Xi Wei has no fixed residence, so finding a safe place has become a major concern. Aimlessly wandering around is the most stupid choice they could make.
If it were only him, it wouldn"t be so difficult. Adding on a baby suddenly makes safety a bigger issue. The first step is to find a way to accommodate this change.
Xi Wei carefully walked along the streets while making frequent stops. One of the reasons is to try to avoid the crowd, and the second, more important reason, is that for him, Zeno is very heavy. He needs to constantly adjust the position to prevent his arms from growing tired, and he also needs a moment to catch his breath.
Although Zeno cannot see Xi Wei that does not mean that he cannot feel what is happening. The protagonist’s breathing is laboured, and being position next to his chest allows him to hear the intense beating of his heart. This causes him to worry, as well as stirring up some feelings of guilt.
Finally, when his surroundings have becoming silent, Xi Wei stops. With a small adjustment to the swaddling cloths, he exposes Zeno"s face to the open air. He quickly tucks the wrappings around the baby’s neck to allow him to breathe freely without letting cold air into the rest of his body.
Zeno had been concerned about a lack of oxygen, but for fear of further imposing on the protagonist he dared not vocalize his discomfort. Now that he was more satisfied with his position, he sat quietly and turned his eyes to take in the surrounding environment.
Ye Sa City is very rich in water resources. With all kinds of rivers criss-crossing through, it is comparable to the city of Venice in form and function. There are a large number of boats, be they on the water or docked. Some of the boats are privately owned, some are for businesses, some are gorgeous and others simple. The only feature that all these boats can be said to have in common is that they are small. Because the width of the river is on the smaller side and the height of the arched bridge is lower, an oversized boat is not free to pa.s.s into Ye Sa.
Their stop is just under a bridge spanning over one of the waterways where a crude boat is docked.
The boat is very humble to say the least. In fact, the boat is very small, the hull is woody, and the length is about twice the height of Xi Wei and Zeno put together. The width is approximately equal to the height of Xi Wei, giving the impression of a miniature model rather than an actual boat.
The hull is peppered with sc.r.a.pes and scratches, as if it had been through many collisions, the edge is full of deep and shallow dents, and the awning has many holes. If it rains, it may be difficult to tell the difference between being underneath or not because of how little cover it provides.
When Xi Wei carried Zeno onto the miniature boat, Zeno found it difficult to believe that this boat that should have been discarded eight hundred years ago was going to be their future home.
From the outside, the boat appears broken and small, and when you head inside it turns out that it is a level three dangerous ship. There are visible traces of repairs to the bottom of the ship, although it gives off the feeling that it could start leaking at any moment.
If Zeno could only speak, he wanted to shake Xi Wei with all his strength to wake him from his delusions. Hey protagonist, even sleeping in the snow would be better than this boat, at this rate we"re setting ourselves up for a water burial!
Apparently Xi Wei did not share in his concerns. Returning to the familiar spot allowed him to relax and release some tension, before getting Zeno settled in and getting to work.
He first placed Zeno down gently on the dirty, shabby blanket in his cabin, which had long its original color. Secondly, he actually pulled out the cloak that Zeno"s mother had wrapped him in, laying it aside, and then carefully brandished the old, rusted little dagger. With this he begins to cut the cloak into various strips and chunks of cloth.
It took him quite a long time to complete his task because the dagger is so dull.
When he was finished, Xi Wei starts waving the dagger around in the air with slightly knit brows, and Zeno could not help being absolutely terrified.
Protagonist, don"t say that after dismembering that cloak you want to dismember me! Easy as it is, eating other children is what a villain would do. If you think you"re miserable now, just see what happens if you—the future hero—becomes a villain.
However, he obviously imagined too much, and for a while Xi Wei distressed the swaddling cloths with the dagger. As a result, the cloth lost it"s high quality look and resembled something discarded. Although it is not as warm compared to the original state, it has ceased looking like goods worth stealing.
It is a demonstrable fact that in Ye Sa City, if the goods are deemed valuable, there is a risk of being robbed of even if you are an infant.
As a native Ye Sa City beggar, Xi Wei understands the way to survive here. Only the low-key and cautious can live safely.
After all that has transpired, even though he is the protagonist, Xi Wei feels very tired. Due to prolonged malnourishment, his face has become pale, there are obvious dark circles beneath his eyes, his mind distressed from the constant difficulties he faced. Xi Wei had been mostly sleepless since he"d gone into the streets, and having returned to a home of sorts, he found the fatigue difficult to bear. (t/n: I"m not exactly confident about the second half of the paragraph)
Zeno, who wants to have his protagonist take a good rest, deliberately called out twice, at which time he was indifferently given a little glance. At that moment he immediately opened his mouth into a big yawn to try and show how "sleepy" he is.
Xi Wei blankly watched the tiny person with a pitying look, Zeno"s prayer for his sleep frozen on his face. He is not quite sure what to do, but pulls him to his chest in order to sleep with the little baby, whose off switch was flipped the second he is drawn near.
The little baby is very soft, still has a touch of milk smell, and his tummy growls occasionally, but holding him is very warm. Xi Wei is naive to the concept of sleeping next to another person. Since birth, no one had shared such intimacy with him. His own parents barely met the minimum threshold, and the only responsibility they took was to prevent him from starving to death.
Despite better treatment, the same is true of Zeno, who grew up in an orphanage. It was odd to think that he could feel secure, wrapped in the emaciated body of Xi Wei, but the two tired children slept very well. Their small bodies were snuggled tightly together, a perfect fit, sleeping as if they were the only two people on earth.
At this moment, as the moon rose high in the sky, any regular city would be settled in to rest for the night. However, in Ye Sa, all the underground darkness had just begun to surface and the regular river"s surface began to change.
A wide range of vessels, lit up with the strange colours of magic stone lamps, floated freely in the river.
Many ships station pretty girls on the bow, dressed seductively despite the cold, their eyes scouring the banks of the river. When an adult male called out, they were instructed to speak at the helm to the boatman to discuss terms. Afterwards, if the transaction was made, they would both climb into the cabin and the boat would re-enter the river.
Shortly after, the surrounding water would begin to surge, and the boat"s movements would adopt that familiar erotic atmosphere.
Xi Wei was accustomed to this situation and paid it no mind. Instead, he found he was satisfied that the baby only made minimal sounds when he woke up, but was not noisy. Since he was up, he fed 2/3 of the final loaf clumsily to the baby as before, and then proceeded to eat the last 1/3 of that dirty loaf.
Just like that, their food is gone.
The night wind howls, once again carrying freshly fallen snow; it is unknown how many will be buried in this heavy snow.
Their small boat is spared from the fate of being enveloped in snow since it is underneath the bridge, but the cabin filled with holes does nothing to block the bitter wind. Xi Wei instinctively hugs the only source of heat, managing to gain a bit of warmth.
Even so his black eyes remain indifferent, the pervading mood has not changed at all.
Amidst the few belongings scattered about the floor and the one dirty blanket, Xi Wei suddenly felt an unusual sense of warmth on his middle finger.
He hesitantly lifts his left hand in front of him, observing the ring he wore by the scant moonlight leaking through the ceiling. In the excitement of the day, he had almost forgotten the ring that the desperate young mother had placed on his middle finger. Now that he remembers he finds himself unwilling to wear it.
Tucking Zeno tightly into his chest, he wraps his arms around the baby and while he grabs for the ring in order to remove it, his discovery renders him frozen in shock.
The seemingly ordinary black ring was now as long as his finger, and no matter how hard he tried he could not pull it off—the s.p.a.ce between Xi Wei"s brows knit together tightly. If he could not remove it, he could imagine that shortly afterwards his left middle finger, or even the entire left hand, would be gone.
Despite using all of his strength to pull at the outside of the ring, it was motionless. With no other means for removal, he wielded his rusty blade with only a moment"s hesitation, and began to slowly cut into his finger along the edge of the ring. Red blood soaked into the black ring, filling in formerly invisible etchings to create a vivid pattern.
Xi Wei"s pupils contract forcefully as spikes emerge from the ring and puncture his finger; it feels as if the ring is drinking his blood.
Even though the air is frigid, Xi Wei was sweating. He sweat because of the horror and pain of the situation, and he ground his teeth together in an attempt to bear the pain that he could feel down to his marrow in silence. Despite his clenched jaw, some sound was able to leak out. However, his groans scattered on the river"s surface, coalescing into the ambient noise of the night.
Zeno, who can only see the protagonist"s face, was shocked as Xi Wei"s expression changed from stoic, to troubled, and then distorted with pain. At that point he clutched his left hand and began to roll around the cabin of the boat.
Xi Wei’s left hand is dripping with blood.
Zeno, overcome with worry, can only wave his weak little warms, anxiously crying out "Oowah, oowah." (t/n: original sound effect translated as "itooh" so I took the liberty of changing it, although this is just barely better)
Unknowingly, the small baby"s white and tender face is full of tears.
As the black ring sucked up blood, it emitted a scarlet brilliance that reflected in Xi Wei"s pale and twisted face, slowly dimming until the light was gone.
Xi Wei lay in the corner of the cabin almost prostrate. His dilated pupils telling the story of the extreme pain he had suffered. After a long period of time he was finally relieved and struggled slowly to crawl over to Zeno"s side. When he finally moved next to him he was able to see his tiny face was a complete mess, startled by what had just transpired.
With an even harsher timbre to his voice than before, he managed to croak, “Do not … cry, I … will not … die.”
Xi Wei used his dirty sleeves to gently wipe the baby"s face, all the while looking pensive. (t/n: MTL wanted to say something about a cat here. If you know any idioms with cats let me know and I"ll see if one fits here.)
The wounds on his hand had disappeared leaving behind only dried blood. The strange ring vanished, the only evidence left behind was a pattern mirroring the blood soaked markings that had adorned the surface of the. Otherwise he might have thought it was just a dream.
After sitting for a few moments silence, a timid voice in the dilapidated cabin asked, “Who are you?
If anyone ever finds any kind of fan art or similar for this story, let me know! I’d love to see.