Chapter Five: Nine Loves

“Which three did you abandon?” “The third asked me to kill her. Wen Que had turned her eyes into a camera. Each time she opened them, a street vanished. The sixth restored every discarded reality. The versions crushed one another, and millions died. I shut down her projector.” “And the eighth?” “She asked me to flee Jichuan with her. I promised, then went back to save the city. She died alone at the station.” Now Ye Lan understood why he looked at her as both survivor and relic. “Are you protecting me, or a chance to atone?” “At first, atonement. Later, every Ye Lan was different. You shared only one infuriating habit—you saved someone else first.” “Moving testimony,” Bai said. “It doesn't erase a choice.” “I didn't ask her to forgive me.”