"How is she doing today?"
Li Meng arrived at the hospital and found the doctor responsible for Fang Qian's care to ask.
The Police Department Director, worried about leaving the temperamentally-changed Fang Qian alone and concerned something might happen, had her stay in a hospital ward for a few days.
Fang Qian herself had agreed. After her conversation with Li Meng, she accepted his advice and decided to actively "treat" herself.
"She seems a bit better," the doctor said. "She's very quiet now, not as restless as she was in the first couple of days."
Quiet...
Li Meng didn't know if this was a sign of improvement or deterioration. Considering what her colleagues had described of her, it seemed like improvement.
He went to Fang Qian's room and saw her sitting by the window, staring outside, her profile wearing a numb expression devoid of joy or sorrow.
Li Meng knocked on the door. "Fang Qian."
Fang Qian turned her head, and the confusion in her eyes made his heart clench.
"May I ask who you are...?" she inquired, both puzzled and polite.
"!!"
Li Meng's face showed shock, and for a moment, he couldn't process what was happening.
Why had Fang Qian forgotten him?
Could it be...
Thinking of a possibility, Li Meng forced himself to calm down. He didn't introduce himself but instead asked, "Fang Qian, did you delete memories from a recent day?"
Fang Qian nodded. "Yes. My phone had a sequence written down of which days to delete, and I followed them all."
Li Meng fell silent.
Earlier, when he had spoken with Fang Qian at the Police Department, he hadn't told her the truth she had chosen to forget. Doing so would have made the forgetting incomplete.
Fang Qian had already chosen to erase the memory of her attempt to attack Guan Tong. If he told her what she had forgotten, wouldn't that mean starting over again?
Besides, after deleting past memories, the feelings tied to them would also vanish. This could easily lead to one outcome—she wouldn't believe the truth.
Although, strictly speaking, Guan Tong's words were only one side of the story, without sufficient evidence to prove them true.
But from the records left behind and from her father's refusal to cooperate and explain himself, it could be indirectly proven that Guan Tong was right.
Of the three people present that day besides Guan Tong, Shi Jingyi believed it, Li Meng believed it, and even Qin Qing, though unwilling to accept it, vaguely felt it was true.
Otherwise, why would Fang Qian delete that memory? Many times, what people truly want to forget isn't the experience of being harmed, but the experience of harming others.
The former could even provide strength in some situations, while the latter... as Shi Jingyi had said, if a good-natured person does something wrong, that thing can torment them for a very, very long time.
Li Meng didn't tell Fang Qian the truth of what she had deleted. Instead, following her train of thought, he advised her to simply delete all memories related to Guan Tong.
Specifically, the memories after the Fire Thief descended.
The two were high school classmates, so completely deleting everything was impossible. But deleting just a few brief interactions after the Doomsday Rules would leave Guan Tong as nothing more than an ordinary classmate in Fang Qian's memory.
Li Meng accepted Fang Qian's suggestion and performed a deletion each day after midnight.
She had previously only deleted the 24 hours containing her attempt to attack Guan Tong. This time, she also deleted the 24 hours after that event, including the memory of Guan Tong kicking her out of his room.
Then she deleted the memory of encountering Guan Tong in Pinglu.
She deleted the memories of their time at the academy, when she was a counselor and he was a substitute teacher.
She deleted the memories of their conversation after the academy student murder incident.
She deleted the memories of the official investigation into Guan Tong, when they sent someone to talk to her.
So, it was predictable that the memories from these past few days would also need to be deleted. Otherwise, how could she explain her drastic temperament change over an "ordinary classmate"?
With this series of deletions, it was no wonder that the memory of her conversation with Li Meng that day was also removed.
Realizing this, Li Meng didn't introduce himself or mention Guan Tong... He didn't want to add more memories for Fang Qian to delete.
Having erased all of this, Fang Qian should have returned to normal. But now, the feeling she gave Li Meng was one of deep, deep confusion.
"Even though I don't know you, you know me, probably from the memories I deleted," Fang Qian said, looking at Li Meng. "My head feels very messy right now. A lot of memories don't match up."
Li Meng said slowly, "That's fine. You don't need to do anything right now. Just sort things out slowly. The brain is very adaptable. Once it adapts, everything will be fine."
This wasn't just comfort; it was a fact.
Just like how the brain finds excuses when a person doesn't want to do something. Given enough time, even if some memories are messed up, as long as it's not too serious, the brain should be able to "fudge" it, slowly integrating an acceptable version.
"You should know Guan Tong, right?"
Fang Qian's sudden question made Li Meng's heart sink, making him feel like all his previous efforts had been in vain.
"He's an Ascendant, 'Shadow,' you must know that. But for some reason, my phone's search history has his name in it many times."
Hearing this, Li Meng relaxed a little.
Covering, he said, "Aren't the two of you high school classmates? It's natural for you to search for him after finding out he's the famous 'Shadow.'"
Fang Qian shook her head. "No. The search dates are all from a long time ago. Back then, 'Shadow' hadn't revealed his identity, so how would I have known he was my classmate, Guan Tong?"
"..."
"And I remember that when I was a counselor at the academy, he was a substitute teacher for a few months, but I don't have any memory of communicating with him. Isn't that strange? No matter what, old classmates meeting up in this era, even if we weren't close before, we should at least meet and talk."
Fang Qian's doubts were too reasonable, and Li Meng didn't know how to answer for a moment.
These questions of hers were contradictions and errors born from memory deletion. Looking closer, the inconsistencies were glaring.
If she dug deeper, it wouldn't be surprising for her to deduce that "the deleted memories were mostly related to Guan Tong."
But if that happened, Fang Qian would surely want to know why she had deleted those memories.
If she later spent time and energy trying to find the reason and recover those memories, what would be the point of everything she had done now?
"Fang Qian, I want to tell you something," Li Meng said. "Live in the present."
"Since you chose to delete those memories, it must be because the version of you that made that decision felt they were a burden. If you keep dwelling on them now, you're going against the original intention of the you who made that decision."
"Some experiences and memories, perhaps the old you could never figure out or let go of, which is why you chose to delete them. Now that they're forgotten, wouldn't it be better to just let them go?"
"Shake off the burden of the past, travel light, and focus on surviving and working for the future. I think that's the best choice for you."
Li Meng's sincere words seemed to deeply move Fang Qian. She nodded. "Thank you... I understand. I'll try not to think about those things anymore."
"It's best that you can see that. Your colleagues are all looking forward to you returning to your post soon. They're all thinking of you. Focusing on them and your friends might be a good approach."
"Mhm. I plan to leave the hospital tomorrow."
"Alright then, I won't disturb you any further."
As Li Meng was about to leave, Fang Qian asked, "May I ask, I still don't know your name?"
"If your memory doesn't have it, then it's not important," Li Meng said with a smile. "If we happen to meet again next time, it won't be too late for me to introduce myself then."
He finished speaking and left. After stepping out of the hospital, he let out a sigh of relief.
The conversation had gone relatively smoothly. Once Fang Qian returned to normal work and life, with the busyness of it all, she would likely quickly forget those conflicting memories.
He reached into his pocket to pull out a cigarette but instead touched his phone, which was ringing.
Answering it, Gao Liangwei's voice came through. "Li Meng, get back to base immediately. There's an important matter that needs to be discussed in a meeting."
"Alright, I'm on my way."
After hanging up, Li Meng hurried back to the Countermeasures Research Office base to join the meeting.
Almost at the same time, Guan Tong appeared at the edge of the Birakhan Desert.
He had learned from Adam that the "Children of Argan" tribe hadn't returned to the grasslands after the previous rule ended. Instead, they had stayed in an abandoned town bordering the desert.
At first, he thought it was because the journey was long and it would be difficult for the tribe to return. This made him feel like he should "see it through to the end" and transport them back to the grasslands.
But Ye Dang told him the tribe had chosen to stay voluntarily. It seemed they felt the grasslands were too littered with corpses to clean up and thought a new environment might lead to a better life.
However, this had nothing to do with Guan Tong. He was only there to seek a prophecy from the Moon Key. As soon as he appeared, a tribe member spotted him and led him to the camp to meet the priestess, the Moon Key.