"Come on then," Mu Anxiao said, waving her hand, seeing Liu Xian had agreed.
Zhang Yan's heart surged with an inexplicable excitement as he closed the door and ran over.
Mu Anxiao took the lead without a word.
"Let's eat hot pot," Zhang Yan suggested.
"Okay," Liu Xian agreed.
Mu Anxiao turned to Fan Yan and asked, "Do you want to eat?"
"My throat is inflamed, I can't eat spicy food," Fan Yan said.
Liu Xian reached out and patted Fan Yan's shoulder, saying, "You can eat the non-spicy kind."
"That works too," Fan Yan nodded.
Zhang Yan smiled, "Great, it's a decided matter then!"
Mu Anxiao nodded, unable to muster a smile, and as she turned, she ran into the demonic woman.
"Hello there," the woman said, now dressed in modern clothes as she appeared before Mu Anxiao.
Mu Anxiao looked at the woman in surprise and asked, "Didn't I tell you not to follow me?"
Zhang Yan looked at the woman before him and thought, *A demon.*
The woman smiled, "Since you all have time to go eat, it seems you're free."
"Whether I'm busy or not, we'll meet again in two days. Go away now," Mu Anxiao said angrily, worried the woman might harm Liu Xian and Fan Yan.
The woman feigned a look of being wronged and said, "You really are scary."
"If you know I'm scary, then leave," Mu Anxiao said sternly.
Liu Xian looked at the woman's pitiable appearance and said, "Why don't we bring her along..."
He trailed off as Mu Anxiao shot him a death glare, "This is our get-together, not a time for you to show off your gentlemanly demeanor."
Liu Xian had never seen Mu Anxiao so terrifying, so he lowered his head.
The woman glanced at Liu Xian and said, "You're so fierce, you've scared her."
"Who are you?" Zhang Yan asked deliberately.
The next moment, as the woman looked at Zhang Yan, she glared with both eyes and said, "Never mind, I'll be going now."
Mu Anxiao glanced at Zhang Yan, who was glaring at the woman, and breathed a sigh of relief, saying, "Let's go."
Without another word, the woman cautiously looked at Zhang Yan and turned to flee.
Fan Yan looked at Zhang Yan's expression and said, "Boss, aren't you being a bit too fierce with that girl?"
"Let's go," Zhang Yan's eyes returned to their gentle gaze.
Seeing Zhang Yan's gentleness towards him, Fan Yan nodded without further thought, "Okay, let's go."
In a short while, they arrived at the hot pot restaurant.
Outside the hot pot restaurant, the woman watched Mu Anxiao and the others sit down and order, her eyes narrowing. "Strange, Jiwawa isn't with her. That guy was so badly injured," she looked around, "Where could he have gone?" She then looked at Zhang Yan, sitting beside Mu Anxiao in the restaurant, and muttered, "It seems I'd better not go over."
At the cinema, Feng Qishi sat with the small demon in the deserted last row. He turned his head to look at the ten soul children crammed together and sighed.
Beside Feng Qishi, a soul child who acted as his little follower turned and asked, "How is it, fun?" As he spoke, he turned back to look at the large screen playing the animated movie.
"This is actually my first time watching a movie like this," Feng Qishi laughed. "It feels pretty good not having to pay."
"There are the fewest people at this time, so we have seats, it's great," the little follower said, staring ahead.
"It is pretty good, it's just that there's nothing to eat," Feng Qishi said.
"You want to eat something?" the little follower asked.
Feng Qishi touched his stomach and said, "I'm not hungry."
"Of course you're not hungry, you're a ghost," the little follower laughed.
"Indeed, I'm already dead," Feng Qishi said, suddenly feeling an emptiness in his chest.
The little follower looked at Feng Qishi's expression and said, "You still can't accept the fact that you're dead, can you?"
"I can't accept it," Feng Qishi nodded and smiled thinly. "But thinking about leaving this home and going to Mu Shazi's territory, that's pretty good too. At least I can still live there. Thinking about that makes me feel a little better."
"I heard it's not as good there as here," the little follower said, looking at Feng Qishi.
The small demon also said, "Yes, there's nothing there. They use candles for everything, houses are all single-story, and there are all sorts of flying insects. Are you sure you can adapt to life there?"
"Have you lived in that kind of environment?" Feng Qishi asked.
The small demon lowered his head and said, "My environment was definitely not as harsh as Mu Anxiao's. Although I haven't felt that way for a long time, I can still talk about how it felt when I was a dog."
"I'm human," Feng Qishi emphasized deliberately.
The small demon smiled thinly and said nothing.
The soul child continued, "When you first go there, you won't be able to adapt."
"We can adapt slowly, can't we?" Feng Qishi
"Cultivation isn't that easy," the little follower added.
"It's okay, this is my choice. Besides, I have a secret to tell you," Feng Qishi said, looking at both the little follower and the small demon.
"What secret?" the small demon asked curiously.
The little follower looked at Feng Qishi with a serious expression.
Feng Qishi lowered his gaze and said, "I haven't been this happy since middle school. Every time I heard my mother speak, I felt bad. That feeling," he sneered, "made me really want to die. If it weren't for studying to support me, I might have been gone long ago."
"Haven't you told anyone?" the small demon asked.
Feng Qishi shook his head. "No, as a man, saying such things to others would be too sentimental. To put it bluntly, before middle school, I always held onto the hope that my mother would treat me well. That hope gradually diminished as I got older. That feeling," he sighed, "is hard to describe. For a while, I often had insomnia and didn't want to interact with people, finding it all meaningless."
"Are you sick?" the small demon asked.
"What kind of sickness?" Feng Qishi asked.
"It's what you humans call depression. You just suppressed it with studying, but it can erupt at any time," the small demon said earnestly.
"People like me don't deserve that disease, okay," Feng Qishi said, smiling and turning back to the movie screen.
The little follower suddenly became very serious, "Many children die because of this illness."
"Aren't you a child?" Feng Qishi turned to the little follower and asked.
The little follower's eyes darkened, and he said, "I've seen many. They all thought they were fine, because in the so-called adult world, children are always healthy. Especially those children who are more lively are more dangerous. I once saw one."
"Who?" Feng Qishi asked curiously.
"Someone you know," the little follower pointed at Feng Qishi.
Feng Qishi was startled. "This world is too small! Who is it?"
The little follower's expression turned serious, "It's not that the world is small, it's just that I'm mainly in charge of your city, so I naturally get to meet them."