This Taoist priest is so unprofessional!

The gray-white kindergarten classroom disappeared from Wang Xiaoer's sight.

The world was instantly stripped of all color and sound.

Instead, there was an endless, pitch-black void.

There was no sky, no earth, no walls, and not even the tactile sensation of air movement.

He felt like a speck of dust, suspended in absolute silence.

In this all-consuming darkness, only one thing is colorful.

A little girl hiding in a faraway corner.

She was wearing a faded pink dress, hugging her knees, and burying her head deeply in her arms.

My body trembled like a leaf in the wind.

She is the only source of light, the only existence, in this void.

Wang Xiaoer was stunned.

He realized that he had fallen into a deeper place.

This is not a playground for children to play in, but the source.

This little girl is the core of all the spirits.

He tried to take a step forward.

There is no ground in the void, yet he can walk, each step feeling as if he is stepping on unseen solid ground.

His footsteps were amplified infinitely in the deathly silence.

The little girl heard the noise and suddenly looked up.

Her face was pale, and her large eyes were filled with terror, like a fawn cornered by a hunter.

Seeing Wang Xiaoer approaching, she shrank even more, letting out a suppressed sob.

Wang Xiaoer stopped in his tracks.

He remembered Zhang Chen's words.

"Forget you're here to catch ghosts; imagine you're their playmate!"

Arrest her?

Seeing her looking like she was about to break, Wang Xiaoer felt his heart clench.

He gave up on any idea of ​​"catching her".

He didn't go any closer, but instead, a few meters away from the little girl, he slowly squatted down, imitating her.

This action seemed to ease the little girl's tension somewhat.

She still watched him warily, but her body was no longer trembling as violently.

Looking at her, Wang Xiaoer suddenly realized that what she needed wasn't a game.

She was just... scared.

And loneliness.

What should he do?

Wang Xiaoer's mind went blank. He wasn't Zhang Chen; he didn't know how to chant incantations at the appropriate time, nor did he know what talisman to draw.

He instinctively reached into his pocket and rummaged around.

Keys, phone, and half a crumpled pack of tissues.

His fingertips suddenly touched something round.

He took it out.

It's a piece of candy.

The fruit hard candy, strawberry flavor, was a freebie from the shopkeeper when I bought a Coke at the corner store last time.

The cheap plastic candy wrappers reflected the faint glow emanating from the little girl in the darkness.

Wang Xiaoer looked at the candy in his hand, then at the pitiful little girl.

He didn't think too much about it.

He just felt that it was only natural to give a child a piece of candy to comfort them when they cried.

He reached out and handed over the candy.

He moved slowly and gently, as if afraid of startling her.

The little girl's gaze fell on the candy.

Her big eyes were filled with hesitation and confusion.

She looked at the candy, then looked up at Wang Xiaoer's face.

Wang Xiaoer tried his best to force what he considered to be the kindest and most harmless smile.

He might be laughing a little silly.

But it was very sincere.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

After an unknown amount of time, the little girl finally made a move.

She trembled as she reached out a tiny, ethereal, translucent hand, cautiously reaching for the candy.

Her fingertips lightly touched the plastic candy wrapper.

At the very moment of contact.

"Snap!"

A crisp sound, like shattering glass, echoed throughout the void.

Centered on that candy, the entire pitch-black space cracked open like a spiderweb.

A blinding white light surged wildly from the crack.

Just a second before the illusion completely collapsed, Wang Xiaoer seemed to hear a faint, almost inaudible sound.

"Thank you, big brother."

The light devoured everything.

Wang Xiaoer blinked sharply and found himself back in that gray and white kindergarten classroom.

He remained in the position of falling forward, but his body was still standing steadily.

The classroom was quiet.

The children who had been running around, playing and frolicking all stopped moving at this moment.

They stopped hiding and emerged one by one from the walls, from underground, and from the ceiling.

Dozens of semi-transparent children filled the entire empty classroom.

They didn't look at Zhang Chen, who seemed a little dazed.

All the children's eyes fell on Wang Xiaoer.

The eerie smiles and previous mischief were gone from their faces.

Instead, there is a pure, liberating peace.

Immediately afterwards, under Zhang Chen's shocked gaze...

All the children smiled and waved in Wang Xiaoer's direction.

Then, their bodies began to become transparent.

The first child transformed into a gentle speck of light and floated toward the center of the room.

The second one, the third one...

In the blink of an eye, countless points of light converged into a dazzling galaxy, swirling and dancing.

They no longer lingered in this fake classroom, but instead, filled with gratitude, flocked to the place where it all began.

The rusty iron box that Zhang Chen had placed on the ground.

The Guanghe River flowed back into the river.

After the last point of light merged into the iron box, the entire illusion space began to shake violently.

The walls, the floor, the ceiling—everything was like a faded watercolor painting, rapidly fading and disappearing.

The scene before Wang Xiaoer's eyes distorted once again.

He felt as if he had been suddenly pulled out of deep water.

The hum of the air conditioner reached my ears, and I could smell the faint scent of air freshener.

He returned to Lin Qingya's apartment.

The room was softly lit, and the bone-chilling coldness and the eerie atmosphere that made one's chest feel tight had completely disappeared.

The air was as fresh as a morning after the rain.

Wang Xiaoer looked down.

In the center of the room, the pattern with pink flowers had disappeared.

The rusty tin box still lay quietly on the floor.

But at this moment, it has lost all its unusual characteristics.

It no longer exudes coldness, no longer emits cries, and is like an ordinary old object forgotten in a corner.

Zhang Chen walked over quickly, picked up the tin box, and opened the lid.

There's no longer any marble sealed with a child's face inside.

Only a few dozen ordinary glass beads remained, colorful and shimmering with a warm luster under the light.

They returned to their original toy form.

everything is over.

Zhang Chen closed the box and slowly stood up.

He didn't look at the box in his hand, but stared intently at Wang Xiaoer with an extremely complex expression.

Shock, bewilderment, and even a hint of... absurdity, as if I'd seen a ghost.

He watched as Wang Xiaoer fell to the ground, his body blurring in an instant, like a television screen with a poor signal.

Just a few seconds later, the thing became clear again.

Then, all the spirits in the illusion went crazy, waving at him and rushing to exorcise themselves.

The scene was more shocking than any Taoist formation he had ever seen.

Zhang Chen's Adam's apple bobbed as he looked at Wang Xiaoer, who still seemed bewildered and didn't seem to understand the situation.

He finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked the question that had been bubbling inside him and was about to explode.

"What...what did you just do?"