Question: How do I get continuation indicators (a character indicator at the far right edge, normally `\`) in `visual-line mode` when I'm working in a `terminal emacs`. FYI, the `continuation` markers on `visual-line-fringe-indicators`, do NOT work in `terminal emacs`.

I would like to differentiate between `hard` and `soft` newlines, and I would prefer indicators that are easy on the eyes.

Right now I'm using `whitespace-mode` to highlight the `HARD` newlines. So, if I look at a line and it DOESN'T have that highlight, then it must be a soft newline.

Answer: 
As mentioned by @db48x, indeed, reporting a bug would be a good thing to do, as I guess that docstring should say "DID cancel the call". Also, there might be a small chance that the function could be changed to make it do what you require.

That said. If you are not planning to publish your code, but just want to be pragmatic, then I think there is no problem with parsing the content of the last message, you could simply advise the original function as follows:

```lisp
(defun query-replace-return-count-advice-function (&rest _)
  (string-to-number (cadr (string-split (current-message)))))

(advice-add 'query-replace :after #'query-replace-return-count-advice-function)

```

Indeed, I could not come up with a simpler/more elegant solution, e.g. by advising the function in some other way.
The documentation of `perform-replace` says:

```
This function returns nil if and only if there were no matches to
make, or the user didn't cancel the call.

```

So maybe you have found a bug; probably best to use `M-x report-emacs-bug`.

That said, parsing the content of the `*Messages*` buffer should never be your first solution to any problem. Read the source instead to find out how that message is produced. You may find that the source information is readily available.