30 The Flower of Poison

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In the end, I still did not use “Firefly” to tail Zhu Shi.

Quite apart from Ma Zao, who might leave at any moment, once I had made up my mind to build a relationship with Zhu Shi and Luo Shan, it would hardly do to engage in behavior that might damage that relationship. Zhu Shi was not Chang’an. As a demon hunter, she might well discover my “Firefly.” Although she had seemed not to notice it when Chang’an and I were at the hospital before, one always had to allow for the possibility.

As I walked home, I continued savoring my earlier exchange with Zhu Shi.

This was the first time I had formally revealed to someone else—especially someone I knew—that I was a superpowered individual. Although I had insisted on concealing my true abilities until now, I had secretly yearned for a moment when I could display my extraordinary nature before others.

To become wealthy and powerful yet never return to one’s hometown was like wearing fine clothes while walking through the night. Gaining great power without showing it to anyone around me was no different from that.

Back in high school, I would sometimes indulge in fantasies before falling asleep. I imagined that there existed someone with an exceptional talent for observation and deduction. By following the faintest clues, he would discover the subtle suspiciousness surrounding me, then undergo a series of fantastical deductions and painful bouts of self-denial, reconstructing his entire worldview in anguish. Finally, by following the thread to its source, he would arrive before me and, overwhelmed by shock and unable to accept reality, utter his conclusion:

“Zhuang Cheng, are you really a superpowered individual?”

At that point, I would calmly acknowledge that he had deduced the truth and demonstrate my power before him.

“That’s right. I am.”

Who could have expected that this time, although I had admitted the truth of my abilities before a friend’s younger sister, that same younger sister would transform before my eyes and reveal herself as a demon hunter from a mysterious organization?

Somehow, it was rather different from what I had imagined…

Just as I was thinking about this with lingering disquiet, my phone suddenly sounded to announce the arrival of a text message. I took it out and saw that it was from Zhu Shi. The message contained only one paragraph:

“Oh, right, Senior Brother Zhuang, you absolutely must not go back tonight to investigate the cave in the fifteenth-floor room. Just in case, I’ve already asked an agent to keep watch over the place!”

What a junior sister of astonishing contrasts.

When we first met, she had addressed me as Senior Brother, presumably because she had already planned to enroll at Saltwater University. And now that she really had entered Saltwater University as a freshman, I could say that I had earned the title legitimately.

“Got it, Junior Sister Zhu.” I sent the message back.

Some time later, I arrived at my door. Along the way, I had made a special stop to buy some late-night snacks, which I carried in two plastic bags.

“Firefly” had returned ahead of me and confirmed Ma Zao’s condition. She was still at home, exactly where she had been when I left: curled up on the living-room sofa.

Only now, she seemed utterly exhausted, lying in a tight little ball. The mystery novel I had recommended to her earlier lay half-open beside her head. Several old magazines I had bought out of curiosity in the past rested on the coffee table, bearing signs that someone had looked through them.

She was still wearing the gray shirt and trousers I had given her. Perhaps she had taken at least a little of my instruction to mean that she could use anything in the house. She had somehow found several rubber bands and used them to secure the sleeves and pant legs she had rolled up layer upon layer around her wrists and ankles.

I opened the door and entered, then came to her side. Her sleep looked terribly troubled. Her eyes were shut tight, her brows knitted together, and her throat made indistinct whimpering sounds like those of a small animal. Although she was asleep, her whole body remained taut as a drawn bow.

Earlier, I had still been wondering whether, now that I had Luo Shan, I might no longer need Ma Zao. But when I saw her again, all those thoughts were involuntarily cast aside.

It was not merely because I still needed Ma Zao to neutralize the unknown repulsive effect between me and supernatural incidents. To be honest, that was not even what I thought of first. Sometimes I had to admit that I was a shortsighted person, more inclined toward whatever lay within reach, and an immature person easily swayed by emotion. The sight of her awakened all the mysteries about her that had settled in the depths of my mind, making me helplessly fascinated by her once more.

I turned and placed the two plastic bags on the coffee table. To make it easier to keep watch over her, I still intended to carry her into the bedroom as I had last time and sleep on the sofa myself. But the moment my fingers touched the backs of her knees, she suddenly jerked awake. Her eyes flew open. In an instant, she sprang up with astonishing agility, one hand seizing my arm while the other shot toward my throat.

Hadn’t something similar happened during the day? Was I about to be locked into another joint technique?

The thought arose instinctively. Although I knew I would be fine, it was like walking past a corner in a hallway and having someone deliberately leap out to scare you. Anyone would have been startled, and I was no exception.

But in the very next instant, her swift and nimble movements stopped as though someone had pressed a pause button. The hand that had been about to seize my throat abruptly changed from choking me to touching me.

“Zhuang Cheng?” she asked uncertainly.

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“It’s me.” I steadied my breathing as well. “I’m back.”

She stared blankly for two or three seconds before lowering herself again and sitting cross-legged on the sofa.

“What did you think this place was?” I asked.

“Sorry,” she said glumly.

“I’m not blaming you.” I placed one of the plastic bags on her thighs. “Look. Guess what I brought you?”

She lowered her head. The tip of her nose twitched, and her eyes lit up. “This is…”

I took a steaming piece of fried chicken stuffed with cheese from the plastic bag and said in a friendly tone, “I figured you’d be getting hungry around this time, so I brought you some late-night food.”

“I’m not that greedy,” she protested unhappily, but her eyes refused to leave the fried food in my hand.

I deliberately asked, “Then you don’t want it?”

“…I do,” she admitted reluctantly.

“Go ahead.” I put the chicken in her hands, then took something else from the other plastic bag. “There’s ice cream too. You can have it after you finish the chicken.”

“Ice cream? I’ve seen it mentioned in written materials before. Apparently it’s very delicious…” Her eyes widened as she stared at the chocolate-flavored ice cream in my hand.

That’s right. Go ahead and eat. Eat as much as you like. Ideally, you’ll ruin your stomach and then be unable to leave my house…

I hid my ulterior motives deep in my stomach and continued urging her to eat. She grew increasingly eager.

Suddenly, she looked up and asked suspiciously, “Aren’t you eating?”

“I am.”

Apparently, if I merely watched her eat, she would not touch the food. Fortunately, I had anticipated that possibility and bought two portions.

After a long while, we finished everything. She seemed to have reached a tentative state of satisfaction and unconsciously revealed that happy smile again.

Perhaps she had already been very sleepy to begin with. After eating, she grew even more drowsy, her eyelids gradually drooping. I urged her to go sleep in the bed in the bedroom, but she insisted on sleeping on the sofa.

“There’s only one bed, isn’t there? This is your home, so you should sleep in the bed.” She was much more relaxed than before. “You really are a strange person. Are there really only kindhearted fools like you in this era? If this were the Age of Ruin, someone like you would die very quickly.”

“That’s a bit extreme. There are plenty of bad people in this era too.” Shamelessly accepting the title of kindhearted fool, I asked, “From what you said earlier, it seems you’ve encountered materials about this era in the past. What did they say?”

“I haven’t encountered many materials, and many of them were written by people from the Age of Ruin based on their own memories and impressions. I heard that, in the age of civilization, people possessed extraordinarily noble character.” She spoke with great seriousness. “No one who grew up in the Age of Ruin could believe it. All they knew was how to deceive and harm one another, with their hearts set only on securing benefits for themselves. But people who grew up in the civilized age were honest, united, rational, hardworking, and willing to devote themselves to others…”

She thought for a moment, then added, “They were also incredibly serious about their work. They would even scrub toilets so clean that the water inside was safe to drink…”

“Wait, wait, wait…” The further she went, the more something seemed wrong. “What kind of people left behind that last part, based on what kind of memories, in what kind of materials?”

She picked up one of the old magazines from the coffee table, opened it to a page, and pointed at the writing. “Doesn’t it say so right here?”

I delivered my final verdict. “That is a fabricated urban legend. It isn’t real.”

“Actually, I didn’t believe those stories either. But after meeting you, I’ve started to wonder whether all the things I heard about the age of civilization might be true after all.”

By the end of that sentence, she could not hold back a yawn.

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“Let me make this clear in advance: I’m not going to drink toilet water,” I said.

“Why would anyone ask you to do that? You’ve done so much for me, and I don’t even know how to repay you…” She grew increasingly drowsy, her body swaying unsteadily.

After quite some time, she finally could not hold on any longer and fell asleep again.

Could her tendency to grow sleepy so easily also be related to the soul trauma she had mentioned?

I tried once more to pick her up in my arms. Although she insisted on sleeping on the sofa, I needed to be able to notice her movements promptly after falling asleep. Naturally, she should sleep in the bed while I slept on the sofa.

This was not because I had gone soft. It was the rational choice.

This time, she did not wake. I carried her into the bedroom, laid her flat on the bed, and covered her with a quilt.

I did not know whether she was having another nightmare, but her brows gradually drew together again, and her body grew tense.

I reached out and smoothed away the crease between her brows. At the same time, I silently concentrated heat and warmed the space beneath the quilt.

Her expression gradually softened, and her entire body relaxed.

The happy smile that had appeared after she tasted the delicious food surfaced in my mind, along with the slight swinging of her knees like those of a child. Then I looked at her calm, relaxed face as she slept.

Slowly, I withdrew my fingers and began reflecting on everything that had happened.

Although there were still some matters I could not determine with certainty, based on my observations and experiences, I no longer needed to attach words such as perhaps, possibly, or maybe to the reality of Ma Zao’s jinx-like constitution.

The cave, the ritual formation, Luo Shan, Zhu Shi, Agent Kong, the fallen demon hunter…

Ever since Ma Zao had arrived, I had begun encountering one mysterious thing after another, things I had never come into contact with throughout my previous life.

It was as though I were the protagonist of a fantasy story. Before the story began, I had lived a dull, uneventful life. But once the story started, I seemed to have suffered the worst luck imaginable, with one disaster following another before the previous one had even settled.

In the past, no matter how hard I tried, I had never managed to come into contact with anything related to the supernatural. Now those things seemed to seek me out of their own accord. It appeared that with every step I took from here on, I might encounter a new adventure.

If this was not Ma Zao’s way of favoring me, how else could it be explained?

At the very least, I was willing to believe that was the truth.

And that meant I had to take as my fundamental premise the fact that Ma Zao’s jinx-like constitution could affect the people around the people close to her, and decide how to handle my relationship with her from now on.

I had to make a choice—

Either give up on continuing to associate with Ma Zao, drive her out of the house immediately, and return to a dull, uneventful life that could guarantee my safety and would not drag anyone else into danger;

Or distance myself from all ordinary human relationships—from my family, my friends, my classmates… from normal society itself—and choose the path of maintaining my relationship with Ma Zao.

…

What an extraordinary poisonous flower.

Excellent. Just what I wanted.

I had always liked poisonous flowers. The more venomous, the more delicious.

I chose to remain with Ma Zao.

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