“Xia, look, I got my name tattooed,” Yu Nian’an said.

“Where?”

Yu Nian’an extended her index finger. On the side near her thumb were three beautiful cursive letters.

“YNA.”

“Isn’t it pretty? Come read it with me!” She happily pointed at the three letters with her finger, slowly reciting, “Yu—Nian—An!”

“Good, good.” Qi Xia also nodded with a smile. “Later when you’re old and can’t remember who you are, I’ll point it out to you.”

…

“You’re lying to me?” Qi Xia’s eyes flickered slightly as he looked at Yan Zhichun before him. “How could you not have heard the name ‘Yu Nian’an’?”

“What?” Yan Zhichun was also stunned. “Why would I have to know that Yu Nian’an? Besides, this is our first meeting—what would be the point of me lying to you?”

Qi Xia vigorously shook his head, feeling a cacophony of noise in his ears.

Something must have gone wrong somewhere in all this…

He stepped forward and grabbed Yan Zhichun’s wrist. This action startled the two people beside her, who immediately came forward to pull Qi Xia back.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?!” Old Sun shouted. “Young man, speak properly—no getting physical!”

“I should have realized from the start…” Qi Xia said through gritted teeth. “You’re ‘Extreme Path’… how many true words could come from your mouths?”

“What?!” Old Sun was bewildered. “So what if we’re ‘Extreme Path’? Did we hit you or curse you?”

“Y N A.”

He had seen the font and pattern of these three letters countless times—he absolutely couldn’t be mistaken.

This was identical to the tattoo on Yu Nian’an’s finger, not a fraction different.

If he had borrowed Yan Zhichun’s “shell” to fabricate memories, why would he remember even the details so clearly?

“Your name is Yan Zhichun… yet you tattooed ‘Y N A’ on your finger…” Qi Xia said with trembling lips. “How do you explain this?”

“My name is Yan Zhichun—what inevitable connection does that have with what letters I tattooed on my finger?” Yan Zhichun said irritably. “You really are crazy, aren’t you? And here I thought you were a clever person…”

“Yes… I feel like I’m about to go crazy… what here is even real anymore?”

Yan Zhichun’s brows furrowed. She gently moved her fingers, and Qi Xia immediately released Yan Zhichun’s arm, making the exact same motion as her.

“Qi Xia, I’ve treated you with courtesy because you seemed clever, but do you really want to die?”

Yan Zhichun reached up to brush her hair, and at the same moment, Qi Xia also reached up to brush his nonexistent long hair.

Usually when Yan Zhichun used her “Soul Seizer,” the eerie ability would inevitably fill the other person with shock and amazement.

But the Qi Xia before her was different.

He didn’t care at all what abnormalities appeared in his body, nor did he care what was controlling him—he just stared unwaveringly at Yan Zhichun’s finger.

“What exactly is wrong with you?” Seeing that the man before her had no aggressive intent, Yan Zhichun withdrew her “Echo,” yet Qi Xia still remained motionless.

“No… I…” Qi Xia felt his mind return to a completely blocked state again. He quickly changed his words: “This question is really important to me… If I scared you, I apologize in advance… it’s just that tattoo…”

Yan Zhichun rubbed her somewhat aching wrist and looked at Qi Xia curiously again, while Old Sun and Old Deng beside her were also somewhat baffled.

The man before them seemed mad yet not mad, yet kept doing strange things.

“You think I tattooed ‘Yu Nian’an’?” Yan Zhichun said with furrowed brows. “What an absurd deduction. Who exactly is Yu Nian’an to you?”

“She’s my wife…” Qi Xia said in a low voice. “I’m looking for my wife… On her finger, she has a tattoo identical to yours, not a fraction different.”

“Not a fraction different?” Yan Zhichun was startled and also looked down at the tattoo on her finger. “Are you certain?”

At this moment, she also felt something strange. She didn’t even know Qi Xia, let alone his wife.

Though she had met quite a few people in the “Land of the End,” she didn’t recall anyone whose finger had a tattoo identical to hers.

“My tattoo has nothing to do with ‘Yu Nian’an’ at all,” Yan Zhichun replied. “I suspect your memory has become confused.”

“Then your ‘Y N A’…”

“It’s English,” Yan Zhichun said. “An abbreviation for ‘You’re Not Alone’—I tattooed this to comfort myself.”

“‘You’re Not Alone’…” Hearing these four words, Qi Xia’s eyes lost focus directly, and Yu Nian’an’s voice continuously echoed in his ears.

“Xia, you have me, you’re not alone.”

“Xia, if you didn’t have me, how lonely would you be?”

Yu Nian’an.

Yu’s thoughts have never been at peace.

And I have always been alone.

Yes, it made more sense for Yan Zhichun to tattoo an English abbreviation on her finger than Yu Nian’an’s motivation.

Who would tattoo an abbreviation of their own name on their finger…?

“Why is it this result again…” Qi Xia said with his whole body trembling. “Whenever I seek answers, it’s inevitably this result… Damn it… I don’t even have a single path left… I even…”

Qi Xia felt his head splitting with pain, on the verge of fainting again.

But this time the situation was clearly very different from before. If he collapsed here, there would be no hope of survival. The three people before him weren’t Qiao Jiajin and Chen Junnan—they had no reason to save him.

“Zhichun,” Old Sun called out. “We should go too. Time’s about up.”

Yan Zhichun nodded. The three of them no longer paid attention to the agonized Qi Xia and all walked to the back door, pushing it open and walking out.

Qi Xia clutched his hair, waiting for that wave of intense headache to pass.

At this point, he could clearly hear rustling sounds coming from behind him, as if those black lines had already begun cutting cracks in the heavy door and were now drilling into the room.

“I can’t die yet…” Qi Xia struggled to stand up. Without time to look back, he ran toward the back door.

Fortunately, the building’s back door led to a relatively wide alley, and this alley had some light.

After roughly confirming his direction, Qi Xia began running on the road again.

But if one looked carefully, they would see his expression was like a mass of dead ash.

Why should he stay here?

Why should he escape?

Why should he run desperately for his life?

What meaning did any of this have?

What difference was there between being cleanly sliced in half by the black lines now, and randomly dying miserably in some game or annihilation a few days later?

“My ‘Echo Opportunity’ is gone…” he muttered to himself with a despairing expression.

As soon as those brief words left his mouth, Qi Xia suddenly felt his breath become uneven. A sharp pain struck his ribs, and his footsteps slowed at this moment.

“This is bad…”

He moved his feet with difficulty, coming to the side of the main road, but clearly felt that the lines behind him were already close at hand.

Qi Xia raised his head and said with a gloomy expression, “If you don’t show yourself soon, I’m really going to die…”

As soon as the words fell, the roar of a car engine came from the intersection in the distance.