After the Black Moonlight’s "Death Escape" Failed [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 86

Chapter 86: Knight

◎They are destined to meet again◎

Ten years ago.

When Jiao Qingyin woke up from an uncontrollable bout of drowsiness, she immediately discovered that the scenery around her was extremely bizarre. Figures of people and objects were constantly shifting in appearance, like rapidly flowing light.

However, less than a few seconds after she opened her eyes, this abnormal situation came to an abrupt halt. Everything returned to tranquility, as if nothing had happened.

Jiao Qingyin instantly became alert. She floated to a high vantage point, looking down to observe the environment below.

She was still in the place where she had been before falling asleep—by the wooden railing of the main staircase in the Wen residence. Judging by the wear and tear of the railing, she hadn’t been asleep for very long.

But Jiao Qingyin still felt something was wrong. That split-second vision of time flowing backward absolutely couldn’t have been an illusion. Coupled with the fact that she had called for the System several times without receiving a response, Jiao Qingyin’s heart sank further.

After calmly analyzing the situation, Jiao Qingyin began to search for Wen Fengyue. The girl was the protagonist of this world; following her would make it easier to find the direction of her mission.

She first scanned the main hall. There were many people there. Surrounded in the center were Wen Dong, Wang Qinrong, and… Jiao Qingyin’s pupils constricted slightly.

She saw Wen Ziyuan, who was supposed to be lying on a hospital bed.

The girl was wearing a luxurious princess dress with a sparkling little crown pinned to her head, smiling happily. Wang Qinrong held her daughter’s hand, conversing gracefully with the guests, occasionally causing bursts of laughter.

The entire main hall was bustling with the sounds of people. By all accounts, it was a standard social gathering; only the black-and-white decorations, the funeral scrolls, and the attire of the guests served as proof of what day it actually was.

When her gaze swept to the memorial tablet that had been moved to a corner of the hall, Jiao Qingyin’s face turned completely cold.

Everything before her pointed to a single possibility—she had arrived at the timeline prior to Wen Fengyue’s rebirth.

Having realized this, Jiao Qingyin shifted her attention away from the hall. She floated upward, passing through walls, and arrived inside Wen Fengyue’s room.

She saw Wen Fengyue—the girl was lying on the bed, her face pale, her cheeks flushed with a sickly feverish glow. Every breath she took was heavy, as if she might lose her breath in the next moment.

…She had a fever.

By Wen Fengyue’s hand was a bottle of fever medicine. The pull-tab was halfway open; it looked as if she had tried to take the medicine but lacked the strength to unscrew the cap and had simply lost consciousness.

Jiao Qingyin called Wen Fengyue’s name twice. Receiving no response, she entered the girl’s body directly. She wanted to take the medicine for her first; otherwise, if the high fever continued, Wen Fengyue might not survive.

Although the plot of the original life continued until Wen Fengyue was seventeen, now that time-reversal had occurred, Jiao Qingyin didn’t dare gamble on whether an accident might cause her early death.

However, things did not go as planned. Previously, every time Jiao Qingyin possessed her, she could smoothly control Wen Fengyue’s body. But this time, no matter how she tried, the body was lifeless and unresponsive.

Jiao Qingyin’s mood plummeted to the bottom.

After trying once more and failing again, Jiao Qingyin had no choice but to pull herself out and float up. Using her still-unpracticed ability to move objects through the air, she slowly twisted the cap of the fever medicine.

Two minutes passed. Although she inevitably left marks of excessive force on the cap, Jiao Qingyin at least managed to open it.

The next step was feeding the medicine to Wen Fengyue. Jiao Qingyin thought this step would be much harder than opening the bottle, but almost as soon as she brought the poured medicine to the girl’s lips, Wen Fengyue unconsciously opened her mouth.

A few seconds later, she finished the medicine. Her bloodless lips were stained with a bit of the liquid, making her look slightly more alive than before.

Jiao Qingyin silently placed the bottle on the nightstand, feeling a complex mix of emotions. The Wen Fengyue before her was a true seven-year-old child. Strands of messy silver hair clung to her cheeks, which still held some baby fat, making her look exceptionally well-behaved in her sleep.

Jiao Qingyin stroked her head and whispered: “Get well soon.”

The laughter of servants came from outside the door. These people had no regard for Wen Fengyue who was recuperating in the room; their words were filled with disdain for the deceased matriarch.

Jiao Qingyin looked up, her gaze dangerous as she took a few steps toward the door. But in the next second, she suddenly discovered that the surrounding scenery began to change rapidly once again.

She was unable to move. It wasn’t until the changes stopped that the power suppressing her finally disappeared temporarily.

Jiao Qingyin’s first priority was to check on Wen Fengyue, only to find that the person lying on the bed was no longer the child she wanted to protect, but… Wen Ziyuan, whom she loathed from the bottom of her heart.

Wen Ziyuan leaned against the newly decorated headboard. The entire room had undergone a massive change because of her. The intense decor had turned this place, which originally belonged to Wen Fengyue, into something completely different.

She had occupied Wen Fengyue’s room, and she had occupied the smooth, happy life that should have belonged to Wen Fengyue.

The Wen Ziyuan before her looked to be in her early teens, chatting happily on the phone with a classmate.

Through her, Jiao Qingyin roughly judged the current timeline. She left without looking back to find Wen Fengyue.

She found her in a dark, cramped little attic.

This attic had no light, only a small window without curtains. It was formerly used for storage; aside from servants occasionally sneaking in here to smoke, almost no one set foot in it. Now, the narrow space was forced to accommodate a cot and a desk. The cot was only large enough for a child under ten, while the desk was pitted and covered in scratches. Upon closer inspection, there were insults carved onto it by unknown hands.

The pitifully small amount of luggage Wen Fengyue owned was all tucked under the cot. She lived like an unwanted guest in this home.

As night fell, Wen Fengyue curled up on the bed, staring motionlessly out the window. She was enduring hunger. During the school physical today, Wen Ziyuan—who was a year older—found she wasn’t as tall as Wen Fengyue. In a fit of shame and anger, she complained and cried to Wang Qinrong. Consequently, Wen Fengyue was forbidden from eating dinner starting today.

Similar things happened often. It was nothing more than Wen Ziyuan being jealous of her looks, hating her personality, and resenting how a student who skipped grades could still be at the top of the class…

As a result, Wen Fengyue was forced to grow out heavy bangs to hide her features, suppress her sharp personality, and intentionally make low-level mistakes on exams… If she didn’t do this, she would face her biological father’s accusations, abuse from the nannies, and have to witness her mother’s relics being smashed.

The people around her constantly wore down her strengths, suppressing her desperately, wishing to grind her into the mud.

Wen Fengyue watched the moon outside. Tonight was a full moon; it was too bright, making it impossible for her to sleep.

She had thought about resisting this kind of life, but in the shadows, there was always a voice telling her that all of this was what she deserved to endure, and that she should not have any complaints. This voice repeated over and over, from the day her mother died until now, locking Wen Fengyue firmly into a life destined for tragedy.

Jiao Qingyin lowered her eyes, watching Wen Fengyue in silence for a long time.

Before starting her missions, she never thought she would feel compassion for a target, let alone let it affect the mission’s progress. But the fact was right before her—she had softened. She wanted to save Wen Fengyue from this godforsaken setting.

However, Jiao Qingyin had already tried; the Wen Fengyue of this time could neither hear her voice nor have her body controlled. She could only take some compromise measures—

Wen Fengyue thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight, but the fact was that she surprisingly had a good night’s rest.

In the faint morning light, she changed into her school uniform, finished washing up, and carried her backpack to the dining room. Wen Dong and Wang Qinrong had woken up early for some reason and were sitting together drinking coffee. Both had dark circles under their eyes. Wang Qinrong could cover hers with foundation, but Wen Dong looked as if he hadn’t slept for over ten days.

Wen Fengyue’s steps faltered as she gripped the straps of her backpack.

She woke up very early every day specifically to come to the kitchen and take some food scraps the servants didn’t want as breakfast, then eat while walking to school—Wang Qinrong had long forbidden the driver from picking her up, claiming it was to “train her abilities.”

But since these two were here today… she might not have breakfast.

Wen Fengyue pursed her lips and called out softly: “Good morning.”

Wen Dong was rubbing his brow. Hearing her, he glared at her. “No manners at all. Where is the address for your parents?”

“…” Wen Fengyue said nothing. Between these two, she didn’t want to call either of them.

Having had nightmares all night, Wen Dong was in an extremely foul mood. Angered by Wen Fengyue’s attitude, he nearly smashed the cup in his hand. Wang Qinrong held him, saying softly, “Don’t be angry, Xiao Yue didn’t mean it.”

Hearing the other use that nickname, Wen Fengyue couldn’t help but feel a wave of nausea. She turned around and walked straight out of the villa, ignoring the voices behind her. When Wen Dong’s voice saying she was “just as stubborn as her mother” reached her ears, she began to run fast.

Wen Fengyue’s physical stamina was poor. Before she had run far, she stopped, leaning one hand against a tree trunk by the road, gasping for air. Her heart raced, her throat ached, and she felt dizzy from not having eaten for a long time. She struggled forward two more steps before finally being unable to support herself, sliding down the trunk to sit on the ground.

Wen Fengyue rested for a long, long time, even falling asleep for a dozen minutes. When she woke again, sunlight had pierced the clouds and spilled onto her.

“…” Wen Fengyue began to move. She pulled her backpack into her lap. If nothing went wrong, the candy distributed by the school cafeteria yesterday at noon should still—

Wen Fengyue’s fingertip touched a foreign object that shouldn’t have been in her backpack.

Her expression changed slightly. She had encountered similar situations many times. A “good” one was pencil shavings in her water bottle; a bad one… was a dead rat placed in her bag.

Wen Fengyue took a deep breath and withdrew her finger. Fortunately, there was no blood and no foul smell. No… if there was a smell, there was a little bit. It seemed to be… the smell of fruit.

Wen Fengyue was stunned for a long time. She held her backpack like she was holding Pandora’s box, or like she was holding a gift from the heavens. She didn’t dare look at what was inside.

At that moment, a light breeze blew past. Compared to the cold morning wind, it seemed to bring a wave of warmth, wrapping around her exposed, chilled neck. Wen Fengyue instinctively looked up but saw nothing.

She sat under the tree until her legs were stiff before gathering enough courage to take the object out of the bag.

…It was a piece of bread with strawberry cream filling. The round bread was perfectly sealed, with no signs of having been opened. The production date was yesterday.

Another breeze blew. Wen Fengyue looked up dully and met the eyes of a kitten on a branch. The pure black kitten was at most three or four months old. Seeing that it had been discovered, it gave a soft meow.

Wen Fengyue instinctively touched the bread and found two tiny, hard-to-detect holes on the edge of the packaging—bite marks from a cat.

“Kitty?” Wen Fengyue spoke, her voice somewhat hoarse. “Was it you?”

She didn’t expect a response, but the black kitten meowed again, its voice milky and incredibly cute. Light sparked in Wen Fengyue’s eyes. She stood up, wanting to get closer to the kitten. The kitten tilted its head to look at her, its long tail swaying with a slight curve.

This made Wen Fengyue unable to resist reaching out her hand. “Kitty…”

The kitten stood up. “Meow.”

In the next second, its figure vanished amidst the flickering shadows of the trees.

Wen Fengyue stood frozen until she heard the sound of someone approaching. Only then did she react, taking the bread and backpack to hide quickly behind a bush.

The people who came were two servants from the Wen residence. They complained about Wang Qinrong’s nitpicking nature. After a few words, they moved on to talk about the others in the house.

“Why is everyone’s attitude toward the second young lady so bad?” This was the gardener who had recently arrived. “I think she looks quite cute, not mischievous at all.”

“What second young lady? She’s just an unwanted orphan. If you ask me, it’d be better to just sell her off—AAH!!”

The older one was the chef. Halfway through his sentence, a black cat suddenly pounced on his face from nowhere, its sharp claws leaving four bloody gashes across his face. The intense pain made him flail his arms, trying to throw the wild cat to its death. The gardener also hurried forward to help.

Seeing this scene, Wen Fengyue’s face turned white with fright, and she instinctively wanted to rush out to save the kitten. At that moment, the voice in her heart said: Don’t go.

No, the kitty will be in danger, Wen Fengyue immediately argued. She didn’t give the other a chance to brainwash her again. Regardless of everything, she scrambled up and rushed toward the black kitten.

Wen Fengyue didn’t realize that this was the first time in all these years she had resisted her predetermined character setting.

The World Consciousness detected an abnormal signal and immediately went into operation. It roared repeatedly in Wen Fengyue’s brain, warning her to do “what she should do.” But all of this was in vain. Looking at that little black cat, Wen Fengyue’s heart pounded wildly. Her true desire overrode the voice forced into her brain.

However, the disadvantage of her poor health manifested at this moment. Wen Fengyue had only run one step when she twisted her ankle. She fell to the ground, but more than the pain in her body, she was worried about—

Wen Fengyue’s eyes slowly widened.

The black kitten was not caught by the two servants; instead, when they reached for it, it nimbly used their force to jump, leaping onto the chef’s head. When he reached back to grab it, the cat struck hard with a claw.

“AAAH—!!”

The corner of the chef’s mouth was torn open in a large gash by the cat’s claw. The visual effect was horrific, as if his entire mouth had split open. The gardener was terrified by the combat power of this black cat; his legs went weak, and he didn’t dare step forward to help.

In the bushes, Wen Fengyue saw the entire process. Her whole body was trembling, but not from fear.

From this day on, Wen Fengyue had a cat knight.

The cat knight understood human speech, accompanied her to and from school, climbed through windows to feed her delicious food, sat with her while she did homework, and slept beside her. Life was still terrible, but the appearance of the cat made everything bright, and Wen Fengyue finally remembered how to smile.

But those days didn’t last long. Merely half a year later, the amount of time the cat appeared grew shorter each day. Its fur was no longer as smooth as before, and its body temperature was lower.

“Caramel, why aren’t you growing up?” Wen Fengyue stroked the black cat’s back, smoothing its fur, her gaze very sorrowful. “Are you sick?”

Jiao Qingyin, who had been named “Caramel,” gave a yawn and pressed a paw against Wen Fengyue’s hand as it moved toward her belly. “Meow.”

She wasn’t sick. The reason she didn’t grow was because the real black kitten had already died before meeting Wen Fengyue; she was merely a ghost using its body. She used her power to maintain the life force of this body, but half a year was the limit. She needed to change bodies. Moreover, she had recently begun to feel drowsy frequently; if nothing went wrong, she was about to jump timelines again.

With this thought, Jiao Qingyin bit down on Wen Fengyue’s pen. It was time to say goodbye.

Wen Fengyue good-naturedly scratched her chin, not pulling the pen back, only saying in a soft voice: “Caramel, you can’t eat this. It’s bad for you.”

Saying this, Wen Fengyue opened the box of yogurt Jiao Qingyin had brought her and held it in front of the cat with an expectant look. She had never seen Caramel eat anything.

It wasn’t that Jiao Qingyin was being disrespectful; she simply couldn’t eat. The black kitten’s body only looked normal on the outside; it had no physiological functions. She didn’t let go of the pen, dragging it across the desk.

Caramel looks like she wants to write, Wen Fengyue couldn’t help but think. She allowed Jiao Qingyin to move until Jiao Qingyin dragged the pen onto the textbook and poked a certain word with the tip.

“Wait…?” Wen Fengyue unconsciously read the word.

Jiao Qingyin let go of the pen and nodded with satisfaction. The child she raised was indeed smart. Then, she tapped herself with her front paw.

Wen Fengyue immediately said: “Caramel.”

Jiao Qingyin looked at the page, successfully found a usable word, and tapped it with her paw pad.

“Dinner?” Wen Fengyue guessed hesitantly.

Jiao Qingyin shook her head first, then paused, controlled her sharp little claws to extend, and pointed at the word again.

“Long?”

After reading this word, Wen Fengyue’s expression changed. She knew her Caramel was exceptionally smart, with an IQ even higher than many humans. For her to suddenly point out these words, did it mean… “Asking me to wait for you, that it might be a long time?”

Wen Fengyue fell into a state of extreme anxiety. “Where are you going? For how long? Can you take me with you? I—”

Jiao Qingyin gave a soft meow and walked step by step until she was directly in front of Wen Fengyue. She sat upright on the textbook, gazing at Wen Fengyue with her unique light-black eyes. Once the girl leaned in, she lay down on her side for the first time, proactively exposing her belly.

“Meow meow.” Giving you a rub, just this once, meow.

The tears Wen Fengyue had been holding back finally became uncontrollable at this moment. Large droplets fell continuously; she was so sad she broke down.

“I don’t want to… I don’t want to…” Wen Fengyue shook her head desperately, stifling her sobs, but the tears flowed like a broken dam.

“I won’t rub,” she held Jiao Qingyin tightly in her arms. “Don’t go, don’t go…”

Jiao Qingyin gave her hand a very gentle bite, then rubbed her chin with her pointed ears. She had to go, but she would be back.

That night, Wen Fengyue fell asleep while crying, holding Jiao Qingyin. The next morning, her cat knight was gone. Left by her pillow was only a familiar piece of bread. Strawberry filling, with cream squeezed in; the sweet fragrance made Wen Fengyue’s eyes turn red again.

She finished the bread bit by bit, picked up her backpack, and prepared for school. But that voice that hadn’t appeared in her heart for a long time rang out again.

Go to the place where you first met to find Caramel, the voice said. Wen Fengyue was somewhat dazed, unable to distinguish for a moment whether she was being guided or if she truly wanted to do so.

But this time, the voice indeed stirred the desire in Wen Fengyue’s heart. Once the thought took root, she couldn’t wait to visit that large tree not far from the villa. Perhaps Caramel’s home was nearby.

Wen Fengyue looked forward to seeing Jiao Qingyin. After leaving the villa gate, she ran faster and faster, scenes of their time together flashing before her eyes. Her Caramel was different from other kittens. Caramel didn’t like licking herself; if her fur was tangled, she would come to her to be brushed. She didn’t like having her head or belly touched, but occasionally she would extend a paw for her paw pads to be massaged. On the surface, she didn’t like boxes or balls of yarn, but she had once played with yarn in secret and tangled herself into a yarn-cat…

The smile on Wen Fengyue’s face grew larger and larger until—

She saw the corpse of a black kitten under that tree. The kitten’s eyes were open, its body stiff and cold. It had already been dead for a long time.

Wen Fengyue collapsed.

Jiao Qingyin stood behind Wen Fengyue, watching her wail as she held the kitten’s body. Rage completely ignited her entire being. To prevent Wen Fengyue from finding the body, she had run to the other side of the city after delivering the bread and jumped into a pond. She had endured the pain of drowning before finally extracting herself from that long-used body, yet now, the kitten’s corpse had appeared before Wen Fengyue.

Only one thing could do this—the World Consciousness.

From the moment the timelines began to revert and jump, the World Consciousness had been trying to push Wen Fengyue back into the set plot. And now, to turn the “protagonist” who had escaped control back into a toy it could manipulate, it found the existence that could stimulate Wen Fengyue the most.

Extreme anger instead brought Jiao Qingyin into a state of extreme calm. With a dark expression, she spoke slowly: “As long as Wen Fengyue’s ending is ‘successful revenge,’ the entire world can operate normally. Why are you doing this?”

She seemed to be speaking to the air, but Jiao Qingyin knew the World Consciousness had been monitoring her and Wen Fengyue; it could hear what she said.

After a long while, a strange voice that didn’t sound male or female answered Jiao Qingyin: “Before you came, the plot had been restarted 29 times.”

“Every time, Wen Fengyue succeeded in her revenge before being reborn—this is not allowed.”

“She must experience death once and experience rebirth once to succeed in her revenge. This is an established fact.”

Therefore, for this purpose, the World Consciousness did not hesitate to wipe out Wen Fengyue’s autonomous consciousness, wanting her to be a puppet.

This time should have been the World Consciousness’s closest attempt to success—under its control, Wen Fengyue had no thought of resistance, endured countless pains, and finally arrived at the plot’s node: the rooftop of the music building.

But it had pushed too hard. Even when Wen Fengyue was forced until half a foot was in the air, she had no intention of grabbing Wen Ziyuan to jump together. She allowed those people to shove her and fell from the rooftop alone—a critical plot deviation. The World Consciousness had to use its last strength to restart the world and call for help from the Time and Space Management Bureau.

Thus, Jiao Qingyin arrived by Wen Fengyue’s side.

“You cannot awaken her autonomous consciousness. That will lead the plot to…”

“You said just now that this is your last strength?” Jiao Qingyin spoke suddenly, interrupting its words.

Wh-what— The World Consciousness suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

Jiao Qingyin ignored it. She reached out her hand toward the suffering Wen Fengyue, her expression as soft as new sprouts in spring. The mental power on her body began to skyrocket. This mental power was what had originally attracted the Time and Space Management Bureau to sign a contract with her; now, she was going to use her own power to save Wen Fengyue from the hopeless cycle.

It might take a bit of time. By the time they met again, Wen Fengyue would likely look like an adult.

But they were destined to meet again. This was her promise to her.