Ding Huichun came at around four o'clock the next afternoon.
It was already getting dark. Chen Yang was standing in front of the cabinet on the balcony sorting out the sundries inside when suddenly the roar of a motorcycle was heard in the community.
It's like a ferocious tiger breaking into this old city, roaring and showing its majesty and power.
Chen Yang stuffed the old mouse pad in his hand back into the cabinet. He took a few big strides to the edge of the guardrail and looked down.
A black motorcycle came against the wind, its lines smooth and cool, and mud and snow flew wherever it passed.
The motorcycle stopped downstairs. The woman took off her helmet, raised her skinny neck, and shook her long, dry hair. She turned over with graceful and neat movements, looking like a combination of a free traveler and a prisoner.
Chen Yang couldn't help but sigh that Ding Huichun was truly an extraordinary woman.
Ding Huichun did not bring her long pipe this time. She only carried a black bag across her body to hold potted plants. She went upstairs in black leather boots and knocked on the door of Chen Yang's house.
"Where is Chao Jian?" Ding Huichun looked at Chen Yang, who was wearing home clothes.
"I'm stewing the soup." Chen Yang closed the door and brought her some slippers.
Ding Huichun smelled the old chicken soup coming from the kitchen: "...He can?"
"Yes." Chen Yang said, "He really couldn't do it at first, but he got better later."
"He couldn't even cook rice before." Ding Huichun looked at Chen Yang.
Chen Yang also looked at her, his eyes somewhat confused.
"It's not important." Ding Huichun put on cotton slippers, took off her black messenger bag and casually threw it on the shoe cabinet. She glanced at the little white dog that was looking at her curiously with a pair of amber eyes, "Is this 03?"
Chen Yang came back to his senses: "Yes."
Ding Huichun said: "I am allergic to dog hair."
Before Chen Yang could respond, she said, "But it doesn't feel bad."
Ding Huichun entered the living room. Chen Yang saw her bending down and picking up the puppy, and seemed to understand what she meant.
It's not just happiness and joy that make people feel alive, misery and discomfort can do the same.
Ding Huichun remembered Chao Jian greeting his teammates with a smile. He also saw him slaying monsters with ferocity and his determination to carry his teammates who had transformed into zombies. But he had never seen him wearing an apron and slicing ginger.
It looks quite real. Ding Huichun was admiring the place at the kitchen door. Just as she was about to take out her phone to take a couple of photos, Chao Jian turned sideways to look at her. He swung the kitchen knife in his hand, and the blade stood upright on the chopping board, making a sound that made one's teeth ache.
Ding Huichun's pale lips twitched: "Please continue."
In the living room, Chen Yang tied up the bag of cashews. He saw Ding Huichun coming from the kitchen. His long legs, as thin as a straw, took big steps, as if he would be beaten if he walked slower.
"What's wrong?" Chen Yang asked.
"Your boyfriend is very shy when he cooks." Ding Huichun grabbed a handful of plain melon seeds from the fruit plate.
“…” Chen Yang put the trash can in front of her and sat next to her to eat melon seeds with her.
After chatting for a while, Chen Yang learned that Ding Huichun's previous ID number was 02117, and some of his teammates were also her teammates, such as Wen Qing, Zheng Zhitan, Miss Qiao, and Xiang Zimu.
Ding Huichun was an ordinary teammate with whom he had worked once or twice. They were not comrades-in-arms with whom he had a close relationship, and they had no contact after completing the mission.
"The chance of having duplicate members in each mission is low," Ding Huichun said. "The reason we have these common teammates is because everyone has reset twice and has had more teammates." She changed it, "Except Wen Qing, he is an exception. Although he has not reset, his mission volume is more than many resets."
Chen Yang nodded. He and Ding Huichun had a common teammate, but they had never worked together. He asked, "Have you been reset?"
"Yes." Ding Huichun said calmly, "The first time I stopped at the 32nd mission, the second time was when I was betrayed by my teammates in the 9th mission. Chao Jian saved my life, and after that I completed more than ten missions."
"Do you have any cigarettes?" Ding Huichun asked immediately.
Chen Yang went to get a cigarette box and a lighter and asked: "How does it feel to have too many tasks?"
"No feelings, just like eating and drinking water." Ding Huichun pushed aside the cigarette box, "Chao Jian told you my identity, I have a list in my hand."
Chen Yang's breathing paused.
"The list of those who passed the customs." Ding Huichun held a cigarette in front of his nose and sniffed it. "I can't tell you the details. It's against the rules."
"In fact, we can't mention the word 'threshold'. We can tell you because we found a loophole in the rules and found a way to make that word avoid detection. Other information cannot be disclosed. I dare not take the risk. I am still looking for my relatives and need the special benefits that come with that identity." Ding Huichun seemed to be not used to smoking Chen Yang's cigarette. She took a puff and coughed twice, causing the blood vessels in her neck to bulge and the blue whites of her eyes to take on a hint of blood.
Chen Yang handed over a glass of water.
Ding Huichun waved his hand and said, "Let's get back to the point. Chao Jian is the only one among the people who have passed the level so far who has not been reset."
Chen Yang maintained the posture of putting the water cup back on the coffee table, his back a little stiff. Chao Jian had never died, but he was dragged to the brink of death by the hand of fate. He had been strangled by the neck and dragged countless times, and eventually suffered from a serious mental illness that would never heal.
Of course, neither is easy.
Whether you pass the level or not, everyone has their own story, filled with all kinds of happiness and misfortune.
"Chao Jian said that the last level is a solo mission, and it's all illusion." Chen Yang was peeling melon seeds.
Ding Huichun said: "He made his inference based on me, his uncle, and his situation. The three of us all went through the last stage alone."
"It can't be said that I'm traveling alone. Once you enter a fantasy world, you become one of it, and the people and things in the fantasy world are real in that context." Ding Huichun took off her leather jacket and put it aside, revealing the single clothes underneath. She was too thin, and her collarbones were protruding.
Chen Yang was absentmindedly picking at the melon seed shells. All the illusions in Chao Jian's last level were related to him, and the task was to witness his death again and again. What about him
"What kind of illusions might there be..." Chen Yang muttered to himself.
"It depends on the person," Ding Huichun said. "Whatever you have in your life, you will have in your fantasy world."
"Isn't life all fake?" Chen Yang took a breath after asking. No, everything before the reset was real.
So the last level is a revolving lantern?!
Chen Yang was a little dazed. No wonder he had asked Chao Jian what it was like to complete missions in the past. Chao Jian said that if he really wanted to see it, he might be able to see it.
So that's what is happening.
Chen Yang put the broken melon seeds into his mouth. Chao Jian's world only had him, so every illusion revolved around him.
For Chao Jian, whether it was hope or despair, they were all given by his brother.
"I have something I want to ask you. My memory is sometimes very clear and sometimes very fuzzy and confused. This phenomenon has become more and more serious recently. It also happens in my dreams. I often dream about my former teammates." Chen Yang said.
Chen Yang did not discuss it with Chao Jian, because he could see that behind Chao Jian's calmness was pain and anxiety, and he had to try to put as little pressure on Chao Jian as possible.
"It's a normal phenomenon." Ding Huichun flicked the ash into the trash can. "When the threshold reaches a certain limit, it will affect the memory."
Chen Yang rubbed his fingertips, and it was indeed like this: "Then what about the registration review..."
"Just treat it as an ordinary task," said Ding Huichun.
Chen Yang: “Ah?” How is the review linked to the task? Are there judges who give scores in the task
"When the day comes, Chao Jian will tell you." Ding Huichun tilted his thin chin towards the kitchen.
"Okay." Chen Yang put the melon seeds that he had not peeled much after half a day back into the fruit plate. His habit of liking to eat melon seeds but not liking to peel them was developed by Chao Jian and he couldn't change it.
"There are no taboos in the last round. Winning or losing depends on your own beliefs." Ding Huichun said without any malice, "Of course, you may not be able to pass the review."
"..." Chen Yang asked in surprise, "How can it not pass?"
"I'm not in a position to talk about the standards and rules for reviewing tasks." Ding Huichun said, "Wait for Chao Jian to tell you."
Chen Yang changed the question: "What happens if it fails the review?"
"If you fail to pass the review, you will not be able to enter the final stage. There are two possible outcomes. One is to die in the review task. The other is to complete the review task and continue to do tasks to move forward, and then wait until the threshold is reached again to be registered."
Chen Yang said "Oh", "I understand."
Ding Huichun raised her light and sparse eyebrows. Chen Yang's heart was even stronger than the last time she saw him.
Chao Jian lost once and couldn't lose again, so even though Chen Yang was independent enough, he was still worried.
"Will the flower bud turn back into a seed after it blooms?" Chen Yang asked abruptly.
"Yes." Ding Huichun said, "At first, Chao Jian found me and asked me to borrow the threshold seed. I bound it to you, and it will be automatically unbound and formatted when it blooms."
Chen Yang nodded, and Ding Huichun wanted to leave the threshold seeds to his relatives.
"I have several friends who suffer from mental trauma..." Chen Yang looked at Ding Huichun with a pleading look on his face.
"Send me their addresses and I will send them incense regularly." Ding Huichun gave her reply before Chen Yang finished speaking. She didn't deal with people, and this was her limit.
Chen Yang smiled gratefully and said, "Thank you."
"Thank you for lending me the threshold seeds," he added.
Ding Huichun accepted Chen Yang's gratitude, because if she did not accept it, it would most likely become a knot in Chen Yang's heart.
And the knot in the heart is the center of the illusion.
Ding Huichun glanced at Chao Jian who came out of the kitchen, hoping that Chen Yang could take him away from the abyss and sea of suffering, back to the bright sunshine, and become the boy he used to be.
Ding Huichun did not take the flowerpot away. She just wrapped the flower buds in a bag and put it in her bag. It was very simple and crude.
The flowerpot remained.
Chao Jian washed it clean and traced the painting on it several times.
Chen Yang couldn't bear to watch it anymore and said, "Can we stop touching it?" It was a really ugly painting.
"I'll teach you other things to draw when we get out," Chen Yang coaxed.
Only then did Chao Jian put down the flowerpot.
Chen Yang thought that he would be able to start the review task within a few days. He waited and waited, and Christmas, New Year's Day, and the Chinese New Year were approaching.
So Chen Yang knew that he couldn't wait any longer, so he calmed down and played the game well.
When Chen Yang felt depressed while playing, he found that Chao Jian had no intention of comforting him, so he learned to relieve himself.
Later, Chen Yang unknowingly adapted to the game's style, accepting its sunny and vibrant first half and its dark and lifeless second half.
Later, when Seven died and the screen was full of blood, Chen Yang was eating dragon fruit, his heart as calm as water.
The young intellectual next door flew abroad to become the young master of the Shao family. He is very busy and also very idle. Whenever there is any movement in the group, he will be involved.
With the addition of Zhao Yuan, the group was so excited that Chao Jian blocked the group message notification sound between him and Chen Yang.
Young people can stay up all night. Sometimes when Chen Yang gets up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and looks at his phone, he sees Zhao Yuan and Pineapple Cake still chatting. He is also convinced.
Chen Yang found a sunny day and went out to the street with Chao Jian. He was holding a corn cob and eating it while walking. His voice was vague: "We originally agreed that you would help me find a job next year."
"Plans cannot keep up with changes." Chao Jian placed one hand on Chen Yang's shoulder, his palm on the back of his head.
"Yeah." Chen Yang threw the uneaten corn cob into the trash can.
Chao Jian frowned: "I didn't eat it."
"I've bitten it like that, and you still want to eat?" Chen Yang didn't control his voice well, and the girls who had been secretly watching Chao Jian for a long time looked dazed.
Chen Yang was about to pull Chao Jian away when he suddenly heard him whisper, "Whenever you eat a dirty bug, remember to give me half of it."
“…”Where’s the trash can? I’m going to go vomit there.
Chen Yang bought Chao Jian several boxes of milk tablets before he coaxed him into submission. The two of them sat in the underground leisure club they had visited last time and ordered the matcha ice cream they had ordered last time.
At that time they sat facing each other, but this time they sat next to each other.
Chen Yang grabbed Chao Jian's hand and played with it, his criteria for choosing a partner emerged in his mind: a soft waist, nice legs, and the looks he liked.
Tsk. Chen Yang smacked his lips lightly.
Chao Jian glanced at Chen Yang and knew what he was thinking: "You don't have anything to say to me?"
"You have quite a lot of tricks." Chen Yang commented objectively, "A bit flirty."
"Oh." Chao Jian sneered, "At that time you said I had good conditions to find a partner, and I said you were the only one in my social circle, and then, you gave me a bunch of them..."
Chen Yang covered his mouth awkwardly: "Don't bring up the past. If you do, I'll get mad at you."
Looking back now, those who had rejected his milk slices were most likely insiders. They had long seen through Chao Jian's feelings for him. Except for him, he was a blockhead.
It's not his fault. Chao Jian didn't get excited with him. The whole process was slow and gentle. How could he see it? Otherwise, how can we say that those who are involved are confused
Chao Jian grabbed Chen Yang's hand, lowered his eyes and kissed his palm, all the way to his fingertips.
Chen Yang breathed lightly.
"Brother, please be careful outside." Chao Jian said with a frown.
Chen Yang's old face turned red and black. He pulled his hand back, but it was held again the next second.
When Xiangdong called, Chen Yang was eating beef vermicelli. He put down his chopsticks, picked up the phone, and asked, "What's up?"
"Tang... Bai Tang encountered some strange things recently, and it's related to you. He was sick and his mind was very confused. He was afraid that he couldn't explain it clearly, so he asked me to talk to you." Xiangdong said seriously, which was rare for him.
Chen Yang leaned against the sofa: "You say."
"He dreamed of you. In the dream..." Xiang Dong was interrupted by Chen Yang just as he began to speak, "Wait a minute!"
Chen Yang hung up the phone and turned to look at Chao Jian: "Bai Tang dreamed of me."
"Your threshold is about to reach the critical point. As long as the secondary resetters who have done tasks with you come into contact with you, your threshold will fluctuate." Chao Jian put the peanuts he found into Chen Yang's bowl. "The size of the fluctuation depends on their proportion in your memory."
Chen Yang had expected this, but his expression changed drastically when he heard this: "Bai Tang..."
Bai Tang, like him, only has one last chance.
Chen Yang called Xiang Dong and asked directly: "What is Bai Tang's ID number?"
"That guy's ID number is much smaller than mine, his is 03141. Damn, mine is seven digits and his is five!" Xiangdong returned to his usual hot temper.
"Let's not talk about the ID number. Let's talk about the dream. He dreamed that you went up the mountain to look for clues. You pulled him up and called him Xiaobai." Xiangdong said meaningfully, "He also dreamed that you were sitting under a tree writing a diary and had a broken arm."
Chen Yang thought, it seems that those two dreams were a task he and Bai Tang had worked on together. Xiang Dong on the other end of the phone suddenly laughed strangely and said, "Bai Tang only dreamed of you twice. He doesn't know that I have many more..."
"What did you say?" Chen Yang stood up.
"Are you hard of hearing? I said I dreamed of you more often than Bai Tang did!" Xiangdong yelled.
Chen Yang's ears were buzzing non-stop, and Xiangdong was also...
Xiangdong told the fragments that flashed through his mind and the dreams he had: "Based on this trend, Bai Tang and I were your teammates in the previous life."
Chen Yang was silent for a while: "What if I say yes?"
Xiangdong did not remain silent. He said slowly, "I guessed it a long time ago."
The next moment he started to curse: "This shitty world must be fake, it must be so fucking fake, I wanted to play dumb, but now, you force me to expose its true colors!"
Chen Yang's eardrums hurt, and his head hurt too. He took a deep breath and said, "Let's meet and talk."
From the east, there was a sound of cans being thrown violently: "Okay, let's do it this weekend. Do you want to come to my place or yours?"
Chen Yang said, "Let's go to your place. Your living room is big and there won't be enough space for us to sit."
"I don't want to talk to you. You have a box of diamonds but you don't even know how to buy a villa to live in." Xiangdong hung up the phone cursing.
Chen Yang held the phone in his hand and frowned. He, Wu Yu and Xiang Dong all had overlapping social relationships.
Wu Yu became his childhood sweetheart, but later became a stranger and distant to him. Xiang Dong wanted to sleep with him and harassed him at first, but later became his friend and then a comrade-in-arms.
Is this related to his experience before the reset
Chen Yang lowered his head and looked at Chao Jian who was still looking for peanuts for him: "Bai Tang and Xiang Dong were both my teammates?"
"I said, when I met you, you were already an experienced tasker who had completed many tasks." Chao Jian said.
Chen Yang sat down, and Chao Jian didn't know who all his teammates were. When he remembered everything, everything would be clear.
This is actually not the most important thing. The most important thing is to pass the customs and leave with Chao Jian.
"Are Xiangdong and Baitang almost there too?" Chen Yang scratched the back of Chao Jian's hand.
Chao Jian looked indifferent: "I don't know."
“I never cared about other people’s business,” he said.
Chen Yang hugged him.
Chao Jian was stunned: "What are you doing? Didn't I tell you to be careful outside?"
"You are unhappy, brother is trying to comfort you." Chen Yang quickly kissed him on the face and sat back.
Chao Jian: "Why isn't there one on the other side?"
Chen Yang looked around. There was no one here and it was a blind spot.
Despite this, Chen Yang still picked up his coat to cover himself and Chao Jian, and kissed him in the shadow.
Chen Yang didn't expect to see Xiang Zimu again that day, and shortly after he and Chao Jian left the club.
Xiang Zimu was wearing an ankle-length white down jacket with the hood pulled up on the back. She had a thick scarf wrapped around the outside, covering her chin. She was also wearing a mask, with only a pair of distinct black and white eyes visible on her face.
Chen Yang recalled the golden rice fields in his dream. He was wearing a straw hat and holding a sickle. The woman was standing in the grove and calling him "Brother Yang". They had been teammates.
Just as Chao Jian went to queue up to buy sesame cakes for Chen Yang, Xiang Zimu appeared right after. It couldn't be such a coincidence.
Chen Yang was waiting for her to speak.
This is a sheltered corner. Chen Yang is shrouded in the light yellow sun. Xiang Zimu stands outside the sunlight looking at him, with no sign of going in.
"Brother Yang." Xiang Zimu suddenly called softly, "You remember me, don't you?"
Chen Yang looked at her for a long time and said, "I have lost my memory."
"That's not called amnesia, that's called rebirth." Xiang Zimu shook his head, "Before the reset is the previous life, after the reset is this life."
Chen Yang thought this statement was very reasonable. It was indeed true. He asked tentatively, "Are you an illegal resident?"
"I'm not. I didn't pass the level." Xiang Zimu said, "My ID number is 018. We are from the same group of missioners. I'm your old comrade-in-arms. We have fought side by side many times."
Since Chen Yang had only dreamed of Xiang Zimu once, his emotions were not very high: "That time in the small town..."
"I entered a fantasy world in the attic of a small town. There were familiar people and strangers in the fantasy world." Xiang Zimu's tone gave people the feeling of icicles scraping against the wall in winter, cold and harsh, mixed with a bit of the ethereal feeling of pine snow on distant mountains.
"Everything in that illusion made me sure that it was my past life experience. You were in my illusion," Xiang Zimu paused for a second, "You are someone I knew in my past life, a very important person."
Xiang Zimu paused again when she found that there was no reminiscence in Chen Yang's eyes. This time she paused for a full minute before speaking: "There are only some fragments in my mind, but it is enough, enough to confirm our relationship."
Doubts arose in Chen Yang's heart. Did Xiang Zimu also reset it
"Yes, I reset it. I came to this life from my previous life." Xiang Zimu took his hands out of his down jacket pockets and took off one side of his mask, revealing his flawless white face. "My brother Xiangyue works in area B. I only recognized him when I went there to do a mission. He is an NPC."
The meaning was clear. Everything she knew about the reset was told to her by her younger brother.
Chen Yang narrowed his eyes. Xiangyue was not dead, that was good.
"He showed up in Area A to give you a diary." Xiang Zimu said, "It's very risky."
Chen Yang, he has also done the mission in area B, 03 is familiar with him, and Xiangyue may have the same reason.
"What do the lines in the diary mean?" Chen Yang asked.
"I haven't remembered that scene yet." Xiang Zimu looked at him and said, "Maybe you will remember it before me."
The street corner forms a small world, blocking out the hustle and bustle and noise of the street.
Chen Yang leaned against the wall, rubbing the screen of his mobile phone with his fingers.
Xiang Zimu murmured: "The same thing, if you think from a different angle, will have two different results. We all think that entering the mission world is a disaster and a nightmare, but in fact, you have to be lucky to get in. It's a genetic selection of survival of the fittest. Those who can't get in are eliminated and will not have the opportunity to be reborn..."
Chen Yang, who was thinking about something, raised his head with a sense of awareness. Chao Jian, who was not far away, spotted Xiang Zimu. He didn't even bother to line up. He strode towards them with big strides. His aura was so low that people around him didn't dare to get too close.
Just as Chen Yang was about to go forward, Xiang Zimu's voice suddenly came to his ears: "Did he ever tell you that you died because of him?"
Chen Yang was stunned. He shifted his gaze from Chao Jian to Xiang Zimu: "You just said..."
"I knew there wasn't one." Xiang Zimu said and smiled.
This was the first time Chen Yang saw Xiang Zimu smile, and a familiar feeling came out, but he suppressed it.
Because Xiang Zimu's smile was full of sarcasm, which made Chen Yang uncomfortable.
"Cause and effect, without cause, how can there be effect?" Xiang Zimu pulled down the hood of her down jacket, her black hair fluttering in the wind, the ends of her hair brushing across her smiling face from time to time, but her eyes were red, "Brother Yang, Chao Jian's situation today was not caused by you, it was him."
Chen Yang's throat moved.
"You died, he had multiple personality disorder and went crazy, you felt guilty and distressed, but you never thought that if his leg injury hadn't dragged you down, you wouldn't have died at all!" Xiang Zimu repeated the last few words several times, his emotions began to get out of control, "He killed you!"
Chen Yang was basking in the sun and recalled something. During the mission in the old building, after he delivered the express, Chao Jian fell into a coma due to an illness, and Xiang Dong, who had suffered a severe blow to the head, lay beside him and spoke a few words to him.
"Do you know what really made Chao Jian crazy?"
"I told him that you died because of him. You were killed by him. He killed you."
"No matter how you look at him, it looks like he was hit in a vital spot. In the past life, in this life, or in the previous life, he killed you."
"Do you think it's mysterious? Since we already have an ID number to enter the mission world, nothing is impossible."
Chen Yang raised his eyes to see Chao Jian approaching. He could hear Xiang Zimu's suppressed sobs. She had already started crying.
"Brother Yang, do you know what you looked like when you died?" Xiang Zimu said with tears in her eyes, "I dreamed about it. I dreamed about it all. I dreamed about the entire mission. At that time, you..."
"Shut up!" A ferocious roar tore through the void and broke into the corner.
Xiang Zimu reflexively took two steps back from Chen Yang. She wiped away her tears, walked back and stood beside Chen Yang.
Chao Jian stared at Chen Yang who was distracted, and tried to open the lid of the medicine bottle with trembling hands. He couldn't open it, and the veins on the back of his hand bulged as he gripped the bottle.
A few seconds later, a fishy-sweet taste overflowed from Chao Jian's throat. The corners of his eyes were red as blood dripped. He smashed the slightly deformed medicine bottle between his fingers towards Xiang Zimu.