SIATOWITF Chapter 73

“You brat, you still know to come back?”

Footsteps vaguely sounded outside. An impatient Mu Nanyuan yanked open the door, slapping the notebook in his hand onto Lin Mo’s face.

“Chief…” Lin Mo, who had rushed over, stumbled backward after being struck in the head by the notebook, his eyes filled with innocence and confusion.

“Why are you here?” Mu Nanyuan coughed awkwardly, hiding the notebook behind his back.

“I came to find Mr. Ji,” Lin Mo pursed his lips. “The guests have already begun to enter. Do you need…”

“Let them take charge for now. I’ll be there later.” Ji Mo Lin waved his hand, craning his neck to look behind him.

“Yes, sir.” Lin Mo nodded slightly. Just as he turned to leave, he ran into Ji Cheng Yu at the corner of the corridor.

“Who are these two?” He stared blankly at the two figures brushing past him.

They looked somewhat familiar, almost like…

As he was pondering, the black-haired youth walking at the end suddenly looked up and glanced at Lin Mo.

“…”

Lin Mo suddenly felt his vision blur. Then, he rubbed his eyes in confusion and strode forward.

Why did he suddenly stop halfway? He had so much to do. Lin Mo criticized himself internally. Daydreaming in the middle of work wasn’t his style.

–

Mu Nanyuan’s long-awaited child had finally returned to him. The old man didn’t utter a single word of his previous bold pronouncements.

He simply stood there, his throat feeling like it was stuffed with cotton, the only sound he could hear being the pounding of his own heart.

“You… you’re back…” He seemed to be struggling to control his body, but he could only stammer out those four words.

“Came back to see you.” Mr. Mu Chen, who had been as good as missing since leaving home, finally appeared before his grandfather after several years.

The snake, who had been leaning casually against the edge of the table, also straightened up and lightly tapped his brow and nose with his index and middle fingers as a salute.

“Grandpa, mind your image. The one behind is our boss, who came specifically to help.” Xuan Bai poked Ji Mo Lin’s shoulder with his finger and began to grin obsequiously.

Who’s your grandpa… Ji Mo Lin gritted his teeth, forced to swallow his anger.

To be honest, Ji Mo An hadn’t seen much of Mu Chen, and even Ji Mo Lin had only seen him a few times when Mu Chen was a child visiting the Ji family for the New Year.

Later, he only heard that the other family’s grandson had joined the army and gone to the border. From then on, only Mu Xuan came to visit.

He didn’t expect him to be so grown up now…

“Grandpa Lin.” Mu Chen, who had been thoroughly ruffled by the recovered Mu Nanyuan, freed himself from the “evil clutches” and greeted Ji Mo Lin while smoothing his hair.

“Bobos is here too.”

“Of course, I’m here. I specifically waited here for you.” The snake puffed out his chest proudly when his name was called.

“Grandpa, Grandpa Lin, this is my lover. His surname is Yun, with the single character Chuan. We went home once last New Year’s Eve, but unfortunately, we didn’t run into you.” Mu Chen gave a bright smile, turning sideways to reveal the black-haired youth behind him who hadn’t said a word.

“Hello, hello. I’m Chenchen’s grandfather, Mu Nanyuan.” Mu Nanyuan extended his hand politely.

“Hey… wait…” Mu Chen watched his grandfather extend his hand and subconsciously stepped forward to block him.

“It’s fine.” Yun Chuan pulled his glove up a little, took a step forward, and placed his hand on Mu Nanyuan’s.

“Good child.” Mu Nanyuan shook his hand lightly, but he couldn’t quite manage a smile.

It was because the youth standing opposite him was dressed very strangely. It was the middle of summer, yet he was wearing a thick black trench coat with leather gloves, bundled up so tightly that he even had a heavy scarf and a black hat.

Mu Nanyuan paused slightly. Even through the thick gloves, he could still feel the chill emanating from the other’s palm.

After shaking hands, Yun Chuan put his hand back into his pocket. Half of his face was hidden behind the scarf, revealing only a pair of dark eyes.

His eyes were beautifully shaped, but the pupils seemed hollow and deep, so black that they resembled bottomless seawater or a lightless night that would devour all light.

A sense of inhumanity.

In an instant, Mu Nanyuan understood why Mu Xuan had gone to such lengths to study in Germany.

Because the youth exuded such an intense sense of otherness and oppression. It was so obvious. Compared to him, Xuan Bai felt almost like a normal human being.

“Hurry up and look at the soul.” The impatient snake rubbed over, squeezing in front of Mu Nanyuan.

He carefully took out the jar containing Ji Mo An’s soul and held it in front of Yun Chuan.

“So much,” Yun Chuan raised an eyebrow and reached out to take the jar.

He blinked, and his dark eyes suddenly turned gold. Unlike the snake’s brilliant golden eyes, this gold was faint, like sunlight spilling from the horizon in the morning. As his eyes trembled, it was as if stars were flowing within them.

But the youth with golden eyes seemed even more distant and detached than with black eyes, as if he had instantly distanced himself from the world.

“A preserved lump,” he said, offering a less-than-complimentary evaluation.

Ji Cheng Yu closed his eyes.

“It can’t be a lump…” The snake instantly despaired. “No… no…” He pitifully hugged the jar, his amber round eyes turning into golden vertical pupils.

Unfortunately, the snake could only see the blurry outlines of the souls and couldn’t see anything more detailed.

“Only seventy percent left, plus the gray souls that need to be removed from the original soul’s cut…” Yun Chuan pondered.

“Nourish it for three days and then let the tailor mend it. Let him see if he needs to use soul-mending stitches.” He took off his gloves, revealing pale fingers covered in golden Pattern.

Xuan Bai immediately carefully opened the jar containing the soul and placed it under his hand.

Plop… a drop of golden blood fell from his fingertip, dispersing into a hazy, soft golden mist as it touched the soul, swirling in the small jar like a sky full of stars.

“That’s great.” The snake put the lid back on and gave a silly smile.

There’s still hope! The snake and Ji Mo An’s memories, sweet as honey!

“I have a question.” Xuan Bai put away the soul jar and suddenly reached out to tug on Yun Chuan’s finger.

“…” Under everyone’s gaze, the hand suddenly detached from the wrist and fell off with a *whoosh*.

The cross-section of the severed hand was pure gold and extremely smooth. Even when completely separated from the main body, not a single drop of blood fell.

“Serves you right for being nosy.” Yun Chuan expressionlessly snatched his hand back and reattached it to his wrist. The severed hand healed instantly, leaving only a thin golden line at the cut.

“No, this is too serious. I’ve never been chopped up before.” Xuan Bai raised an eyebrow. “The gold looks a little better than red, but… there’s one more thing.”

“Speak.”

“They said An was in a coma for two months, and he kept speaking our language and his soul began to wither, so they severed his soul.” Xuan Bai narrowed his eyes and tilted his head toward Ji Cheng Yu.

Ji Mo An had mentioned it to him before, but he didn’t know what he was saying.

“I performed the soul surgery. Part of his soul had turned gray, so I had to remove it.” Ji Cheng Yu spoke up, hugging his computer as he searched for the audio from that time.

Xuan Bai took the computer and turned the audio down to the lowest volume.

“I don’t think it’s anything good.” He reluctantly pressed the play button. The two Starry Sky visitors huddled together, listening carefully.

After a few minutes, the snake slammed the pause button.

“He cursed pretty badly, but I don’t think we have any uncles,” Yun Chuan commented.

“We can skip this topic.” The snake, the main target of the curses, gradually began to tear up. “Is it a soul fusion problem?”

“It doesn’t seem like it.” Yun Chuan raised his hand and dragged the video progress bar back to the beginning. “Soul conflicts only result in a deep sleep. This is more like a rejection reaction between a part of the body and the soul.”

“Either the heart or the brain.”

“The heart…” The snake really started to tear up.

“Then put the heart back, before suturing the soul.” Yun Chuan glanced at his expression, seemingly remembering something. “You still have the original, right?”

“I do.” Xuan Bai nodded. “It’s always been in the snake’s domain. The snake has been preserving and repairing it well.”

“Good.” As he spoke, pale blue flames suddenly flared up from Yun Chuan’s fingertips, spreading throughout his body in a few breaths, so fast that people couldn’t even see it clearly.

“I’ll go back for a trip. If you need anything, have 001 contact me.”

He left a sentence, and his entire being disappeared into thin air with the flames.

…

“The heart, replace the heart? What do you mean?” Ji Mo Lin almost fainted when he heard the words “replace the heart.”

Forgetting his image, he stumbled over and grabbed the snake’s collar, “What do you mean by ‘original’ Ah?”

“Grandpa Lin.” Mu Chen, who had stayed behind, grabbed him.

“Chenchen, how did you get into the Starry Sky?” Mu Nanyuan grabbed Mu Chen.

“I… I…” Mu Chen let go of Ji Mo Lin and lowered his voice. “I just… died. I was buried in mud during a mission.”

“Ha…” Even though he had already known this was the result, Mu Nanyuan still felt his vision go black.

“An’an can come back, so can you come back?” The old man grabbed his arm tightly, asking a question that even he himself didn’t have hope for.

“This…” His child, as expected, could not give him an answer, but the silence already spoke volumes.

“Grandpa, the price to be paid for that is too high. And… our situations are different.”

“What do you mean…” The usually strong old man’s eyes reddened.

“This isn’t that I was buried in mud, the body is all destroyed.” Mu Chen pulled up a little of his sleeve, revealing a ripped mark on his wrist. “The body I use is a temporary body created, Grandpa, lighten your grip, my arms are easy to break.”

Mu Nanyuan released his hand with a *whoosh*.

“It’s okay, Grandpa. My soul is still a human soul, so the world’s rejection of me is far less than of them.” He added.

“But… wasn’t An’an also… after the car accident… that…” Ji Mo Lin didn’t manage to grab the snake’s collar. The snake ran away so fast, and was now hiding behind the table, baring his fangs at them.

“The laws of life and death in Starry Sky and Earth are not the same.” Mu Chen put his sleeve down. “After human beings die on Earth, the soul will leave the body and dissipate, and then enter reincarnation, but entering Starry Sky is the soul itself, the death of the soul is the complete death of the soul, even the main god that created the Starry Sky is unable to recover it.”

“In the cycle of time and life and death, the Ouroboros is the most special existence, I don’t know what he did or what he sacrificed, but he did bring Ji Mo An’s dying soul back to the moment of his real death.”

“But what has already happened cannot be changed, Ji Mo An’s death is a fact that has happened, so even if the Ouroboros brings the soul back to the past, he has to wait until Ji Mo An’s death occurs before he can pull back his soul that has not yet drifted away.”

“Because the body that dies in an accident will definitely be damaged, so… the damaged parts have to be replaced with new ones. The heart they are talking about should be Ji Mo An’s original heart because it was destroyed in the car accident…”

“But I’m not too clear about the more specific things, after all… he was already heartbroken for three years when I went in.”

Heartbroken, three years. The snake, who had been eavesdropping with his ears perked up, instantly went into despair.

The snake was not just heartbroken for three years, the snake was heartbroken for a full six years.

The snake is so miserable, if it wasn’t to maintain his image, the snake would like to turn into his original form, biting the tip of his tail, hiding in his nest and crying.

“So… so that’s how it is…” Ji Mo Lin looked in disbelief at the miserable snake.

“So… so the reason we photographed you before the car accident was… because…”

“Because I went back to the past a day earlier to scout, so I could pull the soul back in the shortest amount of time.” The snake shrugged, a bloody path spraying on his forehead, “But you’re right, that car accident was indeed under our control. Because in the car accident that truly killed An, that damn driver was afraid he was still alive and repeatedly ran him over.”

“But An’s death occurred after the first impact, so we intervened and prevented the subsequent repeated runnings over.”

“That one impact only destroyed An’s heart, so the snake had to take out his own heart and give it to An, and then fuse An’s half-dissipated soul with his former soul. But An was in Starry Sky and with the snake for six years, so the snake had to wait for An to live on Earth for six years after his revival before he could come and find him!”

Xuan Bai said his great work, his proud nose almost piercing the sky.

“Quickly give the snake a cleaning tool, the clothes were chosen by his mother, don’t get them dirty.” The snake, who said something that shouldn’t have been said, turned into a red snake in a few seconds, and even his handsome face tore open with countless wounds.

But, the snake is now not a lonely, pitiful snake, he *swooshed* out from behind the table and reached out to Mu Chen for a tool.

“I don’t have one.” Mu Chen spread his hands, “The tool was destroyed by the world the moment I entered Earth.”

“Didn’t you say it was researched?” The snake was dumbfounded. He lifted the hem of his clothes that were already dripping blood, and then saw in the reflection of the cabinet door that his shirt was completely dyed bright red.

“Obviously, it failed. But here, eat this, it replenishes qi and blood.” Mu Chen handed the snake a cylindrical, light yellow thing.

“What is this? So hard to eat. It has an earthy taste.” The snake chewed half of it and started to grit his teeth, it was so hard to eat that even his tongue turned into a forked, slender snake letter.

“Wild ginseng. Our anchor point this time randomly arrived in the mountains, dug in the mountains, it’s been around for a long time, it’s very tonic.”

“Okay.” The snake swallowed the remaining half of the wild ginseng whole.

“It’s almost time, the snake is going to go up and complete the task that Ji Mo An gave the snake!”

However, not even fifteen minutes later, two bloodstains dripped down from under the nose of the snake who had changed into clothes with great interest.

Oops, overdosed.