Estranged

reached out his hand and lightly hit Old He on his forehead with a finger.
Old He sobered up immediately, and now clearly saw the figure in front of his eyes.

“Sir Jiufang?!”

“Light a lamp first.
It’s inconvenient to talk when it’s dark.”

Full of doubts, Old He put on his robes and lit a lantern with trembling hands.

The warm light of the lantern chased away the frosty atmosphere of the room.
Old He finally saw why Changming said it was inconvenient.

Old He’s mouth hung open in astonishment as he looked at the still struggling shadow in Changming’s hands.
Old He could not help taking a few steps back.

“That… What is this!”

“A nightmare demon.
It takes on a humanoid appearance, and feasts on the hearts of humans.
It’s difficult to kill, and it’ll run away as soon as it has a chance,” said Changming.
He looked around before pointing at a flower vase, the only thing in this room that could be called a decoration, and said, “Bring it over.”

The flower vase was flawed and crudely-made.
No one would typically place well-made decorative items in inns.
If a guest stole or substituted it with a fake, nobody would be able to make up for the loss.
Old He would not have spared such a vase a single glance on a normal occasion, but now he lifted it with extreme caution to hand it over to Changming.

Changming showed him how to hold it.

“Don’t put it down.”

Before Old He had time to react, Changming walked closer, holding the black shadow.

The vase suddenly became heavier, so Old He almost let go of it.
The sudden increase in its weight made Old He lower his hands a bit, but Changming quickly picked it up and sealed the mouth of the vase, blocking the shadow’s escape routes.

Exercising the nightmare demon was not the most urgent task.
Instead, Changming had to figure out if the demon had partners.

Old He had not been alone when that scream had been heard, yet there had been no reaction from either his daughter or their guards..
It was very strange.

“Is your daughter in the inner room?” Changming asked.

Old He only returned to his senses now, as if waking up from a dream.

“Right! A-Ling!”

He even forgot to put on his shoes as he rushed to hide behind Changming’s back, staggering on the way.

“Dad?”

It was very cold, so the girl had gone to bed in her clothes.
She was sitting on the bed with sleepy eyes, wrapped in a quilt.

At her age, she should not let any stranger see her like this.
But since everything had happened too abruptly, Old He had brought Changming along without thinking too much about this matter.

“Are you alright?”

Young He nodded her head, rubbing her eyes.

“What happened to you?”

“Something is happening outside, so I was worried for you,” said Old He, as he made an effort to calm down, “Did you hear anything just a while ago?”

“It seems that someone was screaming, but I couldn’t tell whether it was for real or in my dream.
It all felt very vague.”

The girl wanted to get up, but Old He stopped her.

“Just sleep.
The sir and I will go outside to check and see what’s going on.
If anything happens, give a shout, and we’ll come at once.”

The girl nodded obediently, and added, thoughtfully: “It’s cold, dad, put on more clothes if you’re going out.”

Old He was happy to see her act sensibly, so he patted her head, and turned around to leave with Changming.

However, her last words made Changming halt.

“Sir Jiufang?”

Noticing that Changming had stopped, Old He looked at him.

Changming told Young He: “Repeat your last words.”

The father and daughter pair did not understand him.

The girl looked at her father with fear.

Changming suddenly smiled: “Young Lady He had been spoiled and pampered since childhood.
She’s naive and naughty.
If something like this happened, she’d only worry whether she’ll be able to go out to play tomorrow.
This thoughtless show of consideration is revealing.”

Old He froze: “Revealing? What do you mean?”

Changming stepped towards the girl.

“What are you?”

The girl held the quilt in her hands and shrank back.
However one looked at her, she seemed innocent and frightened, as if Changming was threatening her.

Old He also felt that Changming was being a bit rough.
Obviously, his daughter was acting as she usually did.

“Sir, why don’t we check outside first? Chen and Shen haven’t reacted, I’m a bit worried…”

As if Changming had not heard him, he quickly stretched out his hand to grab the girl!