TBWE Chapter 29

Compromise

“Tap, tap…“

Footsteps stopped outside the bedroom door, the sound of the doorknob turning particularly jarring in the silence.

The bedroom was immersed in darkness, the bedding on the bed disheveled, slippers left beside the bed.

A dark figure stepped into the bedroom, frenzied writhing tentacles rummaging through boxes and overturning cabinets, flipping over all the cabinets and the bed, searching every corner of the bedroom like a carpet sweep.

Outside the bedroom door, Chu Li covered her mouth and pressed tightly against the corridor wall, her gaze slowly sweeping over the interior of the villa.

She couldn’t stay here. The concealment talismans were limited in number, and she would be found sooner or later.

She had to get out.

Chu Li stared at the front door on the first floor. Taking advantage of the noisy sounds to mask her movements, she moved slowly toward the stairway barefoot, constantly watching for any movement from the bedroom.

The wooden floor was ice-cold, making almost no sound when stepped on with bare feet.

She walked step by step down the stairs leading to the living room.

Suddenly, her back felt cold, every nerve in her body screaming danger. Chu Li hastily turned her head and saw the figure wrapped in black mist standing ghostlike at the top of the stairs, tentacles rolling toward her like mad waves.

She’d been discovered!

Chu Li almost fled down the stairs, heading straight for the front door, grasping the door handle and frantically pressing it down.

“…Open, open!”

Heaven didn’t grant her wish. The entire door seemed welded shut, remaining completely motionless no matter how she pulled or kicked it. Seeing the door wouldn’t work, she turned to push the nearby window, which was similarly locked tight.

The dark figure leisurely walked down the stairs, the red bead bracelet around his wrist making sounds as he moved, the red tassels swaying and dancing.

Tentacles swarmed over, crashing against the front door with a tremendous bang, the entire villa’s floor trembling with the impact.

Chu Li staggered to dodge, her entire face deathly pale, gripping the copper coin sword and slashing backward to cut off several tentacles that were about to grab her.

A spark of fire lit up in the darkness—another concealment talisman burning.

Xi Chu watched the slender figure disappear into the darkness again, like water merging into a stream.

“The second one.” There was a bone-chilling low laugh in his voice. “Li Li, how many do you have to burn?”

The tentacles lost their target and spun in place for a few circles before receiving commands from their main body, beginning to search diligently throughout the first floor area.

Sofa, under the coffee table, under the dining table, cupboards, study, storage room…

Several times, tentacles almost grazed past Chu Li’s face as they swam by.

She had to frequently change hiding spots. In the darkness, clusters of firelight would occasionally flare up as the talismans in her hand were rapidly consumed.

From hiding on the first floor to the top floor attic, she finally briefly shook off that group of tentacles.

The attic was piled full of discarded furniture and miscellaneous items, most covered with white cloth. A grimy skylight opened on the roof, with a few rays of dim moonlight filtering in.

Sounds of searching continued to come from downstairs, sometimes distant, sometimes near.

Sweat trickled down her neck. Chu Li slightly calmed her frantic heartbeat, holding two talismans in her hand—one bright yellow, one crimson red.

The bright yellow was the last concealment talisman, burning to ash between her fingers, temporarily masking her scent.

Chu Li suppressed her footsteps and quickly searched around, her gaze locking onto an old wooden cabinet in the corner.

An old lock hung on the cabinet door, and the wooden boards behind the cabinet had already cracked and rotted. She carefully removed half a board and positioned it in the corner.

Then she took white cloth to cover the cabinet and crawled in from behind.

This way, from the outside it would look like a locked, old cabinet with no one hiding inside.

****

The moon gradually sank westward.

The searching sounds became increasingly chaotic, leaving a mess wherever they passed.

The attic door crashed down with a bang, dark tentacles violently sweeping away obstructive furniture, raising clouds of dust.

Footsteps gradually approached.

“Li Li, there’s no need to hide anymore.” He was like an evil spirit pursuing souls and demanding lives. “I know you’re here.”

Xi Chu yanked open a discarded wardrobe.

Inside was empty, containing only a few packets of expired mothballs.

“Bang!” The wooden cabinet was shattered into pieces by the irritated tentacles.

The footsteps stopped at the old wooden cabinet where Chu Li was hiding.

Half a meter away, Chu Li curled up her body, pressing tightly against the inner side of the wooden cabinet, using all her strength to keep herself from trembling. Through the gap in the cabinet door, she saw the lingering figure.

Her heartbeat was deafeningly loud, so intense she worried it might be heard.

The concealment talisman hadn’t failed yet. As long as Xi Chu didn’t open her hiding place, he wouldn’t sense her scent.

The prerequisite was that he wouldn’t open this cabinet.

That figure only stayed for a very brief time before his footsteps continued toward the depths of the attic.

This floor of the attic covered more than two hundred square meters. The tentacles quickly searched all suspected hiding places in a circuit, and finding nothing, the footsteps faded away.

…He’d left.

She needed to change locations. If he kept finding nothing, he’d soon become suspicious and come back.

Chu Li clutched the last talisman, her palm covered in sweat.

Out of the corner of her eye, she inadvertently glimpsed through the cabinet gap.

Outside the gap, a handsome young man’s face with long, deep eyes lacking pupil light stared directly at her.

“Creak“—the old lock was easily crushed into iron shards and casually tossed aside.

The last line of defense was pulled open, icy hands cupping her face.

He smiled. “So you were hiding here.”

The wooden cabinet slammed against the attic wall with a crash, the path behind blocked, the space inside cramped, barely accommodating one person.

One hand braced against Chu Li’s side, Xi Chu squeezed in on one knee, making the narrow space even more confined.

Fingers slid down along her brow bone, stopping at her throat.

For an instant, Chu Li felt as if her soul had already left her body, her vision looking down from above at the two bodies pressed close together in the wooden cabinet.

His gaze was dark and viscous, like a hunter certain of his prey, looking down at quarry struggling to the death.

Survive.

At least survive tonight, complete revenge for her parents’ blood debt.

This thought sparked like a flame thrown into her body, and she flung out the last talisman in her hand.

This was a demon-breaking talisman. Ming Pu, wounded and not yet healed, had barely managed to draw two for her. Now was the time when she had to use it.

Golden light flowed on the red talisman, instantly becoming brilliant.

“Boom——” “Sizzle!“

Xi Chu was blasted away by tremendous force, the fabricated human skin instantly disintegrating, revealing his indescribable true form.

“Very, good.”

The viscous mist writhed, as if briefly trapped in place.

Chu Li didn’t look back, moving her exhausted legs to rush out of the attic, frantically running downstairs.

“Thump, thump…“

The sounds of running and heartbeats strangely synchronized.

Cold white moonlight slanted into the wrecked villa, the moon outside the window about to completely sink westward.

Tremendous crashes came from the attic—the monster had broken free from its restraints and was angrily pursuing.

The scene before her eyes gradually overlapped with Chu Li’s previous nightmares. She ran through the dark corridor, pale moonlight shining in, the sound of tentacles swimming behind her following like a shadow.

Chu Li gripped the handrail, about to leap down from the second floor, when a tentacle suddenly slithered over, cold as ice, wrapping around her waist and dragging her backward.

One hand clamped onto her shoulder, another gripped her throat. Her back pressed against an icy body, airflow brushed past her ear, and her earlobe suddenly stung with pain.

Xi Chu licked and bit at that soft flesh, emotions surging in his eyes as he said word by word: “Hide and seek is over. Caught you.”

The hand on her neck tightened several degrees, Chu Li began to struggle for breath, desperately swinging the copper coin sword backward to stab.

“Clang!” A tentacle precisely knocked it away.

Chu Li’s waist tightened, her vision spun, and she found herself sitting on the corridor handrail.

Viscous black mist devoured everything around them. In the blink of an eye, the villa disappeared, leaving only the small section of corridor in front of her and the corridor handrail, with bottomless abysses to the left, right, and behind.

Xi Chu stood before her, one hand around her waist, becoming the key to maintaining balance.

“Run.” He said softly. “Why aren’t you running anymore?”

Chu Li gritted her teeth, avoiding his touch. “What exactly do you want?”

She didn’t want to play this cat-and-mouse game anymore.

Xi Chu chuckled lowly, fingers pinching her chin, forcing her to turn and meet his gaze.

“What do I want?” His voice was gentle, carrying a bone-chilling coldness. “Chu Li, you were the first to break your promise.”

Cold fingertips pressed heavily across her lips.

“You promised me you would come to deliver gifts and give thanks. Did you come?”

“You said you had a gift to give me. What did you give me?”

“You promised to be engaged to me. Who were the guests you invited?”

Three accusations, each sentence darker in tone than the last.

Chu Li’s breathing hitched.

He leaned close, his breath ice-cold, whispering by her ear. “You didn’t just break your promise—you tried to kill me again and again.”

“If it were anyone else, they would have died thousands upon thousands of times. I’ve already been lenient enough with you, yet you always disappoint me.”

Five fingers gripped Chu Li’s neck. She breathed with difficulty, her voice squeezing out between her teeth. “Lenient…”

“Coercion, intimidation, never once considering my wishes… this is your ‘leniency,’ your kindness. Should I be thanking you?”

Disgusted, without a trace of remorse, clear and stubborn eyes.

Something writhed beneath Xi Chu’s face, his anger almost tearing through this human skin.

“Don’t need me, is that right?”

Without warning, he let go.

That instant was like a slow-motion film, stretched extremely long frame by frame.

Chu Li fell backward, her survival instinct compelling her to reach out wildly to grab something. Not knowing what she caught hold of, the momentum of her fall stopped.

“Huff, huff…”

Hair dampened by cold sweat messily stuck to her cheeks. Chu Li’s gaze was vacant, her hands and feet ice-cold and numb. It took a long time before she came to her senses and discovered that what she’d grabbed onto was Xi Chu’s neck.

His hands were braced on either side of her, his eyes extremely dark, showing no intention whatsoever of helping.

As if Chu Li really falling would be something he’d be happy to see.

Behind her was a bottomless abyss. Chu Li had no choice but to hold his neck even tighter.

The tentacles lurking below waiting to catch her quietly swam away.

Soon, her arms became sore and numb, beginning to be unable to support her entire body weight.

Xi Chu stared at her from beginning to end.

Chu Li knew he was waiting for her to speak.

Her sore, numb arms completely slipped away. Losing support, she closed her eyes and fell backward—

At the moment of complete backward collapse, one hand roughly gripped the back of Chu Li’s neck, another hand clasped her waist, icy breath heavily crushing across her lips.

His tongue tip forcefully pried open her teeth, sucking hard on lips and tongue, as if wanting to swallow her whole.

Chu Li sensed the violent rage, killing intent, unwillingness in this kiss…

And compromise.

She had won the gamble.

Day and night alternated, the long dream beginning to crumble and collapse.

Xi Chu bit her lip hard, their nose tips touching, his eyes terrifyingly fierce as if he wanted to devour her.

“You’d better never have a day when you need to beg me.”