Chapter 64: I Am the Murderer
The prison cell was even darker, with no lights or skylight. The small room contained only a stone bed with nothing on it, and a bucket for waste in the corner.
These conditions were probably worse than those in the government yamen's prison.
Besides, do weird objects deserve humanitarian treatment?
Moreover, it also showed that the Wen Family had indeed given up on Miss Wen, as only a small maid still cared for her from beginning to end.
However, if this continued, Miss Wen might starve or freeze to death in this prison before even reaching the Northern Territory.
Liu Sheng sighed softly.
Then she softly called out to the figure curled up inside: "Miss Wen."
But the figure remained motionless.
"Do you still remember me?"
"The one who helped you with Artifact Refining?"
Upon hearing this, Miss Wen's body stirred slightly.
Liu Sheng continued to speak to herself: "Do you have a maid named Cui Cui? A small, oval-faced girl. She asked me to bring you food."
Miss Wen finally slowly raised her head. Her already exhausted face was even more haggard and pale, her eyes slightly red: "Cui Cui, how is she?"
"Cui Cui is very sad." Liu Sheng simply said this.
Miss Wen's face grew even paler, and she murmured to herself: "Of course she would be sad. I must have disappointed her, and I might even implicate her... Her situation in the Wen Family was already difficult because of me..."
"So, did you kill Miss Lu?" Liu Sheng's question was direct.
Miss Wen recalled the matter, her face showing pain. She covered her head with her hands and lowered her head again, as if unwilling to face it: "I don't know! I really don't know!"
"Why wouldn't you know?"
"I... I seem to always be having a very, very long dream. When I wake up, I don't know where I am or what I'm doing, and in my hand... I'm always holding a knife!"
"That day at Baihe Tower, I only realized I was holding a knife after I woke up, and Lu Er had already fallen from the building."
"So, I killed her."
Miss Wen raised her head, smiling bitterly: "How about it, are you satisfied?"
"Don't you all wish to see such a story? As everyone wishes, from a favored child of heaven to a useless person who has lost all cultivation, and then becoming a murderer, and even a weird object..."
"My life, Wen Weilan, has certainly been colorful."
Miss Wen laughed softly, her laughter continuous, appearing almost insane.
Liu Sheng shook her head and said: "No, you are wrong."
"How am I wrong?" Miss Wen looked over with bloodshot eyes.
"You are not a weird object."
Liu Sheng spoke these words calmly, yet they were like a stone thrown into a calm lake, stirring up ripples in Miss Wen's heart.
"Miss Liu, there's no need to comfort me. Everyone says I am now."
But Miss Wen also knew something was wrong with her, so she only took these words as comfort.
Liu Sheng frowned: "I have no need to comfort you; facts are facts."
"I previously worked as a Siku in the Weaving Institute's Imperial Storage. I have encountered many weird objects, and my theoretical and practical experience are both very rich, and I also have a high-precision Ghost Qi Detector."
Liu Sheng earnestly listed arguments sufficient to prove her point one by one.
Hmm, Little Tentacle should also count as a type of Ghost Qi Detector, right?
"So, if others are unclear that you are not a weird object, how could I not be clear?"
"Really?" Miss Wen's long-dimmed eyes brightened upon hearing this.
Liu Sheng nodded affirmingly: "I have no reason to lie to you."
"I only know that if there is a mistake, it should be corrected."
Miss Wen looked at Liu Sheng's clear and sincere eyes, and couldn't help but be moved.
She had never imagined that she, who was now reviled and despised by the world, would hear such words from a woman she had only met twice, and who could not even be called a friend.
Since childhood, her ambition had been to eliminate all weird objects in the world. As an adult, she would even hunt Guai Qi, having killed countless weird objects, yet she never thought that one day she would be identified as a weird object, and she couldn't even deny this identification.
In her despair, she had even thought of just dying, which would be better than dying with the title of a weird object, and perhaps causing others to die again.
And now, there was someone who firmly said that the facts were not so.
Perhaps, this was her only hope now.
Miss Wen let out a soft breath, stood up, brushed off the dust from her body with her sleeve, and slowly walked towards the iron door.
Facing Liu Sheng, she bowed deeply with cupped hands and asked: "Miss Liu, you have come to tell me so much, you must already have a plan in mind. Please instruct me, what... what should I do?"
"Miss Wen, you should eat something first and regain some strength before we talk." Liu Sheng also knew that Miss Wen must be hungry, so she held off on saying anything else for now.
Miss Wen was indeed hungry. She obediently sat on the damp, cold ground by the door, and while opening the food box, casually said: "Miss Liu, you don't have to call me Miss Wen anymore. I am no longer a Young Miss. My name is Wei Lan; you can just call me by my name."
Liu Sheng responded: "Alright, Wei Lan."
The food box had two layers. The upper layer contained three exquisite dishes: sweet and sour pork ribs, stir-fried shredded bamboo shoots with meat, and stir-fried seasonal vegetables. The lower layer held a large bowl of rice and a well-sealed cup of stewed chicken soup.
The dishes were plentiful, clearly prepared with care, but having been delayed for a long time, they were already cold, with a layer of grease congealed on top.
However, Wen Weilan couldn't care less at the moment. Having been hungry for a day, coupled with the extreme cold here, she needed to eat to replenish her Qi.
Finally, she put aside her Young Miss's dignified demeanor and began to eat ravenously.
Liu Sheng waited patiently, and when Wen Weilan had almost finished eating, she opened her mouth to ask: "Now, can you tell me when you started to feel something was wrong?"
Wen Weilan finished the last sip of chicken soup, finally feeling her body warm up.
She put down the bowl, pondered for a long while, trying hard to recall.
However, her memories from these past days had become fragmented and indistinguishable.
Seeing her difficulty, Liu Sheng changed the question: "How about you tell me about your dream first?"
Her dream?
Wen Weilan could answer this question, as her dream was always recurring.
So she slowly began: "Have you heard the story of 'Don't Look Back'?"
Liu Sheng nodded: "Of course, it seems that there are such stories in villages and rural areas. It says that when a person walks at night, they must never look back, because people have three Yang Qi fires on their bodies, and Guai Qi will try every means to lure people to look back. As long as one looks back, one fire will be extinguished, and if they look back three times, their life will be gone."
"But that's just an ancient legend. The current Guai Qi's killing methods don't seem to follow such rules."
Wen Weilan smiled bitterly: "In my dream, I always walk at night on an endless dirt road."
"That's right, it probably started about a month ago, because it was my grandmother's death anniversary, and I was so tired after a day of work that I fell asleep in the ancestral hall." Wen Weilan tried hard to recall, her thoughts a bit chaotic.
"And then I had the dream."
"At first, I was just walking aimlessly."
"Until one day, in the dream, something appeared on my back."
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