Awakening

Headache, dizziness, and heavy eyelids that felt as if they were filled with lead.

His throat was so parched it felt like it was about to smoke.

His lips were dry and his mouth was thirsty, yet stomach acid churned inside him, threatening to erupt like a fountain at any moment.

It was miserable, utterly miserable.

Su Mian felt as if he had become a small boat that had accidentally strayed into a storm at sea.

Terrifying waves crashed against him, leaving him uncontrolled and helpless, at the mercy of the water and in constant danger of capsizing.

The worst part was his brain, where countless images seemed to be flashing.

An unquantifiable amount of light and shadow exploded in his mind simultaneously.

The chaotic images felt as if they would burst his skull and shatter his soul.

Su Mian had no idea how long it had been or whether he was even asleep.

In a state between dreaming and waking, he seemed to rewatch his entire life.

He even saw his parents, who had passed away in a car accident years ago, waving to him several times.

Consequently, when he woke up in bed that morning, he had no desire to move at all.

His mind was a mess, and his body was so limp it felt as if he had no bones.

It took a while for his fragmented memories to reconnect before Su Mian finally realized he shouldn’t be lying in bed.

He opened his eyes.

It was a familiar ceiling.

This was undoubtedly his own room, and he should be on his own bed.

The problem was that he remembered clearly that he had lost consciousness on the street.

Even if someone had seen him and saved him, he should have woken up in a hospital.

“D*mn it…”

Vaguely understanding what had happened, Su Mian immediately sat up and touched his lower abdomen.

As expected, although the hunger in his stomach had not completely dissipated, it was significantly weaker than before.

His expression changed drastically.

Ignoring his lingering physical weakness, he summoned his strength, crawled out of bed, and ran to the bathroom.

He didn’t go to the bathroom because he needed to use it; the nearest mirror was the one above the sink.

Su Mian stood before the mirror and looked at himself.

He stared at the clean-cut youth in the reflection who had faint dark circles under his eyes.

His brow furrowed deeply, and his voice was cold.

“What did you do again last night?”

“Did we not have an agreement?”

“Do you really think I can’t do anything to you?”

To a normal person, seeing someone talk to their own reflection would make them think Su Mian was insane or suffering from a dissociative identity disorder.

But that was clearly not the case.

Following his cold questioning, ripples suddenly spread across the mirror’s surface.

It looked like a small stone had been tossed into a calm pond.

As the ripples expanded, an even weirder scene occurred.

The youth in the mirror suddenly lowered his head.

A second later, when he looked up again, his dark eyes had turned crimson.

His short black hair transformed into flowing strands of silver.

The face of the clean-cut youth had unknowingly turned into that of a monstrously beautiful girl.

She stared at Su Mian outside the mirror with an expressionless face.

After a long moment, she let out a soft snort.

“What do you mean, ‘what did I do’?”

“Without me, you would have starved to death last night!”

“That would have been my own business.”

“Get lost!”

Facing Su Mian’s dissatisfaction, the girl looked entirely disdainful.

She raised a slender finger and twirled a lock of long hair draped over her chest.

Her tone became even more displeased.

“Your body is my body, and your business is my business.”

“You and I are two sides of the same coin.”

“Did you expect me to just stand by and watch myself starve to death?”

“Dying that way would be worse than being burned by holy fire; at least that wouldn’t be embarrassing.”

“So you went and ate a human!?”

Su Mian was completely enraged.

If he didn’t know perfectly well that it was just an ordinary mirror, he probably would have punched it.

The girl’s disdain only grew.

“Humans eat chickens, ducks, and fish; they eat cattle, horses, and sheep.”

“We eat humans. What is the difference?”

“It is all just for the sake of survival.”

“Shut up! Do not use that twisted logic to disgust me.”

“I am a human, so I—”

“No.”

The girl in the mirror interrupted Su Mian.

The corners of her mouth curled up in a meaningful smile, though it was unclear if it was mockery or something else.

“To be precise, less than one-third of you is human.”

“The remaining two-thirds are demon.”

“Therefore, the demon is the part that occupies the majority of your existence!”

“I…”

“Look at yourself. What have you turned yourself into lately?”

“You are resisting your own instincts, resisting your demonic power, and resisting becoming me.”

The girl’s voice suddenly became incredibly soft and full of seduction.

“But we are one and the same.”

“No matter how much you deny it, you are me.”

“There shouldn’t be such a clear distinction between us, right?”

“…”

Su Mian did not answer.

After a long silence, he suddenly let out a sigh.

“Fine.”

The girl in the mirror thought his low tone meant he had surrendered.

But in the next second, he spoke again.

“As expected of the succubus part of me; you almost actually convinced me.”

“Tch!”

The succubus girl rolled her eyes.

She realized she had been played but didn’t seem to care.

She took a step back within the mirror, and ripples once again flowed across the surface.

The figure inside began to revert to its original appearance.

Su Mian stopped her immediately.

“Wait, you almost distracted me.”

“What exactly did you do last night?”

“You didn’t actually go and eat someone, did you?”

“So annoying!”

“It was just a little dessert.”

“I merely consumed the desires of a human couple.”

“They are young; they will recover after a few months of rest.”

Although the figure in the mirror had completely vanished and returned to Su Mian’s appearance, the girl’s voice still drifted out.

Su Mian breathed a slight sigh of relief upon hearing this.

As long as he hadn’t eaten anyone, it was fine.

However, the girl’s voice continued.

“But I need to remind you one more time.”

“Human desires can serve as spiritual food, but they cannot satisfy the needs of the flesh.”

“You still need active and powerful flesh and blood.”

“Otherwise, our body will eventually collapse.”

“When that time comes…”

“Heh, that won’t be something either of us can control.”