My Sister's Demon - Chapter 1

I was so hungry.

My sister hadn’t brought me anything to eat in ten days.

From the bottom of the cave, I kept peering outside, waiting and waiting for her to come with my food.

Ten days ago, she’d told me she’d been chosen to serve at the polo gathering the noble lady was hosting. The pay was generous. She would earn plenty of silver.

She’d promised to buy me half a pig this time, raw.

I counted the days again and again. The gathering had ended three days ago.

My sister had always doted on me. She could never bear to let me go hungry.

She should have been here by now.

As I thought about it, a few strange partridge cries and the sound of footsteps reached me from the mountains.

I was thrilled.

Just as I was about to call out to her, something thudded overhead.

I looked up.

There, at the mouth of the cave, lay my sister’s ruined body.

Her clothes barely covered her. She was drenched in blood.

The footsteps stopped. A man asked, “We’re just leaving her here? Shouldn’t we bury her?”

A hem densely woven with gold thread and a pair of carved-jade-soled shoes made of Shu brocade passed briefly above the opening.

Someone gave my sister’s body a vicious kick.

A woman’s contemptuous voice rang out.

“Bury her? A pauper’s daughter dared dream of seducing my dear prince! Even if she died in the middle of the street, one word from me and no one would dare interfere. You two filthy men got the better end of the bargain. Still, letting her work off all that whorish lust before she died was a favor to her.”

The other man chimed in. “You’re worrying for nothing, Brother Shen. What can’t our Lady Pingyang handle? But there might be wild beasts in these woods. Let’s hurry and leave. It’s dangerous.”

That set the woman off.

“So you two know these woods are dangerous! Yet the Crown Prince insists on coming here. That peasant girl’s house is at the foot of the mountain. He says he’s coming to find a treasure. I say the little whore bewitched him and he wants a secret meeting!”

“Surely you’re joking, my lady. Why would the Crown Prince ask where a peasant girl lives? It’s only a coincidence. You’re worrying too much.”

“Too much? He told me he’s coming tomorrow!”

“Isn’t that perfect? She’s dead now… Once he sees her corpse, he’ll give up on her.”

Their voices faded into the distance.

Above me came my sister’s dying call.

“Yao’er…”

My name was Yao’er.

My sister had given it to me.

She said that even though I was a demon, I was still her little sister. So she called me Yao’er—her littlest one.

When I first met her, a Daoist priest had beaten me to a pulp.

I fled all over the mountain, running blindly, and found her gathering medicinal herbs.

Grasping at my last hope, I used my mind-reading magic to see the face of the person she cared about most. Then I tried with all my strength to take that person’s form.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t very good at demon magic.

My clumsy effort produced a poor imitation.

The person she missed was a kindly woman. I became a little girl who looked somewhat like her.

It worked in a way I hadn’t expected.

Her eyes filled with tears at once.

“Mother? Have you been reborn?”

I darted into her arms and whimpered for her to save me.

She nodded.

But my magic lasted only a little while. By the time the priest caught up, my true form was exposed.

I turned back into a small snake, coiled around her wrist.

My cold, scarlet body made her shudder.

I thought she’d abandon me once she saw what I was.

Instead, she put herself between me and the priest. She threatened to die to save me.

She was certain I was her dead mother reborn.

She told the priest that if he hurt me, she would jump off the mountaintop.

A cultivator could not take a mortal’s life.

So the priest shut me inside a cave. Only my sister’s blood could open its entrance.

He told her I was a demon—the most venomous kind of snake demon. When I grew up, I would live on human blood, and I was skilled at bewitching people’s minds.

If she kept me under control, my karmic consequences wouldn’t implicate her.

But if I escaped the cave and wreaked havoc among mortals, she would bear the consequences of my deeds. When she reincarnated, she would suffer torment after torment.

Yet tonight, my sister’s blood wound its way along the grooves of the lock at the cave’s mouth, tracing a strange pattern.

The lock opened for good.

She seemed to have forgotten the priest’s warning.

With her final breath, she said her last words to me.

“Yao’er… For the rest of your life, live as your nature wishes.”