Under the storm, there was another thunderclap.

The bleak white light tore through the dark night, and the cracked stone walls of the ancient temple also looked pale and white, as if countless ghosts would suddenly appear in the next second, and they would wake up along the frescoes that were no longer real under the baptism of time, crawling out in a very strange posture, accompanied by the echoing strange laughter to dismantle everything around them.

The overwhelming mandala flowers subsided at this moment, they were like giant snakes suddenly illuminated by fire candles, quickly put away their teeth and claws, shrunk inch by inch, and grew backwards along the cracks in the walls of the ancient temple, but in just a few seconds, the red color that could be seen faded away, leaving only the disgusting rot of the flowers when they bloomed to decay.

After the bright red everywhere receded, the remaining blood stains became clearer.

Shen Chuanyuan looked at the place where Ah Cai disappeared, only fragments of clothes remained, and the blood sprayed all over the ground, and the stone bricks were bloodstains reflecting the moonlight. The fragments of flesh and blood reflected the wreckage everywhere, staining the straw that Ah Cai had carefully laid for a long time, and was originally going to get together with Shen Chuanyuan in the ancient temple for a night.

After the dry yellow withered yellow was dyed red, there were blood condensation droplets at the end of the leaves, which fell drop by drop at an extremely slow speed, as if recording fleeting cruelty. The fresh life was torn to pieces in the blink of an eye, and the thick smell of blood penetrated Shen Chuanyuan's snort pervasively, making him retching uncontrollably.

Because it was too close, Shen Chuanyuan's windbreaker was also stained with a thick layer of blood.

It's just a few seconds, and the situation has come to an end in an irreversible way, and Shen Chuanyuan can't afford to think about it more. Ah Cai was standing in front of him not long ago, and he was still holding the girl's slender ankles, trying to think about how to get the little girl out smoothly and escape from the crisis caused by his thoughts.

But now, all of that has lost its meaning.

Ah Cai has become a puddle of blood on the ground, and it will never come back.

With Ah Cai's death, everything seems to have settled. The shadows of the trees swaying wildly in the mountains and forests fell silent for a moment, and the Shadow Guard of the Sand, who had been burrowing into the temple with his teeth and claws, paused, and then turned into mud and sand everywhere after a gust of evil wind. The mud on the forest path was mottled by the rain, and it looked potholed and uneven, and in the end only a disgusting fishy smell remained, and the slightest wisp occupied the clarity between the snorts, not only because of the excessive smell of blood, but also because of the foul smell of the mud that had been washed away by the rain.

At this point, the fog covering the stone statues enshrined in the temple finally lifted.

In the diffuse smoke, the deity's dharma gradually became distorted and hideous, and the red candle that was originally lit by Shen Chuanyuan himself was still flickering at this moment, and the shadowy light reflected the elongated shadow on the wall, with a terrifying gloom. Shen Chuanyuan couldn't tell for a moment whether it was the weird god statue or his own heart that was distorted.

Why is this so?

At first, the masked man only smiled casually, his words were so careless that he couldn't hear the indifference and caution between his words, just like stating the facts.

"Don't you want to save your little sister?"

"Everything has a price, we are just a partnership, I am not a philanthropist, you need to show your own value, and bear the cost alone, this is a matter of course, you will not think clearly. ”

.......

At that time, Shen Chuanyuan was convinced of the man's words, and he really felt that all this was taken for granted.

But he never thought that the price behind this was actually a living human life.

Such a result was too unexpected and too tragic, so that Shen Chuanyuan felt that his chest was choked and he couldn't go up or down, as if there was a huge wound in an instant, and the cold wind was blowing in a hurry, and it never stopped for a moment.

Looking at the blood stains everywhere, Shen Chuanyuan's eyes were slightly hot, and his fingertips couldn't stop trembling.

After everything was calm, the sense of happiness for the rest of his life after the catastrophe was replaced by an unknown hollow, and Shen Chuanyuan had to take a big breath to barely calm the suffocation that suddenly arose due to mood swings. But this effect is minimal, and Shen Chuanyuan can't even take a step forward, quickly leave this place of right and wrong, or carefully judge whether the crisis is really over. He just froze in place, looking at the pool of blood that caught his eyes and lost his mind, all his reactions seemed to be frozen in ice, and after a long time, Shen Chuanyuan did not take a step forward or back.

At that moment, he clearly regretted it.

Before this, Shen Chuanyuan was quite sober in his cognition, he was a good person, and he never felt that he was an indecisive person. The refined egoist has always put feelings at the forefront, and interpersonal socialization is based on the principle of "having a use". The only time he fell in love was just because Gu Qi was a very sensible and worry-free girlfriend who was suitable enough for him, and after discovering that there was an irreconcilable contradiction between the two people, he immediately abandoned this relationship.

There's nothing that no one can't take advantage of, and it's just because the timing is not right or the chips aren't enough.

Shen Chuanyuan didn't mind exchanging his old feelings for more clues to make his plan more complete. Even his ex-girlfriend Gu Qi, who has been serious about the truth for so many years, can become a chess piece in his layout, exchanging favors for others at the right time, not to mention those who are far from having enough friendships?

For the fate of the Pingshui meeting, Shen Chuanyuan saw it very thoroughly, Ah Cai originally knew him for the layout, if he didn't come to Wucheng to find the Wu clan, it would be completely impossible to fight with Ah Cai's eight poles, who would have mercy on irrelevant passers-by.

But why is it so uncomfortable now?

Whether it was a shame on his conscience or a deeper reluctance, Shen Chuanyuan couldn't tell for a while. He didn't even dare to distinguish it anymore, even if his eyes swept to the bloodstains on the ground, Shen Chuanyuan's heart would contract violently under extremely intense grief, and he couldn't go back to a few minutes ago, and he didn't care about anything and pulled Ah Cai out of this place he had seen.

If time could really be turned back.......

Even if the plan to visit Wucheng fell short, even if the planning for more than a year turned into smoke, Shen Chuanyuan could ignore it, he just hoped that the innocent and pure little girl would live well and not become a victim of the conspiracy.

She has just come of age, and she has not yet fallen in love, and she has not gone to the outside world to see.

She originally treated Shen Chuanyuan with the purest mentality of a girl's love, and she couldn't wait to bring out her heart cautiously, but she carefully hid it under the girl's unique shyness and coquettishness, and only revealed a little hint in the details.

Ah Cai even attributed the bad luck to her identity as a witch saint in the end, and did not think that the reason why the accident happened was because of the calculations of others.

In fact, she has been entrusted with non-people from the very beginning.

........

In the huge trance, many fragments of memories suddenly hit Shen Chuanyuan's mind.

In the past 20 years, he has met many people and experienced many things, and he has always been calm and restrained, and he has regarded this as the number one criterion for dealing with people, and has always demanded this from himself.

Shen Chuanyuan rarely cares about anyone, and the only exception is He Manzhou.

Later, Shen Chuanyuan also thought about this question more than once, but he could only sort out the general context from his memory, and could not get an accurate answer, or there was no answer to the human affairs in the first place, and it was just the words "fate" when he studied it deeply.

Like it or not, tempted or not, can it still be reasonable?

There are too many inexplicable coincidences at the beginning and end of a fate, perhaps because Shen Chuanyuan and He Manzhou met at the right time, when Shen Chuanyuan was struggling between the quagmire of society and the ivory tower of the campus, and He Manzhou was the most wanton and arrogant seventeen-year-old, with completely different visions and experiences, but Shen Chuanyuan saw a new possibility.

He Manzhou is like a free wind, but also like a sunflower that is always warm and brilliant, he doesn't know what convergence is, and he won't stumble because of anything, only Miss He can't think of things in this world, but there is nothing she can't do. That kind of flamboyant brightness is deeply imprinted in Shen Chuanyuan's heart, and He Manzhou's freedom is exactly what he yearns for but can't do, even after the passage of time, it has been remembered by Shen Chuanyuan very deeply to the present.

Or maybe Shen Chuanyuan listened to He Manzhou's too many girl's thoughts, and the usually indifferent person never thought of confiding his thoughts to anyone, nor did he think about burdening the emotions of others in the past. He is not willing to trust others, and he does not have to accept unnecessary trust from others. But between the yin and the wrong, he carried too much trust from He Manzhou, and thus found his own value. The little junior sister he wanted to protect well, the girl he watched grow up since he was a child, he lived in Shen Chuanyuan's heart domineeringly, occupied the softest corner, and enjoyed all the privileges that Shen Chuanyuan could give.

Whether it is admiration or pity, whether it is the good feeling that has precipitated over the years, or the companionship of his youth is sublimated in silence, Shen Chuanyuan can't tell it, and he doesn't bother to tell it anymore.

He didn't think that he would have a result with He Manzhou, and he never guarded her like a jade, this feeling was well put in the bottom of Shen Chuanyuan's heart, and he didn't show it at all, everyone regarded him as a big brother who took good care of his little sister, and even He Manzhou, the party, thought the same. And Shen Chuanyuan's only expression of this emotion is just a charcoal in the snow at a critical moment, or a trace of softness that occasionally emerges, he enjoys this obscurity, he doesn't want to let his feelings dissipate, and he doesn't want to do more.

But at this moment, in the midst of the bloody rain, Shen Chuanyuan suddenly found that He Manzhou faded in his mind.

At this moment, his heart was empty, and he thought of the sweet smile of the little girl who was ignorant of the world when he first met, her appearance was not a typical beauty at first sight, but the smart eyes were pure in the warm winter sun, fresh and soft.

Her voice at that time was soft and beautiful, like a laugh that had not been dispersed, sweet to the bottom of people's hearts.

"Everything in our shop is hand-embroidered, and the one I embroider now is our talisman here, to keep you safe. It's almost done, and if you like it, I can sell it to you. ”

And then there are the eyes that tend to despair when they are entangled in flowers and vines.

This little girl, who had been smiling at him all the time, her slender figure was so petite, and it was clear that her whole body trembled uncontrollably in the face of those hideous monsters. But at the critical juncture, she took a step forward and protected Shen Chuanyuan, as if she wanted to leave her life to protect her sweetheart, and resolutely left a sentence.

"You go. ”

....... Why bother?

When did you start wrong, and is it too late to regret it?

Before Shen Chuanyuan could sort out his emotions, the stone statue enshrined in the temple collapsed. The red candle burning in front of the god fell the last tear, and the flickering fire was extinguished, and the surroundings suddenly darkened. In the absolute darkness, a strange blue light gradually faintly reflected, like a ghost fire in the dark night.

And at the end of the light was a pair of shoes made of green jade.