Chapter 52

Yu Tu lived in "reality" for two months and he never mentioned his dream again.

He was like an ordinary and happy child, with a room decorated according to his preferences, a spacious and comfortable study desk, a whole wall of bookcases, three meals a day on time and with a variety of choices, parents who respected his opinions, and an open-minded family atmosphere... He got everything he had ever imagined.

There are no ill-fitting thin quilts, no ridicule from peers in the orphanage, no embarrassment of being pulled out for photos when people come to do charity work, no envy when listening to the brothers and sisters who come to volunteer and talk about their experiences from all over the world...

He had loving parents, a wealthy family, and a comfortable home. After he recovered and returned to school, his classmates thought he had just had a serious illness. Everyone cared about him. This concern was neither hypocritical nor superficial, but came from the heart.

He doesn't need to hide his whitened shoes and frayed cuffs, he has many friends. Some people talk to him about how many points he lost in a test and how he was scolded by the Lively King; some people complain about a teacher who is unkind and assigns a lot of homework; some people ask him to show off his skills on the basketball court during the break; some people mysteriously call him to go to the canteen to eat spicy hot pot after the evening self-study... In the school, the young boys and girls, whether happy or painful, are so simple and pure.

He was almost drowning.

The memories in the dream began to blur, and even the most intense emotions gradually faded away. Even though he still couldn't remember anything, it was becoming more and more vivid now.

On the Friday in the middle of the month, the school had a unified half-month holiday. When Yu Tu walked out of the school gate with his bag, his parents were already waiting for him there.

Dad took his schoolbag, and mom asked him with a smile if he was tired. They were breathing, had body temperature, and even the lines on their palms were so real.

In the car, his father told him that he had booked a seat at the hotel and that he would give him a surprise today. His mother took out an ice cream from the car's small refrigerator and put it on his face with a smile. He was not blamed for his poor grades. They were more concerned about their health than their studies.

The car carried him forward, and the scenery on the roadside quickly receded, but he could still see pedestrians taking a walk on the road, children returning home, and cars leaving get off work merging into the traffic... Not a single flower, grass, tree, sunset, buildings, or traffic was flawless.

During these two months, Yu Tu once asked his teacher for ten days off. He did something crazy—he randomly bought a ticket on the APP and chose a very far away city that he had never been to.

After sitting on the train for more than ten hours, Yu Tu got off in the city. The modern train station, the lively residential houses, the bustling commercial streets... were exactly the same as the descriptions he had seen in the books.

The illusion might be able to make the area around him extremely detailed and realistic, but it is impossible to make even the places he has never been to extremely detailed. How much energy would that consume?

...Is this really an illusion?

Time will slowly dilute everything. The bad memories of that day in the hospital are slowly fading from my senses, and “reality” is becoming more and more real at the moment.

"TuTu, we're here."

He heard his mother's voice.

The private room is located on the top floor of the hotel. It is said that you can see the stars in the sky through the glass dome at night.

Yu Tu sat in a room that had obviously been decorated, with colorful ribbons tied together, balloons stuck to the wall, and a large LED screen showing a happy photo of the family of three.

The waiter has already brought today's dinner one by one. The portions are not large, but they are all exquisite and tempting, and most of them are his favorite dishes.

At the end of dinner, there was a huge cake, bigger and more beautiful than the largest models he had ever seen in the clean and bright cake shop windows.

Eighteen candles were inserted on the cake, which were lit one by one with a lighter, forming a dancing circle of light. In the middle of the circle of light was a closed flower bud. When the pistil was lit with a candle, it would bloom like a lotus, emitting a particularly noisy happy birthday song.

Yu Tu vaguely recalled several scenes, including him seeing someone carrying a cake and walking out of the cake shop with a big smile on his face, hearing a birthday song in a restaurant while working part-time, and him frantically helping to tear off the wrapping paper of a cake on a high Ferris wheel... But when did he see these things? And who was he with? He could no longer remember.

Suffering was like faded drawing paper that would tear apart at a rip, and new life gradually came to him amid the birthday song.

"Tu Tu." In the light of the candles, he heard his father's voice, "Blow the candles and make a wish."

My mother clapped her hands, smiled softly and sang along:

"Happy birthday to you~Happy birthday to you~I wish you happiness~I wish you health~I wish you a bright future..."

"Is this a cake that belongs only to me?" Yu Tu suddenly asked.

The colorful candles gradually became shorter as they burned, but one could still see clearly the cartoon figures of a family of three painted in chocolate on the cake, with cute, round characters written on it:

【Wish baby Yu Tu a happy 18th birthday, and may he be safe and healthy forever! 】

"Of course it's a cake that belongs to you alone!"

In my increasingly fading memories, someone seemed to say: "I know cakes are vulgar, but blessings are priceless!"

The cake was tacky, but it was the first tacky thing he had received in eighteen years.

How wonderful... He once envied it, and now he has it too.

"Happy birthday to you~Happy birthday to you~I wish you happiness~I wish you health~and a warm family~"

During the birthday song, Yu Tu closed his eyes. No one knew whether he made a wish or not, but when he opened his eyes, he blew out all the candles in one breath.

The candles went out, and the light from the stars shone through the dome, creating another kind of brightness.

Yu Tu took the fork and knife to divide the cake, and carefully cut three corners. He gave the one with the words "peace" to his father, the one with the words "health" to his mother, and left the word "forever" in front of himself.

"Let's eat cake together." He said softly.

Yu Tu ate the whole small piece of cake in one go, with sweet and rich cream and soft and delicious cake. He looked at the empty disposable plate and heard his mother ask, "Do you want another piece?"

Yu Tu shook his head.

He raised his head, and in the starlight, he looked directly at his parents who were sitting opposite him. They were all looking at him with a smile, as if he was their proudest and most precious baby - even though he had been in and out of the mental hospital for quite a while, even though he had been so resistant, even though he had capriciously bought a ticket and left for another city without saying a word... no matter what happened, he was the one who was tolerated.

It turns out this is what it feels like to be loved without fear.

"Tu Tu." He heard his mother's gentle voice, cautious but mixed with joy and happiness, "Do you like it?"

Dad asked, "Do you want me to take you to school tomorrow?"

Yu Tu stared at them for a long while, then slowly put down the empty plate and the butter-stained fork in his hand.

"The cake is very sweet." He answered irrelevantly. "It's delicious."

Yu Tu stood up and walked to the window. In order to better display the night view, this private room had floor-to-ceiling windows and the guardrails were also very low. The wind blew the hair on his cheeks, as if trying to keep him.

Yu Tu looked down, and it was empty and far away. He wanted to look back, but he held back.

With the sweet scent of cake still on his body, Yu Tu suddenly let go of the hand holding the guardrail, allowed himself to lean out of the window, and then fell rapidly.

Everything proves that your diary is true, there is not a single flaw to be found in your life over the past two months, and all doubts have reasonable explanations... In this case, do you still dare to believe that the reality you are in is fake?

With a loud bang, Yu Tu felt himself hit the ground. Severe pain spread from his limbs to his brain. The pain almost swept through all the thinking nerves. He could feel blood foam coming out when he breathed, and the blood slowly flowed out of his body... The feeling of being on the verge of death was too real.

In my consciousness, which was sometimes clear and sometimes fuzzy, I seemed to hear my parents' panicked shouts, passers-by's cries, and the sound of an ambulance approaching from afar...

But he hasn't escaped yet. Maybe this is the real world. Maybe he... lost the bet?

The vitality was slowly drained from his body. Yu Tu waited quietly. At the moment his breathing stopped, he finally saw the scene he wanted to see—

Everything shattered like a mirror, just like the starry sky he saw through the dome.

like.

want.

Thank you.

And...goodbye.

…

"Ding-ling~Ding-ling~"

The crisp and continuous sound of bells was carried into my ears by the wind.

Yu Tu blinked and found that he was still sitting on the balcony on the third floor, holding a string of fried rice cakes in his hand.

The illusion that lasted for more than two months only lasted for a short while in reality. Even the fried rice cakes were still steaming. It was like a yellow dream.

"Tu Tu?" Gu Hongying's arm was on his shoulders. He was craning his neck to look at the Nuo ritual team. He asked as he looked, "Why did you start to daydream while eating?"

He joked, "You can't be so sleepy that you fell asleep in such a short while, right?"

"I fell asleep and had a dream." Yu Tu smiled and said softly, "It was a beautiful dream."

The Nuo dance was still going on, but it was almost coming to an end. The Nuo performer at the end of the team had a graceful posture and was dancing very well. The colorful threads in his hair rose and fell with his movements, and the sound of bells merged into one continuous sound.

It was as if the glance they had exchanged before was just an accidental illusion.

Yu Tu covered his chest and closed his eyes slightly. He felt the familiar energy hidden in his body.

On the sides of the main road where the light was dim and out of reach of surveillance cameras, a figure suddenly appeared from nowhere - black hair and phoenix eyes, a long gown that reached his ankles, and a golden mirror chain hanging down by his cheeks.

After the singing and dancing of the Nuo ritual ended, the Nuo performers returned home. The last one in the group walked further and further away. When they passed a place with almost no people but a small bridge and flowing water, the Nuo performer wearing a goat skull decoration stood in the middle of the bridge. He tilted his head slightly and looked behind him:

"You've been following me for so long, why don't you come out?"