Against the Light - Chapter 18
Chapter 18: The Showdown
Bai Yilan didn't answer. She just silently packed away the lunchbox.
Gu Xinran felt a little uneasy. She stole a glance at her, only to meet Bai Yilan's gaze. It was cold and scrutinizing, as if it could see right through her.
"Come with me somewhere."
"Now?"
"Mm."
Bai Yilan's tone was slightly forceful, leaving no room for argument.
Gu Xinran hesitated for a moment. Her heart sank; she had a very bad feeling.
"Okay, I'll go change," she agreed, bracing herself.
In the car, Bai Yilan kept her eyes on the road, focused on driving. Gu Xinran sat in the passenger seat, stealing glances at her.
Although the light was dim, Gu Xinran could still make out the delicate contours of her profile. Her expression was impassive, and she exuded a faint, almost imperceptible aura.
A smile touched Gu Xinran's lips. She thought of the Yilan from her past life—gentle and serene, as soft as a kitten in her presence. When had she ever been this assertive? Even Gu Xinran had struggled to withstand their brief exchange in the hospital room, finding herself instinctively averting her gaze.
She had never seen this side of Yilan before. It was truly astonishing.
"Don't look at me."
Gu Xinran was captivated, and being called out so suddenly made her look guiltily out the window.
So beautiful, yet she won't let anyone look. How stingy.
She stared absently at the passing scenery, then suddenly realized they weren't far from her home. Just as she was wondering about it, the car slowed to a stop at the side of the road.
Bai Yilan unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car with practiced ease. Gu Xinran immediately followed.
She followed closely behind Yilan into a small park. It was very late, and the park was deserted. They stopped in front of a pond. Bai Yilan glanced around before turning to Xinran.
"Do you remember this place?"
"…" Gu Xinran's expression remained blank, but inwardly, she was panicking.
She looked at her surroundings, but her mind was a complete blank. She couldn't recall a single useful memory!
"The first time we met, I was standing right here, and you were on the opposite bank. We looked at each other across the water," Bai Yilan recounted quietly.
Gu Xinran listened, trying to conjure the scene of their first meeting in her mind. She gazed at the calm, still surface of the water. Looking at each other from opposite banks… the thought alone felt beautiful.
"Mm," she hummed in response, a faint smile gracing her lips. She turned to Yilan, expecting her to continue, but was startled to find that Yilan's smile had vanished. Even the way she looked at her had become completely unfamiliar.
"Who are you?"
"Wh-what?"
"She and I… we've never been here before."
!!
Gu Xinran froze. The words struck her like a clap of thunder.
It's over! It was a trap!
"Who are you!?"
"No matter how much of a scoundrel she was, she would never forget where we first met. You're not her. Who are you!" Bai Yilan's gaze was sharp enough to feel tangible, and a formidable aura emanated from her.
Gu Xinran closed her eyes and sighed inwardly. She knew Yilan wouldn't have shown up at the hospital for no reason. All her actions there had already indicated her suspicion!
"Where is she?" As she said the word "she," an almost imperceptible tremor entered Bai Yilan's voice.
Gu Xinran opened her eyes, looked at her earnestly, and shook her head.
"I don't know."
"What?"
"I… would you believe me if I said I have amnesia?"
Bai Yilan stared at her, her gaze unwavering.
"Fine." Gu Xinran gave up. She couldn't bring herself to lie to her.
"I… I think I might have… transmigrated." After saying it, Gu Xinran wanted to smack herself. Didn't that sound even more absurd than amnesia? Even though it was the truth.
"In my world, I was already dead. I don't know how a dead person could open their eyes again, but when I did, I was in this world, in that hospital room, as this person," Xinran said, pointing to herself.
Bai Yilan looked into her eyes and saw sincerity, focus, and a deep affection. The only things missing were evasion and deceit.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to remain calm. "When?"
"May 8th, the day of the fight with Luo Bing."
"Perhaps… this is all too fantastical and hard to understand, but… it's the truth."
"So you're telling me that what's standing in front of me is Xinran's body, but with the soul of some unknown person inside."
Gu Xinran thought for a moment. "You could see it that way, but it's not entirely accurate, because I…"
"Then what about her?"
Gu Xinran fell silent. She truly didn't know the answer. If they had simply swapped souls, her own original, aged body was already dead. Could it be that the original host's soul had… along with that body…
"I'm sorry, I really…" she was saying, when she saw Yilan's body go limp. She collapsed, and Gu Xinran, terrified, rushed forward to catch her.
"Yilan? Yilan?"
"Yilan!"
In the bedroom, Gu Xinran gently laid Yilan on the bed, removed her shoes, and covered her with a light blanket.
By the time she was done, she was covered in sweat, and her wrist ached so much she could barely use it. She sat down in a chair and quietly watched Yilan's sleeping face.
She wondered if she had made a mistake. Maybe she should have just gritted her teeth and kept up the lie. Even if Bai Yilan noticed something was off, stubbornly denying it would have been better than telling her that the person before her was no longer the one she had once loved so deeply. That the person she loved might already be…
Was it too cruel to make her accept all this?
But… she just couldn't bring herself to assume the original host's identity and deceive the woman who was her wife.
Gu Xinran sighed heavily, her heart shrouded in gloom.
Her gaze fell upon the silver ribbon wrapped around Yilan's left wrist. Gu Xinran's heart skipped a beat. She raised her hand, desperate to know what lay beneath that ribbon.
Her fingers had almost touched the edge of the ribbon when she froze. After a long moment of internal conflict, she silently pulled her hand back.
Right now, she had no right to pry into Yilan's secrets.
After another moment of hesitation, she got up and left the room.
When Bai Yilan opened her eyes, she saw the familiar room, but her mind was in a fog. It took her a long moment to come to her senses.
Once she recognized her surroundings, she pressed a hand to her forehead. The memory of what happened before she fainted—of what Gu Xinran had said—rushed back, and she nearly passed out again. She lay there alone for a long time, trying to calm down.
Gazing around the familiar bedroom, she couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face. This room held so many of their memories, both sweet and bitter. It had once been their warmest sanctuary, but now, it felt cold and alien.
Gu Xinran, sitting just outside the door, heard the sounds of sobbing from within. A sharp pain lanced through her heart.
A short while later, the door opened. Gu Xinran looked up, and their eyes met for a brief moment before they both quickly looked away.
Bai Yilan looked at the empty living room. "Where's the furniture?"
"I don't know. I haven't touched anything here. It was already like this when I arrived."
Bai Yilan walked over to a pristine white wall. It had once been covered in their doodles and drawings, but now, it was bare.
"What's your name?" she asked haltingly, forcing back her grief.
"Gu Xinran."
Bai Yilan froze for a second, then slowly turned to look at her.
"In my world, my name is also Gu Xinran. I have the same face, the same profession, and the same identity as her."
Bai Yilan was silent for a long moment.
"Then in your world… is there a Bai Yilan?"
Gu Xinran swallowed. "Yes! You have the same face. She… she was my lover, my wife. We even had a lovely daughter named…"
"I'm not her."
Gu Xinran's words caught in her throat. She nodded. "I know."
Bai Yilan stood silently in the middle of the living room, staring at the blank wall. She wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing her shoulders, her frame looking exceptionally fragile.
Gu Xinran stood behind her, her heart aching as she watched the slender figure. She turned, grabbed a jacket, and walked back to drape it over Bai Yilan's shoulders. It was the only way she could offer her a small measure of warmth and comfort.
"Thank you." The words were laced with a profound sense of distance.
Bai Yilan lingered in the room for a long time. Finally, she silently turned and walked to the door. Her hand rested on the knob for a long moment before she turned back to look at Gu Xinran.
"From now on… let's be strangers."
In the car, her mind was elsewhere, and she couldn't focus on driving at all. Fortunately, the streets were empty, and she was driving very slowly.
She still found the explanation hard to accept. But when she thought about the changes in Xinran over the past few days, and all the tests she had run, she was forced to believe this so-called transmigration story.
In that instant, her entire world collapsed. She didn't know what to do, much less how she would face that Gu Xinran from now on. If the divorce had made her lose her passion for life, this had completely extinguished the last glimmer of light in her heart.
In a daze, she glanced at her rearview mirror and saw a figure following her car from a distance. It was Gu Xinran.
Tears immediately fell at the sight of that familiar figure. She watched her for a long time before finally hardening her heart and stepping on the accelerator.
Gu Xinran watched the car speed away until it disappeared from view, only then did she slowly come to a stop.
Meanwhile, Qu Qi, who was sound asleep, was jolted awake by a series of notifications from her phone. She sat up to check—it was Weibo. She was about to complain when she opened the app, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. All traces of sleepiness vanished instantly.
A post titled 【Solid Proof of Gu Xinran's Affair】 had shot to the number one spot on the trending list!
As her manager, she was naturally being tagged relentlessly by numerous gossip outlets.
How could Qu Qi possibly go back to sleep? She shot up in bed and glanced at the clock. It was only four-thirty in the morning!
For so many media outlets and verified accounts to be tagging her at this hour, with thousands of comments and retweets already… it had to be a premeditated, coordinated smear campaign!
Damn it, Xinran's career was just starting to turn around, and now she was about to be hammered back down? Who on earth hated her this much!
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