Chapter 28 Twin Phantoms
——The boy in her memory and the devil before her tore her soul apart.
Ruan Xingchen began to dream about the two Mo Xiaohan frequently.
One stood in the sunset of the medical camp, folded a candy paper boat for her, and whispered, "Wait for me."
One of them stood in a pool of blood at the auction house, pinched her chin and sneered: "Don't ever think about escaping."
They fought in her mind, tearing at her nerves, until—
"Star?"
The sound of reality pulled her back. She opened her eyes and found herself in Mo Xiaohan's arms. His palm was against her back, and his body temperature was incredibly hot through her pajamas.
"You're shaking again." He frowned and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead with his fingertips. "Are you having a nightmare?"
Ruan Xingchen stared at the scar on his left eye and suddenly reached out to touch it.
"Here..." Her voice was erratic, "It was hit by a steel pipe, right?"
Mo Xiaohan's pupils suddenly shrank.
That scar was like a key, unexpectedly opening the floodgates of memory. She couldn't tell whether it was the touch of reality that connected the memories, or whether the dream had long been lurking on the edge of consciousness - she felt like she had fallen into a chaotic fog, past and present mingled in a mess.
Her eyelids were heavy as if wet, yet she could clearly feel the rise and fall of his chest against her back.
She saw the ten-year-old Mo Xiaohan put a ring on her finger: "Ruan Xingchen, don't forget me..."
She didn't move, and could even hear the rhythm of his breathing, but she could clearly hear the sound of iron chains in her ears.
The picture suddenly tore apart, and she saw the 27-year-old Mo Xiaohan locking her ankle with an iron chain and saying with a smile, "This way you won't get lost."
"Brother Xiaohan would never do this to me..." She murmured in a half-asleep state, as if she was struggling with herself.
She knew that the person in her arms was real, and the warmth on her back was real, but the two images in her mind were too vivid to tell when she was awake and when she was dreaming. She couldn't grasp the boundary, and couldn't tell the difference between truth and falsehood.
The arms around her suddenly tightened, as if to pull her out of the chaos.
"I am him." Mo Xiaohan bit the soft flesh on the back of her neck and said in a vague voice, "I've just grown up."
Ruan Xingchen curled up, his nails digging into his palms.
wrong.
Her brother Xiaohan's eyes are like stars, but they shouldn't be so cold.
The psychiatrist's diagnosis report was spread out on the study table:
Early symptoms of dissociative identity disorder
[It is recommended to stop physical contact therapy immediately]
"PTSD with dissociative symptoms." The doctor's diagnosis echoed in my ears. "She subconsciously remembers you, but the trauma has overwritten those memories. Now her cognition is fragmented—Miss Ruan, who is unconscious, relies on you, and Miss Ruan, who is awake, fears you."
Mo Xiaohan threw the report into the shredder, turned around and pushed open the bedroom door.
Ruan Xingchen was sitting by the window drawing, the colored pencils rustling on the paper. When she saw him come in, she subconsciously covered the drawing paper with her sleeve.
"Show me." He grabbed her wrist.
There were two completely different faces on the drawing paper——
On the left is the teenage-looking "Brother Xiaohan", standing in a sunflower field and smiling; on the right is the present Mo Xiaohan, his suit stained with blood and his eyes sinister.
There was a crack in the middle drawn with red pencil, like an insurmountable chasm.
Mo Xiaohan's knuckles tightened and the drawing paper crumpled into a ball in his hands.
"You divided him... me into two people?"
Ruan Xingchen suddenly smiled, her eyes unfocused, and she shook her head gently: "You are not him."
"He promised me to always face the sun!"
"And you..." She tapped her fingertips on his chest, "is Eternal Night!"
"When will you admit it?" Mo Xiaohan grabbed her wrist. "The boy who waited for you to give me cookies and this devil now are the same person!"
Ruan Xingchen smashed everything he could get his hands on.
"Get out!" She threw the vase at Mo Xiaohan, and the fragments scratched his cheek. "I want Brother Xiaohan! You are not him!"
Mo Xiaohan wiped the blood off his face and approached her step by step: "Look at me." He pinched her chin and forced her to look directly into his eyes, "Same scar, same ring——"
"It's different!" She struggled hysterically, her left hand frantically digging at the silver ring on her ring finger, peeling back the flesh and bleeding. "I'll give it back to you! I'll give it all back to you!"
Mo Xiaohan finally panicked.
He controlled her hands, held her tightly in his arms, and let her bite his shoulder.
"Okay, I'm not him." His voice trembled, more broken than ever before, "But I will get him back... for you."
Therefore, the west wing of the manor was transformed into a restoration scene——
Abandoned tires in the slums, the white tents of the medical team, the wooden boxes outside the tents...
Mo Xiaohan took off his expensive black suit, put on an old T-shirt, and took off his usual custom-made cufflinks.
"Boss..." Artest hesitated, "This is too dangerous."
"Shut up." Mo Xiaohan stuffed the loaded pistol into his waistband, "From now on, call me Xiaohan."
When Ruan Xingchen was brought into this "memory theater", she was stunned.
The boy leaned against the tire in the sunshine, three animal biscuits spread on his palm, and the scar on his left eye still had a fresh scab.
"Xingxing." He called her with a smile, his voice a deliberate imitation of a boy's voice, a little hoarse with youthfulness: "Come and have some cookies."
Ruan Xingchen's tears welled up in his eyes.
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