Chapter 5: Between Awakening and Descent

Death? Corruption? Or losing her soul, losing consciousness, becoming a so-called mindless pet, even a cloth doll.

If she could choose, Qinghe wanted none of them.

Her consciousness drifted on the edge between pain and chaos. Sharp fragments like shattered glass sliced open the despair called “the present,” dragging her back to another ending just as bleak and unpoetic.

Qinghe was just an ordinary college student. Her family background was average, and like many others, she studied hard to get into university to meet her parents’ expectations.

She looked ordinary. After entering university, she had never dated. Her personality was somewhat introverted and withdrawn, but she still had one or two close friends.

Her life was not exciting, but it was still considered happy.

Once, Qinghe thought she would live an ordinary life like this forever.

But then…

Her family circumstances were average. Each week, the money her family sent for meals was only one hundred twenty yuan. As usual, she lived frugally. For lunch, she chose the cheapest green beans, paired with another dish that at least looked like meat. The entire meal cost only seven yuan and fifty fen.

She had been eating lunches like this for almost a year.

Many times, she had seen cases of green bean poisoning online. There were even stories about entire casts of variety shows being hospitalized due to poisoning. Qinghe was frightened, but she still chose the green beans.

There was no choice. Aside from green beans, the next cheapest option was hot and sour shredded potatoes, but the ones made at school tasted terrible.

With a bit of gambler’s luck mixed in, Qinghe continued like this. Even knowing something might go wrong, she comforted herself with the thought that ‘if I get poisoned, the school will compensate me.’

Who would have known…

After the food poisoning, she curled up on her dorm bed, thinking it was just simple stomach pain. She could not bear to go to the hospital. By the time she realized something was wrong, she could no longer walk.

She called emergency services. When her roommates returned, doctors… classmates… a crowd surrounded her, shouting and crying out, like the cries of seagulls after a massive tsunami. The noise was so overwhelming that her head felt like it would split.

Her final memory was the glaring white incandescent lights of the ICU. Rings of sacred light, like heaven. But Qinghe knew clearly that there were no angels here.

—

“Hah—!”

Qinghe suddenly sucked in a breath, like a drowning person finally breaking the surface. There seemed to be something in her arms, and she instinctively hugged it tightly.

The room was pitch black.

In her throat lingered the hallucinatory taste of rust mixed with disinfectant, but before her eyes was the familiar sight of a post-apocalyptic cabin, wooden beams covered in dust and cobwebs.

So… so that was it. She… she had already been reborn.

Soon, memories washed over Qinghe’s mind again and again.

Only then did she suddenly remember that she was still at Qiuli’s house.

“Xiao He? Not asleep yet? Or… did you have another nightmare?”

Something in her arms moved. Qinghe jolted, only to realize that what she had been holding was actually Qiuli’s arm. Why had she extended her arm over? Could it be… stealing her diary?

“Sister… I…” Qinghe’s teeth chattered.

Qiuli helplessly used her other hand to pat Qinghe’s head.

“Alright, you scaredy-cat. I’m here. Go to sleep already. It’s very late now.”

Allowing Qiuli to stroke her, an absurd sense of reliance slowly rose in Qinghe’s heart.

Beside Qiuli… it was so warm.

She really was… very gentle.

No wonder, no wonder the original character in the game’s plot, even while resisting Qiuli so fiercely, would slowly sink into it. She really was like she had magic.

Qinghe’s breathing gradually steadied. In Qiuli’s embrace, she felt a sense of security.

As if she were being protected.

Or rather, she was indeed being protected.

After all, in the game’s plot, Qiuli would protect Qinghe no matter what happened. In Qiuli’s eyes, only she herself was allowed to hurt Qinghe.

Although it sounded like Qiuli was a gentle abuser, Qinghe suddenly felt that it did not seem so bad. She used to think that so-called yandere characters were terrifying, whether in games, anime, or novels, but now she felt that maybe they were not that terrible after all.

Of course, all of this was only true as long as Qinghe herself was not the protagonist loved by a yandere.

She absolutely could not fall.

Qinghe still clearly remembered that in the game’s plot, once the corruption value exceeded twenty, resistance to certain things would slowly decrease. Once it exceeded forty, the thought of resisting would no longer arise on its own.

Once it exceeded fifty, one would instead feel shyly inclined to pursue. As for sixty, seventy, eighty…

After that came an even more intense descent.

“Sister… I just had a nightmare…” Qinghe shrank into Qiuli’s embrace, fear spreading through her heart again.

Qiuli smiled faintly and intended to withdraw her hand from the girl’s arms, but unexpectedly felt a resistance.

“Hm?” she hummed softly.

Qinghe felt a bit awkward. Earlier, she had subconsciously tightened her hold on the arm in her embrace.

Qiuli looked at the girl with interest. Her blood-red eyes flashed with understanding in the darkness, then returned to a depthless gentleness.

She said nothing, simply allowing her arm to be held so dependently. She even slightly adjusted her posture, letting the trapped arm fit more snugly against the girl’s embrace.

“What is it? Don’t want to let go? Still scared, little dummy?” she teased.

Those words poked at Qinghe’s slightly taut nerves, making her blurt out, “Of course not!”

Only after saying it did Qinghe realize that the tone of that “of course not” sounded anything but denial.

It was clearly tsundere behavior. Embarrassment. Clearly… shyness.

Qinghe felt a bit annoyed.

Why would she react like that?

“If Xiao He needs to hug something to fall asleep, then go ahead and hug it,” Qiuli’s magnetic, mature voice drawled slowly.

Qinghe let go without hesitation.

But in Qiuli’s eyes, it meant something entirely different.

“Tch…” To Qiuli, Qinghe was unbearably cute. She was clearly so scared, yet she could still get shy over something like this.

Qinghe turned over, facing away from Qiuli, lying on the bed with her thoughts in turmoil.

Just now, she had actually hugged Qiuli’s arm…

Thinking of everything Qiuli had done to the original character in the game’s plot, a chill ran through her entire body.

Becoming a mindless pet, a cloth doll… Qinghe would never allow that to happen.

“Sleep… sleep for a while, and everything will be fine tomorrow. I’ll stay with you the whole time, Xiao He,” Qiuli’s whisper sounded by her ear.

Qinghe bit her lower lip, closed her eyes, and softly hummed in response.

“I understand, Sister.”

Sleep? She would not choose to sleep.

Tonight was too dangerous. It was best not to sleep.

Her consciousness grew hazy. Qinghe frowned, guessing that her clarity value was dropping.

The pain in her palm—was it no longer effective enough?

Did she need… even greater pain?

Gritting her teeth, Qinghe steeled herself.

She quietly slipped her hand deep under the blanket and dug her fingernails hard into the inside of her thigh.

Pain instantly swept through her entire body, almost making her lose control and tremble.

At the last moment, Qinghe managed to suppress the instinctive reaction, but the pain had already twisted her face as she lay facing away from Qiuli.

It hurt…

It really hurt…

But she…

Did not want to die.

And she did not want to become a mindless pet.

Enduring pain for so long nearly drained all of Qinghe’s strength. She gradually began to doubt whether she could really hold on.

Closing her eyes, Qinghe did not know…

As Qinghe’s breathing gradually evened out, after a long while, Qiuli’s face moved close to her ear.

Warm breath spread.

A dangerous tone tugged at the heartstrings.

“Xiao He? Are you asleep?”