CH 8.1

It was quiet, terribly quiet.

When she opened her eyes, everything was white. Lei Lei was so frightened that she turned over and sat up immediately. Looking around, she saw many soft white gauze fabric sheets hanging from above her head, like a curtain. She was unsure how heavy they were. Light shone dimly through them. There was nothing else to see. She could not even distinguish between day and night.

Why was it like a mortuary? Had she been murdered?

Her hair stood up one by one. Just as Lei Lei was being terrified, suddenly, a gust of cold wind blew and the surrounding gauze moved in response. They fluttered soundlessly with vague shadows in between them. It was particularly ghastly.

Unlike the usual cool autumn breeze, the wind carried an icy coldness which pricked the skin and caused dull pain. The chill penetrated bone deep. Lei Lei felt her entire body going numb from the cold. Opening her mouth, she exhaled white steam. It was like being in a big freezer. She almost suspected that this place was the legendary underworld.

Has she really become a ghost? Lei Lei managed to stay calm. She rubbed her legs and stood up with some difficulty. She moved her hands and feet. After feeling a bit better, she began to analyse the current situation in detail. She really did not believe there were any ghosts in this world.

Looking up over her head, she saw rocks looming above. This was probably a cave in a mountain. Light came in from the right and the wind was blowing from there too. There must be an opening. She had no time to think about why those people left her here. Lei Lei made up her mind to leave first, so she decisively walked in the direction of the light.

Opening the heavy curtains, the light became brighter and the wind grew colder and colder. The sound of water could also be faintly heard.

Finally, the scene in front of her opened up.

Translucent moonlight flooded the night sky and the surrounding scenery was extremely clear. There were mountains in the distance.

Under the moonlight, Lei Lei was a little confused. However, strong feelings of hunger in her stomach proved one thing. The moon was definitely not the same as the one before she had fainted. It should be the 15th of August now, mid-autumn night.

Water was splashing, there should be a deep ravine ahead where the coldness was coming from.On the other side, there was a large valley shining with silver light. Its colour was completely different from the surrounding mountains and it was very strange and beautiful.

Here, there was a high platform with white marble railing. On the right, there was a flight of stone steps leading downward. A raging fire burned in stone cauldrons on either side and the flames danced wildly in the wind.

She did not feel any excitement from having escaped death because Lei Lei saw two people.

One was standing and the other was kneeling.

Her eyes were naturally attracted to the person who was standing.

His white robes fluttered in the wind, almost colourless like the peak of a snowy mountain without a single speck of dust. In an instant, the moon above her head was eclipsed as he made people think that he should be the full moon aloft, shining brightly.

Part of his black hair hung down like rich ink flowing from his shoulders. The light from the fire and moon reflected on his perfect side profile face. The corners of his lips were slightly raised with a warm smile that did not match his temperament. This smile made him look less ethereal and illusory, actually making him seem slightly corporeal.

He did not seem to notice Lei Lei and only looked at the woman kneeling in front of him as he kept his hands behind his back, “Did I allow you to kneel?”

The woman trembled as she stood up from the ground, “My Lord…”

He smiled faintly, “Neglecting to follow orders and acting of your own accord, what should I do to make you remember better?”

Glowing in the firelight, his handsome half face was lifelessly pale. The woman took a step back in fear. She wanted to retreat further, but found that her soles were firmly fixed to the ground and she nearly fell — she did not dare to retreat anymore. Even more so, she dared not to commit suicide because doing so would only make the consequences more severe and her fate would be worse.

He turned around.

Finally, his entire face was clearly visible. His eyebrows, eyes, the bridge of his nose… He was practically more beautiful than a woman! It if were not for his tall and slender figure, Lei Lei would have thought that he was a woman.

Devil! Definitely a devil!

Yet, his warm smile made this devil seem to not be a devil.

Lei Lei knew that this person must have already noticed her, but he still did not look at her as if treating her like a lifeless decoration. His beautiful eyes only narrowed at the woman beside him. He sighed, “It’s better if you do it yourself.”

The woman gritted her teeth. Suddenly, she grasped her left wrist with her right hand. Then a crack sounded and her beautiful left hand was folded from the wrist, just like the Transformers toys she had played with when she was a child. It was folded into an extremely strange, impossible angle where the back of her hand lay flat against her arm.

What was she doing?! Lei Lei clenched her teeth tightly in fright, resisting the urge to cry out.

In the cold wind, the woman’s voice trembled, “My Lord…”

There was no surprise in his expression. He smiled and shook his head, “Not enough.”

As soon as he spoke, he lifted his left hand.

Watching that beautiful hand stretch out towards her, the expression on the woman’s face turned from pain to despair. She did not beg for mercy, because she knew it would be useless and she did not have the courage to escape.

His movement was as graceful as if he was picking flowers. Natural, casual.

He smiled and bent his fingers, plucking out an eyeball from that beautiful left eye.

The woman grunted miserably, but still managed not to faint.

On this half of her face, she originally had a shining, large, black eye but now it was a bloody hole. The blood kept pouring out like a line of tears that slid down her face. Beauty met with ugliness and it made that half of her face look especially eerie.

“Go.”

“Thank you, My Lord.” The woman seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. She turned around and walked unsteadily along the stone steps on the right towards the platform, then disappeared into the shadows.

As for the beautiful man who was bright like the moon and had a warm smile, he was looking at his two blood-covered fingers with great interest, with an eyeball on his fingertips that was black, red, and white.

Lei Lei suddenly became dizzy and her empty stomach began to convulse. She could not help but turn around nauseously.

“You still came back?” His voice was as friendly as his smile, greeting her like a caring relative.

Lei Lei was terrified as she looked up at him.

The man was still standing in the same position, wiping his fingers carefully with a clean white handkerchief with extreme elegance. He did not look at her. Soon, those two fingers were clean again.

With a wave of his hand, the blood-stained handkerchief floated down to the bottom of the stream.

Then he turned his gaze on her. With a smile over his face, he strolled leisurely over to her. His demeanour was dazzling and his pace was calm. His bearing was so self-satisfied. His clothes were blown up by the wind and he looked like a celestial being riding the wind, or like a poet walking on the moon, or like a noble wealthy son wandering freely. It was impossible to imagine what he just did.