The man, dressed pinly, sat by the hospital bed holding his young son's hand, tightly gripping the hand of his wife, who y on the bed. The young woman's bloated face was filled with weakness and concern.

  On the cabinet, a lunchbox sat with half rice and the other half filled with cheap stir-fried vegetables.

  "Mom... go home..." The young child pouted, tugging at his mother's hand.

  It was just one sentence, but it made the woman start to quietly sob.

  "We'll go home," the man said, his eyes red as he kissed his wife's forehead. "Your son and I have been waiting for you."

  "But..."

  "Shh!" The man gently covered his wife's mouth, speaking softly, "The doctor just talked to me. You're still in the early stages, and as long as you actively cooperate with the treatment, the chances of recovery are very high. I'm very confident. You need to be too!"

  "Really?" The woman stared at her husband's face.

  "The doctor just told me. You don't know how happy I was to hear that!" The man said firmly.

  I shook my head—another liar. Just a moment ago, I distinctly heard the doctor say, with no expression on his face, that his wife only had about a month left to live.

  At the door, holding a pack of cold medicine, Tang Xiaohua stared at the couple in a daze. She instinctively wanted to step forward but gnced at me and stopped herself from moving.

  April Fool's Day is just a week away, and spring is a season prone to colds. Every year around this time, Tang Xiaohua is a regur visitor to the hospital.

  After the injection and getting her medication, Tang Xiaohua, who has a terrible sense of direction, took a wrong turn on her way downstairs and, almost like fate, ended up on the second floor, where the patient rooms were. She stopped in front of this couple's room.

  "How much time is left for that woman?" I asked casually, folding my arms.

  "Less than a week," she whispered.

  "How pitiful..." I shook my head.

  If only this woman's life energy could st a little longer, this family of three might have a much happier life.

  "Xiao Tou... I want to..." Tang Xiaohua looked at me with pleading eyes.

  Earlier, at the outpatient department, Tang Xiaohua had lost her wallet. This man had found it and caught up with her to return it.

  "Are you trying to repay kindness?" I asked with a smile. "Go ahead."

  "Xiao Tou..." Tang Xiaohua widened her eyes, seemingly unable to believe that I had actually given her permission.

  "Go ahead," I nodded toward the unfortunate family of three.

  Tang Xiaohua eagerly ran into the hospital room.

  The man looked at her in surprise as she unexpectedly entered: "Little girl, did you lose something from your wallet?"

  "No, no," Tang Xiaohua walked up to them and gnced at his wife. "Your wife will be fine."

  "Huh?" The man was stunned.

  "I said she will be fine," Tang Xiaohua said, then reached her right hand toward the woman's forehead, gently touching the cold skin. Smiling, she spoke to the woman, "I'll tell you, you still have..."

  I didn′t follow her inside. I stood silently at the door, my expression emotionless as I observed every corner of the hospital room. The moment Tang Xiaohua began to speak to the woman, I gnced up at the eyes on the hospital room's ceiling and squinted slightly.

  Before Tang Xiaohua could finish her sentence, everyone in the room suddenly felt a gust of wind rush through, freezing their bodies and consciousness. Their eyes, ears, and all sensory functions instantly ceased to function. Everything in the room became completely frozen. Tang Xiaohua, with her hand still extended and her mouth open, stood like a wax statue beside the bed.

  Temporarily freezing a small area of space was within my abilities. Although this spell consumed quite a bit of my energy, it was necessary.

  I adjusted my breathing, closed the door, and walked into the room. I stared at the shapeless, bck, muddy, chaotic substance on the ceiling and said, "I’ve been thinking for a long time, and I’ve decided to py a little trick to lure you out and make you meet me. I know you've been watching Tang Xiaohua, and you only show up when she 'lies' to people."

  Having said that, I leaped forward and with my right hand yanked at the bck sludge. With a muffled grunt, a thin man was forcibly pulled out from within and thrown to the ground. However, this was not a real human; below his waist, he had the appearance of an arthropod, looking extremely ugly.

  I stepped on the back of the insect-man with one foot and coldly said, "I don’t care where you came from or what kind of yaokai you are, but if you try to harm my people, don’t bme me for being impolite!"

  "Hero, spare my life!" The insect yaokai raised his head, hands up in a gesture of surrender. "I was just following orders, taking something from this girl to make a living!"

  "Taking something?" I pressed down harder with my foot, almost breaking the insect yaokai's spine. "Speak! What's really going on?"

  When it comes to magic, this low-level little yaokai is no match for me. But in terms of gathering information, I'm far behind these insect yaokais who hide in every corner of the human world, crawling around all day, picking up news, and often serving as informants for rewards.

  The insect yaokai rolled his slightly bulging eyes and cautiously asked, "What's your retionship with this girl? Could it be that you're also here for that thing?"

  My heart stirred slightly, and I let out a cold snort, revealing my fluffy tail. "Seems like you're not entirely stupid. You knew I'd already marked this girl, yet you still dared to try to cim a share?"

  "Ah, hero, th-this is all just a big misunderstanding!" The insect yaokai stammered the moment he saw my snow-white tail. Others might not know, but these intelligence-selling insect yaokais are all too aware that white foxes are aristocrats among the fox cn, possessing far superior magical abilities. If he angered me, his chances of being torn apart on the spot were quite high.

  Seeing that I remained silent with a cold expression, the insect yaokai grew even more panicked and blurted out, "I didn’t know this Prophecy Flower was already reserved by you! I spent so much effort finding her. Too many people want Prophecy Flower petals for curses, but the flower is rare in this world and even rarer in human form. I... I was blinded by greed, thinking I could make a fortune this time, not realizing I was offending the White Fox Lord! I won’t dare do it again—please, spare me!"

  Prophecy Flower?!

  I could hardly hear anything else he said. Only those words, "Prophecy Flower," branded themselves deep within my mind, searing like a hot iron.

  "Prophecy Flower, Prophecy Flower, one word becomes prophecy. On the other hand, the flower destroys lives."

  "You are not an omen of misfortune! If anyone harms you, I will make them pay tenfold!"

  A distant, ethereal voice, like a dreamlike murmur, suddenly surged into my mind. Each word felt like it had sharp edges, piercing my heart with a painful sting.

  Taking advantage of my momentary distraction, the insect yaokai rolled on the spot, quickly curling into a bck mass, leaping towards the ceiling, and immediately disappearing into it, vanishing without a trace.

  I had no time to concern myself with that little yaokai. I slowly walked to Tang Xiaohua's side, with a seriousness and care I had never shown in the past seventeen years, gazing at her face...

  I took off her gsses, revealing her beautiful eyes. Her pin short hair seemed to magically lengthen in my eyes, and her school uniform melted like wax, underneath revealing a dazzling red veil like the glow of the evening sky.

  Chaos, unparalleled chaos, intertwines and collides in my mind, whispers that appear and disappear, fragments that drift and scatter, instantly drowning the rational and intelligent me...