Chapter 31: Then Let Me Ask You
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There was no entryway in the apartment, so the moment the door opened, the entire living room was laid bare.
Fu Linxing released the doorknob in shock. The deafening slam of the lock echoed between them.
He stared blankly at the white-clad girl sitting sideways on the floor of his own home, one knee drawn up, wondering whether he had entered the wrong apartment.
The girl seemed equally at a loss. Her disheveled silver hair spilled over her shoulders from behind, and both hands hung loosely before her chest, still half-maintaining the heart shape she had formed at the end of her transformation. She looked as though she had only just collapsed onto the floor from sheer shock.
Her dazed eyes drifted toward the doorway. The instant she recognized Fu Linxing, they flew wide open.
Fu Linxing felt a wave of energy explode outward. His first reaction was not to dodge, but to force himself through the narrowing gap.
He had already realized that the door was closing.
“Wait! I—ahhh!”
Hearing him scream, the girl hurriedly stopped the door and asked in some confusion, “Your hand—is it all right?”
Fu Linxing rubbed the arm that had been caught in the door. The force had vanished in time; it only hurt, without causing any damage to his bones or tendons.
He grimaced and rubbed it for several seconds. Just as he was about to raise his head and say something else, the tennis bag abruptly yanked him backward. He flew back until he slammed into the security door across the hall.
At the same time, the door to his own apartment shut with tremendous force, producing a crash that rang throughout the entire building.
Ignoring the pain, he scrambled to his feet and rushed over, pounding on the door. “Don’t! Don’t lock me out! Open up, Stringheart—”
He had barely spoken half the name before realizing that he could not simply shout it aloud.
What was he supposed to call her? Miss? Auntie?
Just then, a neighbor came down from upstairs. Seeing Fu Linxing, he casually asked, “Oh, it’s you, Linxing. What happened just now? Why all the noise?”
“The wind blew the door shut…”
“Oh. Is no one home?”
“There is…” Fu Linxing hesitated, then immediately changed his answer. “No, there isn’t. My keys are still inside. I’ll have to call my father and ask him to come back.”
As he spoke, he edged closer to the door, blocking the key still stuck in the lock and hoping the neighbor’s eyesight was poor enough not to notice.
Fortunately, the neighbor merely nodded and continued downstairs. Fu Linxing glanced at the apartment across the hall. No one had opened the door to ask about the crash, and he let out a small sigh of relief.
That Stringheart Stone really had gone all out…
After waiting a while and confirming that no one else would come to investigate the commotion, Fu Linxing turned and twisted the key.
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As expected, the door had already been locked from the inside.
Fu Linxing slipped the key back into his pocket. After a moment’s hesitation, he raised his hand and knocked.
“Are you still in there?”
No one answered. He had been about to ask whether his father was home, but then thought better of it. If Fu Lan was in the room too, wouldn’t asking that amount to forcing his father to confess?
Being caught by his own son while sneaking around with someone would be mortifying. He should at least leave the man some dignity.
So he said, “Forget it. You probably don’t want to see me anyway. I’m going downstairs for a walk. If you change your mind and want to have a proper talk about the two of you, stay home and wait for me.”
Having learned her lesson, Stringheart Stone no longer trusted the peephole. Using her special ability, she sensed that Fu Linxing had truly left before slumping against the door.
What rotten luck!
She had assumed that eating Demon Ash would at most cause hallucinations, just as it did for everyone else. She had been exposed to magic before, after all, and was certain she could resist its effects.
Who could have imagined that Demon Ash would forcibly transform her?
Nothing like this had ever happened before. She had not even touched a Death Mark, nor had she possessed the slightest conscious intention of transforming. Could a transformation really be triggered under such circumstances?
So Demon Ash actually released magical power even inside ordinary people, only they could not make use of it, and the lingering effects of that power caused their brains to produce hallucinations? The difference was that she could change forms. Since her current form was incapable of absorbing Demon Ash, her body had automatically responded to the high-purity magical energy, resulting in her transformation?
Never mind. She could think about that later. First, she had to clean up the mess in front of her.
Stringheart Stone walked toward the center of the living room. As she moved, the reflector folded itself up and, together with the other miscellaneous items, was put away inside the cat carrier. Only several pieces of Demon Ash remained.
She stared at the crystals hovering in midair, crushed them with her fingers, and absorbed them all into her body.
What was she supposed to do about Fu Linxing now?
Stringheart Stone pressed her fingers painfully against her brow. The boy had not come last week, and with so many things keeping her busy lately, she had forgotten that he might show up at home over the weekend.
She picked up her phone and glanced at it. Since there had been no advance notice, it was obvious even without thinking that the father and son had each assumed the other had already said something. That had happened plenty of times before. Besides, this was Fu Linxing’s home. He had every right to come back. If anyone was to blame, it was her own carelessness.
He must think his father had found himself a mistress. Seeing her today would only have reinforced that impression.
The little brat had handled it with remarkable composure, though it was a shame he had put that emotional intelligence to such an unfortunate use…
Stringheart Stone paced irritably for a few steps before deciding to put her phone into airplane mode, lest her son suddenly call.
Should she fly out the window, find somewhere secluded to end her transformation, then pretend she had not been home and had only just returned from outside?
Then she could claim that Stringheart Stone had broken into the apartment without permission and that she herself had known nothing about it beforehand…
She had already prepared an entire explanation for the relationship between Stringheart Stone and Fu Lan back when she discovered that Fu Linxing had stolen the painting. It would serve well enough to explain the current situation too.
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But after thinking it over, she decided that this was not the best plan.
Fu Linxing already harbored a certain hostility toward Stringheart Stone. After her recent reappearance had thrown the entire city into turmoil, he had become deeply worried that his family would be dragged into trouble by such a notorious criminal.
If she failed to give a satisfactory explanation for appearing in his home today, he would continue investigating. He might even tell He Yue, and by then there would be no stopping him.
Besides, asking her to face Linxing in her true form and tell him that whole string of lies while pretending to be Fu Lan would be far too cruel a demand…
She would much rather hide behind Stringheart Stone’s mask. It felt more comfortable that way.
And by taking advantage of Linxing’s unfamiliarity with Stringheart Stone, she might actually be less likely to reveal any inconsistencies.
Filled with resolve, Stringheart Stone nodded firmly to encourage herself. Then she lightly moved her fingers and unlocked the door from a distance.
Fu Linxing’s mind was in turmoil. Even after walking one full circuit around the residential complex, he still could not calm down. He restrained the urge to call Fu Lan, afraid that his father might truly be at home, merely hidden in a room where he had not seen him. He was afraid that his father would answer the phone incoherently, and that he would have to watch helplessly as the image he had of him collapsed before his eyes…
But if he was not at home, where else could he be? Could it really be that the magical girl had trespassed into their apartment again?
The two of them must have known each other for a long time. Fu Linxing had already sensed that there was something unusual about the relationship between his father and Stringheart Stone when he tore up the painting.
Had the Magic Affairs Bureau tightened its patrols around the city, leaving her no time to get out, so she had come to ask Old Fu to help her sneak away? It did not seem likely. Judging from the speed she had displayed in the videos, if she wanted to leave, the Magic Affairs Bureau would never be able to stop her, no matter how quickly it reacted.
If she was still in the city today, she must have business to attend to.
Business that required her to discuss matters with Old Fu…
They had better have been discussing business!
Fu Linxing had not clearly seen what she was doing at the time. There had seemed to be some unfamiliar objects on the floor, but all he remembered was Stringheart Stone’s disheveled long hair and vacant eyes…
He desperately tried to drive the vile images from his mind. His face grew faintly hot, and he wished he had never read those comics.
It probably had not been anything strange. She had been fully dressed, after all…
That was how Fu Linxing consoled himself.
When he reached the ground floor, he spent a long time preparing himself mentally before once again climbing the stairs with heavy steps. If Stringheart Stone was still there, he would demand an explanation from her. If she had left, then he would make that shameless Old Fu pay.
That was what he would do.