Everyone Is Non-Human Except Me [Rebirth] Chapter 24

Yun Yongzhou sat at the bedside, silently watching the sleeping Wei Huan.

That shirt, mistakenly swapped all those years ago, had finally returned to its rightful owner.

Even a name that stubbornly hinted at an unresolved fate—eventually, he still waited him out.

In the quiet darkness, only a single firefly-like point of light accompanied him through the sleepless night, casting its glow across the slight curve of Wei Huan’s sleeping back—until dawn crept in.

His heart finally settled.

There was still a faint pain in Yun Yongzhou’s fingers, and a cut on his cheek. Compared to countless past injuries, these were nothing—but because of who caused them, even such minor pain became deeply meaningful.

Not everyone could form a blood pact. Some had even lost their life force due to being unable to handle the power. He couldn’t afford that risk.

Yet he couldn’t say for sure if he’d stayed up all night out of fear for Wei Huan’s safety…

…or because he feared that all he had waited for was just an illusion—a mirage.

Even though he’d confirmed it again and again, even though he was certain he wouldn’t be wrong this time—he still felt uneasy.

After all, he had shattered too many dreams before.

When Wei Huan woke up, he found himself lying on a bed. Fortunately, he was the only one there—maybe he’d climbed up in his sleep because it was cold.

Yun Yongzhou really had changed. Wei Huan yawned and sat up.

In the past, that guy would’ve kicked him off the bed, no hesitation.

While the house was empty, Wei Huan wandered around and found a full set of toiletries on the coffee table.

Really changed…

Brushing his teeth, he stared at his current face in the mirror—examining it carefully.

Good-looking, sure. But no matter how he looked at it, it didn’t look as handsome as his old self. Wei Huan frowned and spat out the foam.

After washing his face, he pressed it close to the mirror again, looking left and right. This face was too delicate, looked so weak—perfect for pretending to be an innocent little bunny.

Wei Huan couldn’t help but reach up and touch his cheekbone. Even though he knew, the blue demonic markings would never appear there again.

“Sigh, no taste at all.”

Just as he finished washing up, the doorbell rang. Wei Huan walked to the door, and on the electronic screen was a girl wearing the Yansui Academy uniform.

“Hello? Instructor Yun asked me to deliver something. He’s out on a mission.”

Wei Huan didn’t dare speak casually, so he used the electronic screen to send a message to the screen outside.

[What is it?]

The girl began showing off the desserts and snacks she’d bought from the Shanhai cafeteria like a TV shopping host, one by one. Wei Huan was tempted.

It was all the stuff he used to love eating the most—he hadn’t had it in seven years!

[Please leave it at the door. I’ll come get it in a bit.]

Standing in front of the screen, Wei Huan watched the girl place the items down and walk away. He waited at least three more minutes before daring to open the door—but then realized, the door required facial recognition to open.

He definitely wasn’t registered in the instructor system. What now?

Never one to give up easily, Wei Huan still tapped the scan option.

After the scan, there was a click.

“What the h*ll?” Wei Huan couldn’t believe it as he pulled the handle. “It actually opened…”

Was the security system at Shanhai University’s staff dorms really this reckless?

But the moment he saw the large bag of snacks on the ground, Wei Huan stopped caring about security. His mind was full of food—ever since he was reborn, he hadn’t eaten anything remotely satisfying.

Of course, he paid the price for his gluttony.

“Ah Huan!”

Just as Wei Huan had stuffed himself and was sneaking back to the academy, he was about to pass through the Yansui barrier when someone called his name. Turning around, he saw it was Jing Yun.

“What’s wrong?” Wei Huan turned and saw Jing Yun running toward him in a panic. “What happened? You look scared to death.”

“It’s—it’s you!” Jing Yun bent over, hands on hips, panting. “I… you…”

“Slow down, I’m afraid you’ll pass out in front of me,” Wei Huan looked around and helped steady him. “That’d be extortion, you know.”

Jing Yun took a deep breath. “You—are you really living with Instructor Yun Yongzhou now?”

…

“What?!!” Wei Huan looked utterly dumbfounded, then instinctively clapped a hand over Jing Yun’s mouth. “You—you—what nonsense are you spouting… who told you that?”

“Mmmph mmmph…” Jing Yun’s mouth was firmly covered. He pulled out his phone from his Fuyao Academy uniform pocket and handed it to Wei Huan. Wei Huan looked—it was the Shanhai University BBS, with posts going viral showing photos of him at the staff dorm entrance!

“Holy sh*t…” Wei Huan let go of Jing Yun, pushed the square gemstone on his ring, and a holographic screen appeared above it—his phone screen. He tapped into the forum. No need to search—the homepage was already flooded with threads about him.

Jing Yun instantly turned into a curious baby. “How’d you do that? I didn’t know you could use it like that.”

Wei Huan scrolled with a frown while answering, “No one told you? This thing can project screens. Just set it up in your school-issued phone. D*mn… that girl actually hid and secretly took pictures of me. So shady!”

“So you really are living with Instructor Yun?” Jing Yun leaned in close.

Wei Huan closed the screen with a swipe. “Live my *ss.” He tried explaining, but couldn’t figure out where to start. “Anyway, it’s not what you think. My relationship with him isn’t…”

“Stupid human!”

Yang Ling suddenly dropped from the sky, folding her elegant dark blue wings. She tossed her twin tails proudly. “How does it feel to have a pact to the strongest Golden Crow?”

“Pact????” Jing Yun was once again stunned and grabbed both of Wei Huan’s arms.

Wei Huan stared at the oblivious Yang Ling, dead inside. He gritted his teeth. “Your timing is just perfect…”

“But of course~” Yang Ling was totally blind to the tension, smiling smugly. She spun her ring, summoning a holographic screen. “Not only did I arrive at the perfect time, I helped clear your name too!”

Hearing that, Wei Huan suddenly had a very bad feeling.

“…What did you do, young miss?”

Yang Ling pushed the screen toward him. Curious Jing Yun crowded over his shoulder and whispered, “I wanna see too.”

“Let’s see, then…” Wei Huan stared at the screen—it was a post from Yang Ling!

[You ignorant people, this lady—your eye-witness—will graciously tell you the truth: Instructor Yun and the dumb human aren’t living together. They have a pact. Now move along~]

Is she crazy???

Wei Huan tried scrolling, but realized he didn’t have access. He grabbed Yang Ling’s hand and tried to use hers. She yanked her hand back with a yelp. “What are you doing? No touching! I was just being nice. No need to freak out.” Then she dismissed the screen and clapped her hands. “There! No more rumors about you now.”

As if that helps… Wei Huan was at a loss. How did this little princess even survive to this age?

“Thank you. Thank your whole family,” he said lifelessly and patted Jing Yun on the shoulder. “I know you’re confused. So am I. Let me recover. I’ll explain at dinner tonight.”

Jing Yun looked earnest. “You’re still having dinner with me tonight?”

Wei Huan: “…What else would I do?”

Jing Yun scratched the back of his head. “I mean, don’t you have to eat with your master?”

WHO THE H*LL IS MY MASTER?!

Wei Huan jabbed his finger at Jing Yun a few times, clearly wanting to say something, but ended up holding it in. He turned around and stepped into the Yansui Academy’s barrier.

Back at Yansui, nearly everyone he passed by was looking at him. Honestly, whether in his previous life as Nine Phoenix or now reborn as this weak human, Wei Huan had always been the center of attention—just that, since his rebirth, those gazes were rarely friendly. He pretended not to notice the strange looks and walked back to class on his own.

“Wei Heng.”

As he turned the corner of the fourth-floor staircase, Wei Huan suddenly heard someone call his name.

That voice was all too familiar.

He took a deep breath and turned around, looking across a few steps toward someone who had once been a friend. “…And you are?”

Su Buyu smiled gently. Beneath his right eye, a patch of translucent merfolk scales shimmered faintly in the sunlight. “You probably don’t remember me. I was actually there on the day of the academy selection ceremony, right next to Yun Yang.” He walked up a few steps. “I just arrived at Yansui to take over some work. Happened to see you, so I wanted to talk.”

With people constantly passing by the staircase, the two eventually moved to a bench in the garden downstairs. Behind them stood a well-grown crabapple tree, its bloom nearing the end, scattering pale pink and white petals around them.

“I heard you’ve got solid close-combat fundamentals.” Su Buyu handed him a cup of danmu juice from a vending machine. “I couldn’t attend your freshman match. A bit of a pity.”

Wei Huan looked at the juice he offered, hesitating. This had once been his favorite drink. Su Buyu was someone he had met upon entering high school—like Yang Sheng, someone who had been a close friend.

“Relax, humans can drink it too.”

In the end, he still took it.

Su Buyu looked over at a group of Yansui students training nearby, then suddenly said, “It’s been tough these days, hasn’t it?”

Wei Huan froze, his fingers tightening around the cup. “Hmm?”

“You’re the only human in the entire school. You must’ve faced a lot of unfair treatment.” Su Buyu’s tone was gentle, his pronunciation always soft yet carrying a calming weight. “Just guessing.”

Wei Huan fully understood what he meant.

Su Buyu was a half-demon.

Whether in the demon world that revered power or in the human world that distanced itself from demons, half-demons were always outcasts—unaccepted and unwelcomed by either side.

“I used to have a friend, a bit like you.” Su Buyu chuckled self-deprecatingly after he said this, lowering his head. “That probably sounds really cliché, but I mean it.”

To be honest, Wei Huan had already started panicking when he said the first sentence.

This was Buyu—could he reveal his identity to him? Wei Huan asked himself.

Would he be like Yang Sheng, believing he was a traitor?

He still didn’t dare.

“Really?” Wei Huan smiled and finished the juice. “Your friends must all be powerful demons. How could they be anything like me?”

Su Buyu’s eyes were like a deep, still lake, always reflecting the warmest light when looking at Wei Huan. “He was strong. But not just in demonic power—also in his heart.”

“When I needed recognition the most, he gave it to me. He told me I wasn’t a freak, and I wasn’t weak.”

Memories began to slowly fill Wei Huan’s mind.

The smiling face before him gradually overlapped with the boy from back then, covered in wounds.

Time is the gentlest kind of montage.

Su Buyu would never forget those dark, oppressive teenage years—never.

As a child, he had been born in Fanzhou. Life was difficult, but he and his mother relied on each other, and it was a relatively happy childhood.

Until his identity as a merfolk was exposed.

His childhood friends slowly drifted away. Everyone knew that mermaid tears could become pearls, so his curious and greedy human classmates bullied him relentlessly, trying everything to make him cry.

To see if his tears would become valuable pearls.

All of humanity’s anger toward the demon race was vented on him, despite the fact that the same blood flowed in his veins.

Violence, greed, desire, oppression.

At such a young age, Su Buyu could no longer cry.

Watching her child suffer, his human mother could do nothing. The sorrow made her ill, and on her deathbed, she gave him all she had left.

“Go to the demon realm. That’s your true home.”

But what home did he have? He had nowhere to go—only the demon realm remained. He left Fanzhou alone and fought to survive. Through hard work, Su Buyu barely managed to get accepted into the best high school in Kunlun Void, but things didn’t improve.

The so-called elite demon heirs mocked his weak and lowly human blood, mocked his stuttering and fear, and used various demonic arts to scar him.

[Smell the stench of blood on this little stuttering freak.]

[So disgusting—he reeks of humanity.]

[Are you even a mermaid? Cry a pearl for us, why don’t you?]

During those dark days of abuse, Su Buyu’s only refuge was an abandoned student dorm.

Behind that dilapidated building was an overgrown courtyard with a small pool where he could sneak in, submerge his legs, and let them become a fish tail again.

In the silent spring, he’d use water from his palms to wash his wounds, then sit in a daze—alone.

“…Hmm?”

Someone?

He turned around in panic, and saw a boy lying on the roof of the dorm, sound asleep, only inches away from falling off the edge.

How dangerous.

Should he wake him up or leave first? Su Buyu hesitated.

Before he could decide, the boy suddenly rolled over in his sleep—right off the roof. Su Buyu nearly screamed in fright, but in the next second, a pair of black wings suddenly spread from the boy’s back with a whoosh, stirring up a gust of wind.

Floating in the air, the boy rubbed his drowsy eyes, his gaze slowly landing on Su Buyu beside the pool.

He was discovered. Su Buyu instinctively jumped into the pool.

“Hey!”

Through the clear water, the rippling light and patterns, Su Buyu, hiding underwater, watched as the person flew right above him, his face full of worry.

“Are you okay? I can’t swim, you know.”

This person could fly. On him… there was the bloodline of a great demon.

“I must have scared you, right? It’s okay, come out first. Isn’t the water in that pool cold?”

After hesitating for a long time, Su Buyu finally climbed out of the water.

“Are you alright?” The boy landed by the pool, crouched down, and reached out a hand toward him. “I’m Wei Huan from Grade 10, Class 2. Which class are you in?”

Su Buyu said nothing.

“Wow,” Wei Huan didn’t seem to mind his silence at all. Instead, he quickly found something else to be interested in, his eyes lighting up, “Your fish tail is so beautiful!”

When he smiled, his canine teeth were sharp, looking quite cute, like a little animal. “Ah, off topic. You are…?”

Su Buyu tried hard to suppress his nervousness. He could feel the powerful bloodline emanating from Wei Huan. Just seeing the demon markings on his collarbone was enough to make him feel crushed by pressure. The more he tried to act normal, the harder it became to say a complete sentence.

“I… I’m… h-half demon…”

Wei Huan smiled and shook his head, plopping down on the grass by the pool, his hands resting on his knees, a faint blue light flickering in his pupils.

“I was asking for your name.”

Su Buyu stood frozen, unable to say a word.

It was so quiet around them, quiet enough to hear the faint sounds of insects rustling out from the grass.

Suddenly, Wei Huan stretched out a hand. “Hey.”

His palm caught Su Buyu’s chin, and a small, sparkling pearl fell onto it, lightly trembling.

“Why are you crying?”