To Get Married - Chapter 17

Chapter 17

In many cases, sincere trust is the worst thing.

Manzhu had too much faith in Mu Chensan. After all, in this unfamiliar human city outside the mountains, Mu Chensan had truly helped her too much. If not for him, she wouldn’t know how someone who had been disconnected from human civilization for millennia could survive in the human world.

In the past six months since leaving the mountain, Mu Chensan had virtually arranged everything for her.

He had provided her with a place to live, given her a job, and even found a very good school for Lu Yudong.

All of this gave her the illusion that “Mu Chensan, despite being verbose and stingy, is actually very reliable.”

It was precisely because of this illusion that the heavy burden in her heart had firmly settled the moment Mu Chensan placed a seal on Lu Yudong on New Year’s Eve.

She had actually considered checking if the seal was stable.

But Mu Chensan had told her, “Hong Hong, just relax when your brother handles things, OK? Our yāo powers aren’t of the same origin. Don’t mess around blindly. If they repel each other and you mess it up, I’ll have to fix it, and I’ll be the one who gets tired… Let me tell you this first: the initial job is free, but repairs will cost extra.”

Since Mu Chensan had put it that way, Manzhu naturally didn’t have any reservations about his ability. After all, when asking for help, one should at least give face.

For the half-month since the seal was set, the spiritual energy around Lu Yudong had indeed been indistinguishable from that of an ordinary person, and the large weight in Manzhu’s heart had firmly settled.

But tonight, Manzhu suddenly felt an inexplicable series of palpitations. This made her extremely anxious, and she left work early, rushing home before midnight.

Sure enough, as soon as she entered the stairwell, she sensed a spiritual energy anomaly. The moment she rushed through the door, she saw a reckless Nightmare Ghost attached to Lu Yudong.

She killed the Nightmare Ghost, but in doing so, she scared Lu Yudong unconscious.

Logically, Lu Yudong’s physical and mental health were excellent, and the yāo power in her body was sealed. She shouldn’t have been plagued by such an entity.

Manzhu hesitated repeatedly, her brow furrowing tighter and tighter. Finally, she decided to investigate the seal inside Lu Yudong’s body.

Only then did she discover that the seal was a major problem.

It wasn’t that the sealing technique was flawed, but that Mu Chensan’s yāo power was too dark and wicked. The seal itself wasn’t meant to be harmful, but the prolonged presence of the dark yāo power within Lu Yudong was actually causing her body considerable harm.

This harm was a non-specific ailment, with no obvious symptoms, yet it could lead to mental exhaustion. The low-cultivation entity had simply taken advantage of this vulnerability.

Manzhu couldn’t help but close her eyes and take a deep breath. She pulled the curtains shut, formed a hand seal, and completely shattered the seal Mu Chensan had placed in Lu Yudong’s body.

The moment the seal broke, Lu Yudong’s brow furrowed tightly. Her small body trembled, and she unconsciously curled up.

Manzhu lovingly tucked the quilt around her, sitting by the bed, frustrated and sleepless all night.

The Nightmare Ghost, though harmless, had triggered the nightmare that Lu Yudong hadn’t had for a long time.

In the dream, she fell off a cliff, lost her parents, and was coiled by a red python…

And for that brief moment of clear consciousness, a realization struck her: the red python was not a dream, but Manzhu, who had been taking care of her for the past six months.

She slept for a very, very long time, as if unwilling to wake up and face any of this.

Manzhu had also turned off the nearly simultaneous alarms on both phones, thinking the child should sleep as long as possible. If she were to wake up, Manzhu wouldn’t know how to explain what happened last night.

No, not just last night.

Manzhu knew there were too many things that needed explaining between her and the child.

When Lu Yudong opened her eyes, the outside world was bright, but the curtains were tightly drawn.

In the dim, small rental apartment, the milky aroma of steamed buns lingered.

This long-missed scene was like the first morning she woke up after arriving here, and like every Sunday morning when she slept in—as soon as she woke up, she could eat the breakfast Manzhu had prepared for her.

She was sick. Just like when she was in the hospital, she should have received the care of the person who was concerned about her.

But at this moment, she didn’t know how to face this seemingly ordinary day.

Her heart was too tumultuous. The confusion and bewilderment, which she couldn’t make sense of, almost eclipsed the deep-seated fear in her heart.

When Manzhu walked out of the kitchen, Lu Yudong had already put on the upper part of her cotton pajamas. She sat quietly by the bed, staring blankly out the window through a small gap in the curtains.

“You’re up.”

Lu Yudong instinctively clenched the fleece blanket covering her legs. After a few seconds of silence, her voice trembled slightly. “Last night wasn’t a dream, was it?”

It wasn’t a dream. The snake was real. It was there the day of the car accident, and it was there last night.

She wasn’t brilliant, but she was never stupid.

Falling from a great height, with the car completely mangled—how could a person survive?

Just by relying on a mother’s embrace?

The doctors had marveled at how quickly and well her body recovered. They had said that most patients with injuries like hers would end up disabled, and had simply lamented that… children just have good constitutions.

Now that she thought about it, it must all be related to Manzhu, who had suddenly appeared in her world.

“Are you afraid of me?” Manzhu asked softly. “Did my appearance scare you?”

Lu Yudong thought for a long time. She lowered her head and whispered, “Will you eat me?”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know.” Lu Yudong shook her head, her eyes red, but she wouldn’t look at Manzhu. “I don’t know… why you appeared. I never knew…”

She never knew why Manzhu appeared in her world, but she had never thoroughly considered the reason.

People don’t have to live too clearly. Being a little confused is fine.

Just like all the past unhappiness could be selectively forgotten by a person unwilling to face it, along with a car accident and a serious injury…

She was such a timid person.

So, she had wanted to selectively ignore the reasons for many things.

After all, no matter how everything started or how winding the process was, the outcome was good, wasn’t it?

As long as she didn’t know anything, she could pretend nothing had happened and peacefully accept the relatively comfortable present, right?

Yes, at least that’s how it was back then…

But now was different. She was suddenly terrified.

Too many horrifying thoughts rushed into her mind, turning it into a mess.

After a long silence, she finally cleared her head from the tangled thoughts and asked the one question that mattered most to her.

“I want to know… did you have anything to do with my parents’ death?”

That rainy night was too much of a coincidence. She fell down the cliff and met Manzhu.

If this was a fated meeting, then she would be utterly lost on how to face Manzhu from now on.

Thankfully, Manzhu’s tone held no hesitation: “No.”

This allowed Lu Yudong to breathe a sigh of relief, and the tears she had been holding back instantly burst forth.

It was enough. As long as this was confirmed, everything else was no longer so important.

Even if… even if Manzhu found her and raised her just to eat her in the end… she would simply be returning the life she should have lost to the snake yāo who saved her.

The little girl’s reaction was not as intense as expected.

Manzhu sighed in relief, sat on the sofa, and said softly, “I won’t eat you. You’re small and lean, and I have no interest in you.”

Lu Yudong looked up at Manzhu carefully, her gaze timid but carrying a hint of hope.

“That day was the day of my Tribulation. Your human Demon Slayers suddenly broke into my territory and tried to eliminate me without provocation, causing me to fail my Tribulation and suffer serious injuries.” Manzhu said, shaking her head and giving a cold laugh. She continued, “I fled the deep mountains, but the Heavenly Tribulation didn’t spare me. Under heavy injury, I eventually damaged my soul.”

She explained that all creatures in the world have three souls and seven spirits, the Tāiguāng being the soul. If the soul scatters, life ends, and even reincarnation is impossible.

To survive, she dragged her remaining soul and fled for a long time. Just as she was about to despair, she found the human girl at the bottom of the cliff, whose life was barely flickering.

In that moment, an idea struck her. She used a forbidden yāo technique on the girl, called the “Soul Bond.”

For those bound by the Soul Bond, their souls are intertwined, and their lives are connected. Moreover, they cannot be too far apart from each other.

In other words, for the rest of their lives, neither can leave the other.

“In that situation, the Soul Bond was the best choice for both of us. I survived thanks to your soul, and you survived thanks to my yāo power,” Manzhu said. “So… being afraid is useless. From that moment on, we are destined to be together in life and death.”

Manzhu’s tone was flat, making it impossible to discern her happiness or sorrow.

Lu Yudong finally knew why Manzhu had come into her world, but she realized this wasn’t the answer she wanted.

Lu Yudong bit her lower lip. Her heart struggled for a long time before she spoke again. “So… to you, am I just… just a…”

Just a what?

For a moment, Lu Yudong didn’t even know what she was to Manzhu.

Was she a medicinal primer for continuing life? Or a container for storing a soul?

It turned out that the so-called “always, always being together” was simply because they couldn’t be separated in the first place, not the mutual affection she had naively believed in.

The sensitive child, realizing this, couldn’t help but curl up her knees and bury her head deep within them.

She tried hard not to cry, but still sobbed softly, against her will.

The feeling was as painful as the day she woke up in the hospital half a year ago, learning that she had lost the most important people in her life while her injuries were still unhealed… That was the day she was abandoned by the entire world she knew.

In her despair, Manzhu gently placed a hand on her frail shoulder, comforting her. “Why are you crying?”

“I could have taken you back to the deep mountains, imprisoned you, raised you. I have a thousand ways to keep you alive. You’d have to live well, even if you were unwilling and resentful… As long as you were alive, I wouldn’t die. What does your suffering matter to me?” Manzhu said, gently stroking the back of Lu Yudong’s head and smiling softly. “But I’m simply bored and choose to want you to grow up healthy, just like other human children, without resentment or hatred toward me…”

“Actually, someone asked me, too. They said you’re just a vessel for my soul, and I only need to keep you alive. Why bother spending the effort?”

“He made a lot of sense. I’m a yāo. I am by no means inherently good. There’s no reason why I should carefully coddle a human child… But bringing you to the human city was an impulse. I can’t explain why.”

“Even though… I don’t seem to fit in here. I still don’t have human friends, and I can’t integrate well into this world. But I truly haven’t thought about leaving.”

“Because you are here. Because… you belong here.”

Manzhu spoke softly, her tone gentle yet firm.

Finally, she pinched Lu Yudong’s little ear and asked, “Now, are you still mad at me?”