The head stared blankly at Yun Ji, who was still piecing his body together, then at his hand scurrying across the floor. Tears instantly gushed forth:
“You’re dead! You’re dead! How dare you toss this venerable one’s hand onto the ground! Such a noble hand deserves to rest upon a golden pedestal, draped with expensive velvet and sprinkled with bamboo-scented gold powder! I’ll kill you!”
Shen Yinshuo watched the head’s meltdown with schadenfreude, remarking to Yun Ji:
“I told you this useless head isn’t worth your attention. He has no concept of gratitude.”
The head’s streaming tears paused mid-fall as he glared furiously at Shen Yinshuo. “Who are you saying lacks gratitude? You’re dead too!”
Shen Yinshuo: “Haha, indeed brainless water vessels love cursing like this. After all, they can only hold water – aside from excessive tears, they have no other talents.”
The head: ?
Yun Ji had been focused on assembling the body and only noticed several seconds later that the head and Shen Yinshuo were quarreling.
To be precise, Shen Yinshuo was delivering 365-degree ancestral grave-digging level insults while the head was having a complete meltdown, launching counterattacks with zero effectiveness – also known as moral victories.
Amid the chaos, Yun Ji shook her head and recalled their earlier exchange. She glanced sideways at the head:
“Awo?”
[Head, aren’t you happy about your body being assembled?]
“Happy? What happiness!” the head wept accusingly. “If you want this venerable one happy, quickly fetch expensive silk and enshrine my hand!”
Yun Ji stared at him for two seconds before suddenly breaking into a radiant grin:
“Awo!”
[Head, it’s fine if you’re not happy! I’m happy enough for both of us. We’re companions – my happiness is your happiness!]
The head choked up, his helpless expression suggesting he was staring at some kind of demon.
Yun Ji continued enthusiastically assembling the body.
Ever since she found this activity of piecing together the head’s body, time seemed to flow faster, making the dark days more bearable.
Noticing the head still glaring at her, she kindly asked: After your body is fully assembled, can I take it apart again?
The head: ?
Yun Ji: [Here’s the thing – this is my first time assembling a human body. If possible, I’d like more practice so I can assemble bodies quickly and accurately later. Then no matter how shattered you become, it won’t matter!]
The head: ???
“How dare you! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! Aaaaah I’ll kill you, I’ll have you torn into thousands of pieces!!!”
Yun Ji: [Silence means consent. Thank you, I knew you were a helpful head.]
The head: ??????
Shen Yinshuo trembled with suppressed laughter.
Eventually he could no longer contain himself and burst into roaring laughter, earning him the head’s misplaced wrath:
“Your father flew away!”
After unknown days traversing the Death Row Prison, Yun Ji’s daily life began to diversify.
First, she acquired two cellmates.
But the two cellmates maintained extremely poor relations, hostile as fire and water.
They basically never spoke, and whenever they did, it escalated into arguments.
The head consistently lost these arguments, consistently wept in her arms, yet couldn’t be comforted – any consolation would make him fly into shame-fueled rage.
His rage typically cycled through three variations: “I’ll kill you,” “You’re dead,” and “This venerable one will make you suffer such and such.”
As for Shen Yinshuo, he seemed to be experiencing hormonal imbalances.
Under normal circumstances, he was quite easy to get along with and would patiently guide her through meditation, but this patience had its limits and wasn’t extended to the human head.
However, he would randomly enter a frenzied state every day. During these episodes, no one could speak to him, or he would unleash a torrent of indiscriminate verbal abuse.
Once his hormones stabilized, he would return to his usual pattern of only directing his tirades at the human head.
Aside from her cellmate, she now had something to occupy her time.
Her Swordplay Cultivation Method was progressing smoothly. As her meditation sessions grew longer, she noticed improvements in both her vision and hearing.
For instance, she used to see less than two meters in dim lighting, but now her night vision had improved to three or four meters.
The enhanced hearing, however, wasn’t entirely beneficial.
She could hear more indistinct rustling sounds in the darkness but couldn’t see what was causing them. If not for the comfort of holding the human head while sleeping each night, which provided some sense of security, she might have suffered from insomnia again.
Her body reconstruction was advancing rapidly, and she had already assembled several internal organs.
While these organs remained docile as scattered flesh fragments, once assembled they would start wandering about.
For example, a heart could sprout numerous fine blood vessels and vanish in the blink of an eye.
The first time Yun Ji saw a runaway heart, she was startled. After repeatedly reassuring herself this was normal, she could now chase after hearts without batting an eye.
Finally, she found joy in singing.
Shen Yinshuo initially asked if she was practicing some Magical Art, wondering why he’d never heard such incantations before. After learning she was simply singing, he became a silent audience member.
The human head, however, was anything but silent. Whenever she sang, it would sob mournfully, looking utterly miserable and victimized.
She doubted the head was crying from appreciation.
Yet the head never complained about her singing being unpleasant, nor did it try to stop her.
What a wonderful head indeed.
She picked up the head and rubbed against it affectionately, like cuddling a cat.
The head seemed momentarily stunned, then flushed with what might have been either embarrassment or anger: “Stop rubbing against me! I forbid you from doing that!”
She paid no heed.
As for the Guard…
He seemed to have developed an illness where hearing her sing triggered compulsive cooking.
The longer she sang, the more food he prepared, even increasing the vegetable portions until the greens matched the pallor of his face.
Though unsure why the Guard appeared somewhat haggard, she felt grateful for his kindness and decided to repay him by adding a couple more songs to her repertoire.
Setting aside the Guard’s mental state for now, today he arrived as usual but didn’t leave immediately after delivering the meal.
Yun Ji looked up at him in confusion.
Normally, the Guard would act like a mouse spotting a cat upon seeing the human head in her arms, desperately keeping his distance and fleeing after setting down the food without even uttering a word.
What was different today?
The Guard still didn’t dare look at the head, but merely being under its gaze made his knees instinctively weak, though he couldn’t simply run away.
Crossing his arms and straining to lift his head, he seemed to be using this exaggerated posture to bolster his courage.
The head rolled its eyes disdainfully and soon shifted attention to Yun Ji’s hands, wary of her suddenly feeding it something.
From Yun Ji’s angle, she had a perfect view of the Guard’s nostrils.
She couldn’t help but chuckle. The head immediately turned to look at her face, then cast a peculiar glance at the Guard.
The guard, suddenly laughed at, stiffened his expression, his handsome face instantly frozen in awkwardness. With great effort, he managed to utter dryly, “Stop laughing. I have something to tell you.”
Seeing Yun Ji nod and look at him seriously, he continued:
“In a few days, I can leave for a while to purchase some items. You can think over the next couple of days if there’s anything you need or want to eat. I’ll buy it for you when I go out, but note—no weapons or Magical Artifacts are allowed.”
As he spoke, even his eyes, shadowed by heavy dark circles, seemed to hold a glimmer of hope.
For some reason, Yun Ji was growing increasingly mad, even shouting every night in eerie, haunting tunes.
Could you imagine? While he was fast asleep, his ears were filled with mournful, piercing ghostly wails, echoing in a three-dimensional surround sound, relentlessly looping in his mind: “I’m hungry,” “I’m so hungry,” “Food.”
He felt that if Yun Ji continued to go mad like this, he would be the next to lose his sanity.
Giving her the Soul Lamp hadn’t made Yun Ji any better—so what if he gave her something else?
Coincidentally, it was time for him to go out and buy necessities. This time, he planned to stock up on meat and vegetables to prepare new meals for Yun Ji, and he could also help her buy anything she might want.
Perhaps if he gave Yun Ji what she needed, her madness would lessen a bit?
The guard held onto this hopeful wish.