Chapter 3: Struggle

“Ailia, perhaps we can talk first. It won’t be too late to drink the medicine afterward.”

Zhe Zilin raised his hand slightly.

Thanks to the Drug Resistance, his body had regained some strength.

Even so, the movement was still strenuous.

“Anyway, I can’t escape. Don’t you want to chat with me?”

Ailia did not stop walking.

She shook her head lightly and said, “Ed, your mouth is very skilled. If I’m not careful, I’ll fall into your trap.”

It was not surprising that she did not trust him.

In the game King, Ed had been a smooth-talking playboy.

No one knew how many peerless beauties he had ensnared with his honeyed words, weaving sweet “nets” for each of them.

Zhe Zilin frowned slightly.

He watched Ailia walk to the bedside.

The bowl in her hand was like a scythe, drawing closer and closer.

Drinking it would mean death.

“Every day you repeat this process of feeding me medicine to brainwash me. Have you ever thought that one day I might never wake up again?”

Those words acted like a barrier.

They stopped right in front of him and prevented Ailia’s hand from advancing even half an inch further.

“You’ve thought about it. Yet you still did it anyway.”

Ailia lightly bit her lip.

Her gaze avoided Zhe Zilin’s eyes.

She no longer insisted on forcing the medicine.

She placed the bowl on the edge of the bed.

After a long silence, she finally spoke.

“I have thought about it, Ed. But I want to gamble. I’m betting that I can successfully erase your memories. I’m betting that your world will contain only me and no other women. And my world will always contain only you.”

Zhe Zilin was stunned.

A gamble?

In the game, Ailia had clearly been a sharp and steady girl.

Yet this word had actually come out of her mouth.

Pathological. Paranoid. Insane.

She was simply… a lunatic.

“But what if you lose the bet?”

“But if I don’t gamble, then I’ll have nothing left, Ed!”

“You have too many old flames. They are all powerful and influential figures. I can’t compete with them… So I can only gamble.”

Ailia rarely raised her voice.

Her emotions were abnormally agitated.

Yet this intensity did not last long.

She soon returned to her original calm demeanor.

“If I lose the bet, Ed, then without you in my world, I won’t continue living either.”

Zhe Zilin carefully studied Ailia’s expression.

She was sincere. She was not lying.

In the game, Ailia still appeared in the later plot.

That meant she had won the bet.

She had successfully made Leibang Ed’s world contain only her.

But this was precisely what Zhe Zilin wanted to change.

Of course, he would not be foolish enough to tell Ailia to have more confidence, to fight for what she wanted, to become a lioness of a woman.

If he did that, Ailia might pour several bowls of magic potion down his throat without the slightest hesitation.

Yandere love was terrifying, yet right now the only thing Zhe Zilin could trust was Ailia’s unwavering love for him.

“You brainwash me and inject new memories. But have you ever thought about whether this is still the real Ed? You obtained my body, but you lost the original soul.”

He looked down at his own body.

It was clean and odorless.

The surface of his skin even emitted a faint milky fragrance.

“Fine. During the time I was unconscious, you must have already obtained my body. But my soul is burning hot. It is far more important than the body!”

A faint blush appeared on Ailia’s face.

Her legs pressed together.

Her hands gripped the hem of her skirt tightly.

Her voice was as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.

“I only secretly kissed… your face.”

Zhe Zilin was genuinely dumbfounded this time.

Woman, you saw my body and still managed to hold yourself back to only kissing my face?

You could probably withstand the eighteen tortures of the Qing dynasty!

He had originally assumed that once Ailia made him lose his memory, she would do whatever she wanted.

She would issue all kinds of unreasonable commands and turn him into an obedient little dog.

He never expected her to be this pure.

Zhe Zilin had not anticipated this contrasting side of Ailia.

He could not help but ask, “Have you never thought about bearing a child for me or something like that?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Ailia’s face turned even redder.

A simple blush could no longer describe it.

Her face looked like a fully ripened apple.

Her voice came out in broken fragments.

It took a long while before she managed to form a complete sentence.

“You… can’t get it up.”

“?”

Zhe Zilin was so angry he laughed.

Every day he woke up only to drink medicine.

After drinking it he would fall unconscious again.

Did she really think it was the Ruyi Jingu Bang that could grow whenever she wanted?

This was not an ordinary sentence.

It had even touched a man’s soul.

I’ll show you right now what a real man is!

Zhe Zilin really wanted to prove it.

But right now even raising his hand required tremendous effort.

A feeling of having the will but lacking the strength surged through him.

He could only explain verbally.

“I’ve only been unconscious for too long. Try not feeding me the medicine for three days and see. I’ll let you know what a real man is!”

Ailia shook her head.

She picked up the bowl once more.

“Ed, I haven’t talked with you for this long in a very long time. I’m truly happy. But for our future, drink the medicine.”

Seeing the bowl full of magic potion drawing closer and closer to him, Zhe Zilin was genuinely panicking.

He had spent so much effort talking, yet Ailia remained completely unmoved.

“Wait, Ailia. There are many ways to capture my heart. Methods that are safer than feeding me medicine and also more effective.”

The rim of the bowl was already pressing against his lips.

It was about to tilt.

The only thing left for him seemed to be unconsciousness.

Zhe Zilin tightly shut his mouth.

He turned his head to the side and shouted hoarsely, “We can get married!”

Ailia’s seemingly decisive action collapsed like a falling wall at this moment.

She shyly turned her body to the side.

She remained silent.

Yet the bowl was still suspended in midair.

She was thinking about marriage.

Zhe Zilin’s chest heaved violently.

He was panting heavily.

He had finally obtained another chance.

Without time to rest, he continued speaking.

“There are many ways to keep me. Ailia, we can get married. We can swear an oath to the Saint Mother. We will depend on each other for all eternity.”

“You know this. When swearing an oath to the Saint Mother, breaking the vow means you will never be reborn. You will serve as a slave in hell for a thousand years.”

Zhe Zilin knew that in the game King, the Saint Mother represented an absolute promise.

Whenever kingdoms signed important agreements, they first had to swear an oath to the Saint Mother.

Both parties would then strictly abide by the agreement.

Moreover, Ailia was so obsessed with feeding him medicine only because she lacked an extreme sense of security.

She was terrified of being abandoned.

Marriage would represent her special status.

From then on, she would become the one and only for Leibang Ed.

Ailia hesitated.

Both hands gripped the rim of the bowl.

She lowered her head and pondered for a long time.

“But if we want to swear a marriage oath to the Saint Mother, we must hold a wedding ceremony. Both sides’ closest relatives must recite the vows before the Saint Mother will acknowledge it.”

“Your father is the King’s Hand. He will never allow his son to marry a witch. To your family, this would be a disgrace.”

In King, witches represented evil and taboo.

No one would willingly approach a witch, let alone allow their son to marry one.

Furthermore, as the prime minister, the head of the Leibang family would never accept such an absurd matter.

Zhe Zilin knew that if that old man found out his son wanted to marry a witch, he would probably be the first to kill him with a sword.

Even if he told him about his current situation, that man might actually prefer his son to disappear forever inside the witch’s castle.

This was too difficult.

For the first time, Zhe Zilin truly understood what it meant to have no path to heaven and no door into the earth.

I just want to live. What wrong have I done!

Just as his mind was spinning frantically, Ailia rarely began to apologize.

“Ed, I’m very sorry for making you suffer like this. It seems the magic potion really won’t work.”

“I used to only think about using the potion to make you forget those women. I was wrong.”

Zhe Zilin’s expression froze for a moment.

Immediately afterward, a look of surprised joy appeared on his face.

Had her conscience finally awakened!?

“Really?”

Ailia nodded.

She walked to the window and poured the magic potion out completely.

“Mm. After chatting with you for a while, I realized that the effect of the magic potion is very weak.”

She walked straight to the cabinet.

She took out a bottle of black liquid.

“You gave me inspiration, Ed. I don’t need to make you forget only those women. I can make you forget everything, including who you are. Then I’ll weave a new world for you.”

Zhe Zilin’s smile gradually stiffened.

Everything had come too suddenly.

He had to admit that Ailia always managed to give him “surprises.”

Perhaps he had truly exhausted every trick in the book.

He used all his remaining strength to crawl to the edge of the bed.

He pointed at the sharp corner of the table.

“Take one more step and I’ll die right in front of you!”