Unforgettable

Yi Zhu left.

“House Owner” Chen Miemie did not leave.

After finishing the cycle of working as a fake chef and cleaning up the kitchen, he folded himself into a paper slip and hid it inside Chen Miemie’s clothes.

So Chen Miemie sat alone in the living room on the sofa.

It was 2:48 PM.

Yi Xian arrived.

“Brother Miemie, you’re the only one here?” As expected of siblings, the first question out of her mouth was the same as his brother’s.

Chen Miemie skipped straight past the opening small talk: “I received a commission to deal with your autism problem.”

“But I don’t have autism anymore, right? Doesn’t that mean I’m already cured?”

“True. But since it’s a commission, I still have to do something. You’ll cooperate with me, won’t you?” Chen Miemie wore an expression like he was the villain, missing only a sinister “heh heh heh.”

“Mm, okay, I’m willing to cooperate.”

Like Yi Zhu, Yi Xian trusted Chen Miemie because of the life-saving debt from their first meeting.

“From now on, I’m your psychologist. You may call me Doctor Miemie.”

“Doctor Miemie.”

“Good. Sit on the sofa, lean back, relax. Imagine this is your home, and you are completely safe.”

“But this is my home. Why do I need to imagine?” Meeting such an unprofessional psychologist, Yi Xian was immediately thrown out of the moment.

The answer to her wasn’t words, but a small wooden stick.

The stick struck her arm hard.

“Still talking back!” Chen Miemie growled in a low, gruff voice.

As a Mysterious, she wouldn’t cry out in pain from a knife or needle, but that one strike from the stick made her flinch in fright.

“What…what is this? It feels so familiar, but—but I can’t remember! Ah—” Yi Xian clutched her head with both hands.

Her arm didn’t hurt at all, but her head ached terribly—so badly it felt like her brain was expanding gas, and her skull was a shell relentlessly holding it in.

The gas vibrated violently, desperately trying to burst the shell, and cracks splintered across it.

“Ah…my head is going to explode!”

Yi Xian writhed and rolled on the sofa in agony.

Spider silk appeared, binding her struggling form to the couch. In moments, she was like a squirming silkworm.

Chen Miemie put away the small wooden stick, no longer provoking her with it.

Forcing the memory this way wouldn’t work, it seemed.

After a long moment, the pain in her head faded, and Yi Xian gradually stopped struggling.

“What just happened to me?” She had never known there was a problem with her head.

“It’s always been me asking you questions. So today, Yi Xian, let’s switch roles. You ask, I answer. But only today, remember.”

“What should I ask?”

“That’s for you to decide.”

Yi Xian shifted slightly. Being bound by spider silk was uncomfortable for her: “Can you untie me first?”

“Sure.” The silk loosened.

Yi Xian cleaned off the soft spiderweb from herself. After a few minutes, she was completely calm.

“Then I’ll ask—why did my head hurt just now?”

“Because I hit you on the arm with a small wooden stick.”

“A small wooden stick?”

“Yes. An ordinary, old, faded stick with little black spots on it.”

“Why did hitting me with that stick make my head hurt?”

“You can’t see it, Yi Xian, because of a Certain One’s power. While it makes you blind, it also seals away a part of your memory. That small stick is connected to your sealed memory.”

“What memory? Is it important to me?”

“I think you’re well aware that your vision is perfectly fine. The reason you can’t see is that something is covering your eyes.

That Certain One is like an eyelid, always blocking your sight, called the ‘Shadow-Like Leaf.’ The memory it sealed away for you is the most painful thing you’ve experienced.

Remove the barrier of the ‘Shadow-Like Leaf,’ and you’ll regain your sight and remember what was sealed. Now, do you want to get that memory back?”

Yi Xian hesitated. “I don’t know. Since I wanted to forget it so badly back then, I might not be able to handle it now either. Should I remember it?”

Chen Miemie said nothing.

The two of them sat in silence for over ten minutes.

Finally, Yi Xian made up her mind. “Please help me remember.”

“Are you sure?”

“Sure. Because I can’t see, my brother has to take care of me all the time, and everyone in the guild goes out of their way for me.

Besides, memory isn’t something you can just forget. The past still exists. Eventually, I have to face it. I should be brave, like my brother.”

“You might be even braver than your brother.

Back when Lady Nianhua passed away, your brother chose to run away and left home, wandering outside.

You, though affected by that Certain One, sealed the memory, and escaped in the end—but held on six years longer than he did.

Since you’ve decided, let’s begin.”

“I’m ready.”

“Good.

Once, there was a little girl. She was lively and active, outgoing and cheerful. She loved to put a leaf in her mouth and blow cheerful tunes, so people gave her a nickname, Xiaoqin.

Xiaoqin had an older brother named Da Zhuang.

Though he was the older brother, this chubby little boy was always bullied by the neighbor kids. And every time, it was Xiaoqin who chased those bullies away for him.

After every fight, she came home dirty, sometimes bruised and swollen, and her mother would be furious.

In anger, her mother would take out a small wooden stick and hit Xiaoqin hard on the bottom, making her cry loudly.

That day, at dusk, Xiaoqin was in the woods, blowing a tune on a leaf, and lost track of time.

When she noticed the mist spreading and hurriedly ran toward home, a Certain One emerged from the mist.

That Certain One could amplify the inner terror of humans. Its name was ‘Lullaby Hummer.’ Attracted by the leaf melody, it gradually drew closer.

‘Keep playing. If you satisfy me, I won’t hurt you,’ it said to Xiaoqin.

It didn’t lie to her—but its words were false. Even without attacking, just by coming close, its passive effect made people lose their ability to move and desire to think, until they died peacefully like babies in a cradle.

Xiaoqin was terrified. She tried to scream for help, but no one answered. Helpless, she had no choice but to continue playing the leaf.

Not far away, in a small house, was Xiaoqin’s home.

Her mother and her mother’s friend pressed their ears to the door.

‘Let me out! That’s Xiaoqin crying for help outside. I have to save her!’ the mother shouted.

‘Did you even go to school? Monsters pretend to be victims’ cries outside. Are you really falling for that?’ the friend blocked the lock, refusing to open.

‘Cries might be fake, but the tune from that leaf is real.’ The mother pushed her friend aside and pulled open the door.

And so, the mother and her friend rushed out of the house.

These two were actually very weak. Not just in power—they were also cowards, too afraid even to take their graduation exams.

‘Let her go! Come at me if you dare!’ The mother smacked the Certain One on the back with the stick.

That blow didn’t break through the defenses, but it did draw its attention.

Her friend took the risk to circle around, scooped up Xiaoqin, and ran back into the house.

After placing Xiaoqin at the doorstep, she turned around to look for her friend again.

The "Lullaby Hummer" was furious, not because it had been hit, but because someone had interrupted its enjoyment of the song.

With a wave of its hand, its sharp claws slashed through the air.

A wound appeared on the mother’s body, a gash that nearly cut diagonally across her entire frame, so deep it exposed the bone. Blood splattered, and the small wooden stick fell to the ground, stained crimson.

Standing far off at the doorway, witnessing all this, Xiaoqin fainted from sheer terror.

Chen Miemie paused here briefly, casually pouring himself a glass of water.

Yi Xian remained calm: “So I am Xiaoqin, and because of me, my mother was gravely wounded and eventually died young—this is what pains me most, what I most want to forget?”

Chen Miemie downed a large gulp of water and shook his head:

“No, that’s only the beginning of your suffering.

Adults always love to act self-righteously, making decisions for children without their consent. Later in life, it can be called deception, but in front of a child, they openly call it ‘magic.’

To your brother, they said there was a trick that could conjure honey;

To you, they said your mother wasn’t injured—she was just sick, and that encounter with the anomaly was merely a nightmare.

What they didn’t know back then was that inside your young body, a [Mysterious Core] was forming.

You, have an eidetic memory.”