Chapter 57: Dreams Flew Out the Skylight One by One

Gu Nanqiu’s slightly larger hand wrapped around Yue Yiyue’s wrist, gently rubbing the soft flesh there.

It finally stopped near her pulse, quietly feeling Yue Yiyue’s heartbeat.

Worried that speaking rashly would arouse Wu Zhen’s suspicion, Yue Yiyue simply lay quietly on the bed, waiting.

Waiting for a better time to communicate.

After a long while, Gu Nanqiu couldn’t help but ask, “Don’t you miss me? I’m right here. Why do you pretend you can’t see anything?”

“Are you still just my illusion?” Gu Nanqiu’s voice grew inexplicably hoarse, as if suppressing untimely emotions. “Of course… How could she possibly come to a place like this?”

Gu Nanqiu shifted, sitting up to straddle Yue Yiyue.

Her ink-black hair swept across Yue Yiyue’s cheek, bringing a faint itch. The two were so close that in the pitch-black room, their breaths intertwined.

One drop… Two drops… Scorching teardrops fell onto Yue Yiyue’s cheek. They should have been cold, so why were they so hot? They even burned her heart.

A hand with some calluses brushed across Gu Nanqiu’s cheek, wiping away the overflowing tears.

Gu Nanqiu subconsciously nuzzled the hand beside her face. ‘I’m sorry. It’s just too lonely here… It’s been so long since anyone talked to me.’

‘You’re the most lifelike empty shell she created that resembles Yiyue. Let me hold you, okay?’ With that, she covered Yue Yiyue’s open mouth.

Tears soaked her clothes as Gu Nanqiu softly expressed her longing for Yue Yiyue.

Yue Yiyue raised her hand, then lowered it, ultimately just silently staring at the ceiling.

Mm, Gu Nanqiu had mentioned earlier that she could only wander around nearby, so Yue Yiyue needed to check if something was restricting her movement.

No one had spoken to her in ages, probably because time flowed differently here.

Nanqiu’s mental state seemed okay. She didn’t look thinner, just unwell, with dark circles under her eyes.

Wu Zhen really treated Gu Nanqiu poorly, yet she claimed to love her.

She couldn’t even keep up the full act.

Yue Yiyue quickly reviewed everything she had seen when she arrived. Once Nanqiu fell asleep, she needed to check that room downstairs that Wu Zhen had deliberately blocked.

Wu Zhen’s actions had been too deliberate, so of course Yue Yiyue would play along through this scene.

But how to communicate with Gu Nanqiu?

There was no paper or pen, and given Gu Nanqiu’s state, it seemed like a performance for Wu Zhen.

From the start, she had called out to Wu Zhen as Yiyue.

Gu Nanqiu must have her reasons for doing this.

Yue Yiyue blinked at Gu Nanqiu, hoping she could read the question in her eyes despite the pitch darkness.

Thinking of this, Yue Yiyue nearly laughed at herself.

Her idea was truly absurd and amusing.

She didn’t expect her rapport with Gu Nanqiu to reach the point where a single glance conveyed everything.

‘Why is it always daytime outside the window…’

‘Why do I always hear something scratching the walls downstairs? It’s so noisy…’

Yue Yiyue raised her hand and lightly traced a ‘1’ on Gu Nanqiu’s back.

She hoped Gu Nanqiu understood—this was like tapping ‘1’ to acknowledge receipt.

The person in her arms trembled slightly, as if crying.

But Yue Yiyue, pressed so close, knew Gu Nanqiu was laughing at her.

That worked too. At least it let Gu Nanqiu relax a bit here. Yue Yiyue would gather the remaining clues, find a way to break through, and then…

They would go home together.

————

Once Gu Nanqiu’s breathing steadied, Yue Yiyue tucked the blanket around her and tiptoed to the door.

This door had no handle, seamlessly embedded in the wall.

If she hadn’t seen Wu Zhen open it herself, Yue Yiyue would have thought it was just decoration.

She placed her hand on it, and her hand passed straight through the wall.

So that was how it worked.

She seemed to be in her Spirit Body form now as she moved through this area.

The watch on her wrist was still there. Yue Yiyue lifted her hand to check the reading: 42.

That was acceptable.

Yue Yiyue put away the watch, passed through the door, and headed downstairs.

Her Spirit Body form made her steps feel light and floaty, leaving Yue Yiyue a bit unaccustomed to it.

If she really fought something later, would she just pass right through it?

The surroundings were no longer as neat as when Yue Yiyue first arrived.

The walls were charred black from fire, railings had collapsed in the blaze, and burned remnants lay scattered as debris.

The environment was terrible, no wonder Wu Zhen only let Gu Nanqiu stay in that barely livable little room.

Yet she dared wish to be with Gu Nanqiu under these conditions. Really.

But this wish might not have been hers.

There was no direct evidence proving it, after all.

Besides, Wu Zhen didn’t seem like a lovesick fool.

While picking apart Wu Zhen’s faults, Yue Yiyue inwardly cursed the lunatic He Wu as well.

In the end, it was because of those two that Gu Nanqiu had those faint dark circles.

Yue Yiyue reached the first floor and passed through the door Wu Zhen had repeatedly obscured.

This room was even more chaotic than it had appeared before.

The carpet was burned to charcoal, curtains half-devoured by flames, a family photo plastered to the wall with only two children unburned, and a large sofa facing away from her.

Beneath the sofa were large patches of black stains, like blood.

Unfortunately, everything in this room appeared in black and white—starkly contrasting the blazing sun outside—so Yue Yiyue couldn’t accurately identify those traces.

The room was like stumbling into a black-and-white film from the last century.

Only on the floor, amid the shattered remnants of the Cake, did vivid red strawberries lie quietly amid the carpet.

A hoarse, hate-filled voice spoke from the sofa in pathetic defeat.

‘You… are you here to save me? That unfilial daughter, she always covets what she shouldn’t.

‘Come over… come here. I’ll tell you her weakness, how to kill her.’

‘Someone like her, a waste, dares dream of becoming a god.’

‘She deserves to die. It’s just a pity about my child. Oh, He Wu… was killed by that bitch too…’

The mutterings from that side grew more furious.

Clearly, it had recalled events from its life.

The voice gradually distorted.

Yue Yiyue stopped in front of the sofa. She looked at the charred corpse there, with a Kitchen Knife still firmly nailed into its abdomen.

That was what pinned it to the sofa, unable to rise or move.

The corpse’s blackened facial skin trembled slowly, as if straining to see the face before it clearly. ‘Pull this out for me. Only then can I thoroughly kill that unfilial daughter. You need my help, right?’

‘As long as you pull this out, I’ll definitely help you. Whatever you want, I’ll promise it.’

Yue Yiyue placed her hand on the knife and pushed harder, driving it deeper.

The corpse froze for a moment, then began cursing Yue Yiyue wildly.

‘She was outstanding, got into C University with top ten scores school-wide.’

Yue Yiyue lowered her gaze to the corpse and said word by word, “Wu Zhen is no waste.”

The corpse seemed not to expect that even someone Wu Zhen had lured here would speak up for her. Its raspy throat emitted a piercing cackle. “She’s going to kill you.”

‘Hahahaha, and you’re still saying good things about her. You really…’

‘Fool, fool. You deserve to die.’

‘I’ll torment you after you die too.’

“That’s between me and her. As for you—after marrying in, you lived off her family, ate and drank at their expense, then handed everything away—you deserved to die.” Yue Yiyue remained calm. ‘If you had died back then instead, Wu Zhen would be President now.’

With a swing of her hand, the round head rolled to the floor, bounced twice, and came to rest beside a strawberry.

Yue Yiyue turned to the curtains. ‘His mouth was foul, so I dealt with him first. Now it’s between you and me.’

The curtains stirred without wind, and Wu Zhen’s figure slowly emerged from behind them.

She wore a white shirt and jeans, looking relaxed and at ease.

‘You must have figured out how to escape back then, right? What stopped you, made you turn back to kill him?’

Four years ago, a small fire had broken out here, sparked by electricity.

Unfortunately, the wind was strong that day, and for other reasons, the flames spread rapidly.

The blaze destroyed the entire house.

Wu Group suffered massive losses, and in the end, Wu Zhen’s Little Aunt took over the company.

Yue Yiyue had initially wanted to ask Wu Zhen’s Little Aunt about the situation, but time waited for no one.

Yue Yiyue glanced at the chair that had floated behind her and sat down without ceremony. “Care to share your thought process?”

Wu Zhen stood there, staring at Yue Yiyue. ‘I’m just curious. Why don’t you pity him?’

‘Why should I pity him?’ Yue Yiyue countered. ‘I never knew him. And I don’t pity you either.’

‘I have no relation to you.’

“How strange,” Wu Zhen murmured softly, as if seeing such a human for the first time.

Yue Yiyue had dodged yet another death trap she arranged.

By rights, she should have been ensnared by the corpse on the sofa, allowing Wu Zhen to peel off this skin.

She had used this method before to swap several bodies for He Wu. Why didn’t it work on Yue Yiyue?

But without making Gu Nanqiu willingly fall in love with her, she couldn’t fully devour Gu Nanqiu’s power.

That pure power.

As long as she could take a bite, she would get closer to her ideal state.

It was truly vexing.

Once she became the master of this world’s Rules, she would abolish all these convoluted Rules.

Wu Zhen raised her hand, and densely packed eyeballs floated up behind her, all staring at Yue Yiyue.

Alright, now it was time to end things with this insignificant human.

She had other ways even without this skin.

————

The scene was somewhat eerie. Yue Yiyue felt the watch on her wrist vibrate, warning that something was declining.

“You’re that murderous wretch Wish God, aren’t you?” Yue Yiyue had guessed it when she saw the strawberries on the floor and showed no great surprise.

She also understood why she and He Wu had fixated on Gu Nanqiu.

As those eyeballs lunged at her again, Yue Yiyue grabbed the chair and hurled it at them. Eyeballs shattered in a chorus.

One by one, white lights flew outward, like ropes of restraint snapped free.

Wu Zhen, who had been standing calmly, heard the commotion behind her and turned. ‘How—?’

Her face twisted instantly. ‘How do you have such power?!’