So It Was You

Li Banfeng thought the person impersonating He Jiaqing would go to the restroom with him.

But "He Jiaqing" didn't go. He didn't want any more contact with Li Banfeng; he found Li Banfeng's behavior a bit unusual.

There was no need to worry about the unusual behavior. From the moment Li Banfeng entered this Western-style building, he believed the outcome was already decided. Li Banfeng was destined to replace him and become a prisoner of the building.

To be safe, "He Jiaqing" had Li Banfeng drink some tea with "seasoning," intending for him to have a good sleep.

Afraid Li Banfeng wouldn't sleep soundly, he wanted to give Li Banfeng another bowl of soup, but Li Banfeng didn't drink it.

Now it seemed Li Banfeng really wasn't sleeping soundly. Perhaps not enough seasoning was used, or perhaps Li Banfeng was too healthy, and that cup of tea wasn't enough to completely knock him out.

None of that mattered.

What mattered was that Li Banfeng couldn't get out.

He couldn't possibly find the exit.

"He Jiaqing" had been searching here for several days and still hadn't found an exit.

When dawn breaks, I'll be free.

Li Banfeng, you fool, I wonder how long you can last in this house.

"He Jiaqing" went downstairs and slept in a room on the first floor near the door.

Li Banfeng entered the bathroom and saw a Yellow Cat and a White Cat searching for food near the washbasin.

There was no faucet on the washbasin; instead, there was a hand pump. The White Cat jumped onto the handle of the hand pump, and the Yellow Cat squatted at the spout, watching to see if any water would come out.

The rustling sounds were coming from them. How did these two cats get in?

There were quite a few cats in the Western-style building. How did the other cats get in?

Through the window?

There was indeed a small porthole window in the bathroom, very small.

The porthole was tightly closed. Li Banfeng pushed it several times, but it was as sturdy as the windows in the bedroom, with no possibility of opening.

Li Banfeng let out a few low "hissing" sounds at the two cats. The White Cat was already wary of Li Banfeng. Hearing these two low sounds, it immediately bristled in fright and scurried into the small hole beneath the washbasin.

The Yellow Cat was about to follow, but Li Banfeng grabbed it.

He looked at the hole next to the floor drain.

This should be a ventilation opening, not much larger in diameter than an adult's fist.

Cats truly were amazing animals. How did it squeeze into such a small hole?

Meow~

A cat's meow came from outside the window.

Through the frosted glass of the window, Li Banfeng vaguely saw a white figure outside the window calling to its companion.

The White Cat had run outside the house!

It crawled out through the vent.

A person couldn't get out, but a cat could!

Click!

The bathroom doorknob turned, and "He Jiaqing" pushed the door open and walked in.

He had just heard the cat's meow.

"Banfeng, what are you doing?"

"I'm sitting on the toilet." Li Banfeng sat on the toilet, holding the yellow cat in his arms.

"You're petting a cat while sitting on the toilet?"

Li Banfeng nodded, "A cat in the bathroom, if I don't pet it while sitting on the toilet, where else is suitable?"

"He Jiaqing" closed the bathroom door. He couldn't comment on Li Banfeng's behavior.

Li Banfeng's actions were completely unreasonable, but he could always find a reasonable explanation for himself.

Why bother with whether he was reasonable or not?

As long as tomorrow morning passes, I will never see him again.

Li Banfeng reached his hand into the vent under the washbasin.

This vent didn't lead directly outside the mansion. Li Banfeng wasn't sure about its structure inside or how many turns it took.

Although a cool night breeze flowed in from the vent, Li Banfeng couldn't use the vent to directly throw the key outside the mansion.

Since he couldn't throw it directly, he could only gamble once.

This yellow cat was clearly timid. To win the gamble, he had to give it some incentive.

Li Banfeng took out the new top hat he had bought from his pajama pants. The hat contained two items.

He had changed into pajamas earlier, and his wallet and some personal belongings had been taken by He Jiaqing.

But there were two things Li Banfeng never left his side: one was the key, and the other was spicy strips. Now they were both in the top hat.

He first took out the key, entered his Portable Abode, and took out his phone charging cable from his backpack.

Back in the bathroom, he used the charging cable to tie the key to the cat's body.

He first carried the yellow cat to the vent, then held the key and opened the door to the Portable Abode again.

Just before entering the door, Li Banfeng took out a spicy strip and stuffed it into the yellow cat's butt.

With a tragic scream, the yellow cat ran like the wind and rushed into the vent.

Li Banfeng immediately entered the Portable Abode.

Little cat, if you rush directly outside the mansion, then I win the gamble.

If you choose to squat in the vent and not go out, then I lose the gamble!

If I lose the gamble, your life won't be easy either. The spicy strip will definitely burn you to death!

He Jiaqing heard the sound and rushed into the bathroom again, only to find that Li Banfeng was not there.

Where did he go?

He Jiaqing's brain buzzed!

Footsteps came from outside the window. He Jiaqing rushed to the living room on the first floor, came to the floor-to-ceiling window, and saw Li Banfeng standing in the garden.

There was a yellow cat beside Li Banfeng, currently sitting in a puddle in the garden, taking a bath.

He Jiaqing was very shocked, while Li Banfeng was calm.

Just a few seconds ago, He Jiaqing was convinced that he was free, and he was convinced that Li Banfeng would definitely not be able to leave the He Family Old House.

Just a few seconds ago, Li Banfeng was still unsure if the yellow cat would rush out of the vent, but now the yellow cat was sitting in a puddle in the yard, whimpering softly.

Li Banfeng entered the Portable Abode in the bathroom. The yellow cat took the key in the bathroom, went through the vent, ran outside the house, and took the key with it.

The Portable Abode followed the key. When the key left the house, the Portable Abode took Li Banfeng out of the house with it.

At this moment, He Jiaqing, standing in the living room, was hitting the floor-to-ceiling window hard, seemingly calling out to Li Banfeng, but Li Banfeng couldn't hear him.

He Jiaqing's hands clawed at the floor-to-ceiling window. With a sharp, piercing sound, the floor-to-ceiling window opened a crack.

The crack grew wider and wider. When it opened to more than ten centimeters, He Jiaqing squeezed his head into the gap and stuck it out.

"Banfeng, you're my only brother, are you just leaving like this? Are you just abandoning me like this? Banfeng, weren't you here to save me?"

Li Banfeng took a few steps back. This fake He Jiaqing was clearly stronger than Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng couldn't open this floor-to-ceiling window, but he could.

"Who exactly are you?" Li Banfeng held the key in his hand, ready for the next step of escape.

He Jiaqing wanted to stick his body out of the floor-to-ceiling window, but he couldn't. The floor-to-ceiling window was tightly stuck on his shoulders.

"Li Banfeng, come here, come closer, I'll tell you, I'll let you know who I am right now!"

This fake He Jiaqing seemed unwilling to reveal his identity. Li Banfeng was about to leave the yard, but he didn't expect someone to answer the question for him.

To be precise, it wasn't a person, but the Home Spirit.

The Home Spirit did not allow He Jiaqing to leave the house.

Even if he opened the window, he couldn't get out. Even if he could open the door and let Li Banfeng in, he still couldn't get out.

He Jiaqing's head was sticking out of the window, still struggling desperately. A vine hanging from upstairs suddenly wrapped around his face and began to tear at it.

A layer of delicate skin was torn off, and He Jiaqing's appearance disappeared from her face.

Li Banfeng saw her true face.

It was Lu Xiaolan!

He Jiaqing's girlfriend.

Why was she in the He Family Old House?

No wonder she said so many private things about me and He Jiaqing in the text message.

He Jiaqing had dinner with her, and I went with them. She knew about this.

He Jiaqing slept with her, and I called him out midway. She knew about this.

Did she know that He Jiaqing sent me the answers? Did she know that He Jiaqing worked at a construction site to pay for my medical expenses?

Could it be that He Jiaqing told her?

Why could she put a hook on my phone?

Could it be because of the call He Jiaqing asked me to make?

Was He Jiaqing her accomplice?

Did He Jiaqing sell me out?

Wait, if He Jiaqing was her accomplice, why didn't He Jiaqing himself come to deceive me?

If it were He Jiaqing himself, he would never have revealed so many flaws!

She is a Peeping Cultivator. There are many things He Jiaqing didn't tell her, but she could peek them out.

In the matter of the text message, she was always in control, leading me into her trap.

When we actually met, some flaws became unavoidable because she couldn't peek into every single detail.

He Jiaqing shouldn't be her accomplice, but why was she trapped by the Home Spirit?

As his thoughts raced, Lu Xiaolan shouted to Li Banfeng in a hoarse voice, "Li Banfeng! Do you want to save He Jiaqing? If you want to save him, come find me. Only I know where he is!

Li Banfeng, I love Jiaqing. I'm truly good to Jiaqing. In this world, besides you, only I am sincerely good to him!"

Upon hearing this, Li Banfeng turned and left.

What she said... He Jiaqing and I aren't in that kind of relationship either.

"Li Banfeng! Don't go! You'll regret it for the rest of your life! You've become a Dark Energy User, haven't you? You're a Body Cultivator, right! You can become invisible, right?

Teach me how to leave this place, and I'll give you whatever you want! I'll give you anything you want! I have a lot of good things!"

Li Banfeng's figure disappeared into the night. Lu Xiaolan, with a face full of tears, pulled her head back from the floor-to-ceiling window.

She had to pull back. The vines had already torn off her fake face, and now they were about to tear off her real face.

In the past few days, her real face had been torn off many times, which brought excruciating pain and scars that were difficult to heal.

She sat under the floor-to-ceiling window and cried loudly.

She didn't understand why Li Banfeng didn't fall for it.

She successfully tricked Li Banfeng to Pro State and into the house, but why did Li Banfeng still escape?

Shortly after the train derailed, He Jiaqing received a call from Li Banfeng.

This call saved He Jiaqing's life.

Lu Xiaolan struck He Jiaqing, but failed to kill him.

He Jiaqing counterattacked, but also failed to kill Lu Xiaolan.

He Jiaqing, relying on the call from Li Banfeng, escaped back to Yue Province and sent Lu Xiaolan back to the He Family Old House.

It was precisely because of Li Banfeng's phone call that Lu Xiaolan used the Peeping Cultivator's skill of Clairaudience to attach a hook to Li Banfeng's phone.

Later, when she arrived at the He Family Old House, this hook became Lu Xiaolan's lifeline.

On the train, Li Banfeng's phone ran out of battery.

The hook broke, and Lu Xiaolan was very scared, very worried, and even desperate.

She suspected that Li Banfeng might have encountered an accident.

Unexpectedly, Li Banfeng still came.

Limited by the Home Spirit, Lu Xiaolan did not intend to use force, nor did she intend to reveal the truth before Li Banfeng discovered it.

To ensure that Li Banfeng stayed in the house for one night in good condition, she had rehearsed every detail of their meeting many times.

She maintained sufficient restraint and did not rush to mention the Profound Life Lotus in front of Li Banfeng. Even when Li Banfeng left the lotus at the station, she did not get angry about it.

She tried her best to imitate He Jiaqing's way of speaking, every detail was very similar. When Li Banfeng entered the door, she even deliberately mocked Li Banfeng's backpack, just like He Jiaqing would.

As long as she waited until tomorrow morning, she could leave this house.

Why?

She really couldn't understand why Li Banfeng would run away?

What did I say wrong, what did I do wrong?

Why did Li Banfeng run away?

Lu Xiaolan clutched her hair, crying and wailing hoarsely.

For the first time, she realized that she might die here, die of hunger, until she became a rotten and foul-smelling corpse.

After crying for a while, Lu Xiaolan's voice gradually weakened, and the tears on her face gradually dried.

She went to the kitchen, chopped up some cat skins and bones, chopped them into powder, and poured them into the pot.

Then she took out a small porcelain bottle from her pocket, poured out a little powder from the small porcelain bottle, just a little, and sprinkled it on the cat skins and bones.

This medicinal powder was very precious, and she only had this small bottle left.

Smoke rose from the pot, like the oil smoke rising from stir-frying some kind of ingredient.

Under the oil smoke, the cat skins and bones slowly turned into an indescribable paste, emitting a faint fishy smell.

She divided the paste in the pot into five cat food bowls and placed these cat food bowls in different corners of the room.

One bowl in the entrance hall, one in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, and one in the corridor on the second floor.

This faint fishy smell could drift very far.

Just relying on this faint fishy smell could attract stray cats, or possibly weasels, as they had a way to enter and exit this house.

As long as they ate the food in the cat food bowls, they would fall into a deep sleep, just like the tabby cat sleeping soundly in the kitchen.

Lu Xiaolan picked up the tabby cat, directly tore open its fur with her teeth, and gnawed on its flesh and blood with force.

She also wanted to eat cooked food, but she couldn't, because firewood was very precious and had to be saved to deceive the next person who entered the house.

Lu Xiaolan chewed the raw meat in large bites, muttering to herself as she chewed.

I can't die, absolutely can't die.

I want to live.

I can still get out.

Leaving the He Family Old House, Li Banfeng ran through a few alleys and came to a small lane. He entered the Portable Abode and hid the key under the window sill of a house.

Sitting silently in the Portable Abode, Li Banfeng fell into deep thought.

Where did the real He Jiaqing go?

Could it be that the He Jiaqing lying in the hospital is the real one?

PS: Li Banfeng didn't take out the spicy stick he gave to the Yellow Cat. He hoped that Yellow Cat was doing well.