Perhaps it was because she had heard Liu Qingqing’s words.

Before falling asleep, Ming Yue began to constantly strengthen her mind, forcing herself to picture her own Da Ge, hoping against hope that she would at least see him in her dreams.

The more she thought about it, the firmer her conviction became.

But to her disappointment, the greater the hope, the greater the letdown.

When she finally woke up after a long sleep, there was still no sign of Da Ge—not even a single call of “Da Ge.”

Why?

Why could that wretched woman be so lucky as to see her own Da Ge, while she couldn’t see him no matter what she tried?

The more Ming Yue thought about it, the more frustrated and angry she became—so much so that she almost wanted to rush over right then and there to grab that despicable woman by the hair and beat her senseless.

Yet she managed to restrain herself.

Yawning as she woke up, she felt rather dejected and listless. Leaning back lazily in the passenger seat, she turned her head to ask the man beside her, Jiang Feng: “Jiang Feng, do you really think ghosts exist in this world?”

Jiang Feng’s heart skipped a beat. He suddenly remembered what Gang Zi had told him the last time they left An City, and he understood why Ming Yue had asked such a question.

But he had to pretend he didn’t know, so he gently took Ming Yue’s little hand and asked her with genuine concern: “What’s wrong? Why on earth are you suddenly asking this out of the blue?”

Ming Yue let out a long sigh and recounted to him everything Liu Qingqing and Ming Shuo had said, then, her eyes red with tears, she said: “If souls, ghosts, and spirits really do exist in this world, then why would Da Ge rather appear before that despicable woman than come see me just once? Doesn’t he know how much I miss him? Doesn’t he know how badly I want to see him? Why is he willing to go see that wretched woman—even if it’s only to scare her—yet he can’t even come see me? Jiang Feng, does he no longer care about me? Or has he simply forgotten me altogether?”

“How could that be?”

Jiang Feng replied softly, secretly cursing the man who’d been hiding in the shadows and refusing to show his face, then quickly shifted his thoughts, frantically searching for the most appropriate and tactful answer.

Soon enough, he seemed to have found the answer. He tightened his grip on Ming Yue’s little hand and said to her in the gentlest possible voice: “If there really are lost souls, spirits, or wandering souls without a home in this world, then the one they should see most of all is surely the person they miss the most. Yue’er, do you think that person could be Liu Qingqing? Isn’t it you? Isn’t it Yaoyao? Isn’t it your aunt? Isn’t it your maternal grandfather? Isn’t it the person he cares about most and can’t let go of in this world? How could it possibly be Liu Qingqing?”

“But Liu Qingqing says she saw him!”

Ming Yue didn’t doubt Liu Qingqing in the slightest; instead, she chose to believe—believe like never before, without any need for proof.

Because she wanted to believe.

Jiang Feng sighed, secretly cursed the troublemaking Gang Zi once again, and then offered a rather abstract explanation: “I think she probably got scared while stealing and ended up having an illusion!”

“An illusion?”

Ming Yue asked Jiang Feng.

And in fact, she was also asking herself.

Then she muttered to herself, “But Liu Qingqing says Zhang Yang saw him too—could it really just be Liu Qingqing’s illusion? How are we supposed to explain this?”

“This…”

Jiang Feng was momentarily speechless, completely at a loss as to how to explain it. So he vented all his anger on that meddlesome Gang Zi, even feeling an urge to turn around right away and confess to the woman beside him: “Yue’er, listen to me! It’s not an illusion, and it’s not just Liu Qingqing making things up. Your Da Ge isn’t dead at all—he miraculously survived that terrible ordeal! Ever since he came to, he’s been quietly by your side, secretly protecting you. He’s even beaten me up quite a bit for your sake. Right now, he’s in Ning City. Come on, I’ll take you to meet him—right now, immediately, at once! Stop daydreaming and stop asking me questions I simply can’t answer, because it’s really torturous! I don’t want to lie to you, nor do I want to keep hiding the truth from you. You may not realize it, but every time you ask me a question, I feel my future becomes three points more precarious. I always worry that if I say the wrong thing, I’ll be sowing the seeds of misfortune for our future happiness!”

End of Chapter 241: Counterattack 168