Part Two: The Truth Behind Her Death
“The cruelest lie is not that fate is unfair—it is believing fate was never stolen in the first place.”
Silence filled the endless white space.
Yu Mingyue did not cry.
Nor did she scream.
She simply stared at the floating golden words, as though they belonged to someone else.
After a long while, she suddenly sighed.
“…What terrible taste.”
System Number 1123 blinked.
“…Pardon?”
Yu Mingyue pointed at the glowing page.
“If the author wanted a tragic white moonlight, couldn’t they at least let me live to eighty first?”
“…”
“I would’ve been happy to die peacefully after traveling the world, eating every dessert I wanted, and enjoying life.”
She clicked her tongue.
“But eighteen?”
She shook her head.
“That’s far too stingy.”
The system had prepared himself for tears.
He had prepared for anger.
He had even prepared for complete emotional collapse.
But…
This reaction had never crossed his mind.
“…You’re not angry?”
Yu Mingyue looked at him.
“I am.”
She smiled.
“But being angry won’t change what already happened.”
The smile on her face remained gentle.
Only her eyes had become frighteningly calm.
“I’ve spent eighteen years fighting with my own body.”
“I know better than anyone.”
“There are some things that cannot be solved by crying.”
System Number 1123 quietly watched her.
He still didn’t understand why Yu Mingyue had been selected.
The assignment hadn’t explained it.
He had only been told her name…
And that he was to remain by her side.
But looking at her now…
Looking at the girl who had just learned that her entire life had supposedly been written for someone else’s ending, yet could still think calmly…
Xiao Bai found himself wondering.
Perhaps…
Whoever had chosen her had seen something he couldn’t yet understand.
Yu Mingyue folded her arms.
“So…”
“You haven’t told me why you came looking for me.”
The system finally remembered his mission.
He waved his tiny hand.
The golden book flipped several pages by itself.
“…Because the story didn’t end.”
Yu Mingyue frowned.
“It didn’t?”
“The original story should have continued exactly as written.”
“But…”
His voice became unusually serious.
“It failed.”
“…Failed?”
“The female lead never obtained her happy ending.”
Yu Mingyue’s eyebrows slowly knitted together.
“What happened?”
The pages turned again.
This time…
They were blank.
Completely blank.
Not a single word remained.
“The story stopped here.”
System Number 1123 looked at the empty pages.
“After your death, the world should have continued.”
“Instead…”
“It completely went off course.”
Yu Mingyue looked puzzled.
“…How?”
The system hesitated.
“…Because they refused.”
“…Who?”
He met her eyes.
“Lu Yanxi.”
“…”
“Gu Mingzhe.”
“…”
“Xie Chengyi.”
The white space became unbearably quiet.
“They…”
“They never accepted your death.”
Yu Mingyue lowered her gaze.
“…”
“They never fell in love with Li Yue.”
“They never even looked at her.”
“The original heroine existed.”
“But she never became the heroine.”
The system waved his hand again.
Countless images appeared in the air.
Yu Mingyue saw Lu Yanxi.
The young man who rarely smiled had become colder than ice.
He buried himself in work.
He spoke even less than before.
The only thing that remained unchanged…
Was the fresh bouquet of white lilies he personally placed before her grave every single week.
Rain or shine.
For eight years.
The picture changed.
Gu Mingzhe stood inside a laboratory.
Stacks of medical journals surrounded him.
His elegant suit had long been replaced by a white research coat.
Dark circles lingered beneath his eyes.
On the desk…
Every research project was related to congenital heart disease.
Every single one.
Another image appeared.
Xie Chengyi.
A vast underground laboratory.
Machines larger than houses.
Countless blueprints covered every wall.
The words printed across the largest blueprint made Yu Mingyue’s breathing stop.
Time-Space Transition Device
“…A time machine?”
System Number 1123 nodded.
“Yes.”
“He intends to go back eight years.”
Yu Mingyue instinctively laughed.
“…Impossible.”
“So we thought.”
The system’s expression remained solemn.
“But…”
“He succeeded.”
The smile on Yu Mingyue’s face slowly froze.
“…What?”
“He actually created a machine capable of tearing open the river of time.”
“He shouldn’t have been able to.”
“It should have remained theoretical forever.”
“But…”
“He did it.”
Yu Mingyue stared blankly at the image.
The quiet boy who used to spend hours taking apart toy robots beside her hospital bed…
Had actually built something capable of rewriting history.
“…How?”
“He wasn’t alone.”
The system looked at another image.
“Lu Yanxi funded the project.”
“Unlimited funding.”
“No matter how much money it required.”
“He gave it.”
Another image.
“Gu Mingzhe abandoned every other field of medicine.”
“He devoted himself entirely to preserving the human body during temporal travel.”
“He solved problems that should have taken decades.”
“And Xie Chengyi…”
The system inhaled softly.
“He solved the impossible.”
Yu Mingyue looked at the three floating images.
One provided wealth.
One conquered biology.
One overturned physics.
Together…
The three impossible geniuses accomplished the impossible.
“…They really…”
“They wanted to bring me back.”
“They never stopped.”
System Number 1123 nodded.
“For eight years.”
“They never gave up.”
Yu Mingyue’s fingers slowly tightened.
A warmth spread through her chest.
Followed immediately by guilt.
“…Idiots.”
Her voice was barely louder than a whisper.
“What were they thinking…”
“They should’ve continued living.”
“They should’ve found people they loved.”
“They should’ve forgotten me.”
“They couldn’t.”
The answer came quietly.
Not from the images.
Not from Yu Mingyue.
But from the little system floating beside her.
“They tried.”
“…”
“They couldn’t.”
Another image appeared.
It showed Lu Yanxi standing alone before her gravestone.
Snow covered his shoulders.
He never brushed it away.
His lips moved slightly.
No sound emerged from the image.
But Yu Mingyue knew how to read his lips.
She had watched him speak since childhood.
The words were painfully familiar.
“Come home.”
The image vanished.
Yu Mingyue lowered her head.
“…Yanxi-ge.”
Her voice trembled for the first time.
The system remained silent.
He knew she needed this moment.
After several minutes, Yu Mingyue finally raised her head again.
“…So.”
“The time machine worked.”
“Yes.”
“And that’s why you need me?”
“…Yes.”
The system’s golden eyes became unusually solemn.
“The moment the machine successfully connected with the past…”
“The River of Time fractured.”
“The Three Thousand Worlds began collapsing.”
“If no one stops it…”
He looked directly into her eyes.
“Not only your world.”
“But countless worlds…”
“…will disappear.”
Yu Mingyue’s expression gradually became serious.
“So…”
“What exactly do you need me to do?”
System Number 1123 slowly flew closer.
A brilliant golden contract unfolded between them.
“I want you…”
“…to go home.”
The white space trembled.
Golden light erupted from the contract.
And for the very first time—
Yu Mingyue realized…
Perhaps death had never been the end of her story.
Perhaps…
It was the moment her real story finally began.