The sound of the sea wind howling and the background noise of the CCTV reporter broadcasting the disaster on-site were both shut out by a wooden door. Inside and outside the door seemed to be separated into two independent spaces.
Xin Hexue’s bare back hit the cold door panel in the middle of winter, and the low temperature made him shiver instinctively.
‘Too cold…’
He didn’t know if his health had deteriorated, or if there was some other reason, but Xin Hexue felt a chill rising from the depths of his soul.
“…Cold.”
Instinctively, he leaned toward the nearest source of heat beside him, his slightly curled posture like a cat trying to hide itself inside a cardboard box.
The “cardboard box” moved on its own, lifting this snow-white cat onto the bed.
He Botian was still kissing him relentlessly, his thin lips carrying a scorching warmth, leaving mark after mark on every bit of Xin Hexue’s exposed skin.
The bedside lamp had never been turned off, its warm yellow light casting on Xin Hexue, making even his pale knuckles look warmer, like fine white porcelain fired in the flames, perfect in quality.
He Botian clumsily stripped off the clothing on Xin Hexue’s lower body.
The removed pants lay in a crumpled pile at the foot of the bed, and the thin fabric barely hanging on his knees was pulled away as well.
The quilt on the bed was warm and cozy, and once someone curled into it, it would naturally generate heat. When Xin Hexue usually slept under the covers, sometimes he would wake in the morning with his back covered in sweat and have to take another shower.
But now, for some reason, even though he was surrounded by warmth both in front and behind, he did not feel warm. Instead, a bone-piercing cold surged from deep within his body.
Xin Hexue responded to the sentinel’s kisses in a daze, but he felt a dull ache in his head, as if someone was using a rough, unpolished tool to carve into the frontal lobe of his brain. This strange condition has been appearing frequently lately.
Perhaps he had been reviewing too intensely in the days before the Christmas holiday, and with the exams scheduled so tightly, Xin Hexue had not been resting well recently.
After all, it was the first-year exams, with many courses and deep content. And as a new generation guide, the pressure was inevitably heavier.
Xin Hexue tried his best to keep a routine of sleeping early and waking early, though it would occasionally be disrupted by various matters. If he didn’t fall asleep before ten at night, and still woke up the next morning under the push of his biological clock, his body would not get enough rest.
“What’s wrong with you tonight? I feel like you’ve been absent-minded all night, even when we were playing the King’s Game at the start.”
He Botian rubbed his brown, messy hair against the side of his chin, the sensation ticklish.
The ticklish feeling seemed to spread into Xin Hexue’s throat, and suddenly he couldn’t hold back from coughing, making He Botian tense up and immediately pull him over.
Holding him, he patted his back, “What’s wrong? Did you catch a cold, or was the wind too cold on the way back?”
Xin Hexue leaned in He Botian’s arms, the faint discomfort in his heart making him think of the state he was in when the first world and the second world came to an end.
Xin Hexue lowered his eyelashes, making sure to swallow down the faint bloody taste in his throat before speaking, “Do you want to do it?”
The sentinel was stunned by the blunt question and he stayed there in a daze.
Xin Hexue raised his eyes in surprise and met He Botian’s eyes. “No? I thought you went to all this trouble, pretending to be drunk and confessing tonight…so you were planning to just kiss and be done?”
The tips of He Botian’s ears burned. Knowing his poor acting couldn’t fool Xin Hexue, he said in a low voice, “I saw that you and Wei Zhuo were close. I heard it…he told you…”
Halfway through speaking, he stopped. As a 3S-level sentinel, his hearing had easily allowed him to catch Wei Zhuo’s sudden two-word confession to Xin Hexue in the chaos of the tavern.
Fortunately, two cars on the street had nearly collided and the blaring horns and the band’s performance had drowned out everything. Xin Hexue probably hadn’t heard Wei Zhuo’s reply, so He Botian simply cut him off, avoiding giving Wei Zhuo any extra help.
Even so, he still defended himself.
“I didn’t pretend to be drunk on purpose. I just thought the amount I drank would be enough to make me lose my senses.” He Botian lowered his head. “I just wanted to get some courage.”
But the fact was, his alcohol tolerance was too good, and the alcohol he drank wasn’t enough to make him bold enough to keep going after being exposed.
Xin Hexue’s fingers slid into his messy hair, the contours of his face softening under the glow of the bedside lamp. He asked softly, “So, do you want to do it?”
He Botian’s actions earlier had left Xin Hexue feeling uncomfortable and unfulfilled.
The sentinel’s Adam’s apple rolled instinctively, and he swallowed hard, as if he were a traveler in a golden desert who had walked for seven days and nights without a drop of water. His throat was very dry, and he struggled to squeeze out a single word, “…Mm.”
The hand encircling Xin Hexue’s waist moved downward with warmth, brushing past the hollow of his waist, tracing along the curve of his spine to his tailbone. Suddenly, he spoke hoarsely and with difficulty, “…It’s wet.”
Xin Hexue lay on his back against the pillow, lips pursed slightly, turning his head away uncomfortably. “Shut up.”
He also didn’t expect the reaction from skin hunger to be this strong.
The young man’s upper body was still properly clad in a sweater, but from the waist down, his long legs were completely bare… snow-white and supple. His naturally well proportioned bone structure didn’t make him look bony due to his slim frame; instead, the even layer of muscle covering it made the curves natural and the lines smooth, not only pleasing to the eye but also very comfortable to the touch.
He Botian’s gaze was undisguised, staring at him with direct, burning intensity. Xin Hexue’s lower abdomen tensed and tightened, as if He Botian’s gaze was penetrating every inch of him. Feeling hot all over, he simply pressed his foot to He Botian’s shoulder. “If you’re going to lick, then lick.”
Stop looking at him like that…
Xin Hexue placed the back of his hand over his eyes, and with the cover, his vision dimmed.
He Botian’s voice was low. “Yes.”
The faint sound of clothes rustling rang out, and He Botian leaned down.
His legs, instinctively wanting to close in the open air, were forcibly parted by the sentinel’s large hands gripping each knee, pressing them onto the bed. It was an overly lewd posture, like a flower being forced open to reveal its soft inner parts.
Xin Hexue bit down on his knuckles, the marks sinking deeper and deeper, barely managing to stop the ambiguous sounds from spilling out.
When it came to intimacy, he didn’t like making any sounds because of his strong sense of shame. He had been taught strict etiquette, and while this etiquette hadn’t explicitly instructed how to behave during sexual activity, the rule of maintaining composure and elegance had been carved into his soul.
Even so, no matter how much he wanted to stay calm and rational in such moments, he would always end up being thoroughly messed up by the other party.
He Botian must have pressed or touched somewhere because Xin Hexue’s whole body suddenly tensed, almost like he bounced, and his neck arched back to the extreme as he screamed in collapse, “Ahhh!”
Snowflakes bloomed before Xin Hexue’s eyes like fireworks. In a daze, he thought, ‘I think I’m going to die…’
Trembling, Xin Hexue scrambled toward the head of the bed in a panic. His hand touched the bedside table, and his fingers felt the cold steel texture…
But in less than two seconds, his ankle was caught in a firm grip, and He Botian dragged him back forcefully.
“No…”
The tongue broke in again, rubbing against the same soft spot over and over. The near-death stimulation surged like a tide from between his legs, completely inescapable. Xin Hexue screamed uncontrollably, his fingers clenching tight, and pupils dilating instantly.
His lower abdomen twitched, and warm liquid spilled onto He Botian’s head.
The sentinel licked his thin lips, and asked in a low voice. “Was it that good?”
He Botian raised his head and was about to speak when wet liquid slid down from his temple…and the vivid red stabbed directly into his eyes.
He Botian froze in disbelief.
“No, no, no no no no…”
His hands and feet went cold, and his knuckles trembled uncontrollably, too weak to even pull out the fruit knife from Xin Hexue’s chest.
Bright red blood gushed from his chest.
Xin Hexue looked at him quietly, as if he felt no pain at all, his expression indifferent. But his complexion turned pale in an instant from the rapid loss of blood.
He Botian roared in collapse, “Why?! Am I not like him?! Why do you have to treat me like this!”
Xin Hexue stared at him going mad with an indifferent gaze, watching him lose control and turn into a mass of tangled vines. In the darkness, more “He Botian” figures emerged.
Some had bullet holes in their chests, some had knife slits across their necks, some bore needle marks from injector guns…
They questioned him in unison;
“Why?”
“Why?”
“Why?”
“Why?”
Xin Hexue ignored them.
Counting the vines frantically wrapping around him now, trying to press and block the bleeding wound, they were fourteen in total.
Without a doubt, he had killed “He Botian” thirteen times.
Yet he still could not escape the illusion.
Before the thirteenth cycle ended, Xin Hexue changed his mind. Since He Botian could not be killed in the illusion’s loop, why not try killing himself instead?
It turned out he could.
Every time a new cycle began, Xin Hexue would forget the memory of the previous one, making it impossible for him to immediately realize he was in an illusion.
Moreover, the initiative in the illusion was in the hands of the Strangling Tree. It could even randomly extract a segment from He Botian’s memories as the starting point. Every time the truth was discovered, the Strangling Tree would keep shifting forward or backward in the timeline of memories, even altering Xin Hexue’s perception of reality.
However, before the last cycle ended, he had already told K to start the program to exit the world.
Using that as an anchor, he could quickly detect that He Botian was not He Botian, and that the surrounding environment was not real. Following the patterns of the exit program, Xin Hexue could judge how long he had been trapped in this illusion based on the deterioration of his body.
The fruit knife hidden behind the bedside lamp was small but very sharp. He had prepared it long ago.
The reason he did not immediately try killing himself to see if he could break free was because he wanted to know when exactly he had fallen into the loop.
The TV in the living room was still broadcasting continuously.
As early as three years ago, Taobakou had already been flooded by seawater, houses destroyed, no survivors…
Blood gushed out. Even though the pain was blocked, the sensation still felt strange. Xin Hexue placed his hand over his chest.
From the moment they stepped into Taobakou’s borders for this mission, they had unknowingly fallen into the fog of the folded zone.
All the houses they saw, the villagers they saw, that longan tree…were all false illusions.
And a year ago, He Botian had never survived the mission in the rainforest.
The one who survived, and even returned to the Imperial Capital City, had always been…
The Strangling Tree, possessing He Botian’s memories and corpse.
……
The Strangling Tree at the center of the folded zone screamed madly.
The young man lying in the vine-woven net it had carefully made had blood gushing from his chest, the wound so severe that even his wings could not be maintained.
[??? current heartbreak value is full]
[??? current heartbreak value is full]
[??? current heartbreak value is full]
[??? current heartbreak value is full]
……
When his consciousness returned to reality, more real memories poured into Xin Hexue’s mind.
Trap, hallucination, team scattered…
The memory was covered with a blood-red layer, like a severe wound.
He could not confirm how many people in the team were still alive, but he had to deal with the Strangling Tree in front of him first.
Life kept draining away from his heart, and the only reason he had not died yet was because there were still a few minutes left on the countdown of the exit program.
All the “He Botian” merged into one, holding him tightly, choking as he said, “Why?”
“I clearly have all his memories.” He Botian forced out each word with difficulty, his throat blocked as if countless stones were pressed into it. “Why?”
“Why?”
Xin Hexue did not answer him. His bloodless lips seemed to lack even the strength to part.
Without an answer, He Botian grew even more frantic, questioning the unanswered question.
“Why? Why am I not him?”
He Botian raised his hand to touch Xin Hexue’s pale face, repeating sorrowfully and in despair, “Ah Xue, I love you. We can stay here, isn’t that good? I am He Botian, of course I am He Botian, I love you…”
His hand trembled, and his voice trembled along with it, pleading, “Can’t you… love me?”
The young man was still beautiful and still quiet. His expression was gentle and his tone was especially soft. “Lower your head.”
He Botian’s head sank down heavily, and an extremely gentle kiss landed in the center of his forehead, like a god mercifully answering the prayer of a believer.
But at the same time, a dagger pushed into his chest.
Xin Hexue coughed twice, the blood trickling from the corner of his lips the only color on his face. His thin lips parted and closed ever so slightly. “I told you, if you love me… then go die.”
The love of a god came at a price.
All the remaining mental power was directed sharply along the dagger and pierced into the Strangling Tree.
The entire vast folded zone shook as if the sky and earth were collapsing. The ground cracked, and stone dust flew, as if a giant was shaking it, remaking the myth of a new era.
Fragments and dust exploded into the wind, the ground twisted and collapsed, and the endless abyss swallowed everything around it.
The strangling tree’s vast network of vine-like roots that were spread everywhere writhed violently, accepting death in a posture of agony. Its green vines began to spontaneously combust, swelling in an instant into a raging blaze.
Through his flickering vision, Xin Hexue saw Yan Ji running toward him, roaring frantically. The sentinel’s body was covered in wounds and blood, looking completely disheveled.
“Where is your medical kit?!”
Xin Hexue heard the other party’s uncontrollably urgent voice.
He quietly shook his head. When Yan Ji, who was almost going crazy, hoisted him onto his back, Xin Hexue smelled the thick stench of blood. The blood from his own chest and the sentinel’s back mixed together.
The hurried, jarring pace continued, while the sentinel still had to watch for the cracking ground and boulders tumbling from the mountainside.
Xin Hexue leaned close to his ear and said weakly, “Take me home.”
“Home!”
“Home!”
Yan Ji repeated over and over in a broken rhythm.
“We’ll go home…”
The burning vines surrounded the Folded zone. Like a headless fly, Yan Ji ran into tongues of flame to the east and searing fire to the west.
‘No, no, no…’
‘This would hurt Xin Hexue…
Yan Ji couldn’t just rush out heedlessly. It was as if he had died once already. Not only was his whole body covered in blood, but he was also drenched in hot and cold sweat. The salty dampness was like blades stabbing into every wound.
His mental landscape was rapidly collapsing. The wild mountains where the gray wolf had dwelled instantly turned into fire and smoke, and Yan Ji endured the skyrocketing level of mental pollution.
He couldn’t fall. He still had to find the road home…
A faint trace of red appeared in the sentinel’s eyes, an early sign of a sentinel on the verge of losing control.
Yan Ji clenched his teeth tightly. When Xin Hexue’s hand barely lifted to brush past his temple, it felt as if fire poured into his eye sockets. His eyes burned, and his jaw was tense.
He kept repeating, “It’s almost there. Hold on. We’re going home…”
Suddenly, snow began to fall from the sky.
Snowflakes landed before Yan Ji’s eyes, quietly extinguishing the heat of the fire, falling over every inch of this continent.
But…
The temperature at his back was also decreasing rapidly.
‘Home.’
‘We’re going home.’
…
Where had his home gone?
[Yan Ji’s current heartbreak value is full]
[Yan Ji’s current love value is full]
He held the young man in his arms and collapsed to his knees, completely losing control.
………
The rescue team finally arrived. High-pressure water cannons roared like dragons, drenching the flames. In the Folded zone, severely wounded sentinels were given emergency treatment. Wei Zhuo used his crutches to force himself upright, his lower limbs almost completely numb.
The moment he regained consciousness, he subconsciously searched for the young man among the survivors.
Yan Ji came back carrying someone on his back, his expression numb and face as pale as paper.
Wei Zhuo’s gaze instinctively went to the figure on his back. But when he stepped forward, his footing faltered, and he fell heavily.
His world suddenly fell into dead silence. After a long while, an overwhelming buzzing noise crowded into his consciousness.
Wei Zhuo seemed to be back in the tavern booth by the glass window, where two cars on the street finally collided, and the band erupted into a fierce drumbeat.
Too loud.
His world was too loud.
[Wei Zhuo’s current heartbreak value is full]
[Wei Zhuo’s current love value is full]
………
After the strangling tree was completely destroyed, the remaining folded zones also seemed to have lost their source of sustenance. Like roots being torn out, the sentinels and guides in the safe zones swiftly destroyed the existing folded zones within just ten years. As for rebuilding in the post-apocalyptic era and carrying on humanity’s future, there was still a long road ahead.
Wei Zhuo placed a bouquet of fresh flowers on the bedside table in the hospital room.
He quietly looked at the young man lying in bed, who would never open his eyes to look at him again.
Wei Zhuo sat down at the bedside, his eyelids half-lowered, and spoke, as he always did, about recent events.
In fact, there was nothing special. His days were always boring, uninteresting and dull…every day was a repetition, pale and colorless.
In the end, he spoke in a low voice. “I often dream of you.”
“Maybe it’s just mental pollution. No one will do mental guidance for me anymore. I’ve been hallucinating often lately. I can’t tell if this is a dream or what…”
The folded zone of the strangling tree ten years ago had left him with an indelible impact.
Wei Zhuo had overused stabilizing drugs, and his condition was becoming more and more uncontrollable.
“If it’s a dream, that’s fine too. In the dream, you’re still alive. I want to live in a world with you in it.”
In ten years, he had learned to completely confess his feelings to his beloved in these one-sided conversations.
But the other party would never respond again.
Wei Zhuo lowered his gaze, his eyes like a barren expanse of dry sand, so dry that even tears had been drained away.
The hand exposed outside the thin white quilt moved ever so slightly.
Wei Zhuo suddenly lifted his head, joy flashing in his eyes.
He stood up abruptly, just in time to meet the young man’s eyes as his eyelashes trembled open. “Hexue…”
………
“Will Lieutenant General Wei Zhuo ever wake up?”
The assistant asked from outside the glass window of the ward.
Over the past ten years, Ji Yushan’s assistants had been replaced wave after wave. The research institute that was established for wartime reasons had already been converted into a rehabilitation center.
It housed sentinels suffering from post-war trauma.
During his routine ward inspection, Ji Yushan swept his gaze over the scene inside the ward. “Who knows? The real world is too painful. Perhaps escape is the best method.”
The assistant was unaware of the inside story and complained, “Really, saying escape is the best…are you just trying to justify your drinking habit?”
Ji Yushan: “Haha, do you want to go for a drink after work?”
………
In the corner of the house, empty wine bottles piled into a small hill, and cobwebs covered the dim gray wall.
A strong wave of stomach acid surged up, and Yan Ji rushed toward the bathroom, kicking over two empty bottles along the way.
He vomited violently.
The faucet was turned all the way to the right, and the strongest stream of water quickly washed away the vomit until there was nothing left in his stomach to throw up.
The sentinel bent over and faced the sink’s drain, and began frantically digging at his own throat.
Bits of internal organs were forced out from inside his esophagus.
“Plop!”
“Plop!”
“Plop!”
Several dark green vines crowded inside the relatively narrow throat.
Yan Ji looked at himself in the mirror.
In the end, he leaned against the cold wall of the bathroom and slid down to the floor, the damp chill wrapping around his limbs and torso.
What difference was there between not getting Xin Hexue’s love and being dead?
The sentinel closed his eyes in the darkness.
This time…
Would Ah Xue love him?
Author’s note:
Next chapter, let’s see Priest Xiao Snow Cat.
Because some readers didn’t understand, I revised the text and added details.
Explanation: After the dead ex-husband returned, there was only the [??? current heartbreak value] notification; it was never [He Botian’s current heartbreak value]. So except for the parts of real memories, the ex-husband who appeared was always the Strangling Tree.
Yan Ji had always had his own [Yan Ji Heartbreak Value / Love Value] notification. He was not the Strangling Tree from the start, but from the moment Xin Hexue died, his mental pollution got out of control and he ultimately assimilated into a mutant.
(The reason why the Strangling Tree used He Botian to replace Yan Ji in the thirteenth cycle was because it guessed that Xin Hexue now favored Yan Ji more. But at that time, it didn’t have Yan Ji’s body or memories, so it could only replace him by altering memories, which was discovered by Xin Hexue. In the end, after much difficulty, it still managed to wear Yan Ji’s skin…)
As for Wei Zhuo’s part…he was always the one lying unconscious on the hospital bed. Visiting Xin Hexue and Xin Hexue waking up were entirely his dream.
Ahh, the knives this time were too sharp (〒﹏〒)
wait, before the he guy monologue was him trying to take control of the body before now they assimilated. so was his conscience ever there or not?