The River of Stars, Enduring 9

Chapter 44

The rain had stopped. All that remained was the coffin, filled to the brim with water.

The black ball with its little tail sticking out rolled over to Zhou Xiangzhe and wagged at him. Shen Wang watched it and thought, somehow, of the little Thorns who used to bring him Contaminants back then.

'What is it?' Shen Wang asked Zhou Xiangzhe.

Zhou Xiangzhe looked at it. A few seconds passed before he spoke. 'Let me ask you something first — do you mind sharing a name with it?'

Shen Wang: ...

Right. Now he knew what this thing was called.

Shen Wang clicked his tongue and walked over to the coffin. This time Zhou Xiangzhe didn't stop him. The golden threads were still there, strands upon strands of them covering the entire coffin. Shen Wang looked inside and saw a magnificent large butterfly floating in the water.

The butterfly had gone still. Hard to say whether it had drowned.

Its colorful wings were half-stained gold — but that gold half looked like it had been torn apart, the shredded pieces drifting up and down in the water.

The Contamination coming off the butterfly confirmed it for Shen Wang: this was definitely the Phantom Butterfly.

It had died just like that — killed by the faint trace of Contamination the Deer God had let slip, drowned by rain in a coffin.

A faint tinge of purple bloomed in Shen Wang's pupils. He reached out, wanting to touch the butterfly corpses inside the coffin — these were Grade-A Contaminants, right there for the taking.

But before his fingers could even graze the water, Zhou Xiangzhe grabbed him from behind.

At the same moment, the coffin cracked apart with a sharp snap. The water inside lost its container and burst outward, and the butterfly's body splashed to the ground — then bounced high into the air, breaking apart mid-turn into a scatter of wing fragments.

'It's not over yet,' Zhou Xiangzhe said.

'Be careful. The Deer God is extremely cunning. If it found a crack to slip through once, it won't let itself get locked away so easily again.'

The black ball circled Zhou Xiangzhe's feet, then burrowed out of the ground and bumped its little horn against Shen Wang's foot. Shen Wang looked down instinctively, staring at this little round thing — and thought again of the way it had swallowed ten figures in one bite just now.

Hm. Completely at odds with how it looked. Just like Zhou Xiangzhe.

'I rarely let it out.' Zhou Xiangzhe crouched down and picked the black ball up, looking faintly put out. 'Naming it was the problem — I never knew what to call it.'

'Besides, it's been three years since I could use it anyway. Figured I'd let it out this once.'

'Once we've pulled in whatever Deer God Contamination is still loose, it'll have to go back.'

Shen Wang gave the little black ball a squeeze, a glint of mischief in his voice. 'How are you supposed to find someone like this? Single, unattached — and raising a kid.'

Zhou Xiangzhe gave Shen Wang a strange look, then looked at the little black ball in his hand.

A long pause. 'As long as you don't mind,' he said at last.

He stopped for a few seconds, then added: 'I won't be separated from you again.'

Shen Wang watched him, half-amused. 'Xiao Qi, do you know what you're saying?'

He caught Zhou Xiangzhe's wrist. Zhou Xiangzhe's fingers loosened, and the black ball dropped to the ground with a splat. Zhou Xiangzhe didn't spare it a glance — all his attention had landed entirely on Shen Wang.

Shen Wang's palm was warm, his smile bright. But his dark eyes held a flicker of mischief, and though he looked approachable on the surface, there was something unhurried and untouchable underneath — like a cat who knows exactly how beautiful it is, draped across a table, watching its owner dangle a toy in front of it with complete indifference.

Zhou Xiangzhe's heartbeat stumbled.

He heard Shen Wang say, in a light and careless tone: 'You keep saying things like that and I'm going to get the wrong idea.'

Zhou Xiangzhe thought: I'm counting on it.

You have no idea how much I like you. Enough to give up every friend I have, if it came down to a choice.

If the world were ending and only one person could survive, I'd want it to be you.

But Shen Wang understood more than he let on — and understood it better. How could someone who'd grown up in the Anti-Contamination Center ever match someone who'd been through hell in a hospital?

Shen Wang had seen couples grow old together, one dying and the other following within days. He'd also seen devoted partners go cold and cut each other off completely — sometimes turning on each other, the worst cases ending with one of them going Aberrant.

So Shen Wang was careful — very careful — with anything that touched on feelings. He'd tease Zhou Xiangzhe, play at affection, but he wouldn't actually toy with him.

After all, if he was being honest, Shen Wang really did like his Xiao Qi. Quite a lot.

He just hadn't decided yet whether to let it go anywhere.

Zhou Xiangzhe didn't answer the question. Shen Wang didn't push. They let the moment cool by unspoken agreement, leaving it to be picked up again when the time was right.

It was right then that a white mist began to rise around them. Through the haze, the outlines of a city shimmered into view — like a mirage, but full of moving figures who hawked and called out their wares in a loose, overlapping murmur that was chaotic without being harsh.

The mist thickened. Shen Wang reached out to keep hold of Zhou Xiangzhe — and found nothing. He turned, and there was only empty white fog.

'Zhou Xiangzhe?' Shen Wang called. No answer.

Shen Wang frowned. He got his bearings on where Zhou Xiangzhe had been standing and walked in that direction. Two steps in, he came across a few people buying groceries with wide smiles on their faces.

'You know what? The Deer God is just incredible — ever since I started believing, I wake up happy every single day. I'm genuinely so grateful.'

'Right? My daughter used to cry all the time — the doctor said it was depression. But ever since I brought her into the faith, she smiles every day. She keeps telling me to thank the Deer God!'

'The Deer God is amazing. Our savior!'

'Every patient in the containment centers has come back — all of them recovered. That's the Deer God's gift to us!'

'My son — they'd practically written him off in the containment center — he came home fine. He's completely fine. Thank the Deer God!'

Shen Wang steered around them, listening as he walked, scanning the crowd for any sign of Zhou Xiangzhe.

These were almost certainly victims from Yutang South City — the Deer God's followers. Their Mental Contamination had reached a point where they still had their own thoughts but couldn't perceive anything wrong. A depression recovery here, every Aberrant Human released from a containment center there — all of it deeply strange.

But they didn't find it strange at all. They were thanking the Deer God from the bottom of their hearts.

He made his way past the cluster of figures and the mist thinned a little. Shen Wang looked up — and his eyes widened slightly.

A massive statue stood before him. It looked pixelated — or at least, Shen Wang couldn't make out its shape, its clothes, anything. Yet it gave off an inexplicable sense of radiant, almost sacred grandeur. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. Still just a blur.

He went quiet and started thinking: did the Deer God actually look like a pixelated blob, or was this some kind of spiritual projection?

Like — maybe it reflected whoever you revered most, but since Shen Wang couldn't be Contaminated, he could only see the raw thing underneath. Which was: a pixelated blob.

After staring at it a while, Shen Wang threw up his hands and turned to walk in the other direction.

'Zhou Xiangzhe!' he called.

Still no answer.

Shen Wang clicked his tongue. 'Proof positive,' he said, 'that Grade A can't hold a candle to Grade S.'

'A Grade-S Contaminant leaks out just a little bit of Contamination and my whole painting is turned inside out. Can't even find a person. Useless. Next time I should try swallowing a Grade-S one.'

'Not like there are many Grade-S entities in the world, though. Zhou Xiangzhe and the Deer God are outliers.'

'Maybe the Deer God could also...'

Shen Wang stopped mid-sentence. Because he'd spotted someone.

A young man in the Dispatch Team's black combat uniform, jet-black hair and deep dark eyes. He stood there with his head tilted back, watching the sky. Clouds reflected in his gaze. After a moment he raised one hand — a silver bandage wrapped around his wrist.

His expression was cold, conspicuous even in a crowd, yet the aura around him was utterly still — like undisturbed, clear water.

Two completely opposite qualities, and somehow on him they fit together perfectly.

His face matched more closely what Shen Wang had imagined for 'Xiao Qi grown up,' and it matched the feeling Zhou Xiangzhe gave off in person.

No silver hair catching the eye like something out of a myth, no gold irises, no Contamination Suppressor reworked into a dozen little charms. He was clean. Just himself.

'Zhou Xiangzhe,' Shen Wang said. 'Zhou Xiangzhe?'

The young man across from him couldn't hear. Shen Wang understood — this wasn't something happening in real time. It was more like the Contamination the Deer God had shed was reconstructing itself, replaying what had happened before. Which was why there was a pixelated statue and these shadow-figures of the Contaminated victims.

And this was clearly Zhou Xiangzhe before he'd swallowed the Deer God — his own face, three years ago.

'This look...' Shen Wang circled slowly around this three-years-ago Zhou Xiangzhe.

He rendered his verdict without hesitation: 'Yeah. This works for me.'

Silver hair and gold eyes were striking, no question — but they always carried a faint otherworldly edge, like something not quite human. Shen Wang's taste was hard to pin down; if you had to be specific, it was omnivorous, but also exacting — anyone who didn't clear the bar didn't even register.

But Zhou Xiangzhe's looks were genuinely good either way. The unearthly quality from before, the cool stillness like water now — both were completely his type.

'Shame I can't take a photo,' Shen Wang sighed.

Zhou Xiangzhe lowered his hand and gave the ground a light tap with the toe of his shoe.

'Come on, Xiao Shiwu.'

The black ball shot out of the ground instantly, tail wagging as it followed Zhou Xiangzhe away.

'Where are you going?' Shen Wang had lost all interest in finding the present-day Zhou Xiangzhe. He fell into step behind this three-years-ago version instead.

The silver-haired, gold-eyed Zhou Xiangzhe he could look at anytime. But the black-haired, dark-eyed Zhou Xiangzhe was a limited edition — a discontinued one at that. He had to make the most of it.

Zhou Xiangzhe pressed the comm device at his ear as he walked.

'Polaris, Zhou Xiangzhe. I've entered Yutang South City and reached the Contamination zone.'

'Interior of Yutang South City shows no anomalies. Residents appear to be living normally. Thought patterns intact aside from Mental Contamination.'

'No physical Aberration detected,' Zhou Xiangzhe reported. 'Mental Contamination profile: intense devotion toward the Deer God, otherwise unremarkable. Recommending designation: Deer God.'

Since the Divine Vanishing Plan, no one in the world had any experience dealing with Grade-S Contaminants. The only information that existed came from Pretty Country — one Grade-S Aberrant and an entire High Wall's worth of people, scraping together what they could. But Pretty Country had locked that data down tight and wasn't sharing it with anyone.

So when a Grade-S Contamination event broke out in Yutang South City, even the Anti-Contamination Center nearly fell apart.

All three Grade-S Aberrants on record were dispatched to Yutang South City. Zhou Qing, with his unique talent, was one. Zhou Xiangzhe and another Grade-S Aberrant entered the city from separate positions.

The black ball rolled along at Zhou Xiangzhe's feet. Zhou Xiangzhe didn't worry about stepping on it; his black shoes kept moving, one steady step after another.

Shen Wang walked alongside him, taking him in.

The Dispatch Team uniform from three years ago was cut differently from the current one — it read differently, too. This version fit a little tighter, and under the black combat jacket was, surprisingly, a white inner collar. Zhou Xiangzhe had fastened every button with meticulous care — except the very top one, left undone, leaving his collarbone visible below the throat. It invited a certain kind of imagination.

Zhou Xiangzhe always knew how to put himself together. That, at least, hadn't changed.

Zhou Xiangzhe cut his connection with the Anti-Contamination Center and kept walking until he reached a temple up ahead. It still bore traces of a prior faith — clearly it had belonged to a different religion once, and after the Deer God's Contamination spread through Inside the High Wall, the people inside had cut off their old devotions and converted the temple to the Deer God.

The statue inside still looked pixelated to Shen Wang. For Zhou Xiangzhe, apparently not.

Zhou Xiangzhe pointed at the statue. 'Go.'

The little black ball shot forward, opened its mouth, and swallowed the statue in one go. A few seconds later it spat it back out, then returned to Zhou Xiangzhe's feet and pointed its tail in a specific direction.

...So it was a compass, too. A directional marker.

Zhou Xiangzhe followed the direction — and found another temple, a Deer God statue standing at its center as well.

He stood in front of the statue for a moment, then glanced down at the little black ball.

'You sure about this?'

The little black ball stubbornly kept its tail pointed at the statue.

Zhou Xiangzhe considered for a moment, then pressed the comm at his ear and filed another report with the Anti-Contamination Center.

'Polaris, Zhou Xiangzhe. My assessment: the Deer God is not a standard physical-entity Contaminant. It exists in a special state — and given that it was born from belief, its form should correspond to what its followers believe in. Which is to say: a god.'

A god is intangible — unseeable, untouchable, yet capable of bestowing grace. Eastern deities, when properly enshrined, bring fair weather and good harvests. Western ones choose devout followers and descend into them...

When that kind of belief made real, it doesn't need a physical body.

Shen Wang had always known Zhou Xiangzhe was extraordinarily smart. It had shown up early — at the orphanage, his schoolwork was always the fastest, always the best. He could memorize a poem after reading it once. The things that had Xiao Ershijiu tearing her hair out were easier to him than falling asleep.

So Shen Wang wasn't the least bit surprised when Zhou Xiangzhe reached the conclusion that quickly.

Once the report was done, Zhou Xiangzhe turned and walked away again. The little black ball seemed confused — it had found the target, so why was its owner leaving? — and followed after him with some hesitation.

Zhou Xiangzhe exhaled. He picked the little black ball up off the ground.

'I named you Xiao Shiwu, but you're nothing like him at all.'

'If it were him, he'd know in a second what I was about to do...' Zhou Xiangzhe spoke to the black ball. 'Right, Xiao Shiwu?'

The little black ball understood nothing. It was just a ball. It couldn't hold the weight of its owner's longing, which was threatening to breach.

So Zhou Xiangzhe set it down and took a photograph out of his pocket.

In the photo, Shen Wang was wearing a patient's gown, standing at a window. He'd seemed to sense someone behind him and turned — black hair, dark eyes, a lean frame. Those beautiful peach-blossom eyes hadn't had time to put their guard up. The cold that usually lay hidden had been caught there, frozen in the photograph, permanent.

It was the only photograph of Shen Wang Zhou Xiangzhe had managed to get after learning he'd disappeared.

His hand tightened around it before he could think — the photo creased under his grip. He caught himself quickly, smoothed it back out with careful hands, and in his dark eyes was a sorrow he couldn't hide.

A soft chime. The comm device at his ear lit up.

A familiar voice came through. Ming Guang.

'I've received your report. We're looking at revising the plan now. Do you want to come back for a bit?'

'Zhou Xiangzhe? Your Contamination Level is unstable — you should really come back before making any decisions.'

'Zhou Xiangzhe, can you hear me? Answer me!'

Zhou Xiangzhe undid the buttons of his combat jacket one by one. He pressed a quiet kiss to the photograph, then slipped it into the inside pocket of his jacket — the one closest to his heart.

'I'm fine,' Zhou Xiangzhe said. 'Until I'm back, Polaris is yours to command. Full authority.'

'What?' Ming Guang caught it immediately, that wrong note. 'Zhou Xiangzhe? What are you doing?!'

'What the hell, answer me!'

'Zhou—'

Zhou Xiangzhe cut the line.

He kept walking. 'I'm not even sure what I want to do.'

'But Xiao Shiwu used to say: just keep going. It won't lead you wrong.'

'It won't lead you wrong.'

Shen Wang tried to follow, but the white mist suddenly thickened and closed in, dense enough to swallow his own hand in front of his face. He pushed through it as best he could. By the time he came out the other side, there was no one left to find.

Neither the present-day Zhou Xiangzhe nor the one from three years ago.

'Strange,' Shen Wang muttered as he walked. 'Is a Grade-S Contaminant really this terrifying? Just a trickle of leaked Contamination and my own painting has become somewhere I don't recognize.'

'I made this painting. And I have zero control over it. Zero.'

Getting lost in fog this thick was about as normal as it got. Shen Wang had no idea where he'd ended up — he just walked, wherever his feet took him. By the time he found any sign of people again, nearly half an hour had passed.

In the mist, shadowy figures loomed ahead, shoulder to shoulder, forming a long wall of bodies. Every one of them had a hand in the air, shouting with furious conviction.

'What are you talking about?! The Deer God is not a Contaminant!'

'The Deer God is a great and holy being! The Deer God has done nothing wrong! How dare you slander someone innocent!'

'Even if the Deer God is a Contaminant — it sacrificed so much for us! Saved so many people! The Anti-Contamination Center only ever goes after the good ones!'

'Get out! Get out of South City!'

'The Deer God protected us — now it's our turn to protect the Deer God!'

Shen Wang skirted the raging crowd and looked through a gap. In an open space beyond, someone he recognized was standing at the center. Too far to make out details, but — black hair. The Zhou Xiangzhe from three years ago.

Zhou Xiangzhe paid the furious crowd no attention. He stood where he was, calm and still, head tipped back to face the pixelated statue before him.

'You control one city. Control every person in it. And that's enough for you?'

'To the Anti-Contamination Center, they're just ordinary people. If it means stopping the Contamination from spreading, killing them all along with you is a perfectly acceptable outcome.'

'Once your followers are gone, there's nowhere left for you to hide.'

Shen Wang had never heard Zhou Xiangzhe say anything like that. Wiping out an entire city to eliminate the Deer God — it didn't sound like something he'd say.

But...

His voice was flat, his tone slightly cool, and the words came out utterly matter-of-fact — which was exactly what made them so threatening. The more ordinary the voice delivering a threat, the deeper the chill it leaves behind. Anyone listening would have believed, without a doubt, that he meant every word.

You'd almost believe the Anti-Contamination Center had already scheduled targeted strikes on Yutang South City.

Then, in an instant, golden threads burst up from the ground and pierced through Zhou Xiangzhe's legs. He dropped to one knee to hold himself up. But more golden threads came drilling up from the earth, rushing him from every angle, forcing their way into his body. Zhou Xiangzhe coughed up a mouthful of bright red blood.

He endured it. He held on until every last thread had worked its way inside. The black of his pupils began to bleed gold, little by little — and at that exact moment, Zhou Xiangzhe snapped his head up.

'Xiao Shiwu!'

A massive darkness — black and formless as a shadow — poured out of Zhou Xiangzhe's body. In the air it shaped itself into an enormous, shapeless horror of a creature, all jagged teeth and great curved horns, something straight out of a fairy-tale nightmare.

This 'demon' dropped from the sky and swallowed Zhou Xiangzhe whole.

Shen Wang took a reflexive step back. If it weren't for the resemblance to the little black ball, he would never have connected this massive thing to Zhou Xiangzhe's small companion.

The moment the black ball swallowed Zhou Xiangzhe, its whole body convulsed violently. The crowd still rioting around them cut off abruptly — every one of them frozen in place, staring at Zhou Xiangzhe in some strange, arrested posture.

In the final moment, the black ball spat Zhou Xiangzhe back out. It sank down into the earth and disappeared. But Zhou Xiangzhe, returned to the ground, was in no better shape.

The gold in his pupils kept spreading. He retched up more blood.

Shen Wang stood in front of Zhou Xiangzhe and watched this person in agony, and something ached quietly in his chest.

In Zhou Xiangzhe's story, killing the Grade-S Contaminant Deer God was his greatest triumph — something countless people admired and revered him for. But standing here, you could see exactly how much it had cost him.

Forcing himself to contain something he couldn't digest. His entire body seared by the Deer God's Contamination. He could feel clearly, in real time, the Deer God rewriting his body, pushing his Contamination Level higher.

'Did it have to be like this?' Shen Wang murmured.

Zhou Xiangzhe lifted his head and looked forward — as if across the span of years, he could see Shen Wang standing right in front of him.

Blood at the corner of his mouth. His eyes a fractured mix of black and gold. Shen Wang saw tears in them — though whether they were from the pain or something else, he couldn't say.

But right then, through the blood and tears, Zhou Xiangzhe smiled.

Shen Wang's eyes went slightly wide.

Shen Wang was acutely perceptive — he could read a person's state without trying. And in that moment he felt it, real and unmistakable: the fierce satisfaction in Zhou Xiangzhe's smile.

He'd done this on purpose. He'd done this on purpose.

It was a terrifying thing to know.

Everyone said Zhou Xiangzhe was a miracle Aberrant — his Contamination Level had exceeded 80% and he'd never shown a single sign of mental instability. But what no one had seen was that the instability had been there all along. It just looked like a fierce, compulsive need for self-destruction. A reflex toward self-sacrifice.

But 'selflessness' is such a beautiful, admirable quality. Zhou Xiangzhe was smart enough to redirect that urge into exactly that shape — and truly, no one had noticed.

Everyone thought Zhou Xiangzhe was just a profoundly good person. A saint. A guardian. The kind of person anyone could lean on.

How absurd. Except for himself, not a single person had seen it.

A sound like thunder — or a bell — shook through everything. The white mist broke apart. The smiling figure ahead shattered and vanished. Shen Wang turned. The enormous black ball had eaten all the fog, its jagged teeth glinting, the small cute tail Shen Wang had once admired now a thick coil wrapped around its own body. Its black eyes burned with pure menace.

Zhou Xiangzhe stood beside it. The moment he spotted Shen Wang, worry flashed through his eyes.

'Shen Wang!' Zhou Xiangzhe ran over. 'You okay?'

Shen Wang looked at him. A long moment passed. He glanced down at his own hand — and before Zhou Xiangzhe could wonder what was happening, Shen Wang drew back and drove his fist into Zhou Xiangzhe's stomach.

He didn't hold back. Zhou Xiangzhe stumbled back two steps, hand going to the spot, a dazed look on his face.

'Does it hurt?' Shen Wang asked.

Zhou Xiangzhe frowned at him. After a while, he shook his head slowly. 'It's... fine?'

So Shen Wang walked up and hit him again.

'Does it hurt?'

Zhou Xiangzhe sensed something in Shen Wang's mood. He reached out and closed his hand around Shen Wang's clenched fist, then carefully pressed it flat against his own chest.

'...Yeah. It hurts. A lot.'

'Remember that feeling,' Shen Wang said, holding his gaze. 'From now on — if you ever run into something that hurts worse than this, stay away from it. Don't let yourself hurt more than this. Okay?'

Could mental instability be reversed?

Sector S was packed — Aberrants losing their minds everywhere you looked, and even inside Central City there were unstable Aberrants causing trouble.

But he didn't want Zhou Xiangzhe to keep putting himself through this.

Like when they were kids — Xiao Shiwu could always get back whatever someone had taken from Xiao Qi. Even if it was just a piece of candy, or a cup.

So now, even if what had to be taken back was mental instability itself — he was going to get it back for him.