From the end of the world

Chapter 125 The Next Day's Wishes 2
I have seen many women. I can see real women walking down the street. If it is summer, I can occasionally see beautiful women wearing cool clothes passing by. TV shows also often feature various celebrities and beauties. Women can be found everywhere in human society, just like men.

But what if it’s a “non-human woman”?

First of all, this sentence itself is very strange. How can they be called "women" if they are not even human? Having said that, "non-human women" are definitely not a rare concept in fictional stories. In Eastern legends, there are fox spirits and female ghosts that move people's hearts, and in Western myths, there are sirens and succubi that seduce sailors. These non-human creatures often have more outstanding appearances than human women, and they lure men into depravity and prey on them like carnivorous plants that prey on insects.

Some people may even prefer the monster women in fictional stories to the human women in real life.

Actually, it’s not like I don’t have those fantasies that are not worth telling others. I want to have an encounter with a beautiful female ghost with a youthful appearance, just like the scholar in the ancient ghost story, or even have a sexual interaction with her - this shouldn’t be a strange idea, right? All men probably have this kind of "female ghost fantasy" to some extent. As for whether women have "male ghost fantasies", I have no way of knowing. I don’t know if any scholars have done research on this kind of universal psychology and published papers.

I became curious about Chang'an's mother.

"What kind of monster is Chang'an's mother exactly?"

"Well, I don't know much. My grandparents don't like to talk about that woman, my father never said a word to me, and my brother knows nothing about it." Zhu Shi looked reminiscent, and after a moment he said, "Based on the few words I heard before, I think it should be a 'fox'."

"Fox demon?"

"Yes." She nodded.

Fox demons are a common feature of ancient ghost stories. It is said that foxes with spiritual wisdom can transform into beautiful human forms to seduce scholars and officials and corrupt them. Some can even seduce emperors and bring disaster to the country and the people. The nine-tailed fox Daji, who was said to have seduced King Zhou of Shang, is a typical example.

But fox demons are not necessarily villains. Fox demons in ghost stories sometimes appear as grateful people, transforming into human form to help good people; sometimes they appear to satirize sanctimonious bigwigs, and retreat in front of truly virtuous people; sometimes they even admire the talent of scholars, willingly become their concubines, live in seclusion behind the scenes, use magic to support the life and career of their loved ones, and disappear after their loved ones become successful.

Some of these strange stories are reflections of reality, especially the last part, which makes people wonder whether the fox demon in the story reflects the geisha in reality. But since fox demons really exist, we have to re-examine these strange stories.

However, Chang'an is actually half fox demon... Could it be that he will become a beautiful woman to seduce scholars in the future? I had such an incredible thought, and I couldn't help but feel a chill.

Let's think of something else. Since Chang'an's mother is a fox demon, then Ying Lingyun, as the father, must be a scholar with great learning and profound knowledge, right?
At the same time, I slowly sensed some of Zhu Shi's true feelings from her attitude.

"Your father died, and you don't seem sad?"

"I can't be sad." She said in a calm tone, "If you say I am an unfilial daughter, I can't find any excuse. My biological father is dead, but I reacted like this. But to be honest, I have only seen him a few times since I was a child, and I have never had any special expectations of him. My brother is different from me in this respect. It's like he has concentrated all the expectations I have for my father on himself, and he always hopes to get my father's attention.

“As for me…even if I suddenly found out that person joined the Humanitarian Department and became a monster maker…to be honest, I feel more confused than sad or angry.”

"But from your reaction last night, it seemed like you were greatly shocked." I probed.

"It's really a big shock, but I really don't feel sad." She hesitated, and then said, "Rather than feeling sad, I'm more worried that you and Ma Zao will think I'm a cold-blooded person. That's why I suddenly acted like a dumb wood in front of you.

"In fact, I was still able to think normally at the time, but I didn't know how to show the 'right reaction' in front of you, so I pretended to be confused and wanted to buy myself more time to think. Even I am disappointed and speechless with my own cold-bloodedness."

I really didn't expect this.

I only put myself in the position of the perpetrator and defined Zhu Shi as the victim. I didn't know how to face her, but I never considered that she would also find it difficult to face me and Ma Zao.

In this way, Zhu Shi's view on his father may be somewhat similar to that of the goldfish... No, it is still very different. Ying Lingyun has never used violence against his family, and Zhu Shi has no specific hatred towards him. Although Ying Lingyun has done bad things, from Zhu Shi's perspective, that happened before she was born. If she wants to say disgust, it is definitely disgust, but it should be difficult for her to have enough specific negative feelings towards such an unattainable object.

She may admit that her father plays an important role, but that is just a moral judgment. Unfortunately, she is a person with a strong sense of morality and cannot accept her indifference to her father. At the same time, Ying Lingyun, as a monster maker, has done many unforgivable evil deeds on the moral level. All these contradictions make her unsure of the attitude she should use.

Not to mention that I couldn't guess her state of mind at the moment, I guess even she herself couldn't describe it, and could only play dumb in front of Ma Zao and me.

Even so, she still tried hard to express her true feelings in front of me.

So I thought I should tell the truth and share the information I had. If she was very sad about her father's death, I would definitely not tell her. But since she was just upset, then it should be fine.

"Ying Lingyun may not be dead yet." I said.

"..." She was half a beat late to react, "What?"

I described the gray mist I saw when burning the Monster Maker's consciousness network, and then said, "...So, I suspect he may have a fragment of the Divine Seal."

"You mean, there is no fixed number of people who hold the fragment of the divine seal, and even the result of death may be overturned?" Zhu Shi seemed to take a long time to digest my point of view, and then said with difficulty, "I will believe your statement for the time being... But how can you judge that my father has the fragment of the divine seal? In fact, you only saw the gray fog. The source may be something else, right?"

"It's very simple." I took out the black jade from my pocket, "Because I only have a fragment of the divine seal."

Zhu Shi was stunned, and I simply explained the existence of the misty dream and its connection with the fragments of the divine seal.

By the way, I also told them about my encounter with No. 2 Xiaowan and No. 4 Xuanming in the misty dream. Ma Zao needs the help of Luoshan to investigate Doomsday, and the most trustworthy person in Luoshan is Zhu Shi. Telling this information should help Zhu Shi believe in the existence of Doomsday.

After a long time, she finally accepted it and murmured, "So that's it... The reason why Ma Zao trusts you so much is because you truly believe in Doomsday and have the fragment of the God's Seal that is crucial to her mission. And the reason why you truly believe in Doomsday is because of the existence of the fragment of the God's Seal and the misty dream..."

She was actually thinking about this. It seemed that she really didn't care that much about her father's life or death.

Should I also give her the "slag" I got after killing the monster maker for identification? I even had this arrogant thought. But it was really too much to do so.

"I hope you can keep this matter a secret for me," I said.

"Of course." She showed a serious expression, "Since you trust me and are willing to tell me such an important secret, I will keep it for you even if I risk my life."

"Don't you suspect that what I have in my hand is a fake?" I asked.

"You even encountered the rebellious Great Impermanence in the foggy dream. Could it be that the latter also got a fake?" she asked back.

But from an observer's perspective, even that "rebellious Great Impermanence" could be fake, right?
I skipped this question for now and said, "I thought you would persuade me to tell Luo Shan that I have the fragment of the divine seal. After all, the fragment of the divine seal is related to the end of the world, and may even be the fuse of the end of the world. The scale of the incident is too huge, and it is not something that can be decided by just a few of us."

"I have indeed thought about this," she said, "but, precisely because the fragment of the divine seal could be the fuse for the end of the world, its existence must be kept secret."

Hearing this, I vaguely thought of the answer and asked, "How do you say that?"

“If the complete divine seal is what caused the doomsday, then there must be someone who wished for the destruction of the world. We don’t know who that person is, or even if he is a member of Luo Shan.” She said in a deep voice, “And if we want to stop this imaginary enemy from wishing for the complete divine seal, the easiest way is to prevent the divine seal from returning to its original state, which means…”

I took over the conversation and said, "As long as I keep this fragment of the divine seal in my hand, the end of the world will not come."

"That's it." She nodded.

At this point, breakfast was almost finished. I stood up and ordered another serving of steamed buns and deep-fried pork chops to bring back for Ma Zao at home.

Then, I turned to look at Zhu Shi: "By the way, about the head of the monster maker..."

"I'll bring it to you today," she said.

"No, what I mean is, it's not a good idea for you to carry your biological father's head around, so I'd better go to your house," I said.

(End of this chapter)