The old woman slapped him hard on the head, cursing: “Ptui!”
Liao Zhong was like paper; her slap instantly collapsed half his face.
Luo Yingbai noticed he was wrapped in transparent tape, clearly having been torn and reattached multiple times.
Liao Zhong screamed. The old woman beat and scolded him: “How dare you? When life was good, you sweet-talked me. Now that I’m old and our son is useless, you want to escape? As long as I’m alive, you’ll never leave. You’ll stay with me!”
Standing far away, they didn’t move. Xia Xianning whispered in Luo Yingbai’s ear: “We can’t take him today.”
To avoid disturbing the couple, he spoke very close to Luo Yingbai, almost able to smell the shampoo in his hair.
Luo Yingbai nodded. He could now see that the tape on Liao Zhong wasn’t ordinary – it was covered in incantations, effectively sealing six of his soul fragments. He and Xia Xianning would need someone with a deep emotional connection to Liao Zhong to come and call him.
Luo Yingbai drew a red rune in the air with his finger, snapped, and quietly marked Liao Zhong’s body.
Xia Xianning said, “Let’s go.”
Luo Yingbai replied, “How are we going? You lead the way.”
Xia Xianning said, “I’m not sure how to get out; we can only try. Will you follow wherever I lead?”
Luo Yingbai laughed, “Of course. Right or wrong doesn’t matter, we’ll just walk, even to the ends of the earth. Because you’re Xianning.”
A barely perceptible hint of a smile flashed in Xia Xianning’s eyes.
Even though he knew Luo Yingbai often spoke nonsense, he still found these words cute.
“Let’s try retracing our steps first.”
Though they said they would retrace their steps, the original path was long gone. The scenery and location here seemed to change constantly. Fortunately, Xia Xianning had an extremely strong sense of direction. Luo Yingbai didn’t know how he did it, but Xia Xianning walked straight ahead without wavering, his steps firm and without hesitation.
When Xia Xianning was reliable, he gave an incredibly dependable feeling. Luo Yingbai simply stopped looking at the path and followed behind, admiring the scene around him.
