“Hurry up and go. I’m fine.”
“…Very soon, very soon it’ll all be over.”
“Looks like she’s really in league with Xia ji. Birds of a feather flock together, huh…”
…
…
“Are you alright?”
“Why are they bullying you, Xia?”
“That Chen Xinyu seemed very familiar with you. Did you two know each other from a long time ago?”
“Has she… been bullying you for a long time already?”
…
…
That powerless feeling of her consciousness being stripped away no longer occurred.
Instead, the scenes shifted like slides.
From when Chu You first entered the school, to when she barged into that storage room and witnessed Xia Ji being bullied.
Those images were filled with a bleak grayness and deathly silence, their edges riddled with cracks and writhing darkness.
The voices seemed like mutterings coming from every direction, crowding in and seeping into every pore of her body.
Only—
Chu You’s figure was given more color than anything else.
On the stairway where Xu Guangming led the two of them back from the dean’s office, she turned her head and looked at Xia Ji, who lagged a few steps behind.
“Let’s be friends, shall we?”
“Let me introduce myself properly—my name is Chu You.”
…
“My name is… Xia Ji.”
Of all the ever-switching scenes, only this one lingered the longest.
Chu You stared blankly at the scene before her, as if someone had gripped her throat, leaving her unable to breathe for a long time.
Soon, the scene shifted again, now in Xu Guangming’s apartment.
He stood by the window, looking coldly at Xia Ji, whose eyes were rimmed red.
His voice was icy: “Those who throw themselves into the darkness should never hope for redemption.”
“One day, she will leave you and betray you, just like the others…”
“We’ve waited so long, and at last, the final piece of the puzzle has appeared. Isn’t this the will of the gods?”
…
“Xia Ji, don’t forget.”
“With sin upon you, you are nothing more than a vessel now.”
“Friends? Heh, heh, heh, heh… something like that—you’ve long been unworthy, haven’t you?”
The scene blurred and dispersed once again, then reformed.
This time, it was in an abandoned factory.
Xia Ji, utterly changed, looked coldly at Chen Xinyu and Lu Ran, who were limp on the ground, breathing weakly.
Upon seeing this, Chu You’s pupils contracted—was this the scene after that first battle in the old teaching building?
That day, Lin Mo had arrived just in time to save her, and had almost captured Chen Xinyu and Lu Ran single-handedly.
But in the crucial moment, a mysterious person appeared and rescued them.
As it turned out, the one who rescued Chen Xinyu and Lu Ran was Xia Ji.
“Who… are you?”
Lu Ran, on the verge of collapse, struggled to lift her head and looked at the person before her, whose body was entwined and parasitized by black veins, her voice trembling with fear.
Xia Ji was silent for a moment, then casually tossed two vials of medicine onto the ground.
“The Professor said you two did well this time.”
“These medicines will help repair your bodies. Don’t go to school for now—stay here and wait for the Professor’s next instructions.”
Her voice was hoarse and rough, the black mist covering her face exuding endless distortion and corruption.
Xia Ji slowly turned to leave, but stopped in her tracks as she took her first step.
Then, ever so slowly, she turned her head back, her blood-red eyes locking onto Lu Ran, and she enunciated each word—”Do. Not. Touch. Chu. You. Again!”
She paused, then continued, “The Professor said to let me deal with her…” She finished, then turned and left.
The scene froze again, blurred, and faded.
Within boundless darkness, Chu You seemed to hear something writhing.
Then, light returned before her eyes.
This time, the scene was of her saving someone at the amusement park.
The perspective—was it Xia Ji’s?
She hadn’t left?
Or had she returned to the amusement park again?
Chu You saw herself once more charge onto the tracks and save the last two people, escaping the instant the bomb exploded.
At that moment, Xia Ji’s perspective also shifted—
She moved with incredible speed, reaching Chu You’s side in the blink of an eye.
Black veins crept outward at the edges of her vision, and the fiery blast of the explosion drowned out everything.
Upon witnessing this, Chu You’s pupils contracted sharply.
No wonder she’d taken the full force of the blast that day, but wasn’t as badly hurt as expected—it was because… Xia Ji had saved her.
Xia Ji had blocked the majority of the explosion, and like a bird with broken wings, plummeted heavily from midair.
She propped herself up on the scorched, shattered ground with both hands, barely managing to keep from collapsing entirely.
The black veins that had once writhed wildly around her now drooped and shrank, sapped of all strength, their luster dulled.
“Cough, cough… cough, cough, cough…”
A bout of uncontrollable, heart-wrenching coughing erupted from deep in her throat.
She hunched over, her body shaking violently from pain.
Then, thick, sticky, ominous black blood spurted uncontrollably from her mouth, splattering onto the charred ground with a corrosive hiss.
Under Chu You’s watchful gaze, Xia Ji’s field of vision shook a few times.
Laboriously, staggering, she used her arms to prop herself up and managed to stand, swaying on her feet.
Each step was unsteady, as if she might collapse at any moment.
Stumbling and staggering, she walked away in the direction opposite to where Chu You had fallen.
Yet after just a few steps, the wavering view paused—then, ever so slowly, she turned back.
Through the lingering smoke and fading firelight, her gaze, deep and hungry and utterly hopeless, settled on the distant figure who’d landed safely, tightly wrapped in a giant fox tail.
Here, the scene froze again, blurred, and faded, like an oil painting soaked in water—the colors and lines twisting, melding, until everything returned to formless darkness.
After a moment of silence, light and shadow once again struggled to coalesce.
It was in the hospital.
The lazy afternoon sun spilled by the bedside.
Xia Ji set down a fruit knife and handed the peeled apple to ‘her’.
“…In those days when you were unconscious, I was so afraid every time I came to see you… afraid you’d never wake up again.”
“My body is special. I heal faster than most people.”
“But… getting hurt still hurts, you know…”
In the scene, she said nothing more.
After a while, Xia Ji suddenly got up and walked to the window.
While drawing the curtains, she casually glanced toward the building diagonally across from the ward.
Even from that distance, Xia Ji’s gaze was clear as ever—on the rooftop of that building stood a figure in a black windbreaker, holding some unknown instrument in his hands—Xu Guangming.
“The nurse said you need to rest more to recover your strength… You’ve been up and about for almost two hours now, Sister You, you should lie down and rest.”
Xia Ji turned and smiled at her on the hospital bed.
Witnessing all this, Chu You’s pupils contracted.
Her already complicated feelings reached a new peak at this moment.
The scene froze.
Once more, it switched to Xu Guangming’s apartment.
After a burst of harsh crashes and smashing sounds, Xu Guangming’s furious voice rang out: “Absurd! Ridiculous!”
“What are you hesitating for? Why are you being so weak?!”
“Xia Ji, you’ve wasted a once-in-a-lifetime chance, do you understand?”
“Five minutes, just five minutes…”
“As long as we fully extract Chu You’s core frequency, we can accomplish our grand plan without lifting a finger!”
“And now, everything has been ruined by your mercy, do you know that?!”
With a crash, the scene shattered like a mirror.
That same powerless feeling of her consciousness being stripped and devoured struck Chu You once more.
Everything before her eyes went black, and she fell again into endless darkness and silence.