A Taste of Healing

Li Chunsheng approached, carrying a basin of warm water. Standing by Liuxia’s side, he took a series of deep breaths, steeling his resolve with each one.

‘Li Chunsheng, Li Chunsheng, you must remember this,’ he thought, ‘you are merely cleaning a patient’s body.’

‘You are absolutely not to do anything beastly or untoward!’

He swallowed hard, his hands trembling visibly as they extended towards his senior, who lay there utterly oblivious and defenceless.

His fingertips slowly drew closer to the collar of Liuxia’s thin pajamas. In moments, with just a slight downward movement, that exquisitely graceful maiden’s form, which had haunted his dreams with its astonishing allure, would be laid bare before his eyes.

‘She’s my senior! She’s my senior! She’s my senior!’

Li Chunsheng repeated the phrase incessantly, as if it were the only incantation capable of quelling the unwelcome thoughts bubbling up from the depths of his mind.

Abruptly, Liuxia, still lost in a haze of semiconsciousness, seemed to instinctively detect a familiar presence nearby. She let out a soft “awu,” lowered her head, and firmly bit down on Li Chunsheng’s finger, which had been suspended mid-air, beginning to suck on it with considerable force.

‘What the heck…’

The sudden, moist sensation nearly overwhelmed Li Chunsheng with a surge of unbidden excitement. He squeezed his eyes shut, barely managing to rein in the tumultuous stirrings within him.

‘This is bad!’ he thought, a frantic question forming in his mind. ‘Has Senior’s rationality regressed to that of an infant?’ Li Chunsheng painstakingly extricated his finger from Liuxia’s soft, warm mouth.

He remained oblivious to the profound allure his body’s scent held for the young woman.

Li Chunsheng glanced at his finger, noting that the area where the girl had sucked was already flushed red.

‘She sucked… with such force…’

“Awu… awu…” As if still unsatisfied with this small “meal,” Liuxia unconsciously emitted soft, discontented whimpers. With her flushed cheeks and eyes clouded by feverish mist, she appeared utterly adorable, resembling a small puppy playfully begging for food.

‘It’s a good thing… I’m the one looking after Senior,’ he mused, ‘otherwise… if it were someone else with ‘bold ideas’ present…’ Li Chunsheng found his mind drifting into vivid fantasies.

In his mind’s eye, Senior lay innocently beneath him, her breath as fragrant as orchids, and he slowly, inexorably, leaned closer…

‘Wait!’ he suddenly thought. ‘How did *I* become the one with ‘bold ideas’?!’

Unable to restrain himself, Li Chunsheng slammed his head against the wall, a desperate attempt to force himself back to composure. The impact resonated with a resounding clang throughout the floor—thankfully, his neighbors had likely already departed for work, or he would undoubtedly have incurred their wrath.

‘Huh…?’ Just then, Li Chunsheng’s attention was caught by a sudden anomaly.

His gaze fixed on the “gold content” value that had materialized before his eyes: [9].

‘That’s not right,’ Li Chunsheng muttered to himself. ‘I distinctly remember this number had already reset to 10 before I went to sleep, and I haven’t extracted any ‘gold content’ since then.’ He pondered, ‘What on earth happened for it to drop to 9?’

The memory of Liuxia’s recent actions resurfaced in his mind, sparking yet another audacious idea in Li Chunsheng.

This time, he deliberately offered the finger that had been previously sucked into Liuxia’s mouth. To his surprise, the displayed value merely flickered, stubbornly remaining at 9.

‘?’ he wondered. Even though it confirmed Liuxia was indeed responsible for the numerical change, why had it only jumped once this time?

A touch of stubborn disbelief stirred within Li Chunsheng, prompting him to try a different finger. This time, he watched with his own eyes as the ‘gold content’ value plummeted from 9 to 8, before settling into a gentle, rhythmic fluctuation.

‘…’ Li Chunsheng mused, a theory forming. ‘The only distinction between these two fingers is that one has been sucked, and the other has not…’

Subsequently, Li Chunsheng tested each of his fingers, observing the ‘gold content’ continue its anticipated decline. He then explored other parts of his palm, noting that some areas, once ‘consumed,’ resulted in a more significant drop in value, while others caused only a minor decrease.

A perfectly logical hypothesis began to coalesce in Li Chunsheng’s mind.

Could his senior truly be siphoning off his ‘gold content’ by ingesting components of his own body?

If so, this would elegantly explain the preceding phenomenon: the sucked finger, with its dead skin, perspiration, and minuscule traces of salty residue, had all, at the very least, once constituted a part of his physical being. Once these elements were thoroughly ‘consumed,’ they were naturally no longer capable of yielding ‘gold content.’

The varying drops in value across his palm could likewise be attributed to his usual hand-washing habits; some areas were scrubbed with exceptional frequency and meticulousness, while others were treated with comparative negligence. Consequently, the quantity of lingering ‘body derivatives’ on these surfaces naturally varied.

‘Alright, let’s assume this theory is correct,’ Li Chunsheng thought, his mind now racing with possibilities. ‘But why would Senior absorb my ‘gold content’? Is it some kind of goblin instinct?’

He suddenly remembered an earlier incident: by allowing Liuxia to suck on his injured finger, he had discovered that he could expend ‘gold content’ to accelerate his own healing.

‘Could it be that this ability isn’t solely beneficial to me?’ he mused. ‘Conversely, if Senior were to consume elements or even bodily fluids from me, could it also heal her body?’

A wave of excitement immediately swept over Li Chunsheng. Driven by this sudden revelation, he cast aside all hesitation. To both validate his theory and hasten Liuxia’s recovery, he simply allowed the fever-addled and disoriented Liuxia to thoroughly ‘savor’ the ‘flavor’ of her junior.

After a considerable time had passed, Li Chunsheng wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and gently withdrew his thoroughly licked and dampened arm from his senior’s mouth.

Through this unconventional procedure, Li Chunsheng had successfully infused Liuxia with over a thousand ‘black iron coins’ worth of ‘gold content.’ The results were undeniable: upon his subsequent measurement, Liuxia’s body temperature had immediately plummeted by a full degree, now resting at 41 degrees Celsius. Though still perilously high, it marked a significant improvement over her previous scorching fever.

‘The effect is truly extraordinary…’ Li Chunsheng murmured, marveling at the outcome.

‘However…’ he thought, ‘all the parts of my body most suitable for Senior to directly consume have already been… sampled.’

‘The remaining areas… aren’t exactly ideal for direct ingestion…’ He paused, a wry thought crossing his mind. ‘Though, those particular places might indeed be a bit more… ‘substantial’.’

Li Chunsheng cast a furtive glance at Liuxia, who remained in a state of feverish disorientation. A fierce internal battle raged within him, as he wavered over whether to exploit her unconsciousness by feeding her some more ‘potent ingredients.’

‘To hell with it!’ he resolved. ‘This is all for Senior’s sake! Desperate times call for desperate measures! Forgive me!’ With that firm resolve, Li Chunsheng gritted his teeth and began to strip off his outer clothing…

At that very moment, Liuxia, perhaps stirred by the slight dip in her fever, seemed to reclaim a faint sliver of consciousness…

“Chunsheng…?” The young woman slowly fluttered open her hazy, moisture-filmed eyes, gazing with a bewildered expression at the junior standing before her.

“Ah!” Li Chunsheng yelped, startled by her voice, and instantly froze his movements.

He pretended to wipe sweat from his forehead with the outer garment he had just removed, forcing an air of composure as he stammered, “Ha… haha, the weather today, it’s really quite sweltering, isn’t it?”

“…” Liuxia glanced towards the window, where the sky hung heavy and grey. An apologetic expression softened her features as she whispered weakly, “I’m so sorry… I made you… skip work again, all because of me…”

Whether from sheer lack of strength or some other reason, the young woman, unexpectedly, did not scold Li Chunsheng, but rather offered an apology.

“N-no… it’s nothing at all! Senior, it’s wonderful that you’re awake!”

Now, direct feeding was clearly out of the question. He surmised that a fully conscious Senior would certainly not be amenable to ‘taking sustenance’ directly from his body again, would she?

“Ah, right, we haven’t had breakfast yet, have we…? I’ll go make you something to eat right away!”

Li Chunsheng hastily scurried into the kitchen. As he surveyed the remaining ingredients in the refrigerator, a sudden thought struck him.

‘Come to think of it,’ he mused, ‘if ‘a part of myself’ were incorporated into food, would it yield the same therapeutic effect?’

Shortly thereafter, the kitchen reverberated with the clatter and bang of Li Chunsheng busily concocting something.

‘What should I prepare?’ he pondered. ‘Egg porridge sounds good. Eggs are rich in protein… and protein, once cooked, should taste more or less the same, right?’

‘Alright, first, I’ll add a dash of my personal ‘soul-healing seasoning’ to the porridge!’

‘No, wait, this color… it doesn’t look quite right once it’s in! Can this still be considered white porridge?’

‘Then… then no salt. I’ll just add some soy sauce to mask the color!’

‘Hiss… did I perhaps pour a little too much?’

‘But if I were to taste it myself, it seems… rather disgusting, doesn’t it?’

‘Then… then I’ll just try smelling it!’

‘Hmm? This scent… why does it smell a bit peculiar?’

‘Then, more chopped green onions! Their fragrance should mask it!’

‘Then crack in two more eggs, stir them in thoroughly, cook it all, and it should be perfectly done!’

‘Wait a moment, will these ‘seasonings’ lose their efficacy once they’re heated?’

‘Forget it. To be safe, I’ll just add another batch before serving.’

****

Following a period of painstaking, exhaustive effort, Li Chunsheng finally produced a steaming bowl of egg porridge. His expression was a peculiar mix of pride and apprehension as he carefully presented this ‘healing porridge’ to Liuxia.

“Senior! Please eat!” Li Chunsheng declared, bowing deeply to Liuxia, who lay in the sickbed.

Liuxia was momentarily amused by his overly formal demeanor. “Why so formal?” she asked, her voice still weak.

“It’s just a meal, after all…”

Abruptly, as if a thought had just occurred to her, the young woman lifted her head. “By the way, Chunsheng,” she asked softly, “have you eaten yet?”

Li Chunsheng’s expression imperceptibly tightened.

Liuxia noticed the fleeting stiffness on her junior’s face. She smiled. “You haven’t, have you? Then let’s… let’s eat together!”

The expression on Li Chunsheng’s face instantly became profoundly odd. He shook his head repeatedly, waving his hands. “N-no, no, no! This is a special nutritional meal I made just for you, Senior. I won’t be eating it.”

“?” Liuxia tilted her head, puzzled, but seeing her junior’s unwavering insistence, she said nothing further.

After all, there were still plenty of leftovers from last night, and her healthy junior could certainly eat something better.

The young woman took the bowl of egg porridge from Li Chunsheng’s hands, then lowered her gaze, examining it intently.

The bowl of egg porridge, it had to be admitted, looked quite presentable. The soy sauce appeared to have been added in just the right amount, giving the entire bowl a balanced color that was neither too dark nor too starkly white.

Among the stained rice grains, cooked egg whites and yolks were mixed in, contrasting sharply with the porridge’s color since they were added later.

The moisture content was also perfectly maintained; the porridge was neither excessively thick nor overly thin.

‘This is… the first time I’ve ever eaten a dish made by my junior…’ Liuxia suddenly felt a sense of novelty.

What would it taste like?

The young woman picked up her spoon, gently scooped the first mouthful of porridge, and brought it to her lips, brimming with anticipation.

“!!!” Liuxia’s pupils constricted slightly, as if a bolt of lightning had struck her temples.

This, this, this… what was this taste?