The Creatures that We Are

Miss had appeared at the door at some point with a purposefully relaxed and natural smile.

Ting Ting immediately put down the food in her hand and tensed up, rigid.

Liao Liao, the experienced worker here, quickly responded, “Protector Miss is right, Ting Ting. I think you’re at the right weight now. Being chubby is cute.”

“Haha.” Miss walked into the room and looked around, his gaze quickly landing on Ting Ting’s lowered profile. “Do you have time tonight, Ting Ting?”

Like a student being singled out by a teacher to answer a question, Ting Ting hunched reflexively and tried her best to smile. “Um, that, I…”

“Why don’t we go to a movie?” Miss didn’t give her the chance to turn him down. “Slam Dunker’s movie is now screening. I remember you’ve always loved the anime.”

Ting Ting smiled with difficulty. “Yes, but I…”

“I bought the tickets.” Miss took out a ticket. “Let’s watch it tonight.”

“But…we can’t just go out.”

“It’s no problem. I’ll give you the permission.” Miss did have the authority to do so as a Protector. He shoved the ticket into Ting Ting’s hand. “Get back to your work. I’ll see you tonight.”

Miss turned to leave, closing the door behind him.

It took some time for the awkward atmosphere in the room to fade.

“You can’t drag this on any longer, Ting Ting…” Liao Liao pressed a hand to her forehead. “Miss is obviously pursuing you! Just reject him! Or he’s gonna continue to swing by every day and try his tricks on you. It’s getting really unbearable!”

“Agreed.” Cold Cicada smiled faintly.

Ting Ting sighed. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He never even spared me a glance before, but suddenly wouldn’t leave me alone. Seriously, I thought he wasn’t interested in women.”

“Same.” Liao Liao cackled. “What a feat, Ting Ting. You turn him straight.”

“Sister Liao Liao, don’t joke like that…” Ting Ting blushed.

Liao Liao frowned. “Hey, you…aren’t interested in Miss, too, are you?”

“Of course not!” Ting Ting was exasperated but also amused. “He looks like my dad!”

“Pfft—” Liao Liao couldn’t smother the laughter. “True. He does look older than he actually is.”

“There won’t be anything between us.” Ting Ting smiled bitterly. “But he never actually confesses, and I’ll seem like a narcissist if I reject him. Besides, he’s now A Protector. I can’t risk getting on his bad side. What if he abuses his power and has me assigned to his team? I don’t wanna get on the frontline. I want to live for a few more days and have a few more meals!”

Liao Liao got worried, too. “When you put it that way, it is a possibility.”

“Yes.” Ting Ting sighed ruefully. “It’s annoying. Why is it so hard to have a few days in peace?”

Liu Qingying smiled. “Still, the movie isn’t at fault here. It’s innocent, Ting Ting. Slam Dunker is your youth, isn’t it?”

Ting Ting wavered. “Yeah, I’ve always wanted to watch the movie. This is a good chance.”

“You should go,” Liu Qingying egged her on.

“Wait, Sister Liu!” Liao Liao said in surprise. “You’re pushing Ting Ting into a fire pit.”

Liu Qingying smiled like she had been there. “Don’t underestimate Ting Ting. I believe she can deal with it. Moreover, how is she going to know what a good man is when she’s never seen a bad man? Consider it a necessary trial in life.”

“You’re right, Sister Liu!” Ting Ting made up her mind. “I’m just gonna play dumb if he never confesses and reject him politely if he does. I’m showing him enough respect that way.”

Liao Liao stared at them for a while before giving them a thumbs-up. “You’re the elite players here. I’ll stop worrying about you unnecessarily.”

…

Three in the morning, the Saint Pilin Opera House stood dignified and solemn, brightly lit. Nico stood in the aisle of the empty audience seats and looked at the stage covered by the red curtains devotedly, his wrinkled old face shaking with emotions.

He could sense it strongly. The embodiment of Heavenly Godbearer’s divinity was descending.

“Heavenly Godbearer!” Nico dropped to his knees and opened his arms toward the stage. “This humble servant awaits your divine presence’s descent!”

Rumble. As if in response to his words, a strange energy rippled out and “froze” the entire opera house. Suddenly, the environment around him turned into abstract blotches of dull colors, twisting and distorting.

It felt as if the opera house was an oil painting slowly bleeding colors in water.

And Nico was in the painting.

The curtains drew to the sides like two clusters of dark red seaweeds, revealing the stage, but in the back of the stage was not the backdrop or the wall, but a deep, mysterious night sky. A crimson full moon hung in the pure-black sky with red energy strands reaching outward, making it seem like a cold sun.

Soon, a black crack opened up at the center of the red moon, quickly tearing sideways to form a giant vertical eye. At the same time, the red energy strands spreading from the red moon transformed instantly into hard, pierce crimson thorns.

Gurgle. The red eye on the moon cast down slightly, scrutinizing Nico lazily and coldly as the superior existence.

Nico shuddered. His memory and senses had been deprived for a few seconds, a few minutes, or a few hours. There was no way for him to tell.

When he realized it, the opera house was gone, replaced by slowly flowing and swirling muddled colors, cast in the oppressive color of the red moon.

Under the red moon hung an upsidedown “woman”.

She had no facial features, and her skinny, tall naked body was covered in small wounds, her skin pale. The wounds looked like living red cracks as they moved around on her body.

She opened her pale, long arms. Her blood-drenched black hair ran down like willows.

“Heavenly Godbearer!”

Nico cried warm tears due to overwhelming emotions. He lay prone at the Heavenly Godbearer’s feet with his hands and head pressed to the ground, shaking all over uncontrollably.

“We’ve disappointed you. The Divine Scion still lives. Forgive us for our incompetence…”

“Our wisdom and power are lacking. We need your blessing and guidance. We need your power…”

“For that, we will give anything…”

The upside-down pale woman didn’t make a sound.

All of a sudden, however, a bleeding vertical eye appeared on her featureless face. Then the thin cracks on her body all tore open to form the same eyes.

Six red wings with eyes shot out from her back. She looked like a butterfly that had just broken out of its chrysalis.

An indescribable pain was brought down from the sky.

“Ah…aghhhhh!!”

Nico’s frail body could not take it. He collapsed to the ground while holding his forehead with both hands, rolling around and spasming madly like a living fish dropped into boiling oil.

Hiss. About ten seconds later, Nico’s forehead split, splattering black blood. Then a red vertical eye emerged from between his brows.

Nico stopped screaming. The pain was suddenly silent.

Lying on the ground, he looked up with dazed eyes. The vertical eye on his forehead continued to gurgle blood, which drenched his pious and grateful old face.

“Heavenly Godbearer! This humble servant is grateful to you for the power granted!!”

“I saw it, I saw it… I know what to do. I will complete this mission!”

“Your will is going to be enforced on the world! Your divine grace is going to shine on the land! Your blessing is going to save all lives!”

…

“Ah!”

Nico shouted, waking up on the stage.

He suddenly had an episode while talking to Clear Mirror, and he quickly collapsed to the ground, foaming from the mouth.

This time, he stayed unconscious for a full hour before coming to.

“You’re finally awake.” Clear Mirror remained in his seat at the roundtable. He looked down at Nico quietly.

“The great and merciful Heavenly Godbearer! She, She forgave us…” Nico scrambled to his feet and rushed to Clear Mirror, grabbing his shoulders. “She had another instruction for us! She showed me…”

“Nico, take your time,” Clear Mirror assured him coolly.

“The future!” Nico couldn’t calm down. “She showed me the future! The future of us killing the Divine Scion! Clear Mirror! That will be our last chance! That will be our last salvation in this world!”

“What do I do?”

“Go back to Li City!” Nico let go of him and widened his arms. “Await the right time! Then, we will give our insignificant lives to fulfill Heavenly Godbearer’s mission for us.”

Clear Mirror’s deep melancholy eyes glinted with hesitance. “I will finish Her mission, but before that, I must seek revenge from the Ocean River Union…”

“Do not worry, Clear Mirror!” Nico exclaimed. “Nothing escapes Heavenly Godbearer’s holy vision! She had a plan! You will have your revenge as you finish your mission!”

“All…all is for the greatest conclusion to the play!!”

Swish, swish.

The dark red curtains at the front of the stage slowly drew close. Another boring stageplay with no audience came to an end.

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