Chapter Thirty-Seven: Chicks

“Betrayal…?” Zhang Qingqing laughed, her gaze falling on Hua Weiwei who stood behind Liu Mengchao, her eyes filled with amusement.

“You’re saying she’ll betray me…?” Zhang Qingqing’s voice was gentle, but her gaze grew all the more desolate and pitiful. “How long have you even known her? And yet you claim she’ll betray me…?”

“Zhang Qingqing!”

Hua Weiwei could finally no longer restrain her emotions and cried out.

“My dear… don’t be anxious… this is nothing but another cheap trick from that man surnamed Liu. He must have prepared a recording in advance, waiting to play it suddenly when we arrived, just to deceive us.”

Liu Mengchao noticed that as Zhang Qingqing spoke these words, her shoulders remained steady, without the slightest tremor—proving she truly believed what she was saying. Her eyes, too, moved with a sincerity that could almost be mistaken for truth.

This could only mean one thing: her lie had already deceived even herself.

Under what circumstances can a person so thoroughly deceive themselves, utterly ensnared in their own falsehoods?

Hua Weiwei gave the answer.

“Give it up, Zhang Qingqing! You’re already mad!”

Hua Weiwei’s shout brushed past Zhang Qingqing’s ears like a gentle breeze, only making her smile.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you—I will, and then, I’ll kill all those filthy men, every last one of them!”

As Zhang Qingqing spoke, she laughed wildly. Those scenes from the past flashed one after another before her eyes—naked, bloated bodies, ugly grinning faces, white bedsheets in a hotel room, twisted and stained.

“Weiwei, come behind me quickly. I’ll protect you…”

Zhang Qingqing felt as if she had returned to that world once again. Hua Weiwei’s body was pressed beneath a judge, herself naked, powerless as she watched the man before her.

“No! This is the world of endless cycles—I have beauty, I have wit! I’ll succeed, I will!”

Liu Mengchao noticed that the numbers on the system panel before him were surging wildly.

Jackpot amount: 130,000!

Now, it was time to shatter this woman’s final psychological defense. The more Zhang Qingqing deceived herself, the more it showed the fragile state of her heart, protected yet brittle—like a massive dam, which, when blasted open, would unleash torrents unimaginable.

“You were once hurt, and you blame it all on the cruelty of the world.” As Liu Mengchao spoke, he stepped forward. Psychology, after all, could not only make a person believe in themselves, but could also be wielded to the opposite effect.

To drive a person to utter collapse, to peel away the armor of her soul layer by layer like an onion, until only a maddened spirit remained, howling in endless terror.

“You don’t want to become cold and heartless. You don’t believe you’re such a person.”

Liu Mengchao continued, and curiously, Zhang Qingqing’s movements suddenly halted. Memories began flashing endlessly before her eyes, like a carousel of her past.

“No…”

Her lips parted, a faint whisper escaping her.

“You want to save those around you, only because you don’t want to fall alone.”

“No…”

“You feel it’s unfair—why is it that you always give more than you receive?”

Now was not the time for ambiguous words, coaxing Zhang Qingqing to recall her past herself. Liu Mengchao had only one goal: to utterly destroy her, like a raging storm.

“No… no…”

The smile on Zhang Qingqing’s face slowly faded, replaced by a lost expression never before seen on her face. So-called wisdom, when the heart’s defenses are broken, is more fragile than the frailest chick.

Take Zhang Qingqing, for example!

“You keep saying it’s the world’s fault, running away again and again!”

“I haven’t…”

“You hate men because they brought you painful memories. You hate others’ affection for you because you know it’s all empty illusion.”

“I…”

“In truth… you only like women.”

“No…” At these words, Zhang Qingqing crouched down in agony. Women… Her gaze, almost involuntarily, drifted toward Hua Weiwei’s figure—her tall, graceful form, her proud curves, and the face Zhang Qingqing liked most: pure and innocent, untouched by the world.

“That’s right!”

Liu Mengchao stopped abruptly. He had to let this new idea ferment fully in Zhang Qingqing’s heart. It’s impossible to simply change someone’s beliefs, but psychologists have devised another method.

Through words, they silently reshape a person’s values and worldview—making her dance gracefully or, just as easily, destroy herself.

“You don’t like men, nor women. The only one you care for is your own reflection.” Liu Mengchao said as he drew nearer, crouching before the kneeling Zhang Qingqing.

With slender fingers, Liu Mengchao gently lifted Zhang Qingqing’s chin, his gaze boring deep into her mind.

“This world is ugly, just as you’ve seen—whether man or woman.”

To place her last, fragile hope for beauty in another woman—Hua Weiwei—such childish illusions must be shattered.

At last, Zhang Qingqing’s eyes were void of all light.

Only the jackpot total told Liu Mengchao that everything was proceeding as he’d planned: the dam of Zhang Qingqing’s psyche was crumbling rapidly.

“They deceive you, they play with you, and in the end, they destroy you.”

Deceive… play… destroy…

Her first time—the senior who smiled at her, whose smile was so gentle and beautiful. “Qingqing, you’re as pure as a lotus flower. From now on, let me protect you. You’ll succeed, I know you will.”

She had grinned foolishly, following her senior to what, she was told, was nothing more than an ordinary dinner.

Her first time—the man who laughed wildly at her, so ugly and crazed. “Lift your legs higher. Can’t you even moan? Don’t lie there like a corpse—watch how your senior does it!”

Her first time was so long ago. Ever since, everyone knew her, everyone scorned her, and everyone longed to destroy her.

“They’re all just jealous of you, men and women alike.”

Zhang Qingqing jerked her head up, her eyes never before so wild, staring at the distant, innocent-faced Hua Weiwei. Gradually, Hua Weiwei’s face overlapped with the faces of the women who had once smiled and led her into this world.

“They’re ugly.”

Women, you are so ugly!

“They’re filthy.”

Men, you are so filthy!

“You are beautiful. You are the last pure one. You are white—they are black. Between you, there can be no peace…”

The flame in Zhang Qingqing’s eyes flickered and shrank. The beliefs once coiled in her mind, her former thoughts, everything she once held, collapsed.

Jackpot amount: 140,000.

“Do what you must.”

With those words, Liu Mengchao stood, gazing down at the dazed, collapsed Zhang Qingqing. A satisfied smile played at Liu Mengchao’s lips—for he knew the dam within Zhang Qingqing’s heart had broken.

Jackpot amount: 150,000!

“I… I want to destroy everything…”

Struggling, raging, trembling.

The knife in Zhang Qingqing’s hand thrust straight toward the man’s chest before her—just as she had always wished to do. Everyone who had ever climbed atop her, every person who had ever despised her, everyone who still drew breath—must die!

Jackpot amount: 170,000!

“Alert! Life of Lord God’s Agent in jeopardy.
Source of threat: Participant in Lord God’s Space, Zhang Qingqing.
Criteria met—Lord God’s Agent authorized to retaliate.
Retaliation limit: None.”

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The next world of endless cycles has been chosen. Earnestly seeking guest roles—names must be pleasant, and, most importantly, all characters should be recognizable to me…