Chapter 14: When Qin Xiaoyi Finally Remembers

The final session occupied the midnight slot, running from 22:30 to 1:00 AM. By the time all players had arrived and completed their costume changes, the clock already read 11 PM.

This was almost certainly Qian Jinxin's first experience with this particular kind of Live Action Role Playing Game. Initially dismissive of the entire concept with the practiced indifference of someone who considered such activities beneath him, he grew unusually and almost suspiciously excited after changing into his period costume. He even took the initiative to link arms with Hu Xiu, as if the act of costuming had unlocked some hidden enthusiasm she'd never witnessed before.

If there had been an actual functioning train on the platform, Hu Xiu would have genuinely preferred to throw herself beneath its wheels rather than let Qin Xiaoyi see her standing arm in arm with such a man.

The fourth wall had shattered completely—her quietly maintained sanctuary, the one space where she could exist as someone other than herself, had been forcibly invaded by the outside world. Hu Xiu felt deeply annoyed, simmering with a frustration that bordered on actual fury, all because of Wang Guangming's characteristically dubious intentions in arranging this particular evening.

Of course, the immense sense of security that kept her grounded amid this invasion came from Li Ai, who stood nearby in his assigned alias, leaning casually on a wooden cane with the practiced ease of someone who'd worn such props before.

Li Ai, who had always refused to participate in what he dismissively categorized as "girly games," had proactively offered to bring his cousin along after receiving Wang Guangming's phone call. Though he made the whole arrangement sound perfectly casual and unremarkable, his actual intention was transparently clear to anyone paying attention—to protect both Zhao Xiaorou and Hu Xiu from whatever uncomfortable situations the evening might produce.

Having spent considerable time in Li Ai's company at the café over recent weeks, whether he showed up in hoodies and jeans or loose casual sweaters that made him look perpetually just-woken, Hu Xiu had always sensed a particular aura about him—gentle on the surface yet fundamentally distant, as though he were concealing profound secrets beneath every relaxed gesture. But now, seeing him for the very first time in this specific setting—about to cross the platform threshold, a character's role name tag pinned neatly to his chest, occasionally stealing glances at her and Zhao Xiaorou with eyes that held something she couldn't quite identify—Hu Xiu felt an odd sensation shift through her awareness.

He had always been like a heavy, sophisticated machine left dormant in a dusty corner, accumulating silence. But tonight, without warning, he suddenly roared to life, his entire presence crackling with discernible energy. Especially with that cane—Hu Xiu's thought carried absolutely no malice, only a strange recognition that the prop suited him with an unsettling naturalness.

Yet the past hardships that clung to him like invisible scars only made Li Ai appear even more captivating, like a hero emerging from a post-apocalyptic world—someone who had survived things that would have destroyed lesser people and emerged quieter, sharper, more interesting for the wreckage behind him.

And he would undoubtedly remain perfectly inconspicuous within the crowd, blending seamlessly while watching everything.

Another couple joining this late session proved particularly impossible to ignore. The girl seemed perpetually attached to her phone, her rapid-fire Shanghainese cutting through the quiet waiting zone like static electricity—hissing through teeth and lips in a crackling, compressed stream that seemed to contain twice as many words as any other dialect could accommodate. The man beside her was young, not particularly tall, with sun-darkened skin and an easy, sunny demeanor that contradicted the late hour entirely. Together, the two of them occupied a disproportionately large area in the otherwise empty, hushed waiting zone, exuding an inexplicable gravitational presence that drew the eye whether one wanted to look or not.

Qian Jinxin stood nearby, staring at the woman speaking Shanghainese with such rapt absorption that he actually set aside his quest card—an act roughly equivalent to a soldier setting down his weapon mid-battle.

Hu Xiu observed this display and thought to herself with dry amusement: Qian Jinxin really did harbor a deep, almost pathological fixation on obtaining Shanghai household registration. Even encountering a random female player who happened to speak Shanghainese was apparently enough to make him eager to strike up conversation, as though proximity to the dialect itself might somehow accelerate his bureaucratic dreams.

If she had rejected him by citing her own lack of Shanghai household registration as the excuse, she might have successfully shaken off this persistent, barnacle-like presence long ago.

The steam whistle blew with dramatic authority, followed by the metallic shriek of the iron gate swinging open—and there he was. Qin Xiaoyi.

Her heart raced wildly, hammering against her ribs with embarrassing force. Then suddenly, someone linked arms with her from the side—Qian Jinxin, of course, attaching himself with the inevitability of gravity.

He whispered with theatrical confidence, "Xiu Xiu, we're already in Rong City now. How about we go in together as a married couple? It would be more convincing."

Why did you have to link arms with me specifically in front of Qin Xiaoyi! Who decided we were a married couple! Who authorized this arrangement!

As she frowned with undisguised displeasure, her eyes inevitably met Qin Xiaoyi's across the threshold. In that single frozen moment, the entire scene resembled nothing so much as a young woman having a domestic spat with her boyfriend, taking out accumulated frustration on the nearest available Non-Player Character at the very start of the game.

Hu Xiu's mood curdled completely. At the end of the previous session—that beautiful, bittersweet conclusion she'd replayed in her memory dozens of times—Qin Xiaoyi had told her with quiet sincerity, "Miss Mei, I hope you find happiness wherever you go after leaving Rong City."

If he actually remembered her across sessions, then what he witnessed now—her arriving arm in arm with another man—would register in his mind as evidence that she had indeed found that happiness. The problem was, this wasn't her boyfriend by any stretch of imagination, and she couldn't simply abandon propriety and run over to Qin Xiaoyi to explain that this was merely an unavoidable, profoundly troublesome blind date arranged by well-meaning but catastrophically misguided acquaintances.

Now, in Qin Xiaoyi's interpretation, she had likely become a shallow, frivolous female player who, despite apparently having a boyfriend, was still chasing after handsome young men like some kind of emotional opportunist. The previously beautiful scene of him holding an umbrella for her—that tender, unexpected moment she had treasured—would soon transform in his narrative into a forbidden tale, something like a scandalous affair conducted under cover of costume and anonymity.

Though forbidden isn't entirely bad either... Damn, what am I thinking! Hu Xiu shook her head vigorously, the motion sending her loose hair whipping sideways hard enough to slap Qian Jinxin across the face. The lace-trimmed hair accessory perched on top of her head came loose and tumbled to the ground.

Qin Xiaoyi, who had been watching this small collision with an expression that suggested mild amusement carefully suppressed, bent down and picked up the delicate accessory. He placed it gently in Hu Xiu's open palm and fixed her with a look that carried layers of meaning—knowing, patient, and faintly entertained. "What, is this your greeting gift for me upon arriving in Rong City?"

Just as warmth began blooming in her chest at his attentiveness, Qian Jinxin delivered his line with the timing of someone determined to sabotage every tender moment in existence: "This is my wife. My sincerest apologies for her lack of discipline."

Hu Xiu rolled her eyes with such force it was a miracle they didn't get stuck, and shifted her entire body half a meter to the left in deliberate physical rejection. Unfortunately, Qin Xiaoyi had already turned away before witnessing either gesture. He straightened his suit jacket with practiced precision and addressed the assembled players with the composed authority of someone who had been performing this role for hours already. "Everyone, it's getting late. I am Qin Xiaoyi, the Finance Minister of Rong City. Please bring your invitations and follow me this way."

Someone yawned somewhere behind them—the sound perfectly embodying the collective exhaustion. It was already eleven o'clock, already the fifth session of Snowpiercer. Having performed with energy and conviction all day, Qin Xiaoyi nonetheless began his scene at Rong City's gate with renewed commitment, turning to the waiting orderly with characteristic authority. "I've prepared 100,000 in cash for you two. Come to my room later—consider it my personal modest gift. These are all distinguished guests of Rong City, so I trust you won't create unnecessary difficulties for them."

Even his silhouette standing in the darkness possessed an exceptional dignity that set him apart from the other men around him—put the lecherous presences in the crowd to absolute shame.

Hu Xiu allowed her gaze to drift backward, finding Wang Guangming and Zhao Xiaorou among the players filing forward. She felt a pang of something close to jealousy at the quality of branded period clothing Zhao Xiaorou had been provided.

Zhao Xiaorou was playing Miss Mei—the dance hall girl character who had interacted most frequently and most intimately with Qin Xiaoyi during their previous session together. This particular Role received special attention and care from Minister Qin within his storyline group. Because of the dance hall girl's inherent social identity, Minister Qin would occasionally invite her onto the stage to dance when he was feeling generous and in particularly good spirits—this was new plot development that Hu Xiu had discovered through careful research on Dianping, reading other players' detailed reviews with the dedication of someone studying intelligence briefings.

Meanwhile, her own assigned Role required her to gather intelligence within Lin Qiumei's separate group. Her tasks included but were emphatically not limited to: drugging Ning Zechen at the right moment, extracting critical information from Feng Youjin through social manipulation, stealing letters from the deceased general's room while avoiding detection—none of which had the slightest connection to Qin Xiaoyi or his storyline.

After the first scene concluded its dramatic arc, Zhao Xiaorou happily followed Qin Xiaoyi toward Room 301, her red dance dress swirling with each graceful step.

Hu Xiu felt the particular ache of someone watching fortune smile upon others while her own luck remained stubbornly uncooperative. As an unlucky VIP-level Snowpiercer user, the only proven method of improving one's fortune within the game's ecosystem was to pay more. A cruel and efficient system.

Since Wang Guangming was covering the expenses for tonight's session, Hu Xiu couldn't shamelessly add a birthday service upgrade to her package. She could only accept her assigned fate, knock on Room 308's door, and properly introduce herself to Lin Qiumei.

She hadn't paid particular attention to the Lin Qiumei character in previous Snowpiercer sessions. In the game's established storyline, Lin Qiumei was portrayed as a beautiful and deliberately low-key woman—wealthy beyond obvious display, possessing intelligence connections from various countries that gave her access to information most people couldn't obtain through any means; pursued persistently by Qin Xiaoyi while secretly, quietly longing for Ning Zechen in the private chambers of her heart. Male players responded enthusiastically to her character, drawn by her well-proportioned figure that, while not particularly tall, possessed a genuinely sweet quality that disarmed cynicism.

Hu Xiu had been assigned to Lin Qiumei's group before, but the actress playing the role had been different then. Now, looking at this new performer, Hu Xiu felt an unusual sensation wriggle to life somewhere beneath her ribs when she met those dark, fathomless pupils. There was a quiet, impending storm-like quality to this woman's presence—something powerful held deliberately in restraint—that made Hu Xiu vaguely, instinctively uneasy without being able to articulate exactly why.

Someone knocked on the door—it was Zhao Xiaorou, arriving breathless and bright-eyed in Miss Mei's costume. She had brought a love letter from Qin Xiaoyi, delivered with the enthusiasm of someone who understood exactly how significant this particular errand was within the game's romantic architecture.

Hu Xiu recognized the task immediately—she had completed this exact mission herself in previous sessions: delivering Qin Xiaoyi's handwritten love letter to Miss Lin and purchasing a thoughtful gift for Lin Qiumei from the department store on the street below.

Lin Qiumei merely glanced at the gifts with the practiced indifference of someone accustomed to receiving tributes. She listened to the love letter read aloud in silence, her expression revealing nothing. Then she reached into her handbag and produced five thousand yuan, extending it to Zhao Xiaorou with quiet authority. "Miss Mei, this money is for you personally. Please convey a message to Minister Qin on my behalf—I regard him only as a younger brother. I'll accept the gifts graciously, but I want him to understand clearly that I harbor no romantic feelings whatsoever for him."

After Zhao Xiaorou departed with her payment and mission accomplished, Lin Qiumei turned her attention to Hu Xiu. She produced another five thousand yuan from her bag and handed it over with the same composed efficiency. "Miss Watanabe, please seek out Police Chief Ning and ask him whether he still remembers the vow he made to me on the mountain back then."

Only then did Hu Xiu remember—her assigned Role name was Watanabe Nami. The Japanese name felt strange on her tongue as she bowed slightly in acknowledgment and went to knock on Ning Zechen's door.

She found him in the casino, draped magnificently in a mink fur shawl, gambling with the languid confidence of someone for whom money was merely entertainment. When he spotted Hu Xiu hovering at the entrance, he rose with surprising warmth and draped the shawl around her shoulders with a gesture that managed to be both generous and slightly theatrical.

Ning Zechen had also been recast with a different actor in this session, appearing noticeably thinner than before, with sharper features that lent him a more melancholic quality. Upon hearing Lin Qiumei's message—that specific question about the mountain vow—his expression shifted instantly and completely, melting from casual amusement into something raw and deeply, unmistakably affected. The transformation was convincing enough to make Hu Xiu momentarily forget she was watching a performance.

Having collected substantial rewards from both sides of this love triangle, Hu Xiu promptly headed to the department store with genuine enthusiasm to purchase gifts for Lin Qiumei. Her mind had already begun working.

Step one in her personal campaign to defy fate and alter the predetermined plot: reunite Ning Zechen and Lin Qiumei. As long as these two managed to find each other again within the storyline's framework, Qin Xiaoyi would remain a bachelor from beginning to end—a clean, uncomplicated narrative outcome that kept his heart available and his attention unoccupied by anyone other than...

Well. The logic was sound, at least.

Thus, on the first night, after Qin Xiaoyi's formal confession to Lin Qiumei was met with rejection, he was arrested and subjected to a beating at the police station—punishment for his persistence. Upon his eventual release, he emerged to find Ning Zechen and Lin Qiumei together by the roadside, clearly and publicly dating. His expression turned grim with the particular shade of darkness that belonged to someone watching their carefully constructed plans collapse in real time.

As the second night's candidate election drew near, Hu Xiu completed her Quest card tasks with efficient determination and then lingered deliberately around Qin Xiaoyi's orbit. She used the pretense of seeking new assignments as an excuse to approach him, manufacturing reasons to chat that felt natural within the game's logic.

Qin Xiaoyi regarded her with an expression that suggested he found her transparent maneuvering somewhat amusing. "I saw you and Du Yunhai walking arm in arm at the station earlier," he remarked with careful neutrality. "As an intelligence officer carrying crucial responsibilities for Rong City's security, maintaining a public romantic relationship isn't particularly safe, is it? What if he turns out to be a Communist sympathizer? That would create quite inconvenient complications."

Du Yunhai was Qian Jinxin's assigned Role name. Hu Xiu hadn't so much as glanced in Qian Jinxin's direction since first stepping foot inside Rong City—a feat of deliberate avoidance that required genuine effort given his tendency to appear at inopportune moments. Hearing Qin Xiaoyi raise the subject, she responded with immediate and emphatic denial. "Of course not. He's just a friend who came along to play—always been overly dramatic about everything. The arm-linking was entirely his idea and entirely unwelcome."

"But such smooth-talking behavior does bear a suspicious resemblance to Communist recruitment tactics," Qin Xiaoyi observed, and something flickered in his expression that might have been the ghost of amusement. "Perhaps I should file a formal report on him."

This genuinely amused Hu Xiu—the idea of Qin Xiaoyi personally taking action against Qian Jinxin held a certain satisfying symmetry. "Good. If you do report him, consider it avenging me for the embarrassment. I'll reward you twenty thousand for the trouble."

Hu Xiu began to wonder, as she walked away from that exchange with her heart beating slightly faster than the situation warranted: Why had Qin Xiaoyi asked about Qian Jinxin specifically?

Could he actually remember her from previous sessions—remember enough to have noticed, and felt something close to jealousy, upon seeing her arrive arm in arm with another man?

The mere possibility made Hu Xiu's heart flutter with a warmth she couldn't entirely attribute to the game's atmosphere. The more she studied Qin Xiaoyi's face in subsequent interactions, the happier she became—a happiness that felt increasingly difficult to contain within the boundaries of performance and pretense.

Gathering what courage she could muster, she suddenly asked him directly during their next encounter: "Does Minister Qin still remember me?"

But Qin Xiaoyi remained expressionless, offering no verbal response whatsoever. He only slightly narrowed his eyes—a gesture so subtle it could mean anything or nothing—before turning away and walking back toward his responsibilities.

Why did she have to ask that extra, unnecessary question? The hurt that followed felt disproportionate to the situation, settling in her chest like a small, cold stone. Hu Xiu instinctively pulled out her Quest card and studied it with exaggerated focus, using the paper as both shield and excuse. Since her tasks remained unfinished, she hurried off to locate the final intelligence letter, channeling her embarrassment into productivity.

After successfully obtaining the final payment and tucking the money away with satisfaction, just as the election meeting was about to convene, Hu Xiu positioned herself quietly at the hotel front desk, counting her accumulated earnings with the careful attention of someone tallying the day's wages.

Qin Xiaoyi passed behind her—she felt his presence before she heard him, some instinct alerting her to his proximity a half-second before his voice arrived. His words drifted over her shoulder, low and unhurried: "Follow me..."

Was there another task to assign? Puzzled but willing, Hu Xiu set down her money and followed Qin Xiaoyi through the lobby and into the department store.

She thought to herself as they walked: after playing Snowpiercer so many times across so many sessions, she had never once encountered any tasks or storyline developments taking place inside the department store. This was Qin Xiaoyi's own establishment—his territory, his domain within Rong City's economy.

Could he still be fixated on Lin Qiumei? Oh—are you heading toward the display case? Opening it? Taking something out? Wait. Wait, is that a watch? It's the same one you gave me last birthday...

Qin Xiaoyi, give up on this particular avenue! I will absolutely, under no circumstances, hand this watch over to Lin Qiumei—she's already happily reunited with Ning Zechen! Your feelings are safe! Your heart belongs to no one else in this storyline!

The next moment, Qin Xiaoyi lifted Hu Xiu's hand with surprising gentleness—the touch so careful it barely registered as physical contact—and fastened the watch around her wrist with practiced precision, as though he had performed this exact gesture a hundred times before in some other life. "Do you remember this watch?"

Hu Xiu froze completely.

Her hand remained suspended in the air, held in his, utterly motionless. In the mirror mounted on the display case before her, she caught an unexpected glimpse of herself—her other hand had risen instinctively to cover her mouth, her face displaying an expression of such naked disbelief and rapture that she barely recognized the woman staring back at her. Her fingers rested near her cheek in a pose that was, she had to admit with a flutter of self-consciousness, somewhat coquettish. She hardly dared claim this radiant, unguarded creature as herself.

But in this suspended moment—heart hammering, watch warm against her wrist, his hand still holding hers—Hu Xiu vaguely sensed something important shifting beneath the surface. The glacier-like pains of the past, those frozen remnants that still occasionally made themselves known with sharp, unexpected aches, might still linger somewhere in her bones. But the expression reflected in this mirror right now was something else entirely. Something that looked remarkably like healing. Like rejuvenation. Like a face remembering what it felt like to smile without reservation.

This was the greatest gift Qin Xiaoyi had ever given her—not the watch itself, but the moment. The recognition. The proof that she existed in someone's memory as someone worth remembering.

The shopkeeper of the department store, who had been watching this entire exchange from behind the counter with undisguised interest, smiled warmly. "Young Master Qin, I never imagined you and Miss Watanabe had some history between you? How wonderful."

Her heart leaped violently to her throat. Hu Xiu stumbled backward, her foot catching on the threshold between the display area and the entrance with catastrophic timing. She fell backward, arms pinwheeling, directly into the solid, steady presence of none other than Li Ai.

Li Ai's arms closed around her with immediate, instinctive firmness—strong enough to arrest her fall completely without any sense of roughness or alarm. He planted his cane on the ground with practiced stability, absorbing the momentum of her stumble as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "Are you alright?"

The shopkeeper's gaze swiveled to Li Ai and seemed to catch there, momentarily mesmerized by whatever quality his presence commanded even in this peripheral role.

Hu Xiu felt a surge of genuine gratitude wash through her—gratitude that it was Li Ai standing behind her rather than Qian Jinxin, relief that she hadn't fallen completely and made an even greater spectacle of herself. Even with her heart practically bursting with an emotion too large and too bright to safely examine, she understood instinctively that she couldn't afford to lose her composure so visibly again. She couldn't reveal so plainly, so transparently, what an absolute fool she was becoming before Qin Xiaoyi's eyes.

Straightening herself with deliberate composure, adjusting her hair accessory back into proper position with fingers that only trembled slightly, she dashed off toward the main thoroughfare. She tossed back over her shoulder a remark delivered with all the flirtatious confidence she could muster: "Minister Qin, I've received your feelings! I truly love only you!"

When she finally stopped walking and allowed herself to look back, Qin Xiaoyi was exiting the department store at his own unhurried pace, casting a single glance toward Li Ai—polite, restrained, and carefully neutral, the way someone looks at another person when they're taking stock without revealing what they see.

Li Ai, leaning on his cane with the stillness of someone comfortable with observation, gazed at the scene from a respectful distance before turning to walk toward another part of the venue. Seeing Hu Xiu happy—genuinely, visibly happy within the safe architecture of this game—was enough to settle something in his mind that had been quietly restless all evening.

Meanwhile, Qin Xiaoyi stood at the central intersection of Rong City, where lamplight pooled and shadows stretched, also looking in her direction across the crowded space. Qin Xiaoyi was always cold within the game's narrative—deliberately, characteristically cold—yet she had somehow managed to extract one of his rare moments of genuine tenderness. A small, impossible victory.

This unexpected warmth filled her with renewed courage for the third and final round. Though her assigned tasks kept her away from Qin Xiaoyi's group, she stayed close to Lin Qiumei throughout, protected by the beautiful older sister's calm, watchful presence. The security she felt was real and grounding—enough to let her enjoy the game rather than merely survive it.

She had conspired with Zhao Xiaorou during a brief rendezvous on the way between scenes: grab as many knives as possible from the available props, and take out Qian Jinxin and Wang Guangming first in the third round's elimination phase. They could always deny everything with complete impunity after the game ended anyway. The beauty of fiction was that consequences evaporated with the dawn.

Spotting Qian Jinxin in the distance, silhouetted against lamplight and completely unaware of his approaching doom, Hu Xiu walked over with the calm purpose of an assassin and stabbed him before he could even turn around to register her presence. Go to hell, you materialistic and boring man. The knife slid home with satisfying finality.

A shadow moved somewhere nearby—quick, deliberate, dangerous. Hu Xiu stepped back instinctively and bumped directly into Qin Xiaoyi, who had materialized behind her with the silent efficiency of someone who had been watching her for some time.

Her heart warmed instantly, blooming with the memory of the watch still resting against her wrist. Her words came naturally, easily, with the familiar comfort of someone speaking to a person she'd known across multiple lifetimes within this invented world. "Sorry, good thing you're an NPC, or I'd probably be dead right now."

"What are you laughing at? Hurry and hide yourself. You were lucky to run into me—if you hadn't, you'd have been killed already."

"It's fine, truly." The words tumbled out with a lightness that felt dangerously close to honesty. "I'm really just here to see handsome men. Winning isn't strictly necessary for my enjoyment." The presumptuous quality of the remark registered a half-second after she'd spoken it, and she immediately felt the familiar flush of regret at having revealed too much.

"Then who exactly did you come to Rong City to see?" His question arrived in the darkness, quiet and direct.

Hu Xiu's mind churned with competing impulses—deflect, joke, deny—but her expression remained perfectly, deliberately calm, betraying nothing. "Didn't Minister Qin once boast a photographic memory? Of course I can't simply tell you who I came for—I don't want to burden him with that knowledge."

In the darkness surrounding them, Qin Xiaoyi's expression remained invisible, unreadable. But something in the quality of the silence suggested he was smiling—a small, private expression that existed only because the darkness provided permission for it. The sensation of having melted even a fraction of his characteristic icy composure made Hu Xiu greedily, recklessly ask: "Could I... hide behind you for a while? Just until it's safer?"

Darkness was truly wonderful. A magnificent, generous gift.

Hidden behind Qin Xiaoyi's solid presence, in this lightless environment where vision failed and only other senses remained, the two of them became ambiguous, formless shadows merging gradually into one indistinguishable shape. The boundary between separate people dissolved.

Basking in the faint, steady warmth radiating from him—warmth that felt impossibly real for something constructed entirely from performance and imagination—she heard Qin Xiaoyi speak again. His voice arrived closer than expected, quieter than before, stripped of its usual theatrical authority. "Are you called Hu Xiu?"

Time stood still. All surrounding sounds—the distant chatter of other players, the ambient noise of Rong City's constructed atmosphere, the wind—faded away as though someone had turned a dial. The sudden, absolute silence left Hu Xiu completely at a loss, her mind emptied of everything except the thunderous, deafening rhythm of her own heartbeat. Thump, thump, thump... Had Qin Xiaoyi continued speaking at that precise moment, she might genuinely have been unable to hear him over the roaring in her own chest.

Yet Qin Xiaoyi's words didn't stop. They continued, steady and unhurried, as though he had all the time in the world and intended to use every second of it.

"I remember you..."

Thoughts on Chap 14:

It opens with the painful comedy of Qian Jinxin's forced "married couple" pretense destroying Hu Xiu's carefully maintained emotional distance from Qin Xiaoyi. Li Ai's quiet, steady presence throughout the evening serves as both protection and counterpoint—his transformation from dormant, mysterious figure to someone alive and engaged mirrors Hu Xiu's own awakening within the game's safe confines. The pivotal moment arrives when Qin Xiaoyi gifts Hu Xiu the watch in the department store—an act that breaks the fourth wall between character and player in ways neither fully acknowledges. Her glimpse of herself in the mirror, seeing healing where pain once lived, marks the chapter's emotional turning point. 

The final scene in darkness, where Qin Xiaoyi speaks her real name and declares he remembers her, collapses the distance between fiction and feeling entirely. It masterfully explores how games and stories create spaces where people can experience emotions they cannot safely access in ordinary life—where vulnerability becomes possible precisely because it exists within acknowledged artifice. Hu Xiu's strategic manipulation of the plot to keep Qin Xiaoyi romantically available reveals how deeply she has invested emotionally in a relationship that exists between the lines of scripted narrative.