The feeling of weightlessness and the dizziness of time travel gradually subsided. Su Nian lay on Xie Chen's (initial fusion body) body. The air in her nostrils was no longer filled with the coldness of the data torrent, nor with the scent of grass in the valley of the world's rift, but with a... familiar smell, with expensive cedar and leather, yet with a faint, imperceptible, dull odor, like something slowly decaying in silence.
She propped herself up and looked around in astonishment.
What came into view was no longer emptiness or natural scenery, but a room—a room that she was extremely familiar with, yet also strangely unsettling.
Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows was a hazy city skyline, expensive custom-made Italian furniture, a cold black, white and gray color scheme, and... that heavy door that she had tried to open countless times, yet which remained as solid as a fortress.
This is the world she was in during her initial mission, the penthouse master bedroom where the domineering CEO Xie Chen imprisoned her like a "caged bird."
She's back. Back to where it all started.
But something is different.
Everything in the room appeared pristine and immaculate, as if time had stood still. But upon closer inspection, the edges of the expensive furniture bore subtle, unintentional signs of wear, as if repeatedly caressed and touched over a long period of time. The faint sense of decay permeating the air did not emanate from the objects themselves, but rather seemed to be an aura of despair and obsession that had settled for too long, permeating every inch of the space.
What made her heart stop was that the walls of the room were no longer the original cold and hard design style, but... were covered with things.
It's a photo.
Thousands upon thousands of photos, of varying sizes and angles, but all of them are of her!
Some of the images were captured by surveillance cameras while she was imprisoned in this world—eating, spacing out, sleeping, even crying while looking out the window. Others were clearly from other worlds! Her profile as she practiced swordsmanship at the Immortal Sect, a moment of strolling through the castle garden, her focused expression during a council meeting in the dynasty, the way she cheered him on from the e-sports arena, her gentle gaze as she comforted Ah Chen at the piano… All the mission worlds she had experienced, all the moments she thought no one knew, were printed out clearly and meticulously, like some kind of fanatical collection, densely covering the four walls!
These photos were meticulously arranged, some even circled or drawn with red markers, and accompanied by distorted, paranoid handwriting:
"She smiled here."
Why do you smile at others?
"Find a common thread...the eyes..."
"Mine... all of them are mine..."
"Don't look at anyone else!"
A chilling coldness crept up Su Nian's spine. This was no longer imprisonment; it was a... morbid, suffocating, total surveillance and possession!
“Here…” Su Nian’s voice was hoarse as she looked at Xie Chen beneath her.
Xie Chen (initially fused form) had also sat up. He looked around, and a trace of solemnity and... a violent fluctuation originating from a fragment deep within his soul, which even he himself did not fully understand, flashed in his dark eyes that had absorbed countless emotions. This place was equally unforgettable for him.
He subconsciously pulled Su Nian closer to him, adopting a protective stance. He could feel the almost tangible, frenzied, and desperate atmosphere permeating the space, more unsettling than the torrent of data.
"The time... is wrong." Xie Chen spoke in a low voice, which seemed to be suppressed here, carrying a hint of dullness. "The atmosphere here... is very old."
Just then, in the corner of the room, an inconspicuous screen resembling a smart home control panel suddenly lit up. It didn't have a complicated interface, only a line of scarlet, constantly flashing numbers:
[Time since she left: 3652 days, 7 hours, 28 minutes, and 15 seconds]
ten years!
Su Nian's pupils contracted sharply. The flow of time in the Main God Space was different from that in these smaller worlds. She had experienced several missions, and it felt like only ten years had passed, but in this world, a full ten years had already gone by!
Ten years... What does her "disappearance" mean for Xie Chen, a domineering CEO who is already extremely obsessive?
The answer seems to lie in the crazy photos and handwriting that cover the walls.
"Click—"
A very faint sound, as if coming from a great distance, as if an electronic lock were to open suddenly rang out.
The heavy bedroom door slowly opened a crack inwards.
There was no light outside the door, only a deeper darkness that seemed capable of swallowing everything. A tall, imposing figure, exuding boundless desolation and a sense of oppression, stood silently in that darkness, like a sculpture that had stood guard for millions of years.
He slowly raised his head.
His gaze pierced through the crack in the door, precise and like the coldest probe, instantly locking onto Su Nian inside the room.
Those were eyes that Su Nian had never seen before.
His still incomparably handsome face had lost some of the youthful naiveté of a domineering young CEO, becoming sharply defined, mature, and cold, yet... completely devoid of warmth. The flames of obsession no longer burned in his eyes; instead, they had settled into a deeper, more desperate, more insane... deathly cold. Within them surged ten years' worth of pent-up violence, pain, and a calm madness capable of destroying everything.
He looked at her, and very slowly, a twisted arc without any smile appeared on his lips.
“You finally…” His voice was terribly hoarse, as if he hadn’t spoken in a long time, with a worn-out quality, and every word struck one’s heart, “…you’re back.”
“My…bird.”
As his words fell, Su Nian felt an invisible, icy force instantly envelop the entire room! The air seemed to become thick and heavy, making it difficult for her to breathe.
It wasn't a physical confinement, but rather a kind of... domain-like control! This apartment, no, perhaps an even larger space, had been transformed by him into a real, airtight "birdcage"!
Xie Chen (initially fused form) abruptly stood up, completely shielding Su Nian behind him. The fused dark energy around him instinctively began to circulate, resisting the omnipresent oppressive feeling. He looked sharply at the man in the doorway. Although the other man was also part of "Xie Chen," at this moment, they seemed more like natural enemies vying for territory and possessions.
"Who are you?" The domineering CEO Xie Chen (or rather, the crazy version from ten years later) at the door glanced indifferently at the nascent fusion body. There was no surprise in his eyes, only a cold, condescending scrutiny as if he were looking at a substandard replica. "Another... fake?"
He stepped into the room.
As he stepped in, the room's lights automatically adjusted, becoming a stark, glaring white, like an interrogation room, making the crazed photos on the walls even clearer and more terrifying. He wore a perfectly tailored black suit, every inch exuding ultimate elegance and control, but this formed a horrifying contrast with the destructive madness in his eyes.
He didn't look at the initial fusion body again, as if the other party was not worth mentioning at all. His gaze, from beginning to end, was like a chain with barbs, tightly wrapped around Su Nian.
“Ten years, one month, seven days, thirteen hours…” He recited the time precisely, approaching step by step, his leather shoes clicking silently on the carpet, yet carrying immense weight. “I dismantled seventeen systems that tried to impersonate you, crushed twenty-three detection signals from different dimensions… I searched through almost every possible timeline and possibility…”
He stopped a step away from Su Nian, his tall figure casting a heavy shadow that completely enveloped her. He leaned down slightly, his icy breath almost brushing against her cheek, his lifeless eyes close to hers, filled with a churning pain and obsession that could burn and freeze a person.
"I almost thought... you really had completely disappeared." He reached out, his fingertips hovering near Su Nian's cheek, as if wanting to touch her, but then forcibly pulled back. He simply spoke in his hoarse voice, each word a declaration of his final judgment.
"But you came back."
"this time……"
"I will personally build a cage that you will never, ever be able to leave."
"With my blood, my soul, my... everything."
"You will be here until the end of time."
"Come with me."
His words, devoid of any emotional fluctuation, were more chilling than any hysterical roar. They were the unquestionable, mad determination that had settled after a long period of despair.
Looking into the unfathomable darkness in his eyes, a mixture of love and destruction, Su Nian felt as if her heart was being gripped tightly by an icy hand. She knew that the Xie Chen before her was no longer the domineering CEO she once knew, the one who could manipulate others with his "drama queen" tactics. Ten years of loss had tempered the deepest obsession and yandere within him into a more extreme and terrifying form.
Survival? Healing?
These two words seem so pale and powerless in the face of this madman who has been completely transformed by time and despair.
The aura emanating from Xie Chen, the initial fusion entity standing before her, grew even more dangerous and heavy. He sensed a tremendous threat from his shared soul and... a kind of instinctive repulsion. The two "Xie Chens" confronted each other in this small space, filled with the marks of madness, an invisible storm brewing.
Su Nian stood at the center of the storm, with the domineering CEO who had completely turned to the dark side and whose obsession had turned into demonic power in front of her, and the ensemble of souls that had just begun to merge and whose state was not yet stable behind her.
She returned to where the nightmare began.
But they discovered that this place had already become a more sophisticated, more desperate... hell.
The only way out may lie in how to deal with this "cage maker" who has gone completely mad because of her.
(End of Chapter 151)
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Next chapter preview: How will the completely corrupted CEO build his "ultimate birdcage"? How will Xie Chen, who has just begun to merge with his past self, fight against this more extreme version of himself? Can Su Nian find a glimmer of hope amidst the two yandere (crazy) characters? What shocking truth will ten years of emptiness and madness reveal? The ultimate wife-chasing crematorium officially begins!
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