Wangting Manor remained quiet for seven or eight days. Although many people came and went through its courtyards daily, delivering messages, no one managed to trace the whereabouts of Shen Langhun and Tang Lici. Fu Cui was convinced the two must be traveling together, but despite the scouts' relentless searches, no one had seen a man with the face-tattooed red serpent. Many men with abdominal injuries had been captured, yet none were Tang Lici. Nearby villages and towns had also been searched multiple times, but no one had spotted any suspicious figures resembling them. Shen Langhun and Tang Lici seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind.
The winter was cold and bleak, with several days of rain and snow. Today, however, the skies finally cleared. Tang Lici had been recuperating in a civilian house at the edge of the town for seven or eight days. The owner of the house, having received a thousand taels of silver from him, happily hid the banknote in the cellar and remained silent, paying no attention to what happened above ground.
Tang Lici did not apply makeup to the faces of A Shui and the other two. He merely taught them some basic techniques for altering their appearances. A Shui and the others smeared their faces with charcoal and egg whites, turning their delicate features into dull, unattractive visages. A touch of rouge under their eyes made their eyes appear red and swollen. Though not as masterful as Tang Lici’s methods, their appearances were now drastically different from before.
Tang Lici applied light makeup to his own face, disguising himself as a woman. A Shui wrapped bandages around his abdominal wound to stop the bleeding. To prevent anyone from noticing his injury, she tightly bound his waist, disguising him as a heavily pregnant woman. His silver hair was too conspicuous, so A Shui ground ink and applied it to his tied-up hair, dyeing it black. She then covered it with a dark headband to conceal the unusual color.
Feng Feng spent his days crawling around Tang Lici’s bed. Tang Lici would sit leaning against the bed, while Feng Feng would crawl to the foot of the bed, burying his head in the blankets and presenting his little bottom to him. Most of the time, Tang Lici ignored him. Occasionally, when the weather was particularly cold and Feng Feng shivered from the chill, Tang Lici would cover him with a blanket. But the moment he moved, Feng Feng would burst into tears as if he had been severely beaten.
Seven or eight days passed like this. Tang Lici’s abdominal wound gradually healed, and A Shui changed his dressing every few days. Though the wound healed quickly, she felt no joy in it. Shen Langhun’s stab had been deep, overlapping with two old scars on his abdomen and tearing them open. The wound was large, almost revealing the organs beneath. The first time she dressed his wound, she faintly glimpsed something bloody and mangled deep inside his abdomen—was that Fang Zhou’s heart? But… in that fleeting glance, it didn’t seem like a human heart.
It was something… ominous… terrifying…
What would a human heart buried in the abdomen become after years? Would it still remain a heart?
She never got another chance to examine it closely. Tang Lici’s wound healed rapidly, forming a solid scar by the eighth day. During his recovery, Tang Lici sat on the bed reading books. She couldn’t understand why he could still focus on texts like The Three Character Classic or The Thousand Character Classic . He read slowly, sometimes under the flickering light of a dying candle, with snow and rain falling outside the window. The shadow of the book cast upon his delicate face… as if a gentle warmth lingered amidst the lamplight and the sound of snow.Lin Bu was a learned scholar, a master of classical texts, yet Tang Lici never discussed books or poetry with him. When Tang read, he did so alone, never engaging in conversation or sharing his thoughts. Leaning against the bed, he would gaze at a page for a long time before slowly turning to the next, studying it just as intently.
At such times, his mood was likely serene, though no one could truly know what occupied his mind. Yet, he was undeniably calm.
On a clear winter day, the sky stretched high and wide. The creak of the front door announced Yu Tuan’er’s return from the market. Seeing the quiet inside, she stuck out her tongue and peeked in cautiously. Tang Lici reclined on the bed with his book, today without his usual feminine disguise. A Shui sat in the kitchen, chin propped on her hand, staring blankly at the freshly scrubbed stove. Feng Feng, seated on Tang Lici’s bed, watched intently as two tiny insects flitted across the ceiling.
“Mm… mmm…” Feng Feng noticed Yu Tuan’er’s return and pointed at the insects above. “Ooooh…” With a flick of her wrist as she stepped inside, Yu Tuan’er sent the two insects tumbling down. Feng Feng immediately grinned, crawling toward her and pointing at the floor, then the wall, his soft little lips puckering. “Hoo… hoo…” His bright eyes widened. “Gugu…”
Yu Tuan’er had no idea what his babbling meant, though his gestures were earnest. Feng Feng grabbed her sleeve, tugging insistently. “Ooooh… ooooh…”
“Even if you ‘ooooh’ a hundred times, I still won’t understand!” Yu Tuan’er pinched his cheek—plump and pink like a peach—but the moment she did, Feng Feng turned and bit her hand, scowling before burrowing under the blankets to hide.
“Ow!” Yu Tuan’er rubbed her hand. “He bites…” Tang Lici turned another page of his book and remarked lazily, “He was asking you to kill the little spiders on the wall and floor.” Yu Tuan’er glared at him. “If you knew what he meant, why didn’t you do it?” Tang Lici closed the book. “If you help him once, he’ll cry tomorrow when you don’t keep doing it.” His hand rested atop the bedding, its pale jade hue accentuated by the aqua-green quilt. “Can you kill spiders for him every moment of the day?”
Yu Tuan’er tilted her head. “You’re heartless. Your mother must not have loved you much as a child.” Tang Lici sat with impeccable posture, poised as if before a grand palace. “Your mother loved you dearly,” he said with a faint smile. “That’s why you fear nothing.”
“I’m afraid of dying,” Yu Tuan’er retorted, noticing A Shui’s gaze shift toward her. She turned and headed to the kitchen. “I’m terrified of death—but nothing else.” Tang Lici lowered his lashes slightly as Yu Tuan’er chattered with A Shui about the dishes they’d prepare for lunch. He mused… this little girl surnamed Yu feared nothing—except death.
Making her die would be easy.
Tang Lici spread his right hand. His palm was pale, smooth, and straight, its creases few—a hand that had ended many lives. Sometimes, he coated the edges of his nails with “Autumn Soap,” a poison. Not the deadliest, but potent enough to rot the skin, leaving deep scars.He enjoyed leaving marks on others, the kind that would never fade. As a child, he carved words into cats and dogs, cutting so deep that they bled out and died—the game lost its charm. Later, he left scars on people, and those that never faded brought him great pleasure.
Yu Tuan'er feared nothing except death. Killing her would be easy, but once dead, she would truly fear nothing at all. Tang Lici flipped open the book in his hands, lowering his gaze to read quietly. Everyone needed something to fear—it was the same for all.
"Sister A Shui, what were you thinking about just now?" Yu Tuan'er took out the radishes and lined them up on the cutting board. "Feng Feng was calling for someone to kill a spider—didn’t you hear?" A Shui shook her head, having been completely lost in thought. "No, I was thinking about Young Master Tang." As she spoke, she took the radishes, rinsed them in clean water, and began peeling them.
"What about Young Master Tang?" Yu Tuan'er broke off a crisp piece of radish and ate it, the sound of her chewing refreshingly clear. "Were you wondering if his wounds have healed?" A Shui shook her head again, smiling faintly. "I don’t know… I kept thinking, but it felt like I wasn’t thinking of anything, yet also like I was thinking of so much." Yu Tuan'er leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Hey, Sister A Shui, can someone really survive after getting such a huge gash on their belly? Could he be… a monster?"
"A monster?" A Shui paused, setting the bowl of radishes aside. "He survived because Young Master Tang is incredibly skilled in martial arts and has a strong constitution, right? Of course he’s not a monster." Yu Tuan'er gave a small humph. "I think he’s pretty monster-like." She crouched down to light the fire, dropping the subject of Tang Lici.
A monster… A Shui mixed the sliced pork with seasonings, silently watching the iron pot on the stove. If she had never known Tang Lici, she might have also thought a man like him was nothing more than a monster. But now, she couldn’t help feeling… if enough people called him a monster, he might truly… fully transform into one.
A monster that deliberately buried all traces of humanity, one that took pleasure in manipulating others’ emotions—omnipotent, indestructible, and immortal.
Tang Lici would become such a monster. Since Chi Yun’s death, the signs had grown even more pronounced.
But… was becoming a monster truly better than being human? Wasn’t it precisely because he couldn’t endure the pain of being human that he gradually transformed into a monster? Fang Zhou had died, Chi Yun had died, Shao Yanping had died… There were things that no amount of desperate effort could undo. What he had lost wasn’t just lives. Young Master Tang was… simply a very cowardly man. He shattered too easily, and to avoid being discovered or mocked, he would rather become a monster.
A Shui stir-fried the pork briefly in the pot, then covered it to simmer. Lifting her gaze, she glanced outside and saw Tang Lici spreading his palm open, examining his fingers intently, lost in thought.Yu Tuan'er finished washing the greens and stood up, about to set up another wok when she suddenly heard footsteps. Lin Bu hurried in from outside, calling, "Miss A Shui, Miss A Shui." A Shui put down the spatula. "Young Master Lin?" Lin Bu was holding a rolled-up notice in his hand. "Today, a notice was posted on the stone tablet at the entrance of Chengfeng Town. It says that an evil creature is hiding in Chengfeng Town, and Wangting Manor will select one person from the town to behead each day as a ritual to eliminate the creature, continuing until the evil creature appears and is destroyed. For each day the creature remains unseen, Wangting Manor will kill one person. Now, most of the townspeople have fled, and the Dissolute Shop has captured many, hanging them from trees outside the manor, declaring they will kill one person each day."
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