A few nights ago, I had a fight with a Hell official from the Underworld. It was a disaster began by Tang Xiaohua, and the officials wanted to teach her a lesson. The result of the incident was that the defeated official accused Tang Xiaohua of breaking the rules of the Underworld and tampering with human lives. They warned that if she dared to interfere in Underworld affairs again, she would not be spared.
But at that time, I didn't know what had actually happened. I had become addicted to a game called World of Warcraft recently, spending my days in front of the computer, neglecting my supervision of Tang Xiaohua. On the night after my PK with the Hell official, I pulled Tang Xiaohua to the bathroom with the best soundproofing in the house to extort a confession.
Even though she was seventeen years old, she was still a complete brat in my eyes. The bathroom mirror reflected our figures, standing there in a tense standoff. Tang Xiaohua was wearing a mid-length coat with an ugly color and a very OUT style. Her face was hidden behind her hair, which was a boring short cut, and was slightly pale. The overhead light shined through her smooth skin, making it look translucent.
"Come clean, what mischief did you get into while I was away?" My expression was colder and harder than marble.
Tang Xiaohua hesitated, nibbling on her lip, stealing a quick glance at me, then immediately shifting her gaze away without saying a word.
"Speak!" I felt like anything but a guardian spirit, more like a mobster collecting protection money.
"Well... I..." Her dark, bright eyes darted behind the lenses.
"You never tell lies," I softened my tone. Extorting a confession also requires techniques, using both hard and soft tactics.
"Okay, okay, I'll say it," she sniffed, raised her head to look at my forehead, raised her finger and drew a line on it, then said in a tone that was half-excited and half-annoyed, "I saw something new on their foreheads."
"What do you mean?" I instinctively touched my own forehead.
"Phone, phone, get your phone out!" She rummaged in my pocket and pulled out my new phone, pointing at the battery indicator on the screen and said, "It's this thing! Everyone has a similar sign on their foreheads."
I was stupefied: "Are you saying you see battery indicators on everyone's heads?"
"Yeah," she nodded, "some people have high battery levels, while others have low ones. Elderly people all show low battery levels, but there are also many young people with low levels."
Being as smart as I am, I roughly figured out what was going on after a brief pondering. To put it simply, this country girl could probably see the health bar of humans now.
But what did this have to do with the Hell officials flipping out?
"When did you discover this new ability?" I asked her. Tang Xiaohua shook her head.
"You don't remember or you refuse to tell me?" I continued to press, gripping her shoulders - having a beef with the Underworld could be a major or minor matter. She shrank back, stubbornly resisting to the end.
Tang Xiaohua's most distinctive trait is that she never lies. As she grew older, she had learned to be silent on occasion, but she absolutely never lied.
I knew her temperament well, so I released my grip and followed my memories to dig up all her actions and behaviors in the past few months, searching for any indiscretions or clues, piece by piece, focusing on the details. Eventually, the target I locked on was the week before my PK with the Hell official.
Every year, there was one day when I would leave Tang Xiaohua for 24 hours to venture alone into the deep mountains outside the city to absorb the spirit dew that forms during the day-night transition. That stuff only appears once a year. This is the plight of being a fox – always having to rely on external energy sources to maintain my strength. Fortunately, absorbing spirit dew once a year was enough to nourish me for the entire year. Our agreement was that during those 24 hours when I wasn't with her, she couldn't step outside the house.
I recalled that morning when I returned from the mountains, and there was Tang Xiaohua, looking tired, sitting in front of her ever-sighing parents, having breakfast and nibbling on a bun that seemed never-ending.
I had long been accustomed to her way of interacting with her parents, but I wasn't used to her ignoring me. In front of her parents, she was obedient and quiet, like a docile rabbit. She lacked the rebellion that children her age often displayed. She loved her parents and respected them, following all their arrangements, but she always maintained a subtle distance.
However, it was different when she was with me. While she resembled a rabbit, she was far from being a quiet one; instead, she was a clingy, hopping-around rabbit. Even when there were outsiders around and she had to pretend not to see me, there was always a gleam in her eyes that only I could see as she secretly followed me.
This intimacy, which was clearly different from others, became more and more apparent as she grew older.
Yet, on that particular morning, even my presence couldn't light up her eyes. The key to this whole situation must have unfolded on the day I went into the mountains.
"On the day I went to the mountains, you broke our agreement, didn't you?" I couldn't afford to waste any more time and grabbed her wrist.
"Ouch..." Tang Xiaohua's face contorted in pain, and she let out a cry.
My actions were always measured, and this level of force shouldn't have caused her pain. Unless...
I swiftly rolled up her sleeve, revealing a pale wrist with a clear mark on it. The mark resembled a petal, twisted at an eerie angle, reminding me of lips that held unspoken words. What was most bizarre was that through this mark, I could see the patterns on the floor – this mark had made a part of her flesh and blood disappear.
I was no longer uneasy; I was alarmed.
"Tang Xiaohua, I'll give you two choices," I lifted her chin and waved two fingers in front of her eyes. "First, tell me the truth. Second, starting tomorrow, I will disappear from your life forever. You know I walk the talk."
I admit I was at my wit's end. I don't have the ability to peer into someone's past.
"You..." She blinked nervously, the idea of a life without me was something she had never contemplated.
I know it's unkind to threaten a silly little girl with her weakness, but I'd rather be the bad guy than let her die a dubious death.
"I..." She sniffled and hung her head, looking like an eternal sinner, "I lied to others..."
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