WMSR — QT Chapter 90

Chapter 90: The Caged White Moonlight

No matter how hard he tried, or how intensely he pumped himself up and cheered himself on before catching sight of Bai Yichen, the moment he stood before Bai Yichen, he could never muster anything more than the facade of a close, platonic friend. Those overstepping, romantic sentiments were never dared to be voiced, not even a single character.

Loving someone so deeply that you would readily shatter the world for them, yet lacking the basic courage to confess—was that not its own profound tragedy?

A month's time vanished in the blink of an eye. When the day finally arrived for Bai Yichen to take his leave, his emotional state was exceptionally serene—even carrying a leisurely curiosity to guess what manner of accidental event would trigger his departure.

Since he was still safely holed up inside his residence without stepping outdoors, what would it be? Would his wheelchair roll backward, sending him tumbling down the stairs? Or a hazardous gas leak, a sudden fire, an earthquake, or perhaps a violent home invasion?

Pondering this for a brief spell, Bai Yichen concluded that staying cooped up indoors carried an excessively high safety coefficient; if an accident engineered to terminate his life were to manifest here, the collateral commotion would likely prove far too disruptive. He harbored zero doubt that the system's prophecies would unfailingly materialize—after all, if it possessed the divine capability to pluck a deceased individual and resurrect them inside these corporeal vessels, what on earth was beyond its reach? Consequently, after weighing his options, Bai Yichen ultimately instructed his bodyguard to drive him out into the bustling city. After all, out in the open, engineering an unexpected accident was infinitely more frictionless, wasn't it?

Furthermore, Auntie Wang was still present inside the estate, and he had no desire to subject the timid housekeeper to a traumatic shock should a calamity occur right on the premises, nor did he wish to drag innocent lives into his vortex. After all, while his departure in the previous world had been peaceful due to a terminal illness, an accidental death in this current incarnation carried unpredictable variables.

A short while after Bai Yichen's motorcade evacuated the villa, Fang Ruoming dropped by for a visit. Upon learning from Auntie Wang that Bai Yichen had ventured outside, Fang Ruoming's brow furrowed instinctively. Knowing that the man practically never left his sanctuary, an unprompted sense of panic gripped his chest alongside an ominous premonition; without hesitation, Fang Ruoming resolved to track Bai Yichen down himself.

Concurrently, across another coordinate of the metropolis, Xu Jiangzhe snatched up a ringing phone, his voice vibrating with explosive excitement: "Really? You actually spotted him heading out? Over by Liuli Avenue? Excellent—I'm heading there right now. Make damn sure your operatives keep eyes on him and don't lose the tail!"

Disconnecting the call, Xu Jiangzhe's features radiated triumphant exhilaration. Finally—the opportunity has arrived.

Ever since the signing ceremony a month prior, the surveillance teams he deployed had successfully caught a few subtle threads following Bai Yichen's motorcade, ultimately reverse-engineering the location of Bai Yichen's secret residence.

However, his operatives could only infiltrate up to the outer perimeter of the luxury villa complex; pinning down the exact residential unit remained impossible.

Moreover, Xu Jiangzhe was keenly aware that under the current fragile dynamic, if he rashly ambushed him on his doorstep, it would inevitably provoke intense revulsion and potentially drive Ziqian to pack up and relocate yet again, plunging him back into an endless loop of futile searching. Thus, he had disciplined himself to endure and refrain from premature actions. Today, however, was fundamentally different—today, Ziqian had ventured out of his own accord! If he rushed over to intercept and approach Ziqian at his current location, he could seamlessly frame the encounter as a fortunate, organic chance meeting.

A whirlwind of calculations raced through Xu Jiangzhe's mind as he broke into a frantic stride toward the underground parking garage. The mere thought that he might soon converse with Ziqian once more made it almost impossible to suppress the surging tides of ecstasy hammering against his ribs.

While both men converged at breakneck speed toward Bai Yichen's location, Bai Yichen remained completely oblivious to the impending collision. Upon arriving at the destination, he signaled his bodyguard to wheel him to a tranquil, secluded perimeter. Ensuring no innocent bystanders populated the immediate vicinity, he instructed the bodyguard to back away to a safe distance, leaving him alone to gaze blankly out at the bustling streetscape.

Truthfully, ever since enduring years of brutal confinement under the Xu family in this world, he had developed an intense, almost obsessive appreciation for the vibrant pulse of a prosperous city street. Yet today would undoubtedly mark his final glimpse of this world's endless stream of roaring traffic and flowing humanity...

As Bai Yichen remained lost in thought, two distinct figures materialized from opposite ends of the street corner. Inside his idling vehicle, Fang Ruoming finally caught sight of that familiar silhouette, a wave of relief washing over his features as he began scouting for a legal parking spot to approach Bai Yichen.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the avenue, Xu Jiangzhe clutched his mobile phone, navigating the directional prompts radioed in by his embedded private investigator. He smoothly locked eyes on Bai Yichen. Gazing upon the silhouette he had spent every waking moment craving, Xu Jiangzhe's face bloomed into a broad, radiant smile. While mentally rehearsing the exact opening lines he would deploy once he approached Ziqian, he accelerated his stride forward. Yet the smile hadn't even survived two seconds before freezing into a mask of abject terror. His jaw dropped wide, as though he sought to let out a primal, deafening shriek; his eyes dilated to their absolute limit, desperate to scream a warning to halt the impending doom...

Yet that speeding vehicular silhouette moved with the relentless efficiency of a demonic phantom. Through his wide, desperate eyes reflecting utter denial, the automobile veered sharply off the paved asphalt, barreling straight across the pedestrian sidewalk toward the completely defenseless, unaware Ziqian seated in his wheelchair.

In the span of a single microsecond, time itself seemed to stretch into agonizing slow motion before Xu Jiangzhe's eyes. He watched helplessly as the vehicle breached the curb step by step, inching closer and closer to devouring Ziqian. He desperately wanted to roar, but his throat felt choked with wet cotton, refusing to yield a single sound. He wanted to leap forward and intercept the impact, but his legs felt welded to the pavement, refusing to advance a fraction of an inch.

Trapped within that helpless, catatonic paralysis, he watched with wide, burning eyes as the vehicle slammed squarely into his Ziqian. The dull, muffled thud of the wheelchair-bound figure being launched into the air before crashing violently against the asphalt sounded infinitely more catastrophic than the subsequent grinding screech of the overturned car sliding to a halt. Yet that singular, heavy impact struck squarely against the core of his soul, fracturing his heart into bleeding, irreparable fragments.

Ziqian...

Gazing at the pool of vivid crimson spreading outward from where the broken silhouette had crumpled onto the ground, Xu Jiangzhe's lips trembled violently, utterly incapable of expelling a shred of sound...

Ziqian... was that truly his Ziqian?

Impossible—how could his Ziqian ever be reduced to such a broken state?

And yet... that was undeniably his Ziqian.

Accepting the horrifying reality, Xu Jiangzhe staggered forward on rubbery, collapsing legs, finally closing the distance to stare down at the bloody wreckage he had desperately yearned to gaze upon, yet lacked the courage to witness.

The moment his eyes registered the utterly shattered, desecrated condition of the person he had enshrined within the holiest chambers of his heart across more than a decade, a sound tore from Xu Jiangzhe's throat—a wretched, inhuman howl of agony. In that pulverized instant, he directed a blinding, incandescent hatred toward every single living soul present at the scene, including himself. He cursed his inability to arrive even a second earlier; he cursed his paralysis and failure to intercept the carnage when he witnessed it unfolding right before his eyes. He had possessed ocular confirmation—he had stood mere meters away—so why, in the name of hell, had he been powerless to stop it?