Wang lifted up Tao Fangyi’s slime body.
He found that the melted Tao Fangyi wasn’t sticky at all, so Wang folded Tao Fangyi in half and poked him with his finger.
Tao Fangyi: “Mn.”
Wang asked, “Does it hurt when I do this?”
“It doesn’t hurt. It’s like a massage.” Tao Fangyi found it quite pleasant.
And so, Wang began playing with the slime, continuously folding, pulling, and stretching Tao Fangyi’s body.
Tao Fangyi felt his body being pressed in a very comfortable way.
“So, why did you end up like this? Were those toys too noisy?” Wang asked while playing with Tao Fangyi’s body.
“I think I know that blade,” Tao Fangyi said.
After speaking, he waited for Wang’s reaction.
But Wang didn’t look shocked at all.
Poking Tao Fangyi again, Wang asked, “And?” He assumed Tao Fangyi was about to launch into a story involving the two of them.
“You’re not surprised? I know that blade!” Tao Fangyi said.
“Your Team Leader already said the upcoming missions would have something to do with you, didn’t he?” Wang found this all quite normal.
“You already guessed? You’re so clever!” Tao Fangyi praised.
Wang sighed helplessly. He felt the matter was purely that Tao Fangyi paid too little attention to such things. “And? What did he do? He didn’t try to pull you down and turn you into an ally, did he?” Wang always felt that blade was somewhat similar to himself, and he suspected the blade’s actions were similar to his own.
“That seems to be the case,” Tao Fangyi said.
Just as expected.
Tao Fangyi felt the force of Wang’s massage increase slightly.
“Our encounter began with a misunderstanding.” Tao Fangyi dug out that memory.
Wang understood. That blade had plagiarized his creative approach.
Tao Fangyi recounted the story.
At that time, as a Ritual Vessel, Tao Fangyi was enshrined in the ancestral temple.
One day, a tall man ran to his side. The man continuously stroked the enormous cauldron body.
Tao Fangyi didn’t have his own name then. The people had lacquered his body and given him a very, very long name.
After the man felt him a few times, Tao Fangyi kicked him.
“Go, go, go! No relieving yourselves here!” Tao Fangyi used his Cauldron Legs to kick the man, knocking him down.
At the time, he thought some rogue had wandered into the wrong place, as the clothes on the man were truly ragged.
After the man scrambled up, Tao Fangyi continued shooing him away: “Shoo, shoo! Or I’ll stomp you flat.” His Cauldron Legs rapped against the ground.
The man got up and still tried to walk towards Tao Fangyi, but Tao Fangyi raised two of his Cauldron Legs, waving them to drive the man away like shooing poultry.
“What a wonderful misunderstanding,” Tao Fangyi sighed.
Wang’s movements paused. He withdrew his hands and told Tao Fangyi to change back to his original form.
Tao Fangyi transformed back into the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
“Tao Fangyi.” Wang pinched one of Tao Fangyi’s claws, patting its back with the index finger of his other hand. “The word ‘wonderful’ cannot be associated with piss and shit, do you understand?”
“But he didn’t come to relieve himself,” Tao Fangyi said. “It was only a misunderstanding.”
Wang covered his face. He felt he could somehow sense that blade’s mental collapse.
“Later I learned he was the spirit of a blade. He hadn’t been born long and his mind was full of confusion,” Tao Fangyi said. “But back then, I didn’t ponder these things at all.”
“Right, you didn’t have emotions back then. What did you mull over in your head?” Wang was a bit curious.
“Mulling over where I came from and where I was going. Occasionally counting how many little birds or little dragons were on the bodies of the other Ritual Vessels around me.” Tao Fangyi could stare at smoke for years on end.
“But I wasn’t completely without feeling. I found everyone who tried to strike up a conversation with me quite annoying.” Tao Fangyi wasn’t willing to deal with them, preferring his own company. “So if he, or any other Demon, came and sat around for a while, I would chase them out.”
Wang: “…How would you chase them?”
“Told them to leave.” When Tao Fangyi couldn’t stand it anymore, he would bluntly shoo away his guests.
“And if they wouldn’t leave when shooed?” Wang had exactly that kind of temperament; being driven away would only provoke his rebellious nature.
Tao Fangyi lowered his head in shame: “I would beat them out with my little stick. The little stick was a Bamboo Strip I found nearby. I hid it inside my cauldron.”
Wang: …
Tao Fangyi really had a strong sense of personal boundaries.
At that time, the blade spirit particularly loved discussing the topic of “living” with Tao Fangyi. He would ask if Tao Fangyi dreamed when he closed his eyes, and what the feeling of fear was actually like.
Tao Fangyi’s answers were always pragmatic. He said, “I have no eyes, I can’t close them.”
As for fear, that was even simpler. The moment he took out his Little Bamboo Strip, the blade spirit would start to be afraid.
“He especially loved asking me, asking if I dreamed.” The first question Tao Fangyi recalled during this memory was exactly that. “I told him I didn’t. I was always awake.”
That blade made Tao Fangyi a little curious about what dreams were like.
Later, the blade explained to Tao Fangyi, saying that dreams were a reality fabricated by people in a dazed state, another world belonging solely to humans.
Tao Fangyi didn’t understand. He asked the blade spirit: “If there’s already one world here, why fabricate another one?”
The blade spirit replied that it was beyond human control.
Tao Fangyi still didn’t get it: “So people can’t control themselves to stop creating another dazed world?”
The blade spirit nodded.
Tao Fangyi pressed further: “Even if that world is absurd, people will still think it’s real?”
The blade spirit continued nodding.
Tao Fangyi made a sound of “oh” and fell silent.
At that moment, Tao Fangyi’s attention was diverted, going off to observe a Spider crossing a beam.
Once the spider had left and the blade spirit was still beside him, Tao Fangyi picked up the previous topic. He asked: “Then how do humans distinguish reality from dreams?”
“If in dreams people find all absurd things reasonable, how do they know that the reasonable things in this real world aren’t another kind of absurdity?” Tao Fangyi asked the blade spirit again.
The blade spirit didn’t answer.
Afterwards, the blade spirit’s visits became fewer and fewer. One time, he asked Tao Fangyi if he wanted a human body.
Tao Fangyi expressed that he didn’t want one; he was perfectly fine the way he was.
Then later, the blade spirit asked him if he knew what “love” between humans was.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Wang interjected repeatedly. “What did he mean by that?”
“Oh, somehow, it seemed he liked me,” Tao Fangyi said. “But I thought it was very strange. After all, I completely lacked an emotion module. He had vaguely told me before that the Demons nearby absolutely dared not approach him; they all cursed him as a madman.”
“He initially wanted to absorb my power but didn’t succeed, so with nothing else to do, he’d just chat with me.” Tao Fangyi felt that he himself wasn’t a great conversation partner back then either.
“He liked you…” Wang slowly released Tao Fangyi. “What kind of person would have Desire for a Wooden Cauldron?!”
“He wasn’t exactly a person either. He was a blade,” Tao Fangyi said.
“So you didn’t give him a token of affection, right?” The problem with this room likely stemmed from fragments of Tao Fangyi’s body. Surely Tao Fangyi hadn’t given away pieces of his body that early on?
As generously as he had given the little wooden stick and Small Wooden Ball to Wang?
“I didn’t give any.” The other party had indeed asked him for one, but Tao Fangyi had refused.
Although he didn’t mind if his form had one piece more or less, Tao Fangyi also didn’t understand the necessity of sending tokens.
“But later, while I wasn’t paying attention, he presumptuously dug a piece out himself.”
Wang: …
Wang was furious.
What was meant by “presumptuously dug a piece out himself”? Tao Fangyi refused to give it, so the other party just came and dug it out himself?
What the hell?!
Wang wanted to slaughter that blade, but he quickly realized that blade was already dead.
“Actually, I don’t think he possessed such a complex emotion as love. He was very likely just too lonely and happened upon someone he could communicate with.” Tao Fangyi was self-aware about himself. “I also wasn’t capable of giving him the feeling of romantic love. He had learned about some human emotions but never truly practiced them.”
“It’s just like when people just awaken their sentiments; they always easily link all sorts of things to love.”
“I’m still a bit bothered that he dug into my body without permission. This wasn’t a very pleasant friendship, or perhaps this doesn’t even count as friendship.” Tao Fangyi didn’t want to be friends with a villain who killed indiscriminately.
“He was utterly insane!” Wang felt that blade was crazy, that he deserved to die, and his death was good and well-deserved.
“Rude! Doing whatever he pleased, and even when you drove him away, he still clung on and refused to leave!” Wang gnashed his teeth. “He dug out your body?! He dug out your body… A scoundrel like that should be smashed to shards and stuffed into a cesspit!”
Originally, Wang had felt that blade was somewhat similar to himself, but now he felt they weren’t alike at all.
Tao Fangyi patted Wang with his tail: “Don’t worry, I didn’t even have a sense of pain back then, and that Wood Fragment wouldn’t gain new consciousness after leaving me.”
Wang said nothing.
Wenren Fu took out his phone, pressing the answer button: “Hello?”
“Captain, where are you? I just saw you in the office; how did you disappear in a flash?”
“I was thinking about something. Sorry, I’ll be right back.” Wenren Fu looked towards the children running around inside the protective railing. At a glance, he noticed that ugly-looking Liu Xuanyong.
He had been watching this child for a little while now.
Wenren Fu was constantly restraining himself.
“Must not act against ordinary people, must not act against ordinary people.” Wenren Fu muttered under his breath, calming his own emotions.
If he acted this time, he would truly be finished.
This was just a Reincarnation, who knew how many times it had reincarnated. It had nothing to do with that blade long ago.
Could he hire older students to beat this little brat up?
Could he act through others, without doing it himself?
A smile emerged on Wenren Fu’s face.
But very quickly, Wenren Fu abandoned this path.
Doing it this way wasn’t moral either; it was an act of corrupting children.
“From now on, you are third-class toys in the Toy Room.” Wang pointed at the Robots, saying, “Because you are the fantasies of that villain.”
The Physical Toys cried.
Wang showed a smile once more.
