Chapter 728: The Happy Prince's Ending

When I arrived at Shen Long's venue, I found he wasn't standing at the door. This massive swimming hall was giving off a thick, strange smell.

It was like a pot of incredibly fragrant meat soup was being stewed; I could even hear the bubbling sounds of "gu du gu du."

My heart suddenly started pounding wildly at that moment.

I was breathing heavily as I walked forward step by step, reaching out to push open the building's door. A rush of intense heat hit my face, and the meaty aroma grew even stronger.

The inside of the room was sweltering, like a huge bathhouse.

"Long..." Although all of us worshiped this Shen Long every day, we had never entered his domain.

The place was filled with an overwhelming meaty scent and a chilling sense of "death." The entire swimming hall was shrouded in thick steam, making it impossible to see the path ahead clearly—everything looked red and hazy, and the smell was choking.

Just a few steps in front of me, through the misty vapor, I caught the scent of my sister. Beside her was someone else who emitted both a foul stench and a fresh fragrance...

I waved away the fog in front of my eyes and moved step by step toward my sister's scent. Her smell was odd... as if all the scents in the world were wrapped around her.

What about the others...? Were they all dead?

In this enormous building, I could only detect the scents of two living people.

"Is this okay?" a strange woman asked.

"I... it's fine... thank you..." my sister replied in a trembling voice. "I'm sorry to trouble you..."

I stepped forward through the sticky substance on the floor, my heart about to leap out of my throat. I had no idea what I was going to see.

When I was just a few steps away from the two of them, Shen Long noticed me.

"Hmm...?" She paused slightly, and that's when I realized that the Shen Long we worshiped day and night sounded like a woman.

But what came into view next made my eyes widen completely.

My sister was lying on the table in front of Shen Long like a dead fish. She was soaking wet and flushed red all over. The board was covered with a sheet that was splattered with blood everywhere, though she had no wounds on her body.

Shen Long was holding a knife aimed right at her heart.

"Sister..." I croaked.

My sister, who was lying on the table, jumped in fright and quickly sat up to look at me.

"Ying Xiong? What are you doing 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 vulnerable.

"I..."

The scent from my sister instantly turned overwhelmingly sad. Her lips trembled slightly, and then she turned to Shen Long.

"Can you give me a little time?"

Shen Long sighed after hearing that.

"Is he your 'concern'?"

"Yes."

"Since you can't die no matter what, go ahead and handle it," Shen Long said. "Remember to come back and face death once you've let go of your concerns, or else the people 'above' will make it even worse for you."

"Okay... thank you..."

My sister flipped down from the table and staggered over to me step by step. Her face was deathly pale, and I thought her hands would be cold, but they were scorching hot when she touched me.

"Ying Xiong... you shouldn't have come," she said, smoothing her hair. "I don't want you to see me like this..."

"Sister... why is this happening...?" I struggled to control my emotions, but the words I'd prepared in my mind wouldn't come out. "Are you planning to leave me here...?"

"Yes... Ying Xiong, I'm going now," she said with a teary laugh. "I haven't lied to you... remember? No matter how bad my scent gets, I would never want to hurt you."

She said she hadn't hurt me, but my heart ached terribly.

"But why don't you let those people die on their own...?" I asked, trembling. "Why do you have to go with them? You could just let them die by themselves..."

"But I'm the 'Shen Nü'," she said, touching my head with her burning palm. "If I don't personally throw myself into this 'Fei Sheng'... no one will follow me willingly... It's just a shame that my 'healing' ability keeps me from dying..."

As she spoke, her voice choked up.

"I'm sorry... Ying Xiong... I didn't realize how much I wanted to live..."

I didn't really understand... I didn't know why she was apologizing to me. Wasn't wanting to live the right thing?

"Sister, come with me," I said, pulling at her with a blank expression. "Let's get out of here... Let's go home... We can eat... You still have stories to finish for me... I won't allow you to go..."

"Ying Xiong, I can't leave anymore," she said with a smiling shake of her head. "I've already made a bet with her on 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 a lump of cotton; I couldn't say anything.

"Ying Xiong, let me tell you the ending of 'The Happy Prince,' okay?"

I was stunned for a while before slowly nodding.

After a moment of thought, she said, "In the end, the Happy Prince was in immense pain after seeing the swallow die, and even his lead heart shattered into two pieces."

"Then what...?"

"Then God sent an angel down to earth, who took the Happy Prince's lead heart and the swallow's body up to heaven, letting them live forever..."

"Enough..." I whispered. "It's all lies... Even fairy tales are the same..."

I had thought my heart was made of iron, but now I knew it wasn't. My lead heart was really about to split in two—it hurt so much.

"It's not a lie..." She reached out to wipe the tears from my face. "Ying Xiong, I told you I wouldn't lie to you. If I die, an angel will come and take me to heaven, and I'll watch over you from up there..."

"But there are no angels in this world..." I said through gritted teeth.

"How could there not be? We just don't know," she said, sniffing. "Maybe Zhang San or Li Si around us... or some unassuming person... is an angel. I won't lie to you..."

She insisted she wasn't lying, but the strong scent of deception from her made me hesitate for the first time—I didn't know if I should call her out on it.

"Promise me..." She touched my head. "I can't bear to see you turn out like this. I hope you stay a kind child forever... If you ever manage to escape one day, make sure to love this world with all your heart."

"But Sister..." I clung tightly to her clothes. "But... I can't even take the swallow's body with me... How will you get to heaven...? The angel won't find you..."

She paused for a moment, then looked around and stood up. She pulled the blood-stained sheet from the board—it was half white and half red, carrying her scent.

She lifted the sheet high and draped it over my back.

Then she tied it around my neck and said with a smile, "Ying Xiong... this has my blood on it. Take it with you and go search for our heaven, okay?"