Chu Qingjiu closed his eyes and took a long while to recover before getting up from the sofa.
He wiped away the blood he had coughed up, leaving only Lin Ran's body at the scene, his expression happy and peaceful in death.
Chu Qingjiu watched Lin Ran's peaceful face for a while before slowly leaving, bracing himself against the wall.
His body was extremely weak now. He could even be said to have returned to his initial state, before he had found any Soul Puppet Threads.
He should have been able to obtain one Soul Puppet Thread in this instance, which would have brought his total to nine Puppet Threads, leaving him just one short.
But he knew he could never obtain that final thread.
Qi Wu had hidden it inside his own body. That was also why they had argued. Qi Wu did not want him to leave, so he had fused the Soul Puppet Thread into his body. If Chu Qingjiu wanted to leave, he would have to extract it from him, but doing so would kill Qi Wu.
Qi Wu was using his own life to force Chu Qingjiu to stay by his side.
And Qi Wu had long since discovered his identity as the Puppeteer.
It had all begun after Chu Qingjiu promised that he and Qi Wu would have a future together. Holding him in his arms, Qi Wu had asked, "Could you stay? Could you not leave me? Just stay by my side, okay?"
Every word suggested that Qi Wu knew something, but Chu Qingjiu chose to play dumb.
"What are you talking about? Haven't I been here all along?"
"Gege, I know everything. I've always known."
After Qi Wu said that, they both fell silent. Resting against Qi Wu's chest, Chu Qingjiu could