QT: Against My Will

95 [END] 2.81 – Break Up – Mr. and Mrs. Jelly

Spending her night in the bedroom which now felt like a cell, Bing Shi built her version of hell, she screamed into the pillow. Each ounce of her wished to throw her life of a building. To jump into the pits of the sea. To take a gun and place the cold metal down her throat, to pull the trigger, to shoot the pain away. She waited and waited...

Waited for the time when the pain would go away because they say...

‘Give it time. Time will heal everything.’

On one side, she wanted to die. On the second side, she was afraid of death. On the third side was the promise.

Bing Shi couldn’t function normally. Whenever she looked, she saw traces of him. Everything reminded her of Xuan Mu.

She stopped working. All her days were spent in her bedroom, sleeping and doing nothing. She lost interest in everything, in her dreams and aspirations.

‘If getting healed means forgetting you, then I choose to suffer my entire life.’

Xuan Mu was prepared. He sent psychologists to her and doctors to check on her health to monitor her, not until she was alright.

People started to annoy her with constant questioning if she was alright. It was obvious that she wasn’t!

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She wanted to be alone! Why did they keep pestering her?

Xuan Mu forgot another thing. Bing Shi’s adaptability, which was hidden deep inside of her.

Wanting to get rid of the doctors, she learned to hide her emotions. She returned back to be a pretty Bing Shi, with an exception, she lost an ability to genuinely smile and laugh. The invisible pain tore her from inside. It didn’t hurt as a cut or a bruise would. It was like a constant need to wipe away the non-existent tears that wanted to form but didn’t.

After work, she would go home to take a shower. She would put on a lovely dress so she could visit Xuan Mu’s grave in her best state, showing him that she was okay. Walking around the graveyard, she looked for the right rock to put on his tombstone. Sitting next to the tombstone, she’d speak to Xuan Mu in her mind. Sometimes she would place a blanket next to the tombstone to take a short nap. A doctor and guards would accompany her whenever she went out.

The only time she was alone was inside of her house, and she enjoyed every moment of it. She could cry to her heart’s content, pouring out all the pilled up feelings.

The routine repeated day after day.

Today was the same. Bing Shi took a nap next to Xuan Mu. The doctor and guards waited patiently for her to wake up. But it took her longer than usual. Feeling suspicious, Dr. Tzu checked her pulse.

There was none.

In a hurry, she tried to bring the girl back to life, unsuccessfully. Ignoring the little rocks placed neatly in a heart shape on Xuan Mu’s grave, they brought her to the hospital.

Bing Shi died due to heart failure caused by an eating disorder. On a closer look, they noticed that in the past seven days, she stopped drinking and eating.

Some people always delivered food to her home. Nobody noticed. On the outside, she looked healthy, she didn’t lose excessive weight, her make up was always exquisite.

Did she die a painful death? Was it attempted? Nobody knew.

Who would have thought that in the past, when Bing Shi was under enormous pressure and stress, she’d become anorexic. Her brain would fight the hunger by lowering the pain. The first time she didn’t listen to her mind but heart, she threw her survival instincts out of the window.

Her family grieved after Bing Shi uncontrollably.

Hearing about her death, the whole world shook. What about all the money?

Bing Shi and Xuan Mu never planned to have children; for fun, they created a will to be remembered as an OP couple.

This stupid pair of nutcases...

The world shook yet again.

All around the world, in universities and research institutes, from healthcare to agriculture, a small statue of their Sharkie appeared behind the glass cases for visitors to see.

Not only there.

A Sharkie appeared in homes for abused and abandoned children also a few companies, which specialized in taking care of the ocean, earth, and animals. In the near future, fatal insomnia would become a curable disease. The money put into the research paid off, sadly, not for the young couple.

Each Sharkie meant that an enormous sum of money was donated.

Charities?

Nah, Xuan Mu and Bing Shi weren’t saints.

On a plate, under a Sharkie, a selfish sentence was written together with a sum donated.

——-?????——-

Improving other people lives,

Improving our own.

Xuan Mu & Bing Shi

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Imploring how by improving other people’s lives, you could improve yours.

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[Welcome to your void room. You were chosen by the higher-ups to participate in mending the worlds. After accumulating enough points, you get a wish of your choice.]

*Silence*

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‘Xuan Mu, did you contaminate me with your disease?’

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[Did you hear me? Do I need to repeat myself?]

‘A wish... does it mean I can save Xuan Mu?’

A speck of hope appeared inside of Bing Shi, and she held onto it for her dear life.

‘~Don’t panic.’

‘~Look around.’

‘~ Answer.’

‘~Ignore it.’

‘~Go see a doctor.’

‘~You are hallucinating.’

‘~Dont trust it easily.’

‘~Test it.’

‘~Ask where you are.’

‘~Ask if you are dead.’

‘~Ask it to show itself.’

‘How can it show itself, isn’t it another monkey?’

‘~How can it be a monkey? It didn’t participate in the circus in your head.’

‘So it’s not a monkey? Thank God.’

‘~Take control of the situation.’

“Are you a soul, a God, a ghost, a grim reaper, an AI, or something else? I want to see you.”

.....

[I’m an AI system.]

A small tennis ball-sized system appeared before Bing Shi’s astral body.

‘~You need to know as much as possible.’

“How did you learn to speak and answer? Do you feel? Do you have a gender? What type of AI are you? Please don’t be a crybaby. What about my privacy? I don’t want to be stalked by your higher-ups. And don’t read my mind please, I don’t want your chip to overdrive. Am I dead? Where is my body? What about Sharkie? And X... ”

[Host stop, I can only answer one question at a time.]

‘Hm...didn’t panic with my rain of questions? Calm and unfeeling like an AI. Good.’

‘Trust or not, this is business, a risky one at that, I could be scammed, but lucky me, I have nothing to lose.’

‘A chance to save Xuan Mu?’

‘I’d be stupid not to take it.’

‘Ah, dear. I feel like smiling again ??’

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END OF ARC TWO

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