Wife! How Am I Supposed to Live Without You!

"Let's go."

Fang Xiu uttered just those words, then headed toward the emergency exit.

His spirituality was only at one percent, so it recovered quickly.

Now that it had recovered, there was no reason to hesitate.

He walked very slowly, straining his senses and constantly monitoring his surroundings to ensure he could react immediately if anything happened.

Soon, he passed the sign. Nothing happened.

He continued forward. The door drew closer and closer, with Zhao Hao and the others following right behind him. None of them encountered any danger.

Yet the smoother things went, the more something felt wrong. How could a place that had scared off the Female Physician be free of danger?

At last, he reached the door. Nothing had happened along the way.

Could... the real danger be hiding behind the door?

Bang!

He pushed the door open. Beyond it lay utter darkness, without a single glimmer of light, like a black hole.

"Xiu, is... is there really a way through there? There won't be anything dangerous, will there?"

"We have to go, even if there is."

With that reply, Fang Xiu stepped straight through the doorway. Like the gaping maw of an abyss, the darkness slowly swallowed him.

Darkness.

Darkness so complete he couldn't see his own hand.

He couldn't see anything in there. Stranger still, he couldn't even hear a sound. The silence was deathly.

No footsteps, no voices from Zhao Hao or the other two. Fang Xiu couldn't even tell whether the three of them had followed him.

He tried opening his mouth. His vocal cords vibrated, but no sound came out.

He tried turning back, but the door behind him had already vanished. There was nothing but darkness all around. He reached out and waved his hand, but touched nothing solid, let alone Zhao Hao or the other two.

At this point, he could only keep moving forward.

One minute passed, then two. Even after ten minutes of walking, everything around him remained pitch-black, as though this path would never end.

Such lonely darkness could almost drive an ordinary person to a breakdown, but it had no effect whatsoever on Fang Xiu.

His heart was darker than this path.

Just as Fang Xiu thought he would be trapped in the darkness until he died, a glimmer of light suddenly appeared before him.

Then the light expanded, and the darkness rapidly receded.

The surrounding scenery surged into view like a tide.

Fang Xiu froze.

Because... he was out.

Yes, he had left the Mental Hospital.

Once the darkness faded, he discovered that he was standing in the middle of a road. Rows of bright streetlights surrounded him, and beautifully landscaped green belts lined both sides.

This was the tree-lined avenue leading to Hundred Willows Academy that he had walked along earlier.

He turned around and immediately saw Zhao Hao and the other two, their faces filled with delighted surprise, as well as Hundred Willows Academy a short distance away.

We really... got out?

"This is great, Xiu! We made it out of the Ghost Domain alive!" Zhao Hao cried excitedly.

The other two were no different, their faces brimming with the exhilaration of surviving disaster.

"Quick, let's get out of this damn place!"

Those two didn't want to stay a moment longer. Without the slightest hesitation, they took off.

"Xiu, we'd better hurry, too. What if the Ghosts inside come out?" Zhao Hao suggested.

But Fang Xiu didn't answer. He simply stared at Hundred Willows Academy, his brow gradually furrowing deeper and deeper.

Why had Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital disappeared?

Previously, he hadn't been able to see Green Mountain Psychiatric Hospital because he was inside it and couldn't take in the whole picture as he could from outside. But now that he was out, he should have been able to see the Mental Hospital.

Yet it had vanished, leaving only Hundred Willows Academy.

And why had they gotten out so smoothly, without encountering any danger?

The Female Physician had taken just one look at the sign before turning and fleeing.

Yet his group hadn't encountered any danger at all.

Could... the Female Physician be under some restriction that prevented her from leaving the Mental Hospital, which was why seeing the exit had scared her off?

Unable to make sense of it, he could only leave for now under Zhao Hao's repeated urging.

But as they walked, Fang Xiu discovered something else that shocked him to the core.

The Ghosts... were gone!!

The Ghosts that had once filled the streets, even the indescribable Ghosts in the sky, had all disappeared!

What the hell was going on!?

At that moment, Fang Xiu's mind fell into complete turmoil. He could accept escaping for no apparent reason. He could accept the Mental Hospital disappearing. He could accept all of that.

But the one thing he couldn't accept was the disappearance of all the Ghosts in the streets!

Because then he couldn't get his revenge.

The Ghosts couldn't leave! They could only die!!

Fang Xiu began running home like a madman. Zhao Hao couldn't come close to keeping up and was left behind almost immediately.

As Fang Xiu ran, crazed mutters spilled from his mouth. "No, no, no! You can't disappear! You can't disappear!

"At least... at least my wife mustn't disappear!

"Wife! Wife!! You can't disappear! You have to be home waiting for me!!"

After running a considerable distance, he finally spotted a taxi. He hurried inside and urged the driver to take him straight to his rented apartment.

A long while later, the taxi stopped at the entrance to Fang Xiu's residential complex.

"We're here. The total is... hey, hey! Don't run off! You haven't paid!" the driver shouted, but Fang Xiu had already darted out like a cheetah and disappeared into the night.

The driver looked as though he had seen a ghost. Fang Xiu had been so fast that he vanished in the blink of an eye.

He didn't dare chase Fang Xiu for the fare. Even setting aside that inhuman speed, the man's behavior in the car alone had been enough to frighten him.

That man wasn't normal!

What normal person would sit in a car with bloodshot eyes, trembling nonstop and constantly muttering, "Wife, wife, you can't leave. You can't leave."

"Sigh, his wife probably ran off with someone else. Poor guy," the driver remarked before driving away.

Fang Xiu sprinted the entire way. Just like outside, there were no Ghosts anywhere in the residential complex, making his mental state increasingly unstable.

Bang!

Fang Xiu shoved his front door open and barged inside like a madman.

"Wife! Where are you? Come out!" He searched frantically.

The living room, the bedroom, the bathroom...

Nothing, nothing, still nothing!

"Wife, I can see you! Come out!" Fang Xiu roared, his eyes bloodshot.

But his beautiful, gentle wife never appeared again.

"No!!!"

Fang Xiu could no longer hold himself together. He screamed and shouted as though he had completely broken down.

"You can't disappear! Anyone else in the whole world can disappear, but not you... not you! Wife, how am I supposed to live without you!"

"Wife, you killed me eighteen whole times! If you disappear, how am I supposed to repay you for the rest of my life?"