Ch 156: The Cannon Fodder Won’t Play Along Anymore [QT]

Xiang Shen and Zhu Wei were tormented by that remark to the point that they had no appetite at all.

From time to time, they glanced at Mu Xing, wondering to themselves whether what he had just said was merely coincidence… or deliberate.

But Mu Xing only kept his head down, eating his breakfast dim sum with great seriousness, and even asked the auntie to help him serve another bowl of porridge.

The housekeeper liked this polite and beautiful child, and seeing him enjoy her cooking made her overjoyed.

Zhu Wei carefully observed their interactions and felt that perhaps last night really was just an illusion.

Maybe she and Xiang Shen had simply been too exhausted recently?

Neither of them believed in ghosts or retribution. Afterward, though they spent every night in fear and caution, they never again encountered the strange things of the past few days.

Instead, they deprived themselves of sleep night after night, until they both looked haggard and worn.

Mu Xing asked a few words of concern, but even now, the couple still felt a lingering dread when they saw him, not daring to get too close.

That night, the two of them sat on the bed, all the lights in the room turned on.

They chatted idly, both on the verge of collapse—after all, they hadn’t truly slept for several days.

Even iron-bodied people couldn’t endure that, much less these two who had never suffered hardship.

Their heads kept nodding, and slowly, leaning together, they drifted off to sleep.

The lights crackled with a sizzle.

The room suddenly plunged into darkness.

They hadn’t really been in deep sleep, so the sound jolted them awake immediately.

Though there was clearly a wall behind them, both felt a chill of icy wind creeping from there.

The bedroom door slowly creaked open. They stared hard at the doorway, but no one was there.

“Daddy, Mommy, are you looking for me?” A clear, crisp voice spoke above their heads.

The two of them snapped their heads upward—only to see a person crouched on the ceiling, eyes glowing with eerie green light in the dark, and a deathly pale face.

Zhu Wei rolled her eyes and fainted on the spot.

Xiang Shen wished to faint too, but couldn’t.

“You… you…” He tried to sound calm, but the way his hands clutched the quilt betrayed him. “What exactly are you? We have no enmity, what do you want?”

Mu Xing was actually just standing at the doorway, watching them.

As for the “fierce ghost” they saw on the ceiling—that was nothing more than the form their own minds conjured up.

His soul illusion was much like how spirits bewilder people: both preyed on fear and weakness in the human heart, manifesting terrifying visions. The more the other side feared, the stronger the illusion became.

If these two had been truly upright, unafraid of ghosts or gods, then no matter how great his power, it would have been useless.

Mu Xing gave him a ghastly grin. “Who am I? I’m your son. Only, I’ve already died. I crawled out of hell to find you.”

“Why did I die, Daddy, don’t you know best?”

“You picked such a fine family for me, watched me be abused every day, yet only cared about recording data…”

He tilted his head with a smile. If Mu Xing had done this in the daytime, it would have looked infinitely cute.

But now, coming from this being that might not be human or ghost…

Xiang Shen thought: why couldn’t I just faint as cleanly as Wei Wei did?

He saw the thing on the ceiling stretch out a hand. That hand grew longer, reaching down from the ceiling to grip his throat!

Xiang Shen felt the hand choking him was as cold as ice, with a sticky, fishy stench that made him gag.

His mouth opened wide, but no sound came out.

Then came a child’s cheerful voice in his ear: “What do I want? Of course I’ve come to find my dearest Daddy and Mommy… to drag you down to hell with me.”

At last, Xiang Shen got his wish—he fainted.

*

The next morning, Xiang Shen and Zhu Wei couldn’t get up.

They were sick.

Running a fever. When the auntie had finished making breakfast and still hadn’t seen them, she knocked on the door, only to find the two of them burning up, unconscious in bed. She had no idea what had happened, and hurriedly called for an ambulance.

It was really a sickness of the heart. After a fever-reducing shot and some brief instructions from the doctor, they could have been discharged.

But neither dared to go back home. Standing at the hospital entrance, they looked at each other, both seeing terror in the other’s eyes.

“Maybe… we should stay in a hotel for a few nights,” Zhu Wei said. “I just feel like that…”

She couldn’t even bring herself to say Mu Xing’s name. “Something’s not right.”

Xiang Shen had just nodded when, without warning, a voice sounded at their ears, making their skin crawl. “Who’s not right?”

Zhu Wei and Xiang Shen nearly leapt several meters away, staring at Mu Xing who stood nearby.

“How did you get here!” Xiang Shen barked.

Mu Xing looked all innocent. “I heard from Auntie that Uncle and Auntie were sick. I asked for the hospital address and came by taxi.”

Xiang Shen looked at him, standing in the sunlight, casting a normal shadow, his eyes clear and pure—and finally let out a breath.

Then he heard the boy say mysteriously, “Uncle, Auntie, you were both perfectly fine last night. How did you suddenly come down with such a fever?”

“Could it be… you ran into something unclean?”

The sunlight was warm on their skin, yet Xiang Shen and Zhu Wei felt as though they had plunged into an icy abyss.

They stared blankly at Mu Xing. He blinked his eyes, as though he hadn’t said a word at all.

He smiled at the two of them. “Uncle, Auntie, go back and rest early.”

But that smile, falling into Xiang Shen and Zhu Wei’s eyes, looked nothing but eerie.

Forcing themselves to stay strong, they called a cab, sent Mu Xing back, and didn’t dare return home. They booked a hotel nearby instead.

Yet once the seed of fear is planted, it only grows larger.

That night.

Mu Xing made a video call to Director Mei.

Hearing that Brother Xingxing was calling, a crowd of children gathered around her, chattering:

“Brother Xingxing, we miss you so much!”
“When are you coming back?”
“Wanwan can already count from one to a hundred!”
“…”

Looking at these little cuties, Mu Xing felt that all the gloom from dealing with those two scumbags these past days had completely melted away.

He smiled brightly. “Soon, soon. Brother will be back very soon.”

Director Mei looked at him worriedly. “Xingxing, you…”

She thought that since Mu Xing had gone with his biological parents, he wouldn’t return anymore.

But Mu Xing made a heart shape with his fingers. “Director Mama, I told you, I’ll definitely come back.”

While the orphanage was filled with warmth and laughter, Xiang Shen and Zhu Wei sat in restless unease inside their hotel room.

Zhu Wei suspiciously looked around, whispering, “Tonight… that thing won’t come again, will it?”

Xiang Shen snapped, “Shut up! Don’t mention it!”

But just because you don’t speak it aloud, doesn’t mean you can stop thinking it.

Fear gnawed at them. They turned on a movie in the room, but Zhu Wei kept jumping at shadows—worried the screen would show something strange, afraid something lurked under the bed, too scared even to use the bathroom.

And in such times, the more you try not to think about something, the more your mind summons it.

Because what they would see depended entirely on their own fear and imagination.

They couldn’t even last the night in the hotel.

Frightened out of their minds, they phoned the police, screaming that they had seen ghosts in their room.

The next day, Mu Xing got a call from the police.

A kindly looking officer picked him up and drove him to the station. On the way, the officer gently asked if his father and mother had been acting strange lately.

After all, who else would call the police claiming their own son was a ghost?

And this child—they knew—was a treasure lost for ten years before finally being found.

Mu Xing shook his head blankly.

Seeing this, the officer didn’t press further. He hadn’t expected to get any clues from the child anyway.

At the station, Mu Xing was led in and saw Xiang Shen and Zhu Wei.

Where was their old composure now? After days without sleep, they looked haggard and filthy, bloodshot eyes wild with a touch of madness.

The moment Zhu Wei saw Mu Xing, she screamed, “You monster! What are you doing here? You even dare to come into the police station? Get out, get out! Officers, kill him! He’s a ghost!”

Mu Xing: “…”

He looked at Zhu Wei in puzzlement.

He truly was puzzled—how could someone so cold-blooded collapse so easily?

The little orb of light inside his spiritual sea sensed his confusion and was exasperated.

This mission target of his really couldn’t separate things properly.

Did he think he could measure ordinary humans by his own standards when it came to ghosts and spirits?

No matter the world, ordinary people always fear and revere the supernatural.

Mu Xing’s confused look, in the eyes of the police, seemed like a child dumbstruck with fear.

Their hearts softened with pity.

They had already investigated this couple. They knew Mu Xing’s past.

A poor child—born only to be adopted by scum, abused, then raised in an orphanage. Finally reunited with his parents, only to end up like this. Looking at them now… they didn’t seem sane.

And the mother’s words—what she said to her child—were far too cruel.

One officer barked, “Zhu Wei! Open your eyes. He’s your son! What nonsense are you spouting?”

Mu Xing gave Zhu Wei a small smile.

In the eyes of the police, that smile was a child cautiously trying to please his mother.

But to Zhu Wei, it was the grin of a vengeful ghost, mocking and taunting her.

He wasn’t even afraid of the police station!

He would kill her!

She shrieked, “He’s not my son! He’s a vengeful ghost! He’s a monster! He’s here to get revenge!”

Her words were outrageous. Another officer stood, took Mu Xing to a separate room, and seeing the boy standing silently and alone, pitied him all the more.

Outside, the officer said, “Send the couple for psychiatric evaluation first.”

But in his heart, suspicion had already taken root.

He hadn’t ignored Zhu Wei’s words.

A mother who had just found her long-lost child—shouldn’t she be full of guilt and love, caring for him in every way?

Why then did Zhu Wei react with such terror?

And what did she mean by, “He’s here for revenge”?

With those doubts lingering, the police began a thorough investigation into the couple’s whereabouts and actions over the past ten years.

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