Ye City, by the river bank.
Bai Yanliang leaned against the railing, quietly watching the river’s surface.
The river was calm, like a clear mirror, reflecting the blue sky, white clouds, and tall buildings.
Looking closely, you could see the water by the river bank was exceptionally clear, even the fine sand and pebbles inside were distinctly visible.
A gentle breeze swept by, lightly tousling his hair, the hem of his clothing, and the tranquil water surface.
Qi Nian was dead.
Died in 2016.
Bai Yanliang longed to discard the emotion that troubled his heart, but that was precisely the evidence of his humanity.
People change.
And Fog Gathering compresses that process incredibly short.
Both emotions and experiences require ti to settle.
For ordinary people, even a small matter of love can lead to a year and a half of desolation.
But not in Wuji; too many joys and sorrows co without goodbyes, too many lives and deaths have no ti for mourning.
Those trapped in the curse, didn’t even have ti to get acquainted or fulfill their purpose of existence before the bizarre abnormality stripped them of life, left to quietly rest in the past forever.
Bai Yanliang wasn’t too concerned with people coming and going around him.
Even if Ren Wudao, Gao Fei, He Yige, and Yu Sheng all chose to betray.
Even in the face of Li Mu’s death, he more often felt he ought to do sothing rather than that he must do sothing.
The joys and sorrows of the world weren’t sothing he could relate to.
He even once thought he hadn’t lost emotions but was inherently callous and indifferent.
Just like facing Qi Nian, he could sense her emotions, but from the beginning to the end, he felt her fragile affection was vulnerable against the terrifying and bizarre curse of Fog Gathering.
However, facts told him.
He was wrong.
Wrong to an outrageous degree.
The depth and weight of her feelings were like a moth rushing into the fla; it couldn’t traverse the vast tis, yet with life, it made the grandest farewell.
Nothing is more important than one’s own life; to survive, anything done can be forgiven.
Bai Yanliang’s perspective persisted for a very long ti.
He even t Yu Wenxuan, who shared the sa view.
But, just as he thought earlier.
People change.
In separations, deaths, joys, pains, through life and ever-changing experiences, through various inexplicable abnormalities, everyone changes the outco of the story, while also being changed by the story.
People are not independent, isolated beings.
The ntal hospital that confined him for ten years had quietly beco unreachable.
Unbeknownst to him, Bai Yanliang’s life had grown imprints of people passing through; they penetrated each other, intertwined, and influenced one another.
Unknowingly, both body and soul bore traces that didn’t belong to him, so from the world, so from ti, and so from those he thought insignificant yet ultimately disturbed him.
It was people who made him more human.
Xu Zhifei stood far away, only watching him from afar, neither approaching nor speaking.
The wind blew her long black dress and waist-length hair; her once indifferent gaze seed tinged with a sense of lost longing.
She could feel that Bai Yanliang had changed.
A change not detectable to the naked eye, yet one that let people feel he had beco... more real.
Xu Zhifei chose not to go forward and disturb Bai Yanliang, but soone else walked up behind him.
"Thinking of Qi Nian?"
Song Que mimicked Bai Yanliang’s stance, leaning against the railing.
"Yes."
Bai Yanliang continued watching the river, not turning back.
"Your expression now is like my dad when he saw the company’s stock plumting."
Bai Yanliang finally turned his head to look at Song Que and smiled, "Thank you."
Song Que spat disdainfully, "Don’t get wrong, I’m not comforting you, though you’re smart, others aren’t fools either. Just now, you dodged Yu Wenxuan’s question with a more pressing issue, and now they’ve rushed to Qingyi Street. But I rember, you still haven’t directly answered his question."
Looking into Song Que’s eyes, Bai Yanliang said, "If I said I don’t know why Fog Gathering targets , would you believe it?"
"Believe it, absolutely!" Song Que tossed his hair, a smile at the corner of his mouth, "Genius invites jealousy, though this term suits everyone left at this point. Have you ever thought, compared to us, what’s special about you?"
What Song Que ntioned, Bai Yanliang had thought about long ago; initially, he thought it was the key left by Bai Yanren, but later, after giving the key to Xun Weimo, things remained the sa.
Clearly, the problem lies within him.
This is also one of the biggest reasons Bai Yanliang doubts whether he is human.
If Fog Gathering’s rule "favors" humans, benefiting them, then its painstaking effort to include his na in every mission makes sense.
He is not human.
From the available information, even Bai Yanliang felt he might not be human.
At least... not truly human.
But the last mission saw a variation; the mory of that five-year-old child within him told him that haunting ghost once turned into Bai Yanren’s appearance.
A ghost is a very special, bizarre existence.
In so ways, it’s even omniscient and omnipotent.
Perhaps, to seduce Bai Yanliang, it perfectly replicated Bai Yanren in all aspects, yet it didn’t expect, at that ti, the body wasn’t controlled by Bai Yanliang but a five-year-old "Bai Yanren".
However, was what it told the five-year-old "Bai Yanren" true?
In his heart, Bai Yanliang truly wished to believe everything it said.
At least that way, he would be truly human, truly... Bai Yanren’s brother.
They would still be brothers, and he wouldn’t be a monster spawned from Bai Yanren’s shadow.
But after all, it’s a ghost... its words bear no credibility.
It rely aid to bewilder minds, luring him to consent to it.
Now what?
How should he respond to Song Que? Answer Yu Wenxuan? Answer everyone?
Should he bluntly tell them, sorry, I might not be human?
Bai Yanliang believed if he indeed expressed that, Yu Wenxuan would surely be very interested in dissecting him.
"Don’t know?" Song Que looked at Bai Yanliang, "Silent?"
Bai Yanliang still didn’t speak.
Song Que tilted his head back, gazing at the sky, stretching his neck, "All right, silence in itself is an answer. Maybe you already know why Fog Gathering targets you, but you can’t voice that reason to us, because speaking it out does more harm than good, right?"
"Yes."
Bai Yanliang nodded.
"Got it, understood."
Song Que turned to look at Bai Yanliang, "Now, let’s talk about what you know about that villa."
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