Chapter 30: You Say I Am the Heart Demon?
Yun Wuxiang looked at the reflection in the mirror: “Heart Demon?”
“Where is Song Yilou? You ate him?”
The figure in the mirror seemed to smile helplessly: “Do you consider yourself human? That’s fine too. I don’t want to conflict with you. Just, could you please switch to another body?”
“I need to go home intact after the mission.”
Yun Wuxiang didn’t respond, repeating his question: “So, where is Song Yilou?”
The mirror person showed a trace of headache: “He’s making noise.”
“Do you still think I am the Heart Demon?”
The Yun Wuxiang in the mirror seemed troubled about how to convince him: “I am very grateful for your appearance, saving me when I was about to collapse. Although you are my Heart Demon, I see you as a brother. Now I have hope of going home, but you are trapped by my memories and obsessions.”
“Ah Yun, I want to set you free. You shouldn’t live burdened by my obsessions and memories.”
Yun Wuxiang waited patiently for his mirror self to finish, then spoke again: “Song Yilou…”
The mirror person shook his head, speaking gently and patiently: “I know you’re worried I’ll be schemed against by him. It’s okay, Ah Yun. You will just leave this body, not disappear. Besides, the person he has always liked is you, not me.”
“Heart Demons have no form. Leaving me, you will gain true freedom.”
The person in the mirror reached out a hand. Slowly, his whole body walked out, hands reaching forward as if to touch Yun Wuxiang’s face.
Yun Wuxiang tilted his head, dodging directly.
The mirror person froze, then gave a disappointed, bitter smile: “Are you this distant with me now?”
“It doesn’t matter. You just forgot those things.” An illusory black Datura flower seemed to appear in the mirror person’s pupil.
“Now, remember.”
The moment Yun Wuxiang’s gaze met that Datura flower, countless memories surfaced in his mind.
Clang.
The bronze mirror fell to the ground. The shattered surface reflected a pair of unfocused eyes.
…
“Ah Yun, I found two taros. Share one with you. Take it back for Mr. Shen to eat.”
Yun Wuxiang’s vision blurred after meeting the mirror person’s eyes. When he saw things clearly again, a face appeared—not handsome, but regular features, rugged and masculine. Currently gaunt and emaciated, but eyes burning bright.
He remembered this face freshly from more than ten years later, having just closed its eyes not long ago.
“Brother Shiqiao, thank you!” Yun Wuxiang heard his own voice say.
“Thank what? If not for Mr. Shen kindly taking me in, I’d be dead.”
Shiqiao patted his head, stuffing the slightly larger taro into his arms, whispering: “Hide it well. Don’t let anyone see. Go back quickly, give it to Mr. Shen.”
“I only dare give this to you. If entrusted to others, this taro might not even see Mr. Shen’s face.”
“I’m going back now.” The owner of the vision said. Then came the sound of running footsteps and rapid breathing.
Yun Wuxiang remembered when this was. Early famine. Shen Lanqing’s father, Shen Yueqiu, picked him up on the way home from business, and soon after picked up Shiqiao who had fainted from hunger by the road.
Shen Yueqiu was a true philanthropist. He took in Shiqiao, but unexpectedly, Shiqiao was merely a prelude to the Great Disaster.
The caravan continued. Soon they encountered the first wave of refugees. The wealth and goods were looted clean, horses killed on the spot.
The caravan members protected Shen Yueqiu, the boss, to escape initially. Until food ran out. Everyone went to find food for themselves. On the brink of starvation, no one cared about the former boss.
The two taros incident happened on the seventh day after food ran out.
The Heart Demon brought him into a memory?
“Ah Yun, running so fast, where to?” Two men in the caravan’s uniform blue short jackets suddenly appeared, stopping the Yun Wuxiang in the memory.
“I’m thirsty. Going to the river for water.” Ah Yun carefully hid the taro in his arms, feigning thirst: “It’s too hot, I’m dying of thirst.”
True enough. The sun was toxic. Ah Yun, a modern person, was physically fit in his class before transmigration, yet couldn’t stand this intense heat, hovering on the edge of heatstroke daily.
His acting was ninety-nine percent real. The two seemed to believe him, echoing Ah Yun.
“Yeah, this damn sun. Hasn’t rained for days.”
“Ground’s cracking. No harvest this year. Just waiting for court relief grain.”
Talking and wiping sweat, the two gradually approached Ah Yun.
“We’re thirsty too. Ah Yun, let’s go to the river together.”
Ah Yun couldn’t refuse, walking with them.
Away from the crowd, the two suddenly pressed Ah Yun’s shoulders from left and right.
Ah Yun had been guarding against them. The moment they moved, he slipped away like a loach.
However, he was soon chased into a dead end.
“Ah Yun, we don’t want to waste energy. Hand over what’s in your shirt.”
“We’re really starving. Otherwise, who’d waste energy chasing you?”
Yun Wuxiang looked at the approaching men. Their names were long forgotten, but the exaggerated, fake ferocity on their faces was all too familiar—the greed and mania of falling off the moral edge.
“Mr. Shen hasn’t eaten for two days. He’ll die if he doesn’t eat!”
Usually, Ah Yun wouldn’t defend a taro with his life. But this wasn’t just a taro; it was Shen Yueqiu’s hope for survival.
“Who isn’t starving for two or three days? Hand it over, we’ll leave you a bite.”
“Cut the crap, just grab it!”
The two caravan members were originally burly. Even after starving, their muscles hadn’t completely withered. Rolling up sleeves, they reached for Ah Yun to rob him.
Suddenly, Yun Wuxiang realized he could move. Peripheral vision caught a sharp stone. A hand grabbed his collar.
In a flash, Yun Wuxiang moved his arm swiftly and ruthlessly.
A scream rang out. Blood sprayed onto Yun Wuxiang’s face, trickling down.
The jagged edge of the stone pierced the man’s side neck. Yun Wuxiang kicked him down, turned, and while the other was stunned, circled behind him, grabbing his hair and twisting his wrist sharply. With a crisp crack, the man’s head twisted to an unnatural angle.
After doing this, Yun Wuxiang lost control of the body again.
He watched Ah Yun run to the creek to wash off the blood.
Warm creek water splashed on his face, clarifying the memory for Yun Wuxiang.
The two did die, and he did wash blood by the creek for a long time. The only difference: in memory, he killed them accidentally while resisting, not actively slaughtering like now.
Ah Yun panted heavily facing the creek water, but the bloodstain on his clothes wouldn’t wash off. He stared blankly at his hands: “I killed someone.”
Yun Wuxiang: “Just killed two robbers.”
He spoke casually, but saw Ah Yun stand up in panic, looking around: “Who’s talking!”
Yun Wuxiang paused. The illusion created by the Heart Demon allowed talking to the self inside?
Experimentally asked: “Can you hear me?”
Ah Yun looked around: “Who are you? Where are you?”
He really could hear. Yun Wuxiang said: “Just assume you’re schizophrenic. I’m your second personality.”
Ah Yun cried instantly: “This screwed up ancient times! Deadly transmigration, I’ve become mentally ill.”
Yun Wuxiang: “You’re not mentally ill. You’re normal.”
Ah Yun: “I’m split. You appeared. I’m not mentally ill, then what? A lunatic?”
Yun Wuxiang: “…You’re not a lunatic.” I’m not a lunatic, don’t curse yourself.
Ah Yun wiped his tears: “Forget it. You say no, then no. I’ll go boil this taro for Mr. Shen.”
He won’t drink it. Yun Wuxiang, knowing the ending, watched silently as he returned to Shen Yueqiu’s place and boiled that fist-sized taro into a pot of soup.
“Mr. Shen, drink soup.”
“Cough cough cough, Ah Yun, thank you. You drink too.” Shen Yueqiu looked seventy percent like Shen Lanqing, but gentler and more scholarly. Now sick and starving, radiating illness.
Yun Wuxiang looked at Shen Yueqiu’s face, seeing a mature, pseudo-sickly version of Shen Lanqing. The Shen Lanqing in the original novel probably looked like this.
Ah Yun gulped the soup, seeing Shen Yueqiu walk out of the kitchen only after finishing.
Shen Yueqiu smiled: “Ah Yun’s soup is delicious. Made me want a second bowl of water.”
Ah Yun didn’t sense anything wrong: “Too little water? Should’ve added more.”
Shen Yueqiu smiled weakly and shook his head.
Yun Wuxiang: “He hid that half taro.”
Tomorrow you’ll drink a bowl of slightly spoiled taro soup.
After he said this, Ah Yun seemed not to hear, continuing to talk to Shen Yueqiu until Shen Yueqiu said he was tired and wanted to sleep.
Then the next day, Ah Yun predictably drank that spoiled taro soup.
Yun Wuxiang thought: The memory can’t change. He’s still a bystander, but can talk to Ah Yun at certain times.
What is the Heart Demon’s intent?
Time in the illusion flew. Soon, Yun Wuxiang controlled the body again.
The river Ah Yun washed his face in was drying up. Everyone scrambled for water before it dried completely.
Arguments turned into robbing water. Failing to rob meant knocking over the other’s water.
Finally, Yun Wuxiang stood amidst several corpses, guarding a bucket of half-filled water behind him.
Water cut off. They had to move to find a new place to survive. From that day on, Yun Wuxiang took control more frequently.
Every time, it was on the road of fighting and killing.
Ah Yun initially feared and suffered from killing. Later he became silent, numb.
After beating away a strong man for half a dried radish, Ah Yun looked at the trophy and squatted down, breaking down, repeating for the nth time: “I want to go home.”
“I want to go home!”
Yun Wuxiang: “We will go back.”
Ah Yun gave a miserable smile uglier than crying: “I can’t go back. I can’t go back anymore.”
“What am I doing? For half a dried radish! Just for half a dried radish, I’m risking my life, snatching things from others like a mad dog! Knowing the other person might die without this bite!”
Ah Yun seemed to drain all strength after hysterical self-questioning, laughing dejectedly: “Living like this, neither human nor ghost, what’s the point?”
“I don’t want to live like this.”
Yun Wuxiang looked at his broken past self, feeling no ripples in his heart. He passed the stage of suffering from killing long ago.
The self in the illusion was indeed still a normal person.
【Don’t you have the urge to replace him and kill for him?】
Yun Wuxiang: “No.”
“Why help a fake person in an illusion kill?”
Yun Wuxiang looked up askance, through the void toward a direction with strange aura: “As for you, finally couldn’t help coming out? Heart Demon.”
【No, I’m not the Heart Demon. You are. I ask because you told me that back then.】
【I really thought you were my second personality then.】
Yun Wuxiang: “You say I am the Heart Demon?”
【Yes.】
Yun Wuxiang questioned: “Ever seen a Heart Demon actively protect the main body instead of trying to occupy the body like you?”
【Although I know why you, as a Heart Demon, think this way, this really isn’t your body.】
Yun Wuxiang suddenly changed the subject: “Where is Song Yilou?”
【Why keep mentioning him?】
Yun Wuxiang: “I don’t believe he’ll stay put, nor that you can watch him.”
【I pasted eighteen Sleeping Talismans and twenty Sealing Talismans on him. Guaranteed he won’t wake up.】
Yun Wuxiang asked incomprehensibly: “So why not just kill him?”
【I don’t want to kill.】
“Character maintained well.” Exactly what his past self would say.
Yun Wuxiang praised, then urged: “But Song Yilou doesn’t count as human. Kill him quickly, or you’ll regret it.”
【…】
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