42. Objective
◎Love Amidst a Home Invasion◎
"My goal is indeed to marry 'Xu Huaihuai'." As for which Xu Huaihuai, did he have a choice? The person he chose left him without hesitation, leaving him no room for reconciliation when she filed for divorce.
"Then let's get married. It's just a wedding, why make things so complicated and drag other people into it?" Could things get any worse? If getting married could temporarily calm Ling Zhou down and make him release Lin Xu and stop his absurd behavior, she would just go through the motions and cooperate.
Ling Zhou smoothly pushed her wheelchair into the elevator. The elevator slowly rose, and their eyes met on the elevator mirror. Her eyes, after wiping away her tears, were like the calm surface of water after a storm, showing a fearless and indifferent look.
She seems to be in pretty good shape, is it because she just confirmed that Lin Xu is still alive? Love makes people blind and irrational, yet it also gives them courage out of thin air.
He shattered her facade of tranquility with his words, "That was my original goal. Now, besides marriage, I also want your love."
The elevator stopped at the top floor and made a ding sound upon reaching its destination. He watched as her attempt to conceal her self-deception crumbled into dust with that soft sound.
"I can't do it. You forced me into this marriage of convenience, and you still want love? What's the difference between that and breaking and robbing someone and expecting them to fall in love with you? Do you think that's possible?"
He pushed her out of the elevator. Outside was the rooftop terrace, and it was getting dark; night was approaching.
Doesn't the idea of a love story involving a home invasion robbery sound incredibly exciting?
"Do you have some misunderstanding about what 'heart-fluttering' means? It's terrifying, terrifying enough to make your heart race."
The winter evening wind was biting cold, and the two of them, despite the chill, were still trying to express their opinions to each other.
"Whatever, my heart will race anyway. But you still have to love me."
"I can't love you even a little bit. Unless the sky falls down, I can't fall in love with you." She firmly rejected the idea.
"Then look up and see."
"What?" She looked up and saw a gaping hole in the dark blue sky, with specks of eerie blue fluorescence flying down from the jagged, irregular cracks. It was quite beautiful, but no, it looked like the sky had collapsed. "No, you came prepared. You even managed to predict the entire 3D projection extravaganza?"
“It’s true. The sky has fallen. Can you love me now?” He stared at her, his hands on the armrests of his wheelchair, his eyes filled with a chilling longing.
She picked up the blanket she was using to separate herself from him. "No. I take back what I just said."
She looked up at the sky, where the crack was still growing, and more and more eerie blue fluorescence was spreading out.
What the hell? The sky is still collapsing. How could it just collapse like that?
Staring at the shattered sky for too long can make one uneasy. She lowered her head and rubbed the blanket to calm her pounding heart.
She just said she would only love him if the sky fell down—sounds like a blatant evasion and rejection. Shouldn't she stop making such a statement? Even in a novel, no matter how far-fetched the worldview is, even if redemption becomes coercion, shouldn't we still be more rigorous on matters of principle?
"Hey, I said I take it back!" She became more and more annoyed and shouted at the sky.
“It won’t stop.” Ling Zhou straightened up, also staring at the widening crack. Besides the largest one, other irregular cracks appeared in the sky as far as the eye could see. “You don’t still think this is 3D technology, do you? The sky has really fallen. I admit I’ve been hiding some things, just like you haven’t been telling me the truth.”
This is illogical! Oh well, I've already transmigrated into a book, which is illogical enough in itself.
"I already told you, didn't I? I'm not your ex-wife at all. You don't believe me even if I tell you."
"What about the rest? Who are you? How did you get here? And why did you become her? You haven't mentioned a word about any of these things, but they don't matter now. All you need to do now is love me, just like you love Lin Xu."
Xu Huaihuai felt uncomfortable with Ling Zhou's self-talk, thinking that he could say something even more outrageous than what Ling Zhou said. "How dare you mention Lin Xu? I haven't even settled the score with you for locking him up. You want me to love you like I love him? Are you starved for love? Why are you so obsessed with making me fall in love with you? You really dare to say and think. Why don't you just tell me to love you like a mouse loves rice?"
"Mice love rice? That's fine too. As long as you love me."
Xu Huaihuai felt that Ling Zhou's ability to extract key points was definitely problematic, and she didn't want to communicate with this person anymore, but now was not the time to completely turn against him.
“I can’t do it, not even if the sky falls, uh, your face…” She gripped the wheelchair’s control lever and slowly turned it, inching herself backward. She saw the cracks on his face again, but this time they weren’t as dense and terrifying as the ones she’d seen that night, covering his entire face. Only half of his cheek had cracked marks.
Ling Zhou raised his hand to cover his face, his gaze towards her now filled with understanding and relief.
“You can see it after all. In that case, there’s no point in hiding it anymore.” His gaze swept over her legs. “Anyway, you can’t run away.”
That's not necessarily true. Xu Huaihuai noticed the comments flashing.
Ling Zhou, oblivious to the fact that he had been covering his face with his hand, revealed the clear and grotesque cracks on his cheek. "Look at these cracks, and then look at the cracks in the sky. Do they look familiar?"
Xu Huaihuai endured the discomfort and looked at his face for a while, then looked up to observe the cracks in the sky. One of the cracks almost overlapped with the one on his face.
"Your face is cracked, uh, the sky is cracked too, you two are both cracked, but I'm not Nuwa, I'm not responsible for patching it up."
It's best to stay away from things that are clearly beyond our comprehension and cannot be explained by common sense. Xu Huaihuai tried to turn the control lever to move further away.
Ling Zhou saw it, squatted down, and fixed her wheelchair in place to prevent her from escaping. He looked up, his pupils were very dark, and looking at him for a while would make one feel a sense of inhumanity.
“What’s the point of running away? Do you think the sky won’t fall if you leave? This is a problem that can be solved simply by your love for me. How can you bear to abandon me and leave?” He gently rebuked her behavior. “You can’t be like her.”
"Her?" Xu Huaihuai's heart skipped a beat.
“You know who she is. You two are very similar, beautiful yet cruel. You both wanted to run away after discovering the disfigurement on my face. How heartless and cold-blooded you are. I softened and agreed to divorce her, but she hid somewhere I couldn't find her. How could she be so cruel? Fortunately, you came.”
A strange light seemed to gleam in his dark eyes. "You should know everything, right? For example, in this world, I can only love her. Then she should only love me, shouldn't she? Now that you've become 'her,' why can you fall in love with someone else, yet be so heartless and indifferent to me?"
Was he referring to the rule that male protagonists in novels can only love female protagonists? Xu Huaihua wasn't sure how much he knew. He seemed too strange, with a kind of calm madness. She thought it best not to say anything. She silently counted down in her mind. It should be soon, right?
She didn't say a word, but he talked on and on. It was unclear whether he was talking to himself, or to her and "her".
"Shouldn't the male and female leads be deeply in love? Why did everything change after only five years of marriage? Is it because of these terrible cracks? But they only appeared because she doesn't love me. What's the point of a male lead's existence if he's not needed by the female lead? What's the point of this world created out of love?"
Ling Zhou's words contained a lot of information. This guy not only knew that this was a novel world, but also knew that he was the protagonist. But how did he know that? Also, he said that the cracks on his face and the cracks in the sky were caused by the female lead not loving him.
These things weren't mentioned in the comments, so what is this guy hiding from me?
"Don't you believe me? This world has already begun to collapse. I have no reason to lie to you; you can see it for yourself."
The cracks continued to multiply and grow larger, and the eerie blue fluorescence increased. She pondered for a moment, "The sky has collapsed, but no one has been killed."
Hearing her words, he smiled subtly, "Well, that's true, there aren't many people left to smash."
His smile made Xu Huaihuai uneasy, and she pressed, "Not many people?"
"Haven't you noticed yet? It's New Year's Eve. Look, how many floors still have their lights on? Even if they can't see the strange things in the sky, did you hear the sound of fireworks and firecrackers going off?"
Indeed, looking into the distance, it was a residential area with only a few scattered lights. She hadn't heard any fireworks or firecrackers. Even if they were banned, people should still be setting them off secretly, but she hadn't heard a sound. But what did that mean? She couldn't be swayed by Ling Zhou's words. What if there was a power outage in the area? What if everyone was behaving themselves this year and no one was defying the ban?
She really wanted to continue thinking along this line of thought, but Ling Zhou didn't give her the chance.
"You should remember that fever, right? Those who had the fever all disappeared. They gradually became transparent, disappearing completely from this world. The remaining people don't have much time left either. Otherwise, think about why your colleagues and friends haven't come looking for you since your disappearance."
She tried to argue with him, "I had a fever too, but I'm fine now."
“You really caught a cold and have a fever, unlike them. All of this could have been resolved. Everyone could have been fine. As long as Xu Huaihuai loves Ling Zhou, this world wouldn’t have collapsed.”
He grabbed Xu Huaihuai's hand with a little force, but she pulled her hand away and remained silent.
"So you'd rather watch the world collapse than love me?"
The cracks on his face were fading, but he didn't seem to notice.
She looked up at the tattered sky, where the eerie blue glow seemed frozen in time, and the cracks stopped widening.
She said, "It's stopped."
Ling Zhou's expression froze. "So, you love me?"
“No, it’s because someone loves you, always.” Xu Huaihuai’s gaze went over his shoulder and towards the entrance to the rooftop, where someone was standing.
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