Bengtie: My death fueled their madness.

While Qi Zhimu and Yu Qingtu were exchanging their true thoughts, Yu Qingtu, who had just left, frowned.

…Unable to contact Nguyen Mai.

In the past, it was normal for Ruan Mei to frequently go to deserted places and stay in areas without communication signals for years or even decades.

But Azure Star is the home of the Black Tower, and it's a popular planet in the Milky Way, with communication signals that have never had problems for hundreds of years.

Could it be that Ruan Mei couldn't bear the intense stimulation and left?

If that's really the case, Yu Qingtu doesn't know what to say...

She couldn't comprehend the pain of being forgotten; she could only imagine it.

If Nguyen Mai hasn't left yet and can't be contacted, the most likely culprit is... Nguyen Dai.

Ruan Mei made this strange object herself; it has a large interior space.

Hmm...maybe we should add a more complete version.

The initial version had flaws; its dimensions would continue to expand, but they were sealed away.

If she crawls into Ah Ruan's bag, she will indeed be unreachable.

"Ugh."

Yu Qingtu sighed, too lazy to knock on Ruan Mei's door. With a wave of his hand, an unknown mist enveloped the door, and the substance quickly dissolved.

After she went inside, the dissolved substance quickly returned to its original state.

After wandering around the villa for a while, Yu Qingtu quickly found Ruan Mei's room.

The door was locked.

But it didn't work.

There was no one inside, but as soon as Yu Qingtu entered, he smelled a familiar scent, and his expression froze.

Their field is highly sensitive to many smells, such as the smell of blood.

His gaze swept around to the spot where the smell was strongest, near the window, but he couldn't see any bloodstains.

Pulling back the curtains, I saw that the building directly opposite the window was the villa where Qi Zhimu and Heita lived.

"..."

Yu Qingtu fell into deep thought.

A quick analysis of the residual biological factors in the odor confirmed in seconds that it originated from Ruan Mei.

not right...

Although Ruan Mei does not have severe mysophobia, she has a clear concept of division of labor in different areas and will not conduct experiments in her rest area.

As for who could hurt her... aside from Polka Kakamo, whom she had fought not long ago, it's hard to think of anyone else.

"Um?"

Yu Qingtu's nostrils twitched, and her expression changed slightly.

Upon closer analysis, it became clear that the lingering smell of blood here was so intense that it could not have formed overnight.

Furthermore, it had been treated many times, and someone who is not proficient in biology would absolutely not be able to detect it, indicating that Ruan Mei handled it herself.

Numerous guesses flashed through her mind, and by connecting the cause and effect, Yu Qingtu came up with a possibility that made her expression freeze.

...Is Ruan Mei harming herself?

Yu Qingtu looked around but couldn't find any tools stained with the smell of blood.

With a flick of his wrist, he summoned even more white mist, which instantly enveloped the entire room.

"Found it!"

After a moment of awareness, Yu Qingtu's gaze locked onto the dressing table, and she quickly walked over and touched the round mirror on it.

When my hand touched the mirror, it created ripples like water. I reached straight into it and pulled out an object that looked like a portable pocket.

Without hesitation, he made a large opening and, following the same pattern, reached his hand inside.

A burst of suction force pulled Yu Qingtu into it.

After a brief period of weightlessness, she found herself in a landscape she knew to the core.

Snowscape, bamboo forest, bamboo house...

But she was certain this wasn't Huaimu Star.

For a genius life scientist who can even cultivate planets, creating a replica of his homeland is a piece of cake.

He walked quickly into the house.

nobody.

There was no blood or smell.

If it's not here, then it will only be in the last place.

The mist formed wings on Yu Qingtu's back, took off, and headed straight for the plum grove on the back mountain.

Looking from afar, as the distance closes slightly and the gaze passes through the sea of ​​flowers, one can immediately spot Ruan Mei sitting under the old plum tree, leaning against the stone tablet.

After diving down to get a clear view of the situation, even Yu Qingtu couldn't help but hold his breath.

The blood stained the thin layer of pure white snow within a radius of more than 20 meters centered on the stone tablet with a dark red color, giving off a chilling and eerie feeling.

Furthermore, its scope continues to expand outwards.

Ruan Mei sat there, her clothes tattered and her body covered in numerous bloodstains.

The exposed arms and legs are the most obvious, and if your eyesight is good enough, you can even see some of the wounds healing.

Just as Yu Qingtu landed on the ground, Ruan Mei was holding a sharp dagger and slashing across his shoulder, leaving a cut more than ten centimeters long along his arm.

"Are you crazy?!"

Seeing this, Yu Qingtu couldn't help but blurt out, reaching the highest volume he'd heard in thousands of years.

"Xiao Mu may have forgotten you, but he's doing just fine right now! As long as he's alive, there's always a chance to overcome even the toughest obstacles. Why hurt yourself like this?"

Ruan Mei did not react.

His pair of emerald eyes were a deathly gray, devoid of any vitality.

If it weren't for the fact that her hands were constantly moving, and the short knife had penetrated deep into her thigh and gouged out a small area, leaving behind a glaring bloody mess, anyone would have thought she was a corpse.

Blood continued to spill from the large pool.

"That's enough!"

Yu Qingtu angrily stepped forward, raising his hand to slap Ruan Mei's cheek, but stopped just short of striking her.

He changed direction, gripped Ruan Mei's wrist with all his might, and crushed her bones.

He then snatched the dagger and threw it aside forcefully.

"Even if you blame me for everything you have, for taking away everything that belongs to you from Xiao Mu, it's better than wallowing in self-pity like this!"

Upon hearing this, Ruan Mei, who hadn't reacted at all when her wrist bones were crushed and her knife was taken away, finally made a new move.

His stiff neck turned, and his lifeless eyes moved toward Yu Qingtu.

His dry, pale lips moved, but his words betrayed no emotion.

"It's easy for you to talk when you're not the one suffering. As someone who has already benefited, don't you think you've won enough?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Qingtu finally couldn't hold back any longer.

Snapped--

She slapped Ruan Mei hard across the face.

The blood seeping from Ruan Mei's mouth showed that she hadn't held back at all.

"Ah Ruan, after all these years of friendship, is my image in your heart really just that of a complete thief?"

"You can think that way, I don't care."

"But you shouldn't have trampled on my dignity, shouldn't have thought I would get what I wanted by using something that didn't belong to me!"

"Although I, Yu Qingtu, have never considered myself a person of high moral character, I cannot afford to lose face like this! I would never stoop to being a thief."

"Am I so cheap, so worthless, so unpresentable that I need to be your substitute to get Xiao Mu?"

"Ha...excuse my bluntness, but even a dog wouldn't bother chewing your stuff!"

Ruan Mei's pupils trembled, a flash of light appeared, and then quickly dimmed.

"...I just...don't know what to do..."

The ordinary, even cowardly, words actually calmed Yu Qingtu down considerably, and for the first time, her gaze toward Ruan Mei carried a hint of pity.

But that's all.

A cliché that's been said to death: If only we had known this would happen, why did we do it in the first place?

She could see that Ruan Mei's mental state had long since deteriorated, even more so than Jing Liu's.

The difference lies in the fact that Jing Liu has the means to freely display her possessiveness, and it is an undeniable fact that Qi Zhimu has poured his true feelings into her.

But Ruan Mei doesn't have that kind of capital right now.