Chapter 84

The subway entrance was bustling with people in the early morning. Su Xiao, carrying a canvas bag and with earphones in her ears, was pondering how to deal with Qi Jin's clearly trap-setting "artistic guidance" email. Was it safer to be exceptionally well-prepared to appear suspicious, or to reveal a slight "academic lack"? This delicate balance was harder to strike than carving an egg.

She turned into a quiet alley leading to the "Tracing Light Space" office building. It was a shortcut, usually not crowded. Upbeat indie music was playing in her headphones as she mentally rehearsed how she would phrase her words when she met the person in charge.

Suddenly, a powerful force struck from the side! Before she could even see the person, she was slammed hard against the rough, cold brick wall! Her back ached from the impact, she groaned, her headphone cord was ripped off, and the music stopped abruptly.

"Who—!" She looked up in shock and anger, but the next second, all the words caught in her throat.

Qi Jin.

Qi Jin was right there.

She was wearing the same charcoal gray cashmere sweater she'd worn the night before (it seemed she hadn't changed it at all?), her long hair slightly disheveled, her eyes bloodshot, as if she'd stayed up all night, or as if she'd been scorched by some extremely intense emotion. Her right hand gripped Su Xiao's left wrist tightly, with a force so great it was almost enough to crush bones, while her left hand braced against the wall beside Su Xiao's ear, completely trapping her in the small space formed by her body and the wall.

They were too close. Close enough that Su Xiao could clearly see the scalding, terrifying magma revealed after the ice field in Qi Jin's eyes completely shattered; close enough that she could smell the strong coffee scent on her body and a hint of... laboratory disinfectant-like coldness? And the barely suppressed, subtle trembling in her breath.

"You..." Su Xiao's heart pounded wildly, almost bursting out of her chest. Survival instincts instantly raised all her defenses, her brain racing: Attack? Retaliation? She'd been exposed? Qin Ming's men? No, it was Qi Jin himself! What did she want? Here? In broad daylight?

"Don't move." Qi Jin's voice was terribly hoarse, like sandpaper scraping against rusty iron. Her gaze was like a searchlight, or a scalpel, fixed on Su Xiao's face, from her wide-open eyes in terror, to her slightly parted lips, to the Adam's apple that slid as she swallowed unconsciously due to nervousness... she didn't miss a single inch.

"Mr. Qi! What are you doing? Let me go!" Su Xiao struggled, trying to arm herself with the fear and anger that "Su Xiao" should have, but her voice was distorted by the real pain and fright. Her right hand subconsciously tried to pry open Qi Jin's fingers that were holding her, and when her fingertips touched the skin on the back of his hand, the temperature was frighteningly high.

Qi Jin didn't loosen her grip; instead, she moved even closer, her nose almost touching Su Xiao's forehead. Her gaze slid down to the small section of Su Xiao's fair, delicate neck exposed by her struggle, rising and falling slightly with her rapid breathing. Then, her eyes were fixed on Su Xiao's left hand—the hand she was gripping tightly, the fingers unconsciously curling slightly from tension and pain, the tip of the index finger gently rubbing against the side of the thumb at an extremely subtle frequency.

One moment. Then another.

This subtle, almost imperceptible movement, like a bolt of lightning, cleaved through the last remaining fog and rationality in Qi Jin's mind.

She remembered! Before the explosion, when Shi Ye was extremely tense, deep in thought, or simply lost in thought, her left index finger would unconsciously and repeatedly scratch the side of her thumb! This detail appeared countless times in the numerous photos and videos she secretly took! It was a unique physical code belonging to Shi Ye, one that even she herself might not have been aware of!

The DNA report hasn't come out yet (and maybe it never will, because she impulsively asked the lab to stop the comparison last night; she couldn't wait any longer), but the living evidence before her eyes is more impactful than any scientific data!

The way he fed the cat, the dexterity with which he held the pen, the unique little gesture of rubbing his fingertips... and that face—stripping away the clean and professional facade of "Su Xiao," under close scrutiny, the contours of his eyebrows and eyes, the lips pursed in surprise and anger, the familiar stubbornness that flashes in the depths of his eyes, and... a deep-seated, calm core belonging to Shi Ye?

It's not imitation. It's not a coincidence.

Countless fragments converged at this moment, pointing to a conclusion that was so crazy that she herself could not believe it, yet it was also incredibly clear!

"It's you..." Qi Jin's voice was broken beyond recognition, his hot breath spraying onto Su Xiao's face, carrying an almost desperate confirmation and a raging fire (to whom? To fate? To conspiracy? Or to the "liar" in front of him?), "It's always been you... hasn't it?"

Su Xiao was completely dumbfounded. What are you? What have you always done? Qi Jin has gone mad?! She stared at the almost distorted, familiar yet strange face before her, feeling the pain of her wrist being crushed, her mind a chaotic jumble of screams and complaints: "Holy crap! What's going on?! A live version of a domineering CEO's forced love?! The location's wrong, sis! And that look in your eyes doesn't look like love, it looks like you want to kill me! What did I do? I just acted a little better yesterday, is it really necessary to block an alley and have a real-life fight this early in the morning?! Help! System! System, are you dead?! Is this some kind of survival crisis?!"

[Warning! Cognitive breakthrough detected in a key figure! Intensified conflict in the worldline logic! Abnormal fluctuation in forced association progress—100%! The host's existence is fundamentally questioned! Activating emergency response protocols…]

A cold, electronic system voice rang sharply in Su Xiao's mind, carrying an unprecedented urgency and... a hint of disorder?

[Protocol Initiated: Identity Synchronization Correction. Stripping away the overlay layer 'Su Xiao'... Synchronizing the core identity 'Shi Ye'... Warning: The emotional module isolation layer has collapsed due to a high-intensity impact... The memory overlay layer is stuck... Forcibly stripping may result in... *sizzle*... Execution!]

"ah--!!!"

A pain a hundred times more intense than slamming one's back against a wall suddenly exploded from the depths of Su Xiao's (or rather, the consciousness undergoing some kind of fundamental change) soul! It wasn't physical pain; it was the excruciating pain of something being forcibly torn apart, reassembled, and covered up! Her vision went black, her ears rang, and she felt as if her body, face, and even every cell were being roughly kneaded and altered by an invisible hand!

Qi Jin also felt the sudden, violent trembling and stiffening of the body beneath her palm. With a mixture of surprise and uncertainty, she loosened her grip slightly and saw "Su Xiao's" face begin to undergo strange changes in the morning light—not the disguise was fading, but rather, like ripples on water, the contours were subtly adjusted, the skin tone changed, and even the height seemed to have shrunk a little, closer to the size she remembered... Finally, what remained was a face she had etched into her heart, a face she had seen under the white sheet at the explosion site, and a face she had faced repeatedly after being "resurrected" yet felt utterly unfamiliar with—Shi Ye's face.

But the look in his eyes was different. It was no longer the empty, bewildered, and timid look of the original owner, Shi Ye. At this moment, those eyes were filled with tears of physical pain, lingering shock and anger, extreme bewilderment, and a kind of crazy, almost uncontrollable urge to complain that Qi Jin was extremely familiar with, belonging to the former Shi Ye, beneath a calm exterior.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the alley, a figure of the "original owner Shi Ye," who had just walked out of a convenience store, wearing a beige knitted cardigan and looking dazed, flickered a few times like a poorly receiving television image before fading completely into the morning air without attracting the attention of any passersby.

The world seemed to fall silent for a moment.

Only two people remained, pressed tightly together in the alley.

Qi Jin's hand was still gripping the other person's (now she should be called Shi Ye) wrist, her arm braced against the wall stiff as iron. She looked at the face in front of her, this real, vivid face with a familiar expression, her mind went blank. All the doubt, anger, inquiry, five years of forbearance and the excruciating pain after the explosion were stuck in her chest, choking her so much that she could hardly breathe.

Shi Ye (having just recovered from the inhuman pain and the bewilderment of switching identities) felt the unfamiliar... no, familiar contours on his face. He blinked his tear-blurred eyes, looked at Qi Jin who was so close yet so blank-faced, and only one thought remained in his mind. Subconsciously, dryly, and with the weakness of intense pain and a strong sense of sarcasm, he blurted it out:

"...Qi Jin, you fucking...can you hold me a little tighter? My wrist...might be broken. And what is this? A forced cosmetic surgery trial voucher? The after-sales service is terrible..."

The voice was her own. The tone was familiar, with a touch of dry humor and a sense of powerlessness.

Qi Jin: "..."

As if burned by those words, she abruptly let go of his hand, staggered back a step, and leaned against the opposite wall. Her chest heaved violently as she looked at the living, breathing Shi Ye who could make sarcastic remarks, and then at her own hands that she had just let go of, as if she were seeing them for the first time.

The morning light completely illuminated the alley.

Shi Ye was holding his swollen wrist, wincing in pain, his mind filled with "What on earth is going on?"

Qi Jin is a distraught man whose worldview has been shattered by a nuclear explosion, and who can only stand by leaning against a wall.

At the alley entrance, the faint sounds of rush hour traffic could be heard.

A faint, static-filled system notification sounded in Shi Ye's mind: [Identity synchronization complete. Worldline correction in progress... Original host's data recovered. Forced association stable... Survival mission... Updating... *sizzle*... Please, host... adapt to the new situation as soon as possible...]

Shi Ye, enduring the uneasy feeling all over his body (like wearing ill-fitting clothes, but the clothes were his own skin), looked up at Qi Jin, who seemed petrified, and forced a smile that was more like a grimace:

"Um... can we talk properly now? Or, could you explain yourself first?"

Qi Jin just stared at her, his eyes filled with a complex mix that could fill an eighty-episode drama. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

After a long while, she spoke very slowly, in a breathy voice:

"...time of visit."

"I finally... caught you."