After Becoming a Cannon Fodder, I Fell into a Love-Hate Relationship with the Heroine (GL) - Chapter 6

Huo Xi held tightly onto Lu Yue’s wrist, stopping her from getting out of the car.

A moment earlier, when she glanced at the rearview mirror, she noticed something strange. The driver of the car behind them was completely covered up.

It was the middle of summer, but that driver was wearing a thick coat and a hat. Their face was hidden behind glasses and a mask.

Anyone dressed like that in this weather had to be suspicious.

Lu Yue slowly pulled her hand away from the door and hesitated. She wasn’t sure if leaving the scene now would be considered hit and run.

“I’ll go check,” she said, grabbing a small weapon from her bag just in case anything unexpected happened.

The road was empty. There were no other cars, no pedestrians. Huo Xi didn’t want to go either, but she was even more afraid of leaving Lu Yue alone. If something happened to her, the entire story might collapse.

They walked toward the crashed car. Lu Yue stepped in front and called out, “Hello, are you hurt? My car is still working. I can take you to a hospital.”

There was no reply.

They moved in closer. Lu Yue waved away the smoke and looked through the broken glass.

The car was empty.

Huo Xi looked around the area. All she could see were trees. They searched nearby but found no sign of anyone. Huo Xi was just about to give up. She even bent down to check under the car.

“Do you think they ran into the forest?” Lu Yue asked, shining her phone flashlight toward the trees.

The airbags had gone off, and one of the windows was cracked. It was impossible to tell if the driver was injured or not.

Suddenly, the bushes nearby rustled. It sounded like someone was moving through them.

They both turned toward the sound just in time to see a shadow dash past them.

“I saw them!” Huo Xi shouted and quickly ran after it.

The shadow moved incredibly fast and seemed unaffected by the branches and undergrowth.

Plants whipped at Huo Xi’s legs, stinging her skin. She gritted her teeth and shouted, trying to get the person’s attention.

“Are you the driver? Don’t be scared. We’re not running away. We just want to help.”

The faster she chased, the faster the shadow moved. It was too fast to be human.

Desperate to catch up, Huo Xi broke her link with Lu Yue. She focused all her energy and leapt forward.

She rolled across the ground a few times and tried to get up, but something heavy slammed into her.

A sharp blade pressed against her neck. Out of the corner of her eye, she recognized it. The blade looked exactly like the one Lu Yue always carried.

Long strands of hair fell into her face. She waved her hand to see more clearly.

“Don’t you remember me, sister?” said a voice.

A woman in a floral dress with the same white shoes from before leaned over her.

In that moment, Huo Xi realized they had been tricked.

Trying not to panic, she forced herself to stay calm. She slowly moved beneath the woman’s weight while trying to distract her.

“I remember you. We’re both spirits, right? What’s your name?” Huo Xi smiled, pretending to be friendly.

A second voice came from above.

“She’s Song Yuan’s dog.”

So this was Song Yuan.

She had short, neat hair and wore all black in a functional, tactical style.

“She doesn’t have a name,” Song Yuan said with a grin. “I gave her that one.”

She motioned for the spirit to step aside and held out her hand toward Huo Xi.

Song Yuan didn’t seem as aggressive as Lu Yue had described. She almost seemed calm, even friendly.

Still, Huo Xi stayed alert. She ignored Song Yuan and stood up, brushing the dirt off her clothes.

She looked around but didn’t see any sign of Lu Yue.

Since she had ended the connection earlier, she couldn’t reconnect it herself. Only Lu Yue could do that from her side.

Now Huo Xi realized she had rushed too far ahead. Lu Yue hadn’t been able to follow.

“I’m going now,” Huo Xi said, trying to slip past them and return the way she came.

But as soon as she started walking, she bumped straight into the girl in the floral dress.

Song Yuan had trained her spirits to a frightening degree. Huo Xi was nowhere near their level.

Song Yuan crossed her arms. “You really are interesting. So you really do have your own will.”

The spirit girl blocked Huo Xi’s path while Song Yuan spoke from behind her.

They were stuck. Song Yuan didn’t know how strong Huo Xi was, so she didn’t act recklessly.

“Take her back. Maybe we can get some money out of Lu Yue,” Song Yuan said.

The girl followed her orders. She and Song Yuan slowly moved toward Huo Xi. Running was her only option.

Why could other spirits fight and protect themselves, while she could barely teleport without messing it up?

“Host, if you want to increase your combat ability, you can…”

“I don’t want to. Stop trying to trick me out of my horror points. They’re already stingy with the rewards. I finish missions and barely get anything,” Huo Xi snapped, cutting the system off before it could finish.

She turned and ran. The chase continued in the forest, but now the roles were reversed.

The way in had seemed short. Now the path back felt twice as long.

She stumbled and tripped over something. Her feet slipped, and she rolled down a slope.

Her hand landed on something damp, like water.

The bracelet on her wrist began to glow again. She used the faint light to look around.

The sight in front of her nearly made her faint.

“A body. It’s a person,” she whispered.

A cold chill ran down her back. Her legs gave out, and she couldn’t stand.

The corpse was mutilated in a way that reminded her of Hua Qiao’s death. Brutal and terrifying.

“Come here. Hurry,” Lu Yue’s voice suddenly called out.

In an instant, Huo Xi was pulled out of the forest.

She appeared beside their car. Lu Yue stood by the hood, holding a glowing crystal in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

She looked over and raised the crystal.

“The signal’s bad here. I tried reconnecting several times and couldn’t get through. Can you stop disconnecting so randomly next time?”

She grumbled a little, then noticed something on Huo Xi’s arm.

There were dried bloodstains, already set into the fabric. It looked like the wound had been there for a while.

Lu Yue’s hands began to tremble slightly. “You’re hurt?” she asked cautiously.

“No, it’s not mine,” Huo Xi replied quickly. She was still in shock from what she had just seen. “This isn’t my bl00d.”

Lu Yue’s smile faded. Her expression grew cold. “You chased after someone and they tried to extort you for money? You need to remember, once a spirit hurts a human, there’s no going back.”

She thought Huo Xi had harmed the driver.

“It’s not like that,” Huo Xi said hurriedly and explained what had happened, summarizing everything as clearly as she could.

But the moment Lu Yue heard the name “Song Yuan,” she immediately forgot about the dead body.

“You saw Song Yuan? Where is she? Take me to her.”

“That’s not the point. What matters is the killer from before. He’s back,” Huo Xi reminded her.

But Lu Yue wouldn’t listen. It was like her mind had locked onto one thing. She wouldn’t let go of the idea and insisted that Huo Xi take her to find Song Yuan.

They returned to the place where it had all happened, but Song Yuan and the girl in the floral dress were already gone. There was no sign of them anywhere.

“Did something happen between you and Song Yuan?” Huo Xi asked, curious.

It was clear that Lu Yue became extremely tense whenever her name came up.

Instead of answering directly, Lu Yue gently took Huo Xi’s hand and placed it over her chest, right where her heart was.

“Don’t you have that ability? Try to feel it for yourself,” Lu Yue said softly. Her voice rose and fell in a rhythmic tone, and under the moonlight, the atmosphere took on a strange, intimate feeling.

Huo Xi quickly pulled her hand back. In her mind, she begged the system to offer some kind of special discount package to get her out of this.

She waited for a long time. Nothing happened.

The system was always silent when it was needed and loud when it wasn’t.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Yue asked gently. “I think you need to touch me to feel anything.”

“N-no need, Detective Lu. Maybe we should check on the dead body instead,” Huo Xi said, her voice a little shaky.

Something about Lu Yue tonight felt different, and it made her nervous.

She tried to steer the conversation back. “Detective Lu, we’re here to solve a case. Let’s stay focused.”

Lu Yue looked up. The moonlight wrapped around her, outlining her figure in a soft, silver glow. She looked like a painting.

“Aren’t you curious anymore?” Lu Yue asked.

“Not even a little bit,” Huo Xi replied instantly.

She stopped asking about Lu Yue’s past, and Lu Yue seemed to return to normal.

Huo Xi led the way back to the slope.

“The body was right here,” she said and picked up two branches from the ground, handing one to Lu Yue and keeping the other for herself.

The path was dark and slippery. One wrong step and they could end up face to face with whatever was waiting at the bottom.

Lu Yue used her flashlight and scanned the area, but she couldn’t find the body Huo Xi had mentioned.

There were a few bloodstains on the ground, but nothing close to the gruesome scene Huo Xi had described.

“Are you sure you didn’t imagine it?” Lu Yue checked the area thoroughly and still found nothing unusual.

The bl00d looked more like it came from an animal.

They were deep in the forest. Seeing signs of a predator wasn’t anything surprising.

“That’s impossible.” Huo Xi looked down at the scrape on her arm. If not for that, maybe she would have started to doubt herself too.

The wound was fresh and hadn’t been treated. It was the best proof she had.

It was hard to be certain just by looking. Lu Yue collected samples from both the scene and Huo Xi’s injury, placing them in separate bags.

A crow cawed in the distance, its voice breaking the silence of the night sky.

On the drive back, Lu Yue noticed that Huo Xi had fallen asleep.

She was curled up in the seat, looking small and quiet.

Lu Yue’s lips curled into a smile. Her long fingers tapped gently on the steering wheel, falling into a calm rhythm.

When they arrived at the detective agency, Huo Xi still hadn’t woken up. Lu Yue leaned over and unbuckled her seatbelt.

Huo Xi furrowed her brow and shifted in her sleep, her arms wrapping gently around Lu Yue’s neck.

“Hey, you…” Lu Yue paused mid-sentence.

The position made her uncomfortable. She leaned one hand on the passenger seat while one knee rested on the driver’s seat.

She tried to move Huo Xi’s arms, but they only tightened around her.

With no other choice, Lu Yue climbed fully into the car, closing the door behind her. She crossed over to Huo Xi’s side, her legs slightly bent and suspended in the air.

“Let go. You’re holding me too tight. It’s uncomfortable,” she whispered, gently patting Huo Xi’s hands.

Huo Xi turned in her sleep.

Lu Yue lost her balance. Her hand slipped and accidentally pressed the seat adjustment button.

With a loud thud, the seat collapsed under their combined weight.

Huo Xi jolted awake and stared at Lu Yue.

“You… what are you doing on top of me!?”