When Chu You’s consciousness awakened once again, everything was different.
She was no longer that powerless bystander, trapped in a corner, forced to watch tragedies unfold before her helplessly.
She regained control over her own body, though every step felt as if she were treading through sticky marshes, heavy resistance filling the air around her.
She looked around in disbelief—this was a bizarre, fragmented space.
Countless scenes that Xia Ji had experienced growing up, ripped apart and crudely patched together like pages from torn paintings, formed the backdrop of this twisted world.
A warm living room sat right beside the cold interrogation room of the Law Enforcement Bureau; a school hallway connected directly to Xu Guangming’s shabby apartment; the explosion of the amusement park blended eerily with the pure white walls of a hospital ward…
And at the edges where all these scenes were stitched together, thick, sticky black veins squirmed like living sutures, exuding a nauseating, ominous, and twisted aura of pollution, barely maintaining the fragile stability of this inner world.
At the absolute center of the space, a massive, flower-like cluster of black veins swayed faintly, like some dark heart beating.
There lay Xia Ji, eyes tightly shut, face deathly pale, her body bound and wrapped by the writhing darkness, like a sacrificial offering or a cocoon nurturing some terrifying existence.
Chu You tried to take a step.
That long-lost sensation of controlling her body spread from the tips of her nerves throughout her form, bringing a stiff, aching numbness.
She landed her foot, a little awkwardly, steadied herself, then stepped forward again, firmly, drawing closer and closer to the heart of this twisted space—to the flower of evil, to the girl swallowed by darkness.
When she was about thirty meters away from Xia Ji, it was as if she had triggered some invisible switch.
At the flower’s core, Xia Ji’s tightly shut eyelids and eyelashes trembled violently, then, slowly and with extreme difficulty… she opened her eyes.
Those crimson eyes were not filled with pure evil or madness.
The kindness, cowardice, pain, and struggle of Xia Ji’s human heart still flickered there, like a candle in the wind, fighting against the endless, surging tide of distortion and wickedness, occasionally revealing a stubborn yet faint clarity.
Her gaze crossed the thirty-meter gap and fell on Chu You, so complex that Chu You’s heart twisted in pain.
“You… You-jie…” she spoke, her voice so hoarse it no longer sounded human, more like the distorted static of an old radio with bad reception, “You… saw… everything…”
In that voice, there was a weary resignation and a nearly undetectable shame at her own misery being seen.
Chu You nodded lightly, moistened her dry lips, and with thousands of words stuck in her throat, could only force out a difficult greeting: “Xia Ji, all these years…”
She stopped there.
She looked up, gazing deeply at the girl now encased within the hideous flower crown of black veins, as if trapped at the heart of an eternal nightmare.
The tragic past she had just witnessed from the bystander’s perspective—her father’s disappearance, her mother’s sacrifice, the deaths and betrayals of friends, long-term bullying, and the gradual seduction into darkness by Xu Zhiwu—all of it pressed on Chu You’s chest like heavy lead, making it hard to breathe.
A long silence lingered in this twisted space.
Suddenly, Chu You sniffed hard, raised her hand, and carelessly wiped the dampness from the corner of her eye with her sleeve.
She looked at Xia Ji again, her eyes no longer agitated but deeply calm, almost gentle.
She murmured, as if sighing, “All these years… you’ve had it so hard…”
This gentle sentence held no blame, no condescending pity—only sorrow.
Xia Ji’s expression froze, then she forced a smile.
That smile was stiff and sorrowful, the corners of her mouth trembling as if moving each muscle brought immense pain.
Yet in the depths of her eyes, where crimson and clarity intertwined, a sliver of light broke through, like sunshine piercing the clouds—
It was a tiny, humble joy born from enduring endless pain yet finally being understood.
“As expected…”
Her voice was still hoarse and twisted, but she struggled to make each word clear, “You-jie has always… always been… such a gentle person.”
Having said this, it was as if she had used up all the strength she had just gathered.
Her head drooped slowly, drained.
The hair falling across her forehead hid most of her face; only the black veins clinging to her skin became even more active, wriggling with a sinister glow, as if accelerating the transfer of some substance or energy into her body.
Xia Ji’s body trembled almost imperceptibly, her delicate brows tightly furrowed, and she let out a muffled, pained groan, a suppressed sob leaking through.
Amid the ominous squirming of darkness and stifled breathing, her voice was light as a feather, thick with exhaustion and despair, drifting to Chu You: “You-jie… I’m… so tired…”
“Yuan Zhou’s death, my mother’s death…”
“…I’m sorry, You-jie. But Uncle Xu, he… he said that if I did this…”
“I don’t know, I really don’t know what to… do anymore…”
Xia Ji panted, speaking in broken phrases.
As she spoke, she raised her head slowly and painfully, looking up at the sky that did not exist in this space.
“You… You-jie, tell me…”
“When… when you’re sad… look up at the clouds in the sky…”
“See… see what they look like… mm! Cough, cough…”
“But I… I can’t see… can’t see the sky, and I can’t… can’t see the clouds anymore…”
Chu You’s eyes reddened, and tears fell uncontrollably.
She stepped toward Xia Ji, her voice trembling: “Xia Ji, I’ll take you out of here.”
“…We’ll go to the seaside together, to the mall, to the park, watch the sunset, and look at the shapes of the clouds together.”
“Don’t be afraid, Xia Ji…”
“I promise you, I will take you out!”
As soon as Chu You finished speaking, countless black veins shot out along the seams of the stitched space, like venomous snakes smelling blood, instantly weaving into an impenetrable wall of darkness, blocking her way.
The thick, polluted resistance was nearly suffocating.
Xia Ji slowly lifted her eyes, and across the squirming darkness, met Chu You’s gaze.
Those crimson pupils were filled with complex emotions—bottomless pain, reluctance, guilt, and a hint of relief that came with impending release.
Two thick, inky black tears slid down her pale cheeks, leaving shocking trails.
“You-jie…”
Xia Ji’s voice was desolate and hopeless, every word squeezed from a broken heart, “It’s almost over…”
“You shouldn’t be here…”
“I’m sorry, You-jie. Let me be selfish, just this once…”
With that, she closed her eyes resolutely and painfully, as if using up the last remnants of her soul.
A low, suppressed roar of endless agony slipped from her throat.
Buzz—
The black veins entwining and encasing her, endlessly feeding some substance or energy into her body, suddenly froze, as if some invisible force had severed them from within.
The ominous, glowing matter that had flowed smoothly through the veins instantly became stagnant and sluggish, like asphalt on the verge of solidifying.
Outside the illusion.
Xu Guangming, who was attacking Lin Mo and Gu Qiancheng with wild abandon, caught with sharp peripheral vision a subtle change atop the gigantic cage made from countless black veins…
A small, inconspicuous strand of vein seemed to be instantly drained of all vitality and energy, its luster completely gone.
Like a scorched vine, it slid weakly down to the ground.
Xu Guangming’s movements jerked to a halt.
That tiny change, at this moment, was as earth-shattering to his senses as a world-ending explosion.
His pupils constricted sharply to pinpoints.
“w iii—-d nation…0l0”
In an instant, all reason seemed to be burned away by this sudden turn of events.
All the black veins expanded madly, forsaking all order and defense, surging with manic destruction toward Lin Mo and Gu Qiancheng!
The entire space trembled violently under this unrestrained madness, groaning under the unbearable strain.
Xu Guangming’s eyes turned blood-red, the corners cracking, his gaze locked furiously on the core of the cage.
His hysterical screams ripped through the air, filled with the fury of betrayal and unfathomable pain: “Xia—Ji—!”
“Why—why are you doing this—!!”
“You—you betrayed me—you betrayed Yuan Zhou!!!”
His voice, like the wail of a wounded beast, echoed madly through the twisted space, forming a duet of despair with Xia Ji’s silent resolve within the illusion.
Inside the illusion.
Chu You was forced back half a step by the sudden onslaught of the black wall, but quickly steadied herself.
“แiii4요…”
She cried out hoarsely, without a moment’s hesitation, throwing her hand forward recklessly.
A surge of power, from some unknown source, let her ignore the polluted, resistant wall of darkness before her, and rush forward.
A faint white flame ignited deep in her eyes.
It was not light or heat in the physical sense, but something more essential and pure—a will, a determination, an unquestionable force of intervention forged from years of silent watching.
Chu You stretched out her hand with all her might, striving to reach the Xia Ji trapped within the flower.
“Who gave you… the right… to decide… alone?”
She forced out each word between gritted teeth, full of anger, heartache, and a resolve to shatter every shackle.
“Ah—”
It was like sinking into a mire, or clutching a red-hot brand with bare hands.
The searing pain shot from the point of contact, the sticky darkness gnawing at her light, trying to pollute her will and drag that fragile white flame into eternal chaos.
Her skin, her flesh, even her bones seemed to scream in agony, her soul on the verge of being torn apart.
But Chu You clenched her jaw, her gums even bleeding, her gaze locked unyieldingly on Xia Ji beyond the barrier, pushing forward step by painful step.
Every step was like resisting the weight of the whole world.
“I said… I’m taking you out!”
Her voice trembled with effort, yet remained fiercely determined.
“I’ve… been powerless for so long, watching… watching all this…”
In those words was the burden of all her pain and resentment as a bystander.
Her fingertips, inch by inch, pushed forward through the darkness.
The faint white light flickered stubbornly in the sticky gloom, like a lighthouse that would not be extinguished by any storm.
“Xia—Ji—!”
In that instant, time seemed to blur.
The white flame burning in Chu You’s eyes blazed to its limit, as if it drew on all her life, all her memories, all her feelings as fuel.
An indescribable, mysterious force surged from her outstretched arm with that cry pouring out her everything.
Like a red-hot blade cutting through congealed fat, the endless, cursed black veins shrieked, torn and purified by the blow of pure will.
The entangled darkness was violently ripped open.
In the next moment…
That hand, glowing with warm, steadfast white light, broke through all obstacles and appeared before Xia Ji’s tightly closed, darkness-enshrouded eyes.
The light dispelled the gloom, shining softly on Xia Ji’s pale face.
“I’ll take you home…”
Chu You’s voice was soft but unshakably firm, ringing clearly in Xia Ji’s ears.
At the sound, Xia Ji’s long lashes trembled violently, and she slowly opened her eyes…
The terrifying crimson was gone, and in those familiar eyes there was only exhaustion after eons of suffering, and… incredulous astonishment.
She seemed unable to understand why this light could pierce through the final prison she herself had created, the one that also imprisoned her.
The black, writhing flower crown, upon contact with the radiance from that hand, sizzled as if burned, rapidly retreating and wilting, its tight grip slackening to reveal Xia Ji’s battered, fragile body.
Xia Ji lowered her head, dazed, staring at the hand before her glowing with gentle warmth.
The eyes that had just shed their bloody hue quickly filled with tears, trembling on the brink of falling.
She did not speak again, only nodded lightly, the movement so small as to be almost unnoticeable, but using up all the strength left in her body.
Then, trembling, she lifted her arm, streaked with black veins and scars, and with all the courage and trust she had left, reached for that light, for that hand.
Her cold fingers grasped that warmth tightly.
Buzz—!
At the instant their hands met, it was as if some fundamental anchor holding everything together was severed.
All the writhing black veins shuddered violently, then began to disintegrate and wither at a speed visible to the eye, as if their life force had been drained, quickly losing vitality and turning to dust.
This twisted space, pieced together from painful memories, began to tremble violently as well, all those forcibly stitched-together scenes—a warm living room, a cold Law Enforcement Bureau, school corridors, the exploding amusement park…
Crumbled and shattered like broken mirrors, their fragments scattering and revealing the void behind it all.
Light began to seep in through the cracks.
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