Chapter 139 Back to the Starting Point
It was a seemingly ordinary clock, already there when Lin Qiushi rented this room. It chimed every hour, from one to twelve... Ding-dong, ding-dong, the clear, bright chimes reminded Lin Qiushi of the relentless march of time.
Lin Qiushi took the clock down. Because it had been hanging on the wall for so long, a thin layer of dust had settled on the clock face. He wiped it clean with a tissue and then carefully removed the clock cover.
Lin Qiushi didn't find what he wanted inside the clock cover. He stared at the intricate structure on the back of the clock. After a moment's silence, he pressed the button that controlled the minute hand and gently twisted it back...
When the hour hand rotated counterclockwise, passed twelve o'clock, and pointed to the number "11" on the clock face, Lin Qiushi paused - many complicated images appeared in front of his eyes. In the images, beautiful men in women's clothing smiled brightly at him and said to him, "Lin Qiushi, I like you so much." Then there were more familiar images. Lin Qiushi still remembered some of these images, while others were already blurry to him, but they all flashed through Lin Qiushi's mind like slides.
When the scene of memory stopped, Lin Qiushi moved his fingers slightly and turned the clock hand to the number "10". During the time of "10", he saw the world of the box girl.
Immediately afterwards, without Lin Qiushi's control, the minute hand on the clock in front of him began to move slowly, and countless memories rushed into Lin Qiushi's mind. Lin Qiushi's head began to hurt violently, and he involuntarily let go of the clock, and it fell heavily to the ground.
"Ah!!" Lin Qiushi covered his head with his hands. It was as if a huge kaleidoscope was put into his mind. In the kaleidoscope was the world of the door. He saw countless ghosts, his deceased friends, and Ruan Nanzhu.
Ruan Nanzhu in the picture smiled brightly at him, extended his hand toward him, and said, "Hello, my name is Ruan Baijie."
The scene changed, revealing a different Ruan Nanzhu. His expression was cold as he looked up at Lin Qiushi and said, "Welcome to Obsidian."
Lin Qiushi didn't know how long this situation lasted. By the time the intense pain left his mind, it was already dark outside.
There was silence all around. Lin Qiushi struggled to get up from the ground, staggered to the fallen clock, and picked it up.
However, at the moment he picked up the clock, something seemed to fall from the dial, making a crisp sound on the ground.
At first, Lin Qiushi thought the clock was broken, but when he lowered his head and saw the object at his feet, his expression froze.
What fell out of the clock were actually bronze keys - two of them.
Looking at the key at his feet, Lin Qiushi took a deep breath, calmed himself, then bent down and picked up the key.
These are two identical bronze keys. The only difference is that there are faintly visible words engraved on the surface of the keys.
The keys were originally icy, but when Lin Qiushi held them in his hands, they felt incredibly hot. He examined the keys carefully and found that one of them was engraved with four small words: "Illusory Life." The other one had four other words: "Real Death."
Illusory life, real death? Lin Qiushi, holding the key, was stunned. For a moment, he couldn't figure out what those four words meant. He rubbed the surface of the key with his fingers, and just as he was about to take a closer look, he felt a chill in his hand. Then, the key with the words "Illusory life" written on it shattered into powder in his hand... and only real death remained in his hand.
True death? Lin Qiushi thought of something. He gripped the key tightly and quickly walked to his door. After taking a deep breath, he solemnly pushed it open.
Behind the door, a familiar corridor appeared. On the corridor were the twelve pitch-black iron doors. However, eleven of them were sealed, leaving only the twelfth door standing alone at the end of the corridor.
Lin Qiushi walked into the corridor and saw a large black lock hanging on the twelfth door. He looked down at the key in his hand.
At this moment, he understood the meaning of illusion and reality.
The world he lives in is illusory, and everything continues to develop along a trajectory without a door. All those who died inside the door are resurrected in another form, and they live by Lin Qiushi's side. If Lin Qiushi is willing, he can start over with them.
And truth means that Lin Qiushi can return to his original world.
Next to the twelfth door is a multiple-choice question, and the power of choice is in Lin Qiushi's own hands.
He could stay in this world and meet Ruan Nanzhu again, who no longer recognized him, or he could leave. However, after leaving, a question would arise before him: what was Ruan Nanzhu's choice? Did he find the key? If Ruan Nanzhu, who had found the key, ultimately chose illusion, would Lin Qiushi, who had left, never see him again?
Lin Qiushi tightly gripped the key in his hand.
He turned around and looked at the corridor behind him. Every sealed door in the corridor was a memory of his time at Obsidian. These memories might not be beautiful, but they were all true.
But what will Ruan Nanzhu choose?
Lin Qiushi's family relationships were distant, and he had few friends. His only bond was Ruan Nanzhu. But Ruan Nanzhu was different. Without a connection, he could maintain a good relationship with his family and avoid losing so many friends...
Lin Qiushi smiled bitterly. He finally understood why almost no one mentioned the twelfth door, because the twelfth door did not exist at all.
After experiencing countless ghost realms, when a perfect paradise appears before your eyes, it is inevitable that anyone will be shaken.
Lin Qiushi thought about it, but his answer was already predetermined.
A world without Ruan Nanzhu would be fake to him, and he could make a choice without any hesitation.
Lin Qiushi laughed. He reached out and wiped his face, trying to wipe something off. He held the key in his hand and inserted it into the iron lock hanging on the iron gate.
With a click, the iron chain fell off, and a road filled with white light appeared in front of Lin Qiushi.
Lin Qiushi turned his head to glance at the corridor behind him, said softly, "Goodbye," and stepped into it.
The corridor in front of him was longer than any corridor Lin Qiushi had ever walked through. The light radiating from the surroundings made Lin Qiushi's heart unexpectedly calm down. He kept moving forward and finally reached the end of the corridor. The scene in front of him changed, and he finally saw a familiar view.
Lin Qiushi returned to his original world and sat on the bed in Ruan Nanzhu's bedroom. The first thing he did after returning was to look for Ruan Nanzhu, but he didn't see the figure that should have appeared.
Lin Qiushi hurried downstairs and saw Ye Niao sitting on the sofa in the living room. He walked over and said to Ye Niao, "Ye Niao? Have you seen Ruan Nanzhu?"
When Ye Niao heard Lin Qiushi's words, he exclaimed in surprise, "You came out from the door!!"
Lin Qiushi said, "Yes—have you seen Ruan Nanzhu?"
Ye Niao said, "Sister Lu made food for you!"
Lin Qiushi: “…”
Ye Niao said: "Now that you are out, we should celebrate well--"
Lin Qiushi said, "Leaf Bird?"
Ye Niao said, "Hmm?"
Lin Qiushi said, "Won't you ask me about the eleventh door?"
When Ye Niao heard Lin Qiushi's words, a look of bewilderment appeared on his face. He said, "What did you say? I can't hear you clearly."
Lin Qiushi said, "The contents of the eleventh door..." He repeated himself, but found it was futile. Ye Niao's puzzled expression did not disappear after his words, but instead became even more intense. "Brother Lin, what are you talking about?"
Lin Qiushi shut up. He gritted his teeth, his voice a little hoarse: "Do you... know Ruan Nanzhu?"
Ye Niao's expression paused for a moment, and then Lin Qiushi looked at him and shook his head cautiously.
"I don't know him." Ye Niao said, "Who is Ruan Nanzhu?"
Feeling dizzy, Lin Qiushi nearly fell to the ground. He barely managed to steady himself by holding onto the sofa. He said in a hoarse voice, "You don't know Ruan Nanzhu? Who is the leader of the Obsidian?"
"Isn't it you?" Ye Niao asked in horror, "Brother Lin... are you... okay?"
Lin Qiushi stood there for a long time without moving. In Ye Niao's panic-stricken eyes, Lin Qiushi hurried upstairs. He came to Ruan Nanzhu's bedroom and began to search everywhere to find any trace of Ruan Nanzhu's existence, but he failed.
There was only one sign of someone living in the house, and Ruan Nanzhu became a non-existent person.
Lin Qiushi stood there in a daze. Something struck him, and he rushed downstairs. He said to Ye Niao, "Ye Niao, which door am I going through?"
Ye Niao looked at Lin Qiushi with increasingly terrified eyes. He said cautiously, "The... twelfth fan."
There was a long silence.
Ye Niao saw something in Lin Qiushi's expression and asked, "Brother Lin, are you okay?"
Lin Qiushi burst into laughter, tears streaming down his face. He waved his hands while laughing and staggered out of the living room.
The Obsidian leader's successful exit from Lin Qiushi through the twelfth gate should have been cause for celebration, but instead, a strange shadow inexplicably enveloped the Obsidian. Everyone thought Lin Qiushi had a mental problem, overly stimulated, and fabricated a nonexistent character.
Lin Qiushi took a whole night to recover. The next day, he found Ye Niao and checked some information with him.
Then Lin Qiushi discovered that except for Ruan Nanzhu, all other memories were correct.
Tan Zaozao and Cheng Qianli were indeed gone, Cheng Yixie also left Obsidian, and the others were recruited by Lin Qiushi, including Chen Fei, Lu Yanxue, and Yi Manman.
Lin Qiushi is the core figure of Obsidian, and he is even a good friend of Bai Ming.
Until this point, Lin Qiushi could no longer figure out whether he had really fabricated Ruan Nanzhu or the sect had erased Ruan Nanzhu's existence.
Or perhaps, Ruan Nanzhu is his twelfth door, his inner tribulation.
Logically, having emerged from the twelfth gate, Lin Qiushi would surely become everyone's focus, as he possessed crucial information about the twelfth gate. However, strangely, Lin Qiushi's presence was downplayed, and he thought of the vague predecessor mentioned by Ruan Nanzhu.
Ye Niao and the others began to unconsciously ignore his existence. He was right next to them, but they seemed unable to see him at all. No one even took the initiative to ask about the door.
Lin Qiushi thought all this was too absurd, so absurd it was hilarious. The next day he went to Ruan Nanzhu's house to look for him, but found that there was no such person at all.
Ruan Nanzhu does not exist, and everyone is telling Lin Qiushi the same answer.
But Lin Qiushi didn't believe it. He moved out of Obsidian and returned to his rental house.
The people in the Obsidian Stone wanted to persuade him, but Lin Qiushi was determined to leave. He simply told them not to harbor evil intentions when passing through the gate, otherwise they would suffer retribution. Perhaps because he said it so tactfully, his words were not diluted and everyone heard them. But even though they heard it, no one asked the question Lin Qiushi wanted to hear most: "What happened to your twelfth gate?"
Perhaps this encryption method was used to prevent the contents of the door from being leaked. Lin Qiushi found it really funny and pulled the corners of his mouth, but found that he couldn't laugh.
His only consolation after leaving was the fact that the huge amount of money he'd earned in his bank account was still there. Lin Qiushi spent some money and bought the house he'd once rented. He moved back in with Li Zi in his arms, renovating it back to its original state. It was as if, just by doing this, he would one day open his eyes and see Ruan Nanzhu sitting by his bed, saying good morning, just like when they first met.
Lin Qiushi thought, even if the whole world forgot Ruan Nanzhu, he wouldn't forget. This was the promise he had made to Ruan Nanzhu. Perhaps Ruan Nanzhu had ultimately chosen the illusions of the sect, leaving him alone in the cold reality, but he still loved him and couldn't feel any blame.
Time continued to move forward, and before Lin Qiushi knew it, a year had passed since he came out of the door.
From frantically searching for traces of Ruan Nanzhu's existence in the beginning to accepting this cruel fact, Lin Qiushi went through a long period of psychological adjustment.
He even couldn't sleep for more than a month because every time he closed his eyes, he seemed to hear Ruan Nanzhu whispering in his ear.
He went to Ruan Nanzhu's former school and even had people search for all the people named Ruan Nanzhu in the country, but all the signs told Lin Qiushi one fact: there was no such person as Ruan Nanzhu in the world.
Lin Qiushi thought he'd go crazy, but he persevered. During the long night, he could only sit in front of the TV, cradling Li Zi, watching the news reruns and hoping someone would knock on his door.
But when all his hopes were dashed, Lin Qiushi gradually became numb and lost his hope for life.
Until one day, Lin Qiushi suddenly received a call.
The call was from Ye Niao. When the call was connected, he said in an extremely excited tone, "Brother Lin, Brother Ruan is back!"
Lin Qiushi was stunned for a few seconds after hearing this: "What did you say?"
"Brother Ruan is back—" Ye Niao said, "He's been looking for you everywhere!"
Lin Qiushi was walking, and because all his attention was on Ye Niao's words, he accidentally tripped over a stone on the roadside and dropped his phone to the ground with a bang. When he picked it up in a panic, he found that the screen was covered with dense cracks, and the call was naturally disconnected.
"Fuck." Lin Qiushi couldn't help but curse, turned around, hailed a taxi nearby and headed straight for Obsidian.
When he arrived at the obsidian door, he was a little afraid to go in directly, as if he was homesick. Lin Qiushi was afraid that his expectations would be dashed again.
He hesitated for a long time before finally making up his mind. He raised his hand and was about to ring the doorbell when the door in front of him creaked open.
Ruan Nanzhu's face appeared behind the door. The moment he saw Lin Qiushi, he reached out and hugged Lin Qiushi tightly in his arms with astonishing strength, as if he wanted to rub Lin Qiushi directly into his body.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm late."
Lin Qiushi didn't know what to say. He buried his face in Ruan Nanzhu's shoulder, inhaling his unique scent. He said in a hoarse voice, "Why the hell did you come back just now?—Did you take so long looking for the key?!"
Ruan Nanzhu smiled bitterly: "I didn't expect it to be hidden inside the clock."
Lin Qiushi wanted to say a lot, but Ruan Nanzhu lowered his head first, letting all the words melt into a gentle kiss.
Lin Qiushi felt his body weaken. He murmured, "I thought you wouldn't come back."
Ruan Nanzhu looked at him.
"I thought you chose the illusory world," Lin Qiushi said. "I thought I was alone."
"I've already told you," Ruan Nanzhu said, "A world without you is fake."
"But I also exist in that world." Lin Qiushi looked at Ruan Nanzhu suspiciously, "Did you see my younger self?"
Ruan Nanzhu said: "No."
His answer was so blunt that it actually made Lin Qiushi suspicious. Now he finally understood Ruan Nanzhu's jealousy of his younger self. Lin Qiushi said, "Ruan Nanzhu, you're really capable—you made me wait for you for so long."
Ruan Nanzhu quickly apologized and then asked Lin Qiushi what had happened in the past year.
Lin Qiushi said, "Let's find a place to eat first. I'm hungry."
Ruan Nanzhu nodded.
So the two of them drove to a nearby restaurant. It was not that they didn't want to stay in Obsidian to communicate, but the content of their communication would probably be ruthlessly diluted because of the door. This feeling of being ignored was very bad. Instead of this, it would be better for the two of them to find a private place to talk.
Lin Qiushi used just a few words to describe what had happened to him over the past year. Although his words were concise, Ruan Nanzhu could understand how difficult it had been for Lin Qiushi over the past year.
"Sorry, I came back too late." Ruan Nanzhu kissed Lin Qiushi's fingertips, wanting to ask for her lover's forgiveness.
In fact, before meeting Ruan Nanzhu, Lin Qiushi was truly filled with resentment. However, upon seeing Ruan Nanzhu, all of this anger and resentment instantly dissipated. He said, "As long as you come back, I won't blame you."
Ruan Nanzhu said: "Well, I will definitely come back."
Lin Qiushi smiled.
As the two ate and chatted, Lin Qiushi listened to Ruan Nanzhu's stories about what lay behind the door. He actually went to find the younger Lin Qiushi, and they became friends. However, Ruan Nanzhu eventually discovered the key's location and ultimately chose to leave.
Lin Qiushi kept pouring wine into his mouth. He said, "You don't know, after you disappeared, no one remembered you. I was the only one who remembered you... I thought I was crazy."
Ruan Nanzhu smiled faintly.
"I even thought you were my twelfth door," Lin Qiushi said, "I was really going crazy."
Ruan Nanzhu filled Lin Qiushi's glass with wine and said, "No rush, we still have plenty of time."
Lin Qiushi's eyes flickered with tears as he said, "It's a good thing you're back."
"Yes." Ruan Nanzhu held Lin Qiushi's fingers, "I'm back."
Lin Qiushi had no memory of how he got home that night. However, when he woke up the next day, he felt extremely sore all over. Looking at the face of the man sleeping beside him, he knew what had happened between them without even thinking.
Lin Qiushi looked at Ruan Nanzhu's sleeping face, stretched out his fingers and carefully touched his skin. After confirming the warmth from his fingertips, he let out a long breath.
This was not his dream, Ruan Nanzhu was really back.
Lin Qiushi couldn't help it, he took out a cigarette from the clothes beside him, lit it and started to smoke slowly.
Ruan Nanzhu woke up from his dream and said in a daze, "Why are you smoking again? You are not allowed to smoke..." He reached out and took the cigarette out of Lin Qiushi's mouth, threw it into the ashtray next to him, and kissed Lin Qiushi on the mouth.
"I couldn't help it..." Lin Qiushi said, "Now that you're back, I won't smoke anymore."
Ruan Nanzhu sat up and started to put on his clothes: "What do you want to eat?"
Lin Qiushi said, "Anything is fine." He lazily played with his phone and watched Ruan Nanzhu go to the kitchen with her upper body naked to make breakfast for him.
Lin Qiushi yawned and habitually logged onto the forum, only to find it incredibly difficult to access today. After finally squeezing in, he found it filled with nearly identical topics—"Why is the twelfth door sealed?" "I thought I was seeing things, but it turns out the twelfth door is really sealed? Is there a bug in the door, or something?" "Oh my god, does this mean we'll have one less door to go through in the future?"
Lin Qiushi frowned and was about to take a closer look when Ruan Nanzhu leaned against the doorframe and asked, "Do you eat eggs with candied cores?"
Lin Qiushi: "Anything is fine..."
Ruan Nanzhu tilted his head: "What are you looking at? It's more beautiful than mine?" He walked to Lin Qiushi's side and took the phone out of Lin Qiushi's hand.
"Of course she's not as pretty as you." Lin Qiushi said, "Our Mengmeng is naturally the prettiest."
Ruan Nanzhu laughed. He licked Lin Qiushi's lips and said in a hoarse voice, "I'm hungry again."
Lin Qiushi: “Eh…?!” Before he could react, Ruan Nanzhu threw him onto the bed again.
Forget it, as long as Ruan Nanzhu comes back, he is too lazy to go into other matters.
END
The author has something to say: It's finally finished, la la la, I breathe a sigh of relief, and thank you all for your company over the past few months. There will be some extra chapters about daily life in the future, but since some people don't like reading about daily life, I won't include them in the main text. If you have any other extra chapters you'd like to see, please let me know.
I've started a new game called "Fantasy Farm" which tells the story of the protagonist and his pigs doing advanced mathematics research together (not really, if you like it, please bookmark it. I'll probably start updating after a break for a while.
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