Chapter 136

Chapter 136

Qingshui was the only person left in the room. After the hypnosis session ended, the Director had honored her request and left. Before leaving, she had gently patted Qingshui on the shoulder and said, “Get some rest,” then closed the door behind her.

Qingshui curled up on the recliner, clutching her head.

“Li Wei’an…”

Her voice was so faint it nearly dissolved into the air.

“Li Wei’an…?”

No one answered.

“Dorm Leader…?”

Still, no one answered.

She called out again and again, as though chanting a spell. But that reply, “I’m here,” seemed no more than an auditory hallucination. The hallucination of a madwoman.

Qingshui had no idea how long she remained curled up on that recliner. Time blurred, and so did her mind. All she knew was that she kept calling that name until her throat was dry and her voice had gone hoarse.

Then, without warning, excruciating pain surfaced from deep within her brain.

It struck so violently that her entire body instantly folded in on itself, both hands clamped around her head. Cold sweat beaded at her temples and streamed down her cheeks. Her face was as pale as a sheet of paper.

Something was prying open her mind from within, dragging her forgotten memories back to the surface.

Every fragment came drenched in blood and searing heat, churning through her brain.

Memories of her previous life.

The first time she met Li Wei’an was not long after she entered the base. She had still been very young then.

She could no longer remember exactly how young. All she recalled was that everyone at the base had worn thick layers, while she had been bundled in an old padded coat far too large for her, like a stray cat huddled in a corner.

She and Li Wei’an had only crossed paths a couple of times, and they barely knew each other. Qingshui could even sense the faint aloofness in Li Wei’an’s eyes, cold as a layer of ice, warning her not to come any closer.

Their relationship only began to change after a fight.

Li Wei’an had been brawling with several other children. Qingshui stepped in to help, only to get beaten up by her as well. Fists slammed into her face and body until her vision went black.

Even after the beating, Li Wei’an still wasn’t satisfied. She grabbed Qingshui by the collar and hauled her off the ground like a piece of trash.

“Useless.”

Just that one word.

Then she let go, turned around, and walked away.

Qingshui stood there, battered all over and bleeding from the face. She stared at Li Wei’an’s retreating back. Then, that very night, she found her way to Li Wei’an’s room.

She knocked on the door, and before Li Wei’an could say a word, Qingshui punched her in the face. They grappled and rolled across the floor, driving fists into each other’s bodies and knees into each other’s stomachs, neither willing to let go.

In the end, Qingshui won.

It wasn’t because she was stronger than Li Wei’an. It was because she feared pain less. She endured every one of Li Wei’an’s punches and returned them blow for blow until Li Wei’an finally stopped, sat down on the floor, and burst into tears.

Qingshui looked at her bruised and swollen face and said, “Useless.”

That was where their relationship began.

Then there were other, even more searing memories. They had been trapped under siege in a hospital, squeezed together on a single bed. Qingshui’s back was pressed against Li Wei’an’s chest, close enough to feel her heartbeat and every breath she took.
“Are you scared?” Li Wei’an asked.

The truth was, Qingshui wasn’t afraid of dying. She was only afraid that the people around her would die, afraid that when she opened her eyes, the familiar faces she knew would have turned into hideous zombies.

But she didn’t say any of that. Then an arm reached around her from behind and wrapped around her waist.

Li Wei’an pulled her into her embrace.

“Don’t be afraid.”

“I’m still here.”

Those were the words.

The words that had carried Qingshui through countless nights of despair in her previous life.

But now, as they echoed through her mind once more, Qingshui curled into a ball from the pain.

Her nails dug deep into her palms, drawing blood. She bit through her lip, filling her mouth with the taste of iron.

The memories that had been forcibly taken from her were coming back.

In this life, they had met at the hospital. The Li Wei’an of this life… was different from the Li Wei’an of her previous life.

No. She was the same person, but she was different.

Maybe it was because the Li Wei’an of this life had grown up in a peaceful world. She had never experienced all that bloodshed, so those things were absent from her eyes.

As Qingshui thought about it, another question suddenly occurred to her.

Why was Wei’an the only one here?

What about Captain? Sister Fang? Brother Nan…? Could they be in this world too?

Qingshui didn’t know. She desperately searched her memory, trying to piece together its scattered fragments. In one of them, a soldier had mentioned the “White Hole.”

She had said,

“As the only person to ever return from the White Hole…”

The White Hole.

What kind of place was it?

Qingshui couldn’t remember. That part of her memory was too hazy and fragmented, as though something had deliberately erased it.

In her previous life, she and Li Wei’an had gone there. Then Li Wei’an disappeared. Qingshui lost her mind, and her teammates forced her into treatment.

After that, she died in a zombie horde while trying to save Aunt Chen.

And then she came to this world.

Could these two worlds actually be the same world? Qingshui quickly rejected the idea.

Although she had never seen the peaceful era of her previous world, there were two people she remembered very clearly.

Li Wei’an’s parents.

In her previous life, Qingshui had only seen them once, in a photograph. Li Wei’an always kept it close, treasuring it as though it were the rarest thing in the world. In the picture, a young couple held a baby in their arms, smiling with such joy.

In this life, Qingshui had met them.

In person. Li Wei’an had taken her home for dinner before.

They weren’t the same couple. Their looks and demeanors were completely different. Everything about them was different.

So this wasn’t the same world.

Then what was this world?

Why had that woman said the world was fake…? And why had that online acquaintance named Bai Mingyi dreamed of the Earth splitting apart?

There were far too many questions, but one answer was beginning to take shape.

She had to go back to that place.

The White Hole.

But… where exactly was it?