The phrase "so thin he looked like a different person" hit Lu Yan hard—no one had ever described him that way before.
Xia Miao crouched in front of him, their faces so close that Lu Yan could see his own reflection in her eyes—broken, ugly, utterly wretched. The air reeked of decay.
He thought, I must be worse than the trash in a dumpster.
That was why he was so terrified. He wanted to hide carefully, to keep the person he loved from seeing him in such a pathetic state. He had endured so much already—just a little longer, and he’d regain a "human" form. Then he could return to her side, lurking like a damp, obsessive stalker.
But she came looking for him anyway, ripping away his last shred of dignity and exposing his most hideous self right before her eyes.
There was nowhere left to hide. The once tall, lanky boy who used to tease her for being short now curled into himself, trying to shrink into the smallest possible shape—preferably a bug in some dark corner, repulsive enough to keep people away.
Xia Miao reached out, wanting to hug him but afraid to touch his mangled body. Instead, her fingers brushed his left arm, where patches of skin had already regrown.
"Did I do this to you?"
The light touch made him tremble. "No, I just... fell. Scraped off some skin, that’s all."
Xia Miao remembered the hazy vision before she blacked out—she’d thought it was a hallucination, but now it was clear. She’d really seen him melt.
His excuses—thermal expansion, an accidental fall—were all clumsy lies to cover the truth: she was the reason he’d ended up in tatters.
Plip, plip. Tears hit the floor, tiny splashes blooming like watercolor.
Lu Yan jerked his head up in panic. "Miao Miao... don’t cry."
He wanted to wipe her face but froze when he saw his pinky—still bare bone, grotesque and terrifying. He tried to pull back, but Xia Miao caught his hand first.
She was usually proud, arrogant, her pretty eyes always looking down on others. But now, that haughtiness had dissolved into misty sorrow, her tears falling like endless spring rain.
"I know it’s because of me," she sniffled, her fair face crumpled in a mix of pitiful and adorable.
The newly formed veins in Lu Yan’s flesh twitched with each of her sobs, especially around his still-exposed chest cavity, where his heart thrashed wildly.
"Hey, don’t flatter yourself. I didn’t end up like this for you! I told you—thermal expansion, plus a stupid fall!"
Xia Miao: "I know I hurt you!"
"Stop crying, you look ugly!" Lu Yan fumbled closer, clumsily wiping her tears. "I’d never wreck myself for someone this ugly!"
"I already feel guilty... and heartbroken, and now you’re calling me ugly?!" Xia Miao plopped onto the floor and wailed, "Lu Yan, you’re hurting me!"
Lu Yan froze, especially at the word "heartbroken." A strange emotion surged through his half-repaired body, unfamiliar and overwhelming.
Heartbroken?
He’d never known the feeling. Hunger, pain—those were just part of life, like the tiny cage he’d grown up in. Even now, this fog-shrouded campus was just a bigger cage.
Xia Miao scooted closer, hands hovering, unsure where to touch him. Her cries grew louder. "Lu Yan, does it hurt? It must be awful—what do I do? I’m useless! I can’t help you with anything except money!"
"Lu Yan, you’re not gonna die, are you?!"
"I don’t want you to die! I still wanna marry you!"
Her sobs escalated, sounding almost like mourning.
At first, she’d joked about his ruined state, but deep down, she was terrified—afraid his flesh would rot away completely, leaving nothing but bones.
Bones... how uncomfortable would hugging a skeleton be?
Lu Yan was never quick-witted. He didn’t know how to comfort her. Strangest of all, watching Xia Miao cry like a storm-battered branch, hearing her hiccupping wails, his own eyes reddened. His breath hitched, and before he knew it, he was crying too.
"Miao Miao, I’ll be fine. I wanna marry you too!"
His flesh regenerated faster now, rapidly covering exposed bone. The moment his skin sealed, he pulled Xia Miao into his arms, the hollow spaces beneath his bandages filling at last.
The naked boy clung to the girl, both burying their faces in each other’s shoulders, weeping uncontrollably.
Outside the door, three figures pressed against it, eavesdropping.
Conjoined Twin Brother: "What’s happening in there?"
Conjoined Twin Brother: "I hear a woman crying—did she get eaten?"
Conjoined Twin Brother: "But there’s a guy crying too. Are they fighting?"
The Headless Woman, clutching her recently recovered skull, nodded in agreement.
The old gardener grabbed the twins and the Headless Woman, herding them away. "Alright, alright, quit meddling in the young couple’s business."
The two idiots cried themselves out, finally collapsing in exhaustion. Their tear-streaked faces mirrored each other—a perfect pair of tragic lovers.
At last, Xia Miao dared to touch his body.
Even reconstructed, his flesh only returned to its original state—pale skin crisscrossed with surgical scars, his abdomen and limbs marred by centipede-like marks, large and small, horrifying to see.
He squirmed, catching her hand before it could linger on his chest. "Miao Miao, don’t look. I’m ugly."
Xia Miao wanted to cry again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in the crook of his shoulder, breathing in his scent. Her voice came out muffled as she said, "Plus a hundred points."
Lu Yan froze, looking down at her in surprise, only seeing the top of her tousled head. "A... a hundred points?"
"Mm. You've already maxed out your score. Congratulations on successfully winning me over." Xia Miao lifted her face, her delicate, radiant features streaked with tears like pear blossoms in the rain. "Lu Yan, come and devour me."
