Chapter 91: The Road to Exile, Part 33

"Yujing!!!"

Ye Liuyun lunged forward and seized her wrist just as she was about to strike a second time.

Lin Yuan rushed in, snatched the trash bag away, and tore it open with force, revealing Lu Li, drenched in blood inside.

Shi Xianyu stared in disbelief at the scene before her. It felt as though her heart had stopped. Trembling, she covered her mouth, her mind going utterly blank.

Only a few hours earlier, she had put on Lu Li's clean new dress, tied her hair into a lovely little braid, and sent her unharmed to Yujing's home. Now Lu Li lay before her, covered in blood...

What had she done wrong? What had Lu Li done wrong to deserve such punishment?!

"Let me go!" Yujing struggled in resentment as Ye Liuyun held her down. "She's my daughter. I can do whatever I want with her! It's none of your business!"

Ye Liuyun shouted, "All minor residents are the future of the Oasis! Under Oasis law, harming a minor resident can be punished by death at the highest level! Yujing! Have you lost your mind?!"

Yujing froze, then a ferocious smile spread across her face. "Do you have any proof? She was being naughty and fell down the stairs on her own. She died from the fall! It has nothing to do with me! Don't think you can scare me with Oasis law!"

Lin Yuan ripped away the plastic bags covering Lu Li in a few swift motions. Pressing two fingers to her carotid artery, he looked up at Shi Xianyu. "She's alive!"

Shi Xianyu's eyes flew wide. She hurried over and knelt on the floor to listen for Lu Li's heartbeat—

She heard a faint throb. Blood was still flowing, and her body was warm.

Lu Li was alive!

She was truly still alive!

Perhaps seeing the joy on Shi Xianyu's face, Yujing went rigid, then muttered in disbelief, "No... that's impossible... She clearly had no breath left. She was clearly dead..."

Unable to endure it any longer, Ye Liuyun roared, "Do you actually want your own daughter dead that badly?! Lu Li is your biological daughter!"

Yujing's eyes gradually turned wild. "You're lying. You're all lying together, aren't you? She was dead... She was clearly dead!!!"

At that moment, Lu Li on the ground slowly opened her eyes. She looked at Shi Xianyu and gave a weak, slight smile.

Shi Xianyu's heart twisted with such sorrow she could hardly bear it, and tears spilled down her face.

But Yujing was utterly shattered by Lu Li's smile. Her eyes were bloodshot as she let out a hysterical scream: "Why?! Why are you alive again?! Why won't you die! You monster! Devil! Die!!!"

No one paid Yujing any heed, treating her as if she had already gone mad. After all, only a madwoman could do such a thing to her own daughter.

Shi Xianyu wiped her tears and said to Lin Yuan, "Let's get Little Li to the hospital quickly."

Ye Liuyun also said anxiously, "Be careful. There might be a fracture somewhere."

Lin Yuan nodded, took off his outer coat, and carefully wrapped Lu Li on the ground in it. She was covered in so much blood that it was impossible to tell at once where the wounds were.

Seeing that they truly meant to save Lu Li, Yujing lost control even more. She picked up the dagger that Ye Liuyun had knocked away earlier and rushed to block them. "You can't save her! She's a monster!"

Ye Liuyun said irritably, "Go look in a mirror. You look more like a monster."

Lin Yuan did not believe her either. Frowning, he said, "If she's a monster, why did you acknowledge her as your daughter? When I was investigating you, you could have denied it. Why admit her first, then try to kill her?"

Yujing's face turned pale as she looked at them. "If you weren't digging so hard, I wouldn't have acknowledged her either! Once her identity was exposed, the entire Oasis would know I gave birth to a monster! I couldn't afford that gamble! I still have a son. I couldn't let her drag my son down too!"

Lin Yuan's brow furrowed deeper. "Too? Besides your son, who else did she harm?"

Yujing stared blankly, her gaze inching little by little toward Lu Li's face. "...Who else? Of course... my daughter... She killed my daughter, then turned into my daughter's likeness! She's a monster! A monster!"

At first they thought Yujing was rambling like a lunatic, but the more they listened, the more something felt wrong. Looking again at Lu Li on the ground, she too seemed odd.

Lu Li had been smiling the whole time.

Her lips were parted, the corners of her mouth lifted with effort, like an innocent child's guileless grin, meant to win an adult's affection. Only the filthy blood smeared across her face gave that smile an air of deliberate performance.

Ye Liuyun felt a chill creep up his back and unconsciously stepped half a pace away.

Shi Xianyu was also dazed. She recognized that smile. Whenever Lu Li wanted to cheer her up, she would smile at her like that...

They had traveled together all the way from Qinghe to Longyan, eating and living side by side. Lu Li had clearly been such a lovely little girl. How could she be a monster?

While Shi Xianyu stood frozen, Yujing raised the dagger and shouted at Lu Li, "What are you still pretending for? Is it because you're not hungry enough? Want me to catch a few mutated rats for you? Ha! You all need to see how she eats mutated rats! She even has tentacles! She's a monster!"

"Could it be..." Ye Liuyun was shaken to the core, and a possibility dawned on him faintly. "Parasitized by floral essence?"

Because he had spent years carrying out missions outside, Ye Liuyun naturally knew that mutated beasts were animals parasitized by floral essence. But he had never heard of humans being parasitized. Still, never having heard of it did not mean it was impossible.

If Lu Li really was a floral essence parasite, as Yujing claimed, then once this matter was exposed, Yujing's entire family would be subjected to compulsory detention and investigation, because they would need to trace the source of the parasite to prevent every resident of the Oasis from being put in danger.

Shi Xianyu looked at Lu Li and bit her lip. "Little Li, is what she's saying true?"

The corners of Lu Li's mouth still held that upward curve, an innocent child's smile.

"She's a monster!" Yujing shrieked hysterically. "If you don't kill her now, you'll regret it sooner or later!"

Shi Xianyu wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and forced herself to calm down. "Little Li, tell me. Have you been lying to me all along?"

The smile on Lu Li's face slowly faded, replaced by a look of confusion.

Then fine cracks began to appear across her face, like the splitting six-petaled head of a thorn serpent. Her entire head split into six petals, like a flower blossoming open—

From within the flower emerged six crimson vine-like tentacles, surrounding a blossom shaped like a snail's opening, positioned precisely at the throat.

Shi Xianyu felt a wave of dizziness.

So it was true...

Lu Li... lovely Lu Li, innocent Lu Li, Lu Li who would tilt up her little face and smile at her—so she really was a monster...

Now the monster folded away its petals. The cracks vanished, and her head reassembled itself once more.

Lu Li no longer smiled. Tears welled in her eyes as she lay there silently on the floor, as if waiting for Shi Xianyu to render judgment.

Yujing said, "Kill her now!"

Lu Li shrank back and closed her eyes.

Shi Xianyu bit hard into her lower lip. After a long silence, her voice hoarse, she said softly, "She's injured."

Yujing's eyes flashed with shock as she stared at Shi Xianyu in disbelief.

Shi Xianyu lifted her head and looked at Lin Yuan and Ye Liuyun, her tone firmer than before. "Lu Li is hurt. Let's take her back."

Without another word, Lin Yuan picked Lu Li up from the ground and walked toward the motorhome.

Ye Liuyun clenched his jaw and, gritting his teeth, followed.

Yujing stared in stunned disbelief at their retreating backs. At last coming to her senses, she stood where she was and cursed after them, "Madmen! You're all mad!!!"