Chapter 51: The Never-Sleeping Imperial City 13

"Remember... yet I don't remember." Sister Hong rubbed her temples with one hand, her face scrunched up as if she was struggling. "Let me think carefully."

Frowning and trying hard to recall, Xia Qi noticed that Sister Hong's expression became increasingly grim, even her eyes turning red.

Xia Qi interrupted her, "Don't think about it anymore. Get on the carriage and rest for a bit."

Since he had already lost his memory, not being able to remember was normal.

However, Sister Hong, who had memories from before the game, also seemed to be struggling, which was perplexing.

Adding the stubborn old man and Li Ming, who only remembered everything at the last moment, Xia Qi suspected that the game might make them forget certain things. What exactly they forgot would have to wait until Sister Hong figured it out.

"...Alright." Sister Hong looked at Xia Qi with a complex expression, then turned and got into the carriage first.

The guards brought another carriage for the Night Emperor. Xia Qi helped the Night Emperor into the carriage and climbed in himself.

With the streets now empty, it didn't take long for the carriage to enter the center of Nightless City, passing through the red walls and green tiles of the palace.

Ever since getting into the carriage, Xia Qi kept looking out the window, never taking his eyes off the outside.

The Night Emperor lying beside him felt thoroughly ignored.

He cleared his throat and tentatively said, "I've already sent people to guard your house. When your grandmother returns, I will bring her into the palace."

"Alright," Xia Qi responded. "Thank you."

The red and yellow light from outside shone through the windows, illuminating Xia Qi's slightly gaunt face, softening his indifferent expression. To others, Xia Qi always seemed emotionless, unaffected by anything. But if one looked closely, there was a faint glimmer in his eyes.

These glimmers represented Xia Qi's vulnerability.

The Night Emperor felt an intense pang of sympathy.

"Trust me, she will come back." The Night Emperor reached out and placed his hand over Xia Qi's.

"...Alright."

Xia Qi looked down at their hands, not pulling away.

Feeling the warmth on his hand, Xia Qi's thoughts drifted...

Once upon a time, someone had covered his hand like this, telling him not to worry, that she would return.

Passing through the white Triple Bridge and the golden archway, the four of them got off the carriage and switched to sedan chairs carried by "people."

Xia Qi stared at those carrying his sedan chair, his expression odd.

He noticed that these "people" were very thin. From behind, they looked normal, but from the side, they resembled pieces of paper.

The faces of these sedan bearers were almost identical, as if mass-produced in a factory. One of them, seeing Xia Qi staring, turned and smiled at him ingratiatingly. "Moon God, please get in the sedan chair."

After getting into the sedan chair, they were taken to the Night Emperor's chambers.

To make it convenient for Xia Qi and Sister Hong to visit each other, the Night Emperor arranged for them to stay in side chambers of his own quarters, each in separate rooms.

Worried that Xia Qi might feel constrained, the Night Emperor specifically instructed, "Treat the palace as your home. Don't hesitate to use anything."

If Xia Qi weren't so shy, the Night Emperor would have told him outright that he was the master of the palace, but his instinct for self-preservation told him that such words would only drive Xia Qi away.

After Sister Hong left, Xia Qi sat by the Night Emperor's bedside, staring at the wound on his chest. "Are you sure you don't need treatment?"

"It's fine." The Night Emperor shook his head and smiled lightly. "No need to worry."

Xia Qi couldn't help but frown, curious about the Night Emperor's body structure. If he were a zombie king, he wouldn't bleed like a female zombie. Yet, if he were human, he wouldn't be unscathed after being shot by an arrow, with his wounds glowing.

Wait, glowing?

Xia Qi frowned, suddenly having an unsettling thought. He couldn't help but ask, "What does lighting the Moon God Lamp mean?"

"It means exactly what it says." The Night Emperor paused, then turned to look at the full moon outside the window. "Haven't you noticed that tonight's moonlight is different from yesterday?"

Only then did Xia Qi realize that compared to the night of the Moon God Lamp ceremony, the moon above Nightless City was dimmer. Upon closer inspection, he saw several dark spots within the previously translucent moon.

"The moon above Nightless City... is the Moon God Lamp?" Xia Qi asked tentatively.

"That's right." The Night Emperor nodded slowly.

Xia Qi suddenly felt the Moon God Lamp in his backpack burning hot.

As he pondered, he suddenly snapped back to reality.

If the Moon God Lamp is the moon, then the task of the lamp extinguisher...

Looking at the Night Emperor's gentle profile, Xia Qi felt a chill run down his spine, making him restless.

"What's wrong?" The sudden change in Xia Qi's expression alarmed the Night Emperor.

"Nothing, I'll go back and rest." Xia Qi suddenly stood up, gently pushing the Night Emperor back onto the bed and covering him with a blanket. "Rest well. See you tomorrow."

Unexpectedly, the Night Emperor sighed, "Alright."

After settling the Night Emperor, Xia Qi returned to his own side chamber and lay down on the bed in the corner.

For some reason, ever since entering the game, he had been sleeping soundly every night, almost falling asleep as soon as he hit the bed.

After a dreamless night, Xia Qi woke up groggily in the morning to hear knocking at the door.

"Xia Qi!" Sister Hong shouted from outside, sounding very anxious.

Xia Qi put on his slippers and hurried to open the door for her.

"Let's hurry and leave the palace to find the other two teammates." Sister Hong stood at the door, urging them with an anxious look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Xia Qi looked down at Sister Hong, almost startled by her expression.

He saw that Sister Hong's eyes were bloodshot, swollen like walnuts, and she had large dark circles under her eyes. She looked not only as if she hadn't slept well but also as if she had been crying all night.

"Let's talk outside the palace." Sister Hong hesitated, gesturing for Xia Qi to follow her.

Seeing Sister Hong's appearance, it was clear she had come to some realization. Xia Qi didn't ask further, turned back to his room to pack his things, and then followed Sister Hong out the door.

Xia Qi had originally wanted to say goodbye to Night Emperor first, but when they arrived at the neighboring palace, they found that Night Emperor was already gone.

The entire palace was eerily quiet, without a single maid or eunuch in sight.

"Forget it, I'll leave him a note." Xia Qi grabbed a brush and ink, wrote a few words on a piece of rice paper, and then followed Sister Hong out of the palace hall.

Stepping out onto a spacious square outside the palace hall, Xia Qi looked up at the sky.

Just like the moon at night, the sun during the day in Nightless City wasn't as bright as it had been yesterday. It seemed, perhaps just Xia Qi's imagination, that the sun appeared lower in the sky.

The sedan bearers from last night seemed to still be there. Xia Qi and Sister Hong planned to have them take them out of the city, but as they approached the bearers, Sister Hong suddenly let out a cry of surprise.

Looking at the eight bearers trembling in the wind, Xia Qi paused and said, "We... should probably walk out ourselves."

Unlike last night, today, these eight bearers had transformed from ordinary people into paper figures.

They wore paper clothes, their eyes, noses, and eyebrows painted with ink, making them look particularly stiff. When they saw Xia Qi and Sister Hong approaching, the paper figures turned their heads, their red-inked mouths curling into a servile smile.

Although Xia Qi hadn't attended many funerals, he had seen such paper figures used for burning to the dead.

Sister Hong's lips twitched; clearly, she didn't want the sedan bearers to take them out either.

The two walked out of the palace, and just before reaching the palace gates, Sister Hong suddenly said, "I have a child in the real world."

Xia Qi paused, then continued walking, "Did you remember everything?"

"I remembered." Sister Hong gave a bitter laugh. It was precisely because she remembered everything that she felt so much pain. "My child is called 'Xiao Yu,' and she's a girl."

"Do you know why I went to prison?" Sister Hong abruptly shifted the topic from her daughter to her imprisonment.

Xia Qi listened quietly.

"I killed my child's father." Speaking about her ex-husband, Sister Hong's voice was icy cold. "He was always cheating behind my back. For Xiao Yu's sake, I endured it. But one time, when Xiao Yu was attending a training class, he promised to pick her up, yet he forgot and went to celebrate his mistress's birthday instead."

At this point, Sister Hong clenched her teeth, her eyes filled with anger.

"Did Xiao Yu... go missing?" Xia Qi asked, pursing his lips.

"Yes." Sister Hong's face flushed with rage, veins popping on her forehead. "Xiao Yu disappeared. I searched for two years but couldn't find her."

Xia Qi roughly guessed the reason for Sister Hong's imprisonment.

For a mother, her child is everything. From how Sister Hong had endured her husband's infidelity for so long, it was evident that her character had changed.

By now, they had walked out of the golden arches, and Sister Hong gazed wistfully at the slowly flowing Helplessness River nearby. "My friends all told me that Xiao Yu just got lost. But since I saw 'Xiao Yu' in this copy, I've been wondering if Xiao Yu might really be... gone?"

Especially after discovering that the "Xiao Yu" in Nightless City bore a striking resemblance to her daughter, Sister Hong fell into deep sorrow every day.

However, as long as she hadn't seen Xiao Yu's body, she refused to believe that the real Xiao Yu was dead.

Xia Qi frowned and suddenly asked, "Training class? What kind of training class?"

"Xiao Yu loved dancing. Her teachers said she had great potential, so later, they recommended her to learn Kunqu opera," Sister Hong explained, noticing something odd about Xia Qi's focus. "What's wrong?"

No wonder Xia Qi had seen a peach blossom fan in "Xiao Yu's" hand.

Peach blossom fan...

That's not right!

A person suddenly came to mind in Xia Qi's head!

In the Bi Hai Jiao Zhu copy, Xia Qi had once seen Tony pull out a prop, which was also a peach blossom fan.

Tony, trapped under a large stone, had asked him to deliver a message to a strong man.

"Tell him, I stole that child. I... thought she had great potential and wanted her to be our successor... but who knew the child couldn't handle it and died... I'm sorry to him and to that child."

Recalling Tony's words, Xia Qi drew a sharp breath, his whole body freezing.

Why did he have to be the one delivering the message?

"Xia Qi, Xia Qi." Seeing Xia Qi silent for a long time, Sister Hong waved her hand in front of his face and asked, "What's wrong?"

"No, nothing." Xia Qi snapped back, pointing towards the street where the pale-faced man lived, quickly changing the subject. "Let's go see our teammate."

Time was running out, and their purification points had barely increased. They needed to find a way to increase them quickly, or they might lose to the deranged Tian Ji who was causing slaughter.

Sister Hong responded and followed him.

For some reason, she felt that Xia Qi's expression had suddenly changed, especially when he looked at her, his eyes seemed to carry sympathy.

Was she overthinking it?

As they approached the pale-faced man's small house, a shrill female voice rang out nearby.

"Murder! Murder!"

Hearing this, Xia Qi's face changed. "Bad news, something happened to the pale-faced man!"