The red-haired girl had a strange expression, which seemed to be a mixture of joy, worry and fear. She reached out her hand and slowly approached Li Jia's face.
"Li Jia... This is the last time, right? I have searched every inch of this place... You are the last one, right?"
Li Jia let her touch his face in a daze. He asked in confusion: "You are..."
She seemed about to cry: "Did you remember?!"
"You are a very important person." Li Jia felt a pain in her heart, as if her heart had stopped beating.
"Look around you! This library, here, here, and here!" She stretched out her arms, roared, and pointed at the surroundings with her claws and fangs bared, as if she couldn't recognize these places and the end of the world was coming.
"And my skirt, does it remind you of anything? Look, look!" She pulled her skirt in front of him, as if she wanted to put it against Li Jia's eyes.
"Here, this dress, looks very familiar to me. But..." Li Jia thought while holding his head, he felt like his head was about to split apart.
"Fire!" she cried. "Remember? Fire! There was a big fire here. I watched it from the hills far away, and it burned half the sky red."
"A big fire? Yes, here... I remember there was thick smoke and flames, and many people were running around, they were putting out the fire. Some people were injured. I remember someone rushed in later, and water gushed out from all over the house. Who rushed in? Ah! It was Xiao Chen, it was Xiao Chen who used the magic scroll inside! I remember it, but, but what does this have to do with you?" Li Jia looked at the red-haired girl in confusion.
The red-haired girl turned her head slightly, no longer looking directly at Li Jia, and asked, "Do you remember what you were doing before the fire started?"
"When the fire started... I wasn't there. I was coming back from... from outside the school. There is a tunnel there. I was going to... to see someone off."
"The person you sent off was me! I was wearing this outfit at the time. We walked on this campus and came to this library before. At that time, you and I couldn't talk much. You just called my name over and over again: Serinda, Serinda!" Serinda wiped her face with her hands, as if she wanted to smooth out the scars on her face so that Li Jia could recognize her. Tears flowed from her fingertips and merged with the blood. She didn't understand why people would bleed and cry in this world where there was only spiritual power. But she felt that at this moment, she needed to let her tears flow freely and take away the grievances in her heart.
"You, don't cry." Li Jia stretched out her hand to wipe Serinda's tears, but stopped halfway and said, "Serinda... I feel this name is very familiar. And I always have a feeling, a feeling that I can't figure out, that this name has a very important relationship with the fire in the library. But, but I feel very scared and dare not think about it, as if once I figure out the relationship between them, everything will be over."
"Do you feel it?"
"What's the feeling? I feel like my memory is stuck on my neck and I can't remember it. It's like suffocating, very uncomfortable." Li Jia said with a bitter face.
Serinda looked up at the stairs. She could feel the danger approaching. She knew very well that when the monsters came back down from the upper floors, she would not be able to protect Li Jia. This might be the last consciousness. She herself might even fall down here. She didn't know what death meant in this world, but from the monsters that fell before, it could be seen that turning into a point of light, blending into the world, and becoming the nourishment of Li Jia's main consciousness and other distracting thoughts was obviously not a good result.
"I set the fire." Serinda looked at Li Jia and said slowly. Her voice was trembling, proving the weight of every word in this sentence. "I think you have had such a guess in your heart for a long time, but you never dared to say it out loud. Now that I tell you, can you remember it?"
"You set the fire? You and I came to the library just to set the fire?" Li Jia looked at Serinda with his mouth open. This sentence was like a sledgehammer that broke the shackles in his mind. Countless bits of memories appeared in his mind, like pieces of debris pieced together into a puzzle, and countless pieces of puzzles were connected into a coherent picture.
He and she met by chance.
He talked to her awkwardly.
He took her to every corner of the school.
He looked for a suitable gift for her.
He took her to the library.
… Then, a huge fire broke out in the library.
He recalled himself panicking outside the library in the firelight, he recalled the doubts that had arisen in his heart, he recalled the speculations that had tortured him all night long. It turned out that these things he thought he had left behind had never faded from his memory, but had settled deeply in the sea of consciousness.
"I remember now," Li Jia said, "you, me, the fire, and why we are here."
"Hate me?"
"I don't know. I once told them that I would never sacrifice their interests by being with you. However, this fire made my promise a joke. Maybe I should hate myself, why am I so... so..."
"Can't you resist my temptation?"
"It's not your temptation, but the temptation to leave loneliness. You just stand in front of me and show me the real you, and then I am attracted to you."
"Do you think that farm girl is the real me?"
“I always felt that was the real you.”
Serinda was stunned for a moment, then sighed and shook her head, "A naive farm girl wouldn't set a building on fire, or peek at someone else's holy book."
"I firmly believe that is the real you. The real you is determined by what you are, not what you do. We always have hundreds of reasons to do things, even against our conscience, but there is only one conscience."
Serinda felt a little uncomfortable with his insistent gaze. She asked, "When you wake up... will you leave?"
"Leave?" Li Jia was silent for a long time. "No, I think I will stay." He squinted at the ceiling and said, "They are coming. Let's leave here quickly."
“Have you regained control of your mind?” Serinda asked.
Li Jia nodded, stretched out his hands and grabbed at the void, then pulled, and a dark gap appeared between his hands. He let out a low roar, exerted all his strength, and the gap was slowly opened.
"They are coming." Serinda picked up the kitchen knife on the ground and stared at the staircase. Soon, the first monster screamed and jumped over like a big spider, using its hands and feet.
"Come quickly, I've opened the door. You go out first." Li Jia had already opened the door to about a foot wide.
"You go first." Serinda held two knives in front of her to protect herself. "I can still resist a few blows. But you don't know how to fight at all."
"You forgot that I am the master of this world." Li Jia said. He stretched out his hand and a bookshelf flew into the air. The heavy iron bookshelf, more than two meters high and one meter wide, and the books on it smashed towards the monster. The monster was first knocked dizzy by the hundreds of books, and then was crushed to the ground by the heavy bookshelf.
Li Jia said "Go" to the boning knife in Serinda's hand. The knife flew out of her hand like a magic sword and stabbed into the monster's head fiercely. The monster cried out in unwillingness, then turned into a point of light and dissipated.
"Look, I can protect myself. Go ahead."
“You should catch up soon.” Serinda didn’t hesitate any longer. She looked back at him and walked into the passage.
Not long after Serinda left, the remaining three monsters rushed downstairs. Perhaps sensing Li Jia's strength, the monsters did not attack individually, but formed a fan shape, staring at Li Jia intently.
The leading monster shook his long claws and said, "We are all one. I can sense that you have given up."
Li Jia glanced at him and sighed, "My distracting thoughts are such ugly monsters. I am such a sad person."
The monster sneered, and its terrifying limbs gradually shortened, finally transforming into a handsome young man. "That's just a necessity for battle. We are human consciousness just like you."
"You are just a collection of **, how can you be considered human beings?"
The young man sneered, "Aren't people slaves to their flesh? Without flesh, people are just a pile of dead meat, just like you are now. You feel ashamed to show up in school again! Then let me live for you! Isn't it just to be a good husband to Serinda and a good friend to Xiao Chen? I can do it, and I can do more!"
Li Jia lowered his head in silence. The young man snorted, waved his hand, and rushed over with the other two monsters. However, when the two monsters were charging forward, the young man deliberately slowed down and fell behind. While the other two monsters were focusing on Li Jia, he launched a surprise attack from behind them. His arms suddenly swelled, and his hands turned into claws again, piercing the backs of the two monsters' heads cleanly. The two monsters turned into spots of light without even a hum.
The young man stretched out his claws to grab Li Jia again, but at this time Li Jia had an idea and waved his hand. An iron cabinet flew into the air and blocked his claws.
"You haven't given up yet? Hasn't escape been your choice all along? Instead of living with guilt, it's better to end it here. I am different from those crazy ideas, I am your ambition. From the very beginning, you threw me into the corner as a distraction, but don't you think that the world is more suitable for someone like you now?" The young man pressed his claws on the cabinet, and the cabinet made an unbearable creaking sound.
Li Jia stared at the young man across the cabinet suspended in the air. In the eyes of the young man named "Ambition", there was a flame dancing. It was a flame of arrogance and confidence. Li Jia's eyes gradually softened. The cabinet in the air lost the support of the mind and fell to the ground.
"Very good. I will inherit your wish, but not your timidity." Ambition approached Li Jia step by step, with its claws getting closer and closer to Li Jia's throat. "Don't worry, I am you and you are me. What awaits you is not death, but rebirth."
"Remember your promise." Li Jia lowered his hands and closed his eyes.
Just as the sharp claws were about to pierce Li Jia's throat, "Ambition" felt a strong wind coming from behind. He dodged the knife that was slashing at him, then turned around and used his claws to knock the attacker away.