I can rewind time to prevent death

After the couple finished eating and cleaning up, the tenants upstairs came back.

They were a young couple who both worked in Shuntian City and only returned to their suburban rental after getting off work.

Both of them appeared very frugal, dressed simply and ordinarily, just looking a bit tired and awkward, likely young people who had just entered the workforce after graduating from college.

Seeing that new neighbors had moved in downstairs, the two smiled at Yan Junze and Zhang Xiaomo, who sat in the outer room, but neither side spoke.

As soon as it got dark, Zhang Xiaomo closed the door.

Although the air in the suburbs was very good, for the moment, taking a walk after dinner was strictly off-limits.

In the bedroom inside, Yan Junze pretended to review his lessons, but his mind was already elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaomo laid out new sheets on the only bed, switching out the bedding.

She removed the old bedding cover and replaced it with a new one, then placed the bedding in the center of the bed, piled firmly, to serve as a divider between the two for sleeping.

Yan Junze was also aware that Zhang Xiaomo had mentioned the night before that starting tonight, they must sleep together.

She needed to provide the utmost protection for Yan Junze.

Actually, Yan Junze could have slept on the floor, but the ground on the first floor was very damp and unsuitable for laying out bedding.

So, the two reached a mutual understanding on this matter without much discussion.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Zhang Xiaomo, who loved cleanliness, sprayed some fresh perfume on the bedding and in the room, causing Yan Junze to sneeze several times.

Because he had gone to bed late the night before, Yan Junze went to bed early.

He slept on the right side of the bed, while Zhang Xiaomo sat on the left side, leaning against the headboard, flipping through her phone.

Under other circumstances, Yan Junze might have been influenced by this ambiguous atmosphere, sharing a bed with a beautiful girl he had met just one day ago—a situation that would keep any teenager brimming with youth and hormones awake with excitement.

But his mind wasn't on such thoughts at the time.

He simply felt very safe, and the two maintained a good understanding without a word.

During that time, they could hear the busy footsteps of the couple upstairs, but after a while, Yan Junze drifted off into a deep sleep without realizing it.

When he woke up, it was broad daylight.

Nothing had happened on the first day.

The couple upstairs had hurried off to work in the city early and were silent.

Zhang Xiaomo was cooking noodles in the outer room, and the aroma of the water-boiled noodles entered Yan Junze's nostrils. He sat up, adjusted his mindset, and prepared to face the next few days with a positive attitude amidst his uneasy emotions.

However, the day passed uneventfully as usual.

There was nothing unusual in the rental house.

Yan Junze's main task was to review and watch the lecture videos sent by Zhou Dali, while Zhang Xiaomo was busy finding things to do, rarely disturbing him.

Yan Junze found it hard to believe that Zhang Xiaomo wasn't much older, but she was very adept at household chores, showing no sign of unfamiliarity.

In the words of a typical male chauvinist, the dishes she cooked were full of a mother's flavor.

Of course, if Zhang Xiaomo knew what Yan Junze was thinking, she would have given him a beautiful backhand chop and killed him on the spot.

Around noon, the landlord Lin Dong dropped by to see if the couple had any difficulties needing assistance since they had just arrived, aiming to exhibit the warmth expected of a local.

After a few causal inquiries, Lin Dong left to play chess at Old Li's place on the street corner.

Just like the previous day, the couple upstairs came back soon after dinner.

This time they seemed to feel a bit more familiar with Yan Junze and his company. The square-faced man spoke first, "You guys have eaten so early, we've only just got home."

Zhang Xiaomo did not respond.

Yan Junze said, "It's you who have it tough, commuting back and forth every day."

"No choice," the man laughed, "to save money."

His petite girlfriend also smiled and said, "We're going upstairs to cook."

Footsteps ascended the stairs, the opening and closing of doors, followed by the sound of changing shoes; the soundproofing was very poor.

Yan Junze suspected that if those two were doing some unspeakable things upstairs, a slight lack of attention might allow everything to be heard loud and clear downstairs.

With that thought, things became somewhat awkward.

He didn't know if they had done anything last night, as he had gone to sleep early and hadn't heard anything.

He glanced at Zhang Xiaomo, who was glued to her phone. Whenever she had nothing to do, she would pull out her phone and keep scrolling endlessly.

She was nothing like the literary young women who would sit quietly reading a book when there was nothing else to do; instead, she was a completely different kind of person.

Now, Yan Junze was wondering if having this three-star Exorcist by his side was scaring the Resentful Granny into not appearing at all.

But this wasn't necessarily a good thing. Zhang Xiaomo had made it very clear that she would only protect him for seven days. If the Resentful Granny dared to show up only after those seven days, then he wouldn't achieve his goal.

The best outcome would be to leverage Zhang Xiaomo's power to eliminate the Resentful Granny during this time. That was the result Yan Junze most wanted to see.

Lying in bed, because of the quilt in the middle of the bed, unless Zhang Xiaomo on the other side sat up, Yan Junze couldn't see her.

Of course, he could see her now because Zhang Xiaomo was leaning against the headboard, scrolling on her phone.

"How many Evil Spirits have you killed?" Yan Junze asked.

Zhang Xiaomo, who was looking down at her phone, had her shoulder-length short hair hanging down, covering half of her face and revealing her pale cheek skin. From the side, her profile looked very delicate.

She continued to stare at her phone, replying, "Probably around eighteen or nineteen, I can't quite remember."

"Have you ever encountered any danger?" Yan Junze asked again.

Zhang Xiaomo suddenly turned off her phone's screen, turned her face towards the lying Yan Junze, and said seriously, "Actually... I really don't know what safety is."

"Understood," Yan Junze nodded, closing his eyes.

Just the fact that Huang Chen had mentioned his mentor, a two-star Exorcist, died at the hands of the Resentful Granny, indicated that being an Exorcist was extremely dangerous, almost always skating on the edge of death.

The night had deepened.

There were only a few streets at Rock, and during the late hours, only the main road had dim streetlights. The rest of the streets were pitch black.

After returning from Old Li's house, Lin Dong walked on the empty street, humming a tune, staggering along with an uneven gait.

After the chess game, he had a few drinks with Old Li over some dishes. The alcohol was still coursing through him, keeping his spirits high.

However, he was so familiar with the area that even though he was a bit tipsy, he soon reached his own doorstep and took out his keys to unlock the door.

Groping for the light switch, he pressed it only to find the light didn't come on.

Lin Dong cursed under his breath and pressed the switch a few more times to no avail.

He then pulled out his phone from his pocket. Not knowing how to turn on the flashlight feature, he simply lit the screen of the phone and, with the dim light it provided, walked into the house.

The door closed slowly behind him.

Groping his way through the living room, he reached the TV cabinet, let out a burp from the booze, squatted down, and opened the drawer to search for candles.

Lin Dong remembered that because places like Rock frequently had power outages, it was essential for every household to have candles for emergencies.

He was sure his memory wasn't wrong and that the candles were in this drawer, but after searching, he found it empty.

Standing up, and with the light from his phone screen, Lin Dong suddenly saw a short, dark figure standing at the corner of the TV cabinet, facing away from him, shoulders trembling slightly.

Lin Dong was immediately stupefied, his drunkenness sobering up considerably.

Because the figure's back looked very much like his spouse who had died years earlier.

He raised his phone up so that the screen light could shine farther and more clearly, and asked with a trembling voice, "Ping... Ping?"

Drip, drip, drip...

What was that sound falling onto the floor, ceaselessly dropping?

Lin Dong looked down and saw that beneath the feet of the person in front of him, candle wax, white candle wax, was constantly dripping.

At that moment, he thought he knew where the candles had gone.

After hearing Lin Dong's voice, the figure slowly turned its head around.

What Lin Dong saw was the face of an unfamiliar old woman, her mouth stuffed full of white candles. As she chewed, bits of candle and dripping wax continuously flowed from the corners of her mouth.