The Midnight Owl

Abandoned gardens, drizzle, and mist blur the boundary between reality and illusion.

"Your name is... Hades?" Xu Wang asked again.

"Is there any problem?" The young man tilted his head, wondering why the two of them were in a daze.

Yes, of course there are problems.

Meeting Yan Wang in Chi Yingxue's world is not surprising at all, but for Xu Wang and Wu Sheng, who have really been with Yan Wang day and night, the "Yan Wang" in front of them is so strange that people are caught off guard.

Not only the strangeness on the outside, but also the internal changes.

Just like Chi Zhuolin has changed from a domineering president to a silly and sweet man, Yan Wang has also changed from a sophisticated and dark-hearted man to a vigorous young man.

Simple and straightforward, energetic and healthy, full of wild energy of loving someone, very different from the Hades they knew, and almost the opposite of Chi Yingxue they knew.

Xu Wang blinked vigorously to remove the water film between the eyelashes, making the "King of Hades" in his vision clearer and sorting out his chaotic thoughts.

"No problem. It's just..." He smiled, pointing to himself and Wu Sheng, "We both know a friend who is also called Yan Wang."

"Oh?" King Hades asked curiously while putting on the black mask again, "What kind of person is he?"

"A little more mature than you, a little more sophisticated, and a little more paranoid." Xu Wang looked at his facial features and hid them under the mask again, leaving only a pair of wild and vigilant eyes.

"Why compare with me?" Yan Wang said with a smile, "We just happen to have the same name, and it doesn't really matter. If we have the same personality, we'll be damned."

"There really is a place," Wu Sheng said leisurely, "You two are exactly the same."

Xu Wang looked at his military adviser in doubt.

Yan Wang also raised his eyebrows: "Where?"

Wu Sheng lowered his eyes, and his eyes fell on his bruised arms and calves, which were still seeping blood: "Both of you don't know the pain."

Yan Wang followed his gaze and lowered his head, saw his wound, and smiled indifferently: "If you get used to the pain, it won't hurt anymore."

"Are you always hurt?" Xu Wang keenly caught the fleeting bitterness in his eyes, and with a tug in his heart, the words came out.

Yan Wang was stunned, as if he was unprepared for this question, and finally waved his hand: "Hey, don't talk about me, aren't you in a hurry to find Chi Yingxue, then follow me quickly."

After finishing speaking, he turned around and walked forward. In front of him, there was a piece of dead trees, and no path or building could be seen.

Xu Wang and Wu Sheng looked at each other, and hurriedly followed, but after they followed, Xu Wang still asked worriedly: "Which way are you taking us?"

Perhaps it is because the real Yan Wang is always hostile to Chi Yingxue, so it is still difficult for Xu Wang and Wu Sheng to be 100% steadfast in the face of such a "neighborly and friendly" Hades.

"Of course it's the road for me—Yan Wang—to use." Yan Wang glanced back at the two of them, with the aura of letting the world do what he wants.

While talking, the three of them came and fell under a very thick dead tree with wide and scorched leaves hanging all over the dead branches, and an old well with stone slabs under the tree.

Yan Wang bent down, took a deep breath, and pushed down the big stone slab with his own strength, revealing the weather-beaten mouth of the well.

The well has dried up, and the bottom of the well can be seen at a glance.

"Don't tell me, you're going to jump..." Before Xu Wang finished speaking, a gust of wind brushed by his side.

With a "plop", the King of Hades fell into the well, and when he was done, he raised his head to greet them: "Come down quickly."

Xu Wang looked at the bottom of the well, which was four or five meters deep, and his head hurt: "Is this your special road?"

"Don't be afraid," Yan Wang thoughtfully opened his arms, "I'll follow you."

"No need," Wu Sheng refused for his captain, "He has someone to pick him up."

As Xu Wang fell steadily into Wu Sheng's arms, the bottom of the small well was almost filled with three people.On the wall of the well above their knees, there is a round hole that is as wide as one person. I don’t know where it leads. I can only feel the whizzing wind, blowing into the bottom of the well from the hole, and blowing on the already soaked pants. cool.

Hades bent down with difficulty and got into the round hole.

Xu Wang and Wu Sheng watched without a word, always feeling that they were careless and went astray.

In the cave where you can't see your fingers, you can no longer hear the sound of rain on the ground, only the occasional "tick" from nowhere, taking advantage of the darkness, it is extraordinarily quiet.

Yan Wang, Xu Wang, and Wu Sheng crawled forward one after the other. The speed was slow, and the cave was full of potholes. They made their backs ache and their knees ached. Xu Wang would suffocate to death if he didn't say anything.

Xu Wang: "Don't tell me that Chi Yingxue lives in the basement."

Hades: "How is that possible, a serious West Wing Room."

Xu Wang: "...then why did we go underground!"

Hades: "There are people guarding the ground."

Xu Wang: "The gardener and driver have already been beaten away by us."

Yan Wang: "The two of them only guard the garden, and there are more guards in the inner courtyard. Without Mr. Chi's permission, if you want to force your way in, ten lives are not enough."

Xu Wang: "Boss Chi? Chi Yingxue's father?"

Yan Wang: "Otherwise, who else would be there?"

Xu Wang: "That's right. He is Chi Yingxue's father, and we are Chi Yingxue's friends. We communicate well with each other. There is no reason why we are not allowed to see each other."

Yama: "Tch, that person can't communicate."

Xu Wang: "Have you tried?"

Yan Wang: "Don't try, he locked Chi Yingxue in the West Wing and didn't let her go out, so what communication is there!"

Xu Wang paused, and Wu Sheng, who was in the dark, was also slightly taken aback.

When the veranda vibrated and tilted, and "Chi Zhuolin" came from the sky, they had foreseen that this "Old President Chi" was not easy to mess with.

But at that time, they only thought of him as a majestic, unsmiling, and oppressive father. They never thought deeply about what was wrong with the father-son relationship between him and Chi Yingxue.

Xu Wang: "Why did he lock up Xiaoxue?"

Yan Wang: "Xiaoxue?"

Xu Wang: "Oh, we all call him that."

Yan Wang: "It seems that your relationship is really good."

Xu Wang: "We and you are also friends now."

Yan Wang was happy: "I never thought that one day I would borrow Chi Yingxue's light."

"Back to the last question," Wu Sheng reminded lightly, "Why did President Chi shut Xiaoxue?"

"I really don't know about this," Yan Wang sighed, "Anyway, I'm looking for Chi Yingxue to play, so I've been walking the underground path. Follow me, you can't go wrong, that's..."

Xu Wang and Wu Sheng: "Exactly?"

"This road may be, a bit, bumpy." Yan Wang paused every word, with an innocent tone.

After a long crawl, the three of them finally jumped out of the tunnel and entered a spacious space somewhere.

Wu Sheng turned on the flashlight of his mobile phone to see clearly that this is a stone room, the walls on all sides are made of smooth bricks and stones, and so is the top of his head.

Just as Xu Wang wanted to ask what this place was, he saw Hades walking to the corner and groping the wall there, as if he was looking for something.

Soon, a "click" of pulling a wrench came from Hades.

Then, the wall directly in front of them fell down, revealing the next stone chamber.

The stone room was exactly the same size as the one they were in now, it was also square, and it was completely closed up, down, left, and right. There was also an inconspicuous little red wrench in the corner of the wall where Hades was standing now.

The only difference is that the stone room they are in now has a hole in the wall, which is the tunnel they climbed over; and the stone room in front of them, the surrounding walls are intact, but the ground is densely covered with sharp knives, and the blades are straight up. Like a killing phalanx.

"Counting where we are standing, there are a total of six stone rooms," Yan Wang enthusiastically explained, "We just need to pull the wrench, open the stone door, and rush through one by one, and we will soon reach the west wing room."

Xu Wang turned to look at him, and smiled slowly and hard: "Is every stone room in the future like the previous one?"

"How could it be?" Hades shook his head immediately.

Xu Wang breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good."

Hades: "The further back you go, the more dangerous it is."

Xu Wang: "..."

Yama:"?"

Xu Wang: "This is what you said...maybe, a bit, bumpy?!"

……

Hidden secretary room.

Kuang Jinxin, who didn't know that his team leader and military adviser had already embarked on a bumpy road, finally gave up on Nezha in the long river of memory. He was afraid that if the turmoil continued, the password would not be fished out, and the conventional memory would be messed up.

If you can't remember, you can only take the book away.

Kuang Jinxin quickly checked the rest of the bookshelf, confirmed that there was only this one real book, and then put the book into a small backpack with a little anxiety of "stealing other people's things".

The moment before putting it in, whether it was curiosity or a coincidence, Kuang Jinxin opened the book and took a look.

When he first found the book, he had already opened it and read it.Although I can't remember the password, at least I can see what kind of book the mother copy is. The words "Nursery Rhymes of Mother Goose" are completely unfamiliar to him. Intuitively, they should be similar to "Grimm's Fairy Tales". After flipping through a few pages, sure enough, they are all nursery rhymes in both Chinese and English. What about chasing cats? Climb the firewood, eat Christmas pie, simple and full of childlike fun.

But when he had put the book halfway into the bag, his hand stopped, then he took the book out and opened it a second time.

No reason, I just thought I should watch it again.

This time, what he turned to was a nursery rhyme with only five lines——

Mymotherhaskilledme.

(mom killed me)

My father raising me.

(Daddy ate me)

My brothers and sisters sit under the table.

(siblings sit under the table)

Picking up my bones.

(pick up my bones)

Andtheyburythemunderthecoldmarblestones.

(buried in a cold stone tomb)

The battery of the mobile phone was completely exhausted, and it automatically shut down, annihilating the last glimmer of light.

Kuang Jinxin stood there in the dark, his hands and feet were cold.

He kept telling himself in his heart that this is just a book, besides, there are innocent nursery rhymes in it, which may not necessarily be linked to reality, or even to Chi Yingxue's conscious world, it may just be him playing passwords with his brother The mother copy I found at random...

In the end, he couldn't go on by himself.

He stood in Chi Yingxue's conscious world, and it might even be the deepest place in the other party's heart. Let alone a book here, every plant, tree, and leaf is the imprint of Chi Yingxue's heart.

Footsteps suddenly came from outside the door, calm, firm, and getting closer.

Kuang Jinxin froze there, not daring to move.

The footsteps stopped in front of the door.

Then, the door of Yin's secretary's room was pushed.

not open.

Kuang Jinxin put a lock on the door when he entered.

The people outside the door obviously didn't expect this situation. After a moment of silence, they knocked on the door twice and said politely, "Is anyone inside?"

Kuang Jinxin held his breath, and the hand holding the book was sweating slightly.

The man only asked this question, and there was no knock on the door again.

Kuang Jinxin listened carefully, hoping to catch the sound of leaving footsteps.

But what was waiting was the sound of a key opening the door.

"Squeak-"

The door opened, and there was a person squatting outside the small door, which was only half a person high.

Kuang Jinxin turned his back, quickly stuffed the book into his backpack, and then squatted down, looking at each other carefully.

Outside the door was a middle-aged man, about 45 or [-] years old, wearing a suit and leather shoes, with a dignified personality, even if he was squatting like this, he would not feel degraded.The moonlight reflected the deep contours of his facial features, as well as the light lines at the corners of his eyes, but the gaze in those eyes was firm and resolute, as if they could see through the soul of a person.

"I heard a sound here, and I thought it was a mouse." Looking at each other, the middle-aged man smiled, looking like he wanted to be kind, but the smile still couldn't get rid of the seriousness between his brows.

"I, I came here to find a friend, and then I got lost." Kuang Jinxin didn't know the identity of the other party, so he could only give his own information first, at least change to a "good attitude".

"Looking for a friend?" the man said gently, "Tell me his name, maybe I can help you find it."

Kuang Jinxin hesitated.

The man looked at him quietly, neither urging him to speak, nor asking him to come out, just maintaining this strange awkward posture of squatting inside and outside the door.

After staring at each other for a long time, Kuang Jinxin suddenly felt that the man's facial features, especially the eyebrows and eyes, were inexplicably familiar.

Chi Zhuolin!

Kuang Jinxin's eyes widened, and he carefully looked at the face outside the door, and he was sure that the outline of the facial features was exactly that of Chi Zhuolin more than ten years later!

I remember that in Beijing, when Chi Zhuolin was entertaining guests, he mentioned in the chat at the dinner table that he looked like his father, and Chi Yingxue looked like his mother, so at most he had good facial features, and his younger brother was the beauty of the age. ——It was also at that time that Kuang Jinxin clearly realized that when talking about his younger brother, President Chi Zhuolin could use all the good words in the world, regardless of dimension.

"I'm looking for...Chi Yingxue." Kuang Jinxin carefully reported the names of his teammates, hoping that his guess was correct.

The people outside the door were quite surprised, but soon, the surprise turned into hospitality: "I am Chi Yingxue's father, come out quickly, it's so uncomfortable to be nestled inside."

Kuang Jinxin heaved a sigh of relief, as expected he had guessed right.

At the same time, I'm particularly thankful for my luck. I met the head of the family as soon as I met him, so I don't have to worry about being ordered to evict by Brother Zhang or Peng.

"Hello, Uncle Chi." He greeted politely, and without hesitation, he quickly got out of the small door.

"He's polite, he's a good boy." The man stroked Kuang Jinxin's head in relief, like a generous elder, "Come with me."

"I heard that Chi Yingxue is ill?" Kuang Jinxin recalled the information he received in the front yard when he was ordered to evict guests.

"Well," the man said lightly, "but after taking the medicine and sleeping, it's much better now."

Then why when they were in the front yard, those two people insisted that Chi Yingxue couldn't see guests, so they wanted to drive them away so fiercely?

Kuang Jinxin was puzzled, but he didn't continue to ask, afraid of involving something that shouldn't be said, after all, the disturbance in the front yard was really unpleasant.

After a long time, Chi Yingxue's father walked in front, and Kuang Jinxin followed behind.

The moonlight elongated the shadow of the middle-aged man.

Kuang Jinxin looked at the tall and broad figure, and unknowingly, complicated sourness appeared in his heart.

He grew up without a father, so whenever he looked at other people's fathers, he felt both warm and envious.

【Mymotherhaskilledme.Myfatherraisingme...】

【Mom killed me, father ate me...】

The nursery rhymes I had read before popped up in my mind without warning, and I could even hear the illusory voice of children singing in my ears.

The crisp, innocent child's voice, chanting the bloodiest ballad...

Kuang Jinxin stopped abruptly.

Chi Yingxue's father seemed to have eyes behind his back, he stopped almost in the next second, and turned around: "What's wrong?"

Kuang Jinxin couldn't answer.

He didn't know what was wrong with him, but he suddenly felt scared. The uneasiness in his heart had no reason, but it was extremely ferocious.