Death

The two slaps knocked Li Sui’s head slightly askew, but she didn’t feel any pain. That head wasn’t hers.

Even without the pain, however, Li Sui felt a new emotion. Anger.

Slowly, she raised her hand and, mimicking his motion, slapped him back. A crack sounded as the green-skinned man’s jaw was dislocated. The left side of his face visibly swelled.

He clutched his neck and stared at Li Sui in shock, both at the force of her blow and at the fact that she dared to fight back.

“I want to kill you,” Li Sui said.

Another slap sent his head ringing with a dull whump.

This time, he finally reacted. Shrieking in terror, still clutching his jaw, he scrambled away as fast as he could.

Li Sui did not chase him. She walked over to the old man and reached out to help him up.

But he didn’t care about his own injuries. He was far more worried about her. “Girl! Girl, are you alright? Does your face hurt?”

Unlike a moment ago, Li Sui could now detect the worry and concern in his words. She listened carefully, then asked, her voice tinged with confusion: “Who is ‘girl’? That’s not my name. My name is Li Sui.”

“No, no, no! You are my girl! You are my daughter!” The old man shook his head frantically, pulling her by the hand to go back home.

When she looked down at her own clothes, Li Sui suddenly understood what was happening. He had mistaken her for that dead woman.

She opened her mouth to explain, but for some reason, a strange pull in her heart made her hold back.

Led by the hand, Li Sui was brought back behind the blacksmith’s shop.

She was guided back to sit on the kang, accepting the couple’s doting care and fussing.

The feeling was comfortable, but it also made her feel lost. She didn't know why this place felt so familiar.

Listening to them speak, a sudden haze fell over Li Sui. Fragments of memory appeared in her mind, as if she had become that woman named Ni’er.

As the sounds outside grew quieter, Li Sui felt she should return. Otherwise, her father would start to worry.

The pulling sensation in her heart returned. But this time, Li Sui didn’t want to stay any longer. After all, she was Li Sui, not Ni’er.

After a moment of hesitation, she put down the bowl of water she was holding and spoke to the two people before her. “I am not Ni’er. Ni’er is dead. I’m sorry.”

The old couple, who had just been laughing and chatting, froze. Then, flustered, the old man said, “Ni’er, don’t talk nonsense. Did you bump your head on the way here? I’ll fetch a doctor!”

Seeing that they still didn’t believe her, Li Sui stood up. Her entire skirt lifted in an instant as writhing black tentacles emerged from beneath it, revealing Li Sui’s faceless white dog head.

Then, Ni’er’s entire body bloomed open like a flower, revealing the true Li Sui within.

Opening her mouth full of sharp teeth, she addressed the pair. “I am not Ni’er. I am Li Sui. Ni’er is dead.”

But Li Sui saw that they were still standing there, eyes wide and unblinking, staring blankly without any reaction.

“What’s wrong with you?” She reached out a claw and gently touched them. The bodies of the old couple toppled straight over.

It was at that moment that a sudden, overwhelming wave of grievance and fear surged up within her. She didn’t want this feeling—this feeling she had never experienced before. It was too terrible.

Standing there, Li Sui felt lost and helpless. She looked at the corpses on the ground and didn’t know what to do. She had seen many dead bodies with her father, but she had never been as afraid of them as she was today.

Fear drove her into action. Frantically, she burst through the door and fled, racing back towards the courier station where Li Huowang was staying.

She hadn’t run far before she saw him, standing in a corner, waiting for her.

Tears of blood streaming down her face, Li Sui lunged at him. She sliced open his stomach and crawled inside, closing her eyes, wanting neither to think nor to hear anything more.

Li Huowang asked nothing. He simply reached his hand into his own abdomen and, soothingly, patted Li Sui’s head.

Compared to the carefree creature of the past, this Li Sui seemed to have grown a little, having understood emotions she was once ignorant of.

“Come on. Let’s go back,” Li Huowang said, turning to head for the courier station.

But he stopped, as if remembering something, and turned back into the county town.

Following the footprints, Li Huowang arrived at a wooden building. He kicked the door in and entered.

“Holy shit! You son of a bitch, you—” The green-skinned man, who had been applying medicine to his wounds, slammed his hand on the table, but his words died in his throat when he saw the state Li Huowang was in.

Rustle. The torture kit was spread out before the green-skinned man. “Will you choose for yourself, or should I choose for you?”

“What? No preference? That works too.”

Li Huowang put the kit away. His expression twisted into a savage snarl as he lunged forward. Amidst the man’s screams, he bit down on the man’s ear and tore it straight off.

“How dare you bully my daughter! You’re looking for death!”

—

Inside the courier station’s superior room, when Li Huowang opened his eyes again, it was already the next day.

He reached out to touch himself, and found that Li Sui was no longer inside his body. He turned his head and saw Li Sui, crouched like a dog by the window, staring at the sky outside.

“Are you alright?” Li Huowang got up and walked over to the wooden stand with its copper basin to wash his face.

But Li Sui, unusually, didn’t respond to him. She sat there, motionless as a terrifying sculpture.

Draping the towel over the stand, Li Huowang came to her side and looked at her ghastly profile.

He reached into his robes, pulled at something, and tore off a strip of dried blood scab. He dangled it in front of Li Sui’s face.

When he saw that Li Sui didn’t even open her mouth to bite it, Li Huowang understood that what had happened the night before had deeply affected her. She was no longer the Li Sui who wouldn’t even know she was dead if her head fell off.

He was about to sit down on the chair beside her and say something to comfort his daughter when he saw her turn her head to look at him.

“Dad… promise you won’t die, okay?”

“Huh?” Li Huowang couldn’t quite follow her train of thought. But when he saw the intense desperation in Li Sui’s eyes, he nodded gently.

“Okay. I promise you. I won’t die.”

Li Sui opened her tentacle-covered claws and hugged him tightly, her whole body’s tentacles wrapping firmly around him.

“Dad… I think I understand what death is. I don’t want you to die. I don’t want First Mother or Second Mother to die either. I’ll do everything I can to protect you all!” For the first time, Li Sui’s voice carried a genuine emotional tremor.

“Don’t worry. We’ve already weathered so many hardships. If I wanted to die now, it probably wouldn’t be that easy.”

Creak. The door suddenly opened, and Liu Zongyuan walked in. He stared at Li Huowang, bound by tentacles, and seemed to hesitate.

“What is it? Spit it out.”

“Ah… it’s morning. Jixiang says we should be on our way.” With that, Liu Zongyuan ducked his head and backed out of the room.

Hearing this, Li Huowang’s expression turned serious. He pried away Li Sui’s tentacles and walked towards the door. “Li Sui, let’s go. We should be able to reach Yinling City today!”

Li Sui was about to follow, but then she stopped. She bent down, picked up the blood scab from the ground, and stuffed it into her mouth, chewing.

As she chewed, the tentacles on her body twisted subtly, undergoing minute changes.