Chapter 6 - The Guinea Pig
"To learn what no one teaches,
You have to accept what no one can endure. "
ー
Ken had woken up two days later, alone, lying on a rough bench.
His muscles were still burning. His bones vibrated.
His throat was dry, his memories blurred.
But he wasn't dead.
And that meant one thing:
The experiment was successful.
ー
Yuèyao arrived, as if nothing had happened.
A notebook under the arm. A green vial between the fingers.
— "Can you still stand up? "
He straightened up, without answering.
His legs were shaking. Dried blood stuck to his temples.
She watched him look at a strange plant.
Almost fascinated.
- "Good. Today, we are testing the nerves. "
Thus began the hell.
Every day, she injected him with a different poison.
Rare extracts. Sometimes forbidden.
Decoctions of plants that made tigers delirious.
He was vomiting black.
Sweating endlessly. Fell unconscious.
Woke up with dilated pupils, swollen veins, trembling hands.
And she, Yueyao, noted everything.
Coldly. Clinically. Silently.
As if he wasn't human.
As if it were just a tool.
A guinea pig. A number.
At night, he didn't really sleep.
He was tassing. He whispered alone, in the dark.
"Hold on. One more day. Another poison. One more step."
He felt.. invisible.
Nor loved. Don't hate. Just... useful.
And yet, he held.
Because in this pain, he understood something bigger.
He understood the body.
The rhythm of poison.
The logic of pain.
He was watching Yuèyao.
His gestures. His silences.
Its mixtures, its cuts, its choices of roots, vials, needles, temperatures.
He absorbed everything.
And she, without saying it... knew it.
One evening, when he was barely panting, she whispered:
"You're still alive? "He turned his head towards her. Slowly.
A broken smile on the edge of the lips.
"You haven't killed me yet. "
She laughs.
A dry laugh. Almost sincere.
- "A real parasite. "
He replied, his lips split:
- "Or a student."
ー
The days have become weeks.
The weeks, a hellish cycle.
Yuèyao did not spare it.
She crushed it. Dissolved it. Tested it.
But little by little...
She gave him books.
Herbs to be classified.
Mixtures to try.
Recipes to be corrected.
And without ever admitting it, she accepted a truth:
This boy... was no longer a simple guinea pig.
He survived. And he understood.
One evening, she asked him:
- "Why are you doing this? "
He replied, without hesitation:
- "To know."
She stared at him for a long time.
"You will become a monster. "Ken simply replied:
- "Is that what you are? "
She got up. Without answering.
But in his eyes...
A strange thing.
A shadow. A crack.
Or... a memory.
And what she didn't know...
It's that in secret, Ken had created a remedy.
A unique concoction that activated or deactivated pain at will.
He had tested it on himself.
Sometimes just to see if he could still cry.
Sometimes to see if he had a heart left.
No one knew.
Not even Yuèyao.
That's also why he resisted so well.
Because he was not just a guinea pig.
He was no longer a servant.
He was no longer Nail.
He was already Xu Fang,
And Xu Fang was no longer human.
He was becoming something new.
Something dangerous.
Something that even Yuèyao had not planned.
ー
End of Chapter 6