Split Zone No.13

Volume 5
310 Don’t Say You Love Me

I could not see further than three meters from the window. There was nothing but white fog everywhere.

“There’s nothing here,” I said as I tried my best to look outside through the window.

“Let’s go out and have a look,” Gaoqin Jiuye said.

“How do we go out? There doesn’t seem to be any doors around.” I looked around the empty hall. There was nothing here.

“We can still go out even if there’s no door.” Gaoqin Jiuye smirked as the air around us started to fizzle. As his pupils dilated, the air around us formed conical spikes which flew straight at the glass window.

I gasped. He didn’t even think much about it before he acted.

“I’m full, Huan Qing gege.” Mi Fu smiled as she looked up at Huan Qing, looking totally different from when she mentioned Ku Fei earlier.

Huan Qing’s eyes looked pained as he seemed to force a smile out of himself. “It’s good that you’re full.”

Mi Fu did not seem to register Huan Qing’s emotions as she repacked the lunch box and handed it to him, asking, “Is Huan Qing gege going over to Xiao Mi jiejie’s place later?”

Huan Qing took the lunch box and said, “Yes, I’m staying over at her place tonight.”

Mi Fu put on a pitiful face. “But I’m scared, Huan Qing gege. Can you stay here with me tonight?”

Huan Qing looked like he was in a dilemma. “This seems…”

Mi Fu then added quickly, “It’s okay to just say that you’re my older brother. You know that the director of the orphanage takes rather good care of me, since I’m the only one who had been unconscious for such a long period of time. They all think that you’ve just found my older brother, and it’s just that I can’t leave yet. But I’m sure they’ll allow some exceptions…”

Mi Fu spoke in this soft tone that made people want to protect her. I frowned at this, but it helped Huan Qing make his decision.

“Okay. Let me just give Xiao Mi a call to let her know.”

Mi Fu raised her head as if she had just received a present, nodding at the same time. “Okay, okay!”

Huan Qing smiled sweetly at her before he walked out of the room.

I decided to follow him outside. Turning around to look at Mi Fu, I saw her look in the direction where Huan Qing had went with a rather creepy smile on her face.

Huan Qing lit a cigarette at the end of the corridor.

The smoke obscured part of that unfamiliar face of his. I couldn’t see his expression clearly, but I could feel the sorrow behind all that cigarette smoke.

He made a call on his mobile phone. This was the first time I heard the female voice on the other side of the call, but it was Huan Qing who spoke first.

“Xiao Mi… Mi Fu wants me to accompany her for tonight. You okay on your own tonight?”

“Qing, what’s happening? Didn’t you say you were just sending her food? This happened the previous time too. You suddenly have a younger sister ever since you woke up in the hospital. You’re not telling me the truth. Why are you being so nice to this stranger?”

The female on the other end of the call sounded very frustrated, as if she just decided to let out all that steam she had been suppressing for a long time.

Huan Qing tried to explain. “It’s not like what you think. I’ve told you this before; it’s not entirely without reason. It’s just that I can’t say it. Just treat it like she’s someone I have to protect after meeting her in my dreams while I was unconscious, okay?”

“You said the same thing the last time. You don’t seem to care about me at all after you woke up. All your energy and thoughts are on her. You said you got to know her in your dreams while you were unconscious, and you found out she really existed as a person after waking up. Who are you trying to kid? There can’t be such coincidences in this world. I’ve wanted to ask if she might be your father’s illegitimate child or something of that sort…”

That conversation lasted for a long time, but it ended without any closure. I could tell that this incident, if left unsolved, would end up being part of the reason or a trigger for a possible break-up.

Huan Qing smoked a few more cigarettes after ending the call and walked back to Mi Fu’s room after he was done. Instead of following him back, I stayed outside in the corridor.

I stayed outside because I saw someone in the corridor, someone that I did not expect to see at all.

Tears escaped me as I looked at that kind and gentle face smiling at me.

It felt like there was finally an outlet for all the days of sorrow and pain I’ve been through. I cried not because I was upset. I was crying tears of joy.

What made us happiest was when we found something we thought we had already lost.

“Grandpa.”

As I met his eyes, I ran into him in an embrace, unable to control my emotions. Yes, I just saw Old Man Fan.

Old Man Fan was no longer a stone statue nor was the top of his skull open like the very first time I saw him. He looked a little frail, but his eyes were gleaming with a fiery light. He was glowing and he looked like an ordinary, happy elderly man.

I was trembling with emotion as I hugged him. There was no one and nothing I could touch in the time I’ve been in this crack in space. It was too painful and too lonely for me.

I began to bawl while hugging Old Man Fan, choking on my words every time I tried to speak.

All that pent-up emotion was released in that very moment; it was something I could not even control. It was lucky that no one else could see us. I could hug Grandpa Fan and cry all I want.

Old Man Fan seemed to understand how I felt as he smiled and patted me on the back as I cried, not saying a word.

I finally looked up at Old Man Fan after crying my fill. I wanted to ask him why he was here, what happened in all this time and a ton of other questions, but Old Man Fan knitted his brows before I could say anything.

“Well, what horrible fate this is. Come with me,” Old Man Fan said suddenly. He pulled me towards Mi Fu’s room before I could even begin any protest.

He moved quickly and we were in Mi Fu’s room in a matter of seconds. Just as I wanted to ask what that was all about, the scene in the room shocked me.

In the real world, the sky had already turned dark. There was no light in the room and visibility was extremely poor. I couldn’t improve my vision since I didn’t have MF, and all I could do was to open my eyes as wide as I possibly could and go closer to have a better look.

Huan Qing was lying on Mi Fu’s bed with his eyes shut, but it did not look like he was sleeping. Mi Fu was watching him quietly from the side. Something felt amiss.

From the point when Huan Qing returned to the room to the point when Old Man Fan and I entered, there definitely wasn’t enough time for Huan Qing to fall asleep. Furthermore, a careful man like him wouldn’t have fallen asleep before Mi Fu did.

Mi Fu also seemed to be a little out of the ordinary.

Cang Ming and Nie Zun’s faces darkened.

Si Luo turned to Cang Ming. “You still insist on fighting?”

Cang Ming looked grim but he was not fazed. “Naturally. I’m here for the woman I love. There’s no use in going back if I can’t protect her.”

His words moved me. I suddenly began to feel envious of Bian Ying.

Si Luo seemed to have anticipated Cang Ming’s response as he said, “I’d definitely have a back-up plan prepared. Would you like to hear it?”

No matter what it was, I guess I’d end up being the sacrificial lamb here. This guy was targeting me…

Any normal person would usually listen to Si Luo’s suggestion, but the unpredictable Cang Ming said, “How about we exchange blows first, Si Luo?”

Bright lights began gathering in his left palm as he raised a hand. The lights gathered to form a white blade and it entwined around Cang Ming’s left wrist where the hilt of the sword should have been.

Attracted by that amazing sword of light, I almost didn’t realize it until Cang Ming waved it at me. I pulled Jiao S in an attempt to escape, but when I tried to focus my MF, I recalled that I didn’t have any and I was actually no different from an ordinary human being.

Jiao S reacted quickly and she was already pulling me away from the attack, but she was only slightly faster. I heard it swoosh past my right ear as it cut through the air.

A deep gash was left on the ground in its wake.

With that speed and the ability to destroy the stone ground with just a casual wave, Cang Ming was no easy opponent.

Cang Ming rested the sword of light on his shoulder. His muscles and dark skin were partially exposed under that blood-red robe, and he flashed a fearless wide smile at us. There was a dangerous but enchanting aura about him.

I felt sweat on Jiao S’s palms. Was she… worried about Si Luo?

Nie Zun avoided Cang Ming’s attack as well, and his coat was ruffled by the gust of wind brought on by the speed of the blade.