Chapter 7 - The shine that sees itself
"What others call a miracle, I call it: it's only the beginning. "
The whole city was talking about him.
Not like the shadow of the Prince.
Not like the guinea pig of a cruel apothecary.
No.
They said his name cautiously.
With admiration. Sometimes with fear.
Xu Fang
A young man with a disturbing beauty, with an unfathomable look.
But above all... a healer like we had never seen before.
Eight months.
It had been eight months since Yuèyao's first injections.
Eight months of pain, fever, nightmares.
Eight months of silence. Of Observation. Of Learning. Of endurance.
And from this agony, he had forged an art nouveau.
A remedy capable of erasing a scar without leaving the slightest trace.
As if the wound... had never existed.
The people spoke of miracles.
He called it:
The beginning.
In truth, Xu Fang had already designed dozens of new remedies.
But most remained hidden.
Too powerful. Too dangerous.
Or... too personal.
Some bottles slept in a sealed box, under his bed.
Opaque liquids, with disturbing reflections.
And on each, a nameless label.
"Not yet. "
And what no one knew either...
It is that by dint of surviving the poisons of Yuèyao,
His own blood had become toxic.
By accident?
At first, yes.
But now?
By choice.
He had even developed an antidote that deactivates or reactivates this toxicity at will.
His blood had become a weapon.
Silent. Slow. Controlled.
Even Yuèyao couldn't believe it.
- "You went further than me..." she had whispered one night.
- "No," Ken replied.
"I just survived longer. "
ー
But medicine was not his only victory.
By observing him, he had also learned cooking, the alchemy of tastes, listening to silence.
The way a dish can reveal a heart.
How a silence can humiliate more than a word.
He had learned the perception.
And through that...
He had rebuilt his beauty.
His skin was smooth like old glass.
His dark eyes shone like two luminous abysses.
His hair reflected the light in a way impossible to copy.
He had become a being who seemed too perfect for this world.
Too sculpted. Too quiet. Too much... alive.
And now, in the whispered murmurs,
Another name came back:
Liyan
The Ice Prince.
The icon of refinement and power.
But today...
Xu Fang had become his equal.
In beauty.
In the aura.
In mystery.
ー
The only difference?
Liyan was a prince.
Xu Fang, a servant.
ー
And yet...
Liyan looked at him with pride.
- "You have become what only I could have imagined," he said one evening. - "And that... it's beautiful. "
They had become like two twin stars.
The one born noble.
The other, forged in the fire.
That evening, they arrived together at a great reception of the nobility.
The conversations were interrupted.
The eyes froze.
A silent tension invades the room.
"Who is this boy?" "
— "He's not just a servant... "
- "He shines like a nobleman, but I don't know him... "
An elegant woman approached Liyan.
- "Your Grace... how did you find such a jewel? "
Liyan smiles.
- "Him? He is my best disciple. "
In the shadow of a pillar, Yueyao observed.
She didn't wear her apothecary dress that night.
But his gaze remained surgical.
She saw Ken.
And whispered in silence:
"He's not my disciple.
It's... my best experience.
The resurrected guinea pig. "
While the others were celebrating, Ken thought. I've been stuck in this world for two years.
Two years away from my father, my mother... my little sister.
He looks at the nobles.
Smiles. The dresses. The theatre.
And he whispers to himself:
- "When I was a slave, no one cared about me.
Now that I'm showing something... everyone wants me.
It's sad that the world works like this."
He looks down.
But his eyes are still burning.
End of Chapter 7