**

Blake was still digging the hole in the barren mountain. He walked around at the bottom of the hole, trying his best to search for a bad aura. He was getting agitated about not finding anything. He thought of Bettany waiting for Lilly back home; he did not know how to disclose the news to her. He had been bringing her disappointing news for days. He walked to the side of his car, and he wearily opened the door to sit in the driver’s seat. He stayed still for a long time. He annoyedly lit up a cigarette, although he did not smoke. He was just trying to do something to feel alive. He did not puff the cigarette; he just put his arm on the car window and stared at the smoke, as if his worries could disappear with the smoke.

At that moment, two people walked up to his car. They were the news reporters. None of the members of the Crawdord family or Blake reject these people. They hoped that Lilly would see the news and know that everyone was still looking for her and that she might be able to contact them. Hence, anyone could come take a picture of the hole. The reporter commented on the picture taken, “The Crawford family said that they wanted to build a man-made lake with villas, but it seems like they’re not doing the layout properly.”

“I know right; this is how they’re approved with this land. But everyone knows for a fact that they’re searching for

“Oh, did you hear that strange thing was happening yesterday? Someone said that they heard a woman crying in the middle of the night, but they saw nothing after opening the door.”

“I heard about this incident too. It’s rumored that a practitioner restrained her. But who knows if it’s true or not?”

A tall man walked up to them at the end of their conversation. “What did the two of you just say?” The reporters were shocked, and they were scared seeing how fierce the man looked standing in front of them. “We… We were commenting that the layout of this place is amazing.” The other reporter said, “Yes, everyone is looking forward to it.” The man said coldly, “I’m referring to the haunted incident.” The reporter was stunned, but he quickly answered, “It’s rumored that Carlyle University is haunted by a female spirit. Many people jumped down from the building to end their lives because of her. and a practitioner managed to restrain her.”

He was silent for a while before he asked, “Is the practitioner male or female? How old is the practitioner?” The reporters shook their heads and said, “We have no idea.”

He turned around and left. Over the past three months, he has looked into any incidents related to spirits. He was worried that Lilly might still be alive, but he somewhat forgot about them. He had scanned through Jean’s novels and realized that the common plot for the characters was that they always got amnesia. What if Lilly lost her memories? I must find her.

**

At the other end of the city, Blake left Carlyle University in disappointment. He knew that there was barely hope, but he still wanted to see it for himself. After he drove away, a child and a woman with messy hair walked out of the forest. Lilly looked around and asked, “Huh? Is this the barren mountain? Why does it look so different?” Lisa expressionlessly pulled a thorn that stabbed into her neck.

Pablo reminded her, “Make a phone call to your dad.” She looked at her empty hands; her phone was not with her. But she could go around and borrow. And she could even borrow it from the policemen.

Lilly and Lisa walked around Carlyle University, which was located in a fairly remote location named Zirconville. The students from this university always complained that they felt like they were in a village; it did not look like a city at all. The forest was located at the back of the university, so basically no one would come here. She panted after walking for a while, saying, “Master, I’m hungry.” He replied, “Hold it for a while more.” He looked around and made sure no one was around, and he said, “I’ll piggyback on you.” She nodded and said, “Yes! Thank you, Master!” She leaned on his back, and he was sprinting at light speed. Lisa was dumbfounded, and she could only try her best to catch up with them.

Lilly hurriedly said, “Master, stop! Aunt Lisa…” She might have relocated her thigh for her, but she had not fully recovered yet. So she was having a hard time walking faster. “Let’s wait for Aunt Lisa here.” She was starving, but she could not leave Lisa alone. He wanted to suggest that he would bring her back to the Crawford family and return to get Lisa, but he did not. If Lisa is lost when we’re gone, Josh will kill me. There was a part of Zirconville that was not developed yet, so there was a village in that area. Most of the people were going to work at this point; barely anyone was at home other than the elderly. Lilly tried to borrow a phone for them, but they shooed them away after seeing Lilly and Lisa in a mess. Their faces looked abnormally pale.

Pablo was speechless; he did not expect that it would be a hard task to get in contact with her family in modern times. “Let’s go to the policemen!” He suggested. Lily was tagging along with him, but she saw someone suspicious walking around the village. “Huh, is this a thief?” She questioned. The thief sneaked around, and after making sure no one was around, he took out an iron wire to unlock the lock.

“Oh my! He’s really a thief!” Her eyes widened as it was broad daylight… “Mr. Unlucky, please follow him!” She spoke. She knew that she had to go to the police, but she just could not let the thief go easily. Unlucky spirits agreed and said, “It’s an easy job!” He was willing to do anything as long as he could linger around!

The thief sneaked through the side entrance into the condominium fence. “Hooray, my first break-in of the year!” The thief mumbled, “Please let me earn a lot!” This condominium was pretty huge and decent, and since there was a university nearby, some of the students would rent a unit as a couple. There were a lot of them like that, and they did not need to work; they barely survived with pocket money from their rich family. They own a lot of luxurious and branded goods. All of them were having classes at the moment, so this was the best time for him to steal!

He went to fortune-telling before this to get a set of lucky numbers with a hundred dollars, which was ‘1314’. He muttered, “1314… These numbers sound so lucky… and tenants renting this unit usually have to pay more rent than the others. I broke into unit 520 before this, and I heard that similar units like that cost 450 dollars in rental fees per month. And… units like 1314 cost 600 dollars in rental fees monthly. So, the couple renting this unit must be richer than others; it’s my lucky day!

He would steal anything that could be sold. He would pretend to say that he wanted to sell these items because he wanted to buy new ones. He would sell the stolen laptop at half price, or he could simply put the items on sale on the internet. “I must be earning a fortune this time!” He picked the door open and had a quick peek. And he sneaked in in an instant. He froze the moment he turned around; there were four policemen sitting and having lunch together. Everyone stared at him for a moment, and one of the policemen put his lunchbox down and took out the handcuffs. “Don’t move; get down on the ground now!”