books44 Chapter 253 [Empire] Erased Traces
Chapter 253 [Empire] Erased Traces
This morning's city simulation was set to autumn. The air was filled with a cool, damp breeze, and the wind gently swept through the streets, bringing the sound of fallen leaves rustling. The temperature wasn't low, but the slightly chilly wind still made me wince.
Wen Ya had dressed me up in his "same look"—a neatly cut trench coat, dark trousers, and a pair of ankle boots that looked slim yet subtle. I stood in front of the mirror and looked at myself. This outfit was much more formal than my usual style, and more like his.
Wen Ya stood aside, his lips curled slightly, as if admiring his own masterpiece. He reached out and adjusted the collar of my trench coat, his movements graceful and composed, as if he were working on a piece of art. "You look much more refreshed this way," he said, his tone tinged with pride and a tone that held no room for argument.
He rarely looks like that.
"How much do you like trench coats?" I murmured, but didn't refuse him. He glanced at me from head to toe with a serious yet gentle scrutiny, then nodded.
"Suitable for you." He said softly, as if this sentence was the final judgment.
My hair has quietly grown longer, now reaching just below my shoulders. A few strands, lifted by the autumn breeze, gently touch my cheeks. I can't help but run my hand through it, feeling a mix of emotions—even my hair has changed without me noticing.
Turning to look at Wen Ya, his hair was not neatly trimmed as usual, but a little longer than before, with smooth hair hanging down near his neck, which was surprisingly similar to my current hairstyle.
This made us look strangely harmonious when we stood together, even like we were "identical." The trench coat, the trousers, the ankle boots, and now even the hairstyle seemed like a pre-arranged agreement. I stared at the ends of his drooping hair for a moment, feeling an inexplicable, subtle feeling—was it a tacit understanding? Or an unconscious overlap?
"It seems we really have a good understanding." Wen Ya's voice came with a hint of a smile. He seemed to notice my gaze and raised his hand to casually touch his hair, his eyes sweeping over my hairstyle, as if examining it carefully.
"Same trench coat, same hairstyle." He teased casually, "If I give you a pair of my glasses, people might think you're a copy of me."
"That won't do." I rolled my eyes, reached out and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, and said deliberately, "I suit this hairstyle better than you. Maybe I'm the original."
He laughed and didn't refute. He just looked at me with a hint of tenderness in his eyes.
It's been so long since I've traveled here, and this body is no longer what it was before. Although there hasn't been much progress in terms of height and chest size, this body no longer looks like the girl it once was.
I looked down at my fingers, long and clean, yet even the curve of them seemed to have become more like "me." I remembered her face back then, that face holding her original innocence and glimmer of hope. But now, even the face reflected in the mirror has gradually lost its image. Those traces of her, like old footprints blown away by the wind and sand, have faded with my arrival in this country, almost being completely erased.
She is gone.
I looked up and ahead. The wind blew gently, picking up a few strands of my hair. These hairs were "mine," too, having grown here. Those traces of the past, perhaps long since vanished in another world, carried away by the wind.
I seem to have inherited part of her mission, or perhaps it would not be an exaggeration to say that I have taken it over.
I'm the only one left in this world, not her. Her name, her past, her very existence, were all erased bit by bit with my arrival. Although I still use her name now, it's not the name she used when I first arrived. And that name, Yang Yang, probably has a new owner: Yang Yi.
And I used her other name, the name she should have used - Yang Ruyuan.
I became the master of this body, the sole symbol of this identity. Regardless of my initial struggles and rejections, I had now become someone else. My own self. Everything that belonged to her was swallowed up by me, bit by bit, until there was no longer any dividing line.
Sometimes I wonder if she once had her own aspirations and perseverance, if she ever cared about the unfinished mission she left behind. But no one knows the answers anymore, because her traces, along with her voice, have long been obscured by my presence in the passage of time.
In other words, I have taken it away and wiped it out with my own hands.
I had annihilated the last vestiges of consciousness she held within this body. It was a true deprivation, a devouring of her.
Everything that belonged to her eventually became mine—her past, her future, everything she had. This possession filled me with an indescribable complex of emotions. Yet, even so, I must admit that I had devoured her. Her existence had become my new foundation, and upon this foundation, I had built everything that belonged to me.
Although everything still looks riddled with holes, it is no less serious than her previous situation.
But it's mine, and that's important.
I too have felt her sadness, empathizing with her broken emotions. Her unwillingness, her regrets. Her tears, her longing.
In her name, I hated things and people she never hated. From my perspective, the things that hurt her and made her lonely were clearly worthy of hatred. However, she never hated anything like that—her heart was pure, soft, and even had a kind of tolerance that I couldn't understand.
But in the end, she only ever hated me. This "me" that took over everything she had. She had lost everything, and I was the culprit who had taken away the last shred of her existence.
But even without me, she would have lost everything. Or rather, she had already lost everything before I came.
I was distracted for a moment, and when I regained consciousness, I was already sitting in Wen Ya's hovercar, being slowly taken to school. Another school. The city scenery outside the car window was rapidly receding.
The hovercraft slowly stopped, and my gaze gradually focused on the scene outside the car door. But before I could open my mouth, Wen Ya's brows were already slightly furrowed.
"Dan Qi lets you go to school in such a hellish place?" Wen Ya's tone was clearly questioning, with a hint of harshness that was hard to conceal.
This was the first time he spoke so sharply in front of me.
I subconsciously glanced at him. His expression was calm, with only a slightly furrowed brow and a cold gaze, seeming distant and stiff. His fingers tapped lightly on the inside of the car door, his movements slow, as if he was suppressing some emotion.
"How could he agree to let you come to a place like this?" Wen Ya added, her tone still light, but the dissatisfaction in her words became more obvious.
"This is my own choice," I finally responded in a low voice, trying to be calm, but with a hint of stubbornness.
"Your choice?" he repeated, with a hint of ambiguous questioning in his tone.