Chapter 445: Evil God Festival - Boathouse

Third Night.

Xiao Kui's body is getting more and more injured, lying on the window sill with boredom, and then she accidentally saw Bai Liu on the lamp on the shrine, propped up his chin and sighed: "Going again ah."

After a while, Xiao Kui straightened up in surprise when she saw Bai Liu stopping at the door of the shrine with his lamp, not pushing the door in.

An hour passed.

Two hours passed.

Bai Liu, quietly carrying a weakly glowing lamp, stood alone in the long dark night in front of the shrine, like a stone lantern guarding the shrine next to the door, motionless.

And the door in the shrine was suddenly opened slightly, a pair of slender white hands could be seen gripping the door valve, reaching forward with effort trying to push the door out, which was obviously the hand of the evil god.

The Evil God wants to come out to see the sacrifices standing outside the door, but Xiao Kui remembers his brother saying that the Evil God is bound to the shrine by chains, and that it is impossible for him to come out.

It was obvious that the sacrifice could see the evil god if he walked in, but Bai Liu just stood outside the door and never came closer, letting the evil god, awakened by his pain, struggle inside and approach him.

"What is this?" Xiao Kui frowned, "This guy didn't go to all that trouble to steal the key to the shrine just to stand outside the shrine for a night despite his serious injuries, did he?"

Bai Liu literally stood outside the shrine all night.

Xiao Kui woke up at dawn, and saw Bai Liu still standing outside the shrine, carrying a lantern and heading for the mountains without looking back.

The door in the shrine that kept struggling also stopped moving.

"What the hell is in this man's ...... head" Xiao Kui frowned, "What the hell is he thinking?"

The fourth night, the fifth night, for a month in a row, no matter how badly Bai Liu was tortured during the day, no matter how rainy or snowy or windy it was, at night Bai Liu would go up to the mountain with his lantern and stand outside the shrine for the whole night, and come down when the sky was about to lighten.

Even Xiao Kui, a bystander observing out of curiosity, could clearly see Bai Liu's rapid decline and emaciation as he worked day and night like this.

Though from the man's appearance, it was still so calm, like he didn't stand guard outside the shrine every night waiting for dawn alone.

In this way, day by day, an unknown amount of time passed, and when the Kitahara family saw the first time that the sacrifices were in so much pain that they committed emotional suicide, and the head of the Kitahara family came to inspect the sacrifices with satisfaction, and after praising the teachers who had taught them, a course on [Love] was added to the teaching of their sacrifices.

In Kagome Prefecture, colorful banners began to be hung up for the Shinto Festival, rainy days began to outnumber snowy days, and the trees around the shrine began to bud and blossom.

Xiao Kui realizes in a trance that the summer festival seems to be coming.

Shortly afterward, the sacrifice that had come in with Bai Liu committed suicide once more, his pain overflowing, a stark contrast to Bai Liu who, no matter how much torture he endured, was so calm that not a ripple could be seen, so the attention of everyone in the Kitahara family began to gravitate over to the seemingly more agonized sacrifice.

So when this sacrifice committed suicide once again, the head of the Kitahara family waved his hand in joy, "That's great, this sacrifice is nearing maturity, stop the training today and give him whatever promises he wants, make sure he lives in pain!"

Bai Liu lowered his head and retreated from the front of the family master, who impatiently waved his hand and told Bai Liu to go back.

As summer approached, the beach was rainy, and when the rain suddenly came down in the evening, Bai Liu, holding a paper umbrella, made his way familiarly around the shrine by a side trail.

Now that the Kitahara family had little concern for this seemingly painless sacrifice, Bai Liu's movements were even freer compared to before.

Xiao Kui was lying on the windowsill, looking at the faint light in the rainy night's haze - watching Bai Liu go up to the mountains every night to meet the evil gods had become one of the few pleasures in her boring life of sacrifices.

She was really curious about what Bai Liu really wanted.

The rain was getting heavier, and the bright light Bai Liu carried through the curtain of rain was faint, like some kind of luminous insect floating around the shrine, wandering and floating through the mountains where the vegetation was getting thicker, wobbling forward towards the abode of the god, and then stopping once again at the entrance of the shrine.

Xiao Kui saw the door inside the shrine being pushed open again by a hand.

These days, that evil god in the shrine has been moving outward at an ever-increasing pace, from only being able to push open a small gap in the beginning, to now being able to push open half the door, at one point making Xiao Kui think that the god inside would be able to walk out soon.

But what Xiao Kui couldn't see was the long, white but scarred hand that pushed the door open, covered in cuts from silk threads and chains, blood dripping down the outer robe in droplets, connecting with the sound of the rain inside the pond.

"There you are, Bai Liu." Sheta said very softly as she stood by the door that he had pushed halfway open with all his might, dropping her eyes, "I woke up to the door to wait for you when I heard your footsteps and felt your pain."

"Won't you come in and see me today, too?"

Outside the door of the shrine there was only the sound of heavy rain pattering down. Bai Liu did not speak, and for so many days, even though Bai Liu came every day, and Sheta chatted with him in this way every day, Bai Liu had not answered him even a single word.

Sheta was used to this, and he tilted his head slightly, looking calmly at the swaying wind chimes under the eaves, and the increasing rain beyond, the taut silk threads on his arms and legs strangling into his flesh, his outer robes thick with bloodstains, and his wrists freshly strangled with fresh wounds that were dripping downward drop by drop of blood, dripping down his pale fingertips.

Outside the door the rain on the surface of the umbrella Bai Liu was holding dripped down like night, blood and rain falling to the ground at the same time, melting into the mud.

Sheta said softly, "...... the last few days you've been here, I've been waking up earlier and earlier, and you seem to be in more and more pain."

"What are you suffering from, Bai Liu?"

Sheta looked at the heavy, old wooden door, knowing that on the other side of it stood Bai Liu, where he would stand all night, until dawn, and then come back the next night.

Today's rain is so heavy, will Bai Liu get sick ......

It's so strange, Sheta drops her eyes as he looks over his battered body, clutching the shirt over his heart in some confusion.

Obviously it was the body that was bleeding at the moment, and the body didn't hurt much, but the thought of Bai Liu getting sick just now was what tightened his heart.

A very strange feeling of pain.

Sheta hadn't seen Bai Liu once in all these days, hadn't heard Bai Liu's voice, he just knew that Bai Liu was on the other side of the door, that there was a thick wooden door between them that made it impossible for him to refract Bai Liu's emotions, and yet he could feel so many of them so clearly.

Every night, his heart would beat faster when he was about to wake up because of Bai Liu's proximity, and then it would stifle his heart when he tried his best to push open the door of the shrine after awakening, and saw that Bai Liu had not pushed open the door of the shrine to come in to see him.

By the time Bai Liu leaves, he listens to the sound of Bai Liu's fading footsteps as he slowly drifts off to sleep, his heartbeat will become faster and slower again.

The thought of Bai Liu leaving today slows down, the thought of Bai Liu coming back tonight speeds up.

"It's raining too much tonight." Sheta said to the wooden door, "Do you want to go back early?"

There was silence outside the door, and Sheta heard the sound of an umbrella turning, and then Bai Liu's footsteps heading down the hill.

It's so weird.

Sheta pursed his lips, his eyes staring straight at the wooden door, the fingers that clutched his heart's clothing tightening more and more

Obviously, because of the rain, Bai Liu to go back is his own, but really heard Bai Liu dry and without leaving the sound of footsteps, think of this night through the wooden door and Bai Liu and Bai Liu time to get along with so quickly gone ......

Sheta again had no control over her loss.

Why?

There was no one around him, and he naturally couldn't refract anyone's feelings, so where did these two conflicting emotions come from?

Though each time she gets no response, each time Sheta asks as Bai Liu leaves, "Will you come back tomorrow?"

Bai Liu's footsteps paused for a moment, and Sheta heard Bai Liu's breathing slightly heavier for a moment in the pouring rain, he took a step forward and walked to the shrine's door, and Sheta even heard the sound of Bai Liu's hand pressing against the shrine's wooden door, as if Bai Liu was going to push the door open and say something to Sheta in the next second.

Sheta heard his heart beating harder than ever as he struggled to move forward, the silk threads tied around his body even strangling into his bones, but he cared nothing for it, looking down in bemusement and straightening the clothes and hair on his body, his brow furrowing lightly, but it wasn't the pain from the injuries that was causing the distress, it was the fact that the blood from his own body was staining his clothes and hair.

It seemed a little untidy to see Bai Liu in such a bloody mess, but he couldn't care less now.

After briefly tidying up her appearance, Sheta looked up, out of her mind, and gave the wooden door her undivided attention, concentrating to the point where her breath stopped, letting the blood run down her body to seep through her tunic.

Will Bai Liu push open the door to see him?

What would he say to him?

Bai Liu's breath stops for a moment against the door, his hand moving slightly against the wooden door.

Sheta looked straight at the wooden door, his shoulders and back slowly straightening, the light in his eyes coming on little by little.

Then Bai Liu's hand stopped, he paused, and like those nights before, he turned away without saying anything.

Sheta's tense shoulders collapsed little by little, and he stared at the door in a daze, his eyes filled with a very light, as if a layer of light was about to fall.

The moment she heard Bai Liu leave, Sheta could barely hear his own heartbeat, as if his heartbeat had left with Bai Liu this night.

Sheta slowly collapsed to the ground as Bai Liu left, countless heavy threads crisscrossing his skin under his clothes as he gradually closed his eyes and whispered to himself:

"Whether you come tomorrow or not."

"I'll be waiting for you."

Xiao Kui propped up at the window, she originally thought it was another rainy day with Bai Liu guarding the night outside the shrine, and was watching her yawn, but towards dawn, Bai Liu suddenly took a few steps towards the shrine, and lifted the lamp and shone it on the shrine's door, with his hand pressed against the shrine's door.

These Xiao Kui lifted their spirits and stretched forward to get a closer look, "He's not going in today, is he?"

"Nope." Xiao Kui's eyes narrowed, "Is this guy, Bai Liu, writing something on the shrine's door?"

Sheta's voice is fragmented and muffled by the noise of the rain as it pours down:

"Will you come back tomorrow?"

"It doesn't matter if you don't answer me, I'll be waiting for you whether you come tomorrow or not."

Bai Liu held his umbrella as he stood stoically in the almost catastrophic rain, then suddenly turned to Bai Liu, who carried a lamp shining on the wooden door steamed by the mist of the rain.

The wooden door was covered with granular droplets of water, Bai Liu lowered his eyes and pressed his palm lightly against that wooden door, then pointed his finger at it and wrote a sentence carefully on the door in one stroke, then remained still in front of the door for a while and turned around to go down the hill.

It's raining harder and harder.

In a misty curtain of rain, the light Bai Liu carried was getting farther and farther away from the shrine's door, but the gradually brightening sky shone on the shrine's wooden door, illuminating the words that Bai Liu had written on the shrine's wooden door:

[I'll be here tomorrow.