Qi Xia slowly sat up with a furrowed brow, reaching out to gently touch Yu Nian’an’s face. “An, are you feeling unwell?”
Yu Nian’an still didn’t respond. After a moment of contemplation, she spoke again, “Knock, knock, knock.”
Though utterly bewildered, Qi Xia tentatively asked, “Who’s at the door?”
This time, however, Yu Nian’an didn’t reply with her usual, “So Qi Xia is home.” Instead, she fixed her gaze on him and enunciated each word clearly, “The person outside… isn’t me.”
“What…?” Qi Xia felt completely lost. “An, are you… sleepwalking?”
Yu Nian’an ignored him, slowly lying back down and closing her eyes as if nothing had happened.
Soon, her breathing steadied, as though she had fallen back asleep.
Qi Xia gently patted her back, trying to comfort her. Maybe she had been too exhausted from the days he’d been away.
“Don’t worry, An. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay right here with you,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around her.
…
“Knock, knock, knock.”
Qi Xia jolted awake to find Yu Nian’an sitting beside him again.
Outside the window, the night remained pitch black, and in the dimness, only her glistening eyes were visible.
“An… you…”
He sat up slowly, an uneasy feeling creeping into his chest.
“Knock, knock, knock,” Yu Nian’an repeated.
Qi Xia studied her face—tears seemed to well in her eyes.
“What’s really going on?”
He desperately wanted to understand why she was doing this.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
But Yu Nian’an appeared capable of only uttering those words.
After a long silence, Qi Xia finally asked, voice trembling, “Who’s… at the door?”
“Xia, the person outside… isn’t me.”
A single tear rolled down Yu Nian’an’s cheek, glimmering faintly in the darkness before tracing halfway down her face and falling.
With that, she closed her eyes and lay back down.
She was asleep again.
But Qi Xia couldn’t sleep anymore.
In the seven years they’d been together, Yu Nian’an had never cried.
He had vowed never to let her tears touch the ground in his lifetime.
Yet this time, he had failed.
She looked utterly heartbroken—her eyes like daggers carving despair into her very soul.
A putrid stench began to permeate the room, making everything feel surreal.
This was a smell unique to the “Land of the End.” Why was it here in reality?
The darkness was suffocating.
Qi Xia couldn’t tell if this was real or the “Land of the End.” All he could do was hold Yu Nian’an tightly, trying to steady his racing heart.
Time crawled by. About an hour later, he felt her stir.
He loosened his embrace just enough to watch as she sat up again.
Her eyes were open, staring directly at him.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
Qi Xia sat up slowly, a horrifying suspicion taking root in his mind.
If his hunch was right, this would be the most terrifying revelation of his life.
“Who’s at the door?” he asked, voice shaking.
Yu Nian’an paused before whispering, “The… person… outside… isn’t… me.”
As she spoke, tears of anguish spilled from her eyes.
And in that moment, Qi Xia shattered.
Watching her lie back down, he couldn’t stop his own tears from flooding out.
So this was it…?
She was suffering, powerless to resist.
She knew the one saying “knock, knock, knock” wasn’t Yu Nian’an. She knew she wasn’t herself.
Yu Nian’an shouldn’t exist—yet here she lay.
Why was she here?
What had brought her into being?
“What… is my ‘Echo’ really?”
Qi Xia curled into himself, fingers gripping his hair in the darkness.
His entire belief system crumbled like a collapsing building, fracturing from the foundation up.
Why had the meals Yu Nian’an cooked today matched his exact expectations?
Why did every flavor align perfectly with his preferences?
Why did her memories of their seven years together mirror his own without a single discrepancy?
Why did she carry the scent unique to the “Land of the End”?
Wasn’t the answer glaringly obvious now…?
His entire body trembled.
The Yu Nian’an before him was neither real nor fake.
She was something he had *created*.
A product of his “Echo,” born from his *beliefs*—naturally, she would reflect his thoughts perfectly.
The tremors grew violent as doubt consumed him.
If this Yu Nian’an was fabricated…
Then where was the real one?
“No… that can’t be…”
The question looped back to the beginning—did Yu Nian’an even exist?
If she didn’t, where had those seven years of memories come from?
Had he really risked his life to scam a criminal for her sake? Was it all just a delusion?!
“Stop joking around…” Qi Xia shook his head.
He *knew* he had lived with Yu Nian’an. The memories were too vivid, too deeply etched into his soul.
No one lives solely for another person.
But Qi Xia was different—he had always felt he existed *for* Yu Nian’an.
If she wasn’t real, where had his convictions come from?
Those seven years…
Lin Qin’s voice echoed in his mind: *”Qi Xia, for at least seven years, I’ve never heard of someone like you in the ‘Land of the End.'”*
His brow furrowed as clarity began to dawn.
For seven years, he had never once left the interview room.
Could it be… he hadn’t even been *in* the room at all?
That was why he hadn’t led anyone to escape. That was why no one in the “Land of the End” had seen him—or Qiao Jiajin, or Officer Li.
“Was I… with Yu Nian’an back then…?”
The bold thought took root.
He knew he couldn’t have entered the “Land of the End” just three cycles ago. He must have been here much earlier.
From his past conversations with Zhu Que and Bai Hu, he gathered that his former self had turned the “Land of the End” upside down—maybe even escaped.
He had returned to the real world while the others remained trapped.
Then he met Yu Nian’an and spent seven years with her in reality.
But something had happened after those seven years, dragging him back into this cursed place, forcing everything to reset.
“This makes too much sense…” Qi Xia muttered.
Unless someone’s memories spanned over seven years, no one could have known about his past.
He teetered on the edge of madness and reason, balanced on a precarious threshold.
One more push, and he might plunge into irrevocable insanity.
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