Steam Era: The Lord of 'Puluo'-Chapter 31 - 25 It’s You_2

Li Banfeng entered the Portable Residence in the restroom. The yellow cat, also in the restroom, took the key, ran out through the vent to the outside of the house, and brought the key out with it.

The Portable Residence followed the key. Once the key was outside the house, the Portable Residence also moved outside, taking Li Banfeng with it.

At this moment, "He Jiaqing," standing in the living room, was forcefully pounding on the floor-to-ceiling window, as if calling out to Li Banfeng, but Li Banfeng couldn’t hear him.

"He Jiaqing" dug his fingers into the floor-to-ceiling window, and amidst a piercing screech, a gap opened in the window.

The gap widened more and more. When it was over ten centimeters wide, "He Jiaqing" squeezed his head through and poked it out.

"Ban Feng, you’re my only brother, and you’re just going to leave like this? You’re just going to abandon me? Ban Feng, didn’t you come to save me?"

Li Banfeng stepped back a few paces. This fake He Jiaqing was obviously much stronger than Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng couldn’t open the floor-to-ceiling window, but this impostor could.

"Who are you really?" Li Banfeng clutched the key in his hand, ready for his next escape attempt.

"He Jiaqing" tried to push his body through the floor-to-ceiling window but couldn’t manage it; the window clamped tightly onto his shoulders.

"Li Banfeng, come here! Come closer, and I’ll tell you! I’ll let you know immediately who I am!"

This fake He Jiaqing seemed unwilling to reveal his identity. Just as Li Banfeng was about to leave the yard, someone else answered the question for him.

More accurately, it wasn’t a person, but the House Spirit.

The House Spirit didn’t allow "He Jiaqing" to leave the house.

Even if "He Jiaqing" managed to open the window, he couldn’t get out. Even if he could open the door to let Li Banfeng in, he still wouldn’t be able to leave.

"He Jiaqing’s" head was sticking out of the window, and he was still struggling desperately. Suddenly, vines hanging from above wrapped around his face and began to tear at it relentlessly.

A layer of delicate skin was ripped away, and He Jiaqing’s features vanished from her face.

Li Banfeng saw her true face.

It was Lu Xiaolan!

He Jiaqing’s girlfriend.

Why would she be at the He Family Old House?

No wonder she mentioned so many private matters between me and He Jiaqing in her text messages.

When He Jiaqing had meals with her, I joined them. She knew about that.

When He Jiaqing slept with her, I called him away in the middle of it. She knew about that too.

Did she know about He Jiaqing passing me answers? Did she know about He Jiaqing working at the construction site to pay my medical bills?

Did He Jiaqing tell her?

Why was she able to hook into my phone?

Could it be because of that phone call He Jiaqing asked me to make?

Was He Jiaqing her accomplice?

Did He Jiaqing sell me out?

Wait, if He Jiaqing was her accomplice, why didn’t He Jiaqing himself come to deceive me?

If it had been He Jiaqing himself, he wouldn’t have exposed so many flaws!

She was a Peeping Cultivator. There were many things He Jiaqing hadn’t told her, but she could find them out by peeping.

In the whole text message affair, she had always been the one pulling the strings, leading me into her trap.

When it actually came time to meet face-to-face, some flaws became unavoidable because she couldn’t possibly peep into every little detail.

He Jiaqing probably wasn’t her accomplice. But why was she trapped by the House Spirit?

As his thoughts raced, Lu Xiaolan called out to Li Banfeng in a hoarse voice, "Li Banfeng! Do you want to save He Jiaqing? If you want to save him, come find me. Only I know where he is! Li Banfeng, I love Jiaqing! I’m truly good to Jiaqing! In this world, besides you, only I am truly good to him!"

Upon hearing this, Li Banfeng turned and left.

What she said... That’s not the kind of relationship He Jiaqing and I have at all.

"Li Banfeng! Don’t leave! You’ll regret this for the rest of your life! You’ve become a Dark Energy User, haven’t you? You’re a Body Cultivator, right? You can become invisible, can’t you? Teach me how to leave this place, and I’ll give you anything you want! I’ll give you anything! I have many good things!"

Li Banfeng’s figure disappeared into the night. Lu Xiaolan, her face streaked with tears, retracted her head from the floor-to-ceiling window.

She had no choice but to pull back. The vines had already torn off the fake face and would soon start on her real one.

In the past few days, her real face had been torn many times, bringing excruciating pain and hard-to-heal scars.

She sat under the floor-to-ceiling window, crying her heart out.

She didn’t understand why Li Banfeng hadn’t taken the bait.

She had successfully lured Li Banfeng to Puluo State and into the house. So why did he still run away?

Not long after the train derailed, He Jiaqing received a phone call from Li Banfeng.

This call saved He Jiaqing’s life.

Lu Xiaolan had struck He Jiaqing but failed to kill him.

He Jiaqing fought back but couldn’t kill Lu Xiaolan either.

Relying on the phone call from Li Banfeng, He Jiaqing escaped back to Yuezhou and sent Lu Xiaolan back to the He Family Old House.

It was also because of this phone call from Li Banfeng that Lu Xiaolan used the Peeping Cultivation’s Favorable Wind Ear technique to establish a hook on Li Banfeng’s cell phone.

Later, when she was at the He Family Old House, this hook became Lu Xiaolan’s lifeline.

On the train, Li Banfeng’s cell phone battery died.

When the hook connection broke, Lu Xiaolan was terrified, worried, and at times, even despaired.

She suspected Li Banfeng might have had an accident.

Yet, unexpectedly, Li Banfeng still came.

Restricted by the House Spirit, Lu Xiaolan hadn’t planned to use force or reveal her true intentions before Li Banfeng discovered the truth.

To ensure Li Banfeng would stay comfortably in the house for one night, she had rehearsed every detail of their meeting many times.

She maintained enough self-control not to eagerly bring up the Mysterious Life Lotus in front of Li Banfeng. She didn’t even get angry when he left the Lotus Flower at the station.

She did her best to imitate He Jiaqing’s manner of speaking, ensuring every detail was very similar. When Li Banfeng entered, she even deliberately mimicked He Jiaqing by teasing Li Banfeng about his backpack.

All she had to do was wait until the next morning, and she would be able to leave this house.

Why?

She really couldn’t understand why Li Banfeng would run away.

What did I say wrong? What exactly did I do wrong?

Why would Li Banfeng run away?

Lu Xiaolan clutched her hair, wailing hoarsely.

For the first time, she realized she might die here—starve to death until she became a decaying, foul-smelling corpse.

After crying for a long time, Lu Xiaolan’s voice gradually grew faint, and the tears on her face slowly dried.

She went to the kitchen, chopped up some cat skin and cat bones into tiny pieces, and poured them into a pot.

Then, she took a small porcelain bottle from her pocket and sprinkled just a little Medicinal Powder from it onto the cat skin and bones.

This Medicinal Powder was very precious. She only had this small bottle left.

Smoke rose from the pot, like the oily fumes from stir-frying food.

Beneath the smoke, the cat skin and bones slowly turned into an indescribable paste, emitting a faint, fishy odor.

She divided the paste from the pot into five cat food bowls and placed them in different corners of the room.

One bowl in the Mystical Gate, one in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, and one in the hallway on the second floor. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

This faint, fishy odor could travel quite far.

This faint, fishy odor was intended to attract stray cats, or perhaps weasels, creatures that knew how to get in and out of this house.

Once they ate the food in the bowls, they would fall into a deep sleep, just like the calico cat sleeping soundly in the kitchen.

Lu Xiaolan picked up the calico cat, tore open its fur with her teeth, and ravenously devoured its flesh and blood.

She, too, wished for cooked food, but she couldn’t have it. Firewood was too precious; it had to be saved to trick the next person who entered the house.

Lu Xiaolan chewed the raw meat, muttering to herself between mouthfuls.

I mustn’t die. I absolutely must not die.

I will survive.

I can still get out of here.

After leaving the He Family Old House, Li Banfeng ran through several alleys and into a hutong. He then entered the Portable Residence and hid the key under the window ledge of a nearby house.

Sitting silently in the Portable Residence, Li Banfeng fell into deep thought.

Where exactly had the real He Jiaqing gone?

Could the He Jiaqing lying in the hospital actually be the real one?

PS: Li Banfeng hadn’t retrieved the spicy stick he’d given to the orange tabby, hoping the cat would be all right.

Follow curr𝒆nt nov𝒆ls on freew(𝒆)bnov𝒆l.(c)om