Peach-Orange! – Chapter 149 – Breakdown

The dream ended, but not completely.

Chi Xiaocheng’s dream had concluded, but Su Tao’s “dream,” the one called “reality,” continued.

Her eyes opened, vision blurred by tears. The warm body in her arms remained.

The sound of breathing in her ears, the clear sensation of a heartbeat against her. All of it tugged at Su Tao’s rationality, screaming at her that Xiaocheng was still alive.

Ye Liang hadn’t killed Chi Xiaocheng.

She herself hadn’t been hospitalized with a ruined face.

Because of Chi Xiaocheng’s extremism and yandere tendencies, she had seen Ye Liang’s true nature early and cut ties.

It was just a dream.

Sleep, wake up, and forget.

But could she really forget?

The wretched image of Xiaocheng from the dream still flashed through Su Tao’s mind.

Eating scraps left by stray cats and dogs. Sleeping in dark corners or on park benches. Too terrified to sleep or make a sound at night. The once clean, adorable girl becoming increasingly stained by “ink.”

Finally, when recognized because of her face, she even resorted to slicing it open with a knife.

No anesthesia. Just heating a fruit knife with fire, biting down on a cloth, and going to work.

Whether it was atonement or just pain, her tears never stopped. Passing out from agony, waking up, and continuing.

From fleeing on the streets to surviving in sewers.

Beaten, tortured, drowned.

The world was so vast, yet not a single soul reached out to help her.

By the dream’s end, Su Tao couldn’t even bear to look at such scenes. Her heart ached too much to breathe.

She wanted to blame the dream version of herself, but gradually realized: If not for Xiaocheng’s yandere nature changing her, wouldn’t this have been her own fate?

Wasn’t the “her” in that dream still her?

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The pressure felt overwhelming. In her daze, she often wondered: If Xiaocheng weren’t a yandere, what would the future look like?

Now, she had her answer.

In the first dream, Xiaocheng dreamed that Ye Liang would hurt her, then grew increasingly obsessive and extreme, especially toward Ye Liang.

At first, Su Tao found it hard to believe. Could a dream really drive someone to such lengths?

Now, she was starting to believe.

Could Xiaocheng’s original dream have been like hers?

Watching Ye Liang torture and kill her in the dream.

She took it as truth and sought to change that future.

Thus, the gears of fate began turning.

Now Su Tao had experienced two such dreams, so vivid she couldn’t dismiss them as false.

She even wondered: Could this be her and Xiaocheng’s future?

If Xiaocheng hadn’t become a yandere, she would have died alone.

Now that she was a yandere, though not to the extent of the Xiaocheng in the previous lucid dream, what was the result?

Su Tao feared Chi Xiaocheng leaving, but also feared the outcome would become like the dream’s.

Ye Liang could die for all she cared.

But her other friends, the people she cherished… she didn’t want them involved.

Now Long Mian was the first to fall. Her mentor, who had always nurtured and cared for her, followed.

Were these two outcomes truly inevitable?

She wanted another solution, but the suffocating pressure left her gasping, afraid to think too deeply.

She wanted to hold Chi Xiaocheng tighter… but didn’t dare.

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Closing her eyes only brought back images of Xiaocheng being tortured, drowned, whispering “Tao-Tao” with her dying breath.

By 4 a.m, Su Tao couldn’t sleep.

Didn’t dare to sleep.

She endured until dawn.

Haggard, her expression almost dazed.

Creeping out of bed without waking Chi Xiaocheng, she splashed icy water on her face. The biting cold made her skin ache.

But that pain was the only thing keeping her sane.

“Today is the third day.”

Su Tao checked the calendar and realized New Year’s had passed.

January 4th. A brand new year.

The only special thing about today was that Chi Xiaocheng had promised this “black room game” would last only three days.

Would Xiaocheng let her leave after today?

Su Tao pulled the pill Chi Xiaocheng gave her last night from her pocket.

A stress-relief pill, though Su Tao didn’t believe it could relieve anything.

To her, it was just another of Xiaocheng’s schemes.

But after last night’s dream, she felt regret.

“Would taking this pill have been better?”

Then….

“No. I can’t!”

Su Tao shook her head violently, slapping her own cheeks. “I can’t give up yet. If I take this pill, there’ll really be no chance left.”

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She stood, taking a deep breath.

As if psyching herself up, she thumped her chest.

But when she looked at her hand, her pupils contracted unnaturally.

Her hand… was trembling.

Even when she gripped it with her other hand, the trembling continued.

She glanced at the TV.

The unpowered LCD screen reflected her face like a mirror: pale, haggard, almost corpse-like.

Two nights without proper sleep.

Her nerves stretched thin every second.

Even when she slept, the nightmares nearly broke her.

“Is there really… still a chance?”

Xiaocheng’s yandere nature. Xiaocheng’s suffocating love….

Just then, Chi Xiaocheng’s voice suddenly reached her ears:

“Tao-Tao, you’re up so early today? How did you sleep last night?”

Rubbing sleep from her eyes, Chi Xiaocheng moved closer, studying Su Tao’s face intently.

Her expression shifted to surprise. “Tao-Tao, you look terrible. Couldn’t sleep?”

Those crimson vertical pupils stared straight at her.

Eye to eye.

Su Tao felt boundless terror crashing over her.

A blink, and the cute face before her morphed into the ruined visage from her dream.

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Smiling despairingly.

The last shred of courage she’d mustered vanished.

Her ears seemed to hear Chi Xiaocheng’s accusatory whisper:

“Tao-Tao… why didn’t you save me? I love you. Why didn’t you save me?”

In an instant, the face returned to normal, but now stained with bright red “orange juice,” the smile at its lips utterly deranged.

“Hey, Tao-Tao~ Everyone’s already fallen asleep quietly. No one can disturb our little world anymore. You’re happy too, right? To stay together forever like this?”

That adorable face should have been charming. But to Su Tao, it was as if both dream versions of Xiaocheng had superimposed themselves over it.

Until Chi Xiaocheng spoke again.

“Tao-Tao, what are you spacing out for? How about some hot water?”

With that, she headed for the kitchen.

But to Su Tao’s ears, the words took on another meaning:

—What are you spacing out for?

—How about some orange juice~

Her exhausted, terrified mind had begun conjuring auditory hallucinations.

Eyes wide with struggle, she stared at Chi Xiaocheng in disbelief and slowly asked:

“Xiaocheng… how can you so calmly hurt yourself to make ‘orange juice’ for me? I’ve told you before, haven’t I?”

Chi Xiaocheng turned back. “Told me what?”

The girl suddenly screamed:

“I TOLD YOU I DON’T LIKE ORANGE JUICE!”

Su Tao snapped.