Chapter Seventy-six: Forbidden Love

The silence in the room lingered until noon, when the blazing sun scorched the earth. Though it was spring, the heat made it feel as if summer had already arrived. The room was unbearably stuffy, filled with an unpleasant odor.

Qin Yu looked at the three people who remained silent. She rose from her seat and walked over to Tao. Sensing someone approaching, Tao’s body tensed up.

Qin Yu stopped about a meter away and spoke, “The departed are gone; may they rest in peace.”

At these words, Tao gradually relaxed. With a choked voice, she began, “When I was three months old, my parents abandoned me because of my blood-red eyes. They believed I was an omen of misfortune. He found me and took me home, always telling me my eyes were beautiful, a gift from heaven. He cared for me tenderly, giving me whatever I wished for.

At five, for reasons unknown, he left the city where we’d lived and brought me to Kaiyuan Town. He continued to pamper me as before, but from then on, he stopped letting me see other people. He locked me in the basement, training me endlessly—handling guns, assassination, hypnosis. Whenever I was exhausted and broken, he’d hold me, apologizing over and over.

Three years passed this way, day and night spent in relentless training. At eight, I finally achieved the goal he had set for me.

I thought that would be the end, that perhaps he’d give me tasks to complete, which meant I could finally meet people, finally see the world outside. But I was wrong again. His gaze grew deeper and more intense; I never understood what it meant until one day I saw him pinning a woman down, calling my name. Only then did I realize—he had fallen in love with me.

He loved the eight-year-old me, while I had always regarded him as my master. I hated him, hated this forbidden affection.

But my hatred didn’t make him let me go. I told him I hated him, and he merely smiled and said he loved me. After that, I never left the town again. He imprisoned me, but he never took the final step; every time, he would resolve his desires himself, then hold me tightly, crying and apologizing, saying he loved me. What is love, really?

To him, loving me meant keeping me by his side forever, never letting me leave.

Whenever I heard laughter in the distance, I longed to see the sky outside. But I couldn’t escape. Fearing I would run away, he not only locked me in handcuffs but cruelly severed my tendons and forced me to drink the drug he had developed.

Do you know what that drug does?”

Tao turned to Qin Yu with a sorrowful smile. Qin Yu looked at the tear-streaked face before her and slowly shook her head.

Tao’s smile grew even more desolate. “It turns people into living corpses. After taking it, I became something neither human nor ghost. Do you know my reaction when I saw myself in the mirror? I smashed it and cried out, but no tears came—not a single drop. As I touched my gradually cold body, I laughed and told him to kill me. He just held himself, whispering that he loved me. Isn’t it ridiculous?

A month before the apocalypse, he must have sensed something was coming. He moved me into the basement and worked day and night on experiments. Half a month later, he gave me more medicine, and I fell into a coma.

When I woke up, I discovered my tendons were intact, and the basement was just as you saw it earlier. He was holding me in that coffin. When I awoke and saw the bruised wounds and his already cold body, I laughed—he was dead! Ha! Dead! Do you understand? He’s gone from this world forever!

When I left the basement, I found the town controlled by some mysterious force—a zombie. I narrowly escaped being discovered several times, living cautiously, but fortunately there was plenty of food stocked in the house, as if he had prepared it for me.

Only when you arrived, Qin Yu, did I find release. You destroyed the zombie, and the town returned to normal. No, it became utterly silent.

Afterward, I wandered outside until I caught that cat and met you. Do you know, at that moment, I thought of him—he’s still lying cold and alone in that town.

Later, I returned to the town, and you arrived soon after. I knew you weren’t ordinary, and I sensed that this man, Xia Cheng, possessed healing abilities. So I hoped you could save him, and I led you there.

But he turned into a zombie! Ha! He doesn’t remember anything anymore—he’s forgotten everything! All that talk of love was a lie. Lies! And his apologies—what right does he have to apologize? What right! What right to forget me just when I realized I loved him! Why! Ha!”

Tao laughed through her tears, making Qin Yu’s heart ache.

“It’s not true, not like that,” Zhao Meng suddenly lifted her head, staring intently at Tao.

Tao stopped laughing, staring blankly at Zhao Meng.

“It wasn’t like that when we went to the basement today. He was clearly in a deep sleep, no sign of life. So why did he wake up? Why did he find this place so quickly? Because he sensed your presence. Why didn’t he attack us when he entered, but instead pointed at you and made sounds? Why, during the fight, did he never move towards you? Why did he stop attacking when you fired at him and stare straight at you? Have you ever thought about these things?

Because he loves you! He always remembers you! Even after becoming a zombie, with his mind ravaged by the virus, forgetting everything else, he still remembers you, because you’re more important to him than himself!

He loves you, just in the wrong way. And you, blinded by your so-called freedom, have hurt him—and yourself.

You ask why? Maybe in this competition called love, he fell for you first, so he lost his life. And you, realizing too late, lost the rest of your days.”

Zhao Meng’s eyes reddened as she gazed at the stunned Tao. Then she sighed, leaned into Xia Cheng’s embrace, and murmured, “Honey, I’m tired.”

Xia Cheng held Zhao Meng with endless affection. “Alright, dear, let’s rest.”

He led her to the bedroom. In the living room, Qin Yu watched Tao, who seemed lost and hollow, sighed, then stored the man’s corpse in her spatial pocket, and walked into another bedroom.

“Was I really wrong?” Tao’s faint murmur echoed in the room.

A gentle breeze stirred her clothes, as if it was the man offering comfort.

Can I say that I was moved while writing this chapter? Suddenly, I feel that every character in this world I created is full of flesh and blood, living out their own trajectories. Thinking this way, I feel motivated to keep writing.

Good night, my dear friends.