Chapter 33

Xu Mo shook his head, thinking: Could it be that the fox was really just Luo Shi's hallucination? So when the police and Liu Jian came, they didn't see it? Or was the fox, like the person originally in the car, also moved away before the police arrived?

He couldn't determine for a moment, so he asked Liu Jian a few more questions, but found no other suspicious points, and had to hang up the phone.

When he got home, he found that for some reason, Xiao Qing had become extremely restless and agitated, crawling back and forth along the walls of the house. Xu Mo grabbed it and put it on the bed. Xiao Qing flicked its tongue at him, and after a while, got down from the bed again, circling the walls, and continued to crawl.

Xu Mo was puzzled: What's wrong with Xiao Qing? Did it eat something bad?

He tried to feed it some poison powder, but it wouldn't eat. It kept moving around the room, refusing to stop.

Xu Mo was worried that it might be injured, so he examined it several times, checking its entire body carefully, but found no injuries.

Xu Mo became even more confused, worried about Xiao Qing, and couldn't focus on anything else. He squatted down and stared at Xiao Qing, which didn't make any extra movements, just kept moving around the room.

Xu Mo sighed, "If it could speak, that would be great. Then I would know what it wants, and wouldn't have to guess randomly and still not figure it out."

After a while, seeing that Xiao Qing was only moving around the room and showed no other abnormalities, he finally felt a bit relieved.

When it was time to go to bed, Xiao Qing was still moving around the room. Xu Mo decided not to bother with it, thinking it would stop when it got tired.

In the past few days, his understanding of the Tranquil Breathing technique had deepened, and he felt that he might be able to do it without relying on Dream Powder one day.

He practiced the Tranquil Breathing technique for over an hour and then went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Xu Mo was woken up by the sound of a child crying. He opened his eyes and heard Qin Ruolan soothing the child.

The child was crying fiercely, and no matter how she tried to comfort it, it wouldn't stop.

Normally, a child crying at night isn't a big deal, but today's situation was unusual. Qin Ruolan had been living here for some time, and her child was always well-behaved and quiet, sleeping after eating and never crying, which made things very easy for her.

This was the first time such a situation had happened since she moved in.

Xu Mo lived next to her, and the walls of the apartment building didn't have good soundproofing, so the noise was even more disturbing. He sat up in bed, turned on the light, and immediately noticed that Xiao Qing was still moving around the room, not stopping.

Xu Mo knocked on the wall and asked, "Sister Qin, what's wrong with the child?"

Qin Ruolan, on the other side of the wall, apologized, "Sorry, Brother Xu, I woke you up."

"It's nothing," Xu Mo replied casually, then asked, "What's wrong with the child? Is it hungry?"

Qin Ruolan responded, "I don't think it's hungry. I tried to feed it, but it wouldn't eat at all."

Xu Mo said, "Is it sick? Feel the child's forehead, is it hot?" He had no experience taking care of children, but he knew some common sense.

Qin Ruolan replied, "I checked, it's not hot. The child isn't sick."

Xu Mo said, "Sometimes children cry at night if they are scared during the day. Was the child scared today? Did you take it to a noisy place?"

Qin Ruolan said, "No, I only went out once today, to buy groceries in the morning. The rest of the time, I was at home. The child was sleeping soundly when I went to buy groceries, and I didn't take it with me. How could it have been scared?"

Xu Mo said, "That's strange." He couldn't figure out what was going on.

He lay back down in bed, but the child's continuous crying made it impossible to sleep. Xu Mo, helpless, took some Dream Powder and started practicing the Tranquil Breathing technique again.

Not long after, a thought flashed through his mind like a bolt of lightning, and he was startled, sitting up abruptly.

He glanced at the Book of Revelation, "Oh no, could it be..."

He looked at Xiao Qing, his breathing quickened, his heart tightened, and his expression became serious. "Animals have much stronger premonitions than humans. It's said that before disasters like earthquakes, animals can sense them in advance. Ants move their homes, snakes and insects relocate, all as signs of impending disaster."

"This might not be scientific, but the Book of Revelation specifically mentioned the child. The child is crying for no reason tonight, and Xiao Qing is acting strangely. Could a disaster really be about to happen?"

The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. He thought, "No matter what, I should leave here first. Even if nothing happens, I won't lose much."

He got out of bed, packed his things, took the important items with him, picked up Xiao Qing, and headed for the door.

Just as he pushed open the door, he heard the child's crying and hesitated, thinking, "Should I call Qin Ruolan and have her leave too?"

He took a few steps toward her door, but then remembered something and hesitated. "The hint from the Book of Revelation isn't certain. The so-called disaster is just my guess. What if nothing happens? If I call Qin Ruolan out in this cold weather and her child gets sick, what then?"

He was indecisive and then thought of another possibility, feeling a chill. "Could the hint from the Book of Revelation be this? Qin Ruolan and her child would be fine if they stayed at home, but because I saw Xiao Qing acting strangely and heard Qin Ruolan's son crying for no reason, I thought a disaster was coming and called them out. As a result, they might have an accident because I called them out?"

He imagined the scene: in the middle of the night, he called Qin Ruolan and her child out. It was dark and slippery, and Qin Ruolan, carrying her child, was walking on the street when a motorcycle suddenly came out of the dark and hit them...

Xu Mo shivered, then thought: "Could the Book of Revelation have mentioned Qin Ruolan's son to warn me not to do this?"

Logically, every hint from the Book of Revelation is related to me. If a disaster like an earthquake were really going to happen, both Xiao Qing and Qin Ruolan's son would have given warnings. It would have been better to draw Xiao Qing on the sixth page.

If I were to analyze it rationally, what does it matter if Qin Ruolan and her child live or die in an earthquake? If I don't warn them and they die in the earthquake, it wouldn't have a significant impact on me. Wouldn't the hint from the Book of Revelation be unnecessary?

If I warn Qin Ruolan and she leaves with her child, and they survive the disaster, it would just be a minor escape. There wouldn't be a need to specifically mention her child to warn me.

What's going on?

Xu Mo thought about it for a long time but couldn't figure it out. He sighed, "If the hints from the Book of Revelation were more explicit, it would be better. Such vague warnings are worse than no warning at all."

He hesitated for a moment and finally decided not to call Qin Ruolan. He would stay downstairs and not go far. If something happened, he would be able to sense it earlier outside the house and could call her in time.

He took Xiao Qing downstairs, took some Dream Powder, and sat in an open area. Despite the night wind, he didn't feel cold.

Strangely, as soon as he left the building, Xiao Qing calmed down, coiling around his wrist and not moving.

Xu Mo was startled by this scene.

That night, he sat on the ground, not daring to close his eyes, fearing that he might miss something if an accident happened.

To ward off the cold, he used a lot of Dream Powder. In the hallucination, although it wasn't real movement, it consumed a lot of energy, and his stomach was growling from hunger.

He was dizzy and exhausted, barely making it through the night. Nothing happened, and he was extremely tired. At breakfast, he ate three or four times his usual amount, and thinking back to the night's experience, he felt a bit regretful, wondering if he had been too suspicious.

After a restless night, he was too tired to go out during the day and decided to stay home and sleep.

In a daze, he heard a few flapping sounds from outside the window, like the wings of a bird.

Then, from the next room, came a loud cry from Qin Ruolan's son.

Xu Mo sat up, rubbed his eyes, and suddenly felt a cold, slippery sensation on his leg. He knew it was Xiao Qing climbing onto his leg without looking.

He opened his eyes and saw Xiao Qing coiled up, looking out the window with a very alert expression, its small body trembling.

Xiao Qing was actually afraid.

What's going on?

Xu Mo looked at it, extremely puzzled. Hearing the child crying fiercely, he couldn't help but call through the wall, "Sister Qin, why is the child crying again?"

There was no response.

"Is Qin Ruolan not there?"

Xu Mo, not paying attention to Xiao Qing, picked it up and put it aside, got out of bed, and went out to check. Qin Ruolan's door was locked.

He looked at the time; it was around 10:30 AM. If nothing unexpected happened, Qin Ruolan should have gone out to buy groceries.

Hearing the child crying continuously, he was at a loss, feeling very frustrated. He thought, "What should I do now?"

Suddenly, he felt a cold sensation on his wrist and looked down to see that Xiao Qing had climbed onto him again, coiling around his wrist.

But its head was still raised, looking alert, still staring at the balcony.

Xu Mo finally came to his senses, "What's on the balcony that's making Xiao Qing so afraid? Maybe the child is crying for the same reason."

Without hesitation, he walked towards the balcony.

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