The revised version is different from the original, so please bear with me. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it. Thank you.
[Shen Wuwang: A Madwoman]
She knew from childhood that she was different from other people.
When other children saw a puppy die, they cried. She only thought it stank and should be buried farther away. When other children had their candy stolen, they told on the thief. She smiled, pushed the culprit into the river, then sat on the bank eating her own candy as she watched them struggle.
The Shen family realized she was “useful” and trained her as “live bait,” sending her to explore tombs, test poisons, and lure out corpse demons. She didn't care. Dead was dead, alive was alive. Neither meant much to her. She just liked thrills, the feeling of standing on the edge between life and death. It excited her more than eating.
She didn't escape because she was “abused.” The Shen family was simply too boring, with too many rules and too much control. She killed an overseer, took the money, and left. She didn't look back, and had no intention of doing so.
Did she love money? No. She loved to “win”: turning other people's money into her own, turning their lives into her path. The thrill of taking what she wanted was better than spending money. When she counted her cash, she laughed aloud, not out of satisfaction, but as she savored how she'd conned it out of someone, stolen it, or made them kneel and beg her to take it.
Was she picky about food? No. She was picky about everything. If she didn't like the look of something, she destroyed it. If things didn't go her way, she killed. There was no reason; she simply felt like it. Food was just one example. If a meal tasted bad, she killed the cook. If a bed was uncomfortable, she burned down the inn. If someone stood in her way, she buried them. She wasn't anxious or panicked. She simply had an itch to kill.
