A sea of flames filling the sky, a despairing girl locked in a cage, a sacrifice burned alive by the fire—that was the fate of Liǔ Cháoquè.
"This is the price for your departure, smile."
Licking tongues of fire surged forward, quickly reducing the girl in the cage to ashes.
"No, no, ah."
At four in the morning, smile rubbed her messy hair, her eyes filled with despair.
At eight in the morning, while Wáng Qígē was eating breakfast, her phone buzzed with a notification. Glancing at the screen from afar, she wondered: Liǔ Cháoquè? Why is she messaging me at a time like this?
Liǔ Cháoquè: "There is something I want to tell you."
Wáng Qígē: "What is it?"
The other person is typing...
smile sat at a breakfast stall by the street, slowly spooning up the century egg and pork congee in her bowl. She watched the pieces of egg tumbling and the steam rising, the aroma of rice mingling with the unique fragrance of the century egg drifting to the tip of her nose. Yet it all felt as illusory as a soap bubble, dreamlike and unreal; only when the spoon touched her lips did she feel a trace of reality.
She had come here, inheriting this person's memories, knowing that she was a manipulated character in an Otome Game, without a voice or even a name. Her life was a mass of data, her destiny manipulated by humans, her every emotion programmed, and even the person she was supposed to love was predetermined.
She might end up marrying one of them, even if she didn't love him and perhaps even loathed him, or she might fall into perilous situations due to various plot points. But precisely because she was the players' main viewpoint character, she would never die; she would always miraculously turn danger into safety.
When she woke up in the hospital and saw this unfamiliar environment, she had been terrified. In her world, this meant she had suffered harm once again. Although she couldn't die, the pain was not diminished; indeed, it was even amplified because her reactions deviated from her programmed persona.
She had no choice but to force a smile, acting upright and brave—only by doing so could she barely cling to life. Many times, she lingered on the brink of death, yet with the magic of time acceleration, she would bounce right back, full of vigor and life.
Desperate to die, she had tried grabbing a knife from a robber; but even when she was stabbed until her flesh was mangled beyond recognition, when she woke up, she was still lying on that hospital bed, in excruciating agony. Yet the moment she met the so-called male lead, she had been forced to present her absolute best self to him.
She had tried throwing herself from tall buildings, leaping into lakes, and even hurling herself into raging infernos, but she had always survived, carrying her pain and a body full of scars that vanished within three days.
That was why she feared the hospital, and why she feared the "male leads."
What kind of male lead was it that forced you to bury all your vulnerability and degradation in his presence?
When she realized she was no longer trapped within the game, but had become a living, breathing human being, she felt a profound sense of relief—relief at having escaped a sea of bitterness, and relief that she could live willfully, completely free from manipulation.
She knew she was selfish; she would rather believe that the original owner had died than admit the truth: that the other girl had taken her place in that dark game.
After all, Liǔ Cháoquè had no heart disease, no high blood pressure, and only occasionally stayed up late; her physical health was robust. How could anyone possibly be frightened to death just by riding a roller coaster?
Of course, one couldn't entirely rule out the possibility that she had been fine during the ride, only to suffer a fatal daze the moment she stepped off.
For the past few months, she had struggled to play the role of that person, like a thief stealing three months of peace.
It wasn't until today that she could no longer deceive herself into thinking: the girl died of sudden cardiac death, and I picked up the leftovers.
She believed that when she decided to jump off the cliff, it had caused the souls of two people from different worlds to swap, allowing her to escape from the game while Liǔ Cháoquè became trapped inside it.
Would Liǔ Cháoquè be coerced by the plot into doing things she didn't want to do? Would she get hurt, accidentally offend the male leads due to lack of information, and suffer even more severe persecution?
She herself had been persecuted for so long. She clung greedily to these peaceful times, but she knew she could not build her own happiness upon the sacrifice of another girl's well-being.
Thud.
Finishing the last of the congee, she put down her spoon, hoisted her shoulder bag, and walked outside...
She thought... she had better go back.
WeChat interface.
8:30
Liǔ Cháoquè: "It's about Starry Sky Covenant, or perhaps we should call it the Misogynistic Game."