Yi Wansan’s voice cracked with growing frustration. “Okay, but what now? What do we do now?!”
“Luo Ren said he’d take care of it.”
Yi Wansan froze for two seconds—then suddenly bolted toward the door, faster with every step. By the time he reached it, he was practically sprinting.
The door to the compound shook under his fists as he pounded on it. No answer. Covered in sweat, he ran along the wall and tried to climb it, but it was too smooth. He wasn’t like Mu Dai. After several failed attempts, he grew furious, picked up half a brick, and yelled Luo Ren’s name as he hurled it at the second floor.
There was a crash—some window somewhere shattered.
Moments later, Luo Ren appeared on the balcony on the second floor. He saw Yi Wansan but didn’t budge.
Yi Wansan yelled, “Open the door!”
Luo Ren didn’t move.
Yi Wansan exploded, kicking and pounding on the door until his leg went numb. When he finally collapsed onto the steps, he was shaking, drenched in cold sweat.
Was Ping Ting hurt because of the secrets he’d kept?
If he’d just been honest from the start, would things have turned out differently?
Mu Dai arrived and was stunned to see the scene. She looked up at Luo Ren, whose gaze fell on her calmly, but without warmth.
She hesitated, then climbed the wall and dropped into the courtyard, unlocking the gate from inside.
The moment Yi Wansan heard the door click open, he jumped to his feet and shoved past her, racing inside.
Mu Dai looked up at Luo Ren again. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t looked at her again. He was still standing in the exact same place.
Upstairs, heavy, frantic footsteps thudded against the floor, followed by a shout:
“What the hell did you do, Luo Ren?! What the hell did you DO?!”
The sight that met him… could not be explained by any simple act of “doing.”
Red yarn—maybe a dozen strands—wrapped shakily around a long bench. Two of its legs barely touched the floor while the other two hung suspended, reminding Mu Dai strangely of a wild horse ready to charge.
Ping Ting lay on the bed at the far end, pale and motionless.
Yi Wansan rushed toward her. It was just yarn—he thought he could push through. But each strand was impossibly tight, like a spider’s web. The harder he struggled, the more tangled he became.
Mu Dai, in contrast, simply walked calmly around the edges and reached the bedside easily.
Ping Ting’s hands were folded over her stomach, wrists bound with plastic cuffs. Her ankles, too.
Beside her pillow was an empty syringe. On the nightstand, two glass vials with snapped necks.
“Strong anesthetics,” Luo Ren said, stepping inside at some point. His voice was eerily calm, like reading from a textbook.
“They suppress the central nervous system. Prolonged use causes muscle atrophy. In high doses, it causes brain damage from oxygen deprivation. Worst case… she’ll never wake up.”
Yi Wansan’s veins bulged. “You sick bastard! You still gave it to her?!”
Luo Ren didn’t respond. He scanned the room’s layout and murmured to himself,
“This place isn’t secure enough. I’ll add more infrared monitors. Reinforce the windows and doors. If that’s still not enough, I’ll add a cage inside. Install a food chute to reduce contact. Or better yet, keep her sedated indefinitely. IV drips can keep her alive.”
Right now, the Xiong Jian couldn’t control someone to leap over rooftops or walls—it still needed a human body to move.
So if Ping Ting remained alive but unconscious… perhaps it could still be tricked. And trapped.
Yes, he was taking a huge risk. The Xiong Jian had possessed Ping Ting, but seen another way, she could become a living prison for it.
His voice was so cold, it made Mu Dai’s skin crawl.
Yi Wansan’s eyes were blazing. “Ping Ting is a person!”
Luo Ren gave a slight smile. “Is she? Let’s see if you still think that after she kills someone like my uncle. Anyway, you’ve seen everything. You can leave now. This is my family’s home. I make the rules. And for the record, I don’t like people throwing bricks at my windows. Or breaking in without permission.”
The line was drawn. Clear and sharp.
This was his house. His problem.
Mu Dai felt like she’d been slapped. Like she and her bar staff had no manners at all.
She nudged Yi Wansan. “Let’s go.”
As they passed Luo Ren, she hesitated and quietly asked,
“So what now? Are you going to… keep her locked up like this?”
Her awkward, cautious tone softened Luo Ren a little.
He replied more gently,
“I’m hoping that in this time, I can figure out what that diagram means—what the ‘Immortal’s Guidance’ is trying to tell us. Maybe it’s pointing to the Phoenix Lock. That’s the only thing that can truly suppress the Xiong Jian.”
Yi Wansan suddenly stopped moving.
There was a pause.
Mu Dai sighed and was about to prompt him to leave when he spoke:
“The ‘Immortal’s Guidance’… I think I know where that is.”
He looked at Luo Ren’s surprised expression and let out a wry laugh.
“I might be right. Back in my hometown, the temple… the last figurine on the eaves— the monkey—was the one I knocked off.”
Meow meow On TPH Chapter 26.1