Thus, the devil revealed his human side.

Teach me a lesson.

This seemingly flirtatious remark caught Yu Chen’s attention.

“Lesson?” Yu Chen raised an eyebrow, his green eyes glinting in the dim light. “What do you think I’m about to do?”

Bai Ling’s expression was bewildered. “Isn’t it acclimation training? Don’t worry, I’m young, my skin and flesh are fairly resilient. As long as you don’t go too far, I should be able to handle it…”

He lowered his head in thought, then added, “Oh, I should warn you: the walls here are very thin. If I start yelling, you’d better stuff something in my mouth to shut me up, in case some busybody comes knocking to ask if they can join.”

“But I trust you’re not in the habit of sharing, so it’s best if that doesn’t happen.”

The bird’s tone was flat, as if everything he’d said was perfectly ordinary.

But Yu Chen could clearly see that his hands braced against the yellowish door panel were clenched into fists, their knuckles white from tension.

“You’ve been harassed.” Yu Chen stated it as fact.

“…Not really.” Bai Ling exhaled, a hint of self-mockery in his voice. “They all knew I was a poor bachelor. No money to be squeezed out of me, and not enough to bring anyone home for the night.”

The merman said softly, “I’m free.”

Bai Ling’s lips curved unconsciously, and the gloom hanging over his heart lifted a little. “You’re not free. You’re priceless.”

He paused, continuing his recollection. “And according to the unwritten rules here, even if you don’t discuss money, you’re supposed to give something as a token; at the very least, buy the person a late-night meal.”

Give something as a token…

Yu Chen’s heart skipped a beat. His gaze shifted to the jacket draped over the bed frame, the corner of its large pocket revealing fragrant jasmine sprigs.

There should also be an old chess set.

Though he didn’t know if that chess set was already in the nineteen-year-old bird’s possession.

Yu Chen wasn’t in a hurry to ask about the chessboard’s whereabouts. If the little bird was willing to give it, he would cherish it. If not, he would gladly wait for the next delivery from this little courier bird.

But there was one more thing he wanted to clarify: “How long have you lived here?”

“Two years… Actually, one year, eight months, and six days. Since I was discharged—”

He had meant to say “retired,” but the word caught in his throat. He swallowed it and corrected himself: “…Since I was discharged from the military, I’ve been living here.”

It wasn’t a big deal. The merman couldn’t possibly know how many years he’d served or when he’d been discharged. It would be easy enough to fudge the details.

But a flicker of pain crossed Yu Chen’s heart.

He could not forget the Stump Bird’s violent coughing and swollen hands, conditions that could not have accumulated in just a year or two. That meant the Stump Bird had already been suffering, worn down by illness, while still on the front lines.

The image of the towering screen repeatedly broadcasting the news flashed before Yu Chen’s eyes: Imperial Public Enemy Number One Captured.

The core figure of the resistance faction, a veteran who fought tirelessly to reclaim his homeland, only to end up displaced, impoverished and destitute. How many schemes and plots must he have endured along the way?

“I should have taken you back sooner.” A sigh of regret escaped his throat.

There was an indescribable remorse in those words, a surge of profound emotion so intense it moved Bai Ling to his core.

The merman rarely showed such vulnerability.

Yet in just one day, he had lost his composure several times.

Bai Ling wanted to reach for Yu Chen’s hand, but Yu Chen pressed down on his shoulder blade, holding him in place. With a voice steeped in the weight of time, he said:

“Though it comes very late, I want to take you to the veterans’ home. Are you still willing to come with me?”

After waiting for so many year, through two lifetimes, he has finally received his homeland’s call.

Are you still willing to come with me?

“I am willing.” As a surge of bitterness welled up in his eyes, Bai Ling hurriedly agreed.

He has always been willing.

In a daze, he realized how familiar his promise sounded. He gradually recalled: that night of the “hunt,” when Yu Chen had first come to retrieve him, while wounded in battle, he had already said yes.

Yu Chen pinched his cheek and turned his burning face. With a brief glance at those quivering lips, he bit down on the thin, tender flesh.

Turning his head to kiss was awkward for his neck. Yu Chen, feeling tender toward him, released him after just a couple of nibbles.

Looking at the bird again, his pale lashes trembled with each labored breath. His lips, now flushed, were slightly swollen from the merman’s teeth. Yet from his outward expression, he had regained some of his spirit, like a lost young falcon finding its way again through the thick fog.

He pressed his lips together, the corners turning down slightly. “Is this the gift you give to retired veterans?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I served for many years. You’ll have to give me extra copies to make up the count.”

His breath carried a slight tremor. One side of his eyes held the world-weariness of one who had seen too much; the other, an undisguised eagerness. Like a river where salt and fresh water met, contradictory yet intimately mixed up.

An unique intimacy reserved for Yu Chen alone.

Yu Chen’s low laugh was mellow. “I’ve never heard of such a rule. Does it really exist?”

“Yes,” the bird replied, his voice dropping to a sullen murmur. “Everyone’s supposed to get soap and a towel too, but I never received any.”

This was a tradition left over from the Old Empire.

Retired veterans could quietly take a few extra supplies.

But he had been expelled from the military. The military court had come for him with such ferocity that he couldn’t even take his personal belongings, let alone any parting gifts.

As Bai Ling fell into a daze, Yu Chen reached around, slipping his arm beneath the bird’s slender ribs, wrapping it firmly around him.

That lean frame was covered with a thin layer of muscle, the lines at his waist sharp and taut. Yet when Yu Chen touched them, they instinctively twitched, with a small flinch of evasion.

Held from behind and unable to see Yu Chen’s face, Bai Ling still showed signs of stress.

Yu Chen understood: this bird could never truly relax in this room. This was the last stop of the Stump Bird’s life. A single glance brought unease, let alone opening his body to receive it.

The “lesson” he prayed for was nothing more than another form of destruction.

Like the charging cable tethered to his prosthetic, the bird’s soul was bound here. Every night, when his nightmares came, it would inevitably end at this door: opening, closing, stretching his spirit to its breaking point, with no escape.

Yu Chen’s gaze dropped with a complex expression. The bird’s slender ankle was unconsciously winding around his calf. Even as he spoke to him with seeming ease, his body honestly and anxiously sought comfort.

Fifty years ago, Yu Chen might have grabbed him by the ankle, pinned him to the floor, and fucked him until his voice came raw.

But now, remembering his own past indifference, his heart held only thoughts of atonement. Gazing at this body that had grown from adolescence into young adulthood, what he desired was not to have the other swallow his heavy lust, but to soothe every wound time had worn into it.

Izu Paraiso has committed many sins in his life.

In the first half, he was arrogant and obstinate, looking down on others from a high pedestal, indulging in being a bystander and treating everyone as pawns.

In the latter half of his life, he was indifferent and disdainful of the world, believing that by distancing himself from the intense political environment, he could remain somewhat detached. As his strength waned, he listened to string after string of bloody statistics and his heart felt nothing but numbness.

But what Izu Paraiso never expected was that reality would seize him by the arm and drag him from his ivory tower. Using a wooden stump bird, it flayed him raw and showed him the horrors of the world.

Fate pulled him down from his pedestal and threw him hard onto the ground…

The seemingly indestructible Izu Paraiso was shattered, and from the fragments emerged a pearl called “Indiffernce.”

Thus, the devil revealed his human side.