Chapter 204: The Ones Who Can’t Be Shaken Off (End)
“Crack—”
The formation that Su Mingxiu had set up made an even more unbearable sound of cracking. She watched as Rong Rong’s body became even more light-like after she had said those words.
And the specks of light that had been restricted and had been hovering around the formation were all gathering toward the black hole above.
She was about to leave this world.
Even though she had made all the preparations and knew that this would be a permanent separation, Su Mingxiu couldn’t think of a way to make her willingly stay in such a short amount of time. She could only use her eyes, which seemed to be able to hold the vast world but were now filled with only pitch black, to keep staring at Rong Rong’s appearance.
It was as if, as long as she looked hard enough, she would be able to identify the outline of the other person’s soul from under the cover of her body and then remember it forever in her heart.
“Don’t…”
“Don’t cry.” Rong Rong tried her best to open her eyes wide. Because the place where Su Mingxiu was standing happened to be in the midst of the frozen and flying fountain mist, the light reflected from her eyes and flashed by, looking too much like the curve of a teardrop falling from the corner of her eye.
So she tried her best to struggle out of her broken, chaotic, and almost collapsing consciousness and almost instinctively reached out her hand toward Su Mingxiu.
Su Mingxiu hesitated for a moment—
It was because of this moment of hesitation that, when she stretched out her hand and tried to grab Rong Rong’s hand, her movements had only just touched the other person’s fingertips when she only touched the golden light that was flowing away.
It was like sand flowing through her fingers.
She grabbed at nothing, and then she saw that the transportation process, which had originally been very slow, had suddenly sped up because of her actions. The person, whose edges had only been blurry and faint, had instantly decomposed by half, like a sand castle being pushed down on a beach!
The sound of glass breaking rang out in her ears.
Su Mingxiu even forgot to blink. It was only when the broken inscriptions and runes of the formation floated into her eyes that she blankly thought that it was because her mind had wavered for a moment that it had broken.
She could have held on for longer.
[Goodbye.]
The system was now too lazy to hide in Rong Rong’s body. Its voice came to Su Mingxiu from all directions in this world. It hadn’t even bothered to mock Su Mingxiu’s failure. Instead, it announced arrogantly and coldly:
[You have failed. This is your destined fate.]
At the same time.
The gears of time, which had been stopped in the game world, started to turn again. The mist that had flown into the air fell down on her like a downpour.
And the music that had been requested started to play a hoarse song: “But it was only you who accompanied me in the beginning/Only you could understand that my dreams were never big/
We weren’t together, but we were at least like a couple/
I was at my worst, when I was in pain, when I was crazy, when I was hurt, and I cried the most in front of you/I know that you can’t take me back to that place…”
A pain that she had never felt before spread from Su Mingxiu’s internal organs. She couldn’t help but arch her back and cough up a mouthful of blood.
Broken and grating sounds came from inside her body. Su Mingxiu clearly felt that her soul, which had originally been repaired and pieced together, had started to fall apart again the moment Rong Rong had left this world.
Even her fake body couldn’t be maintained.
And the bodyguards who had gathered around her and were reaching out to her, preparing to separate her and Rong Rong, had also returned to their original actions when the water droplets had fallen. Even though in their eyes, Rong Rong had disappeared in an instant.
The only remaining light was what Su Mingxiu could see.
She was always stubbornly looking at Rong Rong. When the bodyguards’ power landed on her, she glanced at them out of the corner of her eye and used her remaining power to set up a defense without even blinking. But it quickly shattered, and along with the fine mist, it was sprinkled in front of her.
Only a faint light remained in the location where Rong Rong had been.
It wasn’t even as bright as the fake stars in the sky.
“A destined… fate?”
Su Mingxiu slowly repeated the words that the system had said. When she heard the song, she found that many images had appeared in her mind.
Those were things that she had clearly remembered in the first world… things that she had almost forgotten after one traversal after another.
So she finally remembered why she had fallen in love with Yu Yinglan—
And she also remembered that she had many mysteries that hadn’t been answered yet.
For example, why were the protagonists of so many worlds so similar to her old friend? And this old friend clearly hadn’t left a deep impression on her long cultivation journey.
And also why, in the second world, Gui Mian, who was both her disciple and the protagonist of that world, had been able to stay with her in that world for tens of thousands of years, enjoying an endless life that was as long as the heavens and earth, and existed with all things, yet she had only wanted a promise for a hundred years.
…
So, what was her destined fate?
Was it destined to meet this person countless times, to fall in love with the other person, and then to be destined to lose her?
Su Mingxiu heard the bodyguards around her stop their actions after finding that Rong Rong had disappeared. They were a bit at a loss. They were just vaguely surrounding her. Then, they pressed their earpieces and reported the situation to their respective bosses.
The aftereffects of the shattered soul that was corroding her internal organs weren’t as strong as Su Mingxiu had imagined. She didn’t know if it was because she had lost her ability to sense it, or if it was because she had become numb.
The last flame that was left of Rong Rong was reflected in Su Mingxiu’s pupils. From afar, it looked like it was jumping in her eyes, as if that flame had remained in her eyes.
Not far away.
Tang Yiyi and Po Er, who had heard the report, both felt that something was strange.
“What do you mean by she disappeared?”
“I don’t remember my baby learning this kind of magic.”
They were relying on the fact that Su Mingxiu didn’t have any attacking power and was just putting on a show, like her appearance.
So they brazenly walked toward her, wanting to see what this “disappearance” was all about.
The men in black who had surrounded Su Mingxiu moved away, leaving enough space for the two of them to pass through. Tang Yiyi saw Su Mingxiu kneeling on one knee, using the force of the ground to support her swaying body. She couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows, “So she’s a weakling?”
She had thought that she was someone who was very powerful to have dared to compete with her for someone.
Po Er frowned. She really didn’t see any traces of Rong Rong. She didn’t know how this living person could disappear like that.
So she ordered her people, who were now feeling frustrated, “Forget it. You guys should take this person away first.”
The person who was surrounded by them suddenly spoke at this moment, “So… my original memories were already changed by you, right?”
If it wasn’t because her original memories had been changed, then how could Su Mingxiu have so many interactions with this person, and even have the other person fall in love with her time and time again?
This person must be very important to her.
And this “system,” out of some kind of purpose, had hidden this and made her think that the mission worlds since her soul had coalesced had all been coincidences.
This system wasn’t something that had appeared in her life after her soul had been shattered. It had existed with her since the beginning.
Then, what was the system’s true face?
It had so much power that it could set rules, not allowing others to resist. It even wanted to control the trajectories of cultivators’ lives arbitrarily with the so-called fate—
“What is she saying?”
Tang Yiyi frowned.
She felt that this woman was exuding a very crazy aura, but when she looked closely, she found that the person in front of her was still coughing up blood with that weak appearance. It was only that the beautiful face had a breathtaking beauty to it.
“That’s not important.”
Po Er replied.
At the same time.
Wei Shang had also finally walked out of the forest, and she found that the dogs, who had originally been very quiet and had been walking with her to the plaza, had suddenly become restless when they had walked near this area. Even the whites of their eyes had started to show streaks of blood.
The dogs’ manic barking attracted everyone’s attention: “Woof, woof, woof, woof!”
“Hmm?”
Wei Shang almost lost her grip on the leashes. She tilted her head in confusion—What was going on?
The only characteristic that her dogs had other than loyalty was that they were vindictive. When she had been hunting with these dogs before, one of them had been attacked and dragged away by a leopard. Because it had been at night, she hadn’t been able to catch the hunter.
But a week later, all of the dogs had suddenly led her ten kilometers into the wilderness, barking madly at a tree. It was only then that Wei Shang had found the careless culprit.
Even though that battle had made her lose a few of her beloved dogs, after the remaining dogs had feasted on the leopard’s corpse, they had returned to their usual calm demeanor.
This was quite interesting.
In other words, there was something in this plaza that her dogs hated?
Wei Shang remembered that she hadn’t seen this kind of situation for a long time. After all, her dogs usually moved in groups and had a lot of destructive power. Ordinary people would avoid them when they saw them… Wait, the most recent time had seemed to be at that octagonal cage.
However.
After she had woken up, she remembered that she had already had that audacious person secretly executed, even though the shrinking appearance that the other person had shown was completely opposite of the arrogant appearance that she had had in the cage. It was to the point that it made people suspect that she had a second personality.
“This is too interesting… Let’s go take a look.”
Of course, Wei Shang had also seen the group of bodyguards in their matching black suits and those two people who looked like they had unusual identities. But so what? In this city, there wasn’t anyone that she couldn’t provoke.
“Little Si?”
The person who had forced her roommate, who had been in a bad mood recently, to come out with her, wanting to walk around with her and see if she could feel better, saw that Rong Si’s gaze was fixed on the other side of where the fireworks had been set off. She couldn’t help but call out to her in confusion.
Rong Si had heard the sounds of the dogs barking. Actually, with her current physical condition, what she feared the most was encountering large dogs whose owners had bad morals.
For her, who had difficulty walking, she could be in mortal danger if she was chased by these kinds of animals.
She heard her heart skip a beat.
It was as if she was about to lose something very important.
But that direction… shouldn’t have anyone who was important to her. After all, the people around her didn’t like to come to the plaza for a walk at night. Even her sister was…
Never mind.
Thinking about Rong Rong, who had been obsessed with taking her to see a psychiatrist recently, Rong Si attributed the sudden imbalance in her heartbeat to the fear she had felt when she had heard the dogs barking. So she turned her head and gave her roommate a gentle smile, “It’s nothing.”
The plaza at night was very lively. There were also many parents who had come to the musical fountain with their children.
But after this group of bodyguards in black suits had rushed out, those parents showed expressions of fear. They didn’t dare to go up and ask what was going on. They also didn’t want to meddle in other people’s business, afraid of bringing any disasters to their families.
So they picked up their children, who were crying, and left this place.
“Mommy… I still want to play.”
“Play what? Let’s go home. You haven’t finished your homework. If your teacher checks it tomorrow, she’s going to call me again. Go home and do your homework.”
“But, but you promised me that you would take me out tonight… Wuwuwuwu!”
“Grandma, what are those people doing?”
“Good boy, don’t ask. Grandma will take you to the entrance to buy candied hawthorns, okay?”
…
The same thing was happening to many parents and their children.
The people who had gathered around the musical fountain quickly scattered like birds and beasts. Even the ones who were hesitating and wanted to watch a show also quickly scattered when Wei Shang and her dogs had appeared.
Only the music that was paired with the fountain didn’t have any sense and continued to play the next song with its subpar audio quality:
“You are a ray of light that fell into my world—”
“You ran toward me, and all things grew…”
In this multi-person NTR storyline, this song seemed so out of place. And the bodyguards clearly didn’t have any interest in this kind of cliche. They were just focused on reaching out toward Su Mingxiu, who was destined not to get an answer from the system, wanting to pull her away from this place.
The change happened in an instant.
The light that had been staring at Su Mingxiu, which had been on the verge of dissipating into the air, was like an unquenchable flame, and it had still not gone out.
And the moment that those people tried to pull Su Mingxiu away, this light, as if a burning accelerant had been injected into it, suddenly flared even brighter.
And the one who was the most incredulous about this was the system: “That’s impossible!”
“What’s that sound?”
Tang Yiyi raised her head and looked around. She didn’t see anything other than the endless starry sky. Po Er, who had been feeling annoyed working with her, was even more displeased after encountering one mistake after another. She even started to suspect, “From the disappearance of that person earlier to the commotion now, did you do it?”
“I’m not that bored.”
Just as Tang Yiyi’s voice faded, Wei Shang’s voice joined in, “It’s so lively here. Could I ask you a few questions about what’s going on?”
Yu Wu, who had been standing to the side and had been watching everything that was happening, didn’t know why.
She hadn’t participated in their actions from the beginning, but she also hadn’t left. The stubborn top star hadn’t realized that she still had a sliver of hope in her heart.
It was like a bankrupt person who had found a lottery shop on the side of the road when she had nowhere to turn. She was filled with a thought that she didn’t even believe in herself and walked in, wanting to scratch out a miracle.
Hearing Wei Shang’s voice, Tang Yiyi and Po Er, whose alliance was already on the verge of collapsing, felt that things were even more unfavorable at this moment. They turned their heads toward her at the same time, “It’s not convenient.”
“It’s not for you to know.” The two of them said at the same time.
But the more they said that, the more restless Wei Shang’s dogs became. They were almost about to break free of her control. And what was making them so agitated wasn’t the person who was wearing a suit and who was exuding an aura of being expensive, and it wasn’t the woman who was being excessive by bringing a decorative parasol out at night.
It was… Su Mingxiu, who they had surrounded.
The first moment that she had seen this person, Wei Shang hadn’t been shocked by the profile that was half-covered by her hair. But she had sensed a familiar aura from this person.
This kind of aura was on the cleaner that she had encountered at the movie city downstairs when she had been with Rong Rong and was also on the person that she had captured and thrown into the octagonal cage later.
But Wei Shang really couldn’t connect these people, who had such different appearances, together. She could only classify this aura as: dangerous.
These were all dangerous people.
But where did the dogs’ anger come from?
Wei Shang found it interesting. Even though Tang Yiyi and Po Er had both shown an unwelcoming attitude, she ignored it and instead loosened her grip on the leashes. In the next second, she saw that the dogs were running wildly toward the place where the bodyguards were.
The chaos didn’t affect Su Mingxiu’s focus. When she heard the system’s incredulous voice, she knew that something had broken free of the other party’s control.
And looking at the increasingly bright golden light that was gathering around the light spot, Su Mingxiu vaguely realized—
The pain hadn’t continued in her body, not because she had gotten used to it or anything else. It was because…
She hadn’t completely failed.
At the final moment, it was Rong Rong’s will that had changed everything.
The light became even brighter. Rong Rong, who had originally been sucked into the black hole and was about to be transported to another world, was slowly returning to this game under Su Mingxiu’s fervent gaze.
The system finally couldn’t hold back. It said to her in Rong Rong’s mind, “You don’t have any emotional foundation with Su Mingxiu. She’s just a bit special in this world. Do you know what she’ll become like in the future?”
[Once you choose to stay, you’ll never be able to leave this world again. And those girlfriends that you broke up with using all sorts of methods will come looking for trouble for you. Do you think that the two of you will be able to live a peaceful life? ]
[You’ve just been temporarily deceived by her. Leaving this place is the best choice for you. Do you understand?]
Rong Rong had just managed to sort through her memories. It was very strange. Even if those scenes and emotions were very intense, they only made her feel like they were unfamiliar…
It was as if she had been forcibly instilled with something, and she was just an observer, destined to not be able to empathize with it even a little bit.
“You’re getting desperate.”
Her voice was very soft.
And it was precisely this sense of desperation that the system had revealed that gave her a clue. Because this wasn’t what a game system should be saying to a player.
It had arranged all of this, and it was only at the end that it had revealed its purpose. Although Rong Rong felt that it was strange, right now, she had something more important to do than that—
The light re-formed her body.
When the light had dispersed, her appearance reappeared in Su Mingxiu’s eyes. The light that had been surrounding her disappeared. So she was also able to reappear in the world of Tang Yiyi and the other girlfriends.
Seeing the scene that was like a person being reborn, Tang Yiyi raised her eyebrows slightly. Her intuition told her that something had changed during the time when Rong Rong had disappeared and reappeared. And this change was extremely unfavorable for her.
“Baby, you regret it, and you want to come back to my side, right?” At this crucial moment, Po Er seemed to have inherited some traits from Yu Wu. She put down the parasol in her hand and handed it to the bodyguard next to her. Then she reached out her hand to her.
But Rong Rong didn’t even look at her. She didn’t even notice the dangerous aura that Wei Shang was giving off as she held her dogs’ leashes, looking left and right as she was judging the current situation.
Her eyes were only on Su Mingxiu.
When she saw the faint red spot on the ground and the way the other person was, Rong Rong quickly ran toward her, and even was a bit out of breath when she reached her side, “You… what’s wrong?”
Were you injured? Was it because of these bodyguards?
Her soul, which had originally been about to shatter, had gradually solidified again. And it had even become more stable because of Rong Rong’s actions of running toward her. Su Mingxiu vaguely sensed that the last piece, the most important piece of her soul, was also responding to her call, and was about to be completely healed.
She rarely raised her head, looking at this woman who had come to her side and had finally decided to stay. She suddenly drifted off, thinking…
This broken song that the musical fountain was playing wasn’t completely useless.
Rong Rong was the ray of light that had fallen into her world. When she had run toward her, even the time that had paused on her had started to flow. So her soul had been repaired, her love was overflowing, and everything in her inner world had revived and started to grow.
“Why did you come back?”
Su Mingxiu didn’t answer her question. Instead, she asked one in return.
The person who was standing in the middle of the colorful musical fountain felt that her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes were covered in mist.
And these mist droplets that had been stained by light had landed on Su Mingxiu’s face. She rarely looked at the other person from this angle, looking down at her.
But even like this, when she made eye contact with this person, Rong Rong still felt that she was the one who had been captivated.
She felt like she would be forever captivated by this woman’s aura.
Rong Rong reached out her hand and pulled her up from the ground. She first apologized to her, “I’m sorry. I had a bit of a shock earlier, so I forgot what I wanted to say to you.”
She quickly revealed a smile, “But now, I remember—”
“I wanted to tell you that I really like you. Can I stay here with you?”
The person who had been pulled up by her, who could surpass all the scenery in this world with just her appearance, smiled when she heard this. Nothing could stop her love for the other person anymore. So in the next second, Su Mingxiu leaned in and kissed those lips that she had been coveting for so long:
“My pleasure.”
The musical fountain was suddenly stimulated and sprayed up high. The water columns shot straight up to the sky, and the stars that were twinkling in the sky started to tremble at this moment. Then, all of the stars in the sky turned into shooting stars and crashed down.
The moment that they kissed, this so-called game world began to crumble inch by inch. And the girlfriends, who had been shocked that Rong Rong had cheated on them right in front of their eyes, no longer had any time to feel shocked. They were even one step away from gaining independent consciousness.
Unfortunately.
The world’s mechanisms had completely collapsed.
In the midst of the earth-shattering commotion, Rong Rong was thinking that she hadn’t expected that this pixelated person… would be so soft when she kissed.
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