Volume One: Sin Born of the Heart

Prologue: Tianyi

December 3rd, overcast.

When I opened my eyes, it was already past ten in the morning. Without pulling back the curtains, I knew the sky outside was shrouded in gloom. The damp air had seeped into the room, the bed, and even my bones.

I had only two choices: either make myself a cup of coffee, or close my eyes and hope that when I opened them again, it would already be December 4th.

In the end, I got up anyway.

Today, like always, I sat in the shop, praying that no one would come to patronize this dump.

An overcast afternoon is like those few minutes a child waits in line for a shot, or the seconds before a ghost appears in a horror movie.

You know something bad is bound to happen, but you can never tell when the first drop of rain will fall.

Thanks to this weather, a few hours passed quickly, and by four in the afternoon, not a single customer had shown up.

For me, this was a blissful time. I could sit behind my desk, quietly reading and drinking coffee, undisturbed by anyone.

At four-thirty, someone pushed the door open and came in. Well, I hated him.

But he did bring a bit of surprise, because he wasn't here to buy books—he was here to rob me.

As this guy walked over, pulling out a gun, I really wanted to complain to him. You know, it's getting harder and harder to deal with corpses these days, and people keep forcing me into these situations, which is really troublesome.

I did a quick calculation: pulling out the teeth, shaving off the hair, sawing into six pieces—that would take about half an hour. Driving him to Bob's pig farm would take another hour. When I got back, I'd still have to clean up the blood and trash, and then it would be too late to make dinner.

So I raised my hands, put on a look of terror, and told him in a trembling voice that all the money was in the drawer, begging him to spare my life.

I thought my acting was pretty convincing—my eyes, my tone, my body language, all perfectly portrayed. He should just take the money and leave, and then I could go back to enjoying my alone time.

But as he reached for the drawer, I suddenly remembered—I didn't have any form of currency left...

So, when he opened the drawer, he found half a slice of pizza I'd left, and half a mouse left by some unknown creature. He got angry, cursing as he pressed the gun to my head, eyes wide, asking if I thought it was funny to mess with him.

Afraid he might get too worked up and the gun might go off, I had no choice but to shove his entire handgun down his esophagus.

As he thrashed on the floor, I realized—Philadelphia's public safety is just too bad. I need to move.

These days, the streets are full of kids who think they can make "quick cash" with a crappy gun, and after wandering around, this one ended up in a rundown bookstore like mine. I seriously doubt the intelligence of people like this. Common sense says, if you're planning to rob a small or medium-sized shop, you should obviously target restaurants and convenience stores first; next would be ticket offices, clothing, and home appliance stores; the worst choices are furniture, antique, and bookstore shops.

Do people these days not even have time to estimate daily revenue and risk factors? Then why rob a store at all? Just break into a house with a weapon—there's always some cash inside.

Oh, of course, getting cash on the spot doesn't mean much. Even robbing homeless people in the subway would be better than coming here.

A few dozen seconds passed. Judging by his symptoms, he was about to go into shock, but he was still struggling to crawl toward the door.

I walked over, closed the door, flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSE facing out, and lowered the window shade. When I turned around, he was crawling at my feet, so just in case, I broke both his elbows.

Finally, I could return to my comfy armchair, take a sip of coffee, pick up my book, and continue my pleasant time.

Given his current physical state, I figured it would be hard for him to stand up. Even if he managed to prop himself up, he wouldn't be able to turn such a big doorknob with his mouth. In about half an hour, he should be dead, and his body would block the door perfectly.

Anyway, all in all, today was still an annoying day. In the end, there were still things I couldn't figure out, like the relationship between me, the mouse, the pizza, and the unknown creature, and our respective places in the food chain.

Hmm... whatever, that's not important either.

Chapter One: The Book of the Heart

In countless parallel universes, there are countless Earths, and among them is one particularly insignificant place. The story I want to tell happens there.

In this world, at the end of the twentieth century, a certain force used absolute military power to break down all barriers of ethnicity, borders, and faith, making all of humanity subjects before they even realized it. Anyone who dared to resist was wiped out completely within two years.