Although Qin Kaiyi did not want to admit it, he could not deceive himself. He had imagined the scene of returning to his original world after killing Shen Feixiao countless times, but when this scene really arrived, Qin Kaiyi was cowardly. He held Shen Feixiao in his arms as he gradually lost his life, crying like a despairing child: “Shen Feixiao don’t die… Shen Feixiao…” 

The Feng Shen Gu could make Qin Kaiyi feel Shen Feixiao’s life passing, and Qin Kaiyi once again realized that he was so useless.

Shen Feixiao no longer had the strength to speak. His lips were pale and bloodless, and his hands were stained red. He looked at Qin Kaiyi’s face which was almost within his reach, and stretched out a trembling hand, but he could not expel a single word.

Qin Kaiyi whimpered and hugged the person in his arms tightly. That grief-stricken, inconsolable appearance rendered Ziyang Pei, who was standing to the side, speechless. 

Ziyang couldn’t save Qin Kaiyi, just as Qin Kaiyi couldn’t save Shen Feixiao.

At the moment when the world in front of him darkened, Shen Feixiao’s state of mind was very calm. His heart demon was already very powerful, and he had given the Rain-Soaked Bell, which healed the mind, to Qin Kaiyi. On most days, there were few times when he could achieve clarity; his mind was filled with bloody images. It was only when he was with Qin Kaiyi that this cruelty and ferocity could somewhat be suppressed. 

Shen Feixiao didn’t worry about Qin Kaiyi. He knew that his shixiong had his own world and would not enter eternal darkness with him. This was also very good.

Shen Feixiao, whose body became ice-cold, calmly thought that when he came to this world, he was destined to be alone. At the moment he left… he was also alone. 

“Shen Feixiao.” Qin Kaiyi’s voice became weaker and weaker. The blood spilling from his mouth dyed his long white hair and white clothes, striking a contrast that made it seem as if his entire person would disappear. 

Zi Yangpei finally couldn’t hold back. He pulled Qin Kaiyi, who was about to leave along with the outflow of Shen Feixiao’s life, into his arms. 

“Qin Shi, Qin Shi…” The rims of Ziyang Pei’s eyes were red, and his voice was like a desperate cornered animal’s: “Qin Shi don’t leave me, Qin Shi…” 

Qin Kaiyi couldn’t hear Ziyang Pei’s voice anymore. He felt as if a big hole been ripped open on his chest. The pain made him unable to speak, only allowing him to softly mumble. His senses blurred. 

Was this the taste of death? Qin Kaiyi thought that it was really uncomfortable. That bear child Shen Feixiao didn’t forget to comfort him even at this time, he… ai… 

“Qin Shi… Qin Shi… What’s wrong with your body? Qin Shi?” Ziyang Pei watched in disbelief as Qin Kaiyi’s body gradually became transparent: “You… why are you…”

“It’s finally time to go back.” Qin Kaiyi closed his eyes tiredly. He already felt a force pulling at his soul.

As expected, not long after, the system prompt sounded in Qin Kaiyi’s ears for the last time. 

[System Prompt: Completed the task to be personally killed by Shen Feixiao, received 100% return value, will return soon; completed the task to be personally killed by Shen Feixiao, received 100% return value, will return soon; return countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2…] He was going back. Qin Kaiyi’s face was numb. What originally should have given him great excitement inexplicably lost its original meaning. Qin Kaiyi’s head weakly fell on Ziyang Pei’s shoulder, and he slowly closed his eyes–so tired, I really want to… sleep. 

“Qin Shi…” Knowing that he was powerless to reverse the movements of the heavens, Ziyang Pei desired to go insane. (T/N: figuratively meaning, he was powerless to reverse a desperate situation). 

“Ziyang Shi… Ziyang Shi, I know I owe you, but what I should have paid back I have, why would you… push me like this?” Some length of time later, Ziyang Pei slowly let go of the already silent Qin Kaiyi. He turned his head and vehemently glared at Ziyang Shi, who stood to the side expressionlessly. 

“Brother, of course you owe me.” Ziyang Shi smiled indifferently. That face like a good-looking woman’s was full of malicious laughter: “It is because of you that he would die. Now that you have lost your most beloved person, isn’t that great? Like this, we have finally settled this loan.” 

“…” Ziyang Pei heard these words but didn’t show the violent rage that Ziyang Shi expected. Instead, he coldly smiled: “You don’t really think he’s dead?” 

“What?” Ziyang Shi was shocked: “What do you mean?”

“My good little brother.” Ziyang Pei’s smile seemed as if he was crying: “My good little brother… who told you that Yan Gu died?”

“… Didn’t he go with Xue Xian back then?” Ziyang Shi’s expression was shocked.

“But he didn’t die.” Ziyang Pei looked at Ziyang Shi indifferently: “In Xue Xian’s secret realm… he survived.” 

“…” Ziyang Shi’s expression made it seem like he had seen a ghost. 

Too much plotting and scheming–this saying was probably made for Ziyang Shi. 

“Don’t mind it, it is I who owes you.” Ziyang Pei began to chuckle lowly. He picked up Qin Kaiyi’s body in one go, without even glancing at Shen Feixiao on the ground, then turned and left. 

“…Didn’t die?” Ziyang Shi looked like a petrified statue. He looked at Ziyang Pei’s back and foolishly murmured: “Yan Gu… didn’t die?”

Well, Qin Kaiyi left a poignant story in this world, but this already had nothing to do with him… Looking at the familiar room and messy decorations, Qin Kaiyi almost wanted to cry bitterly… He really… went back.

Stumbling into the bathroom, Qin Kaiyi looked at that face in the mirror that was both familiar and unfamiliar. Tears ran down his cheeks–he really came back, he really… returned to the world that he originally belonged to. 

The desktop computer on the table was still exuding a faint light. The Word document on his screen looked so pale and wan. Qin Kaiyi slowly sat on the computer chair and, word by word, sentence by sentence, read the novel that he had written himself. 

“Shen Feixiao…” When he saw that name, Qin Kaiyi finally couldn’t hold back, and his voice became hoarse and choked with emotion: “Shen Feixiao…”

Shen Feixiao died, and he came back. Why could he come back… because Shen Feixiao died.

Lying on the  computer desk, shoulders twitching, Qin Kaiyi cried loudly in complete disregard for his image. 

There were always so many headache-inducing choices in the world. Even if one wasn’t willing, he would eventually have to choose an answer. 

“Don’t write novels anymore, don’t write novels anymore.” One by one, all his typed words were deleted. As if encountering an obstacle set up by a demon, Qin Kaiyi’s tears completely covered his cheeks. 

But if the words were deleted, could those memories be deleted? When Qin Kaiyi fell tiredly on the bed, his heart was full of apprehension and despair that he could not voice out. Even if he closed his eyes, he would picture Shen Feixiao’s sickly pale face, and beside his ears, Shen Feixiao’s voice would sound out with a “shixiong”… 

There were some people who, though you might not have loved them, you could never forget them. 

Although Qin Kaiyi wanted to go home for a long time, when he really returned to his home, he felt some strangeness in this originally familiar scenery.

He had been in that world for more than twenty years.

But after all was said and done, he had accomplished his ultimate wish. Qin Kaiyi muddleheadedly fell asleep. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The following days of his life could be said to be ordinary and mediocre. 

Qin Kaiyi gave up on continuing his novel, and chose an unkind pit to fall into.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to write, but that he… really didn’t dare to write. 

When one day you realized that everything you wrote would come true, as long as you were a human, you would hesitate. Because you would never know… if you would be forcefully pulled into that world. 

Changing his homebody otaku habits, Qin Kaiyi found a job that couldn’t be counted as too good. He became an ordinary little office worker. Sometimes he couldn’t resist opening the comments on the novel he wrote. As if to torture himself, he would look at the the cheated readers’ helpless and angry messages. 

This kind of behavior originally had not much of an effect on Qin Kaiyi, until one day–he saw one particular kind of comment. 

“The ending of this novel should be that Shen Feixiao fell in love with Qin Shi, and then they died together.”

If it were before, Qin Kaiyi would have laughed off this sentence. After all, the number of those life forms called fujoshis in this world couldn’t be counted as few, and there was no need to make a fuss about nothing. But because of some inexplicable reason, Qin Kaiyi steadfastly stared at this comment until his cigarette almost burned his finger and roused him. 

When Qin Kaiyi reacted, he realized… that his back was soaked with cold sweat.

“Hehe.” Laughing hollowly, Qin Kaiyi extinguished his cigarette butt, and barely managed to pull out a weird smile: “That must be a wrong impression, definitely… a misconception.”

If it wasn’t a misconception, how could he see a certain person’s shadow in such an unexceptional comment? 

The man was already dead; he died in front of him… and he was killed by his own hands. Qin Kaiyi exhaled and turned off his computer with a tired expression.

His current life was very bland, but he wouldn’t be like how he was before, always hoping for some adventure. After all, since he had experienced so many things, Qin Kaiyi realized that sometimes blandness was a kind of blessing. 

But would the heavens be kind enough to let Qin Kaiyi live in peace?

Fate was like a naughty child, secretly turning a corner in a maze, and cracking another joke–not big but not small–at a certain person. 

“Qin Kaiyi, I heard that there were some structural changes to the department. Someone from the top is coming down,”  a gossiping colleague named Jia whispered. 

“What?” Qin Kaiyi stopped the movements of his hands and turned his head: “Who is coming down?”

“I heard that it is the boss’s son.” Colleague Jia saw that Qin Kaiyi was interested and became even more full of zeal: “A famous highly eligible bachelor… called Shen… Shen what was it again?”

“Shen Feixiao?” Stupefied, Qin Kaiyi blurted this out. 

“Yes, how did you know!” Colleague Jia’s expression was full of surprise.

Qin Kaiyi heard this and suddenly felt a wave of strong dizziness. He failed to stabilize his body and directly collapsed backwards.

“Shixiong.” In the midst of his vague perception, a certain man’s deep voice sounded beside his ear: “How can you be so careless… what would you do if you fell.”

“…” He must have been experiencing an illusion. Before finally losing consciousness, Qin Kaiyi firmly grabbed at someone’s collar. Such an illusion wasn’t bad.