Chapter 181
Chapter 181
“Qingshui, are you an idiot? You always trust people so easily.”
“Do you want some? I’ll buy it for you… Qingshui?”
“Captain is definitely going to chew you out again later. You’re on your own.”
“Qingshui? Are you feeling all right?”
The voices sounded as though they were coming through water, drifting near and far, indistinct and ethereal in a way that made them seem unreal.
With great effort, she forced open her heavy eyelids. Her blurred vision gradually came into focus. Two worlds unfolded strangely before her, light and shadow interweaving as two identical girls with utterly different auras held her hands, one on either side.
They had the exact same pair of beautiful, fox-like eyes. Both gazed silently at her, her pale face reflected in their pupils.
They were both speaking, their voices overlapping in a strange harmony.
The short-haired girl on the left wore a cold expression and the familiar black outdoor jacket. Her brows were tightly furrowed, her lips pressed into a hard line as she scolded, “You’re always like this… acting as if you know best… never treating your own life as if it matters.”
The long-haired girl on the right had a gentle air about her. Dressed in a soft beige sweater, her brow was relaxed, but her eyes brimmed with concern as she asked quietly, “Are you feeling unwell?”
The Li Wei’an from her previous life and the Li Wei’an from this one were appearing before her at the same time.
Then overwhelming agony engulfed her-the pain of her soul being torn apart. It was as if an icy hand had reached into her chest and was slowly crushing her heart, severing her from every sensation of being alive.
It hurt… It hurt so much.
The pain made even breathing difficult. All she could do was keep her eyes open and stare at those two identical faces with desperate, almost feverish hunger, terrified that the moment she blinked, they would vanish like bubbles.
“Dorm Leader.”
She desperately forced the words from her throat, her voice shattered beyond recognition.
The short-haired girl arched a brow. Her gaze remained sharp, but she did not pull her hand away. “Which one of us are you calling?”
The long-haired girl answered softly, “I’m here.”
“Wei’an.”
“I’m here.”
The two girls answered in unison, one voice cool and the other warm. Their words rang clearly in her ears, intertwining into the cruelest tenderness.
Qingshui did not even realize she was crying. She simply kept opening her mouth, repeating herself over and over like a drowning person clutching the last piece of driftwood in a lake, her words tumbling out incoherently.
“I… I missed you so much.”
She truly had. So, so much.
She missed the figure who had always stood in front of her, shielding her. The person who had guided her as she learned about the world.
The next moment, Short-haired Li Wei’an gently pulled her into an embrace.
There was a faint, crisp chill to her scent, yet the embrace made Qingshui feel safer than she ever had before.
“All right, that’s enough. Stop being clingy.” An almost imperceptible tenderness hid beneath her stern tone as she gently patted Qingshui’s back.
The other Li Wei’an stood beside them, her face full of worry as she softly pressed, “Are you really feeling all right?”
Qingshui said nothing. She buried her face deep in that warm embrace, as if trying to meld herself into this body so they would never have to part again.
She greedily breathed in that familiar scent, trying to use this fleeting moment of warmth to fill the void in her soul.
But in that very instant–
Schk.
The sound of a blade sinking into flesh reached her ears.
A thick, choking stench of blood flooded her nostrils, instantly shattering all warmth and tranquility.
Qingshui thought it was her own blood. She lowered her head in confusion, only to find herself spotless and unharmed. Then her head snapped up, her pupils contracting to pinpricks.
The two identical faces were drenched in blood.
Blood spurted from the girl on the right, splashing across the face of the girl on the left–and across Qingshui’s face.
Their eyes were hollow and lifeless. Like two exquisite dolls, they stared fixedly at her.
And… behind them was another face.
It slowly peeked out from behind Li Wei’an’s blood-soaked face, like a maggot burrowing out of rotten flesh.
There was no blood on his face. It was perfectly clean.
But his eyes were empty.
Where his pupils should have been were two bottomless black holes, like a pair of abandoned, dried-up wells. Something writhed frantically at the bottom. She couldn’t make out what it was, but the sight made her scalp crawl.
He tilted his head, the corners of his mouth stretching upward into an impossible curve, as though someone had sewn the smile onto his face.
“I can kill Li Wei’an… and I can kill you too…”
His voice was faint, as though drifting from somewhere far away, yet also as though he were whispering directly into her ear. His mouth moved, but the voice did not come from it.
It came from those black holes.
No! I won’t let you!
Run… Wei’an, run–
Qingshui’s face contorted, her features twisting with abject terror. She opened her mouth as wide as she could, desperate to scream, but no sound came out. She tried to shove the monster away, but her body wouldn’t move at all.
All she could do was watch as he crawled closer and closer.
Close enough for her to see what was inside those black holes.
They were filled with Li Wei’an’s faces, every one of them staring at her in despair.
“No!”
At the height of her terror, as her pupils constricted, every figure dissolved into an illusion and vanished completely into the darkness.
That warm embrace and the gentle words, “I’m here,” became nothing more than illusions.
Before Qingshui could utter a single word, a tremendous force hurled her backward.
The sensation of weightlessness engulfed her, and her heart seemed to stop for a beat. Only then did she realize in horror that at some point, an enormous, bottomless Rift had opened behind her, devouring everything in its path.
The darkness was like a gaping maw waiting for its prey.
She plummeted through the endless dark, wind roaring past her ears. The tears on her cheeks had yet to fall.
Qingshui craned her neck, staring desperately at the two faces growing ever more distant and blurred. The wind tore her voice to shreds as she pleaded again and again in despair:
“Please… don’t make me… leave your world…”
Please.
She fell through the darkness, pleading amid her despair.
Yearning for the warmth that would never return.
If death is the way to see you again, then I… am willing.
Qingshui slowly closed her eyes and stopped struggling, surrendering herself to the endless abyss below.