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This step I took is irrelevant.
For any ordinary person, this is just a simple statement.
The only thing worth praising is that first time.
The girl who endlessly consumed herself, who hated herself so much she wished she could be someone else, for the first time dared to look directly into those dark eyes.
Look.
Your efforts were not in vain.
You successfully helped me take a crucial step, and now I can do a few insignificant things by my own will.
So... can you... stay with me?
Look at me more, cast your gaze upon me?
...Unable to utter it, merely thinking about it in her heart, merely taking a tiny bit of action, had already exhausted all the girl's courage.
But in those bright, sparkling eyes, amidst the shyness, bashfulness, and fear, this thought had already broken through all limitations, dazzling like a single star in the dim night, timid yet resolute.
Even if doing so might mean losing even her friend.
Even if her only friend truly vanished like a bubble, the girl would undoubtedly plunge into an abyss, unable to even linger as she once did.
Even though such a thing should absolutely not be a choice made by a bystander, a girl who has spent less than a dozen hours in total with the boy throughout the year—a choice with no room for regret.
Yet, her cherry-blossom lips still parted before her thoughts could catch up, releasing the girl's long-suppressed wish.
"Please..."
"Leave Aili Xiya."
...The girl uttered incomprehensible words.
Her voice was soft and sweet, yet unusually firm.
Very clear.
"Eh?"
Jiang Cheng showed a startled and strange expression, subconsciously clutching the card, his fingertips turning a little white from the pressure, the hard edges even slightly warped.
His dark eyes looked at the girl's face in confusion, unable to comprehend what had happened.
What is she saying?
Why would she suddenly say something like that?
Am I just in a bad mood lately?
Am I hearing things?
"I said..."
Seeing that the boy couldn't understand.
The girl let out a heavy sigh and repeated her words again.
This time, her voice was clear, word by word.
Very clear.
"Can I ask you to..."
"...not get close to Aili Xiya anymore?"
Perhaps after taking the first step, realizing there was no turning back, having completely reached the edge of the cliff, unable to escape difficulties as she once did, unable to hide alone anymore.
—The girl found an inexplicable courage in that moment.
There's an image here, viewable after updating to the latest version.
There's an image here, viewable after updating to the latest version.
There's an image here, viewable after updating to the latest version.
21. Aili Xiya never cared about you.
It was as if she had ignited her heart in the barren autumn wind and grassland, igniting her parched, weed-like inner self, in exchange for a fleeting, insignificant spark of fire.
Perhaps a courage that would only appear once in a lifetime.
A courage that almost shouldn't appear in the girl.
When chatting with Jiang Cheng, she only dared to be a little bolder when expressing emotions through characters across a screen.
Even the almost criminal act of prying into the boy's life was confined to the periphery; she never dared to truly intervene, even if the boy wouldn't notice.
Only at this moment, only now.
The girl spoke clearly, word by word.
"Why?"
Jiang Cheng wasn't hearing things; the repeated words completely shattered any lingering hope, making him clearly understand what the girl in front of him wanted to express—a cold, strange atmosphere surged around them, and an oppressive, difficult-to-ignore weight stifled the boy's initial reaction.
Why say these things now?
Could it be... even Vil-V?
"—Because you have never been treated well."
...Every confession, every complaint, shared on his phone in the past, was firmly etched in the girl's heart, deeply ingrained in the furthest reaches of her memory.
—Aili Xiya simply didn't care about Jiang Cheng.
That fairy-like girl simply didn't care about the boy.
What did it matter how beautiful and flawless she was, how unattainable she seemed, how she shone with light? If she didn't care, she just didn't care.
Those involved are confused, but onlookers see clearly.
The essence of a relationship is largely the time and effort one person is willing to invest in another, the degree to which two people are willing to compromise for each other. No matter how grand emotions are said to be, their core essence remains selfishness.
It is precisely because of selfishness that love for an individual can be shown; it is precisely because of favoritism that a love distinct from that for others can be manifested for one person.
No matter how sweet the words.
No matter the honeyed whispers.
No matter how fiercely that word 'love' is uttered.
Ultimately, it's just empty talk. These things have been overused throughout humanity's long history; you can find thousands of such sweet nothings with a casual search.
Only the emotions contained in genuine actions are everything.
Aili Xiya seemed to have a very good, intimate relationship with Jiang Cheng, as if, just as the boy said, their feelings were not so ordinary.
But... was it true?
Was it truly extraordinary?
Was it really Aili Xiya treating Jiang Cheng well, or was it Jiang Cheng's own idealized imagination?
Vil-V hadn't experienced it firsthand. Although she would make small devices to observe Jiang Cheng up close, she only went as far as ordinary observation, never infringing on his privacy in the slightest.
But that was already enough.
This was truly more than enough.
Did one really need to delve into emotions, into details, to find every single manifestation before concluding whether someone was sincere towards another?
No.
That was never the case.
People are completely different, yet no one can deny that actions and thoughts can reach a certain degree of similarity, allowing for partial understanding.
At least, when Aili Xiya truly focused her attention on Jiang Cheng, it was for no more than two or three hours a day. More often, she was like someone being chased by a tiger, eagerly doing her own things, meeting more people.
This emotion was truly just empty talk, hollow characters; the so-called 'traveling together' was more akin to one person accommodating another.
Nominally a trip, in reality, it had long since become Aili Xiya's personal offline meet-and-greet.
Sometimes others came to find her.
Sometimes she went to find others.
All her energy throughout the day was focused on these matters, and what she did were even things that Vil-V couldn't find any connection to.
One day she might meet a businessman, the next she would help a Scholar whose studies were stalled.
She seemed to be purely like a saint, saving and helping everyone she could, changing this somewhat bad world.
Being a good person is not something to be denied; even the girl couldn't truly criticize Aili Xiya for anything.
She wasn't some hypocritical 'saintly bitch,' nor was she a fool who, despite lacking ability, insisted on helping others and thereby put herself in danger. She was truly someone capable of changing everything.
Any strange life forms encountered on the road could be dealt with before Jiang Cheng even noticed, and any disputes could be resolved with a smile.
She was practically a goddess of the stars and moon, far superior to this incompetent and insecure person that was herself.
It's just... Jiang Cheng shouldn't be by her side.
Because Jiang Cheng's original intention wasn't like that; he truly wanted to accompany Aili Xiya, which is why he proactively suggested traveling together, seeing the world together, not with an overflowing sense of kindness to help everyone they encountered.
He just wanted to help Aili Xiya alone, truly nothing more.
Aili Xiya couldn't fulfill this wish.
Perhaps in her eyes, Jiang Cheng was no different from a stranger on the street.
Perhaps Jiang Cheng's status was even lower.
Because according to what the boy said, in the past in the town, she was even willing to run to an orphanage alone or chat with street vendors, playing with them all day, yet she was unwilling to spare even a single day.
Even if it was just to play with Jiang Cheng for one day, even if it was just to spare one insignificant day.
—Vil-V couldn't bear it.
The girl absolutely couldn't bear to see her almost sole friend in life, the savior who pulled her out of her insecurity and self-consumption, treated with such disregard, even like a 'Boiling Sheep' staying by her side.
So... "Please leave Aili Xiya."
"Although I am very incompetent and insecure, and far from as dazzling as Aili Xiya, the Spiral Workshop is just a studio I opened myself."
"Even so..."
"Even if I have no redeeming qualities."
"Even if I am not worthy of saying such words."
"I still hope you can accompany me on a journey that belongs only to the two of us."
...[On your birthday, your best friend Vil-V gave you a birthday gift you had never even imagined.]
[A shy voice, yet with a firm tone, not a confession, but better than a confession.]