Chapter 437: The Weight of a Peach

Darkness poured into his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes.

Shi Hou's world was filled in that instant.

It wasn't pain.

It was numbness.

It was a kind of heaviness that seeped out from the marrow of his bones.

He struggled a few times, his arms felt like they were filled with lead, and he couldn't lift them at all.

Then he heard footsteps.

Unhurried, each step landed in empty space.

The darkness receded.

It wasn't driven away—it withdrew on its own.

As if making way for someone.

Shi Hou knelt there, gasping, and lifted his head.

The Golden Armored Monkey appeared again.

Not just one.

But hundreds.

They formed a circle, surrounding Shi Hou in the middle.

Unlike last time, this time they weren't laughing.

No sense of relief.

No coaxing.

Their expressions were very calm.

Calm as a mirror.

Reflecting Shi Hou's own face.

"You won a round."

The Golden Armored Monkey squatted before him, its tone flat, without a ripple.

"You saw through that we're fake."

"You're clever."

"But that changes nothing."

It extended its hand.

Palm facing up.

"Your light is about to go out."

Shi Hou lowered his head and glanced at his chest.

The point of light was still there.

But it no longer pulsed.

It merely flickered weakly, like an oil lamp blown by the wind down to just the wick.

"You can't hold on much longer."

The Golden Armored Monkey's voice held no mockery—"You know that."

Shi Hou indeed knew.

He was too tired.

Since waking, he's been running, struggling, fighting, cursing, enduring.

Each time he wins, the next becomes harder.

Each time he refuses, his body grows weaker by a fraction.

His hand rested on his knee, with no strength left.

The Golden Armored Monkey's hand was right before him.

Palm facing up.

It didn't urge him.

It simply waited.

Very patient.

Shi Hou stared at that hand for a long time.

His lips twitched, wanting to curse "get lost."

But cursing takes strength.

He was almost out of the strength to curse.

His hand… moved.

It wasn't him wanting to move it.

It was his body moving on its own.

His fingertips left his knee and slowly reached forward.

One inch.

Two inches.

The Golden Armored Monkey's palm was right before his eyes.

Three inches.

Only three inches left.

As soon as you touch it, you don't need to struggle anymore.

No more pain.

No need to think about the people and things you can't remember.

Shihou's fingertip trembled in the air.

Two inches.

The Golden Armored Monkey's smile drew near.

Not that kind of fake, painted-on smile.

This smile was warm.

It was gentle.

Like the warmth inside a winter blanket.

One inch.

Shihou's fingertip could already feel the warmth of the other's palm.

Not cold.

It was the warmth of a living person.

Much warmer than Shihou's own hand.

Shihou's mind was a blank.

No resistance.

No struggle.

Like a monkey frozen for too long, instinctively wanting to get close to something warm.

Shihou's fingertip was still half an inch away.

Half an inch.

Then Shihou stopped.

It wasn't some great principle popping into Shihou's mind.

It wasn't a sudden burst of power from a light point in Shihou's chest.

It wasn't someone descending from Heaven to pull Shihou back.

Shihou's nose twitched.

Shihou smelled a scent.

Shihou's nostrils involuntarily flared twice.

That scent was very faint.

It was so faint it was almost impossible to grasp.

But it didn't belong here.

It wasn't anything from this dark world.

——Peach.

It wasn't that sickly sweet fake fragrance in the Prison.

It wasn't the fake fruit placed on a fruit tray that tastes like wax when you bite into it.

It was a … peach scent with an earthy note, not quite ripe, even a bit sour.

Like the kind just plucked from the branch.

Its skin still had dew and leaf fragments stuck to it.

Shihou's fingertip hovered in the air.

Shihou's nostrils flared twice again.

Three times.

Four times.

That scent grew clearer and clearer.

It wasn't coming from outside.

It was welling up from within Shihou's own body.

It was as if something was being drawn out by this scent.

It wasn't an image.

It wasn't a sound.

It was an action.

Shihou's right hand unconsciously made a gesture.

Five fingers spread, reaching upward——

Then Shihou grasped.

There was nothing in the void.

But Shihou's fingers made the shape of clutching a round object.

This action was too familiar.

So familiar that Shihou's body reacted before his mind did.

Reach out.

Reach the branch tip.

Clutch.

Pull.

He stuffed it into his mouth.

He took a bite.

Too sour.

He spat it out.

He picked another one.

Still sour.

He threw it away disdainfully.

Have another.

This time it's sweet.

He chewed until his mouth was full of juice.

He hadn't even had time to swallow—

"Pesky monkey! Stealing peaches again!"

This shout exploded from the deepest part of memory.

Not gentle.

It's disdainful.

It's helpless.

It's the kind where Ming got angry but too lazy to really hit— indulgent.

Stone Monkey's hand jerked back.

Like being scalded.

Not scalded by darkness.

Scalded by this voice.

Scalding hot.

Scalded so his five viscera and six bowels twitched.

His hand clenched into a fist.

His whole arm trembled.

Not from weakness.

From pain.

A kind of indescribable pain stuck in his chest, unable to be voiced.

The Golden Armored Monkey's smile froze on its face: "What's wrong?"

Stone Monkey didn't look at it.

He lowered his head, staring at the palm of his other hand.

Empty.

Nothing at all.

But his five fingers were making a motion— clench, release, clench again.

As if repeatedly feeling the weight of a peach-sized object.

That taste remained.

A sour, astringent, earthy taste, not very tasty.

Along with this taste surging up, it wasn't some grand declaration of "I want to live on."

Not some heroic vow of "I will never abandon my Master."

Just a very tiny thing.

So small it's not worth mentioning.

—the joy of stealing peaches.

Just that little trivial matter.

He crouched in the tree, mouth stuffed with an unripe peach, sour enough to make his teeth grimace.

Someone down below was cursing him.

He didn't come down.

The louder the cursing, the higher he perched.

Finally that person sighed and left.

He hehe-laughed in the tree for a while.

Then he continued gnawing that sour peach.

Just that little thing.

Not worth money.

Not great.

Not profound.

Doesn't need any meaning to support it.

Doesn't need to prove whether it's worth it.

It is just joy.

A monkey perched in a tree stealing peaches and being scolded—that's the joy in the world that needs no reason.

The Golden Armored Monkey stood before him, still wearing that warm smile on its face.

Stone Monkey slowly raised his head.

He looked at that smiling face for a long time.

Then he discovered.

Eyes.

Golden Armored Monkey's mouth was smiling, face smiling, even eyebrows curved into a nice arc.

The eyes were dead.

Like two glass beads set in the eye sockets.

No light.

No warmth.

No vitality.

Shihou stepped back a step.

His voice was very soft.

So soft it was like talking to oneself.

But each word carried a kind of certainty squeezed out from the bone gaps.

"You didn't let go."

Golden Armored Monkey's smile froze.

"You are dead."

The faces of those surrounding monkeys all changed.

Shihou shook his head.

His eyes had no anger, no arrogance.

Only a kind of quiet, certain thing.

"Unyielding is not selfish."

"Wanting to live is not a mistake."

"Even if we can't win—"

He clenched his fist.

Nails dug into flesh, blood seeped from between fingers.

"——I also don't want to become like your dead faces."

Golden Armored Monkey's mouth corner twitched.

Its smile couldn't be maintained.

"You—"

"I'd rather live in pain."

Shihou's voice suddenly got loud.

Hoarse, unpleasant, like a broken gong.

"Also don't—die smiling."

At the moment the words fell.

That faint light point on his chest jumped violently.

A fierce one.

It made his whole chest cavity tremble.

Golden Armored Monkey's face began to crack.

Cracked open from the middle.

One crack.

Two cracks.

Like dried cracked clay.

Other monkeys also cracked.

This time they didn't turn into black mist.

But shattered into gray-white powder.

When the powder fell, Shihou smelled a rotten odor.

Not the smell of peach.

It's the smell of death.

After all the debris fell, darkness became quiet.

Quiet for a long time.

Shihou sat in place, pressing the fist clutching the "nonexistent peach" against his chest.

The light point was jumping.

Although weak.

But it jumped along with his fist.

One beat.

One beat.

As if saying— I am still here.

He is still here too.

The silence lasted an unknown length of time.

Then a sound came from the depths of the darkness.

It wasn't the previous kind of equal and gentle tone.

It wasn't fury either.

It was…… something very unfamiliar.

It felt like the first time being choked by something.

……You choose pain?

The voice asked.

Shihou raised his head, grinning at the darkness.

The corners of his mouth were dry and cracked, his teeth stained with blood.

But that smile was alive.

"I'm happy to."

The darkness did not respond.

Silence.

A long silence.

Then——

The darkness split.

It wasn't split open by a point of light.

It was it splitting itself open.

From the very center, a crack.

What seeped out of the crack was not light, but a breath.

A breath that made Shihou's hairs stand on end, unfamiliar yet familiar.

That breath carried a voice.

Very far.

Very old.

Very weary.

But steady as a mountain.

……Enough.

Two words.

Shihou's pupils were trembling.

Not because of fear.

But because of that voice——

And that line "The mischievous monkey steals peaches again"——

It was the same person.