The colossal hologram hovered in the center of the restaurant, its glow casting eerie shadows across the stunned diners. Future Xiaoxia's face—already worn with time—now twisted in visceral fury, her eyes like twin lasers locking onto her younger self.
"Lin Xiaoxia! Don't you dare say yes!" Her voice crackled with distortion, sharp as shattered glass. Conversations died. Silverware clattered against plates.
Present Xiaoxia’s outstretched hand froze mid-air. Xu Yuan jerked upright, his expression shifting from confusion to disbelief as he stared at the floating specter of a woman who looked almost—but not quite—like the love of his life.
"You fool!" Future Xiaoxia’s hologram flickered with unstable energy. "I warned you! Every second you hesitate warps the timeline further! Do you have any idea what your selfishness will cost?!"
The candlelit ambiance curdled into something surreal. Soft violin music still played, absurdly cheerful against the hologram’s rage.
"Future... me?" Present Xiaoxia whispered, her blood icing over.
"Yes!" The hologram’s hands clenched as if strangling the air. "You think this happiness lasts? It’s an illusion! Eight years—eight years I’ve spent drowning in regret!"
Xu Yuan stepped closer, gripping Xiaoxia’s trembling fingers. "Xiaoxia, what is this? Some kind of sick joke—?"
"Joke?" Future Xiaoxia let out a broken laugh. Her gaze landed on Xu Yuan, and for a split second, her fury wavered—something like grief flashing through. "Your kindness is the knife that’ll carve our hearts out."
Then—
A glitch in reality.
Xiaoxia’s breath hitched. Xu Yuan’s left wrist, where a faint birthmark had always been, was now smooth. Unmarked. As if erased.
Future Xiaoxia noticed too. Her hologram destabilized further, edges pixelating. "No—it’s already happening! Xiaoxia, LISTEN TO ME! Leave him, or you’ll—"
"Wait!" Present Xiaoxia lunged forward as if she could physically grab the fading image. "Tell me what’s coming!"
But the hologram was dissolving, its voice fraying into static. "You’ll see... sooner than you think..."
Then—
Nothing.
Silence swallowed the restaurant. The hologram’s afterimage lingered like a ghost in the air. Xu Yuan pulled Xiaoxia against him, his heartbeat wild against her back. "Xiaoxia, what the hell was—"
She didn’t answer. Her fingers dug into his sleeves, her mind racing. The future’s scream still rang in her skull. The missing birthmark. The countdown she couldn’t see.
And the ring—still glinting between them, now tarnished by dread.
ns18.117.174.43da2
