She Tried to Fall… But They Refused to Let Her Go

“Why? Why do you always have to bear everything alone?”
Lin Yuxuan spoke angrily as she walked toward Chenlian with fierce intensity.
“Can’t you understand other people’s feelings? Can’t you comprehend how Sister Fuzi feels about you!?”

“I… of course… know!”
Chenlian also seemed unable to hold back any longer. Her emotions and words poured out like a torrent.
“But… I… can’t… hurt… you… any… more… than… this…”

“Accepting us is the best choice for everyone. Why do you have to choose such an extreme path!?
Why is disappearing from our lives the only way you see to stop hurting others!?”
Lin Yuxuan kept closing in.

[Wait! This is bad! At this distance, if Chenlian keeps backing up, she could fall!]
Ye Qing wanted to stop his childhood friend’s reckless action and grabbed Lin Yuxuan’s hand as she continued forward.
Lin Yuxuan quickly turned her head, unclasped the communication watch from her own wrist, and shoved it into Ye Qing’s hand.
Then, with a serious and calm expression, she raised one finger to him.
She turned back and continued walking toward Chenlian.

[One minute. Use this watch to do what you need to do. I’ll handle the rest… is that it?]
Ye Qing was slightly stunned for a moment, then very decisively hid himself behind Fuzi, who had been standing motionless the whole time.
Then he pressed the icon labeled Number 3.

“No matter… what… I’m going… to die… sooner or later!
I don’t… want… any of… you… to… do… something… that might… put… you… in… danger… just… to… protect… me!”

“Chenlian! Tell me, what did you overhear?”
Fuzi, as if finally understanding something, asked Chenlian in a voice tinged with both sadness and anger.

Chenlian, clearly startled, shrank back another step.
“What… I… overheard… doesn’t… matter… I just…”

“Just what? Just planning to disappear quietly on your own, leaving us confused and disoriented, so we’ll gradually forget you exist and won’t fall into danger because of you?”
Lin Yuxuan kept walking forward, pressing her attack without pause.

“Chenlian! Do you think doing that is good for us? Do you think we’d be happy if you did that?”
Fuzi’s voice was full of angry reproach.

Under attack from both sides, Chenlian was clearly even more shaken.
She couldn’t even retort anymore. She could only shake her head incessantly, tears streaming down her face, trying to deny everything.

“Don’t be so self-righteous, Yue Chenlian! We don’t have to listen to your wishes.
We’re doing all of this of our own volition. We just want to do this.
“You don’t have the right to deny what we do!”

“Chenlian! I don’t know what you overheard, but I can tell you with certainty—you are not going to die!
As long as Dr. Hadi and I are here, we will develop a drug to inhibit the mutated cells no matter what.
We will prevent your condition from worsening no matter what!
And we won’t be in any danger either. Even for your future, we won’t die so easily!
We will live together! Always. Forever together. So…”
Fuzi paused, then asked in a gentle voice,
“Will you be my daughter?”

Chenlian froze for a moment at these words.
Her tears suddenly stopped.
It felt as if time had stopped too.
Only those words echoed in her ears: “Will you be my daughter?”
But… even so… still…

Chenlian, seeming to lose control, shook her head desperately, making sobbing sounds, and retreated again.
She was now only five centimeters from the edge of the rooftop.
Lin Yuxuan had closed to within four meters.

At that moment, Fuzi seemed to notice the danger Chenlian was in.
“Chenlian, don’t!”
Fuzi shouted and started running toward Chenlian.

At the same moment, Ye Qing seized the opportunity and shouted the command: “Now!”

Three people—no, four—moved simultaneously.
But the first and fastest was Lin Yuxuan.
Four meters. One push off the ground and she was within 1.5 meters.
Chenlian, startled by Lin Yuxuan’s sudden movement, took a large step backward as if unaware that there was nothing behind her.
Her foot stepped into empty air.
She lost her balance and began to fall over the edge of the rooftop.

Lin Yuxuan, having closed to 1.5 meters in one stride, used her second step to push upward off the ground.
She leaped toward Chenlian.
Just as Chenlian’s body was about to fall, Lin Yuxuan successfully caught her.
Then, in mid-air, she twisted her body so that she was underneath.
Maintaining this position, the two fell rapidly under gravity.

“No!”
Fuzi’s hysterical shout. She rushed toward the edge of the rooftop without any regard for her own safety, showing no sign of slowing down…

Ye Qing saw that the distance wasn’t right. Fuzi was only five meters from the edge.
At her current running speed, she would only catch up at a very precarious point.
[Sister Fuzi! I’m sorry!]
Apologizing to Fuzi in his heart, Ye Qing suddenly changed his running posture and performed a sliding tackle toward Fuzi’s feet.
In an instant, he slid three meters.
Then the tip of his shoe made contact with something hard.
There was a dull thud as someone fell to the ground.
Ye Qing smoothly rose from the sliding tackle position and grabbed Fuzi’s left hand, pinning it behind her back and holding her firmly to the ground.

Fuzi struggled incessantly, reaching out her right hand toward the direction where Chenlian and Lin Yuxuan had fallen.
“No! Chenlian! Chenlian…!”
Fuzi cried out desperately.

“Sister Fuzi! Calm down first!”
Ye Qing’s calm voice tried to suppress Fuzi’s agitated emotions.

“Ye Qing! Let go! Chenlian! I need to see Chenlian…!”
Fuzi still struggled desperately, unable to calm down at all. She only cried and wailed in grief.

Ye Qing sighed. Even though he felt bad for Sister Fuzi, he wouldn’t let go until she calmed down!

With his free hand, Ye Qing looked at the watch, waiting for a report from the other side…

* * * *

Lin Yuxuan used all her strength to hold Chenlian’s body against her own, keeping them fixed together.
Then, in mid-air, she adjusted their falling posture, keeping her back facing the ground.

Close up, Chenlian still looked dazed, as if she hadn’t grasped the situation.
Then, the moment their bodies began to fall, she seemed to understand something—her eyes widened.
She noticed Lin Yuxuan underneath her.
“Lin Yuxuan?”
Chenlian’s confused voice.

Lin Yuxuan’s eyes met Chenlian’s.
Then she smiled and said, “This time, I won’t let go again!”
She wrapped her arms around Chenlian’s body.
Their bodies pressed closely together.
The rushing wind of the fall roared in their ears like a dragon’s howl.
The centrifugal force of the fall pulled their hearts downward as well, and in that moment, their hearts seemed to connect.
[An incredible feeling—as if I’m holding someone I once knew…]
Lin Yuxuan felt at peace as she fell.
Then her back hit something hard.
The impact forced all the air out of Lin Yuxuan’s lungs.
Her lungs instantly emptied. Severe oxygen deprivation, combined with the powerful impact on her body, caused Lin Yuxuan to lose consciousness in an instant…

“Phew!”
The crimson giant caught the two falling dark figures in mid-air.
The moment he caught them, Hadi breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, following the initial velocity along a parabolic arc toward the outskirts of the industrial area, he landed in a crouch, using his legs to absorb all the force.
Then he gently placed the two bodies—five times smaller than his current form—against the wall.

Chenlian opened her eyes first.
Her dazed gaze looked around.
First, she saw Hadi’s giant form.
Then she turned her head toward Lin Yuxuan, who had briefly lost consciousness and was leaning beside her.
After confirming that Lin Yuxuan’s body was not seriously hurt, she stood up.
[No. Any more than this…]
Thinking this, Chenlian turned to run.
But as she ran, something thick grabbed her right hand.
Chenlian was forcibly stopped.
But she still refused to give up. She struggled desperately, trying to run.
“Hadi, let go of me! Let go of me!”
Chenlian stubbornly tried to make Hadi release her.

Hadi scratched his head and was about to say something, but then felt his body begin to weaken.
[Dammit! Time’s up!]
His hand, having instantly shrunk, couldn’t hold onto Chenlian tightly.
The sudden release of force made Chenlian, caught off guard, stumble forward a few steps.
But she eventually steadied herself.
Just as she steadied herself and was about to continue running, sensing someone approaching from behind, she turned around—
And found someone throwing themselves at her, tackling both her own body and Chenlian’s to the ground.
“Ah!”
Chenlian screamed, then, dazed from the impact with the hard ground, she held her head and barely lifted it.

The person who had tackled her was Lin Yuxuan, who had regained consciousness at some point.

Chenlian began to struggle, trying to escape again.

Lin Yuxuan, head lowered and panting, pressed her entire body weight onto Chenlian, not letting her escape.
Then she buried her head in Chenlian’s chest and held her tightly.
“Chenlian! Enough! That’s enough!”
Lin Yuxuan spoke softly in Chenlian’s ear.

Chenlian’s body suddenly went still.
Only her sobs continued, her body trembling.

“Enough already,”
Lin Yuxuan said, crying as well.

“Hey! Ye Qing… can you… hear me?”
Hadi, leaning weakly against the wall, panted as he reported to the other side.

The voice from the communication watch reached both Ye Qing and Fuzi’s ears.
“Yeah! By the way, Doctor, are you okay? You sound like you’re about to die! And Chenlian and Yuxuan!?”

“They’re fine!?”
The good news from the watch made Ye Qing relax his grip in an instant.
The sudden release of force allowed Fuzi to push herself up off the ground.
Caught off guard by the sudden push, Ye Qing lost his balance and fell backward.
Fuzi immediately grabbed the communication watch from Ye Qing’s hand as he lay on the ground and shouted to Hadi,
“Chenlian, Yuxuan—how are they now!?”
She asked excitedly.

“Oh! Fuzi!? They’re safe and sound! Right now they’re lying together doing that sort of thing!”

Fuzi barely listened to the end before rushing toward the stairs.

“Ow, ow, ow!”
Ye Qing scratched his head and sat up.

“You okay, young lad!?”
Hadi’s feigned, concerned voice came through the watch.

“Same to you, Doctor!”
Ye Qing said with a light laugh.

Then, from both sides, relieved laughter erupted at the same time!

“Chenlian!”
Fuzi ran desperately toward Lin Yuxuan and Yue Chenlian, who were still standing there, embracing.
Lin Yuxuan, very understandingly, let go and took a step back.
Then Chenlian was sent stumbling back a few steps by Fuzi’s undiminished momentum as she embraced her.

“Chenlian!”
Fuzi cried out painfully like a child, sobbing loudly.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Chenlian apologized over and over, crying as she let Fuzi hold her tightly.