Chapter 431: Regaining Memories

Before she went to Ye Linyuan, Jiang Qingli had discussed his amnesia with experts from the research institute.

The experts suggested she could take a look inside Ye Linyuan’s Spiritual Domain.

"Advisor Jiang, based on the information you’ve provided, I suspect Mr. Ye’s amnesia might be affecting other aspects of his life. I recommend you enter his Spiritual Domain and perform a healing."

"Considering your Match Value, he shouldn’t refuse you."

Ye Linyuan was extremely cautious, so Jiang Qingli brought him to the military district, intending to perform the healing in a safe place.

Jiang Qingli moved gently as she drew near.

At that speed and distance, Ye Linyuan could have easily pushed her away.

But he struggled for only a moment before letting her breach his Spiritual Domain.

She used the method he had once taught her.

Just before he lost consciousness, the young man gripped her hand, their fingers intertwining tightly.

...

After a brief wave of dizziness, the first thing Jiang Qingli heard was a cacophony of piercing screams.

As her vision cleared, she saw a pair of small, bloody hands.

Looking through Ye Linyuan’s eyes, Jiang Qingli found herself in a sealed glass box, only a few square meters in size. Outside, hundreds of identical glass boxes filled the room.

Inside every glass box was a young Beastman.

Most of them were covered in scars and stained with blood.

Their high-pitched cries echoed throughout the warehouse.

But in the reflection on the glass, a boy of three or four watched it all, his face a mask of numb indifference.

A few people walked past, looking into the box. Their voices carried through the glass—

"Why isn’t Y-01 moving? Did the pain-tolerance experiment make him go dull? I think he hit his head earlier..."

"Y-01 is always like this," one of them said, turning to the young woman beside him. "Yin Shen, you come take a look, too. This is the team leader’s pride and joy, completely different from the other test subjects."

’Yin Shen? Yi Nuo’s mother.’

Jiang Qingli froze.

She hadn’t expected Yin Shen to be connected to this experiment.

’Was she one of the participants?’

But the way she looked at Ye Linyuan seemed to hold pity and sympathy, as if she were just a visitor.

The senior member boasted, "It’s not just that his pain response is dulled and his healing is accelerated. Y-01 is almost completely free of the defect known as ’emotion’."

Yin Shen waved a hand in front of Ye Linyuan’s face and got no response.

She asked, "What about things like ’desire’ and ’love’?"

The senior member smirked. "All that stuff you mentioned? We edited it out of his genetic code. It’s impossible for him to have any of it!"

"But..." Yin Shen couldn’t bear it. "Isn’t that... basically stripping him of his humanity...?"

"What does a weapon need a human form for? We need efficiency!" the man grumbled in dissatisfaction. "Forget it. Let me take you to the embryo lab next door. Man, who even recommended you..."

After the two of them left, the two men following them whispered to each other, "She’s not likely to come back. Should we keep her on?"

"Let’s ask the team leader first..."

Before leaving, one of them glanced back at Ye Linyuan and sneered, "People from the Lower District love to spout empty platitudes. It’s just a worthless weapon, what does it need love or emotion for? As if it’s worthy of being loved."

It was unclear whether Ye Linyuan understood.

He just sat there, silently watching his bleeding wound.

...

Jiang Qingli soon discovered that the torture Ye Linyuan suffered in the lab was far more cruel than what the records showed.

It wasn’t just the various endurance tests. There was also constant ridicule and mockery. Sometimes, even if he was just sitting there, a researcher would beat him simply because they didn’t like the look of him...

Ye Linyuan never spoke.

He would just stare bleakly at his own reflection, averting his gaze whenever a researcher or a surveillance camera swept past.

As if he had no emotions at all.

...

The year he turned five, a riot broke out in the lab.

Yin Shen reported them anonymously and, along with Yuan Liang and others, took down the entire lab.

Experimental equipment exploded, sending flames soaring into the sky. The lab descended into chaos and panic.

Ye Linyuan escaped in the chaos.

He had never been to the city proper, but he sensed with sharp acuity that he was being hunted. He fled to the Eleven Cities, surviving as a wanderer hidden among the crowds.

The experiences forged in the laboratory made it easier for Ye Linyuan to distinguish himself from the people of the Eleven Cities.

When the Underground City Lord came to select promising youths to train, he set his sights on Ye Linyuan.

He discovered the boy was intelligent but only knew how to follow orders.

His cold, golden, slitted pupils often exuded an oppressive aura when he looked at people.

More than a decade later, as the City Lord lay dying, he stared at those slitted pupils, coughed up an endless stream of blood, and accused him between gasps, "You... I raised you... and yet you’re so ungrateful... COUGH, COUGH... You’re an emotionless monster. I never should have kept you..."

"Without me, you would have died in that assassination attempt five years ago."

"The law of the jungle is the code of the Underground City. You taught me that yourself, the day you threw me into the snake pit."

"As for emotion..." Ye Linyuan crushed the man’s throat, a slow smile spreading across his face. "Sending you to your death with my own hands... I find it quite pleasant."

"That’s not an emotion," the old City Lord sputtered, spitting up blood. He stared with an intensity that made him look like a vengeful spirit. "You’re terrifying..."

"Thank you for the compliment."

Ye Linyuan held out a hand to the side.

A trembling subordinate presented a pure white silk handkerchief.

Ye Linyuan elegantly wiped his hands and tossed the handkerchief onto the corpse’s face.

He walked outside and pressed a hand over his heart.

His heartbeat hadn’t quickened.

He then let out a sneer.

’How boring, playing the emotion card at death’s door.’

’Emotions are nothing but a genetic defect. There is no need for them.’

At this time, Ye Linyuan still didn’t know that in just a few years, a girl would burst into his world and splash it with vibrant color.

...

After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Qingli finally saw the end.

She stood there, and from Ye Linyuan’s perspective, she saw countless versions of herself.

Sometimes the scene was at the academy.

Her, joking around with friends in the hallway during lunch break. Her, cornering a campus cat to shower it with pets. Her, sitting ramrod straight while listening in class. Her, raising a weapon and hitting the bullseye dead-on...

Sometimes the scene was at home.

As the morning light rose, the girl would be sleeping soundly in the crook of his arm. His long, slender fingers would gently stroke her hair, touch her soft lips, then pull back as if shocked, clenching awkwardly.

Late at night, after they made love, the girl would hug a pillow, her back turned to him. Once she was fast asleep, his snake tail would gently turn her over. His forked tongue would lightly lick the corner of her eye, still wet with tears from their passion. Salty.

Most of the time, though.

She was with her friends, in other people’s arms, in the sunlight, under the lamplight.

She was like a brilliant light.

And he could only stand in the shadows.

’He didn’t know why.’

’But his gaze was always drawn to her.’

’So many people could make her happy,’ he thought.

’He couldn’t.’

’Without the mark, she would never have looked his way.’

’Perhaps he really was a heartless monster.’

’Unworthy of being loved.’

...

「Twenty-five years.」

His entire life to this day, all his secrets and his true feelings, were laid bare before her, frame by frame, with nothing held back.

...

Her spiritual power exhausted, Jiang Qingli opened her eyes and met the young man’s golden, slitted pupils.

Ye Linyuan had woken up at some point and was holding her in his arms, looking down at her.

He said nothing.

But it was as if his silence spoke a thousand words.

Jiang Qingli saw her own reflection in those eyes.

"Ye Linyuan," she said softly, an involuntary nervousness creeping into her voice. "Do you... remember now?"

"Yes." Ye Linyuan’s voice was just as soft.

Bathed in the morning light, Ye Linyuan lowered his head and gently kissed her lips.

"I’m sorry."

He said.