The night was deep, and the scent of blood drifted faintly on the evening breeze.
"Ah! Don't kill me!" Several men desperately sprinted forward, shoving each other in their struggle to survive, each hoping to outrun the others and leave the unluckiest one behind to draw the monster's attention.
The headless woman clawed wildly as she chased after them. At some point, she had swapped heads again—this one barely attached, wobbling unsteadily with every step. The sight of a woman’s body topped with a corpse’s head was utterly chilling.
Suddenly, she halted her pursuit. Turning her head—still frozen in the terrified expression of her final moments—she stared blankly at the figure hiding behind the low bushes.
Xia Miao had no idea the monster had spotted her. She was crouched on the ground, carefully gathering scattered finger bones one by one.
A young man pressed close beside her, mimicking her actions as he picked up the fragments. Whether the joints were too brittle or his strength too great, one of the fingers shattered with a crisp snap.
Xia Miao smacked his hand away in exasperation. "Useless! Just sit still and don’t touch anything!"
He withdrew his hand, curling into himself with his arms draped over his knees. Only his eyes followed Xia Miao’s movements, wide and guilty like a chastened child.
The headless woman took a step forward.
The young man abruptly turned his head. Behind him, his shadow surged upward like a monstrous black demon, jaws gaping with rows of jagged teeth.
The headless woman shuddered, then let out a muffled wail before changing direction and resuming her chase after the fleeing men.
Why do I still have to work after dying?
Why is there still workplace bullying in the afterlife?
Work is exhausting—I don’t want to do this anymore!
Xia Miao spent considerable effort collecting the scattered "flowers" from the ground, but many of their "petals" had been damaged beyond repair. Even after retrieving them, piecing them back together would be a painstaking task.
Frowning, her expression a mix of frustration and determination, she meticulously tried to reassemble the "flowers." It was far more tedious than a jigsaw puzzle—once a joint broke, there was no fixing it.
The young man hugged his knees, his gaze darting around her. He wanted to help but feared her scolding, momentarily forgetting that in this slaughterhouse, he was the butcher everyone feared.
"Why bother fixing them?" he grumbled. "If you like them, I can make you a new bouquet."
His tone carried a hint of displeasure—Xia Miao’s attention was no longer on him but entirely fixated on that bundle of skeletal "flowers."
Xia Miao shot him a glare. "This was your first gift to me. It’s important, so of course I have to restore it properly!"
His heart skipped. "The things I give you… matter that much?"
"Of course." She picked up a bone, hesitating over which "flower" it belonged to. Without looking up, she added casually, "You’re the one I fell for at first sight, after all."
At first sight?!
The young man twisted around, plunging a hand into his own chest to clamp down on his wildly thumping heart. He couldn’t let it leap out—how embarrassing would that be if Xia Miao saw?
Fortunately, she didn’t notice his fidgeting. She’d recovered most of the scattered "flowers," but many pieces were too shattered to salvage.
With a sigh, she admitted defeat.
He turned back, voice soft. "Do you… like the flowers I gave you?"
"No."
His lips pressed into a tight line, the tension visible even through the bandages.
Xia Miao gathered the "bouquet," adjusting it carefully before murmuring, "But since they’re from you, even if I don’t like them, I’ll still treasure them."
Instantly, his eyes brightened, brimming with smug delight. "You really like me that much, huh?"
"I do not like you!" Xia Miao scowled. "I just have a crush on you—it’s not full-blown affection yet!"
He bristled. "Then what do I have to do for you to like me?"
"Didn’t I say it before? Court me properly!" Cradling the bizarre bouquet, she tilted her head in thought. "When I first met you, I liked you ten points’ worth. But then you called me a ‘casual woman,’ so it dropped to five. Today, you gave me flowers, so now you’re at eight."
He leaned in, dead-fish eyes blinking eagerly. "Out of ten?"
"Nope. Out of a hundred."
His face fell. "No way. Hurry up and raise it to a hundred!"
"Not a chance. You haven’t successfully won me over yet."
"If you don’t bump it up, I’ll eat you!"
Xia Miao smacked him. "You’ll have to wait until it’s a hundred before you can eat me!"
Rubbing his cheek, he gritted his teeth. "Once it hits a hundred, I’m definitely devouring you!"
Somehow, she’d twisted his logic—now he’d accepted that "eating her at full points" was an unbreakable rule.
Xia Miao suddenly remembered something important. Facing him, she asked, "My name’s Xia Miao. What’s yours?"
He answered, "The Slaughterer."
She glared. "You want the girl you’re courting to call you by some nickname everyone else uses? I asked for your real name!"
Stunned, he stared at her before faintly recalling it. "Lu… Lu Yan."
"Lu Yan." Xia Miao’s eyes curved into crescents, her smile radiant. "It’s a lovely name."
Her gaze must have caught starlight—when she laughed at him, it sparkled so brilliantly it nearly blinded his dull, lifeless eyes.
And then, as if infected by her, those dead eyes of his gained an uncanny glimmer, suddenly brimming with vitality.
Xia Miao watched as he abruptly spun around, followed by a squelch. Curious, she asked, "What’s wrong?"
"N-nothing!" His hand, still buried in his chest, clenched desperately around his unruly heart, refusing to let it embarrass him by leaping out.
Xia Miao sensed something off and grabbed his other hand. "Hey, are you feeling okay?"
Startled, he looked down at her grip on him.
Gradually, she noticed his icy fingers warming—then burning hot. Meeting his wide, watery eyes, she found herself stiffening alongside him, as if she were the one flustered now.
"Lu Yan… are you blushing?"
"Of course not! What even is ‘blushing’? I don’t even know how to write those characters!" His bravado was hollow but firm—after all, he genuinely couldn’t write them.
Xia Miao eyed him skeptically.
But soon, he noticed Xia Miao's flushed ears. So he leaned closer to her face and said mischievously, "Your ears are so red. Are you shy?"
Xia Miao replied, "Impossible! There's no such word as'shy' in my dictionary!"
She instinctively tried to pull back her hand, but the young boy instinctively held it tightly. She tried again, but still couldn't pull it out.
The body temperatures of the two synchronized through their clasped hands. They had even kissed before. However, strangely enough, when the young boy and the girl locked eyes, her beautiful face blushed like a red cloud, and it seemed as if the bandage wrapped around his face was burning.
The two of them turned their faces away in perfect harmony, avoiding each other's gazes.
But their hands gradually intertwined finger - in - finger and clasped tightly.
