The child bit his lower lip and didn't answer my question. He just glared at me stubbornly.
I began to feel uncertain.
It wasn't the identity of the child's father that I was uncertain about, but when exactly his Ghost King father had fathered him.
Cheng Jiu had a child too, one he'd had with someone from the real world. Cheng Lin had vanished from the real world along with Yangshan District. He might still be alive. He might be dead. He might even be here.
"Is he dead?" I didn't voice the question on my mind. Instead, I asked something cruel.
The child immediately flew into a rage like a wild beast and charged at me, howling.
I pressed one hand down on his head and pinned him in place. He swung his little fists, but couldn't land a single blow.
The answer to my question was already clear.
I watched the child's tears fall onto the ruins and didn't let go. He didn't stop trying to attack me, either.
It was the first time I'd encountered a situation like this, yet my heart was unusually calm. I even felt a little sad.
I thought of Mu Ai. That child had lost his father too, and could only wander beneath the building controlled by the Delivery Ghost.
"Qi Ning... Qi Ning..." The parrot's cries reached me.
I turned and glanced back. The monster was growing weaker by the moment.
"He deserved it! Die!" the child yelled, his voice full of hatred.
"Did he come alone? Were there no other... monsters?" I asked.
The child gripped my hand and glared at me without answering.
Apparently not.
"So everyone else just ran away?" I asked again, more like I was talking to myself.
Perhaps those people hadn't fled because they were