Chapter 43
This was the first time Shen Chumo had received her personal consent, but he had never thought it would be in this situation. It was as if he had instantly ascended from hell to heaven. He pursed his lips, tasting a little sour, pulled the corners of his mouth, and showed her a gentle smile.
"Sister, you want to go out? Out of this subway station?"
“Chen Huaixin” nodded and held his hand, his fingertips were cold and trembling, which made people feel pity.
Shen Chumo agreed, raised his eyes and looked around, seeing that the pollution source had been eliminated and reconstructed. The station roof, which had been peeling off piece by piece, was being patched up with new patches. However, it was different from the original appearance. Thorns and flowers were entwined on the pillars, and there was a mural similar to that of a church on the top. A baby with a halo on his head and a baby with devil horns were sleeping around each other, forming a circle like an Ouroboros, like twin girls.
He stared at the mural in a trance, completely unaware that "Chen Huaixin"'s black hair quietly stretched out, hooking the knife not far away.
Chen Huaixin's expression grew even weaker. He didn't know who had left the knife there, but as if summoned, an electronic voice kept urging him to pick up the knife. He gladly accepted, his mind shrouded in confusion, only the instinct to kill persisted.
Especially the monster in front of him, the energy fluctuations made it extend three feet.
madness.
How could it possibly be trapped by its own pollution source? It was just confusing the other party.
“Break it by force, I’m not sure…” Shen Chumo touched the boundary of the pollution source and felt that there was an impenetrable barrier. It should not be difficult for him, but it might hurt Shen Huaixin.
He tried to use a little force, and the barrier bounced back the spikes because it sensed the attack, but for Shen Chumo, these attacks were better than nothing. It was as if the barrier's defense instinctively exploded when it sensed the threat.
Considering the posture of its owner, in Shen Chumo's eyes, it has a cat-like cuteness.
It always shows its fangs and claws, but it has no killing power. When its waving claws fall on your body, you will think that you are being greeted by sharp nails, but in fact it is just soft pads of flesh.
"Just bear with me for a moment. I'll try to open it up slowly. If you feel uncomfortable, tell me right away."
As he spoke, Shen Chumo stretched out his hand and gently touched the barrier. In fact, he didn't need to reach out and touch it, he could reach the barrier with his own energy alone, but in order to feel the state more accurately, personal contact was safer.
Although Shen Chumo said this seriously, Du Mingxing couldn't help scratching his cheek to cover up the yellow waste brain that he had accumulated over the years as a scholar.
As she was in the perspective of an outsider, she could clearly see how danger was approaching him step by step. She hooked the knife she took from the kitchen with the original owner's hair and sneaked over to hand it to the original owner.
Du Mingxing's hair stood on end as he looked at the focused Shen Chumo in front of him, feeling as if the bullet he had shot had hit him right between the eyebrows.
The boy's face was angular, and energy flowed through his fingertips like smudged foundation, consuming the barrier's rebound and thinning it out bit by bit. The original owner looked at him, maintaining her usual smile, her hand behind her back, gripping the knife tightly.
Du Mingxing lowered his head, clenched his transparent hands into fists, and called the system, but there was no response. He felt powerless and sad.
She was clearly just a paper figure, and she was clearly restraining her emotions, treating the time travel as a cold and heartless task, a task no different from her daily work, one that did not require any thoughts, but why...
She really, really didn't want to see him get hurt.
"Will it be uncomfortable?" He watched the barrier closely without looking back. "It should be soon."
“Chen Huaixin” looked at Shen Chumo’s overflowing energy with greedy eyes. After taking a deep breath, he raised the knife, tilted his head, and said in a sweet voice: “No, you have to protect your sister.”
He was silent for a moment, his eyes fixed on the mural, as if he were in a daze. After a while, he slowly said, "Sister, sometimes I have nightmares."
"Those scenes were so real that it was hard to distinguish between reality and dreams. They seemed like a prophecy destined to happen, or perhaps a parallel world..."
"Whenever I can't tell which is true, I just need to see you and I'll feel relieved, knowing that the world with you is the right one. So, I will protect you with all my strength."
Du Mingxing stood there in a daze. Unconsciously, tears began to fall from the corners of his eyes, and his heart felt soft and sour.
She didn't know if anyone would be able to see her hesitation and loss at a glance after she returned, and she was increasingly afraid of the disappointment in his eyes when he saw "Chen Huaixin" stabbing her.
Du Mingxing saw that "Chen Huaixin"'s hand was tightly gripping the hilt of the knife, and his eyes fell to his fragile neck, which was exposed without any defense, and then moved to his back, which was a bigger target, where his heart was.
Ready to go.
Du Mingxing's heart tightened, and she instinctively rushed forward, reaching for the hilt of the knife. The blade pierced through the transparent shadow, leaving a chill in her palm.
She closed her eyes in fear, but she could still feel the cold murderous intent of "Chen Huaixin" opposite her, and the blood splattered behind her, which was warm and had the smell of rust.
As Shen Chumo groaned in pain, invisible energy exploded in his body, just like dodging after being burned by fire, or blocking after encountering an oncoming fist. It was a defense mechanism engraved in his genes.
But he endured it, fearing that he would hurt "Chen Huaixin". After being rushed back by the agitated energy, he spit out blood from his mouth.
[System: Host, the vicious female supporting role mission has been successfully completed. I will be teleported back to my original world soon. Countdown: three, two...]
Chen Chumo looked at the blood stain on his chest, and for a moment he couldn't tell whether it was a dream or reality. He turned around and saw that familiar pretty face, with the same expression as in the dream, smiling sweetly and uttering cold and delicate words,
"Monster, you'd be better off dead."
Inside the rental house.
The familiar large white wall was covered with cheap decorative wallpaper, which had turned slightly gray due to its age. Du Mingxing stared at his own white palms for a long time without saying a word.
The cell phone made a "ding" sound, it was a text message from the bank card.
She had no time to care about it, and just fell onto the wooden chair in a daze. With the chair's creaking sound, her body habitually changed her sitting position to make the chair more stable.
Du Mingxing didn't understand why her first reaction was not joy but deep uneasiness when she got the money that she could have saved by working for 140 years without eating or drinking, and she was completely entering a new stage of life.
At night.
The night wind howled, the windows rattled restlessly, and the cold air seeped through the gaps in the glass. Du Mingxing lay on the spliced bed, tossing and turning.
Her mind involuntarily replayed the previous scene. She saw blood staining her hands and the sky red. All her energy, stimulated by the words "Chen Huaixin", exploded out of control, and in an instant, everything fell into nothingness.
What was Shen Chumo's expression at that time?
But before she could look back, she was teleported away back to her rental house because her mission was completed.
All the pollution that had been suffered before, whether it was of the soul or the body, seemed to have been reset to the state before the time travel and disappeared into thin air.
The lonely single bed was far less comfortable than the one she had at Shen's house. She reached for the bedside table, opened her old phone, and checked the messages.
In the nine days since she left this world, apart from the group chat with Do Not Disturb turned off, the most recent message was from her mother three days ago, asking why she wasn't answering her phone. She clicked on it and checked her bank account balance: 1,000,5137.3 yuan, so she transferred 4,000 yuan to her.
After finishing everything, Du Mingxing was completely awake. She simply put on a coat, sat down at her desk, and turned on her computer. As she moved the mouse, the changing screen fluorescence flickered before her. Her hand paused, her gaze fixed on something.
[Recruiting resident singers: 3k-7k/month]
The mouse felt heavy at that moment, as if rooted to the desk, unable to move. Eleven days had passed since she was laid off from her previous job. It wasn't exactly a gap year, but rather a sudden career change, one far removed from finance. She still harbored some of the self-doubt of a non-professional.
Du Mingxing shook his head, gripped the mouse tightly, clicked "Submit Resume", selected the PDF file that had been prepared long ago from the dusty folder, and confirmed.
The moment she delivered it, she felt her shoulders relax, as if some shackles that had been binding her for a long time had disappeared.
One year later.
"Hi," Amidst the bright lights and feasting, the man raised his glass and sat in the front row, closest to the stage, sliding with the woman holding a guitar, "You sing well."
The woman nodded politely to express her gratitude.
The man's lips curled up, and the silver earrings on his ear bones shone particularly brightly under the light. He propped up his head and said, "Too bad, I couldn't find the song title."
The woman glanced at him, her delicate makeup like a mask. When she spoke, her voice still carried the aftertaste of her previous singing. Due to the effect of the cocktail, a wonderful chemical reaction occurred, making him slightly tipsy.
"It's my original song." She paused, her next words carrying a subtle warmth. "If you're interested, you can follow my account on the Enjoy Music platform. New songs will be updated on it soon."
"Oh? What's your name?"
"Star," Du Mingxing said, "the 'star' with 30,000 followers."
The man took out his phone, searched for "Xingxing" and followed her. After listening to a song carefully, he drank the wine in the goblet.
"I'm curious. For a resident singer like you, do you have a management team to manage your account? Also, I just saw that there are quite a lot of original songs. Have you released an album?"
"No, I do plan to release an album, but... let's wait until I save enough money." Du Mingxing smiled.
The man also laughed and said cooperatively, "That's right. How long have you been working here?"
"Almost half a year."
"It's quite hard work in your line of work. I see the business hours are until 2 a.m.? So you get off work at 2 a.m.? And your boyfriend picks you up after get off work?" The man asked casually, pointing his finger at the water droplets on the table.
"It's not bad. I can catch up on sleep during the day, and I rented a house nearby, so commuting is quite convenient."
Seeing that Du Mingxing didn't directly answer the question about her boyfriend, the man understood everything and said with a smile, "Are there any other activities after work? It's been a pleasure chatting with you. Maybe we can go somewhere else to chat."
His eyes flicked to Du Mingxing's face, which looked particularly alluring against the backdrop of makeup and lighting. She sang beautifully and had a clear voice, which made people curious about how this voice would perform in other situations.
Du Mingxing restrained his expression: "Thank you for the invitation, but it's not necessary, and... I have someone I like."
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