บท 29: Twenty-nine. Seeing Someone Off
Rustles...
Whispers echoed from that space, and Lu Li gathered his spirit, sliding the Spirit-Calling Gun back into its holster, yet his palm did not leave the handle.
Asina stared intently at Lu Li, or rather, behind him.
Carrying the Ghost Baby, Anna floated up from behind, which might have been one reason Asina had regained clarity.
"Do you still hate it?" Lu Li asked.
The crimson pupils among Asina's long hair turned towards Lu Li, but she remained silent.
"Give the baby back to her," Lu Li said, tilting his head towards Anna.
"Oh," Anna obediently responded, cautiously approaching Asina. Stopping about two meters away, she suddenly tossed the Ghost Baby over, then swiftly floated back to hide behind Lu Li.
It wasn't likely her fear of ghosts would dissipate anytime soon.
Asina instinctively caught the blood-red fetus flying towards her, slightly lowering her head. She saw the Ghost Baby, unafraid, snuggling into her arms and reaching out with tiny hands to grasp her hair.
The pair of crimson eyes gradually softened, as maternal emotions began to brew.
"I think she might kill the child," Anna whispered into Lu Li's ear, watching Asina gently stroke the baby's cheek and feeling she could suddenly snap and strangle the baby.
"And yet you still threw it over," Lu Li said without turning his head.
Anna grumbled with a hint of grievance, "But it was you who asked me to do it."
Lu Li ignored Anna's complaint and addressed Asina, "Can you control your emotions now?"
As the Ghost Baby's cheeks traced an arc, a deep, hoarse voice emerged from her lowered head after a moment, "My eyes were blinded by hatred before… not anymore."
"…I met him two years ago."
Asina slowly began to recount her past with her husband.
Lu Li slightly creased his brow - frankly, he disliked it when, just as everything was resolved, the key figure began to recount their emotional journey.
For example, during Earth's era, when cooperating with the police to catch a criminal, the criminal would often discuss his past.
Generally, Lu Li would interrupt promptly, but this time the protagonist was a ghost. Lu Li wasn't sure if interrupting Asina might cause her to lose her senses again.
Letting her talk would do no harm to him.
Thinking this, Lu Li removed his hand from the handle, though he remained ready to seize the Spirit-Calling Gun at any moment.
"Bill Eddy joined the textile factory a few months after I did. He was clumsy when he first started and often got punished by the supervisor..."
As Asina narrated, Lu Li circled behind her and approached a statue lying on the ground. It remained motionless, its broken arm and some powdery fragments scattered between them.
Lu Li stood the statue up and picked up the broken arm. The broken stony debris confirmed that it was indeed a statue.
Although he couldn't understand how a statue could bend like a human yet break as easily as plaster after falling.
Lu Li placed the broken arm in the statue's embrace and said, "After dawn, I will find someone to fix this for you."
But at that moment, something unexpected happened.
A malicious and vengeful aura erupted behind him!
Lu Li's dark pupils narrowed as he instinctively rolled to the side, drawing the Spirit-Calling Gun in the process. As he stabilized, his arm extended, aiming the Spirit-Calling Gun at Asina's back.
But he did not pull the trigger.
The rampant aura surged, yet Asina did not attack. Her hoarse voice, chilling like it came from the abyss, said. "He attacked me like a madman, hammering my stomach, indifferent to my pleas… He cursed loudly at me, blamed me and the child for his demise... Just like that, he pounded my stomach with his fists and strangled me to death..."
Understanding that Asina was just having an emotional outbreak, Lu Li put away the Spirit-Calling Gun.
At that moment, she turned her head to look at Lu Li. Her pupils, still bloodshot, showed no resentment, only calmness.
"I feel its kindness towards you, towards us… Where did you find it?"
Lu Li returned to Anna's side, her eyes slightly red with a mixture of sorrow and anger, and calmly replied, "Near the gallery. It has always been beside you, but you had always harbored malice against it, so it was hiding from you."
"Wanting to get close but not daring to?" Anna muttered like a literary girl.
After a few seconds of silence, Asina's softened expression appeared bitter as she gently caressed the Ghost Baby's face. "Is it still in time for me to say sorry now… To the child, to those I've hurt, to you all…"
"Why say sorry?"
Lu Li suddenly tilted his head, a bit perplexed.
Asina and Anna both paused for a moment.
Lu Li continued, "You don't need to say sorry, you did nothing wrong."
Both gazes fell on Lu Li. Anna was full of shock—although they hadn't been in contact long, she could see that Lu Li was always cold to everyone, and now he was actually comforting… Was this guy falling for Asina!?
Lu Li's expression remained calm as he simply stated a fact, "Observers always advise the parties involved to be magnanimous, to let go of everything. But they do not think about the pain those parties endure—because the pain is borne by others, it doesn't concern them."
"You have not harmed any innocent person, so you are not wrong, and neither is the child."
"Thank you… thank you…"
At some point, Asina's face was covered with tears, mixing with the blood.
With a hoarse voice, she kept thanking as the coldness and resentment gradually dissipated. Her figure also faded, becoming transparent.
"Are you now…" Lu Li suddenly said.
"I plan to leave with the child. Maybe it's to hell, maybe heaven," Asina said with a gentle smile.
"Can you wait a moment?" Lu Li said, lifting the gun holster. "Can I take care of you personally?"
"…?" Anna looked as if she had seen a ghost.
Confused, the two ghosts watched as Lu Li explained, "The Spirit-Calling Gun can increase its power by destroying ghosts. But don't worry, I can ensure that it is the same whether you go by yourself or are sent by it."
Perhaps because Lu Li had consoled her, Asina nodded gently, "Then please go ahead."
Lu Li drew the Spirit-Calling Gun, aiming first at the Ghost Baby's forehead.
Anna turned away, lacking the courage to watch.
Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Lu Li had a thought, turned the gun barrel around, grasped it by the barrel, and used the Spirit-Calling Gun as a hammer to strike down.
No bloody scene ensued. Like a bullet hitting a ghost, the Ghost Baby's body emitted blood-colored bubbles, vaporizing and dissipating in terror.
Lu Li turned the gun barrel, aiming at Asina's forehead, and without hesitation, pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The silver-plated bullet burrowed into Asina's forehead, resulting in boiling blood bubbles, which quickly spread throughout her body.
The first rose on the barrel of the Flintlock Pistol bloomed nearly half.
In the last moment of Asina's disappearing figure, Lu Li's eternally calm voice faintly echoed in her ears.
"Don't worry, I will send your husband down to join you."
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