Zhou Nan's Request

Qin Luming put down the entrenching shovel. If Ma Shilong was still human, Qin Luming would not attack him.

If Ma Shilong was not human, but some kind of ghostly creature, the entrenching shovel would be useless anyway.

"Come with me."

Ma Shilong looked once more at Che Yun, who stood in the middle of the distant camp with a haggard face, then spoke to Qin Luming.

Watching Ma Shilong head toward a secluded, deserted spot, Qin Luming hesitated. He cautiously brushed his arms, awakening Zuozuo and Caicai's powers, before following Ma Shilong.

They walked more than a hundred meters down the mountain. In the distance, they could see the reserve force camped at the foot of the mountain, brightly lit. Before long, more people summoned again by Fang Datong would arrive there.

Ma Shilong stood atop a rock, looking around with an air of desolation in his heart. His Givenchy long-sleeved shirt, Gucci satin trousers, and Nike swoosh sneakers put him on the trendy-brand route, like many overweight people who lacked a handsome bearing when dressed.

The first time Qin Luming had met Ma Shilong, he had been wearing this exact outfit. Qin Luming studied his back, staying wary.

"We meet again." Ma Shilong's voice carried a trace of sighing in the night wind, trembling slightly and trailing off melodiously.

"It's good that you didn't die," Qin Luming replied. So many things were unexpected chain reactions... If Ma Shilong had known back then that abandoning My Wife Is the Empress of Zhou would bring Zhou Nan here, who knew whether he would still have dared to abandon it.

"I died. I was just reborn afterward." Ma Shilong turned to look at Qin Luming, revealing an incredulous smile. "I never expected reincarnation to be real."

"You were reborn as yourself?" Qin Luming found it equally unbelievable. "What kind of reincarnation is that... At most, you got knocked unconscious and woke up again."

"No."

"Hm?"

"The day I met you, I really did die. Then when I woke up... I had been reborn as a pig. The Big Black Pig you met these past two days... yeah, that was me." Ma Shilong let out a long breath and patted his chest. "Sigh, life has been too comfortable lately. I've gained weight again, and these clothes are starting to look tight."

"Wait... Brother Ma, that pig really was you? No wonder I felt strangely familiar the moment I saw it." Qin Luming did not know whether to laugh or cry, but it would have been rude to actually laugh. After all, the victim was standing right in front of him. The man had already become a pig.

"Do you think I'm unlucky? Pitiful? Do you pity me?" Ma Shilong asked with a smile.

Qin Luming hurriedly shook his head, mindful of Ma Shilong's feelings.

"Actually, I think being a pig is pretty good. Even if I had the chance to become human again, I wouldn't accept it." Ma Shilong spoke seriously.

Qin Luming froze. Brother, did your brain turn into a pig brain too? Then again, his entire body had become a pig, so of course his brain was a pig brain too.

"I know it's hard for you humans to understand... But after I truly became a pig, I found that my way of thinking had changed too. I began viewing the world from a pig's perspective." Ma Shilong looked at Qin Luming with understanding, narrating as though he were telling one of his novels. "I walked through grasslands and tasted the juicy sweetness of tender shoots. I ran through shallow streams and played with fish. I rolled in mud until my whole body felt wonderfully refreshed. I ran beneath the setting sun, often remembering how decadent I had been while staying shut up at home. I lived amicably with the animals of the mountains and forests, resonating harmoniously with them in spirit and language. I chewed fresh fruit and fertilized the trees with the dung I excreted..."

"Wait, wait... Brother Ma." Even someone like Qin Luming, with an exceptionally strong ability to accept abnormal events, felt shaken to the core upon hearing Ma Shilong calmly recount his life as a pig. He was so stunned that he could barely stand steady.

Ma Shilong looked at Qin Luming with a gentle smile, making Qin Luming feel as though some sage who had suddenly attained enlightenment was looking upon a dull-witted Qin Luming still wandering lost in confusion.

You fucking just turned into a pig. Don't act like you've become Buddha, okay? Qin Luming shook his head, refusing Ma Shilong's attempt to enlighten him.

Qin Luming now felt that when Ma Shilong had first appeared as a pig and asked him to become one too, it had not been out of great malice. Ma Shilong genuinely thought being a pig was quite nice.

"After I became a pig, my perspective changed, my thoughts changed, my values changed, even my sense of beauty changed... I was no longer interested in human women... But then..."

"Brother Ma, please stop." Qin Luming knew what he was about to say. He truly could not listen anymore.

"Don't you want to experience it for yourself?" Ma Shilong asked regretfully. He had once been human, after all, and so he still had the urge to confide in humans. But after saying it all, Ma Shilong felt that he had no regrets left.

"No. Absolutely not. Definitely not. Not even if I die." Important things were said three times, but something this serious had to be said four times. Qin Luming also took several steps back.

"All right. Since you went out of your way to come to my house and warn me that day, I won't forcibly turn you into one of my kind." Ma Shilong nodded somewhat proudly. Humans were always this foolish, believing themselves superior to other species and looking down on other races.

"Brother Ma, I have a question. I'm not sure whether I should ask it."

"Generally speaking, if you're not sure whether you should ask, then don't. But go ahead."

"How did you become a pig? Zhou Nan?" Qin Luming quickly asked. This was the best opportunity to learn about Zhou Nan.

If anyone in this world understood Zhou Nan best, it should be Ma Shilong. After all, Zhou Nan was a character he had created.

"Yes. She captured me and took me to her palace, making me finish My Wife Is the Empress of Zhou according to her ideas and plans. But it had been ten years. I had completely lost the feeling for writing that book..." Ma Shilong frowned, revealing a pained expression.

It seemed that being a pig was not entirely free of worries. Seeing that even after turning into a pig, Ma Shilong could not escape the fate of being captured and forced to write, Qin Luming clenched his teeth to keep from laughing.

"Why does she want you to finish it?" Qin Luming did not understand that point. He had done little research in this area. After all, how could one casually encounter someone willing to help investigate the phenomenon of novel characters from another world crossing into reality?

"She wants to return to the world of the Kingdom of Zhou. She believes that if I continue writing the novel, I can reconstruct a passage from the real world to the Kingdom of Zhou in reverse, allowing her to go back." At the mention of writing, Ma Shilong's furrowed brows did not relax. Clearly, things were not going smoothly. "So far, I've only written a little... Once I write enough that satisfies her, I can exchange it with her for time as a human. The time I'm using now is human time I exchanged for. After a while, I'll turn back into my original form."

He considered the Big Black Pig to be his original form. Qin Luming had nothing left to say.