---

Perhaps it was an attempt to wake me, or maybe just a warning.

But in that moment before death, it was as simple as calling out the name of the person across from me.

I relaxed and smiled, then put down the gun.

As if everything that had just happened was merely an accident.

I stepped forward and embraced his somewhat stiff body.

Resting my chin against him.

In a place where he couldn’t see, the gun I held slowly moved upward again.

“Ah Rang, trust me, I love you.”

My gaze suddenly turned cold, and I raised my hand, decisively shooting again at the man trying to get up.

I watched as he breathed his last.

I turned and saw what Jiang Rang was carrying.

After a moment of silence, I asked, “What do you have a Molotov cocktail for?”

Jiang Rang’s expression was blank. “I thought you were going to kill me.”

I was at a loss for words.

“When you said something similar last time, I got shot.”

He made a valid point.

It was so sincere that I thought he was just trying to gift me something big.

Such speculation was not excessive for Jiang Rang.

His gaze at that moment was almost tender, as if he were looking at a dog.

“If you want me dead, I’ll die.

“But the premise is that I want you to come with me.”

I choked up. “…”

Where did this madness come from?

I lowered my gun.

“Fu Qin has laid landmines on the road to your team. You need to signal to lead them to another path.”

Jiang Rang’s gaze darkened as he fiddled with the small walkie-talkie on his waist, which emitted a mechanical sound at the wrong moment.

“There’s no signal here.”

I glanced at him and reached into his pocket.

When my fingers brushed against the Molotov cocktail, I quietly shifted to the right.

I took out the locator he was carrying.

With practiced ease, I said, “Use this to run down the other path.”

After I saw Jiang Rang’s figure disappear, I slowly exhaled.

Then I turned and walked down the path buried with landmines.

---

The wind that day was very cold.

In truth, I wasn’t afraid of the judgment that awaited me.

Going to prison, life imprisonment, or execution.

For someone like me, who had little time left to live.

It was a kind of relief from guilt.

Fu Qin had actually made a mistake.

I was a person raised on the nourishment of hatred.

I hate, but I have never been greedy.

When the moment of hatred dissipates,

There is nothing in this world worth my remembrance.

Jiang Rang almost stumbled after me.

His angry voice startled a flock of birds: “Ji Huai Chuan!”

As I fell, he caught me.

In that moment, his eyes were filled with overwhelming hatred.

“You lied to me again!”

My face wore an eerily calm expression.

“This world is made of lies.

“Sometimes, even I can’t distinguish between what I say is true and what is false.

“But right now, I have nothing to worry about, so when I say I want to die, it should be true.”

Jiang Rang’s fierce gaze shifted to one that was nearly pleading.

“But you still have me. Ji Huai Chuan, I love you.

“Don’t leave, okay?”

At that moment, the wind fell silent.

For once, I smiled at him.

“Jiang Rang, in this life, I’ve only told two truths.

“The oath I took on my first day of work was one of them.”

My fingers gently brushed against his cold face.

“I love you, Ah Rang.

“That too is true.”

With those words, I slashed my hand across his.

As soon as his forearm loosened, I fell from the cliff.

Due to the weight of my fall, the landmines were quickly triggered.

The immense force of the explosion swept through the mountain creek.

I didn’t look back at Jiang Rang’s desperate expression.

I opened my arms willingly, calmly watching the blazing flames scorch my forearm, which bore old wounds.

I raised my eyes, my pupils reflecting the sky full of flames.

I was born in the light and darkness, and I died in the light and darkness.

No one could trap me anymore.

I really liked this ending—

Even if it’s a mayfly, at this moment, it’s still resplendent and grand.

---

In the silent evening.

The valley that had been burned by fire echoed with the gasping breaths of the living.

I plunged the knife into the cliff and climbed up little by little.

Someone reached down to pull me up.

“Thank you, little brother.”

As I climbed up and saw who had pulled me up, my expression was unusually calm.

I instinctively reached out my hands toward the silver handcuffs at his waist.

Jiang Rang chuckled with irritation. “I didn’t say I’d arrest you.”

I lowered my hands, unfazed. “Is this favoritism?”

Jiang Rang sat beside me. “I got you a special permit.

“The higher-ups said, as long as you don’t keep wandering under the police’s guns, you can go wherever you want, as long as we turn a blind eye.”

I couldn’t help but laugh; I had been in the system before.

I knew how difficult it was to get such a special permit in a short time.

I shifted the topic, raising an eyebrow.

“How did you guess… that I faked my death?”

To be honest, from the moment I saw him, I wanted to go crazy.

How did this kid figure out where I was?

No way, did I not act convincingly enough?

Or was my acting skill declining, and I was found out?

Jiang Rang shot me a glance.

“You have too many past offenses; you no longer have credibility with me.”

I: “…”

Under the afterglow of the setting sun, Jiang Rang bent his legs, lazily resting his elbow on them, highlighting his sharp features. His long, thick eyelashes were visible when he lowered his gaze.

He was more mature and charismatic than three years ago, his thoughts profound, making it hard to guess what he was really thinking.

With a mischievous thought, I asked him:

“So, did you cry that day?”

He answered surprisingly quickly, “No.”

After that, there was a silence, and I leaned back in exhaustion.

After so many years, flirting with death,

It was not easy to finally find a moment of respite.

Jiang Rang calmly glanced at the man beside him.

The man was blissfully unaware, just like he had been years ago.

But in any case, he would never admit to having cried like a dog these past few days.

He had cried so hard that, upon regaining his composure, his first reaction was to want to kill the man who had played him like a fool again and again.