Chapter 262: Ke Mingqing: I Am a Player

"Back in that dream, you told me—that you're a player. What does that mean?" she asked softly.

Ke Mingqing froze on the spot.

It was a bright, sunny autumn day. Outside the old building, the wind rustled through the maple trees, carrying yellow leaves and a soft murmur right through the window into Xia Zili's bedroom.

Yet just inside that window, the room was plunged in darkness. One sibling sat on the bed with the quilt draped over her thighs, while the other stood rooted in the doorway.

They stared silently at each other, neither speaking for a long time.

After a while, Xia Zili furrowed her brow and spoke up. "Aren't you—even going to consider explaining?"

Ke Mingqing stood dazed for a moment, unable to get a single word out.

'This is bad,' he thought. 'It's all the fault of that three-crown-name witch who croaked the second we met. I don't even know if what she said was true or false, so why the hell did I have to dig a pit for myself and jump right in back then?'

'Shit, shit, I really fucking give up—how could anyone in this world blurt out "I'm a player" like they're confessing "I like you," just letting it slip because the mood felt right?'

Ke Mingqing's gaze flickered, his eyes wavering unsteadily.

Xia Zili's stare pricked at his face like needles.

'Damn it, I really ought to run over right now and slaughter Li Chunchun. Then I'd steal his magical girl transformation skill, turn into a witch, travel back in time, and strangle the me in that dream to death with my bare hands—'

The moment that thought crossed his mind, however, Ke Mingqing quickly remembered something else: his future self had once said that the skill to transform into a magical girl could only be rolled during the very first month.

'Limited to the first month after crossing over... Does that mean even if I ran over and killed Li Chunchun right now, there's no way I'd be able to roll that skill in the shop anymore?'

Ke Mingqing suddenly blinked, scratching his head hard as he finally realized just how far his train of thought had derailed, then looked up to meet Xia Zili's eyes.

The girl's gaze shifted through the dark, watching him without moving an inch.

"I'm asking you a question," she said softly, lowering her eyes. "Brother, why won't you answer me?"

"A player?" Ke Mingqing asked as he pulled the door shut. "Little sis, did you hear wrong?"

"Impossible," Xia Zili murmured with her head bowed. "When I woke up on that altar, Little Grey's memories flashed through my mind. I saw her do you a favor back then—when Dad made you put on the Player Detection Device."

She paused. "I don't think it's hard to guess what you had her do at the time—though of course, you're welcome to explain, if you take me for a fool."

Ke Mingqing fell silent.

Xia Zili looked up at him, then tilted her head slightly. "Can't you talk?"

Still silent, Ke Mingqing parted his lips as if to speak, then stopped himself.

"What does 'player' actually mean?" Xia Zili enunciated every word.

She lowered her voice, her tone softening slightly. "I'm right here. You can take your time explaining, however long it takes."

Right after that, though, her voice suddenly sank. "—Just don't run, I'm begging you."

Ke Mingqing let out a long breath and shrugged. "Come on, I went through all that trouble just to rescue you. Can't we hold off on this topic for now? It's way too heavy, and there's plenty to talk about regarding Terminus Night—like who sacrificed themselves, or which witch I took down. Aren't you curious at all?"

"No."

"Alright, I knew it. You care about me the most after all, don't you—whether anyone else lives or dies is none of your business."

Ke Mingqing leaned on wisecracks to ease the awkwardness, while inside he thought, 'What do I do? If I just tell her straight up that players are actually pitiful brainwashed wretches, and that I'm the real Ke Mingqing, will she believe me?'

'No, don't I have zero proof of that?'

'What do I do?'

'What am I supposed to do?'

'What the fuck am I supposed to do?'

'If my little sister refuses to believe what I say and tells the rest of the family, won't I be completely finished? After everything I went through to get this far, what would it all even count for?'

'If even she doesn't believe me, the rest of the family definitely won't believe I'm really Ke Mingqing. Knowing Eldest Brother and Second Sister's personalities, the very second they find out, they'll lock me up and torture me on the spot.'

Ke Mingqing stood rooted to the floor in a daze, his back already soaked in cold sweat.

Meanwhile, Xia Zili simply sat quietly on the bed, watching his profile without moving.

"Little sis, don't you want to ask about Little Red Riding Hood?" Ke Mingqing asked suddenly after a moment.

Xia Zili froze.

"I'm really sad that Little Red Riding Hood died, too," Ke Mingqing said absentmindedly. "Aren't you curious about what actually happened back then? She told me quite a lot, too, and asked me to pass it on to you."

Xia Zili's pupils trembled slightly. She had never imagined Ke Mingqing would use Little Red Riding Hood's death to change the subject—as if she couldn't say a single word about it, because she was the one who had gotten Little Red Riding Hood killed.

Mist clouded her eyes in an instant. A complicated expression crossed her face—her brows knitted faintly as if in anger, yet her eyes looked deeply disappointed. The next moment, she spoke in disbelief, "...Brother?"

Called out like that, Ke Mingqing snapped back to his senses and looked up to see a tear slipping from the corner of her eye in the dark. His eyes widened slightly, stunned, and he hurriedly explained, "Sorry, little sis, I'm just really—my head's a complete mess."

Xia Zili kept her head lowered and said nothing.

"Little Red Riding Hood's death wasn't your fault. Didn't I tell you before? If those witches hadn't kidnapped you, you wouldn't have lost control." Ke Mingqing spoke weakly, gritting his teeth as he finished. Honestly, he had never wanted to die this badly in his entire life.

A moment later, he took a deep breath, leaned against the doorframe to steady himself in the dark, and raised his palm. A tiny paper puppet crawled out from inside his cuff.

It sat down hugging its knees, drawing circles on Ke Mingqing's palm with a paper twig while muttering gloomily, "How to walk out of that cave—how are we supposed to walk out of that cave..."

The little paper puppet's voice echoed through the darkness.

Xia Zili stared blankly for a moment, raising her eyes to peer at the little paper figure. "What—is this?"

"A skill," Ke Mingqing said in a low voice without looking up. "To put it in full, a player's skill."

At that, he shrugged, forcing a casual tone. "Didn't you learn about players from Xi Ziyue? You should know what this is."

Xia Zili stared in silence for a very long time before finally tearing her gaze away from the paper puppet and looking up at Ke Mingqing's face.

"Which means—you admit it?" she asked slowly.

"Yeah."

The girl lifted her eyes and lowered them again, asking reflexively, "What about White Jack, then? Is he a player too?"

"Him—well, I guess he barely counts as a player too."

Ke Mingqing scratched his shoulder, forcing a faint smile onto his stiff face.

Truth be told, just confessing to being a player was rough enough, let alone blowing the lid off his identity as White Jack too. He had no desire to make this mess any more chaotic.

After a moment, he took a deep breath, walked slowly over to the bed, and sat down near the headboard. The little paper puppet hopped off his palm and crawled onto Xia Zili's hand.

"Can you hold off on telling the rest of the family for now? And Xi Ziyue's group, too," Ke Mingqing said with a self-deprecating laugh, scratching his cheek. "Otherwise, I'm pretty sure they'll turn me straight into a human stick, right?"

Xia Zili lowered her eyes, gazing silently at the paper puppet in her palm.

Dark strands of hair fell across her eyes. Keeping her head bowed, her lips moved as though whispering something under her breath, only for her to silently shake her head.

It took a long while before Ke Mingqing finally caught her voice.

"I won't tell—" she whispered. "I won't tell anyone."

Ke Mingqing breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good."

A moment later, he turned his head to look at her. "You should get some proper rest right now. Give me a couple of days and I'll explain everything to you. I need to sort out my own thoughts, too—there's way too much tangling up my head right now, and I'm afraid I'll say the wrong thing."

With that, he took the little paper puppet Plato back from her palm, stood up, and headed for the door.

"Wait," a hoarse voice called out from behind him.

Hearing her, Ke Mingqing slowly came to a halt.

"Players are souls who crossed over from another world, and they seize other people's bodies. So—you aren't my brother?" Xia Zili raised her eyes to stare straight at his back, her voice trembling.

Ke Mingqing's eyelids quivered slightly.

He lowered his head. 'Sure enough, I still ended up hearing the one question I wanted to hear the least,' he thought. Clenching his fingers, he crumpled the paper puppet in his hand into a ball.

After a moment, he tilted his head slightly and said, "What do you think?"

"What?"

Ke Mingqing was silent for a beat before asking without looking back, "Do you think I'm—Ke Mingqing?"

Xia Zili froze.

After a long pause, she parted her lips.

Just as she was about to give her answer, Ke Mingqing cut her off just in time, as if losing his nerve. "Well—actually, I haven't even figured out for myself whether I'm really Ke Mingqing or not."

Xia Zili raised her head, staring blankly at his face.

"That's why I said I need a little time—I really didn't lie to you," he sighed. He paused, then added, "But I can promise you this: if I'm a fake Ke Mingqing, I won't come near you again—" He let out a dry laugh. "Sorry for treating you like my own little sister all on my own. Truth is, I didn't really have any family in the memories of my past life—"

Ke Mingqing leaned his head against the doorframe, tilting it slightly as he stared down at the floor, murmuring ramblingly, "It's actually pretty warm in this house, even if Eldest Brother has a screw loose, Dad is super rigid, and Mom is really weird—though the memories of my past life might be fake too—so which one is fake, and which one is real..."

Xia Zili frowned, thinking it over as she spoke. "And that part about dying if you don't Exterminate Superhumans—is that true, too?"

"I think it's true," Ke Mingqing nodded and said softly. "Whether I'm Ke Mingqing or someone who crossed over from another world, that much is true—in three months, I'll most likely die."

In the dark, watching his back, the girl's pupils shrank sharply.

"Seems a bit childish to still care about this stuff at a time like this," Ke Mingqing murmured, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. "Actually, the very first time you told me back by the sea, I was thinking to myself that I'm a player, and I shouldn't play with your feelings when I'm going to have to wipe everyone out in the end anyway, so I just pretended I didn't hear you—and now I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing anymore. Pretty funny, isn't it?"

He paused, lowering his voice. "Sorry for only telling you now." With that, he turned the doorknob, stepped out of the room, and pulled the door shut behind him.

Ke Mingqing leaned his back against the bedroom door, standing still in the empty hallway as he stared down at the floor, the dim pumpkin lantern casting a faint glow over his downcast face.

Suddenly, a figure bolted out of the room next door in a panic.

Ke Mingqing didn't pay it any mind at first, but the very next second he froze. 'Next door? Isn't that my room?' he thought.

He lifted his eyes from the floor and turned his head to look at the sneaky girl's face.

"Third Sister?" he blurted out.

Right then, Xia Ningzhi was staring blankly back at him. Hiding whatever she was holding behind her back, she parted her trembling lips, unable to get a single word out as she unconsciously backed away.

"What's wrong, sis?" Ke Mingqing tilted his head in confusion.

He had never seen an expression like this on Xia Ningzhi before. It was hard for him to put into words, but he knew it wasn't a look that should ever appear on her face—there even seemed to be a trace of... terror in her eyes?

"A'Qing—my stomach doesn't feel too good, whatever it is, let's talk later!" Xia Ningzhi forced a stiff smile as she spoke. "Bye—bye!"

With that, she bolted for the stairs without looking back.

Taken aback, Ke Mingqing watched her retreating figure hurry away, then leaned over the stair railing and called out loudly, "Third Sister, are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, it's just that thing girls get once a month! You boys stop fussing over nothing, have you no shame!" By the time she finished shouting, Xia Ningzhi had already made it downstairs, her figure vanishing into the shadows at the foot of the steps.

"Why did Third Sister run off like that? Did she overhear our conversation? No, she walked out of my room." Ke Mingqing stood dazed for a moment, mulling it over as he walked back to his bedroom.

He scanned the bedroom suspiciously and saw signs that both the bookshelf and the wardrobe had been rummaged through. A moment later, he walked up to the bookshelf, stared at an empty gap on the shelf, and was struck by a sudden realization. "Crap—I forgot to put away the file on that fire from ten years ago."

His eyes widening slightly as cold sweat broke out on the back of his hands, Ke Mingqing took off running downstairs.

Yet by the time he stepped into the living room, Xia Ningzhi was nowhere to be seen.