Chapter 93

Chapter 93

Wen Jueqian was suddenly pulled into an embrace.

The familiar scent—it belonged to the person he both longed for and feared.

Wen Jueqian slowly raised his head and saw Wen Yanxu.

His brow showed unconcealed exhaustion, but those ice-blue eyes were startlingly bright, roiling with complex, intense emotions.

Even seeing it with his own eyes, Wen Jueqian felt the scene before him was an illusion: "Aren't you supposed to be in Sanhe Prefecture?"

Wen Yanxu didn't answer the question. He just held him tighter for a moment, then took half a step back, looking directly into Wen Jueqian's eyes, and said in a tone that left no room for argument:

"I don't accept the breakup. From the day you agreed to be with me, you've belonged to me. In this lifetime, I'll never let you go."

Wen Jueqian opened his mouth to speak, but Wen Yanxu cut him off.

"All the gaps between us aren't real, Qianqian. I'm here now—there's no distance between us."

"Stop worrying about all those outside troubles. The trouble my parents caused you—leave it to me to handle."

After saying all this, he finally let go, giving him back the right to speak, his eyes fixed firmly on Wen Jueqian's face.

Hearing this string of words, Wen Jueqian was momentarily at a loss for what to say.

After a while, he asked softly, "Since you've already made your decision, why did you ask me all those questions back then?"

Wen Yanxu said, "I wanted you to choose."

Wen Jueqian was silent for a moment, his voice resigned yet tender: "Then you win. I'll always give in to you."

But Wen Yanxu shook his head, cradling his face in both hands, making Wen Jueqian look him in the eye. He promised solemnly: "I don't want you to give in. With me, you can be willful. Leave everything you don't want to deal with to me. I'll have your back no matter how willful you are."

"Qianqian, being with me, you should be happy."

It sounded like a blessing, like a promise, but above all, it was his prayer.

Wen Jueqian stared at him, his eyes gradually reddening. All the grievances, anxieties, and self-doubt buried deep in his heart seemed to be gently held by those words in that moment. He wanted to say something, but found that all his words had turned into a warm, acrid current surging in his chest.

He could only hold Wen Yanxu tightly, burying his face in his chest, letting that heavy emotion completely swallow him.

It was a long while before he found his voice: "Wen Yanxu, do you know you're really going to make me spoiled and willful?"

Wen Yanxu let out a low chuckle. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Wen Jueqian said in a muffled voice, "I won't lose myself over that."

The fabric on Wen Yanxu's chest slowly became damp.

After a long moment, Wen Jueqian lifted his head from his embrace. His eyes were still a little red, but his gaze had turned bright.

In the past, he had always been too shy to say "I love you."

Today, Wen Jueqian looked at Wen Yanxu and said it for the second time, openly and without hesitation: "I love you."

Wen Yanxu raised his hand, gently brushing a stray lock of hair from Wen Jueqian's forehead, his eyes seeing only Wen Jueqian: "Qianqian, I love you too. From now on, you have to love yourself too."

What a beautiful moment.

They had made up, openly expressing their love for each other.

Wen Jueqian's eyes were still full of love, but his words were utterly firm: "But I have to go."

No.

Wen Jueqian couldn't leave him!

Wen Yanxu's body went rigid.

But Wen Jueqian slowly faded away before his eyes.

"Axu, don't get lost in the illusion. Hang in there. Wait for me to find you."

Wen Jueqian's voice grew more and more distant, and no matter how hard Wen Yanxu tried, he couldn't catch the last syllable.

The world fell silent.

The streetlights around him, the traffic on the road, the chill of the night wind—all froze in that moment, then faded like Wen Jueqian, dissolving into the boundless darkness.

Wen Yanxu was back in a world of darkness.

Everything just now had been a hallucination.

He was pinned beneath a thick layer of snow, feeling only the pressure closing in from all sides and the bone-chilling cold.

Wen Yanxu remembered now.

When he arrived at the foot of Qiong Mountain, he hadn't found Wen Jueqian. On his way up the mountain searching for Wen Jueqian, he had run into an avalanche the likes of which hadn't been seen in a decade.

This time, fate hadn't been on his side. He hadn't found Wen Jueqian—instead, he'd gotten himself buried.

Before dying, he'd had a hallucination.

In the hallucination, they had missed each other twice, and then Wen Yanxu threw aside all burdens—he only wanted Wen Jueqian. They bared their true hearts to each other and finally found closure.

That hallucination had been too beautiful.

In the end, Wen Jueqian mercilessly shattered it all.

The hallucination faded, leaving only the cold, dark reality.

He was buried in ice and snow, on the brink of death.

Even with his S-class Alpha constitution, he was at his limit.

Wen Yanxu's consciousness flickered like a candle in the wind, about to go out.

In the final moment of his life, he heard it.

"Axu, don't go to sleep."

"Come back to me."

"I found you. Get out of here. Come back with me."

Someone kept speaking in his ear. The voice trembled with panic, yet it was so clear, cutting through the wind and snow, cutting through death itself, stubbornly trying to pull him back to the world of the living.

Wen Yanxu's eyelashes fluttered a few times, and his eyelids struggled to open a crack.

His eyes were unfocused, staring blankly at the blurred figure before him.

"Wen Jueqian?" He was so weak he could only speak in a whisper, unable to tell if this was reality or a deathbed hallucination.

"Qianqian... don't leave me..." He spoke haltingly, each word draining nearly all his remaining strength.

Wen Jueqian's heart felt as if it were being squeezed tightly, aching with a dull, bitter pain. He held Wen Yanxu even closer, pressing his cheek against Wen Yanxu's icy face, pouring his warmth into him: "Wen Yanxu, you promised we would be together forever."

Wen Yanxu seemed to hear him—or maybe he didn't. He leaned against Wen Jueqian's chest, his body still trembling uncontrollably, his mind drifting between clarity and fog.

He struggled to keep his eyes open, staring at the blurred face before him, and with the last of his strength, he forced out the words haltingly: "Qianqian... I love you... I'm sorry... I couldn't protect you... I should have done better... Then you wouldn't have to..."

Tears slipped down Wen Jueqian's face before he even realized it.

The tears froze the instant they left his eyes, landing on Wen Yanxu's face with a soft patter.

That single tear seared into Wen Yanxu's heart.

"Then wake up, come back to me, and fulfill your promise. We've only had seven years together—there are plenty more sevens ahead."

Wen Yanxu struggled to raise his hand, wanting to touch his face. His hand shook violently, but he still stubbornly reached for Wen Jueqian's cheek: "In this life, I will never let you cry again."

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99's voice turned grim: "Qianqian, something's wrong. Wen Yanxu's consciousness is fading."

"He's lost."

Neither Wen Jueqian nor 99 had expected the memory-sealing barrier to launch a desperate counterattack in its final moments before being destroyed.

The entire sealing barrier trapped Wen Yanxu's consciousness within it, weaving an incredibly real, beautiful illusion inside.

That illusion was so perfect it blurred the line between truth and lies, drawing you in until you drowned.

Wen Jueqian never thought his words would come back to haunt him.

Before the third instance started, he'd only been trying to scare Wen Yanxu, making him think it would be dangerous. Now Wen Yanxu was in real danger.

He made his decision: "99, let me go in there. I'm bringing him back."

99 immediately protested, "Qianqian, you'll fall into the illusion too and believe it's all real. You'll get sucked in and lose yourself!"

Once he'd made up his mind, Wen Jueqian grew oddly calm: "I can't let Wen Yanxu fight this alone."

99's voice was pained: "Qianqian, is it worth it? If you fail, neither of you will come back."

"If I were in the same spot, Wen Yanxu would come get me too."

"Then that's enough."

99 still tried to talk him out of it: "Qianqian, don't underestimate the power of the illusion. It'll be everything you both want most—an irresistible temptation. It'll give you everything you've ever wanted: a perfect Wen Yanxu, perfect love, a world with no pain or regret. Are you sure you can fight that?"

Wen Jueqian shook his head: "Is beauty really just the absence of pain and regret? A perfect fairy tale?"

Facing life and death, Wen Jueqian saw things more clearly than ever: "But our love isn't perfect either. We both have flaws, and those flaws cause pain—pain that once had me tossing and turning, hesitating and pulling back, and made Wen Yanxu hesitate, made him less than perfect. But that pain also helped us grow, taught us how to love each other, how to let ourselves be loved."

Wen Jueqian was certain: "These imperfect moments are what'll help us find the truth inside the lie."

99 went quiet for a moment, then said something out of nowhere: "I looked up the weather records for Qiong Mountain from three years ago. There was no avalanche that day."

Wen Jueqian froze for a second.

Originally, the third instance was supposed to have him and Wen Yanxu caught in an avalanche on Qiong Mountain, using life and death to force Wen Yanxu to break the final seal.

But the sealing barrier had twisted that plot, turning it into a cage to trap Wen Yanxu.

Wen Jueqian shook his head, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips: "No, the weather was perfect that day."

"So the message I sent him wasn't 'Let's break up.'"

"What I sent was: 'Wen Yanxu, I love you.'"

"Then, at the highest point, closest to the sky, he promised me: he'd clear away every obstacle, and we'd never be apart."

"I was wrong—Qiong Mountain was already beautiful enough..."

"Forget it, I'll apologize to him when I bring him back."

99 looked at Wen Jueqian and couldn't bring himself to stop him anymore.

"Qianqian, go. I'll back you up, push my power into the sealing barrier, and try to wake you."

"Promise me you'll come back."

Wen Jueqian nodded.

He let his mind go slack, allowing 99's power to wrap around his consciousness and pull him into the illusion.

He was going to bring Wen Yanxu home.

==========Author's Note:==========

Finally done writing this memory-recovery arc. I came up with the past-life plot when I first started writing, but I didn't think it'd take nearly 400,000 words to get here. The foreshadowing I planted earlier can finally be used now.

Let me promote the next book I plan to write:

*Scheming to Seduce My Brother-in-Law Backfired*

Xia Mu, as the fiancé of the eldest young master of the Lu family, was happily looking forward to his future life of luxury.

But the eldest young master had a white moonlight in his heart, planning to cast Xia Mu aside once he became the head of the family and marry his true love.

So what should Xia Mu do?

Of course, he'd replace the Lu family with a new head who could make him the master's wife.

Step one of becoming the master's wife: actively seduce the cold-faced but warm-hearted youngest young master of the Lu family, Lu Yanze.

At first, it was his deliberate provocation that made Lu Yanze gradually fall for him.

He secretly delighted in the young man being deeply infatuated and unable to extricate himself.

A few years later, on their wedding day, Xia Mu was pressed against the vanity mirror, Lu Yanze's kiss landing on the back of his neck, his arm tightly wrapped around Xia Mu's waist, the force so strong it hurt.

"Sister-in-law, when you schemed to provoke me back then, you should have known this day would come."

The little brat he thought he had tamed had torn away his indifferent and gentle facade, revealing nothing but obsession and madness beneath.

Xia Mu had taught Lu Yanze greed and desire for him, and now he had to personally feed that hunger, spending a lifetime to satisfy him.

Xia Mu got what he wanted, firmly seated in the position of master's wife, with no chance of escape ever again.