Not dead.
The woman's neck was warm and delicate. Bujing Nu crouched, his gaze fixed on her pale, blood-stained face as he gently stroked her warmth, while his other hand gripped her wrist. After feeling for a moment, he discerned that she had simply fainted from fright.
What a coward.
Bujing Nu's hand tightened around her neck, yet the woman unconscious on the ground only clutched his hand more firmly.
Her hand was soft and warm, gripping his, smeared with a patch of blood and grime.
In the haze of unconsciousness, Xia Ji had a terrifying, bizarre nightmare.
In the dream, she was in a sinister mountain shrine, surrounded by many people bearing offerings, intending to pay homage to the evil Buddha enshrined within the niche.
She was one of them.
But the evil Buddha paid no heed to anyone's offerings.
Until she lowered her head to present her own.
The evil Buddha's blood-red, slender fingers pushed open the shrine niche, snatched up the offering from her tray, and ate the food she had presented.
Xia Ji raised her head tremblingly.
Seated atop the shrine niche was a youth drenched in blood, his features indistinguishable.
His small face was nearly submerged in a pool of blood, yet he seemed utterly unaware, happily grabbing and eating the raw meat she had offered with his hands. When pleased, he even hummed a strange tune.
Everything was utterly bizarre.
"Mm…"
In her sleep, Xia Ji was drenched in cold sweat. She frowned deeply, struggling to wake, and at her ear, she could still hear that strange humming, intermittent.
It sounded like the cadence of an opera tune.
Xia Ji felt her face being patted, and she jolted awake, her eyes snapping open.
She met a pair of lowered, curved, smiling eyes.
"Sister, you're awake."
He greeted her in a gentle voice. Xia Ji was drenched in cold sweat, as if she'd just been dragged out of icy water, and only then did she realize how strange her position was.
She was lying on his lap. He was so thin that it was painfully bony.
And the youth's hands were still tightly squeezing her face, hard enough to hurt.
She had woken up and was still in the nightmare.
Only then did Xia Ji vaguely realize that he had washed his face.
"I went to bathe, washed my hair, and changed my clothes."
As if he could read her thoughts, Bujing Nu spoke to her gently.
It was that strange feeling again.
This youth always gave her the illusion of being easy to get along with, of understanding human speech, but the moment she had any contact with him, she could see his extremely twisted, bizarre interior.
"You—" Xia Ji's face hurt. "Why are you squeezing my face?"
"So soft. Sister, you're soft all over, so warm. Nothing like a corpse."
As he spoke, he squeezed her face even harder, then moved down to pinch her neck. Xia Ji felt like a fish about to be slaughtered on a chopping board. When she saw his hand about to go even lower, she suddenly shouted.
What is this!
"What are you doing?!"
"Feeling how fast your heart beats. What's wrong?"
Who's he trying to fool?
This youth was of unknown origin, and he'd just said she was his woman. Clearly not anything good—probably some lecherous, murderous type. Oh my god, what kind of person was this? He didn't even have basic human decency, eating covered in blood while someone outside vomited, and he didn't feel the slightest disgust.
Oh my god.
What kind of person was this, really?
Even though Xia Ji was a corporate drone repeatedly beaten down by society, she now erupted with tenacious vitality. Her scalp crawled. A person could be killed, but not humiliated!
Xia Ji forcefully rolled over and scrambled away to the side. He didn't stop her.
Xia Ji glared at him with full vigilance, looking at him almost the way one would look at a pervert.
Bathed in the cold moonlight, Xia Ji finally saw his face clearly.
Their eyes met, and she was stunned.
In stark contrast to the terror of someone lacking even basic human decency, this youth had an extraordinarily refined and beautiful face.
He wore black clothes, with shoulder-length black hair loose around him. His face was pale as snow, with phoenix eyes and a delicate nose, beautiful as a poppy, androgynously lovely. But he was too thin, and what should have been a refined, dignified face appeared extremely gloomy and eerily gorgeous. At first glance, his whole bearing was like those eerie porcelain dolls Xia Ji had seen online.
Xia Ji knew he was handsome. The first time she'd seen him, even with his face covered in blood, his beauty couldn't be hidden.
But she'd never imagined that after washing away all the blood and grime, this youth would look like this. And he appeared young—in Xia Ji's original era, based on his age and voice, he'd probably be in high school.
In the eyes of a corporate drone like Xia Ji, he was still a child.
But he lacked basic human decency, eating covered in blood. Wasn't he afraid of infection? Or was he just naturally gifted…
This complex emotion made Xia Ji frown deeply. For a moment, she forgot her fear, until Bujing Nu leaned closer and closer, and only then did Xia Ji snap back to reality. Startled, she scrambled backward like a rabbit.
"Sister, why do you keep staring at me?" Bujing Nu had been staring at her all along too. "The first time you saw me, you kept staring. Why?"
What unreasonable words.
"W-Weren't you the one playing dead in that pile of corpses first? You looked at me first, didn't you?"
"I was sleeping there," Bujing Nu said, seeming to dislike her attempts to evade him. He gripped her wrists with both hands and gave Xia Ji a faint smile. Xia Ji secretly tried to struggle, but couldn't break free in the slightest—his strength was terrifying. "You disturbed me, so of course I looked at you, sister."
What kind of lunatic sleeps in a pile of corpses?
That nauseating feeling surged up again. Chaos—this was definitely a time of chaos, and the person she'd accidentally provoked was a madman within it.
"Why do you always look at me?" He held her wrists, drawing closer and closer. Xia Ji wanted to break free but had absolutely no way to do so. His eerily beautiful face came extremely close, his eyes staring into hers, almost touching.
Xia Ji felt like she was suffocating.
She had never been this close to anyone before. For a moment, she was so frightened she didn't dare breathe.
"Your face turned white again," he said, his breath brushing against her face. There was no smell at all—only the scent of soap. "The first time you stared at me, I found it very strange. No living person has ever dared to stare at me like that."
"Why? Why?" He seemed unable to figure it out, his hands gripping her wrists even tighter. "Sister, why do you always look at me?"
His voice carried a youthful innocence and was very soft. If not for the fact that his grip on her wrists was genuinely painful, this questioning would have seemed as sweet and intimate as a lover's flirtation, with his repeated calls of "sister." But when he called her sister, there was no deliberate teasing—it was simply because Xia Ji was clearly older than him.
It was purely a term of respect.
Xia Ji, questioned and stared at by him, felt her heart race with panic.
No living person has dared to stare at him like that… What did that even mean? Who exactly was he? Sleeping in a pile of corpses, lacking any manners a normal human should have.
It was as if he'd barely had any contact with the living at all.
Although she didn't know why he'd picked her up.
But Xia Ji guessed it must be because he found her interesting, which was why he'd brought her back…
"B-Because… you're too good-looking."
Bujing Nu stared at the woman's brownish pupils.
They were too close. Her trembling, fearful voice seemed to come from within that vivid eyeball.
Bujing Nu stared at her eyes for a long time without making any move.
She was already scared, and now he wasn't even speaking.
Xia Ji endured, and endured, and endured some more. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore: "How much longer are you going to stare at me?"
"Isn't it you who's staring at me?"
Here we go again.
"If you didn't look at me first, how would you know I was looking at you?"
Bujing Nu fell silent again. Xia Ji's forehead was forced against his, their eyes staring into each other's from impossibly close. Xia Ji was about to suffocate when Bujing Nu finally let her go.
He only moved slightly farther away, still gripping her wrists: "Sister, you're so strange."
You're the strange one, okay?
Xia Ji was getting angry now and shot him a glare. He didn't seem to mind: "The Xia family is all dead. Sister woke up and didn't even ask about it?"
Xia Ji: …
She'd almost forgotten!
It did look pretty odd to outsiders—her entire household had been executed, and she woke up without any grief or suicidal despair.
"I-I won't ask. Asking wouldn't help anyway."
Honestly, those relatives of the original body—she'd only spent less than half an hour with them, and they'd clearly treated the original body poorly.
"Oh," Bujing Nu said, having little understanding of familial bonds himself. He leaned in and suddenly hugged Xia Ji tightly. "Sister, you're my woman now, not the Xia family's woman."
Xia Ji: ?
What is he even saying?
"Y-You keep saying I'm your woman. What does that even mean?"
"You're something I picked up, so you're mine."
Before Xia Ji could react, she felt her wrists being bound tighter and tighter. Looking down, she saw he'd produced a hemp rope from who knows where—as if he'd been keeping it in his sleeve all along—and had suddenly tied her wrists together with it.
Xia Ji: ??
"What are you doing?!"
"I'm sleepy and want to sleep. Sister, don't kill me."
As he spoke, he tied Xia Ji's legs up just as simply and quickly. Once that was done, he hugged Xia Ji and lay down on the bed.
Xia Ji: ??
Xia Ji turned her head in disbelief. The youth behind her had already closed his eyes, his overly beautiful face looking as docile as a girl's in that moment. The cold scent of soap on him—whether it was Xia Ji's imagination or not—seemed laced with a faint, chilling smell of blood.
How could Xia Ji possibly sleep?
And with this lunatic, no less.
"I-I won't kill you, really!" Xia Ji had never even killed a fish! How could she possibly dare to kill a person? Heaven as her witness!
"Those idiots in the army said that if you don't tie a woman up, she'll kill you in the middle of the night."
Xia Ji couldn't take it anymore.
"I won't kill you!"
"Liar. What if I die?"
The lunatic was quite fond of his own life. And if you're so fond of your life, why are you eating rice mixed with human blood?
"Then lock me in another room, alright? I'm begging you," Xia Ji couldn't take it anymore. "Holding me like this, I feel uncomfortable all over."
It was too bizarre—sleeping in the same bed as a killer who slept among piles of corpses, being held by him, and this killer was actually afraid she'd get up and kill someone.
"You are my woman, why go to another room?"
He slightly opened one eye, his pitch-black pupils staring at her: "You should stay in bed with me at all times."
Oh my god, what exactly do you want to do with me staying in bed with you all the time? What do you want?
"You—!"
"Sister, so noisy."
Sensing his irritation, Xia Ji angrily shut her mouth, afraid this psycho would give her a hard time in a moment.
Even a salted fish that only moves when poked was too furious to move.
This lunatic.
No matter how strong one's heart, sleep wouldn't come easily.
Xia Ji was starving, her whole body still restrained, while the young man behind her breathed long and even, holding her tightly like a giant doll. Xia Ji suspected she was about to faint from hunger—only then would she actually fall asleep. In the early morning, she was jolted awake again.