Chapter 215: The Rose Factory

Tavel closed his eyes, "Me too."

"You have a choice to make." In an abrupt turn of events, Tavel let go of Bai Liu, resting his forehead against him and asking him softly, "Antidote or poison?"

Bai Liu's hand curls up in defeat.

Tavel looked at him calmly, his silver-blue eyes like a mirror placed underwater, reflecting Bai Liu's emotionless, rippling face in the shimmering water.

He said, "You should know what the antidote is, make your choice."

Bai Liu's eyes were empty for a moment, his memory drifting far, far away for a moment through Tavel's eyes.

In the old orphanage library, oil-stained old poems were spread out on Xie Ta's lap on a summer's afternoon, the sunlight streaming through his hair on his forehead like a scattered grid of light through the dense, loose branches of a tree, falling on the yellowed, worn pages of the book.

The air is dusty and hot, the bay window of the library is half open to the green shade of untouched grass, and the pond glistens like fish scales in the scorching sunlight, like a million diamonds on the water.

Bai Liu, uninterested in reading, drowsily covers his face with a book and slouches on his hands, his collar damp with sweat from the steaming heat.

He doesn't remember exactly what the offence was, but they were sent to clean the library, which hadn't been cleaned for decades - a punishment common to both Bai Liu and Xie Ta.

But fortunately it was a small library and Xie Ta was in no hurry, sitting quietly by the window sill looking through old books buried under the dust and reading in a low voice.

"How can I compare you to summer?

You are not only cuter and gentler than he is,

......

But your long summer will never fade.

......

Or death boasts that you are adrift in his shadow.

As you grow with the times in immortal poetry.

As long as there are human beings, or people with eyes, for one day

The gods will endure and give you life."

Bai Liu was finally awakened by Xie Ta's incessant chanting. He removed the book from his face, but his eyes did not open lazily. Don't read and tamper with other people's poems."

"The original line is [this poem will live on and give you life]." Xie Ta was not angry at being exposed, but still looked at Bai Liu calmly, with a look that seemed to take Bai Liu in, "I am not very good at writing poetry, but I see you in this poem."

"This poem suits you."

Bai Liu went through the love poem in his head, pretending to roll over and not look at Xie Ta behind him, before speaking again.

"Don't just find a random poem and flirt with me."

"No random poem." Xie Ta said without haste, "Your long summer will never fade, this is the poem that describes your future, someone will tell you."

"My future? What about you?" Bai Liu rolled back onto his back and raised his eyebrows in a prickly rhetorical way, "Only my long summer won't fade, will it?"

It was a joke, but that day Xie Ta was quiet for a long time before she looked up at him, her voice as soft as a falling leaf.

"I don't have a summer."

He exhaled softly, "I just ...... secretly shared your summer."

Xie Ta's eyes look out of the window at the lush summer landscape: "This summer is indeed lovely and gentle, the most beautiful summer I have ever seen, but these ...... are not for me."

"I will always leave."

At the end of that summer, Xie Ta disappeared to the bottom of the pool.

And at the Rose Factory at the beginning of summer, the roses bloomed in May just in time for their first round of flowering.

The moment Tavel let go, Bai Liu seemed to sense something, he subconsciously grabbed Tavel's wrist and looked at him calmly, "You're leaving again, aren't you?"

"We will be reunited." Tavel gently lifted his other hand and stroked Bai Liu's eyelids and face, "This is not your summer and roses, I will not stay here and neither should you."

Tavel's cold hands seem to be touching Bai Liu's skin, the touch of snow on his face.

"When the sun is three quarters gone, there will come to thee the deceased to seek the cold and stiff; fear not the separation that death brings, fear not the broken reverse cross in the snowy plain."

"Don't be afraid to live, or die of me." Tavel took Bai Liu's head in his arms and leaned down to kiss his wet, rose-scented, broken hair. "Don't be afraid of me leaving you for the summer."

"I am a fallen god without a summer, but I have a whole winter waiting for you."

"Now make your choice, antidote or poison." Tavel lowered his slender, snow-coloured eyelashes as he held Bai Liu, who was not moving, just burying his head in his arms, while stroking the dripping ends of Bai Liu's hair very gently, "Whatever choice you make--"

"You're all going to leave, aren't you?" Bai Liu asked in a muffled voice.

Tavel was quiet and answered him honestly, "Yes."

Bai Liu was still again, but Tavel felt the hands of Bai Liu around his waist and stomach tighten - it was still exactly the same as when he was a child.

Tavel suddenly wanted to laugh.

When confronted with a situation she doesn't want to face, when she is angry with another child or a teacher, or when she doesn't want to admit a difference, fourteen-year-old Bai six is superficially unfazed and even makes a sarcastic remark.

But when no one was looking, the skinny Bai six would sneak back in and hug the huge, patchy, long, skinny ghostly figure of a doll, burying himself in it and releasing his emotions - also in this position.

"But no matter what choice you have to make." Tavel stroked away the strands of hair that were pressed against Bai Liu's ear and lowered his head close to his ear to whisper, "You will always be the most important to me."

"Whatever else I have to go through, I will definitely, definitely come to see you."

Bai Liu slowly propped himself up from Tavel's arms and sat up, looking straight at him - finally remembering why he hadn't used the habit of looking straight at people until he was fourteen, but only since.

Because Xie Ta said: [Don't look at me directly, I have scary eyes]

Bai six teased him wistfully: [But how do you know I'm talking to you if you don't look straight at you? What if I'm talking to someone else and you think I'm talking to you, wouldn't that be awkward for you?

Xie Ta said after a moment's silence, [But then I can pretend that, when you're talking to all the others, I can tell myself that you're talking to me, no matter who you're looking at].

Bai Liu remembers Xie Ta saying this to him at the time, while lowering her head more deeply to shield her eyes, her lips pursed.

-- just like now.

"Don't say things like that while you're leaving." Bai Liu stroked Tavel's hair away from his forehead and smiled as if complaining, "while giving that look of being more reluctant to leave than I am."

Bai six from ten years ago said: [You don't have to pretend like that anymore, essentially, you're the only one I talk to too, and you're the only one who will actually listen to every word I say].

[So whoever I'm talking to is actually talking to you, and I'll always look you in the eye and talk].

[I don't think you're scary.]

Ten years later Bai Liu says: "I won't be afraid of your death any more; in essence, death is already the worst thing that can happen to a human being."

"And you're not going to die, no matter who gives you this, whether it's a god or a demon, whether other people think you're a monster god or something else - to me you're just Xie Ta and I think it's good that you're going to stay alive."

"I don't think you're scary."

Bai Liu paused for a moment, then continued calmly, "The poison is the dried leaf rose that grows from your body, and the antidote is the blood lingzhi that is poured through your blood, yes?"

Bai Liu realised what the antidote was when he saw that the diary had something to do with the orphanage.

The function of the Blood Reiki item is explained as being able to stop all negative buffs, and it is likely that this negative buff includes the addictive state caused by the dried leaf rose, and it just so happens that the factory owner purchased the idol from the orphanage - it is likely that Tavel's body still has the mother of the Blood Reiki buried in it.

It is only because it has been split up that it is unable to form intact connected blood vessels and organs, so there is no way to generate blood that can be poured over the blood lingzhi.

That plant manager should have known this too, but he was completely out of control.

It was clear that the [poison], which was more concentrated and more addictive to him, rose perfume, appealed to him more than the [antidote] that would save him from himself.

His inability to stop his lust for rose perfume, let alone put the core production tool (the heart) back into Tavel's chest, allowing Tavel to save himself by becoming a blood supply machine producing blood lucifer again, also completely destroyed him.

The principle of this game is the same - after peeking into the core secrets of the entire Rose Factory operation, there are two paths placed in front of the player.

One is to continue to use the split Tavel to breed dried leaf roses for the production of rose perfume.

One is to feed on Tavel's blood, like those investors in the third copy, and let the thorny chain of blood primroses grow through Tavel's body, growing a steady stream of blood primroses that can save everyone.

The thornless, smooth roots of the dry-leaved rose with withered leaves are just the right complement to the thorny, rose-like bushy branches of the blood primrose - two plants that were designed from the outset as a complementary, mutually restraining pair.

"You're running away, aren't you?" Tavel looked at Bai Liu, "Because you don't want to choose either one."

"But there's no way around it - you should be aware that this game has been designed from the start and you can only choose from these two paths."

"The man is forcing you to make a choice - to save the world by torturing me, or to make me feel better by letting the world suffer."

Bai Liu knows.

He knew it the moment he stepped into the game - so he has been avoiding playing it.

--someone is forcing Tavel to be Bai six by torturing him.