That's the Plan

Qiao Shan was dropped off at a mall where she asked to be taken after. Even though she didn't have much interaction with Liu Xiaodan, she didn't seem to be bothered much by it.

After seeing the black car roll away, Qiao Shan walked inside and checked her phone for a message. She then got to a cafe and spotted the person she was looking for.

When she arrived, the woman waiting for her acknowledged her with a smile. The woman had a rather exquisite face, but the airs around her made it hard for men to just approach her as they wanted.

However, Qiao Shan had already gotten over the nightmare so her vitality had returned. Her looks weren't inferior to the waiting woman; they were just in different spectra.

"That face you're wearing today… it's very pretty. It didn't seem to be from a foreign magazine." Qiao Shan smiled as she sat down. "I'm beginning to forget your real face. What name will you be using with it?"

"Qiao Yun." The man disguising as a lady in front of Qiao Shan was the same one who met with Li Heilong before. "Tell me in detail. You're not supposed to be able to break out of the nightmare that early. Aren't you supposed to stay there until you learn how to consume spirits?"

"Yunyun, you wouldn't expect what happened. A prince charming came, hehe. He barged in the nightmare and got rid of the nurse." Qiao Shan recounted the entire event. "Though I have a feeling that he unknowingly got absorbed in the nightmare. How do you think did Feng'er do it?"

A smile curled Qiao Yun's lips, but it was out of irritated amusement. "Feng'er, really? If you want to flirt with Li Feng, then make sure we're cleared from this assignment regarding Liu Xiaodan first. As it is, the Li family is trying to pit themselves against us without knowing much."

Qiao Shan frowned at him. "Flirt? Isn't he still engaged with that woman from the Ren family?"

"No. They broke it off already, but Ren Shanyue didn't want to acknowledge it just yet. She still has uses in being associated with Li Feng." Qiao Yun sighed as he massaged his forehead and then flicked his curled bangs.

"The Ren family is not happy with the judge's arrangements. They wanted Liu Xiaodan to die, but we needed the child. As it stands, we're getting into a standoff with both the Li family and Ren family soon."

"Aiya, I didn't think it would be so complicated. This Liu Xiaodan seems to be quite a handful. I didn't think this assignment would be so hard…"

"Shanshan, stand firm. If we manage to capture the dybbuk, you're going to be the next Madam of the Qiao family. By then, it wouldn't matter what you do anymore. You'll have autonomy, and no one would dare hurt you anymore."

He took a sip from the straw while smiling at her. "Is that what I promised to help you with?"

Qiao Shan looked at Qiao Yun and then sighed. "The Mian family is really soft towards you, isn't it? You were given the liberty to take actions on your own. I wonder… will I be able to do the same?"

The man huffed before sipping again from his drink. "If you're not willing to fight for it, crawl through hell, and break out to the surface; you have no right to dream to have the same liberty as me."

A nod came from Qiao Shan, and she laced her fingers tightly. "I must be willing to do whatever it takes." She then looked up at the man's exquisitely-done makeup. "Yunyun, teach me how you fard your mask. I want to know."

"Trying to beautify yourself for Li Feng?"

"No… Liu Xiaodan." There was a strange smile that curled her lips, and yet her eyes seemed pained. "The child has no mother yet."

…

The sound of the pages being turned echoed all over the small room. Everything around him was pitch-black, and yet the pages kept on turning. The man inside the meter-by-meter cell sat on the floor cross-legged while reading a book given to him. It wasn't like he could read it, they said.

Liu Xiaodan couldn't avoid being in solitary today since he disappeared and even walked around in cuffs without his wardens. Even if he had no intention to escape when he could already pass through walls, he was still put in solitary.

He wouldn't be given food for today, but it was okay. Guangru was still full from all the deaths that he caused that night in the hospital. He could even heal Liu Xiaodan just the same from the bite of the woman.

However, right now, the child was yet to show up again… though the father knew that he was dealing with Li Feng's attackers.

Whether Li Heilong was making an enemy out of him or not, Li Feng still deserved to get better and not be assassinated because of the circumstances.

The darkness was evident, but his eyes had adjusted greatly in the shadows. Liu Xiaodan was even reading without aid. His body was starting to change greatly, and he wasn't even stalling the things he noticed. He knew long before that he was never going to be back to normal.

Ever since Chuan Nayi needed to be freed from this chaos, Liu Xiaodan decided to leave it all behind.

"Xiaodan…" Tang Mingming was behind him and was leaning on his back. He was responsible for this solitary, and he felt bad so he was accompanying the father in his cell. "I'm sorry…"

"It's okay. Just help me solve this case before my time runs out. I even lost count on how many days are left for me before they would take me to Cherry Medical." Liu Xiaodan only hummed as he let the squirmy ghost stay on his back.

"We're going to find her tonight? The woman in the disposal shoot?"

"That's the plan. No one's going to be checking on me after all." Liu Xiaodan chuckled as he remembered why he was given a book by the warden. Twenty-four hours of loneliness should teach him a lesson, they said; he wouldn't be able to go anywhere, they said.

Tang Mingming only nodded before keeping himself huddled on the father's back.

They had been like this until Tang Mingming felt the night approached. When the darkness shrouded the city, the ghosts and similar entities tend to feel their powers elevate a little. That was how they knew it was time to attack.

He opened his eyes and saw that Liu Xiaodan was only looking up the ceiling. When he did the same, he spotted a figure on the corner where Liu Xiaodan was staring at.

It was undeniably an entity, but it was plastering itself on the ceiling. It seemed to be a weak entity born from the fears of those sent to these solitaries.

"Are you going down? Can you man the cell while we're out in a bit?" Liu Xiaodan smiled at the entity. Its wide eyes stared back at them in confusion, but it was too scared to even get close to them.

"For some reason…"

Tang Mingming frowned at its strange anatomy and the way its face was shaped. Its hair was so thin, and it seemed to be balding in the frontal part of its head. Not to mention that its eyes were so huge and had been glowing white. "I'm a little disturbed by it. What is that if not a deformed person?"

"It's a lizard." Liu Xiaodan brought his gaze at Tang Mingming when he looked over his shoulder. "Can you go see if it's already lights out in the building? I don't want to run into more people than we should. It might get nasty."

Tang Mingming only nodded before leaving one last strange look at the 'lizard'. He then faded away and left Liu Xiaodan alone in his cell.

By then, the lizard crawled to the opposite face of the wall and descended like… well, a lizard. Its long tongue rolled out of its mouth, and the tip almost dangled on Liu Xiaodan's head.

Liu Xiaodan pulled back and turned his face up on the ceiling. The tongue was just above his nose, and saliva was threatening to drip on his face. The father then reached out to touch the tongue, but it rolled back inside the mouth.

The creature crawled back up against the ceiling before going to the side and squeezing itself through the only air vent connecting his cell with the other solitaries.

Strangely, he could hear the noises it made as it crawled from one place to another. When it got farther from him, he began hearing someone whispering. "Hey, hey, I heard you're escaping…" He then chuckled. "Brother, free me, too."

"I'm not escaping." Liu Xiaodan closed the book and only waited for Tang Mingming to come back. "If you don't want to spend another day in here, you should stay in your cell."

"You don't understand. Something else is here with us. It's going to kill us…!"

"Thin hair and big, white eyes? Trust me, it's harmless."

"What are you talking about? It's not!" His voice was hushed as if keeping something from hearing him. "It had already killed two inmates already!"

Liu Xiaodan only hummed before he got to his feet. He reached out to touch the cell door and phase through it with just a step. He then squatted on the floor and hugged his body. It felt painful if he did it consciously. After a few seconds, he got up and took a look at the cell next to him.

"Wait… are you already out? I see feet…"

"Yeah, I'm already out, but I won't take you with me." Liu Xiaodan squatted and reached out his fingers through the small grills where the man grabbed them.

He then also looked up at the grills on the top to see two balls of white. "Hey, lizard. Let him sleep. If you don't, I'm going to get upset and pull on your tongue."

"Take me…"

The man inside insisted again, but Liu Xiaodan felt a tongue wrapping on his fingers aside from the fingers of the other man.

Tang Mingming walked in from behind Liu Xiaodan. "That's a very stretchy lizard. Let's go, Xiaodan."

"I see." Liu Xiaodan slowly slid his fingers off of the man's grip, its very saliva keeping it from holding onto his hand. "Don't worry, I'll release you, too, later. For now… man the cell, okay?"