Chapter 11: Threads in the Dark
Yun Fei's POV
It was late afternoon when Yun Fei received the notification:
> Pending Regret Shard Update – Subject: Zhao Min
Outcome Lock: Determined
View status?
His hand hovered above the screen for a moment before tapping YES.
The air shimmered faintly, and text appeared like ghost ink:
> Zhao Min's Attempt: Aborted. Intervention: None.
Unexpected Variable Detected: Lin Xiya.
Zhao Min Status: Hospitalized – Stable. Emotional State: Hopeful.
New Connection Thread Registered.
Thread ID: "Benevolent Interference – X."
Yun Fei blinked.
Lin Xiya… intervened?
How?
And why hadn't he felt it?
---
Lin Xiya's POV
The world had changed, and Lin Xiya knew it before anyone else did.
It started after her dreams.
At first, they were just shadows. Reflections of Yun Fei. Of pain and sorrow that didn't belong to this timeline.
Then, visions. Real ones. She'd wake up crying, heart pounding, remembering things that never happened. But they felt real.
Like she'd once lost Yun Fei—and had somehow gotten him back.
And now, the dreams were giving her more than emotion.
They were giving her paths.
She remembered passing Zhao Min in the corridor three days ago. The weight in the girl's eyes was unmistakable.
Lin Xiya had paused. Something in her dream had told her: Talk to her. Now.
So she did.
She didn't even know what she said. Just that by the end of the conversation, Zhao Min had broken down, sobbed into her arms, and whispered: "Thank you. You saved me."
That phrase echoed in her now.
You saved me.
But Lin Xiya wasn't sure it had been entirely her.
There was something else inside her now.
A thread.
---
Back to Yun Fei
That night, Yun Fei invited Lin Xiya to meet him near the old bridge—their childhood haunt.
She arrived quietly, clutching a small notebook.
"I think I'm changing," she said before he could ask anything.
Yun Fei nodded. "I think so too."
"I've been having dreams. About… lives I never lived. About regrets that aren't mine."
She opened the notebook.
Page after page—drawings, symbols, timelines… some of them matched the Regret Index's interface almost exactly.
"How do you know all this?" he whispered.
"I don't," she said. "I just… feel it. Like my soul remembers something my mind forgot."
Yun Fei sat beside her, letting silence wrap them for a moment.
Then he asked, "What did you say to Zhao Min?"
Lin Xiya looked up. "I just told her I saw her."
"That's all?"
She nodded. "Sometimes that's all it takes to stop someone from disappearing."
Yun Fei felt a lump in his throat.
"She's in the hospital. Safe."
"Good," Lin Xiya whispered. Then paused. "You didn't save her, did you?"
"No. I was testing something. I wanted to see if… not interfering would change me."
"And it did, didn't it?"
He nodded. "But it also changed you."
They looked at each other.
And for the first time since his rebirth, Yun Fei realized—
He wasn't the only one who had been touched by the system.
---
System Notification – Private
> Cross-Link Detected – Lin Xiya now holds a Passive Thread: "Dreamweaver of Alternate Lives"
She remembers fragments from timelines undone.
Her connection to Regret Shards may grow independently.
Warning: Entities aware of Threaded Hosts may seek to isolate or eliminate them.
Thread Protection: Active. Yun Fei's bond with Lin Xiya strengthens her resilience.
New Option Unlocked: Joint Regret Resolution.
---
Later That Night – Lin Xiya's Perspective
She stood by the window of her bedroom, watching the stars.
A soft hum pulsed beneath her skin, like the song of a thread winding through time.
And in her mind's eye, she saw a glimpse of the future.
Yun Fei… holding a bleeding child.
Jiang Chen… surrounded by fire.
Herself… in a glass cage, whispering a name she had forgotten.
Then—
A hand on her shoulder.
In the vision, it was Yun Fei's.
But behind him, just out of focus, stood a man in a gray coat.
Watching.