Part 48: Regret

_{content warning: violence, car accident, unfortunate relationship... stuff}

[BGM: Days Go By]


Alright, well, we obviously need to keep Li Wen from falling off a cliff to her death. We also obviously need to keep Jimmy from being abducted and murdered by a vigilante who, presumably, thinks the tabloid story about him is real. Very cut and dry, this puzzle.



There's a few more Bad endings for both of them, so let's get started. You may be curious who grabs Li Wen if Jimmy's piece is on her side instead... (Regallion's guess results in this ending for both.)

[BGM: Lethal Affair]


I stuck the pen deep into his shoulder, but he showed no signs of pain at all.
The crazed look in his eyes seemed to get even more intense; he looked extremely excited.

I felt to the ground in terror.
I... I was screwed.
I had run into a.... a real psychopath!

The masked person covered my nose and mouth with a damp cloth.
A tide of exhaustion suddenly washed over me. Everything went dark; I passed out.



[BGM: Days Go By]


My heart skipped a few beats.
I felt like I had already died.
I thought I must be in a wild dream.

I had seen too many movies with a similar plot.
The heroine was about to fall off a cliff, and the hero was able to catch her hand at the last moment.

Yet we were not the hero and heroine of that kind of movie.

Just when I thought this would be my last chance to tell him how I felt, the torrent washed us both off the cliff.

Our hands lost hold of each other's grip.
We were too far away to hear what we were yelling at each other.
I supposed I didn't even deserve this one last chance.

I was falling... I kept falling...
After what had felt like an eternity my body finally touched the ground.
I could feel something sticky coming out of my nose, and my ears...

I looked at him, lying motionless in the distance.
He was becoming... blurry... until everything went dark...



Great, so now we have Wen Zhaoren's life to worry about too when solving this puzzle! Unsurprisingly, every ending for Li Wen that isn't the S ending is a Bad ending here- and there's lots of ways falling off a cliff can go wrong.



That said, there's also one other Bad ending for Jimmy, so let's get that knocked out here first.

[BGM: Lethal Affair]


I sprinted towards a nearby road with all the strength I had left, hoping to stop a taxi.
Actually, any vehicle would do!

As I was about to step onto the road I looked back to check where he was one last time.
But I saw him stop.

“Beep beep!”
The deafening sound of a car horn and the screeching of tires rushed towards me from a distance.
My body flew off of the ground. As I was flipping through the air I saw the spinning green traffic light out of the corner of my eye.

The only thought I had before I completely lost consciousness was...

no matter what, you should always check the traffic light...



[BGM: Days Go By]


My heart skipped a few beats.
I felt like I had already died.
I thought I must be in a wild dream.

I had seen too many movies with a similar plot.
The heroine was about to fall off a cliff, and the hero was able to catch her hand at the last moment.
Then she would cut his hand with something and say,
“Let go of me, or I'll drag you down too!”

Yet we were not the hero and heroine of that kind of movie.

The torrent washed me off the cliff.
My pen was still sticking out of Mr. Wen's hand.
The last memory I left him was a... a pen... Haha... hahahaha...

I was swept into the air by the gusting wind, but my eyes were locked on him.
He was yelling something at me, but the wind had blown the words away; I couldn't hear a thing.

I was falling... I kept falling...
After what had felt like an eternity my body finally touched the ground.
I could feel something sticky coming out of my nose, and my ears...
It hurt so bad... so, so bad...



And there's the other factor to consider, Li Wen might willingly sacrifice herself specifically to keep Mr. Wen from being pulled over with her.



Let's try something else for Jimmy. We haven't seen what happens when the rocks are on his side, right?

[BGM: Lethal Affair]


The sweat on my palm had glued my hand tightly to the pen that I had just stuck in his shoulder.
But he showed no signs of pain at all.
Who the hell was this person?

I fell down into the mud, and the torrent of mud and soil underneath swept both of us down the cliff.
The mud and soil kept splashing onto my face and into my nose.
I was beginning to have trouble breathing. Suddenly, something hard struck me in the forehead and I blacked out.

When I woke up, I realized I was in a hospital; I couldn't move at all.
My entire body had been wrapped up like a mummy.
The nurse told me that a team of road repair workers had found me.
I had broken numerous bones all over my body, but none of my organs had been damaged. It was almost a miracle.

A doctor in a white coat came in soon after the nurse left.
He was wearing a mask so I couldn't see his face. He had a glistening... scalpel in his hand.
I could see a pair of cold yet crazy eyes above the mask...

”Big brother, we are about to start the procedure now.”

No... Noooo!!



[BGM: Days Go By]


My heart skipped a few beats.
I felt like I had already died.
I thought I must be in a wild dream.

I had seen too many movies with a similar plot.
The heroine was about to fall off a cliff, and the hero was able to catch her hand at the last moment.

Yet we were not the hero and heroine of that kind of movie.

The wind and the rain kept getting stronger.
He grabbed a small tree next to the cliff with his left hand.
Its tiny trunk was shaking more and more violently in the restless wind.
I was so scared, and I could sense that I wasn't the only one.

Finally, a crisp snapping sound broke the silence between us.
We fell off the cliff, holding onto each other's hand as tight as we could.

I was falling... I kept falling...
After what had felt like an eternity my body finally touched the ground.
I could feel something sticky coming out of my nose, and my ears...

At last, at the final moment of my life, I had managed to conjure enough courage.
“Mr. Wen... I love you.”

I didn't hear a response.
The rain and tears had blurred my eyes, and I couldn't see his face.



Unfortunate relationship implications aside, it probably would come as no surprise to you to learn that a lot of the other Bad ends for Li Wen basically boil down to 'fall off the cliff', 'fall off the cliff with Mr. Wen', or 'stab him with a pen so he doesn't fall off the cliff too' from here, so we'll be skipping the rest of those for redundancy's sake.

Additionally, the final non-S ending for Jimmy is functionally the same as the one we just saw, the only difference is if the mysterious assailant manages to hold onto his arm the whole time or not- he still ends up being murdered in the hospital after waking up. Sorry, Jimmy. Let's get to the S endings.



This solution takes care of all of the obstacles for both sides- on Jimmy's side, it has the landslide happen to keep him from being abducted, but by having nothing else on his side this gives Jimmy enough distance/lack of distractions for his escape. As for Li Wen's side, unlike before her hand is gripped firmly- so even once she stabs him with the pen he won't let go of her...

[BGM: Escape]


I'm not sure how I found the strength, but I stepped forward at the last moment.
I could feel my heel just miss the sliding mud. A torrent of mud was falling off of the slope by the hilly roadside.

A landslide?
The mud and soil underneath the masked person suddenly began to move rapidly, as if they had just been awoken by the thunderous explosion in the sky.
The masked person was sucked into the torrent and swept down the cliff, into the distance.



The Goddess of Fortune must have heard my call for help!
Lucky me!

After struggling to calm down I realized a new problem.
Where the hell was I?

I eventually managed to stop a taxi and get back home, even though I was completely lost.
The warm bed and the soft sheets seemed like friends from another lifetime when I got home. They sucked me in instantly, as if they were a black hole.
The only thought I had before I completely lost consciousness was,

I shouldn't have gone out.



[BGM: Days Go By]


My heart skipped a few beats.
I felt like I had already died.
I thought I must be in a wild dream.

I had seen too many movies with a similar plot.
The heroine was about to fall off a cliff, and the hero was able to catch her hand at the last moment.
Then she would cut his hand with something and say,
“Let go of me, or I'll drag you down too!”

However, I was no heroine.



The blood was being washed away by the rain.
It flowed onto my hand and dropped onto my face.
I had stuck the pen into the back of his hand, but it had been blown away by the heavy wind.

This wasn't a movie... I would drag him down, I definitely would...
But I didn't have the courage to tell him to let go of me.
I was... such a coward...

”Hold on! Keep your eyes on me!”

He held on even tighter.
The rain and tears had blurred my eyes; I couldn't see his face.



“I'm... sorry... I'm so scared...”
I was so scared of being left alone...

Miraculously, he seemed to have heard my thoughts.
“Don't be scared... I would never leave you alone, ever...”

He grabbed a tree next to him, with his left hand, and leaned back. The tree was already bending at a dangerous angle.
My body was jerked upwards.
The little tree snapped in half. At that same instant he pulled me into his broad chest.
He locked me in his strong arms.
I felt a warmth that I hadn't felt in a long time.



I couldn't think of anything to say.
He didn't say anything either.
Or maybe he did say something, but it was drowned out by the rain and I couldn't hear it.



…

[BGM: Lost Memories]






NEW MESSAGE: Regret



NEW MESSAGE: Key of Fortune

Before we start on one of our new letters, we're going to take a little detour to another hidden letter up above- though, this one we won't actually be reading in this LP because its subject matter crosses the line in my opinion (and it doesn't answer any questions or expand on any characters in a way that matters). I'm only acknowledging it because it exists and I do want to at least mention everything big in this game in some form or another.



This time, the hidden letter is for Alicia. ...Specifically, tying into her letter simply named 'Pills'. As you'll remember, this is the letter where she's still in the dungeon underneath Money Jia's mansion, fighting off a potentially lethal sickness. (“Fun” fact, if you check out her profile while on a Bad ending, it confirms that she's contracted tuberculosis during this letter and will die in that dungeon from it if you don't get her an S ending).

Some of you immediately picked up on the fact that there was an S ending for both the poison and the sleeping pills, but we went with the poison to continue the story.



So you may be wondering, what happens if we pick the other S ending? The one where she grabs sleeping pills? (Well, for starters, nothing changes for Li Wen, whose letter is causally linked to this one, since the only difference between the two solutions is the order of two of the pieces on Alicia's side). If we switch to the other S ending, however...

*ding ding!*



A new letter appears.





NEW LETTER: Circus Freak

And it's a really, really bad one.

Hey, remember that thing that the guy at the auction house said to Carlos seemingly to scare him off asking questions? About how some of the trafficked people were intentionally amputated and thrown in freak shows to ensure they can never be found? You can probably guess what this letter entails... and why I'm not going to be actually putting it in this LP. It's also a dead end that can't get an S ending whatsoever, like Li Wen's letter where she's either in college or repeating her senior year but is unable to be helped in any meaningful way- the puzzle is while Money Jia is still alive, but no matter what you do it either ends with Alicia dead or wishing she was dead. You have to use the poison because it shows a killing intent that gets Ray interested in training Alicia into being an assassin- end of story.

So, now that this particular divergence has been acknowledged, we're going to make sure that letter didn't happen, and it won't ever again.



Back as it was before. And now, let's get to our next letter.



...

[BGM: Whispered Feeling]


Regret

The rain kept pouring down, with no sign of stopping any time soon.
I carried Li Wen on my back to the ranger's cabin on top of the hill. She had already fallen asleep.
Due to the danger of a potential landslide the park rangers had evacuated earlier.

I laid her down on the only bed in the cabin and tried to cover her up with some sheets.
Yet I noticed something strange.
I felt her forehead. It was a little too warm.

Fortunately for us there was some medicine and a few bottles of water in the cabinets.

I tried to get her to take the pills. She leaned on my shoulder and mumbled half consciously in her dream.
And then I heard her say “father”...



I walked to the door and sat on the steps while staring at the rain.

I had planned to travel to some new place where no one would know me and spend my final days there.
I had even asked Yang Ying to watch over this kid on my behalf.
I had thought I could let this all go.

Yet the Gods had made me run into her again here.
God, haven't you toyed with me enough? When will you stop?



Yang Ying had mentioned that Li Wen's father was a painter, and that he had passed away due to a heart problem.
He sounded just like me.
Was that why she had been so close to me?

If so, what about how I felt about her?

Ever since she had first come into my life I had been paying extra attention to her.
At first I thought it was just out of curiosity.
But lately, that feeling seemed to have evolved in some way...

When I had been in the hospital, I would often catch myself thinking about her without realizing it.
I kept telling myself that it would never happen.
After all, there had only been one person in my heart.



The first day after I had gotten out of the hospital and gone back to school, I didn't see her in my class.
During my lectures I kept losing my thoughts.
Until I saw her passed out at the back door of the classroom...
I had no time to worry about other people staring at us. I carried her out of the school but I couldn't get a cab. I had to run all the way to the hospital with her on my back.

Maybe that was the moment when I started feeling something more.

Or, maybe it had been even earlier.

When our pictures had been posted on the school forum, I had intentionally avoided her.
When I walked past her I knew she was staring at me.
And I felt like the most horrible and stupid person in the entire world.

So that might've been the moment... but maybe not...

It wasn't...
No...
I shouldn't even be thinking about all this!

She and I, it was never going to happen.



The night kept getting darker and darker.
The rain kept falling.
And I was still sitting at the doorstep. I felt like I was dissolving into the rain, and the night.

I suddenly heard someone calling me from behind.

She sat herself up on the bed, but looked away the second when she saw my eyes.

“Mr. Wen, I... I have always liked you.”

I stood there, thinking that I must have heard it wrong.

“I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have said it...”
“You're my teacher and I must have made you very uncomfortable.”
“But... but... I couldn't hold it in... any longer... if I don't tell you, I feel like I'm going to lose my mind.”
“I'm sorry Mr. Wen... I'm so sorry...”



Her hands were clenching the sheets tightly.
“I... I want to be with you.”

I pushed her.
She began crying.
And ran towards the door.

She just ran into the evening rain.
By the time I realized it I could not see her anymore.

Earlier, after hesitating for what felt like forever, I had told her the cruelest thing.
I'm sorry. I can't be with you.

I remembered her expression when I had pushed her to the ground. She must have thought that I had been disgusted by her.

But... how could I ever feel that about her?
The only person that had been disgusting was me.

I was so scared.
I had no idea what I would mean to her, if I crossed that line...
Her lover? Her father? Or just a pathetic, dying cancer patient?



I held my flashlight and began aimlessly searching for her in the rain. I almost slipped a dozen times.
And when I realized that she might have slipped and fallen down, I hated myself even more.

Before I knew it, it was daylight.
The rain had finally stopped,
and the sun had come out.

The first ray of sunlight broke through the clouds and sprinkled upon her body, lying in the valley. She was so calm, so beautiful, and so still. She was not even breathing.

I held her cold body in my arms.
I felt like I had lost the whole world. Again.

Wen Zhaoren





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