Ye Huohuo hadn't expected to see her biological parents again in this lifetime. After the age of three, their images had begun to fade from her memory. She couldn't recall what they looked like, only the static images captured in photographs.
What remained in her mind were fragments of time spent with them. Back then, she was the happiest little princess in the world, with a loving father and a gentle mother. Her favorite thing was to ride on her dad's broad shoulders, her small arms stretched out as if flying through the air.
In her memory, her father was so tall. Sitting on his shoulders, she felt like the tallest person in the world, looking down at everything. And when she looked down, she would see her mother's smile, gentle and sweet.
These scenes rarely appeared even in her dreams now. She never thought she'd see them again by simply turning her head.
Ye Huohuo saw her parents standing just outside the door, her mother's arm linked with her father's. They were just as young as she remembered them.
"Dad, Mom!" Ye Huohuo's eyes welled up with tears. How many years had it been? She hadn't dared to dream of this, yet here they were, alive and in front of her.
Though she knew in her heart they were dead and this must be an illusion, her priority should be to break free and leave, she was, after all, just a twenty-year-old girl. Even knowing it was wrong, knowing it was a trap, she wanted to fall into it, unable to resist the temptation.
Some sought wealth, some power, some beauty, but Ye Huohuo sought kinship.
Her parents' deaths were an insurmountable hurdle in her heart.
Even knowing that what she saw was an illusion, she didn't want to wake up just yet. She only wanted to embrace them one more time, or to be embraced by them.
She felt cold and longed for their warm embrace.
She walked towards them step by step, slowly reaching out her arms to embrace them.
But then, voices seemed to drift into her ears, indistinct, like the buzzing of flies.
Ye Huohuo ignored them. She reached her parents, rushed forward, and hugged them. Now grown, she could embrace both of them at once.
Simultaneously, she was embraced by both of them.
"Dad, Mom, Xiao Qing misses you so much. You've finally come to see me!" She was still the Ye Xiao Qing of the past.
Her mother gently stroked her hair. "We know you've suffered too much here. Come with us. We'll take good care of you over there. The three of us can finally be together happily, never to be separated. Wouldn't that be nice?"
Ye Huohuo looked up at her parents. This moment was what she had longed for. She felt so lonely and tired in this world. If she could just go with them like this, letting go of all grudges, no longer enduring the suffering of the Five Fiends, it would truly be wonderful.
"Yes, I'll go with you and we'll never be apart," she repeated her mother's words as if brainwashed.
Shen Yan, her mother, and Ye Cheng, her father, each took one of Ye Huohuo's hands.
Ye Huohuo felt as if she had returned to her childhood, going shopping with them to buy her favorite gifts. This was how they were then, each holding one of her hands. Their hands were so large, and they were so tall.
What was happening around them was no longer important, nor was what they were buying. What mattered was that they were holding her hands.
She felt so warm, so secure.
Gradually, something seemed to envelop her body, and she even began to feel a sense of suffocation.
She wanted to break free from this restraint, but she didn't want to let go of her parents' warm hands.
A voice echoed in her mind, "Just bear with it for a moment, and you can be with Mom and Dad forever!"
Ye Huohuo tightened her grip on her parents' hands, abandoning her last bit of resistance, allowing the restraints to consume her.
It felt as if the last breath was squeezed from her lungs, and she plunged into darkness.
Just as her consciousness was about to dissipate, a red light flashed on her wrist. She felt a sharp, burning sensation on her wrist as if something thin had branded her. Her parents, who had been holding her hands, suddenly vanished.
She looked down at her hands. What she had been holding were not her parents' hands, but two dark wisps of ghostly energy.
Her entire body was tightly bound by this ghostly energy. If it hadn't been for the burning sensation on her wrist waking her up, she would likely be dead by now.
The beautiful dream had finally ended. These beings dared to impersonate her parents to tempt her. This was unbearable.
Ye Huohuo's inner rage was ignited. The seal that had already been loosened was now completely broken by her uncontrollable emotions.
Her Qi Sea began to churn and surge, like colossal waves crashing against the final defenses...
"Huohuo! Ye Huohuo, wake up!" Qin Chu grabbed Ye Huohuo's shoulders and shook her incessantly.
But Ye Huohuo's gaze was vacant, her eyes devoid of spirit, like a walking corpse.
Li Mohan and A Cheng, standing nearby, also watched Ye Huohuo anxiously. Moments ago, Ye Huohuo had inexplicably looked towards the doorway, called out "Dad, Mom!" and then her entire being seemed to have lost its soul, becoming listless.
"Ye Huohuo! Wake up!"
It wasn't just Qin Chu who could tell Ye Huohuo's soul had been captured; even Li Mohan and A Cheng, amateurs, could see that something was wrong.
"What's wrong with her? Did she get possessed?" A Cheng asked Qin Chu.
Qin Chu's usual carefree demeanor vanished, replaced by a look of intense worry.
He had already pressed Ye Huohuo's philtrum and other acupoints, and had even activated a summoning spell, but Ye Huohuo showed no reaction.
"I... I'm not sure. Her soul must have been captured. The person must be a master, or..." Qin Chu trailed off, as if a thought had struck him, and he abruptly fell silent.
"What exactly is going on? How can we wake her up?" Li Mohan recalled a similar incident at the Li Corporation building where Ye Huohuo had been unresponsive. At that time, he had kissed her, entered her sea of consciousness, and awakened her. "Perhaps I should kiss her again?"
Qin Chu glanced at him, a hint of hesitation in his eyes, but he said nothing, merely shaking his head.
"What should we do? Say something!" A Cheng, being the most impatient, was almost moved to action by Qin Chu's hesitant demeanor.
Qin Chu's brow furrowed as he pressed his right middle finger against Ye Huohuo's forehead. "Don't speak. Don't let anyone disturb me. I'll go in and take a look!"
While Li Mohan and the others might not have understood what "going in" meant before, after experiencing so much, they now understood that Qin Chu meant entering Ye Huohuo's sea of consciousness.
The two immediately became vigilant.
After speaking, Qin Chu closed his eyes, relaxed his shoulders, and his body sagged.
A Cheng looked up at Li Mohan. "President Li, what should we do? Just watch?"
Li Mohan's expression grew colder. "What else can we do?"
A Cheng pursed his lips and looked at Ye Huohuo. Her eyes were still open, maintaining her gaze towards the doorway. Following Ye Huohuo's line of sight, he looked out the door. "What's outside the door? Why did she become like this after just one look?"
A Cheng couldn't help but feel curious. But the moment he looked, he too froze.