Illusion Report

Jacqueline exercised for an hour and a half every day.

She had a personal trainer and a Pilates instructor who designed her workout plans; she had a nutritionist and a private chef, and a health management doctor who monitored her every physical indicator. In terms of physical fitness, she was stronger than many twenty-year-olds.

So even though she had to run while staying wary of her surroundings, it only took her two hours and forty minutes to reach the scaffolding.

She was not a reckless person. Heeding Jin Xueli's warning, she first hid and observed the situation for a few minutes to ensure there were no "monsters" around before carefully approaching the base of the scaffolding.

From there, the problem began to get complicated.

The scaffolding was simply too high, too large, and too heavy.

The scaffolding that Secretary Green had kicked down had been in her home's foyer, and it wasn't even fully assembled. At only two or three meters high, it hadn't been hard to make it fall. But this one before her covered almost an entire building. Forget pushing it over; even when Jacqueline used all her strength, it didn't budge an inch.

Besides, Jacqueline didn't dare get crushed by scaffolding that was ten or twenty stories high. If she returned as a corpse, what would be the point?

She circled the scaffolding for several minutes, found some bricks to smash against the bolts, and even tried to see if she could dismantle a section... But all her efforts were fruitless, like an ant trying to move a—well—like an ant trying to move scaffolding.

Jacqueline was not a stupid person. After standing there stumped for a moment, she slowly raised her head and looked up into the night sky.

'The closer to the bottom, the heavier and harder it is to break, and the more dangerous it would be after breaking it—after all, so many stories of steel are up there.'

'What if I climb up?'

'The top level doesn't look finished yet. I could climb up, find a way to detach a pole, and let it hit me... Wouldn't that also count as "being hit by scaffolding"?'

'That would be much safer and easier.'

Climbing up was certainly a heart-pounding prospect, but to get home, Jacqueline had no other choice.

She had always thought she wasn't afraid of heights, but by the time she had climbed nearly ten stories, her limbs were weak, her muscles were trembling, and she was drenched in a cold sweat.

'How long have I been climbing? At least twenty minutes, right?'

'Not even a single safety rope, just relying on my own hands, feet, and muscle strength, climbing little by little... With every inch I ascend, a whisper seems to echo inside me, tempting me to let go, to experience the freedom and lightness of surrendering to gravity.'

'Is there some kind of physiological self-destructive tendency latent in human instinct?'

She couldn't remember where she had seen this theory, only that she had once scoffed at it.

"I'm not like those mediocre, weak-minded people... I didn't get where I am today by giving up."

Jacqueline gritted her teeth, muttering to herself for encouragement. She pushed herself up from the platform on trembling knees and gripped the scaffolding once more.

"It's just climbing, right?"

Climbing up was what she did best.

'I have to go back; I still have a son and a daughter. If I'm gone, God knows how many jackals will come circling...'

Jacqueline warned herself not to look down. It was the ultimate taboo when climbing.

'The moment I see how high I've climbed, fear will make my legs give out... But...'

'But if I don't look down, how will I know what's been making that rustling sound below me for the past few minutes?'

'There's netting and plastic sheeting on the scaffolding... Is it just the sound of the wind blowing through them?'

'I should wait until I climb to the next level, until I'm standing on a flat surface, and then look down, right?'

'I can't look down now. I'm in mid-air, it's too dangerous. That sound—that sound—'

Jacqueline looked down.

Brianna's face met her gaze.

Below her, Brianna stretched the corners of her mouth into a wide, red smile.

Brianna stared at her, reached out a hand, and grabbed onto a pole on the next level up, climbing toward her.

The skin, half-sloughed off and hanging from her wrist, was as dry as sun-cured leather that had hardened and curled. It made a rustling sound as it scraped against the steel.

Jacqueline had experienced fear, but she had never experienced a fear so intense, so primal, so irrational.

She froze in mid-air, unable to flee upward or loosen her suddenly rigid fingers. Head bowed, she was paralyzed, watching helplessly as Brianna climbed up one level and reached out her other hand.

Behind Brianna, hanging from the scaffolding, was her long, long, flesh-colored body, like the overlapping image of a snake and a river.

'Why is Brianna here?'

Jacqueline wondered blankly.

'Wasn't Brianna cut out of her life long ago?'

When a hand seized her ankle, Jacqueline realized that the few seconds she had been frozen by fear were likely the last few seconds of her life.

She finally found her voice.

"Please..."

Jacqueline begged in a low voice, realizing she was crying. She hadn't cried in twenty or thirty years. "Don't, don't... Your younger brother and sister are waiting for me to come home..."

Brianna's face—a face that undoubtedly belonged to a dead person, yet could still open its eyes and show expression—suddenly twisted.

'Ah, right. I shouldn't have mentioned my children to her.'

'A huge mistake.'

Jacqueline thought dimly.

Her thoughts were no longer clear.

It seemed that the moment the words left her mouth, she was yanked off the scaffolding by her ankle.

Brianna also let go of the steel frame, and the two of them fell toward the ground together. But Brianna's descent was smooth and controlled, like a drop tower ride at an amusement park.

Jacqueline, however, was like a doll, swung around in mid-air by a little girl holding its foot.

One moment, she was swung out under the pitch-black sky; the next, she was swung back, her head slamming hard against the frame for the umpteenth time, making her see countless points of white light in the starless, moonless night.

"Ah, I should be more careful."

'Why can Brianna talk? What in the world is Brianna?'

She screamed her husband's name in her mind; he would surely know the answer. She wanted to see him.

"If your head gets deformed, it'll be hard to slip into."

This was the last sentence Jacqueline ever heard.

Jacqueline's last thought was the realization that after she died, her corpse would be worn by someone else.

...All of this was Brianna's memory and recollection.

The entire process above was the memories and information Brianna obtained after entering Jacqueline's body, by gently probing her slick brain.

However, she wasn't interested in the events leading up to Jacqueline's death.

Image after image flowed past Brianna's eyes like a movie in reverse: Jacqueline finding the scaffolding, Jacqueline on her way to the scaffolding, Jacqueline crossing the road...

"Wait, there's one more thing!"

A girl—that was Jin Xueli, it was Jin Xueli, so it was Jin Xueli who provided the tip—was standing across the street, shouting at "her."

"There are monsters near that scaffolding, so you have to be quick. Don't linger!"

'So it was you, it was you, that's wonderful, that's wonderful, I'm so happy.'

'This is great, this is great, as soon as Dad died my luck changed for the better.'

'If you hadn't sold out Jacqueline, I really wouldn't have known where to find you.'

'You're really something else, aren't you? Giving Jacqueline a hint to escape the Nest, while also selling out her location. Trying to get a reward while preserving your own fragile, hypocritical sense of morality?'

'Where in the world can you have it both ways?'

'Surely you didn't really think things would be so coincidental, that at the exact moment the residents came to grab Jacqueline, she would also get hit by the scaffolding and return to Blackmoor City, did you?'

'Do you know how low the chances are of something so perfect happening, where the residents have to pay the reward and you get to have a clear conscience? You're a girl who really doesn't want to face her true self, oh, but satisfying your desires isn't a bad thing, why play on a seesaw like this trying to find a balance, but it doesn't matter, you're so cute.'

Brianna, almost satisfied, admired the Jin Xueli in Jacqueline's memory.

'Her hair is darker than mine, but that's fine, it can be dyed. Her nose bridge is a little lower, which is perfect.'

'Her lips aren't full enough either, and overall, she's not as beautiful as me, but Jin Xueli has her own kind of ethereal cuteness. With a different hairstyle and some light makeup, she could look very close to the old Brianna.'

'She looks like a smart person, too... Did Jin Xueli not consider that the scaffolding would be hard to push over, or did she simply not want to think about it?'

'It must be the latter, right?'

'Subconsciously, Jin Xueli wanted Jacqueline to be caught.'

'Obvious, obvious, her desires are strong, her goal is clear, her mind is greedy, nine million is such a big, strange number, but it's obvious.'

'If Jin Xueli hadn't sold out Jacqueline, I really wouldn't have known where to catch her for a while.'

Brianna was very happy that she could fulfill Jin Xueli's hidden wish.

After all, that would be her future self. After all, Jin Xueli was her path back to Morando's side.

'So why not be a little nicer, a little gentler to Jin Xueli now?'

Watching the Jin Xueli in Jacqueline's memory, Brianna was filled with a fondness so tender it was almost touching. She even wanted to hug her, comfort her with soft words, and then gently enter her body.

'I will definitely love you well,' Brianna thought, 'just like I love myself.'

A familiar buzzing sound interrupted her dream-like reverie. Brianna looked around and saw that the Green Phone she had left on the sidewalk was ringing.

The Host's voice was low and gentle as always, as if he were a kind, compassionate man, though she didn't know if he was broadcasting this call.

"How did it go?" he asked. "Was the tip accurate?"

"...Very accurate."

Brianna licked her lips lightly. "The resident who provided the tip, she wants to know about the 'Original Liquid'?"

'Jin Xueli must still be in the phone booth.'

'She has to wait for the Host to contact her and tell her if she'll get the reward. To get the information about the Original Liquid, she has to stay by the phone.'

The Host let out a low chuckle. "...Yes."

"Then just give her the information about the Original Liquid as her reward."

A strange tenderness filled Brianna's heart whenever she thought of Jin Xueli. "You can just tell her, right? After all, everyone knows where that thing is... It's not a secret."

"As you wish," the Host replied softly and hung up.

Even for a resident, it would take nearly an hour to walk from the scaffolding back to where Jin Xueli was.

The public phone booth was near a park. Aside from the direction of the trees, the view in all other directions was quite open. If Brianna crossed the road and walked toward her, Jin Xueli would surely spot her immediately.

Besides, unlike with Jacqueline... she touched her swollen, bruised face and thought that she didn't want to harm a single hair on Jin Xueli's head.

She wanted Jin Xueli to die whole, pristine, beautiful, and cute.

'This will take some careful thought, how to do it right... Oh, and she can't die now.'

'I have to return to Blackmoor City once as Jacqueline, take care of what needs to be done, get the resources I need, and pay back the favor owed to Fu Tailan... Only when there are no more loose ends and it's time to switch bodies can Jin Xueli die.'

'If she dies too early, the body will start to rot.'

'But Jin Xueli has delivered herself right to my doorstep, after all this trouble...'

How could Brianna possibly resist going to see her first?