Chapter 28: Qian+Kang – I really didn’t do anything!

Lucifer had never expected to encounter such a radiant soul in Hell.

The soul shone like a living flame, yet instead of scorching the evil clinging to him, its warmth felt gentle and comforting, like the first ray of morning sunlight, soft and beautiful.

By all logic, a soul like this should never have appeared in Hell.

And yet here it was, loudly declaring that it wanted to kill Constantine.

Lucifer circled Jiang Shulan once. The black tar beneath his feet seemed almost alive, instinctively avoiding Jiang Shulan and leaving a perfect ring of untouched ground around him.

After a moment, Lucifer stopped in front of him and spoke in a lazy drawl.

“You truly do carry deep sins upon your soul.”

How interesting.

“Huh? Me?”

Jiang Shulan blinked in confusion and pointed at himself in disbelief.

“What sin have I committed?”

He had grown up determined to be an upstanding citizen, wanting nothing more than to contribute to society.

He always thought carefully before acting, never did anything that betrayed his principles, helped elderly people cross the street, volunteered at orphanages, donated money without expecting anything in return…

Sure, he occasionally cursed at people and wasn’t some flawless saint. During missions he could even be rather unscrupulous toward certain BOSSes, but that was the bosses’ fault!

And now this stranger was saying he was guilty?

“What sin?”

He genuinely wanted to know what he had supposedly done wrong.

Then the man calmly answered:

“Bigamy.”

Jiang Shulan’s face immediately flushed bright red. Taking a step forward, he protested heatedly.

“That’s nonsense!”

“Let me count again. One, two, three… four in total.”

Lucifer bent slightly, his gray-blue eyes reflecting Jiang Shulan’s nervous blinking.

“And now… It seems there’s about to be one more.”

Jiang Shulan swallowed hard, secretly inching backward.

[What the heck? How does this guy know so much?]

[Let him look all he wants.] The system’s tone brimmed with lofty confidence. [But there’s absolutely no way he can catch you.]

If he couldn’t catch him, then why bother trying to scare him?

Instantly emboldened, Jiang Shulan planted his hands on his hips and launched into battle.

“They insisted on liking me! How is that my fault?”

“I’ve suffered through so much. If anything, I deserve to go to Heaven. And you’re telling me I’m guilty?”

“By your logic, if I suddenly feel like punching you, that would be your fault too, because you made me want to hit you!”

Faced with Jiang Shulan’s indignant attack, Lucifer remained perfectly composed.

“You’re right. But that still adds another sin. Though because of that… I find myself liking you a little more.”

A human favored by God, yet wrapped in so many twisted curses.

When, he wondered, would darkness finally consume him completely?

If one ignored the irritating content of his words, Lucifer’s voice itself was deep, languid, and irresistibly alluring.

It resembled a late-night radio whisper, warm and unhurried, slipping into the ear like a faint electric current that traveled down the spine and left an odd tingling sensation.

Unfortunately, no one was likely to feel fondness for someone who began by declaring them guilty.

Jiang Shulan certainly didn’t.

“Lots of people like me already!”

He bared eight perfectly white teeth in an exaggerated grin.

“You’ll have to get in line! A very, very long line!”

Lucifer merely smiled.

“It would be my honor.”

“Honor your big-headed ghost!”

Jiang Shulan rolled his eyes and deliberately turned his back on him.

Where exactly was this place?

Wrapped in an oversized black suit jacket over the delicate dress, pale skin glowing beneath windswept fabric amid endless yellow sands, Jiang Shulan looked like a rose blooming in desolation, waiting to be picked.

Lucifer followed behind him.

Was this another trap set by God?

A honey trap?

After failing so many times, perhaps Heaven had finally learned its lesson. This bait was flawlessly tailored to his tastes in every respect.

Even so, it would accomplish nothing.

Half-lidded eyes watching the small, lovely human before him, Lucifer leaned in almost imperceptibly.

A strand of hair brushed past his nose.

Soft.

Fragrant.

A scent that did not belong in Hell.

“Cough… cough…”

The human raised a fist to cover his mouth.

He was still curiously looking around, clearly unfamiliar with the place, but the healthy redness in his lips had gradually faded toward white.

Human souls were prey in Hell.

Fragile things.

Either demons would seize them, tear them apart, and make delicacies from their remains…

Or they would wander endlessly through the desert, fleeing forever without rest.

The storms of Hell never ceased. Eventually they would scatter a soul until nothing remained.

“You should go back.”

Lucifer gently patted the top of Jiang Shulan’s head, casually plucking a single strand of hair.

Jiang Shulan noticed nothing. Instead, he glared suspiciously with those vivid blue eyes.

Still adorable.

Although ancient agreements forbade demons and angels from interfering too freely in the human world, returning a single human posed no difficulty for Lucifer.

He looked forward to seeing how this human’s story would ultimately end.

“Little Father!”

“He’s awake! He’s finally awake!”

After Jiang Shulan had abruptly vanished from the spirit realm and just as suddenly returned to reality, everyone was eager to know what had happened.

Constantine, whose face had gone pale after nearly entering Hell itself in search of him, immediately demanded to know where he had gone.

Jiang Shulan told the truth for the most part.

He mentioned meeting a strange man and claimed he had only seen him from afar.

He carefully omitted the parts where they had actually spoken, or where the man had judged him guilty.

He wasn’t stupid. If he admitted in front of everyone exactly how many romantic entanglements he’d accumulated, he would never hear the end of it.

Still, that man had been thoroughly irritating.

Then he remembered one detail.

“He wasn’t wearing shoes.”

If only he had known, he would have stepped on the man’s bare feet a few times.

A dark shadow crossed Constantine’s expression.

“Damn Lucifer.”

“Lucifer?”

Before his fall he had been the Bringer of Light, God’s most trusted servant and the very image of angelic perfection.

After his fall he became the ruler of Hell, before whom countless demons bowed.

No matter the measure, Lucifer was terrifyingly powerful.

Even someone who rarely watched movies like Jiang Shulan knew what that name represented.

Noticing Jiang Shulan’s darting eyes, Constantine pressed him.

“What did he do to you?”

Do?

What could he have done?

Lucifer had done nothing to harm him.

He had even sent him safely back from Hell.

As for Jiang Shulan…

He had stood in Lucifer’s own domain, a place where a mere gesture could have erased him on the spot, and spent the entire time loudly arguing with and insulting the Lord of Hell.

“Nothing.”

He stood up and deliberately avoided Constantine’s dark gaze, looking everywhere except at him.

Constantine sat back in his chair, biting thoughtfully at the end of a cigarette. Legs crossed, he simply stared.

The scrutiny alone made Jiang Shulan feel guilty.

“Really, nothing happened. I only saw him from very, very far away.”

Constantine let out a cold laugh through his nose.

“Apparently not that far.”

“You could even make out the color of his eyes.”

Jiang Shulan froze.

He’d been caught.

Still…

There was no need to panic.

He still had one secret weapon left.

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