Little Pink Starfish

Wuhuan Loves You

Yu Xiaoxiao took the jade vial from the woman’s hand and saw her point at the two characters “Wuhuan.”

Xiao Wei finally reacted and said, “Is this… the antidote for Grandmaster Wuhuan?”

The woman nodded vigorously. The motion caused a piece of flesh clinging to her left cheek to fall to the ground. Black blood seeped from the wound and quickly hardened on her face like a dark crust.

Xiao Wei looked away, unable to bear the sight.

Yu Xiaoxiao opened the vial. Inside were three dark gray pills, each about the size of a soybean.

The woman raised one finger.

“You mean Wuhuan only needs one pill?” Yu Xiaoxiao asked.

The woman nodded again.

Xiao Wei hesitated, then whispered, “What if this is all part of Mo Wen’s scheme? What if he sent someone to trick us into giving poison to Grandmaster Wuhuan?”

Yu Xiaoxiao shook her head. “That logic doesn’t work.”

Xiao Wei: … Wait, my princess knows how to use logic?

“Think about it,” Yu Xiaoxiao explained. “Wuhuan’s already poisoned. If Mo Wen really wanted him dead, he just needs to not give us the antidote. Why go through all the effort of setting a trap?”

Xiao Wei thought about it. True. If it were a trick, it was needlessly complicated.

Yu Xiaoxiao squatted down.

The woman immediately lowered her head.

Xiao Wei, still avoiding the sight of her exposed limbs and bones, took a few steps back and turned away.

“I’ll take you to see Wuhuan,” Yu Xiaoxiao said gently.

The woman looked up with a start.

Yu Xiaoxiao extended her hand. “He never forgot you. Just the other night, he told me about you. He said you two were supposed to have a child together.”

The woman whimpered. A faint shimmer appeared in her clouded, white-veiled eyes—was it… tears?

“If you still want to save Wuhuan, that means you still care about him,” Yu Xiaoxiao continued. “He’s not far. Come with me. I’ll take you to him.”

The woman looked at Yu Xiaoxiao’s outstretched hand—a soft, fair hand, pampered and clean, even the fingernails neatly trimmed. Even before she had become this monster, she had never possessed hands like that. She had been a slave. No slave ever had hands like those.

“I’m actually pretty good at medicine,” Yu Xiaoxiao added quietly. “I can heal you.”

The woman slowly shook her head.

“You…” Yu Xiaoxiao hesitated. “You don’t want to come with me?”

The woman nodded.

“You don’t want to see Wuhuan anymore?”

She nodded again.

“Why?” Yu Xiaoxiao couldn’t understand. They still love each other. They’re both alive. They could meet again—why wouldn’t she want that?

The woman raised her grotesque, skeletal hand.

Yu Xiaoxiao, who’d seen plenty of zombie limbs, wasn’t fazed. “Flesh can regrow. You just have to be willing to endure the pain.”

Seeing that her mangled hand didn’t scare Yu Xiaoxiao, the woman placed her right index finger into her mouth and bit down hard.

“You!” Yu Xiaoxiao quickly grabbed the woman’s wrist.

Xiao Wei, alarmed by her tone, turned around.

The woman opened her mouth—her finger had been bitten clean off.

“What are you doing?!” Xiao Wei cried, rushing over. “We can take you with us!”

The woman’s mouth oozed black blood. She motioned for them to look at her wound.

Yu Xiaoxiao and Xiao Wei both stared at it. The black blood flowed steadily.

Xiao Wei whispered, “Why is their blood black? Are they poisoned? But with poison this strong… how are they still alive?”

Yu Xiaoxiao said, “Don’t you smell that bitter medicine on them?”

Xiao Wei wasn’t breathing deeply enough to pick up anything. He could barely keep from retching.

“All the others were mindless,” Yu Xiaoxiao pointed out. “Only she still has her senses. Isn’t that strange?”

Suddenly, Xiao Wei grabbed Yu Xiaoxiao’s wrist, his knuckles turning white with pressure.

Yu Xiaoxiao followed his terrified gaze—and saw something wriggling out of the woman’s hand wound. A long, bright red worm, twisting its body as it emerged.

“What… what is that?” Xiao Wei gasped.

Yu Xiaoxiao’s expression turned grave. Judging by its mouth and its posterior opening near the lower abdomen, it seemed to be a kind of single-celled nematode. But regular nematodes were usually milky, pale yellow, or reddish-brown—and at most 8 millimeters long. This thing was over ten centimeters long and blood red. Was it an alien parasite?!

Once on the ground, it squirmed quickly toward Yu Xiaoxiao.

“Princess?” Xiao Wei gagged again. The way it moved—like a giant, grotesque maggot—was too much for him.

The woman picked up the worm and shoved it into her mouth.

Watching the worm’s tail wriggle at her lips, Xiao Wei nearly threw up again.

Yu Xiaoxiao didn’t flinch. She only watched the woman, eyes grave.

Before their eyes, the woman bit off more of her own fingers. Each wound released more of those red worms.

“Your whole body’s full of these things?” Yu Xiaoxiao asked.

The woman nodded.

“How is that even possible?” Xiao Wei muttered, horrified.

The woman lowered her head to the ground, scooping up the worms and eating them one by one. Then she looked back up at Yu Xiaoxiao.

“So that’s why… you can’t go see Wuhuan?” Yu Xiaoxiao asked.

The woman nodded.

“What kind of illness is this?” Xiao Wei asked. “Princess, can you cure her?”

Yu Xiaoxiao shook her head. Cut her open and extract every single parasite? Not even post-apocalyptic technology could manage that.

Xiao Wei stomped his foot.

The woman pointed again to the characters she had scratched into the ground: “Wuhuan.”

“There’s an antidote,” Yu Xiaoxiao said. “Wuhuan will be fine.”

The woman let out a low sob and tried to smile—a gesture she still remembered, because Wuhuan had loved her smile. But too much time had passed. She was no longer who she used to be, and no matter how hard she tried, a monster couldn’t smile like a human.

Yu Xiaoxiao gently stroked her lips and said softly, “You have a beautiful smile.”

The woman whimpered and rubbed her lips against Yu Xiaoxiao’s hand. That warmth—it carried Wuhuan’s scent.

“Don’t worry,” Yu Xiaoxiao said. “I won’t tell Wuhuan I met you here.”

Xiao Wei wanted to object but stayed silent. If this woman was truly the one Wuhuan loved… then knowing the torment she had suffered would be far too cruel. Putting himself in Wuhuan’s shoes, Xiao Wei thought, If it were me, I couldn’t bear it either.

Yu Xiaoxiao looked the woman in the eyes and said sincerely, “Wuhuan loves you very much.”
For someone who had become something almost inhuman, to know that the one she loved still loved her back—Yu Xiaoxiao hoped it would bring her peace.