This Damned Thirst for Survival

Jiang Luo was peacefully carried back to the hotel.

In the evening, he cleaned the vase in the bathroom, looked at the delicate roses for a moment in awe and slowly walked out with them.

Chi You is outside, standing by the pool.

Jiang Luo watched him for a moment, always feeling that he could see a subtle, unobtrusive irritation in his back.

He thought he knew why Chi You was annoyed.

Jiang Luo walks over with two bottles of wine, "A drink?"

The villain returned to his senses and raised an eyebrow and gave a laugh, "Thank you."

With the wine in his throat, Jiang Luo couldn't help but ask, "What are you thinking about?"

The evil spirit said in a ghostly voice, "I was wondering what your world would be like."

Jiang Luo shrugs, "Seriously, I advise you not to be curious about it because it's really boring. If I were to rate it, the only word I would have is boring."

The evil spirit asked gently, "Do you want to go back then?"

Jiang Luo: "I was alone in that world."

He did not directly answer the evil spirit's words, but again, it seemed like he did. Yet Chi You wanted to hear a crisper answer.

He asked again, "Do you want to go back?"

Jiang Luo rolled his eyes and wanted to say "No, why would I want to go back to that world of nothing?" But after thinking about it for a while, he always felt that this sentence was not enough to show his speaking skills, not ...... romantic enough.

Jiang Luo was shaken to the core by the evil spirit's words, "I won't put you down", and the shock of those words still lingers in his heart. In fact, the words themselves were ordinary and unexceptional, not lyrical or melodramatic enough, but - the person who said them was Chi You.

It's the evil spirit Chi You.

......

Incredible.

More incredible than the evil spirits that destroyed the metaphysical world.

In short, Jiang Luo felt he could not lose.

He also wanted to say a love story to shock him back. But he couldn't say anything too disgusting, and he couldn't see anything too ordinary. At this moment, however, Jiang Luo had a sudden flash of insight.

His mouth even spoke up faster than his brain, "I always thought I was unlucky, but now I realise you're a bit more unlucky than me, Chi You."

The evil spirit murmured, "Why do you say that?"

Jiang Luo said, "Because your partner is me, and we will be together for the rest of our lives."

Jiang Luo: "......"

...... grass.

Ah.

What he said.

The evil spirit pretended to have a sudden realization, and the next moment burst out laughing derisively as he touched the beer bottle in Jiang Luo's hand, "Then you're going to have more bad luck."

Jiang Luo felt his face heat up with embarrassment. But still pretending as if nothing had happened, he cheekily took his own words, "Why?"

"Because this mate of yours," the evil spirit lifted his hand, his ice-like fingers caressing Jiang Luo's cheek as if it were a creepy spider crawling, and he bent down, his dark eyes like those of a monster with skin splitting open in the abyss, "will never let you have a chance to leave him. "

Jiang Luo tsked, "You're terrible, Chi You."

With that, he took a sip of his wine and said with a smirk, "Let's see who's a little more unlucky then."

Chi You slowly straightened up, his irritable heart settling for a moment, "Good."

Jiang Luo indulged himself in a drunken stupor and woke up the next day thinking about the witch again. Jiang Luo now feels that he left it too easy and that he should have looked into the witch's background.

But when he rushed to the witch's market, Jiang Luo found that the old witch was no longer there.

He was full of suspicion and could not find anyone, so he had to give up.

*

Half a month passed by and Jiang Luo reluctantly returned home when Chi You was half recovered.

He bought a lot of gifts and left the country with one bag, but came back with a suitcase. Jiang Luo went straight to the research bureau to find a friend and hand out the gifts one by one.

As a thank you to Sai Liaoer and Hei Wuchang for their help, Jiang Luo has prepared four gifts for Sai Liaoer, "These two are for you, and the other two are for Hei, so you can give them to him sometime."

Sai Liaoer took the gift with surprise, "Thank you, Jiang."

When Jiang Luo returned from his trip, he looked different, slimmer and more toned, and Sai Liaoer thought Jiang Luo looked even more handsome.

Wen Renlian and Ge Zhu were careful to stay close to each other as they continued to say hello every morning, afternoon and evening during Jiang Luo's absence, just to try to get Jiang Luo to forgive them quickly and make up.

"Did you go out without sunscreen?" Wen Renlian coughed up his throat with utmost care, "I seem to have darkened a bit, don't get sunburned."

Jiang Luo flashed him a smile, "I've never done sunscreen at all, it's too much of a hassle. It doesn't kill you anyway, so just let it tan."

"How's it going?" Zhuo Zhongqiu hooked Jiang Luo's shoulder from behind, winked at him ambiguously, and deliberately accentuated his voice, "Are you and Chi You both ......"

Jiang Luo faced this group of single dogs with half-heartedness and instead a faint sense of pride. He smiled and said lightly, "It was a blast."

Ye Xun almost spurted out a mouthful of water and his ears instantly went red.

Kuang Zheng also blushed silently and moved back unnoticed.

Lu Youyi asked enthusiastically, "What's so cool? Can you bring me along next time?"

Jiang Luo's face froze and he gave him a look like a fool. The others didn't hold back their laughter at once.

Wen Renlian endured a smile and said, "Are you thirsty? I'll go and get you a glass of water."

Jiang Luo: "...... a bit."

Wen Renlian went to pour water for him with great diligence.

Jiang Luo could not help but curl his lips and pull out his chair to sit down. Ge Zhu sat back down with his gift and said, "Jiang Luo, do you remember Ning Xiu?"

"That name sounds familiar," Jiang Luo subconsciously looked at Lu Youyi, "do I know this person?"

Lu Youyi gave him a squeeze, "You forgot the 129 Hotel! The one with the severed head that we brought back, the one who kicked his head like a ball."

Ye Xun added faintly, "An ancient scholar, a severed-headed ghost who only loves to show his hair."

Jiang Luo came to his senses, "I remember now. Wasn't it kept in the school? What happened?"

"The ginseng spirit made friends with it. Didn't you give me the ginseng spirit to raise before? After it got to know the Broken Head Ghost, the Broken Head Ghost took the initiative to take over my task, and the Ginseng Essence is now being raised by it," Ge Zhu wiped his sweat, "The two of them exchange ideas on how to protect the hair and ginseng beards together every day."

Jiang Luo could not help but think about this. He touched his thick black hair and always felt that the broken-headed ghost would raise the ginseng spirit also because he coveted its tears' effect. He let out a deep breath and said, "Not to mention, the tears of ginseng essence are really powerful in nourishing hair development ......"

Jiang Luo even has a hunch.

If sold to the public, the ginseng spirit's tears would be worth more than his peace amulet.

Jiang Luo has a lot of money, but it is human nature to love money. He was somewhat foolishly tempted to sell the ginseng spirit's tears, but sadly gave up after thinking about its teary-eyed appearance.

"By the way, has there been any news from Black?" Jiang Luo looked over at Sai Liaoer.

Sai Liaoer shook his head, "Last night Black went to the hellmouth again to look for them, but couldn't find any. He said there were too many ghosts and it would take some time."

Jiang Luo subconsciously looks at Lu Youyi.

Lu Youyi didn't look sad, it was as if he was used to being disappointed over and over again. The still youthful face from before had become resolute from some point, instead he smiled and said, "There's no hurry, Black can take his time to find it. We're all going to fight the Fatal Man anyway ......"

He shrugged, optimistically, "It might be better to bring Teng Bi back to life after the fight with the Fatalists."

Jiang Luo couldn't help but smile and give him a thumbs up, "You're right."

Outside the office, Wen Renlian, returning from the pantry, approached Qi Ye, standing by the door, and asked curiously, "Why don't you go in?"

Qi Ye took one last look around the office and shook his head in silence, turning sideways and whispering, "I'm going to the training room."

He turned to leave.

Wen Renlian looked at his slim back, sighed softly and walked through the door.

*

After a relaxing chat with his friends, Jiang Luo got down to work.

The big names in the metaphysical world are always watched with the help of the state, and the Jokhang Temple, which is under special surveillance, is a gnat's nest away. In addition to the Fatalists, Ji Yaozi and Feng Li are also being watched by Jiang Luo.

The two of them, being sons of the predestined, must not be taken lightly.

Jiang Luo didn't let go of his progress during the half month of travel. He went through the information quickly, pulling up the surveillance videos of the past half month and observing the changes in the host's demeanour.

If you look at it day by day, you will never notice any change in the Fatalist. He is happy to read, water and talk to Master Cheng De every day, and he is happy to be at home.

But when half a month's volume is taken together, one can see in the details the implicit impatience of the lodgers.

"We had the experts look at it frame by frame, and by his demeanour and micro-expressions, the experts' analysis was that he was starting to get anxious," Wen Renlian said with satisfaction as he stood behind Jiang Luo and placed the experts' judging documents in front of him. "Our opponent has become unstable."

Jiang Luo said, "It's to be expected."

He switched off the past video and pulled up the surveillance footage of Jokhang Temple at the moment.

The predestined man is still waiting in the midst of his temple and is gazing wordlessly at the incense burner.

Jiang Luo looked at it and suddenly laughed.

He asked gently, " Wen Ren, do you know what is better about word spirits than speech spirits?"

Wen Renlian wondered what he meant by this sudden question and asked along the way, "Where?"

"While a spirit of speech is more convenient than a spirit of words, there are times when it is less flexible and stealthy than a spirit of words, and does not have the delayed action of a spirit of words."

The word spirit can be hidden, but the word spirit cannot remain silent.

Jiang Luo laughed, "For example, when one writes words that no one else can detect all over the four walls of a room and everything within sight, someone who is suggestible by the word spirits will not even know that their consciousness and mind are slowly being controlled by the word spirits eating away at them."

He leaned back and folded his arms in front of him, squinting at the fatalist on the screen.

Jiang Luo saw, through the Fates, the words "God" that he had written on the walls of the temple, on the doors, on the floor tiles and on the incense burner on the night of his departure.

He used up a good part of his air before leaving this one cage that locks up the predestined.

That's why he was so tired that he couldn't help but fall asleep on the plane.

Is a word spirit really no match for a word spirit?

Jiang Luo's eyes light up with laughter.

Not really.

The predestined man had told him the answer.

Even the pseudo-gods have managed to be subliminally influenced in the course of half a month.