Chapter 33

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The high-heeled monster died. Feeling the burn mark on the back of her hand, Gu Fengyi let out a long breath.

The battle just then had wounded her a little; the thick scent of blood made her extremely uncomfortable and her snake sense was also affected by it. She took out an arrow and loaded her bow, keeping it in a constant battle-ready state. It was a good habit in this fatal game.

Liu Qingqing was sitting, collapsed on the ground, as if still immersed in that close call, staring dazedly at the dead monster in front of her, her soul somewhere else entirely.

“Qingqing?” Gu Fengyi called out.

Liu Qingqing looked up, then stood up from the mud and blood with difficulty. Her white long-sleeved dress was already dirty, her wrist wounded by the crossbow still wrapped in thick bandages.

She curled her lips, as if trying to smile at Gu Fengyi, but at that moment, an announcement landed on the both of them like a bolt of lightning.

[2012: Player count decreases by one. Four survivors, six markings moved.]

Gu Fengyi was dazed. For a player count to decrease now… Lin Jue? Song Hanzhang? Lu Ren? Dan Liang?

Not Lu Ren, he would definitely have more than six markings. Lin Jue and Song Hanzhang acted together, it wasn’t likely for one of them to die and the markings to be transferred. Then it was Dan Liang?

No, if Dan Liang was Judas, then he shouldn’t have a death announcement.

He shouldn’t.

Gu Fengyi suddenly remembered something and turned to Liu Qingqing. Liu Qingqing was staring dead at her, her right hand covering her left wrist, activating her fire skill. That bright flame immediately devoured Gu Fengyi’s vision.

It was a moment so short it was almost nothing at all. All the perfect disguises, all the rational thinking, all the careful weighting of consequences, all frozen in place, leaving behind only naked human nature, blindly tearing through every pretentious mask.

–Dodging the flame, raising the crossbow, aiming at the target, pressing down the trigger. The sequence was smooth and unhesitant, as if it had been practiced in Gu Fengyi’s subconscious a million times.

The flame bypassed her and hit a small monster behind her, its fragile body screaming and struggling in a ball of flame before collapsing onto the ground.

The arrow shot out from her hands and hit Liu Qingqing; she pressed down on her chest in shock, and slowly, slowly, collapsed onto the ground.

Fate made its heartless laugh at that moment, more mocking than mockery itself, more harsh than harshness.

The moment she pressed the trigger, rationality and judgement returned to Gu Fengyi’s mind. She knew she made a grave mistake. If Liu Qingqing was Judas, she wouldn’t be able to kill her with her own hands. Her attacks would never have the purpose of hurting her!

But it was too late. The ground which had been watered by the soiled rain was already blooming with black flowers; when the embers of suspicion fell, everything was set ablaze, burning through all the goodness that remained.

Gu Fengyi threw down her crossbow and ran wildly to Liu Qingqing, falling to her knees.

Qingqing looked quietly at her, her large almond eyes filled with silent sorrow. This time she didn’t cry, she was smiling as she whispered, “Now do you believe me?”

Burning tears flowed down her face; Gu Fengyi nodded as she sobbed, apologizing over and over.

What tortured her was guilt, and her hatred at her failure of a life.

When that death announcement suddenly appeared, one dangerous movement from Liu Qingqing had set all of her repressed suspicions aflame, that sharp firework lighting up her soul – a selfish, cold, doubtful soul that refused to see itself.

Why was her heart so loaded with doubt and suspicion? Why did she pretend once again to trust? In the end, she was left only with the knowledge that she could never learn fidelity. She was just like that man, born to have selfishness and coldness carved into her genes. All of her hatred for him turned into heartless mockery. How was she any different? She was his daughter, a continuation of his dirty bloodline. She would never, ever, ever learn how to love.

She thought she could get away from it all by escaping that twisted family, but all her struggles were proven futile.

Her biggest failure in life was that she thought she could learn trust, and love. But she couldn’t.

Liu Qingqing quietly watched Gu Fengyi break down and cry. The pain at her chest made breathing extremely difficult; that arrow had pierced her lungs. Even though it wasn’t enough to kill her immediately, she wouldn’t be able to hold on for long.

She was going to die soon, and then… that secret she had hid so desperately would be revealed.

She suddenly felt resentful. She racked her brains and took the risk, risking being shot to death to use Gu Fengyi’s emotions against her. That arrow had made her. Yet when she was truly trying to protect Gu Fengyi, that arrow destroyed her. And that weapon, had been delivered to Gu Fengyi by her own hands.

Now that she was about to die, the voice that she had forced down to the depth of her consciousness roared to take over her body. She laughed soundlessly: Don’t even think about it, as long as I’m still breathing, don’t even try to make me your puppet.

She had borne coldness, hunger, humiliation; she was controlled, determined, and unscrupulous. This abnormal willpower was hidden under her gentle and harmless appearance and it grew with her twisted love, so much that even the will of Judas could not truly affect her.

But she would still die, like how she did in the hands of the monster in that first illusion, like how she would die now at the hands of Gu Fengyi.

But seeing Gu Fengyi’s weeping face, she suddenly felt terribly reluctant. Just the thought of her seeing that Judas’ Rule appear on the ground wrenched her heart. How could she let her see it? How could she let her know her? How could she allow that perfect self in her eyes get destroyed? She would hate for her to live alone.

The monster which had been burnt by flame climbed up soundlessly behind Gu Fengyi. Liu Qingqing looked at it in shock.

It was so thin, so small, wrapped in a worn woollen coat, always hiding fearfully in the bushes lest anyone found it, that even Gu Fengyi’s snake-sense did not realize its existence. But the moment it found the right opportunity, it would take on a different face and lunge mercilessly, snapping its prey’s neck with one bite.

Liu Qingqing smiled. She weakly placed her hand on Gu Fengyi’s hand and begged, “Fengyi, I’m so cold, can you hug me?”

Gu Fengyi held her, not knowing where to place her arms, fearing that any twitch or jolt would make her fragile life diminish even faster.

Liu Qingqing leant against her shoulder and sniffed her scent mixed with blood. The growing coldness of her body made a long-awaited peace. As they held each other in a pool of blood, memories of countless past hugs returned to her mind.

She watched as her small self walked silently towards them, closer and closer…

Like her younger self, running against all odds to the future of her dreams, back then she had believed that one day, she would receive everything, and she had believed that as long as she was the last one standing, she didn’t care how humiliating and wretched the process was, she would have no regrets.

[2012: Player count decreases by one. Three survivors, zero markings moved.]

The monster crunched on Gu Fengyi’s bones, greedy like that hungry night when she poured burning soup down her throat.

Liu Qingqing looked at it.

It had a pair of pretty eyes and a pretty mouth. Now, its greedy mouth was filled with flesh, but tears flowed incessantly from its eyes.

It was a crying, greedy monster.

Why are you crying? Liu Qingqing asked it sadly. You’ve already gotten what you wanted, so why are you crying even as you keep eating?

Death circled her. Liu Qingqing looked towards the gloomy sky and suddenly recalled a day many years ago: the start of a brand new life.

She stepped off from a man’s car and said goodbye to him with forced calmness. She walked into a small store by the street and asked for a large bowl of noodles. She wolfed them down, two entire bowls.

The burning noodles made her puff for breath, but she still stubbornly stuffed them into her mouth, tears dripping as she did so.

Her phone rang. The man from just then was calling. She declined it without so much as a glance. It rang again, and was declined again.

Her stomach was so full it felt like it was going to burst, but she still kept eating, an insatiable greed.

The owner was a gentle woman. Seeing her crying as she ate while constantly declining calls, she asked gently, “Did you have a fight with your boyfriend? Even then, you can’t treat yourself like this, there’s no need to keep eating if you’re full.”

She suddenly jolted, put down the chopsticks in her hands, and wiped away her face full of tears. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

The brand-new phone was still ringing, from a man that had just been entered into the contact list.

She raised her head, straightened her back, showed her best smile, and with a gentle yet steadfast tone, she repeated, “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

|TOC|

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