Chapter 56: Conclusion

Lu Rong only felt the heat all over his body, like he was burning up. He wanted to escape, but Shen Jize kept holding his hand, and whispered to ask, “I asked you a question, and you haven’t answered me yet. Have you kissed enough?”

He was so close, his warm breath was hitting his face, and Lu Rong struggled with his hands in vain, pleading in a whisper, “Let… go of me first.”

“I’ll let you go if you answer.” Shen Jize was unmoved.

Lu Rong looked at him, his dark eyes were damp and watery, and they were flushed at the end.

“I don’t think I’ve kissed you enough…” He said in a gnat-like voice.

Shen Jize’s breath stalled, he didn’t make a sound, nor did he let go, just towering over Lu Rong, watching him.

Lu Rong saw his eyes deepening, like a fierce leopard staring at its prey, and suddenly alarm bells went off in his head, sensing a hint of danger.

“Brother～” He couldn’t care less about his initial shame and hurriedly pouted ingratiatingly.

Just then, there was a loud bang at the entrance, which must have been the bound man struggling and knocking something over.

Shen Jize closed his eyes and let out a slow breath, then violently got off of Lu Rong, striding towards the bathroom.

“Rong Rong, call the police first. I’m going to take a shower.”

The fake cleaner, who was tied up, was flopping around on the floor like a catfish leaving the water, and the leather stool under the shoe cabinet was knocked over by him. Because his mouth was gagged, he could only whimper when he saw Lu Rong.

“Be honest, or I’ll blindfold you and plug your ears.” Lu Rong said with a vicious look.

The cleaner didn’t move, and Lu Rong turned around when he saw the reflection on the window, his scarlet face and flushed countenance. He hurriedly turned away, not daring to glance at the window.

Shen Jize soon came out of the bathroom, soaking wet. At this time the police also came up to the door, and after taking a statement at the scene, took the man away.

“Brother, although you only said that he sneaked into the house in the middle of the night, we caught and tied him up, but he went to the police station. What if he talks about the illusion?” Lu Rong asked with some concern.

Shen Jize curled his finger and flicked him on his forehead, “No one will believe it even if he talks about it. It sounds so ridiculous, it can only be his imagination.”

“Ah, you’re right.” Lu Rong agreed reassuringly.

Shen Jize looked at the time and saw that it was now past ten o’clock, and neither of them had eaten anything since they woke up this morning.

“Are you hungry?” He asked Lu Rong.

Lu Rong said honestly, “Yes, I’m hungry.”

Shen Jize nodded fervently, but looked at him without saying anything.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Rong was so scared by his look that he reached out to touch his face.

Shen Jize gave a tsk, “Aren’t you my bodyguard? Don’t you have the self-awareness to cook?”

“Ah, I see.” Lu Rong reached out and scratched his face as he slowly made his way to the kitchen.

But he didn’t know how to cook, so he muttered in his mind as he walked away, and looked back at Shen Jize three times.

Shen Jize had just taken a shower and his shirt was unbuttoned at the top, revealing a small piece of his firm chest. He was standing in the middle of the room, looking at Lu Rong who was in a difficult position.

Lu Rong saw the playfulness in his eyes, making him happy, as he turned and ran back quickly, jumped into his arms and wrapped his neck, while rubbing softly, “Brother, but I don’t know how to cook.”

Shen Jize coughed lightly, “If you can’t cook then what do we do?”

“Brother～” Lu Rong’s voice was getting sweeter and sweeter.

Shen Jize reached out to hold his shoulder and asked, “Do you want me to cook?”

Lu Rong tilted his head to look at his face and narrowed his eyes in a smile.

“If you want me to cook, it’s not impossible, but I only do it for my wife.” Shen Jize, seeing Lu Rong’s retort, stretched out his finger against his lips, “The previous cooking was an exception, from now on it will only be for my wife.”

Lu Rong whispered, “Then I’m your wife.”

Shen Jize looked down at him, “Really?”

“Didn’t we get married a long time ago? We tied the knot in front of the Moon God, and the red rope was tied tightly, so you can’t deny it.” Lu Rong tugged on his sleeve and shook it gently.

Shen Jize shook his head and sighed, “When you’re shy, a little kiss and your face turns red. When you’re not shy, you’ll say sweet things like you don’t need money.”

Lu Rong buried his face into his arms, and said in a jarring voice, “I’m not quite used to it, but I will be after a few more kisses.”

After he said this, he also felt a little ashamed, and put his hot face on Shen Jize’s chest, listening to his powerful heartbeat.

The chest under his ear suddenly vibrated, as Shen Jize was laughing silently. He pinched Lu Rong’s pinkish ears and said softly, “I’ll go cook now then, for my wife.”

The two of them spent the day at home, watching movies and chatting. After dinner, Shen Jize stood on the stairs to the rooftop of the penthouse with two glasses of juice.

“Come on, let’s go up and see the view.” He waved his head at Lu Rong.

Shen Jize walked into the sunroom, put the juice on the low table and turned back to Lu Rong, “Come on.” He said and sat cross-legged on the carpet, leaning against a cushion.

Lu Rong lay down next to him and rested his head on his lap.

The sun had set, the sky was only a faint red, and the overhead had been shadowed with stars.

Lu Rong looked at the sky, listening to Shen Jize’s breathing beside him, feeling the warmth of his body, and felt a sense of peace.

This reminded him of those nights when he turned into a deer, wandering freely in the forest, his nose smelling the reassuring fresh fragrance.

Shen Jize gently stroked his hair and suddenly whispered, “Are you going to go with them to deal with Candlelight?”

Lu Rong tilted his head to look at him, and although he didn’t answer, it clearly showed in his eyes.

Shen Jize buried his face into the soft top of his hair and asked in a low voice, “Rong Rong, can you not go?”

He knew that Lu Rong’s father had been killed in the battle with Candlelight, and if Lu Rong…  He didn’t dare to think further. Just thinking about it made fear grip his whole body, and his heart seemed to be squeezed by a huge hand.

“Rong Rong, can you not go?” He begged in a hoarse, murmuring voice.

Lu Rong propped himself up from his lap, his lips pressed against his warm neck, and whispered back, “Brother, I will be fine, don’t worry.”

He raised Shen Jize’s hand up and pressed it to his heart. “Flutter, flutter… My heart is saying it must come back safely because my brother and grandfather are still waiting for me.”

Shen Jize knew Lu Rong would go there.

Not only was it the responsibility of the Fu Zhu clan, but also the blood feud of his parents, so he was in no position to continue to prevent it, so he could only hold the person tighter in his arms, so tight that it seemed to be embedded in his body.

In the next few days, Shen Jize took Lu Rong with him everywhere he went, even to the director’s audition.

When he was acting, Lu Rong would sit on the sidelines with a small stool and wait. Whenever Shen Jize had free time, he would come over to talk with Lu Rong and ask the staff to buy him snacks.

His caring actions made people next to him keep checking out Lu Rong and trying to chat with him. Whenever this happened, Lu Rong pointed to Shen Jize in the middle of the scene and said with a sincere face, “I’m his bodyguard.”

Shen Jize was unapologetic about their relationship, and Kate soon found out about it and was furious, but there was nothing she could do about it. The reason was that Shen Jize had an unforgiving look, telling her that he could stop shooting, but he couldn’t stop talking about love.

Kate could only think of a way to keep all the news under wraps. As long as Shen Jize didn’t expose Lu Rong to the public, it wouldn’t be a big problem.

The company’s bodyguard status was now really useful, so she turned a blind eye to the situation and stopped working herself up about it.

Xiao Chu was also very worried, he sat upright in the passenger side of the business car, not daring to turn his head to look at the two people in the back seat stuck together like glue, as he carefully asked, “Brother An, what if you and Rong Rong’s affair is known to the media?”

Lu Rong, who was wrapped in Shen Jize’s arms, stiffened when he heard this, and looked quickly at Shen Jize.

Shen Jize, however, didn’t care much and said, “If they know, they know. Who cares?”

Xiao Chu: …Well, he’s already become a wife.

Lu Rong didn’t tell Grandpa Cai about it when he normally videoed him, just pouted and reported on his current situation as usual. He said to Shen Jize, “I don’t want Grandpa to worry. When I come back, I will bring him to the capital, and we will live together. And brother Tu, and Uncle Chen, and Uncle Bai…”

Lu Rong leaned into his arms and counted on his white fingers.

Shen Jize kissed his forehead and said softly, “Okay, we’ll live together then.”

The two of them were cuddling and whispering, exchanging a sticky kiss every now and then. The sound of the words faded away, and only the occasional intermittent sound of kissing could be heard.

Shen Jize’s breathing was ragged and the orange light in the room gave off an ambiguous aura. He pushed the forehead hair of the person in his arms back and pressed his hot lips to it, following the red corner of his eyes all the way down… 

Lu Rong was kissed by him until he lost his concentration, and his eyes were unfocused on the ceiling. After a spinning of the sky, he was carried by Shen Jize to the soft bed again.

“Rong Rong, Rong Rong…”

Shen Jize only repeatedly called softly, his voice accompanied the hot breath from his nose into Lu Rong’s ears, making his body weak, unable to lift a breath of strength.

Shen Jize felt like there was a giant beast trapped in his heart, plowing the ground in an irritable attempt to break out of the cage. His pupils became darker and darker, his left hand held the back of Lu Rong’s fragile neck, and his right hand gently rubbed the top of his hair.

“Rong Rong…” His voice became more and more muffled, containing a strong lust. But the action never went further, only looking intently at the person beneath him, as if watching his reaction. The sweat on his forehead slid down his temples and hung on his well-defined chin.

Lu Rong’s big eyes were watery, with two hues of red flying at the end of them, and his lips were lusciously bright. He moved over with difficulty and tried to get as close to Shen Jize as possible.

“Brother, Brother…” He whispered in a sobbing voice.

Lu Rong’s sobs were fragmented and intermittent for half the night.

When Lu Rong opened his eyes, it was already dawn, and the first thing that caught his eyes was Shen Jize’s sleeping profile. He was stunned for a moment, his mind lost in thought, then he remembered what happened last night and the tips of his ears began to flush.

He buried his face on Shen Jize’s firm chest, a little ashamed and couldn’t help but laugh. When Shen Jize was still asleep, he poked his chest, tilted his head to look at his face, and reached out to touch the stubble on his chin.

The next moment, his hand was held tightly, and Shen Jize rolled over and pinned him underneath, his eyes clear.

“You actually pretended to be asleep!” Lu Rong’s accusation was just out of his mouth, the rest of his words were blocked by Shen Jize, and he could only make fragmented syllables in a giggle.

Lu Rong’s arms and legs were weak from the kiss, and when he saw the familiar dark color appearing in Shen Jize’s eyes again, his mind instantly jolted and he crawled to the bed on his hands and knees, but he was caught by Shen Jize by the ankle and couldn’t move.

“Brother, I’m in pain all over. Ouch ouch… everywhere… I need to get up…” He hurriedly pouted and begged in a soft and whiny manner.

When Shen Jize heard this, not only did he not soften, but his eyes grew darker and darker, and his hands made an effort to drag the man back again.

When the room was quiet, it was almost noon, and Shen Jize, bare-chested and wearing only a pair of loose pants, was in the kitchen humming a song and making lunch.

A sudden ringing of the bell made him wake up a little. A few moments later, the low voice of Shen Jize came from the front door, talking to someone downstairs on a visual intercom. It’s probably the delivery guy, Lu Rong thought with his eyes closed, but then reacted to the fact that Shen Jize was making lunch, so who was the person coming now?

Shen Jize hung up the call, there was no sound of the elevator opening on their floor, so Lu Rong’s brain suddenly flashed a thought, his sleepiness suddenly flew away, as he opened his eyes.

Shen Jize just turned from the door to go to the kitchen, his line of sight swept in the direction of the bedroom, when he got slightly stunned and then stood still.

Lu Rong stood in the doorway wearing bear pajamas, quietly looking at him with a pair of big black eyes and the insightful understanding of everything.

“I… I…” Shen Jize wanted to say that it was a salesman downstairs, but the words finally didn’t come out, only a weak sideways glance.

The light was blocked by his high nose, half of his face sunk in shadow, the corners of his lips and lower jaw line were taut, pulling out a cold hard line.

In the quiet, the doorbell rang again.

Once, twice… 

Shen Jize’s hand hanging by his side moved as if he wanted to turn around to hang up, but Lu Rong had already brushed past him and pressed the call button quickly.

“Is Lu Rong there, please?”

On the video screen was the figure of Wang Tu and Uncle Chen.

Shen Jize stood still and didn’t move, his hands that were hanging down were getting tighter and tighter, the knuckles turning white because of the force.

“Brother Tu, Uncle Chen, I’m here.” Lu Rong turned his head to look at him, and finally said to the screen.

Shen Jize closed his eyes, the knot in his throat rolling up and down, and upon hearing Lu Rong promise them to come downstairs immediately, he suddenly took a big stride towards his bedroom and closed the door with a bang.

Lu Rong hung up the intercom and silently went back to his bedroom, opened his closet and took his jacket out of it to change. Then he fished out his old backpack from the bottom of the closet, rustled it up, and walked out of the bedroom.

The door to Shen Jize’s room was closed, and he hesitated for a few seconds before knocking twice.

The door didn’t open, and there was silence inside.

Lu Rong hung his head and said to the door, “Brother, I will come back safely. I know how hard it is to wait, and I won’t keep you waiting for me.”

There was still no sound from the door, so he turned around and slowly walked towards the door. There was a strange sound behind him, he abruptly turned around, but only saw the window screen at the end of the passage opening, making a light rustling sound.

Shen Jize stood in front of the bedroom window, facing the golf lawn in the distance, as if transformed into a statue. When he heard Lu Rong’s gloomy voice coming from the door, his fingers on the windowsill moved, and a flash of pain passed through his eyes.

The sound of the elevator door closing came like a sharp sword piercing his skin, causing him to shudder in pain, turn around and rush to the bedroom door, pulling it open vigorously, then darting towards the front door.

The elevator was on the first floor, Lu Rong had already gone down, he repeatedly pressed the button several times and covered his forehead while waiting for the elevator to rise, turning back and forth in circles like a trapped animal.

Ding! He rushed in the moment the elevator doors opened and pressed the first floor, but by the time he ran out of the ground floor lobby panting, he only saw a gray SUV disappearing at the end of the driveway.

Wang Tu and Uncle Chen took turns driving the SUV, heading all the way to the far north of the plateau. Two days later, they stopped in a small town under a snowy mountain.

Wearing thick down jackets and carrying backpacks, the three abandoned the car and walked into the mountain. It was the back side of a snowy mountain, and only halfway up the mountain, they encountered a bitter wind. The cold wind with snow flakes covered the sky,  quickly reducing visibility, making the world dim.

“Brother Tu, is Candlelight hiding here?” Lu Rong, wearing an orange down jacket and leaning on a hiking stick, asked Wang Tu loudly beside him.

“He’s hiding in the illusion he created, but the entrance to the illusion is on this snowy mountain.” Wang Tu’s eyebrows were covered with snow, and he wiped his face.

Uncle Chen gasped and asked, “Rong Rong, are you tired? Don’t be in a hurry, we’ll be there soon.”

“I’m not tired, I was just asking.”

As they spoke, the three of them struggled to climb up a small hill, because there was no cover, the wind and snow on this hill was even bigger, blowing so hard that people could barely stand.

“Look, the entrance is down there.” Wang Tu pointed to the hollow behind the berg.

Lu Rong looked in the direction of his finger, but couldn’t see anything because it was blocked by the dense snow flakes. But he also accelerated his pace, and soon reached the depression.

Standing on the empty alcove, without waiting for Lu Rong to ask, Wang Tu and Uncle Chen looked at each other and both stretched out their right hands and pointed ahead.

A few seconds later, Lu Rong saw that the air began to distort, and the falling snow flakes all automatically drifted in other directions, and a passage of the kind of light mass he could see in the illusion appeared.

“Go in!” Wang Tu bellowed.

Lu Rong leapt into the channel, only to feel that the violent wind whistling into his ears instantly disappeared, the whole world went quiet, only a burst of birds chirping could be heard. He opened his eyes and found himself standing on a mountain path, with the warm sun in the sky and lush, verdant trees on either side.

He turned in a stunned circle to look around and found that this place was very similar to the Longquan Mountain where he had lived. In contrast, only the vegetation was more lush and the trail was merely a path, not the artificially repaired stone stairs of Longquan Mountain.

“Rong Rong.” Wang Tu’s voice came from not far away.

“Brother Tu, I’m here.” Lu Rong responded in that direction.

After the three of them met, Wang Tu started to take off his down jacket, “Take it off, it’s too hot here.”

Uncle Chen hurriedly stopped, “Don’t take it off, we are still in the snowy mountain after we go out from the illusion, if we don’t seal Candlelight, we will freeze to death in the mountain.”

Wang Tu saw Lu Rong looking around with a dazed face and explained, “This is where Candlelight slept before.”

“But… but this is the Longquan Mountain where I lived.” Lu Rong said. He grew up running all over the mountain, he was familiar with the terrain of the back of the mountain.

Wang Tu paused and said, “So this is called Longquan Mountain…”

Seeing Lu Rong’s puzzled face, Uncle Chen said, “This was originally Candlelight’s tomb, but how can I put it? Although it looks the same as your Longquan Mountain, it’s not the same space, understand?”

Lu Rong shook his head, indicating that he didn’t understand.

Wang Tu rubbed his head and said, “Go ahead and talk as you go.”

As the three of them walked up the path, Wang Tu said, “Longquan Mountain used to be called Candlewood Peak, which suppressed the sleeping Candlelight, and only after many years did it slowly become Longquan Mountain. What you are seeing now is the Candlewood Peak from back then. It looks similar to Longquan Mountain, but in fact it’s just an illusion made by the escaped Candlelight to himself.”

Uncle Chen opened the zipper and said, “Generally such places will leave a lot of legends. It is said that thousands of years ago, Candlelight woke up once, and Fu Zhu and Bai Ze fought a few fights. I guess there are still legends of them among the people.”

Lu Rong suddenly remembered the broken temple of Master Hong, and the mural on the earthen wall of the temple, dedicated to the three gods statue.

When he told them, Uncle Chen wiped the sweat from his forehead in anger, “Two gods, just two gods! Fu Zhu and Bai Ze, two immortals. I’m going to go to Longquan Mountain and smash his stone statue to pieces when I get out.”

Lu Rong said, “His stone statue’s eyes were eaten by chickens, it’s okay.”

He didn’t care if the stone statue without eyes was Candlelight, it was the ugliest one anyway, and it was definitely him.

While talking, there was a sudden movement ahead, and a golden light abruptly rushed to the sky.

“Master! Master is just ahead and is fighting against Candlelight!” Wang Tu fiercely said in a deep voice.

Lu Rong’s heart tightened, and he immediately disappeared from his original place and turned into a white deer.

The white deer followed the path towards the golden light, Wang Tu followed closely behind, only Uncle Chen ran out two steps and then turned back, picking up Lu Rong’s clothes and shoes and socks scattered all over the ground.

He was already hot, and now he was holding a pile, sweating even faster.

Lu Rong knew where the golden light was, it was a small waterfall. There was a small pool below, in autumn and winter it would dry up into a pit, in spring and summer when there was a lot of rain, it would accumulate a shallow puddle of water, cattle and sheep would sometimes drink there.

But when he ran closer, he heard the sound of rumbling water impact. A wide, raging waterfall, like a giant silver curtain, hanging on the wall of the mountain with the momentum of a flying stream, incomparable. What was more shocking than the waterfall was that a giant beast was hovering above it. In the distance, just opposite was a man standing in the center of the lake.

The familiar figure was instantly recognized by Lu Rong as Uncle Bai!

The beast resembled a dragon and a snake, its body was covered with hard black scales, with sharp claws under its belly, and its immense head was covered with a long mane of hair, with a single horn in the middle.

At the moment he was spitting out thick black fog in front of him, black fog in the air condensed into millions of poisonous arrows, breaking into the air against the white.

Lu Rong gave a cry of alarm before he saw the white body rise up in front of the golden light, his entire body wrapped in it. Those poison arrows as if hitting an invisible wall, had been fixed in the air, the arrow tails couldn’t stop trembling.

A poison arrow came at Lu Rong, he dodged nimbly, the arrow brushed by, he smelled the fishy smell in the illusion, a strong maliciousness also came to his face.

The golden light on Bai Zhi’s body became even more intense and shot straight up into the sky, and all those poisonous arrows that were stagnant in the air were turned into black mist and dissipated in the air. But at the same time, his body swayed a few times, although immediately stabilized, it also revealed the current response to the difficult situation.

The beast stopped its next attack, and with two fierce eyes facing the direction of Lu Rong, slowly spoke, “Bai Zhi, I didn’t want to tangle with you any longer, so today I wanted to finish it completely, but I didn’t expect that the descendants of Fu Zhu also came. Then you two should go on your way together.”

Only then did Bai Zhi look at the shore and lock eyes with Lu Rong. He surveyed the slender white deer, and his gaze showed relief, with a hint of a smile on his pale face.

“Master, are you okay, Master?” Uncle Chen and Wang Tu also rushed over, panting.

Bai Zhi’s face changed and he said in a stern voice, “Hide to the side.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he saw Candlelight spewing out a mouthful of black gas at the two men’s location. Bai Zhi was about to leap to the lake, but saw the white deer took action faster than him and blocked in front of the two people, with his low bright horns, front legs slightly curved, hind legs tense, and red stripes flashing out dazzling light.

With a loud bang, red light and black fog collided in the air. In an instant a hurricane swirled over the entire lake, the lake water tumbled into several feet high giant waves.

The powerful airflow pushed Wang Tu and Uncle Chen backward several meters and they fell into the thick fallen leaves. Even though Uncle Chen was in the air, he held Lu Rong’s pile of clothes tightly, but Wang Tu leapt up and shouted at Lu Rong, “Rong Rong, go to Uncle Bai and merge with his power!”

Lu Rong blocked Candlelight’s blow, only to feel as if his chest had been hammered by something heavy, his qi and blood surged, and his throat was fishy and sweet. He heeded Wang Tu’s warning and leapt hard towards the center of the lake, while at the same time, Bai Zhi also lunged in his direction.

In Lu Rong’s sight, the two were getting closer and closer, almost meeting in the air. But at that moment, Candlelight let out a roar, and a black barrier fell from the sky, connecting heaven and earth up and down, landing between the two.

There was a loud bang.

Lu Rong was caught off guard and hit the barrier, falling straight downward.

“Rong Rong!” He heard Wang Tu and Uncle Chen shouting anxiously from the shore.

Lu Rong rolled over in the air and saw another barrier land with him, isolating Wang Tu and Uncle Chen on the shore.

The white deer landed on the surface of the water and stood steadily. But before he could catch his breath, he heard another gut-wrenching roar from Candlelight, and an overwhelming stream of black arrows fell from the sky, coming straight at him.

Both left and right were impenetrable black barriers, Lu Rong had nowhere to hide, he had to leap up, a red light rushed out and collided with the group of black arrows in the air.

With the sound of a landslide, Lu Rong felt the pain of being squeezed by the force of a thousand pounds, he heard his bones creak, his eyes blackened, the alveoli in his chest seemed to be squeezed out of all the air.

His vision was blurred and his eyeballs were incomparably swollen and painful from the pressure. But when he thought of Uncle Bai still struggling to support the barrier next to him, a lonely ruthlessness rose up in his heart and he gritted his teeth to hold on to the monstrous pressure.

Lu Rong knew that this wouldn’t work, he had to break the barrier and rejoin Uncle Bai. He used all his strength to desperately push upwards, and when he felt the pressure recede slightly, he seized the fleeting opportunity to use his strength to stab the barrier beside him with his horn. Sharp pain hit his body and a fishy sweetness rushed to his throat. He barely maintained his wits and used the silver horn that had pierced the black hanging scroll to push upward.

The black hanging scroll instantly broke into a shattered scar, and with a crashing sound, it collapsed like a piece of glass and shattered into pieces.

Lu Rong also reached his limit at this moment, he could no longer hold on, so he closed his eyes and fell downward, smashing heavily into the center of the lake.

“…Rong Rong… Rong Rong… Wake up… Rong Rong…”

In the chaotic consciousness, he seemed to hear Shen Jize’s voice.

“Brother…” Lu Rong responded softly in his heart.

White Deer, who was slowly sinking under the water, instantly opened his eyes and snapped upward in a flash. His entire body was lifted up by the water, as if from the suffocation of drowning was violently pulled out of the water, fresh air poured into his chest, endless noise came back into his ears, and a burning pain pierced his chest.

Lu Rong panted heavily, his nose and throat spewed out countless blood froth, splashing down on the surface of the water.

His blurred vision gradually became clear, seeing that the black hanging scroll had disappeared, Uncle Bai was covered in blood, his whole person was shaking, but blocked in front of his falling water, still struggling to hang on.

Hearing Lu Rong’s voice breaking out of the water, he reluctantly dispersed a cloud of black fog that came to his face and asked hoarsely, “Rong Rong, are you all right?”

Lu Rong wanted to say he was fine, but when he opened his mouth, but no word came out.

Candlelight saw Lu Rong, the pair of lantern-sized pupils suddenly tightened, he threw back his head with a roar, about to lunge from the sky at the two.

“Come to my side!” Bai Zhi bellowed.

Lu Rong gasped and leapt out of the air, bringing up a red light. At the same time, Candlelight descended from the sky with the force of ten thousand pounds.

The lake surface turned up huge waves, the wind whistle drowned out the sound of the waterfall rushing, Uncle Bai turned to Lu Rong the moment he took off into the air, and under the shadow of Candlelight’s huge body, a golden light met up and collided with the red light.

Lu Rong’s body shook, only to feel a force along the red light drill back into the body. The injured part was quickly repaired, the pain and fatigue instantly dissipated, and every cell in his body was excited and stretched, absorbing the dominant and strong power.

“You now have the power of Fu Zhu and Bai Ze. There’s a wound in Candlelight’s chest and abdomen, slash out against there!” Bai Zhi burst out with a loud bellow.

Candlelight let out a furious roar as he flashed his sharp claws and grabbed at Lu Rong.

“Go!”

With Bai Zhi’s command, the white deer leaped up and raised its front hooves in the air. The red stripe has now been gilded with a circle of gold, emitting a dazzling light that people dare not look at.

Like the sky earthquake collapsing, the universe dissolved, and with a violent boom, a horrifyingly bright extreme light spread out.

Bai Zhi’s pupils dilated in that instant, his eyes temporarily blinded, he blinked his sore eyes in bewilderment, but couldn’t see anything. There was a column of water hitting him, a strong wind like a razor blade scraping through, the surrounding mountains all trembled, and huge rolling stones fell into the center of the lake with a heavy muffled thud.

“Rong Rong, how are you?” His words were muffled by the other sounds.

Perhaps a long time has passed, perhaps only a few seconds, and the surroundings were finally calm. Candlelight stopped roaring, the wind and waves stopped.

Bai Zhi blinked hard, with the wetting of tears, his vision finally recovered.

Lifted several feet high, the lake fell, swirling undulating waves. A white deer was standing on the lake, and opposite him, mid-air, the hideous Candlelight was floating. In contrast to the huge beast’s body, the white deer was as small as a grain of dust. Neither of them moved, as they were watching each other.

Bai held his breath, his hands were shaking unconsciously, and his heart was tense and clenched into a ball. He didn’t see what happened, and didn’t know what the situation was now.

The white deer suddenly stumbled a step, and then barely stabilized himself. Bai Zhi saw this and his heart instantly sank straight down, like falling into a bottomless abyss.

But at this time, Candlelight slowly raised the claws, aimed at the white deer under his feet. Bai Zhi secretly cursed, immediately stored power, as he wanted to block this blow for Lu Rong.

But when he raised his hand several times to try, he couldn’t even transfer half of his power. His body was weak now, not to mention blocking Candlelight, he may not be able to fight even against a child now. Seeing Candlelight’s claws were about to fall, Bai Zhi’s face was gloomy, as he closed his eyes and sighed in his heart: Lu Hong, I’m sorry, we lost… 

Bai Zhi quietly waited for death to come, but his ears were slow to other sounds, this moment time seemed to be infinitely elongated, the world was also frozen.

A few moments later, he couldn’t help but open his eyes in confusion.

He saw Candlelight standing in place like a statue, still maintaining the pose of raising his claws. But the scales on its body began to crack and fall off, like unstable tiles on a wall falling down, turning into black mist and dissipating into the air before it reached the water.

Scales soon shed, followed by large chunks of flesh and blood, also disappearing in the air in pieces.

Bai Zhi’s breathing stopped, his temple pounded in excitement and he couldn’t believe what he saw.

Candlelight continued to melt and disintegrate, and soon only the huge skeleton remained, with two black hole-like eye sockets in his head. A curious bird flew over and tried to stop and rest on the huge head, but its slender little claws just landed on one, and the skeleton was like a building collapsed like a crash to the ground.

The bird chirped and fluttered its wings straight into the sky.

A thick layer of black fog floated on the lake’s surface, which were Candlelight’s scattered bones, but they hadn’t had time to touch the lake surface, they dissipated, and suddenly the mountain wind swept them away without a trace… 

Lu Rong slowly turned around and looked at Bai Zhi, grinning with a smile of both joy and wretchedness, then the next thing he knew, he was off his feet and relaxed and fell into the lake.

“Rong Rong!” Two shouts came from the shore, and Uncle Chen and Wang Tu pounced and dove down the lake.

“Brother, are you really not going to take this drama? It’s director Chen’s new work.” In the Starlight Pictures building, Xiao Chu followed behind Shen Jize and asked in a trembling whisper.

This was already the fourth film that An had put off, and Kate had been furious several times. But An always said the same thing every time, “I’m not in a good state of mind lately, so I’ll take a break.”

“Take a break and not shoot a film now… You’re supposed to finish the movie first, so that the good scripts don’t go to other people’s houses.” Kate wanted to get angry again, but looking at Shen Jize’s fading face and tired eyes, she had to wave her hand and said, “An, why don’t you go on vacation abroad for a while to adjust your mood. Who hasn’t lost love a few times? Don’t take these love affairs too seriously.”

She and Xiao Chu both thought Shen Jize had a break-up.

After all, the boyfriend and bodyguard who was so close to him before suddenly disappeared, and Shen Jize became increasingly silent, talking less and less, and everyone could see that he had suffered some kind of trauma.

Shen Jize also didn’t explain, he only said that he wasn’t in good shape recently, and couldn’t shoot a movie, and would only take next year’s drama.

In fact, he couldn’t say whether he could shoot next year, because since that day after he left with Wang Tu,  Lu Rong had been missing for three-months, hadn’t returned, and there was no news.

He knew that Lu Rong and Grandpa Cai would videochat every day, and if the contact was suddenly cut off, Grandpa Cai would be suspicious and worried. So he went to Longquan Town, and told Grandpa Cai he and Lu Rong were going with a drama group into the mountains, where communication wasn’t convenient, and would be there for at least for several months.

Fortunately, Grandpa Cai knew nothing about filming, so he was confused and only asked if he could send a letter to Lu Rong, telling him not to worry about grandpa, work well, and that the mountains were cold, so he should pay attention not to freeze.

Shen Jize hastily agreed and said that when Lu Rong came back, both of them would take a break for a while and come back together to pick up Grandpa Cai for a reunion.

Standing in the living room of the new house, the surroundings were quiet. His thoughts were like an invisible lake, drowning Shen Jize’s mouth and nose, and his whole body was about to suffocate. He had to push open the door and go to the courtyard to continue his work, so that he could have some peace.

Burying the flower seeds into the soil, he clapped his hands and straightened up, pushed open the carved iron gate at the entrance of the courtyard, and walked down the road to the left. A few dozen meters to the left, next to a villa was his new home. But the vines, rusted iron fences, and rain-washed marks on the walls let one know at a glance that the house had been untended for a long time.

He went to the iron fence of the villa to look in and saw the swing set deep in the greenery, imagining Lu Rong sitting on it as a child. Gradually, his gaze softened, and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Just last month, he bought a villa in the Red Maple neighborhood, next to the one where Lu Rong lived as a child.

He had planned in his mind that he would bring Grandpa Cai along, and the three of them would live together, next to Lu Rong’s brothers and uncles, so that he could see his nearest and dearest at all times.

He stood there for a long time until a private car passed by him before he suddenly came back to his senses and slowly walked towards the next villa. He returned to the huge living room, which was already stuffed with furniture, but he still felt empty, no matter how much furniture there was, it couldn’t fill the space.

He took out his cell phone and started dialing the familiar number.

“Who’s looking for me? Who’s looking for me, the cute little baby?” The voice of a child rang out from the coffee table.

It was the phone that Lu Rong had forgotten to take with him.

“Who’s looking for me? Who is looking for me, this cute little baby?”

The child’s voice echoed over and over again, and Shen Jize sat on the sofa with his eyes downcast as he listened. His face was more defined because it was thin, and the light fell on it in two shades of light and dark. Although still handsome, it also revealed a sharp look.

He sat there for a long time before he got up and went to the kitchen to make dinner. After opening the refrigerator, he found that he didn’t have the ingredients he needed, so he stood for a moment and decided to go to the supermarket.

There was also a supermarket in the area, so he only wore a shirt, not a jacket, casually changed shoes, grabbed his wallet and phone and went out the door. He stood in front of the supermarket shelves, comparing the two kinds of ketchup, and finally threw them all into the cart with one hand. The phone in his pocket vibrated just as he reached the fresh produce section.

He counted the time, on his parents’ side it was the middle of the night, so it was impossible that they would call him, so it could only be from his agent or Xiao Chu. He just picked his beef and let the phone vibrate in his pocket.

He was really not in the mood for filming this time, as for reading the book to receive future plays and so on, let the agent make his own decision.

The phone stopped vibrating after a while, and he put the selected piece of beef into the cart and was about to walk forward when the phone started vibrating again.

Shen Jize frowned imperceptibly, but finally stopped and took his phone out of his pocket.

The display was on and there was an unfamiliar number on it. He stared at the number and a suspicion suddenly popped into his head. Because of this suspicion, his heart began to beat rapidly, his eyes were red, as he raised his limp hand, but didn’t dare to press ‘answer’.

When the vibration was about to disappear, he finally pressed the connect button and held his breath as he held it up to his ear.

The other side was also silent, only breathing slightly, and the suspicion in Shen Jize’s heart became stronger and stronger, his whole body actually began to shake, and he almost couldn’t hold the phone in his hand.

“Brother, where have you been? Uncle Bai and I teamed up to seal Candlelight completely, and now we’re home. We’ve been waiting for you at home for a long time.”

It seemed like a century had passed, and it seemed like just a few seconds, when Lu Rong’s voice came out from the phone. The tone was both leery with a bit of a petulant whine.

Shen Jize remained in the same position as he held up the phone, like he had become a statue. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, couldn’t even feel like breathing.

It was only when someone behind him called out several times, “Excuse me, sir,” and “Your cart is blocking the passage, sir,” that he stiffly pushed the cart aside and made way in the aisle.

“Don’t go, just wait for me at home.” He said into his cell phone in a soft voice.

The supermarket cashier was standing in front of the counter sorting out the small tickets when suddenly a figure swiftly passed in front of her eyes, and when she looked up, she only saw someone already running out of the store, a tall back disappearing around the corner.

She was stunned for a few seconds and then immediately informed the security guard, “Someone is running for his life, did he steal something and didn’t pay for it?”

This was a high-end villa community, neither the cashier nor the security guard had ever encountered such a situation before, and their faces were all a bit panicked, not knowing whether to check the video or the goods first.

A customer came over with two full carts and shrugged, “These are the carts of the guy who ran away, everything is here.”

Shen Jize ran into the evening wind on his way back to the villa. His hair flew back, and his arms swung back and forth forcefully.

When he burst through the door and stood panting in the still-empty living room, he realized that Lu Rong didn’t know he had bought a new house yet, and that the home he was talking about would be the large bungalow in Fay Hong Xie.

He turned his head and rushed towards the door again, rushed out a few steps and turned back, grabbed the car keys, ran and pressed the unlock on the off-road parked just outside the door, and rushed into the car in a few steps.

Now it was the evening rush hour, the street was full of traffic, so Shen Jize strictly followed the rules of the traffic. The vehicle drove flat and steady, only when waiting for the red light, his finger tapping on the steering wheel showed his inner eagerness.

The SUV stopped at the underground garage of Fay Hong Xie, and he pressed the numerical key of his fingerprint on the elevator key. As he rode the elevator up slowly, looking at the numbers that kept jumping, nervousness and a sense of trance surrounded him again. Suddenly, he was afraid that when the elevator doors opened, what greeted him was just a dream.

He picked up the phone in his hand, looked through the received calls, and read the number again.

Yes, it wasn’t a dream, it was real.

Ding, the elevator stopped.

The elevator door slowly opened, as Shen Jize held his breath.

In the orange glow of the sunset room, he looked at the surprised boy, smiling and pouncing on him.

Happiness overwhelmed his entire body.