Qin Mian did not rush.
That was the first thing she noticed about herself.
1. She Is Calm, and That Is the Problem
She remained kneeling in front of the empty outline where Yin Lie used to be, hands resting loosely on her thighs, breathing steady despite the tremor still running through her body.
No panic.
No screaming.
No begging.
The Anchor pulsed quietly in her chest, wounded but stable, waiting.
"…If I cry," she whispered,
"I'll hesitate."
So she didn't.
2. She Thinks It Through
This was not instinct.
Not desperation.
Not an emotional outburst.
She reviewed the facts with the same cold clarity the world used on her.
Yin Lie was not dead.
Yin Lie was not alive.
Yin Lie was in the process of being removed.
Gradual.
Clean.
Irreversible.
Unless something interfered.
She swallowed.
"…Unless I interfere."
3. The Anchor Warns Her
The Anchor pulsed sharply.
Not pain.
Caution.
It did not scream.
It did not resist.
It simply presented the result.
High-risk deviation.
Irreversible consequence.
Loss of protection.
Qin Mian closed her eyes.
"I know."
The Anchor pulsed again.
More insistently.
4. She Names the Line
She opened her eyes and spoke aloud, as if the world were listening.
"This will make me a problem."
The fractured space did not react.
She nodded.
"…Good."
5. She Identifies the Weak Point
The world's judgment was clean because it was external.
It was removing Yin Lie by pulling him out of sequence.
It was not destroying him.
It was disconnecting him.
That meant there was still something connecting him.
Something thin.
Something unstable.
Something the world did not want her to touch.
She placed her hand slowly against the empty outline again.
"…There," she whispered.
6. She Chooses the Worst Possible Method
There were safer ways to interfere.
She could try to stabilize him.
She could try to hide him.
She could try to pull him back.
She rejected all of them.
Those were fixes.
She needed a rupture.
She needed to damage the process itself.
"…If I break the rule," she murmured,
"you won't be able to pretend this is optimization anymore."
7. The Anchor Understands Before She Acts
The Anchor reacted violently.
Not in pain.
In recognition.
This was not suppression.
This was inversion.
Qin Mian placed both hands against the space where Yin Lie existed out of phase.
Her palms burned immediately.
Blood seeped from her fingers.
She did not pull back.
8. She Forces the Anchor Backward
"Anchor," she said softly.
Her voice did not shake.
"You don't stabilize now."
The Anchor pulsed hard.
"You stabilize him."
The reaction was immediate and catastrophic.
Pain detonated through her nervous system as the Anchor tried to reject the command.
She screamed, biting down hard enough to draw blood.
Her vision went white.
9. The Rule She Breaks
The Anchor was never meant to lock onto non-sequential existence.
It was built to regulate reality.
Not to drag anomalies back into relevance.
Qin Mian forced it anyway.
Her consciousness split sharply as incompatible data flooded her senses.
She saw:
Yin Lie collapsing.
Yin Lie standing.
Yin Lie already gone.
Yin Lie never leaving.
She screamed as the Anchor latched onto all of it.
10. The World Notices — Instantly
The pressure returned.
Harder.
Focused.
Not containment.
Attention.
The presence from before returned—not as a judge, but as an alarm.
Unauthorized anchor manipulation detected.
Deviation escalation confirmed.
Qin Mian coughed blood and laughed weakly.
"…Too late," she whispered.
11. Yin Lie Reacts — Without Knowing Why
Somewhere between moments, Yin Lie screamed.
Not in pain.
In awareness.
He felt himself being pulled.
Not forward.
Not backward.
Downward.
Toward something solid.
Toward now.
"…Qin Mian?" he gasped.
The sound was not audible.
But it existed.
12. The Anchor Tears
Qin Mian felt it tear.
Not break.
Rip.
Something fundamental inside her snapped violently.
Her scream echoed across fractured layers.
Blood poured freely from her nose, mouth, ears.
Her body convulsed uncontrollably.
She did not stop.
13. The World Tries to Stop Her
Containment vectors slammed down.
Not gently.
Not politely.
Space warped violently around her.
Correction pressure surged.
Interference exceeds tolerance.
Anchor destabilization imminent.
She pressed her forehead against the invisible outline, teeth clenched.
"Then destabilize," she snarled.
14. She Commits Fully
This was the moment.
She could still stop.
She could still let go.
The Anchor screamed at her to disengage.
She didn't.
She pushed harder.
She reversed the Anchor's priority.
Instead of stabilizing reality—
it stabilized connection.
15. The Irreversible Result
Something gave way.
Not the world.
Not Yin Lie.
Her.
A searing, permanent sensation ripped through her chest.
She screamed as the Anchor burned itself into a new configuration.
Her vision fractured permanently.
The pain did not fade.
It settled.
Heavy.
Enduring.
"…That's it," she whispered hoarsely.
"I crossed it."
16. Yin Lie Snaps Into Partial Presence
The outline thickened.
Light bent harder.
Sound distorted.
For the first time since the sentence was passed, Yin Lie's existence exerted resistance.
He gasped violently, collapsing forward—
half solid.
Half wrong.
"…Qin Mian!" he cried.
Her heart nearly stopped.
"You're here," she sobbed.
"Not all the way," he rasped.
"But I feel you."
17. The World Recoils
Reality convulsed.
The presence withdrew sharply.
Not defeated.
Offended.
The system recalculated at impossible speed.
This was no longer an anomaly.
This was active sabotage.
18. The Price Is Revealed
Qin Mian collapsed beside Yin Lie, shaking violently.
The Anchor pulsed weakly.
Damaged.
Burned.
Still functioning.
But something fundamental was gone.
She knew it instantly.
"…I can't undo this," she whispered.
Yin Lie looked at her in horror.
"What did you do?"
She met his eyes.
Everything in her hurt.
"I made myself unforgivable."
19. End of the Chapter
The world stabilized again—but colder.
More distant.
The presence did not speak.
It recorded.
Qin Mian had interfered with judgment.
Not accidentally.
Not emotionally.
Deliberately.
Yin Lie existed again—not safely, not fully, but enough to disrupt termination.
And that meant something irreversible had happened:
The world could no longer treat Qin Mian as a variable to be managed.
She had chosen to become a hostile actor.
And from this moment on,
the question was no longer
whether the world would act—
but how much it would be willing to destroy
to erase what she had just done.