Chapter Sixteen
"I went there for Xuanmi, I couldn't have pulled the wrong person! Tell me honestly, what exactly happened in between? Did you switch people with me?"
Chika poked Doma's nose with her finger without any hesitation, her tone urgent and sharp, giving him no chance to lie.
Doma looked down at the finger being offered to him, and raised an eyebrow slightly.
How many years has it been? This is the first time he's been pointed at like this by a human.
Is this young girl just fearless like a newborn calf, or is she just inherently arrogant?
"Hey hey~ Okay, okay, I can't fool you."
Tong Mo slowly took out a gold-patterned folding fan, and with a flick of his finger, he gently brushed her hand away, his tone carrying a hint of perfunctory compromise.
“I admit that when you rushed over to hold Xuanmi’s hand, I secretly chopped off his hand and then replaced it with mine when you weren’t looking.”
"Liar!" Qianxia chuckled, grabbed his fan, and stood on tiptoe closer. "If someone chops off your hand, blood will spurt out, right? I was so close, and I didn't even get a drop of blood on me. How could that be?"
"I froze the wound with ice beforehand."
"You're lying again! The temperature and humidity around us haven't changed. Do you think I can't tell whether it's been freezing or not?"
"That means I froze Genmi's hands long ago."
"Liar! From the moment I rushed over to the moment I grabbed the wrong hand, it was only three seconds. Where did you find the time? You're not a god."
"..." Douma sighed helplessly, "Sigh~~ How come you're so smart?"
"You have a good brain~" Chinatsu lightly tossed her long hair and clicked her tongue at Doma. "I advise you not to be obsessed with me. I'm just a legend."
"Pfft! Hahaha!" Douma laughed out loud, his eyes glistening with tears. "You're such a lovable guy."
"You have good taste." Qianxia put her hands on her hips, her clear eyes fixed on him. "Alright, I'll forgive you for what happened earlier because you're handsome. But in exchange, you have to answer one question for me."
Tong wiped away the tears that had welled up in her eyes. "Hmm? What's the problem?"
Chika, "Are you a ghost?"
A gentle breeze rustled the trees overhead, causing their hair to dance.
Domo was stunned for a moment, then slowly smiled.
"Huh? You found out?"
The key point is that she actually said it so bluntly, without the slightest hesitation.
"Just a guess!"
Chika put her hands on her hips, her face full of slyness.
"The Twelve Ghost Moons have words in their eyes, with the waxing and waning crescent moons on the left and numbers on the right. Although I don't know what the words in your eyes are, I can still tell they are words."
"By the way, how did you carve that character?"
As she spoke, she stood on tiptoe, tilted her head back, and stared intently into his eyes, wishing she could pry them open with her hands and see them clearly.
Doma's mouth gaped slightly, genuinely surprised. "Sigh... Chika is very clever, but aren't you afraid to say it like that?"
Chika followed with a puzzled "Huh?" and tilted her head. "What are you afraid of?"
Doma tapped his chin lightly with his fan, making a drawn-out "hmm~~" sound. "Most people would be afraid if they knew I was a ghost, afraid that I would eat them."
"So, are you going to eat me?" Qianxia blinked.
Douma pursed his lips and patted his stomach. "So far, I have no such thoughts. You're quite interesting, and I don't feel like I need to save you."
"That settles it then." Qianxia crossed her arms and raised her chin high. "I'm not bragging, but even if you wanted to eat me, it wouldn't be that easy."
"Huh? Really? You're a Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corps?"
Doma looked at her with great interest. For some reason, even though she was looking down on him, he couldn't get angry.
He was not angry at her slightly arrogant demeanor; on the contrary, he liked it very much.
However, if she were a pillar, that would be a different story.
"Tsk!" Chika clicked her tongue, her expression full of disdain. "So what if you're a Pillar? What if you're a Pillar or not? Does being a Pillar make you superior?"
She took a step forward, her tone even more forceful, "If I want to be a pillar, isn't that a piece of cake?"
Seeing her hopping and puffing out in anger, Douma couldn't help but laugh out loud, tapping his golden fan in his palm.
"Looks like he's not a pillar yet."
"It definitely will be in the future!"
Qianxia glared at him fiercely, her little face puffed up, but then suddenly changed the subject.
"Speaking of which, what did you want from me? You didn't come here just to argue with me or mock me for not being a pillar, did you?"
"I've come to ask you a question."
Doma leaned against the tree trunk, his half-bent body meeting Chinatsu's gaze at him as she stood upright. He slowly twirled the golden fan between his fingertips, his tone less playful and more inquisitive.
"I want to ask you, have you ever killed a human?"
Chika gave a puzzled "Hmm?" and her eyes flashed with a fierce light.
"You came all this way just to ask me this pointless question? Isn't that a complete waste of my time?"
"Hey, don't be so fierce."
Doumo leaned forward and gently tapped her sleeve with the tip of his golden fan.
"I'm just curious, after all, you're quite close to the Demon Slayer Corps."
“Yes, I have!” Chika nodded. “Many. I’ve been killing people since I was twelve.”
When she said this, her eyes were calm, without the slightest hint of guilt or evasiveness. Her tone was also very flat, as if she were talking about killing as casually as eating.
"Huh??? I see. Well then..."
Doma's eyes lit up. He pulled the fan to his side, hooked his fingertips around the handle, and twirled it in a small circle. When he leaned closer to her, his voice was very low and had a seductive quality to it.
"Does Chinatsu want to become a demon? Becoming a demon grants eternal life."
"Hey no! My God, what does this question have to do with me committing murder? Why are you jumping to the next topic so fast?"
Chika suddenly turned her head and glared at him, "You want to turn me into a ghost? Oh no, I heard that all you ghosts work for someone named Muzan."
"You've become addicted to working your whole life, and now you want to drag me into it!"
The novel topic startled Doma, who stared wide-eyed.
"I knew you hadn't thought about this question. You must have been manipulated by your boss. So, let me ask you this: if you work for Muzan, do you get a salary? Uh, a salary means money, benefits, or income."
Doumo raised his eyebrows slightly and honestly shook his head.
"Did he provide you with food and drink every month?" Qianxia asked again, poking his arm with her finger.
Doma shook his head again.
"How many years did you work for him?"
Tongmo paused for a moment, then said, "About two hundred years."
"Damn, you're over two hundred years old."
Chika's voice rose slightly in surprise, but when she saw the sudden look of resentment in Doma's eyes, she quickly cleared her throat.
"Ahem! Sorry, all the people in my hometown who are over two hundred years old have been buried. I'm a little surprised to see a living person for the first time."
"Cough cough, you're really pitiful. You've worked for Muzan for over two hundred years."
"Look, you work for him, but he doesn't pay you, doesn't provide food, drinks, or accommodation. He exploits and oppresses you, and when he's in a bad mood, he even yells at you! Am I right?"
Doma stared into her bright eyes, lowered his fan to his side, and nodded earnestly.
Indeed, Muzan was either scolding them or giving them tasks; he basically never gave them a kind look.
"How did you know?" Douma asked, a little curious. "Do you know any other oni?"
“No, it’s just you, but I’m a working person too.” Qianxia scratched her slightly itchy nose.
"We're both in the same boat. Although I'm not a demon and have never worked for Muzan, I still know a lot about the capitalist system."
"So, in conclusion, I'm not good at being a demon, especially not for Muzan. Being human is great, you can live a carefree life, and when you get old, you can just return to dust and ashes, it's wonderful."
After saying that, Qianxia gave a thumbs up, revealing her perfect eight teeth, and said, "Does what I said make sense?"
"Sigh~ Well then, can you not join the Demon Slayer Corps?" Doma sighed helplessly, "At least not become a Pillar."
"Why? The Demon Slayer Corps is great," Chika exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise. "They provide room and board, social insurance and housing fund, a salary, clothes from head to toe, and equipment."
"As far as I know, even the lowest-ranking ones have a considerable income. Becoming a Pillar is even better; they get housing allocations, which is much better than the stingy Muzan. Why wouldn't I become one?"
“But if you join the Demon Slayer Corps, you’ll have to face demons. If you die at the hands of another demon, I’ll be very sad.”
If that's the case, we might as well let him eat it first.
Doma thought to himself, and as he thought about it, tears welled up in his eyes. He wiped them away with his fingertips, looking extremely heartbroken.
"Oh my goodness."
Chika was naturally unaware of his thoughts; in her eyes, she only saw a grown man with teary eyes.
She immediately panicked.
"Why are you crying?" Chika asked, at a loss. "You're worrying too much about me."
Qianxia cupped his face in her hands, mimicking how he wiped her face the first time he did it, and wiped away his tears. Then, she reached out and touched his head.
"Oh, actually I'm pretty good, really. I'll kill a couple of them for you to see, okay? But you, so weak and frail, you finally made it to the Twelfth Ghost Moon, and instead of catching people to eat and currying favor with the leader, you're worried about me. Is that alright?"
Doma was speechless, secretly marveling at how the Twelve Demon Moons had taken on a completely different meaning in her mouth.
Something feels off.
"You don't blame me for eating people?" Douma couldn't help but ask another question.
Qianxia fell silent. "To be honest, I do find it a bit disgusting that you eat people. Firstly, it's not good, and secondly, I've heard that cannibalism makes people stupid. It's said that there's a kind of toxin in people's bodies that they can't digest, so it just accumulates in their brains and makes them dumber."
"By the way, did you eat a lot of people? You seem a bit slow."
Doma frowned when he was called stupid for the first time. He didn't quite understand how things had turned out this way.
Before Doma could react, Chinatsu withdrew her hand from wiping his tears and rubbing his head.
She lowered her brows, looking helpless, and then with a "whoosh," drew her Nichirin Blade from her waist.
"Don't cry! How about this, I'll show you my skills and one-shot that evil spirit, okay?"
Chika resumed her smiling expression, raising her hand and pointing the tip of her blade at the man watching the show from the rooftop.
"Hey! Have you seen enough? If you have, come and pay the fee."
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