Chapter 562: At Least
Qi Xia and the strange woman beside him, named Xu Liunian, had been driving for some time.
To be fair, Xu Liunian’s driving skills were not particularly good. Although she was doing her best to avoid the black lines crisscrossing the road, some nearly invisible ones still scraped the car, leaving the already somewhat battered vehicle even more scarred.
During the ride, Qi Xia glanced at her several times. He noticed that there was no longer any trace of a will to live in her eyes, only a deep, profound sorrow.
“Xu Liunian, you said you want to destroy this place…” Qi Xia asked in a low voice. “I can’t quite grasp the logic here. What’s the necessary connection between ‘destroying this place’ and ‘saving me’?”
“Maybe I need to save you first in order to destroy this place?” Xu Liunian smiled.
“Me… destroy this place?” Qi Xia frowned slightly. “Destroying this place means nothing to me. I haven’t finished what I want to do, and I haven’t found the person I’m looking for. If I had to choose, I’d rather protect it.”
“You don’t need to look anymore,” Xu Liunian interrupted. “‘Yu Nian’an’ doesn’t exist at all.”
The moment the three words “Yu Nian’an” left her mouth, Qi Xia’s brow instantly tightened.
If Qi Xia remembered correctly, this was the first time in all his time in the “Land of the End” that someone had voluntarily brought up “Yu Nian’an” without him saying anything.
Yet what she said still pained him.
Yu Nian’an didn’t exist at all.
“Wait,” Qi Xia said, his eyes turning ice-cold in an instant. He had already seen through Xu Liunian’s lies more than once.
“What?”
“Regardless of whether Yu Nian’an exists or not… why come all the way to tell me?” Qi Xia turned his head to look at Xu Liunian. “You drove through the chaos of the ‘Tianma Moment,’ avoiding all dangers, just to come to me and tell me that ‘Yu Nian’an’ doesn’t exist. Don’t you think your motive and method are a bit too deliberate?”
Hearing this, Xu Liunian pressed her lips together. She knew it would be extremely difficult to tell many lies to Qi Xia, but here it was only the beginning… and she was already failing.
“Qi Xia, I want you to completely break down,” Xu Liunian said, gripping the steering wheel expressionlessly. “So I have to tell you now: ‘Yu Nian’an’ is a fabrication. Every time you saw ‘Yu Nian’an,’ it was the product of a ‘Resonance’—either me, Li Xiangling, yourself, or someone else who could achieve the same effect. In short, not a single time was real.”
Upon hearing this, Qi Xia’s pupils contracted slightly, and static began buzzing in his ears. “Xu Liunian… you set me up?”
“Yes, I set you up,” Xu Liunian nodded in agreement. “Whether it was your first ‘Resonance’ or your second, I was there, fanning the flames.”
Qi Xia slowly straightened up and leaned back against the soft passenger seat. His gaze was terrifying.
“Xu Liunian…” he uttered three words slowly, his voice even slightly distorted.
Xu Liunian swallowed nervously. She could feel the dangerous aura emanating from Qi Xia filling the entire car.
“You’re saying… you took the most important thing to me… and toyed with me again and again?” Qi Xia asked again.
Whether because her hands were trembling or some unknown change was happening, the taxi’s path began to sway like a water snake on the road. It took Xu Liunian several attempts to steady the vehicle.
“So what…?” Xu Liunian’s forehead was beaded with sweat, the corners of her mouth drooping slightly as she pressed her lips together.
The air inside the car seemed to be thinning, making it feel slightly suffocating.
The thin air mixed with the stale odor inside the car created an uneasy atmosphere.
Xu Liunian felt as if she were waking a true monster.
But since ancient times, those who could be called “monsters” had little rationality—how would Qi Xia be any different?
Yet Qi Xia’s reaction was somewhat beyond Xu Liunian’s expectations. He remained terrifyingly calm.
He didn’t lose his mind on the spot. Instead, he concealed some of his murderous intent and spoke: “Even though you’ve come clean with me, I still don’t believe it. I don’t believe you could toy with me using ‘Yu Nian’an.’ You’re not that clever, and I’m not that stupid.”
“Yeah…” Xu Liunian let out a bitter laugh, then slowly closed her eyes. “Then what about this, Qi Xia?”
Under Qi Xia’s gaze, in the blink of an eye, Xu Liunian fully transformed into Yu Nian’an.
She was dressed in white, her long hair by her ears dancing in the wind from the open window.
The scent of pinewood laundry detergent mixed with lily-of-the-valley shampoo cut through all the pungent, fishy stench of the “Land of the End,” crashing into Qi Xia’s nostrils like a stone shattering glass.
Yu Nian’an was holding the steering wheel with both hands, gazing sadly at the horizon ahead.
Even someone as strong as Qi Xia found his mind completely blank at that moment.
“Xia, do you know?” Xu Liunian spoke. “There are many roads in this world…”
“Enough…” Qi Xia quickly interrupted, but his expression was no longer calm; instead, it was filled with pain.
“Xia, I bought your favorite peanuts,” Yu Nian’an said sorrowfully again. “Come home with me, okay?”
She had a complete memory of “Yu Nian’an” in her mind. Even if it might reveal some flaws in front of Qi Xia, it was still deadly enough.
“Stop talking…”
Qi Xia felt all his beliefs collapsing. The deepest, most painful obsession that he had yearned for day and night—the one that haunted his heart—was neither existent nor nonexistent. It was merely a role played by someone else.
Just a role.
“Xu… no…” Qi Xia wanted to kill Xu Liunian on the spot, but every time he saw her face, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “An…”
Even if she was fake, she had at least been real once.
“Do you believe me now?” the driver said. “I am Yu Nian’an. I always have been. Whether in your dreams or your memories, it has always been me.”
Hearing this, Qi Xia inexplicably reached out a hand, wanting to touch the cheek of the Yu Nian’an before him. This was perhaps the only time—not in a dream, but in the real world—that he could touch a true “Yu Nian’an.”
But just as his fingers were about to make contact with her face, a ghostly voice suddenly sounded in his ears.
“The person outside the door is not me.”
Those five short words made Qi Xia freeze as if electrocuted. His reaching hand stopped in midair.
“What…?” He looked around carefully, but Xu Liunian hadn’t spoken. Yet Yu Nian’an’s voice kept ringing in his ears.
“Xia, the person outside the door is not me.”