Chapter 12

At 9:10, I walked into Lan Xiao’s office on time for the first time.

Lan Xiao saw me, smiled, and waved the bowl of porridge in his hand, saying boisterously, “You go ahead with your report, I’ll just have breakfast while you do.”

I sat down across from him, was quiet for two seconds, then suddenly spoke.

“You had a crush on your history teacher in high school.”

“Pfft-”

Lan Xiao spat a mouthful of porridge onto his rosewood desk.

His eyes widened in shock and he said, flustered, “What nonsense are you spouting!”

I continued calmly.

“You have a scar on your left buttock because you forgot you were holding a cigarette while wiping after using the bathroom.”

“All your rumored girlfriends are fake. You arranged with them in advance to create buzz for mutual benefit.”

“When you were studying in the UK, you were locked up for a month for fighting. No one knows about this, not even your father.”

“You’re afraid of the dark, afraid of animals with pointed mouths, you like strawberry ice cream, you’re allergic to ultraviolet rays, you like Yu Hua and Yu Xiuhua, and the person you dreamed of as a teenager was-”

“Stop! Shut up! Don’t say another word!”

Lan Xiao jumped up, pointing at me in terror and confusion, stammering, “Impossible! There’s no way you could know these things. What’s going on? Who told you?”

I smiled at him. “You did.”

He told me.

He told me when I threatened him again and again, standing on the windowsill.

I won’t give up.

No matter how desperate, I won’t.

I’ve lived alone and lonely for twenty-seven years. I’ve done right by heaven and earth, but never by myself. I’ve scrimped and saved, using every advantage to put away money, and I won’t let it all go to waste for someone else’s benefit.

I have to get out of this predicament.

I can’t trust Yisheng anymore.

I don’t dare to keep following his solution either.

Because suddenly, I realized something.

His logic and reasoning all start from the premise of breaking the cycle.

But what about the inevitable death?

If my inevitable death doesn’t change, then breaking the cycle means: I die, but I don’t come back.

Once I understood this, I had to suspect that my death is inseparably linked to Gu Yisheng.

I can’t figure out whether this involves science, metaphysics, or some kind of cosmic bug, but I believe that since it happened, there must be a way to resolve it.

I need help.

The best candidate is Lan Xiao.