Убийство любви

Глава 6

Sima Xiao asked in surprise, "What do you want? Why did you come to my room?"

She didn't dare say anything, only saying, "It's okay, it's okay, Mom came to see you."

Then Sima Xiao ignored her and said he was still very sleepy and wanted to take another nap. She brought him water and medicine and watched him take them. He fell asleep again soon after. She went downstairs and back to her room, but he hadn't woken up yet. Just then, the editor-in-chief called to ask about him. Sima Xiao's mother was very worried and told him about his condition. Only then did the editor-in-chief think of me and ask me to come and take a look.

After recounting the whole incident, she regretted it, saying, "There must be something unclean in Ah Xiao's room. I should have made him sleep in a different room yesterday, but how could I be so careless? Now he can't even wake up."

I comforted her, "Auntie, don't blame yourself. Maybe it's not a problem with the house at all. I went in with you just now and didn't find anything dirty."

"Really not?"

I said, "I just glanced at it and it shouldn't be there. I'll take a closer look later."

"Okay, go and take a closer look."

I nodded and said, "Yes, Auntie, you said yesterday that Ah Xiao said someone wanted to separate his soul from his body?"

"Yes, that's what he said, but after that moment, he seemed to have completely forgotten what he said."

I nodded slightly and said, "I'll go check on Ah Xiao again."

"Okay, okay, his room door isn't locked, go there yourself." Her tone was full of urgency and expectation.

With a wry smile, I carried her expectations and entered Sima Xiao's room again.

It's so peaceful. I can't sense any demonic or ghostly aura. Looking at Sima Xiao's peaceful and serene sleeping face, it's truly enviable. I went downstairs, and my aunt was looking at me with hope. I could only say apologetically, "Aunt, I looked again and didn't feel anything wrong with his room."

"Ah, so you mean he wasn't affected by evil spirits?" She sounded somewhat disbelieving.

"That's not entirely true, but I can't figure out what kind of evil spirit he's possessed at the moment."

"What should we do... Is Ah Xiao going to sleep forever?"

I hurriedly said, "No, no, I will find out the cause as soon as possible and wake Xiao up. Don't worry."

She said gratefully, "Then... I'll leave it to you, Ming... but what should we do with Xiao now?"

I said, "He seems to be asleep. Try feeding him some soup first and see if he can drink it. If not, you can give him IV fluids."

"Sigh... this is the only way for now."

"Then I'll take my leave, Auntie... By the way, what medicine did Auntie Xiao take for her headache?"

"It's just a regular cold medicine—GanKang. Do you want it?"

"No need, no need," I hurriedly shook my head and said, "It seems it's not a problem with the medicine."

I walked out of Sima Xiao's house and stood on the street, pondering why Sima Xiao was in a coma. Suddenly, a voice came from the bottom of my heart: "It's because he drank the Soul-Separating Tea."

I blurted out, "What Soul-Separating Tea?" Then I exclaimed in surprise, "Who, who is speaking?"

"You called me for ages just now, didn't you?"

"It's you, you're still inside me."

"Yes, that's me."

"You are Cheng Lang."

“I…I am not completely Cheng Lang, but only a part of him.”

“A part?” I didn’t quite understand, but I didn’t have time to worry about that now, so I asked again, “I called you for a long time, why didn’t you answer?”

"I was sleeping just now and really didn't want to talk to you."

"Sleep?" I rolled my eyes and said, "Do you even need to sleep? How could you hear me calling you if you were sleeping?"

"Yes, I can still sense what's happening in the outside world while I'm sleeping, and I wake you up before I go to sleep so that others won't notice."

"You've thought of everything, but now can you explain why you're inside me and when you entered?"

"Didn't I already tell you that I've been with you since you were born?"

"Honestly, why was I completely unaware? Logically, I should have noticed this state long ago."

"Because I was sleeping the whole time, I wouldn't have woken up if the Night Demon hadn't disturbed your mind with his flute."

I rubbed my temples and smiled wryly, "I don't understand. Never mind, I'll ask you slowly later. What did you mean by the Soul-Separating Tea you mentioned earlier?"

"Oh, your sleeping friend is sleeping because he drank the Demon Realm Illusion Princess's Soul-Separating Tea."

Chapter Ten: Demon Realm Illusion Princess

“The Demon Realm Illusion Princess’s Soul-Separating Tea.” I repeated the phrase, then asked, “What should we do? And who is the Demon Realm Illusion Princess?”

"Only Huan Ji can save your friend by providing the antidote to the Soul-Separating Tea, but I'm afraid it will be very difficult. Her ability to bewitch people is innate, but getting her to save someone and then release them is extremely difficult."

"It's difficult, but we have to do it... But this Huan Ji is really strange. Why would she want to harm Sima Xiao? Do they have a grudge?"

I heard a mocking laugh from the bottom of my heart, and I said angrily, "What are you laughing at? If you know, just say it."

"Hmph, you really don't know who Huan Ji is?"

"How would I know? I've never even seen her."

"No, you have already seen her, and you are with her every day."

“You mean… Ayu.” I was surprised, then said, “No… impossible. If Ayu were the Demon Realm's Illusion Princess, I would have seen it long ago. I have a special intuition for demons and monsters.”

This time, no voice came from my heart. After waiting for a while, I finally couldn't help but ask, "Hey, why aren't you saying anything? Who exactly is that Phantom Princess... is she really Ayu?"

"Senior Brother A-Ming, who are you talking to?" A familiar female voice came from behind me.

Startled and embarrassed, I turned around and said, "Ayu, what are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that too: what are you doing here? Who are you talking to?"

"I...I..." I said, blushing, "I was talking to myself."

"Really? I just heard you say something about 'Ah Yu,' were you talking about me?"

"This...this...no...no." I stammered again, "How long have you been behind me?"

“I saw you on the other side of the road, so I came over to say hello.” Ayu looked at me with a half-smile in her eyes that I couldn’t quite decipher.

"Oh, I see... You're shopping, right? You can keep shopping, I have to go back to the magazine office, goodbye." After saying that, I tried to slip away.

Ayu looked at me amusedly and said, "It's already noon, are you still going back?"

"What... I looked up at the sky, and the sun was already directly south. I checked my watch and it was almost noon: 'It's so late, we should have lunch.'"

"Isn't Senior Brother A-Ming going to invite me to dinner?" A-Yu asked playfully.

"Let's eat...please...of course I'll treat you to a meal. Let's go to that snack shop over there."

With mixed feelings, I took Ayu to a small restaurant on the street corner. It was almost noon and the restaurant was quite crowded. We sat down in a corner and ordered a few home-style dishes to eat.

Ayu asked, "Senior Brother Aming, what are you doing on the street? Did you skip work again?"

"No...no...I was sent by the editor-in-chief to see Sima Xiao."

"Sima Xiao," she asked, her big eyes blinking, "What happened to him?"

“He…” I looked closely at his expression and said, “It’s nothing. He probably didn’t sleep well yesterday, so I can’t wake him up.”

"Really?" she smiled and asked, "Did the editor-in-chief ask you to wake him up?"

"Hehe, I can't wake him up either. I think he's just pretending to be asleep."

“Pretending to sleep? You think he’s pretending to sleep?” She gave a slight, cold laugh.

"Otherwise, what do you think he's doing? Why won't he wake up?"

“How would I know?” she said, her tone turning colder. “Alright, let’s not talk about him anymore. Senior Brother A-Ming, do you have time this afternoon? Shall we go shopping?”

"Going shopping," I said, feigning difficulty, "I'm afraid that won't work. The editor-in-chief wants me to give him a reply this afternoon."

“Never mind then,” she suddenly said angrily, “I just remembered, I have something to do. You can eat slowly, I’m leaving now.” With that, she stood up, turned around, and left.

I quickly called out to her, "Ayu...Ayu..."

She turned around and said, "What... you have time now?"

"No, why don't you finish your meal before you leave?"

“You… humph…” This time she didn’t turn back, and walked out of the snack shop with the click of her high heels.

I smiled, sat down and continued eating. Just then, a voice in my heart said, "It's a good thing she left, otherwise she would have definitely noticed me."

I said, "You didn't say anything just now because you knew she was behind me?"

"Hmm, but she appeared so silently that it was really hard to notice."

"So Ayu really is some kind of demonic phantom princess?" I suddenly thought. "But how could she look exactly like that Ayu and even have the same name?"

"Actually, they are not the same, but I am very curious about where she found a human woman who looks exactly like Ayu."

"What do you mean?"

"Can't you see? That Illusion Princess is possessing the body of a human woman, and she uses illusionary power to conceal her demonic energy, which is why you can't see her identity."

"But I'm a ghost messenger, I should be able to tell."

"Hey, don't overestimate yourself. The magic of this Phantom Princess is beyond your imagination."

"Hmph, you make it sound so real. Then let me ask you, what is she doing in the human world? Why did she want to harm Sima Xiao?"

"How would I know?"

“You…” I was quite angry when I suddenly heard a person eating next to me say, “Hey buddy, who are you talking to?”

"I..." I looked up and saw everyone in the snack shop staring at me. My face flushed, and I quickly said, "No, I wasn't talking to anyone?"

"But I've seen you talking to yourself for ages, and I haven't seen you take out your phone."

"This...hehe...you misheard...boss, check please."

I ran out of the snack shop as if fleeing and complained to that person, "It's all your fault, people must think I'm crazy."

"It's okay, they don't know you."

"You... never mind, answer my question from before: why did Huan Ji want to harm Sima Xiao?"