This Damned Thirst for Survival
chapter-71

At noon, Wen Renlian and Kuang Zheng arrived at the hospital.

People who study metaphysics seem to have a wonderful power in their bodies, and their health is much better than that of ordinary people. Lu Youyi’s head wound has started to recover today, and after a day’s rest, he will be able to go home to recuperate.

The wound is a small matter, Lu Youyi’s hair is the big one.

For the sake of stitches, the doctor shaved off all the hair around the wound. Lu Youyi was so desperate that the doctor had to shave his head bald.

Wen Renlian bought Lu Youyi two hats as a gesture of sympathy for the wounded, one a simple duck-tongue hat and the other with a wig.

“You can wear whichever you want,” Wen Renlian said sincerely, looking at Lu Youyi’s duck-egg smooth head, “They say that only those who have passed the bald test are really handsome, and Lu Youyi, you have a very round head.”

Lu Youyi said mournfully, “If you don’t laugh out loud, I’ll believe you.”

Jiang Luo couldn’t help but see Wen Renlian looking at him again with his hair-dyeing tool, “Don’t you want to dye your grey hair black?”

“……” Jiang Luo drifted off, “I’d forgotten about it.”

He sat in front of Wen Renlian, who was skilfully unpacking his hair-dyeing tools, “Don’t worry, I’ll give you a natural look.”

Jiang Luo took a strand of white hair out of his ear and looked at it, “I didn’t need to dye my hair.”

Wen Renlian was noncommittal, and Jiang Luo did not tell them why his hair had gone white, so they did not ask, “but I think it’s quite a nice strand of white hair.”

He took the hair from Jiang Luo, whose hair had always been smooth as silk and addictive to touch once. Wen Renlian said lovingly, “But Qi Ye told me that you don’t like this strand of white hair.”

Jiang Luo stepped on the leg of the stool, his long legs curled up as he thought about it, “I think I actually said that.”

Wen Renlian smiled and, after combing Jiang Luo’s hair, asked, seemingly offhandedly, “What happened to your mouth?”

Jiang Luo subconsciously touched his lips, even with the medication, they were not completely healed now, he almost showed a grim expression, when he remembered Wen Renlian standing behind him, he held back in time, “Guess?”

Wen Renlian is not Ye Xun Lu Youyi, and Jiang Luo has not yet figured out what to say to him.

“I guess-” Wen Renlian lengthened his voice and said slowly, “you got chewed up.”

Bad.

Jiang Luo’s teeth ground together and suddenly a thought struck him. His cheeks flushed thinly and he coughed uncomfortably, embarrassed, “Hmm.”

Wen Renlian fingertips.

Jiang Luo turned back and said in a low voice, “Wen Ren, if people ask, cover up for me and don’t tell my master, it would be bad if he knew I was still hanging out with Chi You.”

So it was Chi You, Wen Renlian smiled unchanged and said soothingly, “I won’t, don’t worry.”

In truth, alarm bells were ringing loudly in his mind.

It had been a long time since they had heard Chi You’s name from Jiang Luo’s lips. Wen Renlian had thought Jiang Luo had gradually recovered from the loss of his lover, but to his surprise, they were still in touch, even kissing.

What were you thinking about, Chi You?

Did he not know what would happen to Jiang Luo if he kept compelling a human being to fall in love with a Li’l Ghost in this way?

Is it true that people’s temperament changes so much after death? Chi You would never have done anything when he was alive, but why did he have to die and then become paranoid about Jiang Luo?

Jiang Luo had already killed himself once and crashed his car into a river once for him, what more did he want Jiang Luo to become addicted to.

Wen Renlian not only decided to tell Feng Li, but also immediately reinforced his desire to bring Jiang Luo and Qi Ye together.

He said without a trace, “Speaking of which, Qi Ye hasn’t been back to school once since you guys went out on your mission.”

Jiang Luo’s attention was indeed diverted to Qi Ye, who said thoughtfully, “Is that so?”

Wen Renlian said, “The teacher did call Qi Ye’s family, but according to them, they hadn’t finished with their work and needed to wait a bit longer before sending Qi Ye back. Their attitude was polite, but in the end, the school curriculum is not very important to Qi Ye, and the Qi family can teach Qi Ye much more than the school.”

Jiang Luo smiles meaninglessly.

He didn’t think so.

The Qi Ye family held Qi Ye at home until they completed their mission, rather like a precaution to keep Qi Ye out of trouble after their deaths.

As to whether Qi Ye knew about the Qi family’s hands in this mission …… Jiang Luo thought of Qi Ye’s squirming look and leaned towards the fact that he did not know.

By now, Jiang Luo was 100% certain that the Qi family was responsible for the illusions he had encountered during the mission.

Chi You is also in the mix, playing a role as well.

He knew that the Qi and Chi families were going to make a move on Jiang Luo and knew when the illusion was going to start, so he got involved in the process.

But the strange thing is, who actually broke the illusion?

Jiang Luo pressed his doubts and took the hair dye with him to wash his hair.

Jiang Luo’s hair was already dark and dense, and the dyed black hair was not as shiny as his natural hair, but when mixed together, the difference was indistinguishable.

Jiang Luo tied his blow-dried hair up and put on his duck-tongue hat, “I’m going out to buy a duck neck.”

After all, Jiang Luo had just been in the news, so just in case, Jiang Luo put on a mask and walked out of the hospital with his head down and his high ponytail peeking out from the back of his duck tongue hat.

Jiang Luo took a taxi to the recording location of “Next Stop, Idol” and found the chief director and asked for the CCTV footage from the dormitory building last night.

The electricity on the first to fifth floors has been cut off by Ye Xun, but there is still electricity on the sixth floor. Jiang Luo looks serious as he watches the only remaining video.

The human eye can be fooled by illusions, the eyes of the camera cannot. The sixth floor is not the place where the trainees spend their time, so only the left and right ends of the corridor are equipped with cameras. The two surveillance videos went black at the end, and before they did, Jiang Luo watched the video several times over and over again before finally seeing something wrong on one scene of the surveillance.

He pressed pause and zoomed in as far as he could, and in the middle of the corner near the stairs, a thumb-sized hilt of a knife flickered in the bottom right corner.

This is the knife of the dead ghost.

Jiang Luo stood up and watched the scene with an expressionless face.

Why would a dead man go up to the sixth floor?

None of them were on the sixth floor at this time of day.

The director cautiously said, “Master, do you want to see anything else?”

“No,” Jiang Luo, “director, copy me a copy of this video, and afterwards, you remember to delete these videos.”

Jiang Luo took his things and left the place, took the car to the street to buy some pork shops and duck-necked chicken nuggets, and carried a watermelon back to the ward.

A few people came over and picked up the stuff, Jiang Luo sat down on the arm of the sofa and took off his mask and hat, “Deadbeat, aren’t you eating?”

Teng Bi hesitates for a moment, picks up a slice of watermelon and nibbles on it.

The flesh of the melon was sweet and cool in the mouth, and as he finished the watermelon in two bites, Jiang Luo asked, “How was it?”

Very tasty.

Teng Bi simply said, “It’s not bad.”

Jiang Luo stops asking questions and lies back on the sofa with his eyes closed.

At noon the next day, Lu Youyi was discharged from the hospital. They went downstairs to get a taxi and, given that the dead ghost had nowhere else to go, they took him back to school as well.

Lu Youyi sighed, “Remember the last time we brought back a severed head ghost.”

“Brokenhead is having a good time now,” Wen Renlian shrugs, “and he’s always talking about taking care of his hair with Dean.”

Jiang Luo thought he had misheard: “The dean has hair?”

Wen Renlian whispered, “The dean has a beard.”

After a week apart, Jiang Luo finally returned to school. He went to his room to clean up and buy some cooking utensils before receiving an invitation from his teacher at 6pm.

“What’s this?” Jiang Luo took it and looked around.

The teacher said, “An invitation to a party from the Kee family.”

Jiang Luo was intrigued and he said with a wry smile, “Everyone?”

“Only those who make it to the third level in the national competition are invited, and it’s a celebration of sorts for you. In previous years, other families did it, but this year it will be the Qi family’s turn. At that time, all the young talents of the metaphysical world will gather at the Qi family, which is also a blind date in disguise,” the teacher joked, ” Jiang Luo, don’t let others abduct you to other schools.”

Jiang Luo raised an eyebrow, “Teacher, when did the invitations arrive?”

“An hour ago,” said the teacher, “it’s no coincidence that the invitation arrived just as you were returning.”

Jiang Luo laughed twice and said goodbye to his teacher.

When he was alone, he went through the invitation carefully.

The party is in two days, and thankfully Jiang Luo’s lips will have healed by then.

The rest of the invitation is no different from a normal invitation.

Jiang Luo opens the wardrobe.

There were several formal suits in the wardrobe and he picked one out at random and tried it on, it was a good size. The plain black suit was slim fitting and looked nice and tall with a slim waist and long legs.

Jiang Luo is not prepared to spend money on new ones now that he can wear them.

Two days have passed and Jiang Luo has met all of his classmates but not Sai Liaoer.

Two mornings later, he had just returned from a run when Sai Liaoer entered the dormitory in a trance-like state with weak arms and legs, black eyes and pale lips.

This over-indulged kidney deficiency appearance, so that the host can not stop shaking his head, “small plug ah, you this also ……”

Sai Liaoer opened his sleepy eyes, his eyes listless and vacant, with a look of being played out, “Huh?”

Jiang Luo almost didn’t dare to recognise the blonde with his small curly hair as he said cautiously, “Sai Liaoer?”

Sai Liaoer looked at him listlessly and only after a long time did he respond, “Jiang, you’re back?”

“I’ve been back for two days ……” Jiang Luo said, “How come I haven’t seen you for the past two days?”

“It’s been two days off and I’m sleeping,” Sai Liaoer yawned, regaining some energy but still wilting, “I’m so sleepy.”

Jiang Luo asked, “Don’t you ever get any rest these nights?”

Sai Liaoer thought for a moment, unsure, “I seem to have rested, and I don’t seem to have rested …… and for some reason, when it’s nighttime now, I get a little scared and I want to, all the time during the day.”

He shook his body.

Jiang Luo remembers, Sai Liaoer does not remember the night walk of the impermanent.

He gave Sai Liaoer a heavy pat on the shoulder, but with Sai Liaoer looking like this, it was really worrying whether he would die suddenly.

Every night, they are called out to work part-time without pay, and look at Sai Liaoer, even if he doesn’t remember, his subconscious is already afraid of the dark days.

Jiang Luo felt he needed to talk to Hei Wuchang.

After bidding farewell to Sai Liaoer, Jiang Luo went to his room and took a shower.

At ten o’clock, they were to leave for Qi’s house, so early that they were expected to stay there all day. Jiang Luo washed himself carefully, draped himself in a bathrobe and dried his hair, then picked up the suits he had prepared and put them on.

But as Jiang Luo buttons up his shirt, Yu Guang catches a glimpse of a suit set sitting on top of his blazer.

A pair of ruby red cufflinks, a ruby red rose pin, and a pair of ruby red earrings.

Jiang Luo looks at them steadily for a moment, bending over, his dark hair falling over his shoulders as he takes the ornaments in his hands.

They looked extremely familiar, he had seen them before on Chi You.

Jiang Luo pulled his lips coldly.

He had been out running for just an hour and the door to his room was locked so that no one else could get in.

People can’t get in, but ghosts can.

Chi You Give him these things, what do you mean?

Jiang Luo’s eyes sweep over the ornaments without a ripple and he walks gingerly over to the bin, his palms unclenching, and the ruby set of Western ornaments is thrown into the bin.

No mercy.

“Nice stuff, but what a shame,” he said, his thin lips teasing up like a king on high, commenting carelessly, “I hate things that have been worn by others.”

Jiang Luo picks up his blazer, lifts his steps and walks out the door.

The companions were almost all ready, in formal attire, even Wen Renlian, who had taken off her long dress and put on a suit and was talking to Kuang Zheng with a smile on her face.

Lu Youyi couldn’t wear a hat for such an occasion, so he wisely wore a wig, and when he saw that everyone was there, he said, “I asked my parents to borrow some cars, let’s go.”

Lu Youyi’s car, of course, is a luxury car. Jiang Luo was the first to grab the driver’s seat, he had never driven such an expensive car before.

The dean went with them, as their leader. The party for the Qi family was held at the mountain villa, and Jiang Luo had a row of luxury cars parked at the bottom of the hill when they arrived.

People who make a name for themselves in the metaphysical world are never short of money. Just look at this villa of the Qi family, which was bought together with the villa and almost the entire hill.

Once they got out of the car, someone from the Qi family led them to the entrance of the villa. At the entrance, there were special people with inspection lights checking the invitations.

As soon as they entered, Qi Ye, who was not far away, froze as she tried to deal with the guests, then quickly stepped forward, glanced at the students behind the Dean and greeted him first, “Hello Dean.”

Dean Xu smiled cheerfully, ” Qi Ye , I haven’t seen you for a week.”

Qi Ye pursed her lips, “I’ll be back at school on Monday.”

Dean Xu nodded and left Jiang Luo’s group in Qi Ye’s hands and went off to catch up with an old friend.

Qi Ye looked at Jiang Luo, “Are you three okay?”

Jiang Luo asked rhetorically with a twinkle in his eye, “What can we have going on?”

“It’s best if you’re all right,” Qi Ye grunted, “don’t get hurt just because I’m not on the mission, then you’ll be real losers.”

It does appear that Qi Ye was unaware of what the Qi family had done.

Jiang Luo laughed, “You’ve been at home all week?”

Qi Ye nodded, annoyance flashing across his brow, “They won’t even let me out of the house.”

As they spoke, a group of people walked over. They were also participants in the third level, but in the end they got nothing, and there were many of the first disciples of the six great families among them.

Feng Li would not have come to such a house-like gathering of young people, and these people were a bit unscrupulous, looking at Jiang Luo, the first place winner, with hidden hostility and jealousy in their eyes, “Are you Jiang Luo, the one who took Yuan Tianzhu?”

As his companions gathered around Jiang Luo, Lu Youyi said nonchalantly, “What do you want?”

The leader of the group was a pockmarked face, who grunted, “We were not convinced when you won the first place in the competition earlier. We watched your video, but the video only showed the first two levels, and we were barely convinced by the first two levels, but who knows how you cracked the third level. A few of my buddies still have a grudge in their hearts when they see you today and want to have a rematch with you.”

They were hostile, but they were open and honest. Jiang Luo was not angry, “How do you want to compare?”

The pockmarked face’s eyes rolled, and the group whispered for a long time before finally puffing out their chests and saying, “Today’s celebration feast, we won’t be competing with those real guns, the Qi family had already prepared a lot of items waiting for us to play, so today we’ll be competing with body cultivation kung fu and fortune eyesight.”

Jiang Luo’s eyelids popped: “Luck-eye?”

He knew what it meant to cultivate his body and soul, which was nothing more than writing and painting, reciting scriptures and drawing charms, or, to a lesser extent, playing and composing music.

In order to train their temperament, both the school and the Sixth Estate would give them hobbies to cultivate their bodies.

Feng Li’s way of training Jiang Luo was to make him write charms all the time.

But fortune?

As an extremely unlucky person, Jiang Luo is not feeling well at the moment.

His companions around him were obviously well aware of his physique, and their faces all changed subtly to reveal a miserable expression.

Finished finished, than the other they can not be afraid, this than the fortune …… they still wash sleep.

Qi Ye gave a “tsk” and explained, “The celebration party will not start until the evening, so the reason for letting you come so early is to get to know each other and get closer to each other. Our family has prepared a lot of things, mountain roads for racing, also horse racing, gambling stones, board games …… say it is a comparison of luck, after all it is the word gambling.”

Pockmarked face said unevenly, “How can it be gambling! It’s like horse racing, if you have good eyesight, you can naturally tell that horse can win, which proves your talent. If you’re lucky, that’s also a form of strength.”

Qi Ye snorted and said to Jiang Luo, “His name is Li Cheng and he’s a good gambler, do you want to compete with him?”

Pockmarked face said indignantly, “It has to be better than that, otherwise it’s a fucking pain in the ass.”

Jiang Luo’s side said, “Forget it, forget it, forget it, let’s just say you win, okay? Even if you win!”

When this was said, it backfired on the group of people who were looking for trouble. There was another tall, thin man in the crowd whose eyes were red and he was about to cry, “What do you mean, do you despise us?”

Jiang Luo’s temples ached at the noise and he took a deep breath: “…… than.”

He followed up by asking, “What is the first level of the competition?”

“Let’s play the piano, put glass beads on the keys and see who wins by having the most beads on the keys. ”

Jiang Luo wanted to refuse, he could not play the piano.

But before he could say no, Qi Ye’s dad came over with a big grin, “That’s a good idea, Uncle is watching along, so he can be the judge for you.”

Qi Ye frowned, “Dad, you-”

“Hey,” Qi’s father patted his shoulder, “it’s a rare day to take it easy, so don’t think too much of yourselves, just make friends.”

After saying that, he looked at Jiang Luo and said with a smile, ” Jiang Luo, speaking of which, I still know your former master Chen Pi! Chen Pi has told me a lot about you these days, I remember that you used to use this method to practise your mind, right?”

Jiang Luo paused and smiled slowly, “That was all when I was a child.”

In the original body’s memory, it did practice piano in this way, but it was just a matter of people following the piano room for a few years, practicing indiscriminately and muddling through.

Such a trivial matter was not even on the mind of the original body, so how could Chen Pi remember it.

I’m afraid that the Qi family, for one, has already gone through his information.

But the original was quite mediocre, and even if he was jealous of Chi You, he had no one to talk to. He is not in the habit of recording his feelings on the internet, and at most Lu Youyi overhears him cursing Chi You at school, so Jiang Luo is not worried that his lies will be exposed.

He had wondered earlier if the Chi family wanted to kill him because they knew he had killed Chi You. But Chi You and the Chi family were clearly at loggerheads, and as soon as the thought occurred, he put it out of his mind.

And when you think about it, the Chi and Qi families, it’s not at all like they knew it was him who had used the forbidden technique to set Chi You up.

The QI family had investigated so carefully and probably didn’t find anything, and this came to test him.

” Jiang Luo” used to be so mediocre, but why has he become so good now?

A change of character, a move to the next level and the discovery of an undiscovered talent can be explained by the death of a loved one or the return of a prodigal son. But how else can you explain it if you don’t know how to play the piano anymore?

But Jiang Luo really feels that even if the original was here, he wouldn’t be able to play a single tune.

But that’s something Qifu would certainly not believe.

Qi’s father said, “It’s okay, this is a competition to cultivate one’s body and mind, not to compare techniques, as long as the heart is steady enough, it’s a good standard.”

With that said, Jiang Luo smiled, his mind frantically recalling the scores and piano keys he had seen when he was a child, “I’ll make a fool of myself then.”

Jiang Luo buys himself time, outwardly calmly, but the original is not interested in the meditation required, and he tries hard, but nothing comes to mind.

Jiang Luo, who has now reached the piano, sits down calmly and prepares to plan how to stop the performance in a logical manner.

His fingers tapped lightly on the piano keys a few times, as if he was auditioning. The pleasant, low piano sound rang out, with a light trembling tail note, as distant as the deep sea.

The waiter brought a small bottle of glass beads and poured them on the keys.

As soon as it fell, one or two glass beads almost rolled off the keys. Jiang Luo thought, “How can I play this?

Can someone who plays the piano even well really keep the marbles from falling?

He coughed his throat and was about to say the words to give up, but the hand on the keys was suddenly covered by another hand.

The other hand, unseen, crawled like a slimy snake into Jiang Luo’s hand under the gaze of the crowd. The hand is as cold as death, and the long, slender fingers slowly move forward against the back of Jiang Luo’s hand, causing a tickle and goose bumps before inserting themselves ambiguously into Jiang Luo’s fingers.

Jiang Luo’s back was also plastered with a chill that made his scalp tingle.

Someone whispered a soft laugh in his ear.

The next moment, these ghostly hands, carrying Jiang Luo’s, were dancing and leaping over the keys.