'Bang bang!'
Jiang Yuan punched his own head hard twice.
If this was a dream, he didn't want to continue.
This was the most terrifying nightmare in the world.
Unfortunately,
Those eyes that made his blood run cold, the black-red blood everywhere, his parents' mangled corpses, and the lights gradually turning on in the residential buildings all seemed to tell him...
This wasn't a dream.
Jiang Yuan sat down heavily on the ground.
The aftermath of the massive adrenaline release was waves of exhaustion and weak limbs.
But the physical exhaustion was nothing compared to the mental torture he was enduring.
'Bang bang—'
He punched his head twice more, then grabbed his hair with both hands, staring blankly at his parents' bodies, unable to recover for a long time.
His father's kindness and nature.
He still remembered how doting his father had been when he fixed his hair at dinner.
His mother's tenderness and virtue.
And over these past three days, her meticulous care and doting.
Just minutes ago.
They had turned into mindless beasts, into devils from hell!
Their bodies hadn't even gone cold yet.
All of this...
What the hell was going on?
Heretic...
If I don't worship the gods, am I a heretic?
Jiang Yuan's mind was in chaos.
"Quick! Look at what's happening here!"
"Oh my god!!! Isn't that the Jiang couple?"
"They... they jumped off the building?"
"Ambulance, call an ambulance! I'll call the police! You call an ambulance, hurry!!!"
"Xiao Yuan! This is Old Jiang's son Xiao Yuan! Xiao Yuan, are you okay?"
Silhouettes hurried over from various buildings in the neighborhood, their voices anxious and shocked.
A middle-aged woman, still in her pajamas, rushed over when she saw Jiang Yuan sitting on the ground with vacant eyes. She squatted down, put her arm around his shoulders, and asked with concern, "Xiao Yuan."
"A-Are you okay?"
"What happened? How did your parents..."
Suddenly having a hand placed on his shoulder made Jiang Yuan tremble all over.
Looking up, he saw it was Aunt Wang from next door, whom he had met once before. Her eyes were filled with concern and fear.
Jiang Yuan's voice was hoarse: "I-I don't know either..."
"I was going out to buy some late-night snacks, just left the building when... when..."
Aunt Wang patted his shoulder and quickly comforted him: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, Auntie's here, don't be afraid..."
"Is that true?"
"You must tell Auntie the truth, you know? Don't lie to Auntie."
The urgency and gravity in Aunt Wang's tone made Jiang Yuan's heart skip a beat. Looking up, he saw that her eyes, which seemed so concerned, were...
Staring fixedly at him.
Jiang Yuan's heart was racing, but he put on a dazed expression and said, "I-I really don't know..."
What the hell kind of world is this!!!
Jiang Yuan screamed inwardly.
By this time, more and more people from the neighborhood had arrived.
Those who knew Jiang Yuan came over to offer a few words of comfort.
Those who didn't stood aside, pointing and whispering.
Aunt Wang didn't ask any more questions, but she didn't leave either. She stayed by Jiang Yuan's side, comforting him.
But her eyes never left Jiang Yuan for even a second.
Jiang Yuan remained silent, his eyes unfocused, lost in thought.
'Woooooo~~~'
'Wululululu~~~'
The sirens of police cars and ambulances approached from the distance almost simultaneously.
With screeching brakes, three or four police cars and two ambulances stopped at the scene one after another.
Several doctors got out of the ambulances and rushed toward his parents, but as soon as they got out and saw his parents' condition, they were already shaking their heads.
Security officers got out of the police cars and shouted to the crowd: "Make way, everyone make way!"
"Put up the cordon, we need to secure the scene!"
"Also, who knows these people? Does anyone know where they live?"
"Do they have any other family members?"
The security officers arrived and immediately took control of the scene, setting up a cordon.
Then they asked loudly.
The residents all pointed toward Jiang Yuan, and one of them answered: "He, he's Old Jiang's son!"
Several security officers looked at Jiang Yuan, who was slumped on the ground.
Two security officers walked over.
One of them, an older officer, asked sternly: "May I ask what your relationship is with these two people?"
"They're my parents."
The officer's stern expression softened slightly, and he nodded: "Can you come back to the security bureau with us later to explain in detail what happened? That shouldn't be a problem, right?"
"No problem."
"Good, Xiao Liu, take him to the car."
Jiang Yuan was taken to a police car by the young security officer.
Aunt Wang gave Jiang Yuan a deep look, then merged into the crowd, starting to point and speculate about the incident.
Several other security officers quickly went upstairs, rushing to Jiang Yuan's home to investigate the cause of the fall.
...
"Name."
"Jiang Yuan."
"Age."
"18."
"What were you doing before your parents fell?"
"My parents were preparing for my..."
Just as Jiang Yuan said this, suddenly!
!!!
Characters suddenly flashed before his eyes again!
This time there were no words, just three exclamation marks!
Jiang Yuan's voice faltered, and he swallowed the words that were about to come out. Changing tack, he said: "My parents were preparing for my eighteenth birthday feast tomorrow."
"But we had an argument due to a disagreement."
"I was in a bad mood, so I decided to go out for some late-night snacks and drinks."
"And then... they jumped."
The older security officer questioning Jiang Yuan fell silent, and the young officer stopped writing.
The older officer picked up a cigarette from the table, lit it, took a deep drag, and slowly exhaled a cloud of gray smoke that obscured his weathered face, making it flicker in the light.
When he had smoked half the cigarette, he suddenly spoke: "But..."
"Our colleagues found an ongoing Merciful Worship Ceremony in your study."
"The ceremony... hasn't ended."
"And there are signs of a struggle in your home."
"What caused all of this?"
"Also."
"Our colleagues learned from your neighbors."
"They seem to have faintly heard your parents shouting the word 'heretic'."
"So I want to ask..."
"Who were they calling a heretic?"
The older officer's hawk-like eyes fixed on Jiang Yuan, as if trying to read something from his face.
Jiang Yuan's heart skipped a beat.
Not because the ongoing worship ceremony at home had been discovered.
But because...
Since the security officers had discovered the worship ceremony, then...
They must have also discovered that this wasn't a normal ceremony to worship a benevolent god, right?
But a ceremony to worship an evil god, a demon god!
But...
Why didn't the security officers say a word about the bizarre ritual contents at home, knowing there were even his grandfather's internal organs?
Instead, they focused on asking about the 'heretic'?
Or could it be...
Jiang Yuan thought of a possibility that filled him with extreme terror.
Could it be that all the worship ceremonies in this world...
Or rather, all the gods that people worship in this world...
ARE ALL DEMON GODS!