Chapter 85 He was so close, but that would have been so painful for him.

Fu Yanli's memories are confused because he escaped to this world with an unstable and incomplete part of the operating system from the previous world, using his only chance to destroy his rules.

However, he was also discovered by the script of this world. This soul, which did not belong to this world, could only hide and briefly fall into a deep sleep.

At the age of twenty-six, the year with the least restrictions in the script, he forcibly entered this world's body.

However, to prevent the script from discovering his secret, he hid the most important part—the memory that destroyed Xu Wenci's script—in his cuff.

The Möbius strip is activated.

In this world, Fu Yanli makes Xu Wenci fall in love at first sight.

Xu Wenci of this world also made Fu Yanli fall in love at first sight.

It successfully filled in the gaps in the author's writing about the perfect first meeting that neither of them remembered.

What a perfect plan.

Xu Wenci chuckled softly, and tears suddenly welled up in her eyes, which had been straining from staring.

He looked at the dark circles under Fu Yanli's eyes, at his eyes that always fluttered their eyelashes when he was nervous, and then looked down at his fingers that were unconsciously rubbing the scars on his wrist.

Something that had been tightly bound and frozen in my heart seemed to quietly shatter inside my chest.

“So,” Xu Wenci took a deep breath and finally asked the question that had been lingering in his mind for so long, “What are you… exactly now?”

Fu Yanli looked at him, and the mist in his eyes seemed to dissipate somewhat, replaced by a complex and difficult-to-discern emotion hidden deep beneath the mist.

“I am…” He paused, his voice very soft, as if it were just a murmur, but Xu Wenci heard every word clearly, “I am a spirit who came for freedom…”

A spirit who has given up on reincarnation, burdened by the shackles of the system and his memories, crosses world boundaries just to find him and change his and his own predetermined fate...

Xu Wenci could no longer maintain his composure. He abruptly turned his face away, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

He should push Fu Yanli away now, because Fu Yanli always seems to be self-righteous, planning everything but not revealing the whole plan, leaving his allies on the united front to suffer.

The air fell silent again, but the previous tension and confrontation had vanished, replaced by a heavy and viscous atmosphere, filled with unfinished words and surging emotions.

After a long while, Xu Wenci turned back, his eyes regaining their usual calmness, but with something different in them. He helped Fu Yanli sit back in the rocking chair covered with several layers of soft cushions, and then stood up.

"Wait here." He said this, then turned and walked in the direction Gu Pei had left, toward the corner where the first-aid kit was kept.

He needed some space to process this shocking truth and to re-examine the already distorted yet deeply ingrained relationship between him and Fu Yanli.

Fu Yanli watched his retreating figure, leaned against the cold wall, and slowly closed his eyes.

The cufflinks were clutched between my fingertips, still warm from my fingers.

Her eyelashes trembled slightly, in sync with his erratic heartbeat.

"Dead?" Gu Pei interrupted him, who was deep in thought with his eyes closed, and said sarcastically, "The plan is about to be implemented, and you're playing dead?"

Fu Yanli turned over, finding a more comfortable position, with half of his body tucked into the rocking chair, and remained silent.

"Don't you hate Xu Wenci?" Gu Pei consciously moved out a small stool, gently patting the dust off the stool with his bandaged hand, as if it were just a casual question.

Fu Yanli frowned, stood up, and sat down quietly. "What are you talking about?"

This question should be asked to Xu Wenci under a different name.

"It was so close, so very close." Gu Pei's words were cryptic.

Fu Yanli tilted his head.

What's the meaning?

“You were so close, so close to having a happy future. It was all a farce, wasn’t it…” A faint glint suddenly appeared in Gu Pei’s deep brown eyes, as if he was certain that Fu Yanli would be angry about it.

However, Fu Yanli's bewildered expression, as if he thought Gu Pei was an idiot, already showed that Fu Yanli didn't even understand what Gu Pei was talking about or when.

"Back then, you and Xu Wenci both awakened..." Gu Pei licked his lips, his smile widening as if his eyes were gaping open. "If he hadn't stabbed you then, and you had survived and explained things to him, there wouldn't have been a story in the next world..."

Gu Pei's words were like poisoned needles, once again precisely piercing the past that Fu Yanli tried so hard to hide.

"If he hadn't stabbed you, and you had survived and explained things to him, there wouldn't be a story like the one in the next world..."

Fu Yanli's bewildered expression froze instantly.

In the depths of those deep purple eyes, something seemed to shatter, bursting forth with sharp icicles.

He clenched his cuffs tightly, his knuckles making a slight cracking sound as he exerted force, and the veins on the back of his hand bulged.

It wasn't anger, but a tremor mixed with excruciating pain and bewilderment, like a scab being forcibly ripped open.

"What...did you say?" Fu Yanli's voice was low and hoarse, each word seeming to be squeezed out with difficulty from the depths of his throat.

He still remembers the icy cold that ran through his body and the tearing pain.

I remember Xu Wenci's eyes... so resolute yet empty.

I remember warm blood flowing from his body, but his body was very cold.

He remembers it very clearly.

Gu Pei looked at his suddenly changed expression, and the corners of his mouth widened into a smile with an almost cruel satisfaction.

"Gu Pei."

A cold, emotionless voice came from the empty room.

Xu Wenci had returned at some point and was standing at the intersection of the shadows in the corridor, holding a first-aid kit in his hand. His face was expressionless, except for his amber eyes, which were now staring sharply at Gu Pei.

Gu Pei's remaining words were stuck in his throat, and he could even feel a chill on his neck.

He chuckled dryly, shrugged, and wisely refrained from continuing.

Xu Wenci stopped looking at Gu Pei and instead focused his gaze on Fu Yanli.

Fu Yanli remained in that tense posture, his fingers gripping his cufflinks trembling slightly, his face deathly pale, his eyes filled with turbulent chaos and a hint of heartache that Xu Wenci had not anticipated.

He raised his head and looked at Xu Wenci. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but no sound came out.

Those eyes, which always held a hint of mockery or tenderness, were now filled only with heartache and bewildered helplessness.

Xu Wenci felt as if he had been stabbed in the heart by that gaze.

He didn't understand what Fu Yanli's gaze meant.

He strode over, placed the first-aid kit aside, ignored Gu Pei, and squatted down to look Fu Yanli, who was sitting in the rocking chair, at eye level.

"If you knew I had awakened..." Fu Yanli's voice was so soft it was almost inaudible, trembling almost imperceptibly, "would you still kill me?"

Xu Wenci's Adam's apple bobbed.

He avoided the core of the problem, but simply reached out and, instead of patting Fu Yanli's back, gently placed his hand on Fu Yanli's hand, which was tightly gripping his cufflinks.

The cold fingertips touched Fu Yanli's hot and taut skin, and both of their hands trembled.

"Yes." Xu Wenci's voice was still cold, but when he spoke to Fu Yanli, his calm and indifferent voice always carried a subtle hook, a hook that only Fu Yanli could hear. "I will still kill you."

If I truly knew you had awakened, I would be even more cautious.

Instead of stabbing you to death without any plan.

He admitted directly, without denying it for the sake of the alliance's strength.

A cold dagger.

Fu Yanli's expression shifted from shock to complete indifference.

And there was the stench of blood that permeated the entire living room.

A suffocating despair...

He turned his head and looked at the sofa a dozen meters away that had once been stained with Fu Yanli's blood, and suddenly gave a self-deprecating smile.

None of that matters anymore.

"You've worked so hard..." Fu Yanli closed his eyes, his eyelashes trembling violently, as if he were resisting immense pain.

He grabbed Xu Wenci's wrist with his other hand, the grip was light, there was no accusation, no hysteria, it seemed he was just comforting her, "You've worked hard..."

Gu Pei watched coldly from the sidelines, a knowing smile on his face.

He was like a bystander who had lit the fuse, watching with satisfaction as the barrel of dung he had personally filled was about to explode.

The air seemed to solidify, becoming so heavy that it was hard to breathe.

Xu Wenci took a deep breath, but still didn't say anything.

His eyelashes were clearly trembling violently, yet he pretended to be perfectly fine.

As if he hadn't heard Fu Yanli's words, he calmly withdrew his hand from Fu Yanli's palm and turned his head away.

Fu Yanli's fingers twitched slightly, his deep purple eyes flickered, but in the end, he couldn't bear it any longer. He turned his gaze to Gu Pei, who had been watching the spectacle, and with a provocative expression, told Gu Pei, word by word:

"It was indeed just a hair's breadth away."

It was indeed just a hair's breadth away.

Xu Wenci might not have to live such a miserable life anymore.

Just a little bit more and Xu Wenci's suffering wouldn't have lasted so long.

Xu Wenci lowered his eyes slightly.

If Fu Yanli is doing well, he can easily hate Fu Yanli.

But why is Fu Yanli also living such a painful life...?

“Just a little bit more,” Fu Yanli stared intently at Gu Pei, “Just a little bit more and Xu Wenci wouldn’t have had to suffer for so long…”

If Xu Wenci knew, he would still kill him.

However, in that way, Xu Wenci's suffering would not extend to the next world.

Xu Wenci, there's no need to suffer so much.

"What do you mean?" Gu Pei narrowed his eyes, a hint of disbelief flashing in them.

Fu Yanli's words made the smile on his face freeze instantly, and also made Xu Wenci, who was trying to keep his head turned to the side, turn his gaze back.

Xu Wenci had imagined that Fu Yanli would be angry, in pain, and would try to defend himself, but he never expected it to be like this...

Accusations tinged with regret and heartache?

The target of the blame is even himself?

“What I mean is,” Fu Yanli’s voice was still a little hoarse, but with a hint of determination, “if I had awakened earlier in the last world, just a little earlier, everything would have been alright, and Xu Wenci wouldn’t have suffered so much…”

Xu Wenci, thank you for your hard work.

In the last world, we were all too powerless to control our own lives, but you ended up bearing all the pain.

Author's note: Actually, I never thought that Xu Wenci stabbing Fu Yanli, intending to kill Fu Yanli, was a performance for the system or that he was controlled by the system.

Xu Wenci's personality is such that he will retaliate against everyone when he is deceived, bullied, or hurt.

At the time, he was unaware of the existence of the script and the system, and he was also unaware that Fu Yanli was not in control of his own destiny. All he knew was that all the suffering he had endured in recent years was caused by the person in front of him.

He would naturally kill Fu Yanli.

This setting will never change.

Fu Yanli expressed his regret for awakening later than others, which was pretty much expected, given that it was mentioned earlier. Moreover, Fu Yanli's mind was filled with only a few questions: What does Xu Wenci really want? Is Xu Wenci happy? Is Xu Wenci still in pain?