Chapter 152 Painted Body Swallowing Charcoal (1)
"Xiaoqian..."
Someone called out to her in the darkness.
Shu Ningmiao opened her eyes and walked barefoot on the cold floor. Heavy curtains hung by the window, blocking out all light.
The outlines of all the objects in the room had become blurred, but her consciousness was so clear that she could perceive the inexplicable sadness in her heart.
The white-haired boy stood not far from the room and called out to her, "Wei Sheng Qian Heng."
She couldn't see the white-haired boy's face clearly, but she recognized him at a glance from his figure—Lan Xi, the ethereal baby-faced boy who only appeared in the group photo.
Lanxi stood in the ward, but called her "Weisheng Qianheng".
The boy drew back the curtains, letting in a soft blue light that cast dappled shadows on the floor.
She looked out, but there was no scenery outside, only a terrifying, flowing blue chaos that trembled violently in her pupils. A primal fear erupted from the bottom of her heart. Shu Ningmiao abruptly turned her face away, refusing to look at the chaos outside the window. The floor beneath her feet was covered in bloodstains, the scarlet, viscous blood reaching above her ankles, scalding hot like flowing lava.
The white-haired boy finally spoke again: "It's all your fault."
A blue halo eroded her vision, and the whole world turned to ashes.
She suddenly opened her eyes. The nurse had drawn back the curtains, and the sunlight streaming in from outside shone directly on her eyelids.
The noise outside was coming from the doorway, where a nurse was registering visitors.
The newcomer's voice was not loud: "Name... Erice, identity, I am a student, yes, a student of Cornunos, no, no, just lucky."
After a perfunctory inquiry, the police quickly lifted her quarantine; they had too many things to deal with and didn't have much time to focus on her.
A few days later, she was transferred back to the medical clinic in Pinhes.
People came and went to see her. She was almost fully recovered, with only some superficial injuries remaining. Because she was too lazy to deal with others, she pretended to be asleep during the day, but occasionally she would actually fall asleep, just like before.
Eric entered the ward, sat still, and silently shed tears again, murmuring an apology to her.
Shu Ningmiao sat up, picked up an apple from the fruit plate, and tossed one to her.
Erice hurriedly took it with both hands, looked at her indifferent expression, and choked back a hiccup.
Shu Ningmiao took a bite of the apple: "How is the master?"
She didn't mention You An. The best time for rescue had already passed. Although the report classified it as missing, everyone knew that You An had no chance of being alive. She didn't tell anyone what happened at the time, for her own sake and to help You An one last time—he was a good swimmer, and as long as his body wasn't found, Shu Ningmiao believed he was still alive.
If he were still alive, he could only continue to live if Pines believed he was dead.
“I don’t know…” Eric rubbed his eyes: “Although it’s only been a few days, it feels like it happened a long, long time ago. I’m so confused and don’t understand anything. Everything is fine in the capital, nothing has happened. It’s just that everyone online is discussing the Intoli incident. I don’t know who will win. We should win, right? After all, we have the Enforcers. What do you think?”
Shu Ningmiao didn't answer, and casually changed the subject: "Today isn't a day off, did you take the day off?"
“The school has already suspended classes because many students are protesting.” Erice belatedly realized, “Didn’t you check your terminal? No wonder you didn’t reply to our messages.”
It wasn't that she hadn't looked at it; the terminal wasn't even with her. Before Yu Lu left, she specifically instructed that the terminal not be brought into her hospital room, probably because she was afraid that Yu Lu would find out about Shu Changyan.
—When Shu Changyan entered the confidentiality process, she was already mentally prepared. The protection, care and surveillance she received were closely related to Shu Changyan's desperate journey to Yintuoli.
She believed that Shu Changyan wouldn't just die in Yintuo, but he also couldn't just stay there and do nothing.
Before they could exchange more than a few words, a nurse came to urge the guests in the ward to leave, carrying a tray with a few pills on it.
Erice kept turning back, his gaze lingering on the tray: "What kind of medicine is this?"
“She’s calm,” the doctor following behind replied. “She said she was experiencing some delirium after the surgery.”
Eric frowned, and an uneasy look appeared in his eyes.
The doctor walked to the bedside, checked the monitors, and looked at her helplessly with his arms crossed: "Are you still feeling unwell lately? If you don't feel anything, don't take any medicine. It's not like medicine is any good."
Shu Ningmiao immediately raised her hand to her forehead, clearly looking like she had a headache, and didn't say anything.
The medical staff had grown accustomed to her appearance, so they put down the tray and quietly left.
As the others left one after another, the ward became quiet again.
After an unknown amount of time, Shu Ningmiao let go of her hand, looked up at the window, and her vision became somewhat blurry.
The window opened by itself without any wind, and before anyone knew it, Wei Sheng Qian Heng was standing in front of the window, his long hair cascading down from the side of his neck.
He stood by the window, quietly watching her.
Shu Ningmiao didn't react much. She reached for the water glass, grabbed all the sedatives from the bedside table, and swallowed them all at once.
The figure did not disappear; a pair of dark, ethereal eyes were still watching her, their expression unreadable.
A faint blue vein appeared on Shu Ningmiao's forehead. She grabbed an apple from beside her and threw it at him. The apple passed through his body, slammed against the wall, and rolled back to the foot of the bed.
No use —
"Wei Sheng Qian Heng." Her eyelids twitched, and she felt a surge of unease. "Don't ever appear in front of me again."
This is not the first time such an "illusion" has occurred.
What bothered her more than the disasters that followed was that she began to see Wei Sheng Qian Heng appearing before her frequently.
Like a ghost, omnipresent and without physical form, when she first saw it, she doubted that it was an illusion—an illusion that only existed in her mind, because she was the only one who could see the person in front of her.
She immediately denied the conjecture, because Wei Sheng Qianheng began to talk to her.
At the same time, she began to have recurring, unfamiliar dreams, in which everyone called her "Wei Sheng Qian Heng".
A hypothesis she least wanted to admit surfaced in her mind—the same string currents were merging, creating a connection between her consciousness and that of Wei Sheng Qian Heng.
While she and Wei Shengqianheng were fighting against each other, Xian also completely bound them together.
However, now, she has to face more than just him as a problem.
She had plenty of time to think at the medical clinic.
No matter how many times she reviewed the events, she had to admit that Gab's fate would not have changed regardless of whether or not there was a microscopic Thousand Balance.
Pines wants a war, a war that, if not today, will happen tomorrow.
Wei Shengqianheng walked towards her, bent down to pick up the apple, but his fingers passed right through it.
He lowered his head, his movements seemingly frozen: "The string has brought us closer together. You can peer into my memories, and I can explore your life. It's fair, isn't it?"
"I have absolutely no interest in your rotten memories." Shu Ningmiao continued to sting him mercilessly.
Wei Shengqianheng raised his face and looked at her with a normal expression: "Everything will rot, except for you and me."
Shu Ningmiao covered her arm, goosebumps rising on her skin.
A gust of wind, seemingly from nowhere, blew through the open window, lifting the curtains in the ward. The spot where Wei Shengqianheng had been standing was now empty.
The man's voice vanished like a gust of wind, disappearing into the air in the blink of an eye without leaving a trace.
She slipped on her shoes and got out of bed, intending to close the window again.
The wind whistled past her ears, swirling high in the air, catching a leaf that softly rested on her forehead, carrying a hint of the sun's warmth.
A hand moved the leaf away.
Xiao Jiang, holding the leaf stem, leaned against the windowsill and looked at her from behind the leaf: "Every time you see my expression, it's as if you really don't want to see me."
Shu Ningmiao finally looked away: "I thought it was someone else."
"This is the nineteenth floor." Xiao Jiang looked at the open window: "Is there anyone else here?"
"You know it's the nineteenth floor." Shu Ningmiao's expression relaxed a little as she listlessly shuffled back in her slippers, propping herself up on the hospital bed: "Why didn't you use the main entrance?"
"If I get registered, those people will say I'm not doing my job properly, so I'll save myself the trouble."
Xiao Jiang observed her expression. Shu Ningmiao was still the same as before. Xiao Jiang could not see any other emotions. He only felt that her face was paler than usual, and there was a pale blue tinge under her eyes.
The woman wanted to pat her head, but instead tapped herself instead, abruptly saying, "I'm sorry."
Shu Ningmiao hadn't expected her to suddenly apologize, and paused for two seconds after hearing it: "I'm sorry?"
"How should I put it?" Xiao Jiang scratched her long hair and jumped down from the windowsill. "I shouldn't have listened to that damn blond guy..."
Shu Ningmiao turned her face to the side, and after a long while, shook her head.
“I was pretty selfish, wasn’t I? I clearly guessed it back then, but I stopped you from overthinking it.” Xiao Jiang strode up to her, grabbed her shoulders, and stared at her intently and seriously: “But I really didn’t know they would go so far. If I had known, I definitely wouldn’t have listened to anything…”
Her voice stopped abruptly because Shu Ningmiao's fingertips were hovering in front of her parting lips.
"Then how will you return to Phineas?"
Shu Ningmiao leaned down and lowered her voice, her calm gaze icy and piercing, staring straight into the depths of her pupils.
The girl gently pressed her fingertip against the corner of her lips, signaling her to stop talking. Her voice was so low it was like a bubble, dissipating like smoke: "Don't say things like that anymore."
Xiao Jiang's lips trembled, then tightened into a thin line.
"If I were you, I would prioritize protecting myself."
Shu Ningmiao withdrew her body, leaning against the edge of the bed, her eyes calm and composed, as always so resolute: "We are friends, and I hope you can get out of here safely."
Xiao Jiang stood still, hands in her pockets, head turned away, motionless.
Shu Ningmiao turned her head and looked over, propping her chin on her hand: "You should go now, the doctor will be making rounds later."
Parliament is in a tense situation right now, and if this medical clinic weren't so close to the Union Buildings, Xiao Jiang would have had a hard time sneaking over.
Xiao Jiang realized what was happening, opened the window, and then suddenly turned around and called out to her as if remembering something: "Come find me if you need anything. Shu Changyan isn't here right now, but I'll take care of you."
Shu Ningmiao coughed twice, tilted her head back and thought for a while before saying, "By the way, I'll be discharged from the hospital in two days, and I'd like to ask you for a favor."
"What is it?" Xiao Jiang waved her hand, answering without even thinking.
“I want to intern at the Union Building.” Shu Ningmiao’s eyelashes drooped, her voice deep and slow, as if she was pondering something with each word: “I would like to ask you to be my applicant.”
Xiao Jiang frowned: "Now? Are you sure you want to go to the United Building for an internship now?"
Shu Ningmiao looked directly into her eyes without any hesitation.
"Why are you making trouble for yourself? Internships at the Union Building won't earn you any extra credits." The two stared at each other for a moment before Xiao Jiang looked away first, her brows furrowing.
"Oh, right." Xiao Jiang thought for a long time before abruptly changing the subject: "Did they tell you? You applied for key family member status, which allows you to leave the capital to seek refuge."
“Pine’s affairs are Pine’s affairs, and have nothing to do with you.” Xiao Jiang placed his hand on hers: “Go, find a nice place, rest for a while, and wait for your brother to come back.”
After returning from Gab, her mind was almost entirely blank except for the instinct to survive.
The recuperation gave her time to catch her breath, and she has been thinking about ways to break the deadlock these days.
Running away won't solve anything. She can escape to anywhere in the world, but it won't change anything that's happening now. Shu Changyan hasn't returned yet. She has to go back to Pinne. She has to do something to take control and to prevent Shu Changyan from repeating his previous life of wandering.
As a student, the only way to enter the Union Buildings was as an intern, and the fact that Cornunos was closed for all classes provided her with a plausible excuse.
As the power center of Pinheis, it was not easy to obtain an internship opportunity at the Union Buildings at such a crucial moment.
However, things become much simpler if there are incumbent high-ranking officials as recommenders. In addition, the influence of her media coverage is still there, and she doesn't mind using everything she can.
Shu Ningmiao looked down at her palms. There were faint scars on her dry palms, and calluses covered the base of her thumb and forefinger. These were the marks left by her countless training sessions.
Standing on a giant ship about to collide with an iceberg, you can close your eyes to avoid seeing it, but closing your eyes cannot stop the ship from collapsing, nor can it stop your body from falling with the environment.
From the day before she enrolled, she forced herself to face the cruel reality—that she would die one day, and everyone would want to escape, including her.
If she can't accept all the pain and helplessness that has happened and just runs away, she will never be able to find a way out of her destiny.
Xiao Jiang stared at her intently. In the morning light, Shu Ningmiao lowered her eyes and looked down at her nose. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and her body was as taut as a string.
"Never mind." She curled her fingertips, her palms were cold. "I'm not leaving."
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