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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Steamed Bun
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Li Huowang curled up into a ball, like an unborn infant, motionless and withdrawn in a corner of the Material Room.
The other medicine primers didn't dare or want to disturb him, quietly going about their own tasks.
Night fell unnoticed. The oil lamps on the walls went out one by one, and darkness draped over Li Huowang like a quilt.
He lay there like a corpse, utterly unresponsive to the changes around him.
At the third watch of the night, a faint candlelight glowed from the doorway, illuminating the nearby shelves and dispelling the darkness cloaking Li Huowang.
The timid Bai Lingmiao rolled up a bundle of dry grass and walked cautiously to his side, carefully spreading it over him.
She then pulled a coarse-grain steamed bun from her bosom and placed it by his mouth.
Seeing him still motionless, she pursed her lips and gently nudged him.
"Shixiong, eat something. You haven't had a bite all day."
Li Huowang's eyes were open. Those eyes that hadn't blinked for hours stared numbly at the cold floor, not shifting toward Bai Lingmiao in the slightest.
Bai Lingmiao wanted to leave, but after hesitating for a moment, she pulled a jade pendant from her bosom and set it beside his hand.
"Shixiong, this is yours. Take it back."
This time, Li Huowang finally reacted. He looked toward the object and saw it was the round jade pendant he had stolen from the previous Xuanyang.
Li Huowang remembered handing this to Yang Na to exchange for money. The thought of Yang Na made his already tattered heart bleed anew.
"How did this end up with you?"
"It was you, Li Shixiong, who gave it to me. I said I didn't want it, but you insisted on shoving it into my hands."
Li Huowang slowly sat up and, by the dim candlelight, carefully examined the cloud-patterned round jade pendant.
In that moment, he had never felt everything so real. But this reality held only real despair and real pain.
If he had a choice, how he wished to stay trapped in that beautiful illusion forever.
Seeing Li Huowang respond, Bai Lingmiao softly asked,
"Li Shixiong, where did Master grab you from? I'm from the Liang Kingdom. Where are you from?"
Li Huowang was stunned for a moment before dejectedly shaking his head.
"Don't know."
He truly didn't know anymore. He did have memories of the past, but after the day's events, even Li Huowang himself couldn't tell how much of those memories were real and how much illusory.
Even here, he was still a madman, one who couldn't distinguish reality from hallucination.
As he shook his head, Li Huowang suddenly felt something odd about his scalp. He touched it and found his hair matted with blood scabs—he had been injured before.
Seeing Li Huowang touch his head, Bai Lingmiao explained,
"That was Wang Shixiong's doing."
Li Huowang knew this Wang Shixiong was the Harelip Fatty who had tried to lay hands on Bai Lingmiao earlier.
"Where's that Wang fellow?"
"You... you kicked him to death."
At those words, an image flashed in Li Huowang's mind: Old Liu Tou flying from his kick in the hallucination. He lowered his head and smiled silently.
He really was mad enough.
Li Huowang reached into his bosom and pulled out a gold anklet wrapped with a red string, holding it out to Bai Lingmiao.
"This is yours. Take it back."
Bai Lingmiao looked at her anklet and pushed it back with palms together.
"You were right before, Li Shixiong. This thing's no use here. You keep it."
Li Huowang stared blankly at the gold anklet, but it held no meaning for him now. Everything he cared about was gone.
"Um, Li Shixiong, could I use this as payment to ask you for a favor?"
Bai Lingmiao's words drew Li Huowang's gaze to her.
"If you can escape from here alive, could you deliver a message to my parents for me? They live at the foot of Niuxin Mountain in the Liang Kingdom. Just tell them their daughter is unfilial and can't care for them in their old age."
Her voice grew choked with emotion as she spoke of her sorrow.
"Li Shixiong, I really don't want to trouble you, but I have no other choice. They'll probably take me to the Pill Refinery Room soon. I..."
Hearing this, a jolt went through the despondent, numb Li Huowang. A spark returned to his lifeless eyes.
He glanced at the dry grass covering him, then at the steamed bun beside him. With a tug, he stuffed the red-stringed gold anklet back into his bosom.
"I keep my word. Since I took your thing before, I'll help you."
Bai Lingmiao's sorrowful eyes lit up instantly, but they soon dimmed again.
"No, Li Shixiong, that won't work. It'll get you in trouble too."
"Heh... Do you think I care about that now?"
Li Huowang had seen it all clearly now. He was completely beyond caring. With everything he valued gone, what was left to fear?
"Alright! Li Shixiong is mighty!"
A male voice suddenly rang out from beyond the Material Room door, startling both of them.
The candlelight revealed a cheeky, grinning face with sharp features like a monkey's—yellow and white patches mottling his skin, as if afflicted with something akin to vitiligo.
The man pulled out two coarse-grain steamed buns and placed them obsequiously beside Li Huowang.
"Hey hey hey, Li Shixiong, eat some mantou. During dinner, I thought of how you hadn't eaten, so I saved two just for you."
"You might not know this junior brother of yours. I was born of heaven and earth, no grand name. Just call me Gouwa. Hey hey hey, just yesterday, I even gave you seventeen coppers as a tribute."
Gouwa rubbed his hands restlessly, his sycophancy plain as day on his face. Clearly, he wanted to latch onto Li Huowang as a backer to avoid becoming a medicine primer. Smart ones were everywhere.
Li Huowang said nothing and grabbed the three somewhat stale steamed buns, wolfing them down. He'd been hungry all day.
Choking a bit from eating too fast, Gouwa immediately dashed out and fetched him a cup of water.
With the cold underground water washing it down, Li Huowang crammed all three coarse-grain steamed buns into his belly.
He struggled unsteadily to his feet. After lying on the ground so long, his legs were numb.
Bai Lingmiao reached out to help him, but Li Huowang pushed her away.
His gaze fixed dead on the pitch-black exit of the Material Room as he staggered toward it.
Now, his enemy was no longer his mutating illness but Danyangzi, that leprous-headed Daoist who refined people into pills.
As Danyangzi's ugly, repulsive face surfaced in his mind, thick malice welled up in Li Huowang's eyes. His teeth ground with a creak.
He, who had just moments ago wished only for death, now burned with purpose. The one thing left to do was find a way to kill him!