Chapter 26: An Abyss Filled with Desire and Longing

This dinner was eaten very strangely.

Lin Jiangye was speechless and did not know how to give Yu Wangxiao an answer that would satisfy him.

Once again, he gained a brand-new understanding of the extent of his own ignorance.

If he had known earlier, he should not have spent all his time robbing food everywhere in the past. He should have participated a little in the scheming among his peers, invaded the information databases of different departments… No matter what, he should have gotten hold of some confidential information.

Having a simple mind and acting only according to desire really was unsuitable for the survival of any species.

But Yu Wangxiao seemed to be in a good mood. His hand remained resting on Lin Jiangye’s leg. He ate slowly, and he also began talking more.

“You think I look delicious?”

The dense texture of the potato melted in Lin Jiangye’s mouth, soaked full of the savory fragrance of ham. Lin Jiangye swallowed hard. “Mm. Didn’t I bite you this morning? Even without talking about your soul, just the taste of your blood is already delicious… tastier than the food you make.”

Yu Wangxiao touched the band-aid on the side of his neck. His fingertip slowly rubbed the texture of the adhesive, making a subtle friction sound.

He chuckled. “In the future, if you want to drink my blood, just say so. I’ll be happy.”

“You’re sick.” Lin Jiangye blurted it out, feeling as if he was going to get drunk.

Drunk from drinking potato soup.

“So fierce.” Yu Wangxiao continued unhurriedly, “I’m only doing what you said. Staying honest and directly expressing what I want.”

“…That makes sense. Then what do you want me to do? Say it more clearly.”

“I hope no one can replace my existence. I hope that if I’m not there, you won’t live well.”

Yu Wangxiao’s voice was very light, as calm and gentle as always. At this moment, it sounded like damp, soft spider silk, layer after layer falling around the neck. It felt comfortable to touch, light and airy, yet carried a subtle sticky feeling that could not be pulled apart.

In the blink of an eye, there would be the risk of being strangled to death.

“…”

Lin Jiangye silently pulled over the half bottle of red wine on the table, filled his glass, and drank it in one go.

“Don’t scold me with ugly words. I’ll be sad.” Yu Wangxiao’s gaze was deep, as if he was showing weakness.

“Yu Wangxiao, I’d rather you say you want to imprison me. That would be more normal than this. Can we be a little sunnier?”

“I don’t have the ability to imprison you, do I? This is my self-awareness, so…”

“So you chose to water and corrode me with money, use a gentle attitude to bewitch and soften me, and control my food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Yet you’re also so likable, and you control things so comfortably that I don’t have even the slightest desire to leave.” Lin Jiangye cut him off with great emotion, trying hard to bring his rationality back, his mood becoming more and more complicated.

To be honest, the moment he thought about how he had inexplicably felt for a while that Yu Wangxiao was some super great person, he suddenly wanted to laugh.

Yu Wangxiao gently held his hand, interlocking their fingers, inseparable. “You’re right, Tuantuan. If maintaining the current state still isn’t enough to achieve my goal, I have more extreme and aggressive options. Of course… no matter how extreme, the final result is still chosen by you, isn’t it?”

“…Yes.”

“You’re willing to accept my aggressiveness, so my plan can produce results.”

“Yes.”

Lin Jiangye felt his scalp prickle, but he still gave an affirmative answer without hesitation. He thought this was reasonable. This truly was what he had chosen himself.

He no longer wanted to run away, and it was impossible for him to simply leave A City at ease, because… because he was afraid that if he left, Yu Wangxiao would be killed by someone else.

The advantage of the reborn would no longer exist once the main storyline changed. The current Yu Wangxiao, even if he made ample preparations, did not mean he would never capsize in a gutter.

Not to mention, this person had already been eaten by him once. It seemed normal for his mentality to be a little twisted.

Mm. Normal.

Since he had eaten him, he had to take responsibility for the consequences.

Lin Jiangye finished the wine. His usually bloodless lips were dyed with a few rich shades by the grape wine, but he himself did not know it. Unconsciously, he bit his lip lightly and softly said, “I saw cod in your fridge. Is that tasty?”

“It’s tasty. I’ll make it for you tomorrow noon and have Chen Ming send it to A University.” Yu Wangxiao stared at him and answered gently.

“He probably isn’t an ordinary bodyguard, right? Having him follow me all the time, isn’t that a bit of a waste of talent?”

“Chen Ming is getting old. Letting him do some easy work makes him happy to retire.”

Lin Jiangye had nothing to say. After thinking for a moment, he said, “I want to ask you something.”

“Mm, go ahead.”

“You humans, exactly what method are you using to fight against supernatural things? Especially you.”

Lin Jiangye ate the last plump piece of tuna belly and drank a mouthful of soup before continuing. “I’ve already carefully finished reading your research reports. The living dead have phototaxis. Only in a completely dark space will they remain still. As long as light appears, they’ll crazily pounce on it. They also like chewing on human flesh, and they have no digestive function. That’s reasonable…

“The only unreasonable thing is that you can actually disperse them by lighting a candle. What’s the principle behind that? The gun you used at the Gu family was also strange. It had no bullets, so how did you knock Old Madam Gu down?”

Yu Wangxiao raised his brows slightly and looked at him meaningfully. After confirming that Lin Jiangye was genuinely confused about all of this, he slowly began speaking. “The candle is made of a special material taken from a meteor shower ten years ago.

“We were lucky. Most of the meteorites were acquired by Yu Corporation and used for research. Some brand-new substances were extracted from them and can be used as a highly effective energy source. Made into candles, they can burn forever without going out. I once funded a student to publish related papers. It’s predicted that in another ten years, it can gradually become popularized in society and even commercialized.

“At present, it can only be limited to personal use, because space mining is also an emerging project, transportation efficiency is very low, and… the radiation issue of this energy has not yet been thoroughly resolved and standardized. What I make use of is exactly its radiation. The supernatural beings currently detectable by humans will all show fear and retreat from small releases of this radiation.”

Lin Jiangye narrowed his eyes. “There’s radiation? It’s so dangerous, and you still dare touch it with your hands?”

“In tiny amounts, its harm to humans is less than a phone,” Yu Wangxiao explained calmly. “The gun you saw is also like that. A large amount of extract is stored in the form of compressed gas and bursts out at the instant of shooting. The destructive power is not bad. Only for humans, it’s very safe and not afraid of accidental discharge.”

“…Then that’s fine. Honestly, you’re very impressive.”

Lin Jiangye stood up to clear the dining table, stacking the plates one by one and carrying them into the kitchen, putting them into the dishwasher.

Yu Wangxiao followed and put two fragrant little detergent cubes inside, curving his lips. “Just good luck. Back then, the meteor shower basically all fell on the island I prepared for you. At that time, we had only just begun digging the foundation. I stood on the beach and personally witnessed that magnificent scene… If I hadn’t happened to see it, perhaps I wouldn’t have paid attention to those meteorites at all.”

The dishwasher buzzed to life. As Yu Wangxiao spoke, he led Lin Jiangye out of the kitchen with a clear purpose, arriving beside the guest bedroom.

The bathroom attached to the guest bedroom was also quite large. It had separate wet and dry areas, and one wall of storage cabinets. Yu Wangxiao opened the cabinet door, chose a large, soft, fluffy bath towel for Lin Jiangye, then picked one from the folded new pajamas and handed it to him.

A pure cotton set printed with Siamese kittens, somewhat like clothing worn by teenagers. The snow-white cats had soot-colored faces, and every single one stared straight ahead, strangely inexplicable.

“Wear this after your shower. I want to see it.” Yu Wangxiao’s tone was rarely forceful.

Lin Jiangye accepted it in silence. Although the original book was full of melodrama, it was only at this moment that he inexplicably had the illusion of being a kept canary.

And the sponsor’s tastes were even more inexplicable than his.

He exhaled. “Wait, one last question. In your previous life, did this meteor shower exist?”

“It didn’t.” Yu Wangxiao looked deeply at him, seeming thoughtful. “So this was the good fortune you brought.”

***

“Memory stability self-check procedure, begin.”

After showering, Lin Jiangye changed into the pajamas Yu Wangxiao had chosen for him. But he did not hurry out.

He stood in front of the bathroom mirror, like on the first night he came to this world, carefully observing himself.

His ink-black eyes were like a receding tide, slowly surging, fading, and finally swallowing all the whites of his eyes.

A subtly textured silver-white gradually occupied his eye sockets, like some dangerous yet soft metal. At a glance, it shimmered like waves, impossible to define the boundary between solid and liquid.

“Birth date… beginning of the Third Era. Awakening date, the fifth new moon. The moon that nurtured me died. He was my food, my first lighthouse, my passage certificate, and also the god’s wine cup…”

His voice was very light as he skillfully recited a string of phrases long carved into his memory. His eyes stared extremely carefully at himself, searching for possible flaws after resurrection.

Because of the hot mist in the bathroom, his cheeks were faintly red. His facial features were all where they should be. He could breathe, had a heartbeat, had pores, and had not developed detail confusion or blurring due to the recent forced growth.

“Appearance meets standard. Limbs normal. Structure reasonable. Next item.”

Lin Jiangye stepped a little closer and continued expressionlessly staring at himself. His soft silver-white eyes were like living things, flowing and swimming inside his skull, instinctively stretching out.

He softly said, “Mental verification—I do not resent. I do not regret. Factual cognition is clear. He was not my mother. He was the moon whose lifespan had ended. He should have died and become the cornerstone of the gods.

“I should have been greedy. I am death’s successor. I ought to enjoy it. I was born craving His soul. I will be diligent, because death is endless destiny, the omnipresent emptiness and fullness. When I am crowned, all things in all ages will be a feast.”

The hollow voice formed a resonance inside the bathroom. A gentle wind passed through his hair. The glass mirror trembled and let out a wail, struggling to resist the overly sharp invisible impact.

“…Verification passed. Next item, trainee roster review. Next item, previous mission archives.”

Before his eyes was densely packed invisible information, presented in the form of books. Their thickness was terrifying, exhausting to look at. Lin Jiangye had no choice. He could only calmly inspect them one by one.

He carefully checked every soul he had swallowed with his own mouth, the special souls he had hooked away and submitted for processing, and the souls that had harmed him so much he had been forced to eliminate them on the spot.

Unless there was a problem with his mental state, he rarely used this extremely extreme method of self-searching, because Lin Jiangye always felt uncomfortable, as if he were being confined within a rigid framework, miserable all over.

But tonight, when Yu Wangxiao “reconciled accounts” with him, the unreasonable phenomena he had experienced since resurrection became increasingly highlighted. He had no choice but to seriously conduct a self-inspection.

Lin Jiangye remembered the night he first rode a helicopter, when he looked down over the city lights and felt that sense of familiarity, as well as… the helpless feeling of being unable to remember why it felt familiar no matter what.

That was not a side effect of being inside a human shell, and it probably was not someone deliberately messing with him either.

…There was a small problem with his own completeness.

There were many hollow spaces in his memories. Some memory chains that should have contained field missions actually appeared completely empty. Some had lost a section of content that should have been there. They were very obvious memory gaps, clearly wrong at a glance.

Sure enough, living too long really was not necessarily a good thing. So many things were missing. How had he not noticed?

“Could I really have blown myself into pieces back then… troublesome.”

Lin Jiangye sighed and pulled up the mission records that seemed to belong to this world, slowly examining them.

Unfortunately, there was temporarily no sign of Yu Wangxiao’s face. At least after digging through the surviving memories for a long time, he gained nothing. The damage was too severe. What remained to Lin Jiangye were only a little information and smell, a hazy impression.

A blurry nightscape. The scorched smell of plastic and glass wrapped in gasoline. Blood blooming with fragrance beneath blazing flames. An overly clear human soul was actually like a snowball, giving off a cold, dead, sweet fragrance at the moment of death. Put into fire and roasted, it instead seemed more vivid than any living person.

Lin Jiangye knew his tastes were a little vulgar, but he had actually always liked this kind of “sense of being alive” most. He liked powerful, dangerous, and complex flavors. The neighboring deep-sea department stored many similar predator souls, but humans… there really were not that many tasty enough ones.

“Tuantuan, do you need two hours to shower?”

Yu Wangxiao’s voice came from outside the door, abruptly interrupting his thoughts.

Lin Jiangye lightly coughed and turned to open the door. He truly had no guard up toward Yu Wangxiao now, and spoke without thinking. “After serious consideration, I think I really did eat you.”

“…”

Yu Wangxiao did not speak. He stared at him silently, his breathing very obviously slowing by several degrees. The gentle gaze that had originally carried worry underwent a visible qualitative change the instant their eyes met. Ripples rose in his pitch-black eyes like a deep pool, like an abyss filled with desire and longing.

“What’s wrong…” Lin Jiangye felt his back prickle from being stared at, as if he was involuntarily infected by this human’s emotions. His throat inexplicably turned dry.

Yu Wangxiao walked over step by step, his pace steady. The bathroom’s steam fell on his hair, and the heat misted the air until it made breathing difficult. Yet his superior, deep features were controlled very harmoniously, his expression extremely calm.

It was the unique calm before a tsunami.

Only when his forehead almost bumped into Lin Jiangye’s did he unhurriedly say in a low voice, “Tuantuan, I am going to kiss you now.”

Not “I want to kiss you,” but “I am going to kiss you.”

“Mm.”

That’s right. Lin Jiangye stared blankly as he tried hard to digest this notice. In the end, he could only vaguely answer with an “mm.”

A little embarrassing, but so what?

He forgot the concept of breathing, pressed down onto the sink, staring blankly into Yu Wangxiao’s eyes so close at hand.

Yu Wangxiao did not close his eyes, and neither did he.

Warm yellow light poured over the two of them, lighting Yu Wangxiao’s pupils and reflecting Lin Jiangye’s eyes.

That pair of full moons surging with silver-white radiance sank inside another person’s kiss, trembling inside another person’s eyes.