The middle-aged man was hunched over, and his clothes were tattered and worn, making him look very poor.
He looked up and saw Yu Tang and Mu Nancheng. His gaze suddenly fixed on Mu Nancheng, as if a dead flame had been rekindled, burning with a layer of greedy fire.
He pointed at Mu Nancheng and murmured.
"You...you are..."
Yu Tang sensed something was wrong and immediately stood in front of Mu Nancheng, blocking the man's view.
He brushed the man's hand away and said coldly, "Don't point your finger at my brother!"
"Is he your brother?" The man looked somewhat surprised.
"That's impossible! How could he be your brother?"
"You two don't look alike!" The man tried to look across the pond at Mu Nancheng. "I've seen his picture. Someone's offering a huge reward for him! If we bring him back, I'll be rich! Let me see him! If he's the one in the picture, we'll bring him back and split the money!"
Upon hearing this, Yu Tang immediately became alert.
Taking advantage of his height, he blocked Mu Nancheng's path and shoved away the man who was pestering him, cursing, "Are you fucking looking for death? What kind of nonsense are you spouting!"
He glared, his face full of hostility, instantly overwhelming the man with his imposing presence: "He's my brother! Born of the same mother! If you dare to lay a finger on him, I'll kill you!"
Having played villainous roles before, Yu Tang instantly got into character, completely intimidating the short man.
She wilted on the spot.
Seeing that he dared not speak again, Yu Tang pulled Mu Nancheng forward, spitting at the man as they walked and cursing, "What bad luck!"
Once they were far enough away and the man hadn't chased after them, Yu Tang finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Tangtang..." Mu Nancheng's voice came from beside him. Yu Tang turned around and saw the boy staring at him blankly, looking completely bewildered.
Yu Tang immediately realized that his appearance had frightened Mu Nancheng, so he quickly said, "Don't be afraid. I only talked to him like this to scare bad people like him."
And please don't learn this kind of swearing from me, it's bad.
Seeing the smile return to his face, Mu Nancheng smiled back and shook his head, saying, "Don't worry, Tangtang, I won't learn it. And it's not that I'm afraid of you."
I was worried that you would be unhappy.
He ran his fingers over the man's eyebrows and eyes, smiling innocently: "I hope you are always happy, always smiling."
Yu Tang was slightly taken aback.
Strangely, he saw Yu Xiao's shadow in Mu Nancheng again.
Grasping the boy's hand, Yu Tang felt his throat go dry.
He tentatively asked, "You, are you really not Xiaoxiao?"
"Xiaoxiao?" Mu Nancheng blinked and asked, "Who is he?"
“Yu Xiao…” Yu Tang told Mu Nancheng, “His name is Yu Xiao. Like you, he is very simple-minded and loves to laugh. He is a good kid who makes people feel warm.”
After listening to Yu Tang's description, confusion flashed in Mu Nancheng's eyes, and the sea, the rising sun, and... the endless darkness of the seabed reappeared in his mind.
He felt a deep sadness.
Looking into Yu Tang's eyes, I saw myself reflected in them, yet it was as if I didn't exist in them.
Mu Nancheng's fingers tightened, and he asked softly, "So, Tangtang..."
"Are you mistaking me for him?"
Chapter 11
Died for the villain for the eighth time (11)
Yu Tang was completely stunned.
Xiao Jin was also dumbfounded.
A few seconds later, he said, "[Host, is he... getting jealous of himself again?]"
The atmosphere, which was clearly very sad, was broken by Xiao Jin's words, and Yu Tang barely managed to hold back his laughter.
He thought for a moment and realized he couldn't explain the complicated relationship between himself and the villain to an idiot, so he said, "I don't see you as him. You and he are equally important to me. You are both very good people."
But his words clearly did not comfort Mu Nancheng.
On the way back, and until he arrived home, Mu Nancheng looked listless.
She wouldn't let Yu Tang see it, but secretly ran to the chicken coop and talked to the chicks that had grown into big chickens for a long time before going back to sleep.
Furthermore, when she went to sleep, she took out a quilt from the closet, clearly indicating that she wanted to sleep separately from Yu Tang.
Yu Tang didn't mind much. Anyway, he preferred to sleep alone. It was only because the villains always slept next to him, like koalas that he couldn't get away, that he was forced to get used to sharing a bed.
Now that it's winter, the honeycomb briquette stove is sealed with a metal lid, and the earthen bed is warm and comfortable because of the cooking at night.
Yu Tang looked at the plastic roof above his head and the tin chimney passing by, then glanced at the boy beside him with his back to him and the blanket wrapped around his neck, yawned, and decisively chose to close his eyes and go to sleep.
He thought, it's okay, the little fool will forget about it tomorrow.
I won't hold a grudge against him for too long.
But Yu Tang didn't expect that he had miscalculated.
This time, Mu Nancheng's low mood lasted for a long time.
He doesn't play with the children much anymore; he just lies on the table, looking sullen.
Yu Tang tried to talk to him, and he would respond with "uh-huh" or "okay," but he just couldn't muster any enthusiasm.
Moreover, Yu Tang noticed that he had become very sleepy and would rub his temples or pat his head with the heel of his palm from time to time.
Later, during the Chinese New Year holiday.
Yu Tang also took a break and began preparing money and shopping for the New Year.
During this time, he also used the advanced textbooks that the principal had found for him to explain knowledge to Mu Nancheng and help him recover some of his memories.
"Is your headache very bad?" Seeing Mu Nancheng start hitting his head again, Yu Tang put down her textbook and reached out to rub Mu Nancheng's temples.
Unexpectedly, the other party slapped him away.
"Don't touch me!"
The boy looked up, his eyes filled with a fierce light, as chilling as a venomous snake.
Xiao Jin immediately cried out in Yu Tang's mind: "Host! Host! Has he regained his memories?!"
"Nancheng?" Yu Tang was also taken aback, so he called out to him.
Just as she was about to ask further, she saw that the boy had already reverted to his usual sullen and silly self, sobbing as he answered, "It hurts, it really hurts..."
"Go to the town hospital tomorrow and have a doctor take a look at you. This pain can't go on forever."
Yu Tang realized that Mu Nancheng's performance just now was only a flash in the pan, so he sighed, helped the boy to sit down on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), let him rest his head on his lap, and massaged Mu Nancheng's head with moderate force.
"I hate hospitals..." Mu Nancheng's suppressed emotions, which he had been holding back for so long, finally melted away into grievance and sadness under Yu Tang's gentle advances. He clung to the man's clothes, saying, "I don't want to go to the hospital, I don't want to go..."
Seeing him like this, Yu Tang couldn't help but soften her heart.
But he was also afraid that Mu Nancheng might actually have some kind of illness, so he advised, "The hospital is not a scary place."
"It's a place that can make your headache better."
"Besides, ghosts are afraid of doctors and hospitals. Once you've been to a hospital, the ghosts won't dare to come and grab you."
"Really?" Mu Nancheng's headache was slightly relieved by Yu Tang's massage. He was somewhat skeptical of Yu Tang's words, but he couldn't help but want to believe it.
"real……"
"Really? Really?"
"Really, really."
"Really? Really?"
Yu Tang couldn't help but flick his finger and tap the boy's forehead: "Isn't it okay if the person who lied to you is a dog?"
"But you've been a puppy for a long time, brother."
The person resting their head on the lap suddenly said those words.
Yu Tang stared wide-eyed in astonishment.
Xiao Jin's exclamation rang out again: "Host, he... he's Shen Yu?"
Mu Nancheng seemed to have no recollection of what he had said, and rubbed his forehead, muttering something.
"Okay, if you're lying to me, you're a little dog."
At night, looking at the sleeping boy beside him, Yu Tang had an unusual bout of insomnia.
There are too many suspicious points about Mu Nancheng.
He originally thought that the other party was very likely to have Yu Xiao's memories.
But now it seems that the other party still remembers the agreement he made with Shen Yu.
That means that perhaps after the seven souls pass away, these three spirits will gradually possess fragmented memories of the previous worlds.
He didn't know if this was good or bad, but judging from Mu Nancheng's dislike of him saying that the other person resembled Yu Xiao, it was clear that Mu Nancheng didn't like it.
If Mu Nancheng really remembers the previous villains, he will most likely become a complete schizophrenic.
They might even get jealous of themselves all the time.
They're stuck in a rut and won't come out.
Similarly, if the ten worlds end and Wei Yuan's three souls and seven spirits return to their places, Yu Tang reasonably suspects that the other party could be angered to death by his counterparts in each of the various worlds.
Yu Tang shared his conjecture with Xiao Jin, who wholeheartedly agreed.
But after agreeing, he pointed out a very tricky question: "Host, if there are ten worlds and ten villains who can't merge, and each one is jealous of the others, then you'll be facing a one-against-ten situation, right? Do you think your back can handle that?"
Upon hearing this, Yu Tang's heart skipped a beat.
Yu Tang: Can't you wish me something good?
Xiao Jin burst out laughing: [Haha, it's not that I don't want you to be happy, it's just that's the way the Supreme God is!]
Ten people, with the number of attempts allocated per person—just thinking about it is terrifying…