Rustle, rustle…
Whispers echoed faintly from an unseen space as Lu Li refocused his mind. He holstered the Spirit Gun but kept his hand resting on the grip.
Athena stared intently at Lu Li—or perhaps at the figure behind him.
Anna floated forward, cradling the ghostly infant in her arms. Perhaps her arrival was what had brought clarity back to Athena.
“Do you still hate it?” Lu Li asked.
Athena’s crimson eyes, visible between her long strands of hair, shifted toward him but remained silent.
“Give her the infant,” Lu Li said, turning slightly to Anna.
“Okay.” Anna obediently agreed, nervously floating closer to Athena. Stopping a meter or two away, she suddenly tossed the ghostly infant toward her and quickly darted back to hide behind Lu Li.
Her fear of ghosts seemed unlikely to disappear anytime soon.
Her crimson pupils gradually softened, a trace of maternal emotion beginning to emerge.
“I feel like she’s going to kill it…” Anna whispered into Lu Li’s ear, watching Athena gently stroke the infant’s cheek yet looking like she might strangle it at any moment.
“And yet you still threw it to her,” Lu Li replied without turning his head.
Anna pouted slightly and muttered, “You’re the one who told me to do it.”
Lu Li ignored Anna and turned to Athena. “Can you control your emotions now?”
Athena’s fingers traced the infant’s cheek in a slow arc. After a moment, a raspy, icy voice emerged from her bowed head. “I was blinded by hatred before… but not anymore.”
“…I met him two years ago.”
Athena began recounting her past with her husband.
Lu Li’s brow furrowed ever so slightly. To be honest, he found it tiresome when people started recounting their personal stories after everything was resolved.
Back on Earth, when assisting the police in apprehensions, suspects would often launch into tales of their lives and motives.
Normally, Lu Li would interrupt such monologues immediately. But this time, the storyteller was a ghost. He wasn’t sure if stopping her would cause Athena to lose control again.
Letting her speak wouldn’t hurt him.
With this in mind, Lu Li removed his hand from the gun grip but maintained a posture that allowed him to grab it at a moment’s notice.
“Bill Eddy joined the textile factory a few months after I did. When he first started, he was clumsy and often punished by the supervisor…”
As Athena recounted her story, Lu Li quietly moved behind her, walking over to the fallen statue. It lay motionless on the ground, a fine dust of stone fragments scattered around its broken arm.
Lu Li propped the statue upright and picked up the severed arm. The jagged edges at the break confirmed it was indeed a statue.
Still, it was puzzling how the statue could bend and move like a human yet shatter like plaster when it fell.
Placing the broken arm in the statue’s lap, Lu Li said, “I’ll get someone to fix you tomorrow morning.”
But in that moment, an abrupt shift occurred.
A surge of malicious, vengeful energy erupted behind him.
Lu Li’s dark eyes contracted as he instinctively rolled to the side. Mid-roll, he drew the Spirit Gun, and by the time he steadied himself, the barrel was trained squarely on Athena’s back. ṙ
Yet, he didn’t pull the trigger.
The oppressive aura raged wildly, but Athena didn’t attack. Her raspy voice, chilling as if from the abyss, broke the tension. “He attacked me like a madman, punching my stomach. No matter how much I begged, he wouldn’t stop… He cursed at me, screamed that I and the child ruined him… And with each blow, he destroyed my womb and then strangled me to death…”
Realizing her outburst was purely emotional, Lu Li lowered the Spirit Gun.
Athena turned to look at him. Her bloodshot eyes no longer carried malice—only a quiet calm.
“I can feel its kindness toward you… toward me. Where did you find it?”
Lu Li returned to Anna, who stood nearby with reddened eyes, a mix of sorrow and anger etched across her face. He answered calmly, “Near the gallery. It’s always been close to you, but because you hated it, it stayed hidden.”
“Wanting to get close but too afraid to approach,” Anna murmured, her words carrying the air of a poetic soul.
Athena remained silent for a few seconds. Her once-twisted expression softened, a faint bitterness appearing as she gently caressed the ghostly infant’s face. “Is it too late for me to say I’m sorry…? To the child, to those I’ve harmed… to you…?”
“Why apologize?”
Lu Li tilted his head slightly, a hint of confusion in his expression.
Both Athena and Anna froze for a moment.
“You don’t need to apologize. You’ve done nothing wrong,” Lu Li continued, his tone calm and matter-of-fact.
Two pairs of eyes fixed on him—Anna’s filled with shock. Despite their short time together, she had come to see Lu Li as cold and indifferent. And now he was… comforting someone? Could it be… Had this guy fallen for Athena!?
Lu Li’s expression remained composed as he explained a simple truth. “Bystanders always urge those involved to be forgiving, to let go of everything. But they never consider the pain endured by those involved—because the pain belongs to someone else, and it has nothing to do with them.”
“You haven’t harmed the innocent. You’ve done nothing wrong. And neither has the child.”
“Thank you… thank you…”
At some point, Athena had begun to weep, her tears mingling with the bloodstains on her face.
Her raspy voice repeated words of gratitude as the cold malice surrounding her faded. Her form grew transparent, gradually dissolving into nothingness.
“Are you…” Lu Li began to ask.
“I plan to leave with the child. Perhaps to hell, or maybe to heaven,” Athena replied with a gentle smile.
“Could you wait a moment?” Lu Li interjected, holding up the Spirit Gun. “Would you let me send you off myself?”
“…?” Anna looked at him as though he’d lost his mind.
The two ghosts stared at Lu Li in confusion as he explained, “The Spirit Gun gains strength by destroying ghosts. But don’t worry, I can confirm that whether you go on your own or are sent by it, the result will be the same.”
Perhaps Lu Li’s words had comforted her, Athena nodded gently. “Then I’ll trouble you with this.”
Lu Li drew the Spirit Gun and aimed it at the infant ghost’s forehead first.
Anna turned away, unable to watch.
Just as he was about to pull the trigger, a thought crossed Lu Li’s mind. He adjusted his grip, holding the gun by the barrel, and brought it down like a hammer.
The expected gruesome scene didn’t occur. Instead, the infant ghost’s body began to bubble with blood-like spheres, as if it were evaporating, dissipating into nothingness without a sound.
Lu Li turned the gun toward Athena’s forehead next and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!
The silver-plated bullet entered Athena’s forehead, and blood bubbles erupted, quickly spreading across her entire form.
The first rose on the Spirit Gun’s body bloomed nearly halfway.
As Athena’s figure faded into nothingness, Lu Li’s perpetually calm voice echoed faintly at her departure.
“Rest assured, I’ll send your husband down to accompany you.”