Why does Li Sui force itself out of Li Huowang's throat?

Li Sui believes it is protecting Li Huowang. "Dad, you won't die" is its reasoning—the parasite is trying to take over the body to prevent its host from dying, even if that means suffocating him.

Is Huanhuan real or an illusion?

She is almost certainly part of the hallucinatory bridge-world. Li Huowang acknowledges this himself ("this is just an illusion"). However, the kindness she embodies feels genuinely healing to him.

Was the fat man really watching Huanhuan?

The fat man's tearful confession—"I was staring at you!"—suggests he was observing Li Huowang, not the girl. This leaves open the possibility that Li Huowang brutally interrogated an innocent man based on a mistaken assumption.

Huanhuan

1,276 words

Chapter 343: Huanhuan

“Hehe, honored sir, if there’s anything you need, just say the word.” The fawning smile on the innkeeper’s face reminded Li Huowang of his own superior.

“Go to sleep. Don’t come near my room unless it’s important.”

“Then I’ll take my leave for the night. If anything comes up, just give Old Wu a shout. I’ll come running.”

The door creaked shut. Li Huowang slid the bolt into place, then pulled out his rain-soaked rations from his pack and began chewing.

No buns. He didn’t dare eat the local food casually. Even inside a Liang Nation post station, he couldn’t let his guard down—there was no harm in being cautious.

As he ate, Li Huowang suddenly stopped. He stared at his own scabbing hand. Something seemed to be moving under the skin.

Holding it close to the candlelight, he saw it clearly: a very thin black tentacle, writhing like an earthworm through the veins.

Li Sui’s tentacles have already reached the back of my hand through the blood vessels. This has never happened before.

“See? I told you. The signs are already showing. This is just the beginning. That Black Tai Sui is going to fill every single meridian in your body! When that happens, you’re dead. No god in heaven can save you!”

“Do what I say. Get rid of the Black Tai Sui. Now.”

Li Huowang chewed on the soaked flatbread, staring coldly at the woman who had spoken. Hong Zhong.

“Dad?” Li Sui’s voice rang out again. This time, the word “Dad” carried a note of grievance and confusion.

Li Huowang looked away. He stuffed the remaining rations back into his bag, blew out the candle, and didn’t even bother washing up. He just collapsed onto the bed.

He was exhausted. The back of his head barely touched the pillow before he fell asleep.

Lulled by the sound of rain pattering against the window, Li Huowang enjoyed a rare good night’s sleep.

Drowsy and drifting, he was suddenly yanked awake by a violent wave of nausea.

“What’s going on?” He stumbled over to his pack and reached for his gourd canteen to drink some water.

But the moment he opened his mouth, before the water could even touch his lips, several tentacles pushed their way out from his throat.

“Hey! Get back in!” The moment he spoke, even more tentacles squirmed out.

“Li Sui! What are you doing?!” He screamed inside his own mind.

“Dad… you won’t die!”

Li Huowang doubled over, vomiting violently. Li Sui—formed from a writhing mass of tentacles large and small, slick with mucus—was expelled from his body. The tentacles undulated, and she quickly slithered under the bed.

He swallowed a mouthful of bitter, bloody saliva. Annoyed, he glared at Hong Zhong. “Could you just shut up for once?”

He turned and walked back toward the bed, but before he could make it halfway, he clutched his head in pain. Everything around him began to warp and shift rapidly.

By the time he came to his senses, the self that had been standing just a moment ago was now lying on a cold concrete floor.

Li Huowang looked around in shock. He was still under that bridge, but it was much filthier than before.

I’m back… He let out a helpless sigh, turned over, and lay flat on his back, staring up at the spiderwebs clinging to the underside of the arch.

The one small mercy was that neither his mother nor Yang Na was here anymore. He didn’t have to agonize over what was real and what wasn’t. All he had to do was wait quietly for the time to pass.

“Li Sui is recognizing characters faster now. She can actually understand what Hong Zhong is saying. But I need to teach her that not everything people say is true.” Dressed in rags, filthy and unkempt, Li Huowang lay under the bridge and talked to himself, staring at the ceiling.

Patter, patter, patter. Footsteps echoed from the entrance of the bridge. He recognized that sound. It was Huanhuan.

He turned his head. There she was, the cute little girl with the red backpack, holding a pouch of shaomai in both hands. She stood there nervously. She looked a little taller than before, wearing different clothes. The only thing that hadn’t changed was the cherry-shaped hair clip on her head.

“Huanhuan, stop bringing me food. I won’t starve to death. Hell, it might even be better if I did.”

Li Huowang’s words made Huanhuan’s eyes go wide. “Uncle! You recognize me! It’s been so long since you’ve recognized me!”

He smiled silently. He stood up and walked toward the little girl. This time, for once, she didn’t run away. She just looked up at him nervously.

He took the five shaomai from the pouch in her hands and popped them into his mouth. “I’m sorry about what happened at the kindergarten before. You know I’m sick in the head. Sometimes I can’t tell things apart very well.”

Seeing him eat, Huanhuan broke into a sweet smile. As she shook her head, her two pigtails swayed back and forth. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me.”

He raised his hand, wanting to pat her little head, but then he looked at his own grimy palm and thought better of it.

“Thanks for the shaomai. Remember, don’t bring me food anymore. When I have an episode, I might hurt you.” As soon as he said it, he froze. Why am I rambling about this? This is just an illusion.

“Mhm! Got it! Bye-bye, Uncle! I’m going home now!” Huanhuan gave him a big hug, then turned and ran off.

He walked to the edge of the bridge. Standing in the shadows, he watched her tiny back as she ran through the sunlight, a flicker of warmth in his eyes.

The goodwill I’m so wary of over there… here in this illusion, it’s everywhere. If I had to choose, I’d really want to treat this side as the real one.

Just as he was about to turn and go back under the bridge, a fat man wearing a thick gold chain around his neck, smoking a cigarette at a street corner, immediately made him freeze.

The man’s shifty, furtive glances toward the bridge made the warmth in Li Huowang’s eyes curdle into ice.

“What does he want with Huanhuan?” He suddenly remembered a movie called Hope. The thought made his face twitch.

Even if this was just his own hallucination, he would never let something so disgusting happen.

He looked around. He fished a heavy, palm-sized cobblestone from the river and crept toward the fat man.

The moment the fat man turned around and saw him, Li Huowang slammed the stone into his head.

The fat man, bleeding and bruised, was jolted awake by the searing pain. By the time he came to, Li Huowang had already dragged him into the dark depths of the bridge.

When he looked down and saw a piece of broken glass piercing straight through his own left palm, his face contorted, and he let out a shriek of agony.

Li Huowang punched him in the chest, cutting the scream short as the man fought for breath. “What are you yelling about?! I haven’t even started yet!”

Once the man had caught his breath, Li Huowang stared down at him, his voice icy. “Talk. What were you planning with that little girl?”

Hearing this, the fat man looked like he was about to cry. His expression was utterly aggrieved. “I wasn’t staring at the little girl! I was staring at you!”

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Reading Guide Decoding

Parasites, Pigtails, and a Brutal Misunderstanding

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

Let’s talk about the Hope reference. In this chapter, Li Huowang mentally alludes to a film called Suwon (素媛). For Western readers, this is a direct reference to the 2013 South Korean film Hope (also known as The Crucible or Silenced in different markets? No—Hope is correct here), which tells the harrowing true story of a young girl who is sexually assaulted. Li Huowang’s immediate leap to that specific film when he sees a man watching Huanhuan reveals a crucial facet of his character: even in his own hallucination, where he knows nothing is “real,” his morality is absolute and unwavering. He will not tolerate the kind of cruelty he knows exists in the real world, even in the fantasy one. This is a rare window into the core ethical principles that still drive him—beneath all the blood, the scavenging, and the paranoia, there’s a man who still cares about protecting the vulnerable.

Also noteworthy is the behavior of the Black Tai Sui. In Chinese folk religion, the “Tai Sui” (太岁) is often associated with a year’s “commander in chief” god, a powerful but neutral force. In this novel, it’s been twisted into a parasitic entity that tries to overtake its host entirely. The fact that it’s now pushing out of his throat voluntarily is a terrifying escalation. The creature is no longer waiting to be commanded; it’s acting on its own initiative, driven by a childlike, possessive love. “Dad, you won’t die!” is not a threat—it’s the entity’s attempt to take over the body in order to keep it alive. This is a uniquely horrific form of loyalty: a parasite trying to infect the host to protect it.

Chapter Overview

This chapter offers a quiet, character-driven respite from the relentless action, but don’t mistake “quiet” for “safe.” Li Huowang’s body is finally rebelling in a new and terrifying way: the Black Tai Sui inside him tries to emerge on its own, literally crawling out of his throat. After forcing the parasitic entity back, he slips into his hallucinatory bridge-world, where he unexpectedly finds a moment of human warmth. The real punchline, however, comes at the very end—when Li Huowang’s protective instinct kicks into high gear, only to discover that the threat he perceived might not have been aimed at the innocent at all.

Key Plot Points

At the post station, Li Huowang wakes from a rare, deep sleep to a sudden, violent nausea. The Black Tai Sui inside him, in the form of Li Sui, forces its way out of his throat—tentacles, mucus, and all. This is the first time the entity has extruded itself without being summoned or aided by Li Huowang.
After vomiting out the tentacle-mass, Li Huowang orders Li Sui to hide under the bed, then mentally rebukes Hong Zhong for her constant, unhelpful commentary. The transition to the hallucinatory world follows immediately.
Back in the modern bridge-world, Li Huowang finds himself alone—no mother, no Yang Na—and feels a twinge of relief at the solitude. He talks to himself, observing that Li Sui is learning faster and can now understand Hong Zhong.
Huanhuan, the little girl with the red backpack, reappears. For the first time in many cycles, she recognizes that Li Huowang is “present.” He apologizes for his violent outburst at the kindergarten, accepts her shaomai, and warns her to stay away from him when he’s having an episode.
After she leaves, Li Huowang spots a gold-chain-wearing fat man lurking at the street corner, watching the bridge. In a rage, he bludgeons the man, drags him into the darkness, and impales his palm with broken glass to interrogate him.
The fat man’s tearful answer is the chapter’s final twist: “I wasn’t staring at the little girl! I was staring at you!”

Reading Guide

Get ready for a masterful misdirection, folks. The chapter leads you by the nose into thinking Li Huowang is being a good guy—protecting a little girl from a predator. The narrative rhythm, the lighting, the sudden cold fury… it’s all designed to make you cheer for the violent comeuppance. Then the “predator” turns out to be a terrified, broke fool who was just staring at him. It’s a brutal little gut-punch that flips the entire emotional arc of the scene on its head. It also leaves one hell of a question dangling: if the fat man was staring at Li Huowang, why? Is he an observer? A bounty hunter? Or just a random civilian who saw a raving, filthy lunatic and couldn’t look away? The ambiguity is the real horror here—not the violence itself, but the realization that Li Huowang might have just tortured an innocent man based entirely on a misconception.

Also, take a moment to appreciate the subtle character work in the bridge-world. Li Huowang is learning to treat the hallucination differently. He’s no longer fighting it, no longer interrogating reality. He’s just… living in it. He eats the food, he talks to the ghost-girl, he allows himself one moment of softness. This is a survival mechanism, sure—but it’s also a step toward something much darker: the point where the hallucinatory world becomes his preferred reality.

Quick Q&A

Lore recap (TL;DR) drawn from this chapter's Cultural / Xianxia Notes — same text as the FAQ structured data on this page.

Why does Li Sui force itself out of Li Huowang's throat?: Li Sui believes it is protecting Li Huowang. "Dad, you won't die" is its reasoning—the parasite is trying to take over the body to prevent its host from dying, even if that means suffocating him.
Is Huanhuan real or an illusion?: She is almost certainly part of the hallucinatory bridge-world. Li Huowang acknowledges this himself ("this is just an illusion"). However, the kindness she embodies feels genuinely healing to him.
Was the fat man really watching Huanhuan?: The fat man's tearful confession—"I was staring at you!"—suggests he was observing Li Huowang, not the girl. This leaves open the possibility that Li Huowang brutally interrogated an innocent man based on a mistaken assumption.