The cycle begins to repeat itself today.

“But you just said you made a deal.” I denied her statement and shook my head: “I don’t know what kind of deal you made, what you gained, or what you lost, but my memories, and even my current situation, are definitely inextricably linked to you.”

"Maybe that's true... Ugh... It's too cunning of you to only let me move..." Zhiyun licked my cheek, and I trembled slightly because of her action, but I understood that this was actually a way for Zhiyun to distract me from my thoughts, so I tried to focus my attention on this matter.

“Several times I suddenly went back in time. I thought there were two ways to go back in time: one was that I would go back 24 hours because of death, and the other was that I would go back 24 hours naturally. But I was wrong.” I stared into Zhiyun’s eyes: “In fact, there is only one condition required to go back in time from beginning to end.”

"Are you trying to say I killed you while you were sleeping?" Zhiyun slowed her movements slightly, a playful expression on her face.

I shook my head: "You won't kill me, just as I would never hurt you."

"Why do you think that?" Zhiyun's fair hands slowly climbed up my shoulders and reached my neck, wrapping around me with a little force, as if she were about to choke me. But I didn't care: "Killing me was never your goal. You achieved your goal several days ago, didn't you?"

I gently stroked Zhiyun's face, looking at the smile in his eyes: "After you've laid all the groundwork and confirmed that I will no longer resist being with you, you've achieved your ultimate goal and we've become what we are now... I don't think you would kill me if you were aiming for this."

"As expected, you understand me best, brother. That's right, I really won't kill you. As for the so-called method of turning back time or jumping to the future... do you understand it now, brother?"

"As I just said, I have no past and no future. This secret was revealed at the beginning, but I was distracted by other things—September 12th, which came back three times in a row, and the joy of successfully saving Ye Zi, plus the events related to March that followed. This perfectly diverted my attention and successfully brought March and Lin Yin into the picture, further diverting my attention to March and Xiao Yin. But... everything was already very clear at the very beginning."

"So far, everything I've encountered has been part of a script that you, Zhiyun, had already arranged. However, the script isn't arranged in chronological order; they are all just fragments that will appear before me at the time you deem appropriate."

“This is a little off. It’s more like a script than a fragment, except that I decided on the number of performances and the direction of the plot. When it would happen, what would be said, what would be done… everything was my idea. But because it’s all my own idea, there will always be some discrepancies. Don’t be fooled by how smoothly this time went; I’ve actually tried many times before.” Zhiyun moved a little closer: “There are many memories about those things that I haven’t fully processed… so those memories from before will occasionally pop into your mind.”

So it wasn't a fantasy that appeared out of thin air, but a fragment of a predetermined fact that had already happened, a fragment of memory that Zhiyun deliberately left in my brain.

"The first time I used force, I didn't lay any groundwork, and you actually chose to commit suicide... I was really troubled at the time, and it took me a long time to come up with this plan. I tried it many times before I finally succeeded."

"Then why are you still telling me these things now? Aren't you afraid I'll commit suicide again?"

“Even if you commit suicide again, things won’t change…” Zhiyun cupped my face in her hands: “You’ve already gotten used to my body. Even if you commit suicide again, it will only make me choose to hide it from you next time. Although it’s cute for a brother who doesn’t know anything, it’s still better to know the truth.”

"...On September 12th, I checked the weather forecast once, so the second time I went out in the morning I took an umbrella with me. You should remember that too."

"Yes, of course I remember, I even made fun of you. But dealing with the flaw in this umbrella is also giving me some trouble... Yes, the next day will never come, so it will never rain, but I can't uninstall that thing from your phone, otherwise there's no point in carrying a phone at all. After thinking about it, I had to find some other way to cover it up. It just seems like it's failed."

"Yes, I have no so-called past or future. I have only lived in today from the very beginning. My today is constantly cycling, from beginning to end, forming a loop without end."

Chapter 275 Life Never Ceases

"Yes, that's right, you're absolutely right." Zhiyun clapped her hands lightly twice, looking quite pleased. "But logically speaking, I shouldn't be this happy."

"But I still have some questions to ask you."

“Actually, knowing what I just said is enough. All the questions you haven’t figured out are either flaws I left behind because I wasn’t careful enough, or they’re just pretexts I used to confuse you and interfere with your thinking. They’re meaningless in reality.” Zhiyun shook her head, sat up straight on me, and looked into my eyes with her clear eyes. “So, brother, what do you want to do now? Do you want to continue to be with me, the one who loves you the most, or do you want me to erase your memories again and start all over again? If I’m careful in handling the traces I’ve left behind, it shouldn’t be a difficult thing.”

I shook my head: "Like I said, I still have some questions to ask you."

"You're really stubborn..." Zhiyun pouted. "Then go ahead and ask, brother. After you're done, I'll continue."

I looked calmly at Zhiyun's face: "Why September 12th?"

"Why? This was just a randomly chosen day." Zhiyun waved her hand dismissively.

"No, actually, if it weren't for September 12th, all your plans would have been flawless. You know what will happen on September 12th. Since my brain retains so many images related to you, this certainly isn't the first or second time it's happened. Zhiyun, you're a smart girl. You shouldn't have left such a big flaw as rain."

"I just find it troublesome. After all, my script is already arranged, and it would take a lot of time to modify it. As long as I cover it up a little, there won't be any problems. As long as you focus all your attention on me, there won't be any issues." Zhiyun licked her lips: "It doesn't seem too late to start now."

“Indeed, if you could have diverted my attention to something else, I might not have noticed the rain. It was a relatively subtle flaw. But you used even more lies to cover it up, even going so far as to transform yourself from a middle school student into a high school student in such a short time, and even changing the time you came home from school… Using a bigger problem to cover up a small one is not something a smart person like you would do. You are lying to me, Zhiyun.”

Zhiyun didn't say anything, and even the restless expression on her face disappeared. She just looked at me quietly.

"If you just change the date slightly, you'll never have to worry about me noticing why it didn't rain the next day. Your plan will be much more solid, and you won't have to try so hard to distract me, or even cover up this small problem with an even bigger mistake... This doesn't make sense, Zhiyun, it doesn't make sense. You're a very smart child, I know that better than anyone. You would never do something so stupid, but you did it anyway. There's no other possibility, it can only be... that you could gain more benefits by doing this. But what kind of benefits would you gain? What kind of benefits would make you willing to create an even bigger mistake to make up for it?"

"Of course it's because of you." Zhiyun's lips curved into a smile again.

“You’re still lying to me.” I didn’t believe her words: “We ended up like this because it was all part of your plan. If it weren’t for the bigger mistake you made to cover up the rain, I might not have thought of this, because it’s just too illogical for me to ignore.”

"Then tell me, what benefits did I actually gain?" Zhiyun clasped her hands together, her arms supporting her ample breasts.

"I can't guess."

"If you can't guess, isn't it just wishful thinking on your part?"

“But I can guess from another angle.” I took a soft breath: “You’re not doing this to gain anything from it, but because you have to do it to salvage something… Wouldn’t that be a better explanation?”

“You’re a smart kid. You couldn’t possibly not know how fatal those mistakes were, but you still did them anyway, and even now you readily admit to them because you never wanted to hide these things from me. If you could, you probably wouldn’t have wanted me to know these things either, but I do know them. This means… the outcome of me knowing these things was already predetermined. You can’t change that fact, so you can only try to distract me in other ways.”

"Why does it have to be September 12th? Why does it have to be today? What does today mean to you? Or what does it mean to me?"

"You're overthinking it. It was just a random time I picked." Zhiyun shrugged. "It's just that once it's chosen, it can't be changed, so I had to try to cover up these traces. I should have paid more attention when I made the deal. I was too happy and didn't pay attention, which was really a failure..."

“I know you too well, Zhiyun. Just like I said before, you would never make such a mistake.” I hesitated for a moment, then shook my head. My memory has become fragmented, so I can only trust the information my feelings tell me.

"...I'm actually not as smart as you think, brother." Zhiyun's face showed an expression that was hard to tell whether she was happy or troubled.

"Today...is bound to be a special day, both for you and for me." My mind flashed through many images from the past: "Why can't I die? Why can't I ever reach tomorrow? Why does my time keep looping to today? Why...why, even though I can't die, can't I alleviate my fear of death?"

"Zhiyun...am I already dead?"

"No, I don't." Zhiyun's hands touched my cheeks again, her face with a gentle smile: "Brother, you're still alive and well, you're not dead."

Chapter 276 An Endless Ending

I stared intently into Zhiyun's eyes, trying to glean some information from her, but Zhiyun quickly saw through my intentions. She chuckled softly but remained silent. I had to look away.

"Could you tell me a little about your deal?"

“It’s not impossible, but it’s nothing to brag about… To put it simply, I met someone today, and I knew in advance what would happen tomorrow. I made a deal with her, and the deal was that I could move freely under certain restrictions. In other words, I could do whatever I wanted.” Zhiyun tapped her chin. “The price is… half of my remaining life and soul.”

I opened my eyes wide involuntarily, looking at Zhiyun who was still smiling. Before I could say anything, Zhiyun pressed her finger to my lips first: "Let me finish speaking first."

"To be honest, I can understand the loss of life, but I don't really care about half of my soul. After all, it's not a particularly concrete thing, and even after the transaction, I didn't feel like I lost anything extra. Plus, the content of the transaction was completely acceptable to me; in fact, it was a huge win. You know I'm smart, so I wouldn't do anything that would make me feel like I'm losing out, right?"

“Brother, you seemed perfectly healthy. I never expected you to have a sudden heart attack… I had no idea you had this kind of illness before.” Zhiyun tilted her head, and I listened quietly. “But now there’s nothing to worry about, because everything has been resolved. As long as it doesn’t happen again, there won’t be any problems, right?”

"...Heart disease?" I touched my heart area with my hand. "Don't you think the other person is lying to you? After all, I have no memory of ever having a heart condition."

"Of course she might be lying to me, but does it matter?" Zhiyun asked me back. "Whether you have heart disease or not, if things had continued like this, we would never have ended up like this, right? After all, you're very stubborn, and you don't seem like the kind of person who would hurt his own sister, even if we're not actually related by blood."

I do not deny this.

"The specifics of the deal are that the other party will single out September 12th... That doesn't quite sound right, but you can think of it as a world where 'no matter what we do, there won't be any problems,' because every 24 hours, this world will return to its original state. Even if you kill yourself, I just need to take a short nap and you'll be back in bed, and nothing will have changed."

"But haven't I stayed up past midnight before?"

"That's just what you think, brother. When you blink, even if it's just for a split second, time has already been reset."

"But I haven't returned to my previous state."

"Because I also need to be responsible for restoring you to your original state. Although it's quite tiring, I can do whatever I want here. I can get everything done with just a little thought. Like this..."

Zhiyun slightly raised one hand, drawing a small circle in the air with her index finger. I didn't see anything special, but when I came to my senses, I realized that everything in the room had changed. I was no longer in my own room, but I was still very familiar with this space... This was March's room. However, Ye Zi, March, and Xiao Yin were still kneeling on the bed in the same position as before, without any change.

"I can sit down and do something like this with ease."

"...Since it has such power, why can't it send down rain?"

"Because there's no time for rain to happen 'today,' rain doesn't exist in this world. But you can reach any place in this town today, and so can I, so I can travel to any place and any time like this. It's a bit of a shame that we can't go to faraway places, but as long as you're here, it's more than enough for me."

"This is really..." I didn't know what to say. The scene in front of me was too unbelievable, but my brain just accepted it.

I looked at Zhiyun and reached out to ruffle her hair: "That deal... can we switch people?"

“I would be even happier if you rubbed here.” Zhiyun moved my hand to her chest. “Unfortunately, we can’t change the person now. There’s only one way to escape this world… and that is to kill me. Because this world is a small box made from half of my life and soul. If I die, this small box will naturally cease to exist.”

Zhiyun bent down and reached under the bed. After groping around for a while, she pulled something out from somewhere... a dagger, a dagger I had never seen before. Zhiyun carefully blew on the dagger, then handed it to me with great satisfaction.

"Here you go. This is the only thing in this little box that can kill me. When you're tired of playing with it, just kill me. That way you can jump out of this little box..."

The moment I grabbed the dagger, I threw it out the window without a second thought.

I am already dead. My life is over. What remains now is only what my sister paid a huge price for. I have no right to decide whether to stop the world from turning. That right belongs to Zhiyun, who paid such a huge price for it.

“There’s no need to throw me out the window…” Zhiyun blinked, but her smile became even brighter as she looked into my eyes again: “I knew you wouldn’t want to part with me, brother.”

"I have one last question."

"Go ahead and ask." Zhiyun placed her hand on my chest again, looking like she was about to get moving again.

"Ye Zi, San Yue, and Xiao Yin... were all the things they experienced true, or were they stories you made up?"

"It's all true. I asked them if they wanted to come with me, and they all agreed. What lives outside the little box are just the three of them, their bodies imbued with their parents' wishes and acting accordingly. They will live like puppets, following their parents' desires."

Zhiyun clapped her hands, and I saw the three girls next to me look at me with their eyes brightened again: "Anyway, let's play for ten days or half a month first."

Zhiyun pressed me back onto the bed.

"Shouldn't it be my turn?" March looked at Zhiyun with some dissatisfaction.

"Me too..." Yezi slowly bent down, came to my face, and kissed me.

Lin Yin was very obediently massaging her sister's shoulders, but she was soon pushed onto the bed by her sister.