Chapter 22: Golden Pear — The Tide Turns

In the cave-like, deathly silent exhibition hall, only the faint, rhythmic crackling of the flame broke the stillness.

Jin Xueli’s nerves were pulled taut like a bowstring; each tiny pop of the fire felt like a finger plucking at them. She had finished reading the lengthy description of the artifact known as "Candle Tears," and after standing in place for a long while, she finally managed to digest its contents.

She circled the underground hall once more to ensure no other attacks would emerge from the corners or shadows—having been attacked by herself once was already quite enough.

As she passed the corpse, she quickened her pace, but suddenly stopped and turned back. The sight of her own dead body always made Jin Xueli feel unsettled. She did not want to see it, and even less did she want to be watched by it. She simply took a towel, covered its face to shroud that silent accusation and scrutiny, and returned to the candle.

Melting such a massive candle with a tiny flame naturally took some effort. After she had finished her circuit of the hall, the wax had finally softened enough to proceed: the segment representing early May 2026 began to sag and slacken from the bottom, drooping toward the floor like a belly in the tenth month of pregnancy—only the "skin" was turning translucent, revealing dark, slowly shifting shadows within, as if she were carrying a womb full of ghosts.

Jin Xueli hurried over, stooping to examine the past world revealed within the melting wax. She saw herself at the very first glance.

According to the description of the artifact, because she was the one touching the candle, the history revealed within was primarily her own—"primarily," because a person cannot exist in isolation from the world, so significant events occurring in her surroundings that influenced her would also manifest in the wax.

The original text of the description stated:

"...In today’s highly integrated world, historical nodes of critical influence and major turning points are often caused by a handful of people. Mass movements that occasionally achieved success in the past are now almost impossible to replicate.

"The decisions of a few oligarchs can influence and change the fate of all humanity. By the same token, when narrowed down to personal history, the candle will faithfully present the key figures and events that influenced and reshaped the individual's immediate environment."

This passage had seemed obscure at the time, but after watching the history within the wax for a while, Jin Xueli understood.

For instance, why did she meet the stalker Anthony in early May?

The most direct reason was that a female friend had invited her to a bar that night. Amber was not a Hunter and had no access to the Nest, but she worked in finance for the Morgan faction and had interacted with Jin Xueli a few times; they got along well. It was that very night that Jin Xueli met the superficial Anthony at the bar.

But thinking deeper, why did Jin Xueli, who hated the smell of alcohol, agree to go to the bar with Amber that day?

Because at the end of April, a local war that had dragged on for years, exhausting the world with inflation, had finally come to a farcical end after countless bloodshed. Although the result did not satisfy the righteous—regardless of which side they supported—after years of repetitive, numbing tragedies, the whole world breathed a collective sigh of relief. On the day the war was declared over, there were numerous spontaneous celebrations and parades, and even the news anchors seemed a bit lighter in spirit.

Artifact Hunters kept one foot in the Nest and one in the human world, always keeping a distance from the affairs of mortals; Jin Xueli was no exception. Yet even she had felt as if the sun were shining on her those few days, her mood brimming with the overflow of the coming summer—when Amber suggested going out for a celebratory drink, Jin Xueli, thinking she could just have juice, agreed immediately.

If the war hadn't ended, Amber wouldn't have invited her to celebrate. If she hadn't gone to the bar, she wouldn't have met Anthony. If he hadn't become her stalker, Jin Xueli would never have entered the Nest, would never have had a knife plunged into her throat, would never have stood beside her own corpse, and certainly would never have found this giant candle.

Everything she had endured today, traced back to its root, was because of some bald old man thousands of miles away who started a war... So how could the people and events closer to her, those who truly influenced her, not be encapsulated within the candle?

"When you reshape the contents of the 'Candle Tears,' you will find that the further you are physically from the target, the harder it is to alter their past."

The description of the "Candle Tears" continued with this passage:

"It is very simple to change the past of those standing beside you. By reaching into the candle tears to nudge or reshape them, you can change their locations, experiences, and actions, and their past will naturally change accordingly.

"People separated from you by half a city can be changed with some effort, but you will find that the candle tears wrapping them are stiff and disobedient, making it hard to alter details; at most, you can only change a rough outline—and as to how much of a difference the change makes, it is hard to say.

"But what about people on the other side of the globe? Unfortunately, even if such people appear in your candle, you cannot exert any influence over their past experiences."

That didn't matter. Jin Xueli looked at the still-blurred scenes in the candle, thinking that the person she wanted to change would soon emerge from the back door of the bar and stand right beside her.

The wax turned into transparent tears, stopping just before hitting the floor, like a pool of shimmering water suspended in the air. She touched it slightly and found it wasn't hot.

Reflected in this pool was the night in Blackmoor City, scorched by bright lights; leaning in, Jin Xueli could even smell the unique mixture of alcohol, tobacco, and perfume from the bar.

In the pond formed by the candle tears, the high-rises, bars, shops, and streets looked like miniature models. A version of herself the size of a finger stood at the back door of the bar, looking up at the starless night sky of Blackmoor City.

This was it.

There was no need to stir the wax or look for the right moment; she just had to wait. In this sense, operating the candle tears was like using a video progress bar—you could pull it forward or backward, or let it progress naturally according to time.

She remembered that before meeting Anthony, a motorcade of several black Mercedes SUVs had driven by, their windows reinforced against terrorism, which had caught her attention for a few moments. Shortly after the motorcade passed, the dark red back door of the bar...

Here it came.

As the small back door of the bar was pushed open a crack, Jin Xueli immediately extended her pinky, dipped it into the candle tears, and pressed firmly against the door.

Her smallest finger, yet almost as large as the bar door itself, looked truly bizarre pressed against it.

Through the door, the force of Anthony pushing from the other side felt like a tiny insect kicking against her fingertip. But how could such a tiny person in the candle tears push past her massive finger?

She leaned close to the candle tears and faintly heard a curse from the noisy music behind the door: "...What the hell is wrong with this door?"

The tiny Jin Xueli, who was getting some air outside the back door, remained oblivious to the giant finger hovering in mid-air beside her. Hearing the curse from behind the door, she merely looked back and moved a few steps away—a qualified citizen of Blackmoor City always maintained a degree of wariness and indifference toward strangers, especially one who was cursing in the street.

The future stalker behind the door pushed desperately a few more times, finally gave up, and seemed to turn away. The peace behind the door was restored.

That should be enough, right? Jin Xueli didn't dare pull her hand away immediately, keeping it pressed against the door, thinking: As long as they don't meet at the start, nothing that followed would happen.

Her original rage and resentment toward Anthony had been soaked through by a chilling cold after witnessing "her own" death, making them less intense. Therefore, her primary mission now was to experiment with the candle; revenge was secondary.

As for how "the present" would be affected after changing history, the artifact's documentation had provided a detailed explanation:

"...After the node of change occurs, history will continue to develop naturally along its inherent trajectory, and the individual's 'present' will change accordingly.

"There is a time-travel paradox regarding whether one can return to the past to kill their own grandfather. Because the grandfather is dead, the person would not exist, but then no one could return to kill the grandfather... hence the paradox."

When it comes to time travel and changing the past, whether in movies, novels, or Nest artifacts, there seem to be many aspects that need explaining.

"'Candle Tears' does not fall into such a paradox. Because the candle is an inherent period of a timeline, starting from the birth of the person touching the candle and ending at the moment they touch it. Therefore, you cannot change the past before you were born.

"However, changing history through 'Candle Tears' will still affect the present. For example, if you melt a candle from a month ago and crush the version of yourself inside the candle tears, the moment you crush them, you will disappear from in front of the candle, and the candle will return to its original state.

"This is an extreme case. If you cause yourself to break a leg a month ago, then a month later, you naturally won't meet a potential client while skiing, right? As mentioned before, history will always run forward according to its internal logic, producing the consequences that naturally should occur."

In other words, if she prevented herself from meeting Anthony that night, Jin Xueli would also disappear from beside the candle—without the stalker, she would lose the motive to enter the Nest; and if she hadn't entered the Nest, she certainly wouldn't be here.

"However, to ensure the continuity of the timeline, the memories of using 'Candle Tears' and changing history will be fully preserved and will not be lost because you made changes to history."

That is to say... if Jin Xueli prevented herself from meeting Anthony, she wouldn't be in the Nest today; yet she would still remember that in the "previous version of history," she had met Anthony, entered the Nest, and changed history.

Preserving the user's memories ensures the continuity of the timeline? Why?

Jin Xueli thought for a while, found no answer, and had to let it go. Being able to keep her memories was a great thing for her; good things shouldn't be over-analyzed, so she simply accepted it.

Only by retaining her memories could she return to find the "Candle Tears" again. Compared to such a precious artifact, what were the disgusting memories brought by Anthony?

In the candle tears, the tiny Jin Xueli stomped her feet, turned around, and seemed prepared to return to the bar.

Jin Xueli removed her pinky, watching as that tiny version of her opened the door and disappeared into the flashing lights and music.

Very good. Everything was done. She could turn off the flame, letting the candle solidify once more. Only by re-solidifying would the candle tears take the shape of the new time and history.

The pool of transparent candle tears suspended in the air slowly turned white and murky, rising bit by bit, absorbed back into the body of the candle, becoming smooth and bright once more—no matter how one looked at it, it seemed as if it had never melted.

Jin Xueli took one last look at the masked corpse not far away, closed her eyes, and waited quietly for this brand-new "present moment" after the change in history.

After a while, she opened her eyes.

She had not returned to Blackmoor City; she was still in the Nest. The pool of blood beneath the masked corpse had dried into a purplish black, the candle extended far into the distance, and the exhibition hall was deathly silent.

In her mind, the series of memories—being followed and harassed by Anthony, entering the Nest, being replicated by the residents, melting the candle... were all clear and intact. Just as the "Candle Tears" description stated, they had not vanished.

Only one thing was different.

The place where she had met Anthony had changed from the back door of the bar to the front door.