The Devil's Contract Lover - Chapter 53

“Phew…” The next morning, Yao Yuan, who had only fallen asleep late, opened her weary eyes. Was it 9 or 10 o’clock already? She was too lazy to get out of bed.

She lay there for a while until the sense of fatigue dissipated, then looked up: “Starfall?”

“I’m here.” The response was half a minute late. The demon appeared by the bed, holding brunch. After setting down the plate, one hand rested on the quilt, ready to change her clothes at any moment.

“Your attitude has really changed a lot; I’m a bit unaccustomed to it.” Yao Yuan deliberately folded her arms: “Just be normal, be normal.”

“Those two people are looking for you. Do you want to see them?” Starfall didn’t take the bait, only picking up a macaron and feeding it to her. The intensely sweet yet smooth texture bloomed on her tongue, clouding her consciousness for a moment.

“Huh? Oh, is it Big Orange and Little Feather? Of course, I’ll see them!” She nodded hurriedly. She had been missing for several days; she wondered how they were doing. Perhaps they had gotten used to it?

The demon clapped his hands, and the large door opened in response. Big Orange’s chattering voice immediately rushed in: “Open the door for me, why is it so annoying—Ah, it’s finally open!”

He rushed halfway in a huff, only to be blocked by an invisible barrier. He reached out and knocked: “Hey, hey, that guy Little Feather seems to have recovered her memory!”

“Isn’t that a good thing? Or is something wrong…” Yao Yuan’s smile was only half-formed before being startled away by his grave expression.

“The problem is, only she accepts that memory.” Big Orange drew out his explanation: “All the relatives, friends, or entities she interacted with that she remembers don’t recognize her, and there’s no evidence for the things she did.”

“Huh?” An ominous premonition. She clearly remembered the vessel spirit’s final arrogant rant: [I will erase your existence].

“What ‘huh’? Listen to me carefully,” Big Orange didn’t notice Yao Yuan’s abnormality: “She rushed out like a lunatic last night looking for many people, and didn’t sleep all night until the morning… No, it seems she’s preparing to look for more people.”

Yao Yuan quickly grasped the core issue: After the vessel spirit was destroyed and sealed by Starfall, Little Feather’s control was lifted, but the existence that had been erased could not be restored?

“How is she now?” The ominous premonition in her heart was growing, along with Starfall’s expression yesterday and the strangely clean severance on his hand that looked unharmed.

Big Orange shook his head and pointed outside: “She’s catching up on sleep in her room now. Next, she’s probably going to have to fight for several days straight, just to figure out the clues of her having existed.”

“I don’t think I can help with anything.” Yao Yuan’s voice suddenly dropped. She nervously pinched her little finger: “I… anyway, in a few days maybe…”

Click. Something seemed to crack. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat. When it beat again, she took a deep breath, wanting to explain the confusion she had just experienced to Big Orange.

Yet, she only saw Big Orange’s blank expression: it wasn’t directed at her, but at Starfall.

He suddenly rose from the chair he had instinctively grabbed: “Strange, what did I come here to look for you about?” This question was also directed at Starfall.

The demon didn’t even maintain a superficial pretense: “Your topic is boring. You should leave now.”

Big Orange walked out without a second’s delay: “Yeah, I was wondering why I was acting so strange…” The door closed behind him, blocking his last sentence: “Why would I think of asking the landlord for help…”

“Starfall.” Yao Yuan stood up from the sofa, her face pale: “Has my existence also been erased? Just like Little Feather’s?”

Starfall took her hand, holding her little finger in his palm: “Don’t worry.”

Those four simple words truly calmed her breathing. She managed to steady her balance, leaning against Starfall’s shoulder: “Okay, what should I do?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hmm, eh?”

Starfall, Starfall would actually say, [I don’t know]? As they walked out the door hand-in-hand, Yao Yuan was still stunned. Wasn’t this arrogant demon the type who, even if he didn’t know, would gloss over it with strange words, then quickly find a solution?

As they walked, she glanced at him several times and finally noticed a slight hint: the demon’s expression was consistently serious, as if he were weighing something very important.

“Starfall, shall we go on a date today?” Yao Yuan feigned a light tone: “Yes, dating would be very relaxing.”

“No, let’s go to your home first today.”

“The rental apartment? Or the dorm?”

“No, your birth family.” Starfall stopped: “Although I have no interest in such things, now we indeed need to search for the clues of the past.”

Birth family? Yes, everyone has an origin, but a brief blank appeared in Yao Yuan’s mind. It wasn’t that she forgot who her parents were, but their faces were difficult to match up with the role of ‘parents.’

So, she hadn’t contacted them for a long time; since high school, she had become a lone boat. But thinking carefully, why was that… again?

For the first time in her life, she sensed a touch of unnaturalness concerning family affection.

“Xiao yuan.” Starfall’s hand rested on her shoulder, pressing her fluttering thoughts back into her body.

“I’m fine.” Yao Yuan shook her head: “I’ll call home now and ask.” She pulled out her phone, scrolled the contact list to the bottom and back up, looking bewildered.

There was no information about parents or relatives—no names noted, and no familiar numbers were those of family.

[Was it erased by the vessel spirit?] Her intuition denied it. No, she had seemingly never considered [this kind of question] all these years.

“Starfall, have I ever told you about my former family?” It was a little hard to breathe. Her nasal cavity was blocked by a strange pressure, and she had to breathe through her mouth.

“No, this point is not the effect of the artifact.” The demon pointed to his forehead: “It hasn’t affected my abilities yet.”

That sounded like good news, but in some ways, things were worse: it wasn’t the vessel spirit that had erased her existence track, but interference from much earlier.

Yao Yuan finally put down her phone: “I can’t find my parents’ contact information. I changed my phone a year ago, and there are no chat records either.”

“Do you remember the address?”

“I don’t remember.” She answered dryly, adding with hesitation: “It should be nearby? I played at the amusement park here when I was little.” Her brain felt as if it was covered by a large amount of paste; she couldn’t recall anything.

Starfall’s fingers gently touched her forehead: “Think harder.”

The domineering magic instantly surged into her mind. If the demon wanted to, he could stir a human brain into a mess at any time. However, this time there was no fear, but rather a slight, comfortable sensation.

With the help of external force, the images in her mind finally gradually cleared. The constantly rewinding tape got stuck on the scene where she missed the field trip bus in her youth.

“It’s true that I attended elementary school here.” Yao Yuan’s eyes were tightly shut. For some reason, two different houses rotated in her mind, and ultimately she couldn’t remember more details. Yet, she distinctly remembered taking a bullet train to attend university.

[If I’m a local, why did I take the bullet train to live on campus, and why did I rent a place after graduation?]

[Because my relationship with my parents wasn’t good.]

[But, why? I can’t remember. If there was deep hatred, how could I not remember? If there wasn’t, how could there be no chat record?]

There were too many contradictory clues.

Ding ding ding ding. The phone rang again, and this time the sound had changed. Ignoring the tune, Yao Yuan instinctively answered and pressed it to her ear: “Hello?”

“It’s me.” The fortune teller’s voice was as indifferent as ever.

This indifference actually made Yao Yuan feel relieved; this person hadn’t forgotten her, so things weren’t completely bad: “Master, what can I do for you?”

“That’s what I want to ask you.”

“Huh?”

“I recorded you on the roster before. Did you do something?”

How would I know that… Yao Yuan wanted to retort, but then heard a soft ‘ah’ from the other side: “Master? Master! What’s wrong?”

“Who are you? Never mind.” The call cut off abruptly.

“…” Yao Yuan clenched her fist where she stood. Her finger trembled on the phone several times. Finally, she put the phone away and turned to the demon: “Starfall, let’s go to the amusement park first. That’s where my memory was interrupted.”

“Good.” The demon picked her up. The invisible wings spread out; they had no time to waste.

Their feet touched the ground. The distance to the amusement park took only a few breaths. The moment they landed, a faint light suddenly shone from Starfall’s arms.

Before the demon could reach out to suppress it, the light source projected a voice into Yao Yuan’s mind: “Don’t waste your efforts. Accept my terms—” Starfall expressionlessly pinched a shard of colored glass in his hand: “You actually slipped out. Well done.”

“Wait a moment.” Yao Yuan placed her hand on Starfall’s, looking down at the glass: “Aren’t you going to lower your terms? You are at a disadvantage now.”

The glass stopped concealing itself: “Alright, my condition is that you let me go, and I will slowly return your past to you.”

She drew a circle on Starfall’s back of the hand: “No deal. I would never release something as dangerous as you.”

“Then I have no deal either.” The glass’s tone was icy: “I only care about freedom.”

Shadows re-enveloped his hand. When it opened, the palm was empty. It was indeed convenient to use the demon as a container.

Starfall adjusted his cuff: “Don’t worry, I will sense it the moment it comes out.”

The park wasn’t crowded on a weekday. Yao Yuan walked forward entirely by intuition. She thought she would stop under the Ferris wheel, or at the fortune teller’s booth at the very least, but after walking in a circle, she stopped next to a rock garden.

“Did you remember something?”

“Not yet, ugh.” Her eyes fell on the surrounding grass. Her mind was full of crackling sparks and noise. She covered her ears with both hands.

[Do I really want to know the truth?] Crackle, crackle.

[I really want to know.] The light spot in her heart burst forth with a strange power, but there was something blurry she hadn’t reached.

“Starfall, try that one you did on me before—that magic to trigger memories.” When she first entered the amusement park… she had indeed experienced Starfall’s illusion—the cool fingers touched her forehead. The magic power surging from her heart touched and merged with the external magic power, and the world spun.

On a certain day in a certain month and year, a perfectly normal sunny spring day, suitable for a school field trip.

Someone always left the group during free time, and Yao Yuan was no exception. The small girl rubbed her eyes, climbed up from the lawn, and shook the grass off her skirt.

“Hey, no one’s with you today?” The tall girl with two followers blocked the sun.

Yao Yuan turned her head, a little embarrassed: “What do you mean ‘again’? I like playing alone anyway.”

The children looked at each other, seemingly finding her words hard to believe. Finally, the tallest girl bent down: “Hey, really? I just saw Shanshan .”

“Who is Shanshan ?” Her head suddenly started to ache. Why the headache? Had she eaten something bad?

“Did you argue with her?” The tall girl leaned closer gossiping: “Well, let me tell you, she’s resting by the little dinosaur now. Let’s see what you do.”

The classmates giggled and ran off to play other things, leaving only Yao Yuan clutching her head.

[Who is Shanshan ?] Is she a student in our class?

When she thought of a classmate, her mind barely flashed a blurry photo: a girl whose face couldn’t be clearly seen, seemingly smiling.

Where was the little dinosaur they mentioned? Maybe walk the way they came from. Curiosity and the headache supported her as she stood up, but she first saw a beautiful older sister standing not far away.

The dark-haired beauty took off her sunglasses and walked towards her.