I gently opened the door and stepped out of the room. I stood by the railing in the living room and looked down. Below was the living room. I think I was looking down from here at the time. I didn't see my parents or brother downstairs. I only saw an aunt tidying up the tea set on the coffee table. It seemed that it had just been used.
I walked towards the stairs next to the elevator, suddenly curious about what was upstairs. I tiptoed up the stairs, and the door upstairs wasn't locked. I gently pushed it open, and outside was a garden. Looking out, it was very spacious, with forests in the distance and a lake faintly visible.
I walked towards the edge of the garden and suddenly heard voices. I looked down and saw my parents sitting on the second-floor terrace talking. I tiptoed to get closer to them. Their voices were a little soft, but I could hear them clearly. My mother said, "Are you really going to listen to Bai Cheng and send Su Su back?"
I looked at the old man, who was sitting in a wheelchair with a cane, not saying a word. My mother was getting anxious: "You saw it too, Su Su is perfectly fine, she's recovered, she's really recovered."
The old man sighed: "Have you forgotten Bai Jian? He also recovered suddenly, but his condition worsened in less than ten days, and he ended up as soft as a puddle of water."
The mother didn't speak, staring blankly into the distance. The old man looked at his mother with some heartache: "I know you love Susu, and I love her too. I also want her to stay by our side, but I would rather she know nothing and live carefree in the illusion."
My mother suddenly burst into tears, covering her face. Even though we were two floors apart, I could still clearly see her large tears falling onto her white cheongsam, leaving watermarks. A sudden pang of pain shot through my heart. I quickly turned and ran into the house. I had to tell them the truth, tell them what I had experienced in the illusion.
I hurried down the stairs, taking two steps at a time, but I ran into my brother at the top of the stairs on the third floor. He smiled at me and asked, "Susu, where are you going?"
For some reason, even though he was smiling, I felt a shiver run through me. Instinctively, I took two steps back, lost my footing, and fell backward. I immediately reached out to grab my brother's hand, but he made no attempt to stop me. He remained standing there, smiling faintly, watching me. With a feeling of weightlessness, I tumbled heavily down the stairs. In a daze, I saw my mother rush out of the room, and my grandfather, sitting in his wheelchair, nearly fall...
Suddenly, many images flashed through my mind: my brother, my father and mother, the man who led me into the illusion, and a familiar figure, Little K. So many things happened, but each image flashed by so quickly that I had no idea what was going on.
My head was throbbing, and there were some noises around me. I vaguely felt someone touching my body and heard a commotion. I struggled to open my eyes, but after several attempts, I could only see thin wisps of white light. I was having trouble breathing. The next second, two streams of cool air entered my nostrils, and I instantly felt much better. The arguing became clearer and clearer, and it seemed to be my mother's voice, as well as my brother's. I forced myself to open my eyes despite the glaring light. I was back in my pink room, and there was my grandfather sitting in a wheelchair next to me. When he saw that I was awake, he sat up straight and looked at me kindly, with a few tears in his eyes.
I stared at the old man for a long time. He didn't say anything, nor did he interrupt my mother and brother's argument. I watched as his eyes slowly welled up with tears. Then I remembered everything...
I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, with loving parents. When I was 5 years old, my father brought home a 15-year-old boy, who is my older brother Bai Cheng. His original surname was not Bai, but Xu. His father, Uncle Xu, was my father's best friend. That year, my father's company was framed by a rival company and faced bankruptcy. My father's friend, Uncle Xu, disregarded his family's objections and emptied his savings to help my father make a comeback. My father turned the tide in less than a year. However, those who framed my father knew they could not defeat him easily, so they targeted Uncle Xu's family.
I don't know what happened. I only know that during that time, the headlines were reporting on the fire that had struck the Xu family. Xu's mother and son were abroad and thus escaped the fire. However, when Xu's mother brought Xu Cheng back to hold a funeral for Xu's uncle's family, another fire broke out in the funeral hall. My father was also among them. That day, I saw on TV that Mrs. Xu and Xu Zi had died in the fire.
After being out of contact for half a month, my father returned home and brought Xu Cheng with him. However, by then he had changed his name to Bai Cheng and lived in our family as the eldest son of the Bai family. That same year, I changed my surname to Su, taking my mother's surname.
My father's business is growing stronger, but Bai Cheng is becoming increasingly unhappy. Reports everywhere say that my father is an unscrupulous and heartless boss. Bai Cheng is also bullied by his classmates at school. Perhaps because my surname is Su, I am not implicated.
When I was 8 years old, my father's company finally cleared its name, my brother was admitted to a prestigious university to study IT, and he also found a girlfriend, Xiao K. I met her a few times. She was very beautiful and had a great figure, just like a star. But my parents really disliked that girl.
That same year, I suddenly started feeling unwell. The people who were researching how to allow consciousness to enter a hallucination were found by my brother. He said he knew them from the company where he was interning. Their boss was unwilling to spend money on this project, so they all resigned and started their own company to find investors to invest in their project.
At first, my father wasn't optimistic, but my brother kept telling him about the benefits of the project. Seeing that I was taking endless medicine and breathing oxygen every day, my father finally decided to send me to participate in the experiment on my brother's project.
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