Chi Ting found it very interesting.
He stood firmly in front of the mirror and looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar figure in it.
The tall high school student was both Ah Ting and Chi Ting himself, or to be more precise, this should be the type of life he most wanted deep in his heart.
So, in this dream that belonged to him, what was the most important thing to overcome?
The answer was obvious.
The corners of his mouth slowly curved up in a very shallow arc. His slightly raised eyes also showed a meaningful smile.
There was wind blowing in from outside, blowing the hair by his ears. Chi Ting’s voice floated around slowly like a whisper. “I found you.”
The last note fell, leaving only a long silence.
It wasn’t known how long it took before the sound of high heels stepping on the ground could be faintly heard. Chi Yuan poked her head in and said, “Ah Ting, why are you still here? You are going to be late.”
Chi Ting stood in place, his eyes fixed on the spot without moving at all.
Chi Yuan repeated with a strange expression, “What are you daydreaming about? Hurry up.”
After a while, there was still no response. She finally couldn’t bear it any longer and walked inside. She reached out to put her hand on Chi Ting’s shoulder. “I said you…”
However, the moment her outstretched hand touched Chi Ting, it passed through silently.
All words stopped abruptly.
There was a look of astonishment on her face as Chi Yuan tentatively reached out her hand again. She constantly tried to touch Chi Ting but missed him again and again at the moment of contact…
Her expression gradually filled with panic. “What is going on? What happened? How could this be?!”
The gradually hysterical reaction from disbelief finally made Chi Ting turn his head to look over.
The moment their eyes met, he smiled apologetically and gently. “Thank you very much for your company these past few days. You are my only family here, but I’m sorry, I never had a sister…”
“What… are you… saying…” Chi Yuan was obviously trying to say something, but her words gradually became indistinct as her body quickly faded away.
Chi Ting didn’t look at his ‘sister’ again but turned his gaze back to the mirror.
The moment when Chi Yuan started to disappear gradually, he could feel that the environment he was in was also gradually distorted. It was like a pull from a higher-dimensional force. The seemingly peaceful living environment was constantly on the verge of a precarious collapse.
But Chi Ting was still smiling. “A dream that I don’t even believe in. It turns out that it can’t maintain its original form.”
The slightly elongated ending tone was a bit bewitching, full of interest and ridicule. “Look, as long as I clearly realize that I am in a dream, everything here will completely lose its meaning. It has come to this. Do you still want to continue pretending?”
The distortion of the surrounding space made all the ending sounds stretched out to an extremely weird degree.
Finally, under Chi Ting’s direct gaze, he saw the person in the mirror gradually restrained his expression. Finally, only an empty stare was left.
He heard the ‘Ah Ting’ in the mirror finally speak. “How did you find me?”
“As long as you know where your inner demons lie, everything might be much simpler than you think.” Chi Ting smiled slightly. “Coincidentally, as a staunch atheist, the thing I am most certain of is that if I really die one day, it will definitely be at my own hands.”
He stood in front of the mirror, supporting himself on the table with his hands. He looked at it with interest after approaching it. “What do you think?”
In this position, the people on both sides were almost sticking to each other through the mirror.
They stared at each other in silence for a long time before ‘Ah Ting’ spoke in an unclear manner, “Have you never thought that all your experiences are really just because you are crazy?”
“Of course, I have thought about it. “Chi Ting’s eyes wandered over the other person’s body bit by bit, as if he was examining a piece of art closely related to himself. “But who made you leave the most deadly clue in this dream?”
Ah Ting blurted out, “What?”
“Rules.” Chi Ting blinked slowly. “Taking pills can make time go forward smoothly, but stopping the pills will just make you fall into a cycle and stagnate. After many attempts, the result is always the same.”
At this point, he paused subtly before finally laughing. “Don’t you think these rules are too logical? You know, the world in a madman’s mind never has so many rules. The most important rule in this instance is that there are no rules. In order to make the people inside believe that this is the real world, the settings made are somewhat outsmarted.”
Ah Ting said in a deep voice, “That’s why you kept doing things repeatedly in the past few days…”
“Use the pills to test the law of time advancement, so as to completely confirm the judgment,” Chi Ting said and stood up again, looking down at the mirror in front of him. After the smile disappeared, only a gaze with faint emotions remained. “Then, the time for a heart-to-heart talk should officially end here. The process of communicating with another self through the mirror is full of weirdness and novelty, but compared to this, I should have other important things to do. I’m afraid it isn’t suitable for me to continue wasting time here with you. Ah Ting, dear child, now that I have found you, isn’t it time for you to open the ‘door’ for me?”
The entire dream space had been completely distorted. At this moment, except for the mirror on the table in front of him, everything around him seemed to be in a chaotic other dimension.
With this suggestion, Ah Ting finally showed a smile on his face that originally had an ugly expression. “What if I refuse? Then what are you going to do? You have already said that the most important rule here is that there are no rules. Everything originally originated from dreams and can be completely overturned at any time. Here, no one can force ‘me’ to do something I don’t want to do…”
There was a loud noise. Before the words could be finished, the entire mirror was completely shattered into thousands of pieces by the heavy punch.
The tiny mirror that fell was instantly swallowed up by the deep darkness under his feet. Ah Ting’s face was completely torn apart. He paused slightly before smiling more happily. “Give up. You have nothing that can threaten me at all.”
“I understand. You are my deepest consciousness. I certainly can’t touch you.” Chi Ting approached slowly. He casually removed a shaky mirror fragment and gently stroked the sharp cut surface with his fingertips. “But think about it from another angle. I am different, but I am also you. In this case, if…”
He suddenly turned the mirror lens around. He pointed the sharp tip at his throat and asked slowly, “If I die, will you also cease to exist?”
Ah Ting’s eyes darkened slightly. “You can try it.”
In the silent atmosphere, all the tension seemed to be stretched to the limit in an instant.
The two people inside and outside the mirror were facing each other from a distance. The sharp point of the lens would be able to pierce Chi Ting’s throat directly if he took a slight step forward.
It inched closer and closer until it completely touched his skin. Faint traces of blood seeped out.
Further ahead…
Along with a crack sound, Chi Ting laughed, unable to hold back any longer. “Of course, according to normal logic, if you are unwilling to cooperate, then I will have to die before I get out of there.”
He laughed for a long time before finally feeling a bit tired. He slowly straightened his bent waist and looked at the thousands of himself that were shattered along with the mirror. “But… it is completely unnecessary, isn’t it?”
As the words came out, the distorted world around him suddenly changed again.
Invisibly, as if centered on the ground under Chi Ting’s feet, countless images rushed out and gradually became reality at an incredible speed.
In Throw Throw Throw the Handkerchief, the rabbit gentleman and little girl gathered around the round table to prepare lunch. In Lost Treasure, the distant bell sounded from the clock tower in the center of the fountain square…
The place where they were was gradually covered by pink. In a short moment, they were in an apartment that was exactly the same as the one in the original Love Apartment. A tall and familiar figure appeared where Chi Yuan had just stood. Lou Yueren was wearing an apron and waving at him with a smile, “Dear, it is time to eat the love breakfast I prepared~!”
The expression on Ah Ting’s face turned into disbelief. “No… you, how could you possibly do this…?”
“Why not?” Chi Ting interrupted him lightly. He walked to ‘Lou Yueren’ in a good mood, picked up a piece of heart-shaped toast, brought it to his mouth, and slowly took a bite. “Whether it is the rabbit gentleman I saw after coming here or all the clues related to the instances I have experienced, everything originally came from the depths of my mind.”
“The reason it was there wasn’t because you wanted it, but because—from the beginning to the end, you simply couldn’t control my thoughts, right?”
Chi Ting looked a bit happier after filling his stomach and seeing Lou Yueren again. “So, to put it another way, we are now in my mind. Then in this dream world, as long as I have enough reason to control my thoughts, everything should be under my control, including the door that allows me to leave here.”
Chi Ting put the fork in his hand back on the plate and stepped back.
As he retreated, he could see a flash of a black portal that silently opened not far behind him.
“If I want to leave here, you aren’t the one I am looking for. I am the real ‘it’.”
As he talked, half of Chi Ting’s body was subconsciously enveloped by the darkness of the door. He seemed to suddenly think of something and chuckled softly. “Oh, actually, there is a very important reason why I can firmly believe that those previous memories are definitely not hallucinations.”
In the shattered mirror, countless Ah Tings stared at him. The sounds they made simultaneously entered his ears one after another, layer upon layer. “What is the reason?”
Chi Ting pointed casually. “Because of him.”
In that direction, the newly created ‘Lou Yueren’ could still be seen standing there. The following words were dragged out as Chi Tings’ figure was completely swallowed up by the door. “I can’t imagine such a boyfriend. If it wasn’t for some irresistible factors, my ideal type… would never be this type. So all these memories can only be true. It is these destined encounters that make me irresistible to such a Lou Yueren.”
Crash—!
As the door completely closed, at the last moment, what Chi Ting heard was the sound of the mirror fragments completely shattering and peeling off.
This dream world, which originated from his subconscious, finally collapsed completely with his departure.
At this moment, Chi Ting’s attention was no longer on this.
The familiar feeling of weightlessness came over this. This time, before he lost consciousness, he didn’t receive the string of statistical information that he had received after the previous instance ended.
Obviously, this instance was indeed very different from what they had encountered in the unlimited world before.
Chi Ting had a strong premonition telling him that perhaps behind this door was the place he really wanted to go.
Everything wasn’t over yet.
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