Chapter 103 Chapter 103 I've been here
Ji Siyun woke up with a severe headache and heart palpitations.
The train car was heated to the hilt, almost stuffy. A layer of white mist formed on the windows, and outside lay a world shrouded in snow, eerily quiet.
A dull pain came from the place where the needle had pricked his neck, instantly awakening all the memories before he fell into a coma.
He sat up suddenly. The passenger seat was empty. Only the few dark brown bloodstains on the seat reminded him that last night's experience was not a nightmare.
Blood... How could she...
The huge wave of panic instantly engulfed him. Ji Siyun started the car in a panic and rushed to the hospital as fast as possible.
The doctor, who had just come out of the clinic, was chatting with his colleagues when his vision suddenly blurred and his back slammed against the wall, meeting a pair of bloodshot eyes.
Ji Siyun grabbed the man by the collar, nearly lifting him off the ground. His voice was distorted with extreme panic, "Coughing up blood! Why is she coughing up blood?"
The doctor was terrified by this sudden questioning. His face turned pale and his voice trembled incoherently: "Ji...Mr. Ji! Calm down! Let go first... I, I don't know... I really don't know!"
"You don't know?" Ji Siyun's forehead veins bulged, anger and fear intertwined, almost wanting to eat the person in front of him alive, "You have been responsible for her treatment, how could you not know!"
The doctor was extremely aggrieved: "Madam, she refused to come to the hospital, so I can only provide the most basic diagnosis and treatment... and her previous symptoms were really just recurring colds caused by her frail body. I don't know why she suddenly started coughing up blood!"
He carefully tried to comfort the seemingly frantic young man in front of him: "Mr. Ji, your wife's health is important. Take her to the hospital for a checkup first..."
Ji Siyun could no longer hear what the doctor said next. The more terrifying speculation had struck him like lightning.
It's not a simple injury...it's a plot.
Song Youning was too self-conscious, and afraid that she would notice something was wrong, he didn't dare to tamper with the plot too much. He was more focused on how to blur the memory of her arrival. And originally at this time... it was almost time for "Song Youning" to go offline.
This freely developing world is using its invisible power to bring everything back on track.
This realization made him feel like he was falling into an icy cave, and his blood ran cold. He suddenly loosened his grip, and the doctor stumbled to the ground, clutching his neck and looking at him in horror.
Ji Siyun didn't even look at him, and rushed back to the car as if he was being chased by a nightmare. He rushed back to the villa like crazy, went straight to the study, and pounced on the computer that could connect to the backend of this world.
Song Youning wasn't an NPC in this world, so Ji Siyun couldn't directly locate her through the backend. At the same time, the "Real Mirror" system strictly restricted real-time monitoring of the user's whereabouts and plot replay to protect the user's privacy and the world's free development.
He had no choice but to settle for the next best thing and retrieve the surveillance footage around the villa and major intersections in the city.
A tightly wrapped figure, moving slowly and coughing forcefully from time to time, accurately avoided all major cameras and, after a few flashes in the intricate alleys of the old city, completely disappeared from the surveillance blind spot.
Plan carefully and act decisively.
The picture freezes at her last glance at the surveillance camera before she disappears. Her calm and arrogant gaze seems to be laughing at his stupidity through the camera.
As if to say: You can't trap me.
Ji Siyun collapsed and overturned the chair in the study, his eyes red like a beast that had lost its mind.
Thinking of her pale face when she coughed up blood, thinking of her determined eyes, thinking of her weak body who knew where she was... The huge fear and the possibility of losing her almost drove him crazy.
But Song Youning was like a drop of water flowing into the sea, disappearing without a trace.
At the same time, on the rugged mountain road, Song Youning wrapped his down jacket tightly, and the mask covered most of his pale face.
She leaned against the car window, and every bump in the car caused her to cough softly.
Afraid of being discovered by Ji Siyun, Song Youning pawned all the jewelry and mobile phone she brought with her that night for cash, chose the most inconspicuous means of transportation that did not require identification, and finally arrived at Ji Siyun's hometown in the original book.
The weakness of her body became more and more obvious, but her eyes were clear.
She had sensed something was wrong when dizziness and weakness became more frequent, and this intuition was confirmed when she coughed up blood for the first time.
It seems as if there is an invisible force that is leading her character to decline according to the original trajectory.
Just like Song’s father and mother.
The ending she had been waiting for was about to come.
But before leaving this fake world, she must figure out one thing - who is Ji Siyun?
He seemed very familiar to her, yet full of resentment that she didn't know him. However, in her memory, there was indeed no such person as "Ji Siyun". Since this place had so many overlaps and strange reflections with her reality, did he also correspond to someone in reality?
There must be clues about his true identity hidden in this world, so when she found out that her life was entering the countdown, Song Youning calmly wiped away the blood stains and covered everything up, so that no one would notice anything abnormal about her body.
Then wait patiently for the opportunity to complete the escape.
After arriving at this poor mountain village, Song Youning used his outstanding appearance and eloquence to make up a pitiful story about visiting a distant relative but losing the address. He successfully won the sympathy of an elderly woman living alone and temporarily let her stay with him.
After settling down for a while, she began to quietly inquire about Ji Siyun.
Most people in the village know this name. When they mention him, they all show a standardized smile and praise him in unison: "That child Si Yun is the golden phoenix that flew out of our village! Smart, promising, kind-hearted, and always thinking about the villagers!"
The deeper the investigation goes, the more eerie and strange it feels.
Their praise sometimes seemed overly exaggerated and formulaic, like they were reciting a script. When she asked more in-depth questions, such as what Ji Siyun was like as a child, whether he had ever been naughty, and which children in the village he played well with, their answers became vague and incoherent.
Once, an old man was praising Ji Siyun for being filial and sensible, but his wife next to him subconsciously muttered, "Humph, that brat once stole sweet potatoes from my house and I chased him and beat him..."
As soon as she finished speaking, she was stunned. She was stunned for a long time and suddenly seemed to have forgotten what she had said. She began to pull Song Youning's hand and repeat what she had said to Song Youning just a minute ago: "Si Yun was a child with a miserable life. Both his parents passed away when he was just born. He was raised by us neighbors..."
Another time, a middle-aged woman enthusiastically pulled the heroine aside and said how grateful Ji Siyun was for building the road for the village, but in the flash of her eyes, Song Youning caught a trace of extremely quick, almost instinctive jealousy and disdain.
This intense sense of disconnection and contradiction is pervasive. It's as if these villagers, who might have looked down on or even bullied the impoverished Ji Siyun, have been forced to wear a facade of "simple, kind, and loving Ji Siyun." This facade is fragile, and in unsuspecting moments, the diametrically opposed undertones beneath reveal themselves.
This contrast is like her parents who were actually not harmonious and divorced many years ago, and her large family full of intrigue, but here they have become a loving family.
It's as if someone is trying to construct a perfect utopia to make up for the shortcomings of reality.
After spending two days in the village, Song Youning gained nothing except the occasional bugs.
She knew very well that with Ji Siyun's ability, it was only a matter of time before he found her. What was even more urgent was that tomorrow was Ji Siyun's birthday.
According to the original plot, this day was the day her character was offline.
Her body became heavier and heavier, and her coughs became more frequent, with an ominous smell of rusty iron, as if every cell in her body was wailing in advance.
She doesn't have time anymore.
In her anxiety, Song Youning suddenly recalled what Ji Siyun had mentioned to her - because he was extremely hungry, he stole food from a classmate's schoolbag. After being discovered, he was pushed into the river by someone during a shoving and arguing...
river?
A thought flashed through my mind! That river!
The river that Ji Siyun mentioned, which she had not seen in the two days she had been in the village, might be near the school?
Light snow was already falling in the mountains. Song Youning seemed to have grasped the last straw. He set out early the next morning, dragging his heavy body. After asking along the way, he finally found the school in the town.
She was greeted by a kind-looking middle-aged female teacher.
Just like the villagers in the village, when Song Youning mentioned Ji Siyun, the teacher still had that stereotyped smile on his face.
"Si Yun! That's the best student in our school in all these years!"
Song Youning didn't want to hear these scripted answers. She carefully chose her words and asked tentatively, "Teacher, I heard that Ji Siyun's family was not well off when he was young. Did he suffer any grievances in school because of this?"
The teacher's smile suddenly became a little stiff: "How is that possible! Absolutely not! Our school has always had a good atmosphere. All the students know about Si Yun's family situation. Everyone feels sorry for him and can't do enough to take care of him!"
Song Youning raised her eyes slightly at the quick and hasty answer. She changed her tone and asked, "Ji Siyun told me that when he was a child, he accidentally fell into the river and was fortunately rescued. Unfortunately, he was too young and scared at the time to remember the person's face. He always wanted to thank that benefactor. I wonder if you have any impression of him?"
The teacher's face showed genuine confusion. "River? There's not even a stream in this mountain valley. There are only a few nearly empty water cellars that wouldn't even cover a child's ankles. Did you hear wrong?"
There is no river...
Are Ji Siyun's memories fake? Or... is this setting itself a lie?
She no longer had time, was that it?
Song Youning said goodbye to the teacher in a daze and walked out of the school.
The fine snowflakes had turned into heavy snow, and the sky and the earth were covered in white. Her heart was in a mess, and all the clues seemed to be broken.
In such a big world, she didn't know where to go. She could only walk aimlessly on the mountain road. Her extremely weak body was afraid of the cold. Song Youning couldn't stop shaking, her cough became more severe, and her consciousness was a little blurred because of weakness and cold.
I walked forward, one step deep and one step shallow, relying entirely on instinct.
I don’t know how long I walked, but the hard soil covered with snow felt different. It was clearly an arid mountain with bare loess, but the feeling under my feet became damp and muddy, as if I was stepping on wetlands by a river.
The snow seemed to have thinned considerably here, revealing the dark, water-soaked soil underneath.
She jerked her head up and looked around.
The scenery before her eyes began to twist and deform strangely. The barren hillside covered with heavy snow gradually faded away, replaced by towering weeds that seemed to be about to drown her.
A feeling of panic rose from the bottom of her heart, making her breathing heavier.
This place...she has been here before.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
