Chapter 69 Redemption (1)
Yun Zhan tucked Pei Yanxi in, his fingertips brushing against her slightly furrowed brow as she slept.
Yun Zhan picked up the towel that had fallen on the carpet and wiped the water stains from his neck, which were still wet. Then he turned around and walked toward the inconspicuous storage door at the end of the corridor.
As the spiral staircase descends, a thin layer of rust remains on the iron handrails at the fingertips.
The moment the door was pushed open, a wave of dampness and dust rushed in, like opening a coffin that had been sealed for many years.
"It's obvious that Pei Yanxi hasn't been here for a long time."
Yun Zhan coughed a few times, choked by the dust. The basement had no windows, only a dim yellow motion sensor light on the ceiling, the lampshade covered with dust like frosted glass.
“When I went home with Pei Yanxi last time, I saw my information here. I was so nervous that I didn’t dare to read it all at once.” She was very curious at the time why Pei Yanxi would investigate her.
Her background was arranged by the 21st Century; it's virtually impossible for it to be wrong...
“Pei Yanxi is really strange.”
Following her memory, she walked to the third column on the left, ran her fingertip across the label, and finally stopped at an inconspicuous blue label.
When pulled out, the folder made a soft "whoosh" sound. There were no words on the cover, only a string of dates written in pencil in the corner.
"The time recorded on this is exactly the time when I first traveled here."
Yun Zhan squatted down, laid the folder flat on his knees, took a deep breath, and suppressed the growing turmoil in his chest.
Last time she infiltrated, she only had time to glimpse the photo on the first page. Now, she turned to the second page. The paper was slightly soft from the dampness, but the ink was still clear.
The first column is the name, with the words "Yun Zhan" in bold.
The second section describes her background: daughter of a fallen nobleman, orphaned...
Further down were her height, blood type, eye color... Yun Zhan's fingers unconsciously tightened as she continued flipping through the pages...
On the very last page, at the very bottom of the blank paper, there was a line of text written in pen. The ink had completely dried, indicating that it had been added a long time ago.
"The twenty-first time traveler."
Yun Zhan's breathing suddenly stopped.
The words were like a thin blade, piercing the brain along the earlobe, cold and echoing.
She never revealed her origins to anyone...
In this world, besides 21, no one knows...
"Impossible!? How did she know..."
The folder trembled slightly under her fingers, the pages crumpled as if about to be crushed.
Yun Zhan closed his eyes, forcing himself to slow his heartbeat. His vital energy surged through his meridians, almost bursting through his skin.
When she opened her eyes again, her pupils had shrunk to slits. She raised her hand, her fingertips tracing the words, her nails pausing on "transmigrator" as she slowly traced its outline.
"How did she find out? Did you tell her?" Yun Zhan asked coldly.
There could be no one else but it.
"I didn't!!! I promise! I was so scared just now, how did she know... I'm really innocent."
The electronic brain of device 21 shook wildly in Yun Zhan's consciousness, desperately trying to explain: "I checked this file, it's been here for a long time, even before you and Pei Yanxi were familiar with each other. It really wasn't me!"
"That would be terrible...wouldn't it? We were seen through from the very beginning."
Yun Zhan's low, hoarse voice dissipated in the dust, like a spark falling into dry grass, extinguished in an instant, yet enough to ignite all subsequent plans.
She closed the folder, her gaze sweeping across the row of filing cabinets. The rain roared overhead, but the basement was so quiet that she could hear the sound of her own blood rushing to her eardrums.
The moment the document was closed.
It was as if someone had turned off a light, and darkness exploded from the cracks in the paper, with waves carrying the smell of rust crashing against the skull.
Yun Zhan felt the carpet beneath his feet suddenly collapse, his body was pulled into a vacuum, and his eardrums burst with a "buzz".
She reached out to hold the bookshelf, but her fingertips passed through the metal as if through a thin mist.
The world spun around, dust turned into scattered stars, and vision suddenly went black.
...
A chill first crept up my spine, like a snake's tongue slithering along my bones.
Yun Zhan struggled to open his eyes and found himself standing in an endless corridor with a dome suspended high above, made of giant fox-faced stone sculptures, with ghostly blue flames embedded in its pupils.
She tried to take a step, but her knees suddenly went weak, and she almost fell to her knees. It was as if her limbs had been stripped of their tendons and bones, leaving only an empty shell like cotton wool.
"What's going on? This is...my soul?"
Her body was still in the basement, but her consciousness seemed to have entered a hallucination.
Lowering eyes—
Where there should have been a heartbeat, there was only emptiness.
"My heart?... It's gone."
Her left chest was cleanly pierced by a sharp weapon, the edges of the blood hole were dark gold, as if it had been branded with a hot iron. There was no blood, no pain, only the howling cold wind passing through her chest, making a low, hollow "whoosh—whoosh—" sound, as if it were breathing for her.
"The keyhole is open; outsiders, present the gap."
The fox-faced stone sculptures murmured in unison, the sound coming from all directions, making her ears ache.
Yun Zhan wanted to raise her hand to cover her wound, but found that her palm was transparent; it was her consciousness that had been forcibly pulled out.
"Give me back my heart..."
Yun Zhan spoke hoarsely, but his voice was sucked away by the wind tunnel, turning into a silent echo.
His body could no longer support him, and he fell forward, kneeling heavily in the center of the mirror.
Wen Sixue fainted in the kitchen. The porcelain plate in her hand fell to the ground with a crisp sound, and she slumped softly onto the tiles.
When I opened my eyes again, the sky was a dim blue, and the dome was made of huge fox-faced stone carvings, with ghostly blue flames flickering in my pupils.
Wen Sixue knelt in the corridor, which resembled shattered mirrors. Beneath her palms lay a cold mirror, yet it reflected no image of her; only ripples spread outwards.
"Yun...Zhan?" Wen Sixue called out in a trembling voice, her throat feeling as if it were filled with the night wind.
Ahead, Yun Zhan knelt with his head bowed. On his left chest was a black hole with dark gold edges. The bloodstains had long since dried, and his skin was so transparent that the wandering blue veins were visible.
He looked like a ghost whose soul had been forcibly taken away, about to dissipate into phosphorescent flames at any moment.
Wen Sixue's mind went blank, and tears welled up instantly.
"Yun Zhan!"
She lunged forward, her knees scraping against the mirror with a soft sound. The moment her fingertips touched Yun Zhan's shoulder, a chill ran up her knuckles and into her heart.
"No...no, it didn't drain my life force, did it?" Wen Sixue's voice trembled and broke, large tears falling onto Yun Zhan's hand: "Why is it still like this...where are we?"
Yun Zhan slowly raised his eyes, his ashen face making his pupils appear even more deep blue, like moonlight reflected in a deep well.
She moved her lips, her voice hoarse and almost carried away by the wind: "Wen Sixue? What happened to you..."
Before he could finish speaking, his figure swayed, and the transparent edge faded even more.
Yun Zhan couldn't hold on any longer and fainted...
Wen Sixue quickly cupped her face in her hands, the coolness of her palms stinging her, yet she stubbornly refused to let go: "Don't sleep, let's think of what to do, Yun Zhan!..."
She lowered her head and pressed her forehead against Yun Zhan's, tears sliding down her nose and mingling with the emptiness in his chest, creating a tiny blue light, like snow falling into burning coals.
Her choked sobs echoed through the dark blue corridor, while the fox-faced stone sculpture lowered its head, the will-o'-the-wisp in its pupils flickering slightly at the sight of that tear.
The next second, the world seemed to have been wiped clean again by a layer of cold frost.
A figure appeared on the horizon; it was Bai Jichen, the god of fox demons.
White dust descended slowly from the crack in the dome, its white robes fluttering even without wind, as if the entire Milky Way had been woven from silk threads.
Her face was extremely beautiful, yet she carried an inhuman coldness. There was a cinnabar dot between her brows, and her pupils were also pale gold. When she looked down, there was no warmth in her eyes, like a jade Buddha that had been covered in dust for thousands of years in an ancient temple.
"Thump."
She snapped her fingers, the sound crisp and clear, yet echoing for miles through the void.
The illusion suddenly turned the page.
The shattered mirror beneath our feet transformed into bluish-gray rock steps, piercing straight into the clouds.
The name of the mountain is unknown, but the number of steps is immediately clear.
Every ten steps are inlaid with a white jade plaque engraved with the character "叩" (kòu), totaling nine hundred plaques and nine thousand steps.
On either side are bottomless abysses, with churning seas of fog, and occasionally, lightning bolts, like withered branches, dart across the bottom, emitting tiny yet menacing crackles.
The air was thin, carrying a cool scent of rust and pine resin; taking a breath felt like having your lungs pinned down by ice needles.
The mountaintop palace pierced through the sea of clouds with its flying eaves, its black tiles covered in snow, and copper bells hanging from the eaves. Even without wind, they vibrated and made a soft sound like a baby crying.
The palace gates are vermilion, with gold studs arranged like the eyes of beasts, looking down from afar as if waiting for the offerings to crawl over on their own.
Bai Jichen hovered above the first step, barefoot in the air, his fingertips lightly touching his chin.
"Her heart is in the palace." The voice was soft and gentle, yet every word was powerful.
"If you want to save her, take one step and kowtow one step at a time. Nine thousand steps, nine thousand kneelings. If your heart is not sincere, the gods will not reward you."
After saying that, Bai Jichen chuckled softly. The laughter was like snowflakes rolling over a blade, cold and crisp, crashing back and forth in the abyss, lingering for a long time.
Then, with a flick of his long sleeves, his figure scattered into countless white butterflies, fluttering into the sea of mist, leaving only an echo lingering before the steps.
"Kneel down, kneel until blood blossoms, kneel until your bones exude fragrance."
Yun Zhan's fingertips were icy cold, like the last embers of a fire in a snowy night. He gripped Wen Sixue's clothes tightly, his knuckles turning blue.
His pale lips opened and closed silently, as if each breath was stealing away his soul.
Wen Sixue bent down, took the hand into her palm, and rubbed it repeatedly with her thumb. She wiped away the tears on her face and whispered hoarsely, "Wait for me, just a moment."
She supported Yun Zhan by the back of his neck and gently leaned him against the first stone tablet.
The stone tablet was cold, and frost had accumulated in the groove where the character "叩" was carved. Wen Sixue took off her only outer garment, folded it into a thin square, and placed it behind Yun Zhan's head.
After doing all that, she leaned down and placed her lips on Yun Zhan's forehead, the kiss lasting for three seconds.
Then, she turned around, faced the towering stone steps, and slammed her knees heavily onto the gray rock surface.
A muffled thud echoed through the abyss.
The moment her knee touched the stone step, a sharp chill pierced through the fabric and went straight to her bones. She seemed to hear her cartilage cracking, but she didn't even flinch.
His forehead then slammed down, the center of his forehead touching the icy rock. The frost instantly melted from his body heat, turning into snow water that slid down his brow bone and into his eye sockets, mingling with his tears and dripping into the groove of the character "叩" (kòu, meaning "knock").
Wen Sixue pressed her hands to the ground, her palms against the rough stone surface. Gravel pierced her skin, and beads of blood, thin as red threads, meandered into tiny branches.
"Gods above."
Wen Sixue spoke in her heart, but her voice seemed to resonate from the depths of her bones, each word dripping with blood.
"I would give my mortal body to exchange for her demonic heart; I would kneel nine thousand times to repay her with my life. If my bones could break, I would break them inch by inch; if my blood could flow, I would let it all flow."
The second step, the third step... Each time she got up, Wen Sixue first made sure that Yun Zhan was still in sight before continuing forward.
My knees were chafed raw, the fabric stuck to my flesh, and every step tore open new wounds.
The repeated impact to the forehead caused the skin to split open, and drops of blood dripped down the bridge of the nose, leaving small, round red plum blossoms on the stone steps.
The sea of fog surged, and the copper bell on the mountaintop emitted a faint, sharp cry, like that of a baby.
Wen Sixue couldn't hear anything; she could only hear her own heartbeat, one beat after another, overlapping with the hollow echo in Yun Zhan's chest.
Kneel until blood blooms, kneel until fragrance emanates from your bones.
Even if the world ends, she will never turn back.
Author's Note:
After Wen Sixue's confession storyline ends, this book will split into three storylines: one main storyline and two "if" scenarios.
Here I would like to ask for everyone's opinion:
From chapter 75 onwards, there will be two update methods, and Yun Zhan will choose a girlfriend at this point.
Method 1: Write the entire main storyline first, then add the if statements. For example, if the female lead is A, then write all the storylines between her and Yun Zhan first, then write B and C.
Method Two: Write three storylines simultaneously. For example, update one chapter of the Shi storyline, then update another chapter of the Wen and Pei storylines. With all three storylines progressing in parallel, everyone can see Yun Zhan choosing different female leads under different psychological states.
Please share your preferred methods in the comments section, and I will consider your opinions.
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