The Pig's Head, the Human's Head

No, it was a pig's head.

Zhou You stared in stunned disbelief.

—Honestly, if they'd brought out a dish made from a human corpse, he wouldn't have been this surprised.

After all, he'd watched the monster carry off a corpse with his own eyes. The chopping sounds afterward had been unmistakable, and he'd already braced himself for something gruesome. It was just...

Who could have guessed that the dish they served would be a pig's head?

"...What is this supposed to be? I roast myself?"

Zhou You edged closer and tentatively prodded the pig's head. His finger met a slightly springy texture. It was clearly roasted just right—soft and bouncy, neither raw nor dry.

But judging by the thickness and elasticity, this was obviously pigskin, not human skin.

To make sure, he shifted to another angle, picked up a chopstick from the plate, and pushed it into a gap in the pig's head.

"The bones are clearly pig bones too. It doesn't look like a human head with pigskin stretched over it. So why did the system go out of its way to arrange this...?"

Before he could finish, a strange sound suddenly rang out.

"—Grrr."

"...What was that?"

He'd barely voiced his confusion when the sound came again, over and over.

"Grrr, grrr, grrr-grrr..."

It took Zhou You three or four seconds to realize where the sound was coming from.

He lowered his head and looked at his stomach.

—The continuous rumbling was coming from there.

The intestines and stomach of this body seemed not to have eaten in a long time. They were now issuing an intensely hungry warning. Saliva flooded his mouth, and for a moment, the urge to eat even overpowered the pain in his palm.

His brain sent him only one thought.

That was—

Eat it.

Driven by instinct, Zhou You's hand moved toward the pig's head.

—It's not human, anyway. Just try a bite of a pig's head... That should be fine, right?

But then—

Right beside him, a cold voice suddenly spoke.

"If I were you, I wouldn't touch that."

In an instant, Zhou You snapped back to his senses.

His outstretched hand froze in midair. He frowned.

—Strange. Was his self-control really that poor? He was ready to eat some unknown thing just because he was hungry?

—And, more importantly...

...Who had just spoken?

Zhou You's eyes cleared. He slowly drew his bloodstained blade and looked toward the source of the voice.

He'd already confirmed that no one else was in the room besides him. So the speaker had to be...

Sure enough, the three heads in front of him suddenly smiled.

Though they'd lost their bodies, they smiled with radiant cheer, their faces looking as if they were still alive.

Zhou You took a sharp step back and held his dagger across his chest, ready to speak a True Word at any moment. He addressed the three heads in a low voice.

"Are you ghosts or monsters?"

The boy's head was the first to laugh and speak.

"Not 'you.' 'Me.'"

As soon as the boy's voice faded, the middle-aged man's head opened its mouth.

"Brother, the heads you're looking at are all one person. We've just been separated."

The old man's head spoke last, his voice cold.

"And, kid, I just helped you, and this is how you repay me? You're not even thanking me—you're pointing a knife at me?"

—The three heads spoke as if nothing were wrong, and didn't seem hostile.

But Zhou You didn't lower his guard.

Still... it was true that the other party had jolted him out of that inexplicable state.

So Zhou You didn't rush to attack. Instead, he continued, "I was only going to try a bite of this meat. How exactly did you save me? Was it poisoned?"

"One person!" the middle-aged man snapped.

Then the boy spoke again.

"Poisoned? Heh. If only. At least you'd die quickly, without having to suffer any more. But if you'd eaten even a single bite, you'd have ended up just like that pig's head."

The old man's head offered a mocking summary.

"—After all, this is human flesh mixed with Tai Sui Meat."

A familiar term reached his ears.

In an instant, Zhou You thought of the title of this scenario.

"Tai Sui."

—The same two characters.

Was it a coincidence, or...?

But he didn't ask yet. Cautiously, he backed away to the door and looked outside.

The pig-headed monster wasn't in the passage. Only the faint sound of chopping meat came from nearby.

It looked like the monster wouldn't be coming over anytime soon.

Seeing Zhou You's actions, the boy's head spoke again.

"Friend, you're way too cautious. Relax. After it finishes one dish, it won't make the next one for at least half an hour. During that time, it won't pay you any attention unless you burn down its home."

His words sounded friendly enough, but paired with that bizarre appearance, they only sent a chill down the spine.

Zhou You showed no sign of discomfort. With the help of his Basic Acting talent, he calmly replied, "I was rude just now. Thank you for helping me. And, if I may ask... um... could you explain what you just said in more detail? Also, what is Tai Sui?"

"What? You don't even know about Tai Sui?"

The middle-aged man's head sounded genuinely confused. Then the old man's head chimed in.

"Kid, where are you from? Tai Sui is the deity that presides over all of eastern Cangzhou. Plenty of things survive by feeding on its flesh. You've made it all the way here and still don't know about it?"

...A deity?

For some reason, Zhou You suddenly thought of the Jixiang Jimiao Guimu Bodhisattva he'd seen a while ago. His brow furrowed.

—Wait. Could this scenario involve the same kind of thing?

A faint unease stirred within him, but Zhou You forced it down. This wasn't the time to think about that. He turned back to the three heads and asked, "Sorry, could you explain what this Tai Sui actually is? And why would eating it make me end up like this?"

But the three heads only smiled.

After a long pause, the middle-aged man in the center finally spoke.

But instead of explaining, he recited a passage from an ancient text.

"Tai Sui is shaped like flesh. It clings to great rocks, with both head and tail, and is a living creature. The red resembles coral, the white fat, the black lacquer, the green emerald feathers, and the yellow purple gold; all are bright and translucent like solid ice."

"...I know that passage from the Compendium of Materia Medica. It says Tai Sui can be used as medicine or eaten. But what does that have to do with the pig's head?"

"Simple," said the old man on the right, his voice full of scorn.

"Because the pig's head in front of you isn't a pig at all. It's a human being who was fed Tai Sui and then raised to maturity alive through the Zaochu technique."

Looking at the golden, mouthwatering pig's head feast, the boy's head suddenly laughed.

"Livestock turned into humans, humans turned into livestock, beasts cooking, living people in the pot—everything turned upside down, heaven and earth reversed. That's exactly what's going on. If you eat meat made through Zaochu, sooner or later you'll become another beast. So, do you think I saved you or not?"

Zhou You ignored the taunt in his words and turned his head, staring blankly at the fragrant, delicious dish.

—This... is a human?

He examined the pig's head but couldn't find anything unusual. Still, he neither questioned nor answered the claim. Instead, he suddenly said, "Then, my friend, you wouldn't have told me all this just to stop me from eating. Let's be frank. What exactly do you want?"

All three heads laughed.

But they didn't beg him to save them or anything of the sort. Instead, they opened their mouths together and spoke the same words in a venomous tone.

"My request is simple."

"I want you to kill the other two versions of me."