Tawil closed his eyes. "Me too."

"You have to make a choice." Tawil made an abrupt turn. He let go of Bai Liu, put his forehead against Bai Liu, and asked him softly, "Antidote or poison?"

Bai Liu's hand curled up in vain.

Tavel looked at him calmly, his silver-blue eyes were like a mirror placed underwater, reflecting Bai Liu's emotionless, fluctuating face in the swaying light of the water.

He said, "You should know what the antidote is. Make your choice."

Bai Liu's eyes were blank for a moment, and his memory flashed through Tavel's eyes and drifted very far away.

In the old orphanage library, old poems stained with oil were spread out on Shetta's knees. It was a summer afternoon, and the sunlight passed through his hair hanging down in front of his forehead, just like the light passing through dense and loose branches, scattered into scattered grids, and fell on the yellowed, worn pages of the book.

Dust and heat waves were floating in the air. The library window was half open, facing the uncultivated green grass. The pool was shimmering like fish scales under the scorching sun, and it looked like ten thousand diamonds laid on the water.

Bai Liu had no interest in reading. He sleepily covered his face with a book and slacked off on his hands. The sweat from the steam soaked his collar.

He no longer remembered what he had done specifically, but they were assigned to do cleaning work in a library that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in decades - this kind of punishment was very common for Bai Liu and Xie Ta.

But fortunately, it was a small library, and Shetta was not in a hurry. He sat quietly by the window, flipping through old books buried in the dust, and read in a low voice:

"How can I compare you to summer?

You are not only more lovely than it, but also more gentle than it,

…

But your long summer will never fade,

…

Or Death boasts that you wander in his shadow,

When you grow with time in immortal poetry.

As long as there are human beings, or people have eyes,

The gods will live forever and give you life."

Bai Liu was finally awakened by Xie Ta's incessant recitation. He took off the book covering his face, but his eyes were lazy and he didn't open them. He asked Xie Ta a question in his mouth: "The last sentence shouldn't be like this, right? Don't tamper with other people's poems while you are reciting them."

"The original sentence is [This poem will last forever and give you life]." Xie Ta was not angry after being exposed. He still looked at Bai Liu calmly. His eyes seemed to contain Bai Liu. "I am not very good at writing poetry, but I saw you in this poem."

“This poem suits you very well.”

Bai Liu went over this overly corny love poem in praise of his lover in his mind, pretended to stretch himself and turned over, not looking at Xie Ta behind him, and was silent for a while before speaking again:

"Don't tease me with just any poem."

"I didn't just pick a random poem." Shetta said slowly, "Your long summer will never fade. This is a poem that describes your future. Someone will tell you."

"My future? What about you?" Bai Liu turned back and asked with a raised eyebrow, "My long summer is the only one that will not wither, right?"

It was just a joke, but Shetta was silent for a long time that day before she raised her eyes to look at him. Her voice was as soft as a leaf that would not fall:

“I don’t have a summer.”

He exhaled softly: "I just... secretly shared your summer."

Shetta looked out the window at the lush summer scenery: "This summer is indeed lovely and gentle, the most beautiful summer I have ever seen, but this... does not belong to me."

"I'll leave eventually."

At the end of that summer, Shetta disappeared to the bottom of the pool.

At the rose factory at the beginning of summer, the roses in May are in full bloom, which is the first round of flowering.

The moment Tawil let go, Bai Liu seemed to have sensed something. He subconsciously grabbed Tawil's wrist and looked at him calmly: "Are you leaving again?"

"We will meet again." Tavel gently raised his other hand and stroked Bai Liu's eyelids and face. "This is not your summer and roses. I will not stay here, and you should not stay here either."

Tavel's cold hands pressed against Bai Liu's skin, almost touching it, and it felt like snow falling on her face.

"When the sun disappears three quarters of its rays, an old friend will come to look for you, frozen and stiff. Do not be afraid of the separation that death brings, and do not be afraid of the broken inverted cross in the snow."

"Don't be afraid of me, alive or dead." Tavel held Bai Liu's head in his arms, leaned down and kissed his wet, rose-scented hair. "Don't be afraid of me leaving your summer."

"I am a fallen god without a summer, but I have a whole winter waiting for you."

"Make your choice now, antidote or poison." Tavel lowered his long, snow-white eyelashes, hugged Bai Liu tightly, who did not move at all, but buried her head in his arms, and gently stroked the ends of Bai Liu's dripping hair, "No matter what choice you make--"

"You will leave, right?" Bai Liu asked in a muffled voice.

Tawil was silent for a moment, then answered him honestly, "Yes."

Bai Liu fell silent again, but Tavel felt Bai Liu's arms tightening around his waist - this was exactly the same as when he was a child.

Tawil suddenly felt like laughing.

When faced with a situation he didn't want to face, when he was mad at other kids or teachers, or when he faced a farewell he didn't want to acknowledge, the fourteen-year-old Bai Liu would remain calm on the surface and might even make a sarcastic remark.

But when no one was paying attention, the skinny Bai Liu would sneak back and hug the huge, patched, lanky ghost doll, bury himself in it and release his emotions without moving - in the same posture.

"But no matter what choice you make." Tavel brushed away the hair stuck to Bai Liu's ear, lowered his head and whispered in his ear, "You will always be the most important to me."

"No matter what happens, I will definitely come to see you."

Bai Liu slowly sat up from Tawil's arms and looked straight at Tawil - he finally remembered why he didn't have the habit of looking people in the eye before he was fourteen, but only developed it after he was fourteen.

Because Shetta said: "Don't look at me, I have a pair of scary eyes."

Bai Liu teased him maliciously: "But if I don't look directly at you, how do you know I'm talking to you? What if I'm talking to someone else and you think I'm talking to you? Wouldn't that be very embarrassing for you?"

Shetta was silent for a while and said, "But in this way, I can pretend that when you talk to everyone else, no matter who you are looking at, I can tell myself that you are talking to me."

Bai Liu remembered that while Xie Ta was talking to him like this, he lowered his head even deeper to shield his eyes and pursed his lips.

——Just like now.

"Don't say you're leaving at the same time." Bai Liu brushed Tavel's hair away and approached him, smiling as if complaining, "and you look more reluctant to leave than I am."

Bai Liu said ten years ago: "You don't have to pretend like this anymore. In essence, you are the only person I talk to, and you are the only one who will really listen to every word I say."

[So no matter who I talk to, I'm actually talking to you. I will always look into your eyes when I talk.]

【I don’t think you’re scary. 】

Ten years later, Bai Liu said: "I am no longer afraid of your death. In essence, death is the most terrifying thing for human beings."

"And you will not die, no matter who gave you this, whether it was God or the devil, no matter if others think you are a monster, a god or something else - to me, you are just Sheta, and I think it's good that you can live forever."

"I don't think you're scary."

Bai Liu paused for a moment, then continued calmly: "The poison is the dried rose leaves that grew from your body, and the antidote is the blood ganoderma that came out of your blood, right?"

When Bai Liu saw the diary's connection with the orphanage, he realized what the antidote was.

The function of the Blood Ganoderma is explained as being able to stop all negative buffs, which may include the addiction caused by the Dried Rose Leaf. And it just so happens that the factory director purchased the statue from the welfare home - it is very likely that the mother of the Blood Ganoderma is still buried in Tavel's body.

It's just that because the body was dismembered, it was unable to form complete blood vessels and organs, so it was impossible to produce blood to irrigate the Ganoderma lucidum.

The factory manager should have known this, but he had completely lost control.

Compared to the [antidote] that could save him, the [poison] that was obviously more concentrated and made him more crazy and addicted - rose perfume attracted him more.

He was unable to stop his desire for rosewater, and it was even more impossible for him to put the core production tool (heart) back into Tawil's chest cavity, allowing Tawil to become a blood supply machine again to produce blood ganoderma to save himself, which also completely destroyed him.

The principle of this game is the same - after peeking into the core secrets of the entire Rose Factory operation, there are two paths in front of the player.

One is to continue using the dismembered body of Tawil to grow dried rose leaves and produce rose perfume.

One is to absorb Tavel's blood, like the investors in the third copy did, allowing the thorny blood Ganoderma chains to grow through Tavel's body, continuously growing blood Ganoderma that can save everyone.

The thornless, smooth rhizomes of the dry-leaf rose with withered leaves complement the thorny, rose-like shrub branches of the blood-ganoderma - these two plants were designed to complement and restrain each other.

"Are you running away?" Tavel stared at Bai Liu, "Because you don't want to choose any of them."

"But there's nothing you can do about it - you should know that this game is designed so that you can only choose from these two paths."

"That person is forcing you to make a choice - to save the world by torturing me, or to let the world suffer and make it easier for me."

Bai Liu knew.

He knew it the moment he entered the game—and that’s why he’s been avoiding playing it.

——Someone is torturing Tawil and forcing him to become White Six again.

The author has something to say:

The poem that Ta read is the original text of Shakespeare's sonnet quoted in the previous chapter! Very beautiful!