Everyone Is the Same

Yaxiu brushed her hand away, an uncomfortable look flickering across his face. "But if you don't date and don't have a family, aren't you destined to be all alone forever?" "We've always been... wait, exactly!" Something suddenly dawned on Freya. She pulled out her term paper from her bag and began scribbling frantically. "Another advantage of the socialized child-rearing system: cultivating independent awareness from a young age... getting used to fighting solo... giving one a distinct edge in Void Realm Exploration... 'Every citizen of the Blood Moon is a fully qualified reservist sorcerer'... Yes! If the professor doesn't give me full marks for this, it'll be an outrage!" Yaxiu watched her write her essay and pressed on, "Don't you want to achieve that perfect communion of soul and body with a lover? Don't you want to share your joy and vent your stress with your family? Don't you want someone to genuinely care about you?" "Why are you asking so many weird questions... You aren't trying to become my lover and move in with me, are you?!" "I've told you already, I'm staying here for seven days at most before I leave." Freya shrugged. "I don't need a lover. I just have to spend a little money at a mud cafe to get that perfect physical intimacy. If I want to share my joy, I can show off my grades to my classmates on the Curtain. If I want to vent stress, I should see a psychotherapist. As for 'caring,' isn't that just another word for 'investment'? If someone cares about me, that only means they want to extract greater benefits from me. "If I have great utility, everyone will care about me. If I'm worthless, naturally no one will give a damn, and even a lover would walk away. That's just elementary human nature." Yaxiu said softly, "Human nature isn't just cold calculations of profit and loss. There's also truth, goodness, and beauty." "So why should I pin my hopes on someone else instead of investing all my resources into myself?" Freya chuckled. "When I'm hungry, I go to a restaurant. When I have needs, I go to a mud cafe. When my room gets dirty, I hire a cleaner. When I'm stressed, I see a psychotherapist—in fact, psychotherapist is one of my future career options. It's already the seventeenth century; every need can be satisfied with money, so why gamble on human nature? "Even my gambling-addict friend, Adela, wouldn't dare enter a gamble where control rests entirely in someone else's hands. Entering an intimate relationship is just far too risky." "Don't you ever feel lonely, though?" Freya penned the final period, packed her homework back into her bag, and turned to look at Yaxiu. "Everyone is the same," she said. Then she reached out and scooped Xiaoxian into her arms, nuzzling her face affectionately against the cat's cheek. Xiaoxian, however, pushed her away in disgust with a soft paw pad. "Besides, I have Xiaoxian. Why would I ever be lonely?" Meeting the pure, happy gaze of the Veela, Yaxiu suddenly realized that the Ogre Mayor, Financier, had never truly grasped the core of the Blood Moon Country. Financier was an orphan too. He had no family, and he didn't know how to love either. Just as Freya remained oblivious to the sour reek clinging to her clothes, the vast majority of people living in the Blood Moon Country were blind to the fact that they had lost the capacity to love. How could someone who had never seen the sun understand the warmth of sunlight? How could someone who had never experienced the care of family believe in selfless affection? Perhaps they believed selfless love existed in this world, and perhaps they even yearned for it, but they were all the more convinced that such love would never fall upon them. Just as Financier believed the Blood Moon Country was unworthy of a savior, they believed they were unworthy of embracing love. The Ogre had thought the Blood Moon isolated everyone by sowing seeds of suspicion and erecting walls of discrimination. In truth, the Blood Moon had used education to strip away the seeds of love from everyone's hearts, making everyone voluntarily reject entering an intimate relationship. Discrimination and suspicion were merely the stench rotting from this loveless soil. Yaxiu suddenly thought of Langna. Was that werewolf branded a traitor to Moon Shadow simply because his capacity for love and desire had been too strong? Seeing Yaxiu stay silent for a long time, Freya couldn't help asking, "What's wrong?" Yaxiu snapped back to reality and gave a slight smile. "Nothing. I was just wondering where I could earn some money." "If you're willing to show your face, I'd suggest taking a part-time job at a mud cafe. With your looks, while you wouldn't qualify as a top-tier mud worker, you'd certainly rank in the lower-middle tier. Plenty of clients would book you. How about I introduce you to one? Even if you don't want to do it long-term, you could try it for a night. A lot of decent-looking guys work a shift as a mud worker just to gauge their market value." "Thanks, but my skills are terrible. I'm not qualified to earn that kind of money." "Being a beginner is actually a pretty good selling point. A lot of wealthy ladies have a soft spot for virgins. And if you want to practice your technique, I can accompany—" "Didn't you say you had a class at two in the afternoon? It's already one-fifty." Freya checked the time and hastily slung her backpack over her shoulder. "Oh no, oh no, I almost lost track of time! These dishes..." "I'll do them," Yaxiu said. "Are you coming back to eat dinner together tonight?" There it was again. Freya felt that strange emotion surface inside her once more. It had nothing to do with lust, nor did it have anything to do with greed. It made her both despise and like Yaxiu, filling her with the urge to keep her distance while simultaneously drawing closer to him. Could this be a curse of the Four Pillar Cult? Or an aura of corruption unconsciously radiated by a saint of the Archfiend? Even as these thoughts crossed her mind, her mouth answered, "Yeah." "Anything you'd like to eat?" "Could I get a rice bowl topped with Blazing Lalafell and fish roe?" "No problem." Yaxiu waved a hand. "Be careful on the way." With that strange feeling growing increasingly potent in her chest, Freya nodded hurriedly, put Xiaoxian down, and rushed out the front door. Yaxiu promptly shut down the restaurant review video and clicked open *Easy-Peasy Slaying of Void Realm Creatures: Fishcleaver Dragon Edition*. Once he finished watching, he got dressed, put on his mask, and summoned his Substitute. "Wash the dishes, clean the apartment, and if you have extra time, play with the cat. If anything unexpected happens, dismiss yourself immediately. Got it?" The Substitute nodded. On the Curtain of Knowledge, Yaxiu opened a spreadsheet titled *4.29 University Class Schedule*. This was a file accessible only through the internal Curtain network of Kaimeng Comprehensive University, but Freya just so happened to be a student there. He hadn't picked a home to impose on at random; he had come prepared. His gaze settled on a single line on the schedule: *16:00–18:00, "Ancient Ritual Faction", Xilin Karl, Classroom 108.* Having confirmed his target, Yaxiu prepared to head out. Then he caught sight of Xiaoxian sprawled on the floor like an oversized couch potato, looking limp and utterly listless. Moved by a sudden thought, Yaxiu activated his sympathy sorcery spirit toward Xiaoxian, and an immediate wave of pain fed back into him. Though it hurt, though it was deeply uncomfortable, the cat showed no sign of unhappiness. Its demeanor was so placid it seemed long accustomed to living alongside pain. Sensing the sympathy sorcery spirit in Yaxiu's hand, it tilted its head, looking faintly curious. "Congenital cartilage disease, huh..." Yaxiu gently stroked Xiaoxian's head. "Screened from birth, where only the lucky few who meet human aesthetic standards and possess commercial value are allowed to survive. Kept in a cage, neutered, and once out of the cage, milked for every bit of value as merchandise... "Because you've kept company with pain since infancy, you don't see it as misfortune, but accept it as your natural fate. And because every cat is the same, you don't even perceive it as suffering, so naturally, there's nothing to worry about." He reached down and scratched the Scottish Fold under the chin, and Xiaoxian let out a contented, foolish purr. "Being a Watcher really is hard."