Chapter 244: The Perfect Illusion
Rubbing his eyes, his vision finally became clear.
Jiang Che frowned at everything in front of him, studying the now clear scene, and looked with confusion at the girl before him.
"Ning?" Jiang Che gazed at the youthful face of the girl, and spoke with some hesitation.
The Ning before him was quite different from the Ning he knew.
It wasn’t that her face was different, but that this face before him looked even younger, more radiant, dressed in a uniform Jiang Che had never seen before—a white shirt, with a Nancheng First Middle School badge pinned at her chest.
"Of course it’s me!" Ning slapped him squarely on the head, snapping his muddled mind awake in an instant.
"We’re going to be late, and you’re still sleeping! Hurry up!" As she spoke, she grabbed the clothes at hand and tossed them onto Jiang Che’s face. When he looked closely, he saw that it was a set nearly identical to what Ning was wearing.
The only difference was that she wore a skirt that went over her knees, exposing her fair, smooth calves, while his was a pair of pants.
Jiang Che looked around, noticing several photos hanging on the walls, along with a few landscape posters.
There was a computer on the desk, and a camera set in the corner, his backpack half-looped over the back of a chair.
Ning threw the clothes at his face, shouting for him to hurry up and change or else he’d be late and so on.
After tossing the clothes, Ning left the room, giving him time to change.
Jiang Che got up and looked at himself in the mirror, a hint of confusion in his eyes.
Just a moment ago, he had recalled his previous memories.
Where he was, what he had been doing before, what he had come here for.
Jiang Che reached down and squeezed the chair back, but instead of breaking the wooden chair as he’d expected, nothing happened.
There wasn’t even a mark on the solid wood chair; he stared at his own hand in bewilderment. No supernatural strength—right now he was just an ordinary person.
"Dong dong—dong dong—" Ning’s urging voice sounded again outside the bedroom, banging fiercely and imperiously on the door. "Why are you so slow? Isn’t it just you guys tossing clothes on?!"
Jiang Che gazed absentmindedly at the mirror; the teenager in the reflection looked sixteen.
His messy hair stuck out like a bird’s nest, and he was dressed in comfortable pajamas.
He picked up the school uniform Ning had thrown, and simply, quickly pulled it on.
Jiang Che looked at the well-fitting pant legs, and the confusion in his eyes deepened.
These were perfectly tailored trousers; he pinched the smooth fabric. This wasn’t the rough, worn-out material he remembered from before.
He pinched himself hard, holding nothing back, and a large bruise quickly blossomed on the back of his hand.
Jiang Che walked to the bedroom door; just as he cracked it open, Ning grabbed him from outside.
She seized Jiang Che and dragged him downstairs at a run. As soon as they reached the bottom, the smell of freshly steamed buns and mantou hit his nose.
Jiang Che had just come downstairs and looked out into the street beyond.
The Blood Slaughter Couple were busy at the steaming baskets, handing one warm bun or mantou after another to customers lining up outside.
The aroma drifted from the opened steam baskets.
"Ning, that lazy brat slept in again. Sorry for the trouble." Two bags, one with buns, one with soy milk, were passed from the front. Ning unceremoniously grabbed them both.
"Uncle, we’re heading out first or we’ll be late," Ning said naturally, stuffing one of the bags into Jiang Che’s arms before pulling him outside at a run.
Jiang Che looked at his busy parents, the confusion in his eyes deepening.
The Blood Slaughter Couple before him wore simple, everyday clothes with a white apron around their waists.
There were some stains on the apron, but nothing too obvious, nothing to deter customers from buying breakfast.
The paint on the walls was peeling a little, but the customers didn’t seem to mind at all.
"Run, what’s with you today? We’re going to be late and you’re still dawdling." Ning stopped running; Jiang Che wasn’t running, and dragging along a full-sized person was a bit much for her.
"Still dreaming, haven’t woken up yet?"
What’s wrong with me?
When Jiang Che was hit with that question, he too fell into thought. Yeah, what was wrong with him?
He was only trying to figure out what exactly was going on in front of his eyes.
He’d been in that darkness for too long—so long that when the light finally came, he thought it was just himself waking up.
He woke up to a world where his parents were alive, Ning was there too.
Now he looked sixteen, and a doubt began to grow in his mind, a thought springing up: was everything before this just a dream?
"If it’s a dream, then snap out of it! We’re going to be late, hurry up!" Ning hit him on the forehead with a big smack. Jiang Che’s head buzzed and he hurried after her to catch up toward school.
In the castle, Ning and Hua stood together.
Watching this scene, Hua let out a heavy sigh.
Yes, this was the challenge they had prepared for Jiang Che—one that required no fighting.
An illusion.
Here, Jiang Che could live the life he’d always dreamed of—wife, parents, daughter, all there. Here, he could have a perfect life.
If he chose not to wake up from it, the illusion would rebuild itself for him again and again.
Only, once the second cycle began, his memories of before would become more and more blurred, until he forgot why he’d even come into this dungeon in the first place.
"He’s never experienced days like this since he was a child. Sometimes I wonder if you’re trying to make it up to him, or testing him," Hua said, glancing at Ning beside her.
"Maybe... both..."
The trial itself wasn’t difficult, because there would be no evil spirits or deadly threats—at most, some simulated worldly setbacks inside the illusion.
In this trial, telling real from unreal might be the only tricky part.
But that wasn’t the hardest task—what was hardest was, when truth and illusion were laid bare, would Jiang Che be willing to come out?
Stay inside the illusion, forever wrapped in softness, or step out and face reality, standing beside Ning in a life-and-death fight.
Jiang Che followed Ning as they rushed to the school, only to find the school gate already closed.
From a distance, he saw the security guard standing by the tightly shut gate.
"This way." Ning’s voice came from the side. She didn’t let Jiang Che go toward the closed gate, but pulled him to a corner by the wall.
The wall here wasn’t very high, and several big trees behind it provided cover.
With a single glance, Jiang Che knew what she was planning.
"I’ll help—" Jiang Che was just starting to speak when he saw Ning hop up, bracing with her hands, and vault easily to the top of the wall.
Ning crouched on top with practiced ease, swung one leg over, then turned and reached out a hand to Jiang Che. "Quick, before the guard patrols past."
Jiang Che looked at her petite frame; sixteen-year-old Ning stood a full head shorter than him.
"No need, I can do it myself." Jiang Che’s face darkened. If she could jump up there, no way did he need her help.
"There you go again. Don’t come begging me for a hand later!!"