Our Melon

During the rest of the journey, Yan Li, who had rested for a while, once again activated the three-dimensional formation. As if he was furious, his speed of advancement only increased.

Perhaps it was some kind of unlucky fate at work, but they walked along, bypassing many narrow paths where evil spirits gathered, and killing some lone evil spirits one after another, until they were about to enter the north of the town when they found the first doll.

This is what Yu Xing found on the branch of a large, withered tree after searching and probing with the help of branches.

It's fair to say that the greening in Nanshui Town is very poor, probably because there's a lack of environmental awareness. After clearing out a piece of land suitable for building a town, they just started building houses all at once.

If there weren't so few trees, Yu Xing felt that finding the doll would be several times easier, because even with his exceptionally strong mental power, constantly communicating with and manipulating those branches from another dimension was becoming unbearable.

Conversely, using the existing dead branches and trees as eyes requires very little effort.

The former was his acceptance of the power attached to this strange tongue offering, which ultimately required an extra mental investment. The latter was the application of the curse power of the Ghost Tree, which was as simple for him as using his limbs to walk.

The tree in front of me is dead. Its roots have lost the ability to draw nutrients from the soil. Its bark is white, and not a single leaf remains. Its sprawling branches are covered with patches of snow, and the doll is hidden in the densest, most concealed snowdrift among the branches.

Whether by coincidence or not, the evil spirits around happened to gather near that tree, and there were quite a few of them.

In short, if anyone wants to get this doll, they either have to brave the demons' attacks and charge in, or they have to completely conceal their presence and carefully slip through the gaps in the paths where all the demons linger.

The result of charging in headfirst is predictable. Such a large-scale attack will inevitably attract more evil spirits to chase after it. It's unclear how to make the evil spirit that has locked onto its target give up. What if it's the type that will relentlessly pursue a living person to the death? Wouldn't the number of evil spirits chasing after it increase as it goes on?

What a shocking scene of a zombie siege! But the thought of leading a large group of demons far stronger than zombies through the town is something only Meng Dao could pull off.

Yes, the only fortune teller the three of them encountered along their journey through town was the Meng Dao. At that time, the Meng Dao was already being chased by a dozen or so evil spirits, and it was carrying a doll in its mouth as it ran wildly towards Baibao Street.

Thanks to him, Yu Xing no longer felt that forcing his way in was a dead end.

Baibao Street doesn't seem to be affected by external changes. These evil spirits either can't enter Baibao Street, or they turn back into normal townspeople once they do. Meng Dao has already obtained the doll, so as long as he enters Baibao Street, he can safely wait until nightfall.

--If he doesn't want to use this time to do some tasks and accumulate points.

Those who bought items from the in-game store couldn't return to Baibao Street with peace of mind. Their remaining points were definitely less than 5,000, and as long as they wanted to survive, it was impossible for them not to buy Cognitive Recovery items.

If staying in a town resident's house for just one night was this terrifying, no one can say for sure how much cognitive distortion the Snow Festival, which was announced long ago, will cause.

In short, Yu Xing and his group couldn't just snatch the dolls and go back like Meng Dao, nor did they intend to waste their points in a place like this.

Looking at the withered tree and the demon beside it, Medusa said, "I'll give it a try."

Her speed has already been proven; if the snake phantom climbs up the tree first, she can teleport there, grab the doll, and return unharmed.

The brief exposure of her aura is not a big deal, because she has no way to move. Once she returns, she will be enveloped by Yan Li's formation and conceal her aura again. Even the evil spirit will never be able to find her again.

"But you can't climb trees." Yan Li had already composed himself along the way, and no one knew what he was thinking, but he managed to swallow his grievances.

A lingering sense of unease remained. His voice was muffled as he said, "And your wound is bleeding."

Yu Xing wondered why snakes could climb trees but Medusa couldn't. After thinking about it, he realized that Medusa shouldn't need to climb trees to teleport to get the doll; at that speed, she could even stay in the air.

But the bleeding is real.

The wound on her waist was left by the symbol of Qianjie, sharing the same origin as her. Perhaps whenever she uses this combat ability, it triggers the lingering energy within the wound, causing it to worsen.

From the park to here, Medusa's white gauze around her waist has been stained red, the inner layer of wrapping showing through to the outermost layer. Although it only shows a pale red color, one can still guess at the gruesome nature of the wound.

Her telling Lan Wu that everything was alright was ultimately a form of comfort.

"Tch, as long as I draw energy from her, this injury will heal instantly." Medusa didn't seem to care about the wound, which showed her considerable confidence.

Yu Xing could now fully understand what she meant; it seemed that Medusa planned to take the initiative to cause trouble for the Snake Woman phantom later.

"She has no self-control; she only ever takes from you." Clearly, Yan Li knew her situation, and he grabbed Medusa's wrist when she tried to release the snakes despite his advice.

"This is such a small matter that you don't need to lift a finger. Please don't try to be a hero."

Originally, if Medusa hadn't shown them her skills beforehand, the task of getting the doll would have fallen to Yan Li or Yu Xing.

It was indeed a small matter. Yu Xing sighed as he watched the two of them arguing, one with unrecovered mental energy and the other with injuries.

"That's enough, you two."

Yan Li probably knew he was making a mountain out of a molehill, so he remained silent.

"Considering that one of you maintained the formation the whole way, and the other showed me the intelligence from last night, I'll retrieve all the dolls from now on." Yu Xing adjusted his glasses, causing the thin chain hanging beside him to sway. "Please conserve your energy for dealing with any unexpected situations within the Fang Mansion, instead of getting bogged down in this kind of mess."

Yan Li: "... I'm sorry."

Medusa chuckled, "Oh dear~ the president of Broken Mirror is really reliable."

In the end, the doll that had caused them to waste a little time arguing about was delivered to them by a branch of the dead tree.

A very thin twig extended inexplicably, passing through the gap between the doll's body and clothes, hanging the doll there silently over the heads of the evil spirits, and carrying the doll to a stone step.

The stone steps were completely outside the demons' encirclement. Yu Xing stepped forward, picked up the doll, and dusted it off.

Even without underestimating Yu Xing, this scene still left Yan Li Medusa speechless.

Since the tree was dead and there were no resentful souls attached to it, who would have thought that Yu Xing could make the branches of a dead tree grow against the natural order? Before, they thought that Yu Xing's control over the branches was more about attack methods such as piercing the ground and killing instantly.

[Yes, it really is very simple, but can I say that it makes the other two seem a bit dull? (Please don't hit me)]

[There's no way around it. They don't know each other's specific abilities. After all, they're senior figures. Even the Research Institute's data can't be guaranteed to be accurate. Being too outstanding makes teamwork difficult.]

[Speaking of which, I suddenly forgot what we were all laughing about earlier. This feeling of suddenly forgetting things is really unpleasant.]

[Yeah, what were we doing twenty minutes ago?]

[Something seems to have happened that's both shocking and hilarious, but I have absolutely no recollection of it. Oh no, I guess I'll have to settle down in Nanshui Town (not really)]

To avoid things escalating and becoming unmanageable, Yanming, who had already used the system to block and distort memories the moment the captain embarrassed himself, Yan Ming went into hiding.

He's always been a good person, always ready to help others.

The operation went much more smoothly afterward. Yu Xing found two more dolls at a tea stall and in the back of a roadside tricycle, and stole them.

The branches from beyond dimensions are truly remarkable; they are more than capable of replacing all the offerings he once possessed, fulfilling all functions such as attack, reconnaissance, and defense.

Aside from the Sheqing Dreamscape, that was the dagger that Yi Qing gave away.

Each of the top-level strategists has their own strengths. Yan Li Medusa could only marvel at how useful his abilities were and accepted the doll.

The dolls were in their backpacks, as safe as a bank vault. With no worries about the consequences of today's Yugi, the three decided to find a place to recover their depleted energy before heading straight to the Fang Mansion.

--The meaning of "go directly" is to stop taking the slow, leisurely walk and instead use your abilities to skip the second half of the journey.

Yan Li's teleportation array and Yu Xing's use of branches to sneak underground could both achieve this, so the reason they didn't do it from the beginning was to complete the doll quest first.

Once inside the Fang Mansion, they didn't know when they would be able to leave. Of course, they would come out before handing in their mission, no matter what.

The time limit for completing tasks is manageable, but the time for finding the doll is not. If you can't find the doll after you leave, it's easy to exceed the time limit.

The three of them found an unmanned shop on the street and replenished their supplies there.

Yan Li finally had time to sort out his mental energy, which had been twisted into a pretzel. Medusa re-bandaged the wound, and Yu Xing, who was so hungry, started stuffing food from the shop into her mouth.

The consequence of overusing branches is that the tongue protests.

Yu Xing didn't need a branch to convey his hunger and craving; he could feel it himself. It wasn't craving, it was hunger. He needed to eat something to replenish what he had lost during this time.

Yan Li leaned back in front of the shelf to regulate his breathing, the sounds of packaging being torn open and chewing never stopping in his ears.

Seeing that Yu Xing's cheeks were puffed out like a hamster's, completely destroying the refined air that glasses usually gave her, he could guess that this was a side effect of using her ability, but he still hesitated for a moment. "You know why I refused breakfast, right?"

"Mmm." Yu Xing covered her mouth, too busy to speak and not wanting anyone to see the astonishing speed at which the food in her mouth disappeared.

Yan Li pretended not to know, closed his eyes to rest, and said, "There is no real food in the town, it's all fake. Every bite that outsiders eat will become a hidden danger of cognitive confusion."

"So the townspeople always use all sorts of reasons to get us to eat, including the noodles the noodle stall owner who's catching up with you gives you for free."

"So you're eating so much now, aren't you afraid of something going wrong later?"

Yu Xing: "Hmm."

The food in his mouth finally disappeared, and he laughed, "It's alright. If it were normal food, it wouldn't be of any use to me."

The tongue doesn't want to eat normal things; it craves blood, ghosts, and all negative energy.

If Yan Li had paid a closer look at him, he would have noticed that he had been eating the whole time, but hadn't swallowed a single drop.

It was his tongue that was hungry, not his stomach.

These fake foods would turn into their true form once they entered his mouth—wisps of ghostly energy with very low concentration. Although they tasted terrible, at this moment, his tongue didn't care and absorbed all the ghostly energy.

As for cognitive confusion, nothing in his body could cause him more confusion than his tongue. Although he couldn't figure out the origin of his tongue's abilities, its status was more than enough to deal with the residual effects of the Qianjie symbol.

Since Yu Xing said it was alright, Yan Li didn't remind her anymore. Medusa, who had gone behind the shelf to treat her wound, came out at this moment. She had changed into a new, clean gauze, and she looked even better than before.

"Oh, why does King of Hell still look like he has kidney deficiency?" Yan Li smiled and sized up Medusa for a while after seeing him sitting on the ground.

Yan Li let out a cold snort, too lazy to even open his eyes. However, this was the aftereffect of using mental power to withstand cognitive distortion. He had concentrated his mind at a high intensity for a whole night, and his cognition was well preserved, but a large part of the mental power he used for defense was completely messed up.

Those disordered forces are like tangled balls of yarn; they can't be used to thread a needle until they're untangled. They're essentially unusable and occupying space, which is why the brain is constantly in pain.

Seeing that he was already immune to this topic, Medusa stopped teasing him and walked up to Yan Li.

Yan Li has long legs, so she wouldn't feel bad about shrinking into a corner. Therefore, when she sat down, her legs were naturally spread apart with them slightly bent.

Medusa stopped precisely where her legs were apart. Yan Li seemed very perceptive to such things, immediately opening his eyes and looking up at her. "What are you doing?"

Medusa crouched down, bringing the two very close in an instant. If her knees had moved forward a few more inches, they would have touched Yan Li's lower abdomen.

This time, however, she didn't say anything provocative. Instead, she held out her hand and said, "Don't force yourself. With your limited skills, you wouldn't even finish half of it in an hour. Let me do it."

Medusa, who could cut off the tongue symbolized by the Qianjie, was undoubtedly the most capable of correcting the mental energy of others among all the strategists present—or rather, among all the strategists in the entire system.

However, she was infamous for her ruthlessness; her reputation for distorting others' names far outweighed her reputation for healing them. In the past, no one dared to ask her for such a favor, fearing that they might become the most loyal follower of a beauty the moment they closed their eyes.

Yu Xing ate and watched the show from the side.

Yan Li stared at her for a long time, so long that the audience watching the scene thought he wouldn't agree, before he finally said, "Okay, then I'll trouble you."

Medusa smiled and gently placed her hand on Yan Li's forehead.

"But—" Just a second before Medusa was about to begin her guidance, Yan Li suddenly grabbed her slender wrist, a barely perceptible plea flickering in his dark eyes. He whispered, "Don't take this opportunity to give me that kind of suggestion."

By proactively opening up her defenses, she was able to adjust her mindset. Once she was implanted with a certain cognitive inducement, she would no longer be as easily seen through as before.

It can even remain hidden for a lifetime.

"What kind of implication?" Medusa asked calmly, seemingly not understanding.

"... It's that kind of hint, don't play dumb." Yan Li glanced at Yu Xing out of the corner of his eye, but couldn't quite bring himself to say it.

"What? I really don't understand." Medusa's smile deepened. "Alright, stop dawdling, close your eyes and let me help you—"

Annoyed by her unwillingness to give a definite answer, and seeing that Medusa's guiding power was about to engulf her, Yan Li suddenly grabbed Medusa's waist with one hand to prevent her from losing her balance, and with the other hand grabbed her collar and pulled her down slightly.

The two people, who were already close, were now completely pressed together. Medusa hadn't expected him to do this. Then, the hand on her waist tightened, Yan Li lifted his chin, and kissed Medusa's lips.

Yu Xing: I'll knock!

Yanming, who was watching the captain's live stream and saw the terrifying surge of Yan Ming: Your mother.

Yu Xing felt it would be impolite to watch any longer; these two were pretending not to know each other in front of the camera one minute, and then daring to be so bold the next.

With a hint of shock, he turned away and headed towards the other food shelf.

As the angle changed, strands of hair fell across Medusa's forehead, obscuring the child's thoughts.

It was just a light, restrained kiss, like a dragonfly skimming the water.

After kissing her, Yan Li didn't pull away. At such close range, every word he spoke touched Medusa's lips again, his voice hoarse and indistinct.

"Don't give me any hints that I should give up."

Despite these actions, Yan Li's eyes showed no confusion or desire, only extreme clarity and rationality.

Medusa's smile had vanished without a trace.

Her voice was cool and her emotions unclear. She tilted her head back slightly, avoiding the man's presence, and said softly, "That useless obsession will only waste your time. We are both proud people. Rather than being ambiguous, why not be decisive? While I'm still interested in your body, wouldn't it be better to indulge a little?"

"But I'm not reconciled," Yan Li retorted softly, her eyes reddening slightly. "We clearly like each other, how can I accept this?"

Medusa remained expressionless, almost resolute. "I gave you one last chance back then, and you said you wouldn't regret it. Don't make me look down on you."

"I just regret it."

"What?"

Yan Li slowly closed his eyes, and the enormous, adult King of Hell began to whine like a child. "I lost, I was wrong, I regret it, I regret it so much. You said I cried more than once, I have no pride left, you look down on me, don't you?"

Medusa: "..."

Her icy expression faltered, and she burst into laughter in exasperation.

It was rare for her to lose her composure. Her chest heaved, and then she suddenly felt a strange heat coming from in front of her knees... Unable to bear it any longer, she slapped Yan Li on the forehead and yelled, "Wake up! This is a live broadcast! Don't you care about your image?"

"Anyway, not many people will remember." Yan Li sighed. He had wanted things to turn out this way, but he was afraid that if he didn't say these things now, this heartless woman might take the opportunity to give him a suggestive gift.

Since things have come to this point, we can only leave it to Yan Ming to handle.

"Let's calm your mental energy first. I'll pretend I didn't hear what you just said." Medusa told herself not to get angry, and before Yan Li could say anything more, she warned, "Don't make me hate you."

The man finally calmed down, and Medusa, still furious, began to channel her inner energy.

Even though Yu Xing had walked a bit further away, he still couldn't block out their conversation. He wondered to himself, why did he always end up either coincidentally or involuntarily getting caught up in their gossip?

Did he accidentally say "I like to hear this" when he was gossiping about it? It seems even more effective than if he had said it aloud.

I'd never had any contact with these two people before. Were they always like this?

Young people these days are really individualistic; he just can't quite understand it.

About ten minutes later, there was some movement from the two people who were receiving emotional support.

The sound of heels clicking on the ground drew closer. Yu Xing turned around and saw Medusa already standing behind him.

"Finished sorting it out?" he asked.

"Well, this is a simple matter for me." Medusa casually leaned against something stable. "He needs a while to adjust; he won't wake up for a minute or two. We can go straight to the Fang Mansion in a bit."

She glanced at the young man who had just walked away to avoid suspicion, and smiled, "You must be laughing at me."

Yu Xing raised an eyebrow. "Why aren't you 'hehe, I'm going to make him so mad' right now?"

Medusa: "..."

She muttered, "Because this time it's me who gets angry."

Anyway, Yu Xing saw a lot of details along the way. The viewers in the live stream could be handled by the system, but Yu Xing was at the same level as them, could not.

She also wanted to vent, so she simply said to Yu Xing, "Want to eat the whole melon?"

Yu Xing chuckled lightly, "I'd like to hear the details."

Medusa said slowly, "Yan Li and I grew up together as childhood sweethearts; he's two months older than me."

"I'm a total sucker for good looks. I've always loved admiring all kinds of beautiful and handsome people since I was a child, and he hasn't changed a bit in that aloof and indifferent look."

"The amazing thing is, I've met many people who are better looking than him, and many people think I'm a player. He seems aloof to others, but everyone thinks we'll be together when we grow up."

"That's absolutely true; we've never liked anyone other than each other."

"He confessed to me on the day I turned 18. During the day, he coolly held my hand and told me I couldn't refuse him, but that night he started crying, saying he was so glad I didn't reject him, otherwise he wouldn't know what to do, haha..."

Speaking of that time, Medusa smiled, her nostalgia undisguised.

"He seems like a cool and tough guy, but he's actually quite affectionate and playful when he's with me. Plus, he's great in bed. I really, really like him."

"Later, we were both caught up in a paranormal event. After surviving, we became divination solvers. Even so, we almost never had any conflicts. In the early days, we always did the divinations together as a team."

"Until one day, during a divination, he was struck by an inescapable curse. Even after we completed the divination, the curse remained within him. That curse would slowly torment him, taking his life within a year. In the process, it would also affect everyone close to him. His parents died young, so the only one who could be affected was me."

At this point, Medusa changed the subject. "When he confessed his love back then, he said he would never mention breaking up with me, that he wanted to marry me, and then we would travel the world together, meet all sorts of friends, and finally find our favorite place to be buried together."

"You might think it's presumptuous of him to start planning until the last day of his life at eighteen, but he truly has the ability to do it, and I believe in that future. Although entering the simulation was an unexpected event that none of us anticipated, it doesn't seem to affect anything."

"Until—he broke up with me because of this curse."

Medusa, unusually, didn't bother to hide her emotions, and sighed as she looked up at the void.

"I know what he was thinking, and you can probably guess it easily, right? He didn't want the curse to affect me, so he spent several nights alone with red eyes thinking about it, and finally he came running over to me, wanting to break up."

"His intelligence and abilities are almost innate; in deduction, he simply had a larger stage to showcase them, which allowed his strength to advance by leaps and bounds. But coincidentally, so am I. Can you imagine that I had this personality when I was eighteen?"

Yu Xing had been a quiet listener until she heard this sentence, and she couldn't help but chuckle, "Unbelievable."

"Right. Anyway, we were twenty years old then. Whatever he was thinking, he couldn't hide it from me at all." Medusa's smile faded slightly. "I didn't like his way of handling things, and I didn't want to use emotions to answer, so I reasoned with him properly."

"I told him that this curse might not be insurmountable. We still have a year, and we can try many things. I can't even predict how far we can go in a year. Perhaps by then, this curse won't matter at all."

"But he was afraid. The curse was too powerful. If it wasn't lifted, not only would he die, but I, as the only person he had a close relationship with, would also die."

He absolutely has to break up with her.

Medusa chuckled.

I told him we were only two months apart in birth, so even in the worst-case scenario, what difference would it make if we died together? He didn't earn that much more than me anyway.

"I can accept losing my life, but I cannot accept him breaking his promise."

"If he makes this decision, it will be tantamount to tearing all his past promises to shreds, and the trust I once placed in him will become a joke. Besides, I made it very clear to him that the curse may not be unbreakable."

"He's a proud and confident person. He never fails to get what he wants; as long as he tries, the outcome is always as he expects. But this time, he's clearly not as confident, yet he's still stubborn. He wants to break up with me, and I can't stop him... even though I really put aside my pride and tried to persuade him for a long time."

"I remember on the day we made the final decision, I said to him—"

"If he really breaks up with me, it means he has personally taught me that even someone I've never doubted can break promises, and even love I've never doubted can disappoint me."

"In that case, even if he finds a way to break the curse and survive after the breakup, even if I knew from beginning to end that he left me because he loved me, and that there was no misunderstanding or betrayal, I still wouldn't be with him again."

Medusa's eyes seemed to sparkle like stars, or like shattered light. "I still love him so much, only him. But I no longer need him. Because love in my heart, after disappointing me, has lost all its weight."

"I explained everything to him very clearly, and finally asked him..."

"After the breakup, whether he dies or manages to survive alone, he will never be my lover again. Even so, will he still not change his mind?"

"I want him to think this through. It will be too late for him to regret it later, because he has his pride, and so do I."

Medusa shrugged. "Given our current situation, I don't need to tell you the answer, do I? He was crying and saying he wouldn't regret it, as long as I'm alive."

Just a shelf away, Yan Li had already opened his eyes, pursed his lips, and listened with his eyes lowered for an unknown amount of time.

He heard Yu Xing ask, "And then what happened? How did things turn out like this between you two?"

Medusa said "Oh," and continued, "Later, I founded the Midnight Guild and didn't pay much attention to Yan Li's movements. A year later, he suddenly appeared in front of me."

He said cautiously, "The curse was broken on the last day of my life. I've been saved from the brink of death; I'm back."

I only said, "Congratulations."

"At that time, I already had many people around me who matched my aesthetic standards. Precisely because I didn't love them, I was able to interact with them without any scruples. Even if one of them died every day, I wouldn't be sad, and I wouldn't need to lower my proud head to try and keep them."

"As for Yan Li, I'm glad he's alive. I also hope he can live a long and peaceful life, because I really, really like him. I hope he can still get everything he wants, except for one thing, which he will never have again."

That was the me who once had nothing but him in my heart and eyes.

"After hearing the congratulations, he ran off, so fast that I didn't even see if he was about to cry again. Later, he formed Widow Investigation Team, and those outstanding members were all his friends. Just as I expected, he rose higher and higher at a rapid pace, becoming the most versatile strategist in the eyes of others. Those who feared and respected him called him the King of Hell."

"I have my new way of life. When I encounter someone with an attractive appearance and sufficient ability, I invite them to my guild. They work for me, strengthen my guild, and protect the weak. And if they want, I may occasionally agree to spend a night with them. They know that their admiration for me will only go so far and will not cross the line. I also have no one I need to be loyal to, so I live for the moment."

Medusa was truly carefree. Even though it was her first time meeting Yu Xing, she didn't hesitate to talk about it without the slightest awkwardness. She spread her hands and said, "Yan Li and I should have kept to ourselves like this. I never hide my actions; he should have known what kind of person I am long ago."

"But he came to me as the leader of the Widow Investigation Team, wanting to form an alliance with my Midnight Guild."

"Of course I welcome them. The investigation team's capabilities are undeniable, and having such an ally is an honor for me. Who knew this guy would 'use his public account for private purposes' and confess his feelings to me again."

"I really didn't know he would be so unambitious. It's been several years since he ran away. I thought he would have let it go by now, but I didn't expect him to be secretly accumulating strength. Knowing that what I said is unchangeable, he plans to take a roundabout approach, using the alliance between the Widow Investigation Team and the Midnight Guild as a condition for a 'marriage'."

"I won't date him anymore, so he plans to get married right away." Medusa said with a half-smile, "A brilliant idea indeed. Apparently, everyone in the investigation team supports him because he keeps telling his teammates stories about our past."

"But I didn't agree. He told me everything he wanted to hear the first time he confessed to me. I don't need to be confessed to again, and I won't play along with his petty tricks."

"Love has lost its weight, so the one I love has no weight either. My affection for him was once more precious than anything I had, but now, he's not even as valuable as my subordinate."

"I'm not willing to give up my free life for him. However, I told him that although I can't be his girlfriend, let alone marry him, I'd welcome him to come to me to satisfy some of his physical needs, because I'm really satisfied with his body and I like his style in bed."

"But he seems to feel that once he does this, he will be no different from everyone else around me. So every time we talk about this, he gets angry. After he gets angry, he feels wronged. After feeling wronged, he remembers that it was his decision that was made, so he can only keep it to himself."

After Medusa finished telling their story, her emotions seemed to have calmed down, and she returned to her usual self, covering her mouth and laughing, "He wants affection, while I only want a body. That's our difference now. Hmm... how's this gossip?"

Yu Xing sighed.

He had nothing to say.

Yan Li Medusa are both born to be divination masters; as long as they live, they can reach the pinnacle.

Such people are too principled, too confident, and also more vengeful.

Medusa's cold-heartedness and ruthlessness were almost written on her face. Having been abandoned before, she could naturally cut ties completely after her efforts had failed. Just like a beloved object that, once flawed, would be thrown into the trash without hesitation.

Hmm, good melon.

Thanks to Medusa, he got to eat both of the big shots' gossip at once.

But Yu Xing really couldn't comment. After all, he had no romantic experience, which was the area where he lacked the most experience in his long life, and he couldn't even imagine it.

However, if he only has a year left to live, and it would cause the deaths of his loved ones as well...

Yu Xing suddenly chuckled; such a scene was indeed not impossible.

If we really put ourselves in that situation...

He'll probably let whoever he likes choose.

If we're going to die together, we'll die together; if we're going to separate, we'll separate. He's going to die anyway, and he's going to make the person he loves sad. That's so irresponsible. How can he have the right to make decisions for the person he loves?

There were some faint noises coming from behind the shelves. Medusa stretched and tidied her long hair.

"I'm telling you all this in such detail because, firstly, I feel a strong connection with you, and secondly... I also want to take this opportunity to remind someone who's been eavesdropping for ages of how clearly I explained things back then. Now, even if I'm being unreasonable, it's unlikely I'll soften my heart."

"..." Yan Li walked over from the other side of the shelf. After sorting out his thoughts, his face had regained its color, but for some reason, Yu Xing felt that his complexion was even worse than before.

"It's hard to wait, but it's not impossible," Yan Li whispered. "Besides, I can be a bit more shameless."

He could truly say these words with a cold expression. The tall, aloof man, one hand on the shelf, lowered his eyes and stared blankly at Medusa's hair. "Because I truly know I was wrong. I only made one mistake in front of you, but the price has been too much for me to bear."

"When you were with me, you were happier every day than you are now. I'm sorry, it's my fault that I made it hard for you to trust me anymore."

"But if one day I can regain your trust, can we start over—"

Medusa turned her head to look at him.

She couldn't help but talk so much with Yu Xing, an outsider, so it's clear she wasn't truly unmoved.

Today was the first time Yan Li admitted he was wrong, the first time he threw such a tantrum. Even when he was a child, Yan Li would cry from being scared by insects, but he would never say directly that he was afraid. He would only ask her to kill the insects indirectly. As he grew up, he learned to use all sorts of methods to achieve his goals, and acting cute was one of them.

There is never a way to completely show weakness and ignore everything.

Just like when she tried to win back her boyfriend, Yan Li also seemed to have learned to back down. It seems that even people like them can change their minds one day.

She still loved him so much, so how could she be sure his importance wouldn't increase again? But...

A fleeting hint of melancholy crossed her face, unnoticed by anyone. She feigned indifference, raised an eyebrow, pushed Yan Li aside, and walked outside, seemingly heartless. "Perhaps so. This is the only way for you to win me back, and for me to win back the past. But, fool, we may not have that much time left."

Until that day comes, none of this matters.

We don't have much time left. As the "strongest" figure trusted by all the strategists, you absolutely cannot let us down, Yan Li.

She chuckled and warned, "You know, every extra word you say now means your excellent vice-captain, Comrade Yan Ming, will have to pay a higher price to have the system clean up your messes."

"From now on, you'd better act like nothing happened, compose yourself, and prepare to be your 'King of Hell'."

Yan Li instantly understood what she was warning him about.

"Yu Xing," he suddenly turned his head, "Most people won't remember what happened afterwards."

Yu Xing: "... Hmm, so you remembered me at this time."

Yan Li calmly said, "Please make a note of this. This is the first time in so many years that I have effectively admitted my mistake. It is a major breakthrough, and we can't let everyone forget it."

Yu Xing: "?"

Seeing Yu Xing's confusion, Yan Li explained, "Because if I admitted my mistake in other circumstances, it would be disrespectful to her. She made it very clear to me back then that I deserve what I have now. If I were to expect forgiveness simply by admitting my mistake, it would be taking her too lightly."

Yu Xing blinked, her expression subtle. "No, you misunderstood. What I don't understand is, what makes you so confident that you treat me as your memo?"

Yan Li: "..."

He paused for two seconds. "Using it once means you owe Broken Mirror a favor, which you can ask me to repay anytime."

Yu Xing immediately smiled, "Deal."