Chapter 534 - 475: Jin Xueli: A Roundup of the Many Jin Xuelis’ Work

Chapter 534: Chapter 475: Jin Xueli: A Roundup of the Many Jin Xuelis’ Work

Jin Xueli didn’t dare open her eyes.

She didn’t dare breathe, either.

’As long as I keep my eyes shut, the darkness is my own choice, like I still have a way out. But what if I open them and it’s still dark?’

’What if death is actually a long, conscious journey?’

Of course, Jin Xueli knew this was just her own irrational fear, the aftershock of what she’d just been through.

She also knew she was currently slumped over in a car seat. Her heart hammered against her sternum, sending blood rushing through her veins and making her head buzz. She was alive. Only the living could be afraid.

The "movie" was over. Her "history" had been exposed. And yet, Jin Xueli was still alive.

She held her breath until she couldn’t anymore, until her chest felt like it would explode. Only then did Jin Xueli crack her eyelids open just a sliver.

’What if Kai Luonan is looking at me—’

But all she saw was the car’s headliner, the windows, and the black night outside.

When Jin Xueli pushed herself upright, she found the car was empty.

It seemed Kai Luonan hadn’t had the patience to wait for the "movie" to end. He had left first.

Right. In his eyes, her death was probably a foregone conclusion, wasn’t it?

After all, the curse was irreversible, irremovable...

Jin Xueli sat there in a daze. After a moment, she couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.

Her laughter came in fits and starts, growing louder and louder until tears streamed down her face. At some point, it turned into uncontrollable sobs and whimpers.

Her history had been forcibly exposed. That meant the "novel readers"—if they truly existed—must have just relived the night she encountered Luna right along with her.

But she was still alive. Still alive... She was still alive.

Her "novel character" curse was still there, but it wouldn’t kill her anymore.

Regardless of why twenty-five Jin Xuelis had suddenly appeared tonight, the mastermind behind it had undoubtedly saved her life.

Because tonight, she and the other twenty-five Jin Xuelis had finally neutralized the curse’s danger through a roundabout approach.

The curse itself couldn’t be removed, so the only thing that could be changed was, naturally, the history of her nineteenth year, right?

When Jin Xueli discovered that Nest University offered a night course called "The Burial and Reconstruction of Personal History," she thought she was finally saved. This was the perfect way to break her curse. But as she stood inside Nest University, about to write her name on the course list, Jin Xueli suddenly froze.

She stared at the words "The Burial and Reconstruction of Personal History" for a full minute.

"What’s wrong?" a chubby resident counselor asked enthusiastically. "Do you have a question?"

"Why is it... that just when I need to change my history, you happen to have a course specifically for changing history?"

"What do you mean?" The resident tilted its head. "Many people have this need. Since there’s a demand, we created the course. Is there a problem?"

Jin Xueli stared at its round, rosy, and plump face for a moment.

"...Let’s say I’m the protagonist of a novel," she said slowly. "When I take a major action closely tied to my destiny, the novel will write about it for the readers to see, right?"

The resident paused. Its lipstick-painted lips slowly stretched into a grin that split its face. "...Oh dear, I don’t understand."

"The novel wouldn’t write about me washing my face, brushing my teeth, or going to the bathroom. It probably wouldn’t even write about me taking general education classes at Nest University. But if I were to change my past history... the ’novel readers’ would definitely see it, wouldn’t they?"

Although it was phrased as a question, Jin Xueli already had the answer in her heart.

If you wanted to change your past, you first had to reveal that past before you could make alterations.

If the "novel readers" saw that true history, the curse would take effect before she even finished changing it. What would be the point?

...So it was another dead end. A burial ground disguised as an escape.

Back then, she had thought she would have to spend the rest of her life eating, sleeping, and living with this time bomb.

Back then, she had thought the only way was to make enough money as quickly as possible, never enter a Nest again, and then live the most boring life imaginable. That way, maybe the "novel readers" would lose interest in her.

But to throw her life away just to escape death... wasn’t that just a different way of dying?

Thankfully... thankfully there were twenty-five extra Jin Xuelis tonight.

It was a long while before Jin Xueli’s trembling finally subsided.

She wiped the tears from her face and sat alone in the car, feeling like she was in a vast, empty ruin. She felt like a prisoner just released from a long sentence—relieved, yet lost, with no idea where to go next.

...She didn’t even have a single person she could call to share the good news.

Kai Luonan probably hadn’t discovered she was still alive yet.

The "movie" just now had opened with "the summer of her nineteenth year"—but in reality, the historical event targeted by the "novel curse" happened in February of ’17.

Kai Luonan hadn’t noticed this discrepancy, probably because he wasn’t clear on the curse’s specific details.

Jin Xueli sifted through the memory threads of the other twenty-five Jin Xuelis in her mind.

There were six Jin Xuelis in total responsible for attending the class and altering her history.

When Kai Luonan made all the Jin Xuelis disappear, the fifth Jin Xueli was still in class. She had just pulled up the history already altered by the fourth Jin Xueli and was in the process of changing it into a new version, as planned.

"Luna" was a real person.

But she wasn’t Jin Xueli’s high school classmate, and she didn’t die in the end—at least, not by Jin Xueli’s hand.

She was just an unfortunate Hunter who got infected in a Nest and wanted to spread the fungus.

The fifth Jin Xueli had completely overhauled the story of the battle with Luna, setting it in the small hometown Jin Xueli had left at fifteen. Then, she used a traveling carnival that Jin Xueli had visited two or three times as the backdrop.

Carnivals usually only happen in the summer, which was inconsistent with the curse’s trigger—but before the fifth Jin Xueli could change the time to February, she disappeared along with the other twenty-four.

"I never thought I’d have a talent for writing fiction," Jin Xueli scoffed softly, mocking herself. "’The novel readers’ should have realized by now that I’ve tricked them, right?"

That course at Nest University really had a surprisingly immediate effect.

To verify that her past history had indeed been changed, every Jin Xueli, after finishing the class and altering her history, went to the "Candle Tears" and placed a hand on the candle.

Just as expected, the history revealed in the Candle Tears every time had changed to the fake history she had crafted.

It was precisely because they had seen the candle melt time and again that the Jin Xuelis suddenly had an idea—could they hide the radio inside the Candle Tears?

Once the Candle Tears cooled and the candle reformed, who would ever think to look for an Illusion hidden inside another Illusion?

But the candle was huge and couldn’t be moved. Anyone who came by could use it. What if someone happened to barge in, melt the candle, and take the radio?

The third Jin Xueli from the "Radio Transfer Team" also happened to be the one who got the phone. After thinking for a moment, she called Morando before entering the Nest.

"Can you do me a favor?"

She led Morando to the candle and said, "Place your hand on the candle, and I’ll melt it. I want to see if the thing I hid inside will still fall out if someone else is touching the candle."

Morando muttered, "You trust me that much?" and placed her hand on the candle.

To be thorough, Jin Xueli heated and melted the entire candle. As she was searching for the radio she had hidden in the Candle Tears, she suddenly realized that Morando hadn’t made a sound for a very, very long time.

She turned to look and found Morando standing there motionless, her gaze and spirit seemingly lost in her own past.

Within a portion of the Candle Tears, there was another girl.

The time the girl said she also had a Path to a Nest; the time she suggested they get a cat together; the time they went to an art exhibition and she ended up spending all her savings on a single painting... Morando watched these moments over and over, countless times.

Compared to the candle that displayed Morando’s entire life, the girl existed only in a very short, narrow sliver of the Candle Tears. At some point, she simply stopped appearing.

Jin Xueli felt it was rude to pry into her past, but in the few glances she stole, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the girl looked a little familiar.

"Morando,"

She called out softly several times before Morando finally snapped back to her senses. "I’m done checking. Once I reform the candle and test it one more time, we should get going."

She still had to go back and leave the phone in her room for the next Jin Xueli.

"Oh," Morando replied, clearing her throat. "...How did the check go?"

In Jin Xueli’s memory, the version of herself responsible for moving the radio smiled at the question.

"No problem," she said happily. "I looked. The thing I hid isn’t in the Candle Tears."

Part of Morando’s mind still seemed to be drifting in her past. She asked dazedly, "Didn’t you hide it in the Candle Tears? How could it not be there?"

"Because *you* were the one touching the candle,"

Jin Xueli explained, "When I touch the candle, the melted Candle Tears become my personal history. After the candle reformed, you came and touched it, so now the Candle Tears contain your personal history. In other words, I actually hid the ra— I mean, I hid the item inside my personal history. Unless I’m the one touching the candle, no one else who melts it will find what I hid."

...Which meant Kai Luonan couldn’t get the radio.

Because Jin Xueli was not pleased to give him the radio.

"You wanted to kill me? Go on and regret it,"

Jin Xueli muttered and cursed as she fumbled around inside the car. "I wonder what face you’ll make when you realize you need me to touch the candle, and I’m already gone? While others are playing the clown, you’re just an old fool. The residents would probably compliment you on how lifelike you are. I’d rather empower a piece of dog shit on the street than help you become the ruler of the Nest..."

She finally felt it. When Tian Xi disappeared, she thought she’d heard something fall to the floor. It turned out she wasn’t mistaken.

It was a burner phone. She had no idea who it originally belonged to.

The Jin Xueli who lost her phone couldn’t remember a single number to call anyone, but Tian Xi was a different story.

However, when she opened the call and message logs, she found them completely empty. This Tian Xi... had he really never tried to contact the Kai Family?

’How is that possible? Not even a warning? A man as loyal as if he were under a spell should have at least reported the situation, right?’

Jin Xueli thought for a moment, then opened the keypad.

Just as she suspected, a string of numbers had already been entered. The person who typed them just hadn’t pressed the call button.

Hours after he had entered the number, Jin Xueli pressed the call button for the vanished Tian Xi.

The call connected.

One ring, two rings... She waited through three rings. Then, after so long, Jin Xueli finally heard Chaisi’s voice once more.

Hoarse. Exhausted. Yet it sounded as if he was so bloodthirsty his patience had finally run out.

"...Who is this?"