Light and Night Main Story Chapter 8-22: Belated Midsummer (迟来的盛夏) | 光与夜之恋 主线剧情第八章（英译）

Previously on Chapter 8-19... (read here)

Or alternatively, consider reading Chapter 8-23's Night End here!

You: Where's Osborn? What exactly is your purpose to kidnap me?

??: I can only tell you, I'm from LONGDAY.

You: !

Is he also from LONGDAY?! Could he also have received a commission to catch me?

??: You've guessed wrongly, I didn't want to capture you. I just wanted you to do something for me.

You: What is it?

??: Kill Osborn. I will make you kill him right in front of me.

You: What?!

My heart trembled, only to feel that my blood have all gushed up to my head.

He didn't say "You must", but instead said "I'll make you", his tone isn't an order, nor a threat, but with a calmness where everything have seemed to set, as if he has already found out the future.

??: I have already informed him, wanna guess if he's on his way to rescue you?

You: Dream on! Osborn will never be fooled by you! There's no way for me to help you, moreover to kill him!

??: You will, and he will definitely come.

A confident smile surfaced from his face, yet his gaze is distracted, as if what he's seeing isn't my face filled with anger, but my inner self.

??: He knows what is more important to him. And you have no other choice, because you are now under my control. If you wish to live, then you have to kill him. 

The man lifted my chin, forcing me to look right into his eyes. Bzzt-- a stronger flow of electricity flowed in my blood.

I understood as I endured the pain, these flows of electricity is probably coming from him, he's asserting his absolute dominance towards me.

You: Why me?!

??: I originally thought you're just a tool for me to threaten him, but I didn't expect that all of these are just fate.

You: What on earth are you talking about?

??: Every happenings in this world are results of karma, you think you're supporting it, but it's actually all superficial.

At that instant, a blurry image flashed before my mind. A row of machines, bloody walls, and the dying cries--

No, this isn't my memory, I have never experience these, why are they appearing in my mind?

Could it be his?

You: Then why do you want to kill Osborn? Aren't you afraid of your own karma?

The man sneered coldly, and his smile is surprisingly pitiful.

??: I am no longer afraid of karma. This world is already hell. I'm not doing this to live, only for death.

Death?

Before I can understand his words, I can feel my head hurting so much as if it's torn apart by force as the electricity continuously flow in form the back of my head. It's as if there's another soul trying to enter my body.

I'm extremely afraid. My hands trembled uncontrollably.

A sharp knife is stuffed in my hand.

??: Aim at Osborn's left chest, and stab it in.

Right now, I'm no longer capable of controlling my body, and my consciousness is gradually taken over. He has completely controlled me.

??: He's here.

The man retreated backwards, and walked into the shadows step by step, until he disappeared.

I can feel the blood froze in my entire body. A familiar figure appeared outside the windows filled with raindrops.

A figure that I do not wish to see the most at this moment.

Bang-- The door is kicked open.

Osborn is completely drenched in rain, the shirt is tightly sticking onto his skin. He looked at me with his secluded gaze, just like a deep well, and it seems like it contains millions of words.

What sways within his eyes, is a light from the lone fighter.

He walked towards me, step by step.

The winds howled, just like the beats of the rumbling drums, playing the sad symphonies between the heavens and earth.

I could feel my tears dripping onto the floor, drop by drop.

The lightning strikes, brightening our distance that are gradually shortening.

Don't come here, hurry and stop!

Didn't you say that you're very smart, you'll definitely understand what I wanted to say, right?

I can't let out a voice, and I can only hope for him to understand the words from my gaze.

Osborn have instead looked at me calmly, with each step he took are calm, as if there were no hesitations or doubts.

What should I do... What should I do?!

The blade behind me is gradually moving outwards, the increasingly dense electricity passes over my palms, is there really no other way--

With only one step away, Osborn stopped.

I cried so much without voice, and looked towards him in despair.

Suddenly, he blinked and lifted an arm. His slightly calloused hand gently brushes over my cheek.

Osborn: ......

You: !

A great force suddenly lifted my arm up and strike towards him with all might-- a cold light flashed past the blade. Just when it was about to reach his chest, he held onto the blade.

Blood is slowly flowing from his slender fingers.

You: !

The viscous blood splatters out from the blade, and is shrouded by the deep blue flames right after. The silver metal liquid drips, like a eerie, tiny drops of rain.

The force that has been controlling me has vanished right then.

Osborn: Forget about your incapability to distinguish roads, now you are even incapable of distinguishing people. When have I ever allowed someone else to fetch you?

You: ......

He smiled slightly, and his smile is as reassuring as usual.

You: How can you still joke around at times like this...

Osborn: What are you afraid of? As long as you don't wish for it, nobody can do anything to you.

Clap clap clap-- Sudden sounds of clapping could be heard from behind.

??: Is this gift surprising?

The man walked out from the shadows, facing the pitch black night with his back. The rainwaters and cold winds entered the windows violently, filling his trench coat completely. In a trance, it feels like he's floating in the universe.

Osborn has returned to his cold look, and his side profile is looking tense and stern.

Osborn: To use her, is your worst decision ever made.

??: It's alright, I have received the answer I wanted.

They, know each other?

I kept thinking in complete blur, only to feel my body getting gradually heavier, that I lost strength to even ask a single question.

Osborn suddenly held my shoulder, and the gaze within such close reach is smiling in consolation.

The girl's head tilted, and softly leaned onto Osborn's chest, then closed her eyes. Osborn then encircled her even more tightly in his arms.

??: I didn't expect for you to recognize and disarm mind controls. This is a Talent of the Strains, how can you--

The man's expression changed greatly, and laughed in self mock after looking at Osborn's calm gaze.

??: So you have the bloodline of the Strains, hah, how baffling. I spent all my efforts wanting to receive this Talent, and it turns out that I'm only just to become you!

??: Seven years ago, you were just a piece of trash, and you were just a walking disaster.

Osborn: A majority of those who love reminiscing the past are not living well right now. Rather than drowning in the past, they would never face reality.

Osborn: Zhao Ze, you've accepted alteration from the Strains.

The man named Zhao Ze looked at Osborn numbly. 

Zhao Ze: Five years have passed, I've already left LONGDAY for five years.

His gaze distracted for an instant.

Zhao Ze: Where I go is a place to make me stronger. It's a place where I can retrieve the first place in LONGDAY again.

As he spoke, he laughed deliberately, and the laugh is filled with pains and unwillingness to admit to defeat.

Zhao Ze: Even the bomb in the car can't kill you, so I can only transform myself into a monster.

Osborn's expressions became cold, and his gaze looked extremely sharp.

Zhao Ze: I'm unable to end you with my hands. But as long as that secret exists, as long as that secret exists--

He laughed like a maniac, and no longer hide his pupils that have turned red.

Osborn: What secret?

Zhao Ze: You should've noticed it, right? Your Talent is continuously degenerating, yet you are unable to stop it. Once your Talent degenerates, all of you will be dead. We used to be rivals well-matched in strength, I envied you, I was jealous of you, and I have also defamed you. After that, I realized, the world is too big, there's more than just LONGDAY. What did I get after tirelessly fighting with you? It's just a me who is a failure. But since I'm already here, if I don't continue fighting with you, haha-- then even this failed me wouldn't even exist anymore.

Osborn: What exactly are you trying to say? 

Zhao Ze: If you were to make a choice of destroying her and to live, what will you do? 

Osborn: If you dare to lay a single touch on her, I can destroy you at any moment.

Zhao Ze: Hah, as expected... Humans are always repeating the same mistakes again and again. The world is too big, and even you are being trapped. This time, it's my victory.

The man looked at Osborn, and slowly smiled.

Red flames suddenly appeared from under his feet, and the glass began to tremble.

Zhao Ze smiles as he stands in the middle of the fire, allowing the fire to consume each and every part of his skin, organ, and the gradually revealing white bones.

He smiled so sincerely, as if he's a spirit escaped from hell about to fly towards a world that he has been waiting for.

Zhao Ze: Osborn, you will never be able to protect the ones you wanted to protect. That person that you've been looking for died exactly because of you.

Within an instant, his pupils have already spread to its edges. The black blood has already evaporated before it got the time to flow out from his eyes.

The dripping flesh have turned into black ashes, scattering in the air. The crows shrouded him, as if it's a grand ritual.

The strong winds crashes the windows open, and the shards of glass with rainwaters stabbed towards Osborn.

But Osborn did not make a move, only with Zhao Ze's final words echoing in his mind.

"Osborn, you will never be able to protect the ones you wanted to protect." 

Blood is still dripping from his wrist. He carried the girl horizontally, and left without looking back.