Chapter 435: Volume 1, Chapter 435 – Hostage X Spoiled Princess (15)

"It hurts so much." She asked slowly, "What should we do?"

Yan Shizhou held her soft fragrance and warm jade in his embrace, unaware of her oddness, "If the princess agrees to marry me, I will not feel pain."

"Good."

"???"

Yan Shizhou suddenly lifted his eyes to look at her, his pupils constricting sharply, his whole body froze in place, and he did not react for a long time.

Jiang Zhi's gaze was drawn to a suddenly appearing transparent data board.

【Villain rescue value reached 100%, mission completed. May I ask Host, do you want to leave this world?】

Jiang Zhi clicked no.

She herself was completely dazed.

Just by agreeing to marry him, the rescue value filled up directly, the mission completed too quickly—she had never enjoyed such treatment before.

Yan Shizhou's face gradually lost its feigned gentleness and kindness, revealing an expression that only Yun Jin would have.

The change came suddenly; by the time she came to her senses, she was already sitting on his lap.

"Zhizhi, when did you realize he's mine?" Yun Jin said helplessly, unable to recall where she had exposed her true nature.

Jiang Zhi did not struggle, sitting calmly on him, and quietly retorted, "No matter which world, aren't villains always you?"

Yun Jin's tone was unwilling: "That's not the same."

Jiang Zhi wondered: "Where is it different?"

Yun Jin, full of possessiveness, encircled her in his arms, held her slender white wrist, and sniffed it gently, saying, "They are me, yet not me."

Seeing him grab her hand to sniff like a pervert, Jiang Zhi disdainfully pulled her hand back, "Enough already."

It was as if he had a hand fetish.

Yun Jin said dejectedly, "Zhizhi, do you dislike me that much?"

Jiang Zhi immediately replied, "Yeah, you just found out."

Yun Jin buried his face in her embrace, holding on tightly without letting go, as if venting his emotions.

After a long while.

A muffled sound came from the embrace.

"I... have been influenced by you..."

Jiang Zhi was lost in thought, didn't hear his words clearly: "What did you say?"

Yun Jin shook his head, "I'm tired."

After the recent ordeal, the wound on his abdomen split open again, blood seeping out and staining the white cloth wrapped around his waist.

Jiang Zhi helped him lie down, then immediately wanted to get up and go find Defu to bring in a basin of hot water.

His wrist was tightly gripped by him.

Yun Jin on the bed looked deathly pale and extremely weak, with bloodshot whites in his eyes, yet he stubbornly pulled her, refusing to let her go.

"Do you love me now?"

Jiang Zhi couldn't understand why a cold-blooded, ruthless great villain would ask such a question.

She did not answer, but instead asked, "Does it matter to you whether I love you or not?"

Yun Jin's voice hoarse: "Important."

Jiang Zhi lifted her gaze, fixed on him, "If you can promise to give up destroying all the small worlds, I will tell you."

Yun Jin fell into silence.

Jiang Zhi, seeing this, was not disappointed either: "Yun Jin, my answer, you may never hear it."

She had always been a rational person; even if she had lavished feelings on Yun Jin, genuinely liking him, she would not abandon her principles and bottom line.

She shook off his hand, and Jiang Zhi walked out of the bedchamber.

The Imperial Physician came to treat the wound and then left.

Jiang Zhi, holding hot water, came to the bedside, wrung out the towel, and gently wiped the bloodstains from his body.

Yun Jin's body was unusually weak; if it were just a knife wound, it wouldn't have made him this bad.

"Pillar Brother, didn't you say you checked it?"

【……】

777 gave a cold laugh: "After being beaten by the villain a few times and scared, it became the villain's lackey. I said why this world is so talkative—turns out it's colluding with the villain."

【……No… not.】 Pillar Brother wanted to explain, but couldn't figure out how.

Jiang Zhi had only one question: "He's very abnormal; Pillar Brother, do you know why?"

【I know a little.】

777 spoke in a sarcastic tone: "You know it, so why not say it quickly? What are you hemming and hawing for?"

Pillar Brother couldn't take it anymore.

【Don't push your luck!】

777: "What's wrong? Still want your master to help you get revenge? What a joke!"

This remark hit a sore spot of the God Pillar System.

It was originally subject to the Plot God Pillar, but now it has turned traitor and become Yun Jin the villain's lackey, entirely because it was threatened and coerced by the villain.

Several worlds it had been shattered into dust, consuming over half of its points to condense.

How dare a mere Host System insult itself like this?

【Wuwuwu…… I can't go on anymore, it's over, might as well die!!】

Heart-rending sobs echoed in Jiang Zhi's ears.

777 was so startled by it that it couldn't speak.

"All right, all right, stop crying." Jiang Zhi said helplessly: "Brother Seven made Zhuzi Ge cry from talking, so hurry up and comfort him."

777 found it absurd.

Just saying a couple of sentences to it, and it burst into tears. Those who don't know might think it was bullying it.

"Sorry!" 777's voice sounded awkward: "Don't cry."

Zhuzi Ge's mood improved a bit; after several hiccupy sobs, he could answer Jiang Zhi's words.

【The great villain cannot enter a small world with its true self; the villains you have passed through in all those worlds are fragments of the great villain's soul. But in this world, the great villain has entered with its true self, so the World Divine Pillar is gradually absorbing his power.】

Jiang Zhi understood.

"Why does he have to enter this world with his true self?"

【I don't know.】

Jiang Zhi: "Thank you, Zhuzi Ge."

【……】I'm certainly not happy.

777 spoke: "Host, your mission is already complete; you can leave this world."

Who knows what kind of trouble the great villain will stir up.

Jiang Zhi thought for a long time, then said: "Wait a bit longer."

She felt that Yun Jin was off.

Unlike before, his awakened memories were all of destroying heaven and earth, but this time he entered the world with his true self alongside her, and he had not yet committed atrocities against living beings.

777 responded, then whispered: "Crybaby."

That remark was naturally directed at Zhuzi Ge.

【You're the crybaby!】

The two systems started arguing again.

Jiang Zhi had no time to worry about it, thinking over everything that had happened in this world.

…

Dawn came quickly.

Despite staying up all night, Jiang Zhi still couldn't figure it out.

Until she saw Yun Jin wake up, she asked bluntly: "Why did you come to this world?"

Yun Jin pretended not to hear: "What?"

Jiang Zhi knew he wouldn't tell her, so she stopped asking: "Fine, if you don't want to say, forget it—I'm leaving."

Upon hearing that, Yun Jin grabbed her hand: "Where are you going?"

Jiang Zhi narrowed her eyes and countered: "You say where I can go?"

Yun Jin: "Are you going… to the next world?"

The more Jiang Zhi looked at him, the more doubtful she felt: "Otherwise?"

Yun Jin released her hand: "All right."

He lowered his head, seemingly waiting for her to leave.

Jiang Zhi thought of a possibility: "You wouldn't love me so much that you'd want to abandon the plan, would you?"

Yun Jin's body suddenly stiffened.

Jiang Zhi guessed correctly.

So that's how it is.

Yun Jin also dropped the act, laying his cards on the table: "After the previous world ended, I thought a lot. If I had to choose between you and carrying out the plan, I would choose you. But……"

Jiang Zhi asked curiously: "But what?"

Yun Jin clenched his fingers, frowned, and said: "The person you like is merely a fragment of my soul, not the real me. If you stay with me, you will gradually grow to dislike me and eventually leave."

He is different from those soul fragments in the other worlds.

His personality is different, and the experiences he has gone through are different.

Jiang Zhi froze for a few seconds.

She hadn't expected him to be torn up about this.

That's also true.

All the villains she has encountered from beginning to end are his soul fragments; he thought the person she likes is those fragments, not himself.

Yun Jin continued: "No one wants to approach me; I am a monster born from endless malice, my first thought is slaughter—only killing brings me pleasure. Until I met you, Zhizhi: if I promise you I won't destroy those small worlds, can you promise me you'll never leave me?"

Only the last sentence is his main point.

He is still him—that obsessive, possessive to the point of perversion Yun Jin.

Jiang Zhi fell silent.

She was considering.

And Yun Jin was waiting for her answer.

No one knows how long passed—long enough that the air seemed to congeal.

Jiang Zhi said: "Even if I don't agree, you have a way to make me forever unable to leave you."

After saying that, she smiled slightly: "I understand you, Yun Jin; you won't let me go—from the moment you fell in love with me, I was destined never to leave you."

Just as he said, he is a monster spawned from endless malice; no matter how many world tasks he completes, he will not change.

But at least, he now understands what feelings are.

Yun Jin showed no panic at being seen through; his expression was calm, his narrow eyes slightly curved, gentle and full of affection: "Zhizhi, I won't hurt you."

Jiang Zhi took a deep breath, suddenly stepped forward, leaned in, and kissed the corner of his mouth.

While he was stunned, she whispered: "I will now answer your first question."

"I love you, whether it's your soul fragment or you yourself."