Pain returned like a crime scene.
1. The Calm Starts to Crack
Qin Mian sat very still.
Too still.
Her breathing was smooth. Her heart rate steady. Her thoughts arranged neatly, like files returned to their proper folders.
It should have felt safe.
Instead, it felt empty.
She raised her hand slowly and pinched her arm hard.
Nothing.
No sharp sting. No instinctive flinch.
Just pressure without urgency.
"…I can't feel it," she said quietly.
Yin Lie turned toward her.
"That is intentional," he replied.
"Pain increases instability."
She looked up at him.
"And love?" she asked.
He paused.
"…Correlated," he said.
2. The Decision Qin Mian Does Not Announce
Qin Mian did not argue.
She did not cry.
She reached inward.
Past the Anchor's smooth, regulated hum. Past the dampening layers Yin Lie had imposed. Past the place where fear had been softened into something manageable.
She reached for the error.
The Anchor reacted instantly.
Sharp warning pulses. Corrective pressure. An attempt to guide her away.
She ignored it.
"No," she whispered.
"Not this time."
3. She Breaks the Safety First
The pain hit her all at once.
Not gradual.
Not controlled.
A spike ripped through her chest, violent and raw, knocking the breath from her lungs. She screamed and collapsed forward, hands clawing at the ground.
The calm shattered.
Emotion flooded back—fear, grief, anger, longing—all sharp, overlapping, unbearable.
The Anchor screamed.
Not angry.
Panicked.
4. Yin Lie Reacts Too Late
Yin Lie moved instantly.
The space tightened. Pressure surged, trying to reassert control.
"Stop," he said sharply.
"This will destabilize everything."
Qin Mian laughed weakly through tears.
"That's the point."
She forced herself to look up at him, eyes wild and wet.
"Feel this," she cried.
"Don't protect me from it. Feel it."
5. The First Feedback Loop
Something unexpected happened.
The pain did not stop at Qin Mian.
It echoed.
The Anchor flared violently—and the surge rebounded.
Yin Lie staggered.
Ice cracked sharply across his ribs, not from structural failure, but from emotional overload re-entering his system.
He gasped.
"…What did you do?"
She sobbed.
"I opened the loop."
6. Emotion Is Not Noise Here
The fractured space reacted.
Not rejecting.
Resonating.
The Third did not intervene.
It observed with new interest.
The space trembled—not collapsing, not stabilizing—but responding.
Yin Lie's breathing turned ragged.
For the first time since his change, pain mattered again.
Not just as data.
As sensation.
As meaning.
7. Yin Lie Feels Her Again
He dropped to one knee.
Hands shaking.
Memories surged—not reordered, not thinned.
Raw.
Her voice calling his name.
Her hands pulling him back.
The fear of losing her—not abstract, not calculated.
He clenched his jaw, fighting it.
"…This is inefficient," he whispered.
Qin Mian crawled toward him.
"Say it again," she begged.
"Tell me it doesn't matter."
He couldn't.
8. The Third Allows Instability
The pressure shifted.
Allowance expanded.
Compatibility recalculated.
Not higher.
More complex.
This form—broken, emotional, unstable—was still viable.
Just… dangerous.
9. Yin Lie's First Unoptimized Choice
He reached out and grabbed Qin Mian's wrist.
Hard.
Not to restrain.
To anchor.
"Don't do that again," he said hoarsely.
"Why?" she cried.
"Because it hurts you?"
He shook.
"…Because it makes me remember."
Her breath caught.
"That's what I want."
10. The Calm Does Not Fully Return
The space did not smooth itself.
The regulation did not reassert fully.
Emotion lingered—sharp edges intact.
Yin Lie's optimization faltered.
Not broken.
Interrupted.
He looked at Qin Mian again.
This time—
with weight.
11. A Dangerous Balance Emerges
"You destabilized my model," Yin Lie said quietly.
Qin Mian nodded.
"Good."
"That increases risk," he continued.
"I know."
Silence stretched.
Then—
"…I will not stop you," he said finally.
"But I will not protect you from the consequences."
She smiled through tears.
"That's all I wanted."
12. What the World Learns
Somewhere beyond broken space, a system registered a spike it could not categorize.
Not power.
Not collapse.
Emotion reintroduced into a stabilized anomaly.
The Third adjusted its assessment.
This pairing was no longer clean.
But it was interesting.
End of the Chapter
Qin Mian did not restore what was lost.
She made it bleed again.
Yin Lie did not return to who he was.
But he stopped drifting.
Between pain and protection, efficiency and love, a dangerous middle ground formed.
And for the first time since the change began,
their survival was no longer optimized—
it was chosen.