Chapter 655: Answer

Chapter 655: The Answer

Li Huowang sat numbly in place, his mind reeling from what he had just experienced.

He had clearly received a call from his mother, and the voice on the other end knew his name. Yet once the call ended, the phone was dead—no power at all. So who had he really been talking to?

If this were merely an illusion, then were the previous glances also figments of his imagination?

Had Li Huowang truly suffered from mental illness all along—from beginning to end?

With a pained expression, Li Huowang closed his eyes tightly, pressing both hands against his head as he clawed at his own hair.

He did not want to admit it, but he could no longer avoid facing the truth—he didn’t trust himself anymore.

“I…” After struggling for a moment, Li Huowang painfully located Yi Donglai’s number in his contact list.

After a long string of dial tone, a voice answered from the other end.

“Hello, Xiao Li? Is there something you need?”

Li Huowang clenched his fists, his voice trembling slightly as he asked, “Doctor Yi, do you think I might be suffering from paranoid delusions?”

“What do you mean, ‘do I have a chance’? Xiao Li, are you showing new symptoms again?” Yi Donglai's tone grew serious.

“I don’t know if that’s true either… but I feel like someone is following me. They seem to have some kind of conspiracy. This feeling has come up many times.”

“Never happened while you were hospitalized? Only after you left?”

“Yes, never inside the hospital. You see, that feeling is coming back again.”

Li Huowang took out his mirror once more and began reflecting the light.

But this time, instead of Old Lady Qi, he saw a woman—a woman holding an umbrella, her face obscured.

It was spring, yet such a woman standing alone in the residential complex seemed odd.

“Is she a hallucination? A product of my delusion? Or something else entirely?” Li Huowang questioned himself in confusion.

Yi Donglai’s voice continued, but Li Huowang, now resolute, lightly tapped the disconnect button.

“If it truly is delusion, I’ll accept it. Whether I go back to the hospital or do anything else, but today I must find out—this is all just my imagination!”

Li Huowang set down the phone, took some items from his drawer and placed them in his pocket, then quickly descended the stairs. When he stepped out of the building, the woman still stood there.

Li Huowang observed her position, then silently circled around the unit building from the left side, approaching her from behind.

As he drew closer, he noticed more details—the woman wore high heels, her clothing too thin for the season.

The more unsettling details piled up, the deeper the fear grew in Li Huowang’s eyes.

He was getting closer, closer still. Just a few steps away, a black car parked beside the complex suddenly lurched forward, two dark figures leapt out.

One grabbed a soaked cloth and pressed it over Li Huowang’s face; another seized his arms from behind and dragged him toward the vehicle.

When the overwhelming scent of medicine hit him, Li Huowang didn’t panic—he felt a surge of joy. His heavy burden had finally lifted.

“I’m not crazy! This isn’t a hallucination!! Someone wants to kill me!”

Just as that thought flashed through his mind, he felt consciousness fading—the cloth was drugged!

Li Huowang forced his jaws wide open and bit down hard on his tongue.

Pain and crimson blood flooded his mouth, instantly clearing his mind.

In the next instant, he opened his mouth as wide as possible, swallowing the cloth and fingers together.

Then, a bloodthirsty gleam lit his eyes. With a violent jerk, his jaw snapped shut, tearing through the man’s fingers.

“Hiss!” The man gasped, pounding his head against Li Huowang’s skull in desperation, trying to pull free—but Li Huowang remained unmoved.

The three struggled into the car. As the door slammed shut, Li Huowang released his teeth, sending the man crashing into the window.

Li Huowang opened his blood-soaked mouth, staring coldly at strangers he had never seen before.

“You think I got into your car willingly? No matter who you are, once I’m inside your vehicle, killing or maiming you counts as self-defense!”

From his sleeve, Li Huowang pulled out a paper cutter and stabbed it into the man’s thigh.

As the man winced and let go, Li Huowang lunged forward with a snarl, slashing again.

The black SUV began to shake violently. As the shaking intensified, the door burst open, and a bloodied Li Huowang rolled out.

He looked coldly at the retreating car, threw the blood-stained paper cutter onto the ground, and pulled out his phone to make a call.

“Hello, is this 110? I need to report a kidnapping. I’ve been kidnapped.”

“One of the kidnappers is dead, and the other is probably close behind. They drove off in a black car heading down Wuyi Road.”

Kidnapping was serious business, especially when the victim killed one of the kidnappers.

Soon enough, Li Huowang found himself sitting in the police station, answering detailed questions.

While Li Huowang was being questioned, Sun Jianye, sitting outside the room, frowned at the information displayed on his police tablet, while Sun Xiaoqin beside him wept with tears in her eyes.

“Comrade, please don’t worry. Your son is safe. Please sit and wait a moment—I’ll go in and get the situation first.”

With that, he entered the interrogation room with his apprentice, listening in on the questioning.

“Student Li, so you’re saying they came to kidnap you? Do you know why they targeted you? Did you offend anyone recently?”

Holding a disposable cup in both hands, Li Huowang fell silent, lost in thought.

After hesitating for a moment, he said, “I killed a few people before. I believe these men are their accomplices, here to take revenge. You might want to start there.”

The room fell silent for a moment, no one speaking.

Just as the atmosphere grew tense, another officer walked in.

“The surveillance footage from the community shows nothing suspicious.”

After reviewing the footage quickly with his colleague, Sun Jianye looked at Li Huowang with suspicion.

“Nothing? How is that possible? Good thing I kept evidence.” Li Huowang reached into his pocket and pulled out two fingers, placing them on the table.

(End of Chapter)