What was I to do? I couldn't avoid Silent Mountain, and I couldn't get rid of the little demon. Should I just carry him to Silent Mountain like this? If he took a disliking to my elder sister, would he kill her? What would Li Xiaoshu do if she saw him? Would Li Xiaohao come looking for me and Wang Jue for Hou Dayong’s death? Countless questions swam wildly in my head, leaving me dizzy and unable to think straight.

“Let’s take him and get out of here first,” Wang Jue said, regaining his usual composure and adopting a very rational expression. “With Hou Dayong gone, getting back to the villa might be a problem in itself.”

Along the way, I could vaguely sense the shifts in Wang Jue—how different he was now compared to earlier. Sometimes intensely logical, handling things calmly when I was flailing, and other times completely flustered, helpless like a woman. I’d once heard that eighty percent of psychologists have psychological problems; perhaps psychiatrists pick up some strange occupational habits too.

Still, leaving this place was the immediate priority. Wang Jue, carrying the ghost infant, wobbled on the uneven ground. I walked ahead, turning my body sideways, gripping his upper arm with one hand to prevent a slip and a potential fall.

We hadn't gone thirty steps when, suddenly, kacha, kacha, kacha… lights flickered on all around. The eerie, blood-soaked corridor vanished from sight. What greeted us was a bright, spacious, utterly normal hallway. I glanced back: a smooth, clean wall stood at the far end, the floor was impeccably clean—no human bones, no severed limbs, no writhing nether-worms, not even the remains of Hou Dayong had vanished without a trace.

Staring at the smooth wall, I almost reached out to test if it was real or illusion. Then I thought: what if this is an illusion? If I touch it, would I be saying permanent goodbye to my elder sister? I reined in my curiosity and turned to continue forward.

Wang Jue continued behind me, still holding the ghost infant. He mentioned that when the lights came on, the infant had smiled at him. Fine, let it smile. I was too exhausted to care about that little infant demon king anymore.

The return trip was always faster than the journey in. Before long, we reached the end. The elevator was right where we left it, its doors still gaping open, as if we were its sole patrons.

We stepped out on our floor and reached the villa. Uncle Ou stood by the elevator entrance, pulling the door open for us. Seeing that we returned with two and a half people instead of three (counting the ghost infant as half), he looked slightly surprised.

I briefly explained to him how the man-eating nether-worm had devoured Hou Dayong. He sighed, said nothing, and turned to retrieve a book from a nearby table. Tucked within its pages was a map—undoubtedly the Silent Mountain map Li Xiaohao had mentioned.

He silently handed the map to me, then waved us toward the garden.

This garden was familiar; it was where I had jumped out with the mail satchel that day. Uncle Ou pointed to the spot where I had leaped, making two gestures with his hands. I nodded in understanding and vaulted over exactly as I had before. Wang Jue, still clutching the ghost infant, followed me over. This was the escape route from that day, leading straight ahead, with the East City Expressway not far off.

Every time I came to this villa, something terrible happened. If I had a choice, I would rather never return here.

By the highway, we flagged down a car back to Xiangcheng. Because I was carrying an infant, the driver was exceptionally kind and dropped us right at Wang Jue’s doorstep.

Carrying the ghost infant made it awkward for Wang Jue to handle his keys. He instructed me to fish them out from under the doormat. As I bent down, just about to lift the mat, the door suddenly creaked open from the inside. A strange, mischievous little head poked out, startling both Wang Jue and me.