A jolt went through Wu Pengpeng's heart, and a voice in her head clearly told her, "It's over!"
Everything was over!
Jiang He had discovered her secret, and according to the rules of the deal, the deal would automatically end.
Now she didn't need Wu Junyu to do anything; she would die on her own.
Wu Pengpeng was so scared that her heart almost stopped. She carefully felt the changes in her body, but it seemed no different from before.
Could it be that the Heavenly Dao cub had tricked her, and the rules of this deal weren't that strict...
Before this thought could even flash through her mind, Wu Pengpeng felt as if ten thousand mountains had suddenly pressed down on her body. She was immediately crushed to the ground. Her internal organs felt like they were being torn into pieces by a great force, and the pain was so intense that even her breathing stopped.
"Ah—" She wanted to call for help, but all she could do was let out painful screams; she couldn't make any other sounds.
Jiang He was startled to see Wu Pengpeng rolling on the ground in pain. He quickly bent down and hugged her. "Wu Pengpeng..."
It was finally a night when Wu Junyu wasn't around. He had wanted to use this secret to gain Wu Pengpeng's trust.
But he didn't know why Wu Pengpeng suddenly became like this.
"Wu Pengpeng..." He was so frightened that his courage almost failed him, and his voice trembled. "What's wrong with you?"
Wu Pengpeng's face was deathly pale, and her face was covered in tears and sweat. "Ah—It hurts! It hurts so much—"
"Where does it hurt?" Seeing her like this, Jiang He wished he could take the pain for her.
There was no doctor here. If she had some kind of acute illness, it would be too late to send her to the hospital.
He could only hold Wu Pengpeng tightly, as if this could make her feel better.
After about a minute, Wu Pengpeng finally calmed down, her eyes blankly staring at a point in the air.
The pain just now had been so real that just thinking about it made her scalp tingle. Wu Pengpeng nervously concentrated and felt around. The pain really had disappeared.
"Am I dead?" she asked carefully in her spiritual consciousness.
"Not yet for the time being," the Heavenly Dao cub sighed, looking worried. "But it won't be long. According to the rules of the deal, now that your secret has been discovered, the deal ends automatically."
Wu Pengpeng had been so tortured by the pain that her reaction was slow. She was stunned for a while before saying, "He should have known my secret a long time ago. Why am I only being punished now?"
The Heavenly Dao glanced at Jiang He on the ground and deliberately raised his voice. "A secret is a secret because it hasn't been spoken. Before, he didn't say your secret, so no one knew that he already knew it."
Wu Pengpeng thought this was a paradox, but she really didn't have the strength to argue with him.
She asked weakly, "When will I die?"
The Heavenly Dao put his hands behind his back and walked around her in circles, speaking in an official tone. "From now on, you have twenty-four hours left to live."
After walking around in a circle, he stopped in front of Wu Pengpeng and, against her deathly pale face, said the cruel second half of the sentence. "You clearly know your own time of death. Every minute that passes is a goodbye to your own life."
After that bone-chilling pain just now, Wu Pengpeng no longer expected any mercy from fate.
She clearly knew her own time of death. She only had twenty-four hours left in her life. Actually, it wasn't that short.
If she could spend these twenty-four hours by He Qianshan's side and have him accompany her through the last journey of her life, she probably wouldn't feel so regretful and reluctant.
"Cruel, isn't it?" The Heavenly Dao raised his little face, looking mysterious. "But what can you do? You tiny humans can't fight against the world and the laws of nature. Just accept your fate!"
Wu Pengpeng lifted her eyelids and gave him a cold look. "Has anyone ever told you something?"
The Heavenly Dao immediately turned back into that annoying kid and enthusiastically replied, "What?"
Wu Pengpeng rolled her eyes at him. "You're really annoying!"
"No," the Heavenly Dao chuckled, looking like a mentally handicapped child. "But someone told me I'm so cute."
Wu Pengpeng didn't want to talk to him. She directly flashed out of her spiritual consciousness and only then realized that she was still being held by Jiang He.
She struggled out of Jiang He's arms, tidied up her hair and clothes, and got up on all fours.
She walked back and forth in the room several times. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she trotted over to the bag of snacks Jiang He had brought, bent down, rummaged through it, and took out a bag of potato chips. She tore open the packaging bag and stuffed the food into her mouth in big mouthfuls.
She stopped only when her mouth couldn't hold any more. She stood there in a daze, looking sad, and big tears rolled down her face.
Seeing her like this, Jiang He's eyes also turned red, and his voice trembled. "Wu Pengpeng..."
"I'm fine," Wu Pengpeng wiped her face and chewed the food in big mouthfuls. "I'm just so hungry that my heart aches."
She just cried and ate like that until she finished the whole bag of potato chips. Then she walked up to Jiang He, looked up at him, and said, "Jiang He, can you promise me one thing?"
She looked at him with pleading eyes, and there was a hint of worry in her eyes that she might be rejected. She looked extremely pitiful.
Jiang He's heart was immediately stabbed. He gritted his teeth and stood there for a while before he could steady his voice and calmly ask, "Is it about He Qianshan?"
Hearing He Qianshan's name, Wu Pengpeng couldn't help but be in a daze for a moment. She lowered her eyes and stood there silently for a long time before softly saying, "Yes... I promised to watch the fireworks with him and go skiing with him... Tell him I'm sorry I broke my promise. I have to go back to my world."
As if afraid that he wouldn't believe her, she looked up and said in a very serious tone, "Really, I'm not lying to you. Actually, you guessed right. I'm not the real Wu Pengpeng. I'm from a place called China, which is a parallel world to this one."
Saying this passage seemed to have exhausted all her courage. She had to stop. After a long time, she spoke again. "Tell him that even if I go back, I can live a good life. Ask him to live a good life too. Just say... see you in the next life. I'll wait for him in the River of Forgetfulness..."
Before she could finish her words, she seemed to be amused by herself and smiled briefly. But this smile seemed to tug at her tear ducts, and tears couldn't help but fall again. She noticed her own loss of composure and embarrassedly rubbed the tip of her nose.
"Hey, it seems that the River of Forgetfulness and the Bridge of Helplessness aren't popular here. Anyway, it's the place we pass through after we die. I'll wait for him there..."
Before she could finish her words, the Heavenly Dao forcibly interrupted her. "Go back my ass. If you lose this life, you'll just disappear into thin air."
Wu Pengpeng said angrily, "Shut up!"
As soon as she said this, seeing Jiang He looking at her in a panicked manner, she quickly softened her tone. "I wasn't talking to you."
Jiang He stared at her with wide eyes, the whites of his eyes full of bloodshot veins, as if he would cry the next second. "Can't you not go back?"
Before Wu Pengpeng could answer, the Heavenly Dao preemptively said, "Sure. If the person who knows this secret disappears, she'll be safe."
As he said this, he stretched out his little foot and kicked Wu Pengpeng's calf, sincerely suggesting, "Hey, stinky woman, tell him that as long as he's willing to die for you, you'll be safe."
Wu Pengpeng had thought that she was doomed to die, but unexpectedly, there was still room for maneuver.
She really wanted to survive and see He Qianshan again.
If she died like this, it would really be too regrettable.
However, trading lives for lives, she couldn't do it. It wasn't because she was so noble, but because the education she had received since childhood hadn't taught her to take someone else's life.
Wu Pengpeng shook her head. "I can't."
Jiang He was silent for a while before softly saying, "So that's how it is."
Wu Pengpeng didn't understand what he meant. "What?"
Jiang He gave her a gentle smile. "It's okay."
The sky gradually darkened. Jiang He didn't leave, and Wu Pengpeng rarely didn't drive him away.
In the last twenty-four hours of her life, it was better to have someone to talk to than to die alone.
The long night was endless. They talked about many past events. She told him about her previous life and asked him to convey it to He Qianshan on her behalf.
He told her about his own life story. He had suffered verbal abuse and mental PUA from his aunt since childhood, and his parents only regarded him as a money-making tool...
In his short twenty-eight years of life, he had always lived in a bottomless abyss.
"Later, I met a ray of light," he looked up at the sunlight outside the window, a satisfied expression on his face. "I'm willing to give up everything for that ray of light."
Wu Pengpeng saw a desperate determination on his face, as if he was even more helpless than her, a person about to die.
She reached out and patted Jiang He's shoulder, softly comforting him. "You'll have a good life in the future, so don't be sad."
Jiang He shook his head, turned to look at her, and gently smiled. "There won't be a future."
His tone was so sad that Wu Pengpeng's heart skipped a beat. "Jiang He..."
"You don't understand," Jiang He murmured. "If a person spends their whole life in the dark and has never seen light, then they can live their whole life in the dark like that. But once they've seen light, they can no longer go back to the dark."
He suddenly reached out and hugged her tightly. "I don't want to go back to the dark."