Chapter 42 Is It Really Beautiful?

  Lu Xiaoying saw that Cui Erdou and his wife had become mentally unstable, so she hid aside to observe quietly. However, the mental instability of Cui Erdou and his wife did not bring her any excitement, because even if these two people died cruelly, it could not redeem her brother's pitiful life. Nevertheless, for her brother's sake, she felt a little comforted seeing them living in terror every day, thinking that her brother's revenge had been avenged, and now all that was needed was for these two despicable people to die.

  That night, Lu Xiaoying saw Cui Erdou hiding in the house and trembling. She quietly entered the house, then suddenly appeared in front of Cui Erdou with her hair disheveled, coldly and expressionlessly saying to him: "Return my life to me..."

  A shrill and mournful cry echoed through the night, and Cui Erdou's face first turned pale, then his eyes widened, followed by a purplish hue, his legs twitched a few times on the ground, his mouth agape and his eyes staring wide before he died without even having a chance to struggle.

  Scared to death, Cui Erdou, Lu Xiaoying turned around and floated out of the house. She floated into her own home in the dimly lit night, where her sister-in-law was still crying and occasionally bursting into laughter, holding a stack of banknotes worth several thousand yuan.

  The room was pitch black, and his sister-in-law didn't turn on the light. To her now, electric lights seemed to have lost too much significance.

  Lu Xiaoying thinks that now her sister-in-law doesn't dare to turn on the lights anymore, perhaps because of nerve disorder, so now she basically has no awareness of turning on the lights.

  Lu Xiaoying stood at the door of the house, listening to her sister-in-law's loud laughter and crying inside. She gently pushed open the door and took advantage of the faint light outside to see her sister-in-law sitting by the stove in the room, her hair disheveled and dirty, her face pale, and her eyes sunken. This sight was even more frightening than Lu Xiaoying's own soul. When she saw her sister-in-law for the first time, Lu Xiaoying was startled and took a step back.

  "Return my life to me——" Lu Xiao Ying's cold and mournful cry echoed against the wooden door, her voice desolate and bleak, like a wolf howling in an empty wilderness, or the rustling of pines in a mountain forest.

  "Sister-in-law cried out in surprise from inside the house: 'Who is it?'"

  Lu Xiaoying didn't say a word, she heard the sound of something hitting the bench and something falling to the ground from outside the room. Lu Xiaoying knew that her sister-in-law must have panicked and knocked over the bench, then fell to the ground herself.

  "It's me——" Lu Xiao Ying let out that terrifying, trembling scream once again.

  After she finished speaking, there was no longer any sound coming from inside the house. The small, dark thatched hut was silent, as if shrouded in an aura of death. Lu Xiaoying pushed the door open again and looked inside, where her sister-in-law lay motionless on the ground, her eyes wide open, her hands clutching her head, and her hair pulled out, dead just like that.

  After confirming that her sister-in-law was dead, she entered the house, grabbed her sister-in-law's hair with one hand and carried her to Chui Erdou's home. She leaned the two corpses against each other and wrote on the wall: "Ghost seeking life". Then she flew up and disappeared into the darkness of the village, hiding in the wind, heading towards Haishan City.

  At noon, she arrived at the outskirts of Haichuan City. Seeing that there were very few people here and she wouldn't be noticed, she appeared on the ground and quickly entered the city.

  Returning to the apartment, Qian Xiaohong was not in the apartment, so she also rushed to the company.

  General Manager Qiu Xiaoqian heard that Lu Xiaoying had finally returned, so she rushed to their office in a huff. As soon as she entered the door, she asked Lu Xiaoying with a gloomy face where she had been for this period of time, and why she hadn't come to work for a month without even asking for leave?

  Lu Xiaoying couldn't tell them what had happened at her hometown, so she lied and said that she was going to Sichuan with friends on business and planned to return that night. However, it rained heavily in Sichuan for several days, causing a landslide that blocked the road, making it impossible for her to come back. Originally, she wanted to make a phone call, but her phone fell off and she didn't have any numbers, so she lost contact with everyone.

  Upon hearing this explanation, the general manager was somewhat skeptical but couldn't find any evidence to prove that Lu Xiaoying was lying. Moreover, there hadn't been any incidents involving the two of them during this period, so even if he wasn't pleased, the general manager didn't say anything else and left after giving a few instructions.

  After work, Lu Xiaoying and Qian Xiaohong went home together. As soon as they entered the house, Qian Xiaohong asked her what had happened. Lu Xiaoying remained silent for a long time before slowly telling Qian Xiaohong everything. Finally, she concluded: "Xiaohong, now except for you, and Lan Ge and Chen Ge, I no longer believe in anything in this world. What love, what family ties? These are all fake! Except for money, except for external beauty, everything is insignificant. Haven't you noticed that the TV has been playing some youth idol dramas these days? The men and women in those shows love each other to death, but have you noticed that the male leads are always rich young masters? Which of the female leads isn't beautiful? I haven't seen a single TV show about poor people having deep and abiding love."

  "You're right!" Qian Xiaohong listened seriously, and after a moment of silence, she said, "You and I were sympathetic to each other in our previous lives. To experience the taste of love, we had to rely on the body of a beautiful woman. Thinking about it is really heart-wrenching."

  "I used to think that by relying on someone else's body, I could find true love and truly enjoy the sweetness of romance. But, returning to reality, I realized that everything you did had never changed."

  Qian Xiaohong didn't say a word, she just nodded in agreement.

  "How have you been lately?" asked Lu Xiao Ying, "What about that man named Zhang or something?"

  "Are you talking about Zhang Mingyu?!" Qian Xiaohong suddenly lifted her head, looked at Lu Xiaoying, picked up the photo frame from the bedside table, and talked endlessly, "Look, this is Zhang Mingyu. Isn't he handsome?! He's very polite when speaking, just looking at him makes you feel like he's a very cultivated man, that's why I really like him."

  Now Qian Xiaohong has fallen in love, and she has also experienced the taste of love. As long as it's about Zhang Mingyu, she is very interested, as if everything in her life belongs to Zhang Mingyu. Even when she returned to the world, it seemed like fate had brought her back to meet and fall in love with Zhang Mingyu, so she was very happy. Some time ago, she even reminded Lu Xiaoying to hold back, reminding her not to put all her emotions into Yang Hua, for fear that one day Yang Hua would know the truth and leave abruptly, causing her harm.

  She also thought of keeping a distance from Zhang Mingyu, fearing that one day he would discover her true nature and leave her. However, after falling in love, she couldn't care about anything else. The more she wanted to pull away, the deeper their emotional connection became. So, she stopped thinking about it and simply loved him, enjoying her second "life" to the fullest.

  So even if Lu Xiao Ying asked her to keep a certain distance from Zhang Ming Yu, and even used her own experience as proof, Qian Xiao Hong didn't listen at all.

  She thinks Zhang Mingyu and Yang Huan are different, Zhang Mingyu has received higher education, has his own unique insights on things, and looks at problems more deeply than Yang Huan. Comparing Yang Huan to him is simply like comparing heaven and earth.

  Lu Xiaoying saw that Qian Xiaohong's love for Zhang Mingyu had already fallen too deeply, at this time no matter what she said, Qian Xiaohong would not listen, so she also fell silent.

  People often only know regret when they themselves truly encounter hardship! Even if there is a real and true lesson from the past, he would rather believe that his problems are different from others' experiences.

  The two of them sat in the apartment chatting idly until dusk, when the city's neon lights began to shine brightly. Qian Xiaohong heard a sharp horn honking from downstairs and excitedly grabbed her bag on the bed, ran to the mirror to tidy up her hair and reapply lipstick, said goodbye to Lu Xiao Ying, and rushed out of the house.

  Qian Xiaohong left, and the whole room was left with Lu Xiao Ying. At this time, she felt particularly lonely and bored. She stood in front of the window for a long time, gazing out at the city which was as white as daylight. Then she sat back on the bed, turned on the TV to watch it, but after watching for a while, she felt bored again, so she got up and turned off the TV.

  She intended to rest, as she had been tired enough for these days, so she went back to bed again. However, she couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard she tried.

  She let out a loud cry, sprang up from the bed, and put on her clothes. As it was cold outside, she wrapped her clothes tightly around her body, huddled her head, and wandered aimlessly in the streets.

  After walking for a while, she unknowingly arrived at the entrance of a nightclub. The lively sounds inside were "enticing" her, so she walked in.

  Inside the nightclub hall, men and women were in groups, everyone was working hard to squander their youth, swinging their bodies wildly in the dimly lit dance floor.

  She sat down in a corner, the waiter came up and asked her what she needed, she simply ordered some food and beer, then looked at the rotating lights and the men and women in the dance pool.

  "Miss, alone?" A middle-aged bald man walked over, holding a highball glass, looking like an explosive rich man.

  "You should be able to see," Lu Xiao Ying glanced at him and elegantly took a sip of wine.

  "May I sit here?" a middle-aged man asked with a smile, but he didn't wait for Lu Xiaoying's response and sat down in the chair across from her.

  "You've already done it." Lu Xiao Ying slightly raised her head, looked at him, and smiled briefly with the corners of her mouth upturned.

  "Without your consent, it's indeed a bit presumptuous," the middle-aged man said. "But who can resist taking a step back when faced with such a beautiful young lady?"

  When she heard him say "beautiful", Lu Xiao Ying's face suddenly changed, she smiled coldly and said: "Really? You really think I'm beautiful?"

  She expressionless, looked around, saw people only swaying their bodies, no one paying attention to this dark corner, so she let her long hair scatter on her shoulders, eyes flowed out red blood, red lips opened to reveal two rows of serrated teeth, low voice said: "Do you like it?"

  In this dimly lit corner, the rotating colored lights on the ceiling swept across her terrifying face. The middle-aged man was stunned at first, then froze in his original pose, motionless for a long time before standing up and running out wildly, shouting "Ghost! Ghost!" as he ran.

  Watching the man roll and crawl out, Lu Xiao Ying changed back to her original appearance. She burst into a fit of laughter, laughing so happily yet helplessly. Her face was smiling, but her heart was aching, tears streaming down like a waterfall.

  The people present first heard someone screaming and running out, and they curiously searched everywhere to find out what had scared the man away. After searching for a long time without finding anything suspicious, they heard a woman's loud laughter with her hair disheveled, and everyone looked at her, seeing Lu Xiao Ying with a puzzled face, exchanging glances with each other.

  Lu Xiaoying swept a glance over the people present, gave them a cold laugh, then stood up, casually slung her bag over her shoulder, and with a slightly drunken swagger, walked towards the entrance of the Night General Assembly.

  At this time, a man and a woman walked in, with the man's arm around the woman's slender waist, they walked in affectionately.

  Lu Xiao Ying walked out, but collided with a man and woman who were coming in. The man shouted loudly, pointing at Lu Xiao Ying and scolding her harshly. Lu Xiao Ying forced herself to lift her head, she was about to retort back, but saw that the man looked very familiar, so she frowned and stared at him, searching for memories in her mind.

  At last, she finally thought of it, Xiao Hong's photo frame!