I said you are all war criminals

The crux of the matter is...

"The curse beads were also taken away."

Li Xi could feel that the [Abandonment Channel] that was originally on him had been taken away... Judging from the current situation, the most likely reason was that it was taken away by that Mingpiao Akito.

...The other party's motives are indeed impure.

"Damn..."

Li Xi cursed under her breath, her throat dry as fire. She had to leave here and take back what belonged to her.

The intensive care unit was suffocatingly quiet, with only the regular ticking of the instruments and Lixi's own weak breathing.

What can she do, what should she do?

The pungent smell of disinfectant filled Li Xi's nostrils, making her already irritable mood even worse. She tried to move her fingers, and a tingling sensation came from her fingertips, as if countless tiny insects were gnawing at her nerves.

Damn, this body is weaker than I thought.

She took a deep breath, resisting the discomfort, and began to move. The pain was most intense in her ribs, as if they would break at any moment. She carefully moved her shackled ankle, and the cold touch of the metal made her shudder.

These handcuffs...seem a bit too big?

A faint glimmer of hope ignited in Li Xi's heart. She moved her ankle more attentively, once, twice... The buckle of the handcuffs made a slight friction sound under her efforts.

"Tsk, trouble..."

Li Xi cursed under her breath, her throat dry and almost unable to utter a single word. She began to think about her escape plan. The ward door had an electronic lock; forcing it in was a no-go. The window… She glanced at it. Thick glass with security bars on the outside—even more impossible.

Just as she was racking her brains to think of a solution, a light sound of footsteps came from outside the ward, getting closer and closer. Li Xi immediately stopped moving, closed her eyes, and pretended to be unconscious.

The footsteps were getting closer and closer, and finally stopped at the door of the ward.

"drop--"

The sound of the electronic lock opening.

Someone came in.

The man's footsteps were slow, and he stopped beside Li Xi before he slowly spoke.

"...Lixi."

Li Xi opened his eyes.

She was too familiar with this voice.

——That was Shoko Toyokawa’s voice.

"Xiangzi!"

Li Xi exclaimed in surprise, but then realized that he should remain quiet, so he lowered his voice, "Why are you here? It's dangerous here!"

Li Xi didn't know where he was being held, but since they'd even used handcuffs in the hospital, it was clearly not safe. Perhaps this was a mafia hospital or something, and if Xiangzi was exposed... Oh, no, it seemed like Xiangzi could transform into a mechanical monster and easily fight his way out.

Thinking of this, Li Xi felt a little relieved, "Fortunately, you are okay... What happened to you? Your house was bombed, did you know that?"

As he spoke, Li Xi couldn't help but ramble on, "It's a good thing you weren't here. You know, Bai Ye is also dead... I saw a big rock hit his back, I... I didn't have time to save him... If you were here, you should be able to..."

"I know,"

Xiangzi said, "I did it."

"……what?"

Li Xi stopped in a daze.

She looked at Xiangzi's face as if she was looking at a painting she had never seen before.

"You...what do you mean? Did you blow up the house? Killed Hakuno?"

She uttered a few words with difficulty, and each word seemed to be wrapped in sand, making her throat sore.

Xiangzi looked at her calmly and said, "Yes, it's me."

Li Xi shook his head violently and struggled to sit up, but his movements were restricted by the handcuffs.

"Impossible! Why would you do this? Hakuno...don't you like him?!"

"There's no word more empty than 'love'... You should know that, Lixi."

Xiangzi said this and walked up to Lixi.

Her blue hair sparkled in the moonlight.

"Also, I was the one who killed Deng."

--sluggish.

People often say "confused", but Li Xi has never understood what that feeling is.

Li Xi's brain buzzed like an old television, flickering with snowflakes. Only Xiangzi's calm voice could be heard intermittently, each word like a cold bullet, piercing her remaining sanity. Was it all Xiangzi's fault? How could this be possible...

Xiangzi nimbly flipped over and leaped onto the bed, her movements less like those of a delicate girl and more like those of an agile feline. Lixi didn't even have time to react before a pair of cold hands gripped her slender neck. Those hands were beautiful, with long, slender knuckles and neatly trimmed nails a healthy pink.

"Xiang...zi..."

Li Xi uttered the sound with difficulty, as if his throat was stuffed with cotton.

Her eyes reflected Xiangzi's face, which was so close to her. On that face, there was not a trace of anger or sadness, only calmness.

Xiangzi applied a little pressure to her hands, and Lixi felt it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. Her lungs felt like a compressed balloon, about to burst. She struggled in vain, her handcuffed feet rubbing against the sheets, making a harsh sound.

"You know, Lixi,"

Xiangzi whispered, his voice as gentle as the whisper of love, "I have always envied you."

"Envy...admire...me?"

Li Xi uttered a few words with difficulty, and his consciousness began to blur.

"Yes, no—"

"boom!"

Xiangzi had just opened his mouth when he was interrupted by gunshots.

Blood bloomed on her shoulder like a rose.

"Get away from Riki, Toyokawa Shoko!"

Xiangzi tried hard to move his eyes and saw Chihaya Aine holding a pistol that was a little too big for her with trembling hands, and spoke in a sharp voice without hesitation.

"Lixi, she's my friend!"

50

Chapter 50 Escape.

The bullet tore through the air and hit Xiangzi's shoulder accurately.

After being shot, Xiangzi loosened his grip on Lixi's neck and crashed into the window behind him. The glass shattered, and in the moonlight, sparkling fragments flew out, like scattered stars, twisting the security net along with it.

Without any hesitation, Xiangzi jumped up and disappeared into the night.

She fled at an astonishing speed, like a frightened night owl, and disappeared in an instant.

"Cough cough cough..."

Li Xi curled up in the hospital bed, coughing violently and greedily breathing in fresh air. The feeling of suffocation gradually subsided, replaced by a sense of relief at having survived. Her neck was burning with pain, as if it had been burned by an iron.

Chihaya Aine threw away the smoking pistol and stumbled to Riki's side, her voice trembling: "Riki! Are you okay? How are you?"

"I'm fine!"

Li Xi rubbed his throat, "What's that gun...whose gun did you steal?"

Li Xi is most worried about one thing now: "Are you breaking the law?"

“…Now, are you talking about this?”

Aine wiped her eyes, wiping away the tears that were forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Outside...it's a mess outside. Many people have died."

Her voice was still trembling. "I saw a policeman, he has already..."

Aine paused, then managed to utter two words with difficulty, "Dead. The gun fell next to him, and I... I took it."

Li Xi couldn't help but laugh bitterly: "When did you become so brave? Aren't you afraid of going to jail?"

Aiyin twitched her nose. "It's already this late, and you still care about going to jail or not! If it weren't for this gun, you would have been strangled to death by that crazy woman!"

After saying that, Aiyin pulled out a pair of pliers from her pocket and with a "click", she cut the handcuffs on Riki's feet. Riki didn't have time to think about where the pliers came from, nor did he care about the pain in his neck, as Aiyin pulled him up.

"Come on!"

Aine pulled Riki up, and the two of them stumbled out of the ward.

The hospital corridors were very quiet, everyone was dead.

Their deaths were extremely peaceful, as if they had died in a dream. Li Xi didn't know how many people had died, but he felt that the more he counted, the more frightening it became.

...Are these the people Xiangzi killed?

"Looking at these people, they must have been killed by a curse like [Death in Sleep], right?"

Aiyin supported Riki as she spoke, "No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like a normal death... It's like their souls were harvested. I'm sure Toyokawa Shoko is also a curse master. She must have collected a lot of residual souls from killing these people..."

As she spoke, Aine pushed open the heavy hospital door. The glaring neon lights filled her face, and the clamor of voices filled her eardrums. The streets were bustling with traffic and people coming and going. Everything seemed so normal, so... peaceful.

Li Xi was stunned. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief, wondering if she was still dreaming. Just now, she was struggling on the brink of death, and the hospital corridors were littered with corpses. But now, outside, there was a scene of singing and dancing, as if the horror just now was just an illusion.

"This...how is this possible?"

Li Xi muttered to himself, feeling like his brain was about to explode.

Xiangzi massacred the entire hospital, killing at least hundreds of people. With such a big commotion, how could people outside not notice it?

"...This means that the man called Fengchuan was able to act just that quickly."

Aiyin dragged Lixi away, "Let's go, if we get caught by the police again, we won't be able to explain ourselves."

After escaping the hospital, Riki and Aine rushed into a 24-hour convenience store on the corner. The glaring fluorescent light shone on their faces, making them look particularly pale.

Aiyin skillfully picked out a few boxes of rice balls, sandwiches and two bottles of mineral water, paid for them and handed them to Riki.

"Eat something, you must be starving."

Lixi took the food, tore open the package and gobbled it up. Only after she had swallowed a few bites of rice balls did she feel a little more alive.

As soon as he recovered, Li Xi immediately asked the question that concerned him most, "Did Xiangzi really do those?"

Aine sighed, "Hasn't Mr. Akito explained it clearly enough? This is all part of Toyokawa Shoko's plan. What does she want to do with the residual soul... I guess it's to resurrect her mother."

Hearing Aine's words, Riki took a few more bites of the rice ball. Grains of rice stuck to the corners of her mouth, but she was completely unaware. "...How long was I unconscious?"

Aiyin unscrewed the cap of the mineral water bottle, gulped down a few mouthfuls, and then said, "Three days."

"Is it...that serious?"

Li Xi frowned slightly.

Aine snorted, "The doctor also said that it will probably take half a month for you to wake up."

"Well then…what happened in the past three days?"

Li Xi swallowed the last bite of rice ball and asked vaguely. She felt that her brain was still a little dull, like a rusty machine, creaking when it ran.

Aine shrugged, "What else could happen? Akito has been tracking down Toyokawa Shoko, the mechanical monster."

"Is there any result?"

Li Xi asked.

Aine curled her lips, revealing an expression that said, “Aren’t you talking nonsense?”

"If he had been caught, would this be happening today? Of course, nothing would have been accomplished."

"So...was it Akito who locked me up?"

Li Xi continued to ask.

Aine suddenly smiled awkwardly, her eyes wandering.

"Ah... well..."