Swallowing
"...What do you think, Shuangjian? Does what I said make sense?"
Having finished her explanation, Yingshi's face was flushed with excitement.
She was so happy right now. It felt just like solving the third part of the final math problem on a middle school exam; regardless of whether it was actually correct, she was incredibly overjoyed just to have obtained an answer.
Without waiting for Shuangjian to reply, she unreservedly shared her problem-solving process and thought process, detailing the matters regarding the book review and the worldview to him.
"..."
Shuangjian remained silent for a long moment, his expression unreadable.
Ever since hearing the true cause of death of the male lead's biological mother, he hadn't moved a muscle. It was as if even his breathing had been put on pause, yet that stillness didn't seem to stem from shock.
But under Yingshi's expectant gaze, even though his mind was still trapped at the bottom of that frozen lake of memories, he forced himself to give a response. He replied in a low voice, "...Why couldn't the candidate to become a Buddha be you?"
"Me, become a Buddha?" Yingshi swallowed hard. "But my initial identity is a wandering soul."
"I am not a wandering soul, yet at this moment I have become an evil spirit. The initial identity is not a restriction. Since you have unraveled the mysteries of this place, this role should not be given to anyone else."
Yingshi felt an epiphany. A genuine sense of worthiness instantly overcame the faint timidity in her heart. Her eyes filled with a shimmering longing as she nodded, "It has to be me. If Wujian Temple really operates on this mechanism, the disciples who take on the roles of the evil spirit and the Buddha will definitely stand out and get high scores!"
His frozen state of mind loosened at her vibrant expression. Shuangjian's lips curled up slightly, revealing a faint smile.
That smile crashed into Yingshi's eyes, making her heart feel hot and ticklish, and she couldn't help but lower her head.
"I just don't know how to become a Buddha." She pursed her lips shyly. "Moreover, this guess might not be entirely correct..."
"It doesn't matter. Now that we have a direction, we can go verify it," Shuangjian said softly. "As for the method to become a Buddha, we can figure it out slowly. After dawn, it will only be the third day... Let me send you out first."
The air in this cramped space felt stagnant; he and Yingshi didn't actually need to confine themselves here to talk.
Furthermore, perhaps because the identity of the evil spirit was activating over time, facing the wandering soul lured in by his own enchantment, a dark and spreading greed was beginning to rise within him.
—A wandering soul inherently carried the mission of nourishing an evil spirit.
Shuangjian's gaze fixed on Yingshi's face, then slowly moved down to land on her exposed, snow-white neck. His Adam's apple bobbed unconsciously. He quickly lowered his eyes, preparing to send Yingshi away.
But Yingshi was getting a bit addicted to the feeling of brainstorming. Waving her hand, she said, "No rush," and began to deduce again.
"In a conventional sense, I've indeed heard of many paths to becoming a Buddha. For example, dropping the butcher's knife to become a Buddha on the spot; or saving a life is better than building a seven-storied pagoda, so saving more people should be a way; there's also going through eighty-one tribulations to fetch the scriptures from the West, though you have to remember to pass on a message for the old turtle... But I feel like none of these methods are practical here at all. Are there any other ideas?"
Shuangjian stared at her moving lips, watching her vivid expressions as she spoke, listening to her pleasant voice. His Adam's apple rolled once more.
But this time, he didn't say the words about sending her away.
As if driven by an unseen force, he slowly said, "This body of mine retains memories of reading Buddhist scriptures in the past. According to the scriptures, in a past life, Shakyamuni was Prince Mahasattva. He sacrificed his body to feed a starving tigress, and ultimately attained enlightenment."
"Sacrificing oneself to feed a tiger?" Yingshi pondered for a moment, finding it increasingly brilliant. She immediately clapped her hands in admiration, "That makes so much sense! In this Wujian Temple, although there are no tigers, there are evil spirits. Sacrificing oneself to feed an evil spirit might just be a shortcut to becoming a Buddha!"
Sacrificing oneself to feed an evil spirit.
Hearing this phrase come from her mouth made Shuangjian lick his dry lips.
He remained noncommittal, keeping his silence.
Not receiving an agreement, Yingshi couldn't help but look at Shuangjian, only to meet his intense, unblinking gaze. She instantly froze.
"..."
The subtle ticklish feeling in her heart crept up again. She wanted to look away, but her body defied her will, maintaining eye contact with Shuangjian.
She suddenly realized just how narrow and intimate this space was, a tiny world only large enough to hold the two of them.
The air seemed to have grown thick. Every breath carried the faint, crisp scent of Shuangjian. She had buried her face against him and smelled it carefully the first time she drew blood; back then, it had even made her head spin with intoxication for a moment.
Shuangjian obviously didn't use incense, so how could he smell so good?
She almost wanted to describe him as refreshing to the soul.
In a daze, Yingshi recalled a theory she had read in the modern world: if you can smell a pleasant scent on someone, it means your genes are highly compatible; your genes are choosing them.
...Could it be that her genes were choosing Shuangjian? Cough, cough!
Well, that just meant her genes had excellent taste. Wasn't it only natural to choose someone tall, handsome, smart, and gentle?
She should be proud that her genes didn't have strange cravings...
Yingshi proudly sniffled, feeling her body go a bit soft. She knew she shouldn't keep holding his gaze, but she kept looking, staring at her own reflection in Shuangjian's pupils.
She surprisingly only just realized how focused his gaze was, carrying an indescribable aggressiveness. Like a physical touch, it slowly traced her features, lingering on her lips that were slightly parted from excitement and nervousness.
Belatedly, Yingshi felt a wave of numbness crawl up her spine.
"...Shuangjian?" she called out softly. Her voice was much weaker than she imagined, no different from a sleep-talker's murmur.
This airy sound clearly couldn't awaken whatever dormant desire was lurking; it only had the opposite effect of adding fuel to the fire. It even made her own head spin further. Thus, instead of stepping back, as if drawn by some dangerous vortex, she took a tiny step forward.
But when the space was already so narrow, even the tiniest shift was enough to evolve into an invasion—the tip of her shoe bumped against Shuangjian's.
Spring Sun
The seemingly illusory contact became real. Shuangjian retreated somewhat clumsily, but there was truly no extra space here. His back pressed against a cold, hard barrier—the tangible boundary where the evil spirit was suppressed.
He clearly could have gone out, simply leaving this place to wander the courtyard like an old monk. It was nighttime anyway, wasn't it?
Why didn't he make a move?
Why did he allow this strange atmosphere to continue fermenting?
Regardless of the reason, his retreat and collision with the wall only brought their postures closer together, forming a delicate position that half-encircled Yingshi in his arms.
Surrounded entirely by Shuangjian's scent, Yingshi's breath became exceptionally hot. She kept her head tilted upward, causing her warm breaths to sweep directly over Shuangjian's collarbone.
His Adam's apple bobbed several times, drawing Yingshi's attention involuntarily to that part of his body so different from her own.
"..."
Had she gone mad?
She actually raised her hand. With a faint tremble in her fingertips that she didn't even notice herself, she slowly and hesitantly reached out and touched it.
It was just a fleeting touch, like a dragonfly skimming the water, but the sensation beneath her fingertips was indescribably wonderful. It carried a unique tension from the moment of swallowing. Amidst her panic, Yingshi absurdly birthed a desire to touch it just one more time—and she actually acted on it. She gently stroked the skin beneath her hand, clearly feeling Shuangjian's pulse suddenly pound harder.
It wasn't until that moment that she seemed to be jolted awake by the resonating throb. Once she realized what she had done, she was completely dumbfounded, her entire body turning as red as a cooked shrimp.
Yingshi let out a loud cry, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" and hastily backed away.
However, the lack of space was an objective reality. The cramped quarters that had trapped Shuangjian now trapped her as well, leaving her with nowhere to run. Her back hit the hard iron wall. With an "Ouch," she simply turned her back to him, covering her face with those audacious hands of hers, looking as if she were facing the wall to reflect on her misdeeds.
"I'm sorry, I saw it kept moving, so I couldn't help but touch it!" she made excuses.
Her heart was beating so fast, so incredibly fast that she felt like she was going to faint!
Damn this reckless left hand, why did it have to persecute its owner?
She wasn't an elementary schooler ignorant of biology. The Adam's apple was just a male secondary sex characteristic, and it wasn't even exclusive to men. Women had thyroid cartilage too, but it just wasn't usually prominent due to lower androgen levels. It was something everyone had, so why did she have to touch it like she had never seen one before? And touch it twice?
Ahhh, Xu Yingshi, you were truly bewitched!
Yingshi thought she was apologizing, but her words carried a certain innocent allure that, to Shuangjian's ears, was akin to an accelerant on a fire.
Ever since Yingshi had touched him, his entire body had been burning hot, his very blood boiling along with it.
And now Yingshi was still saying these things...
Shuangjian abruptly closed his eyes, his long eyelashes trembling for a moment. The hands at his sides involuntarily clenched into fists, causing the newly scabbed wounds on the back of his hands to split open. Fresh blood seeped out, yet it did absolutely nothing to distract from the sensory impact currently ravaging his body and mind.
He had been swallowing time and time again, essentially trying to relieve the deep thirst originating from his soul, but to no avail.
Yingshi, however, continued to add fuel to the fire, "H-how exactly does one 'feed a ghost with their body'? Do I have to let you bite me a couple of times?"
She casually proposed a literal interpretation of the phrase, feeling that she was steering the conversation back to serious matters, assuming the atmosphere would turn solemn.
"...Yingshi." Shuangjian spoke, every word tumbling out as if ground from scorching gravel. "Turn around first."
"..."
Help, she was so embarrassed.
Yingshi stiffly shifted half a step, standing askew like a raw recruit with a terrible sense of direction. Her gaze was fixed firmly on Shuangjian's calves, not daring to move up.
She heard his voice, sounding somewhat different from usual, clearly enter her ears: "When Prince Mahasattva encountered a starving tigress about to devour her own cubs, boundless compassion arose in his heart. He was willing to use his own flesh and blood to satisfy the starving tiger's hunger for survival, thereby breaking its karmic chain of continued hunting and killing."
"...Uh-huh."
Yingshi nodded unconsciously.
"Mahasattva sacrificed himself, suppressing the starving tiger's evil and saving the lives of the two tigers. This is known as sacrificing oneself to feed the tiger." Shuangjian paused slightly. "And feeding a ghost with one's body follows a similar, yet different, logic... The desire of an evil ghost is not a hunger for survival, but rather, a greed to consume and slaughter."
"S-so that's how it is. Then what should be done?"
Yingshi had the intention to prick up her ears and listen to this profound mystery of "becoming a Buddha," but unfortunately, the words went in one ear and out the other. She couldn't calm her mind enough to digest them at all, so she compromised and figured that, as the incarnation of the evil ghost, Shuangjian probably had the most say in the matter right now. As long as she could understand his final conclusion, that would be enough...
Shuangjian indeed broke it down for her in detail: "If one can, with their own power, bear all of its greedy delusions, perhaps they can make it sated enough to cease hostilities, indirectly achieving the effect of reforming and suppressing it, balancing the good and evil in this realm, and attaining enlightenment."
"Meaning, I alone will satisfy your desires, thereby preventing you from doing evil in the Infernal Temple, which in turn acts as a roundabout way to suppress the evil ghost and save the infernal realm, becoming a Buddha on the spot... Is that it?" Yingshi asked in confusion.
After waiting for a long moment, she heard Shuangjian reply, "...Yes."
"...Oh!" Yingshi's heartbeat suddenly skipped a beat, then began pounding even more frantically against her chest. She seemed to understand what this concept truly represented. Fidgeting nervously with the hem of her clothes, she kept her head down, staring intently at the empty space by Shuangjian's feet. "Then... how do I satisfy you? As an evil ghost, what do you w-want right now?"
"...I want you to lift your head, and look at me."
Shuangjian said in a hoarse voice.
