Free Web NovelChapter 1108: Chapter 107: My Love (4K)
"Even if we assume, just for argument’s sake, that you never thought about seizing Steven’s parents’ inheritance, how do you prove that I am Steven?"
Li Ang asked, "Walking through the Spirit Realm disrupts one’s memory.
I could be anyone,
a hapless soul hired to be a scout by money, or a kidnapped wanderer from the streets."
"You misunderstand, Steven."
The elderly spirit medium shook her head with a wry smile, "Anyone who meets the conditions can walk through the Spirit Realm, indeed,
but to find a specific entity in the world of the dead,
one must have a profound bond with the deceased.
Maeve has no other family in this world; you are Maeve’s husband,
only you can enter the Spirit Realm of the room without being immediately attacked indiscriminately by Maeve.
As for me,
I am too old, my decaying body is too frail to allow me to walk long in the Spirit Realm, and I have no strength to handle the spiritual body’s instinctive attacks.
You and your parents know this, and you yourself agreed to perform the Spirit Realm walk.
Not to mention, haven’t you recognized your own voice in the recording?"
"It’s normal for people to hear a difference between their voice and the recorded sound."
Li Ang turned his head and picked up a photo frame from the cabinet in the living room.
Inside the frame is a group photo of the Stevens Family, unlike the Spirit Realm, the photo shows the appearance of son Robin and daughter Rin.
Both are blonde, inheriting their father’s hair,
while their eyes are dark brown, inherited from their mother—Steven’s eyes in the photo are light blue.
"In the Spirit Realm, I can’t see the appearance of the two children in the picture, but I can see it in this world.
What does this signify?"
Li Ang squinted his eyes, pondering,
the glass covering the photo frame still only reflects Li Ang’s appearance, not showing Steven’s image.
Li Ang reached into his suit pocket, finding it empty of keys or a lock.
As he contemplated, the ceiling lights in the living room began to flicker suddenly,
and a faint "step, step, step" sound came from upstairs.
The sound wasn’t heavy, like someone walking barefoot and wet on the hardwood floor.
The lights flickered, illuminating the four people inside.
Steven’s parents were uneasy and fearful, tightly clutching each other’s hands,
while the elderly spirit medium’s face changed dramatically, instinctively clutching the necklace with the Silver Cross at her chest,
Li Ang squinted his eyes, staring intently in the direction where the footsteps emanated from above.
As the footsteps gradually approached, a small, dark, feline paw print appeared on the pristine ceiling, directed at the four people.
The spirit medium, whose face had turned pale, immediately stood up, blocking the other three people, and recited a lengthy Latin prayer from The Bible.
The black cat paw print remained unaffected by The Bible,
step by step, slowly approaching on the ceiling.
Zzzap—zzzap—
The ceiling lights flickered more intensely, appliances in the room began to emit electric sparks, malfunctioning,
even the street lamps outside flickered erratically.
Li Ang felt a chill spread across him, as if submerged in icy water, freezing to the bone,
while Steven’s parents’ faces rapidly turned pale blue, visibly choking.
"Lumen et egredietur et impius. Et flamma non lucere!"
The spirit medium Barbara shouted, yanking the necklace around her neck, snapping it off, and brandishing the Silver Cross shakily toward the paw print.
"Meow—"
A faint, piercing cat cry echoed from the ceiling,
the bulbs in the dining room and kitchen instantly shattered,
darkness surged like a tide from all directions, in an instant, the visible range of the four was compressed to the limit, barely perceiving one another.
But before the darkness completely engulfed them,
the cross in Barbara’s hand emitted a faint glow,
acting as a barrier, holding off the deep darkness and encapsulating the four people in its protection.
"Huff, huff..."
The elderly spirit medium breathed heavily, sweat covering her forehead, retreating a few steps and collapsing onto the sofa.
"Are you okay, Barbara?"
Steven’s parents recovered their complexion and immediately approached the spirit medium with concern.
Barbara weakly waved her hand, looking around.
Aside from the living room, all other areas of the house were enveloped by an inexplicable ominous shadow,
through the floor-to-ceiling window glass, the outside scene was entirely obscured; only the faint sound of car alarms automatically sounding on the street could be heard.
"She... She’s here."
Barbara trembled as she pulled out her phone from her pocket, but the screen remained black, unresponsive to any button presses, just like the television and other appliances.
"She’s stronger than before; she herself is still in the Spirit Realm’s upstairs bedroom, the black cat is an extension of her power. My strength is limited, I can’t hold on for long."
Barbara looked at Li Ang with difficulty, "Steven, you must return, go back there, find Maeve...
Otherwise, she will take away you, your parents, your children..." ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
"..."
Li Ang stood in place, frowning in thought for a moment,
unexpectedly nodded and said, "Alright, I can go back. How should I proceed?"
"Just like before, lie down on the couch."
Barbara relaxed upon Li Ang’s agreement,
she guided Li Ang to lie on the sofa, placing her thumb on his forehead, "Empty your thoughts, imagine you are sitting on fluffy clouds, unbound by gravity..."
As Barbara spoke, Li Ang felt his consciousness again becoming drowsy,
his whole being seemed to float, gradually rising, rising, rising to the utmost heights,
then plunging downward rapidly.
Thud!
He returned to the room, holding a wooden mannequin, using the craft knife in its hand to cut the glass of the floor-to-ceiling window.
... Bang—bang—bang.
His heartbeat, as before, thrummed intensely for a while until calming down.
At the same time, his arm felt a burning sting once again, revealing a line of black tattoo, [Act fast, I can’t hold much longer]
"..."
Li Ang squinted, scrutinizing the tattoo on his arm, saying nothing, immediately grabbing the floating wooden mannequin, illuminating it with a flashlight, pulling it toward the second floor.
Just as he rushed onto the second floor,
Li Ang felt a chilling sensation, flooding from all directions.
"Meow—"
A faint cat cry echoed from the dim corner of the second-floor wall, Li Ang felt a chill at the nape of his neck, instinctively turning around, using the wooden mannequin to shield himself in front.
Zheng!
A jet-black cat’s paw swept sideways, clawing at the puppet and sending wood chips flying.
Compared to the previous encounter in the bedroom, the black cat’s size had increased, its black fur seemed to have merged with shadows,
if it weren’t for its emerald green eyes shining brightly in the darkness, it would be almost invisible.
"Meow!"
The black cat let out a sharp cry and dashed up the wall,
but Li Ang was faster, turning the flashlight in his hand towards the black cat, enveloping it in light.
Like the wooden puppet, the black cat also became stiff and motionless under the light, fixed on the wall.
"..."
Li Ang quickly stepped past the black cat, his gaze lingering for a moment on its black-and-white fur, then rushed into the second-floor corridor,
only to see from the gap of the bedroom door at the far end, an endless stream of ominous black gas pouring out, accumulating on the floor like dry ice fog.
"Is Meiweis about to awaken..."
Li Ang swung the flashlight in his hand, sweeping the beam left and right, dissolving and erasing the black gas, temporarily clearing a path.
According to that old spirit medium woman’s words, the flashlight in the Spirit Realm is the personification of human goodness,
as the flashlight’s light gradually dimmed, he could feel his heart in his chest pounding irregularly and rapidly.
"If the soul energy runs out, the result could be quite dire.
It’s not like the conscience of the real world.
If you run out of money, you can earn more,
but if you lose your conscience, you earn even more."
Li Ang mused randomly, "That black cat is clearly stronger than the wooden puppet, the flashlight may not be able to seal it for twenty minutes the first time, time is limited, a quick resolution is needed."
He took out the study room spare key found in the children’s bedroom from his pocket, inserted it into the study room lock, turned the key, and pushed the wooden door open.
The study room was quite spacious, with two large bookshelves against the wall,
filled with dazzling arrays of books,
in front of the bookshelves was a long desk with chairs placed both in front and behind it—it seemed the study was shared by the couple.
On the desk, there was a pile of Lego toys,
the amount of Lego bricks was quite large, featuring trees, houses, vehicles, and figurines, creating the model of a neighborhood.
Judging by the shape of the houses in the neighborhood, it was clearly the neighborhood where this house was located.
In the center of all the green-roofed houses was a house with a red roof,
in front of which stood a set of four figurine blocks, presumably representing the Stevens Family.
’Was this put together by Steven and his son and daughter?’
Li Ang glanced over the Lego toys, then turned his gaze toward the inner side of the desk,
where a piano stood, with a blank sheet of paper on the music stand.
On the wall to the left of the piano, a landscape painting hung, matching the style of the oil paintings hanging on the walls downstairs, but the frame seemed fixed to the wall and could not be removed.
"Where’s the bedroom key..."
Li Ang scanned all the elements in the study room; the task log’s [Find the Truth] objective was still not complete.
According to Barbara’s words, he needed to enter the master bedroom on the second floor to find Meiweis,
whether or not Barbara was lying, entering the master bedroom was clearly also a necessary step for the system task.
In the entire house, only the study and the master bedroom were unexplored,
if there was a bedroom key, it must be in the study room.
"Whew, calm down."
Li Ang exhaled slowly, calming himself,
the wooden puppet he held had already exceeded the sealing time, showing signs of movement again, but Li Ang directly pressed the flashlight button, keeping it in a strong light strobe mode,
constantly illuminating the wooden puppet, rendering it immobile.
"Where could the key be..."
Li Ang quickly walked to the desk, inspecting the large neighborhood Lego model, he took apart the house representing the Steven residence in the model,
but unfortunately, there was no key inside,
only some blocks representing furniture and appliances, there was also a Chevrolet SUV model in the garage.
And on the figurine blocks symbolizing the Stevens Family, there were no signs of a key.
"Could it be in the bookshelf?"
Li Ang moved to the bookshelf, examining the wooden bookshelf itself and various books within it.
There was nothing unusual about the books in the bookshelf, like elsewhere, they only had beginnings and no endings.
The only strange thing was the number of books on display.
On the left bookshelf, from top to bottom, each shelf contained 16, 5, 1, 15, 4, 5, 9 books,
On the right bookshelf, from top to bottom, each shelf contained 21, 11, 23, 20, 5, 14 books.
"In the house, bookshelves in other places are packed tightly with various books, filling each row of the bookshelf,
only in this study room, the bookshelf isn’t filled, and the number of books on each shelf differs.
The number of books... what does it represent?"
Li Ang squinted his eyes, quickly pondering.
Based on the book titles and contents on the shelf, there was no commonality.
There was everything from parenting guides to telegraphy, cryptography, and even cookbooks.
"Could it be that the number of books is a code?
Does the number of books in each row relate to the name of the book, or its content?"
Li Ang pulled a few books from the shelf and checked them thoroughly, finding no issues,
if the numbers 16, 5, 1, 15, 4, 5, 9 are meant to extract letters from the English book titles,
but some books themselves didn’t even have 16 letters in their English titles.
"There’s nothing wrong with the book contents... what could it possibly be?"
Li Ang murmured, returning the books to the bookshelf, and walking towards the piano.
The piano placed in the study room looked quite expensive, with the stand open,
Li Ang’s fingers brushed over the keys randomly, and the piano itself produced a bright, clear sound, as if it had been recently tuned.
"The blank sheet music placed on the piano is indeed blank,"
Li Ang held the blank sheet music under the flashlight, examining and flipping it closely,
finding no engravings or hidden words visible under the light.
"Blank sheet music... the books on the shelf...
There isn’t anything related to music on those bookshelf books..."
Li Ang took a deep breath, suddenly thinking of something, "The position for playing the piano is directly facing the bookshelf, could it be..."
He murmured, placing the flashlight on the piano, continuing to illuminate the suspended wooden humanoid,
then leaned into the piano keys, pressing the keys with both hands, playing a melody.
Following the sequence 16, 5, 1, 15, 4, 5, 9, 21, 11, 23, 20, 5, 14.
The sound produced by the piano wasn’t pleasant, and the melody itself lacked coherence, sounding like meaningless improvisation.
But after the tune, a creaking sound emanated from the walls of the room.
The landscape painting on the wall automatically lifted, revealing a concealed compartment hidden within the wall.
