Worship the Lady (13)

Bo Yi frowned, all trace of a smile gone from his face. "You call that disinfecting?"

"Of course." Mitian pointed toward the spot where the wound had been without touching it. "Look..."

Bo Yi turned his head to follow his finger, then his eyes widened slightly.

His wound was gone.

His skin was as smooth as before, without so much as a mark left behind.

"I didn't lie to you, did I...?" Mitian spread his hands, looking as though he had suffered some terrible injustice. "Just look at you. How can you distrust your partner like this...?"

"You said you wanted the ghosts in the water, so I went out of my way to pull some strings and deliver them here."

"When you were looking for clues, I even made a point of leaving the doors of the Lady's Temple open for you."

"And now..."

He lowered his eyes and flattened his lips, his face full of dejection. "I kindly healed your wound, yet you still questioned my intentions..."

If Bo Yi hadn't seen the laughter brimming in his eyes, he might really have thought he'd done something unforgivable.

"All right..." His lips twisted slightly. Though the process had been somewhat incomprehensible, judging by the result, this Evil God had kept his word and healed his wound. He still owed him thanks-after all, this wasn't part of their agreement.

So, his gaze wandering, he opened his mouth. "Then... thank you..." By the end, his voice had almost faded into the air.

"What?"

The Evil God, who could clearly hear sounds a thousand miles away, seemed to develop hearing problems at that very moment. "What did you just say?" He theatrically cupped a hand around his ear and bent down, bringing it right in front of Bo Yi. "Sorry... my hearing isn't very good. I didn't catch that..."

Bo Yi: "..."

He mercilessly shoved the head in front of him aside and began straightening his clothes.

The Evil God straightened up with the force of his push, watching with smiling eyes as that lovely stretch of neck disappeared beneath the fabric again. He even finished his good deed by brushing a hand over Bo Yi's clothes, erasing the hole he had bitten through them.

Bo Yi looked at his restored clothes, then raised his eyes to the other man for once. "I'm going out to look for clues. You..."

Mitian smiled. "Stay safe, then."

"I can't go out at night right now-in this body." Even an Evil God couldn't casually break certain rules within an Instance.

Bo Yi nodded and pushed open the courtyard gate alone.

Outside the gate, everything was deserted. Only slick, sticky trails of water and a few scattered, bloodstained scales remained on the stony road. The fish that had been writhing and flapping around were nowhere to be seen.

Come to think of it... Bo Yi pondered. There haven't been any splashing sounds from the well today, either... I wonder if that has anything to do with my removing the thing sealing its mouth.

He thought as he walked. He had only just crossed the threshold when he happened to look up and caught something out of the corner of his eye.

He slowly came to a stop and turned his head.

The wall beside him was densely covered in black fish. They crowded so tightly together that they almost obscured the wall's original color, making the sight suffocating. Silently clinging to its surface, they wriggled and thrashed as they struggled upward, crawling noticeably faster than they had on the ground. Occasionally, he could hear the faint scraping of scales rubbing against one another.

Wait, clinging?

How were fish clinging to a wall?

Curious, Bo Yi walked over, grabbed a random fish by its tail, and peeled it off the wall. Before he could examine it, other fish instantly filled the patch of earthen wall he had exposed.

He could only turn his attention to the fish in his hand.

"This is..."

Bo Yi's eyes widened slightly-two long, slender, flesh-colored things had actually grown out of the fish's belly.

He lifted the fish to eye level and prodded them with his other hand. The flesh-colored appendages weren't uniform in thickness; they even had distinct contours. At the tip of each was a small ball slightly wider than the appendage itself.

Bo Yi leaned closer to examine them in the moonlight, and his heart suddenly gave a jolt.

Those weren't little balls at all!

They were clenched fists!

To test his theory, he dropped the fish in his hand and peeled another off the wall. Sure enough, he found two "arms" in the same place on its belly. But this fish's "arms" differed from the first one's: they were noticeably shorter and far thinner.

He took several more sample fish from different spots on the wall and finally reached a conclusion:

The contours, lengths, thicknesses... even the degree of "development" of each fish's "arms" varied. Yet despite their spindly appearance, these "arms" were remarkably strong. It was thanks to them that the fish could cling to the walls and climb rapidly upward.

So absorbed was Bo Yi in his research that, without realizing it, he followed the fish-covered walls all the way to the other side of the village.

"Huh?"

A conspicuously out-of-place house appeared before him.

Its incongruity actually had nothing to do with the house itself. It was an ordinary little earthen house of the sort found throughout the village, and it even looked considerably dirtier than the other villagers' homes, gray and dusty all over. Yet its outer walls were completely clean. By "clean," he didn't mean free of dust, but rather-

There were no fish crawling on its outer walls.

"Interesting." Bo Yi leisurely wiped the slime the fish had left on his fingers.

If he remembered correctly, they had passed this house while exploring during the day. But they had confirmed then that it had long been unoccupied, and, thinking they wouldn't find any useful clues, they hadn't explored further. After all, there were plenty of empty houses in this village.

Yet now, the fish were avoiding this house alone.

And so, the uninvited late-night guest pushed open the front door as though he belonged there.

The house looked as if no one had lived there for a long time. The moment he opened the door, dust billowed into his face. Aside from that, however, the furnishings inside were quite homey:

Several equally dusty cushions sat on a yellowed fabric sofa. A vase stood on the wooden coffee table in front of it, though not a drop of water remained inside, and the flowers had long since withered. Many frames hung on the wall behind the sofa, most holding certificates, ranging from elementary school commendations to a university admission letter. Sadly, probably due to the passage of time, even the papers carefully preserved in frames had yellowed. The ink used to write the names had bled completely, leaving them illegible.

Bo Yi was about to look away when he suddenly caught sight of two deathly pale faces out of the corner of his eye.

He whipped his head around.

Two black-and-white memorial portraits hung quietly in a corner of the house. They depicted a man and a woman, hanging side by side, presumably a middle-aged married couple. On the table before them sat a neatly arranged incense burner filled with incense ash, some moldy rice, and a small, empty wine cup.

Since both husband and wife had passed away, the person making offerings to them must be... Bo Yi searched the house and, sure enough, found a picture frame on a desk.

A thick layer of dust covered the frame, but he could vaguely make out three figures in the photograph.

He reached out and was just about to wipe away the dust when-"Drip-"

A drop of water suddenly landed on the photograph.

Bo Yi slowly raised his head.