A Meng bit down hard on her lower lip. "Do you really take me for a fool? Once I leave, you'll tell them everything, won't you? When you've confessed it all, will they still let you go?"
The Nightmare Demon fell silent for a moment, then raised its slightly bowed head. Its gaze had changed. "A Meng, you don't really think I did all this for you, do you?"
A Meng frowned, bewilderment written across her face. "What do you mean?"
The Nightmare Demon sighed softly, a trace of pity in its eyes. "What do I mean? You're so clever. Surely you can figure it out..."
"Say it clearly." A Meng's already weak voice suddenly sharpened.
"I mean that you're a burden to me now. You're getting in my way." At this, the smile on the Nightmare Demon's lips grew more pronounced. "Actually, there's something I've been lying to you about all along..."
Something seemed to occur to A Meng, and her face suddenly went deathly pale.
"Judging by your face, you seem to know?"
Something seemed to occur to the Nightmare Demon as well. Its gaze brushed almost imperceptibly over Su Jiu. "It seems your trip into Su Jiu's Sea of Consciousness wasn't entirely fruitless."
"You were lying to me, weren't you? Those scenes I saw, those memory fragments-they were all fake, weren't they?" A Meng abruptly raised her head to look at Su Jiu.
Su Jiu said nothing, but her expression seemed to say it all.
At that moment, something inside A Meng seemed to begin crumbling.
Su Jiu looked at the Nightmare Demon, and it looked back. In that instant, the two of them reached an understanding.
"Although those memory fragments were... were deliberately shown to you by me, the scenes they contained were real." In truth,