The girl kneeling on the attic floor took the pocket watch and examined it closely, her beautiful brows furrowing slightly.
It was indeed seven or eight parts similar, especially that shock of snow-white hair.
Then she lifted her pale golden eyes and stared directly at the man.
“But there are plenty of similar people in the world, Village Chief Edwin. What are you trying to say?”
Shiya imitated a detective drama, rubbing her smooth chin with two fingers, putting on a thoughtful expression.
Yige’er hesitated for a moment, then finally sighed.
“Perhaps he wanted to use you, a girl who looks so much like Selanti, to drag me out of the shadow of losing my fiancée.”
After all, whether it was digging the escape tunnel or building the alchemical ship, Yige’er had been acting in secret.
To outsiders, he just stayed shut in all day, completely depressed.
“But I can’t escape being sacrificed in the ritual either.”
Shiya tilted her head, making a finger gun gesture and pointing it at her temple.
“Even if I really did help you get back on your feet, once I die, wouldn’t you be even more devastated?”
Yige’er shrugged helplessly at that.
“So I’ve never understood his true intentions.”
Before finishing, the man added, “And I don’t think you look like Selanti at all. She was lively and playful, and even when doing manual labor, she was especially spirited.”
“As for you?” Yige’er glanced sideways at Shiya.
“You’re both sensitive and fragile. Just now, when you helped move things onto the boat, you were weak and unsteady on your feet.”
“Maybe your only advantage—or perhaps misfortune—is that you easily attract possessive and vicious noble ladies who want to keep you as a pet canary.”
“Hey!”
Shiya angrily slapped the low table hard, then hissed, took a deep breath, and covered her red, swollen palm, barely holding back tears.
“Counting the time you talked nonsense about me being lovesick, I’ve put up with you for a long time. Didn’t we agree to discuss serious matters? Ilya is waiting downstairs!”
It seemed that the man was moved by the girl’s delicate yet spirited determination, and he couldn’t help but smile.
“But if you ask me, Miss Shiya, you’re actually more like me.”
“From the very beginning, I could see that although you can’t lift a thing, can’t carry anything, and occasionally trip on flat ground—it’s not surprising…”
The girl beside him couldn’t help puffing out her cheeks, wanting to slap the table again, but feeling her still-sore palm, she ended up just pretending to casually touch the surface.
Yige’er, however, wiped the smile from his lips, his gaze becoming utterly calm.
“And I can neither change the evil ritual that has been passed down for a thousand years in Flower God Village, nor can I protect my own fiancée.”
“We are the same—as the most useless ordinary people, there’s always a fire burning in our hearts. That stubborn, reckless spirit that refuses to back down even when knowing it’s impossible, that shouts ‘I won’t!’ and fights fate to the end.”
The man’s explanation was nearing its end.
He pulled a metal briefcase from under the low table and opened it.
Several vials of ominous calamity, faint black mist rising from them, lay quietly inside.
“Please take good care of them and use them.”
“I believe that for yourself, for those you cherish, even with severe backlash side effects, you will drink them without hesitation.”
As the cork hit the ground, the black potion flowed down her throat, and a wild power surged through her entire body, spreading to every limb.
Shiya…
Did not transform into the black demon form as Yige’er had described.
Instead, she knelt on the ground, clutching her neck with both hands.
The power that had filled her body a moment ago instantly gathered in her throat.
The girl’s face was pained; she couldn’t even let out a whimper.
Just like when she had first transmigrated, because the original owner had slit her own throat, every word she spoke felt like enduring the dull pain of a knife slicing through muscle and severing tendons.
Soon, the violent power would tear through the girl’s throat and take her life.
“Sister Shiya!”
Ilya’s voice was anxious, but beyond that, she could do nothing.
Frustrated tears silently slid from the girl’s eyes.
And then dripped onto the soon-to-capsize deck… or not?
Unfortunately, the laws of physics that applied to this world seemed to be momentarily distracted.
The tears lingered on the girl’s cheek, suspended in place, not moving.
Not only that, the surging waves on the sea, the thick mist dispersing back piece by piece in the air, and even the tentacles that Xiwa was about to swing from the abyss—
All of it was pressed to pause, frozen by some force.
Or was it that her reaction speed had increased tens of millions of times, achieving a time-stop effect?
None of that mattered now.
Shiya looked up, stunned, then slowly stood up, repeatedly stroking her slender neck.
That almost maddening stabbing pain had vanished.
Just then, a gray-haired figure with a slender waist and a curvaceous body quietly hugged her from behind.
The sensation of soft fullness pressed against her back.
Shiya shivered for some reason, exhaled a cold breath, turned around, and pushed the girl away.
Then she met a pair of cold golden eyes.
“That’s… me?”
A face as delicate as a celestial maiden’s, a soft and cute little nose, pink-watery thin lips.
But only that dull gray long hair, and the world-weary fatigue between her brows that was completely different from Shiya’s…
Although there was no evidence to support it, Shiya had a feeling and reached an obvious conclusion.
This was the original Shiya.
And when she instinctively pushed Gray Shiya away, the girl’s soul seemed to be constantly torn by something invisible from the void.
Those golden eyes, brighter than Shiya’s own, now radiated coldness, staring fixedly at Shiya.
“Are… are you okay?”
Shiya immediately noticed Gray Shiya’s abnormality and unconsciously stepped forward.
Strangely, when they got closer, Gray Shiya’s soul state stabilized a bit.
Gray Shiya just stared at the white-haired girl who stood frozen in place, then sighed silently.
She took the initiative to step forward and hugged Shiya again, face to face.
‘So troublesome…’
‘But at least like this, I won’t disappear into nothingness as a soul manifested in the world.’
Being held in Gray Shiya’s arms, Shiya’s expression was a bit unnatural.
She could feel their equally generous pair of abundant fruits pressing against each other, competing, neither giving way.
Shiya tried to struggle, but it only intensified the soft friction of the fabric, making her earlobes start to burn.
But now there was no choice—if she didn’t cuddle with herself, Gray Shiya would die, right?
‘The thought makes my spine chill.’
But since she had used the black potion to summon Gray Shiya from some space belonging to the dead, Shiya had to take responsibility.
Shiya secretly glanced and found that Gray Shiya was actually staring at their two pairs of abundant fruits in a daze.
“Can you hear me?”
Shiya tried to communicate.
Gray Shiya nonchalantly lifted her head and slightly nodded her delicate chin.
But when Gray Shiya opened her mouth, seemingly going on a long speech about something, Shiya tilted her head, her pretty face showing a confused expression.
Gray Shiya immediately realized that the girl in front of her couldn’t hear what she was saying.
They could touch each other, transmit warmth, but couldn’t communicate normally?
There seemed to be too many doubts.
Gray Shiya tried several times, but seeing that Shiya was still unresponsive, a flash of irritation passed through her golden eyes.
Then she directly cupped Shiya’s cheeks, extended her slender jade fingers, and slipped them into Shiya’s mouth.
The icy fingertips effortlessly lifted the soft, smooth tongue.
Shiya’s body instantly stiffened, and she kept slapping Gray Shiya’s shoulder, signaling her to stop doing such an outrageous thing!