Wen Xiancheng

"Speak up, young man." When Wen Xiancheng failed to answer her question, Zhang Lu urged him on.

Wen Xiancheng felt rather awkward.

This Zhang Lu seemed a little different from what he had imagined.

A little impatient?

It had only been a second since she finished speaking!

"Well." Wen Xiancheng cleared his throat before saying, "There's a second consciousness inside my body."

"Multiple personalities?" Only then did Zhang Lu look up, her face full of surprise. "Over the years, quite a few people have come to me about this. But they were all mistaken. Sometimes, it isn't a second personality inside your body, but-"

"I'm certain," Wen Xiancheng said.

Zhang Lu nodded, stood up, and walked over. "When did it first appear?"

"About a month and a half ago," Wen Xiancheng said.

Zhang Lu touched a ring on her left hand.

Instantly, a girl of eleven or twelve appeared beside the bed.

The girl wore a Lolita-style dress, with a pair of headphones hanging around her neck.

The headphones were connected to her temples on either side, as though they had grown out of them.

Wen Xiancheng stared in astonishment.

What was going on?

Conjuring a person out of thin air?

And why had she conjured up a little girl?

Zhang Lu seemed to see right through his thoughts. Taking the headphones from the girl's neck and placing them over Wen Xiancheng's ears, she said, "Lie down and relax. This is just a Machine Puppet I made. It's nothing to make a fuss about."

Wen Xiancheng murmured an acknowledgment and lay down.

Zhang Lu touched her ring again.

A stick of sandalwood incense appeared in midair.

Then Zhang Lu extended her right index finger.

A wisp of white flame actually sprang from its tip.

She lit the incense with the flame and set it beside Wen Xiancheng's face. "Young man, this is Tranquility Incense. Don't be afraid. Once it's lit, you'll fall asleep. Only then can I treat you."

As Wen Xiancheng breathed in the pleasant fragrance, his eyelids did indeed grow heavy, struggling to stay open.

Alarm shot through Wen Xiancheng's heart.

Fall asleep?

If she treated him while he was asleep, would she discover that he was actually a transmigrator?

Fuck!

Wen Xiancheng felt an urge to curse.

He had been so intent on curing the consciousness inside his body that he had never considered what else might go wrong!

Struggling, Wen Xiancheng tried to snuff out the Tranquility Incense.

But he had barely raised his hand when an overwhelming wave of drowsiness swept through his body, and his vision gradually blurred.

Damn it, I was far too careless!

That was Wen Xiancheng's final inward curse.

Watching Wen Xiancheng fall asleep, Zhang Lu raised her head and looked at the girl. "Begin operation."

"Yes!" the girl said.

A dense web of fine lines flashed through her eyes. A moment later, two beams of light shot out.

The beams kept expanding in midair until they overlapped, forming a pitch-black image.

There was nothing in the image.

But a moment later, a boy's tearful voice rang out. "Save me! Save me, Sect Leader Zhang Lu!"

Zhang Lu walked inside, checked that no one was around, then came back, shut the door tightly, and approached Wen Xiancheng. Looking at the pitch-black image, she said, "How am I supposed to save you? You're merely this body's second personality, something extraneous that appeared and should never have existed. You've disrupted this young man's life. You're the one in the wrong."

The boy's voice grew frantic. "Sect Leader Zhang Lu, I'm the owner of this body! I'm the real Wen Xiancheng!"

Zhang Lu shook her head. "Every personality that appears is like this, believing it's the one that ought to exist."

She touched her ring with her right hand, and a bathing tub, a bottle, and several water jugs appeared in midair.

She opened one of the jugs. It contained clear water.

After pouring jug after jug of clear water into the wooden tub, she added drops from the bottle. Only then did Zhang Lu strip Wen Xiancheng naked and carry him into the tub.

Immediately, agonized screams came from the image. "What is this stuff? What is this stuff? It hurts! It hurts!"

Zhang Lu sighed softly and pressed her palms together. "This is Soul-Severing Liquid, a liquid specifically designed to eliminate any consciousness other than the body's primary soul. It took me thirty years to refine it."

"Eliminate any consciousness other than the body's primary soul?" The boy stopped screaming, but his voice carried traces of sorrow and trembled. "Only I can feel the pain. He can't."

"So the true owner of this body isn't you," Zhang Lu said. "It's this young man."

The boy suddenly began laughing and crying at once. "Right, right. I'm already dead. I'm already dead."

A trace of sympathy appeared on Zhang Lu's face. "Don't resist. You'll disappear faster and suffer less. Use the little time you have left to tell me what you most want him to do for you! I believe that, since he once shared a body with you, he'll do it."

The room fell utterly silent.

Nearly two seconds passed before the boy's hoarse voice came again. "Tell him to treat that person well for me. And never, ever tell that person that I'm actually dead."

"Hey, can you hear how much I miss you?"

"I'm sorry. When I was alive, all I ever did was hold you back."

"Perhaps this is heaven's punishment for me, and its compensation for you."

"You have to be hap-"

The boy's voice gradually faded into the air.

The beams of light shining from the girl's eyes slowly disappeared as well.

Zhang Lu looked down at Wen Xiancheng in the tub and shook her head.

Turning to the girl, Zhang Lu walked back to her seat. "Wake him up and let him go home."

The girl approached the tub and pressed both hands against Wen Xiancheng's head.

With a bzzt, two blue arcs surged from her hands and shocked Wen Xiancheng.

Wen Xiancheng's hair instantly stood on end, and his whole body shook like grain in a sieve.

Only then did the girl lift him out of the tub and throw him onto the floor.

Wen Xiancheng hit the floor with a heavy thud.

"Fuck!"

The curse burst out as Wen Xiancheng lay sprawled on the floor, his hands and feet trembling so badly that he could not get up.

He felt as though, just a moment ago, he had been groggily slipping into an irresistible sleep.

He had barely closed his eyes before violent convulsions nearly killed him!

For a moment, he had even suspected that he really had been sliced into pieces!

But when his gaze swept over his intact, stark-naked body, he let out a huge sigh of relief.

Stark naked?

Wen Xiancheng's pupils contracted sharply. Trembling, he raised his head and looked at Zhang Lu, who was bent over her desk writing something. "Y-you, what did you do to me? An old cow grazing on tender grass? You know that's illegal, don't you?"

Zhang Lu looked up and stared at Wen Xiancheng as though he were an idiot. "Did that shock fry your brain? An old cow grazing on tender grass, indeed! I'm old enough to be your grandmother! I was only treating you. Now that the treatment's finished, you can go."

Wen Xiancheng's body was still somewhat numb.

Forcing himself to stand, Wen Xiancheng walked to the bedside with suspicion written all over his face and put on his clothes.

Had this old lady really done nothing to him?

Once dressed, Wen Xiancheng prepared to leave.

But Zhang Lu said, "Your second personality has disappeared. Before he vanished, he asked me to pass on a few words-"

Zhang Lu set down her pen and turned to look at Wen Xiancheng. "Treat that person well for me. And never, ever tell that person that I'm actually dead."

(End of chapter)