Am I Dying?

"Ugh—!" Jin Jiuchi's stomach flipped and he clasped his mouth shut, resisting the urge to hurl.

Again, he felt something squirm in the depth of his throat. Not bile, but something smaller, thin and solid just like… a finger?

It pressed on the base of Jin Jiuchi's tongue as though trying to wiggle its way out, sending a burst of bitter and sour taste exploding all over his oral cavity. It was like he had eaten a piece of rotten, moldy meat that had been left in a stuffy and locked room for weeks.

Another wave of nausea churned his stomach and Jin Jiuchi desperately held himself back from vomiting to the point where his eyes watered. He was positive he had never stooped so low and resorted to eating something dirty even when he felt so famished that he could die, so where did this little finger come from?! Had he eaten it while sleepwalking?!

By now, the finger was steadily reaching out of the column of his throat inch by inch. Jin Jiuchi could even feel the scratch of the blunt nail on his palate as though forcing him to open his mouth…

In that one suspended moment, a distant memory flashed through his mind out of nowhere.

The air around him was hazy as if blanketed by a thick layer of fog, but somehow he knew that he was looking at the white ceramic tiles of his room in the asylum. He was kneeling with his head hung low. An indistinct voice echoed in his ears from above, "I told you to stop being picky! Do you know what happens to children who like to pick on their food? It will get angry at you and crawl out of your stomach! Do you want that to happen?!"

'So what they said is true!' Jin Jiuchi thought fuzzily amidst the relentless attack of nausea, aggrieved. 'I am being picky again and now my food is angry. It want to crawl out of my stomach!'

No, Jin Jiuchi couldn't allow it to happen! When the finger forcibly pried his gritted teeth open, Jin Jiuchi opened his mouth wide and bit down on the finger before it could escape!

The crunchy and crisp sound of broken bones reverberated through his ears. Jin Jiuchi closed his eyes and willed himself to ignore how horrible it tasted as he continued to chew on the finger and swallow it back to his stomach!

Almost in an instant, a shrill scream resounded in a far distance. "AH—!"

The harrowing silence receded like a cicada shedding its shell and all kinds of sound suddenly exploded into his eardrums. Jin Jiuchi could once again hear the thrum of water slapping against the floor from the next stall, the rustle of footsteps as Nian moved to grab something from the basin, and also the faint conversation between Tang Ye and Xinxin outside…

Jin Jiuchi braced his hand against the wall and retched. "Huek—!"

The sounds next stall paused for a second. "...What's wrong?"

Jin Jiuchi wanted to answer that, yet as soon as he opened his mouth, what came out was only a retching sound, this time louder. The muscles on his entire body tensed, his throat spasmed and in the next second, dark colored liquid gushed out of his mouth, it was akin to coagulated blood. And interspersed between the blood was pieces of red meat and small clumps of hair.

He faintly registered the screech of curtain being yanked aside, then Nian's horrified voice sounded, "Yang Rouchuan!" He hurried to Jin Jiuchi's side and grabbed his arm when he swayed on his feet, "What's wrong? Are you okay?!"

'Who the hell is Yang Rouchuan?' Jin Jiuchi thought dizzily. But then the recollection hit him one second later, 'Oh right, it's the name I introduced myself with…'

Alas, to be called a lamb skewer in such a horrible situation made it all the more ridiculous, he couldn't help but choke out a hoarse laugh as blood kept dripping out of his mouth.

"You still dare to laugh?!" Nian hit his arm angrily. "This is why you shouldn't be greedy and put everything into your mouth! Look at you, this must be due to that meat sauce you ate this morning!"

Jin Jiuchi became aggrieved again. Feeling a little weak on his knees, he crouched down and argued in a weak voice, "But we shouldn't waste food… and the meat sauce is delicious…"

"Delicious, your ass!" Nian was so furious that he almost whacked Jin Jiuchi on the head to see if he could force the man's head work a bit more properly this time. From which angle did he see that poisonous meat sauce as delicious?! And what did he say again – 'shouldn't waste food'? Was this man stupid or blind?! That kind of thing could not even be considered food!

Alas, when he saw Jin Jiuchi panting so roughly with blood smearing over half of his face, looking as if his lifespan had been cut into half, Nian found his heart softening by a small fraction. He gingerly placed his hand on the man's shoulder and patted it twice in an attempt to comfort. "...Are you okay?"

"Not okay…" Jin Jiuchi immediately seized the chance to complain and whimper with a pitiful look, "Nian'er, I just ate something so, so disgusting! I think I'm going to die because of how bad it tasted! Wait… am I dying right now? Will I end up like Old Guan?!" The more Jin Jiuchi said, the more horrified he became.

Nian was speechless. "... Don't worry. Judging from how lively you are, it looks like you won't die anytime soon."

Indeed, as soon as Jin Jiuchi hurled out that unknown liquid, he felt himself slowly getting better and better. Not only that, he also perceived a slight increase to his strength, it was as if he had just consumed an energy potion – of course, disregarding how it was shaped like a finger and tasted like rotten trash.

But how could he admit this out loud?

He buried his face into the crook of his arm and pretended to cry, "Boo-hoo! How cruel of you, Nian'er! Is this how you comfort someone on their deathbed?!"

By now, Nian already realized that Jin Jiuchi was merely being dramatic again. Holding back a curse, he hurriedly summoned his towel, wiped his body haphazardly and got dressed in record's time, thankful for the fact that Jin Jiuchi was too occupied with polishing his acting skills to notice his nudity.

"Are you done?!" He barked out angrily. "Hurry up and wash your mouth or else I'm going to leave you behind!"

That threat was more than enough to spur Jin Jiuchi to move. Foregoing his Oscar worthy acting, he hurriedly gurgled his mouth thrice until the putrid taste faded to an ignorable level, then accepted the clothes that Nian handed him. The boxer was a no-go since it was too small – Jin Jiuchi's little brother was unable to breathe within that suffocating cocoon! – and thus he could only resort to wearing sweatpants directly. Even then it was short enough that it stopped at an awkward length in the middle of Jin Jiuchi's calf.

Jin Jiuchi couldn't help but get amused, "Oooh, Nian'er, is this your clothes? So even in your real form, you're also a—" the word 'shortie' was stuck on his throat when all of a sudden, a horrified cry sounded from nearby.

It was… Xinxin!

Jin Jiuchi and Nian stared at each other for one second, then they rushed outside in unison with Jin Jiuchi's upper body still bare. "What's wrong?!"

They found Xinxin and Tang Ye leaning over the railing while looking down at something, so petrified that they did not even hear Jin Jiuchi and Nian's approach.

Curious, Jin Jiuchi walked over and peered down to see what they were staring at. And once he registered what it was on the ground floor, he instantly sucked in cold air.