Peach-Orange! – Chapter 300 – The Contradictory Xiaocheng

She had appeared again.

Adorned with a black rose hair accessory, dressed in an elegant black gown sprinkled with starlight, as if emitting a subtle glow.

Dark Xiaocheng.

She had appeared beside Chi Xiaocheng during the last lucid dream.

At first, she had been terrifying, a source of fear.

But during countless lonely moments when Su Tao was absent, she had silently stayed by her side. Though she still spouted those maddening, tempting words, she never let her feel alone.

By the end, when she had to leave, Chi Xiaocheng had been able to face this abnormal version of herself head-on and even felt reluctance at her departure.

Now, in another lucid dream, she had appeared again.

Was she a hallucination? Or someone who could only exist in these dreams?

Or perhaps….

Chi Xiaocheng turned to look at this mirror image of herself, radiating an aura that warned others to stay away, and couldn’t help but ask, “Are you the original Xiaocheng from the novel?”

Her question was blunt.

Because she truly had that impression.

When she had first transmigrated here, the original Xiaocheng had merely been preparing to harm Su Tao in that dark room, not someone who had died suddenly due to some accident.

Unlike typical transmigration stories, where the original host dies abruptly and an outsider’s soul takes over.

Staring at this black-gowned version of herself, Chi Xiaocheng waited for an answer.

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But to her surprise, Dark Xiaocheng simply shook her head lightly. “Didn’t I say last time? I’m just another version of you.

“Born from your desires, existing only in your imagination.”

Chi Xiaocheng pressed further, “But you just said that! Something about being controlled by fate!”

Dark Xiaocheng replied indifferently, “Because I was born from you, I share your memories. I know this is a world inside a novel. And as one of its characters, isn’t it tragic to be mercilessly manipulated by an unseen hand?”

Chi Xiaocheng fell silent, unsure how to respond.

She wasn’t a character of this world.

She couldn’t empathize.

But she understood Dark Xiaocheng’s meaning.

She was talking about Su Tao. Su Tao was a character of this world.

So, was the purpose of this dream to show that, as a character, Su Tao could never escape the world’s will?

Just like the dream-Xiaocheng’s endless cycles.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t reclaim the Su Tao who had been influenced by the world’s will, who kept gravitating toward the male leads.

No matter how she avoided it, she would always die on December 25th.

Sensing her spiraling mood, Dark Xiaocheng spoke up, “Though I didn’t expect that after being so afraid of me before, you’d actually seek me out.”

Chi Xiaocheng pushed aside her gloom and murmured, “I… I wanted someone to keep me company. There are so many things I can’t tell anyone else.”

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She plopped down onto the ground.

“I love Tao-Tao. I want to be with her forever. But I’m also selfish. Just like you said last time, I’m not quite normal.

“I want us to stay together, with no one ever disturbing us, for eternity.

“Sometimes, I even imagine… if the whole world had only the two of us, or if we were trapped in a room with no exit, I’d be fine with that.

“But the other me, since you have my memories, you must know this too, right?

“Tao-Tao… it’s so hard to make her belong only to me.”

Chi Xiaocheng reached out, as if trying to grasp the Su Tao frozen at the crosswalk.

“Just like in this dream, Tao-Tao always has so many people around her.

“Even outside the dream, in reality, she’s always distracted by other things, always overlooking me.

“So I came up with a plan. To raise Tao-Tao’s possessiveness toward me above 90. If her eyes are only on me, then everything will be fine.”

She clenched her fist tightly, then suddenly released it.

“But that’ll take so long. So, so long. These past two days, getting closer to her, I’ve really wanted to just stop pretending. To stop pretending to be asleep.

“I want to be with her like this.

“But I’m afraid she’ll abandon me later.

“I’m scared that if I pressure her too much, she’ll grow tired of me.

“But if I don’t act extreme, I’m afraid she’ll ignore me.”

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She let out a self-deprecating laugh.

“Contradictory, isn’t it?

“Just hearing about character weight and the world’s will made me uneasy, made me lost. What should I do to stay with Tao-Tao forever?

“Other me… don’t you think this version of myself is cowardly?”

Dark Xiaocheng watched her quietly before speaking softly, “Feeling insecure and anxious is only human. You’re contradictory because you care too much. Honestly, just do what you want.”

Chi Xiaocheng was taken aback. “You’re not forcing me to make a choice like last time?”

Dark Xiaocheng shrugged. “Like I said, I exist because you need me. Right now, I’m just here in your imagination to keep you company.”

An ordinary listener who knew her thoughts and burdens.

Dark Xiaocheng added, “If you want to cry, I can lend you my shoulder.”

She floated closer, her toes barely touching the ground.

Chi Xiaocheng suddenly smiled. “Right. I’m just saying things I don’t dare tell Tao-Tao. As for what to do.…”

She had always had a goal in mind.

She was just hesitating about the process.

No one could seal their heart in concrete.

If she felt nothing while working toward that goal, that would be the true despair.

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The dream continued. The dream-Xiaocheng, hit by the taxi, had been torn apart grotesquely.

Su Tao, unable to process what she had seen, stood frozen for a long time before finally trembling toward the bloodied corpse.

Her lips moved, murmuring something too distant to hear.

“Tell me… why does this dream version of me keep trying, even though she can’t interfere with this world’s flow? Even though she knows exactly what’s coming next?

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

While possessing the body, Chi Xiaocheng couldn’t feel the pain, but she could sense the agony in those emotions.

She even wondered: If dream-Xiaocheng knew she was just a figment of a dream, that nothing she did would matter, would she give up?

Dark Xiaocheng countered flatly, “Then if you knew Su Tao would inevitably be controlled by the world’s will, would you still choose to save her?”

“I would.”

Chi Xiaocheng answered without hesitation.

The answer was obvious.

No matter what, she would act, just like the dream-Xiaocheng now.

But deep down, she could never grasp that deepest sense of security.

Watching Su Tao weep over the corpse, Chi Xiaocheng stared blankly before voicing the question buried in her heart, one she had never dared ask anyone.

“Other me… if I told Tao-Tao I’m a transmigrator, do you think she’d still love me?”