Chapter 232
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After the haircut, the two of them went to find a hotel.
The city’s residents had all been evacuated to bomb shelters or safe houses, leaving the hotel empty. Lou Yan took the master key from the hotel and led Fu Xuezhou to the top-floor luxury suite.
As soon as the door closed, Lou Yan was immediately and passionately embraced by his boyfriend, who held up one of his hands and kissed him passionately.
Such an eager and longing gesture skyrocketed the hormones, as if there was no time to wait even for a second. Lou Yan instantly felt a sensation of being on fire, and he responded with equal passion to Fu Xuezhou, his left hand continuously caressing Fu Xuezhou’s nape and hair.
“Why are you in such a hurry,” Lou Yan leaned back slightly, his lips barely touching Fu Xuezhou’s, his voice hot and teasing.
“It’s the last time,” Fu Xuezhou’s breathing changed, slightly hoarse, “Lou Yan, I can’t wait.”
The words “the last time” stabbed Lou Yan like a knife. He gritted his teeth, feeling thorns twisting around his body, burning his eyes.
At that moment, he suddenly didn’t want to argue with Fu Xuezhou anymore.
He fiercely bit Fu Xuezhou’s lip, breaking the skin, blood oozing out. Lou Yan tasted the metallic tang of Fu Xuezhou’s blood, his voice becoming even huskier, “Get on the bed.”
This hotel was a five-star hotel, and the luxury suite was the best room in the hotel. The bed was extremely soft, giving a feeling of sinking into the clouds.
But at this moment, the quality of the bed didn’t catch the attention of the users.
Lou Yan was exceptionally cooperative this time, and in the end, Fu Xuezhou even remembered Lou Yan’s words, “No protection, no action,” and found the necessary items from the bedside table.
—Even though he didn’t like using them.
Fu Xuezhou was not someone who cared about others’ emotions, but for Lou Yan, he learned to slowly consider Lou Yan’s feelings and even learned to prioritize Lou Yan’s feelings over his own.
“…” Lou Yan said, “Fu Xuezhou, we don’t need those this time. Just come in directly.”
…
The body was leaping over mountains, but the soul was tied up like a rope, struggling and only brought along with it dense and painful injuries.
Lou Yan accidentally pressed the remote control, and the TV turned on, displaying nothing but snowy static on the screen.
No one cared about the snowflakes. Suddenly, Fu Xuezhou said, “The things we hoarded before are no longer needed.”
It took Lou Yan several seconds to realize what he meant.
“What a pity.”
Fu Xuezhou lowered his gaze and repeated.
How did it come to this?
When they started to adjust to each other and thought there was plenty of time to continue adjusting, the future vanished with a “pop” like a bubble bursting.
“…Fu Xuezhou.”
Lou Yan called out.
“Yeah.”
“Fu Xuezhou.”
“I’m here.”
“Fu Xuezhou…”
“I know,” Fu Xuezhou kissed Lou Yan’s hot and reddened eyelids, “I know.”
What do you know?
Lou Yan wanted to ask, but couldn’t find the words.
Because he didn’t even know what he wanted to express.
…
Fu Xuezhou seemed to have unlocked some hidden potential this time and said a lot of lewd words to Lou Yan, making Lou Yan blush and hot. He covered Fu Xuezhou’s mouth fiercely, gritting his teeth, “Can you stop talking dirty?”
Fu Xuezhou removed Lou Yan’s hand, leaned close to Lou Yan’s ear, and said, “But you like it.”
Veins popped on Lou Yan’s forehead. “Where did you see that I like it?”
“Every time I say something, you’re very sensitive,” Fu Xuezhou paused, “just like now.”
Lou Yan: “…”
You b*stard, scram!
***
When everything was over, it was already noon.
Lou Yan laid on the bed, his chest rising and falling unevenly. He looked at the ceiling, sweat dripping from his forehead, his eyes somewhat absent-minded.
What should he do?
Half the day had already passed.
Lou Yan was restless. Suddenly, he sat up on the bed and said, “Let’s go eat.”
Fu Xuezhou looked at his back for a few seconds. “Okay.”
But there was nowhere to eat at the moment. In the end, Fu Xuezhou brought Lou Yan to a restaurant, steamed a pot of rice, and cooked a stew, which was the only dish he knew how to make.
Lou Yan wasn’t hungry, but he forced himself to eat two bowls. He ate slowly, and Fu Xuezhou didn’t eat, nor did he urge Lou Yan. He just sat quietly across from Lou Yan, watching him.
A meal would eventually come to an end no matter how slow it was. Lou Yan put down his chopsticks, turned his face away and didn’t want to look at Fu Xuezhou.
There were only the sounds of their breathing left in the restaurant. Suddenly, Fu Xuezhou said, “Do you remember what I said to you before?”
Lou Yan asked hoarsely, “What did you say?”
“I said I had only seen one person before who had abilities related to time,” Fu Xuezhou said.
Lou Yan replied, “I remember. You were talking about yourself, right?”
Fu Xuezhou nodded slightly. “Yes.” Then he said slowly, “I didn’t know why you had the ability to rewind time before. It turns out it was because you ate ‘my’ heart.”
Lou Yan bit his lip and turned to look at him.
Fu Xuezhou lazily sat in his chair, one hand casually resting on the table. Lou Yan had just cut his silver hair, but everything was overshadowed by his pitch-black eyes, focused intently on Lou Yan.
“My ‘Phoenix Rebirth’ can’t make the world go back again, Lou Yan. But you can,” he said. “As long as you eat my heart again and inherit the ‘Phoenix Rebirth’ ability from me, combined with your current ability to rewind time, you will have the power to return the Earth to before the anomalies appeared.”
“And this time, the anomaly Resurgance will never reappear.”
“Because the Anomaly Lord is already dead, and your power is only sufficient to rewind the Earth’s timeline, not enough to make the anomalies backtrack along with it
Fu Xuezhou’s tone was so slow and calm, but Lou Yan could hear the hidden reluctance in it.
Lou Yan stared at Fu Xuezhou blankly, understanding what Fu Xuezhou meant. The abilities provided by the two hearts of Fu Xuezhou could help him bring the entire planet back to the past. However, due to the limitations of the abilities, only this planet and the people living on it could return to the past.
The new world would be free of anomalies, and the populations lost to death and the lands ravaged by war would return to the peaceful world.
But.
“But,” Lou Yan said, “the new world won’t have you, right?”
Fu Xuezhou fell silent for a long time before nodding slightly.
Lou Yan let out a bitter laugh, slapped the table hard, and said aggressively, “Can you be sure?! What if the new world has you?!”
“In that case,” Fu Xuezhou lowered his gaze, then lifted his eyelids to meet Lou Yan’s, “I hope I can become a true human being.”
Lou Yan covered his eyes with his hand, his eyes burning hot, scorching his palms.
“Fu Xuezhou,” his voice was hoarse, “you’ve always been a human.”
***
Leaving the restaurant, the two of them held hands and walked slowly into a deserted forest.
At the final moment, they didn’t want anyone else to witness this scene. This was a farewell only for the two of them, and only Lou Yan could face the completely anomalous Fu Xuezhou.
Fu Xuezhou took out the heart from the wooden box. He watched as Lou Yan slowly transformed into a berserk state, a gash opening in his chest. Fu Xuezhou placed the heart back into his own chest.
But as the heart merged with his body, Fu Xuezhou writhed in agony on the ground. Tentacles flailed wildly from his body, uprooting and snapping the surrounding trees.
The ground was scarred with deep grooves, Fu Xuezhou’s wings flapped wildly, his crimson eyes narrowed into vertical slits, black viscous fluid oozed from his pores, quickly burying him in a pool of black slime.
“Fu Xuezhou!”
Lou Yan wanted to approach, but with a “boom,” a large tree fell in front of him. Lou Yan turned his face aside, raising his hand to shield himself from the dust, feeling a sudden surge of heavy, oppressive pressure spreading outward.
“Fu Xuezhou?”
Lou Yan looked past the fallen tree, his pupils dilating.
In front of him sat a huge, hideous black anomaly.
This anomaly was much uglier than Fu Xuezhou’s berserk form, even more terrifying than the “Anomaly Lord” on the battlefield. It resembled a fusion of countless anomalies, like a large tree with branches made of many pale bones, each branch hanging different anomalous bodies. Black slime dripped continuously from its body, its crimson eyes cold and ruthless, filled with malice and cruelty, as if the eyes at the end of the universe were peering into all.
A strong wind swept by, causing the other anomalies hanging on the anomaly to sway like fruits on a tree.
Lou Yan and the anomaly stared at each other, Lou Yan feeling his breath forcibly stop, immersed in the terror of those eyes, as if drowning in the depths of the sea. His mental strength plummeted, unable to find a chance to surface for air in the deep sea.
—Such a mental impact could shatter one’s soul.
Just when Lou Yan thought he was about to suffocate to death, his mind suddenly relaxed, and the anomaly actually closed its eyes, suppressing its mental pressure.
“Fu Xuezhou…” Lou Yan breathed in fresh air deeply, smiling bitterly, “You still have your sanity, right?”
The anomaly sat silently like a mountain of h*ll.
Lou Yan looked at the anomaly attentively for a while, then stepped closer to its side, gazing up at its reaction, and tentatively touched its body.
The anomaly remained motionless, neither pushing him away nor opening its eyes to look at him.
Lou Yan wanted to laugh but couldn’t, wanted to cry but couldn’t. He took a deep breath and climbed onto the anomaly’s body.
The black slime coated Lou Yan’s body, gentle as if it had a consciousness, guiding Lou Yan’s feet upward. The countless other anomalies hanging on the anomaly avoided Lou Yan’s path, their grimacing heads, trembling pale fingers, and crawling black hair all remaining motionless as Lou Yan passed by, as if afraid of startling him.
Everything on this “Mountain of H*ll” seemed to favor Lou Yan, to the point where he reached the anomaly’s chest effortlessly without expending any effort.
Lou Yan looked up silently at the tightly closed eyes of the anomaly, his own eyes gradually blurring. As tears slid from the corners of his eyes, a delicate black tendril reached out cautiously, gently wiping away Lou Yan’s tears.
It seemed to say: “Don’t cry.”
Lou Yan couldn’t hold back any longer. He knelt to the ground, more and more tears falling, his cries restrained yet filled with agony.
Countless anomaly heads turned in Lou Yan’s direction, more and more tendrils reaching out towards him but hesitating, afraid to touch him. Strands of hair urgently crawled to Lou Yan’s side on the surface of the anomaly bodies, but likewise, they were hesitant.
Those pale blue hands wanted to touch Lou Yan, but hesitated before reaching him. The black viscous fluid touched by the tears spun in place like boiling water, making “gulugulu” sounds.
In the end, it was that slender finger that first encircled Lou Yan’s wrist. It pulled Lou Yan to his feet, leading him to the left chest of the anomaly, and pointed to the spot beneath Lou Yan’s feet.
Lou Yan knew it was telling him: the heart is right here.
With red eyes, Lou Yan glanced at the spot but continued to climb upward, eventually standing in front of the anomaly’s face.
“Fu Xuezhou,” Lou Yan said hoarsely after a few minutes of silence, “Won’t you open your eyes and look at me anymore?”
The anomaly closed its eyes quietly, and another tendril reached out, seemingly wanting to take Lou Yan down.
Lou Yan dodged the tendril, and suddenly took something out of his pocket – it was a fruit candy found in the hotel.
Lou Yan tore open the candy wrapper, silently placed the candy on his lips, then closed his eyes and kissed the grotesque lips of the anomaly.
This kiss, with a hint of sweetness, caused the anomaly’s eyelids to tremble, and everything seemed to quiet down. In the midst of the mountain forest, the human maintained the posture of kissing the anomaly until the candy in their lips completely disappeared.
The slender tentacle pulled Lou Yan downward again. Lou Yan had no strength to resist and followed it down unsteadily. Whenever he was about to fall, the black slime would support him, allowing him to proceed smoothly.
Arriving at the anomaly’s chest again, Lou Yan knelt on one knee. Numbly, he placed his hand on the chest and gently reached downwards. Who knew that a seemingly effortless touch would easily break through the anomaly’s flesh, allowing him to touch the anomaly’s heart, which was beating heavily, much larger than before, inside the anomaly’s body.
Everything went too smoothly, even smoother than when Lou Yan swallowed the heart of his other self from another world. With almost no effort, Lou Yan’s hand broke through the anomaly’s flesh and touched the anomaly’s heart.
Lou Yan closed his eyes, his eyelashes moist. He hesitated for a long time, until his body felt numb and his fingers stiff, before slowly pulling out the heart from the anomaly’s body.
At the moment the heart separated from the body, the anomaly’s eyelids moved again. It seemed to want to open its eyes to look at Lou Yan, but out of some concern, it chose to keep its eyes closed.
“Fu Xuezhou.”
Lou Yan held Fu Xuezhou’s heart, stiffly brought it to his lips, and said, “Look at me.”
The anomaly remained motionless, silently refusing.
Tears fell onto the heart, Lou Yan opened his mouth, and mechanically began to swallow Fu Xuezhou’s heart. As he chewed, the colossal body of the anomaly slowly turned into mush.
Lou Yan’s body was drenched in the anomaly’s blood, and he almost collapsed as he consumed it. The anomalous power within the heart disappeared along with the death of the Anomaly Lord, but Fu Xuezhou’s innate ability, Phoenix Nirvana, slowly flowed into Lou Yan’s body, merging with the ability he had acquired from another version of himself, Time Reversal.
Tears and blood mixed together as Lou Yan knelt on a puddle of blood and mud. In the end, the anomaly finally opened its eyes, and with its terrifying crimson eyes, it glanced at Lou Yan one last time.
“Fu Xuezhou!!!”
Seeing this glance, Lou Yan staggered to his feet and rushed towards the anomaly’s head. But by the time he reached there, even those final crimson eyes had turned into blood.
“Ahhhh!!!”
Lou Yan gritted his teeth tightly. He closed his eyes, and blood-red tears streamed down his cheeks. A sense of powerlessness spread throughout his body as he collapsed into the bloody flesh formed by the anomaly, slowly being submerged in the red flesh.
The weather today was very nice.
Lou Yan calmly looked at the blue sky and white clouds. As he was about to be engulfed by the blood and flesh, he gently closed his eyes, offering no resistance as he was buried in darkness.
“Time reversal.”
A strong burning sensation erupted from Lou Yan’s body, as if he had fallen into a raging fire.
Crackling, the flames seemed to spread rapidly outward.
Go back.
In the last moments before losing consciousness, Lou Yan thought.
Please.
Let everyone go back to the beginning, let everyone have a happy ending.
This was his final, last wish.
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