I'm in Genshin Impact, and I started by teaming up with Luna.

Wu Qiu had never been so eager for power as he was at this moment. "If I had power, I could do so much. I wouldn't be wanted, I could do whatever I wanted, whether it was the Seven Gods or the Heavenly Principles, I could kill whoever I wanted and do whatever I wanted."

"By then, no one can hurt me, or the people who are important to me. I can also bring Sora back to Hikari's side, and I can eliminate anyone who hurt Hikari, even the whole world..."

Chapter 167: The Exposed Scars

Wu Qiu stared at the brazier, lost in his deepest fantasies. He didn't know if his thoughts were right, or if they were too extreme. What he did know was that he craved power.

"Ok?"

Suddenly, Wu Qiu sensed movement beside him. He quickly raised his head, his eyes flashing fiercely in that direction.

Then, he saw a furtive figure. Wu Qiu recognized the person at a glance; it was the unconscious Shuangxue.

At this moment, she cautiously moved to the side, glancing back at Wu Qiu every now and then. But when she looked back for the last time and saw Wu Qiu's eyes looking at her, she froze.

Wu Qiu's train of thought snapped out of his reverie, and he breathed a sigh of relief. His previous idea had been far too dangerous; he had almost succumbed to it.

"you……"

Coming to his senses, Wu Qiu looked at Shuang Xue. Shuang Xue was also looking at Wu Qiu. Their eyes met, and finally Shuang Xue hurriedly stood up straight, her face filled with fear as she tried to back away.

However, she lost her balance and sat down on the ground. Seeing this, Wu Qiu quickly stood up and went forward to help her up, but then he saw Shuangxue raise her arms and cover her head, crying, "No! Don't hit me! I didn't try to run away, don't hit me!"

She started crying again after saying that. Wu Qiu's hand froze in mid-air, and she stared blankly at everything.

The frost and snow before him reminded him so much of the bullying he had suffered at school. Wu Qiu was all too familiar with this scene, which filled him with both heartache and anger.

Taking a deep breath, Wu Qiu calmed himself down. He didn't speak gently again, because he knew it wouldn't work. At least he wanted Shuangxue to talk to him genuinely, not in a forced way, otherwise everything he said would be ineffective.

Are you afraid of me?

Wu Qiu asked. Shuangxue nodded subconsciously, but quickly shook her head frantically, "I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid at all."

Wu Qiu gave a wry smile to himself, turned around, sat back down by the brazier, and then pointed to the other side, "Come and sit down."

Wu Qiu's words didn't deliberately try to be friendly, but they also didn't show any ferocity. Wu Qiu knew very well that only this tone could make someone who was afraid of her truly listen to what she had to say.

After hesitating for a while, perhaps out of fear that Wu Qiu would hurt her, or perhaps because she was truly moved by Wu Qiu's words, Shuangxue finally moved little by little to the fire.

"You're trying to run away?"

Wu Qiu spoke directly. This startled Shuangxue, who was about to deny it when she heard Wu Qiu say again, "Tell the truth."

She swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue. Finally, Shuangxue nodded cautiously, but then hurriedly said, "I'm sorry, I... I won't run away again, please..."

Before she could finish speaking, Wu Qiu interrupted, "Why are you so sure we'll hurt you? If you're so afraid, why did you run away to seek help in the first place?"

Wu Qiu's tone was ruthless, and his question was very direct. And that was indeed the case. If they were so afraid, why did they still run out to ask them for help?

Shuangxue remained silent for a long time after hearing this, her head lowered and she didn't say a word, her hands clenched tightly.

"Because... I want to live."

After a long while, Shuangxue seemed to have mustered a little courage, and for the first time, she raised her head and met Wu Qiu's eyes.

Although it was only for a moment, her eyes quickly lowered again. Although fear still lingered in them, Wu Qiu had achieved his goal: Shuangxue finally had the courage to communicate with him.

Silence fell, and the scene fell silent once more. Wu Qiu kept replaying Shuangxue's words in his mind.

"I want to live."

"Is it difficult?" Wu Qiu asked in a low voice. Shuangxue nodded without hesitation this time. "Yes."

Is living difficult? Wu Qiu had never thought about it. But when he looked up and saw Shuangxue's thin and frail body, Wu Qiu realized how ignorant he had been about his question.

She wanted to apologize, but even more so, she wanted to know about the girl's past. Even if she wasn't Shuangxue, not the Shuangxue she knew, Wu Qiu wanted to understand her at this moment.

"Gurgle~~"

Suddenly, a discordant sound rang out. Wu Qiu saw Shuangxue staring longingly at the sweet potatoes growing in the brazier.

However, when the sound came from her stomach, Shuangxue immediately looked away, shrank her neck, and continued to lower her head.

Seeing this, Wu Qiu picked up the roasted sweet potato and placed it in front of Shuangxue, saying, "Eat it."

Shuangxue's eyes lit up, but she didn't reach out to take it. Instead, she looked up at Wu Qiu and asked, "Really? Is it okay?"

Wu Qiu nodded, but after thinking for a moment, he added, "Of course, you have to tell me about your past after you finish eating, as an exchange."

Upon hearing this, Shuangxue was taken aback at first, but finally nodded. From this, Wu Qiu could tell that Shuangxue's past was certainly not pleasant.

Shuangxue was very excited when she took the sweet potato. She didn't care whether it was hot or not, and she didn't even bother to peel it. She just picked it up and took a big bite.

Her eating manners were, to put it mildly, quite unsightly. Her face turned bright red from the heat of the first bite, but she dared not and could not bear to spit it out, so she forced herself to chew a few more times and swallow it.

She quickly finished the sweet potato. By this time, she finally relaxed a bit, even licking her lips with a satisfied look on her face.

Turning her head, she found Wu Qiu still looking at her, and immediately blushed, lowering her head and whispering, "Thank you."

Wu Qiu shook his head. "Don't forget, we have an agreement."

"Ah."

Shuangxue nodded, somewhat hesitantly, but finally looked up at the night sky. "I don't know who I am. I'm not lying to you, I really don't know."

"When I woke up, everything around me felt unfamiliar. I only knew that my name was Shuangxue, and I couldn't remember anything else."

"I don't know who I am, where I come from, or where I'm going. I know nothing. The only thing I can feel is cold, a bone-chilling cold that seeps into every part of my body."

“I didn’t know where to go, I could only keep walking forward, I walked very, very far, so far that my consciousness began to blur, so far that I lost feeling in my feet, and finally, I saw people, I saw hope for life. But I didn’t know, I didn’t know what I had done wrong, that they wanted to catch me, lock me in a cage, and beat me. They would beat me whenever I disobeyed.”

“I tried to escape, but I failed. They tied me up and whipped me. It hurt so much, it really hurt so much, I wanted to die, I wanted to just die.”

"But I feel I can't die yet. I feel, I feel there's something left undone. So, I must live, I can't die."

"After that, I don't know how much time passed. There were many other people locked up with me, all women like me. I didn't know where I would be taken, I only knew that we would be sold."

"But today, when we passed through that village, we were attacked by monsters, and the cage that held me fell down during our escape."

“They ignored me and left me there. The cage was smashed, and I was freed, but I was terrified. I heard screams and cries all around me. I didn’t know what to do or what to do. I could only hide, and hide until you came…”

She looked at Wu Qiu and said, "Although it was terrifying, you were really amazing and brave. I saw a child right in front of me, not far away, separated only by a wall, torn to shreds. I wanted to save him, but my body was trembling so badly I couldn't move..."

Upon arriving here, Wu Qiu understood. While observing a moment of silence, he still couldn't figure out if Shuangxue was the same Shuangxue he knew. From her words, he knew she had only recently woken up.

This matches the timing of the frost and snow. However, what does she mean by "cold"? And it seems she encountered human traffickers, but how did human traffickers bring people into Liyue?

Many questions arose, but Wu Qiu didn't dwell on them too much. Shuangxue's plight was infuriating and worthy of sympathy, and it was normal for her to be afraid.

Wu Qiu regretted it; what he had done had undoubtedly reopened Shuangxue's wounds. However, he wanted to offer comfort but didn't know what to say, and for a moment, the scene fell silent once again.

Chapter 168: How Did He Go Astray?

"Can I see this part of your body?"

Suddenly, Shuangxue spoke up. She looked at Wu Qiu's right arm and pointed to the shoulder of his right arm.

Wu Qiu was taken aback. Shuang Xue hurriedly explained, "I'm sorry, I... I won't do it again..."

Wu Qiu smiled slightly. "I just want to know, why are you looking here?"

“I don’t know,” Shuangxue shook her head. “I just feel that there, there are things I want to see, but I…”

"But you only dare to speak now, right?" Wu Qiu's smile widened. He quickly removed the bandages from his arm, revealing his blackened arm and the striking patterned totem against the black background.

When Shuangxue saw Wu Qiu's black arm, she was first startled, then attracted by the patterned totem. She slowly moved closer, and before she knew it, her face was almost pressed against Wu Qiu's arm.

Then, Shuangxue surprisingly pulled open her tattered cloak, revealing her fair neck. And on the side, there was a pattern exactly the same as the one on Wu Qiu's arm.

If Wu Qiu wasn't sure before, he was now. Because just a moment ago, Wu Qiu felt a stinging pain in his arm again.

This time it was even clearer; look again at the pattern on his arm, identical to the one on his own. Wu Qiu was certain; he was certain that the girl before him was indeed Shuangxue, the one who had silently protected him.

He grasped Shuangxue's shoulders. Ignoring her startled state, Wu Qiu suppressed his excitement and said, "From now on, I will protect you. No one will be able to hurt you again. Will you believe me just this once?"

Shuangxue was startled by Wu Qiu's sudden change in mood. However, she quickly regained her composure, and whether it was because of seeing the patterned tortoise or something else, she wasn't afraid of Wu Qiu at all.

Sensing Wu Qiu's sincere yet fervent gaze, Shuangxue lowered her head and nodded slightly. Seeing this, Wu Qiu's tense emotions suddenly eased, and a relaxed smile appeared on his face.

He gently stepped forward and embraced her, holding her in his arms and whispering in her ear, "Finally, I've finally seen you."

A shooting star streaked across the night sky, its meaning unknown. Beneath that night sky, the two embraced, seemingly one with the world, or perhaps the world itself was setting the stage for them.

............................................................

As dawn broke, the first rays of sunlight shone on Wu Qiu, casting long shadows of the two of them.

Looking at Shuangxue lying peacefully on his lap, Wu Qiu couldn't help but smile happily. "I unintentionally flirted with a girl in one night. It's true what they say, 'You can't force a flower to bloom, but a willow can thrive if you don't intend to.'"

Despite these seemingly absurd thoughts, Wu Qiu harbored no intention of disrespecting her. Frost and Snow held a significance for Wu Qiu akin to Firefly; how could he possibly harbor any ill intentions?

However, thinking back to last night, he hadn't spoken at first because he wasn't sure of Shuangxue's identity. But now, he told her everything about how he and Shuangxue had met, everything he knew.

If it were just a matter of listening, Wu Qiu and Shuang Xue had only met twice. Yet Shuang Xue had always stayed by Wu Qiu's side, and Wu Qiu remembered all of this.

So, they talked a lot last night. Frost and Snow's past, her sister, Tree City, and the shattered ice mark.

Ice Mark shattered, and Wu Qiu used the hilt of Ice Mark's sword to forge a ring. It was originally intended to be given to Ying, but strangely enough, there was a problem with the forging of the ring; it was a little too small.

Ying could have worn it too, but she didn't, saying she wanted to find someone truly suitable for the ring. Wu Qiu was quite disappointed at the time, feeling that Ying knew the meaning behind giving a ring and therefore refused.

But now, Wu Qiu understood what Ying meant by those words. The ring was now on Shuangxue's hand, and it fit perfectly.

When Wu Qiu gave it to Ying Shi, he was hoping to gain some emotional advantage. But when he gave it to Shuang Xue Shi, it was like returning it to its rightful owner.

However, at the end of the conversation, Wu Qiu asked a question: "I am too weak now and still need Sister Ying's protection. It seems ridiculous for me to make such a bold statement about protecting you."

"If I had the ability to become stronger, but it meant losing some things I already have, do you think I should do it?"

Frost and Snow didn't understand. She tilted her head and tried to speak for a while, "Was it the way you looked when you were cutting down that monster? I felt you were so strong back then, but also so scary. You're completely different from now."

“I don’t understand.” Shuangxue shook her head, but then said firmly, “But if it’s going to become like that, or like that, I don’t want you to become like that. I believe that the other people who care about you don’t want that either.”

"Why? Even though I've changed, I'm still me, and I can still protect..."

Wu Qiu was somewhat confused, but Shuang Xue interrupted him for the first time, saying, "Because that would scare me and the people who care about you. I've finally managed to face the person you are now, and I don't want to see an even more terrifying version of you."

Pulled from her memories, Wu Qiu gave a wry smile and brushed aside her long, flowing hair. Looking at her sleeping face, she couldn't help but sigh, "You saved me again."

Wu Qiu no longer wanted to merge with the other half of his consciousness. That might lead to faster growth, but for those who cared about him—Ying, Shuangxue, Paimeng, Wuxiang Fengzai, and Fengshan Jueyun—would he still be himself?

Lacking ability, yet trying to take shortcuts. No one can reach the top in one step; everything you encounter is inevitable, part of the journey.

If I truly merge with my other half's consciousness, will this journey still have any meaning? Can the journey really continue?

Fallen Star Plains was never Wu Qiu's desired destination, much less his goal. In fact, Wu Qiu never had any goals; he always drifted along aimlessly, following behind Ying.

But now Wu Qiu feels that he can have a goal: to protect the people around him, accompany them, and embark on the journey to the end together.