Chapter 85: The Pitiful True Self

Within Meng Li’s consciousness space, the Good Self looked at the cards in her hand, nervously watching the Evil Self before her. The other, however, wore a calm and composed expression. The Good Self carefully drew a card from the other’s hand.

“You better be sure. Once you draw, there’s no taking it back~”

“Wait, wait! I! The one I want is actually this one!”

The Good Self, seeing the other’s smug expression, hurriedly switched her choice. Yet even so, she still fell for the other’s trick. Looking at the joker in her hand, the Good Self was utterly dejected. She had played dozens of times, but could never beat the other.

“You’re just too easy to read. Everything shows on your face. Truly living up to your name~”

“So annoying! I’m not playing with you anymore. I’ll wait for the true body to call me out so I can do something fun!”

The Good Self angrily tossed the cards aside. But in the pitch-black shadows, the cards seemed to hit something. The Good Self looked at the playing card that bounced back, full of confusion. She cautiously walked over.

“Could the true body have hidden something else in her consciousness we don’t know about? How strange…”

The Good Self walked over and slowly crouched down. She looked at the dark shadow lying motionless on the ground and reached out to poke it. But the other suddenly lifted her head and grabbed the Good Self’s wrist.

“Ah!!”

The Good Self was so startled by the sudden situation that she frantically shook off the arm and retreated backward, then fearfully pointed towards the direction of the shadow. The Evil Self had also noticed something wrong. She looked warily toward where the shadow writhed. The figure slowly stood up, and a somewhat cute face appeared before the two of them.

“Stop screaming. It’s me…”

“Well, well, well. Isn’t this the True Self who wanted to build a harem? How did you end up so pathetic? I thought you might not make it back to life~”

As the figure slowly walked into the light, True Self supported herself against the wall, walking on weak, trembling legs towards the two. The exhaustion on her face was unmistakable. Even though she had just revived, this tired, haggard look was as if she hadn’t slept for days and nights.

“I… I don’t have time to fool around with you. What is the true body doing right now…”

“What’s the matter? Got something to say? I’m guessing you wanted to escape yourself, then got accidentally killed by Senior Sister Situ, right~”

“What do you mean ‘killed’? That… that memory of mine—did the true body not look at it?”

Seeing the other’s anxious expression, the Evil Self finally realized something was off. She glanced at the Good Self. The Good Self simultaneously turned her head to look at the Evil Self. The two exchanged a look, then turned back to look at the recently revived True Self before them.

“Is there something important in your memory?”

“The true body is too timid and didn’t dare look. But Shizun glanced at it and then crushed it…”

Hearing the two’s words, True Self immediately felt a massive headache coming on. She leaned against a nearby table and slowly sat down. After all, her legs were so weak right now they felt like jelly. She completely didn’t understand why reviving had such a strong lingering effect.

“Forget it, forget it. As long as we tell the true body right now not to contact Second Senior Sister first, that’ll be…”

“Uh…”

True Self propped herself on the table, speaking listlessly. But the words she spoke received no response from the two. True Self raised her head in confusion, only to see the Evil Self and Good Self remaining utterly silent.

“Why do you two both have that expression?”

“If the true body meets Senior Sister Situ, what will happen…”

“Not sure. But I can swear that Senior Sister Situ is absolutely not the same Senior Sister from the game! She’s completely not the type who listens to whatever I say!”

“In the game, she didn’t seem to listen to whatever you said either…”

“Aiya! Not that kind! The kind where she doesn’t listen!”

“I really can’t understand your explanation at all…”

The Good Self looked speechlessly at the incoherent True Self before her. The Evil Self also interrupted the two who were talking. After all, things had been getting inexplicable from the very beginning.

“You’re so incomprehensible—what exactly are you trying to say? And from the start, you’ve had those three tally marks (the character 正) drawn on your face, dressed up like the female lead of some doujinshi!”

Hearing the other’s words, True Self’s already weak body instantly grew even heavier. Tears began to slide down from the corners of her eyes, drop by drop. The two avatars before her, seeing this, were immediately dumbfounded.

They couldn’t understand how the usually arrogant True Self could now look like a woman who had just been ravished, crying and sobbing like this. It was completely out of character. Even the Evil Self felt a moment of discomfort.

“Incomprehensible… to you all, I’m just incomprehensible?! Do you know how I’ve spent these past days?!!!”

“True Self… True Self Meng Li…”

Faced with True Self’s sudden outburst, the Good Self was momentarily frightened. She didn’t even know what words to say. Even the Evil Self, who was always mocking True Self, was stunned by the other’s imposing manner.

“True Self… heh… True Self is already dead! You picked this!! You told me to go save you all—is that reasonable?!!”

As True Self spoke, she painfully tore open the clothes draped over her body. The black cloak in her hands was cast aside directly. Looking at the scene before her eyes, the Good Self couldn’t help but fearfully cover her mouth, her face full of shock. The Evil Self also drew in a sharp breath.

“You two were having the time of your lives in Shizun’s cave abode, while I was out here fighting for my life!! In the end, my warning becomes ‘incomprehensible’!”

The Evil Self looked at True Self, whom she usually mocked as a coward. The other’s originally fair, unblemished body was now covered from head to toe in the character 正 (tally mark), drawn in ink. The Evil Self reached out, wanting to count how many, but found she couldn’t count them all at a glance.

“You… what have you been through…”

“Waking up in bed. Passing out in bed too. Do you know what that feels like?! Hungry, they’d feed me pills. No strength left, they’d feed me pills too. Even when I was numb beyond feeling, they’d still feed me those pills that make your body turn strange!”

True Self’s emotions grew more and more agitated as she spoke. The tears from the corners of her eyes even dampened the ground. The Good Self hurriedly went forward to console her, picking up the cloak from the side and draping it over the other’s body. The entire space fell into an eerie silence.

“Sigh, how truly envi—oh, I mean, how truly sympathetic~”

“You bastard! You were going to say ‘enviable’ just now, weren’t you?! I’ll… I’ll strangle you!”

True Self flew into a rage and lunged forward, wanting to fight the other to the death. But she was held back by the Good Self beside her. The Evil Self smoothed the long hair by her ear and sighed helplessly, looking at True Self with an expression of pity.

“Although I’m very grateful for your warning, and I sympathize with what happened to you~”

“In any case, Senior Sister’s emotions are very unstable. Let’s just avoid her for now. After all, she probably wouldn’t directly attack the true body…”

“But it seems like the true body is chatting with Senior Sister Situ right now~”

“……”

As the space trembled slightly, True Self looked up, seeing through the true body’s perspective. She saw that senior sister who made her both love and fear. Just seeing the other’s appearance made her legs go weak and start watering. It was as if her body had been conditioned to react on its own.

“Why! Why is she chatting with Senior Sister!!!”

The fear on True Self’s face was completely unconcealed. But right now, outside the consciousness space, Meng Li had also come to a rough understanding of what had happened. Her expression instantly stiffened. Meanwhile, Situ Xue had cornered her against a tree.

“Senior Sister, don’t be like this. Matters like becoming Dao Companions… maybe… maybe wait until I’m older…!”

“Since Junior Sister doesn’t mind anyway, why not settle this husband-and-wife matter sooner? I’d really like to ask Shizun to grant us this…”

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