Love and Hatred Twisted

Love and Hatred Twisted

"Water Official, Outer God..."

Seeing the different prefixes before the statues, Wu Xian realized that these gods must have specific classifications and functions. Unfortunately, he had seen too few statues to make any accurate judgments.

There was no incense burner in front of the Many Treasures Tathagata Statue. That meant he couldn't gain any benefits from it by worshipping it, but it had to be useful in some way.

After thinking for a moment, Wu Xian gathered some odds and ends from the other rooms and used them to cover the statue. That way, even if someone came into the room, they wouldn't find the Outer God statue unless they searched carefully.

The second and third floors of the inn had been fully explored!

Wu Xian finally went down to the first floor, where he happened to run into Shi Ji on his way back.

He clutched his side, looking exceptionally grim, and carried a large bag of things. Wu Xian was about to ask how he was doing when Shi Ji asked after Wu Xian instead.

Following Mr. Wang's directions, Wu Xian had come to Fuxin Huayuan Community, behind the inn.

Maybe it was just his imagination, but those things Shi Ji had been carrying...

Mr. Wang finally couldn't hold back any longer.

"Mr. Wu, you look so pale. Did something happen?"

After rummaging around for a while, a faint voice came from inside the fridge.

"What did you say?!"

He flipped through a few more photos, taking a good look at his beautiful wife. At last, he found one showing her bare feet. He studied it for a while before setting it down, satisfied.

"Mr. Wang's wife is the Hanged Ghost who attacked me!"

Shi Ji raised the bag in his hand and smiled.

"Tsk, so that's what 'eat you for the rest of your life' meant."

The phone's photo album was full of selfies Liu Juan had taken while eating.

The man spotted Wu Xian, his expression shifting slightly, then retreated into the dark stairwell.

"We don't know when the Evil Ghost will come to kill us, but if we go without food for too long, people will really start dying."

"Oh, I found some food. I'm not very clever, and I can't handle anything too complicated, but I'm pretty good at cooking, so I'll make something hot for everyone."

"She may have been venting her resentment, or perhaps keeping your corpse brought her some benefit. Either way, that's why she hid your body in the fridge."

After resting for a while, Wen Chao and the other man continued making inquiries.

Social order in the Blessed Land had long since completely collapsed. Judging by the traces around them, a small number of people were probably still surviving here, but there were very few of them.

Suddenly, Wu Xian shivered and coughed violently twice. He was clearly feeling unwell; his dropping body temperature had pushed him to the brink of danger.

Wu Xian put on a thick jacket, sat in a chair to charge his phone, and began talking in front of the fridge.

"Mr. Wang, you're not being honest with me."

"Juan'er and I met that winter. Back then, she..."

Wu Xian waved a hand. "I'm fine. What happened to you..."

Wu Xian scoffed at that.

Wu Xian's words offended Mr. Wang. He shouted in anger, and Wu Xian's temperature began to drop even faster. His body started shaking uncontrollably.

Wu Xian stepped into Room 902. This was Mr. Wang's home.

"I hope you'll calm down. If the curse kills me, no one will be able to help you find the key."

"Freezer?"

It smelled so rank and foul!

"What are you still waiting for? Hurry up and open this coffin and let me out! Once I'm out, I'll lift the curse, and your body temperature will return to normal."

"Later, you died."

By then, his phone had finished charging. Wu Xian used the same trick to crack the passcode, rummaged around, and opened the photo album. His eyes widened.

As he went upstairs, Wu Xian noticed that things here were much like they had been on the inn's second and third floors. Most of the doors along the way were damaged, and the rooms inside were battered and faded.

He picked up a diary from the floor. It was filled with handwriting of all sizes, but every line said the same thing.

She ate every meal sitting in front of the open fridge door. Her main dishes were cooked meat, as if she were sharing a meal with her late husband.

He stood by the electrical meter cabinet for a while, then finally determined that Room 902 was the only one in the building with electricity.

Following the cold sensation, Wu Xian stopped at the entrance to one of the building's units and looked up.

Wu Xian chuckled. The freezer wasn't locked. It seemed that aside from cursing Wu Xian to make him open the door, Mr. Wang had no way to observe or interfere with the outside world.

The large room was a complete wreck. All the furniture had been overturned, and takeaway containers, milk tea cups, and other junk were piled everywhere. The leftovers in the food containers had rotted and stank. A freezer sat in the corner.

As soon as Wu Xian entered the community, he saw Wen Chao and Fang Zhi run out of one of the buildings in a sorry state. A gaunt, sallow man brandished a kitchen knife and shouted at them.

It was obvious that Mr. Wang was inside that freezer.

"Friend, I was hoping..."

Now that he knew this, Wu Xian was in even less of a hurry.

He nudged the junk with his foot, pretending to search carefully for the key, and asked leisurely, "May I ask why you were locked in the freezer?"

Mr. Wang froze, seemingly stunned. Then he began telling Wu Xian his story.

As he spoke, Wu Xian found another phone. It was decorated with colored rhinestones and must have belonged to the woman of the house.

"This married woman looks kind of familiar."

"Mr. Wang should be buried here."

"Ah, so this is a freezer."

Wen Chao looked helpless. When had he ever been treated like this?

After chatting with them for a bit, Wu Xian learned that they had hoped to get information about the Blessed Land from the survivors, but things clearly weren't going smoothly.

"Get lost! You'll get me killed! Come back and I'll kill you!"

"In my view, this is what happened: You used to work in some sort of job that couldn't stand the light of day. Liu Juan may have been one of your victims. She got hold of something she could use against you and threatened you into marrying her and footing the bill for her extravagant spending."

In the Blessed Land, doors were clearly important. Only an intact door could keep evil spirits out.

'You did this to me. You won't get away. I'm going to eat you for the rest of your life!!!'

"Was this the deepest hatred, or a love twisted beyond recognition?"

The two passed each other. Wu Xian suddenly stopped.

The icy guidance was two-dimensional; it couldn't tell Wu Xian which floor he was on. The building had seventeen floors, with two rooms on each one. Searching floor by floor would waste a lot of time.

Hearing him say that, Wu Xian realized he was a little hungry, and started looking forward to dinner.

Beyond the inn, the world was filled with gray fog. The sunlight barely reached the ground, and everything around them was gloomy.

The building had an elevator, but Wu Xian still chose to take the stairs.

Fortunately, the Blessed Land's power system was still functioning. Mr. Wang was probably locked inside a fridge, and a fridge definitely used electricity.

Wu Xian answered casually, "Your coffin is locked. I'm looking for the key."

"On the surface, you were husband and wife, but in reality, your relationship was more like master and servant. That's why in all your photos together, only your wife was smiling—not you."

Wu Xian rummaged through the things on the floor and picked up a photograph. It showed a husband and wife together. The beautiful wife smiled brightly, while her plain-looking husband wore a sorrowful expression, his eyebrows drooping into a frown.

"Juan'er and I loved each other very much. She once said she'd stay with me for life. Maybe she loved me so much that she couldn't accept my passing, so she kept me in the freezer. That way, it was as if I were still with her."

Creak...

Mr. Wang let out a sigh. "Alas... Juan'er, how could you do this... Sigh. Hurry up and find the key. Find it and let me out."

But for some reason...

In the later photos, less and less of Mr. Wang's body could be seen inside the open freezer.