"Ngh… ah…"
Alain viciously grabbed her throat and kicked the door, slamming it shut with a "bang." He dragged her, forcefully smashing Wanhua's back against the door.
Thud!
The heavy door let out a dull thud, shaking a nearby bookshelf. But it was nothing compared to the girl's face, flushed red as she suffocated.
"Ah… Alain, what are you trying to do?"
Her deep brown eyes were fixed on his face. Although she asked the question, there wasn't the slightest hint of confusion in her gaze.
"You already figured it out, didn't you?"
Alain, who had done all this, wore his usual expression, as placid as an undisturbed well. His gaze upon her... was like looking at a dead person.
"You should have been prepared for this when you did those things to me."
As he spoke, his other hand also closed around her throat. Applying pressure with both hands, the girl's face grew even redder.
Back with Cute Mita, Alain had actually already gotten the answer: How to break the illusion? What was the most efficient way to break the illusion? That was… to directly kill the person who had left the deepest impression on him.
Alain had originally thought that person would be Crazy Mita or Misha. In that case, he would have resolved to give up. Or perhaps, it would be the two scumbags who had racked up a huge debt and fled the country.
But of all the possibilities, he had never expected... that the person who had left the deepest impression on him was actually Yang Wanhua.
The… girl who had locked him in a cage.
Thanks to her actions, until he entered the illusion, Alain had only ever kept her locked in a little box in the deepest part of his heart... unwilling to even look at it.
This illusion really knew him well.
His so-called "deepest impression" of Yang Wanhua didn't refer to "the person I love most." Instead… it was that immense hatred.
Every time he saw her actions in the illusion, an irrepressible anger would rise in Alain's heart. She had deceived him; betrayed him; turned him into a true caged bird…
"You betrayed me."
He stared coldly at the girl. Even though the current Yang Wanhua had the appearance of a Mita, the muddy essence deep inside her hadn't changed in the slightest.
"How… could I possibly betray you…"
Her breathing grew more difficult, her hands instinctively patting at Alain's arms. But her expression was an unnatural flush, as if she were enjoying all of this.
She gazed at Alain's face. It was always so intoxicating to her. When they laughed together, when they argued… even when he wanted to kill her.
"Alain…" a few words were painstakingly squeezed from her throat, "no matter when or where, you are so charming…!"
Alain's hands gripped her with even greater force, and bright red splotches appeared on the skin of the girl's neck.
Yes, the condition for breaking the illusion was simple. He just had to kill someone. But Yang Wanhua, in his eyes, was a living person, not a virus like Monika or a Devouring Entity.
Alain's decades of human morality made it difficult for him to bring himself to kill someone. Unless it was absolutely necessary. Now, it had successfully become "absolutely necessary."
In the illusion, Alain relived his past with Yang Wanhua once more. Watching everything she did, everything she plotted, gradually… the flames of anger in his heart burned ever brighter. Doused with the gasoline of the past.
Until now, the fire was large enough to annihilate, to burn Yang Wanhua to ashes. He no longer hesitated, completely steeling his heart.
Since it was Yang Wanhua blocking his path forward, not letting him advance… Then, he would burn her away.
"You know what?" He stared into Wanhua's eyes, "I hate you."
"Eh?"
The girl, who had remained unshaken even when her life was on the line, was suddenly thrown into disarray upon hearing these words.
"You called me back here just to say this?!" She beat against Alain's arms with all her might. "You lied to me!"
But the muscle strength he'd built up over the years was far more than a delicate girl could contend with.
He pulled one hand away and slammed it into the door next to her ear.
Thud!
A heavy sound left Yang Wanhua's ears ringing, stunning her.
"No matter how many times I have to say it, my answer won't change." He slightly loosened his grip, allowing her to say a word or two. "I hate you. And I despise you."
"I didn't come back to hear this!" Wanhua's eyes were wide with anger, a far cry from the ever-smiling genius in his memory. "What about 'I love you'? Say it to me again! No, say it ten thousand times!"
His hands gripped the girl's slender neck again, wave after wave of strength applied to it.
"Ah, ah…" Crystalline saliva trickled from the corner of her mouth, and tears welled at the corners of her eyes.
Wanhua kicked at Alain's feet, again and again. Even as his pants were dirtied, Alain had no intention of letting go.
In the middle of her struggle, she seemed to think of something and frantically pulled her phone from her pocket.
Under Alain's gaze, she anxiously tapped it a few times. The next moment, she held the screen before Alain's eyes.
It was an electronic button. A syringe took up half the screen, looking a bit like a simulator game. But Alain knew what it was at a glance.
He glanced down and saw the "Couple's Health Bracelet" on his wrist.
"Hmph, hmph…" She smiled, a smile that was bewitching even at the brink of death. "I advise you to say 'I love you' right now, take back your words, and apologize to me. Otherwise, when I press this button…" Wanhua coughed twice, "I will definitely give you a punishment you'll never forget."
"?!" This wave of force made Wanhua think her throat would be snapped in the next second.
Alain's strength didn't slacken in the slightest; on the contrary, it grew tighter and tighter.
He lowered his head slightly, the shadow on his face hiding his eyes.
The young man's lips moved. "My parents' debt, it was your doing, wasn't it?"
"Cough, cough… Yes, so what?" She revealed a crazed smile. "Because they were just so in the way."
"…In the way?" Alain's grip loosened slightly, giving Wanhua a moment to breathe.
"Hey! That's right… don't you think so?" she laughed. "Clearly, in this world, just the two of us loving each other is enough, but they had to take up time you could be using to call me. Don't you think that's outrageous?"
"So, I gave them a chance, a chance to 'get rich quick.'"
At first, they were still rational. But then it was 10,000, 100,000, 200,000… as it piled up, they lost control.
"In the end… well, you know." Her crescent-moon eyes didn't hesitate to show her smile. "In the end, it was—a million."
Wanhua said, troubled, "Cleaning up was also a pain. I had to get them visas, plane tickets, and make them leave you, their son, in the country… It took a lot of effort."
Fortunately, they were both scumbags.
Her small hand rested on Alain's face. "Don't you think I'm smart? I let you see the true nature of those two scumbags, and got them to get out of the country, leaving me with you. And even…"
Wanhua struggled to stretch her arm, stroking Alain's face. "I could use the debt to make you stay by my side obediently."
"Aren't you going to praise me? A girl who loves you this much is rare in this world. No… there's only me." The girl, seeing no reply, was a little dissatisfied. "Just say 'I love you,' and Wanhua will be very happy~"
"I fucking—" Alain quickly raised his head, glaring into her eyes, "thank you so much!"
His large, calloused palm locked around Wanhua's throat with unprecedented force.
"Ngh, ngh…" She could feel that Alain's strength was even greater than before. At this point, a hint of panic finally entered her eyes.
"You still haven't said… those three words!"
She raised her phone again, deliberately showing the screen to Alain. Then, under his gaze, she tapped the electronic button.
The syringe on the screen slowly pushed forward. The light from the phone shone on their two faces, revealing two completely unrelated expressions.
The flames of anger in Alain's eyes remained unchanged. And Wanhua was already fantasizing about how to enjoy him after he was knocked out.
But gradually, the air in the girl's lungs was squeezed out bit by bit with each breath. Her complexion went from bright red to pale white, then gradually approached the deathly white of a wall, turning blue.
"Why… isn't it working? Cough cough…" The girl stared in disbelief at the bracelet on Alain's wrist.
What was going on? Why hadn't the pinhole taken effect yet?
She had installed a dexmedetomidine prodrug in the Couple's Health Bracelet. It was low-dose and non-lethal. But even so, it should have been enough to put Alain to sleep in a very short time, so why…
She looked at Alain in confusion, tears of pain blurring her vision.
Through the shimmering tears, she thought she could vaguely see something flashing on the young man's body…
"What… is that…?" She beat desperately against Alain's body, her palms blocked by an invisible "membrane."
"Ngh, ngh…"
Alain looked at her uncomprehending face and glanced at the Safety Assistant's window out of the corner of his eye. On it, the Safety Protection skill was gradually dimming.
Alain had already experienced a bad end with Wanhua once before, so of course, he knew what this bracelet did. After all, he'd already been burned once.
"What… did you do…?"
Her hand holding the phone gradually lost its strength, and the phone fell to the floor with a "thud."
"It's the help everyone gave me." He looked into Wanhua's eyes. "Everyone who truly loves me."
"?" The girl was confused, and with a glance, she saw the fading anger in Alain's eyes and the burgeoning tenderness.
"You… don't you dare give me that look!" She also grabbed at Alain's throat with difficulty.
She understood very clearly that tenderness wasn't for her.
In the shadow of impending death, her strength could only leave a few red marks. Other than that, Alain didn't even feel like he was suffocating.
Alain met her gaze, which screamed, "That look should only be for me!" and his expression gradually calmed.
Observing Wanhua's pale lips, Alain could feel his anger dissipating. Now, he could calmly put Wanhua to death.
He looked at the girl he had been choking for so long, who still hadn't lost consciousness, and slightly loosened his hand—
Wanhua had just started to breathe when she felt Alain's large hand clamp down on her throat from a more precise angle.
"Ngh, nggh… nggh-ah!"
This time, she couldn't even speak, only let out a mournful cry.
"I want to tell you one thing." Alain's well-honed strength easily lifted the girl up.
Wanhua's eyes widened in astonishment as she stared at him.
And Alain said slowly, "Maybe it's partly your fault…" His tone was level, like a pool of clear water. "I might have to say thank you to you as well."
"?"
Thank you? Isn't that what's supposed to happen?
But at this moment, Wanhua understood that Alain's thanks was probably completely unrelated to the thanks she imagined.
"Thanks to you, I found the [Them] I love most in this life."
Wanhua's breath caught, and the bright light in her eyes died completely. She stared wide-eyed at the young man's happy smile.
Her eyes, however, were full of despair.
Despair condensed into real, scalding tears, which flowed down her cheeks, dripping one by one onto the hand Alain used to choke her.
Wanhua hysterically used her remaining strength to shake Alain's face.
But his happy, love-filled smile didn't change in the slightest.
[Don't smile…]
The black tears on her face were stained with grease, but the strength in her hands was utterly weak.
[Don't smile.]
His happy smile, which should have belonged to her, was now blooming for others. No… it wasn't just "her," but "them."
[Don't smile!]
Wanhua screamed in her heart, but Alain still didn't hear. In fact, he smiled even more happily.
Because her hands naturally fell to her sides, like withered willow branches, swaying slightly.
Finally, he let go. With a "thud"…
Wanhua fell like a kite with a broken string.
Alain looked down at her. The warm light of the Mita girls blooming in his heart gently dispelled the violence within him.
In his peripheral vision, a glass-like crack appeared on the room's wall. Behind the crack was not cement, but a thick, paste-like darkness.
"Ah, ah…"
Yang Wanhua seemed to have one last breath left, as if she wanted to say something.
Alain walked up to her and watched her quietly.
Yang Wanhua, the girl who had imprisoned him. This was also the first time Alain had seen her in such a pathetic state. Her clothes were in disarray, her eyes lifeless, and the lipstick on one corner of her lips was smudged.
"I feel…"
she said.
Alain casually summoned the Safety Assistant's greatsword, holding it over her chest.
The color gradually faded from Wanhua's eyes. She looked wearily at the sword and spoke her last... "I feel that, even the way you hate me is charming."
Splurt!
___
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