Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard

"What?" Leah raised an eyebrow.

“I am not the person you are waiting for.” Su Ting slowly approached, a long-lost emotion igniting in his eyes. “I am myself, the person I became after every step I have taken and every betrayal I have endured. I can destroy this thing, or I can walk into that data gate—but neither path is the ending you want for me.”

Leah didn't refute him, she just looked at him quietly.

At that moment, another roar came from afar, and the entire spatial structure seemed to be twisting and collapsing continuously.

Qin Ran's tense voice came through the communicator:

[Cheng Yuan reports! The enemy is forcibly invading the terminal server cluster! If the entry point is not sealed immediately, the mainline data will be completely swallowed!]

“Time is running out,” Leah said softly. “You choose. Destroy it, or use it.”

Su Ting clenched his fist, his knuckles turning white: "Why should I believe you won't deceive me again? You so-called remnants of the past, projections of consciousness, fragments of personality... you have long since abandoned genuine emotions, which is why you repeatedly pass on your pain to others to bear!"

Chapter 986 You Shouldn't Have Become Like This

“Because I’m afraid of making mistakes.” For the first time, Leah showed an almost vulnerable expression. “I would rather you all continue to live, even if it’s by lying, than watch the world be destroyed by my own hands. But… you shouldn’t have become like this. I don’t want you to go down this path.”

"I was forced into this state by you."

“I’m sorry,” Leah whispered, “but I still want to ask you this once more: make that decision with your own heart.”

"Get out," Su Ting said through gritted teeth. "Don't try to convince me with words like 'forgiveness' anymore. I just want to know, is everything you're saying to me now truly for the sake of ending this, or is it some new kind of manipulation?"

After a long silence, Leah suddenly smiled softly:

"You thought I'd been waiting here for you just to give you an answer?"

His figure began to blur.

Su Ting suddenly stepped forward: "What do you mean?! You haven't finished speaking!!"

"It's enough that you've come." With those final words, Leah transformed into a stream of flowing light and vanished into the wind.

Only the ball of light remained, slowly rotating in mid-air.

The rain was still falling, but the eye of the storm gradually calmed down.

Cheng Yuan rushed over, panting: "What did you do? He just disappeared?!"

Su Ting stared at the ball of light, his face expressionless.

“He said the answer is my own choice.” He reached out and caught the ball of light, closed his eyes, and let the raindrops slide down. “This time, I’m going to try and see what a destiny that truly belongs to me is.”

"What are you doing? Don't be impulsive!" Cheng Yuan shouted anxiously.

Su Ting turned to look at him, a cryptic smile playing on her lips:

"Do you still remember our original goal, Cheng Yuan? You said we wanted to find the truth, and now it's right here... Do you think I should take it with me? Or should we... just make it disappear?"

Raindrops hit the metal ground, stirring up wisps of water vapor.

"Are you crazy?" Cheng Yuan shouted, taking a few steps forward. "That thing contains the core information of the main program! If you destroy it, we may never figure out what all this is all for!"

Su Ting did not answer.

His palm rested on the surface of the sphere of light, where the data seemed to be struggling to escape, or perhaps searching for an exit. The light flowed between his fingertips, making his eyes gleam slightly.

"You think I don't want to know the truth?" he said in a low voice. "But the problem has never been that the truth is more important than fate, but rather... do I have a choice? Or from the very beginning, have I only been able to follow the path they drew for me?"

"But you're free now!" Cheng Yuan said urgently. "You're no longer the tool implanted with the mission! You're our only hope! If you give up now, everyone... including Qin Ran and the others..."

"Including what will happen to them?" Su Ting slowly opened his eyes, his voice extremely calm. "Sacrifice yourself to save everyone? Or continue to make me bear the consequences of my mistakes alone?"

“Su Ting, this isn’t their fault.” Cheng Yuan gritted his teeth. “They just want to survive, just like you.”

"Live? Who told me what it means to truly live? You all tell me what I should and shouldn't do—but no one has ever asked me if I want to die!" Su Ting suddenly laughed, a cold laugh. "If this is what they call free will, then let me decide."

Chapter 987 You Will Destroy Everything

As he spoke, he clenched his fist, and the ball of light emitted a dazzling flash.

In shock and anger, Cheng Yuan rushed forward, only to find a transparent barrier suddenly appearing in the air, isolating them.

"What are you doing!" he roared. "Don't touch that data!! You'll ruin everything!!"

Su Ting looked at him quietly, her tone suddenly becoming calm: "Do you think... I look like her now? Lia."

Cheng Yuan was taken aback.

“She said she was the me who had abandoned emotions and dared not make judgments anymore. But you said I am free, so I want to try, to truly follow my own will.” Su Ting’s voice was deep and thunderous. “Will you believe me this once, or not?”

"If you want to destroy all the data, I won't believe you for a second!" Cheng Yuan cursed and tried to forcefully break through the barrier, but the light was indestructible.

“I’m not going to destroy it.” Su Ting looked up at him, as if she could see through his fear and obsession. “I just want to take it to a new place.”

"What do you want to do?" Cheng Yuan frowned.

"Do you remember the question you asked me before? About the nature of this world."

"Yes, I said the world is too clean, like it was designed. But we don't have time to discuss that now!"

"Perhaps you're too naive," Su Ting said softly. "Or perhaps you already knew something? Otherwise, why have you been helping me all along instead of following those pro-war factions? You clearly have higher authority, don't you?"

Cheng Yuan's pupils contracted: "What did you say?"

“You’ve been testing my limits all along.” Su Ting narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t come to me to complete a mission, nor to save humanity. You came to see her…”

The air suddenly became still.

After a long pause, Cheng Yuan finally spoke, his voice slightly hoarse:

"How much do you know?"

“I’m not sure about anything yet,” Su Ting said slowly, the ball of light in his hand beginning to rotate slowly. “But I vaguely remember that you were on her side.”

"And what about you?" Cheng Yuan stared at him. "Which side are you on?"

In the rain, two people who had once fought side by side finally faced each other, with no trust left between them.

After a long silence, Su Ting smiled:

"I've always stood by my own side."

As soon as he finished speaking, the ball of light in his palm suddenly erupted with a violent fluctuation.

The entire space was shaking violently, and the surrounding scenery flickered like a shattered mirror.

Cheng Yuan's expression changed drastically: "You activated core permissions?! Where did you get the authorization code from?!"

“Don’t you find it strange?” Su Ting stared at the crack in the sky. “How could an ordinary experimental subject break through the system, escape the lockdown zone, and travel through the multidimensional memory channel to get here? I was never an outsider to the plan, but rather… one of her deepest secrets.”

"No... what nonsense are you talking about..." Cheng Yuan took a few steps back. "Impossible. You are a real human being, how could you be a clone..."

Before he could finish speaking, the communicator in the distance rang again—this time with intermittent, static-filled audio.

[Warning...Abnormal data activity detected...Host protocol conflict...Emergency status - reboot in progress...]

"You're going to trigger a complete system overhaul?" Cheng Yuan's eyes widened in shock. "Are you crazy?!"

"I'll say it again." Su Ting's voice pierced through the rain and echoed in the space, "I want to try and create a destiny that truly belongs to me."

The next second, a dazzling beam of light shot out from his body.

Chapter 988 Destroy Everything

The entire sky collapsed, twisted, and rolled, as if an invisible hand was tearing everything to pieces.

At the last moment, Cheng Yuan roared, "You will destroy all possibilities!! You will make everyone start over!!! Are you sure you dare to do that?!"

At the eye of the storm, only a somber reply remained:

"I have nothing to be afraid of anymore."

As light and shadow intertwined, he asked in a low voice:

"This time... are you still willing to walk with me?"

The rain stopped.

The world was eerily quiet, as if all sound had been swallowed up by the sudden burst of light.

The air was thick with the acrid smell of burning metal, and the surrounding buildings had collapsed into ruins like pieces of paper. Su Ting lay on the ground, his body almost numb from the intense heat, but his consciousness was surprisingly clear.

His palm was now empty; the sphere of light had vanished completely, as if it had never existed.

Cheng Yuan has also disappeared.

Only the broken terminal device at his feet was still emitting a faint blue light, like the last heartbeat before death.

"...You're still alive?" A strange voice rang out, its tone tinged with doubt and wariness.

Su Ting barely managed to lift his head, and through his blurry vision, he saw a figure wearing a cloak standing at the edge of the ruins, with a desolate gray desert behind him and a half-destroyed space station floating in the distance.

He didn't answer.

The man sighed softly and walked over. "You have residual signals on you that don't belong to this area."

Su Ting's throat tightened, and he wanted to speak, but found his mouth filled with the metallic taste of iron.

“You’re not from around here.” The other person crouched down and pulled back their hood. It was a young woman with fair skin and sharp, cold eyes. “What did you just do? I detected that the quantum oscillation frequency fluctuation exceeded the limit.”