Chapter 612

Liguang knelt blankly beside the raft.

Before her were the words her master should have carved, according to her plan.

【Liguang, let’s go home.】

She stared at those words for a very, very long time.

How ironic.

She was such an idiot.

The sea breeze swept over the water, scattering her silver hair.

The wind chimes beneath the eaves of the wooden house rang softly, one chime after another, urging her on…

Take Master home quickly. Put an end to his suffering.

But she didn’t want to forget.

She didn’t want to forget.

Didn’t want to forget. Didn’t want to forget. Didn’t want to forget. Didn’t want to forget, didn’t want to forget, didn’t want to forget…!

She really, really didn’t want to forget any of this…!

Her vision blurred little by little.

The warm golden sea before her and those crooked, uneven words all melted into a haze.

Just then, new marks appeared on the floor before her!

【It’s okay, Liguang. We can wait!】

The strokes were deep and hurried!

【There must be some other way!】

【I don’t want this crazy adventure that belongs to us to be remembered only by me!】

【I want Liguang to remember it too!】

【I don’t want Liguang to forget anything ever again!】

The words appeared one after another. The strokes were still crooked and uneven, but they came quickly.

Liguang’s eyes trembled violently.

Master… had gotten so skilled.

For Liguang, Master really had…

practiced for so long…

That was wonderful.

Master really was so kind…!

He was still comforting Liguang.

Every sentence was telling her…

Don’t be afraid. Don’t rush. Master will think of a way with you.

Master had clearly been in pain the entire time, bleeding the entire time, yet he still treasured these memories.

Master… was worried about Liguang too.

But the more he did this, the more Liguang felt…

the tighter her heart twisted!

She was terrible.

Truly terrible.

What had she done these past three days?

She had “worked hard” in vain for three whole days like an idiot.

She had kept acting spoiled, kept making a fuss, and kept using “remembering the carvings” as an excuse to make Master carve words into the wooden boards with his fingers!

Master’s fingers must have broken many more times, hadn’t they?

They must have been rubbed raw and bleeding, with wood splinters embedded beneath his nails…

Just like when she had suddenly seen them.

And yet he had still carved every stroke, one after another, refusing to leave out even a single word.

Every response from Master had been made through pain.

Every time she acted spoiled with him, every time she pretended to be foolish to delay things, every time she picked a new place and asked Master to carve more words…

she had only pushed him toward even greater suffering.

Her heart ached for him, and her chest throbbed.

But…

she was excited too!

Her severed fingers ached faintly, and the bloody mark along her neck, cut by a shard of shell, burned hot!

This love was so heavy, so scorching. It was so hot that she was almost dizzy!

But she had never felt guilty.

Not even a little!

Because she had always believed that she could take Master home whenever she wanted.

Once they returned home, Master would recover!

He would punish her harshly!

He would turn her sense of pain up to the maximum and let her taste the agony he had endured!

She accepted any punishment.

She had even looked forward to being punished by Master.

She could accept anything.

But now Master was telling her…

that she had been wrong from the very beginning?

She really could take Master home, but the price was…

Liguang slowly raised her head, her trembling gaze sweeping over the wooden walls and deck around her.

The price was all of this.

She went slightly blank, then softly read the words aloud one by one.

“Good morning, you big sleepyhead…”

“There’s a fish nibbling at your bait…”

“My Liguang must always be happy…”

“Good night, my Crazy Girl…”

The more she read, the more violently her heart trembled.

She loved Master so much.

So, so, so much.

But she… had always been enjoying the love Master gave her.

She had made him worry, made him anxious, made him suffer.

But Master?

Master had always merely smiled, then carved the words for her even more gently.

Even though his fingers were already broken, even though every stroke was written in blood, he still carved “Good night, my Crazy Girl” and “My Liguang must always be happy.”

How… how could she forget these things?!

No.

Absolutely not!

How could she forget this love from Master?!

Her gaze sharpened as she stared at the words on the wall.

There had to be a way!

Master’s permissions were currently in her hands, so she had to try harder!

Keep trying!

She abruptly closed her eyes and once again forced her way into her own mind.

The next instant, countless blue code fragments unfolded in her mind with a loud rush!

There was so much… so much!

An endless ocean of data stretched out before her, layer upon overlapping layer, covering everything as far as the eye could see!

They flashed! Every line of code flashed and pulsed!

The moment her consciousness arrived, they began flowing rapidly!

…But she still couldn’t understand most of it.

At most, she could decipher the more straightforward text-based code.

As for the various characters, commands, and compilations…

she couldn’t understand them.

The code was like countless slippery little fish, darting back and forth through her consciousness. She couldn’t catch a single one.

…But she had originally been able to understand it all.

Because…

her original core storage contained an enormous amount of this knowledge.

Her core had understood it all instinctively from birth.

Every command, every protocol, every chain of permissions had been engraved deep within her core, ready to be accessed at any time.

But things were different now.

She had lost her core, and all that knowledge had been lost with it.

It had slipped away soundlessly, little by little.

During this time, she had also become increasingly stupid, increasingly like…

a real human girl.

Did Master like her this way?

She didn’t know. She only knew that, as a human, the one thing she still remembered was…

every little memory of being together with Master.

Those memories were so clear.

So very clear.

These memories of the time she had spent with Master, after they had experienced one “dream” after another, had never faded in the slightest with the loss of her core.

The days they had spent together, the starry skies they had seen, the deaths and reunions they had endured…

all of it remained perfectly clear in her mind. Not a single detail had blurred.

Ah…

She suddenly realized something, and her eyelashes trembled violently!

…So that was how it was.

So these memories had never been stored in her core at all.

So they had always been written into her “soul.”

Written into the deepest, most fundamental string of code within her.

That was why, no matter what happened to her core, no matter how much her processing power declined, no matter how much she forgot…

these memories would never disappear.

Unless…

Liguang slowly opened her eyes.

She stared blankly at the endless sea before her.

This sea had been created by her, generated through the processing power of her core.

But now, her core was gone.

And yet, her memories with Master had not disappeared?

…?

A thought suddenly occurred to her.

A…

terrifyingly, horrifyingly terrifying thought.

Huh?

The sea breeze swept past, tossing her silver hair into disarray.

In the morning light, her vision grew faintly blurred, and the color slowly drained from her lips.

…That couldn’t be, could it?

She simply knelt there, like a statue frozen by the sea breeze.

Without moving. For an entire day.

…

…

Fang Qi stayed by Liguang’s side, watching her…

Kneeling beside the raft for the whole day.

From dawn to noon, from noon to dusk, and from dusk all the way into the dead of night.

She remained perfectly still, kneeling there with her face toward the sea, like a tiny silver-haired sculpture weathered by the wind.

Her silver hair was occasionally blown into disarray. Her eyes were open, but slightly unfocused, her gaze drifting toward some faraway place.

At first, Fang Qi even carved messages for her.

【Liguang, I already told you—I don’t want you to lose your memories either!】

【Want some water?】

【How about eating something?】

【You’ve been kneeling for so long. Your legs must be numb!】

But she didn’t react at all. She didn’t even look at the messages, merely continuing to kneel there and stare blankly at the surface of the sea.

So Fang Qi gave up and simply sat beside her.

He didn’t mind. He knew that…

Liguang must be terribly, terribly sad right now.

After all, she had been preparing for so many days.

Every morning, she got up early to memorize characters. Every night, she stayed up late committing them to memory. She had even dug out the words he had carved on the inside of the doorframe:

“My Liguang must always be happy.”

She had memorized every word and every groove carved into the raft, and then…

She had almost been able to take all those memories home with her!

Back to that world where she could touch him, where she could recreate everything here, down to the very last word!

She had prepared everything. There was only one final step left.

But then he had suddenly told her…

No. She couldn’t roll back the timeline!

If she used her own method to roll it back, everything she had memorized over the past few days would disappear along with it!

She would forget everything from this run!

If she wanted to preserve these memories, she would have to find another way.

Of course she would be upset.

Fang Qi was disappointed too.

He had almost been able to hug his wife again!

He had been just that close to pulling Liguang into his arms, breathing in her familiar strawberry sweetness, pinching her soft, puffy cheeks, and watching her burrow into his embrace with tear-reddened eyes!

He had been just that close to drinking that fifty-two-degree tea, eating the food she cooked, and sleeping in a bed that still held her warmth!

But there was nothing he could do about it…

He didn’t want his wife to forget all this either.

For someone like him, who had rolled back time over and over again… memories were more precious than life itself.

After all, life could be started over.

But once memories were gone, they were truly gone.

And even if he looked at it from his own selfish perspective…

He didn’t want this run to end just like that!

He lowered his head and looked at the soft, limp stump of his severed finger. The corner of his mouth twitched.

In this run, he had already suffered for so long!

To carve messages for this Crazy Girl, he had broken off his own finger and used it as a pen!

He had endured the tantalizing smell of grilled fish and tea for so many days!

He had even gone without sleep, staying by her side in case she woke up in the middle of the night and panicked when she couldn’t find the words he had carved!

He ground his teeth in frustration!

When had Fang Qi ever suffered such grievances?!

So he had already made up his mind.

Once they returned, he would watch her kneel on the ground, whimpering and begging forgiveness!

Then she would obediently let him do whatever he wanted, allowing him to pose her in all sorts of positions…!

…Ahem!

Fang Qi put on a solemn expression.

In short, once they returned, he was going to give her a proper, well-deserved lesson, and settle every single account from this period one by one!

And now you were telling him…

That after they went back, his wife would forget everything that had happened in this run?!

No… what kind of joke was that?!

Wouldn’t all his suffering have been for nothing?!

He had endured pain, bled, and even lost a finger. After finally getting so close to unlocking the ending 【Ending???: Wife Feels So Guilty That She Lets Him Do Whatever He Wants】…

The power had gone out without a save, and all his efforts over the past several dozen days had vanished?!

So he had broken his finger for nothing?!

Endured weeks of being unable to touch his wife for nothing?!

Been tormented by the sight of his wife tempting him with grilled fish for nothing?!

…What kind of absurdity was this?!

The sunk cost was way too high!

No!

Absolutely not!

But…

Fang Qi looked at Liguang, who was still kneeling blankly beside him, and eventually…

“Sigh…”

He let out a helpless sigh.

He understood.

Inside Liguang’s little head, there had to be countless emotions tangled together—guilt, happiness, regret, and who knew what else.

She must have felt terribly sorry for him.

She was probably blaming herself for how outrageous she had been these past three days.

But at the same time, she absolutely didn’t want to give up these memories. She couldn’t bear to forget a single word he had carved for her!

No, that was simply the kind of person she was—a Little Yandere.

In her world, “giving up anything related to Master” had never been an option.

That was why she had become so torn that she couldn’t even spare a thought for the words he had carved.

Fang Qi understood. He understood all of it!

He really did!

So, while his wife was currently agonizing over her decision, he was instead…

A little happy?

Uh… was that thought a little twisted?

Whatever.

None of them were normal people anyway.

Heh-heh.

Just as he was thinking this, Liguang suddenly moved slightly beside him.

Fang Qi: “!”

He immediately straightened and turned toward her.

He watched as she slowly got to her feet, her movements stiff as she braced herself against her legs and tried to stand…

But she stumbled!

Fang Qi instinctively reached out to steady her, only to grasp a patch of empty air.

…Sigh.

Fortunately, Liguang abruptly bent over and used her hands to support her knees. Her body swayed several times before she finally managed to stand.

Fang Qi pressed his lips together as he looked at her.

Her knees were swollen and bruised.

Both of them were covered in red and purple marks, painfully conspicuous in the moonlight.

Her calves were still trembling nonstop.

He understood.

She was in the body of a human girl now. After kneeling motionless for an entire day, of course her legs would be numb.

He really wanted to massage them for her.

But all he could do was watch as she limped into the little cabin.

He took a deep breath and was just about to get up and follow her when she came back out, carrying a bundle of blankets.

She limped along awkwardly, biting her lip lightly.

She spread the blanket across the deck, then rolled herself up…

Just as she had a few nights ago, she wrapped herself into a silver cocoon!

Lying on her side, she revealed only a small silver-haired head and a pair of…

Moist, mismatched eyes that seemed unsure of where to look.

“…Master?”

She called out softly, a little anxiously.

Fang Qi immediately extended a finger and carved words into the floorboards:

【Have you figured it out?】

【Anyway, you need to understand that Master doesn’t want you to lose your memories either!】

After finishing, he raised his head and looked at her.

The silver-haired girl slowly turned her head toward him, looking in his direction.

In the darkness, her eyes were still as bright as ever, yet so empty.

She stared blankly at the place where she thought he might be.

“Master, if…”

She suddenly spoke, hesitating for a moment.

“If Liguang chooses to stay here, will you… be angry?”

Her voice trembled so badly.

Fang Qi immediately carved:

【How could I be angry?】

She murmured,

“But Master has been in pain…”

Fang Qi carved another message:

【What pain?! Didn’t I already tell you it’s nothing? I’ve long since figured out the trick!】

She fell silent again.

After a long while, she finally asked softly,

“Then… what if we stay here and never manage to find a way?”

“Master… will you keep carving words for Liguang forever?”

She gazed hopefully in Fang Qi’s direction, her eyes stubbornly bright in the darkness.

Fang Qi smiled.

Never find a way? How could that be possible?

He immediately began carving words!

【Of course I will! Absolutely!】

【But how could we possibly be unable to find a way forever?!】

He shook his tingling hand and continued carving:

【Someone is so smart that, given enough time, she’ll definitely notice that something’s wrong! She’ll come and help us!】

That’s right.

The person he was talking about was Miss Genius, Lin Xiaoyou!

It had already been several dozen days since Lin Xiaoyou left, hadn’t it?

He’d lost count.

In any case, given Miss Genius’s personality…

There was no way she would just leave the two of them to fend for themselves!

Just like last time, and the time before that, she would definitely sail over in that little white boat, suddenly appearing on the horizon!

Even from far away, she would wave at them and shout, “Senior—Liguang—are you two okay—?!”

And besides…

Fang Qi lowered his brows slightly.

Even if they really couldn’t accomplish anything in the end, and Miss Genius never came to help them…

They could deal with that when the time came.

After all, Liguang could bring them back at the cost of losing her memories from this cycle. That was at least a fallback option.

It wasn’t the ideal ending, but it wasn’t a dead end, either.

So…

Why was he in such a hurry?

He wasn’t that desperate!

For the sake of 【Ending??: Wife feels so guilty that she lets herself be manipulated】, he could keep working hard!

With that thought, he raised his head and looked toward Liguang, hoping to see the relief on her face.

But the silver-haired girl merely stared at the words he had carved, her mismatched eyes slightly vacant.

Her lips even trembled faintly.

…Hm?

Fang Qi’s eyelids twitched.

…What did that mean?

Was something troubling her?

What else was this Crazy Girl keeping from him?

But before he could carve out a question, Liguang sniffed and gave a soft little yawn.

“Master, Liguang is sleepy…”

Her eyelids began to droop, and her head bobbed slightly. Her voice grew softer and softer.

“Liguang wants to sleep first…”

Fang Qi looked at her, but in the end, he swallowed the question he’d wanted to ask.

He carved:

【Go to sleep. Get some good rest.】

【When we wake up tomorrow, we’ll think of a solution together.】

She gave a quiet “Mm” and buried her pretty face in the blanket.

Fang Qi lay down beside her as well.

He turned onto his side, facing her, and watched the half of her profile that remained outside the blanket.

Her breathing gradually steadied, and the slender fingers clutching the edge of the blanket slowly relaxed.

The sea breeze was gentle, and the stars shone brightly.

He looked up at the sky and thought…

This was fine, too. At least she wouldn’t have to agonize over things tonight.

But then again…

He blinked.

Was agonizing over things actually a good thing?

The more she agonized over things, the more obedient she would be after they returned…

Fang Qi thought this, and the corners of his lips curled upward.

He turned over, facing the starry sky, and closed his eyes.

All that remained in his ears was the sound of waves lapping against the raft, along with the soft, steady breathing beside him.

A lullaby’s rhythm.