"Host, are you sure you can handle this?"
Looking at her scrawny arms and legs, Youtiao was deeply concerned.
Chai Xiaomi cracked her neck and stretched her limbs. "It's no big deal. It's just a vine, not a sword or a blade... Urk!"
Youtiao: "Huh? Host?"
Youtiao: "Hello?"
Youtiao: "...Great. A total squishy. I'm so done."
No one saw it coming.
With just one lash of the whip, Chai Xiaomi passed out cold on the spot.
In the most remote corner of the Wu Village.
Right next to a winding stream, a dilapidated treehouse clung to a large tree.
Pieced together with rotting wooden planks, the crude structure looked as though it could collapse at any moment. It was completely out of place compared to the neat, interconnected stilt houses in the rest of the village.
A small dish of tung oil served as a lamp inside the treehouse.
Its faint light was barely enough to illuminate the center of the room, leaving the surrounding corners cloaked in pitch black.
A young girl lay in the middle of the treehouse. Under the dim yellow glow, her eyelids fluttered slightly as she slowly regained consciousness.
The faint scent of green grass drifted into her nose, accompanied by a lingering coolness in the air.
Chai Xiaomi blinked slowly.
Her vision was obstructed. She reached up to feel her face and realized a leaf was covering it.
She had no idea how long she had been out. Pulling the leaf away, she saw that the sky outside was completely dark.
Because the light inside the room was so dim, the first thing that caught her eye was the starry sky outside the window.
The inky blue canvas was dotted with a dense cluster of stars, unbelievably beautiful.
The sea of stars felt incredibly close. In the blink of an eye, a streak of light flashed across the sky, vanishing in an instant.
"Ahhh, a shooting star!"
It was the first time she had ever seen a shooting star in her life.
Chai Xiaomi scrambled up, ignoring the pain in her back. She leaned against the window, pressed her palms together, and made a devout wish.
Her wishes were always simple and unpretentious; she had no other desires besides getting rich.
A low sneer came from a dark corner of the room.
A young man's cold voice dripped with disdain. "You can see that every night here. What is there to make such a fuss about?"
Startled, Chai Xiaomi took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the gloom before she spotted Wu Li in the furthest corner from her.
He sat on the floor with his back against the wooden wall. One leg was stretched out, while the other was lazily bent with his wrist resting on his knee.
His head was tilted toward the window, gazing at the starry sky as well.
The moonlight poured over him like a ladle of cold water, washing the boy's slender silhouette in a pale glow.
Chai Xiaomi suddenly remembered her heroic feat of collapsing after a single whip strike.
Then the remaining twenty-nine lashes...
"You guessed it. The villain took the remaining twenty-nine lashes. In all my time working as a system, this is the first time I have met a host as squishy as you! We haven't even entered the main plotline and you almost died! Boohoo, my performance points are going to be completely deducted!" Youtiao complained bitterly.
"The host bound to Doujiang next door has already become everyone's favorite darling! You have to step up your game, otherwise that shameless bastard is going to walk all over me and mock me for being trash!"
"Good Youtiao, sweet Youtiao, just keep quiet for a bit, okay?"
By passing out, Chai Xiaomi had offended both of them, but she needed to comfort the more important figure first.
"Little brother, are you hurt?" she asked, carefully inching toward the corner where Wu Li sat.
The ceiling of the treehouse was a bit low for her, forcing her to hunch over slightly.
She really couldn't imagine how he managed to move around in this dilapidated, cramped space.
"Wu Li."
The boy spat out his own name coldly.
"Remember my name. If you call me anything else again," his voice was completely devoid of emotion, "I'll let it crawl into your mouth and start eating you from the tongue down."
Chai Xiaomi's pupils shrank abruptly. Unbeknownst to her, a snake with reddish-brown stripes had slithered onto her shoulder.
Its dark green eyes gleamed with a cold light. Hissing, its freezing scales pressed against her skin as it slowly coiled around her neck. The snake's head swayed dangerously from side to side, probing and hovering near her lips, as if it were about to pry her jaws open in the next second.
"Then it will travel all the way down your windpipe. It loves eating the hearts of young girls, especially the fresh, beating ones. They are the most nutritious."
Chai Xiaomi desperately suppressed the scream in her throat and the urge to launch herself away.
She looked up at him, her watery eyes full of self-blame and worry. "Wu Li, I was just worried about you. The wounds are on your body, but the pain is in my heart... Can you let me see your injuries?"
Mustering her courage, she ignored the cold snake draped around her neck and firmly shuffled a little closer to him.
Wu Li completely ignored the incredibly cheesy dialogue brought on by the Love Gu. He merely twitched his bloodless lips and lazily lifted his eyelids to glance at her. "Are you sure you want to see?"
Under the moonlight, his heterochromatic eyes gleamed with an eerie light.
Now that she was closer, Chai Xiaomi could clearly see that Wu Li's face was terrifyingly pale, and a fine layer of cold sweat was seeping from his temples.
This fragility, contrasting with his exquisitely beautiful face, surprisingly created a breathtaking, sickly aesthetic.
"Yes," she nodded, her tone even softer. "I can also help you apply medicine."
Seeing this scene actually moved her a little.
She suddenly remembered the novel's setting. Calculating the timeline, Wu Li had just turned eighteen.
The coming-of-age ceremony for the Wugu Tribe was held at sixteen. The most important part of the ritual was for the parents to cut off a long braid from behind the boy's ear, symbolizing his official transition into manhood.
Yet, the long strands of hair behind Wu Li's ear were still tied high with silver ornaments, cascading all the way down to his waist.
This could only mean one thing: he didn't have parents to complete this ceremony for him.
Recalling how those people constantly called him a bastard, Chai Xiaomi became even more curious about his background, and a trace of genuine heartache swelled in her chest.
Come to think of it, she was only one year older than him. Yet she still felt like a child, right at the age where she would cling to her parents and act spoiled.
At the thought of her parents, Chai Xiaomi's nose tingled, and two massive teardrops rolled down her cheeks without warning.
She had to work hard to complete her mission and revive so she could go back!
She absolutely couldn't let her parents suffer the heartbreak of burying their own child.
Drip.
The teardrop smashed against the old wooden floorboards, clearly shattering the silence of the night.
Amidst the tiny splash, a drop quietly landed on the back of the boy's resting hand.
Wu Li suddenly froze, his fingertips curling imperceptibly.
He fell silent for a moment before suddenly yanking open the ties of his shirt with a hint of irritability. "Fine, look! I'll take it off for you to see! Stop crying!" he said hoarsely.
"Don't blame me if you get scared."
Accompanied by the jingling of his earrings and collar, Wu Li turned around with a look of annoyance. He slipped off his shirt, exposing his back to her.
There was no bloody scene as she had expected, but the sight before her was even more terrifying.
His back was covered in crisscrossing red welts. Deep within several lacerations where the flesh had curled open, dozens of white, silkworm-like bugs were squirming around, greedily latching onto his flesh and blood.
The blood had long been sucked dry by them. A few of the bugs, swollen and perfectly round from feeding, were slowly burrowing even deeper into his flesh.
They looked like leeches, but were far more terrifying. Chai Xiaomi felt a sudden chill shoot up her spine straight to the crown of her head, sending waves of numbness across her scalp.
"These bugs are..."
"The High Priest raises them inside my body," Wu Li said, swiftly pulling his clothes back up. He turned to look at her, a malicious smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "They can stop bleeding. Want me to give you a few?"
Chai Xiaomi met his gaze head-on and suddenly asked, "Does it hurt?"
"If it hurts, you can share some with me."
The young girl's tone held an extraordinary firmness. Two tear tracks still lingered on her cheeks, reflecting a faint glimmer of light.
Wu Li's smile abruptly vanished.
"Heh, idiot. These Crimson Blood Silkworms are incredibly rare. Did you really think I'd give them to you?" The boy turned his face away awkwardly.
The Crimson Blood Silkworms fed on blood to survive. They could completely restore the vitality of a dying host, acting as a veritable elixir of life.
He was merely the High Priest's vessel; he had no right to decide where these Crimson Blood Silkworms went.
The High Priest kept a strict count of the silkworms implanted inside him. Whether one went missing or died, he would inevitably face severe punishment.
From the moment he was born, his body had never belonged to him. Yet, to his surprise, someone had actually asked him if he was in pain.
Wu Li lowered his gaze, his eyes lightly sweeping over the venomous scorpion tattoo on the back of the girl's hand.
A self-deprecating smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
He suddenly asked, "What's your name?"
"Chai Xiaomi. Sounds nice, right?" The girl's voice was as crisp as a ringing bell. "Firewood, rice, oil, and salt are the most ordinary things, yet they are indispensable in everyone's life. I am an indispensable existence."
"Tch. Sounds terrible."
Chai Xiaomi: ...
"How does it sound terrible..."
"Shut up, I'm going to sleep. Don't bother me," Wu Li interrupted her without hesitation. "First thing tomorrow morning, I have to go up the mountain to hunt and deliver the prey to Yuebai. If you don't want to die, stay put right here. Don't you dare take a single step outside."
With that said, Wu Li took off his collar and hair ornaments, lay down on the woven grass mat, and closed his eyes with his hands resting behind his head.
Hunting wild boars was supposed to be today's task, but it had been delayed due to his punishment. Tomorrow, he had to wake up early.
