Little Pink Starfish

Slave, Wuhuan

The two men who had been bitten by the woman suddenly lunged forward and pinned her to the ground, each grabbing one of her arms and pulling her in opposite directions.

“Woo!” the woman cried out toward Yu Xiaoxiao.

Interesting. Yu Xiaoxiao’s initial shock had faded; now she was trying to figure out just what was going on here. Judging from her expression, this girl clearly still had some awareness. But with her body covered in blood and still fighting like a berserker—had she lost all pain receptors?

Xiao Wei saw the two men pulling the woman’s arms in opposite directions and exclaimed, “Are they going to tear her apart?!”

“We can’t just watch anymore,” Yu Xiaoxiao cracked her knuckles and said.

Xiao Wei held his breath.

Yu Xiaoxiao zipped into the center of the fray, leapt onto the head of the man holding the woman’s left arm, and stomped him straight into the ground, leaving only his head above the surface.

Xiao Wei could breathe again.

Yu Xiaoxiao used the same method to stomp the rest of the creatures—humanoid, but clearly not human—into the ground. Then she walked up to the woman and asked, “Can you talk?”

Xiao Wei followed, looking at the woman with tense eyes.

The woman stared at Yu Xiaoxiao, her mouth opening and closing, but all she could manage were unintelligible sounds.

Yu Xiaoxiao turned to Xiao Wei. “What do you think she’s trying to say?”

Xiao Wei took a closer look at the woman’s face—he didn’t dare look at her body. “Her face still looks… human.”

Yu Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes. “I was joking earlier—you really thought this girl had a crush on you? If you want true love, stick with actual humans, okay?”

Even in his nerves, Xiao Wei relaxed a little. With a dramatic eye-roll, he muttered, “Then why do you think she helped us?”

“Obviously, because of me,” Yu Xiaoxiao declared proudly, patting her modest chest. “She must know I’m the one who can save her from her misery. Don’t you see it? I just give off savior energy.”

Xiao Wei spread his hands. He had nothing to say to that.

The woman on the ground made another distressed noise.

“You’re not speaking human language,” Yu Xiaoxiao muttered, frowning. “How am I supposed to know what you want? Do you want me to help you kill Mo Wen or something?”

“Princess, not so loud,” Xiao Wei warned. “What if someone hears us?”

“With these things crawling around, you think any monks would dare come near?” Yu Xiaoxiao patted his shoulder. “I’d bet anything—it’s just us humans around here.”

Xiao Wei looked down at the row of half-buried heads. They looked like ghosts—still baring their teeth at him and the princess, as if trying to gnaw them alive. He tugged Yu Xiaoxiao’s sleeve. “Princess, let’s just leave them. Let’s go find Wen Fenglin. The Grandmaster Wuhuan is still waiting for us.”

“I think I should take her with us,” Yu Xiaoxiao said, pointing at the woman.

Xiao Wei’s vision went dark. Why is it always the things I fear most that come true?

The woman rolled over and began crawling determinedly toward the well.

“What’s she doing?” Xiao Wei exclaimed.

“No idea. Let’s follow,” Yu Xiaoxiao said.

They watched as the woman clawed at the dirt by the well with fingers already stripped down to bone.

“Holy crap,” Yu Xiaoxiao said, “is she offering me treasure to follow me?”

Xiao Wei: …

“But what could be buried here?” Yu Xiaoxiao asked. “A bone for me?”

Xiao Wei clutched his face. “Princess… she’s not a dog.” His princess’s inflated self-esteem was really getting out of hand—it was almost tragic.

The woman unearthed a small jade vial from the dirt, held it in her skeletal hand, and offered it to Yu Xiaoxiao.

“Oh my God!” Yu Xiaoxiao cried in delight. “It’s jade! Xiao Wei, I’m rich again!”

Xiao Wei stared at her rotting hand, the exposed bone and blackened blood. He quickly grabbed Yu Xiaoxiao’s wrist before she could take it. What if she caught something?

The woman, seeing Yu Xiaoxiao hesitate, let out a soft whimper.

Xiao Wei snapped, “What exactly are you?”

The woman just looked at Yu Xiaoxiao.

Yu Xiaoxiao blinked.

The woman used her finger to draw in the dirt, then raised her hand to show them.

Yu Xiaoxiao squinted. She thought the woman was writing a character, but since Yu Xiaoxiao was illiterate, she couldn’t tell. If it were neat, maybe she could guess, but this scribble? She tilted her head all the way sideways and still couldn’t make it out.

Xiao Wei said, “Slave? Nu?”

Yu Xiaoxiao turned. “She wrote the character for slave?”

Xiao Wei nodded, fully focused on the woman, and so—once again—missed the chance to realize that his princess… was illiterate.

Yu Xiaoxiao crossed her arms and frowned. “You want to be my slave?”

“No!” Xiao Wei cried out.

The woman scratched in the dirt again.

“What now?” Yu Xiaoxiao asked.

Xiao Wei stared at the ground and then said, face full of confusion, “Wuhuan.”

“What?” Yu Xiaoxiao blinked.

“She wrote ‘Wuhuan’.”

Slave. Wuhuan.

Yu Xiaoxiao frowned, trying to connect the dots.

“What does that mean?” Xiao Wei asked.

The woman looked up at Yu Xiaoxiao, her milky-white eyes pleading. She whimpered softly, urgently.

“Let me think,” Yu Xiaoxiao said, clutching her head. She’s trying to tell me something.

Xiao Wei tried reasoning with her. “Can you write a few more characters? Who are you? And those guys—” he pointed at the half-buried men, “—who are they?”

The woman shook her head.

Yu Xiaoxiao asked, “Do you know Wuhuan?”

The woman nodded rapidly.

“Are you the ‘slave’?” Yu Xiaoxiao asked again.

The woman nodded even harder.

No way…

Yu Xiaoxiao’s jaw dropped as she stared at the woman. That night, Wuhuan had told her… he had fallen in love with a servant girl. Slave! That was the word he used!

Xiao Wei grew nervous. “Princess? What are you thinking?”

“She—” Yu Xiaoxiao looked at him, then at herself—and started taking off her coat.

Xiao Wei nearly jumped in shock. She read three characters and now she’s stripping?

Yu Xiaoxiao took off her outer robe and draped it over the woman. “You’re Wuhuan’s woman?”

Xiao Wei was stunned.

The woman gave a soft moan but didn’t nod or shake her head.

“That’s not possible,” Yu Xiaoxiao said. “Wuhuan said you were dead. How… how did you become like this?”

The woman again held out the jade vial and gave another soft “woo…”