Curse Returns: What did the human-shaped wishing machine do wrong this time?

Xia Youjie was surprised to hear such a request. He paused for a moment, stared at the black-haired child, and something flashed through his mind but he couldn't quite grasp it.

It was at this moment that he truly felt the profound and mysterious sense of constraint that Wu had described.

He lowered his eyes, smiled helplessly, and replied softly, "Okay."

Compared to Wu's bloody demands, running two laps wouldn't even qualify as a warm-up in his usual exercise routine.

Xia Youjie stood up and ran around the interior of the quiet room with ease. He didn't pant or break out in a light sweat. Only some dust particles floated and sank rapidly in the interplay of light and shadow because of his movements.

This amount of exercise was quite a lot for Alluka. He clapped his hands and giggled. His laughter was so innocent and pure, like the sound of silver bells, that it made people laugh along with him.

A few seconds later, Xia Youjie stood back in front of Alluka, who rarely showed some of her true personality.

"Xia Youjie, do ten squats!"

Alluka made her second request with a smile on her face. Her black, tousled hair fell on both sides of her fair cheeks, making her look no different from any other ordinary child.

"..."

Gojo Satoru showed an expression of as if he had expected this.

Everything went exactly as he predicted.

As Xia Youjie diligently followed the instructions, Wu Tiaowu saw the child so innocently smiling, seemingly without any worries, looking as cheerful as if they were playing a very simple little game.

Gojo Satoru felt that perhaps this was the child's true nature, and those desires to kill ordinary people should not be the kind of complex thoughts that a child of this age should have.

"Xia Youjie, can you sing me a song?"

After Xia Youjie got up, Alluka clapped her hands and looked at her black-haired brother with bright eyes.

Originally, Alluka didn't like Natsumi, which is why she made the same wish as lifting him up. However, Natsumi didn't slack off at all during the game. His movements were very standard, and he would even smile gently at her after he finished.

Alluka thought that this older brother was probably a decent person.

"Pfft—"

Upon hearing Alluka's third request, Gojo Satoru couldn't help but slap his thigh and burst out laughing.

He had known Jay since college, but had never heard Jay sing.

The scoundrel Gojo Satoru immediately took out his phone, switched it to video recording mode, and almost shoved the camera right in Jai's face.

Several ellipses representing crows flying overhead materialized above Xia Youjie's head.

He closed his eyes briefly, then slowly raised his hand, clenched his fist, and coughed awkwardly near his lips:

"I'm not very good at singing, but if you want to hear me sing..."

Unlike Gojo Satoru, Xia Youjie came from an ordinary family and often had disagreements with his family because he could see curses when he was young.

His parents didn't believe in curses, nor did his classmates and friends.

So from a young age, he was somewhat unsociable and naturally wouldn't attend karaoke parties that friends would go to together.

Come to think of it, this is a field he has never ventured into before.

He cleared his throat and sang a Pokémon theme song he had heard before, but because he wasn't very familiar with it, he forgot the lyrics a few times.

Despite this, the song is still very pleasant to listen to because of the gentle voice.

Wu Tiao Wu was very satisfied with the video recording, while Xia Youjie's face was covered with a thin layer of powder in embarrassment.

As he uttered his last word, the child in front of him, with his hands in a prayerful gesture, transformed into the form of a cursed spirit.

The cursed spirit's form remained as bizarre as ever, a large, black, pupil-like black hole staring back eerily.

"What is your wish?"

Its voice was still so high-pitched and sharp, hidden in the black mist, and indistinct.

Gojo Satoru and Natsumi exchanged a glance, knowing that the crucial moment had arrived.

Actually, he wanted to make a wish for desserts, but when he thought about the money that had been moved there, he realized that if he made that wish, dessert shops somewhere would be robbed one after another.

Gojo Satoru felt that it was somewhat unnecessary.

Xia Youjie hadn't intended to make any wishes. After a moment's thought, he asked, "Could you explain what happened to those people who were twisted like ropes?"

More than any other wish, Xia Youjie wanted to know the cause of those people's deaths and why they had become those ugly rope people.

He initially thought someone had made a wish to turn the rotten orange into a rope person, but then he suddenly remembered that the child seemed to have mentioned the word "price" once when they first met.

Wu had also mentioned yesterday's experiment that the effort and the reward were mismatched. In a flash, Xia Youjie felt that these doubts must be connected.

In both experiments, the child's connection to the cursed spirit's spell was clearly about making a wish. He couldn't understand how the price of making a wish was related to murder. Xia Youjie was somewhat afraid that his experiments might cause some bad consequences.

He decided to just ask directly.

This can be considered his wish.

"..."

Nanika, who was of one mind with Alluka, also experienced the joy of the game just now.

Upon hearing this wish, she stiffly turned her head, paused for a moment, and then slowly replied as if she had a pause:

"The next person... will pay the price... the price... there was no... a life will be taken..."

Nanika's voice was somewhat halting, intermittent, and flat as she answered Xia Youjie's question.

She could only pronounce a few words clearly, but it was precisely these few words interspersed together that made everything they had been unable to understand clear at this moment.

After answering the question, Nanica returned the body to Alluka.

The black-haired child didn't seem to want to ask them for anything again; he skipped and hopped to the window.

Unbeknownst to them, a vine from a morning glory had somehow crept in.

The child really wanted to touch the flower, but was afraid of hurting the plant, so he held his hand in the air.

Gojo Satoru and Natsume Yuuki paused for a moment before returning the tranquil space to the child.

Xia Youjie quietly closed the door and called Xiaozi to ask her to bring the child along.

At that moment, they understood everything.