Despite their estrangement, Xi ger could never forget that this was the playmate he’d grown up with.
He reached out to check Yue ger’s pulse, and the moment his fingers touched the wrist, he understood.
His eyes widened in shock. "You—"
Yue ger quickly covered Xi ger’s mouth, then glanced meaningfully at the leader behind him.
Xi ger’s expression darkened. He glared at Yue ger for a long moment before gritting his teeth and standing, ordering the leader and the others to leave. When the leader refused, Xi ger physically pushed them all out and slammed the door shut.
Turning back, he stared at the frail figure curled under the blankets, his face a mix of emotions.
"What the hell are you doing?! 'Severed Heart' is the deadly poison I gave you for self-defense! And you—you actually took it?! Then pretended it was some incurable disease?! What’s going on with you?!"
Xi ger’s furious questions were met with Yue ger’s tearful, pitiful gaze.
Xi ger felt that his repeated questions were like a hammer striking a soft quilt, utterly failing to make a splash.
"A-Xi, please help me," Yue ger choked out.
Xi ger's hand trembled, and he moved to pack his things to leave, but Yue ger clung desperately to his waist. "I can explain."
"..." Xi ger snapped, "Let go. If you don’t let go, I’ll call for help."
"A-Xi!" Yue ger wept. "I’ve only been married to the leader for a few days, and already there’s an emotional crisis. I... I’ve been starving myself to stay beautiful, to make him like me more."
"Look on the desk, in the box on the left. There’s a powder just like the one in your medicine, it’s emetic powder, originally for weight loss. I mistook it for poison and took it... but now that it’s inside me, I’ve been poisoned. I had no choice but to lie."
The emetic powder was real and harmless, something he had originally kept to feign illness... Now it became his best excuse. Yue ger’s eyes flickered as he cried even more pitifully. Xi ger was furious. "You’re a habitual liar! How could you joke about something like this? A terminal illness..."
Xi ger scoffed and pointed outside. "Did you not see how heartbroken your beastman looked? Did you not see how terrified the leader's a-die was? You could’ve just told the truth! Why say you had a terminal illness?"
"I... was scared," Yue ger stammered.
Xi ger asked, "Scared of what?"
"Scared they’d think I was making trouble... scared the leader wouldn’t like me..."
"Is that the truth?" Xi ger asked, his face full of disappointment. "You lie so much, I don’t even know what’s real or fake anymore."
"I’m telling the truth," Yue ger said earnestly.
"..." Xi ger clenched his fists and stayed silent. After a long pause, he pried Yue ger’s fingers off one by one, took a deep breath, and said, "I’ll detoxify you first."
"No..." Yue ger dodged.
Xi ger stared in shock. "What did you say?"
"I don’t want the antidote," Yue ger said.
"?" Xi ger was stunned.
Yue ger explained, "This poison is more effective than the emetic powder. Even though I only took a little, I can’t eat, and I’ve lost so much weight. Once I’m thin enough, I’ll take the antidote."
"..." Xi ger looked at Yue ger as if he were a lunatic.
Yue ger pleaded, "So, A-Xi, help me. Just tell them you can’t cure me yet, okay?"
"!" Xi ger shoved him away. "No! This poison is no joke, are you insane?"
"I won’t take the antidote, not today! A-Xi, please help me. Tell the leader and the others that I’m sick, that you can’t cure me this time, okay?"
"..." Xi ger stared at Yue ger for a long time.
It was as if he could no longer see any trace of his old playmate in this person.
He wasn’t foolish enough to believe this was about weight loss, but he had no idea what Yue ger was really after, and he no longer cared.
Coldly, he stood up, his distant demeanor making it seem as if he had never known Yue ger. "I’m a fool for ever worrying about you."
He rummaged through his bag, pulled out an antidote, and tossed it to Yue ger. "Take it or don’t. Your choice."
With that, he turned and left.
Yue ger reached out to stop him but failed.
The moment Xi ger stepped outside, the leader and the others rushed over.
The leader asked anxiously, "How is he? Is A-Yue alright? Is it serious? Tell me what you need, I’ll get it."
"..." Xi ger looked at the man’s worried face, then thought of the situation inside, and his chest tightened with suffocating frustration. He just wanted to leave and never return.
Gritting his teeth, he pushed past the leader and strode away. "He’s beyond cure. Don’t come looking for me!"
The leader staggered back in shock, collapsing to the ground. The middle-aged ger swayed, barely managing to stay upright by leaning against the wall.
"So... we misjudged Yue ger," the middle-aged ger murmured, shaking his head before retreating inside with a sigh.
The leader sat dazed for a long time before mustering the courage to enter. Yue ger sat on the bed, his pale face devoid of color.
Earlier, his tear-stained eyes had been red, but now even that faint flush had faded.
His lifeless appearance stabbed at the leader’s heart like a knife.
"A-Yue, I..." The leader approached the bed, his knees giving way as he knelt before it.
Yue ger’s eyes welled up, but the tears didn’t fall. He closed them slightly, letting a single drop trail down his cheek and onto the quilt, leaving a dark stain.
He turned his face away, feigning sorrowful silence.
Not a single word of blame, not a single reproach—yet his speechless grief was like a sharp blade, carving into the beastman’s flesh. The leader was drowning in guilt.
Head bowed, he poured out his remorse before Yue ger.
He had never imagined it was a terminal illness... something even the healer couldn’t cure. No wonder Yue ger had been so desperate for Rui grass.
As a beastman, he had failed to find the herbs to save his own ger—instead, he had doubted him. He was a failure.
[Xi ger's just as annoying as Yue ger 😒]
No comments:
Post a Comment