When Chu Lian and Liu Yanran recovered the memories of their previous lives, in another room, Chu Chu was tossing and turning restlessly.
She did not know what was wrong. Ever since her strength had returned over the past few days, she kept dreaming of strange scenes—like fragments of the past, emotions too painful to sever.
"Big Sis..." Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Chu Lian standing in front of her, pinned down by a man.
She always felt that something about that scene was terribly wrong. It should not have been like that. But why was this the only image that surfaced in her heart? What had truly happened back then?
"I want to know. Whatever is blocking my memories, get out of my way." Hugging her pillow as she lay face-down on the bed, the blanket covering her completely, the girl wrestled with her thoughts. She did not want this outcome. These memories twisted her heart, again and again.
Since childhood, if not for that guilt—if not for that constant ache that refused to fade—why would Chu Chu repeatedly escape by going on trips, just to avoid facing it?
"Big Sis is the one I will protect for my entire life. I will never allow anyone to hurt her again. Never!" The night sky had been clear and bright with stars, but as Chu Chu's thoughts grew more intense, dark clouds began to gather.
"I have to know what that scene really was. I have to..." A violet lightning spirit appeared behind her, swelling the blanket into a large mound. It embraced her small body and leaned close to her ear, as if whispering something.
"Thunder..." Chu Chu's pupils slowly condensed into the shape of flickering lightning, as though something ancient—something that had endured since primordial times—had flashed within her gaze.
The entanglement of these past days had reached its final moment. If Chu Lian had not left for so long, if Chu Chu's longing had not been so deep, if her strength had not stabilized at this level—then these memories would not have grown so strange. Every cause bore its consequence.
"Don't come any closer! I will never let you hurt my little sister!" A small figure stood in front of her. Chu Chu tried to pull her behind her, but her body was so weak with fear that she could do nothing at all.
The man seemed not to hear Chu Lian's words. He continued forward. No matter how many times the little girl was pushed aside, she stubbornly stood in front of Chu Chu again. At last, he grew furious and reached out, tearing Chu Lian's clothes apart piece by piece.
He seemed to be laughing—laughing wildly, arrogantly, as though nothing in the world could challenge him.
Yet Chu Chu knew that this scene had already repeated itself countless times. If it were real, why would it keep reminding her that something here was wrong?
"I want to see the truth! Let this falsehood shatter completely!" Her weak little fists slowly clenched. Her body rose into the air. She lifted her hand, and thousands of bolts of lightning gathered, blasting toward the scene before her.
Boom—
Lightning flashed. The man was obliterated in an instant, yet the scene did not change.
Chu Chu froze.
She dropped to her knees beside Chu Lian, tears streaming down her face as she pounded the ground. "Why? Why? Why!"
"I already destroyed him. I worked so hard all these days—I did it! So why is it still like this? Is it real? It can't be!"
"I refuse to believe Big Sis was violated! I won't believe it! This is different from what I remember. This is a dream—a false dream! In my memory, Big Sis was only hurt. She wasn't assaulted!"
"But how do I explain this? This scene is different from what I remember. It's different. So is this strange dream real or not? Is it?"
"I don't believe it. I don't... I absolutely don't believe you!" She screamed until her voice broke. Tears fell like rain, pattering against her hands.
A small hand reached out and grasped hers.
Chu Lian's weak voice sounded beside her. "Chu Chu, it's okay. You've already tried so hard. Being able to protect you... that makes Big Sis very happy..."
Looking up through tear-blurred eyes, Chu Chu clutched her hand tightly. "Big Sis, Big Sis, you're okay, right? You must be okay. You have to be, right?"
"My body hurts so much... I don't think I can move anymore..." She forced a smile. As the older sister, at a time like this, she should reassure her little sister—not make her worry.
"But... but Big Sis, you look so weak. I'll take you to the doctor, okay? Please?" Chu Chu tried to lift her, but with her current strength, it was impossible.
She knelt there and began crying again, wiping her tears as she choked out, "It's all my fault. Big Sis, if I hadn't been so naughty and insisted on coming here, if we had just stayed with Mom, none of this would have happened..."
"It's not Chu Chu's fault. It's mine, as your big sister, for not protecting you well enough..." How could Chu Lian not hear her crying? Faced with something like this, the only thing she could think of was self-blame. If not for her, perhaps none of this would have happened.
"No! It's all my fault..." Chu Chu shook her head, rejecting her sister's words. She knew the root of everything was her own stubbornness. If she hadn't insisted on coming, if Big Sis hadn't followed her out of worry, this would never have happened.
"Mom... where's Mom?"
"Mom... Mom..." She raised her head and shouted.
From the distance came hurried footsteps. Li Mingxue's figure came into view. When she saw her two daughters in such a state, she froze—then tears burst from her eyes. She rushed over, knelt beside Chu Lian, and pulled her torn, disheveled daughter into her arms.
"Lian'er, Lian'er, you're okay, right? You have to be okay. Mom's here. I'm here to protect you..."
"Mom, it's all my fault. It's all because of me that Big Sis suffered this. It's all my fault..." Already tearful, the girl could no longer hold back when Li Mingxue began crying as well. She bit her lip until it bled.
"Good girl, don't cry. Chu Chu is the bravest. Big Sis is fine, you know that." With hollow eyes like a broken doll, Chu Lian still raised her hand to gently stroke her cheek, comforting her.
"It's okay now. It's okay... It's all Mom's fault. If I had arrived just a little sooner, it wouldn't have ended like this." Li Mingxue felt the trembling of the girl in her arms, her voice turning hoarse with regret. She truly hated that she had been delayed until now.
"Mom, what were you doing just now?" Chu Chu wiped her tears and looked at her mother with swollen red eyes. There was something strange about her expression, but Li Mingxue did not think too deeply about it and answered instinctively, "I ran into an old friend and was held up talking for a bit, so I was delayed..."
"An old friend..." Chu Chu murmured. "Why is it different from my memory again? So this really is the false one, isn't it?"
Her tears stopped. She lifted her head and looked at Li Mingxue's startled expression, a peculiar smile curling at the corner of her lips. "Mom once said that when we came to this city, we didn't know anyone. We never ran into any old friends. Mom lived here for twenty years under a false name, just so we could grow up safely."
"Mom loves us more than anyone. She would never neglect us for the sake of some so-called old acquaintance. She would never have any familiar friends here. All of this is a lie. All of this is illusion—distorted, fabricated memories..." Chu Chu shook her head. Her smile grew brighter, more beautiful by the second.
Though in Chu Lian's eyes everything had lost its color, at this moment she could clearly see Chu Chu's hue—a blue-violet glow, as beautiful as an orchid.
"You're the source of all this, aren't you?" Chu Chu pointed at Li Mingxue, her voice firm and resolute, as though she were stating an undeniable fact.
"It seems you've figured it out." Li Mingxue set Chu Lian down and stood up. Looking at the two girls, she gave a bitter smile. "Five years. Only five years. We didn't even reach the ten-year mark when our plan would have succeeded, and yet you've broken free from these memories. What a failure."
"No. You've already won," Chu Chu replied calmly. "For five whole years, both my sister and I walked to extremes. We became utterly disgusted with men. We didn't know how to let ourselves go."
"I threw myself into mastering lightning at any cost, determined to one day control the power that could destroy everything—so I could protect Big Sis. As for her, she completely exiled herself, wasting four years, only starting to grow again in this past year."
"We had no choice. Your potential was too terrifying. For our plan to succeed, you couldn't be allowed to grow too quickly. Unfortunately, we couldn't kill you, or everything would have been for nothing. We didn't expect that even guiding you would cause problems." "Li Mingxue" seemed utterly unconcerned that Chu Chu now knew about their so-called plan. She simply continued speaking.
"No matter what you intended, no matter what your plans were, I will never forgive you." Chu Chu raised her hand. Violet-blue lightning gathered in her palm. She looked at the smiling "Li Mingxue" and hardened her heart. "My mother loves us more than anyone. She would never be like this!"
"Let this false dream vanish! Let the truth appear before my eyes! Let me see that this world is beautiful—because my Big Sis is the most beautiful of all!"
With a cry, lightning condensed into a sphere and blasted into the motionless "Li Mingxue," reducing her to ashes. At the same time, this sealed zone of forbidden memories shattered into countless fragments and dispersed.
"Big Sis..." She bent down and held Chu Lian, watching as the light slowly returned to her eyes. She knew that the truth of this world was about to reveal itself before her.
That was what she was meant to know. That was the real truth. The memory that had been shackled all these years—was it finally about to return?
Time and space twisted. Memories cycled. They returned once more to the moment when Chu Lian had stood in front of her.
But this time, everything was different.
The enemy was not an ordinary man at all. His body appeared trapped inside something like a spacesuit. The helmet was filled with liquid, and within it floated a corpse-like face radiating a hypnotic glow—something capable of altering memories and injecting falsehoods into the mind.
He spread his arms, clawed hands gleaming with sharp talons. Yet Chu Lian showed no fear. She turned back and hugged the trembling Chu Chu.
"Chu Chu, don't be afraid. Big Sis is here..."
"Hahaha! Twist in pain! Let false memories replace reality! Let your hearts be filled with terror! You are the greatest threat to our plan. Unfortunately, we cannot kill you for now. But turning you into useless wrecks? That, we can do."
"Ten years. Just ten years and we will succeed. And when you awaken then, what difference will it make? Hahahahaha!"
His sharp claws raked wildly across Chu Lian's back. Her clothing tore apart. Bloody wounds spread across her pale skin.
Yet even as the pain made her heart spasm, even as she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, she continued to shield Chu Chu with her own body, gentle and unwavering.
Only when Li Mingxue rushed in from the distance and struck the creature into ashes with a single punch—then gathered the two girls into her arms and wept—did they finally become safe.
"In Big Sis' eyes, there was warmth. There was longing for this world—not hollow emptiness. She never gave up on striving because of this. She must have had her own plans..."
What she saw was the most beautiful pair of eyes she had ever seen. They belonged to Chu Lian. They belonged to her Big Sis.
"Big Sis..." Chu Chu hugged her tightly. Tears fell again, uncontrollably.
This time they were not only from sorrow, but from joy—excitement. So this was the truth. Big Sis had not been assaulted. Just as she remembered, she had only been scratched. The previous memory had been twisted, false, faceless.
But now... now everything was right.
"Chu Chu is very strong, you know. To grow to this level, you must have worked very hard, right? Big Sis has been waiting for you to wake up... waiting for you to protect me... I've always been waiting..."
In her eyes, it was as though only Chu Chu existed. The mother holding her seemed almost unreal.
The sky dimmed. Slanting clouds drifted. A thin wind passed through...
Opening her eyes, Chu Chu threw off the blanket and withdrew her lightning spirit. Light shone brilliantly within her gaze.
"Big Sis... so you always knew. You've always been waiting for me. I'm coming to find you, Big Sis..."
Her heart felt as if it were about to take flight. She jumped out of bed, not even remembering to put on her shoes. Barefoot, she rushed to Chu Lian's door. She took a moment to steady her racing breath, then pushed it open.
What she saw was two girls entangled together on the bed...
"Big Sis..."
The stunned girl heard thunder crash outside. Rain poured down in sheets...