To Get Married - Chapter 44

Chapter 44

—In the end, this is just another form of survival of the fittest, each relying on their own abilities.

—Everyone can only clear the snow from their own doorstep; no one can save anyone else.

Manzhu gazed silently at the sleeping Lu Yudong beside her, the words Mu Chenshan had spoken that day echoing in her mind.

Though she didn’t want to admit it, he was right. If Mu Chenshan’s theory was true, and if those Exorcists had captured her back then, she likely would have endured every torture in their arsenal until she either bowed or took her own life. No one would have come to save her. Whether they knew of her plight or not, no one could have saved her.

To help a demon targeted by Exorcists was equivalent to throwing away one’s own peaceful life and endangering everyone nearby. The fact that those malicious Exorcists could venture into unexplored deep mountains proved that the demons they targeted had nowhere to hide.

She should be grateful that, on a whim, she had followed Lu Yudong to the human city. The person who truly saved her was Lu Yudong. Yudong hadn’t just given her a soul-thread; she had given her a heart that was finally finding peace. If she hadn’t bound her soul to Yudong and started living a quiet, law-abiding life in the city, those people would never have let her go.

Sometimes Manzhu wondered what happened to the other demons in Shennongjia after she left. Old Snake Father was gone, and so was she. Were the demons who lost their protection captured by humans? She had promised to take Yudong back for a visit, but what kind of scenery would be left to see?

She didn’t dare think about it, yet she couldn’t help it. She reached out and gently brushed a stray lock of hair from Yudong’s forehead, trying to soothe her own cluttered thoughts.

As if sensing the touch, Yudong let out a soft, puppy-like hum. She rolled over and hugged Manzhu, burying her face deep into the crook of Manzhu’s neck. After shifting a few times to find a comfortable position, she settled back into a quiet sleep.

Manzhu froze for a moment, then a knowing smile curled her lips. In the quiet of the night, she pulled Yudong into her arms and closed her eyes, finally at peace.

Manzhu woke up to the fragrant scent of breakfast wafting from the kitchen. Usually, she was the one up early preparing food for Yudong; today, the roles were reversed.

Hearing the slight creak of the bed, Yudong poked her head through the kitchen doorway and smiled. “Sister, you’re awake! The flower rolls are almost steamed, and I made congee.”

“You were so quiet today; I didn’t hear a thing,” Manzhu said. She put on her cloth shoes but stayed on the small bed, tilting her head to comb through her hair with her fingers.

“I didn’t want to wake you,” Yudong said with a grin.

Usually, when the girl woke up, Manzhu was already put together. This was the first time Yudong was ready while Manzhu was still in bed with her hair down. It made Manzhu slightly self-conscious, but she masked it, pretending not to care.

Manzhu wore a thin white sleeping inner-robe. Because of the heat, the collar was slightly open. As she turned her head, her ink-black hair cascaded over her shoulder. With no comb in hand, her slender, jade-like fingers ran through the silky strands. Her naturally sultry features were softened by a deep, mesmerizing tenderness.

Yudong couldn’t help but stare for a few extra seconds until her eyes met Manzhu’s gaze. She stuck her tongue out and ducked back into the kitchen.

Manzhu tied her hair up loosely, threw on an outer robe, and went to wash up. When she emerged, Yudong had already set breakfast on the coffee table.

Though they called it breakfast, it was nearly 11:00 AM. For them—accustomed to going to bed at 3:00 AM and combining breakfast and lunch—this was normal. Because of the heat, they didn’t have much of an appetite, so Yudong had steamed some frozen scallion flower rolls, boiled a pot of white congee, and brought out the pickled radish and minced pork stir-fry Gou Hongjie had prepared for them. Finally, she fried two eggs.

“When do you head back to campus?” Manzhu asked, picking up a flower roll.

“This afternoon, probably?” Yudong smiled. “Technically I should have gone back this morning, but didn’t I oversleep?”

“You didn’t bring a change of clothes when you came back yesterday,” Manzhu noted.

“I wash them at school. All my roommates do their own laundry. I’m grown up now; I can do it,” Yudong said. “Washing summer clothes by hand is easy. When it gets cold, I’ll bring the heavy stuff home since it’s hard to wash those in the bathhouse.”

Manzhu lowered her eyes and smiled. “You really are grown up. You don’t even need me to take care of you. In a few years, once you have your own income, I’m afraid you won’t need me at all.”

Yudong winked playfully. “I don’t want Sister to take care of me because I want to take care of Sister.”

“I don’t need taking care of,” Manzhu said, using her chopsticks to stuff some pickled radish into the flower roll Yudong had bitten into. “You little brat, you just had me feed you bite by bite last night. Don’t worry about taking care of me yet.”

Yudong pouted, but thinking back to last night’s dinner, she couldn’t help but giggle. Throughout her life—aside from last night and her time in the hospital—no one had ever fed her. Thinking about it, she really had acted like a child last night. Anyone else would have ignored her, but Manzhu indulged her unconditionally.

It feels so good to be pampered like this by the person I love.

After lunch, Yudong packed her things and headed back to school. Manzhu offered to see her off, but she declined. The sun was quite strong, and the dorm chat was quiet, so she wasn’t sure if Ye Liujing had skipped training again. Yudong didn’t fully trust Liujing yet and hadn’t told her everything, so she didn’t want the Exorcist and the Great Demon to cross paths.

Back at school, Yudong took the shaded paths to avoid the sports field where training was held. Reaching the fourth floor, she found the dorm door latched from the inside. She knocked, and someone immediately opened it.

“You’re back!” Ye Liujing said, bolting the door behind Yudong.

Chen Yang was sitting at her desk with a bag of chips, watching a music variety show on her laptop. Two small speakers—brand new and clearly expensive—were pumping out high-quality sound. Only Chen Yang and Tang Qian had laptops; whenever Ye Liujing wanted to watch something, she’d ask Chen Yang. Chen Yang was sweet and rarely said no, so she ended up watching whatever Liujing recommended.

“Lu Yudong, come watch! It’s almost time for my ‘treasure.’ Senior Kaiyu is so handsome and such a great singer—his voice is so soulful!”

Yudong pulled up her chair. Chen Yang rewound the video ten minutes to the pre-show interview.

“Cheng Kaiyu is a junior at our school. He became famous after this show. Look, isn’t he handsome? He speaks so gently and sings so sweetly… I hope I get to meet him on campus!”

The show had been airing since summer. Liujing was acting like a total fangirl, gushing over how handsome and gentle the singer was. Tang Qian, meanwhile, remained hidden behind her blackout curtains, the muffled clicking of her keyboard the only sign of life.

The dorm was rarely quiet, but Tang Qian never complained; she just wore her large over-ear headphones. If anyone needed her, messaging her on Q.Q was easier than shouting. Despite her introversion, she was friendly and would occasionally pop her head out to join a discussion.

The relationship between the 415 roommates was harmonious—very different from Yudong’s high school experience. Even though they’d only known each other for ten days, it felt like they had been friends for much longer.

Finally, the fifteen days of military training ended.

The dorm had a private bathroom but no hot water. To shower, they had to go to the public bathhouse. On the final night, the four roommates grabbed their plastic basins filled with toiletries and clean clothes and headed over.

It was Yudong’s first time there. In the beginning, they weren’t close enough to shower together, so they had taken cold rinses in the dorm. Now, wanting a proper wash, they went as a group.

The bathhouse had stalls but no doors. Even though it was female-only, Yudong felt uncomfortable. In the next stalls, Ye Liujing and Tang Qian were standing out in the open, singing and scrubbing each other’s backs. Yudong stayed huddled in her stall, washing in silence. Chen Yang was quiet too, only speaking when Liujing asked to borrow her body wash.

“Lu Yudong, do you need me to scrub your back?” Liujing peeked over.

“No, I’m fine! I can do it!” Yudong wished she could vanish into the floor.

“Okay, call me if you change your mind,” Liujing said.

On the way back, they all wore pajamas or nightgowns, hair damp, holding their basins high to cover their chests. They wanted to get back quickly without being recognized. Only Ye Liujing hopped along, greeting every person she recognized. Yudong watched her with a touch of envy.

Liujing reminded her of a friend she had lost. Zhang Ziyun had also been cheerful and warm, pulling Yudong out of her shell. However, they weren’t exactly alike. Ziyun always showed her best side, while Liujing never hid her flaws or cared about her image.

Back in the room, Chen Yang played Cheng Kaiyu’s songs on loop. Liujing hummed along off-key over the sound of hair dryers. Yudong opened Q.Q and messaged Ziyun’s grey icon.

—Training is over. It was quite easy, not as hard as our first week of high school. The instructors were nice and didn’t let us get too tanned, saying we might be stars one day and shouldn’t ruin our faces [Laughing emoji].

—My new roommates are so lazy, though. They skipped so much that I got corrupted too. I’ve never skipped a class in my life, but I skipped two days of training.

—I wonder how you are.

Yudong knew Ziyun had likely abandoned the account. To escape the past, she had moved her house; surely she had changed her social media too.

“Lu Yudong? Lu Yudong?”

“Huh?”

“What are you dazed about?” Ye Liujing teased, eyeing Yudong’s phone. “I called you several times. So serious… got a secret?”

“No,” Yudong shook her head. “What is it?”

“Nothing, I was just saying you and Chen Yang are so shy about showering. You won’t let anyone help scrub or even see you.”

Chen Yang added, “I always shower alone at home. It’s hard to get used to people.”

“I showered alone at home too,” Liujing said, “but this is my first time living at school. I think showering together is fun. Chen Yang, don’t they have big open bathhouses in the North?”

Chen Yang shook her head. “I don’t know, I’ve never been to one.”

Tang Qian finished drying her hair and turned off the dryer. She looked at Liujing and asked softly, “Little Leaf, what caused those scars on your back?”

“Those? A demon scratched me,” Liujing said matter-of-factly.

Yudong stared in shock. She didn’t expect Liujing to tell the truth. But Tang Qian clearly didn’t believe her. “Stop joking, they look serious.”

“What scars?” Chen Yang asked curiously.

Liujing turned around and lifted her shirt. Her back was covered in a large, jagged scar that looked like claw marks, some parts clearly having required stitches.

“Oh my god!” Chen Yang covered her eyes. “That must have hurt so much!”

“It was years ago, but yeah, I thought I was going to die,” Liujing said with exaggerated drama. She dropped her shirt and turned back with a grin. “It was an accident. I was traveling with my… teacher, and I got mauled by a black bear.”

“How did you run into something like that?” Tang Qian asked.

Liujing began weaving a half-true story about getting lost in a forbidden zone of a park and being saved by her teacher just in time. She made it sound so terrifyingly real that only Yudong knew it was a lie—there was no bear, only a demon.

That night, after everyone climbed into bed, Liujing sent Yudong a private message.

Little Leaf: Often, if you tell ‘Muggles’ the truth, they won’t believe you. But if you tell a lie after the truth, they believe it instantly.

Lu Yudong: What’s a Muggle?

Little Leaf: Oh my god! Winter, your little head must be worth a lot of money.

Lu Yudong: Why?

Little Leaf: Because it’s brand new and never been used!

Lu Yudong: [I’m not angry emoji]

Little Leaf: ‘Muggle’ is from Harry Potter. It means normal people. I didn’t mean it as an insult, so don’t tell on me!

Lu Yudong: I see. I haven’t seen that movie.

Little Leaf: [Judging look]

Lu Yudong: So what really injured you?

Little Leaf: A black bear.

Lu Yudong: Again? Do you expect me to believe that?

Little Leaf: It was a bear—a Black Bear Demon! Huge and terrifying!

Lu Yudong: [Shocked emoji]

Little Leaf: Have you ever seen a demon?

Lu Yudong: Me?

Little Leaf: Don’t tell me you haven’t. People who study magic always run into them. Have you never seen one on the street?

This was true. Since studying magic, Yudong could sense spiritual energy. She could tell when someone had an unusual aura and could even guess their general type.

Lu Yudong: Insects, trees, fish, birds. All kinds.

Little Leaf: Any big ones? Like, in human form?

Lu Yudong: Orange cats, dragonflies, sheep, flower demons. And a dog—a huge Samoyed!

Little Leaf: Ever seen a Snake Demon?

Yudong froze. She had intentionally avoided mentioning snakes, yet Liujing brought it up. Even knowing the Bureau protected good demons, she felt a surge of tension.

Little Leaf: Lu Yudong, hello?

Lu Yudong: Why are you asking about snakes?

Little Leaf: Because there are Snake Demons in Yuanchuan! Three big ones! I’ve never seen a ‘Great Demon’ before. I really want to see one. But I’m only a Middle-rank Exorcist; I don’t have the clearance to see the Bureau files.

Lu Yudong: [Shocked emoji]

Little Leaf: Never mind, you look like you haven’t seen much. Why did I expect you to have seen one? Since we’re ‘half-kin,’ if I find them, I’ll take you to see the world.

Lu Yudong: Won’t there be a conflict?

Little Leaf: I wouldn’t dare! A thousand-year bear nearly killed me. For a Great Demon, I’d just go to pay my respects.

Yudong breathed a sigh of relief. She had considered telling the truth, but after being called a “brand new brain,” she decided to keep quiet. Before sleeping, she texted Manzhu.

—Sister, the bathhouse stalls at school have no doors. I don’t like it; I think I’ll just shower when I come home.

A moment later, Manzhu replied.

Manzhu: Doesn’t that mean you’re seen by everyone?

Lu Yudong: No, it’s so steamy you can’t see anything QAQ

Manzhu: I’m just joking. You’re all girls, nothing to fear.

Lu Yudong: It’s just awkward. I have so many scars, they’re ugly. I don’t want people to see.

Manzhu: They are fading. They aren’t ugly.

Lu Yudong: Sister doesn’t mind?

Manzhu: I don’t. But you haven’t let me help you bathe in a long time—is it because you thought I would mind?

Lu Yudong: No, no!

She was just… getting more and more shy…