powerful body.
Only then did Dong Fangxiao heave a long sigh of relief.
"Is this mental prison... broken just like this?" He moved his hands and feet in disbelief.
Shen Cuiyu turned her eyes to Zhong Shengwan, who was keeping silent with his head down.
His gaze fell vacantly in the distance, and his eyes were in a daze, as if he hadn't recovered yet.
After a long time, he finally realized and said, "I'm sorry..."
He was always calm and self - controlled, and rarely lost his composure like this.
Just now, Zhong Shengwan was simply overwhelmed by the overwhelming grievance and loneliness. He couldn't bear to see that child cry without anyone responding...
However, although the mental prison was broken, Yuan Yuan's figure was still nowhere to be seen. This simply meant that Yuan Yuan's knot in his heart was still unresolved, his obsession remained unvanquished, and he still refused to forgive him. Or rather, he was still trapped in his own pain.
"Forget it," Zhong Shengwan seemed to have exhausted all his strength and forced out an extremely bitter smile. "It was I who was sorry for him in the first place. He stayed in the mortal world because of me and became obsessed with resentment because of me... If he wants my life, I'll accept it." He closed his eyes. "I was too selfish. I was greedy for his company during my loneliest childhood, but easily abandoned him when I grew up. A child's promise is the truest and the most fragile... I was too cruel."
"Not necessarily," Shen Cuiyu's voice rang out clearly. A faint glint seemed to flash across her eyes, and the keen perception of a spirit - crossing medium allowed her to capture deeper information.
"Logically speaking, if we were discovered by the 'people' in the mental prison, they should all attack us relentlessly until death. As the master of the mental prison, Yuan Yuan should have the strongest reaction, but he didn't fight against us... This shows that Yuan Yuan has consciousness, and he never wanted to harm you."
Hearing this, Zhong Shengwan suddenly raised his head, and a glimmer of hope re - emerged in his eyes. He eagerly looked around, longing to find some evidence of Yuan Yuan's existence.
However, the next moment, Zhong Shengwan suddenly frowned tightly, and his tone was full of surprise: "Something's wrong... This isn't my home!"
"What?!" Dong Fangxiao was stunned. Scratching his head, he said, "This courtyard and this corridor are clearly exactly the same as when we came in during the day! How could it not be your home?"
"It's similar, but not exactly the same," Zhong Shengwan's fingertips stroked a tiny old mark on the corridor pillar beside him. His expression was hard to read. "The layout here... is that of the Zhong Mansion three years ago! This was my home when I was fourteen."
Everyone's faces instantly turned extremely ugly.
"Does this mean that we didn't get out of the mental prison but entered the second - level mental prison?!"
These words were like a stone thrown into a quiet lake. The air around them fluctuated for a moment, creating invisible ripples.
"Shengwan—" A cheerful and ethereal childish voice suddenly sounded, coming from all directions, elusive.
"Come and find me!"
"I've hidden very well this time!"
"You promised... you'd definitely find me!"
The voice was full of the excitement of a child's game, but beneath that excitement lurked a stubborn grievance and longing that had accumulated over countless days, echoing over and over again in this strange space.
Dong Fangxiao's scalp went numb. He instinctively took a defensive stance and looked around warily: "What state is he in now?"
Shen Cuiyu silently recited the spell and closed her eyes to sense the resentment around her.
She made a few virtual strokes in the air with her slender fingertips, as if pulling invisible threads.
This was the most direct perception of a spirit - crossing medium towards the emotions and obsessions of a spiritual body.
"The direction where Yuan Yuan's aura is the strongest and saddest... is over there," she pointed to a corridor leading to the depths of the inner courtyard, her tone determined.
Everyone walked along the path pointed out by Shen Cuiyu. The path was not straight. It turned from time to time and passed through moon gates. There were many obstacles along the way, but Zhong Shengwan didn't stop.
He was very afraid that, just like that year, he would miss the opportunity to find Yuan Yuan again...
Finally, everyone stopped in front of a familiar door - it was Zhong Shengwan's study when he was a teenager.
The door was ajar, and a dim, flickering light came from inside, but there was no trace of warmth.
Shen Cuiyu gently placed her hand on the cold door panel. Instead of pushing it open immediately, she closed her eyes again to sense.
"The emotions inside are very chaotic..." She opened her eyes and looked at Zhong Shengwan. Her eyes were clear and penetrating, as if she had seen through everything. "He's hiding in a corner inside. Just like seven years ago, he's waiting for you to find him."
Zhong Shengwan's hands couldn't help but tremble slightly. He took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
The scene in the study was very similar to what he remembered. The desk was filled with ancient books and talisman papers, and the oil lamp was flickering.
But the difference was that as soon as he entered, a cold and heavy sense of loneliness assailed him, making his chest feel stuffy.
"Over there," Shen Cuiyu's voice was extremely soft. Her gaze was directed at the innermost part of the room, a dark corner diagonally behind the desk. There was a tall bookshelf there, and there was a narrow gap between the bookshelf and the wall.
There was the sound of a child crying in the gap.
Zhong Shengwan walked towards that corner step by step, his heart full of sourness.
The closer he got, the clearer the cold and desperate feeling of being forgotten and abandoned became.
Finally, Zhong Shengwan squatted down in front of the gap.
The light could hardly reach inside. He could only vaguely see a small, curled - up black shadow trembling slightly there, as if it had merged with the darkness.
Zhong Shengwan's throat seemed to be blocked. He opened his mouth, and the voice he made was hoarse: "Yuan Yuan..."
The small black shadow suddenly trembled but didn't come out. Instead, it shrank deeper inside. A voice full of sobs and extreme grievance came out faintly from inside.
"... You lied to me."
"You didn't really look for me..."
"You always do this... You perfunctorize me..."
These words were like a sharp blade, precisely stabbing into the deepest guilt in Zhong Shengwan's heart.
During those years of estrangement, he had indeed perfunctorized Yuan Yuan too many times.
Shen Cuiyu quietly stepped forward and gently placed a hand on Zhong Shengwan's trembling shoulder. A gentle, firm spiritual force full of powerful comfort and empathy slowly passed over, stabilizing his almost collapsed mind.
At the same time, Shen Cuiyu said softly to the dark gap, "Yuan Yuan, Zhong Shengwan is very serious this time. He didn't perfunctorize you. His sadness and regret are real. You've already felt that, haven't you?"
The sobbing in the gap stopped for a moment.
Zhong Shengwan took a deep breath. He stretched out his hand towards the darkness, although he didn't know if he could touch anything.
He had thought of many things to say to Yuan Yuan, but in the end, it all turned into just one sentence.
"... Yuan Yuan, I've finally found you."