Chapter 64: Hegemony (Part 1)

  In fact, until Gu Huanli left, the people in the house, whether they were the thugs who had been beaten to a pulp or Shen Yanran and her mother who were still sobbing, none of them had thought about how someone could have jumped into the room from the balcony on the 15th floor, rather than bursting in through the door.

  As for the police who rushed to the scene, they first found a pile of unknown clothing and several belts on the floor downstairs. (By the way, good kids shouldn't throw things from the balcony downstairs.) When they arrived at the scene, apart from the mess everywhere, it was still a mess. Looking at those people with bruises all over their faces, wearing only socks and shoes, to be honest, this look is really too frightening.

  Helpless to laugh or cry, they scolded them into putting their clothes back on. Only then did the police take all of the thugs back to the station, and also invited Shen Yanran and her mother, as victims, to go give a statement.

  Gu Xuanli, sitting on the edge of the rooftop across from them, swung her legs back and forth as she asked Cassidy, "In the future, if there's another accident like this... will you still use this... Soul Congealing technique?"

  "Cassidy's eyes were bewildered, delighted by Gu Huanli's safe return, yet perplexed by her eccentricity. The file on her didn't indicate such a personality. Besides, isn't there an ancient Chinese saying that goes 'the landscape can be changed but one's innate nature is hard to alter'?"

  Gu Huanli turned her head, and her eyes met Cassidy's, seeing the exploration and seeking in his eyes. She lowered her eyelids, and her eyelashes danced slightly, "It feels great to be myself again."

  "Miss has always been doing her own thing." Cassidy's thoughts floated back, and he chuckled softly, "Besides, isn't Miss enjoying the beauty of childhood to her heart's content?"

  "Enjoy? What a wonderful time?" Gu Huanli paused, her lips curled into a sarcastic smile, her voice clear and cold, with a hint of chill. "Or should we swap places, I bet you'll go crazy in three days." Being treated like a punching bag every day, living in a world of fire and water, drowning in nightmares with no end in sight, watching the same old things repeat themselves over and over again.

  "Miss, it's getting late, please possess her body. A soul condensation like this, although not very dangerous, if time is exceeded, there's a high possibility that Miss' soul will never be able to return." Cassidy stretched out his hand and touched the space between Gu Huan Lian's eyebrows, but was tightly grasped by her hand.

  "It's not time yet, besides, I still have some things I want to talk to you about." Gu Huan Lian had a hint of anger in her heart, but on the surface, she smiled and her voice was soft and gentle, "When we were kids, I always felt like you were patronizing me."

  "Miss, what I see is not your appearance, so whether you are a child or an adult, in my eyes, you are this moment's appearance......" Cassidy gazed at Gu Huanli in front of him, her slender body was shrouded in moonlight and faintly glowing, like a firefly. Her raven-black hair fell to her shoulders, her pale face had a hint of sickly beauty, lacking the vitality of before, her dark eyes sparkled with a faint smile. Although she had changed clothes, in his eyes, she was still that pale soul, the clothes on her body were still plain white robes, loosely wrapping around her slightly weak body.

  Because she had cut her wrists to commit suicide, her face would never have any blood color, and the whole person was as pale as a doll. Her facial features were thin and sharp, but her lips were full and delicate, presenting an extremely light pink color. When she lowered her head, her white neck bent into a beautiful arc like a crescent moon. However, her eyes had more determination than when he first saw her, and less melancholy.

  "So, Chu Lianyou, no, it should be Gu Lianyou, what does she look like in your eyes?"

  "About her age."

  "Where is Mrs. Shen?"

  "About her age."

  "Our school principal is a grandma."

  "About her age."

  "What about me?" Gu Huanli asked, her voice now steady and without fluctuations. She pointed to her own fingers, which looked even whiter and more delicate due to the color of her clothes, like jade carved out of them. She gazed at Cassidy, whose long black hair swayed gently with his movements, creating a beautiful arc.

  "As I said earlier, Miss's soul returned to this world unexpectedly, so she has been maintaining the appearance of her departure from the world." Cassidy's voice seemed to be drifting very far away and was muffled by a thick layer of glass, giving her an illusion that she had returned to heaven waiting for her fate to be judged.

  The moonlight was faint, but the snow remaining on the rooftop reflected a hazy white color. There was something floating in the air, like flowing clouds, or perhaps it was mist that was slowly drifting away. Gu Huan felt her body becoming very light, she even felt herself becoming transparent, and then she continued to rise up, embracing the dark sky, merging into it.

  Did she have such feelings before her death?

  Gu Huanli felt that she couldn't remember clearly, but this thought made her break out in a cold sweat on her back. She suddenly stood up, and those floating things were immediately dispersed. The cold wind blew over, and her skin immediately got goosebumps.

  Under the moonlight, looking at her small palm, her breath turned into white mist and came out. Gu Huanli's eyebrows furrowed slightly, but she smiled again soon. "In a few more years, it should be fine, right? When I was young, I always complained that time passed too slowly, but as I grew up, I resented not being able to keep my youth. In fact, the speed of time passing has not changed, what really changed is one's state of mind."

  Gu Huanli turned around to look at Cassidy, who was holding her to prevent her from falling down the stairs. Her eyes seemed to have a hint of moisture in them, and there was also a hint of teasing floating in them. "I originally wanted to see if the scar on my wrist was still there," she said to Cassidy. "For your behavior that's similar to peeping, as a member of the weaker group, I strongly protest."

  "It doesn't exist." Cassidy's palms trembled slightly as he grasped Gu Huanli's shoulders, the force of which made her bones ache. But Gu Huanli gently closed her eyes, allowing him to hold her like that, and also allowed him to scoop her up horizontally and jump off the rooftop.

  "Cassio, if every soul retains the appearance they had at death, then you should be considered a young man who died prematurely." Gu Huanli's head leaned against Cassio's shoulder, and an unusual warmth caressed his neck. Gu Huanli could feel his warmth but couldn't hear his heartbeat. "So what about this body? Is it the condensation of your soul or a temporary vessel for when you fell to the mortal world?"

  She didn't want to hurt Cassidy, and in fact, she hadn't intended to voice such doubts. However, what was on her mind was already known to him, so asking or not asking made no difference, did it? Perhaps it was just a matter of tearing off a thin layer of window paper.

  Cassidy didn't respond, he just listened quietly under the tree. The dark night sky was sprinkled with silver powder-like stars that shone faintly, beautiful to the extreme. If standing under the streetlights, they would become dull and lightless again, shyly hiding in the shadows. The beauty of the stars lies in being in a vast open space, the thrill of looking up at them.

  Heaven also has dark nights, and there are dense stars, twinkling, as if there is no difference from the world of humans. However, if one listens carefully, they will know that the quiet night in the human world is mixed with noise, while the night in heaven is quietly desolate.

  "You're right, this vessel exists solely for the purpose of descending to the mortal realm as an angel." Cassio's expression was somewhat subtle and also a bit puzzling, he didn't know how to start speaking, but this wasn't exactly a secret. Angels living in heaven were naturally spiritual bodies, however, if they wanted to use soul condensation magic in the mortal realm for an extended period of time, even the great archangel Michael would find it exhausting, let alone him, a small saintly angel.

  "So, can't it be said that...?" Gu Huanli stretched out her hand and gently pulled on Cassidy's bangs, saying slowly, "The human body is also a container, a special container for storing the flesh. It's just that it has an expiration date, and because it wasn't properly maintained during use, it's like a machine - some are still brand new after many years of use, while others may look new on the outside but are already worn out inside. Death is actually just recycling the container, and then continuing with a new one, and as for the soul... in order to avoid being tormented by too many memories, there's a rule that everything gets erased. This way, the soul can grow together with the container. And I, because of an accident, became a monster that's different from everyone else..."

  It was unclear to Cassidy whether the lives of three people or the secrets of the soul were more important. Even now, the people in the heavenly court still couldn't find out why this small bug appeared. He smiled softly, both for her cleverness and his own carelessness. He looked at her smooth long hair swaying gently in the wind, as beautiful as a young crow's feathers, her shoulders trembling slightly due to the cold, making her look particularly weak and slender. "Soul condensation is a very tiring spell, Miss. You should rest early. After all, tomorrow is Young Master's last match. To get to this point, whether it's Young Master or Miss, they have all gone through hardships. So, they should cherish this hard-won time."

  Back in Shànjiàn City, Gù Huànlí changed into her clothes and lay quietly on the bed. Her eyes lightly closed, with only her own breathing left by her ears. She really couldn't fall asleep, so she could only take out the watch her brother gave her from under the pillow, feeling the ticking sound of the gears driving the second hand transmitted to her skin through the glass cover.

  The surroundings were quiet, the ticking of the watch continued, but it had no hypnotic effect, instead making Gu Huanli more awake. He held his right hand up to the light and carefully identified the time as "2:18". Her stomach was a bit hungry and her throat was a bit dry, so she carefully got up, put on her robe, opened the door and went downstairs.

  The rustling sound of footsteps on the carpet, in the silent midnight, seemed to be amplified countless times. When she walked up to the second floor, she suddenly felt that the entire space was spinning around her, something inside her fell off, split into two halves, and her body became light again, losing all strength to breathe in the air. Her ears buzzed with a voice, someone was saying something, unable to distinguish between male and female, the sound was vague, as if coming from a very distant place, thin like a thread, yet endless...