Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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TW: Animal cruelty, violence against cats
After the New Year, the sun shone more often, the snow gradually melted, and a biting chill settled in.
You Xu would occasionally go out into the street. At the end of the street lived a blind old woman who often placed small porcelain bowls of food on the low wall.
“Meow—” You Xu jumped onto the wall and meowed at the yard.
“Oh, you’ve come.” The old woman was shelling peas in the yard. Hearing the sound, a smile appeared on her wrinkled face.
You Xu finished her vegetable soup and rice, jumped down from the wall, and rubbed against her. The old woman stroked her head gently and asked, “Are you full?”
“Meow,” You Xu responded, stayed with her for a while, then jumped back onto the wall. She looked back; the yard was empty, with only an old woman with gray hair and slow movements.
She had passed by twice, and the old woman, knowing this, would leave some food where she passed. After eating, You Xu would stay with her for a while, and on nice days, she would take a nap in her yard.
You Xu had initially taken some of this food back to Li Yi’er, but he only let her eat it herself. After several times, You Xu stopped taking it, fortunately, he could find some food on his own.
Life would be easier after winter.
On her slow walk back, You Xu didn’t notice several gazes.
“That stray cat seems to belong to that freak now.”
“Damn it, my eye has been hurting for over half a month.”
Someone’s eyes darted around, and they said, “Why don’t we give Li Yi’er a belated New Year’s gift…”
….
Whether it was a cat’s sensitivity or her human intuition, You Xu felt an unease that wouldn’t subside.
Walking out of the street and into a small alley, the feeling intensified, even making her slightly agitated. You Xu turned around, intending to leave.
Just then, a voice rang out from the alley.
“Hey, you beast, where do you think you’re going?” Four boys blocked the alleyway.
You Xu saw they were carrying sticks, stones, and those bird-catching nets. Looking at the high walls on either side— she couldn’t jump over them— she ran deeper into the alley towards the other end. She hadn’t gone two steps before encountering several more boys blocking her way.
The boys slowly approached. “Look how skinny that freak is, he probably hasn’t eaten meat in ages. Let’s bring him a pot of wildcat soup.”
You Xu kicked her hind legs, gritted her teeth, and leaped, clawing at one of the boys’ faces. The boy was quick, grabbing her tail and throwing her violently to the ground. You Xu’s vision blurred from the fall, and the sharp pain in her back made her think her spine was broken, possibly leaving her paralyzed.
Seeing a large net descending, You Xu endured the pain and quickly dodged, trying to slip between their legs, but was blocked by a horizontal stick.
Seeing that escape was impossible, You Xu simply bit the arm holding the stick.
“Ouch— you bit me again! I’ll kill you today!” He grabbed a stone from someone nearby with his other hand and smashed it directly onto You Xu’s forehead.
You Xu let go, but couldn’t dodge, and the excruciating pain from her splitting head made her lose consciousness. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself back in the blank space, her head still throbbing with lingering pain.
“Oh, you’re back.” 78 glanced at her and turned back to watch its children’s cartoon.
You Xu was a little confused: “My mission failed?”
78: “With your cat form, you can’t even receive the timeline, which is equivalent to not receiving the mission. What kind of failure is that?”
You Xu breathed a slight sigh of relief and asked, “So what do I do now?”
“Wait,” 78 said, cracking sunflower seeds. “The switchboard has approved the situation report I submitted and will match you with a new character.”
“How long will it take?” She was really worried about Li Yi’er.
“I don’t know, finding a match is difficult. It needs to be a good match for you personally, and you also need to avoid arousing suspicion from the target and preventing any world bugs. It takes a lot of time,” 78 said, seeing her anxious and restless expression, handed her a handful of sunflower seeds. “Alright, there’s no use in being anxious. Why don’t you sit down…”
You Xu interrupted it without hesitation: “Not in a hurry? And then what, watch children’s cartoons with you?!” She then snatched all the sunflower seeds away.
78: “…”
With something weighing on her mind, it was indeed difficult to distract herself. Seeing her absent-mindedness, 78 simply spent a fortune buying her Rubik’s Cubes, yo-yos, building blocks, puzzles, and other educational toys, hoping to relax her and improve her intelligence.
You Xu had no interest in playing, and seeing its pained expression, she said expressionlessly, “What are you heartbroken about? It’s my points that are being spent.”
She waited there, until it was almost dark and the sun and moon seemed to disappear. In this blank space, time seemed to stand still, yet it also seemed to flow rapidly; she had no idea how much time had passed.
Finally, one day, 78 suddenly sprang to its feet and said to the lying corpse, “Here you are, host. The switchboard has matched you with a new person. Hurry up and complete the mission.”
You Xu’s turbulent heart had calmed down. She calmly rubbed her aching head. “Okay, let’s go.”
78 immediately drew a circle of light for her. She stepped into the circle, and when the white light in her mind faded, You Xu regained her senses.
She looked up and saw stone steps winding downwards, with lush trees on both sides of the path, and a man in a blue robe, wearing a white jade crown, and exuding a cold and aloof aura, coming towards her.
As the two rapidly closed in on each other, You Xu realized that when she passed through, the original body had missed a step and fallen forward.
The mountain was steep and high, and the stone steps seemed endless. If she rolled down… she might be done for.
The man saw her, and a fleeting look of disgust flashed in his eyes. He frowned slightly, made no attempt to help her up, and even stepped aside.
Survival instinct made You Xu instinctively reach for his arm, only to grab empty sleeves.
Where was his hand?
They had no time to react; the force of the impact sent them both tumbling downwards.
In a flash, You Xu reacted with lightning speed, pulling him around so they didn’t roll down the stone steps but into the nearby woods.
The woods had a steep downhill slope, but it was full of soft mud and loose stones. You Xu was jolted, seeing stars, until her back hit a tree trunk, stopping only then. Her back was numb with pain, her scraped hands burned, and she had twisted her ankle.
She closed her eyes, trying to recover from the pain, and gritted her teeth, saying to 78, “Next time I transmigrate, can you please not always choose such life-threatening moments? If I had reacted any slower, my head would have been cracked open, and then I’ll be covered in blood on the stone steps.”
78 casually replied, “You think this is like choosing between radishes and cabbages?”
She felt the person beside her move, as if sitting up.
Although the system was flawed and every teleportation was a disaster, the teleportation location was quite accurate. Generally, the first and closest contact was the mission target.
Before she fell, she glanced at him twice. He had changed so much; he was practically a different person. But that sense of familiarity confirmed to her that he was indeed Li Yi’er.
“78, you said if I continue to pretend to be unconscious, he definitely won’t let a woman lie unconscious in the woods. He’ll find a way to get me out. Then I can use the excuse of repaying his life-saving grace to offer myself to him, and it’ll all fall into place naturally.” She thought this mission seemed pretty easy.
The stick figure acted like a fangirl: “Great job, host! Good luck!”
But You Xu thought of another problem: she had dragged him down with her. He might not actually save her, and he might even be injured.
She thought for a moment, then decided to open her eyes, apologize properly, and ask him to help her up. This way, she could get his help while also lightening his burden of saving an unconscious person.
After thinking it through, You Xu opened her eyes. A sharp stone was pointed at her head, and the person holding it had cold eyes.
It wasn’t hard to see what he wanted to do to her.
78: “…”
You Xu: “…………”
78 comforted her: “Host, you should know that imagination is always beautiful.”
You Xu: Wait, what’s going on with this plot?
The sharp rock stopped in front of her. She didn’t know why he had stopped, and You Xu seized the opportunity to quickly roll aside.
He seemed to realize he had no further chance, so he threw the rock away, stood up, straightened his robes, and left without looking back.
Just then, a gust of wind blew, rustling the leaves in the forest.
You Xu opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but seeing the empty hem of his robe fluttering in the wind at his right side, she suddenly stopped speaking.
Watching the figure in blue disappear into the distance, You Xu sighed softly.
She couldn’t count on him for help anymore; she was already grateful he hadn’t dealt her that final blow.
After recovering from the pain, You Xu limped down the mountain, incidentally accessing the timeline.
In this ancient world, Li Yi’er’s mother died in childbirth on the day he was born. His father was then arranged to marry a concubine, but she also died in childbirth, and this time, even the child didn’t survive. Not long after, his father also passed away.
Three-year-old Li Yi’er was raised by his older sister, but she also died unexpectedly on his tenth birthday. Rumors spread throughout the village that he was a malevolent spirit, a reincarnated evil ghost seeking revenge.
From then on, Li Yi’er lived a life of contempt from adults and bullying from his peers. One day, he snapped and, unable to endure it any longer, left the village. On his journey, he encountered a sorcerer monk. The monk examined his bone structure, divined his birth date and time, and calculated his destiny.
“We are destined to meet here, and your destiny is so extraordinary,” the monk said with a smile. “I will open your heavenly eye to see the secrets of heaven, what do you say?”
Li Yi’er nodded in agreement.
The monk renamed him Wen Shu[1].
The sorcerer monk taught him divination, predicting cause and effect, and analyzing hexagram positions. He studied diligently, and with his exceptional talent, he quickly gained fame. Many sought his help, asking him to divine their marriages, careers, and wealth. His life improved steadily, but his tragic childhood had long since robbed him of compassion.
He preferred studying blood curses—a form of cursing— to divination and fortune-telling. While fortune-telling and prying into heavenly secrets would inevitably have backlash, blood curses had a far more severe effect, but he didn’t care. He didn’t care about his future or his life.
One step was fortune-telling, the next was cursing; he walked a precipice, completely unafraid of being engulfed in flames. The sorcerer monk’s constant enticement of the bloodthirsty malice within him made it even harder for him to suppress his evil thoughts.
One day, Master Xuanjing of Shanyuan Temple came to him, preaching Buddhist scriptures and instilling in him the ideas of compassion and mercy. He invited him to join Shanyuan Temple and promised that he could return to secular life at any time. The evil in Wen Shu’s heart was temporarily suppressed. He then fell in love with a woman named Ye Lingling, returned to secular life, and married her.
However, their happiness was short-lived. The following year, the shadow of Wen Shu’s life struck again: Ye Lingling died in childbirth, her unborn child stillborn, a tragic sight.
Unable to obtain what he desired, and ultimately losing what he had, Wen Shu was completely corrupted by this ridiculous fate. He used various blood curses to torment people, causing broken families, ruined homes, and financial ruin. He went from a respected fortune teller to a feared sorcerer, and finally, the blood curses backfired, leaving him without a complete corpse.
After reading this timeline, You Xu reached the foot of the mountain, feeling a headache and leg pain, as if half her life was gone. She continued reading about the content related to herself.
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[1] The name Wen Shu where wen relates to perceiving/learning a principle and shu relates to the specific execution method.
