Pa.

A lit lighter was gently tossed onto it.

Whoosh—the flames rapidly ignited the entire picture frame, beginning to scorch the outer layer of cloth.

The white cloth turned yellowish-brown, then black, twisting, and hardening.

Li Cheng Yi stood to the side, silent, simply watching the scene unfold.

The wind on the rooftop blew the rising flames slightly askew.

The yellow flames nearly burned his boots, forcing him to step back, avoiding the fire.

"Is this... good enough now?" he sighed, his voice heavy as he asked.

No one answered.

Li Cheng Yi frowned slightly, lifting his head.

"Huh? Where's Zhong Ying?!"

Suddenly, he was horrified to realize that Zhong Ying, who had been standing opposite him just moments ago, had vanished silently.

Without a sound, Zhong Ying, who had been lighting the picture frame just a minute ago, had now abruptly disappeared??

And none of the others had noticed; they were still standing in a circle.

Five people forming a circle....

Five people!!??

If Zhong Ying wasn't there, then who was standing in her place!?!

Suddenly realizing this, Cindy and Song Ran's expressions turned grim as they simultaneously rolled away, creating distance.

Li Cheng Yi and Sima Gui drew their pistols from their waists almost simultaneously, aiming at the fifth person.

At this moment, everyone dispersed, and the circle dissolved and disappeared.

Only then did they all realize that there was no one in Zhong Ying's position; it was completely empty.

Li Cheng Yi and Sima Gui felt their scalps tingle, raising their guns forward.

But at this moment, they realized that they were pointing not at Zhong Ying's position, but at two different, unrelated empty spots!

Huff... huff... huff...

Sima Gui was panting heavily, his face flushed, feeling a sense of oxygen deprivation.

"I... I feel terrible... Where is she? Zhong Ying was just here!?"

Li Cheng Yi didn't say a word, gripping his gun tightly, staring at the position he was pointing at.

That was originally where Zhong Ying had been standing.

But at this moment, something felt severely wrong to his senses.

His mind could sense that someone was there.

But his eyes couldn't see them.

His ears could sense that someone was there, standing quietly in Zhong Ying's position.

He could even hear the faint rustling of their clothes in the wind.

But he just couldn't find them!

His eyes and ears were completely out of sync.

"We... let's reform the circle! Let's try to restore it to how it was!" Cindy suddenly called out.

Everyone was experiencing this extreme sense of distortion and disorientation, and hearing her words, they trusted Cindy.

Everyone slowly returned to the fire.

Strangely, the picture frame, which had been burning for so long, only had a small blackened and charred area at the top; the rest remained unchanged.

"Form... a circle!"

Cindy was the first to return to her original position, her voice grave.

The second was Song Ran; the burly man, over two meters tall, was shaking. His broad, square face was contorted with a look of distortion and pain.

The third was Li Cheng Yi.

He resisted the urge to put on his Flowery Scale Armor and returned to his original position.

Finally, there was Sima Gui.

His arm was trembling, and he forcibly gripped his other hand with his own. He gritted his teeth, his face pale, and returned to his previous position.

The four of them formed a circle, holding hands, connected together.

But strangely, even though there were only four of them holding hands, inexplicably, all four felt that there was a fifth person in the circle.

Even though their eyes saw only four of them forming a circle, their senses strangely told them that five people were standing together, hand in hand.

He didn't know how long had passed.

Li Cheng Yi felt his hand growing numb.

Suddenly, his heart skipped a beat, and he abruptly raised his head, looking forward.

Zhong Ying, who had disappeared earlier, had actually returned!?

Her face was expressionless, and her white dress was charred yellow, her hair and face covered in blood and soot.

Li Cheng Yi was about to call out to her.

Suddenly, his whole body shuddered; in the reflection of Zhong Ying's eyes, he vaguely saw a familiar face.

It was a plump, pale, smiling face.

Bai Fei Peng!!?

Li Cheng Yi froze, staring intently at the inverted face reflected in her pupils.

That plump, pale face seemed to be silently saying something to Zhong Ying, waving her to follow him somewhere.

But at this moment, the person directly in front of Zhong Ying was clearly only Li Cheng Yi!

Bang!

Suddenly, Sima Gui lunged from the side, slamming Zhong Ying to the ground.

The two rolled twice on the rooftop before separating, lying on their backs on the ground.

Sima Gui gasped for air, his face covered in sweat, completely exhausted.

Zhong Ying, on the other hand, had completely fainted, her eyes closed, and she was no longer moving.

Song Ran rushed over and began to perform CPR on Zhong Ying.

One minute, two minutes.

Five minutes... ten minutes...

Zhong Ying was completely still, no longer breathing.

Song Ran was covered in sweat, desperately trying to save her, but in the end, he sat down beside her, helplessly wiping the sweat from his face.

"Hehe..."

Suddenly, a soft laugh came from behind Li Cheng Yi.

He shuddered and turned his head abruptly, just in time to see a pale figure standing in the shadows at the only stairwell entrance to the roof.

He couldn't see the figure's face, but the Dongliu Experimental Primary School uniform allowed him to recognize at a glance that it was Bai Fei Peng!

Bang!

In an instant, Li Cheng Yi and Sima Gui simultaneously raised their hands and fired. Two bullets struck the stairwell entrance, but there was nothing there, no trace of Bai Fei Peng at all.

After waiting for a while and confirming that there was no movement, Li Cheng Yi and Sima Gui slowly relaxed their vigilance, turning their attention back to Zhong Ying.

"Zhong Ying is dead," Cindy said at this moment, rising from Zhong Ying's side, her face grim.

The other three fell silent, unsure of what to say.

The strange feeling they had just experienced, the disorienting feeling of sensory misalignment, made it impossible for them to understand how Zhong Ying had died.

And if this kind of death were to happen to any of them, none of them were confident that they could withstand it.

From beginning to end, Zhong Ying had suddenly disappeared, then suddenly reappeared, and finally fallen to the ground and died.

During that time, their bodies seemed to have been affected by some inexplicable interference, resulting in extremely poor conditions and a disruption of their senses.

They couldn't even find the key to the problem.

The cold wind continued to howl on the rooftop, as if someone was crying and wailing.

No one spoke, and after waiting for their bodies to recover slightly, everyone got up and silently straightened themselves.

Li Cheng Yi looked at the painting in the fire. It had been completely burned to charcoal.

But...

Their mission had failed.

Regardless of the preparations they had made.

He walked to Zhong Ying's body and looked down at the woman covered in blood and burns.

"Bai Fei Peng, what exactly is that little fatty?!"

"I don't know," Song Ran said, standing up, his face heavy. "Maybe it's not Bai Fei Peng at all, but something else."

Looking at Zhong Ying's body, the few felt a chill in their hearts. The company's mission was to help Zhong Ying escape the Mist Street. But no one had expected to encounter such a bizarre experience.

Inexplicably, Li Cheng Yi suddenly thought that if he hadn't been pulled into the flash of the Dead Angle Mist Street, but had continued to follow the little fatty to find the so-called Wu's General Store.

What would he have encountered then?

Wu's General Store was not in reality at all, but most likely inside a painting. If he had followed then...

Li Cheng Yi couldn't predict.

He was different from Zhong Ying; he had Flowery Scale Armor, the Flowery Language ability, and his own trump cards.

He didn't know what would have happened in the end.

But in any case, it definitely wouldn't have been like this.

*

*

*

Zhong Ying's death caused no ripples, like a small pebble gently dropped into a stream.

Silent and soundless, even the sound of the stream itself was louder than her.

Her funeral was arranged and handled by Song Ran; simple, clean, and a professional company provided a one-stop service, costing only tens of thousands of yuan.

No relatives, no colleagues, she was an isolated individual who disappeared from the world without a trace.

After settling the funeral, Cindy returned to the company first.

Sima Gui also went to other cities to rest, not staying any longer.

Only Song Ran was responsible for cleaning up the various issues after Zhong Ying's death.

Li Cheng Yi didn't leave, but stayed behind. He was thinking of waiting for the Mist Street to recover, then flashing in again to try to contact that little white flower. He was still unwilling to give up.

Celestial Star Old Street – Candy Bar.

At night, Li Cheng Yi slowly walked along the edge of the old street. Apart from a few shops with lights on, the deserted street was mostly dark gray.

The ubiquitous charred black marks added a sense of history to this area.

He walked back and forth along the sidewalk several times.

But there was no movement. The Mist Street seemed to have completely subsided, with no more memory flashes.

'Could the probability of memory flashes increase with the appearance of a Dead Angle person?' A doubt arose in his mind.

As he walked.

He suddenly stopped.

Looking up ahead.

The street ahead was covered with a faint gray mist.

At the end of the gray mist, in the dimness, under the street lamp, stood a white, chubby child in a primary school uniform, quietly looking at him.

Bai Fei Peng...

Li Cheng Yi's heart tightened as he also stopped, looking at the other party.

"Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye..." Behind Bai Fei Peng, in the mist, spots of colorful light flickered on and off.

That was the light of the slot machine.

Whoosh.

A breeze blew past, and the gray mist quickly thickened, along with Bai Fei Peng and the slot machine, began to move away.

It was as if there was an automatic conveyor belt under Li Cheng Yi's feet, carrying him away from the street where the slot machine was located.

His heart grew anxious, and he quickly looked at the base of the street lamps on the side.

Soon, under one of the street lamps, he found the little white flower swaying gently.

Seeing the little flower, Li Cheng Yi's heart settled, and he was no longer anxious.

"I'll be back..." He took a deep look at the little fatty, Bai Fei Peng.

Zhao Mountain, Celestial Star Street, the Dead Angle of the Mist Street.

If he wanted to successfully obtain the Flowery Language of that little white flower, the only way was to wait for the Flower God position to be vacant, then come here again and constantly refresh the Dead Angle of the Mist Street.

Then, enter and absorb the flower energy again and again.

This was destined to be a long process. And it was destined that he would spend a long time with the slot machine and this mysterious little fatty.

The premise was that the Dead Angle of the Mist Street would not disappear.

Swish!

Suddenly, he exited the Mist Street, and the scenery of Celestial Star Old Street returned to his eyes.

Without hesitation, this time, Li Cheng Yi turned and strode away in the direction of other streets.

He had truly confirmed that the Dead Angle of the Mist Street and the little fatty, Bai Fei Peng, were likely not in the same Dead Angle at all; the two were likely in intersecting Dead Angles!