Amelia stayed.
After he presented the flowers, Yuzhi pulled her older brother over to a corner to discuss it thoroughly.
The succubus’s excellent hearing heard the conversation, which was not too far away, completely and clearly.
Yuzhi: “Brother, letting him stay might not be a bad thing, he doesn’t seem like a bad person.”
Yu Heng: “Bad people aren’t things you can tell by looking with your eyes. He is very likely someone who escaped from the laboratory, he is an ability user, and he will bring trouble.”
Yuzhi: “But… perhaps he knows how to grow flowers, I haven’t seen anyone who knows how to grow flowers in a very long time.”
As if triggering some keyword, Yu Heng remained silent for a long time before saying, “If he causes any trouble, I will definitely throw him out.”
Yuzhi let out a cheer, shouting one after the other that her brother was the best, then rushed over to Amelia and announced the good news: “You can stay!”
“Thank you, Yuzhi.”
Amelia smiled at her.
He was not surprised; this was within expectations.
The moment he handed over that bouquet of flowers, the charm had already quietly taken effect, boosting Yuzhi’s favorability toward him.
Yuzhi, who held favorable feelings for him, would also want more to help him fulfill his wish, meaning she would help him stay.
Having such a result was completely normal.
Unfortunately, the emotions generated by charm or hypnosis usually could not be eaten.
It was just like imagining a delicious feast in the air; what one ate in the end was still just air. Even the favorability toward him could not serve as food.
A succubus could only feed on emotions naturally generated by humans, which truly was a sorrowful fact for a demon.
Amelia stared at Yuzhi, yearning endlessly for the positive emotions bouncing off her, and even faintly heard his own stomach growling. He couldn’t help asking, “Yuzhi, can you share a little…”
Before he could finish speaking, a wave of dizziness abruptly surged upward.
He had no time to resist, and following the instinct of self-preservation, he closed his eyes and fell backward.
“Amelia, what’s wrong with you!”
Yuzhi’s exclamation rang in his ears, but Amelia was unable to answer her, wanting to say he was simply hungry to the point of entering a dormant phase… Hopefully, during the time he passed out, Yuzhi wouldn’t go back on her word and dump him in some strange place.
“Thud ” The moment he collapsed back to the ground, consciousness disconnected from his body once again.
Yuzhi stood beside the passed-out Amelia, not daring to touch him rashly, and turned to her brother watching from not far away: “Brother, what should I do? Is he sick?”
Yu Heng walked over, made sure this wasn’t a feigned symptom, and conducted a simple check before quickly giving a conclusion: “Starved unconscious.”
Yuzhi: “Eh?”
Waking up the next day, Amelia was provided with a bed to sleep on and a portion of relief food.
“Our house doesn’t have any extra rooms.” Yuzhi explained why he had to sleep on the sofa in the living room.
Yuzhi’s house was remodeled from a storefront, with a kitchen, restroom, and living room on the first floor; Yuzhi and Yu Heng’s rooms as well as a storage room on the second floor; and a flat roof on the third floor. Additionally, there was a small-to-medium backyard.
Because space was not large, the living room also served as a dining room. Two gray fabric sofas and a square table placed in the middle were where they usually ate.
Now there was an added third long black sofa belonging to Amelia, placed against the side of the wall.
Yuzhi was quite proud when introducing the sofa: “My brother fixed this. It used to be all tattered with three or four big holes, completely unusable, and my brother fixed it in just a single day, isn’t that amazing?”
“Mm-mm,” Amelia responded vaguely and haphazardly, quickly swallowing the unpalatable relief food to fill his stomach a little before pondering what she had said.
If not for having signed contracts with those children in advance and getting a small amount of emotional replenishment when he passed out this time, he would have nearly slipped into hibernation.
Falling into hibernation required at least a decade or eight years to wake up, and his situation might become even more difficult then.
Amelia casually touched the texture of the sofa; it wasn’t very soft and didn’t feel particularly special, certainly incomparable to his hometown dwelling, but it was much better than the ground or the dungeon, qualifying as the best accommodation condition so far.
Only…
He looked at Yuzhi and blinked, “Can I sleep with you?”
A succubus’s method of feeding on emotions was very simple: as long as the other party did not deliberately resist or prove unable to resist, the emotions could be consumed through physical contact.
Sleeping together with Yuzhi would allow him to unassumingly consume a bit of emotion and slowly fill his stomach.
“You…”
Hearing this, Yuzhi widened her eyes and took three or four hurried steps backward.
Retreating out of Amelia’s reach, she looked at him with disbelief, “Of course not, I don’t want to have children with you!”
Seeing her react with such strong resistance, Amelia was somewhat puzzled: “I don’t plan on having children with you… I just want to sleep together.”
“You didn’t know?”
Yuzhi looked a bit suspicious, and seeing that Amelia truly wore a baffled expression, her face flushed red as she tried hard to explain to him,
“Brother said, sleeping together alone after the age of twelve will result in children, we, we can’t sleep together!”
“Eh?” Amelia froze.
Were humans a species that would produce children just by sleeping together?
This differed somewhat from his understanding of humans; could it be a difference specific to the humans of this world?
A person struck by charm ought not to lie to him.
Yet what if this was erroneous common sense?
Seeing that Amelia didn’t seem to believe it, Yuzhi hurriedly pulled Yu Heng out of the kitchen, “Brother, tell me, isn’t it true that sleeping together alone produces children?”
Yu Heng paused for a moment, immediately realizing something, and stared coldly at Amelia before spitting out a single word: “Yes.”
“See, my brother said so too.” Yuzhi slightly lifted her chin.
At this, Amelia genuinely began considering the possibility of having children.
If a child were truly born, he would have to raise them… But right now he had no conditions for raising a child and definitely couldn’t raise one well.
The balance between food and nurturing wavered uncertainly, and Amelia gradually dismissed the idea, sighing, “I won’t sleep with Yuzhi…”
Before Yu Heng’s brow had even furrowed, he heard the next sentence from this white-haired little ghost,
“Can I sleep with you?”
“What?” For a split second, he suspected whether this fellow’s brain had been soaked and ruined by water.
“Can I sleep with you?” Amelia looked at him with utter seriousness, “We won’t have children if we sleep together.”
Since he couldn’t consume emotions, making do by exchanging bodily fluids to trade for magic power would also work, surely men couldn’t have children with men in this world… The little succubus was brimming with righteous confidence.
Yu Heng stared at this uninvited guest who had even set his sights on them, curving his lips into a cold smile: “You think men can’t have children with men?”
“Could it be…” Amelia read the implication within those words and instinctively looked toward Yuzhi.
Yuzhi nodded somewhat heavily, “I heard there is a technology in the Northern Territory that can let boys and boys have children too. You need to protect yourself well too, Amelia.”
A technology that even dark wizards couldn’t conquer had already been realized by the people of this world?
Amelia was shocked and relieved. He suddenly realized that if this world allowed men to give birth to children with men, then if anyone had agreed to his request for magic replenishment earlier, wouldn’t he have a pile of children by now?
That kind of scenario… truly terrifying.
He secretly resolved never casually engage in final-stage magic replenishment with humans.
However, with things turning out this way, the matter had returned to the starting point, he was still going to go hungry.
Perhaps starved to the limit, he would lose his sanity and recklessly treat all these humans as food to replenish magic, consequently ending up with many children.
Ultimately, he would become the first succubus to starve to death because he couldn’t afford to raise kids.
Thinking of this, Amelia wilted entirely, “I understand, I’ll sleep by myself.”
He wrapped himself up in the thin quilt, cocooning his entire body inside, turning his back to Yuzhi and the others, curling up as if he could escape reality this way.
That appearance looked rather pitiful, as though he had lost a certain hope and lacked any motivation to live.
Yuzhi couldn’t bear to watch… Amelia must have suffered quite a bit of torment in the laboratory previously, which was why he lacked basic common sense, and now discovering the world wasn’t what he had imagined, he suffered a huge impact and found it hard to accept reality all at once.
She stepped closer, trying to comfort him: “Amelia, are you okay?”
“Not okay, I’m about to starve to death.” The youth’s muffled voice came from inside the quilt, sounding somewhat aggrieved, “I haven’t eaten my fill in a long time.”
“Th-, then I’ll go get you something more to eat.” Thinking he was turning sorrow into hunger, Yuzhi turned to head to the kitchen for food.
Yu Heng glanced at his younger sister: “Zhi-Zhi, he just ate a portion of relief food.”
“But…” Yuzhi hesitated somewhat, “He starved unconscious earlier.”
Yu Heng’s tone was cold: “There are plenty of people in the Abandoned District whose complexions are worse than his.”
Yuzhi also recalled that clean, fair face, and her movements slowed down considerably.
Amelia grew irritated hearing this, and muffled an explanation: “This is just a habit, just like humans insisting on wearing clothes, and succubus insisting on staying clean, what’s wrong with that?”
Succubus, this word only represented a profession in the Abandoned District.
The brother and sister exchanged glances.
They fancied they understood the origin of Amelia’s unreasonable common sense.
If Amelia had fallen into the red-light district after escaping from the laboratory and become a succubus there, it would make sense for him to lack concepts regarding chastity.
The terrifying aspect of the red-light district was that once trapped within it, one would not only slowly and unconsciously accept abnormal values, but also completely fail to notice their own fallen state, resembling a swamp wrapped in sugar-coated bullets until waking up only when truly submerged.
Living in the Abandoned District, they had witnessed quite a few people who went deranged after finally escaping the red-light district.
Yuzhi’s understanding of the red-light district was built on descriptions by Yu Heng and others. She knew it was a hell where bodies were sold, but she didn’t know what specific experiences it entailed, leaving her not knowing how to start with comfort.
She placed the food on the table, looked at Amelia curled up in a ball, and hesitated to speak: “Amelia, actually…”
Before she could finish, Yu Heng walked over to the black sofa, suddenly yanked the quilt away, exposing Amelia’s bewildered face inside.
Yuzhi was stunned: “Brother?”
Amelia looked up blankly.
The black-haired human in front of him already possessed an adult’s physique, tall and slender, with broad shoulders and long legs, blocking most of the light the moment he stepped over.
Right now, he was looking down and scrutinizing him with a pair of cold grayish-green eyes.
“How many times have you slept with others?”
Thin, pale lips parted and closed, spitting out words he couldn’t understand.
“What?”
Amelia could clearly see Yu Heng’s face from this angle.
Yu Heng’s black hair reached his neck, often veering over his eyes and exuding a gloomy vibe. He hadn’t examined him closely before.
Looking closely now, he discovered this person wasn’t bad-looking.
The contour lines were distinct, dark brows shaped like swords slanting toward the temples.
Right below his grayish-green eyes on both sides were a pair of symmetrical moles.
Only, his overly sharp gaze made him seem somewhat unapproachable, and right now this sharpness was directed straight at him.
Yu Heng glanced at Yuzhi, frowned slightly, and rephrased his question: “You escaped after getting sick?”
Combining the sentences before and after, Amelia understood.
He glared at Yu Heng: “You’re the one who’s sick. The people here are simply unwilling to sleep with me.” Mentioning this, he even felt somewhat depressed.
Yu Heng’s gaze swept over Amelia’s obviously slender frame, and realization dawned immediately.
He turned around to grab a spray bottle and sprayed a mist all over Amelia’s body.
“Cough cough, what are you doing?” Amelia covered his mouth and coughed, greatly disliking the strange odor in the water.
“Disinfecting.” Yu Heng walked away after spraying.
Yuzhi felt somewhat puzzled: “Brother, didn’t we already disinfect him once before?”
“Just in case.”
“What’s so great about it, they don’t even touch me at all.” Amelia complained, suddenly noticing they didn’t look surprised, “You guys know the reason?”
Yu Heng: “District C chief’s rule: prohibiting moves against minors.”
Yuzhi half-understood their topic and nodded along: “Yeah, so if anyone snatches our things or attacks us casually, they’ll have bad luck.”
Humans always loved making all kinds of boring rules, far too troublesome.
Amelia turned his head unhappily, catching sight of several pieces of bread on the table, his stomach timely emitting a few rumbling sounds.
“Because of this rule, I haven’t eaten my full in a long time.” He looked on the verge of tears.
Yuzhi quickly glanced at her expressionless older brother not far away, and seeing no obvious sign of objection, hurried to push the bread in front of him, also bringing a bottle of water.
“You eat.”
“I can’t eat my fill…” Amelia was speaking the truth.
To him, the energy food provided was far too low; this bit of food could barely support him staying awake, completely lacking any surplus for activities.
“Our food isn’t much either.” Yuzhi shook her head, “Amelia, you have to find a job to support yourself.”
A succubus going out to work to support himself… simply disgraceful to demons.
Yet between losing face and losing his life, Amelia would choose the former without hesitation.
“I understand, thank you.”
He picked up the bread and ate quietly for a moment before suddenly asking, “Who is the most powerful person in the Abandoned District?”
Yu Heng paused his movements, turning his head to look at him.
Amelia ignored the probing gaze behind him, awaiting Yuzhi’s answer.
Although Yuzhi found it strange why he would ask this, she still provided the answer after pondering for a moment: “The Abandoned District has four districts: A, B, C, and D, and the chief of each district is very powerful. If you ask me, the chief of our district is still the most powerful. Back then, he suppressed the entire district relying on himself alone and forcibly demanded the implementation of new rules.”
Her eyes shone brightly: “Because our chief was the first to implement the ban against harming children, the remaining three districts subsequently rolled out different bans, so our chief is definitely the most powerful, right?”
So the ban originated from this.
“Suppressing an entire district by himself… He must not be an ordinary person.” Amelia was thoughtful.
“That’s right.” Yuzhi nodded, “People say he’s a Level 2 anomaly, very powerful.”
Anomaly.
Amelia swallowed the last bite of bread and asked softly, “What is an anomaly?”
Could this be the ability user the archdemon wanted him to find?