Banquet of a Hundred Ghosts - Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"It's me!" As soon as the words were spoken, the old iron gate on the rooftop was pushed open, and a man in white with black hair walked in. The moonlight shone on his beautiful face, seemingly adding a touch of hazy beauty.

"Who are you? Where is Zhao Yu?" Du Juan looked at Fei Xiao with surprise.

"Hehehe!" Feixiao chuckled, "You think it's Chen Kai who's spying on you, right? That's why you deliberately approached him to dispel his suspicions!" She wore a proud expression.

"Could it be...?" Chen Kai pointed to the broken mop on the ground. Could it be that Fei Xiao's idea to monitor Du Juan was this method?

"Not bad!" Fei Xiao said with a wicked grin. "She would never dream that her prey was the one spying on her!"

"Enough with the nonsense!" Du Juan glared at Fei Xiao and said fiercely, "Where did Zhao Yu tell you to hide her?"

"This one!" Feixiao called out from behind, "Come out here!"

A man slowly emerged from behind Fei Xiao, his hands hanging down, head bowed, glancing at Du Juan out of the corner of his eye. It was Zhao Yu.

"How could this be?" Chen Kai pointed at Fei Xiao, suddenly feeling like he had been used: "You knew everything, did you deliberately lure me here?" It seemed that the one who gave him the note was Zhao Yu, who had turned into a mop.

"Oh dear! Don't be so stingy!" Fei Xiao covered her mouth and chuckled. "If I don't do this, and take you all to a secluded place, when will this mother cat ever make a move?"

"You! You still call yourself my friend!" Chen Kai was so angry that he fainted. It turned out that he had been completely fooled by this guy all along.

"Hehehe, you know I'll protect you from behind!"

The two were arguing when Du Juan suddenly jumped up and reached out to grab Zhao Yu behind Fei Xiao.

"Help!" Zhao Yu was so frightened that he stumbled and sat down on the ground.

"Why are you still not giving up?" Fei Xiao grabbed Du Juan's arm and pushed her aside.

"Why do you meddle in so many things?" Du Juan asked, her voice trembling with tears, seeing that she couldn't get what she wanted.

Feixiao shook her head: "You know that no one can take away someone else's right to live, and aren't your own actions the same?"

“I, I’m different!” Du Juan said. “The moment I was thrown into that icy river, I made up my mind to find this man and take revenge, this man who was once my master, the man who abandoned and killed me! I want him to give me back my life!”

"Xiaoxue! Xiaoxue! I'm so sorry!" Zhao Yu, sitting on the ground, burst into tears. It seemed the dead cat was named Xiaoxue. "I've always missed you, missed the way you played with the pom-poms at my feet, missed the way you ate fish, but, but I was just a child back then, I had no ability to protect what I loved! Otherwise, otherwise..." Zhao Yu wailed, "That night when we told stories, I didn't tell your story!"

"So what? Is this all it takes to give me an explanation for my life?" Du Juan, her face streaked with tears, turned her head to look at Zhao Yu, who was lying on the ground in agony.

Turning to Feixiao, she said, "Get out of my way! You know that game isn't something that can be ended so easily. I have to kill this man to fulfill my wish before I can go back, otherwise this girl won't survive!" As she spoke, she pointed to her own body.

Feixiao reached out and blocked her: "I won't watch anyone die in front of me. Even if it's dangerous, I'll still try!"

"Feixiao, what are you trying? No!" Chen Kai got up from the ground, remembering what Feixiao had said that day. He didn't want Dujuan to become an idiot for no reason.

"What, what are you going to do?" Du Juan said, her face showing a look of terror, and she turned to run away.

"Don't run! Stop!" Fei Xiao said as she leaped up, reaching out to grab Du Juan's back. Just as she was about to grab her, her hand touched Du Juan's messy black hair.

Suddenly, a glass bottle flew over from somewhere, its liquid splashing out and emitting a strong odor in the air.

Upon seeing this, Feixiao hurriedly pulled her hand back, but a few drops still got on it, and several black spots were immediately burned on her hand.

The bottle missed Feixiao's hand, fell to the ground and shattered with a "crack," spilling its liquid and causing white smoke to rise from the cement floor.

"Ouch! That hurts!" Fei Xiao cried out. "What is this?" he asked, startled.

"It's concentrated nitric acid!" Chen Kai stared at the broken bottle on the ground, completely bewildered. "Who is it?" He turned to look at Zhao Yu, who was sitting on the ground, terrified, and shook his head repeatedly when he saw Chen Kai's gaze.

He and Feixiao exchanged a glance. Feixiao, holding an injured hand, slowly shook her head, seemingly unsure of what had happened.

"Dad! Dad!" Du Juan cried out as if she had met a savior, running towards a dark corner. "You've finally come!"

A man emerged from the corner. He was only in his early twenties, with a pale face, a thin body, and disheveled hair. He was the man Chen Kai had encountered who was following Du Juan.

"How could this be?" Chen Kai said to Fei Xiao, "It looks like the man I saw who came out of the table?"

"What man came out of the table?" Fei Xiao asked him in confusion.

"Sigh, didn't I tell you?" Chen Kai was surprised that he didn't know. Wasn't he supposed to be knowledgeable about everything?

"You didn't tell me! You idiot!" Fei Xiao was so angry that her face turned pale, and she didn't know what to say.

But why did Du Juan call him "Dad"? Chen Kai was completely confused. Wasn't he the one who was following Du Juan?

"Dujuan, be good!" The mysterious man lovingly reached out a hand and stroked Dujuan's hair. "Daddy's here, aren't you scared now?"

Chen Kai looked at the two people. The man looked more like Du Juan's brother. The two were about the same age, and he didn't look like a father at all.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind: "Could it be? Could it be?" Chen Kai looked at Fei Xiao beside him and said, "Could it be that someone told the true story? Was it Du Juan?"

Feixiao looked at him and nodded: "It seems that way now, there's more than one person telling the truth!"

"Then what should we do?" Chen Kai asked him.

"Hehehe, another one makes a perfect pair!" Fei Xiao said, pointing at Du Juan and shouting at the man, "Look at yourself, is the person next to you your daughter? She's just in your daughter's body. How would your daughter know you're her father?"

"Who said that?" Seeing someone help her, Du Juan hugged the man next to her tightly. "I knew he was my father from the very beginning!"

“Yes!” Feixiao said, “You came out together, so of course you know, just like this man must know you’re a cat!”

Du Juan looked terrified and couldn't continue her act. She looked up at the man and asked, "Really? You know? You know what I am?"

The man nodded: "I know what you are, but you are still my daughter!" He then cupped Dujuan's face in his hands: "My daughter has grown up so much. When I died, you were just a baby!"

"They're going to hurt me, what should I do?" Dujuan said, sobbing softly. It seems cats are cunning animals, even more so than foxes.

"Go back to where you belong and give my daughter's body back!" the man said softly to her.

"Alright, Dad!" Du Juan looked up at the gaunt man in front of her, her eyes flashing with malice. "Help me kill Zhao Yu before I can go back! Otherwise, your daughter will be harmed!"

"How could you still be thinking about killing people at a time like this!" Chen Kai could hardly believe his ears; this woman was too crazy.

"What else can we do?" Du Juan said, tears streaming down her face. "I died with hatred in my heart. Only this way can the hatred leave this girl's body! Either Zhao Yu dies, or this girl has no future!"

"Isn't there a solution?" Chen Kai asked, looking at Fei Xiao.

“Yes!” Feixiao said, “It’s that talisman. They were only able to stay in this world because of that talisman. As long as we burn the talisman, everything will be fine!”

"Hehe!" Du Juan giggled, her voice trembling like a bunch of red plum blossoms. "That's right! It was that talisman, but I went back and threw it away as soon as I came out! Nobody cares about a tattered piece of paper!"

"Then I'll drag you out by force!" Fei Xiao said, and was about to grab her.

But Du Juan ran even faster, her body as supple as a cat's, and she leaped towards Zhao Yu in an instant. Zhao Yu was sitting on the ground when he saw her pounce on him. He reached out and blocked her, and she tore off a piece of flesh from his arm.

She jumped to the ground, wanting to try again, but her hand was already firmly grabbed by Feixiao. "Let go of me! What are you doing?"

Du Juan struggled, her hair a tangled mess, looking especially terrifying in the darkness. Seeing someone come to her rescue, Zhao Yu, ignoring his pain, ran a long way, clutching his arm.

Feixiao saw the bloody thing in her hand and exclaimed, "You monster! I'll deal with you right now!"

"Daddy! Daddy! Help me!" Dujuan cried out to the man in the distance, "If this man drives me away, your daughter won't be any better!"

The man slowly walked over, a pained expression on his face: "You are not my daughter, my daughter is not like this!"

After saying that, he took out a piece of yellow paper from the pocket of his homespun clothes and asked Feixiao, "The talisman you mentioned? Is this it?"

"How could this be? How could this be?" Du Juan seemed to disbelieve her eyes. "I clearly hid it, how could it be with you?"

"That's it! That's it!" Fei Xiao said, snatching it away. With a tremor of her hand, the yellow paper fluttered open in the wind, revealing a large, charred hole on it. It was the very same paper that had been laid out on the table when they were playing the game.

"Burn it, I'm tired too!" the man said dejectedly.

"No, don't burn it! If you burn it, I'll disappear!" the cuckoo cried out. "And you'll disappear too!"

The man looked at Du Juan with loving eyes: "When I was sick and dying, I kept thinking, what would my little Juan look like when she grew up?" Tears streamed down his face as he spoke: "I was so unwilling back then, but now I see it. My daughter has grown up to be so beautiful!" He wiped the tears from his face and said to Fei Xiao, "I'm so sorry about what happened just now, but I just can't bear to see others hurt my daughter!"

Feixiao waved her hand and smiled, "I understand!"

"Then, what about yourself? Aren't you afraid of disappearing?" Du Juan shouted loudly, hoping he would change his mind.

The man looked at Du Juan's hysterical face, his eyes filled with love. "Parents will sacrifice anything for their children, let alone someone who has already died once!"

"Chen Kai, you should burn this quickly!" Fei Xiao said, and with a flick of her hand, the yellow paper seemed to come alive and fluttered into Chen Kai's hand.

Chen Kai stared at the paper talisman in his hand. It was yellow paper with twisted red characters on it. Everything had started because of it, and now it was finally time to understand. He hurriedly asked Zhao Yu, "Do you have a lighter?"

"Yes, yes!" Zhao Yu hurriedly ran over, clutching his injured arm, took out a lighter, and a blue flame shot out, setting the yellow paper on fire.

"No, no!" Du Juan, with a sudden burst of strength, broke free from Fei Xiao's grasp and rushed towards the two of them.

"Whoa!" The two were startled, seeing a blood-stained scarlet claw right in front of them. There was no time to dodge, and they closed their eyes in fear, waiting to die. But after a while, there was still no movement, so they dared to peek open their eyes. They saw that Du Juan had fallen to the ground at some point, and the yellow paper that had fallen to the ground had turned to ashes.

In the distance, only Fei Xiao, dressed in white, stood on the empty rooftop. The night wind blew his long hair as he looked at Chen Kai with a sorrowful gaze: "It's all over!"

"Then, what about Dujuan's father?" Chen Kai asked him.

"Let's go!" Fei Xiao said as she picked up the ashes from the ground, placed them in her palm, blew on them, and the black ashes fluttered into the air like butterflies.

"Parents will do anything for their children!" Chen Kai said, then thought of his own parents far away, wondering what they were doing. Thinking about it, his nose started to sting.

"The hearts of parents are full of love and compassion; true love is selfless!" After saying this, Fei Xiao turned back and smiled at Chen Kai, saying, "We should go now!"

Chen Kai looked up at the starry sky and wondered if Du Juan's father would also turn into a star and continue to bless his daughter.

The stars twinkled, like weeping eyes, like the tears of those parting.