Chapter 728: The Happy Prince's Ending
When I arrived at the "Divine Dragon's" venue, I found that he wasn't standing at the entrance. A thick, strange odor permeated the enormous natatorium.
It smelled like a pot of exceptionally rich meat soup was being simmered; I could even hear the "glug-glug" bubbling sound.
And at that moment, my heart suddenly began to pound.
Gasping for breath, I stepped forward one step at a time and reached out to push open the building's door. A wave of intense heat hit my face, and the meaty fragrance grew even stronger.
The room was scorching hot, like a giant bathhouse.
"Dragon..." Although all of us worshipped this "Divine Dragon" every day, none of us had ever entered his game before.
The space was filled with a heavy scent of meat and a chilling "death aura." The entire natatorium emitted a vast amount of steam, making it impossible for me to see the path ahead. All I could sense was that the room was glowing red, and the smell stung my nose.
Just a few steps ahead, through the hazy mist, I caught my sister's scent. Beside her was someone who simultaneously emitted both a foul stench and a delicate fragrance...
I waved away the mist before my eyes and walked step by step toward my sister's fragrance. Her smell was strange... as if all the scents in the world were entwined around her.
Where were the others...? Were they all dead?
In this massive building, I could only smell two living people.
"Is this alright?" an unfamiliar woman asked.
"It... it's fine... thank you..." my sister's trembling voice replied. "I'm sorry for the trouble..."
I stepped forward on the sticky substance beneath my feet, my heart about to leap out of my throat. I had no idea what I was about to see.
When I was just a few steps away from the two of them, the "Divine Dragon" noticed me.
"Hm...?" She seemed slightly taken aback. Only then did I realize that the "Divine Dragon" we worshipped day and night actually sounded like a woman.
But what came into view next made my eyes fly wide open.
My sister was lying on the table in front of the "Divine Dragon" like a dead fish. She was drenched and flushed red. A bedsheet was spread over the chopping block, covered in blood everywhere, yet she had no wounds on her body.
The "Divine Dragon" was holding a knife aimed right at her heart.
"Sister..." I called out hoarsely.
My sister, lying on the table, was startled and quickly sat up to look at me. "Ying, Yingxiong? Why are you here?"
"What are you doing... what are you both doing...?" I asked. "Sister... are you abandoning me...?"
I thought I would cry, but I didn't. I couldn't let my sister see me so weak.
"I..."
The scent around my sister instantly became unbearably sad. Her lips trembled slightly, then she turned her head to look at the "Divine Dragon." "Can you give me some time?"
The "Divine Dragon" sighed after hearing this. "Is he your 'attachment'?"
"Yes."
"Since you can't die no matter what, go take care of it," the "Divine Dragon" said. "Once you've let go of your attachments, remember to come back and face death. Otherwise, when the people 'upstairs' come, you'll die an even worse death."
"Okay... thank you..."
My sister slid down from the table and stumbled over to me, staggering with every step. I saw how pale her face was. I had thought her hands would be cold, but when she touched me, they were scorching hot.
"Yingxiong... you shouldn't have come." She smoothed her hair and said to me, "I didn't want you to see me like this..."
"Sister... why is this...?" I tried to control my emotions, but all the words I had organized in my mind were gone. "Are you going to leave me here...?"
"Yes... Yingxiong, I'm leaving." She laughed, her voice choked with tears. "I didn't lie to you... remember? No matter how unpleasant my scent becomes, I never want to hurt you."
My sister said she wasn't hurting me, but my heart ached terribly.
"But why did you let those people die with you...?" I asked, trembling. "Why did you all have to go together? You could have just let them die on their own..."
"But I'm the 'Divine Maiden,'" she said, touching my head with her burning palm. "If I didn't personally throw myself into this 'Ascension'... none of them would have been willing to follow me... It's just that my 'Healing' ability keeps me from dying..."
As she spoke, her voice broke.
"I'm sorry... Yingxiong... I didn't realize I wanted to live so much..."
I didn't understand... I didn't know why she was apologizing to me. Isn't "wanting to live" the right thing?
"Sister, come with me." I tugged at her, my expression wooden. "Don't stay here... let's go back... let's go eat... you still have stories you haven't finished telling me... I won't let you leave..."
"Yingxiong, I can't leave anymore." She shook her head with a smile. "I already made a bet with her with my life. I just didn't expect that I couldn't die... Otherwise, you shouldn't have seen me like this."
My throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton; I couldn't say a word.
"Yingxiong, let me tell you how 'The Happy Prince' ends, okay?"
I was stunned for a long moment before slowly nodding.
My sister paused for a moment, then said, "In the end of the story, after the Happy Prince sees the swallow die, he is filled with unbearable pain. Even his heart, made of lead, cracks in two."
"And then...?"
"Then God sends an angel down to earth, who takes the Happy Prince's lead heart and the swallow's body up to heaven, granting them eternal life..."
"That's enough..." I said in a low voice. "It's all lies... Even fairy tales are like that..."
I had thought I had truly become cold-hearted, but now I knew that wasn't the case. My lead heart really was about to crack in two—it hurt too much.
"It's not a lie..." My sister reached out and wiped the tears from my face. "Yingxiong, I told you I would never lie to you. If your sister dies, an angel will come and take me to heaven. I'll watch over you from up there forever..."
"But there are no angels in this world..." I clenched my teeth.
"How could there not be? It's just that we don't know about them..." My sister sniffled. "Maybe Zhang San or Li Si beside us... or some inconspicuous person is an angel... I won't lie to you..."
She said she wasn't lying, but her body was emanating a strong scent of "lying." For the first time, I hesitated. I didn't know whether I should call her out on it.
"Promise me..." She reached out and stroked my head. "I can't bear to see you like this. I hope you'll always be a kind child... If one day you really manage to escape, you must love this world well."
"But sister..." I grabbed her clothes tightly. "But... I can't even take the swallow's body away... How will you get to heaven? The angel won't find you..."
She was slightly stunned by this, then turned her head to look around. After a moment, she stood up and pulled the bedsheet covered in her blood off the chopping block. The sheet was half white and half red, carrying my sister's scent.
She lifted the sheet high and draped it over my back.
Then she tied it around my neck in front, looked at me with a smile, and said, "Yingxiong... this is soaked with my blood... Take it, and go find our heaven, okay?"