Free Web NovelShe looked quietly at Bai Six.
“You’ve experienced this too, haven’t you?” Liu Jiayi asked softly. “When a cowardly liar full of empty promises suddenly starts treating you well, you keep wondering over and over again what his real purpose is...”
“...This kindness he gives you for no reason feels like the beautiful poisonous tail of a scorpion, or a bee’s stinger coated in honey. Even while swallowing it, you keep thinking about when that poison, that sting, will pierce through your heart.”
“Why is he being good to you?”
“Will he betray you?”
“Weren’t you exactly the same toward Bai Liu—that smooth-talking liar full of falsehoods, Bai Six? Before last night, before he truly became willing to die for you, before you learned he was another version of yourself... did you genuinely believe in the kindness he showed you?”
“During all of this, weren’t you constantly testing him too?”
Bai Six pressed his lips together.
He did not answer.
Liu Jiayi sneered softly.
“You’re just like me. We’re both the kind of people born incapable of trusting others.” She lowered her eyes. “I’ve also been repeating this endless cycle of testing over and over again.”
“But unlike you, I wasn’t lucky enough for the other person to be myself.”
She paused.
Her breathing gradually weakened, and her voice became dazed, almost dreamlike.
“I can never truly know what my Gege is thinking, because I’m not him. He’s a man carrying that man’s blood. He even has the same voice as the man who fathered me.”
“I can never stop doubting him.”
“Every time I hear his voice, I can’t help remembering that hatred.”
“But whenever he smiles and calls me Jiayi... whenever he treats me kindly...”
Liu Jiayi’s eyelashes trembled slightly.
“...I still can’t help thinking that it would be nice if he could stay alive a little longer.”
“If he could remain beside me a little longer.”
“...Even if he betrayed me before, even if he handed me over to that man... it would still be fine as long as he could keep smiling like that and continue being my Gege.”
Her voice gradually softened, as though she had fallen into distant memories.
“In this world, only this person... only this person who took me away from all of that was different.”
Liu Jiayi murmured absentmindedly,
“...But no matter how many times I try to trust him, no matter how many promises he makes me, I still can’t stop myself from doubting him.”
“Just like how he can’t stop betraying me.”
“...Even if the day before he cried and swore he would never lure me out again, swore it was the last time...”
“The next day, the moment that man started beating him, Gege would immediately start searching everywhere for me again, crying and begging me to come out.”
“And when I finally did...”
Liu Jiayi lowered her eyes.
“...My Gege would tremblingly hold my hand and personally deliver me into that man’s hands to be beaten.”
“No matter how many times, it was always the same.”
That contradictory smile appeared once more on Liu Jiayi’s face—a smile like that of a little girl who had practiced obedience thousands upon thousands of times.
“Neither of us can ever know for certain whether the person important to us will betray us.”
“So controlling the other person becomes the best choice.”
She tilted her head slightly and smiled at Bai Six.
“Looking at what you’re doing now, your choice is the same as mine, isn’t it, Bai Six?”
“No.” Bai Six rejected her calmly. “I’m different from you.”
“I chose to let myself be controlled by him.”
Liu Jiayi froze.
“The other Bai Liu gave me two possible explanations before we escaped tonight regarding the strange issue of your health points remaining stuck at fifty percent. Then he let me choose which possibility to believe.”
Xiao Bai Six was already standing extremely close to Liu Jiayi now.
He had to lower his head slightly to look at the blind girl who was nearly stepping on his shoes.
His tone remained calm.
“The first possibility was that you had been weakened by some kind of poisonous mushroom outside. He had more clues and evidence supporting that theory.”
“But there was one unreasonable point.”
“It couldn’t explain why Liu Huai’s health points had also weakened.”
Liu Jiayi’s expression stiffened.
She seemed to realize something. The hand clutching the doll slowly tightened, though her tone remained mostly steady.
“...And the second possibility?”
“The second possibility...” Xiao Bai Six said flatly, “...was that you were a player who had already entered the game once before.”
“And that your personal skill was probably related to death rates and health values, forcing the system itself to weaken your existence.”
“He also gave me the name of the player he suspected.”
Xiao Bai Six lowered his eyes and quietly said:
“Little Witch. Wasn’t it?”
Liu Jiayi stopped breathing for several seconds.
“Then why did you still save me back then?!”
At last, the obedient child’s mask on Liu Jiayi’s face shattered completely.
A trace of ferocity and darkness surfaced in her expression, along with panic she could no longer hide.
“You already knew I was the Little Witch, so why did you stop?! Why did you still come into this classroom tonight?! Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?!”
“Because the other me told me to try my best to keep you alive.” Bai Six looked directly at Liu Jiayi, utterly calm. “It was a gamble.”
“If you truly weren’t the Little Witch, if you really had been poisoned and vomiting blood back then, then if I hadn’t saved you, you would’ve died.”
“Since the other me already paid money to buy your life, then at the very least, you couldn’t die by my hand.”
“This is my professional ethics as a Wanderer involved in a transaction.”
Liu Jiayi’s hands trembled slightly.
Tears welled in her eyes as she stared at the composed Bai Six in disbelief and confusion.
“You already knew...”
“You already knew...” freewёbnoνel.com
“...Did you come here tonight just to die?”
“You guessed all of it, didn’t you?! Then why did you still come in?!”
Xiao Bai Six answered softly,
“If I die by your hands tonight, then it only means the original me made the wrong judgment.”
“The moment I chose to save you, my death was already a possible outcome.”
“So whether I entered tonight or not didn’t really matter.”
“But if you weren’t the Little Witch, then entering tonight might have saved your life.”
Bai Six spoke with complete calmness.
“From the perspective of equivalent exchange in a transaction, even if there was only a possibility that you weren’t the Little Witch, I still had to come.”
Suddenly, Liu Jiayi bent over violently and covered her mouth as she began coughing uncontrollably.
Green liquid carrying the stench of mushrooms seeped through the gaps between her fingers.
She coughed so hard that the color drained visibly from her face. Physiological tears quickly flooded her eyes from the intensity of it, but like a small animal pretending to be fierce despite its weakness, she still glared viciously at Bai Six while holding up the doll with its limbs and head torn apart as a threat.
Bai Six acted as though he saw nothing.
He stepped forward and supported Liu Jiayi, who was still vomiting mushroom juice in large amounts, before giving a calm assessment.
“So both of Bai Liu’s guesses were correct.”
“Although the blood vomiting was fake, you really were poisoned because of what happened at the welfare home.”
“And you truly are the Little Witch.”
“You must have used an item to disguise the fake blood you vomited back then, right?”
“I really will kill you, Bai Six!”
Liu Jiayi fiercely slapped away the hand supporting her.
But tears streamed uncontrollably down her cheeks from the coughing, leaving wet tracks across her fragile face.
“Cough—cough... I only talked to you this whole time to stall until my skill cooldown ended!”
“Now the cooldown is over!”
“You can’t escape anymore, Bai Six!”
[System Notification: Player Liu Jiayi’s personal skill (Poison and Antidote) cooldown has ended. Skill may now be used again.]
[System Notification: Witch, tonight you possess one bottle of poison and one bottle of antidote. Which will you choose to use?]
Bai Six quietly looked at Liu Jiayi.
Mist gathered in Liu Jiayi’s eyes.
She turned her face away, refusing to look at him, jaw clenched tightly.
“...I won’t believe your nonsense about wanting to save me.”
“You’re all liars.”
“There’s no one in this world who would suddenly treat me well for no reason.”
“Even the kindness Gege showed me was exchanged for the beatings I endured in his place.”
Liu Jiayi had always understood that much of Liu Huai’s kindness toward her came from guilt.
And guilt was the most worthless emotion of all once betrayal entered the picture.
Liu Jiayi closed her eyes.
Tears slid from the corners of them.
[Tonight, I choose to use the poison.]
Black, distorted miasma suddenly surged from Liu Jiayi’s body.
A black lace veil appeared around her, covering her from head to toe. In her hand was a giant slender-necked glass bottle.
Inside the rounded bottle, black liquid bubbled thickly with a glug-glug sound. Black smoke rose continuously from every bursting bubble.
That viscous black mist curled around the small, frail Liu Jiayi like the tentacles of some monstrous creature.
Through the semi-transparent lace, her grey eyes looked toward Bai Six as though filled with tears.
Dark blood resembling a cursed taboo slowly dripped from the corner of her lips.
“Saving me was the greatest mistake and the worst judgment you ever made, Bai Six.”
“I was never some grateful, obedient child.”
“I’m a selfish little monster.”
She glared fiercely at him.
“I will never thank you for saving me.”
[System Notification: Player Liu Jiayi is activating personal skill (The Witch’s Offensive Armament)—]
[System Notification: Player Liu Jiayi has entered personal skill transformation state—Monster Book: The Cursed Taboo Witch]
“Neither am I.”
Bai Six looked calmly at Liu Jiayi.
“Our skills are similar. I’m a Wanderer, and you’re a Witch.”
“We both look like people abandoned by God.”
Liu Jiayi bit down hard on her lower lip and sharply retorted,
“I don’t believe in God.”
Bai Six nodded indifferently, as though he understood.
“Neither do I.”
“The people at this welfare home say children who don’t believe in God will be punished and sent to hell.”
He looked ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) at Liu Jiayi quietly.
“So after you kill me, Liu Jiayi...”
“Let’s meet again in hell.”
Then Bai Six paused slightly.
“But Liu Jiayi—Xiao Mu Ke knows nothing about any of this.”
“You don’t need to kill him.”
Liu Jiayi clenched her fists tightly and stared at Bai Six for a very long time.
So long that Bai Six thought this clever blind girl would never spare Xiao Mu Ke after he had already noticed something strange.
At last, Liu Jiayi spoke in a dry voice.
“...Fine.”
“When the classroom door opens later, I’ll give him ten minutes to escape.”
Bai Six slowly closed his eyes.
He opened his arms and inhaled deeply the black mist surrounding him before slowly exhaling again.
Already, his head had begun to spin.
When Bai Six opened his eyes once more, he looked at Liu Jiayi, who was slowly approaching him with the poison bottle in hand.
“I still don’t understand...”
Liu Jiayi slowly crouched down.
She leaned her head against Bai Six’s shoulder while he sat weakly against the ground, frowning under the effects of the poison.
Like a frightened, sensitive little sister, she lowered her trembling eyelashes and asked in a hoarse voice,
“...Why did you still want to save me?”
If not for the poison bottle in Liu Jiayi’s hand continuously releasing black mist, it would almost seem as though she were the one being poisoned.
Black blood slowly slid from the corner of Bai Six’s mouth.
He swallowed it back down with effort before answering indifferently,
“Actually... I don’t really know either.”
“Maybe...”
“After being a bad child for so long, someone suddenly wanted me to try being a good child for once.”
Bai Six sighed with rare frustration.
“As expected, I still can’t understand normal values.”
“Clearly, being a good person gains you nothing.”
“You only end up paying a price.”
Liu Jiayi pressed her forehead against Bai Six’s shoulder.
Her eyes reddened.
Her jaw tightened as she desperately held back tears, her breathing breaking apart.
“You’re obviously a complete bad person...”
“So stop doing things like this...”
“Even after you went this far to save me, I still won’t thank you.”
“I absolutely won’t thank you...”
“...I’m even worse than you are...”
Bai Six stared up at the ceiling.
His consciousness was gradually blurring.
But he could still feel warm moisture slowly soaking through the place where Liu Jiayi leaned against his chest.
Confused, Bai Six asked her slowly through the weakness overtaking him,
“Liu Jiayi...”
“Didn’t you succeed in deceiving me?”
“Didn’t you win?”
“Didn’t you kill me exactly the way you wanted?”
“You should be happy.”
“...So why are you crying?”
Liu Jiayi stayed silent for a very long time.
Then she let out a mocking laugh choked with sobs.
“Because your stupidity made me cry...”
“Stupid Bai Six.”
[System Notification: Player Liu Jiayi has used one bottle of poison on player Bai Liu’s secondary identity line.]
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu’s secondary identity line has entered a poisoned debuff state! Health points rapidly decreasing!! Warning!]
