Chapter 37: We Knew Each Other All Along

Tears streamed uncontrollably from her eyes. She anxiously followed, only to be met with a scene that plunged her into despair.

A sliver of light pierced through the narrow crack in the door, cutting a faint line across the silent dungeon cell.

The cell walls were covered in damp stains, and the air was thick with humidity. The acrid stench of rot and blood intertwined. A rat poked its head out from a dark corner, its eyes glinting with fear and vigilance.

Wen Qian rubbed her eyes, trying to see more clearly. In the dim corners, countless iron cages of varying sizes held innumerable Beastmen shackled in iron chains.

It was unclear what drug they had been injected with, but they were all trapped in their beast forms.

The little girl clamped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with terror. Still, tears of fright streamed from their corners.

She had long suspected there was something strange about this place her parents had strictly forbidden her from entering. She often heard the sound of something hard striking the walls nearby. But seeing it for herself... she was still deeply terrified.

Her first instinct, after taking it all in, was to find the Little Black Snake. She bent down, scooped up her A Mian, and held him protectively in her arms.

The girl’s sudden intrusion made every Beastman present turn their gaze. In an instant, the small, delicate human girl became the focal point of the entire dungeon.

She was terrified, but she didn’t run. Instead, she turned and reached for the switch on the wall with a trembling hand. But she wasn’t tall enough. In the end, it was the Little Black Snake in her arms who slithered up her arm and pressed his head against the switch.

A dim, yellow light illuminated the entire dungeon.

What greeted her eyes were countless beautiful faces, all twisted in terror and despair.

His robes were in tatters, his body a canvas of crisscrossing scars. Despite this, he remained in his transformed state.

"Who are you...?" The nearest Beastman, hands shackled to the wall, struggled to lift his head. His messy hair hid most of the despair on his face.

The girl opened her mouth, but no sound came out for a long moment. Then, a man gripped the bars of his iron cage with both hands, his expression menacing as he looked at her. "You’re human."

A faint scar ran across his face, and his bare torso was emblazoned with a bold Wolf Clan totem. His features seemed finely sculpted, and his blood-stained lips possessed a soul-stirring beauty.

At that moment, however, his face was a mask of brutality and wildness, his black eyes locked firmly on Wen Qian.

The Little Black Snake immediately shielded the girl, rearing up and baring his sharp fangs at the man.

For a moment, a look of astonishment crossed the man’s face.

He gave the two of them a long, hard look, then coolly spat out a single word: "Scram."

A mournful wind whistled through the cracks in the dungeon door, stinging the prisoners’ eardrums. Wen Qian watched as, after some time, her younger self ran to the Beastman’s side and timidly asked him something.

Then, under his guarded gaze, she stood on tiptoe and gently wiped the blood from his forehead with her sleeve.

The dungeon fell silent. The Beastman’s expression froze, his eyes filled with bewilderment.

The little girl leaned close to his ear and promised in a voice only the two of them could hear, "I’ll get you all out of here."

Chi Heng’s expression faltered, the hostility in his eyes seeming to soften in that instant. He was quiet for a long moment before coolly uttering a single word: "Okay."

...

Wen Qian didn’t know how long she had been asleep. She only knew that when she opened her eyes, Gu Mian was sitting by her bed, watching her quietly.

He was holding a half-peeled apple in his hand. When he looked up and met her bright eyes, his hand trembled, and the apple rolled right onto the floor.

Wen Qian opened her mouth, but her throat was painfully dry, and for a long moment, she couldn’t make a sound. The man immediately stood, poured a glass of water, and brought the trembling cup to her lips.

But when she spoke, her words instantly made his eyes turn red.

"A Mian." She looked at him and smiled.

"You..." He struggled to make his voice sound normal. After a moment, he spoke in a low voice, "You remember."

"Mhm," she answered softly.

During the time she was unconscious, Wen Qian had a very long dream. Or rather, it wasn’t a dream so much as a memory she had buried deep in her heart.

When she was a child, Wen Qian was very popular with small animals—kittens, puppies, snakes, rabbits... Her adoptive parents always joked that she was about to turn their house into a zoo.

Back then, Wen Qian was very cheerful and said her dream was to own a zoo and live happily with all the little animals. She was kind to every one of them, giving them plenty of time and love each day.

But the animals seemed to love their freedom more. Every so often, they would disappear from her life.

Her adoptive parents would always comfort Wen Qian, telling her that the little animals had their own mothers and fathers and couldn’t stay with her forever...

Wen Qian would be sad for a while, and then another small animal would follow her home. But the cycle repeated itself; no matter how close she got to them, they would always leave her, one after another.

Until one rainy night, when she witnessed a blood-soaked boy collapse on the road, slowly turning from a human into a black snake right before her eyes. To keep his appearance from frightening her adoptive mother, she carefully hid him in her sleeve.

A Mian was very well-behaved, too. After she healed his injuries, he obediently hid in her bedroom and never went anywhere with a lot of people.

Then one day, A Mian vanished. Wen Qian searched for a long time, nearly turning the entire house upside down. She couldn’t believe he would leave without a word, because she knew A Mian wasn’t just an animal.

He was a Beastman. He had complex emotions, just like her.

A Mian was gone for over a month. Just as Wen Qian was about to give up her search, he suddenly appeared in her room one night after dinner.

He was squatting in a corner of the room, torso bare and covered in wounds. His already slender frame was now emaciated, and his arms were covered in a dense patchwork of needle marks of varying sizes.

Wen Qian was horrified. She tried to pull him onto her bed, but he refused.

He said he was too filthy. Besides, if he got into her bed, she would have to take responsibility for him. Beastmen were different from humans; in some respects, they were more conservative.

Back then, Wen Qian had no idea what "taking responsibility" meant. She just muscled A Mian onto the bed, where he stayed until he could turn back into his black snake form.

During this time, she asked him many things about Beastmen, as well as where he had been.

He only told her that he had been taken away by a man and that when he next opened his eyes, he was lying in a sealed laboratory.

He had been forcibly injected with Transformation Agent and was forced to endure all sorts of experiments every day, forced to answer their questions. His days were an endless darkness until he finally found an opportunity and sank his teeth into the man’s wrist...

He was of the Snake Clan; most drugs had no effect on him.

But the Transformation Agent was different. From it, he could sense the aura of a Critical Stone.