61. The Mirror of Inner Demons, Part 2: The Vanished One
Completely bewildered, Tang Xi was carried home by her "elder brother." Along the way, she learned their names from their conversation.
The one who carried him was called Du Shi, and he played the role of the "elder brother".
Another actor, Wang Yu, plays the role of "Second Brother".
Tang Xihe, on the other hand, was indeed playing the role of the "third brother"—in short, the family had no blood relation whatsoever, and there was no embarrassing scene of "real blood relatives being brought into the water mirror" that would have embarrassed Tang Xihe.
Therefore, in the Water Mirror, there's no need to strictly follow the original mythological story in the adaptation of the plot.
Tangxi and Shun gleaned from the conversation the general character she needed to portray: mischievous, stubborn, dislikes studying, likes to contradict her father, and runs away from home at the slightest disagreement.
This is a bit difficult for Tang Xihe, since he can't remember what his personality was like when he was six or seven years old, and his acting skills are also very poor.
However, up to now, Tang Xihe has found that her two "brothers" seem to be quite used to her taciturnity. They chatted all the way, as if they were NPCs in a game that were thoughtfully designed for "mute players". Their thought processes had already been designed to respond, and they could always make sense of Tang Xihe's silence and the contradiction between her personality.
"We need to coordinate our statements first!"
The eldest brother, Du Shi, said, "How about we say that Tang Xi went to find the old man again, so she ran away?"
Wang Yu thought it was a good idea. "Yes, that's great! Then I'll say that I was the one who made Tang Xi kneel as punishment, and he's already finished kneeling for two hours, so I came out to play with Tang Xi?"
Tangxi and my heart rippled with emotion.
Grandpa, a new character?
Neither of the two children mentioned the name of the new character. Tang Xi opened her mouth, and a figure flashed through her mind.
It wasn't a world of ancient charm, but rather a modern, technologically advanced complex of buildings. On a hospital rooftop, an old man twirled two tai chi balls in his hands, chuckling at himself. The old man was dressed in a hospital gown, looked frail, and had a low, warm laugh. Like the two children, he had no facial features; his face was blank.
Tang Xi was stunned, her pupils dilating slightly.
What is this? Memories of a past life? Is Shui Jing up to something?
He seemed to have grasped a little of the logic of the Water Mirror: everything that happened here was like a "dream," so transitions, movements, and names were all illogical.
For example, the old man I just suddenly thought of.
His image flashed through Tang Xi's mind, and she had to face reality: he was never meant to be from this world. Bei Chen's entourage, Gui Fang Wu Di, Qin Xiuluo, Yan Youzu, even the Golden Toad of the Golden Maze, Jian Tan of the Tiger Clan, the mountain spirits of the Hollow Inn... they were all just characters from a novel.
This old man is a "fellow patient," one of the few friends Tangxi had in her previous life.
"...So it's settled then?"
"Tang Xihe!" Wang Yu stood on tiptoe but couldn't reach, so she jumped up to pinch Tang Xihe's cheek. "What are you daydreaming about? Did you hear me?"
"ah?"
Tang Xi and her friends snapped out of their daze and realized that the three of them had somehow returned to the town. It was as if they had been walking along when they suddenly passed through a time tunnel. When they came to their senses, they were already in the midst of a crowd of people, with shouts and voices filling their ears. Tang Xi and her friends had no idea how the group had returned to the town. It was as if they had been teleported.
"Tangxi and?"
Du Shi lifted him off his shoulder, half-squatted down to face him, and held up one finger: "Remember this, the first thing to do when you get home?"
Tang Xi tilted her head, puzzled, "First?"
"Oh dear! You don't even care!"
Du Shi was exasperated and slapped his thigh. "Don't worry about anything else, just run into your mother's arms, apologize, and act cute!"
He's a grown man in his early twenties! How can he act like that?!
Tang Xi was struck dumb, her skin crawling with goosebumps. She quickly remembered her duty to play Nezha, grinned, and obediently said, "I know."
"..." The two faceless children looked at themselves.
Tang Xi and Liao Ran took a deep breath and said firmly, "We know!"
This shout sounded a little more normal, and Du Shi finally sat up with relief. Wang Yu, who was standing next to him, reached out her hand and said, "Let's go home."
Tang Xi responded blankly, then slowly raised his hands, one on each side, as if in a daze. In this position, he was the shortest, and was being protected in the very center as he returned home.
But he has never been led home by the hand.
The three children hummed a little tune as they walked toward a house deep in Chentang Pass.
The closer Tangxi got to "home," the more uneasy she felt.
He had never entered the Heart Demon Water Mirror, and the original work did not mention this magical artifact, so Tang Xi had no knowledge of the Water Mirror at all.
The Inner Demon Mirror will reflect his inner demons. What are his inner demons? Who will play Li Jing of Chen Tang Pass?
The three children, acting like bullies, blocked the street and walked home hand in hand. Du Shi and Wang Yu let go of Tang Xi's hand and slipped into the mansion one after the other.
Tangxi and the last one went in.
He was the smallest of the three children. His two older brothers had to squeeze through the crack in the door, but he didn't have to strain his body to stand on tiptoe and squeeze through. So he carefully listened for a while and found that there was no movement behind the door. Then he pushed open the door of the mansion and went inside.
However, the quaint courtyard she had imagined did not appear. Instead, what came into view was a scene that left Tangxi and her mind blank. The faint scent of sandalwood was instantly replaced by a faint smell of alcohol and disinfectant.
This is neither Chen Tang Pass nor a secret realm.
This is……
Tang Xihe's face gradually turned pale. Her hand, which was holding the door frame, tightened its knuckles. Something felt wrong in her hand. Tang Xihe was startled. The wooden door that her palm was touching had somehow turned into a hospital room door.
Even in broad daylight, the incandescent lights on the corridor ceiling were still on, emitting a low hum. The cold light made the light green rubber floor, worn smooth and shiny, reflect slightly. The floor stretched to both sides, reaching all the way to the end of the field of vision.
Tang Xi let out a breath, her breathing suddenly becoming heavy.
What are you doing here?
A passing nurse said to Tang Xihe, "Oh, Tang Xihe? You can be discharged now."
The noise around me was still deafening: sobs, phone calls, and mechanical calls for numbers. A cold, metal cart loaded with medicine bottles and syringes swept past Tangxi and rushed to the next ward.
He returned to the hospital.
The smell of disinfectant forcibly ripped open his long-buried memories. He was all too familiar with this place; in his previous life, he had been tormented by illness and spent most of his time in the hospital.
The nightmare was so intense that even his breath smelled of cold, disinfectant, suffocating him, clouding his judgment, and leaving his mind in chaos. The anticipated big boss, Li Jing, or any other inner demons he had imagined, didn't appear; instead, he was thrown back into his previous life, catching him completely off guard.
Tang Xi then understood the power of the Heart Demon Water Mirror. It did not directly reveal the things it feared, nor was it the usual "a boss is hidden deep in the secret realm" trope. Instead, it first disguised itself as an unrelated story, and then suddenly revealed the sharp knife behind it.
It was precisely because he was transported to the hospital that more fragments suddenly came to mind.
Du Shi, Wang Yu, and the old man playing Tai Chi ball were all acquaintances. He knew them, he had known them for a long time. These three were people he knew in his previous life.
Why are Du Shi and Wang Yu in Nezha's world...? No, and what about that old man too!
Tang Xi and her husband never learned the old man's name until she died of illness; she only knew that Wang Yu called him "Coach".
He staggered a couple of steps before realizing that his knees were weak. He didn't know if it was because he had returned to his past life or because he was not used to the hospital. He walked a few meters while holding onto the wall before regaining his strength.
Familiar memories gradually surfaced along the old hospital corridor, and Tangxi stumbled and staggered to the rooftop of the rehabilitation department.
Sure enough, it's here.
Tangxi looked at the old man with his back to her from behind the floor-to-ceiling glass door on the rooftop.
The old man was talking to someone with his head down. He raised his hand and touched the person's head. Then, Wang Yu emerged from in front of the old man.
This angle is exactly opposite Tangxi and the front.
Tang Xi was startled and instinctively wanted to turn around and leave. It was too similar; even the unintentional details of their first meeting were exactly the same as in her past life.
Hey! Are you sick too?
Wang Yu had already jogged over. He was very excited to see a child of similar age at the hospital. "Come and play! My coach is practicing Tai Chi. Do you want to join me?"
Tang Xi was holding Wang Yu's hands, staring blankly at Wang Yu, who was half a head taller than her, as his facial features gradually became visible.
Thin shoulders, tired dark circles under the eyes, a quarter of his upper left front tooth missing, pale skin, dry and malnourished hair, and freckles on his face.
It's him, exactly the same.
Tangxi felt a sudden surge of fear, broke free from Wang Yu's hand, and ran towards her own ward.
What is he doing?
They were all dead men; they themselves had long since died.
Why are you here?!
"Hey! Wait a minute!"
Wang Yu took a couple of steps but couldn't catch up. Her voice was filled with sadness and confusion as she asked, "Why did you run away?"
run.
Run.
I am not sick.
I will be alright.
Tang Xi ran back to his ward, panting. Actually, he didn't quite remember where the ward was; he relied entirely on muscle memory to get there.
But he didn't dare go in; he heard people arguing in the ward, and the argument was getting louder and louder.
"Damn it... I don't work hard? Search your conscience before you speak! I must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to marry a shrew like you! One box of his medicine costs seven or eight thousand! And he has to take it every day! And it's not even covered by medical insurance! Do you think I wanted this?! He's something that popped out of your belly!"
"Fine! You finally dare to tell the truth! Ever since Tangxi got sick, you've been constantly running away and staying outside. Now you're calling your own son a commodity? You're keeping a mistress on the side, aren't you!"
"You're insane! You're spouting nonsense!"
Dad suddenly roared, startling Tangxi, who was outside the door, so much so that she trembled all over.
"Go ahead and ask! Go ahead and ask if you dare! I'm not afraid you won't ask! Do you want me to call the police for you? Damn it, I even do part-time work after my regular job! I'm working all I do besides sleeping! Work, work, work, it's all work! I'm working myself to death, I want to save Tangxi and his life! He has to prove himself!"
"..."
Another loud bang, like a thermos being smashed to the ground, followed by a man's angry roar.
"You've eaten up so much of my money and you're still sick! Damn it! I'm trying to find a part-time job and you're slandering me! Divorce! You can support yourself! Your family is so rich! Go support them!"
"Fine! Let's get a divorce!"
The mother screamed defiantly, her voice trembling with tears, "I'll see if you can survive without the Tang family!"
here we go again.
Tang Xi pouted in disappointment, unsure of where else to go, and wisely turned and walked in another direction.
In his previous life, he contracted a strange illness and died without taking anything with him.
The only thing he didn't want to give up was Tai Chi, which was taught to him by an old man he met at the hospital.
Get well soon, get well quickly, don't spend too much of your parents' money.
As they walked, the sounds of arguing continued to echo behind Tangxi and her companion.
"Tang family, Tang family, Tang family! You've been married to me for over ten years, and you still can't change your ways, constantly bringing up your Tang family! I've really had enough of you! Your parents are so rich, why don't you teach him a lesson?! Why did you sever ties with them?!"
A woman's cry and scream pierced the air: "I cut ties with my family because of you!"
The nurse's angry shout and the strange looks from those around him pierced Tang Xihe from behind. He looked down at his palm.
What's the use of it?
Because he had already experienced his previous life, he knew the answer in advance.
Mom will get pregnant, they will reconcile, Du Shi will get worse, and Wang Yu will be discharged from the hospital.
Grandpa will die.
He will be euthanized.
I remember everything, I remember everything. They were people who had already disappeared, and even the memories related to them were sealed away and gathering dust.
It's better if you can't remember.
Tangxi and the light in her eyes gradually dimmed.
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