GBT Chapter 105

A group of researchers rushed in from outside.

Jiao Bai was pushed aside, a blinding stark white filling his vision.

That white seemed to transform into the hand of fate, slamming down hard on his head. His vision went black, and his nose was filled with the metallic scent of blood.

He confessed, and his heart stopped?

Why…?

Zhang Zhen was speaking into Jiao Bai’s ear, but he couldn’t hear clearly. His mind involuntarily conjured a graph showing the rise and fall of Qi Yi Liao’s activity.

The dividing line on that graph was: last year when he was imprisoned by Shen Ji, thrown from the building, and miraculously woke up after a close brush with death.

Before that, Qi Yi Liao’s activity increased very slowly, occasionally jumping by a few decimal points when he was feeling depressed and complaining. And it would also fall, sometimes plummeting drastically.

After that incident, Qi Yi Liao’s activity started to rise, never falling again, constantly increasing, climbing steadily even without his complaints.

Qi Yi Liao was someone who believed in ghosts and gods, someone who believed in possession by evil spirits, and couldn’t be dealt with using ordinary logic. Jiao Bai had long suspected that Qi Yi Liao had sensed that his approach was for some purpose, and once he achieved it, he would just dust himself off and leave.

So Qi Yi Liao controlled his emotions, like flying a kite, pulling him along.

What about now?

That stopped heartbeat and the activity surging past 50 seemed like a sigh from Qi Yi Liao, as if he were saying, “Uncle held on for too long, he was too tired, he was always waiting for your response, and now he’s finally heard it.

Now Uncle can rest in peace.

Uncle loves you.”

The kite string was broken, fly away.

The breathing in Jiao Bai’s throat sounded like a leaky bellows. He shouldn’t have said it, he really shouldn’t have said it.

Life was long and short, and people needed something to hold onto.

Good, bad, positive, negative, there had to be something.

Like him, he had something.

“Qi Yi Liao, I don’t like you, it’s a lie, I was lying to you! I don’t like you at all!”

Jiao Bai heard his own voice. He pushed away from Zhang Zhen’s support, staggered towards the group of white coats, and fell forward before he could reach them.

Zhang Zhen hugged Jiao Bai from behind, panting heavily and roaring something. His ears were ringing, and he saw flashes of all the big and small hardships he had endured along the way. Those images scattered like quicksand, replaced by Qi Yi Liao, Qi Yi Liao, Qi Yi Liao…

All of them were Qi Yi Liao.

Rest in peace, what rest in peace, why rest in peace? He had already taken the bait, shouldn’t he be hauled ashore, cleaned up, and eaten?

He had cast the hook for so long, patiently waiting for years for him to take the bait, so he should hold on, what did it mean to give up now?

Hold on a little longer, Qi Yi Liao, I’m begging you.

Everything will be alright.

Wait until I complete the mission, fix this body, my remaining life is all yours, I promise.

The cat quietly hung its head, its neck severed by a thin wire, held together by only a strip of flesh, its head dangling, about to fall off.

Jiao Bai was picked up by Zhang Zhen and carried out, but he didn’t know where the strength came from. He broke free and, with a will that was hard for ordinary people to understand and impossible to achieve, he rushed into the group of white coats, his hands flailing wildly against Qi Yi Liao’s burning hot face, as if the circuits had been fried.

“You hold on for me, hold on!”

“What will I do if you die? I won’t be able to live either!”

Jiao Bai frantically crashed his lips onto Qi Yi Liao’s, his teeth knocking against his, tears falling on his nose and dripping down his neck.

“I don’t want to die, I’m tired too, I’ve held on all this time, you don’t know how hard it was for me to persevere… I asked for a condition myself, wanting to be free, I shot myself in the foot, I’ve already thought about how to kick the stone away and find you, no matter how difficult it is, I can do it, I’ve been thinking about the future too.”

“It’s so good to be alive, there’s infinite hope when you’re alive, please don’t die…”

“Just hold on a little longer, I’m begging you,”

“I’m begging you,”

Jiao Bai was pulled away, his face wet, muttering to himself with blurred vision, “I’m begging you, live on, don’t die, you have to live on for me, let’s live on together,”

“Qi Yi Liao—” Jiao Bai ripped open his dry, aching throat and roared with all his might.

A voice came from in front of the hospital bed, shouting excitedly.

“The heartbeat has returned!”

At the same time, the white flower on Qi Yi Liao’s avatar stopped outlining itself. It didn’t take shape, it was only missing a tiny petal.

Jiao Bai fainted and was carried out of the research institute by Zhang Zhen and taken back to Lan Mo Manor.

During this period, Jiao Bai was still in recovery, only able to walk slowly, not able to run at all, but he actually started running when he bought popsicles. His will supported his crippled body.

That was Jiao Bai’s limit.

After Qi Yi Liao’s heart started beating again, Jiao Bai came back to life and felt how much his legs hurt.

Jiao Bai had to lie in bed for a few days before he could get out of bed. He sat in front of the large desk on the second basement floor, the whiteboard pushed open by two-thirds, revealing writing of varying depths.

Counting and counting, Jiao Bai lost his patience. He lay on the table, the dagger in his hand scratching in an empty space, one horizontal, one vertical…

The word “Restraint” that was scratched on was exactly the same as the one Qi Yi Liao had carved next to it.

Jiao Bai threw the dagger aside and leaned back in his chair. He pulled out his phone from his pocket and fiddled with the little key on the keychain.

That night, in the chaos, he had touched Qi Yi Liao and didn’t notice the metal cage.

Qi Yi Liao had opened the cage and taken it down.

It was good that it was removed, otherwise Jiao Bai couldn’t imagine what would happen if the researchers found the Qi family head wearing a metal cage…

Jiao Bai’s brow suddenly twitched. He found a newly saved number on his phone and called it, asking tactfully, “Lawyer Zhou, this is Jiao Bai. I wanted to ask you, is the research institute absolutely safe? Did my third brother say anything to you about this?”

Lawyer Zhou was playing with his two-year-old son, his voice mingled with the background music of children’s songs, the air of authority in the industry fading, replaced by a sense of domesticity.

“When the chairman had the accident, Dean Qi didn’t know I would show up. No one informed her.” Lawyer Zhou said.

The implication was that the real decision-maker at the research institute was not Dean Qi, but Qi Yi Liao.

Jiao Bai breathed a sigh of relief: “Okay, I understand. Lawyer Zhou, you’re busy.”

After hanging up the phone, Jiao Bai emptied his mind for a moment and checked his friend list. Last year it was 0/8, this year it was 0/3.

The three friends who hadn’t joined the group were Qi Yi Liao, Shen Er An, and Yu Ling. The activity of the first two was above 50, so he didn’t need to worry, they would automatically rise to 100 and join the group. Only the latter hadn’t reached 50 and was stuck.

Jiao Bai scanned the four groups.

→ Fate in this life [Confidant] 0/1

→ Never betray in this life [Dearest Relatives and Friends] 0/1

→ Guardian for all lifetimes 0/0

→ Unforgettable life [The most familiar stranger] 0/3

Jiao Bai seemed to be able to see which group the remaining three would join. After they all joined, he would be free.

“Little Assistant, what will happen to my account after I complete the mission?”

[It will be canceled.]

“Canceled, that’s good, a complete goodbye.” Jiao Bai played with the small key, “Open Qi Yi Liao’s World Room, I want to go in and take a look.”

He had been going in to browse from time to time these past few days, wanting to see if there were any updates.

[No updates.]

“I just want to browse!” Jiao Bai was in a bad mood.

The Little Assistant didn’t respond. Qi Yi Liao’s World Room was displayed in the void.

The background of the World Room was a cat with snow-white fur and pure gold eyes, aloof and extremely beautiful. It wasn’t a pattern, it was a living thing.

Jiao Bai had entered ten times, and eight times he saw the cat rolling around, rolling back and forth, revealing its soft belly and pink paws.

Sometimes it would curl up into a ball, hugging its tail, its golden eyes closed into a curved slit, sleeping soundly.

The sound effect was “Meow.”

Jiao Bai stared eagerly for a long time. When things calmed down, he would definitely raise a big white cat and rua it every day.

“Sigh.”

Jiao Bai thought of that blood cat and sighed, scanning Qi Yi Liao’s world. There were only four sections with the content “Loading,” Childhood Treasures, Childhood Memories, Youth Achievements, Middle-Aged Setbacks. The last section was empty.

Qi Yi Liao died in middle age.

And the middle age of this comic world was: 40-59 years old.

Qi Yi Liao was thirty-four this year. In the first cycle, he had six to twenty-five years of life left.

In the second cycle, Qi Yi Liao was worried about Jiao Bai’s safety. He risked resisting the drugs during the physical examination and forcibly woke up, waking up early, causing serious damage to his body. He would not last much longer this year.

Qi Yi Liao didn’t have any words he wanted to say to himself in the next life, if life could be done over, what he would do, what he couldn’t do, etc. He didn’t mention any of these things. His entire World Room only had one line: If life could be done over.

Jiao Bai silently finished reading that sentence: “Close it.”

The World Room closed.

Jiao Bai rubbed his face. He would still go in and browse next time, in case a section was updated without a notification. He believed that the “Loading” status would one day become “Loading complete.”

As long as Qi Yi Liao survived.

In the moment before the account exited, Jiao Bai caught a glimpse of something unusual: “Wait a minute!”

He concentrated on Qi Yi Liao’s avatar, his pupils contracting.

Originally, the avatar was divided into two by a line, the larger part was the blood cat, and the thin wire around its neck was not exposed, circling it like a collar.

Now, a small section of the thin wire behind the cat’s neck was actually exposed. It was extending towards the dividing line, the speed was extremely slow, but it didn’t stop.

Jiao Bai held his breath, his eyes following the thin wire. He watched it lengthen, getting longer and longer,

Then,

It passed through the dividing line on the avatar!

The thin wire was still moving, it was going towards the small section that Jiao Bai couldn’t see clearly.

Jiao Bai felt a chill. He realized that the thin wire wasn’t wandering around, it had always been there, it had always been stretched between the large and small sections. It was just covered before, and was now appearing.

The thin wire entered that small section, it was approaching that vertical, long object, closer and closer,

That object was also magnified in Jiao Bai’s vision, the outline gradually becoming clearer. He saw clearly, it was—a comic book.

The world stood still.

Jiao Bai moved his eyelids sluggishly, as if he had just learned to speak, enunciating each word, laboriously and awkwardly reading out the black title: “Broken Wings.”

It wasn’t just one volume of the comic book, but three volumes, the entire set stacked together, placed vertically.

One end of the thin wire was around the blood cat’s neck, and the other end was plunged into the book.

As if someone in the book was holding it.