Chirp chirp…
Another peaceful morning, filled with the pleasant songs of birds.
Warm sunlight filtered through the glass and thin curtains, casting a soft, hazy glow across the dark bedroom.
The light brown head peeking out from under the blanket seemed to hear the noise outside. It twitched slightly, then pulled the blanket down as a sleepy figure slowly emerged.
“Haaah~ Morning already…”
Qiu Qiqian glanced at the sunlight streaming in through the curtains, let out a lazy yawn, and sat up, struggling to fight off the lingering drowsiness in her brain.
Her hair was messy, probably from tossing and turning all night. One side of her pajama top had slipped down, revealing a pale pink shoulder and the pearly sheen of her upper chest.
Seriously… why does a Guiyi like me still feel sleepy? Is it just a habit?
Qiu Qiqian shook her head, casually pulled up the slipping strap, then threw off the blanket, slipped on her slippers, and switched into her Spiritual State. She quietly left the bedroom without making a sound.
Once in the second-floor hallway, she naturally glanced at the door to Li Meng’s room next door.
It was tightly closed… Was she still sleeping? That girl… Oh well, I’ll go make breakfast for her first.
While heading downstairs, Qiu Qiqian quickly ran her fingers through her hair and transformed her pajamas into a kitchen apron. Of course… she wasn’t wearing only the apron. She wasn’t that bold yet.
The moment she reached the downstairs area, Qiu Qiqian smelled the aroma of oil mixed with a faint… burnt scent?
She walked to the kitchen doorway and found that Li Meng had somehow woken up already. She was standing in front of the stove, frying something while watching a tutorial video on her phone.
“Umm… does this need a bit more time…? Hmm? Xiao Qian, you’re awake? I’m frying steak and eggs~ Go sit in the living room, it’ll be ready soon.”
“You… took the steak out of the fridge and started frying it?”
“Yeah! Don’t worry, I’ve learned some techniques. I’m sure I can make Xiao Qian a decent breakfast.”
As she spoke, Li Meng confidently waved the spatula in the air a few times, completely unbothered by the oil splattering onto the floor.
Qiu Qiqian narrowed her eyes, giving her a skeptical look. She stood on her tiptoes to peek into the pan and saw the steak and eggs that already looked somewhat “dead.” She couldn’t help but slap a hand over her eyes.
“I can’t watch this anymore… Li Meng, when you’re talking to someone, you should still keep an eye on what’s happening in the pan.”
Only after Qiu Qiqian’s reminder did Li Meng snap back to reality and quickly glance into the pan.
“Ah! Oh no, my steak and eggs!”
Li Meng frantically flipped everything over. It was painfully obvious she had zero talent for cooking.
Qiu Qiqian let out a helpless sigh. She knew there was no hope in letting this girl handle breakfast, so she left the kitchen doorway to prepare something else as a backup.
***
“So… this is the fried steak and eggs you made today?”
Qiu Qiqian poked at the oval-shaped black object on the plate that was supposedly an egg, then looked up at Li Meng, whose face had turned bright red.
“Well… actually… it should still be edible, right? Like, maybe the steak is just crispy on the outside and tender on the inside?”
“Is it really crispy on the outside and tender inside?”
Qiu Qiqian picked up a small knife and cut off a piece. It was impossible to tell this had once been meat—it was basically a lump of charcoal.
She had seen overcooked food and food stuck to the pan before, but this was the first time she had ever seen something turn into… this. Just how terrible was this girl’s cooking skill?
Qiu Qiqian sighed helplessly again. Instead of scolding Li Meng, she stood up, took a few slices of toast from the toaster on the counter, and poured some milk.
“Good thing I had a backup plan. You… seriously shouldn’t go into the kitchen anymore. Just leave it to me from now on.”
“Uweh… Sorry for troubling Xiao Qian~”
Li Meng said sheepishly as she accepted the toast Qiu Qiqian handed her.
“Seriously… Oh well. Everyone has different talents. You don’t have to feel too discouraged. Just focus on what you’re good at.”
Qiu Qiqian sat back down and started eating the toast with her milk.
The sunlight was warm, casting a golden hue over the living room. Li Meng and Qiu Qiqian sat together at the dining table. Even though they weren’t eating anything fancy, Li Meng happily swung her legs back and forth. The scene was peaceful and heartwarmingly ordinary.
“By the way… Xiao Qian… you used to be human, right?”
While eating, Li Meng suddenly asked, probably searching for a topic.
“Hmm? Yeah… Why are you asking all of a sudden?”
Qiu Qiqian didn’t deny it. After spending these past few days with Li Meng, she trusted the girl quite a bit. There was no need to lie about something like this.
“Really? That’s amazing…”
Li Meng’s eyes widened.
“I heard that most Guiyi aren’t born naturally from unknown causes. They’re usually the result of distorted souls.”
“Uh… so?”
“So someone like Xiao Qian is really rare~ The analysts also guessed that you might have once been human, but… to them, saying something like that is as contradictory as saying ‘there’s a square circle,’ so they never confirmed it. Oh, right! Since you used to be human, can you tell me about your past?”
“My past?”
Qiu Qiqian blinked, thinking back for a moment.
“Actually, there’s not much to tell.”
“Eh? Why not?”
Qiu Qiqian shook her head and gave a small, quiet laugh. After finishing the last piece of toast on her plate, she stared into her cup of milk without saying anything more.
She wasn’t brushing Li Meng off.
Her past had been just like most ordinary people’s. She grew up in an average family, had some decent talent, and was given high expectations by her relatives.
Yet she could never quite meet their standards. When she tried to be good, she ended up being a pushover. When she tried to be bad, she couldn’t even do that properly.
She always wanted to change her situation, but she lacked both the courage and the ability to do so.
Even up until the moment she died, she had never done anything remarkable. She didn’t even know if anyone would place a single flower on her grave at her funeral.
Noticing the dimness in Qiu Qiqian’s eyes, Li Meng realized something.
Even though she didn’t know the exact details of Qiu Qiqian’s past, their binding allowed her to faintly sense the other girl’s emotions right now…
What kind of feeling was it?
It seemed to be a messy mix of disappointment, irritation, anxiety, and sadness… Li Meng couldn’t quite put it into words.
She quietly scooted her chair closer to Qiu Qiqian and gently reached out to pat her head.
“You… what are you doing…”
Qiu Qiqian snapped out of her thoughts when she felt Li Meng’s hand. Her cheeks flushed with a faint pink.
“It’s okay. No matter what you were like before, the Xiao Qian right now… is already really wonderful~”
“Don’t treat me like a child…”
The second half of Qiu Qiqian’s sentence came out much softer, and she turned her face away slightly, looking exactly like a little girl trying to act tough.
“So… you don’t like being patted?”
“Ugh… Don’t say it in such a misleading way.”
Qiu Qiqian glanced sideways at Li Meng’s gentle eyes. Her pride made her feel a tiny bit annoyed, but… she didn’t pull away.
“Fine… do whatever you want…”
“Is Xiao Qian being tsundere right now?”
“I am not tsundere!”
***
“Wart Crystal internal strength reaction… Titan Grade. It is currently continuing to dissipate.”
“Biological activity reaction… moderate. It can still respond to external stimuli… Interesting.”
In a research lab at one of the Association’s branches, a white-haired woman in a lab coat was carefully observing the Wart Crystal they had obtained after the previous battle with Yao Xueyue’s group.
Several identical women stood in the same lab, assisting with the research.
The only difference was the mold-line-like seams visible at their joints.
The white-haired woman stood in front of the observation chamber, closely examining the appearance of the crystal.
Unlike a complete Wart Crystal, this one had obvious cracks across its surface, and one corner was even missing. It looked like a failed product.
At that moment, another identical white-haired woman walked over and operated the controls outside the chamber. A small mouse that had been injected with anesthetic was placed inside the observation chamber containing the crystal.
A few seconds after the mouse was introduced, the previously lifeless Wart Crystal suddenly trembled and let out a heartbeat-like sound.
Then, a thread-like, extremely thin tentacle grew out from the crystal. It wriggled through the air before drilling into the mouse’s body…
Once the entire tentacle had entered, the anesthetized mouse began to convulse violently. Its flesh rapidly proliferated, bursting through the skin and covering its fur.
A slit opened in its abdomen, and all its internal organs were pushed out as if being “expelled,” clinging to the surface of its body.
One tail, two tails, three tails…
They sprouted from different places and waved in the air like antennae.
By the end, what had once been a mouse had transformed into a grotesque lump of flesh—a mutated abomination.
“It can still infect surrounding creatures and cause Guiyi transformation… Truly unbelievable.”
Using the Realization Device, the white-haired woman operated a mechanical arm to pick up the fleshy lump and move it to another observation chamber for further analysis.
“Cardinal No. 1263, Mother of Profanity No. 1306…”
The woman in white pulled up the files of these two contained entities on the screen. Her star-like, brilliant eyes scanned through the information, analyzing it carefully.
“Just what… are you two planning?”