When He Simu awoke from her dream, bright moonlight poured through the paper windows, casting square patches of luminous white across the floor. She sat up abruptly, breathing heavily, as vivid images dissolved without trace—taking with them the parents from her distant memories.
"What's wrong?"
The familiar voice drew her attention. He Simu turned to find Duan Xu leaning against her bedside in casual robes, arms crossed. The young man's eyes caught the faint moonlight, his lips curved in that habitual smile. She had no idea how long he'd been standing there.
He Simu steadied her breathing and spoke softly. "What is this? There's wind inside my body. Do all living people have wind inside them?"
"That's breathing."
"Yes... breathing." She exhaled deeply, testing the word.
Wind inside the body is breathing.
After a pause, she looked around in confusion and said quietly, "My father and mother were just here."
Duan Xu's surprise was evident. He settled onto the edge of her bed, observing her expression in the moonlight. "Did you have a dream?"
"Dream?" He Simu repeated the word as though contemplating its meaning. The images from moments before had faded significantly. Around her lay only night and moonlight. So this was what mortals called dreams.
Mortals lived such blessed lives—they could see people they would never see again in their dreams.
He Simu remained silent for a moment, then raised her eyes to Duan Xu, wondering to herself why this fellow had appeared in her room in the middle of the night.
Duan Xu seemed to read her thoughts. He smiled casually. "I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't feel my body. I thought I was dead, which startled me so much I couldn't sleep, so I decided to come see you. I didn't expect you to be sleeping so well, even having a pleasant dream."
After a pause, he asked, "You dreamed of your father and mother. What were they teaching you?"
He Simu glanced at this improper fellow who had entered a young lady's room in the middle of the night and said carelessly, "I dreamed they were teaching me the rules of eating."
The strange and terrifying implications of an evil spirit's rules for eating didn't deter Duan Xu. He leaned forward with interest. "I've been curious about this for a while. Why are you so good to Chen Ying? I heard you were a friend of his father, so perhaps..."
"Yes, I ate his father. Taking care of him was the exchange condition."
"Is that the rule for evil spirits? To make a deal with people before eating them?"
"No." He Simu's fingers twirled around the silk cord of the Ghost King's lantern pendant as she said flatly, "That's just my rule."
Duan Xu fell silent for a moment, then asked, "Why? You are the king of all ghosts. You could take anyone's life you want. Why would you condescend to fulfill wishes for mortals?"
"Why? Are there so many 'whys' in this world? Is it not enough that I want to?"
Duan Xu looked at He Simu intently, the young man rarely showing such a serious, non-joking expression.
He Simu met his gaze steadily. In this prolonged silence, she knew he was trying to decipher her again. He was so fearless and irreverent toward ghosts and spirits that he harbored an intense curiosity about her, always wanting to excavate all of her past.
People who are mysteries themselves always enjoy solving mysteries.
He Simu leaned against the bed lazily. "Fine, tell me what you're guessing now."
"I'm afraid of offending you."
"Never mind, your gaze is offensive enough."
Duan Xu considered for a moment, then said unexpectedly, "Your parents must have been very gentle people. Just like you."
"...Gentle?" He Simu raised an eyebrow.
"You can't taste food, yet you cook and make sugar figurines. You can't see colors, yet you paint with wonderful skill. You can't hear melodies, yet you play musical instruments. You can't even perceive the most ordinary things like breathing and dreaming, so why did you learn these skills that are difficult even for humans? Why do you only eat people after making deals with them? It must be that your parents wanted you to understand this world through these things."
So powerful, yet understanding the greatness of the world, still cherishing the greenness of grass and trees.
He Simu was stunned.
In the faint moonlight, she remained silent for a while, then lowered her eyes and said noncommittally, "Perhaps."
"Have they passed away?"
"Yes."
"How did they pass away?"
"My mother reached her natural age quite normally. My father... I heard he died of a broken heart."
He Simu's tone could only be described as calm.
Duan Xu watched her while He Simu stared at the white moonlight pooling on the ground. The moonlight streamed through the windows, illuminating countless dust particles suspended in the air, like fine snowfall.
Silent cold light. Lonely eternal brightness.
It was said this had been a judgment her father received in his youth. Now it seemed that this judgment was not meant for her father alone but for all Ghost Kings.
Suddenly, something not too heavy patted her face, and the sensation called pain spread. He Simu raised her eyes to Duan Xu, his hand still lingering by her cheek.
"Wake up," Duan Xu said.
After a pause, he added, "The dream is over."
In the bright moonlight, Duan Xu's silhouette was soft, his gaze firm and focused, as if his heart was as vast as heaven and earth, yet only contained the one person before him.
He Simu was silent for a moment, then pushed his hand away and smiled slightly. "If I had even a little of my powers back, your hand would be gone just now."
Duan Xu smiled brightly and sincerely. "I truly turn misfortune into good fortune. I've saved another hand."
He Simu thought to herself that this young general was truly one who took a mile when given an inch.
However, his hand was soft and warm.
Were all mortals this warm?
The rest of the night passed dreamlessly.
However, before noon the next day, He Simu encountered an additional trouble that came with gaining sensation. The source of this trouble was Xue Chen Ying, her and Duan Xu's shared adoptive younger brother.
He Simu had exchanged her true form with Duan Xu for sensation. Her true form had now become mortal, which meant the original "He Xiaoxiao" body had fallen into a state of endless sleep. This worried Chen Ying, who didn't know the truth.
He wouldn't go anywhere and couldn't eat. He just kept watch at "He Xiaoxiao's" bedside, tearful eyes waiting for his Sister Xiaoxiao to wake up. He didn't ask about or even glance at this newly appeared beautiful lady.
He Simu leaned against the doorway watching this sincere child and let out a long sigh. The body she had borrowed still had some days left in its rental period. Without her powers now, she couldn't wake this young girl early, so she had to let her sleep for a few more days.
After Duan Xu failed several times to comfort Chen Ying, he walked out of "He Xiaoxiao's" room and said to He Simu, who waited outside the door, "Why don't we simply tell Chen Ying your identity? Too much sorrow will harm a child's health."
This was the forceful reasoning of Duan Xu, who at Chen Ying's age had already been deeply scheming and highly skilled at acting, experiencing several heartbreaks without harm to his health.
He Simu absently rubbed a piece of ice that Duan Xu had procured from the cellar, saying casually, "Tell him my identity? What identity? That I'm an evil spirit?"
"Yes."
"There's no need. I've already fulfilled my agreement by entrusting him to your good household. If not for the deal between us, I probably wouldn't see him again. Now with this unexpected situation, I suppose my fate with him ends here."
Duan Xu's smiling eyes flickered, and he repeated, "Fate ends here?"
"Yes, what else?" He Simu played with the ice in her hand, watching it grow smaller and smaller, glistening with water. She thought to herself, so this is ice—water that is hard and painful.
She said absently, "Do you think I have nothing better to do than revolve around you mortals all day? I'm just finding something to do during my time off. Before long, I'll return to Yuzhou City to handle affairs in the ghost realm."
"Then what do you want to tell Chen Ying?"
"You can hide He Xiaoxiao's body first and tell Chen Ying that He Xiaoxiao fell ill and died. When I regain my powers, I'll return this body."
"He will feel abandoned again."
"Better a short pain than a long one. How will you explain a perfectly fine person lying there? If he continues like this for ten days, he'll cry himself sick. It's better to give him a clean break. Treat him well, and in ten or twenty years, when he's grown up and thriving in the Duan household, he won't remember the adoptive sister from Liang Prefecture with whom he only spent a few months."
He Simu had most of her attention on the ice and belatedly realized that Duan Xu had been silent for quite a while. She looked at him curiously. Duan Xu's bright eyes contained some heavy emotion, but the moment their eyes met, he smiled, looking arrogant and cheerful.
"I won't," he said slowly, one word at a time.
He Simu raised an eyebrow.
There it was again, the young general's inexplicable death-seeking energy.
He placed his hand against the wall, leaning closer to He Simu, and said with a smile, "I'll tell Chen Ying your identity, tell him you're still by his side, that He Xiaoxiao isn't dead, and never will be."
He Simu looked at Duan Xu. Indeed, at this moment she had no powers, so he could do as he pleased.
Duan Xu said, "Now that you're here, don't think you can just withdraw from his life."
And don't think you can withdraw from my life either.
The young general before her wore a light-colored round-necked robe, his hair tied in a ponytail, with sharp light in his eyes. He Simu couldn't help but frown. Since she and Duan Xu had formed their pact, this young general seemed increasingly unrestrained, as if convinced she wouldn't bear to kill him, daring to oppose her at every turn.
But this opposition was to her like being bitten by an ant.
So she turned her head away and smiled slightly. "Fine, say what you want. If you think it's good for Chen Ying, I don't mind. After all, when the time comes, I'll naturally leave. But if you think you can restrain me because of our pact, you're greatly mistaken. I won't be controlled by anyone. You're just a deal I can stop anytime I want."
Duan Xu's eyes blinked gently.
He Simu pushed his arm away and walked past him with a faint smile, casually throwing the ice in her hand onto the ground, where it shattered into several crystalline pieces.
Duan Xu turned to watch her retreating figure, watching her deep red silhouette merge into the brilliant sunlight. He laughed softly, his expression unclear. He just shook his head and said quietly, "No wonder they say one army cannot have two generals. How reasonable—a small child should only be raised by one adult."
He Simu eventually found herself confronted by Xue Chen Ying in front of the courtyard as the sun was setting that day—the same Chen Ying who hadn't given her so much as a glance before.
Chen Ying looked up at He Simu with fear and hesitation, asking quietly, "General Brother said... you are... you are... Sister Xiaoxiao. Is that true?"
Chen Ying studied this phoenix-eyed, elegant-browed, tall, cold, and beautiful stranger, unable to connect her with Sister Xiaoxiao. The natural sense of distance made him especially fearful. He wondered if this person was his gentle and lovely Sister Xiaoxiao. Was General Brother lying to him?
"Yes," He Simu seemed to know what he was thinking and calmly affirmed, "That's right, I am He Xiaoxiao."
Chen Ying hesitated for a moment, then said loudly, "Then let me ask you... when you borrowed the suona from Madam Song, how many eggs did you trade for it?"
"..."
He Simu rubbed her temples. "Eight."
Chen Ying's eyes brightened a little, finally feeling some familiarity with the beautiful stranger before him. But then he heard He Simu continue, "I ate your father."
Chen Ying froze in place, at a complete loss.
"Didn't Duan Xu tell you I'm an evil spirit?"
"He... he did... but evil spirit..."
"But he didn't tell you about the deal I made with your father?"
"...Deal?"
"This young general should have told the whole story."
He Simu smiled faintly, pointing at herself. "I am an evil spirit, of the same kind as that woman who wanted to eat you that day. Evil spirits eat people to survive. When your father was severely wounded by the Huqi people and near death, I ate him. In his next life, he will suffer many hardships. In exchange, I saved you and entrusted you to Duan Shunxi."
Chen Ying stared at He Simu in shock. His little brain worked for a long time before slowly processing the meaning of these words.
She said she was his father's friend, but he had never seen her before, and she could become invisible. He had found it strange, but he trusted his Sister Xiaoxiao, who turned into butterflies at his father's grave to comfort him. How could she be a bad person?
But she had eaten his father? Just like that terrifying woman that day?
"Why... why did you lie to me..."
"Because it was convenient."
Tears gradually gathered in Chen Ying's eyes. He bit his lip and stepped back, then another step back, before turning around and running away sobbing with his hands covering his eyes.
He Simu laughed softly. "I knew it would be like this."
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