After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 35
by Little PandaA Gentle Kiss
If you don’t melt that cage, I’ll ignore you
Yun Heng’s voice carried a fragility that would shatter at the slightest touch. She buried herself against her shimei’s neck, tears soaking through Wen Qiwu’s collar.
Tears welled in Wen Qiwu’s eyes. She raised her hand and gently patted her shijie’s trembling back, repeating over and over, “I’m right here.”
Her shijie’s body ran cold, yet her tears seared hot against Wen Qiwu’s heart until it ached. Wen Qiwu shifted slightly, only to find that this made her shijie tremble with fear.
She didn’t dare move again, simply letting herself be held in her shijie’s embrace.
“Ah Que…” Yun Heng’s voice came in a faint tremor, so soft that one might not catch her words without straining to listen.
“Have you forgiven me?” All these years, what Yun Heng saw in her dreams was the twisted Heart Demon, while her shimei’s true form never once appeared. As the days passed, her thoughts spiraled into dark places—wondering if her shimei had grown to despise her.
A faint ache rose in Wen Qiwu’s chest. “Shijie, I never blamed you. You developed a Heart Demon—those words were the Heart Demon spouting nonsense! They weren’t my feelings at all!”
Yun Heng’s arms tightened slightly around her, though it was unclear whether she had taken the words in.
“Shijie would rather believe the Heart Demon than trust me?”
“No!” Yun Heng shook her head immediately, a trace of panic flickering in her eyes. Fearing Wen Qiwu would misunderstand, she hurried to explain, “I believe you.”
“I just… Ah Que, Shijie wants to leave with you. May I?” Yun Heng’s voice carried a thread of pleading. If she could depart with Ah Que, she could die content.
Wen Qiwu’s heart ached for her. She was about to nod, but suddenly realized that what her shijie meant might be very different from what she thought—her shijie was begging for death!
“No!” she said with absolute finality.
“Qiwu…” Her shijie’s tear-choked voice made it impossible not to soften.
Wen Qiwu gentled her own voice. “Shijie, as long as you… want to see me, I’ll stay by your side.”
Though what happened back then had left Wen Qiwu with no small shadow, if her shijie needed someone now, she couldn’t bring herself to leave in good conscience.
“No more, no more…” It was hard to say whether Yun Heng in this moment was lucid or confused. Or perhaps the scene before her was so beautiful it felt unreal, so she could still dimly perceive the reality that Wen Qiwu had already “passed away.”
“Ah Que isn’t coming back.” Every word Yun Heng spoke felt like a blade slicing her own heart until it bled freely.
“Let me go with you, please? Ah Que, I’m begging you—Shijie truly can’t endure anymore.” She sobbed her plea.
Before she knew it, tears were streaming down Wen Qiwu’s face as well. Just as she wanted to tell her shijie that she had always been here, she heard her shijie murmur an answer to the question the Heart Demon had just posed.
“Ah Que, I love you…”
Wen Qiwu’s entire body went rigid; her breathing faltered uncontrollably.
The silence struck fear into Yun Heng’s heart. She didn’t know if she had said the wrong thing, nor whether her shimei was willing to hear this belated confession.
Her shijie’s increasingly violent trembling brought Wen Qiwu back to her senses. No joy showed on her face—at most, there was only sympathy for her shijie’s reaction.
“Alright, alright, I know.” Wen Qiwu’s tone was more like coaxing a child. She patted her shijie’s back again, truly like soothing a child.
If Wen Qiwu had heard these words a century ago, she would have been overjoyed. But now?
Her shijie had been driven nearly to madness by the Heart Demon. How much self-awareness did she still have? Were her words genuine? Or had they been coaxed out by the Heart Demon, or born of guilt?
Wen Qiwu believed in Yun Heng’s protective love for her as a shijie. But romantic love between Dao Companions… Wen Qiwu couldn’t be certain of her shijie’s heart, nor did she know whether her shijie had sorted out her own feelings.
Wen Qiwu dared not easily surrender herself again. She feared that once her shijie recovered and regained her clarity, she would say it had all been a misunderstanding.
“Ah Que?” Yun Heng loosened her grip slightly. Wen Qiwu raised her hand and gently wiped the tear stains from her cheek, her expression unchanged from before.
Yun Heng belatedly realized that her shimei didn’t seem to believe her—and she had only herself to blame.
“Shijie, you can come with me—but the way won’t be quite what you imagine.”
At the first half of that sentence, Yun Heng’s expression brightened. The corners of her lips curved upward, more radiant than the most beautiful blossoms in the plum garden had ever been. She looked not as though she were seeking death, but as though she were attending a long-awaited wedding after a century apart.
This was the happiest Yun Heng had been… no, to be precise, the happiest she had been in a hundred years.
Yet the turn in Wen Qiwu’s latter words made her tense again. What did she mean, the way won’t be quite the same?
“Shijie.” Wen Qiwu took Yun Heng’s hand, warming her icy hands with the heat of her own palms.
“I will always stay with you.” Until you no longer need me.
“And these past few days, I’ve been right beside you—you just haven’t noticed.”
A touch of bewilderment crept into Yun Heng’s eyes. “Beside me…”
“Yes. Shijie, do you remember the cage that little Ah Yue gave back to you?”
“The cage… I remember. It held Qingtuan.”
Her shijie had confused her with Qingtuan again. Wen Qiwu sighed, but it didn’t matter—once she left that wretched cage, her shijie wouldn’t mix them up anymore.
“I’ve been inside it this whole time… Shijie, I hate that cage. Will you melt it for me?” Wen Qiwu never wanted to see that cage again in this lifetime!
Her sweetly pouting tone could melt Yun Heng’s heart entirely. Never mind melting a cage—she’d probably jump into a forging furnace herself if Wen Qiwu asked.
“Remember to let me… let the bird out and don’t keep her caged anymore. Shijie, you have to remember! Otherwise, otherwise… I’ll ignore you!” It took Wen Qiwu a long while to squeeze out this threat that didn’t sound threatening at all.
To anyone else, these words might sound more like pouting. But to Yun Heng, this was the most effective threat imaginable—her face changed the moment she heard them.
“I’ll definitely remember!” Yun Heng repeated it several times over, as if stamping the words into her consciousness, lest she forget them in her delirium.
“Also, Shijie—what exactly are you planning by keeping the Ten Thousand Souls Demon Lord imprisoned? Is it something dangerous?” Wen Qiwu narrowed her eyes, still rimmed red, taking in every subtle shift in her shijie’s expression.
Yun Heng, who had answered every question before, suddenly faltered.
“Never mind. If Shijie doesn’t want to tell me, then I’ll just leave.”
“No!” Yun Heng panicked at once, gripping Wen Qiwu’s wrist and refusing to let go. “I—I sought a secret technique from the Demon Realm… to bring you back to life.”
“Shijie already tried other secret techniques before, but they all failed. Ah Que… it’s Shijie’s incompetence. In the end, I could only resort to that dark and unclean method.”
Wen Qiwu stepped forward and embraced her again, making no effort to be polite about wiping her tears on her shijie’s clothes. “You’re not allowed to talk about yourself like that, and you’re not allowed to touch that Demon Realm secret technique anymore! How inauspicious!”
Her shijie’s body had grown weaker by the day—that Demon Realm secret technique was absolutely to blame!
“Alright.” Yun Heng agreed with unusual compliance. Whatever her shijie promised, she would follow through—of that, Wen Qiwu had no doubt.
“And whether I’m by your side or not, you have to take good care of yourself.” Wen Qiwu could feel how much thinner her shijie had become in her arms. If an ordinary person had this constitution, a gust of wind might knock them over.
Yun Heng said nothing. While Wen Qiwu chattered on with her instructions, Yun Heng simply listened in silence. It wasn’t until Wen Qiwu noticed and insisted on hearing her shijie’s agreement that Yun Heng, who had been silent for a long while, finally nodded as Wen Qiwu wished.
Though for Wen Qiwu, the century spent sleeping in her egg was but the blink of an eye, she still had endless words and questions for her shijie.
But the dream’s time was limited. Before Wen Qiwu could finish asking her questions, she noticed the distant landscape being swallowed by white light.
This was the sign that the dream’s owner was about to awaken. She had to remember once her shijie woke up!
Originally, Yun Heng’s dream would have been consumed by boundless darkness, but Wen Qiwu’s arrival had lit up her dream. Yun Heng seemed to sense this; her voice carried deep reluctance and longing.
“Ah Que, thank you for coming to my dream.”
Suddenly, Wen Qiwu felt a cool yet soft touch fall upon the corner of her lips. Her eyes widened—that softness brushed her and withdrew, leaving only a lingering cold fragrance.
Her shijie was so close to her. In that instant, her mind went blank, all sounds receded, and only her own racing heartbeat remained.
Her shijie… kissed her?!
The next second, the dream shattered. Wen Qiwu was expelled from the dream space entirely and fell into the pitch-black passage she had traversed upon entering.
She stood there, stunned, unable to collect herself for a long time. It would take some time for Wen Qiwu to guide her consciousness back to her body, while Yun Heng awakened directly.
“Ah Que!” Yun Heng was still groggy when she first woke. She called out instinctively, only to find the space beside her empty—nothing at all.
But the ache in her heart was no longer the hollow, gaping agony it had been before. Instead, there was a sensation of being filled with soft down.
Her lips seemed to still carry a faint sweetness. Yun Heng touched her face and found her cheeks already streaked with tears.
The corners of her lips twitched—she was both crying and smiling.
Her shimei had come for her.
She stood somewhat unsteadily, as if wanting to go out. But when Yun Heng’s gaze fell on the birdcage not far away, a voice echoed from deep within her consciousness.
“Shijie, I hate that cage. Will you melt it for me?”
Yun Heng stopped her steps toward the door and walked to the birdcage instead. The little one inside was still sleeping—these days, it seemed to be sleeping even more than usual, curled up in the corner for most of the day. Who knew if it was ill.
Her shimei had said that if she didn’t melt the cage, she’d never pay attention to her again.
Yun Heng didn’t know why she would dream of this, but if her shimei disliked it, it truly should be melted quickly. It mustn’t drag things down and make her shimei despise her too. Yes, melt it quickly.
Yun Heng’s hand trembled slightly as she touched the lock. With a click, the cage door opened.
She scooped the little one out from inside. It was sleeping so deeply that even such a commotion didn’t wake it.
“I’ll find you a new home.” Yun Heng stroked its feathers, a soft light in her eyes. The little one would have a new home, and she could go find her own resting place.
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