You Qi took a thin blanket and a cup of warm water, and pushed open the small wooden door to the back garden.
As she crossed the cobblestone path and saw the person in the middle of the garden, she could not help but hold her breath and lighten her steps.
There was jasmine all over the back garden, planted when You Xu was still in good spirits. However, after going through three chemotherapy treatments, her hair had completely fallen out, and her stomach had been cut to a third of its original size so she could barely eat anything.
When the doctors were discussing the fourth operation plan, You Xu gave up on treatment and went back to the little villa they bought.
Now, lying in a wheelchair, she was so thin that her wrist resting on the armrest was just skin over bones. Her sleeping face bathed in the sunlight was like the jasmine buds beside her, quiet and white.
You Qi sighed slightly. She had just gone inside to get a blanket, but You Xu had fallen asleep again at that time. These days, You Xu had been constantly sleeping. The time she spent awake was decreasing.
The temperature of the early afternoon spring was still a little low, so You Qi draped the blanket over You Xu and held the handles of the wheelchair, wanting to push her back into the house.
The small movements woke You Xu up, who asked in a fuzzy voice, “Have you sent it?”
“Yes,” You Qi said, “I send one every week. I won’t forget.”
After a pause, she could not help but ask, “What’s the point of looking at those flowers all day? What if you catch a cold the next time you fall asleep in the garden?”
You Xu laughed and said nothing. She knew that her cousin was just worried about her. Her heart felt warm.
“Also, don’t sneak up in the middle of the night to write postcards again,” You Xu could not help but nag. “You’ve already written so much. How much more do you want to write? You should pay more attention to your own condition.”
You Xu smiled in exasperation. “Okay, okay, I know.”
“I know, I know. The only thing you know how to say is ‘I know’.” You Qi pursed her lips. “Drink some warm water.”
You Xu took the cup, sipped it, and slowly swallowed it. It was a little difficult to drink. You Qi’s eyes stung at the sight, and she turned her gaze away.
The frequent headaches and abdominal pains brought You Xu to her limit. She asked the system, “When can I die?”
The system said, “You won’t have to suffer this if you finish the elimination task. If you don’t, then you’ll have to soldier through the whole three months.”
You Xu stopped talking. No human could avoid sickness and death. She completely skipped past Stage 2 and ended up directly at Stage 3 and 4. She could be considered to have lived life to the fullest.
Time stretched out like porridge simmering slowly on the stove, torturously waiting for the moment when it finally boiled, and the flame was put out.
You Xu’s unconscious and painful moments were getting longer and longer. In the past few days, she lay in bed, full of sickness, unable to eat or drink.
You Qi finally went from secretly wiping her tears away to sobbing openly. “Cousin… Don’t go…”
That day, You Xu seemed to be feeling better. She could see the person in front of her and hear her voice clearly. She breathed a weak laugh and said, “Why are you crying like that? I’m still alive.”
You Qi wiped her tears and said, “Don’t talk so much. Keep your spirits up.”
“Yes, yes.” You Xu slowly closed her eyes. “It’s late now. You don’t have to look after me. Go back and sleep.”
Then, she added, “The wind isn’t very strong tonight. Leave the window open. I want to get some air.”
She seldom asked for anything and had not spoken so much for a long time. You Qi considered it, then opened the window and draped another blanket over her cousin before leaving.
You Xu closed her eyes. The image of a person filled her mind.
The window was open in the afternoon, and the warm sunlight shone in. Duan Min held a strand of her black hair, curled up beside her, sleeping.
She only added one spoonful of honey to the milk. He pursed his lips as he looked at her, seemingly unsatisfied.
She lounged lazily on the sofa, reading a fairy tale to him. He listened to her with a smile on his lips.
He always looked at her quietly with those clear and bright eyes.
You Xu knew that her time was almost up. It seemed that when people came to the end of their lives, they really do look back on the important people and events in their hearts.
She struggled to move and took out a postcard and pen from under her pillow. Using all her strength to hold the pen tightly, she wrote down messy words one by one.
The tip of the pen scratched against the paper, rustling softly in the quiet night.
Duan Min, I like—
With a clatter, the pen rolled to the ground, and the postcard fell from the bed.
The mottled moonlight leaking from the window quietly fell on her hand on the edge of the bed.
——
It took You Xu a long time to return to her senses after coming back to the empty Space. She sat straight in a daze.
The system’s voice sounded out. “Congratulations to the host for completing the mission. The mission rating is Grade B. 3000 points will be rewarded.”
What?
She finished the mission?
When did she finish the mission?
Did that mean that Duan Min… was dead?
You Xu’s mind buzzed in confusion. She said incredulously, “Duan Min is dead? That’s impossible!”
The system said, “You can spend 100 points to watch the mission replay and review the mission.”
You Xu still did not believe it. “Show me the mission replay.”
A screen swiftly appeared in front of her and started playing at double speed.
Duan Min was cooking alone in the kitchen. Every time he finished a dish, he would taste it, frown, and then pour it away. He did this over a dozen times before he was satisfied.
He stared at the table full of dishes, spaced out, and suddenly murmured, “I’ve mastered all the recipes you gave me…”
Duan Min seldom slept— or more accurately, he did not dare to sleep, especially naps in the afternoon. He would fidget and go to the bookcase to dig out the books she read before his mood somewhat stabilized.
As he flipped the pages of the book, something fell out.
Duan Min picked it up to take a look. It was a jasmine bookmark. His eyelashes trembled faintly, and he flipped through the rest of the book. He found two more bookmarks.
Then, he went to the bookcase again and rummaged through all the books as if looking for a treasure. Every time he found a bookmark, he carefully held it in his arms.
Since they grew more and more jasmine flowers, You Xu would sometimes pick them to make tea or place them into books to act as bookmarks.
That night, Duan Min placed the bookmark on his pillow. The faint scent of jasmine lingered in the air as he breathed in, and the evening breeze spread the fragrance from the windowsill into the whole room.
The familiar smell was as if she never left.
Duan Min closed his eyes again but did not sleep. He silently sketched out her appearance in his mind.
Later, he broke down the walls so their rooms were connected. His original room was dark, but he took the orange sticky notes that You Xu gave him and pasted them on the wall in the shape of the sun. That was the only splash of color in that room. Meanwhile, her room was always beige, warm, and bright.
The difference was like one side was heaven and the other side was hell. He spent most of his time curled up in ‘hell’.
Duan Min went out every day, going to the mall, supermarkets, and all kinds of crowded places. He took a lot of medicine to adapt to the scent of the living, enduring it in solitude when he went back home and his sickness flared up in the middle of the night. As long as he survived, he would continue to go out again.
After constant flooding and forceful physical and psychological adaptation, he could go further and further while using lesser and lesser medicine.
By the end, except for subconsciously avoiding oncoming people, he was able to go out like a normal person.
“You Xu, I can go out like a normal person now. I’ll be able to accompany you all over the world soon.
“When are you coming back?”
His life alone was too difficult, as if there was no end to the sea of suffering. The only thing that gave him some comfort was the postcards sent by You Xu. She sent a postcard every week with two to three sentences on it.
“Duan Min, the temperature here has dropped sharply. There’s a hailstorm battering on the windows.”
“Duan Min, today’s sunshine is really pleasant. The water of Ruoming Lake is shimmering like tens of thousands of crystal balls shattered on the ground.”
“Duan Min, the peach blossoms in Weishan are in bloom. They’re really beautiful, but I didn’t see the peach blossom demon said to be living here. Maybe she’s hiding because there are too many people.”
…
Whenever he felt that he could no longer take it, he would read the postcards over and over again. Thinking of how she was doing so well in a faraway place, smiling happily without him, he found the motivation to struggle to live again.
A lifetime was very long. There would be a day when she returns.
They would meet again.
Duan Min sent postcards back to You Xu, but she never responded to any questions or topics he mentioned. The address of the postcards was always changing, so he thought she was traveling all over the world and did not have a fixed place to receive his postcards.
After a while, Duan Min picked all the jasmine flowers on the windowsill, made them into bookmarks, and took some of them in a small glass jar to carry with him.
He bought a plane ticket and left the country as well.
The first place he arrived at was sunny now. There was no longer any trace of hail.
A few days later, he sat on a stone bench at the shore of Ruoming Lake, looking at the shimmering waters. His eyes were bleak as he silently squeezed the small glass jar in his hand.
The peach blossoms on Weishan bloomed for a longer time this year and still painted half the mountain red. Many people took pictures and played, and couples embraced under the trees. The hustle and bustle became a distant backdrop as he stood on top of the mountain, full of desolation.
He walked around the world alone, looking at the scenery she had seen and eating the food she had mentioned. He was like an ascetic monk silently devoting himself to his spiritual development, but he did so without regrets.
Then, one day, his phone rang. The last time he heard that ringtone was like a lifetime ago, so much so that he even suspected his ears were playing tricks on him. You Xu had not turned on her phone since she went abroad.
Was she coming back?
Duan Min did not dare to delay and took out his phone. His hand shook so much that he almost dropped it, and his chest rose and fell violently as he took two deep breaths. He even stopped breathing the moment he answered the call.
The two sides were quiet for a moment.
Duan Min’s knuckles holding the phone were white. He called out cautiously and softly, “You Xu?”
“Cousin-in-law,” said You Qi, “It’s me.”
Duan Min immediately asked, “Where is she?”
You Qi hesitated, then said, “I’ll give you the address. If you want, you can come and see.”
“Okay.”
Duan Min, who received the address, was ecstatic and wanted to rush there instantly. However, he stopped in his tracks when he passed a window and saw his wretched appearance.
His beard was scraggly, and his hair which had not been cut for a long time had reached his nape. His face had not been washed, the nails on his hands had not been cut, and his clothes had not been changed in who-knows-how-long.
How could he go see her like this?
Duan Min immediately bought everything he needed to wash and groom himself. He stayed in a hotel to clean himself up, then took a plane that night itself to rush to that city.
When he found the place, it was already afternoon. Duan Min compared the unit and address again. He was so nervous that his palms were sweating.
It was a European-style villa with a blue roof and white walls. It was two stories high with a lot of plants by the door as well as a three-foot tall metal fence in front.
Duan Min’s heart raced as he pressed the doorbell.
The sound of the bell rang languidly in the house. After more than ten seconds, the lock turned with a click, and the door opened.
You Qi came out with a tired face. “Cousin-in-law, you’re here.”
Duan Min looked behind her. “Where is she?”
“She’s…” You Qi seemed unable to continue her sentence. Her unexpressed words hid her emotions. “Come in for now.”
Duan Min suppressed the uneasiness that surged up. He clenched his fists tightly and silently walked in with her.
“Have a seat.” You Qi handed him a glass of warm water. “I’ll go get something.”
Duan Min glanced around the living room. It had light beige tones, wooden furniture, and was decorated in floral patterns. The bright and spacious floor-to-ceiling windows were also a style she liked. However, he could not see her.
Restraining his anxiousness, Duan Min waited for a while and was almost unable to remain sitting when You Qi came back with a large cardboard box. “These are the postcards she wrote to you. She told me to send you one every week.”
Duan Min took a look. The box was full of postcards— there were thousands of them. It was enough for him to continue to receive her postcards for the next hundred years.
The contents on them were written long in advance. What was that supposed to mean?
“There’s also this one I found under the bed.” You Qi handed over the postcard in her hand. If she had not found this one postcard under the bed when she was tidying up, she probably would have just gone along with her cousin’s arrangement instead of calling Duan Min.
However, she thought, ‘Cousin wants to see him.’
Duan Min’s fingertips trembled as he took the postcard. It read: “Duan Min, I like—” The last letter trailed off, and the handwriting was quite messy. It was not a deliberate kind of messiness, but the kind that seemed to be when a person ran out of energy.
There were also traces of smudging on the ink as if tears had fallen on it.
Duan Min asked with difficulty, “Where is she?”
You Qi lowered her eyes and sighed deeply. “Follow me.”
She walked backward to the cobblestone path. The headwind brought the familiar scent of jasmine flowers, and what entered his sight was a garden full of jasmine. The stone tablet erected at the center was particularly conspicuous.
“My cousin had cancer. She planted this field of flowers during the last period of her life. She didn’t want her body to decay slowly, so she asked for her ashes to be scattered here.” You Qi never thought that her cousin came here just to single-handedly plant her own grave.
The person next to her was unusually silent. You Qi turned her head. “Cousin-in-law?” The next moment, her eyes darkened.
Duan Min said icily while controlling her, “Go out.”
The afternoon sun was a bit blinding. Duan Min quietly looked at the tombstone in front of him.
He thought of her sweet and pearly smile. She said that a lifetime was long, and that she would return someday.
Lies.
They were all lies.
The blood in his body had long since frozen. He could not feel a trace of the sunlight’s warmth. He reached out to rub the cold stone tablet, pain filling his eyes. His voice was hoarse. “You Xu, you lied to me.”
The breeze that was warmed by the sun blew gently, and the jasmine flowers swayed with their delicate petals.
As You Xu watched the projection, under the background of the azure sky, the lonely figure standing amidst the field of white flowers seemed to be the only thing left in the world.
He kept his eyes downcast, making it impossible to see his expression.
The wind slowly stopped, and he said, “You Xu, I can’t wait for you.
“I’ll come to you.”
Duan Min pulled out the scalpel that You Xu had once held against his neck and placed it in the same position as back then.
“No!” You Xu screamed. Unfortunately, they were not in the same time and space. He could not hear her.
The next moment, plum-red blood fell on the pure white petals. The smell of copper and the fragrance of jasmine blended in the soil.
Blood continued to gush out of his neck. Feeling the loss of his life force, Duan Min collapsed next to the stone tablet, smelling the faint and familiar fragrance, and quietly closed his eyes.
He thought, ‘I can finally go to sleep now.’
The projection screen in front of You Xu disappeared, but her vision had long since blurred. Her tears had started flowing at some point. She also did not notice that her body had been trembling.
“Warning. Warning. The host’s emotional value has reached 60… 70… 75… exceeding 80,” the system said, “Initiating emotional reset.”
The memories in You Xu’s mind were stripped into pieces. Many things seemed to be separated by a layer of frosted glass, making them hard to see.
After an unknown amount of time, You Xu stopped crying and calmed down. When her rationality returned, the system said, “Host, please prepare to be transported to the next world.”
You Xu fell into the white circle of light and disappeared into the blank Space.
She woke up in a bridal chamber with a red veil covering her sight. Dropping her gaze, she saw herself wearing a wedding dress and gold bracelets on her hands.
You Xu lifted the red veil. Without even reading the world summary, she stood up, and walked directly to the table, smashed the porcelain wine jug on the table, picked the sharpest tip, and stabbed it into her neck.
The candle flickered, the large red candle shed tears, and blood stained the red clothes, dripping crimson flowers onto the ground.
…
When You Xu opened her eyes again, she had returned to the blank Space. She subconsciously touched her neck, feeling a faint sting. The pain when the fragment stabbed into her was real. It was only when her life came to an end and she could not feel pain anymore that she came back here.
The authentic pain made many hosts not dare to lay a hand on themselves even if they did not want to do the mission. The system’s flat voice was angry this time. “You—!”
This was the first time it encountered resistance from a host. “Don’t you want to go back to your original world?”
You Xu hummed indifferently.
That was because she realized that the system could not do anything to her except threaten her with the reward of letting her go back to her world.
“Warning,” the system added, “the host’s emotional value has reached 79!”
You Xu was still indifferent. “Oh.”
Previously, 78 said that the emotional value would not be able to reset completely because of the host’s resistance. Furthermore, they only had the right to reset the value once. The host’s emotions could still rise again.
System: “…Initiating transmission.”
You Xu was transported to a new world. She woke up to see herself dressed in coarse clothes. Her large hands were calloused as she squatted by the river, washing clothes with a washing paddle.
You Xu sneered. She threw away the paddle, kicked the wooden basin in front of her, and jumped directly into the lake. The earthy lake water filled her mouth and nostrils, swelling in her stomach as she continued to sink.
When she woke up again, she was surprised to find that she did not return to the space. She surveyed the room and saw carved wooden doors and windows, light gauze bed curtains, and herself dressed in fine silk with delicate hands. She guessed that she was a young lady of some family.
Did she get reborn in a historical world?
You Xu pulled out the gold hairpin from her head and plunged it into her neck without hesitation.
Blood gushed out. You Xu gritted her teeth to endure the pain.
When she woke up again, she still had not gone back. She saw the black sky and the frightening shadows of trees in the dark. Cold wind blew past, bringing with it the stench of rotting corpses.
You Xu looked at her small body and confirmed that she was reborn again. She was left in a pile of corpses in the wilderness.
This time, she still did not read the world summary. She climbed out of the pile on her hands and knees and left the place.
In this ordinary world, there was an ordinary person. Sometimes, she slept outdoors. Sometimes, she watched flowers and listened to birds. She walked from a sparsely populated place, waiting for the sunrise and sunset. She picked wild fruits and eggs, entertained herself, and was mesmerized at the sight of the mountains full of peach blossoms. She remembered a person.
When the system ran out of energy, You Xu once again returned to the space.
The system was simply furious. “What the hell do you want? Do you know how much energy is needed each time you transmigrate? Do you know how hard it is to find conditions that match your identity?”
The system said grumpily, “I’m trying to boost my performance!”
The best time to negotiate was when the other party was worked up, but you were still calm. You Xu had also let the system know that it could not do anything to her. She seized the opportunity and said “According to my observation, the nature of your mission is for the mission target not to persecute the world. If I don’t kill them but ensure that they don’t blacken, the world will remain stable. Will that work?”
The system fell into a long silence. It was the first time a host made such a request. In the past, its hosts simply buried their heads and carried out their missions.
To be honest, after countless evaluations and long experiments, elimination was still the best method.
You Xu sat down cross-legged and said with a smile, “You’re bound to me anyway. It’s fine if you don’t want to. You want results, right? I’ll bring you to the top of the leaderboard. Counting from the bottom, of course.”
System: “……”
The person and machine were silent for a long time. Finally, the system gritted its teeth and said, “I’ll report to the main system.”
You Xu waited and waited. After a long time, the system sounded again. “Your request is acceptable, but in order to ensure the stability of the world, you must reduce the blackening level of the mission target to 0 and reach a trust value of 100 to complete the mission.
“If the blackening value of the mission target exceeds 80, we will forcibly intervene in the host’s body and assume control to carry out the elimination task. This involves the individual rights of the host, so we need to sign a contract.”
A glass plate appeared in front of You Xu. She readily pressed her handprint.
“Done.” The system put away the glass plate and said angrily, “Let’s start the next world’s mission.”
You Xu said, “No.”
The system got angry again. “Why not?”
You Xu: “I want to reset the first world according to the new contract.”
Since the first world was a newbie task, she could choose a time period to reset her progress. Many transmigrators could not get high grades and points in their first mission, so they would have a chance to reset what they did not do well enough the first time and try to increase their points.
“Fine, fine, fine.”
You Xu: “Wait a minute.”
System: “What now?”
“I don’t want you,” said You Xu. “I want that stick figure.” The stick figure in her mind had disappeared at some point and turned into an invisible electronic voice.
The system was furious. “I’m a professional elimination system. 78 is just a trainee system that’s responsible for signing contracts and explaining some matters.”
You Xu figured it out. It turned out that this electronic voice had taken over since the elimination stage, after which its performance would be linked to her. She was not very happy about that. “I want 78. Besides, I don’t need to carry out the elimination mission anymore.”
Although 78 only knew how to shirk responsibility and slack off in her mind instead of doing its job… It was still a good system.
“……”
The system felt like it was being thrown away after being used. However, it could not stand this host anymore, so it was better to transfer to another host. Besides, she changed the terms, which might affect its performance. In the leaderboard of the hosts’ scores, it was the first ranking system!
She had already made it lose two worlds, and it did not know how much its total score had dropped. She could regret it and cry when she realized what she lost after it left.
As an extremely efficient electronic voice, the system simply stopped talking and directly disappeared. After a while, the poorly made stick figure appeared in the space again. It ran over to You Xu, acting cute. “Host~”
You Xu was expressionless and held her arm out to push the stick figure away. “Enough. Quickly transport me back to the first world.”
78 tried its best to raise its charcoal black face and said affectionately, “Host, I missed you so much.”
You Xu pressed it down again. It was obviously cozying up to her for her points. “Hurry up.”
“Sure thing, Host.”
A long timeline appeared in front of You Xu.
“Host, please choose the time point.” It pointed out in a warm tone, “Only the red points can be selected.”
You Xu glanced over it quickly and only saw one red dot.
“……” Could this really be called a choice?
She took a closer look. That point was right before the elimination mission.
