Before that night, Lin Xi Chen was just an ordinary girl.
Compared to her older brother Lin Qiye, who always seemed to carry an invisible weight on his shoulders, being blind at young age and no one trust him, she lived a much quieter life.
Much much quieter life since she can't do anything. Just one wrong move then she will be drag away the same as her brother.
She shut down her feelings, become introverted, not because she disliked people, but because she never knew how to approach them or dealing with them.
And she prefer that way.
She was the type of person who could spend an entire afternoon reading alone in the library and consider it a perfect day.
Her classmates often described her as "the girl who is always there, but somehow easy to overlook."
She wore simple clothes, carried a backpack full of books, and rarely participated in school activities. She was not the kind of person who would stand on a stage or lead a group. If someone asked her to speak in front of the class, her voice would become smaller with every sentence.
But there was one thing people rarely noticed.
Lin Xi Chen cared deeply about others.
She would quietly leave medicine on a sick classmate's desk without saying anything. She would stop to feed stray animals even when she was late. She remembered small details about people that even they themselves forgot.
She always get home with her brother to help him and be friend with him. Lin Xi Chen never mind the gossip when people said bad thing about Lin Qiye but if they crossed the line, she will acted up and scold them.
She was not brave because she had no fear.
She was brave because she acted despite having fear. But being brave have it cost too, the siblings become outsider from the normal children, can't have friend neither to never stop being a subject in the conversation.
"Hey, do you want to explore something dangerous?"
"I-..." Lin Xi Chen paused packing up her bag when she saw the disappointment on her classmates' faces, she hesitated.
She scratched the back of her head and thought to herself that she couldn't say no in situations like this. She wanted friends, yet at the same time, she didn't—because she had trust issues.
"Hey this is the golden opportunity to have friends! Since you are a transfer student, isn't it important to have friends?"
One classmate grabbed her bag and handed it to Lin Xi Chen, while another draped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her toward their group. Their lively chatter made Lin Xi Chen feel like a laughingstock, but at least this was her only chance to fit in with everyone.
For a moment, she hesitated.
Then she smiled.
"Okay."
It was a small decision and a meaningless decision to everyone else.
But sometimes, the smallest choices are the ones that completely change a person's destiny.
They had to go through a strange, pitch-black tunnel and the location was an abandoned mountain area that had recently become popular online. Rumors claimed that deep within the mountain existed an ancient ruin sealed away from the outside world.
"Why do I get the feeling there's something off about that tunnel...? It's as if we were just teleported." Lin Xi Chen muttered to herself as they emerged from the tunnel, noticing that the air felt a bit colder.
Perhaps it was simply because they were in the forest at night, causing the temperature to drop. However, seeing that no one else seemed to take much notice, she decided to brush it off—it was likely just her imagination, fueled by reading too many novels.
"It was strange; I noticed numerous makeshift huts erected in areas typically used for military encampments or research outposts."
Lin Xi Chen walked cautiously behind her classmates, who were laughing, talking loudly, and kicking or touching everything in sight. She looked around and saw many abandoned vehicles, along with two-way radios that were still emitting static.
On the ground lay pools of deep red liquid—it was blood!
This made her uneasy; one didn't need to read many comics or watch movies to realize that this place was extremely dangerous.
And she certainly wasn't the type to let curiosity get her killed in a haunted house!
Yet, she was deeply curious: what was the government hiding, and why did they seem so intent on concealing the fact that Lin Qiye had seen an angel on the moon?
She needed proof and the truth to show that neither she nor Lin Qiye was crazy, so she gritted her teeth and continued to follow the others.
She had become too deeply entangled in this affair from the moment she agreed to go with them; if caught, the consequences would be unimaginable, and she could well lose her life in this godforsaken place alongside the others.
Lin Xi Chen spotted a blood-stained pistol lying on the ground; he decided to pick it up and quietly hide it, just in case something bad happened.
The mountain was shrouded in an eerie mist, as if trying to conceal something; eventually, they discovered an entrance featuring a massive iron door. Inside lay a long, pitch-black corridor reeking of blood and a stench so foul it nearly made them retch.
"Fuck! What with this stinks!?"
"Eww...."
The stench was so overpowering that Lin Xi Chen grimaced and coughed incessantly until her eyes welled up with tears; she rummaged through her bag and pulled out a stack of face masks to hand around, but there were just enough for everyone except herself.
She smiled, bit her lower lip, and sighed; covering her nose with her sleeve, she continued walking with the group. The flickering light from the phones in everyone's hands offered only a glimpse of their surroundings.
As they ventured deeper into the mountains, the temperature dropped until they began to shiver, their breath visible as white mist in the cold air.
Finally, they saw a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, leading to an open space containing a statue—or rather, a giant—clutching itself.
The underground chamber fell into complete silence.
The air itself seemed to freeze as Lin Xi Chen stood before the towering statue. Cracks spread across the weathered chains, the giant with massive angel wings that were tattered and torn.
She could not clearly see the statue's face—as it was pitch black and foggy—but she saw that it was clad in armor and had horns on its head.
Lin Xi Chen instinctively took half a step back. Every instinct in her body screamed for her to run. The pressure pouring from the statue was enough to make breathing difficult, as though the hell themselves were pressing upon her shoulders.
The others kept laughing and chatting, pointing at the statue; some even expressed disappointment at not having a souvenir to take home. Could they really not sense the eyes staring right at them?
But curiosity won out; Lin Xi Chen swallowed hard and stepped closer to the statue, sensing that something was watching her intently.
Lin Xi Chen could vaguely guess who this was based on the statue's appearance—horns and angel wings? Who else could it possibly be? If Lin Qiye—her brother—had seen an angel and had his eyes burned, then surely there had to be an opposite!
So, gods and monsters really do exist!
Even so, Lin Xi Chen still felt a twinge of pity for Lucifer, held captive in this place; it wasn't that she condoned his actions, but being confined for so long and turned into someone else's test subject...
It's just like being an ordinary patient in a mental hospital.
This made her a bit angry, and she gritted her teeth at the thought of it: they were simply telling the truth, yet they were immediately arrested by the government.
So this is the secret they are h-
GRRR—
They all turned toward the source of the growl; from within the darkness, they saw numerous red eyes gradually appear, multiplying over and over until they had nearly surrounded them.