When Jiang Nuan failed to respond, the black mist gathered around her again.
Its voice grew gentler.
“Zhou Hao wanted to go home. The core of this world took his time in exchange.”
“But I won’t.”
“I won’t take your time.”
“If you’re willing, I can send you back to your real home right now.”
Jiang Nuan didn’t move.
At the end of the corridor, the dormitory door stood half open. Light spilled through the gap, illuminating the floor she had walked across countless times before.
She could even hear her roommate typing on the keyboard, someone complaining about why the takeout still hadn’t arrived, and the noisy chatter of students outside who had just finished class.
It was so real, as if she had never left.
So real that she didn’t even dare breathe too hard, afraid that the slightest sound would shatter the scene.
She wanted to go back to being an ordinary person—someone who was frantic over final exams and could spend half a day regretting choosing the wrong sweetness level for her milk tea.
The figure formed from black mist reached out a hand toward her.
“Come here.”
Jiang Nuan looked at that hand and slowly took a step forward.
Just a little farther.
If she pushed open that door, she could return to a world without monsters.
Her hand trembled uncontrollably. Only half a meter remained between her and the door.
The shadow’s voice drifted softly toward her again.
“You’ve suffered too much.”
“This time, you won’t have to pay any price.”
Jiang Nuan suddenly stopped.
She had known even before crossing worlds that free things were always the most expensive. After crossing over, she was even more certain of it.
The price of crossing between worlds couldn’t possibly be as light as the words “I’ll send you home.”
The less it mentioned the price, the clearer Jiang Nuan’s mind became.
She lowered her hand and turned her gaze back to the shadow.
“You weren’t the one who sent Zhou Hao back.”
“It was this world, with its consciousness given form, responding to his wish.”
“Perhaps it was the world. Or perhaps it was you all along, devouring his time as the price.”
The shadow fell silent for a moment, still maintaining its gentle tone.
“So what?”
“I can send you back.”
“All you have to do is walk through, and you won’t have to remain here.”
After a long while, Jiang Nuan finally let out a quiet breath.
“I don’t know where that door truly leads.”
“But I do know that you aren’t the one who will take me home.”
The mist around the shadow roiled.
Jiang Nuan stared at it.
“You just want me to give up everything I have now.”
“Then you’ll turn me into a part of yourself.”
The shadow did not reply.
The light inside the dormitory flickered twice, then went out. The plaster peeled from the walls, and the voices at the end of the corridor grew distant.
At last, the black mist dropped its pretense.
“Everything you have now? You mean those people?”
Its voice turned cold.
“Lu Zhaoming acts benevolent and selfless in front of you, as though he’s shown you the love of a father.”
“But he was also the one who pushed you into that laboratory.”
“And how different do you think Bai Siyuan is?”
“You called him your brother. You trusted him.”
“But he sealed away your memories, leaving you unable to find even the beginning of your own life.”
Black vapor crept over from the roots and coiled around her feet.
“And those people outside.”
“They say they like you and want to protect you.”
“But they need your abilities just as much. They need you to stay by their side. They need you to depend on them.”
“They like you only when you’re looking at them.”
“As for where you truly want to go, who really cares?”
The corridor fell completely dark. The black mist’s voice was almost pitying.
“Jiang Nuan.”
“Are people like that really worth trusting?”
“Is a world like this really worth saving?”
Jiang Nuan stood where she was and said nothing for a long time.
The blinding white light of the laboratory. Lu Zhaoming’s calm, almost ruthless choices. Those memories that had been sealed away.
And the gazes of Zero Squad whenever they stood before her—too fervent, and too heavy.
The black mist hadn’t made any of it up. Every word struck one of her real wounds.
It did not urge her on. It merely spread the mist slowly across the ground at her feet, waiting for her to walk into it of her own accord.
It seemed convinced that Jiang Nuan had been swayed.
After a long while, Jiang Nuan suddenly smiled.
“You’re right about those things. They really did happen.”
“Lu Zhaoming did hide things from me.”
“Bai Siyuan did deceive me as well.”
“And neither of them has the right to erase everything with a single declaration of love.”
The black mist roiled violently.
Jiang Nuan continued.
“But you deliberately left out one thing.”
“People cannot be defined by only one moment, or even a handful of them.”
It hadn’t lied. It had merely magnified each person’s ugliest side without limit, erasing the tenderness, remorse, protection, and change that had also truly existed.
“What I do is my own business.”
“You don’t get to decide for me.”
The black mist’s voice rose sharply. “You’re defending them!”
“No.” Jiang Nuan’s tone remained calm. “I’m speaking for myself.”
“They’ve done things wrong. I can hate them.”
“I can refuse to forgive them.”
“And one day, I may turn around and walk away.”
“Nor will I deny everything else that happened just because you’ve magnified my hatred, turning myself into a monster made of nothing but resentment.”
She raised her hand.
A silvery-white radiance slowly lit up in her palm.
“You say they want to control me. That’s true.”
“But so do you.”
“You keep tearing open my wounds and magnifying my fear and resentment. You only want to devour me and make me part of yourself.”
Jiang Nuan looked at it, her gaze gradually turning cold.
“Too bad.”
“You’ve chosen the wrong target.”
The instant her words fell, she abruptly mobilized the surging river of supernatural power within her.
Silvery-white light poured from her palm.
A torrent of silvery-white power swept through the corridor of roots.
The black vapor shrieked as it tried to flee.
But it had barely retreated half a step when the silvery-white river caught up with it.
The black vines coiling around the tree roots dissolved completely the moment they touched the silver light.
The black vapor desperately condensed into a vague human shape, attempting to maintain its final form.
“Jiang Nuan!”
“You’ll regret this!”
Jiang Nuan stood in the rushing river of light and looked at it.
“Whether I regret it or not isn’t for you to predict.”
“I’ll make my own choices.”
The silvery-white flood slammed into the shadow.
The black vapor didn’t even manage to complete its final shriek before it was swallowed completely.
It vanished without a trace.
Silence settled over the surroundings.
The roots that had been stained pitch-black by the corruption gradually returned to their normal color, inch by inch.
Jiang Nuan stood where she was and released a long breath.
The silver light in her palm had yet to fully fade.
She knew with absolute clarity now that she had once been Number Zero, Bai Siyuan’s long-lost sister, and the Purifier protected by Zero Squad.
But she shouldn’t remain trapped forever inside the names others had chosen for her.
Her name was Jiang Nuan.
What she wanted to do and what kind of person she wanted to become should be decided by her alone, little by little.
*
The wait seemed to stretch on endlessly.
The black vapor inside the trunk continued to churn, and no one outside dared let down their guard.
Everyone stared at the trunk without blinking.
All at once, the black vapor roiling inside it came to a halt.
Then, silvery-white light poured out from the depths of the roots.
The black mist dissolved into the air the instant the light touched it.
Several people held their breath at the same time.
A slender figure stepped out of the silver light.
Jiang Nuan’s face was a little pale, and the hand hanging at her side trembled slightly from overusing her ability.
But she stood firm.
Several people let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.
Lu Shiyan instinctively moved toward her, but stopped just one step away. He raised his hand, palm facing upward, and said softly, “You’re back. That’s all that matters.”
Jiang Nuan looked at his outstretched hand and didn’t hesitate for long.
She lifted her own hand and gently placed it in his palm.
Lu Shiyan closed his fingers around hers, giving her hand a light squeeze.
Standing not far away, Qinian stared at their clasped hands for two seconds before muttering a curse under his breath.
“The captain is seriously devious.”
But the moment the words left his mouth, someone—he wasn’t sure who—stepped forward.
By the time Jiang Nuan realized what was happening, she had already been surrounded by everyone. It was as if they had only now finally confirmed that she had truly returned safe and sound.
But the warmth lasted less than two seconds.
Suddenly, Jiang Nuan’s gritted voice came from the middle of the crowd.
“…I’m being crushed!”
The group huddled around her immediately scattered in a fluster, and even Lu Shiyan was shoved several steps back.
Jiang Nuan finally breathed in some fresh air again and lifted a hand to smooth down her disheveled hair.
When she looked up, she found everyone still watching her.
The worry had not completely faded.
But seeing her walk out of the silver light step by step, everyone finally understood that Jiang Nuan was no longer the person who could only be protected from behind.
She had dealt with that thing all by herself.
That fact changed the way they all looked at her.
Jiang Nuan suddenly curved her eyes into a smile.
“I’m back!”
She had not allowed herself to sink into the hatred and darkness that had been magnified without end.
Instead, she had returned here.
And this time, she had made her way back on her own.
