บท 28: Twenty-eight. Collaborative Kill
The sound of her voice fell, and a profound silence enveloped the table.
Anna's clear eyes gradually misted over, her delicate body beneath the gothic white dress trembled slightly, and her pale lips quivered, her voice weak and aggrieved as she asked, "Are you going to kill me?"
Not giving Lu Li a chance to speak, she mumbled a whole slew of words indistinctly.
"Then... then if you are going to kill me, could you wait until I've finished my last words... gasp... I woke up less than two months ago, and have never left the gallery. After you kill me, please bury me with my mother, and if possible, dig up my body to take me to the amusement park and the beach for a stroll... sob... and my good friend Daisy, tell her I'm her friend for life, please ask her not to forget about me..."
The more Anna spoke, the more aggrieved she felt, eventually collapsing on the table and sobbing loudly.
"I don't intend to do anything to you," Lu Li had to explain.
"What... what...?" Anna's crying ceased, and she sniffled quietly, lifting her head, her tousled hair sticking to her forehead, her nose sniffing as she sobbed, "But you are the Exorcist."
"There is no law that mandates Exorcists must deal with every ghost they see," Lu Li said, still expressionless, like a statue devoid of emotion. "Besides, have you done anything bad?"
"Does wanting to play pranks on people occasionally count...?"
"No."
"Huff..."
Relieved to know she no longer had to die, Anna wiped the non-existent tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand, but feeling it unseemly to be happy so soon after crying, she tried to suppress her joy, yet couldn't help but hold her stomach and chuckle foolishly.
Lu Li did not want to discuss this too much, worrying that stupidity might be contagious. He shifted the topic: "I mainly came to resolve the issues with Asina and Ruth. Ruth was already dealt with by me yesterday... I took care of her, leaving only Asina."
"Oh~"
Anna nodded thoughtfully and looked towards the ghost baby wrapped in a coat. "So, you brought her child back?"
"Yes."
"Now..."
Anna's voice was interrupted by the shifting noises echoing from the deep corridor. She turned in the direction of the sound. "The sculpture is awake too."
"It has been awake," Lu Li stood up, his dark eyes swirling with shadow. "It's Asina coming out."
He instructed Anna to pick up the ghost baby and put on his coat. "You stay here with the baby, I'll go and intercept Asina."
"Not directly giving the child to her?" Anna asked, bewildered, as she took the ghost baby.
"That would only mean we helped her, not that she owes us a favor. I first need her to ask me to find the child, and then I will hand the baby to her."
Although there is a certain chance that spirits will vanish once their desires are fulfilled, no one knows where that unclear boundary lies. So, just in case, Lu Li wanted to create the greatest level of anticipation in Asina, and then fulfill her anticipation.
"The world of adults is truly full of schemes," Anna commented aptly.
Dressed in his coat and concealing the Flintlock Pistol at his waist, Lu Li picked up the oil lamp and walked towards the depths of the corridor.
The shifting sound slowly continued, and as he walked into the middle of the corridor, a ghostly figure appeared at the edge of the light, grinning ferociously.
"Have you... seen... my child...?"
"That's exactly why I'm here," Lu Li said calmly. "I went back to investigate yesterday and found your child. It's doing very well; you can rest assured."
"Rest... assured...?"
Asina's tone gradually became strange, her head tilting slightly to the left, twisting into a horrifying right angle.
A terrifying aura suddenly erupted, causing Lu Li to stagger back several steps, his coat and hair fluttering intensely.
Something was not right; this was certainly not an expression of joy.
The shadow dancing behind Asina became sharper, roaring fiercely, "It caused me so much pain... why should I... rest... assured?!"
At this moment, Lu Li understood.
There was no such thing as maternal love, and her search for the child wasn't for affection—Asina had hated this child from the beginning to the end.
In the eyes of others, they were mother and son, bound by blood thicker than water. But in her eyes, the child was brought by her husband, and her husband had killed her.
She had become a ghost because of this resentment.
"Tell me... where is... the child!"
"Let me... think." Lu Li carefully considered whether to lead the trouble away now.
It was no longer appropriate to hold the ghost baby now.
The conclusion was unexpectedly zero. Though as an exorcist, relying on superior deceit had offended many colleagues, it was not fit for a ghost from those old feuds to get involved.
"There is one place only I know about, the baby is there." After several seconds of thought, Lu Li answered Asina.
"Take... me!"
Lu Li shook his head in refusal and negotiated with Asina, "You'll scare it away, I'll go alone, wait for me here."
Her eyes flashed red a few times, and Asina uttered faintly, "Fine... don't... deceive me..."
"I never deceive people," Lu Li said candidly.
Turning his back to Asina, Lu Li seemingly let his guard down and retraced his steps.
Five meters… seven meters…
As the distance gradually increased, at the tenth meter, Lu Li abruptly turned around, tightly grasping the Spirit-Calling Gun, and pulled the trigger!
Bang!
Black gunpowder smoke billowed up, a flash of light piercing through the smoke alongside a deafening roar like a dragon's cry; the silver-plated bullet left a mark in the air, appearing in front of Asina's chest in a blink, easily penetrating her chest and lodging inside.
Blood bubbles instantly appeared around Asina's translucent ghostly form, spreading from inside out.
"Aaaaah, it hurts so much!!!"
Asina let out a sharp, agonized scream. Being attacked and already out of her mind, Asina retaliated instinctively; her guts, dragging beneath her dress, suddenly shot out, extending rapidly!
Lu Li raised his arm to block, but the guts wound around his arm like vines, and he couldn't stop the pulling force coming from the other end, causing him to stagger.
Clang—
The Spirit-Calling Gun fell to the ground, leaving Lu Li holding only an oil lamp in his entangled hand, being pulled towards Asina. He maintained his calm and shouted, "Anna, come help!"
The shout reverberated with echoes, but it was not Anna who appeared first, but a statue that suddenly emerged behind Asina. It appeared from the shadows, arms winding around Asina's neck, seemingly trying to break her neck.
"Get lost!"
A sharp, fierce cry, and Asina's aura exploded abruptly; the statue, with no expression on its face, toppled backward and crashed to the ground.
Crack—
A crisp sound, a crack appeared in the fragile stone arms of the statue, and the next moment it broke off, flinging the severed arm meters away.
With the statue delaying her, Lu Li took the opportunity to break free from the guts, retreated a few steps, picked up the flintlock pistol, reloaded swiftly, and pulled the trigger again.
Bang!
The dragon's cry sounded again as the silver-plated bullet burrowed into Asina's lower abdomen; the bubbling blood boiled over like hot water around it.
Ding-a-ling—
An empty shell hit the floor, ringing crisply; Lu Li once again loaded the bullet, snapped the chamber shut, raising his arm to aim at Asina.
Asina's bloodshot eyes suddenly regained a hint of clarity.
Lu Li paused, and his finger hesitated on the trigger.
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