Chapter 114

Chapter 114

Before falling asleep, Ning Shuo had been wondering why Ning Wang recovered his memories far more frequently than he did. Once he drifted off, he dreamed of the reason.

In the dream, a powerless Ning Shuo and Ning Wang were locked inside a Data Prison. Beside them stood several people with letters carved into their wrists, keeping them confined.

He heard their captors discussing among themselves. “Who knows where that mirror went? No wonder my lord ordered us to strip away all their memories. If my lord can’t find it, he doesn’t want them finding it either.”

Ning Shuo was the first to be taken out. Back then, he and Ning Wang truly looked exactly the same.

They were copies replicated by the same mirror-their faces, voices, and even souls were identical.

The place where memories were stripped away was a data pod. Ning Shuo was shoved inside, and the world before his eyes was swallowed by darkness.

The memories after that were a chaotic mess. He only remembered a shattering sound, then the data within the System being overrun by countless “error” messages. It was as if something had gone wrong with the data input for every Judge; their conversation cut off abruptly, and their movements began turning mechanical.

The scene became clear again at the moment one Judge stood up to check the data pod. “…It’s already been washed twice?”

Another Judge returned from the prison. “The other one still hasn’t woken up. That matches the aftereffects of having his memories freshly washed, and there are also signs that the Data Prison was opened twice. This should be the one from the Water Moon Mirror.”

One Judge called out to him uncertainly, “Ning Wang?”

Ning Shuo heard himself frown and ask, “Who are you people?”

The Judge nodded among themselves. “It’s him. Take him back to the Data Prison. There was such a large-scale internal disorder just now; my lord’s side will be difficult to handle. After we take him back, we’ll go assist my lord.”

Ning Shuo’s memories were a complete blank. All he remembered was that a few minutes ago, he had still been assassinating the emperor, and a few minutes later, he was being escorted away with no strength in his body.

Even in such a sorry state, Ning Shuo’s tone remained lazy and casual. “Did the Dog Emperor send you? When did he build a place like this? And judging by your clothes, are you foreigners?”

The people escorting him ignored him and kept chatting among themselves. “He really forgot everything.”

Things seemed to be veering wildly off course. On top of that, Ning Shuo truly had no strength left. Huge patches of white light bloomed before his eyes, and in the end, Ning Shuo still went limp.

The world returned to darkness.

When he woke again, Ning Shuo thought he had seen a ghost. Why was there someone exactly like him?

Ning Shuo said, “Mm… may I ask your honorable surname?”

That person replied, “No honor in it. My surname is Ning.”

“…It wouldn’t happen to be Wang, would it?”

“Yes. I am Ning Wang.”

Ha. If this person was Ning Wang, then who was he?

“Uh… have you ever had a former name? Xie Ning, perhaps?”

“Yes.”

Utterly absurd.

That was what Ning Shuo thought, and that was exactly what slipped out of his mouth.

The man said with a smiling expression, “Not absurd. For all we know, we might be the same person.”

Ning Shuo retorted that this counted as a spacetime paradox, but the man said, completely unconcerned, that in a world so vast, nothing was too strange to exist.

To be honest, at first Ning Shuo only felt that this person was full of nonsense.

If he really was Ning Wang, there was no way he would casually trust someone.

Until Ning Shuo noticed the sadness hidden beneath the smile at the corners of his eyes and brows.

Ning Shuo suddenly realized that he might have forgotten a great many things.

And among the things he had forgotten, the other Ning Wang still remembered them.

That was why the other man was utterly certain that they were the same person. But for some reason, this Ning Wang had to pretend as if he did not remember either.

The chirping of sparrows suddenly sounded by his ear. Ning Shuo opened his eyes in a daze, and through the fog of half-waking consciousness, one thought grew increasingly clear: so that was how it was.
So the reason Ning Wang had been able to remember so much more before he did was because Ning Shuo had already had his memory washed twice before that.

On top of that, Ning Wang was currently amnesiac too. In other words, after Ning Shuo lost his memories, they had actually remained in the System for some time.

And now, neither Ning Shuo nor Ning Wang remembered the past.

So, Ning Shuo had had his memory washed three times, while Ning Wang had had his washed once.

In the end, one went to the modern world, and the other was trapped in a Script.

—

Ning Shuo had no intention of telling Ning Wang any of this.

First, he still wasn’t prepared to coax a child. Second, he wanted to investigate everything thoroughly, sort it all out, and then tell him the whole story.

Just like in the dream, where Ning Wang clearly hadn’t lost his memories, yet still put on a relaxed front and pulled him onto the same side.

And then there was the so-called explosion.

When Ning Wang saw the explosion, that should have been the moment Ning Shuo was sent to the modern world.

Ning Shuo didn’t believe the System could possibly be that kind. Most likely, the System had wanted to kill him, only for a third party to interfere and take the opportunity to send Ning Shuo to the modern world.

Maybe it was Song Zhu, maybe Shu Yan, maybe Rao Lin, or maybe someone else entirely.

He would figure it out eventually.

Ning Shuo lightly poked Ning Wang between the brows, then slowly traced the lines of his features.

Honestly, this face of his really was ridiculously good-looking.

It saved Ning Shuo the trouble of looking in the mirror every day.

Mornings always came with certain indescribable urges. As Ning Shuo traced the features of the face before him, his mind was already playing through all sorts of things that could never be written on Tomato, when Ning Wang suddenly caught his finger. “Morning, bro. Want a good morning kiss?”

His voice was low and husky, practically a classic scene straight out of an idol drama.

Unfortunately, reality was not an idol drama. Ning Shuo pushed his face away. “Go brush your teeth.”

Ning Wang smiled, then insisted on nuzzling against him before reluctantly getting up.

As the two of them stood side by side brushing their teeth, the scene somehow felt peaceful and warm. Ning Wang finished first, found a hair tie, and tied up Ning Shuo’s hair for him. “Why did you want to grow your hair out?”

Back in the modern world, Ning Shuo had considered cutting his hair.

But every time that thought arose, some indescribable feeling would linger in his chest.

Ning Shuo didn’t understand where that feeling came from, but he had always been someone who followed his heart. Once he realized he didn’t want to cut it short, he simply stopped thinking about it. At most, he got it trimmed into a proper style, but overall, he kept it at a medium-long length.

After all, he looked devastatingly handsome no matter what.

Only after the dream last night did he understand. Perhaps he had wanted to maintain the way he had looked in the past. Perhaps when he looked in the mirror, it would stir up some tiny sense of familiarity that had seeped into his bones.

But saying that out loud felt a little sentimental, and Ning Shuo didn’t particularly want to bring up painful topics in such a relaxed atmosphere. So he casually said, “My health wasn’t good back then, so I dressed a little gentler. That way, when this King shows his edge, it cuts even deeper.”

“My King, your eyes don’t look innocent at all.”

“They look wise, right?”

However, because this wise King had snuck back in, he couldn’t go downstairs for breakfast. He could only have his loyal Knight bring him two buns to eat on the way. The Knight followed behind him, wanting both to protect his King from the rear and to maintain his school tyrant image by stepping into class right as the bell rang.

Who would’ve thought that the moment they arrived at school, a whole row of bodyguards would be standing at the gate?

The Wen Clan moved with astonishing speed. Although the Jiang Family had not gone bankrupt yet, negative news about them was already flying everywhere outside.

The disciplinary director, who was catching day students at the school gate, spotted Ning Wang. This time, unlike before, he did not turn a blind eye. He reached for Ning Wang’s shoulder and was about to demand an explanation. “How dare you be late!”