Zhang Ruirui leaned on the window of the balcony, silently staring at the sky outside.
The heavy rain blurred the window glass, and the sky became darker and darker. Lights sporadically lit up in the opposite building, their glow reflecting in the rain, giving a sense of distance from afar.
Liu Ting deliberately suppressed her voice while making a phone call in the bedroom. Zhang Ruirui could occasionally hear her sobbing.
Her mother had been crying like this for several days now. Although Liu Ting always avoided Zhang Ruirui, the young child was not completely oblivious. From Liu Ting’s unusual pain and sorrow, she sensed a vague truth.
Being still young, she couldn’t understand the concept of “death” or “farewell”.
Zhang Kaisheng had been away for a long time. For Zhang Ruirui, perhaps he was like her grandparents whom she hadn’t seen for years, just meaning “not seeing” him.
Zhang Ruirui half knelt on a tall plastic chair, the gradually brightening light outside reflecting in her eyes, casting a bewildered confusion.
But this time it was a bit different, Zhang Ruirui thought. She missed her grandparents, missed Zhang Kaisheng whom she couldn’t see for a long time, but no matter how much she thought about them, it didn’t feel like the emptiness she felt now.
Liu Ting finished the call in the bedroom. Before leaving the room, she barely tidied herself up, using a cold damp towel to soothe her eyes, so as not to startle Zhang Ruirui.
Zhang Kaisheng’s whereabouts were still unknown, but Liu Ting had almost lost hope.
Zhang Kaisheng had a family and responsibilities, no signs of infidelity, and suddenly disappearing for so long, the outlook was bleak.
“Ruirui,” Liu Ting smiled reluctantly, calling her, “Why are you lying there? Aren’t you cold?”
Zhang Ruirui turned her head to look at Liu Ting, her beautiful and clean eyes reflecting Liu Ting’s appearance, making the gentle and beautiful woman look somewhat embarrassed.
“Mom,” Zhang Ruirui said in a childish voice, “I’m watching the rain.”
“Is that so?” Liu Ting walked over, bent down, and touched her head, asking, “Do you like the rain?”
Zhang Ruirui didn’t answer. Her gaze went through Liu Ting’s shoulders and suddenly projected onto the glass window of the balcony behind her.
Liu Ting noticed her abnormality, held her hand, and asked softly, “What’s wrong, Ruirui?”
“Daddy’s back,” Zhang Ruirui suddenly said.
Liu Ting was stunned for a moment. Then, she suddenly turned her head and looked outside following Zhang Ruirui’s gaze.
The pouring rain completely blocked their view, and Liu Ting had a hallucination, feeling as if she was on a vast ocean, with only this small space left for her to inhabit.
“Ruirui, Daddy…” Liu Ting paused, struggling to say, “Where’s Daddy?”
Zhang Ruirui stared at Zhang Kaisheng outside the window. In this moment, she showed a calmness that was contrary to her age, neither ecstatic at seeing Zhang Kaisheng nor afraid at his appearance.
She remained silent for about two seconds before saying in a sorrowful tone, “Daddy is outside the window. He waved to you.”
“In the flowerpot under the right side of the TV cabinet in the living room, there’s his private money of two thousand yuan.” Zhang Ruirui said slowly, “He said he loves us very much—especially you.”
Liu Ting’s lips twitched, and tears suddenly welled up in her eyes without warning.
These days, for the first time in front of Zhang Ruirui, she shed tears. She knelt down with a thud, hugged Zhang Ruirui’s shoulder, crying miserably and pitifully, her whole person hunched like a shrimp.
Zhang Ruirui still looked puzzled, but at this moment, she had already heard a certain answer from Liu Ting’s miserable cry.
—Dad might not come back, Zhang Ruirui thought.
Suddenly, a bright light flashed outside the window, and Zhang Ruirui’s eyes subconsciously glanced outside, just in time to see a lightning bolt pierce through the sky.
It thundered.
In the Changning Development Zone, next to the “formation” that was just set up, Hu Huanyang and Sheng Zhao were supporting each other, barely maintaining balance in the raging storm.
One was an ordinary person with no strength, the other was a fox that had just transformed less than a hundred years ago. They shivered together, shouting encouragement to each other, but it was of no use.
The dark clouds pressed down from above, and Sheng Zhao felt like his chest was about to burst, as if the sky was about to fall on him and crush him.
In contrast, Zhang Jian, at the center of the formation, was young but skilled. He stood like a pillar, steady as a rock.
However, the strong wind made his clothes rustle loudly, and the talismans on his body were blown away by the wind, leaving only a few left. Even the cinnabar pendant hanging around his neck broke into two pieces and fell into the abyss. It was evident that he was struggling.
Sheng Zhao anxiously watched from the side, afraid that Zhang Jian would be blown away.
“You—you’re a demon!” Sheng Zhao shouted at Hu Huanyang, grabbing his neck. “Why don’t you go help!”
“How can I go!” Hu Huanyang grimaced, looking even more helpless than him, screaming, “That’s a dragon! I’m a fox! How dare I go? It would eat me without even needing a plate! I’m not even as big as its teeth!”
Sheng Zhao: “…”
“Then help Zhang Jian!” Sheng Zhao yelled. “Look how hard he’s struggling!”
“Do you know what he’s doing?” Hu Huanyang looked at him with shock, accusing him, “He’s summoning thunder! Thunder! Once it strikes the demon, its soul will scatter! There’s thunder in the sky, and a dragon underground! I dare not provoke either of them! If you weren’t here, I would have run away long ago!”
Comparing who was more useless between two incompetent individuals obviously had no result. Within the time it took for Sheng Zhao to utter two sentences, he was drenched with rainwater and could only close his mouth.
The dark clouds rolled, and it seemed that Zhang Jian’s magic was taking effect. A faint purple light appeared in the thunderclouds, and amidst the friction of the clouds, there was a deafening sound.
Under the raging natural phenomenon, humans seemed very small. Sheng Zhao’s heart rate skyrocketed to 120, his calf muscles cramping. If it weren’t for Hu Huanyang pulling him beside him, he would even feel like collapsing to the ground.
At that moment, Sheng Zhao suddenly heard an indignant male voice from the sky.
“Yingzhu, we were originally of the same sect, why are you blocking me—!”
The voice was like a bell, and Sheng Zhao experienced the terror of sonic attacks for the first time in his life, feeling dizzy and short of breath.
Before he could reflect on where the voice came from, a huge column of water suddenly surged from the underground river, and the dragon he had seen in the underground river before, along with Xing Yingzhu, burst out from it one after another, both of them bruised and battered.
The red line formation that had been set up at the entrance of the underground river was even more fragile than paper. It was easily broken through by the dragon, and the bells on the red line hung on the dragon, making it look like a Christmas ornament.
Only at this moment did Xing Yingzhu’s voice faintly come out.
“Who gave you the courage to call my name directly—?”
Sheng Zhao was shaken by the voice of the dragon just now. Now hearing Xing Yingzhu’s voice, he barely regained some blood.
He jokingly thought that with his boss’s merciless tongue, encountering someone with a bit of a temper, they would probably be enraged even without having to resort to physical violence.
“Xing Yingzhu—” Zhang Jian shouted loudly when he saw the situation, “The thunder is about to strike, you better retreat!”
Xing Yingzhu did not speak. He seemed to have been provoked by the dragon as well. He turned his head and bit directly into the dragon’s soft abdomen, his sharp snake teeth embedding into the tender flesh, tearing out a long and narrow wound.
Zhang Jian did not expect him to lose his composure like this at the last moment, and couldn’t help but curse, “Are you seeking death!”
However, Sheng Zhao, who finally realized what was wrong, saw that Xing Yingzhu seemed not unwilling to leave, but unable to leave.
The dragon also exerted its strength, with the intention of perishing together. It forcibly pressed down Xing Yingzhu’s tail with its claws, not allowing him to escape.
“Wait—” Sheng Zhao suddenly shook off Hu Huanyang and ran to the formation in panic. “Zhang Jian, it’s not—”
Hu Huanyang was startled by his sudden movement, instinctively rushing forward and grabbing his shoulder to pull him back.
“You’re crazy!” Hu Huanyang shouted loudly. “The thunder is about to strike! Even if Zhang Jian is recognized by the heavens for his orthodox inheritance, if you go up there, you’ll lose your life!”
“But Xing Yingzhu—”
Before Sheng Zhao could finish his sentence, the last ray of lightning in the sky had disappeared into the thunderclouds. Immediately afterward, in the blink of an eye, a deep purple light, carrying the wrath of thunder, descended from the sky and struck fiercely on Xing Yingzhu and the dragon.
Under the lightning, a mournful wail, unidentifiable, rang out. Thunderbolts followed one after another, almost falling one after another, impartially striking the two entangled great monsters.
Sheng Zhao’s face turned pale.
