149 Myself
◎Pray for Autumn Snow◎
Perhaps he sensed the approach of danger.
The masked man did not stop. He quickly retrieved the chain in his hand and threw it to the opposite side. The chain tightened in an instant, wrapped around the thick branches of the tree, and bit it tightly.
Taking advantage of the reaction force brought by the chains, the masked man jumped into the air, preparing to escape from this place as quickly as possible.
But don't wait for it to leave as it wishes.
The skeleton rushed forward at a faster speed and appeared in front of the masked man in an instant, cutting off his escape route.
It stretched out its hand towards the masked man, aiming for his fragile neck. All creatures in the world will instinctively feel fear when facing an enemy that is several times larger than themselves, but the masked man seems to be an exception. Realizing the danger coming, it loosened the chain blade in its hand first.
Then it fell from the sky like a rapidly falling dead leaf.
“…”
Fortunately, it avoided the skeleton's first attack.
But how could the skeleton let it go so easily? Before the masked man landed, it chased him again.
In a flash, the masked man raised his gun in mid-air and aimed at the center of the skull's eyebrows.
This is a superfluous move. Bullets pose no threat to skeletons at all, as we have just verified.
Without any worries, the skeleton did not stop attacking, perhaps out of an instinctive desire to protect Qi Qiuxue. It had a strong murderous intention towards the masked man in front of it. Its appearance and every action it took were to kill the enemy in front of it as quickly as possible.
But it was precisely because of this instinctive desire to protect that when he witnessed the masked man shifting the muzzle of the gun and pointing it in another direction where Qi Qiuxue was suspected to be, the skeleton in front of him suddenly stopped and quickly turned his head to look to the side.
——It was empty there, no one was there.
It was played.
After realizing this, the skeleton quickly retracted its gaze. The masked man had disappeared from its sight. The other party used this short second to escape, and once again summoned the chain blade and left here unharmed.
It went so smoothly that it seemed as if it had been simulated thousands of times in advance.
The huge skeleton paused in mid-air and then disappeared. Qi Qiuxue arrived at Li Yiqing's side and helped her up from the ground. Her mind was already in a mess.
She witnessed the moment when Li Yiqing's pupils changed color, and guessed that the skeleton might have been summoned by her and obeyed her orders, but how could an ordinary person do this? This was clearly impossible.
And that masked man...
Qi Qiuxue discovered that the other party not only understood herself, but also understood each of them thoroughly, knowing some secrets that even they themselves were unaware of.
It knew Li Yiqing's weaknesses and bottom line, knew how to awaken the skeleton and lure it out, knew what kind of attack it would suffer, and had already simulated the escape method and route in its mind.
Perhaps we shouldn't simply call it a monster, because rather than a monster, it's more like a behind-the-scenes mastermind, a "god" hiding in the dark and manipulating everything.
It guided and forced Qi Qiuxue to witness everything it wanted to show her.
"Sister Qing." Qi Qiuxue raised her hand to wipe the blood from the corner of Li Yiqing's lips and asked with concern, "How are you? Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere else?"
"We've gathered enough food, and the masked man has already left. There's no point in staying here any longer. Let's go home, and I'll treat your wound..."
Because of concern, Qi Qiuxue said a lot at once.
Li Yiqing didn't respond, but just looked at her blankly, his fingers clenched tightly, his brows furrowed tighter and tighter.
So Qi Qiuxue stopped and asked, "What's wrong?"
Li Yiqing remained silent, and it was unclear whether he heard her question or not. It was not until a long while later that he slowly spoke.
"Axue." She called her name, her voice inexplicably loud. "What did you just say to me?"
"Why do I seem to... not be able to hear anything."
-
After returning to the facility, Qi Qiuxue carefully examined Li Yiqing's ears and confirmed that her ears had not suffered any external damage and that the loss of hearing should have nothing to do with the attack she had suffered not long ago.
Medically, this sudden loss of hearing is called sudden deafness, and there are many causes: vascular disease, viral infection, immune disease... If it were in the past, Qi Qiuxue might have focused on these reasons, but now -
She knew it couldn't be such a coincidence. Why did the deafness happen after the skeleton appeared? It was as if this was the price Li Yiqing paid, the punishment for forcibly summoning the skeleton to increase his chances of survival.
Why does this mechanism exist? Who brings down the punishment? Why can Li Yiqing summon skeletons?
Accompanied by a severe headache, Qi Qiuxue once again had strong doubts about herself, her companions, everyone here, and everything that had happened.
Even this world.
She could no longer tell whether this world was real or imaginary.
“…”
Qi Qiuxue began to communicate with Li Yiqing using pen and paper, and reassured her not to worry, that everything would get better.
She didn't talk too much about the skeleton with Li Yiqing. Before everything was figured out, she didn't want to have another person to worry about her, not to mention that she had other things to do right now.
She hugged the person in front of her tightly, touched her face gently, patted her back, and hoped that she would fall asleep as soon as possible.
The incident of the skeleton did not create any barriers between the two of them. Although the huge skeleton looked weird and scary, Qi Qiuxue felt that there was a feeling that transcended these negative emotions and emerged in her mind first.
It is familiarity, heartache and familiarity.
It was as if she had met this skeleton many times long, long ago.
Li Yiqing's breathing gradually became deeper.
Qi Qiuxue lowered her eyes and stared at her for a long time. After a moment, she quietly stood up and left the room. She walked to the living room and looked at Liu Ge and others who looked worried. "Sister Qing has fallen asleep. Everyone, please don't disturb her. Let her rest well."
"What happened to her ears?" Liu Ge asked worriedly, "Why did she suddenly lose her hearing? Is there any chance of recovery?"
"What happened during your trip? Did the masked man do anything excessive to you?"
“If it shows up again next time, what exactly should we do to defeat it completely?”
Liu Ge's question was also what everyone present wanted to know.
Qi Qiuxue stared at her for a while, then shook her head gently: "I don't know."
"There's always a way." She deliberately skipped over these topics, looking towards her mother's room again, and suddenly asked, "Will I really be punished for going against my mother's will?"
"Axue, what are you talking about?" Liu Ge was stunned for a few seconds before saying, "Of course."
"As our mother's daughters, we must obey all her instructions, never hide anything, never disobey, and always follow her arrangements."
"Aren't all the lessons we've learned in the past enough?" Liu Ge tried to give her an example, saying, "Perhaps it's because I'm guilty as a thief. There are many times when I even feel that even if Mom isn't around, she must be watching us from somewhere."
"She corrected our mistakes bit by bit, regulated our behavior, and painstakingly raised us to be the most perfect daughters..."
Qi Qiuxue interrupted her and said, "Don't you think it's morbid?"
After he finished speaking, everyone fell silent.
Liu Ge's eyes gradually turned cold. She stared in the direction of Qi Qiuxue and said word by word, "Axue, this is love."
"We should thank Mom, shouldn't we?"
“…”
Qi Qiuxue said no more and turned away, having already made it clear that she couldn't get any help from them, so she decided to keep it a secret: "I'm tired and need to go back to my room to rest. No one should disturb me, okay?"
"What about dinner?" Wu Shanyue asked, "Sister Xue, do you need me to bring it to your room?"
"No need." Qi Qiuxue shook her head and left quickly. Perhaps the way these people behaved when talking about things other than their mother was their true nature. But instead of waking each other up and breaking the deep-rooted thoughts buried in their hearts, it would be better for her to take on everything and deal with it alone.
Time is running out.
This feeling vaguely emerged in Qi Qiuxue's heart.
She quickly returned to the room and began to remove the wooden boards blocking the window. It was a little high from the ground, but if she controlled the strength and distance of her jump, the pile of fallen leaves and grass not far away could serve as a good buffer.
Qi Qiuxue did not get her mother's permission to go out this time. Even though her heart was filled with guilt and remorse, and even a little fear, she still forced herself to overcome these feelings and jumped down with all her might.
Qi Qiuxue fell smoothly into the grass, rolled a few times to cushion the impact, and then quickly got up.
She stood in front of the facility and looked up at the window where her mother's room was. It was quiet there, with only some transparent mucus that was difficult to notice clinging to the glass.
There were footsteps behind me.
Qi Qiuxue looked back and saw that familiar figure and that familiar mask.
She didn't move, and the masked man didn't move either. This time, it didn't seem to have any intention of attacking her. It just stood there quietly, staring at the person in front of it without saying a word.
——As if he had been waiting for her.
——It was as if he had already figured out Qi Qiuxue’s thoughts and predicted that she would appear again.
Qi Qiuxue said nothing and walked towards the masked man in front of her. At the same time, the masked man turned around and ran at a steady pace, as if he was trying to escape from her pursuit, or as if he was deliberately guiding her, hoping that she would understand something and see it.
Qi Qiuxue, holding the bone knife in her hand, followed the masked man for a long, long way, until she saw her walk into another jungle.
Qi Qiuxue tried to follow, but suddenly bumped into something and was suddenly blocked.
“…”
It is an infinitely extending wall of air that cannot be seen or destroyed.
Qi Qiuxue was stunned. She moved her hands horizontally along this place and touched a long way to the right. This place seemed like the boundary of a chessboard, and she was a chess piece trapped on the chessboard. She could only move under the restrictions of some advanced creatures, and would always live in a predetermined virtual world and virtual space. She could not cross this boundary no matter what and could not go outside.
Something began to collapse in Qi Qiuxue's mind, shattering into pieces of broken puzzles, and then rapidly reassembling again.
She finally stopped groping, her chest heaving violently, and looked up at the masked man in front of her.
"You've finally let me see everything you wanted me to see." She heard herself speak softly and slowly. "Sometimes I think you're truly amazing. You can perceive my thoughts, predict my actions, analyze everything I can judge, and even control the timing and progress of events. There was a time when I really couldn't believe there was someone in the world who understood me so well."
"But now I know that the people who understand me best in this world are not my family, my friends, or my lover."
"It's me." She traced her fingertips upwards through the air wall until they rested on the strange and terrifying mask. "Am I right, Qi Qiuxue?"
A faint chuckle followed.
The masked man behind the air wall raised his hand under her gaze, gently pressed the bottom edge of the mask, and gently pushed it upwards.
Her true face was finally revealed in front of Qi Qiuxue.
Just like the identical bone knife in the hands of the two people, this time, a face exactly like Qi Qiuxue's appeared in the field of vision.
【Author’s words】
Here we come!
Happy New Year everyone! I'll continue to love you all in the new year!
Thank you to all the treasures for the King tickets and nutrient solution, thank you for leaving comments and reading~
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