The tear in the air spread like an ink stain on glass—slow, deliberate, unnervingly graceful.
It wasn't just a crack in the Rift anymore.
It was an opening.
A doorway.
A call.
Qin Mian felt it before she heard anything.
A pressure behind her eyes.
A familiar ache in her chest.
The voice drifted through again—
Soft.
Close.
Fractured like an echo across water.
"…Mian…"
Her breath caught.
She stepped backward without meaning to, colliding with Yin Lie's back.
He shifted instantly to shield her, his hand tightening around her wrist in a silent promise:
I won't let anything take you.
The voice called again.
This time clearer.
This time… older.
"Mian… come closer."
A chill crawled down her spine.
Her lips parted before she could stop herself.
"I… I know that voice."
Yin Lie turned his head sharply.
"You don't."
She shook her head.
"No.
I do.
It feels like… like something buried in my dreams."
The tear widened, spilling cold white light onto the floor.
Shapes moved inside it—shadows shifting like a body trying to remember its form.
Yin Lie pulled her even closer, his tone icy:
"It's trying to lure you. Don't listen."
But Qin Mian couldn't look away.
Something tugged at her heart.
A string.
A memory.
A sensation of being held, once, long ago.
"I've heard him… somewhere," she whispered.
"In the dark. In the sleep I couldn't escape."
Yin Lie stiffened.
"Mian—stop."
But she stepped out from behind him.
Just one step.
The Rift reacted instantly.
Light pulsed.
Air bent.
Time rippled around her footprint.
Yin Lie grabbed her arm, panic in his voice.
"Mian! Don't move!"
"It's not hurting me," she murmured.
Her eyes reflected the tear's glow.
"It's calling me."
The voice deepened.
Almost tender.
Almost sorrowful.
"Mian… little star… do you still not remember me?"
Her heart stumbled.
She pressed a hand to her chest, breath shaking.
"…little… star…?"
The words felt familiar.
Painfully familiar.
Yin Lie's expression darkened instantly.
His power stirred like a storm beneath his skin.
"No one calls her that," he snarled.
"No one."
But the voice ignored him, speaking only to her.
"You were not meant for cages.
Not meant for silence.
Not meant for sleep."
The tear flickered, revealing a silhouette—
tall, slim, almost human,
but its edges vibrated like static on broken glass.
Qin Mian trembled.
Her lips formed a name unconsciously.
"Ge—"
Her throat closed.
The word refused to come out.
Like her mind slammed a door the moment she approached it.
She touched her head, wincing.
"Why… why can't I say it?
Why does it hurt?"
Yin Lie stepped between her and the tear, teeth clenched.
"It's altering your memory.
It's trying to overwrite something—"
"No," the voice whispered.
"I'm trying to restore what was taken."
The Rift pulsed.
A second silhouette appeared beside the first.
Then a third.
All flickering.
All watching her.
The tallest one leaned closer to the tear.
"Do you remember the songs we sang to keep the resonance calm?"
Qin Mian's eyes widened.
Her breath hitched.
"I…
I know that tune…"
The creature hummed.
A soft melody—
sad, ancient, repeating like a lullaby sung in a cold room.
A memory slammed into her.
She was small.
Wrapped in a blanket.
A tall figure sat beside her bed.
A warm hand rested on her forehead.
A voice whispered the same melody:
"Little star, little star…
Please don't wake too far…"
Qin Mian gasped.
"I—I know you! I've met you before, I—"
Black lightning exploded across the tear.
The silhouette recoiled in pain.
The Rift screamed.
Yin Lie pulled her behind him again just as the ground cracked open beneath them.
"Mian! That thing is not your memory—!"
She shoved his hand off desperately.
"Yes it is! I remember— I REMEMBER something!"
Her voice rose, panicked.
"I wasn't alone in the dark! Someone was with me—someone who sang to me when I cried—someone who stayed even when I broke the lights around me—someone who—"
A sudden spike of agony shot through her skull.
She dropped to her knees.
Yin Lie grabbed her shoulders, horrified.
"Mian!!"
She trembled violently.
"There was someone… someone important…
Someone I forgot…
Someone they MADE me forget—!"
The silhouettes inside the tear leaned forward as if reaching for her.
The lead voice softened.
"Mian… say my name."
She tried.
Her lips shaped the first sound.
"G—"
Her vision blurred.
The Rift's structure trembled violently.
Yin Lie's power surged, shaking the world.
"Mian, STOP!!
You'll tear your mind apart—!"
She looked at him through tears.
"But… he knows me…
He knew me before anyone else…"
Her hand reached toward the tear.
The silhouettes reached back.
The Rift whispered hungrily:
"Anchor… awakening…
Return to us…"
Yin Lie snapped.
Ice and fire burst from him at once, carving a blazing circle around them.
"No one takes her," he growled.
"No one calls her."
The tear screamed.
The silhouettes flickered.
And for the first time—
the voice inside the tear sounded surprised.
"…Lie…?
Why… do you protect her… so strongly?"
Yin Lie stepped forward, placing himself between Qin Mian and the unknown entity entirely.
His eyes burned like two different storms.
"Because she chose me," he said quietly.
"And I choose her."
The Rift cracked.
The silhouette jerked backward.
Qin Mian whispered, dizzy, trembling:
"Lie… something is trying to wake inside me.
Something I don't understand."
Yin Lie cupped her face gently—
the softest touch in the world of collapsing chaos.
"Then we'll face it together."
The tear shuddered.
Black lightning spread across its edges.
A deep voice—no longer gentle—spoke:
"Then come to me, little star…
Before the chains break again."
The tear swallowed itself shut—
leaving only silence.
And Qin Mian collapsed into Yin Lie's arms, shaking uncontrollably.
He held her tightly.
"Mian…
Who was calling you?"
Her voice cracked.
"I… I don't know.
But I think… he's someone I loved."
Yin Lie froze.
The Rift trembled.
And the truth began tearing at the seams of her memory.
—Chapter 101 End—