Nightmare.
Liu Chen’s nightmare.
He saw himself walking on the cement road in the chilly spring weather. Around him was the moonlight, the smell of hotpot fish, his cousin who was still a college student, Chi Xu who came with him, and Xiong Xiaohua.
Where are they going? Where can they go at four in the morning? He listened to Chi Xu and Xiong Xiaohua's laughter. The laughter was so long, so long...
He stopped. His eyes widened.
What appeared before my eyes was not a dormitory building... but a hotel!
At that moment, all the scenes from many years ago flashed before my eyes.
Chi Xu gave Xiong Xiaohua a ride to the hotel... The tragedy had clearly happened, but the girls did not have any memories or traces of harm... Several people sought the truth, tried to stop it, and uphold justice.
While using the time paradox to break the opponent's superpowers, it also caused the girls to gradually reveal wounds and memories that should have appeared in the future that was pruned away due to retrospection.
A girl who had recovered her memories from a parallel universe cut her wrists in front of them, her porcelain-white wrists were stained with blood. Her parents did not believe that she was a victim.
"You were clearly at home that day."
Because of the time paradox.
Friends don't believe her victimization.
"Are you crazy about chasing stars? He was clearly... How could he be attracted to you?"
Think she is vain and trying to extort money.
The girl's blood-red mouth opened and closed.
“… Why did you come to ‘save’ us?! Why did you make us remember these things?”
"Since Xie Ziyu has already recalled what happened to me... in the future, and I don't have those memories... then doesn't that mean nothing happened?"
"What satisfies you is your pursuit of the justice of truth or your self-righteousness?"
"Do you think her parents really don't believe it? Do you know how society will view her who has been abused? They just want to pretend that nothing happened... But they don't know that their whitewashing of protection is actually causing real harm..."
The sound of chirping exploded in his ears. If all the unfortunate futures existed, what was the difference between making the right choice and making the wrong choice
Liu Chen ran in a desperate dream. He walked up the stairs that looked like piano keys interlaced in black and white, and the moment he opened the door, he saw it again.
He saw Chi Xu falling from a tall building. His body was getting faster and faster. The wind blew up his clothes, making him look like a big white bird. He screamed hysterically for the bloody mess that was about to come. But at the moment of landing, the big white bird disappeared.
He was deleted by a time paradox.
So the world line was drawn to the future where he did not send Xiong Xiaohua to the hotel. The young man, immersed in guilt and tortured to depression, used his own death to prevent Xiong Xiaohua from recovering her memory.
One cannot convict someone for a crime that only happened in memory. When he saw Yu Rong, he fabricated false evidence and used non-existent evidence to send Xie Ziyu to prison. But the deafening screams are still there, from many years ago... to now.
Liu Chen woke up from a terrifying dream. What woke him up was the vibration of the cell phone next to his ear.
The injury and the failure of the show made him temporarily abandoned by the world. Theoretically, no one would contact him at this time, whether it was the blind date he had been waiting for or the program team that had already regarded him as an abandoned child.
Therefore, Liu Chen would see a name with almost zero probability of appearing in the caller ID.
Easy late.
…
Zhang Jianhua was called away by his boss after returning to the company.
Stepping into the AT agency again, Yi Wan could clearly feel the change in the atmosphere. In addition to the rumors about Zhang Jianhua, the trainees also showed a much more respectful attitude towards him. This clear distinction was like Chu Shang and Zhang Jianhua, just like the former Jiang Bei and the former him. Invisible walls drew him into a new label called "debut".
Yi Wan doesn't like such labels.
He stood in the corner, his finger lingering on the dialog box on his phone for a long time.
Yu Rongshi asked him, "Have you returned?"
… All the care seems to be tailor-made.
The words "failure" left by Huigong still linger in his ears. Yi Wan feels that his recent mood swings are a bit too obvious.
In addition, another shocking news was floating around the office: An Yelin's brother who was mistakenly taken away came to the door. He blocked An Yelin at the door and made a scene because of Mr. Fu's imprisonment.
Brother Liu couldn't be contacted for the time being. Yi Wan went down to the door by himself. An Yeyun's entanglement had just come to an end. He was embarrassed by An Yelin's cold shoulder, and when he saw Yi Wan coming, he wanted to drag him into the water again: "Brother Wan, please persuade my brother. Emotional matters are emotions. Without emotions, we have been friends for many years, how can we..."
Yi Wan looked at the tearful young man and thought of the case that had not been publicly tried, and said, "You may not know the inside story..."
An Yeyun: "I know, I understand my brother's feelings..."
Yi Wan: "Boss Fu used evil magic to seize luck and had an affair with the imprisoned host. His crime is unforgivable. He used living people as sacrifices, and his methods were sinister."
An Yeyun:?
An Yeyun, who lives in a world that is full of melodramatic stories but generally conforms to materialism, is dumbfounded.
Yi Wan: "The show will be aired next week, you can take a look."
He passed by here holding An Yelin's hand.
The two of them went straight back to the dormitory from the office. Along the way, Yi Wan felt that An Yelin was a little strange. An Yelin walked very fast, entered his room faster than Yi Wan, and closed the door.
Yi Wan didn't care much.
The dormitory was very quiet. Yi Wan clearly felt like he had returned to reality. Even the sound of flushing in the toilet was so realistic—at least it showed that Ding Biehan was really using the toilet.
It’s great that even Ding Biehan is actually going to the toilet in this world.
Ding Biehan bumped into Yi Wan when he was leaving the toilet. The young man with black hair and black eyes stood strangely at the door of the toilet, staring at him with relieved eyes, which made him shudder...
'You're waiting for me...?'
Ding Biehan tried to send brain waves to him.
Yi Wan felt that he needed to encourage Ding Biehan's actual toilet behavior, so he nodded and smiled at him.
… Ding Biehan shuddered and slipped back into his room. This smile made him feel very uncomfortable, and he even felt as if his muscles were paralyzed.
Yi Wan stood there calmly recalling the peaceful relationship between him and his roommate. But the peaceful feeling did not last long, as a hand reached out from the next room and Yi Wan was pulled back to his room.
An Yelin.
“… After thinking about it, I don’t know who to talk to about this because it’s really ridiculous.”
An Yelin said.
He lowered his head, and the tight T-shirt made his shoulder blades stand out, making him look like some kind of slender animal in the jungle. Yi Wan hesitated for a moment and asked, "Anjia...?"
An Yelin shook his head.
All the curtains in his room were drawn. Yi Wan could only see darkness on all sides. He originally thought that this was a way for the former protagonist of the melodramatic novel to contrast his own state of mind, but now, he only felt that some of the subtle hairs on his body were touched.
This doesn't seem like autism. It seems like he's avoiding something.
Avoiding paparazzi...? Cameras...? His affair with Mr. Fu was exposed
Yi Wan was thinking in a mess. An Yelin leaned close to his ear. The distance was too close, but Yi Wan didn't notice the ambiguity. Because An Yelin's next sentence was enough to touch all his nerves.
"The day before yesterday afternoon, I saw many silk threads in the sky."
"Silk… "
An Yelin can see the silk thread? !
Yi Wan didn't pretend to be so serious. It was totally unexpected that An Yelin saw the silk thread - he didn't have time to think whether it made sense. So he said, "Did you see it wrong?"
If Yi Wan had been given another minute to think, he would never have given this answer. In a sense, this subconscious answer already explained one thing.
Yi Wan did not ask about the shape of the silk thread or the location.
—He is directly denying what he knows.
Yi Wan suddenly realized that An Yelin's hand was on his shoulder. They both sat on the edge of An Yelin's bed. He leaned against the wall, which made it difficult for him to leave. An Yelin didn't say anything, which gave him a subtle sixth sense.
Until An Yelin's next words made him even more horrified.
“… And I saw it attached to some people, appearing and disappearing. There was one person among them.”
"Someone we all know."
"… "
Yi Wan's scalp exploded.
After breaking free from his own script, An Yelin began to see all the threads
"… who."
Yi Wan spoke with difficulty. His fingertips felt cold, and at that moment he couldn't suppress the urge to check his head in front of the mirror. But An Yelin never spoke.
Time passed by minute by minute. Finally, he heard the next sentence.
"Chi Jixia."
… Yi Wan felt everything was easy at that moment.
"That happened the day before yesterday. When I returned to the dormitory the day before yesterday, I saw him and Bo Jiang walking towards home absentmindedly. In the reflection of the setting sun, I saw a thread on his hair. This incident struck me as very strange."
“… That’s very strange.” Yi Wan said.
Then he noticed another fact.
"Only on Chi Jixia's head... Is there any?"
This time An Yelin was silent for a long time. Then, he said "hmm". There was no silk thread on Bo Jiang's hair
Isn’t he also the “male protagonist”
This sentence made Yi Wan as confused as An Yelin could see other threads. But he finally said dryly: "Brother Lin, have you not rested enough recently?"
"It's true that preparing for a new album is tiring, but you also need to make sure you get enough sleep." Yi Wan said this and left the room. But An Yelin just stood there without saying a word.
When Yi Wan had his back completely to him, he heard a soft voice: "You can see the thread, too, right?"
The sound of the air conditioner stopped.
"… ah?"
Yi Wan left.
An Yelin was left alone in the dark room. He held his guitar, and past events flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern, including the temptation he had finally said after much effort.
—Do you know something
Now he felt it.
Yi Wan must know something.
From the An family’s birthday party to the filming of Mr. Fu’s show.
Who is Yi Wan...
This kind of shock and contrast is like discovering that the plants around you actually have fangs. An Yelin tightly grasped the guitar and stared at Yi Wan's back.
It's like you have a beautiful, delicate flower on your balcony.
Suddenly one day, it smiles at you and shows its teeth.
Yi Wan is that row of teeth.
…
When Yi Wan returned to the room, he saw Chi Jixia sleeping. He closed his eyes, frowned slightly, and didn't seem to be having a good dream.
Yi Wan then sat down quietly and attentively, and found a booklet on the bedside of Chi Jixia.
"Foothill Sanatorium?"
Yi Wan knew Lushan Sanatorium, a famous mental rehabilitation center. However, along with this booklet, there were also a bunch of file bags scattered here. The booklet was a little yellowed, and it didn't look like it was newly received, but rather like it was taken out of a file bag.
Yi Wan: ?
… This is a crucial moment before the album is released. Could it be that Chi Jixia…
Yi Wan turned around alertly. Chi Jixia buried her head in the quilt, mumbling in her sleep.
Yi Wan lowered his head to listen.
Chi Jixia: "Please... raise your... head, my... princess, or the crown... will fall off..." (from "Roman Holiday")
Yi Wan: …
This bastard used the cheat code to go on vacation with the princess in his dream.
Yi Wan stood up calmly and placed Chi Jixia's water cup on his bedside. Soon the unbalanced gravity caused the cup to fall and spilled all over Chi Jixia.
Chi Jixia woke up from his dream wailing, grabbing his messy hair. He looked around to find the culprit...
Then I saw Yi Wan watering the plants.
Watering the cactus.
Chi Jixia: …
He didn't know whether to save the cactus or himself first.
So today is another peaceful day for Hongtuan. After watering the plants, Yi Wan went to the balcony for a walk.
He was thinking about the disappearing silk thread of Bo Jiang.
Did An Yelin not see the silk thread on Bo Jiang's head, or was there another reason...
And why hasn’t Bo Jiang come back yet
An ominous premonition came to Yi Wan's mind. Before this premonition became a reality, he received a call from Brother Liu.
“The editing of “The Strongest Treasure Appraiser” has been completed, and the trailer has been released. It has received a very good response, but…”
"You're not in the trailer..."