The stars twinkled for a whole night, and as dawn approached, Yan Huirou finally saw the sun rise. At the peak of the mountains, golden sunlight spilled over the mountain mist.
Her story was over.
Yan Huirou thought with some peace, her and Jiang Xidai’s story was also finally coming to an end. After all, as she spoke later, due to excessive blood loss, her consciousness was already hazy, and she didn’t dare to listen carefully to what Jiang Xidai was saying. She quietly repeated everything she wanted to tell her, trying to describe her motives without any emotional coloring.
She was the sinner. So there was no need to be sad for her. To walk towards Jiang Xidai’s ending was what she should do.
“Sect Master…”
“Do you hate me?” She wanted to leave with a clear understanding, and finally asked timidly.
“…”
There was only a deathly silence in her ears.
“I hate you to the extreme.”
Two words, like a final verdict, brought her heart to silence as well. Yan Huirou swallowed, her throat a little tight, but more than that was a powerlessness spreading from her fingertips.
“Yan Huirou, you owe me a lot.”
“My suffering is filled with your shadow. Can death really pay it all back?”
“—Do you know how many times I’ve questioned what I was desperately living for?”
“Do you know the feeling of being severely injured, hovering on the brink of death?”
“You wrote, you saw, you felt guilty—perhaps your last remaining conscience made you come and find me.”
“And then what?”
“You gave a drowning person a straw, only to let her sink again halfway. Do you think you’ve paid this Seat back just like that?”
Yan Huirou closed her eyes with great guilt and said softly, “I’m sorry. If I had more time, maybe I could have given the Shasheng Sect a better reputation, to let you live here… a little more contentedly.”
But even such a small thing, she didn’t have time to do. An irresponsible creator, a weak and incompetent mother.
Due to her weakness, as the sky slightly brightened, Yan Huirou could only lie on Jiang Xidai’s lap. She felt the woman’s hand cup her cheek, squeezing a piece of flesh tightly, which hurt a little.
“I hate you,” Jiang Xidai said.
On Yan Huirou’s cheek, her tears fell drop by drop again.
“I hate you…”
Yan Huirou tasted the bitterness of her tears.
“You owe me so much, on what grounds can you leave? You should be tied to my side for your next life, even if you die, turn to dust, burn to ashes—Yan Huirou…”
But this departure was not what Yan Huirou wished for, so she could do nothing but remain silent.
The woman finally broke down. “I’m begging you… don’t go…”
Chen Cha’an frowned as she watched from outside the screen, her expression quite moved. To be honest, she had been on high alert, at the highest level of vigilance. After all, Jiang Xidai’s emotions were extremely unstable, and she was afraid that the great villain, in her extremism, would instantly strangle Yan Huirou to death. According to the original character design, Chen Cha’an felt Jiang Xidai was capable of such a degree of “betrayal.”
But, even after knowing this relationship—the woman held Yan Huirou tightly, her mouth full of hate, but what flowed from her eyes was still a love etched deep in her bones. She just couldn’t bear to part, utterly reluctant, and filled with the despair of being abandoned.
Chen Cha’an had that familiar feeling again. It was a kind of empathy for another human being that shouldn’t happen to an observer. She frowned, silently recited the work rules a dozen times, and her peripheral vision silently observed Yan Huirou’s mental fluctuations.
Due to her physical weakness, Yan Huirou’s mental fluctuations were already close to a straight line, very peaceful. The program had already detected it; this was a good time. So from beginning to end, Chen Cha’an did not interfere with her voice again.
Three, two, one…
Chen Cha’an’s hand trembled. She was silent for about three seconds, then pressed the final confirmation button for retrieval. She had waited for this day, for who knows how long. But at that moment, she heard the woman’s heart-wrenching cry, and felt a pang in her heart, as if she had done something shameful.
Chen Cha’an felt a little uncomfortable and calmly cut off the dialogue channel. It sounded more painful than a slow slicing. She didn’t know if, in the end… Yan Huirou was still conscious enough to hear Jiang Xidai’s words. Would Yan Huirou know that Jiang Xidai, even with all this, couldn’t truly hate her?
But all of this had finally returned to the right track.
Chen Cha’an sent out a signal. “My rescue work here is complete. Medical Department?”
Naturally, the research center’s response speed was always fast. They had already taken over the next phase of work. Once Yan Huirou’s physical readings stabilized, she could slowly be taken out of the nutrient solution.
Chen Cha’an leaned back in her chair, swiveling from side to side. That cry of anguish still lingered in her mind. Don’t think about it… work is over, time for a vacation, right? Do I have to be so emotional about work? Really.
Chen Cha’an hesitated for a long time, then stood up, turned off her computer, and decided to go and check on Yan Huirou’s condition.
In the pristine white ward. The young woman lay in the ocean-like nutrient solution, as quiet as before. With her consciousness returned, her body’s various readings finally began to slowly rise. This body had been deeply poisoned by her, and it had taken a long time to purify. Today, it was finally welcoming back its “soul.”
But she was still far from waking up; she would probably have to soak for a few more days. Chen Cha’an watched with a complex gaze as medical staff came and went, methodically doing their work.
The sound of leather shoes tapping on the floor came from behind. This cadence… Chen Cha’an suddenly woke up and turned her head. “Ms. He.” Damn it, just got off work and got caught wandering around the bureau by my superior. I’ll probably be dragged off to do something else.
But Chen Cha’an didn’t have her usual spirit. She silently took a small step back. Overtime was overtime; she couldn’t sleep for a while anyway.
The old lady stopped and stood beside her. At first, she said nothing, leaning on a cane, her gaze also fixed on Yan Huirou. “Chen? Thank you for your hard work. What are you thinking about?”
“I…” Chen Cha’an looked up and sighed softly. “I was thinking about the definition of a person.”
Ms. He: “In the research center, thinking about these issues is not a good habit.”
Chen Cha’an mumbled a “yes.” Perhaps because she had stayed up too late and wasn’t thinking clearly, after her moment of cowardice, she couldn’t help but ask again, “Mmm… a character with independent self-thinking ability, rich emotions, who has grown beyond their setting but has stronger subjective initiative, what’s the difference between them and a legally defined person?”
“Are you talking about Jiang Xidai?”
“…”
Ms. He pushed her reading glasses up. Her tone was slow. “I’ve been observing her for a long time. I’ve watched every replay you’ve left. She is indeed a bit special, especially in that crude alternate world. She doesn’t seem to be confined by her own setting.”
“An unintentional act bearing fruit. It might have something to do with Yan Huirou mistakenly binding the System to her,” Ms. He stated calmly. “In a sense, she was the first to realize she was in a small world, and her level of acceptance was not low. She even tested the System in the early stages, trying to adapt to the rules.”
Chen Cha’an: “Yes, ma’am. She’s really like a living person, not just a character… ah, I’m sorry, I’ve violated the work rules again.”
“Relax, Chen.” Ms. He was unusually kind. She took off her reading glasses and folded them in her hand. “You’re already off duty. Strictly speaking, I’m also off duty now, just came by to see Yan Huirou. Just chatting.”
“Yes!” This reply sounded even less relaxed…
Ms. He didn’t bother with her, and not just because it was “off-duty hours.” Because she had contributed half her life to the research center, and back then, manpower was even scarcer. She had rotated through most of the positions. The confusion Chen Cha’an faced, she remembered, she had had the same in her youth… and had also been shaken.
Rules were rules. The people who made the rules considered all aspects. Humans rejected characters from “small worlds” from becoming new humans mainly out of consideration for safety and social stability. But the research center had always observed the flowers and plants of alternate worlds, as well as animals with low intelligence and danger levels, even bringing them back for cultivation.
Though none survived. The reason for their inability to survive was often incompatibility with the environment. But whether a “person” could be brought back, no one dared to try, nor could they bear the consequences. This didn’t guarantee it was technically impossible, but… there were simply no samples.
But in theory, a “character” was different from plants and flowers. No one would write tens of thousands of words to describe a flower, an exotic beast, and give them a biological reason for existence, nor would they shape them with emotions. But someone did that for a “character,” for example, Yan Huirou.
Such a long character setting, even for a real human, probably no one could write so many complex details… A quantitative change led to a qualitative change. The current result was just that. It was incredible.
Perhaps, was there this opportunity, through this discarded project that should have been thrown in the trash, to complete a new and astonishing research from all aspects?
A day in heaven, a year on earth. Perhaps for them, completing their work was a brief tea break, but for Jiang Xidai, it was an unforgettable period of slow torment.
Yan Huirou… was gone. In her arms, as the sun rose in the east. The warm golden sun shone on her body, already hot, but it could no longer warm the woman in her arms.
Jiang Xidai had killed many people and touched the dead. She knew what a dead person should be like; it was not unfamiliar. But when Yan Huirou’s heartbeat and breathing slowly stopped in her arms, her body gradually growing cold, Jiang Xidai couldn’t calmly feel her death. Nor could she imagine that this gentle moonlight that had once shone on her had suddenly been extinguished.
She couldn’t even feel a sense of reality for the days to come. Perhaps long ago, she had never thought about a world without Yan Huirou. Even though she had occasionally unhappily thought about her own death.
Jiang Xidai knelt on the edge of the cliff, her hair disheveled. Her chin was still pressed against Yan Huirou’s neck, trembling, stiff, and then her whole body went limp, and she gasped for breath. A dull pain in Jiang Xidai’s heart, a trickle of blood slipped from her lips. Soon, fresh blood covered her chin, like a spider’s web, dripping onto the ground.
“You think… you can leave just like that?”
After a long time, she clutched the clothes of the person in her arms.
“Yan Huirou, I won’t let you go.”
