An Luo woke up in a daze.
The surrounding light was dim, with only the flickering candlelight illuminating the room.
Memories from before he fainted flooded back like a tide.
He remembered that Meieruita had made a move against him, and then he knew nothing more.
So what was going on now?
Had the protagonist retracted a murder?
“You’re awake?”
Meieruita’s cold voice rang out. An Luo looked toward the source of the sound and saw Meieruita sitting at a table not far from his bed, holding a book in his left hand and reading it under the candlelight.
Perhaps he had reached a key passage, as Meieruita said nothing more and continued to focus intently on the book in his hands.
Under the hazy, blurred candlelight, the edges of Meieruita’s usually indifferent face were softened by a layer of gentle glow. His eyes were downcast, the tips of his lashes tinged with a faint gold.
The black Wizard Robe gave him a strong scholarly air, and the fingers holding the book were slender with distinct knuckles—truly a pleasing sight.
An Luo watched him, wishing he could pull out his phone and take a photo.
Yes, that’s right! This was exactly the studious, intellectual, and wise protagonist he had imagined!
Meieruita already seemed so impressive in his novice form. Once he truly became a powerhouse, how much more imposing would he look?
Because he had bombed in the sciences during high school, An Luo had admired people who excelled in math, physics, and chemistry ever since. He always felt they were exceptionally smart, with brains that worked like well-oiled machines.
Seeing the jaw-dropping scores of the top student on the science rankings, he couldn’t help but make a “little bro worships you.jpg” face.
Perfect scores in math, physics, and chemistry, and just one point shy in biology.
How brilliant did someone have to be to achieve scores like that?
He was so envious.
Even the buzz cut on that top science student’s head looked dashing and cool under those achievements.
A large part of Meieruita’s character design stemmed from this.
As the saying went, “lack what you have and supplement it.” Since An Luo himself wasn’t that smart, he let the protagonist under his pen make up for it.
It was a form of “projecting one’s dreams onto one’s children,” in a sense.
Finally, Meieruita seemed to finish the important section. He closed the book, set it aside, stood up, and walked toward An Luo.
An Luo snapped back to reality and quickly sat up. As he propped himself up with his hand on the bed, he suddenly noticed a strange black mark on the back of his right hand.
It looked like a flower, but it was pitch black, exuding an ominous aura.
“What is this?”
At the same time, he realized that the mask and gloves he had been wearing were gone.
“A Curse,” Meieruita said calmly.
He took out a palm-sized Little Wooden Puppet. The puppet was entirely black, but the blackness was peculiar—not the natural color of the wood, but like a roiling black mist trapped inside, seeking an escape everywhere.
“Do you remember the person who attacked Lan Lian before?”
With that reminder, An Luo recalled it.
After his inexplicable transmigration, he had inherited Lan Lian’s memories.
Lan Lian, who was originally supposed to die at the protagonist’s hands the next day at noon, had died early instead—to some Wizard Apprentice lurking in the shadows.
An Luo had been nervous for a while at the time, but when nothing happened for a long time, he gradually relaxed, assuming the attacker wouldn’t come after him again.
Although Lan Lian had made enemies, he hadn’t provoked any major grudges in his short time at the Wizard Tower.
If it was for his money, the cost wouldn’t outweigh the benefits, so they probably wouldn’t persist.
But in the end!
This had been waiting for him!
“Hand,” Meieruita said, interrupting An Luo’s thoughts.
An Luo, puzzled, thought for a moment and lifted his right hand.
Meieruita held his palm upward and cradled An Luo’s right hand.
Whether it was a personal habit or something else, the way he held it differed from a simple open palm:
His pinky and ring finger lightly hooked over the edge of An Luo’s thumb, while his thumb rested on the base of An Luo’s pinky. His index and middle fingers spread apart, clamping An Luo’s wrist from both sides.
It was both a support and a restraint.
But this minor detail paled in comparison to the Curse, so An Luo paid it no mind.
He looked nervously at Meieruita. “What’s wrong?”
Meieruita placed the Little Wooden Puppet near the back of An Luo’s right hand. Now, it was clear that the Curse on An Luo’s hand and the black mist swirling inside the puppet were from the same source.
“This is a low-level Curse,” Meieruita explained. “As long as it’s discovered in time, it’s easy to handle.”
“…So how did you find out?”
An Luo eyed Meieruita suspiciously.
He couldn’t be blamed for being so distrustful. If this had happened to anyone else, it might have been a coincidence, but with Meieruita, that was far less likely.
“John,” Meieruita replied without any change in expression from An Luo’s suspicion. His tone remained flat. “He was shouting and yelling at your door, asking if the already unconscious you was okay. Unless I’m deaf, I would have heard it.”
An Luo: “…”
Fair enough.
An Luo relaxed a bit.
That made sense. Although he had suspected Meieruita earlier, if it had really been the protagonist who attacked, An Luo wouldn’t have woken up now.
But there was still one thing. “Uh… I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but can I ask why you saved me?”
I’m the author—the protagonist’s arch-nemesis!
Shouldn’t Meieruita just stand aside, tuck his hands into his sleeves, gaze at the distant scenery, and pretend he heard nothing?
A brief silence fell.
An Luo suddenly felt Meieruita grip his hand a little tighter, but it relaxed quickly.
Meieruita’s voice cooled slightly. “Maybe I don’t want you dead as much as you think?”
An Luo laughed awkwardly a couple of times.
Big bro, fool yourself if you want, but don’t fool me.
He tried to pull his right hand back. After two tugs with no success, he looked up inquiringly at Meieruita, who then released it.
An Luo quickly hid his hand in his sleeve.
“The Curse has been temporarily sealed for now,” Meieruita said. “I can’t fully remove it yet, so I’m using a Substitute Puppet to deceive it temporarily. However…”
He stopped there, saying no more.
An Luo probed cautiously, “However?”
Meieruita smiled faintly. “More importantly, you should consider a graver and more urgent issue first.”
“What issue?”
“John.” Meieruita’s tone remained calm, no different from before, but there seemed to be a faint undercurrent of emotion in the air.
He continued, “When I came in, I found that he had removed your hood and mask. He saw your true face.”
“He doesn’t seem as good as you imagined.”
Meieruita spoke softly, almost murmuring, “Your secret is exposed, An Luo.”
A glint flashed in his gray-green eyes, and his voice unknowingly took on a different nuance. “So, what do you plan to do now?”
