Yu Rong’s heart skipped a beat.
Before coming, Xing Shen had let her bring Sun Zhou for safety but warned her not to tell Er Nie about Sun Zhou’s background to avoid unpleasantness.
She flipped the ribs soaking in the basin, feigning nonchalance: “What makes you think it looks human?”
Nie Jiuluo: “I can tell the difference between humans and Di Xiao. Though this creature has a pointed mouth and fur patches on its face, its overall shape is still human. Besides, I’ve never heard of Uncle Jiang having something like this – it must have been trained recently, right?”
“Thinking about something trained recently that isn’t a Di Xiao, I suddenly remembered someone.”
She looked at Yu Rong: “Before, someone named Sun Zhou was injured by Dog Ya. Later, when the pig farm burned down, Sun Zhou disappeared. When I asked Yan Tuo, he said Sun Zhou wasn’t with Lin Xirou. When I asked Uncle Jiang, he said Sun Zhou might have escaped in the chaos. Then so much happened, I forgot about it.”
“Yu Rong, the one in your trunk… it’s not Sun Zhou, is it?”
Yu Rong remained silent, adding fresh warm water to the cold basin for a second soak.
Her silence only increased Nie Jiuluo’s unease: “Say something?”
Yu Rong had no choice: “If you want to know, ask Xing Shen. Whether it’s a beast or a transformed human, I don’t care. I only know that untrained, it was a mad dog that bit everyone it saw. After training, it learned to control itself, not hurt people, recognize Di Xiao as the enemy, and be useful in crucial moments. Isn’t that good? Weren’t you helped by it today?”
Nie Jiuluo’s extremities went cold. Suspicion was just suspicion – if disproven, she could rest easy. But Yu Rong’s reaction essentially confirmed it.
Her chest tightened, voice trembling: “It was originally human.”
Sun Zhou had been her driver.
Though her impression of him wasn’t deep, she vaguely remembered he had a girlfriend and had complained about the difficulties of earning money, buying a house, and getting married.
That was Sun Zhou?
Yu Rong took a that’s-all stance: “Look, I had no relationship with Sun Zhou. Like I said, it was already like this when I arrived. If I hadn’t trained it, it would have run around hurting people, possibly getting shot as an unknown creature or used for experiments.”
Nie Jiuluo laughed bitterly: “So by training it and using it like an animal, you’re being more humane?”
Yu Rong muttered something under her breath and ran her hand over her head, coming away with plastic.
She hadn’t removed it yet? Annoyed, she yanked it off, slightly surprised: it really was warm – her scalp felt chilly as soon as she removed it.
She said: “First, I’m not treating it like an animal – it was already an animal when I found it.”
“Second, from my animal trainer’s perspective, I don’t see anything wrong with training a frenzied creature to not hurt people and follow commands. If I, Yu Rong, get caught and mutate someday, I’d be happy to be such a wolf-dog, able to tear apart more Di Xiao.”
“Third, don’t argue with me – did I make it this way? Who caught it? Who bit it? If you want to reason, find the source and target. That’s all there is to it – my head hurts talking more about it.”
Finished speaking and probably afraid Nie Jiuluo would continue, she didn’t wait for the ribs to finish thawing, simply lifting them dripping wet and leaving.
Nie Jiuluo wanted to say something but swallowed it.
She understood arguing with Yu Rong was pointless. Sun Zhou had clearly been with Ban Ya’s group, yet Jiang Baichuan told her he wasn’t – apparently everything started with Jiang Baichuan.
Besides, things were already like this – what could her objections accomplish? Find a perfect solution for Sun Zhou.
After a while, she went to find Yu Rong.
The courtyard was quiet, with two large lanterns hung under the eaves for festive cheer. Yu Rong sat on the steps outside her room, bathed in red light. The car was parked nearby with its trunk half-open. As Nie Jiuluo approached, she heard crunching sounds from the trunk that suddenly stopped.
Nie Jiuluo walked around to face the trunk and saw Sun Zhou holding the wet ribs, chewing silently while watching her warily.
After observing for a moment, seemingly determining she meant no harm, he lowered his head and resumed eating. His teeth were incredibly sharp – the crack of bone splitting made Nie Jiuluo shudder.
Yu Rong sighed: “You knew it would upset you, yet you had to look.”
Nie Jiuluo’s gaze seemed stuck on Sun Zhou: “If it were me, if I were caught and mutated, please don’t train me – just let me die.”
Yu Rong said: “You’re too negative. Once mutated, you’re not human anymore – think of it as being reborn into your next life. Each life has its own way of living, who cares about what the previous life wanted.”
Nie Jiuluo: “Each life has its way, but even reborn as a wild beast, wouldn’t it dislike being trained?”
Yu Rong laughed: “What are you trying to tell me? Born free? Respect its nature and return it to the wild? Er Nie, look at this world – where could we release it?”
Nie Jiuluo fell silent.
Would Sun Zhou spend the rest of this life being trained and used until death?
Yu Rong’s voice reached her ears: “You should use this energy to think about your situation. From what Yan Tuo says, in three to five days at most, someone will come to feed him. By then, things can’t be hidden anymore.”
Nie Jiuluo found it amusing: “So what if it can’t be hidden? Lin Xirou isn’t stupid – with Yan Tuo escaped and Di Xiao dead, she’ll guess it was the Entanglement Army. Maybe it’s even a good thing.”
Regarding the exchange of people, Lin Xirou had always been ambiguous. Perhaps now, with her hidden spot raided, she’d realize she wasn’t as secure as she thought and feel more urgency to act decisively.
Speaking of which, she suddenly remembered something: “Have you seen Mayi?”
Yu Rong nodded: “Yes, monkey-sized, doesn’t grow bigger.”
Nie Jiuluo said: “If it were me, with my son kidnapped for over twenty years, I’d spend everything I had on any news. How can she be so patient?”
Yu Rong shrugged: “Maybe… not all women care that much about children.”
***
Yan Tuo’s bath took a full hour and a half.
Nie Jiuluo waited until he finished before cooking the noodles. The ribs were already cooked any way, just needed heating in the soup, and the mushrooms and vegetables would cook quickly.
Unable to find a suitable soup bowl, she brought him the small pot with handles.
Entering his room, she noticed how dark it was – of all the lights, Yan Tuo had only turned on the bedside lamp.
Nie Jiuluo instinctively reached for the main light switch: “Why is it so dark?”
Yan Tuo said: “Leave it like this – too bright is… hard to adjust to.”
Nie Jiuluo froze, her hand retreating from the switch.
With no table in the room, she placed the pot on a coaster on the tea table. Yan Tuo came over, wearing pajamas that should have fit but somehow looked loose.
He sat on the shadowy side of the sofa, leaning close to the soup and taking a deep breath: “Smells good.”
Then he picked up the chopsticks.
Nie Jiuluo saw his hands: probably whitened from the hot bath water, with some blisters broken and seeping thin lines of blood.
She couldn’t help saying: “I bought chilblain cream, it’s in the bag. Remember to apply it.”
Yan Tuo made an affirming sound: “I’ll apply it before bed. After some sleep, it’ll heal faster.”
He kept his head down while speaking.
How had it become like this? Nie Jiuluo suddenly realized that before, she and Yan Tuo could talk endlessly without tiring, but now she had to search for things to say, and even when found, the responses were stiff, with frequent awkward silences.
What had changed?
Unable to figure it out, she paused before saying: “Your hair… want to cut it?”
Yan Tuo shook his head: “No need, maybe… later.”
After hesitating, he added: “A Luo, you’re tired today too. Maybe you should go rest first.”
This conversation without eye contact was too awkward. Nie Jiuluo suddenly felt unwelcome: “Alright, take your time eating.”
She stood to leave, and Yan Tuo rose to see her out. At the door, he suddenly asked: “Do you still carry paper for folding stars?”
Nie Jiuluo said: “Yes.”
“Can I borrow a sheet?”
Nie Jiuluo smiled: “Borrow a sheet of paper – will you return it? I’ll bring it to you later.”
Yan Tuo smiled too. The doorway was dark, his face unclear, but his eyes showed a smile.
He added: “Can you pull this ball on your hat?”
Nie Jiuluo was both amused and exasperated: “Are you three years old? Why do you want to pull it?”
Yan Tuo said: “I remember having pompoms like this when I was little. I liked pulling them apart thread by thread, from fluffy to bare.”
As he spoke, he reached out and pulled one thread, but the new hat’s pompom wasn’t so loose – though he only grabbed one thread, it lifted the entire hat.
Winter plus wool hat meant static electricity – as the hat left her head, many hairs stood up against gravity. Before Nie Jiuluo could speak, Yan Tuo hurriedly pressed the hat back down: “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to lift the whole thing…”
By the end, he found it funny too, letting out a laugh that crinkled his eyes with mirth.
Nie Jiuluo felt the easy comfort of their previous interactions suddenly return.
Why?
She suddenly understood.
In the room, Yan Tuo had avoided her gaze while speaking, kept his head down, wanted to sit in the shadows, and refused to cut his hair.
He didn’t want her to see him.
Just as in the mine when he thought himself too dirty, now he felt himself unsightly and shameful, too self-conscious to face her openly.
The dark doorway felt safe to him.
How foolish – she didn’t mind at all.
Nie Jiuluo looked up at Yan Tuo and said softly: “Go eat your food before it gets mushy. And drink all the soup too, don’t waste it.”
***
Yan Tuo felt this was the most delicious bowl of noodles he’d ever eaten in his life.
How had he never known mushrooms could be so soft and smooth, vegetables so crisp and tender? And the ribs were so tender the bones could be chewed to pieces.
The soup was incredibly good too, fragrant and savory – he drank every last drop.
Completely satisfying.
Perhaps the only benefit of being imprisoned so long was realizing anew that all food, all flavors under the sun were warm and lovely.
A gentle knock came at the door. Yan Tuo answered and was about to open it when the sound stopped.
He felt strange and slightly nervous, still jumpy from his recent ordeal.
Reaching the door, he suddenly saw something being slipped under it.
Star-folding paper, not pale gold this time but sparkly silver – it would make a truly gorgeous star when folded.
Yan Tuo picked up the paper and opened the door to look.
No one there – they’d run away quickly.
He sat back at the tea table with a pen in hand.
What to write? There was so much worth writing about today, too many feelings for such a small piece of paper.
After thinking for a long time, Yan Tuo finally wrote: The noodles were delicious.
After writing, he carefully knotted the paper and picked up a short red wool thread from the tea table.
He had managed to pull one thread from the hat earlier.
He tucked the thread into the knot and, following his familiar folding method, slowly shaped it into a star, then gently tossed it up.
This day was over.
A long day.
When he opened his eyes in despair this morning, he never imagined he’d go to sleep in peace. When swallowing what he thought would be his last start, he never dared hope he’d have a newer one.
***
The night was deep, and Lin Xirou stood on the large balcony, looking into the distant darkness.
This was a completed resort area still awaiting its business license and not yet open to guests. She had chosen the central buildings, feeling the “center” was encompassed, and safe. Especially at night, standing on the balcony looking out at darkness on all sides was quite pleasant.
A knock came at the door.
Lin Xirou said: “Come in.”
It was Xiong Hei, walking straight to the balcony with a stack of A4 paper.
Lin Xirou glanced at the stack: “Have you chosen?”
Xiong Hei said: “I’ve made an initial selection. The final choice is yours, Sister Lin.”
All his people, whether long-time followers, recruits, or recommendations from other places “looking to make a living with Brother Xiong,” required detailed personal information and medical records.
Lin Xirou didn’t take the papers: “Isn’t it troublesome?”
“Not at all. They all have distant family relationships, with preference given to those who have siblings and children. Also, since You Peng was big, I excluded the small ones – need a big body to replace a big body.”
Lin Xirou made an affirming sound, reached out to flip through the stack, and randomly pulled out one sheet: “This one then.”