The moment the ten minutes were up, Xiao Mu Ke shot to his feet like a cat that had sat on a forgotten sewing needle. He cracked the door open and peeked outside. After confirming no teacher was nearby, he immediately rushed to the neighboring handicrafts classroom and began pounding on the door with all his strength.
“Bai Six!” Tears already trembled in Xiao Mu Ke’s eyes. “Bai Six! I listened to you and waited ten minutes! The ten minutes are over now! Come out!! I don’t want to run away by myself!”
Xiao Miao Gaojiang simply wrapped an arm around Xiao Mu Ke’s waist and hauled him up bodily even as the boy continued banging on the door.
“The teacher’s coming soon!” Xiao Miao Gaojiang shouted anxiously. “We have to go first! Bai Six will catch up later! Besides, you run slower than him anyway!”
“No!!” Xiao Mu Ke screamed with all his might. “I’m not leaving him behind to run by himself! If we run, we run together! He’s never abandoned me either!”
Xiao Miao Gaojiang froze for a second, startled by the sheer force of it, and Xiao Mu Ke immediately slipped free from his grip.
Choking on sobs, Xiao Mu Ke wiped at the tears smeared across his face with his sleeve. While keeping one eye fixed nervously on the hallway for approaching teachers, he continued hammering desperately against the door.
“Bai Six!! Open the door! I’m begging you, okay?! Just open it!”
The door suddenly swung open.
Xiao Bai Six stood there completely unharmed, though his complexion was noticeably pale.
He looked down at the crying Xiao Mu Ke without much expression. “Didn’t I tell you to leave on your own?”
Xiao Mu Ke shook his head through tears. Like a stray kitten finally finding its owner again, he threw himself toward Bai Six to check whether he was really alright, his voice full of frightened grievance.
“You scared me to death, wahhh! Why didn’t you open the door?!”
“Liu Jiayi isn’t leaving.” Bai Six sidestepped Xiao Mu Ke’s pounce. His pale figure swayed faintly for a moment. Though he steadied himself before falling, blood slowly seeped from the corners of his mouth.
He lowered his gaze toward Xiao Mu Ke, who was clutching him tightly and crying so hard he could barely breathe, and an unusually helpless, almost bewildered look surfaced on Bai Six’s exhausted face.
No one had ever cried for him like this before.
The intensity of it left him at a complete loss.
In the end, Bai Six merely patted Xiao Mu Ke on the shoulder and gently pushed him back. Calmly withdrawing his hand, he explained:
“Liu Jiayi wanted to stay here. She asked me to draw her a picture for her gege, so I did. I was probably too focused on drawing and didn’t hear you calling me. I’ve finished now, and the teacher’s about to arrive, so let’s go.”
Bai Six forcibly suppressed the corrosive agony tearing through his organs and followed behind Xiao Mu Ke with an indifferent expression.
Before leaving, he glanced back one last time at Liu Jiayi sitting on the windowsill.
Liu Jiayi tilted her head back slightly, eyes closed as she basked in the light of the rising sun. Beneath the morning glow, her dry, tangled yellow hair resembled fine golden silk draped softly around her face and head like a holy halo. Resting peacefully against the window frame, her eyelashes seemed brushed with molten gold.
Bathed in the hopeful golden light of dawn, Liu Jiayi slowly opened her eyes and met Bai Six’s backward glance.
Backlit by the sun, her pupils carried a hazy, pure whiteness. Frail and thin, the little girl looked almost angelic.
But beside her hand lay the rough sketch Bai Six had drawn for her.
In the picture, Liu Jiayi sat curled up on a hospital bed, completely different from the open, peaceful posture she wore now. Like a fledgling terrified of the world, she hugged her knees tightly to her chest while wearing an oversized hospital gown. Clutched in her hands was a ragged cloth doll made in Bai Liu’s likeness, its head twisted grotesquely backward at a full one hundred and eighty degrees.
[Why does the future you want to save me?]
[I don’t know.]
[Then why does the current you want to save me?]
[I don’t know that either.]
[Then... what do I look like in your eyes?]
[Hmm... probably like this. Can you see it?]
[No. My visualization item’s duration is over. I can’t see anymore.]
[Then wait. Wait until the day you can see again, and look at it then. That day will come, Liu Jiayi.]
The poisoned child and the one who poisoned him conversed with startling calmness.
Doing terrible things seemed woven into their blood from birth.
They were children born into evil, raised in evil, shaped by evil. To them, wrongdoing carried no sense of horror or sin because suffering and cruelty had always been as natural as breathing. They had endured it for so long that they had become numb to it.
But when someone was willing to do good for them without asking for anything in return—willing to endure agony just to offer them sunlight, warmth, and dew they had never once known—
even plants that grew in darkness would eventually begin reaching toward the light.
Bai Six turned and left.
As he followed behind Xiao Mu Ke, his eyelids slowly began to droop shut. No matter how hard he endured it, fresh blood continuously spilled from the corners of his mouth, gradually soaking the front of his clothes.
Frowning, he covered his mouth tightly, but Xiao Mu Ke quickly noticed something was wrong and let out a horrified scream.
“Bai Six! Why are you coughing up blood?!”
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu’s secondary identity line is under a poisoned status effect! Health points are continuously decreasing! Current HP: 27...]
At last, Bai Six covered his mouth and collapsed to his knees.
His brows were tightly furrowed, teeth clenched hard enough to tremble.
“Xiao Miao Gaojiang... carry me.” Bai Six spoke weakly but with absolute composure. “Within ten minutes... get to the church and hide beneath the seats on the right side, in the blind spot underneath them. Children can’t be killed inside the church. Otherwise, if Liu Jiayi catches up... we’ll all die.”
He forced out the final command:
“Run.”
The instant the words left his mouth, Bai Six lost consciousness.
Xiao Miao Gaojiang hurriedly hoisted Bai Six onto his back and sprinted toward the church.
Leaning limply against Xiao Miao Gaojiang’s back, Bai Six’s body gradually went slack. His limbs dangled lifelessly at his sides.
His breathing weakened more and more.
Blood continuously seeped from his nose and mouth, dripping down his chin onto his hanging fingers and the leaves brushing past them. Every so often, the blood flooding his respiratory tract made him choke violently. Each choking fit looked as though he might slide straight off Xiao Miao Gaojiang’s back.
Only because Xiao Mu Ke ran beside them, desperately pushing and supporting Bai Six, did he manage to stay upright.
Xiao Mu Ke ran after them in tears.
The violent sprint and overwhelming panic made his chest ache as though his heart were being crushed. He stared fixedly at the pale boy on Xiao Miao Gaojiang’s back, who looked as though he could die at any moment.
“How did it end up like this...” Xiao Mu Ke sobbed helplessly.
By the time Xiao Miao Gaojiang reached the church, he was drenched in sweat.
He carefully lowered Bai Six onto the ground.
With tremendous effort, Bai Six adjusted his position and leaned weakly against the wall. His eyes were half-lidded and unfocused, completely devoid of light. His hands rested limply on the floor like dead branches.
He struggled to force air through his lungs and vibrate his vocal cords.
“Mu Ke...”
Xiao Mu Ke hurriedly crouched beside him and pressed his ear close to Bai Six’s lips. The boy’s voice had become far too faint to hear otherwise.
“I’m here,” Xiao Mu Ke choked out. “I’m here, Bai Six.”
“Inside the church... you’re relatively safe. No one will hurt you here...” Bai Six’s voice came in broken fragments, each word dragged out through unbearable pain. “Next... wheeze... I have three things to entrust to you. I probably won’t last until six in the morning to call him.”
His voice was dry and hoarse from the poison ravaging his body.
“First... I brought out an IV tube. Drain... drain my blood and store it. The game isn’t over yet. You have to deliver my blood to my investor. You absolutely must...”
Bai Six forced the words out one syllable at a time.
“You must save him. Understand?”
Tears pouring down his face, Xiao Mu Ke nodded frantically.
“Okay! I understand!”
At last he understood why Bai Six had kept covering his mouth on the way here, desperately trying to stop the blood from spilling.
This blood was meant for his investor.
“Second...” Bai Six gasped painfully. His face turned even paler as his chest rose and fell violently. He seemed to be suffering unimaginable agony, yet his expression remained eerily calm, calm to the point of lifelessness.
“There’s a coin... on my chest. He gave it to me. It’s very important... Xiao Miao Gaojiang’s soul banknote is inside it too. This thing absolutely cannot be lost because of my death... otherwise you’ll be in danger too, Xiao Mu Ke.”
His breathing intervals grew longer and longer.
“So later...” Bai ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) Six swallowed down a mouthful of bloody foam and weakly pointed toward his throat. “I’m going to hide it inside my body. Other than my investor... don’t tell anyone where the coin is. Understand?”
Kneeling in front of him, Xiao Mu Ke nodded desperately again, crying so hard it looked as though his head might snap off.
Seeing him like that, Bai Six let out a faint laugh despite himself.
But the laugh immediately turned into violent coughing.
“Cough—cough...”
Then he turned his head toward the sunrise beyond the church windows.
Smiling softly, he gazed at the sunlight reflected in his eyes, his pupils shimmering faintly with moving gold.
“Last thing... tell my investor...”
“He’s a liar.”
Bai Six smiled faintly.
“He said my luck would improve after I changed my name. But after becoming Bai Liu... my luck still seems terrible. When you get the chance... cough cough... tell him to change it again.”
Shielded by Xiao Mu Ke’s body, Bai Six painfully swallowed the coin, forcing it down his throat bit by bit.
Xiao Mu Ke cried so hard he nearly collapsed, but Xiao Bai Six remained calm from beginning to end, even while blood continuously overflowed from the corners of his mouth.
Then his breathing stopped completely.
Bai Six—
Or rather, Bai Liu—
slowly closed his eyes beneath the first light of six in the morning, smiling peacefully as he died.
Even in death, one hand still tightly held the children’s cell phone.
Unfortunately, he never had the chance to make that call and viciously curse the future version of himself—the hateful man who manipulated him however he pleased simply because he knew everything in advance.
That world-class liar.
That scoundrel who had never once spoken honestly since the day they met.
That bastard who owed him an incalculable debt.
Actually, from the very beginning, the coin you gave me never contained a single point of credit from your panel.
And yet—
I was still willing to do everything you wanted for free.
Because you are another me.
You lied to me about everything, but there is one thing I know for certain:
every choice you make must ultimately benefit both of us.
So I trust you unconditionally.
And I choose the option that benefits you unconditionally—
the only friend in my short and fabricated life.
The other Bai Liu.
Xiao Bai Liu’s eyes closed completely.
The strength finally drained from his fingers, and the hand holding the phone slipped quietly to the ground beside him.
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu’s secondary identity line HP rapidly decreasing...]
[Health points reduced to 0]
[System Notification: Player Bai Liu’s secondary identity line has died]
[System Notification: Player Bai Liu’s game manager authority will return to the primary identity line]
[System Notification: Player Miao Feichi’s secondary identity line and player Bai Liu’s secondary identity line confirmed dead. Transaction between both parties voided. Transaction funds refunded. Simultaneously, player Miao Feichi’s secondary identity line soul banknote has been destroyed.]
[System Notification: Due to failure to fulfill transaction terms, player Bai Liu’s secondary identity line has been converted into a soul banknote as punishment and sealed inside the old wallet.]
[System Notification: Player Miao Gaojiang’s secondary identity line transaction has been temporarily suspended and transferred to player Bai Liu’s primary identity line for processing.]
