It Was You All Along

Li Banfeng had thought the person impersonating He Jiaqing would follow him to the bathroom. Yet "He Jiaqing" did not. He didn't want any further contact with Li Banfeng, having noticed that Li Banfeng's behavior was somewhat abnormal. Even with those abnormalities, there was no cause for concern. From the moment Li Banfeng stepped into this Western-style house, the imposter believed his fate had been sealed; Li Banfeng was destined to take his place and become the house's prisoner. To be on the safe side, "He Jiaqing" had made Li Banfeng drink some tea laced with "seasoning," intending to put him soundly to sleep. Fearing Li Banfeng might not sleep deeply enough, he had even tried to force a bowl of soup into him, but Li Banfeng hadn't touched it. Now it seemed Li Banfeng truly hadn't slept deeply at all. Perhaps there hadn't been enough seasoning, or perhaps Li Banfeng's constitution was simply too strong for a single cup of tea to completely knock him out. None of that mattered. What mattered was that Li Banfeng couldn't get out. There was no way he could find an exit. "He Jiaqing" had already searched here for days and still hadn't managed to find one. *Once day breaks, I will be free.* *Li Banfeng, you fool. I wonder how long you'll last in this house.* "He Jiaqing" walked down the stairs and settled down to sleep in a first-floor room near the entrance. Li Banfeng entered the bathroom and spotted a yellow cat and a white cat foraging for food by the washbasin. There was no faucet on the basin; in its place stood a hand pump. The white cat hopped onto the pump handle while the yellow cat crouched by the spout, watching to see if any water would come out. They were the ones making the rustling noises. How had these two cats gotten in? There were quite a few cats in this house. How had the others gotten in? Through a window? There was indeed a small porthole window in the bathroom, very small. The porthole was shut tight. Li Banfeng pushed at it several times, but it was just as solid as the windows in the bedroom, offering no chance of being opened. Li Banfeng let out a few low hisses at the two cats. The white cat had already been wary of him, and hearing those low hisses, its fur instantly puffed up in terror. It bolted straight into a small hole beneath the washbasin. The yellow cat moved to squeeze in after it, but Li Banfeng caught it in one swift grab. He looked down at the opening beside the floor drain. It was likely a ventilation vent, its diameter barely larger than an adult's fist. Cats truly were miraculous creatures. How on earth had it squeezed into such a tiny opening? *Meow—* A cat's cry came from outside the window. Through the frosted glass, Li Banfeng faintly made out a white figure calling to its companion from outside. The white cat had run outside the house! It had squeezed out through the vent. A human couldn't get out, but a cat could! *Click!* The bathroom doorknob turned, and "He Jiaqing" pushed the door open and stepped in. He had just heard the meow. "Banfeng, what are you doing?" "Sitting on the toilet." Li Banfeng sat on the toilet bowl, cradling the yellow cat in his arms. "You're petting a cat while sitting on the toilet?" Li Banfeng nodded. "If you've got a cat in the bathroom and don't pet it while sitting on the toilet, where else are you supposed to pet it?" "He Jiaqing" closed the bathroom door, at a complete loss for words regarding Li Banfeng's behavior. Li Banfeng's actions were entirely unreasonable, yet he could always find a reasonable explanation for himself. Why bother agonizing over whether he was reasonable or not? *As long as I make it past tomorrow morning, I'll never see him again.* Li Banfeng reached his hand into the vent beneath the washbasin. This vent didn't lead straight outside; Li Banfeng had no idea what its interior structure was like or how many bends it took. Although a cool night breeze wafted in through the vent, Li Banfeng had no way of tossing the key outside through it directly. Since he couldn't throw it out himself, he had to take a gamble. This yellow cat clearly lacked courage. If he wanted to win this gamble, he had to give it a little incentive. From his pajama bottoms, Li Banfeng pulled out the fedora he had recently bought. Inside the hat were two items. When he changed into pajamas earlier, his wallet and some personal belongings had been taken by He Jiaqing. Yet there were two things Li Banfeng never parted with: one was the key, and the other was spicy strips. Right now, both were kept inside the hat. He took out the key first, entered his Portable Abode, and retrieved his phone's charging cable from his backpack. Back in the bathroom, he used the charging cable to tie the key securely to the cat's body. He first carried the yellow cat over to the vent, then clutched the key and opened the door to the Portable Abode once more. The moment before stepping through the door, Li Banfeng pulled out a spicy strip and shoved it straight into the yellow cat's backside. With a shrill, agonizing yowl, the yellow cat flew like the wind, plunging headlong into the vent. Li Banfeng immediately entered the Portable Abode. *Cat, if you bolt straight outside, I win the gamble.* *If you choose to squat inside the vent and refuse to come out, I lose!* *And if I lose, things won't go well for you either—that spicy strip will burn you to death!* "He Jiaqing" heard the screech and rushed into the bathroom once more, only to find Li Banfeng gone. Where had he gone?! "He Jiaqing's" head buzzed! A flurry of footsteps came from outside the window. "He Jiaqing" dashed to the first-floor living room and rushed to the French doors, spotting Li Banfeng standing in the garden. Beside Li Banfeng sat a yellow cat, currently taking a sitz bath in a puddle in the garden. "He Jiaqing" was terrified; Li Banfeng was thoroughly calm. Just seconds ago, "He Jiaqing" had firmly believed he was free, convinced that Li Banfeng could never leave the He family ancestral residence. Just seconds ago, Li Banfeng hadn't been sure whether that yellow cat would make it out of the vent, yet now it was sitting in a puddle in the courtyard, whimpering softly. Li Banfeng had entered the Portable Abode in the bathroom, and the yellow cat had carried the key out through the vent to the outside of the house, bringing the key with it. The Portable Abode moved with the key. When the key left the house, the Portable Abode brought Li Banfeng right out along with it. At this moment, standing in the living room, "He Jiaqing" pounded frantically on the French doors, seemingly shouting at Li Banfeng, but Li Banfeng couldn't hear a thing. "He Jiaqing" dug his fingers into the French doors. Amid a sharp, ear-piercing screech, the doors slid open a crack. The crack widened more and more. When it opened to over ten centimeters, "He Jiaqing" squeezed his head through the gap and poked it outside. "Banfeng, you're my only brother! You're just going to leave like this? You're just going to abandon me? Banfeng, didn't you come to save me?!" Li Banfeng took a few steps back. This fake He Jiaqing was clearly stronger than him; Li Banfeng hadn't been able to budge the French doors, but this imposter could. "Who on earth are you?" Li Banfeng gripped the key in his hand, ready to flee at any moment. "He Jiaqing" tried to squeeze his body through the opening, but couldn't; the doors clamped tightly against his shoulders. "Li Banfeng, come here! Step closer and I'll tell you! I'll let you know who I am right now!" The fake He Jiaqing seemed unwilling to state his identity. Li Banfeng was just about to leave the courtyard when someone answered the question for him. To be precise, it wasn't a person, but the dwelling spirit. The dwelling spirit would not permit "He Jiaqing" to leave the house. Even if he opened the window, he couldn't get out. Even if he could open the front door to let Li Banfeng inside, he still could not leave. "He Jiaqing's" head remained stuck outside the window, struggling frantically. Suddenly, vines hanging down from the upper floor wrapped around his face and began violently ripping at it. A layer of delicate skin was torn away, and He Jiaqing's features vanished from the face. Li Banfeng saw her true appearance. It was Lu Xiaolan! He Jiaqing's girlfriend. Why was she in the He family ancestral residence? No wonder she had known so many private details between him and He Jiaqing in those text messages. When He Jiaqing had a meal with her and Li Banfeng tagged along, she had known about that. When He Jiaqing was in bed with her and Li Banfeng called him out halfway through, she had known about that too. Did she know about He Jiaqing slipping him exam answers? Did she know about He Jiaqing working on a construction site to pay his medical bills? Had He Jiaqing told her? Why had she been able to hook into his phone? Could it be because of that phone call He Jiaqing had told him to make? Was He Jiaqing her accomplice? Had He Jiaqing sold him out? Wait, if He Jiaqing were her accomplice, why hadn't He Jiaqing come to deceive him in person? If it had been He Jiaqing himself, he never would have shown so many flaws! She was a Scrying Cultivator. There were many things He Jiaqing hadn't told her that she had been able to spy out. When it came to the text messages, she had been calling the shots all along, luring him into her trap. Once they met face-to-face, certain flaws were unavoidable, because it was impossible for her to spy out every single detail. He Jiaqing probably wasn't her accomplice. But why had she been trapped by the dwelling spirit? As thoughts raced through his mind, Lu Xiaolan screamed at Li Banfeng in a hoarse voice, "Li Banfeng! Do you want to save He Jiaqing or not?! If you want to save him, come find me! Only I know where he is! "Li Banfeng, I love Jiaqing! I truly treat Jiaqing well! Aside from you, in this entire world, only I genuinely care for him!" Hearing this, Li Banfeng turned on his heel and walked away. What kind of nonsense was that? His relationship with He Jiaqing wasn't like that at all. "Li Banfeng! Don't go! You'll regret this for the rest of your life! You've already become a dark energy user, haven't you?! You're a body cultivator, aren't you?! You can turn invisible, right?! "Teach me how to get out of here, and I'll give you whatever you ask for! Whatever you want, I'll give it to you! I have plenty of good things!" Li Banfeng's figure vanished into the night. With tears streaming down her face, Lu Xiaolan pulled her head back inside through the French doors. She had no choice; the vines had already ripped off the fake face, and next they would tear into her real one. Over the past few days, her real face had been torn many times, inflicting excruciating pain and leaving wounds that hardly healed. She slumped beneath the French doors and wept bitterly. She couldn't understand why Li Banfeng hadn't fallen for it. She had successfully tricked Li Banfeng into coming to Puluo Province and lured him into the house. Why had he still managed to escape? Shortly after the train derailed, He Jiaqing had received a call from Li Banfeng. That phone call had saved He Jiaqing's life. Lu Xiaolan had struck He Jiaqing, but failed to kill him. He Jiaqing struck back, but also failed to kill Lu Xiaolan. Relying on Li Banfeng's phone call, He Jiaqing escaped back to Yuezhou and sent Lu Xiaolan back to the He family ancestral residence. It was precisely because of that phone call from Li Banfeng that Lu Xiaolan, using the Clairaudience technique of a Scrying Cultivator, managed to hook into Li Banfeng's phone. Later, once she was trapped in the He family ancestral residence, that hook became Lu Xiaolan's lifeline. On the train, Li Banfeng's phone had run out of battery. When the hook snapped, Lu Xiaolan had been terrified, anxious, and even plunged into despair. She suspected Li Banfeng might have met with an accident. To her surprise, Li Banfeng had still come. Constrained by the dwelling spirit, Lu Xiaolan hadn't planned to use force, nor had she intended to drop the facade before Li Banfeng discovered the truth. To ensure Li Banfeng would stay peacefully in the house for the night, she had rehearsed every detail after their reunion countless times. She maintained utmost restraint, refraining from eagerly bringing up the Xuansheng lotus in front of him. Even when Li Banfeng claimed he had left the lotus at the station, she hadn't lost her temper over it. She did her best to imitate He Jiaqing's way of speaking, getting every detail down. When Li Banfeng walked through the door, she had even deliberately copied He Jiaqing's mannerisms to mock Li Banfeng's backpack. She only needed to wait until tomorrow morning, and she would be able to leave this residence. Why? She genuinely couldn't fathom why Li Banfeng had fled. *What did I say wrong? What did I do wrong?* *Why did Li Banfeng run away?!* Lu Xiaolan clutched her hair, shrieking and weeping. For the first time, she realized she might die here—die of starvation until she turned into a rotting, foul-smelling corpse. After crying for a long time, Lu Xiaolan's voice gradually faded, and the tears on her face dried in the air. She went to the kitchen, chopped up some cat skin and bones into tiny fragments, and dumped them into a pot. Then she took a small porcelain bottle from her pocket, poured out a tiny bit of powder—just a pinch—and sprinkled it over the cat skin and bones. This medicinal powder was precious; this small bottle was all she had left. Smoke rose from the pot, resembling the greasy fumes of stir-fried ingredients. Beneath the greasy fumes, the cat skin and bones slowly turned into an indescribable paste, emitting a faint fishy odor. She divided the paste into five cat bowls and placed them in different corners of the house. One in the entryway, one in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, and one in the second-floor hallway. This faint fishy smell could drift a long way. Relying on this faint fishy smell, she could lure in stray cats, or perhaps weasels; they had ways of entering and exiting this residence. As long as they ate the food in the cat bowls, they would fall into a deep slumber, just like the calico cat currently sleeping soundly in the kitchen. Lu Xiaolan picked up the calico cat, tore open its fur with her teeth, and vigorously gnawed on its flesh and blood. She wanted to eat cooked food too, but she couldn't; firewood was precious, and she had to save it to deceive the next person who entered the house. Lu Xiaolan chewed large mouthfuls of raw meat, muttering to herself as she chewed. *I can't die. I absolutely cannot die.* *I have to live.* *I can still get out.* …… Having left the He family ancestral residence, Li Banfeng ran through several alleys, arrived at an alleyway, entered the Portable Abode, and hid the key beneath the window base of a household. Sitting quietly inside the Portable Abode, Li Banfeng sank into deep thought. Where had the real He Jiaqing gone? Could the He Jiaqing lying in the hospital actually be the real one? P.S. Li Banfeng never retrieved the spicy strip he shoved into the yellow cat. Hopefully that yellow cat will be just fine.