Chapter 41
Shen Chumo looked at the gradually expanding vortex and the ruined subway station, remembering that the whole incident had fermented to this point because he had replaced a cup of milk tea. He stepped into the vortex, but because the pollution came from the same source, he suffered no substantial harm. He only felt a rapidly expanding vortex of mist.
The fog was tinged with a slight dampness, and visibility was extremely low. The harder he looked, the less he could see. The entire space was empty and void, like a scene from a horror movie, making one uneasy, fearing that some monster was hiding in the depths of the fog. But in the blink of an eye, Shen Huaixin disappeared. Shen Chumo tried to call her, but could only feel that his voice was confined to a certain range.
Even though he knew that the Shen Huaixin in this world was not real, he still tried his best to find her.
"Sister——Chen Huaixin——"
After calling out several times without any response, he pursed his lips, his eyes revealing a hint of hesitation, and lowered his voice: "Xingxing."
Still no one answered.
[Chen Huaixin: Dalai Lama, can you see where "I" am?]
[System: Visibility is less than three meters, no.]
[Chen Huaixin: Then can Chen Chumo find "me"? ]
[System: The probability is less than 1%, which is like looking for a needle in a haystack.]
Shen Huaixin sighed and turned his gaze to Shen Chumo again, only to see him close his eyes in the thick fog and stand still. After a while, he began to move slowly.
...Give up?
Illusions. When faced with an illusion, it is sometimes wiser to block sight.
When he closed his eyes, like every connected night, capturing Shen Huaixin's breathing and heartbeat, he seemed to be able to gradually feel her presence, not far away. In the bizarre fog, important things are not always seen with the eyes, but need to be felt with the heart.
Shen Chumo took a step forward, and finally, at the end of the road, he reached out and touched the cold wood, and was stunned.
Opening his eyes, he saw a wooden puppet, tied together by numerous strings, countless strands reaching into the air. Its head tilted on its shoulders, its face similar to Shen Huaixin's, though its texture was slightly rougher and its skin darker than the bionic man's. Its chest was hollow, and its clothes were very old, making the puppet look tattered.
[Chen Huaixin is shocked: "Dalai Lama, this... this puppet is "me"? Why does it look like Du Mingxing?"]
[System: Because this is the world created by your subconscious mind, gradually exploring it in depth will reveal the true appearance of your soul.]
[Chen Huaixin: ...I'm not mentally prepared for the code to be lost.]
"Sister?" He waved his hand in front of her, but there was no response.
Shen Chumo touched the rusty spring on the back of the puppet and twisted it hard, but it wouldn't turn. It was like it was nailed in place. He changed direction and continued twisting, and it seemed to tighten even more.
Shen Chumo simply laid the puppet on his knees, found a position where he could exert more force, gritted his teeth and twisted it all over, but it never moved. Finally, he loosened his hand, which was covered in scratches and blood, and admitted that the puppet was scrapped because the spring was too tight.
Blood dripped down the lines of his palms, staining the rusty spring with blood and quickly absorbing it, becoming even stronger. It seemed that simply forcing it with external force wouldn't work.
His voice was gentle and touched everyone's heart: "You are too tense, sister."
“…”
"Endless overtime, endless deadlines, endless work... It seems like something is always chasing you, but you can't make enough money, and besides, you don't need it."
“…”
"Where did you lose your heart?" Shen Chumo's eyes swept across her empty chest and paused, "It's okay, I'll help you find it."
After he finished speaking, he stopped talking and started looking around.
Shen Chumo walked from day to night, dusk to dawn, stumbling and trudging through the extremely low visibility subway station for who knows how long. When he regained consciousness, he saw the puppet had sat up, tapping a wooden board on his knees with his clumsy knuckles, one after another. Compared to before, there was no pattern to it, just some kind of habitual conditioned reflex.
The puppet was still worn out, with rough threads broken out at the joints. Its spine also seemed to be in poor condition, always hunched over with a crooked neck.
He hesitated, then reached out and touched the puppet's cheek. It was slightly damp, as if most of the moisture had evaporated, with a faint trace of tears still remaining. Her sobbing and collapse were so brief that they were difficult to capture, yet so quietly and heartbreaking.
Shen Huaixin pursed his lips, his cheeks burning from being rubbed.
Compared to the original perfect and exquisite bionic man, this shabby puppet had a face similar to hers, and the connection with her was deeper, so much so that she inexplicably developed some... synesthesia.
"Chu Mo."
"The real me is a dull person. Not as dazzling as you, nor as she... Chen Huaixin, who lives freely and carefree, regardless of good or evil."
"I'm just an insignificant NPC, just like all the nameless passers-by in this world. There's nothing worth your exploration." She lowered her eyes and said softly.
Shen Chumo lowered his head and slowly moved closer to the puppet's cheek. His pale lips moved closer and closer as Shen Huaixin held her breath until he spoke: "Don't cry, I will find the knot in your heart and then fix it."
Shen Huaixin felt the hot breath from the other person blowing on the ends of his hair, making his forehead feel a little dizzy, as if he was drunk, and his nose felt a little sour, like an onion being peeled layer by layer.
Shen Chumo continued to move forward, not knowing exactly where he was going. He just searched the subway station like a needle in a haystack. Finally, he found a piece of glass shard in the gap between the seats. If he remembered correctly, he had never seen it when he passed by before. Following this clue, Shen Chumo began to find glass shards in more and more places.
He collected glass shards from the electronic screens on the platform, subway tracks... and other places. He pieced them together bit by bit with patience, and then glued them together with tape and water, and finally put together a glass heart.
When he carefully placed the patched heart into the puppet's chest, it remained lifeless and showed no particular reaction.
After all this effort, this was the final result. Even Shen Huaixin found it hard to accept. What if the puppet even said "thank you"? She didn't even dare to look at Shen Chumo, fearing that he would show disappointment.
She had already said it was useless, it was he who insisted...
Shen Chumo thought about it, and simply pulled up the puppet, supporting it and walking step by step.
Walking to the various supermarkets lined up on the subway station, Shen Chumo ordered two cups of milk tea, all sugar, and handed one to the puppet: "Try the full sugar one, don't endure it just to maintain your figure."
The puppet took it, and its fingers were still tapping on the milk tea cup. It didn't take long for a hole to appear in it, and the milk tea leaked everywhere. Shen Chumo didn't care, and continued walking with it. When he reached the station entrance and saw the familiar station, he pulled the puppet onto the subway.
The puppet's body trembled with fear and resistance, and finally reached its peak at a certain station. As soon as the door opened, it was ready to get off the bus immediately, but was stopped by Shen Chumo: "Still want to go to work? No, let's go to the next stop, the zoo."
"Sister, you like cats, right? You also like flowers, plants, and trees. Let's go see them then."
The puppet remained motionless and made no answer, but the thick fog around it gradually thinned out, revealing the road ahead.
Chen Huaixin stared at him blankly from the air, wondering how he had discovered that she had never truly considered herself a resident of this world and didn't care much about material possessions, yet he could actually sense her concerns and preferences from this.
But that’s all.
Arriving at the zoo, Shen Chumo and the puppet held hands and walked around the zoo until dusk. The animals in the zoo were unremarkable, but there were a lot of cats and dogs, especially lion cats, which were walking around everywhere, and the hair they shed turned into balls of catkins, rolling around on the ground.
"Like white long-haired cats?" Shen Chumo said gently, "Then let's adopt one."
Shen Huaixin shook her head and corrected him, "It's called a lion cat, and I've already adopted one." She probably thought her own cat's severe hair loss had left her with a serious psychological trauma, which she projected onto this source of pollution. It seemed that the entire world here was indeed a microcosm of her subconscious.
He looked up at the sky: "It's a little late."
"Yeah." Shen Huaixin agreed, and even she felt the temperature drop as she floated in the air.
"Do you... want to see the stars?" Shen Chumo looked at the puppet.
“…”
"I like... stars."
Shen Huaixin's heart suddenly jumped, and his mind was in a mess. The sky changed from the evening when the sun was slowly setting to a sky full of stars in an instant.
"Sure enough, you like it too."
"Ah... Oh, you mean the starry sky," Shen Huaixin realized his meaning belatedly and laughed dryly, "Of course, you still remember that night, I said..."
"You said that death isn't the only thing that's eternal. Well," Shen Chumo looked at the puppet and said, "the starry sky is also eternal."
Shen Huaixin was about to nod, but suddenly felt something was wrong and froze in the air: "Wait, who said that? From your perspective, shouldn't it be Su Zihan?"
She jumped to the ground and stared at Shen Chumo seriously, trying to find clues from his expression, but he stopped talking after saying this one sentence and said no more, which made Shen Huaixin very nervous, fearing that her vest would be exposed and have an adverse effect on the mission.
...It might just be a slip of the tongue or an illusion. Her disguise was so perfect, how could he tell that she was pretending?
Shen Huaixin thought about it and felt it was very convincing.
Shen Chumo lay on the lawn, just like that day, and the starry sky was just as bright and dense as on his birthday night, shimmering with moving fragments of light. His slender fingers touched the string attached to the puppet's hand, pulling it and moving it. From the outside, it looked like the puppet took the initiative to hold his hand.
His voice was soft and gentle, his eyes were far away, as if he could see through the starry sky, even time and space, to see the person he wanted to see: "Sister, the world in your eyes is black and white and silent, so your heart does not beat."
"You're tired of the monotonous work and dealing with your brother who only asks for money. You like animals and food, things that make you feel peaceful, and I will do them with you."
"And...your dream, singing."
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