Chapter Nine: The Cost of a Choice
1. The Silence Before the Storm
Lin Ge stood frozen at the edge of the void.
The voices whispered around him, distant yet urgent.
Fix it.
Undo the reset.
He exhaled slowly, trying to silence the storm in his mind.
Zhou Wen's gaze never left him. "What will you do?"
Lin Ge's fingers curled into fists. "I don't know."
Because no matter what choice he made—
Someone would suffer for it.
If he undid the reset, the loop would return. Everyone who had fought to escape—Qiu Qian, himself, all the people who had finally moved on—would be trapped again.
But if he walked away—
The lost souls in this place, the ones time had forgotten, would remain here forever.
Zhou Wen's voice was quiet. "They don't deserve this."
Lin Ge clenched his jaw. "No, they don't."
Zhou Wen took a step closer. "Then help them."
Lin Ge exhaled sharply. "And what about Qiu Qian? What about the people who finally got a future?"
Zhou Wen didn't answer.
Because they both knew the truth—
There was no way to save everyone.
And that was the weight Lin Ge had to bear.
He closed his eyes.
And made his choice.
---
2. The Door That Led to the End
Lin Ge stepped forward.
Toward the center of the void.
Toward the place where time itself had unraveled.
The shadows shifted, whispering, reaching for him.
Behind him, Zhou Wen watched in silence.
Lin Ge took a deep breath.
Then—
He reached out.
A cold shock ran through his body. The world around him twisted, flickered, fractured.
And suddenly—
He was falling.
---
3. The Return of the Loop
When Lin Ge opened his eyes—
He was back at the train station.
The same place where it had all begun.
The air was heavy with the scent of rain. The station lights flickered above.
And in the distance—
A girl stood, waiting.
Lin Ge's heart stopped.
Qiu Qian.
She was there.
She was alive.
But she didn't look at him.
She didn't know him.
Because the moment Lin Ge had undone the reset—
Everything had started over.
The loop had returned.
And with it, all the memories of their time together were gone.
Lin Ge's breath came in uneven gasps.
He had saved the lost souls.
But in doing so—
He had erased the only happiness he had ever known.
---
4. The Weight of Forever
Lin Ge watched as Qiu Qian boarded the train.
She didn't look back.
She had no reason to.
Because in this timeline—
They had never met.
He could chase after her. Try to make her fall in love with him again.
But that wasn't real.
The memories they had shared, the life they had built—
It was gone.
Lin Ge's hands trembled.
He had saved everyone.
And in the process, he had lost everything.
The whispers of the void still echoed in his mind.
Fix what is broken.
But now he understood the cruel truth.
Fixing one thing meant breaking something else.
And time…
Time always demanded a price.
---
5. The Choice to Let Go
The train doors closed.
Lin Ge stood frozen on the platform, watching as Qiu Qian disappeared into the distance.
In another life, she had loved him.
In another life, she had promised to wait for him.
But now—
That life was gone.
Lin Ge took a slow, unsteady breath.
He could chase her.
He could try to make her remember.
But…
Would that really be love?
Or just another selfish attempt to rewrite fate?
Lin Ge's chest ached.
For the first time in a long, long while—
He let himself feel the weight of letting go.
Then—
He turned away from the train station.
And walked into a future that no longer belonged to him.