Chapter 138 Within the Cycle
Lin Guantang opened the glass door of the restaurant and heard the sound of wind chimes.
He stood at the door and looked inside.
Ge Xihe confirmed that he was indeed a guest coming to have dinner - well, actually he wasn't too sure, maybe he was just coming to take a look and was about to leave. At this time, the waiter needed to take the initiative to walk over and say hello.
He came out from behind the counter and said with a smile:
"Welcome, our restaurant's dishes are delicious and affordable. Please come in and have a cup of tea."
Warm hospitality is basic etiquette for treating guests.
But that's not the attitude you should have towards your friends.
So, is it some kind of disguise, or has his memory been replaced?
It should be a happy thing to meet an old friend in a foreign place.
But when Lin Guantang looked at the person in front of him, he couldn't feel happy.
But when he saw Ge Xihe's welcoming expressions, he thought about it and walked into the restaurant and found a seat to sit down.
Perhaps it was too late and there were no other customers, so Ge Xihe was told that he could stand next to him and wait until he finished ordering before leaving.
Lin Guantang looked at the menu in front of him, but his mind was completely on the waiter beside him. After a brief pause, he spoke calmly:
"Aren't you... in the imperial capital? Why are you here?"
Ge Xihe said "Huh?", as if he didn't expect that he would just say that. Then his smile became much more friendly:
"So you're a tourist from the imperial capital. What a fate."
As he spoke, he bent down in front of Lin Guantang. When Lin Guantang looked up at him, he put his finger in front of him and made a "hush" sound. He then pointed to a set meal on the menu and whispered:
"It's late, and there are no other customers. If you order this set meal, I can give you a 50% discount. Just don't tell anyone."
He blinked at Lin Guantang, as if saying something that only the two of them knew.
Just like the Chunhe Tea House in the capital, which has expanded in scale and opened branches, Lin Guantang at least no longer has to worry about food and drink, but Chunhe Tea House still retains the discount for Lin Guantang from 7 am to 10 pm.
Lin Guantang closed the menu, touched the raised words on it, and said in a low voice:
"So why did you come to Fugan District?"
Ge Xihe showed a puzzled expression, probably not knowing why he had to dwell on this question. But if he had to give an answer, he thought for a moment and said:
“Because Fugan District is a good place.”
That's a pretty perfunctory answer.
Lin Guantang stared at him for a few minutes, a struggle flashing in his eyes, and murmured:
"Fake."
Ge Xihe didn't hear his mumbling clearly and asked:
"What? I'm sorry I didn't hear you clearly. Could you please repeat what you want?"
Lin Guantang stared into his eyes and said word by word:
"You're fake."
Ge Xihe showed a puzzled expression, thought for a moment, then showed an expression of sudden enlightenment and laughed out loud:
"What's wrong? Another internet-addicted teenager experiencing the real world and can't tell the difference between reality and fake. Wake up, this is the real world. You've finished experiencing the real world."
No, absolutely not—
Lin Guantang looked at the surrounding furnishings and the hazy shadows of the buildings outside the window. Even though there was not even a breeze, he felt dizzy.
He retracted his gaze, looked at Ge Xihe, and said word by word:
“It’s all fake.”
Ge Xihe still looked at him with a smile, but with a hint of helplessness—the kind of helplessness one would feel when facing a naughty child:
"This is the real world, and you're still in the game."
This statement is correct, he is still in the game and has not left.
How could the streets be so empty during the anniversary celebration? Why was he walking back? On his way back, why did he happen to run into a restaurant where an old friend was...
The most important thing is that Huo Shizhen does not exist.
Even if he released pheromones, he could not sense any of Huo Shizhen's cold aura.
Lin Guantang remembered it all.
From the time he entered the mountain village to the time he came out of the experience cabin, he never saw Huo Shizhen again.
There is only one possibility.
When he came out of the experience cabin, he did not end his experience in the real-dimensional world and return to reality. Instead, he was teleported to a world exactly the same as reality using this as a node, and then met Ge Xihe.
There's no reason to arrange a meeting here with an acquaintance, unless you want to use this acquaintance to do something...
Lin Guantang stood up suddenly, pushed Ge Xihe away, and ran out the door.
The moment the door opened, the sound of wind chimes rang out.
"Welcome~"
Ge Xihe stood at the door and gave him a welcoming smile.
Lin Guantang stood at the door of the restaurant, breaking out in a cold sweat.
He looked behind him and saw a busy street, bustling with people and brightly lit.
He looked in front of him and saw the enthusiastic shop assistants, noisy and full of enthusiasm.
Ge Xihe showed him a surprised expression, then remembered that he was a clerk, so he lowered his voice and said:
"Xiao Lin, I didn't expect to see you here. What brings you to Fugan District?"
Lin Guantang was a little confused.
Did he...just come in?
Could it be that he has the ability to predict the future? He was just thinking about so many restaurants, and he might meet Ge Xihe in one of them. After all, his family also has a restaurant, and he is a very good cook.
As a result, we met.
Lin Guantang took a step forward, then suddenly turned around and ran out.
The wind blew over and the sound of wind chimes rang out.
He ran so fast that even if he stopped in time, he would have already run into the store.
"Welcome~"
Ge Xihe stood at the door and gave him a welcoming smile.
Then she came over and grabbed his arm, and said to him lovingly:
"Be careful! Even if you're very hungry, don't run so fast. Be careful not to fall."
Lin Guantang looked up along the fingers that were grasping him, and met Ge Xihe's polite and distant smile.
In fact, the force is very light, more like a gentle support than a grasp.
That's for sure. Seeing the customer running too fast, the clerk went over to help the customer to prevent him from falling. This was sincere of the clerk. However, if the clerk grabbed the customer's arm forcefully, he would most likely be complained about.
In serious cases, you may even be fired.
But in this virtual world, complaints won't solve any problems.
Lin Guantang bit his lip and made a decision.
He reached out and grabbed Ge Xihe's arm, then threw him over his shoulder.
Amidst the exclamations of the surrounding guests, Ge Xihe was thrown heavily to the ground.
Suddenly, many guests stood up, half of them were onlookers who didn't know what was going on, and half of them began to accuse Lin Guantang of reckless behavior. Some more active guests came over and tried to subdue Lin Guantang.
But before anyone reached out to pull him away, Lin Guantang had already pressed one leg on Ge Xihe's waist and abdomen, pulled out the dagger he carried close to his body, and stabbed it into his heart at the fastest speed.
——Although he couldn't make anything he wanted appear like Huo Shizhen, he always carried a special dagger with him.
Lin Guantang pierced Ge Xihe's heart without mercy, and blood splattered everywhere.
But he still pressed hard, and even when almost all of the blade was sunk into the flesh, he did not let go.
It seems that once you let go, the person pinned to the ground will turn into a zombie or something and jump up to bite people.
But Ge Xihe is not a scary zombie, but his friend.
He was the first friend I met in the imperial capital.
Knowing that I was a poor student from District 35, he didn't discriminate against me. Instead, he quietly gave me the lowest discount, told me a lot of things to pay attention to in the imperial capital and in O Academy, and even took the time to make unique pastries for me...
Even though we have less contact as time goes by and our respective social circles are different, our ordinary relationship is still a precious friendship.
Memories roll in like pages of a book, gentle and considerate like the first warm breeze of spring.
But now he cut off this warm breeze with his own hands.
All the noise around them disappeared, and in an instant, only two people were left in the noisy restaurant.
Ge Xihe lay on the ground without any resistance.
He tilted his head back, looking at the beautiful, almost perfect face so close to him.
Looking at this face, a tear silently shed.
"You're crying."
Ge Xihe looked at him, moved his fingers, trying to wipe away the tears on his face, and even raised his arm, but eventually collapsed to the floor.
Perhaps due to excessive blood loss, the voice was weak:
"Are you in pain if I kill you?"
“…You are an illusion.”
Lin Guantang sniffed slightly, his heart aching, yet he spoke calmly. Apart from the tear and the sparkling pupils, his facial expression showed no hesitation.
"I won't kill any innocent people, but you are a fake. In order to get out, you must die."
Sorry, sorry...
Even if I suffer, you must die.
There is no time to waste in a cycle of false illusions.
Lin Guantang already understood the purpose of this illusion.
——You claim to be a good person, a good person who saves people from suffering for your relatives and friends who are close by, and for the people in the distant empire. But when your only way to survive is blocked by a good friend who has done you a favor, will you have the heart to kill him?
If you don't kill him, you'll never get out. If you kill him, do you still have the right to say you're a good person?!
Lin Guantang held the small dagger in both hands, closed his eyes, and then opened them again. Even the last trace of mist had dissipated, leaving only a determined look:
"Only by cutting off the false illusion can we save fresh lives. I don't regret killing you."
"Ge Xihe" showed that gentle and helpless look again, opened his mouth, as if he wanted to speak, as if he wanted to sigh.
But in the end he just slowly closed his eyes.
The blood bursting out of the chest suddenly changed into a scattered spot of light.
His entire body was completely split into countless spots of light and disintegrated.
Only the empty dagger was still held in Lin Guantang's hand.
Then the entire space was completely distorted, like a huge whirlpool, and before Lin Guantang could do anything, he was forcibly sucked into the depths of the whirlpool.
Until it sank to the bottom of the dark water.
Heartache is a sign of damage to the body, and it is also the feeling of a blow to the consciousness.
Ge Xihe woke up from death with his eyes wide open, still unable to believe what a nightmare he had.
He dreamed that Lin Guantang killed him.
His memories returned and he dreamed of more of the past.
He hadn't heard from Sikong for a long time, and finally he became worried, so he followed the secret codes and found the Fugan District, and then he fell into an endless coma.
When he woke up, he saw Sikong Tan's face and saw that Sikong Tan's eyes were bleeding;
When he woke up the second time, he saw Lin Guantang's face and saw him shed a tear;
The third time he...
Don't let it happen a third time!
He didn't want to see anyone fall to save him again.
Endless regret and pain filled his body, making him dejected and thinking:
"If I die like this...it won't be a bad thing, why not just be killed like this!"
At least he wouldn't have to drag down these good friends anymore, and wouldn't have to make more people suffer for him.
"No."
Someone's voice sounded in his mind:
"The first rule is that there is only immortality and no death in the True Dimension World. You will not die in it."
"The second reason is, if you die...what will happen to him?"
"Only living people have any value as a deterrent. Dead people...are just an unnecessary burden."
Who are you burdening me with? Who else are you trying to get me to help you do evil?
Isn’t one Sikong enough? Lin Guantang must also be unable to extricate himself.
Is he going to drag two people here to die?
Ge Xihe struggled hard, but in fact he just moved a little and fell asleep again.
His consciousness sank again.
There are hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of worlds in the real dimension. If you teleport randomly, who knows which world you will be teleported to?
Oppression, suffocation, and painful addiction.
Lin Guantang struggled desperately in the water, but to no avail.
Just when he was about to drown, his struggling hands suddenly grabbed a strap and he felt as if someone was pulling him upwards, causing him to quickly paddle through the water with both hands and hold on to the bag tightly.
Then it was towed ashore.
"It's just a burn, why bother jumping into the water? Why not follow others and jump into the river? You know, many people want to be selected but can't. If a man is chosen, he should be happy."
"Die? I'll go even if I die! Don't even think about escaping even if you're disfigured. It's just a thing to satisfy desires. Who cares if it looks good or not?"
Who is talking, what burns...
Lin Guantang struggled to open his eyes, water droplets hanging on his eyelashes, making his vision distorted.
His face was roughly wiped with a cloth, and it felt hot and painful, but at least it allowed him to see the situation clearly.
A group of people in tattered clothes looked at him with contempt and anger in their eyes.
Wear, travel through time?
Lin Guantang didn't recognize these people, and even the clothes they wore were beyond his recognition, they were tattered.
He was dizzy and the first thought that came to his mind was whether he had traveled through time.
But no matter how much he thought about it, he still couldn't figure out what work he had seen.
——Even if it was a world whose contents I had long forgotten, I probably wasn’t the protagonist or the main character.
Otherwise, why would he jump into the river in such misery? Works that abuse the protagonist are not popular nowadays.
Lin Guantang put his hand on his aching head and sat up. Before he could figure out what world he had crossed into, he heard someone exclaim:
"Look at his hand, isn't that a gold ring?"
"It must be fake. How could there be a gold ring?"
"real!"
The person closest to Lin Guantang forcibly pulled his wrist over and lifted up his hand with the ring, allowing everyone to see the gold ring with exquisitely carved patterns.
Then he bit the flesh again, and his eyes seemed to gleam with gold. He struggled to pull out the ring while shouting:
"It's real! There's a big gem on this ring. It's an antique!"
Hey, hey, hey...that's too rough.
Lin Guantang endured the pain and tried to pull his arm back, but the man had already reached out and forcibly pulled out the ring. However, the ring was stuck in the joint, and the pulling made Lin Guantang gasp in pain, and the skin and flesh were rubbed until they were soaked in blood, but it still did not move at all.
"I can't pull it out, it's too tight."
"If you can't pull it out, just cut off your finger, you idiot!"
"Knife, who has a knife? Bring it here!"
"I have, I have..."
Lin Guantang stared in horror as he watched the rusty knife being passed to him, about to chop off his fingers.
No, no...
How can I just wait to die, have my fingers chopped off, and have my treasures taken away?
Lin Guantang gritted his teeth, raised his foot and kicked hard, knocking the unprepared man to the ground, then turned around, got up, and ran out with all his might.
But he was alone. Even if he knocked one person down, there were many others running over, subduing him to the ground and chopping off his fingers.
Blood splattered all over the ground, and pain spread throughout his body. Lin Guantang couldn't help but let out a mournful cry, but everyone around him was holding up the bloody ring and cheering.
He lay on the ground, his eyes looking at the lake not far away.
Just jump into the lake and die.
The world is so cruel and human beings are so ugly. What's the point of living? Just jump into the lake and commit suicide.
When you die, you will no longer suffer and will return to the realm of freedom.
Tears flowed from the corners of his eyes, and he did not stand up and jump into the lake until they were all gone.
He was locked in a small dark room without windows.
"Still running? You'll starve to death and won't have the energy to run!"
"Just stay here until I send you out."
He sat on the cold stone slab, touched his face which was burnt, rugged and completely ruined, and let out a self-deprecating laugh in the darkness.
Oh, this is really the worst time travel.
Others who traveled through time either became emperors, gods, or nobles, but he was transported as a disfigured tool.
In a world filled with ignorance, a beautiful young man chosen by a priest must sacrifice his life to the temple.
——That should mean that those chosen by the priests must serve the temple for their entire lives.
But for many years, only young and handsome boys were chosen, and within two or three years at the shortest, or ten years at the longest, these boys would die, and the priests would declare that their souls had ascended to heaven, and their bodies would need to be cremated.
There is no impenetrable wall in the world. Even though the bodies of those teenagers were burned quickly, some people secretly examined them and some people secretly told the truth, saying that these teenagers were completely tortured to death.
Someone stood up to resist, saying that everything was a conspiracy of the priests. The priests then said that this was a slander against the gods and that the gods would bring down divine punishment.
As expected, heavy rain fell for more than a month until the rebels were cut into pieces and the gods' anger was appeased.
From then on, no one dared to resist, and the beautiful boys who were chosen all waited for death in despair.
Some people also escaped, but the consequences of their escape were no different from Lin Guantang's. They were caught and imprisoned and starved, and were only given a little water and cold rice every two or three days.
But he was even more miserable. Not only was he imprisoned and starved, but his face was also disfigured and his fingers were cut off. He lay on the door and eavesdropped on people outside who said that the priest already knew about his disfigurement and was very angry and annoyed, but could not take back the oracle, so even though he was angry, he still had to send him to the temple.
If he hadn't been disfigured, he might not have been able to live well for a few days. But if he was sent there with a disfigured face, he would probably be tortured to death and wouldn't have had a good day.
I don’t know if I can last more than three days.
He was terrified when he heard this, and tried hard to beg the people outside to let him out, but he was only met with curses and ridicule.
No one helped him out, but there was a small knife in the food that was delivered to him.
A sharp fork, a porcelain plate, if he wants to die, he can even choose one of the three.
Oh, wanting to kill yourself by hitting your head against a wall is also an option.
But he sat there for a long time like a dead man, and still ate all the food that could be swallowed in one bite.
But he was getting weaker and weaker, and it took him a long time to finish the meal he could swallow in one gulp.
When the door was opened, he didn't even have the strength to stand up. He was carried to wash in water soaked with fragrant herbs and then sent to the temple.
The houses of all sizes passed along the way were no more than three-story buildings at their most prosperous, but the temples were as magnificent as palaces, and all the servants were dressed in thin white gauze.
He was carried to the statue covered with white gauze and waited for a long time before a figure in gorgeous clothes walked in. He actually had a good-looking face.
This is the priest.
I thought he was an ugly old man, but he turned out to be such a sanctimonious guy.
He walked step by step to Lin Guantang, and then grabbed Lin Guantang's neck without warning, intending to strangle him to death.
Lin Guantang struggled desperately, grabbing the priest's face with his fingers, and then was thrown to the ground.
The veil covered his ugly face. Lin Guantang felt a hand tearing off his clothes. When the figure covered him, he raised his hand and stabbed the dagger on his arm.
As the air was filled with the smell of blood, he was lifted up by the neck and thrown onto the altar next to him.
He was thrown down and felt pain all over his body, and then he was lifted up by the neck.
"With this ugly face, you dare to look down on me?"
The priest's sarcastic voice sounded, and Lin Guantang counterattacked without thinking:
"An ugly soul is many times more disgusting than an ugly face!"
Then he received a burst of ambiguous laughter.
He was let go, and the priest walked out, closing the door behind him.
He walked all over the vast palace but could not find any way out.
For a long time afterwards, only priests came and tried to tame him by both soft and hard tactics, but he would rack his brains to kill them. Occasionally - very occasionally, they would put chains on him and take him out to enjoy some beautiful scenery.
A full moon and a courtyard full of flowers, or a riverbank with countless bright lights.
The relationship seemed to be better at that time.
For a long time, no other sacrifices were chosen to be sent to the temple.
The priest led him into the downtown area, with the slender chain covered by the magnificent sleeves. The priest talked with people in front and accepted the people's kneeling worship. He stood behind and heard people whispering that the priest had fallen in love with him.
Love?
Such a twisted love.
Maybe there will be a happy ending.
The priest declared his surrender under the moonlight, he fell in love with an ugly body.
Lin Guantang didn't say anything, just buried her head in his arms.
On the quiet and beautiful moonlit night, time seems to fall into eternal romance.
But it was only a few minutes before the priest pushed him away, rage and hatred completely unfolding in an instant. He lowered his head in disbelief, and a dagger was inserted into his heart.
It was stained with poison that would kill him.
"The sinful priest should die."
Lin Guantang was being lifted up by the neck, as if he were being hung on a cross and about to be burned to death, but he laughed intermittently:
"I will never... never fall in love with... a sinful soul. Killing you is my... purpose. It has never changed, never wavered!"
His face was so ugly with its burns and bumps.
But he was not killed by the fire.
The moonlight was scattered, the light and shadow were blurred, shining on him like a holy angel.
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