Meng Ruji sat on the broken wooden threshold, biting into a fruit that was half-green and half-yellow. Mixed with her salty tears, the fruit finally became somewhat palatable.

While eating, Meng Ruji shed tears expressionlessly. Only after filling her rumbling stomach did she have the mood to glance at the moon, misty and greenish, the same sickly color as her face.

“Sigh…” She let out a long breath, looking down at her once-luxurious robes. After time’s baptism, the garments had become worn and tattered, with some places completely rotted through. Broken threads hung loose, interspersed with a few shining golden threads that spoke of past glory.

“Maybe… I should just go to the afterlife.”

As she spoke, tears couldn’t help but fall again.

Why…

Just why!

Why would someone who had once been a “Demon Lord” be tormented to tears by life itself…

She had been in this cursed place for over half a month now, yet still couldn’t adapt to life here—this poor, impoverished, harsh existence…

Meng Ruji turned to her side, wanting to pick up the broken water bowl on the ground beside her to drink some water. But just as she lowered her head, a burlap sack landed with a “thud” on the ground in front of her.

Meng Ruji froze, her gaze following the sack upward to the man standing behind it. Her eyes swept over his long legs, narrow waist, broad chest, and finally settled on his face.

The young man appeared to be seventeen or eighteen years old, with sharp features that naturally carried an edge and hidden killing intent. His black pupils were dark and unfathomable. The pale green moonlight pierced through the thin mist and fell into his eyes, making him appear even more mysterious.

His disheveled hair and dirt-stained skin paired with such a face made him look more like a beast of the night—bloodthirsty, dangerous, deadly.

This face was enough to make even Meng Ruji, who had seen many beautiful things in the world, feel momentarily startled. But she had been startled too many days already—Meng Ruji was exhausted.

Yes, that’s right.

It was this young man with nothing but a pretty face!

He was the root of her current poverty! The reason for her financial straits! The culprit behind her harsh living conditions!

It was all because of him…

He had stolen her Inner Core!

Meng Ruji wiped the tear tracks from her face and looked at him with completely lifeless, dead fish eyes: “I’ve told you many times, don’t wander around. Mu Sui.”

Mu Sui—this name was the only thing the young man remembered that belonged to him.

“Didn’t go far.” Mu Sui’s voice was low and hoarse, carrying a maturity that didn’t match his age. “I remember your words.” When he spoke to Meng Ruji, much of the dangerous killing intent around him dissipated, and his gaze toward Meng Ruji became as clear as a small animal’s.

Meng Ruji had grown accustomed to this look over the past few days. She continued eating her fruit with a lifeless expression, sparing a glance at the sack on the ground: “What’s this again?”

“Food.”

At the mention of food, Meng Ruji’s previously stagnant eyes immediately lit up. She was surprised: “You can still get food? I’ve searched all around here, but I’ve never seen any large prey.”

Meng Ruji quickly finished gnawing on her fruit and reached to untie the sack:

“And where did this sack come from?”

Mu Sui drew his blade from his side and scraped it against the scabbard twice, looking ready to butcher something:

“He brought it himself.”

Meng Ruji snorted: “This prey is so considerate, bringing its sack?” However, the next moment, when Meng Ruji opened the mouth of the sack, she froze again:

“What is this?”

“Food.”

Inside, lay an unconscious man!

Meng Ruji pointed at the unconscious middle-aged man in the sack and angrily scolded Mu Sui: “This thing is edible!?”

But Mu Sui responded to Meng Ruji with a puzzled look: “Why can’t it be eaten?” He reached out to grab the middle-aged man’s neck, about to drag him out and slaughter him.

Meng Ruji quickly grabbed his hand:

“Where did you kidnap this person from?!”

“He was alone.”

Listen to this reasoning!

“You take him back right now!”

Meng Ruji was breaking down somewhat.

She had been a demon for many years, but she wasn’t a pure demon. In her heart, she still identified more as a human.

Mu Sui looked at Meng Ruji with a completely unhappy expression.

“Take him back!” Meng Ruji ordered.

Mu Sui clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. He sheathed his blade, then stuffed the man back into the sack and dragged him away.

“Don’t secretly eat him!” Meng Ruji called out to his retreating figure.

As if to address Meng Ruji’s suspicions, Mu Sui didn’t go far before directly lifting and throwing the sack with the person far away.

This amount of time wasn’t nearly enough for him to eat a person. Mu Sui dusted off his hands and walked back, still staring at Meng Ruji with a completely unhappy expression.

Like a guardian deity, Meng Ruji held her position at the broken wooden threshold, not letting him enter the house.

Mu Sui stood at the doorway for a long time: “I didn’t eat him.”

“You’re not allowed to kidnap people back here next time!”

Mu Sui was silent for a moment, then turned his head away as if sulking and refused to respond.

“Mu Sui!”

“He was alone.”

“Whether he was alone, covered in frost, or caught in rain, you can’t kidnap him to eat!”

Mu Sui still wouldn’t respond.

“If you kidnap people again, I won’t give you a single fruit I pick in the future! Not a bowl of water I fetch! And don’t even think about sleeping in the broken house I found! You can sleep outside…”

“I won’t kidnap anymore!”

Mu Sui interrupted Meng Ruji’s words, still seeming angry, but his tone had softened: “I won’t kidnap anymore…”

Seeing this, Meng Ruji breathed a sigh of relief and released her grip on the broken door frame, making room for half her body: “Come in.”

Mu Sui entered the house with a sullen face, but didn’t go far. He stopped beside Meng Ruji, then turned around and walked behind her. He reached out and embraced Meng Ruji from behind.

After running around outside, Mu Sui’s chest still carried the cold wind from the forest. Meng Ruji suddenly found herself leaning into a slightly cool embrace, and she was somewhat dazed.

Mu Sui also rested his head on her left shoulder, pressing against her cheek and nuzzling, and his embrace quickly warmed up:

“You can’t lock me outside.”

Mu Sui whispered in her ear, his words half unconscious grievance, half instinctive acting spoiled.

His hair was disheveled, just like a big cat’s fur, making Meng Ruji’s cheek tickle as he rubbed against it.

Meng Ruji raised her right hand to push Mu Sui’s head away:

“If you don’t kidnap people or eat people, I won’t lock you outside.”

“Won’t kidnap anymore.” Mu Sui resisted Meng Ruji’s hand, pushing him away, and continued nuzzling against Meng Ruji’s ear: “Won’t eat anymore.”

These past few days, Meng Ruji had also grown accustomed to his truly animal-like behavior…

It’s just that he was much larger than ordinary animals. Previously, when Meng Ruji kept cats and dogs on Hengxu Mountain, other little kitties would roll around in her arms, but Mu Sui liked to hold her while rolling around.

Speaking of which, it was also strange. Half a month ago, when they first met, Mu Sui didn’t behave anything like he did now…

Meng Ruji took a fruit from her bosom and stuffed it into Mu Sui’s mouth: “You can’t not eat either. I didn’t earn much money today, and there’s nothing else, so just make do with fruit.”

Meng Ruji struggled out of Mu Sui’s embrace. She went into the house to get a broken bamboo basket full of fruit, and Mu Sui followed closely behind her.

Meng Ruji took the bamboo basket and handed it to him, and he obediently accepted it.

Meng Ruji walked to one side of the broken house and sat down. There was still most of the space left in the house, but Mu Sui didn’t go there. He also squeezed next to Meng Ruji and sat down, holding the bamboo basket and beginning to eat fruit.

Mu Sui was hungry quickly and ate a lot, but he wasn’t picky at all—he ate whatever was given to him, consuming the fruit completely, skin, pit, and all.

“Mu Sui.” Meng Ruji called his name.

Only then did Mu Sui shift his gaze to Meng Ruji.

“Have you eaten people before?”

Mu Sui bit into the fruit in his hand, thought for a moment, then shook his head: “I don’t remember.”

An expected answer. Meng Ruji also took a fruit and ate alongside him: “It’s better not to eat them.”

“You don’t like eating people, and you don’t like me eating people. Then I won’t eat them.” Mu Sui concentrated on eating his fruit while making this promise.

Meng Ruji nodded. This young man was a bit wild, but at least he listened to her.

After finishing the fruit, Mu Sui lay down on the spot, resting his head on Meng Ruji’s lap, wrapping his arms around Meng Ruji’s waist, and closed his eyes to sleep.

The entire bamboo basket of fruit was now empty. Meng Ruji looked at the sleeping Mu Sui and sighed: “You look seventeen or eighteen years old, weigh about a hundred pounds, but can eat several dozen people’s worth of food in a day… How do you not gain any weight?”

Meng Ruji glanced at Mu Sui’s chest and abdomen. His clothes, like Meng Ruji’s, were tattered and torn, with some places exposing the skin underneath.

Besides wounds, his skin also showed the shape of muscles, speaking of this person’s former disciplined training.

“Just what is your background…”

Meng Ruji reached out, placing her fingertip on his heart. In the vigorous beating of his heartbeat, Meng Ruji could also sense a trace of familiar power.

That was the power of her Inner Core, now all buried within this young man’s body…

“I don’t know when I’ll be able to leave this cursed place. And I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get this Inner Core back…”