Chapter 49 Section 39

  39、

  The fire is burning.

  A pale blue flame crackled and burned, like a mouse, happily devouring its spoils.

  Fang Wan stared blankly at He Jianhui's burning body, watching as his body gradually withered and turned to ashes.

  The whole world seemed to have solidified.

  In her eyes, there was only that pale blue flame, flickering in the dark corner.

  How lonely!

  Chen Qi also said so before his death.

  People are destined to be lonely, even if they live together in groups, they can't escape the fate of loneliness. No one can truly understand another person. Even the closest relationships, such as those between family members who share a deep bond, lovers who are deeply in love, and friends who are like two pieces of a puzzle that fit perfectly together, can only make people temporarily forget their loneliness. When the hustle and bustle of life subsides and the night grows quiet, loneliness creeps up like an invisible mist, quietly spreading from some unknown corner, easily capturing you and making you sink into endless melancholy and regret.

  Due to loneliness, people of all shapes and sizes have embarked on a path of crime. They yearn for understanding, they yearn for love from others. If they can't get it, they will retaliate in extreme ways. According to statistics, more than 95% of women who take drugs do so because of broken relationships and marital breakdowns. The majority of serial killers apprehended in the United States come from unfortunate families, and their childhood experiences of abuse are the main reason for their psychological abnormalities.

  He Jianhui became an orphan at the age of eight, wandering the streets and growing up in hunger and abuse by adults. Lying and stealing became his main means of survival. Following this trajectory, he was likely to become a high-IQ psychopathic offender with antisocial tendencies.

  Fortunately, at the darkest moment of his life, the restaurant daughter who looked like Fang Yuan rescued him. What she saved was not only food, but also his spiritual faith, making him believe that there is love in the world and affection in the world.

  So, although he was deeply infatuated with Fang Yuan, he never made any sexual advances towards her. His love for her was a platonic spiritual romance. In some sense, he was a patient of obsessive-compulsive disorder. To get close to Fang Yuan and protect her, he sacrificed the lives of Qin Yanshuang, Tao Bing'er and others.

  Now, he finally closed his eyes. He completed his redemption of his life in a special way.

  The pale blue flame finally went out.

  Fang Wei gently wiped away the tears on her face and turned to look at the boy in gray.

  From start to finish, the man in gray clothes didn't say a word, standing there like a wooden puppet. Beside him, the little girl in black was smiling slyly at Fang Xuan, as if she was very pleased with herself.

  "I know you're aware of everything that's happened today, right?"

  "Hmm." The man in gray clothes neither confirmed nor denied it.

  "Why didn't you save them?" Fang Yuan's tone was somewhat agitated, she really couldn't understand why the gray-clothed boy in front of her was so cold-blooded and ruthless.

  "I can't save him."

  "Can't be saved?" Fang Yuan's eyes widened as she pointed at He Jianhui's ashes, "If you had come earlier, he wouldn't have died!"

  The man in gray clothes raised an eyebrow, wanting to refute, but after thinking for a moment, he said calmly: "Death is the best relief for him. Don't you think that letting him die without suffering would be fairer for him, for you, and for those who were killed by him?"

  Fang Yuan was speechless.

  She is a kind person, although she won't be easily moved by others, nor does she want others to make sacrifices for her.

  "Well, why don't you go catch that masked man? Don't tell me you're incapable of doing so."

  Fang Yuan was very clear that what the masked man feared was not the black-clothed little girl. No matter how mysterious the black-clothed little girl was, she couldn't pose a threat to him.

  The man in grey seemed surprised: "Why should I go and capture the masked man? He has no grudge against me."

  "But...!" Fang Yuan's face turned blue with rage, "He killed people! He killed Xian'er and He Jianhui!"

  "Is that so?" The man in gray clothes was unconvinced. "Even if he really did kill someone, it's the police's business, and has nothing to do with me. You know, in this world of ours, over a thousand people die from violent murder every day, not even counting those who are robbed or raped. Do you really think I need to bother with these things?"

  "You're so heartless!" Fang Yuan finally spoke out what was on her mind.

  "Who isn't cold-blooded? The world is full of natural and man-made disasters, with people on the brink of death everywhere. This is a materialistic world, where so-called love and faith are just jokes. Everyone is busy scheming for their own interests, no one cares about others' feelings. There's no savior in this world, individual strength is insignificant in the face of the era's tide."

  Fang Yuan couldn't believe her eyes as she stared at the boy in grey clothes.

  The man in grey smiled slightly: "Don't look at me like that. What I said is all true. Besides, even if I wanted to capture the masked person, I'm not capable of it."

  "No way! He's so afraid of you!"

  The man in grey did not answer Fang Yuan's question, but instead asked: "Have you ever seen a spider web?"

  "What's with the spider web? What does it have to do with the Masked Man?"

  "He has now retreated into the spider web."

  She glanced at the underground passage and seemed to have an epiphany: "You're saying that this underground passage is like a giant spider web."

  "Yes. The entire Nanjiang Medical College is just floating on this spider web. In all the buildings of Nanjiang Medical College, there are underground passages with entrances like this one, at least several hundred."

  Fang Wan couldn't imagine, trembling as she asked: "Your meaning is that Nanjiang Medical College was just a cover-up, and the real purpose of building it in the first place was to conceal this underground spider web?"

  "It has a more pleasant name, the Moon Goddess's underground palace."

  Fang Yuan shivered and a chill ran straight up her forehead.

  In her mind, a strange image emerged: the moon goddess was like a giant poisonous spider, perched in the center of an underground palace with a web-like structure. The young students, full of vigor and vitality, mysteriously disappeared one by one. Laboratories, warehouses, dissecting rooms, classrooms, dormitories, bathrooms... all buildings that could reach the ground opened their bloody mouths wide, sending students from the crisscrossing underground tunnels to the moon goddess's residence, where they were ruthlessly sucked dry, becoming desiccated corpses.

  No wonder there are so many ghost stories in medical schools and so many students go missing.

  Fang Wan didn't dare think about it anymore.

  The man in gray seemed to see through Fang Yuan's mind, smiling and saying: "You don't have to be afraid, the Moon Goddess is not as terrifying as you imagined. Besides, she's already dead."

  "But she will come back to life, right?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "How can someone who has died come back to life?"

  "I don't know either." The man in gray sighed faintly. "Perhaps the revival of the Moon Goddess is just a legend."

  "If it's just a legend, why would the Moon God clan want to kill so many people? The Seven Stars Soul Stealing Array is also just a legend?"

  The man in grey was silent.

  It wasn't until now that Fang Yuan appeared, and the gray-clothed boy's eyes had always been filled with worry.

  What is he worried about?

  Isn't he completely unfeeling and indifferent to everything?

  The little girl in black walked over gently and said to Fang Yuan, "Sister, I'll tell you a secret."

  Fang Yuan was startled.

  The little girl in black told her three secrets, all of which were about death.

  "Sister, I'm telling you, you won't die. Really!" The little girl in black clothes made a mischievous face, "I lied to you last time."

  Fang Wei let out a sigh of relief. Ever since she heard the prophecy from the little girl in black, she had been feeling somewhat restless.

  Then Fang Yuan asked a strange question: "Little sister, how did you know that those three sisters were going to die?"