Seeing that Xiaoyu had regained his usual composure, Xiaoshu felt slightly relieved. She proactively took Huagu's hand, draped it over her shoulder, and prepared to carry her out.

"You, let me carry her..." Seeing that Xiaoshu had agreed without a second thought, Xiaoyu felt a touch of awkwardness, unconsciously ashamed of his earlier, mood-killing shout.

"It's fine. You just take good care of the little raccoon," Xiaoshu replied. With that, she moved lightly, walked straight out of the room, skirted the corridor, pushed open the main door, and called loudly to Huagu, "We're going into the water immediately, hold your breath." Then, she strode directly into the water.

A wave of cool lake water rushed toward Huagu, instantly washing away all the grime of blood that covered her body. Even the two dark red tear tracks beneath her eyes vanished without a trace, restoring her to her original appearance, save for the deeply sunken eye sockets which could no longer open.

Xiaoyu stood at the threshold, holding onto Ali, and lightly patted Xiaohei on his shoulder. With a hint of humor in his voice, he announced, "We're heading into the water now, big friends and little ones, get ready! Don't let the water turn your tummies into balloons!" Saying this, he hopped and bounded twice before plunging headfirst into the water.

The chill of the water soaked through the entire world. Xiaoyu and Ali could both swim, but the one suffering was Xiaohei, who had just been born a few days ago. Although cats love fish, most cats dislike water. Moreover, Xiaohei had absolutely no mental preparation for where they were going next, unaware of the terrifying experience awaiting it. The moment it hit the water, it took a deep breath, and a mouthful of saltwater stung its nostrils, making it terribly uncomfortable. It immediately spun around, leaped from Xiaoyu's shoulder back inside the main door, and began coughing and gasping for air. When it saw Xiaoyu again, the poor little black cat instinctively hid near the base of the wall, terrified that Xiaoyu would snatch it up and dunk it into that accursed water again.

"Kitty, kitty... It's okay," Xiaoyu stooped down, preparing to crouch and grab Xiaohei, when he suddenly realized both his hands were empty; he seemed to have forgotten something. He paused to think carefully, then suddenly understood: when preparing to carry Huagu, he had left the sickle leaning in the corner of the wall. Thus, setting Xiaohei down to curl up alone by the wall, he headed back alone toward the room where Huagu had met her fate.

As he reached the doorway, he found the room completely transformed, utterly devoid of the previous bloodbath of a murder scene. A set of pale green curtains hung low, sweeping the floor. Huagu's bright red handprints and the pale corpse of the hunchbacked old woman had vanished without a trace, as if nothing had ever happened. Inside the room, apart from those curtains, there was literally nothing else; there was no sign of the sickle anywhere.

Without the sickle, Xiaoyu instantly lost his sense of security. He roughly unhooked the curtains one by one from the Roman rod and meticulously checked every possible corner. The room was indeed empty. He leaned against the wall, sighed toward the heavens, accepting that the end of his life had arrived, and a heavy sorrow welled up in his heart. He didn't know how he would face his sister, nor how he would greet the death that was surely coming. If he could, he wished to live a few more years—at least to see his mother one last time, chat a while with Wenshu, walk through the school grounds, and visit the teachers who had once painstakingly instructed him to follow the rules, to settle the regrets of this lifetime.

Yet, one's life is filled with countless regrets, too many to count. Just as Xiaoyu was leaning against the wall, feeling melancholic, a figure quietly approached the room, gripping the gleaming sickle. The footsteps were so light they could barely register the person's presence.