Xu Fengling snapped her eyes open.
The first thing she saw was the opulent ceiling and the crystal chandelier.
This was… her room?
What was going on?
She…
Every cell in Feng Ling’s body trembled at that moment, and she quickly reached up to press her left chest.
Her heartbeat was still there… still there…
She hadn’t died?
“Hah… hah… hah… hah…”
She gasped for fresh air, like a drowning person finally breaking the surface and grabbing the last lifeline.
Then Feng Ling heard the sound that made all the blood in her body freeze instantly.
“Little Feng Ling? What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”
Feng Ling turned her head stiffly.
Ling Yue was lying right next to her, one hand propping up her head while the other reached out to touch her forehead.
That gentle smile… the soft tone and movements… just like before, as if nothing had ever happened.
Then Feng Ling subconsciously shrank back.
And her hand was still pressing on her chest—the spot that had been burned through by the Flame of End.
“What’s wrong? Your face looks terrible. Did you dream of something scary?”
Ling Yue tilted her head, asking with concern.
“I… I…”
Feng Ling had no idea how to explain.
She had died… she had definitely died…
Ling Yue’s fingers had pierced her heart and burned it to ashes with the Flame of End.
She still remembered that pain and the feeling of death clearly.
But now, she…
She looked down at her hands—pale and tender, without a single scar, still the small hands of that vampire loli.
“What exactly is wrong?”
Ling Yue reached out and touched her forehead.
“Hmm… no fever.”
That hand was ice-cold, but this time Feng Ling didn’t feel the cold—she felt fear, pure fear.
Everything that just happened was absolutely not a dream!
Absolutely not!
“N-nothing… just… I had a really scary dream,” Feng Ling forced out.
“What kind of dream? Tell your sister.”
“I… I forgot.”
Then Ling Yue laughed and said, “Forget it then. Dreams are all fake anyway, so don’t be scared.”
After speaking, she lowered her head and kissed Feng Ling’s forehead.
“Your sister is always here. No one can hurt you.”
Hearing this, Feng Ling nodded stiffly.
She didn’t dare move… didn’t dare speak… didn’t even dare to breathe.
Because she knew that the gentle sister Ling Yue in front of her was the same person as that Ling Yue who had smiled while piercing her heart with a finger.
There was no difference at all.
If she said one wrong word or made one wrong move… that terrifying, yandere Ling Yue would come back and kill her.
“Alright, it’s not dawn yet. Get some more sleep.”
Ling Yue tucked the blanket around her, lay back down, and pulled her into an embrace.
Feng Ling curled up in her arms, motionless.
She died… then she came back to life… back to the time before the “Escape Incident”… because if this was after that incident, Ling Yue would have been giving her the cold violence treatment.
So what was this?
Time rewind?
A cycle of death?
Or was everything just now a dream…
No!
That was absolutely not a dream!
There was no way a dream could have that kind of pain, that kind of despair.
She had truly experienced death once.
And now, she had a second chance… but she had no idea if the next death would also rewind.
So this time, she absolutely could not make Ling Yue angry again!
She couldn’t die again!
Feng Ling shrank in Ling Yue’s arms, staring fixedly at a certain point in the darkness.
…
When dawn came, Feng Ling found herself trapped in a very strange state.
On the surface, everything was the same as before.
Ling Yue had made her breakfast and watched her eat with a smile.
Afterward, she even wiped the sauce off the corner of her mouth.
Then she asked what she wanted to do today—play games, read books, learn magic, or draw… all in a tone of utter gentleness.
But Feng Ling knew that the terrifying demon lived inside this gentle big sister, ready to jump out at any moment.
“Little Feng Ling, why have you been spacing out all day? Is the game not fun?”
Hearing this, Feng Ling glanced down at the Switch.
The screen showed GAME OVER… she had died over a dozen times already.
“N-no, it’s fun!”
She quickly restarted the game.
But she couldn’t get into it.
Normally these games would have absorbed her completely, but now her mind was full of that image—the image of Ling Yue smiling while shoving her fingers into her chest.
And that mad grin.
“Little Feng Ling.”
“Ah!”
Startled by the sudden call, Feng Ling almost threw the controller.
“W-what?”
She turned around quickly.
“You were spacing out again.”
Ling Yue leaned in and reached out to touch her forehead.
“Are you feeling unwell?”
Her hand slowly slid to the side of Feng Ling’s neck and stopped.
That made every hair on Feng Ling’s body stand up.
She rushed to say, “No, no! I’m fine! Very fine! I just didn’t sleep well last night and got a little sleepy! It’s nothing!”
“Oh? Want to sleep a bit more?”
“No, no! I’m full of energy! Super energetic!”
Ling Yue looked at her suspiciously, then stood up and said, “Alright, keep playing then. Big sister will go make you lunch.”
When Ling Yue disappeared at the end of the corridor, Feng Ling collapsed onto the sofa, gasping for air.
When Ling Yue touched her neck just now… she almost thought the next second her throat would be squeezed… she still remembered that suffocating feeling.
That feeling of being clamped by iron tongs… the feeling of no air getting in… the feeling of everything going dark…
“Huff… huff…”
Then she slapped her own face hard.
Calm down!
Calm down!
She had to stay calm!
Ling Yue hadn’t turned dark yet; nothing had happened.
She still had a chance—as long as she didn’t escape, didn’t say anything to hurt her feelings, and behaved like a good girl…
But wait…
Feng Ling suddenly thought of a problem.
If she didn’t escape, she would be trapped here forever.
Never able to go out… forever just staring at the castle ceiling, forever only talking to Ling Yue alone… until she went insane.
Just like in the last cycle, locked up until she started hallucinating, until she couldn’t tell yesterday from today, until she even began to forget who she was.
That wasn’t what she wanted…
What she wanted was… freedom!
To stand on equal footing with Ling Yue…
She didn’t want to be a caged bird!
But…
She looked down and touched her chest again.
If she escaped again, Ling Yue would kill her…
The moment she thought of that, Feng Ling’s legs started trembling again.
She didn’t want to die…
Even if there might be a cycle of death to revive her, she didn’t want to experience that feeling of being erased again.
That pain, that despair, and that fear where no apology worked…
She absolutely didn’t want a second time.
But if she didn’t escape, she would be locked up here forever.
What should she do?
What exactly should she do?
Feng Ling buried her face in the cushion and let out a muffled wail.
“Uwaaaaaaaah…”
“Little Feng Ling? What’s wrong?”
Ling Yue poked her head out and asked softly.
“N-n-nothing! I just lost the game! Yes, lost the game!”
Feng Ling quickly lifted her head and shouted toward the kitchen.
“I see. Then keep up the good work~ Keep it up, little Feng Ling~”
“O-okay! Thank you, Sister Ling Yue!”