My Roommate is a Non-Human | Chapter 66 | The Burden of Memory | Novela.app

When I walked into that abandoned highway service station, the Ghost Butler was there waiting for me. He bowed deeply to me. "The Master is waiting for you by the sea." "He is not the Master." Even though his face was a blurred haze, I could sense the confusion in his eyes. Not just him—the last time I saw the second brother, I already found it difficult to distinguish him from his father. Despite being mentally prepared, my breath still hitched when I reached the shore. I saw his back. He was wearing a white shirt and beige trousers, hands tucked into his pockets, standing in the silent, desolate bay facing the gloomy, boundless sea. If I could, I would have given everything I owned to trade for this moment of reality. He turned around and reached out a hand toward me. "You’ve come." I clenched my fists and hid them behind my back. "Come to my side," he said. "I have waited for you for ten thousand centuries." I shook my head with quiet restraint, refusing to look into his eyes. He wasn't lying; he was speaking for Liu Wukong, but he was not that man. I was in pain, and he was in pain, yet we could not comfort each other. "It is always like this." He walked back quietly across the waves until he stood before me. "Every single time." "Every time..." "What you possess is not memory, but oblivion," he sighed, his fingers brushing past my temple. "What a wonderful thing oblivion is; I never realized it before. Oblivion allows one to easily discard the past, while memory leaves me stuck in the mire of yesterday, unable to catch up to you no matter what. No matter how hard I try, after a hundred years, the cycle begins anew. I cannot tell you the truth, nor can I beg for your forgiveness. I carefully try to win your favor, but the closer I get, the more you fear being burned by me. In the end, I can never compete with a few words from others. 'He abandoned you,' 'You are his vice,' 'He has ulterior motives'—and so you hate me, fear me, envy me, and loathe me." "I'm sorry..." I shook my head, overcome with shame. "I'm sorry I'm so terrible. I'm sorry I still can't remember." "No." Unexpectedly, he gripped my arms tight, seemingly wanting to lean in and kiss me. I instinctively dodged, and his hot breath brushed against my face. "You... you always become wonderful. The things I never gave you, you slowly groped through the dark to learn on your own. It’s not that you never gave me happiness. And so, every single time, I can see the dawn in you. Every single time, I feel that maybe this time, I can finally have you. But a hundred years is too short, Ye Xiao. Fleeting joy always passes too quickly. Oblivion always makes everything start over. I am Sisyphus, forever pushing the boulder. My efforts are eternally in vain, as I watch fate flash a mocking smile at me." "I'm sorry... I don't even understand what 'Sisyphus pushing a boulder' means." He gave a tragic laugh. "It doesn't matter." Saying this, he suddenly took my hand with renewed fervor and pulled me toward the seaside villa. "I don't need your apologies, Ye Xiao. Now you have the power to change all of this. Aren't we still together? This place is eternal. What does it matter if the world ends? I don't care. We can stay here until the end of time." Our footprints were pressed into the sand step by step, only to be washed away by the waves. I followed for a few paces before finally letting go of his hand. He turned around, looking at me with a quiet sorrow. "Why?" "This is meaningless," I said as calmly as possible. "You need to understand that you don't have to do this. You aren't him. You don't have to follow his old path. You should have your own life." "I am him." His expression darkened. "I am the Chief God of the Fifth Era. Memory does not deceive me. There is nothing else to prove a person's identity besides memory." "The true Chief God was cut into eight pieces and placed on eight altars around the world to summon the World-encircling Serpent." He stared at me in shock for a long time, then let out a raspy laugh, shaking his head in bitter misery. "You're lying. Is this another one of your little tricks? Stop playing around... I am already so tired..." He crouched down, clutching his head. "I am a god. I do not fear futility, I do not fear the long passage of time, I do not care if the world is destroyed. I have infinite energy to pursue you. I clearly knew everything that would happen, yet I still created you and fell in love with you. Do you know why? I don't even fear death, but I am being killed by loneliness... You are clearly my rib, my life's blood, my brother and my wife—why can't you understand me?!" Watching him on the verge of collapse, I felt an unprecedented panic. I didn't know what to do to ease his pain. I could no longer distinguish whether the person speaking was Liu Wukong or the second brother... Looking at that familiar face, a hallucinatory thought suddenly struck me: if it would make him feel better, I would do anything... "Stay." He pulled my hand, drawing me into his embrace. "Let us be together forever. Don't make me wait any longer." At that moment, the sea breeze suddenly shifted direction, blowing straight into my face. It was gentle, like a kiss pressed against my forehead in a memory so distant it had become a habit. "No." I couldn't help but start crying. "He is dead. You are not him." And he was waiting for me behind all things in this world. Every breath of wind, every cresting wave, every drop of rain hitting the grass—they were all stained with his scent, his feeling, and his hopeless yet never-yielding love. "What are you saying? I am standing right in front of you." The second brother leaned in, trying to grab my hand again. I slapped him across the face. "Perhaps the time I spent raising you was only a very short fragment of your memory, but that is your own unique memory. Do not forget the boy who used to clutch his little pillow and say, 'Mama, it hurts.' That is who you should be. Also, October 5th is your birthday, and it is also the day your mother suffered to bring you into this world. Remember to buy me a cake every year at that time." His expression shifted from disappointment to despair, then became somewhat distorted and fierce. "I am standing right in front of you! What nonsense are you talking about!" "Your father never lost his temper with me." I took a step back, intending to stop wasting words on him. "Liu Dengyu, tell me your father's true name." "I will not tell you my true name! The true name is my—" "Stop using the first person!" I slapped him again. "His! His! Everything belongs to him! Including me!" He looked at me in stunned silence. This time I was truly angry, and I did not look away. I stared straight at him with my harshest gaze, and in the end, he was the one who flinched. He ran quickly toward the shore, dove into the sea, transformed into the form I had first seen him in, and vanished into the deep. I didn't manage to pry Liu Wukong's true name out of the second brother's mouth. But that didn't mean we gained nothing. Ren Xing comforted me over the phone, saying, "Lu Daoshi will wait for us at the Abyss. He's good at solving riddles. In the city built for you two, there might be clues to the true name." When he said this, he was in Mexico, looking for the third piece of the remains. We had split into two groups. He and the third brother were gathering the seven pieces to bring back to the Abyss, while the eldest brother and I went to find the doctor who could... stitch him back together. That doctor was named Imhotep, the royal physician to King Zoser. The eldest brother said it was definitely him. "Back then, Father happened to suffer a minor ailment in the mortal realm—he got a fishbone stuck in his throat. That man treated Father, and Father bestowed a medical tome upon him, which even recorded the secrets of the divine bloodline. This story is recorded in a third-century Bible of the Dead; currently, only two fifteenth-century manuscripts remain. You are the only one who can awaken this doctor. You and Father are ranked among the Ennead of ancient Egypt. You were worshipped there as Father's consort and the Queen of the Gods." I gave a soft "mm." By now, it was hard for me to find any joy in snarky remarks. I was simply exhausted beyond measure. The eldest brother consulted the map and quickly pinpointed the location of King Zoser's underground tomb. He nodded to me, and I reached out my right hand toward the endless yellow sands. "I am the Mother of Humanity, the Throne of the God-King, the eldest son, brother, and wife of Osiris, the God of the Sky, the Sea, and the Underworld. My holy name is Isis. I command you to awaken from the eastern bank of the black earth and become the eternal servants of my kingdom." *** | Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 阿飘管家 | Ghost Butler | "A-Piao" is a slang term for a ghost; he is the spectral servant. | | 柳等于 | Liu Dengyu | The name of the second brother/son. "Dengyu" means "equals." | | 西西弗斯 | Sisyphus | Greek mythological figure condemned to roll a boulder uphill. | | 母难日 | Day of Mother's Suffering | A traditional Chinese way to refer to one's birthday, acknowledging the pain of childbirth. | | 伊安荷特普 | Imhotep | Ancient Egyptian chancellor and physician. | | 佐塞王 | King Zoser | Also known as Djoser, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. | | 九柱神 | Ennead | A group of nine deities in Egyptian mythology. | | 奥西里斯 | Osiris | Egyptian god of the afterlife, the underworld, and rebirth. | | 伊西斯 | Isis | Egyptian goddess of healing and magic, wife of Osiris. | | 死亡圣经 | Bible of the Dead | Likely a fictional or stylized reference to the Book of the Dead. |