The mouse lay crouched low against the ground, as though it were searching for something. It darted back and forth, moving restlessly, visibly anxious. Lu Xiao followed its line of movement with his eyes and soon discovered a smaller mouse.
It was barely clinging to life.
Mice were creatures known for their resilience and vitality, so easy to survive and yet, even they could have moments of such fragility?
Lu Xiao stepped forward. Since it was clearly on its last legs, he thought it would be better to toss it outside. Perhaps out there, it might still find something to eat and manage to survive but the closer Lu Xiao moved, the more agitated the larger mouse became, circling anxiously around the smaller one. It had clearly picked up on the dangerous aura emanating from Lu Xiao and was reacting instinctively.
“This mouse,” Lu Xiao muttered under his breath, “it actually understands loyalty and attachment. Much better than that old bastard of an emperor.”
He grumbled quietly, not caring whether Qian Shengke could hear him or not. Qian Shengke was staring at him in a rather sneaky, probing manner but Lu Xiao simply pretended not to notice. Even if he could feel that scorching gaze burning into his back, well, what normal person had eyes growing out of the back of their butt anyway?
“Brother Xianguan,” Lu Xiao called out, “where are those wooden racks you made? I want to use them to clamp these and take them out, clear up a cleaner space.”
What he really meant was that he needed a pair of fire tongs. The Qian residence had just about everything but somehow, the kitchen didn’t even have fire tongs. He could only borrow a wooden tool from Li Xianguan instead. Grabbing a mouse with his bare hands? Lu Xiao admitted he didn’t yet have that kind of courage.
Li Xianguan looked somewhat reluctant but he still obediently handed the tool over.
“Here, Xiao. You don’t have to return it after you’re done,” he said. After all, once that piece of wood had clamped onto a mouse, Li Xianguan had no desire to touch it again. Even as a grown man, when faced with these creatures from the inner household, he still felt nothing but disdain.
Lu Xiao accepted the tongs. Turning his head, he prepared to act quickly and grab the mouse but it was gone.
The spot where the mouse had been was now stained with a patch of dark color. Lu Xiao hesitated briefly before stepping closer.
This was… blood?
But he hadn’t done anything yet and he had never intended to kill the mouse. Given everything that had happened before, Lu Xiao wondered if he was experiencing memory disorientation again. He asked Chen Yue’er uncertainly.
“Yue’er, there were two mice here just now, right?”
“Yeah,” she replied casually. “What’s wrong? Did they disappear? They’re just mice, running all over the place is perfectly normal.”
Chen Yue’er was busy feeding water to Qian Jinye and had little attention to spare for Lu Xiao. They didn’t have much water to begin with. They had been drinking the fresh water they brought with them but it simply wasn’t enough. That was why they eventually followed Qian Shengke’s suggestion and purified the water using white pearls.
Speaking of which, it was strange. Those white pearls seemed good for everything, lighting, health nourishment, even purification. With such versatile benefits, it was hard to believe they were something sinister.
She was fully occupied, with no time to address Lu Xiao’s minor concerns. Lu Xiao scratched his head as well. Mice did indeed run around everywhere but that small mouse had been on the verge of death. Could the larger mouse really have carried it off? And how was he supposed to explain the pool of blood on the ground?
A terrible thought crept into Lu Xiao’s mind. What if the larger mouse had considered the smaller one a burden and…
Lu Xiao shook his head hard, forcing the thought away. He returned the tongs to Li Xianguan and began searching the area instead.
He refused to believe that the mouse could hide that well. He refused to believe that there were truly no more secrets left in this room.
Qian Shengke, on the other hand, appeared quite relaxed, looking after Qian Jinye together with Chen Yue’er. In addition to the pearls used for purification, he even fed Qian Jinye some pearl powder. Lu Xiao felt a bit uncomfortable watching this but Qian Shengke was, after all, Qian Jinye’s biological older brother, there was no reason to believe he would harm him.
“Xiao, do you hear anything?”
Li Xianguan suddenly spoke up from where he was leaning against the wall, resting. His hearing had always been exceptionally sharp. Closing his eyes only made the sounds clearer. Hearing this, Lu Xiao also closed his eyes.
A sound? Was there a sound? No, there was.
Rustle, rustle. Squeak, squeak.
It was the sound of mice and also…
Crack, crunch, bones breaking, being crushed and chewed.
Where was it coming from?
Under the stove.
Lu Xiao rushed over, quickly lighting some firewood and throwing it beneath the stove. He didn’t dare gamble. He had to believe that whatever was under there was no longer a mouse but a monster, a monster that would gnaw on its own blood kin.
“Squeak!”
A shrill shriek tore through the air, the piercing cry filling the entire kitchen. Lu Xiao clutched his ears. It felt as though knives were stabbing into his eardrums again and again, causing him immense pain. This mouse or whatever it was, was truly a vicious thing.
A rumbling noise came from beneath the stove. Lu Xiao slowly retreated, staying on guard, wary of the monster that could erupt in fury at any moment.
With a loud crash, the stove shattered.
Before Lu Xiao and the others appeared a massive clam shell.
A mouse? A mouse was jammed inside the shell, half its body exposed, its head was already gone.
The clam shell opened and closed intermittently and the faint chewing sounds they had heard earlier now became unmistakably clear. Right before their eyes, a clam shell was eating a mouse but clams clearly had no teeth, so why did it produce such bone crushing sounds?
Judging from its size, it was unmistakably the larger mouse from earlier. It must have eaten the smaller one first and now it had been caught itself.
Just what on earth was this clam shell?
“Watch out!”
Chen Yue’er shouted a warning. Li Xianguan lunged forward and shoved Lu Xiao out of the way just as the clam shell charged straight at them, utterly reckless, like a falling meteor crashing down from the sky.
It nearly cost Lu Xiao his life.
Lu Xiao swallowed hard, lingering fear still choking his throat. If that thing had slammed into him, let alone him, even a burly man like Li Xianguan would have stood little chance.
“Xiao, are you alright? It’s a good thing Yue’er reacted so quickly! If I hadn’t pushed you away just now, you’d already be dead!”
Staring at Lu Xiao, who was clearly still shaken, Li Xianguan felt both anger and frustration at his helplessness. He raised a hand and lightly slapped Lu Xiao’s cheek. “Snap out of it. Snap out of it! Use that clever brain of yours and think, what are we supposed to do about this thing?”
Lu Xiao thought bitterly that it was already a blessing that his head was still attached. Before he could retort, he saw the massive clam shell move again. It fell from the wall and crashed heavily onto the floor.
The Qian family had never been stingy with materials. Even an ordinary kitchen was built with components several times sturdier than those used in common households yet now, it was impossible to tell what material it had once been, everything had shattered into fragments.
Earlier, the corpse of the large mouse stuck outside the clam shell had smashed into the wall, bursting apart on impact. A hole had been blasted into the wall, the inside splattered with gore, clearly the exploded blood of that large mouse. It sprayed everywhere. Li Xianguan was still wiping his face when Lu Xiao noticed a long streak of it smeared across his cheek.
Lu Xiao felt deeply uncomfortable. His stomach churned violently, as if eight Nezhas were raging inside his gut. He hadn’t eaten anything yet nausea surged relentlessly. He turned his head aside and retched, finally vomiting a bit of sour liquid. His knees went weak and he couldn’t even stand.
But not standing wasn’t an option, the clam shell was moving again.
“Xiao, get out of the way! Something’s wrong with this blood. I feel exhausted all of a sudden, I don’t have the strength to push you away anymore!”
Lu Xiao was very familiar with that preparatory motion. It had been just like this before, after that brief buildup, the clam shell had suddenly charged. It was winding up again and there was no way to tell exactly when it would lunge.
Lu Xiao held his breath, focusing intently on every movement of the clam shell. Left. Right. Like a cat twisting its hips before a sprint, the motion grew faster and faster, then came an abrupt pause.
Now!
He leaped to the left. Li Xianguan was on his right. Just as Lu Xiao had predicted, the clam shell hesitated for a split second before lunging toward Lu Xiao instead, completely bypassing Li Xianguan.
Lu Xiao’s lips curled up slightly. Good. Its target was him.
He rolled across the ground and once again the clam shell slammed into empty space. It seemed to grow irritated, struggling to free itself from the wall with increasing urgency. Unfortunately, it had embedded itself too deeply, ramming in too hard, there was no pulling it out. The shell itself began to take on a faint reddish tint. It truly looked enraged.
Lu Xiao couldn’t care less whether it was angry or not. He shot Chen Yue’er a meaningful glance, signaling her to keep Li Xianguan safe. They were all ordinary people, if any of them were struck by that clam shell, death would be instantaneous.
Even though Lu Xiao had transmigrated into this world and even though “it” had taken an interest in him, he had no intention of gambling with his life. Death might occasionally make exceptions for him but it was never merciful. The suffocating terror and despair, that sensation would not be reduced in the slightest.
Strange.
How did he know so clearly what death felt like?
Chen Yue’er immediately pulled Li Xianguan back to a safer spot. After hesitating for a moment, she still accepted the white pearl powder that Qian Shengke handed over and poured it into Li Xianguan’s mouth.
“Yue’er, Brother Qian, take care of our fighting strength. I’ll hold it off.”
After only a brief pause, Lu Xiao adjusted his state of mind. Of course he knew what death felt like. He had transmigrated after dying from sudden cardiac death, how could he not know?
Before all this, Lu Xiao had been nothing more than an ordinary college student, someone who couldn’t lift heavy things or exert much physical strength. Even passing physical fitness tests each semester was a struggle. Now, facing this monstrous clam shell, all he could do was dodge and evade, buying time until Li Xianguan recovered enough to help subdue it.
But at this point, their losses were already severe. It was still unclear whether the white pearl powder could even restore Li Xianguan.
He had to drag this out. Even if it meant risking his life, he had to hold on.
“Hey, big clam shell, what’s wrong? Can’t do it anymore?” Lu Xiao taunted, pulling a face full of mockery. “I can dodge you without even trying. Is this really all you monsters are capable of? You’re worse than a crazed dog outside, at least that can still bite someone.”
In truth, Lu Xiao wasn’t entirely sure whether the clam shell could understand him but it could lock onto targets with precision, it clearly possessed some basic intelligence. If it could track his position, then it must have some form of vision or hearing.
It didn’t matter. He layered on both verbal and physical provocation, fully determined to enrage it and, just as expected, the clam shell embedded in the wall suddenly went berserk, writhing madly before slamming heavily onto the ground once again.
Lu Xiao instantly went on high alert, bracing himself for the third collision.
But the clam shell didn’t move.
Instead, it trembled subtly, emitting strange sounds, almost like the noises of a mouse but hadn’t all the mice already been eaten by it?
As that thought crossed his mind, the clam shell opened wide and released another piercing shriek.
“Chii! chii!”
For what felt like the nth time, Lu Xiao’s eardrums were assaulted. He clamped his hands over his ears in pain, just as the clam shell charged again.
It’s over, Lu Xiao thought. This version of me is finished right here.
He shut his eyes, praying only that the pain would end quickly.
“Clang!”
A sharp sword struck against the clam shell, wedging itself firmly between its gaping jaws. A pair of eyes burned crimson with resolve, icy breath spilling from parted lips. Facing the clam shell head on, the figure took the full force of its charge.
It was Qian Jinye.
He had gotten up.
When had he stood?
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
The magical Realm runs on stories, chaos, and suspicious amounts of coffee.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · The beginning of the tragedyChapter 2 · Don’t forgetChapter 3 · Look at it directlyChapter 4 · Whom are you trying to seduce?Chapter 5 · TeaseChapter 6 · Sleeping in the same bedChapter 7 · Internal locksChapter 8 · Tampering The rules…Chapter 9 · Black LotusChapter 10 · FledglingChapter 11 · There are no horses in the stable.Chapter 12 · Water-oil separationChapter 13 · The cost of backtrackingChapter 14 · It got biggerChapter 15 · Was it a mouse?Chapter 16 · Too fieryChapter 17 · Administer medicineChapter 18 · Tracing the PearlChapter 19 · A KissChapter 20 · Ge, Kiss meChapter 21 · Ten Thousand Deaths Without RegretChapter 22 · Endless CorridorChapter 23 · CowardChapter 24 · GoodbyeChapter 25 · Back toChapter 26 · It’s is me, Not MeChapter 27 · VictimChapter 28 · Crossed CupsChapter 29 · IntuitionChapter 30 · ChangeChapter 31 · DifferentChapter 32 · ErrorChapter 33 · Mind Your Own BusinessChapter 34 · WanderingChapter 35 · EmbraceChapter 36 · LoveChapter 37 · UnrestrainedChapter 38 · Asking Over a DrinkChapter 39 · As BeforeChapter 40 · SatiatedChapter 41 · A Change in the WindsChapter 42 · A’SuChapter 43 · Welcoming the BrideChapter 44 · GossipChapter 45 · WeaknessChapter 46 · Wedding NightChapter 47 · Brother QingChapter 48 · FadingChapter 49 · Lying LowChapter 50 · CaressChapter 51 · OnceChapter 52 · The Hidden PassageChapter 53 · MotherChapter 54 · FlawlessChapter 55 · ProphecyChapter 56 · EtherealChapter 57 · DecipheringChapter 58 · The TrapChapter 59 · Stone StatueChapter 60 · ChessChapter 61 · AssassinsChapter 62 · The National Preceptor?Chapter 63 · Please return my belongings to me.Chapter 64 · I’m not that desperate.Chapter 65 · No wayChapter 66 · No turning backChapter 67 · I told you, get out of the wayChapter 68 · Still became a monsterChapter 69 · Let’s end thisChapter 70 · Why do you look so much like him?Chapter 71 · One wanted to kill, two stopped himChapter 72 · Unless, the people at Mingzhu Academy are keeping it from himChapter 73 · FraudChapter 74 · Don’t look back, Lu XiaoChapter 75 · It’s coldChapter 76 · Kill MeChapter 77 · We are even marriedChapter 78 · Gege… I Love YouChapter 79 · “It” had arrivedChapter 80 · Wake Up!Chapter 81 · How Nostalgic….Chapter 82 · You already Promised meChapter 83 · Their TerritoryChapter 84 · Jokes were JokesChapter 85 · What you dream was realChapter 86 · Did you cry?Chapter 87 · What’s wrong, young Master?Chapter 88 · No, I only ever said it to youChapter 89 · Honey, Please let me go.Chapter 90 · What are you pretending to be, a gentleman?Chapter 91 · It’s just a shoddy trick to fool people, but I like it anywayChapter 92 · Ge, I did it voluntarily, it’s no useChapter 93 · You little BratChapter 94 · Gege~ please have mercyChapter 95 · Hearing Lu Xiao come in, he patted the seat next to himChapter 96 · Stop fooling around, let me kiss youChapter 97 · “I want…” “Want what?”Chapter 98 · Gege, watch closely how I get youChapter 99 · Little Eleven, how about we talk to ‘it’ first?Chapter 100 · Had it gone mad?Chapter 101 · I will make my decisionChapter 102 · Tsk, how indecentChapter 103 · You are the creator of my original worldChapter 104 · The world is not your toy, go back to where you came fromChapter 105 · He was a boy with snow-white hair and a handsome faceChapter 106 · Haven’t seen you for a long timeChapter 107 · TYRBL Extra: 1Chapter 108 · TYRBL Extra: 2Chapter 109 · TYRBL Extra: 3Chapter 110 · TYRBL Extra: 4