Li Banfeng entered the Portable Residence in the restroom. The yellow cat, also in the restroom, took the key, ran out through the vent to the outside of the house, and brought the key out with it.
The Portable Residence followed the key. Once the key was outside the house, the Portable Residence also moved outside, taking Li Banfeng with it.
At this moment, "He Jiaqing," standing in the living room, was forcefully pounding on the floor-to-ceiling window, as if calling out to Li Banfeng, but Li Banfeng couldn’t hear him.
"He Jiaqing" dug his fingers into the floor-to-ceiling window, and amidst a piercing screech, a gap opened in the window.
The gap widened more and more. When it was over ten centimeters wide, "He Jiaqing" squeezed his head through and poked it out.
"Ban Feng, you’re my only brother, and you’re just going to leave like this? You’re just going to abandon me? Ban Feng, didn’t you come to save me?"
Li Banfeng stepped back a few paces. This fake He Jiaqing was obviously much stronger than Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng couldn’t open the floor-to-ceiling window, but this impostor could.
"Who are you really?" Li Banfeng clutched the key in his hand, ready for his next escape attempt.
"He Jiaqing" tried to push his body through the floor-to-ceiling window but couldn’t manage it; the window clamped tightly onto his shoulders.
"Li Banfeng, come here! Come closer, and I’ll tell you! I’ll let you know immediately who I am!"
This fake He Jiaqing seemed unwilling to reveal his identity. Just as Li Banfeng was about to leave the yard, someone else answered the question for him.
More accurately, it wasn’t a person, but the House Spirit.
The House Spirit didn’t allow "He Jiaqing" to leave the house.
Even if "He Jiaqing" managed to open the window, he couldn’t get out. Even if he could open the door to let Li Banfeng in, he still wouldn’t be able to leave.
"He Jiaqing’s" head was sticking out of the window, and he was still struggling desperately. Suddenly, vines hanging from above wrapped around his face and began to tear at it relentlessly.
A layer of delicate skin was ripped away, and He Jiaqing’s features vanished from her face.
Li Banfeng saw her true face.
It was Lu Xiaolan!
He Jiaqing’s girlfriend.
As his thoughts raced, Lu Xiaolan called out 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 truly good to him!"
Upon hearing this, Li Banfeng turned and left.
"Li Banfeng! Don’t leave! You’ll regret this 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, can’t you? Teach me how to leave this place, and I’ll give you anything you want! I’ll give you anything! I have many good things!"
Li Banfeng’s figure disappeared into the night. Lu Xiaolan, her face streaked with tears, retracted her head from the floor-to-ceiling window.
She had no choice but to pull back. The vines had already torn off the fake face and would soon start on her real one.
In the past few days, her real face had been torn many times, bringing excruciating pain and hard-to-heal scars.
She sat under the floor-to-ceiling window, crying her heart out.
She had successfully lured Li Banfeng to Puluo State and into the house. So why did he still run away?
Not long after the train derailed, He Jiaqing received a phone call from Li Banfeng.
This call saved He Jiaqing’s life.
Lu Xiaolan had struck He Jiaqing but failed to kill him.
He Jiaqing fought back but couldn’t kill Lu Xiaolan either.
Relying on the phone call from Li Banfeng, He Jiaqing escaped back to Yuezhou and sent Lu Xiaolan back to the He Family Old House.
It was also because of this phone call from Li Banfeng that Lu Xiaolan used the Peeping Cultivation’s Favorable Wind Ear technique to establish a hook on Li Banfeng’s cell phone.
Later, when she was at the He Family Old House, this hook became Lu Xiaolan’s lifeline.
On the train, Li Banfeng’s cell phone battery died.
When the hook connection broke, Lu Xiaolan was terrified, worried, and at times, even despaired.
Yet, unexpectedly, Li Banfeng still came.
Restricted by the House Spirit, Lu Xiaolan hadn’t planned to use force or reveal her true intentions before Li Banfeng discovered the truth.
To ensure Li Banfeng would stay comfortably in the house for one night, she had rehearsed every detail of their meeting many times.
She maintained enough self-control not to eagerly bring up the Mysterious Life Lotus in front of Li Banfeng. She didn’t even get angry when he left the Lotus Flower at the station.
She did her best to imitate He Jiaqing’s manner of speaking, ensuring every detail was very similar. When Li Banfeng entered, she even deliberately mimicked He Jiaqing by teasing Li Banfeng about his backpack.
All she had to do was wait until the next morning, and she would be able to leave this house.
Lu Xiaolan clutched her hair, wailing hoarsely.
After crying for a long time, Lu Xiaolan’s voice gradually grew faint, and the tears on her face slowly dried.
She went to the kitchen, chopped up some cat skin and cat bones into tiny pieces, and poured them into a pot.
Then, she took a small porcelain bottle from her pocket and sprinkled just a little Medicinal Powder from it onto the cat skin and bones.
This Medicinal Powder was very precious. She only had this small bottle left.
Smoke rose from the pot, like the oily fumes from stir-frying food.
Beneath the smoke, the cat skin and bones slowly turned into an indescribable paste, emitting a faint, fishy odor.
She divided the paste from the pot into five cat food bowls and placed them in different corners of the room.
One bowl in the Mystical Gate, one in the living room, one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, and one in the hallway on the second floor.
This faint, fishy odor could travel quite far.
This faint, fishy odor was intended to attract stray cats, or perhaps weasels, creatures that knew how to get in and out of this house.
Once they ate the food in the bowls, they would fall into a deep sleep, just like the calico cat sleeping soundly in the kitchen.
Lu Xiaolan picked up the calico cat, tore open its fur with her teeth, and ravenously devoured its flesh and blood.
Lu Xiaolan chewed the raw meat, muttering to herself between mouthfuls.
After leaving the He Family Old House, Li Banfeng ran through several alleys and into a hutong. He then entered the Portable Residence and hid the key under the window ledge of a nearby house.
Sitting silently in the Portable Residence, Li Banfeng fell into deep thought.
PS: Li Banfeng hadn’t retrieved the spicy stick he’d given to the orange tabby, hoping the cat would be all right.