The two of them were very close, so close that Wantong could see the faint blue stubble along Li Shen’s lips and the red bloodshot veins in his eyes.
“Tell me, who are you?” Li Shen pinched her delicate chin, the calluses on his fingertips making her feel a bit itchy.
Wan Tong didn’t like seeing him like this—cold, guarded, unwilling to let even the slightest sliver of hope take root in her heart.
“Cen Wantong.” A name slowly slipped from her soft pink lips.
Li Shen heard every single syllable clearly, yet when they came together to form that name, a shadowy emotion trapped him in its grip. His dark eyes, once restrained, churned with a rising storm.
“Who sent you?” His hand gripped her slender shoulders, as if he could shatter her bones with just a little more force.
Yet the moment a faint whimper escaped Wantong’s lips, he instinctively loosened his grip.
“Was it Chen Lei, or Damon?” he guessed, his black eyes still clouded with an oppressive mist.
“I’ve always been here.” She looked into his eyes and added a few more words, “By your side.”
She had awakened this time in his bed.
Noticing the small wooden box on his nightstand, she immediately understood what was inside.
He had been carrying her urn with him all this time, like a man consumed by madness.
Li Shen’s pupils contracted slightly, and he slowly withdrew, releasing her shoulders.
There was much he still needed to understand, yet at the same time, he had never felt so awake.
For ten years, he had believed he had forgotten those eyes of hers, those eyes that always carried a trace of laughter, even when she wasn’t smiling. He had thought he had forgotten her soft, songbird-like voice. But in this moment, he realized her every expression, every sound, had long been etched into his mind, into his very blood.
No matter how impossible it seemed, he convinced himself to believe in her existence. She wasn’t an illusion, nor was she some pawn sent by his enemies to entrap him.
He could see the bleak darkness of his world suddenly parting, letting in a radiant light—so bright it stung his eyes, yet he wanted nothing more than to embrace it.
His palm landed on her bare calf, gripping it lightly. Her fair skin was dotted with tiny red marks, like fine silk marred by the bites of moths.
He took off his shirt.
Wan Tong shrank into the sofa in a daze, biting her lips and lowering her gaze, trying to ignore the overwhelming presence of his body so close to hers.
But even in just a single glance, she caught sight of the uneven scars crisscrossing his shoulders and abdomen.
She shrank further into the sofa, but Li Shen reached out and took hold of her ankle again.
In her view, the soft gray fabric of his shirt fell over her calf. Through the cloth, his fingers applied gentle pressure, wiping away those unsightly little specks.
His movements were swift, his large hands stiff and somewhat clumsy, rough enough to seem as though he might snap her delicate leg in half, yet his touch remained tender.
His eyes flickered toward the red marks on her dress. He scrubbed at them a few more times before finally tossing the now-dirty shirt aside. Then, without warning, he bent down and scooped her into his arms.
Holding her required no effort on his part. He was tall, and in his embrace, she seemed even further from the ground.
She instinctively reached out to grab onto him, but he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Her hand landed directly on his bare chest, and she quickly yanked it back, startled.
Sensing her unease, Li Shen adjusted his arms slightly, holding her more securely against him.
Neither of them spoke.
Slowly, as the shock faded, Wan Tong’s eyes began to sting. A few quiet sobs escaped her lips before she could no longer suppress the flood of emotions. She broke down, crying in muffled wails.
She needed to let it out. This body needed to let it out.
Li Shen remained silent. After placing her onto the bed, he knelt beside her, propping one elbow on the mattress as he gazed down at her.
The sound of her low, stifled weeping struck his heart over and over again, tearing at his nerves, making it impossible to think.
After a long moment, Wan Tong finally heard his deep voice, offering what seemed to be words of comfort.
“I’ll buy you some nice shoes. Stop crying.”
She hiccuped through her tears and lifted her swollen red eyes to look at him. The moment she closed them again, fresh tears rolled silently down her cheeks.
In a choked voice, she added, “And clothes too…”
Wu Li received Li Shen’s call while Daina was still hovering beside him, unwilling to leave.
Daina couldn’t read Chinese, but he stared intently at the words Wu Li jotted down in his notebook. When the call ended, he asked, “Buying clothes?”
The notes looked like clothing sizes, women’s sizes.
Wu Li nodded gravely. He had never bought clothes for a woman before. This task was too daunting. He could go on a mission in F Country, face a hail of bullets, but shopping for clothes? He was hopeless. He was, however, grateful that their organization had always provided them with uniforms.
Thinking of ‘provisions,’ he immediately made a call to find someone else to handle the task.
After pocketing his phone, he turned to see Daina poised to climb the stairs. He immediately grabbed him by the collar. “Where are you going?”
“Keeping watch. Brother Shen’s in danger,” Daina said seriously.
Wu Li dragged him outside instead. “No, you’re the one in danger.”
On a normal day, it would be fine. But right now? Who knew what Brother Shen and that girl were doing? This was not something to be spied on.
Daina looked utterly confused but didn’t resist.
After crying her heart out, Wan Tong suddenly found herself feeling lost in front of Li Shen.
Once Li Shen confirmed she wasn’t just his hallucination, he seemed to accept her words and regarded her as Cen Wantong.
But she didn’t know what attitude to take toward him.
At that moment, two tall foreign women pushed in a rack of a dozen outfits and nodded respectfully at her. She hurriedly got off the bed and walked to Li Shen’s side.
Li Shen picked up a white dress and handed it to Wan Tong, his voice low. “Go change into this.”
Wan Tong froze for a moment. She almost thought she had returned to the previous world, as if she was still playing a dress-up game.
She held the clothes and disappeared through the doorway.
Li Shen waved the others away, and the room fell silent again. He turned to look at the small wooden box between the two pillows on the bed.
Several times, he had wanted to open it.
But he didn’t know what answer he was looking for.
So be it, he told himself.
Wan Tong tossed aside the bloodstained clothes. In the mirror, her black hair cascaded like a waterfall, her brows were delicate and youthful, and her red-rimmed eyes, still misty with tears, carried an unexpected allure.
She blinked away the moisture and turned on the shower, taking the opportunity to bathe.
While dressing, she noticed pink fingerprints on her lower back and left shoulder.
The sleeveless dress couldn’t cover the mark on her collarbone. She ran her fingers through her damp hair and let it fall over her chest.
When she came out, Li Shen had already changed into a clean, casual outfit—muted gray tones, but his strong physique made even simple clothes exude a unique aura.
As his gaze landed on her, his head throbbed sharply again, his body swayed slightly, and he saw double.
One girl called out sweetly, “Brother Li Shen, you’re here.”
Another stared at him in terror, a bloody hole in her forehead, before slowly collapsing.
“Tongtong…”
Wan Tong watched as his eyes gradually turned crimson. He seemed to be looking at her, yet at the same time, as if he was witnessing something horrifying.
“Brother Li Shen?” She instinctively stepped forward, reaching out to steady his arm.
But the moment she touched him, he reflexively gripped her wrist in a defensive hold.
The world spun, and the next second, Wan Tong was pinned beneath him on the bed.
Li Shen looked disheveled, trembling like an addict in withdrawal.
She reached out and embraced his head. When he froze, she gently covered his ears with her palms.
His rough hand rested on the back of hers, and the overlapping voices in his head gradually faded.
All that remained in his vision was the quiet, beautiful face of the girl before him.
Outside the window, perched on a large tree, Daina’s blank expression faltered as he lowered his sniper rifle. Wu Li climbed up beside him in a few swift moves, his face emotionless as he yanked Daina down.
“I saw it,” Dana blinked slowly.
Wu Li hesitated for three seconds before giving in to curiosity. “Saw what?”
“Brother Shen held her and rolled onto the bed. Brother Shen had an episode.” Daina paused before slinging the gun onto his back.
Wu Li’s expression grew serious. Then he heard Daina mutter, “I suspect… Brother Shen cried.”
Wu Li : “Bullsh*t! No way!”
Daina thought for a moment, then wiped his hands, ready to climb the tree again for another look.
Wu Li grabbed the back of his shirt with a dark expression. “Stay put.”
In the following days, Wu Li had no further instructions apart from delivering daily supplies and food to the villa. He hadn’t even seen that girl again.
The guards around the area had been withdrawn, but he had heard that the girl sometimes appeared by the seaside, with Li Shen accompanying her.
He was getting worried. He had never seen Li Shen act so abnormally before.
Who was this girl? Everything was far too strange.
He went to find Damon. That afternoon, the two of them arrived at the seaside villa.
Damon was about the same age as Li Shen. Perhaps due to his profession, he was dressed in a refined, scholarly manner, exuding a reassuring presence. His rimless glasses occasionally concealed the calm depths of his eyes.
“Has Mr. Li’s condition worsened over the past few days?” Damon asked as they walked.
Wu Li hesitated before replying, “Brother Shen… actually seems to be in a pretty good mood.”
Earlier, he had suggested to Li Shen that they should meet with Damon, and Li Shen had agreed.
Hearing Wu Li’s response, Damon’s eyes narrowed slightly behind his glasses, though the faint smile at the corner of his lips remained unchanged. Nothing ever seemed to break his composed facade.
[Host, the anomaly in this world has appeared. You need to accelerate your mission progress.]
The system’s reminder made Damon scoff internally.
[A man on the verge of madness? How hard can it be to complete this mission? But I am curious. Who exactly is he, that you’d go to such lengths to eliminate him?]
[The system does not understand what the Host is referring to.]
Damon let out another silent sneer.
A system that relied on soul contracts to carry out missions. It was so primitive, yet it still insisted on putting on an act.
The villa had a reception room on the second floor.
By the time Damon entered, Li Shen was already standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.
Years of violent struggles had left Li Shen with an air of defiance and danger. Normally, his presence alone was enough to send a chill down people’s spines.
But today, Damon clearly sensed that some of his usual cold hostility had faded.
A flicker of surprise crossed Demeng’s mind, but he stepped forward and greeted him, “Mr. Li.”
Li Shen slowly turned around and sat down on a nearby lounge chair, his expression somewhat languid. However, his deep black eyes flickered with a sharp, penetrating light.
Damon remained outwardly calm as he took a seat across from him. As if engaging in casual conversation, he asked, “I heard that Mr. Li has been in a good mood lately. Are the hallucinations no longer appearing?”
Li Shen shook his head. “They still appear.”
Damon took out a scented candle and slowly lit it. A faint, soothing fragrance spread through the room, inducing relaxation.
“Do you think hallucinations can become reality?” Li Shen gazed at the ceiling, the corner of his lips curving into a faint, almost dazed smile in Damon’s eyes.
A trace of contempt flashed in Damon’s gaze, but he replied, “Mr. Li, you need to relax. Can you tell me about the hallucinations you often see?”
“Cen Wantong.” The name slipped from Li Shen’s thin lips.
Damon’s hand stiffened momentarily before he quickly regained his composure.
Cen Wantong—just hearing the name was enough to stir an unusual reaction in the body he now inhabited. After all, she was his sister. His biological sister.
But unfortunately, Cen Wantong had died young.
What surprised him, though, was that her death had left such a lasting shadow in Li Shen’s heart, becoming an obsession he could not escape.
Damon had intended to continue speaking, but an image of a beautiful face surfaced uncontrollably in his mind, fragments of the original owner’s memories.
The original owner and Cen Wantong had shared a close bond since childhood.
Damon frowned slightly, but when he looked up again, he met Li Shen’s dark, unfathomable gaze. He quickly adjusted his expression. “That name sounds a little familiar.”
In all their previous sessions, Li Shen had never mentioned this name, only spoken of a girl.
Outside the room, Wan Tong was about to step forward when Wu Li stopped her.
“What’s he doing in there?” She already knew he was meeting Damon.
Lately, Li Shen had been by her side constantly, but his condition was worsening. Sometimes, he still mistook her for a hallucination, unable to distinguish between reality and illusion.
She feared that Damon’s treatment would only push him further into deterioration.
“You can ask Brother Shen later,” Wu Li said, trying to maintain a neutral expression. But for someone unaccustomed to talking to girls, his whole body was stiff.
Even though he had only met her a few times, he knew just how much Li Shen cherished her.
“I want to ask now.” Wan Tong’s tone hardened as she stared at him.
Wu Li : “…” See? Clearly a woman spoiled by affection.
After weighing the situation, he finally stepped aside.
Just as Wǎn Tóng was about to move forward, a red dot flickered in front of her eyes, making her uncomfortable.
She tilted her head slightly. A boy on the balcony had a gun aimed at her, silent yet seemingly ready to pull the trigger at any moment.
Li Shen was always surrounded by these strange people.
Recalling something she had witnessed the other day, her palms grew cold.
“Daina,” Wu Li snapped.
Daina tilted his head but ultimately moved the gun away.
At that moment, the door before her opened from the inside. Li Shen stood there, his brows slightly furrowed.
In a flash, Daina vanished before Li Shen could say a word.
Wu Li rubbed his nose, silently relieved for Daina. The guy always acted like the world ceased to exist when he closed his eyes. As long as he didn’t hear Li Shen reprimand him, he wouldn’t have to change his reckless ways.
Wan Tong no longer paid attention to Daina. Instead, she looked at Li Shen and asked curiously, “Brother Li Shen, what were you doing?”
“Meeting a friend.” Li Shen lowered his gaze to her.
As he spoke, a man’s figure appeared behind him.
Wan Tong glanced at the man, guessing he must be Damon—the psychologist, the Raider.
It was a completely unfamiliar face, yet she felt a strange sense of familiarity.
She blamed Shishi for not providing her with enough information on the Raider.
When Damon saw the girl looking at him, his hands, hidden behind his back, clenched tightly. He suppressed the overwhelming emotions surging in his chest, barely restraining the urge to pull her into his arms.
Yet, despite his effort to remain rational, the bitterness seeping into his eyes made their corners turn slightly red.
Damon was too deeply affected by the original owner’s emotions. He had no choice but to lower his gaze, avoiding that face.