Fantasy Clock～Dream Ruler～

"Hey...what the hell is this..."

--here.

There is no color and no temperature.

Only infinitely stretched time relentlessly passes away.

Anxiety and anxiety gradually climbed into my heart, and a certain cognition conveyed softly told the fact that the darkness would swallow me up together.

——If the world is pure darkness, no one will know the so-called color.

I have never experienced color, and I will not pursue color.

But a hypothesis remains a hypothesis, that colors other than pitch black once existed.

Whether it is the soothing sky blue or the throbbing starlight silver.

Because I once had color, I couldn't be willing to be in the void with only darkness.

The trembling arm could not help but lift it to the front of the field of vision. Even though he couldn't see his hand in the darkness, he only vaguely confirmed the fact that he stretched out his hand based on the residual perception of his body.

"You can't turn back. Because you promised me—even if it is a road of no return, you will never turn back."

The heart seemed to be pinched without leaving any gaps in a broad palm, and there was a feeling of oppression and heavyness.

"Am I... dreaming?"

Suddenly, a brilliant neon light came into the center of the field of vision. The outstretched hand seems to have reached the end of the tunnel, and the vision is no longer pure black. As a result, a ray of relief passed through my heart.

I kept holding my right hand, acting cautiously, as if I could keep the strange beam of light in my palm, and I was afraid that it would slip away quietly while I was not paying attention.

The moment I clenched my fist, the beam of light radiated towards it coldly, spinning around in the darkness like an untwisted knot, producing red and blue lights that flashed frequently.

Vaguely, I recognized that it was a flashing police light.

The police car parked obliquely on the street raged against my ears and stopped in my hazy field of vision. The ambulance coming from a distance covered the traces of the police car and lay across in front of me.

The color faded suddenly, and several white coats rushed past me and broke into the door behind me.

The medical mask lost its color and looked pale, and the dignified and strange eyes completely froze me from head to toe.

The crushing footsteps trampled on the scattered pills on the floor, leading the dream world's morphine to crush into lime.

The figure escorted by the stretcher was exposed in the black-and-white photo, only the horrifyingly bright blood was isolated from the faded world, extending all the way into the house, piercing my eyes cruelly, making me, who had temporarily forgotten the reality, cry out again in pain .

【Why...why...Su Huohuo...】

[Su Ruoyang, stop it...! 】

The scene that happened to me more than ten years ago is now replaying before my eyes in a more tragic and absurd situation.

【I'm really looking forward to it, I really want to know what kind of expression you will show when you suffer unexpected disasters and pains, and you collapse due to countless setbacks~】

"Hey... even this kind of thing is part of your plan..."

The beating heart became more and more frantic, and it was hard to tell whether this strong emotion was anger or despair.

The hoarse and stinging throat tore the soul hidden in the depths.

"Tell me!"

Instinctively, I tried to get closer to the stretcher, but my body was restrained and handcuffed in place. I struggled like crazy. Probably because I realized that my violent mood was out of control, and someone stabbed it into the side of my neck with a long and sharp needle. My eyes went dark, and the unknown medicine once again took away my consciousness that had disappeared several times.

Boundless darkness invaded every corner of the field of vision, and there was a slight touch of the sand on the back.

The dazzling colors in the sky made me instinctively raise my arms on both sides to block the harsh light. While covering my eyelids, I propped myself up on the sand and sat up.

"here it is……"

The impact of the waves on the ear is like a gentle massage. I followed the faint wisp of weirdness, and looked down to see a black pointed hat falling quietly between my separated legs.

The sound of the waves crashing to the shore took my sight away. I couldn't help holding up the peaked hat, and looked around blankly. There were shining stars under the clear as empty sea, as if the sea swallowed up the sky.

When I recognized this place, I suddenly fell into panic.

The deserted streets of foreign countries, the stopped clock obviously swinging steadily in the air without support, the sky infested with bright blood red...

All of this undoubtedly proves that this is the crack in my dream that I have been stuck in for three months——

"Hey. Do you still, remember this place?"

Just when he was at a loss, an ethereal and awe-inspiring female voice suddenly appeared from behind. I involuntarily searched for the source of the sound and turned my gaze to the back of myself.

A pair of dull blue eyes were imprinted in the center of my field of vision, staring straight at me silently. The girl who was familiar but seemed unfamiliar first made me happy, and then suddenly plunged me into a fog of confusion.

"you......"

The shame welling up in my heart made me unable to look directly into her eyes, and I had to lower my gaze a little. As a result, the confusion gradually overwhelmed the shame.

Obviously, whether it's her waist-length black hair casually draped behind her back, or her refreshing dress with red short sleeves and denim shorts...these familiar features all tell me the identity of the other party, but——

"Why...why are you in such a dangerous place, Xia Yinci?"

——I should be relieved that Xia Yinci is not dead, but for some reason, Xia Yinci in front of me makes me feel like I am in a hallucination, or as if I am dreaming back half a year ago.

Now, half a year later, Xia Yinci prefers to wear clothes in darker tones. The last time we met, she was also wearing a simple black sweater. She shouldn't be so inclined to dress like a girl half a year ago, let alone she shouldn't be here.

"Why can't I be here?"

Xia Yinci responded to my question with a rhetorical question, in a tone as if the strangeness was my question rather than her presence.

"Forget it... let's talk about this kind of thing later!"

For the time being, I don't care about the reason why Xia Yinci appeared here, because there are more important things before this——

Here, we are in the gap between dreams, which is a world ruled by the Creator. Even reality is clearly influenced by her, but she seems to be interested in not directly interfering with the world beyond reality. On the other hand, we are absolutely no match for her here, we must leave here as soon as possible before she finds us.

Thinking of this, I hurriedly held Xia Yinci's hand, trying to escape to a place where I could hide. But I couldn't even pull her away. Xia Yinci stood extremely firmly on the spot, as if rooted in the ground.

"Answer my question, Su Luoyang. Do you remember this place?"

The girl's tone was so flat that I couldn't hear any waves. She didn't ask me why I left in a hurry, and she didn't even call me "Su Huohuo", which made me notice the weirdness even more.

For some reason, I couldn't help but stare at her ice-cold eyes, gradually recalling the reality that I suspected that I "killed" Xia Yinci and her father.

There was an indescribable nausea in my stomach, and I swallowed the strange feeling stuck in my throat with difficulty, forcing myself to turn my eyes away, and took into my vision the endless sea of ​​stars beside me that freely exudes glory.

"This is... the place where I made a promise with you, promising you to win the war of domination."

After finishing speaking, I turned my gaze back to Xia Yinci. Suddenly, the sea breeze blew past at the right time, lifting her black hair that fell on her shoulders, and her figure standing beside the sea of ​​stars overlapped with the picture in my memory.

However, her expression was not as good as that smiling face with a little distress at that time. When she got the answer, her face still had no ups and downs, and she just kept looking straight into my eyes. Those dull eyes were like a bottomless abyss, I couldn't even confirm if she heard my voice.

The crystal-clear sea level is unknowingly coated with several layers of color, and the transparency of nothingness gradually fades into a mirror-like reflection, reflecting the world where only she and I are there.

I hesitated whether I needed to repeat my answer again, but Xia Yinci took the lead before I made a decision and took a slightly unsteady step, casting an incomplete shadow when it fell on the mirror.

The silver shackles half protruding from the trouser pockets rang, Xia Yinci walked up to me with eyes that were completely different from the swaying steps, and stopped in front of me. Although she looked up at me, her aura seemed to be condescending. God.

The girl slowly raised her jade arm, allowing her five fingers to touch the position not far in front of my chest, so she turned her slightly red palm to face upward.

"If even this last road is a dead end, then there is no so-called way out." The girl's soft and dignified voice seemed to contain an irresistible magic power. "So now, it's time for you to fulfill your promise."

It was as if a proud princess was looking down at the knight who was kneeling before her with one knee, swearing allegiance to her. With an elegant smile, the princess gently stretched out her white fingertips to her knight, ordering him to guard her life with this life.

"Su Luoyang. Please replace me and win the final victory of this 'war of domination'."

For some reason, her heartbeat was affected by Xia Yinci's words. Even though I haven't understood the meaning she wants to convey to me, I still follow that turbulent emotion, and I can't help but want to hold Xia Yinci's bare hand hanging on my chest.

——It’s just that I couldn’t hold her hand in the end. Didn't even touch her skin. Violent shocks suddenly erupted in my field of vision, all I knew was that the girl's empty hand was stuck to my chest unexpectedly, and then there was a burst of pressure that was so violent that it surpassed expectations without warning, and my whole body was thrown directly off the ground. .

I struggled backwards to resist the pace. At that moment, there was a hot and weird feeling in my throat, as if there was a foreign object stuck in my chest and it was about to move, tearing my internal organs fiercely.

Before I could find the center of gravity, that figure almost pulled out an afterimage, and flashed in front of me at an incredible speed.

Unable to dodge, I suppressed the confusion in my chest and fixed my eyes on the figure of the girl in front of me, only to find that the girl chasing after me was no longer Xia Yinci——

Even though she was still dressed in red short-sleeves and denim shorts, the silver threads floating in the air, the eyes so cold that they seemed to freeze the person looking at them, and the ancient clock looming in the pupils...

All these traits belonging to Qianyan make it hard for me to tell whether the person in front of me is Qianyan or Xia Yinci.

Or, neither.

"Nah~ Su Ruoyang ❤ is such a disobedient child, you have come back here after all~ But you can only come here to seek comfort after suffering the fate of killing your childhood sweetheart and father with your own hands~"

The girl's tone seems to regard the whole world as a script under her control, and she is undoubtedly the creator in charge of everything. I couldn't help clenching my fists, and at the same time instinctively retreated back, but I couldn't help her catching up with me several times faster than me.

The field of vision seemed to stand in several times the slow motion, the girl's ice-cold eyes full of love met my field of vision, and her palm slowly hit my chest with penetrating force.

And this does not seem to be my own subjective cognition of time becoming slow at an extremely critical moment, just like the whole world is infinitely slowing down, only I am in normal time.

The moment I realized this, strong confusion spread in my heart. I don't know where I got the self-confidence, but I decided in my heart that this abnormal time was caused by Qianyan. The faint sense of existence belonging to Qianyan seems to be hidden somewhere in the girl's body.

The meaning of confusion thus gradually turned into bitterness. I took advantage of the abnormal timing of Qian Yan's reversal, and desperately moved my body to avoid the girl's seemingly fatal palm. I was separated by a distance, and couldn't help shouting questions at the girl.

"Are you Xia Yinci or Qianyan..."

Unsealed memories of the past - the former Xia Yinci was also occupied by Qianyan several times. I don't know much about the relationship between them, all I know is that "Qianyan used to be Xia Yinci's dreamer".

Rather, my understanding of them has been superficial from beginning to end.

I don't know what or why they each hid from me. But the key to everything now seems to be what kind of relationship they have with the Creator——

"Hey, or... you're just that proud creator..."

A moment of imperceptible emotion flashed across the girl's cold and dull eyes, but the sadness disappeared after only a few seconds, leaving only the distorted love.

"I don't hate the fact that you have to get to the bottom of everything ❤ But you can't push yourself too far~"

I clenched my teeth sourly. Almost as soon as the words fell, the girl reflected in the mirror was already walking towards me with extremely fast steps, quickly closing the distance I had just opened.

Her unfamiliar eyes were so close to mine. The non-stop light from the sky fell on half of the girl's silver hair, and the smudged color made her long silver hair hanging on both sides look black in an instant.

Even though the unbelievable optical illusion lasted only for a moment, I noticed the similarity between Xia Yinci and Qianyan for the first time because of this scene. Especially those clear eyes that are also as blue as the sea.

"Hey... who the hell are you..."

The smudged black hair on the side facing the light and the silver hair on the backlight side naturally match those eyes no matter which side is on. Neither fit.

The strong sense of shock in my heart severely damaged my cognition, and I suddenly had a strong doubt about the question "Whether Qianyan or Xia Yinci is occupied by the Creator". Going a step further—what if there is no such thing as occupying the body from beginning to end? Is the person who has driven all my destiny to death, the Creator, or...

"Damn it...what the hell is all of this!! Although I can die right now, but if the answer is really as I expected——I just don't want to be killed by you... .”

The strange light disappeared in an abnormal time, and the desperately trembling heartbeat finally turned into a distorted color in the field of vision, and then spread rapidly towards the extreme of the field of vision, and the field of vision shattered like a broken lens, and jumped into complete darkness.

"Hey...wake up, it's time to get out of the car! You bastards...this is not a place for you to rest!"

The sound of palms slapping my cheeks reached my ears first, and then the sound of hurried footsteps came near me. I opened my eyes suddenly, just in time for a young man in a black uniform to walk up to me.

The young man didn't seem to expect that I would wake up in advance. He was stunned for a second, then ignored the fact that I had already woken up, stretched out his palm and slapped my cheek twice, and pushed me roughly. my back.

"What the hell is here..."

The limbs of my body were abnormally weak. I have to say that thanks to the youth's rough push, I was able to stand up, and even the vision was temporarily only the nearby scenery clearly.

The front of the space I am in is a solid iron plate, and there are two rusty wire windows. Through the windows, you can see two car seats on the opposite side of the iron plate, and the two sides of the space are double closed by iron rods and tempered glass. window.

Before I knew where I was, the "staff" in black uniforms started shouting, and I couldn't help being driven by the surrounding atmosphere, and followed the other people in the car to get out of the car through the open door at the rear. If you take a closer look at the people who get out of the car, they are all wearing clothes with black and white stripes in the horizontal direction, and when you look down, I am actually the same.

"Hey, get your stuff."

The voice of the young man from before suddenly sounded from behind, interrupting my thinking. I turned around in a daze, but one of the people I passed by deliberately slammed into my shoulder with such force that I couldn't stop in the same place, and almost took me out of the car. At the same time, the young man violently threw the backpack in his hand at me, so I had no choice but to grab the door next to me with my right hand while freeing my left hand to grab the strap that had been swung down, and took the backpack.

After leaving the carriage, the extremely dazzling sunlight almost deprived my vision, so I raised my right hand to my forehead to block the sunlight. Those in black uniforms then also left the car, and two of them closed the open doors.

Only then did I realize where I was just now through the words "public security" and "prison car" written on the car door.

The prison van of the extended model drove over the muddy ground full of gravel, and the shaking mood seemed to be crushed by the tires.

I lowered my eyes in panic, checked the clothes on my body again, then raised my eyes and scanned the long sticks around the waists of those staff members, so I finally realized my situation.

Breathing suddenly entered a rapid rhythm. The blood-stained blade under the moonlight, and the two bodies that fell to the ground one after another—the blood-stained scene flashed before my eyes in the form of flashback, making my heart beat faster.

I stretched out my hands to press my ears, and shook my head vigorously, trying to get rid of the endless tinnitus in my ears. As far as the line of sight can see, there is no grass growing nearby, and nothing that can establish a connection with the outside world——

This place that I once thought I would never step into in my life is now firmly in front of me.

The innocent have no reason to set foot in this place of punishment, that being the case. Then which crime am I imprisoned in this prison in the name of? Is it the crime of injury, or the crime of homicide?

Thinking of this step, the consciousness fell into an unnatural fragment again without warning, only the shouts of the prison guards could be heard.

"Welcome to the place of repentance and repentance. Today, December 21, 2018, Beijing time - will be the dividing line in your life. You are about to go to the time zone of "isolation" to confess the sins you have committed."

The sound of the sentence hit the ears directly, and the figure of the prison guard was stretched beyond the actual size in the field of vision.

"Even if you here are extremely sinful, it doesn't mean that you don't have the right to live. Your bed numbers are clearly written on your respective prison uniforms. New bastards, make good use of this ample time to reform yourself. New—although all of you are felons..."

The words are fleeting.

When I opened my eyes again, there was an overly hard wooden bed behind me. I rubbed my nostrils to drive away the lingering dizziness, and when I sat up, I realized that I was already in a semi-enclosed space with extremely dim light.

So, is that so...?

This inexplicably doomed fate is what you, the creator, say with love, are the unforeseen misfortunes and pains. Are there still countless setbacks?

It is obvious that Su Huilin has not yet found it. Now, no one has told me the situation of Xia Yinci and her father. I only know that I will have to spend countless days and months in this kind of place in the future.

I slowly put my hands in front of my eyes, trembling my five fingers. The palm that was not stained with any color, unknowingly and cruelly bloomed completely irregular bloody flowers in my eyes——

"What the hell is this..."

I should have noticed the abnormality hidden in the trivial things around me earlier. Not only dominating the war itself, or the superficial concealment, but more attention should be paid to the abnormalities hidden behind the details.

From the fact that Qianyan often occupies Xia Yinci's body, the vague relationship between them shown, and the reason why the Creator chose Qianyan, all these seemingly unintentional actions seem to imply some kind of secret .

Now, Xia Yinci, who was replaced by Qianyan in the dream and disappeared.

【If even this last road is a dead end, then there is no so-called way out. 】

[Please replace me and win the final victory of this "war of domination". 】

If I could have done it earlier... If I could have realized that Xia Yinci's all-time hints were actually related to the Creator who controls the world, then perhaps this unreasonable "fate" would have a chance to be avoided.

So, why do you keep telling me such nonsense hints...!

How can I understand what you mean by always leaving me only point-and-shoot hints?

The vision runs through with sickening clarity.

I clenched my hands bit by bit, but out of the corner of my eye I inadvertently caught a glimpse of a strange trace in the corner. It's like avoiding the eyes of some people, but deliberately only attracting my attention.

I couldn't help frowning. Although the corner was not far from me, but because the light was very dim, I had to support the edge of the bed with my hands, and stood up with some difficulty.

Speaking of which, it is actually quite strange to be able to see the movement in the corner under such extremely low visibility.

I walked to the corner of the room, bent down and looked carefully, and finally recognized a line of writing on the wall that seemed to be carved with a sharp instrument——

"Answer me, what crime have you committed?"

The rough outline of the handwriting appears distorted in the twists and turns. I stuck out my thumb dumbly, stroking the tactile sensation of the writing on the wall. At this moment, the words on the wall suddenly became blurred, and new words appeared out of thin air.

"Since it's something that can't be determined, then don't jump to conclusions."

This sudden abnormality made me withdraw my thumb. I quickly looked around myself, and confirmed that there was no sign of anyone else nearby, so I set my sights on that line of writing again.

"Find the answer quickly, or I will be very troubled."

— as expected. The writing on the wall changed again, as if the wall was a disguise for some highly recognizable display screen. But the tactile sensation I had just felt with my thumb proved that the traces were actually on the wall.

The tone revealed between the lines made me frown in confusion, and I always felt that the person who carved the letter was someone I knew.

"Your interview is far from over. I said that my "give up" is only temporary?"

The words that seemed to have been heard were written on the wall by the other party in stiff handwriting. And when I read this sentence in my heart, the cold words were automatically given the tone of that girl.

On that day a few weeks ago, Xue Xueer said goodbye to me on the roof of the school. She agreed to some people's invitation to withdraw from my life, and at the same time she made an appointment with me to continue the interview one day in the future,

When I came back to my senses, the handwriting on the wall had disappeared without a trace. Before I had time to ask Xue Xueer why she reappeared in such an inexplicable form, her aura had already quietly left.

Although Xue Xueer's appearance is mysterious and absurd, the information she left me is undoubtedly correct.

It is indeed an undeniable fact that I stabbed Xia Yinci and her father's vitals with a knife, but there is a non-negligible difference between "stabbing" and "stabbing to death" in every sense.

I was never sentenced or told how long I would have to serve.

Therefore, it is impossible for anyone to tell me about Xia Yinci and his father.

For me, the life and death of Xia Yinci and her father are uncertain, and there is no definite answer to Su Huilin's whereabouts-if you can accept the sentence with peace of mind under such circumstances, that is a truly irresponsible behavior.

I gently put my palm on the wall where the trace was left just now. When I turned around, the dazzling lights above almost took away my vision.

I struggle to adjust to the nearby light. I stretched out my hand to slightly block the light from top to bottom, and saw that the fluorescent lamps arranged on the ceiling lit up from far to near, and soon the light spread to every corner of the line of sight.

"Now is the time for free movement. Please return to your bed in 30 minutes."

The announcement from the loudspeaker covered the entire space, and the iron door that was set up not far from my bed unexpectedly sounded a "click", and then the iron door bounced open towards the outside.

I took a deep breath to adjust my breathing, pushed open the iron door and went outside, the slightly noisy human voice instantly covered the slight tinnitus in my ears.

The criminals, all dressed in black and white prison uniforms, basically came and went in gangs, and most of them gathered at the places where the tables were placed. Although it is not as good as the movie, and there are more silent people than fierce people, but the scene in front of us is also chaotic. If it is accompanied by the music with drums and crescendo, it will be the epitome of a bar.

I passed through the gangs of criminals, and the people I saw on the way, whether they were criminals or prison guards, obviously had people from different nationalities, and people of different nationalities from our own were obviously not in the minority.

Except for the time I was imprisoned by the Core Research Association, this was my first time in a place like a prison. However, according to common sense, all the people in the prison should be from the same country. Even if they are not, most of them should be of the same nationality.

I couldn't ignore the abnormality of this mixed fish and dragon. Out of consideration, I still focused on some individual people as reference objects, and tried to ask them about the crimes they committed. As a result, I found that there was no pattern at all.

"Ask me about the crime I committed? Hehe, it might scare you if you say it."

The opening remarks of the criminals were basically the same, and some of them refused to answer. And the conclusion is - the prisoners here are not only from all over the world, but also have a variety of crimes, from theft and robbery, to riots and fights, to arson and murder, giving me the illusion that I can find all the legal crimes in the world here.

Of course, I also thought about whether we would be grouped together according to the punishment, but there are criminals who have been sentenced to any punishment except the death row.

And the most notable thing is that few people are as ignorant as I am of the crimes they have committed and the time they have served.

For whatever reason, I am the only one who does not know my verdict. This kind of imprisonment that can't find any rules at all, I only saw it in the Core Research Association, but the people imprisoned there at least have something in common that is "related to dreams". And here is the real meaning of "no rules".

When I was stubbornly looking for the next target, a melodious and melancholy melody sounded from the speaker. I slowly remembered that it was "Floating in the city" I had heard before, and at the same time realized that it was the light-off bell.

Nearby, the "old prisoners" who had gotten used to it took the lead to return to their respective beds, so I had no choice but to give up.

Even though my first day in prison began that afternoon, it was an unusually long time for me.

The investigation, which is equivalent to no progress, ended with the unreasonable conclusion of "irregularity". I had no choice but to find other ways out, and decided to start with the most basic "daily arrangement" the next day.

Thinking about it carefully, I remember someone told me that there are quite a few mental care centers that play this song "Floating in the city" as the sleep music for patients.

Why...a prison, a place where prisoners are held, uses this soothing tune as the light-off bell?

I couldn't help frowning, and my thoughts flew to the past along with the melody.

"Strange...how do I know that this song is played in many mental hospitals?"

The melody did not stop for a long time, and my consciousness gradually fell asleep, but this night, I never fell asleep. It's like a 10-hour consciousness fragment that stops me from thinking, and then I regain consciousness after 10 hours.

I didn't think about why I wasn't dreaming. It may be that I don't have time to think about this kind of thing now, or it may be that I dare not think about this question, for fear that the answer I get will destroy my determination to move forward now.

I don't know how long it took, but my thoughts fell silent. As if in a dream.

The rustling waves swept away the accumulated sand on the coast. Suddenly the melodious and sad piano sound crescendoed, and my heartbeat stepped into the rhythm of this music. As if there is a film attached to the heart, the melody sounds to suppress the turbulence.

When I was still in junior high school, that girl would often sneak up to my side, flashing two blue and clear eyes. She leaned her upper body forward and looked at me, talking about irrelevant things in a cold manner.

Sometimes it's a scientific theory that sounds fantastic, and I haven't investigated its authenticity afterwards, so I've just heard it;

One day at noon, I was enjoying the bento that Su Huilin had prepared for me, but I didn't know that a girl behind me mysteriously approached me, and quietly inserted the earphones in my hands into my ears.

As soon as I picked up a piece of luncheon meat on the rice with chopsticks, I suddenly felt a slight itchiness in my ear.

After that, the soothing tune sounded - this "Floating in the city".

Obviously, the action of pressing down the keys sounds so gentle, as if the performer is afraid of touching the softest part of the listener's heart, but... why is the sadness surging deep in the chest now?

Floating in the city, wandering in a foreign land. I, who have never stepped out of this seaside city so far, why do I resonate with this music and feel the same way?

I couldn't help being immersed in this strange mood, and it took a long time before I finally recovered from my absence.

I looked back in a daze. The girl was wearing the spring and autumn school uniforms required by junior high school, with her hands propped on the chair underneath, her head tilted slightly. The loose coat in white and black and the overly simple trousers emphasize her youthfulness.

Maybe it was because the earphone cable was too short, Xia Yinci, who shared the same pair of earphones with me, moved closer to me calmly, presumably she didn't want the earphones to fall off and disturb the music.

Is there a day when such a simple daily life will come to an end?

The song is over. Estimated to be about 7 minutes long. I am still immersed in that mood and it is difficult to turn back.

"what do you think?"

Xia Yinci didn't break the silence until there was silence in the earphones, and then spoke to me.

I was stunned for a moment, then slowly took off the pink earphones, returned them to Xia Yinci who was beside me with one hand, at the same time quietly raised my hands and rubbed my eyes, and then put down my hands pretending nothing happened.

"How about what?"

"Of course I'm asking you about this song...tell me how you feel."

Xia Yinci frowned displeasedly, approached me and asked. She obviously didn't take my trick of playing dumb.

"Are you an elementary school teacher? No one asks others to give you a review after listening to a song."

"Well, there's no point in telling you if you don't know how you feel... tell me what you think~"

From that day until the end, I didn't tell Xia Yinci what I thought. After all, it would be embarrassing to tell her that she was crying inexplicably, and that she hadn't recovered from that turbulent emotion all day, right?

The next day, she didn't ask me again, as if this incident had never happened. Only that music sometimes sounds in dreams, provoking the incredible mood that sleeps in my heart.

If only I had left a little more thought at that time. Maybe you will think of Xia Yinci's mother recuperating in the mental health center. Then I might not stick to my "face".

It's a pity that when I thought that Xia Yinci might have heard this music when she was visiting her mother, it was a long, long time later. I'm afraid to bring up that time, and I'm not sure if she remembers it.

There was a time when Xia Yinci would take a detour every day to visit her mother. Even when I worked up the courage to ask her, she always responded like she was okay.

Think carefully. Xia Yinci, she...has been really hard all along, right?

＊＊＊

The gentle morning breeze carried the flowing water, and suddenly the singing of birds fluttered happily from the sky. I opened my eyes sleepily, but what greeted me was not the imaginary lakeside and woods, but a monotonous closed space and closed iron gates.

With the recurring bird song as the harmony, the bright melody gradually entered the performance.

I wiped away the wetness from the corners of my eyes, and fixed my eyes on the speaker installed in the corner. The natural sound effect from here is too real, which caused me to forget the fact that I was imprisoned for a moment.

"This music is called "Nature's Path", right? I remember it is related to "ASMR"."

The so-called "ASMR", the full name is "spontaneous sensory meridian response", which is used to describe a certain sensory phenomenon, especially the comfort and pleasure brought to the brain by hearing. However, its authenticity is not yet certain.

Some time ago, there were often live broadcasts or videos about "ASMR" on the Internet. In the past, Xia Yinci also recommended some related videos to me out of her personal interest. In retrospect, that's how she's always been in the past.

"It's already the second day... Even the wake-up call is this kind of 'healing music'..."

The half-consciousness was pulled to the second day in prison. I left the bed and walked to the door. As soon as I pressed my palm against the door, the flashing red indicator light changed to a green light, and the door lock snapped open with a "click"——

"You mean, the schedule?"

Once outside, I quickly locked on to my first target and got straight to the point.

The facial features of this middle-aged man with an inch head are particularly sharp. His raised right eyebrow suddenly opened the distance between his eyes, as if he was incredulous about my question. I don't know if it's the advantage of his facial features, or he was really surprised.

"Yes..." I observed the other party's weird reaction, and added, "For example, the approximate time of breakfast, lunch, and dinner must be fixed? Or, which path does the food delivery staff follow when they come and go back... ..."

"You new boy..." We were only halfway through, when the middle-aged man suddenly cast a strange gaze, looked me up and down again, and sneered, "I said, could it be because I was thinking Can you escape from here?"

The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes suspiciously, the eye sockets sunken inwards to form shadows. His overly direct remarks will inevitably attract the attention of others, and immediately put me in a situation where it is inconvenient to respond to him.

Perhaps the middle-aged man also realized that there were people around him looking at him. He lowered his head slightly, and squeezed out a sneer again, as if he wanted to get over this topic, and then he stretched out his broad palm and patted my cheek hard twice. Shoulder.

"Rookie, get rid of such stupid thoughts as soon as possible."

As the middle-aged man spoke, he stretched out his finger, pointed to the ground under his feet mysteriously, and then said with emphasis:

"It's ridiculous to say it. Obviously time has been blurred from my cognition, but I still clearly remember that I came here on September 31, 2018."

September 31, 2018——

Yesterday, the prison guard told us the exact date, I remember it was December 21, 2018. That is to say, middle-aged people are seniors who came here 3 months earlier than me.

"Until now, I haven't set foot in the outside world for twenty years. So far, no less than half a hundred people have made plans to escape from prison before you, but no one has ever succeeded. Even "he" has failed—"

"Wait... You said, 20 years?"

"Yeah, what's the matter? I was imprisoned to such an extent just because I took back what I should have..."

Seeing the other party go into complaining mode, I was busy trying to get the topic back on track.

"I didn't mean to say this—"

"Ah? If you want to ask me for a more accurate time, of course I can't remember. But I can be sure of one thing - the exact time will only be more than 20 years, not less than 20 years."

As if sensing the disbelief on my face, the middle-aged man raised his right hand and gave a thumbs up, pointing back to his room.

"If you don't believe me, you can go and see my bed. Every day I will use a pen to count on the wall beside the bed."

I couldn't help but look in the direction of the middle-aged thumb, and suddenly fell silent.

Through the half-open iron door, there are at least more than 1,000 "Zheng" characters densely carved on the wooden boards. If you think about it carefully, even if there are 1,000 "positive" characters, it will take more than 13 years to convert.

It was only yesterday that he was imprisoned here on an unknown charge. So I can be sure that I only experienced one short day in prison. Even people who have no concept of time cannot confuse 1 day with 13 years.

[Today, December 21, 2018, Beijing time - will be the dividing line of your life, and you will go to the time domain isolated from the world to confess the sins you have committed. 】

——The trial of the prison guard from yesterday suddenly rang in my ears. Prison guards likened prisons to "an isolated time zone," and there was nothing suspicious about that. But what if what he said was not embellishment but fact?

After careful calculation, from September 31, 2018, when the other party was imprisoned, less than three months have passed. Three months have passed in the outside world, but more than 13 years have passed in this "isolated time domain".

Regardless of its feasibility, assuming that this kind of thing can be realized-the sentence time of the sentence is calculated according to reality, and then the criminal is brought to the prison where the time passes by nearly 20 times faster than the outside world, as if the image of speeding up doubles through the real period. punishment, but the actual sentence can be stretched to 20 times—this is indeed the punishment method in an ideal society.

However, how can this kind of utopian punishment that should only exist in an ideal world be achieved?

According to the existing level of technology, the flow rate of interference time is simply a fantasy——

wrong. It seems that... can't make this conclusion. Because strictly speaking, I have not experienced "abnormal time".

When I was in that world—during the three months I lived in the "beyond the dream" where the rulers gathered, the time deviation with other people was a phenomenon that I encountered almost every day.

If the operating principle of this "isolated time domain" is really related to the cracks in dreams——

I swayed from side to side for the time being as an undecided guess. The truth of the facts cannot be concluded based on the few words of the middle-aged man in front of him. So I looked up again and looked at the middle-aged man in front of me.

"Can I ask you one more thing?"

"Don't ask me things that will embarrass me." The tone of the middle-aged man was slightly joking.

"Don't worry, the question I want to ask comes from what you said before."

Just now, my attention was completely attracted by the "time difference" that the middle-aged man said deviated from my cognition, but in fact there are other things in his words that deserve my attention, for example——

"You said, no one has ever managed to escape from here... Even 'he' has failed...Since you are referring to someone in this kind of place, then I can understand 'him' as the only one who is close to" Someone who managed to escape"?"

For some reason, there was a strange look in the eyes of this middle-aged man. He stared fixedly at me with those cave-like eyes, and after a long time he burst out laughing like a bell ringing.

"What an interesting newcomer. He also has a similar smell to him. If you could show up here a few months earlier, maybe he would be happy to meet you."

"What's the meaning?"

"Birds of a feather flock together and people form groups. You're also the kind of person who wants to escape from here, aren't you?"

"Classify me as someone else, do you want to stay here forever?"

His high-pitched tone made me feel uncomfortable in my heart, so I couldn't help asking provocatively, but he was obviously not aroused by my words, and the smile on his face increased rather than decreased.

"No one wants to stay here, but it doesn't mean that everyone is a gambler, knowing that it can't be realized, but putting all their eggs in one basket."

"No, leaving here is not impossible."

At least I can't sit still now, after all, I don't even know what the crime was for the time being. I stared at the other person's eyes, trying my best to show him my sincerity, and he looked straight into my eyes without avoiding it.

At this point, the broadcast abruptly interrupted the delicate confrontation between me and him, and we both looked at the speaker in the corner.

"Free time is over. Please go back to your room as soon as possible and don't stay..."

The same words were repeated several times on the radio. The middle-aged man in front of him seemed to have lost the momentary pleasure, and his smile also weakened a bit. He snorted coldly and took a step forward, walked away from the wall unhurriedly, and stopped suddenly when he reached the position next to my shoulder. Feeling strange, I turned my eyes slightly to look at him.

"I didn't mean not to tell you. If you don't report me, it won't do me any harm."

Having said that, he stretched out his broad palm with ulterior motives to rest on my shoulder, and the strength on my shoulder immediately became heavier. When he let go of his palm, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a sticky note stuck to the clothes on my shoulder.

After that, as if to obstruct other people's vision, the middle-aged man leaned forward and leaned over to my ear.

"Because of his failure last time, he was hit to a certain extent, so he won't come out even in his free time recently. But there are still many followers of him. I think the existence of followers should be able to force him to appear."

The voice just fell. The middle-aged man gave me a meaningful smile, and then withdrew from my sight as if nothing had happened.

Turning around and looking at his leaving figure, I calmly took off the sticky note on my shoulder, followed by back to my room. The steel prison door "clicked" against the threshold, and I leaned against the door and quietly pulled the note open. And there are only a few strings of six-digit numbers written on the note, which must be the numbers of the followers he said.

Do you want me to climb up this rope by leaving clues for me to contact the other party in this way? Obviously he was not optimistic about the escape, but carrying this kind of thing with him obviously had a glimmer of hope.

However, deliberately making things ambiguous is really out of personal bad taste.

I memorized the number silently, so I crumpled the note into a ball with my tightened palm. When I approached the bed, I instinctively glanced at the wall where Xue Xueer's handwriting appeared yesterday.

Although Xue Xueer has left no traces anywhere other than my memory, I am still sure that this is not a delusion or something in a dream. Maybe it's because I dare not doubt the only message that supports my hope.

The reason sounds dubious, and of course it is. Even now, I am still trying to move forward, and the desperately struggling figure will definitely not look good, but at least the road in front of me is not blocked, and the unconfirmed things are still waiting for my confirmation.

There was a slight movement at the door. There was only the sound of an automatic door being pulled open on both sides. There was an arch-shaped gap under the door, and the lunch box was pushed in by the hand outside the door. I wrote down the approximate time and walked to the door.

Shortly after finishing lunch, we entered free time again, and the task of investigating the work and rest time here is still continuing.

During this period, I never saw the prisoner with the same number on the note. Instead, I accidentally found a path extending to nowhere on the edge of the main hall outside the room. Of course, the end is blocked by a red cordon.

The trails stand out just at the edge of the free-moving space, as if on purpose to draw our attention.

Therefore, even though I knew it would not be so easy to escape, I still stepped forward to the depths of the path. The field of vision gradually approached the end of the constantly shaking red warning light.

Using such a conspicuous flashing red light to highlight the words "Keeping out" is really similar to "There is no silver three hundred taels here".

It's almost like, deliberately attracting people to come in.

I raised my hand cautiously, and circled my knuckles to touch the gap next to the warning line, but my fingers seemed to be knocking on a thick wall, and they couldn't penetrate this invisible barrier at all.

"Tsk..."

The corner of his mouth couldn't help but smack his displeasure. The eye-catching "Keeping out" tightly locked my sight. Something is pulling me across. Behind the cordon, there seems to be a hidden key to leave here. But I didn't pass the method here, and it's useless to stand here, so I had to decide to give up for the time being.

I silently took a deep breath, turned around and walked in the direction I came and went. Behind me, the sound of the iron chain colliding with the railing suddenly sounded, which suddenly stopped my pace.

At this moment, an indescribable strange feeling welled up in my chest.

In the ear, the sound of the pendulum swinging heavily echoes the rhythm of the heart rhythm.

I hesitantly turned to my back, and my eyes met another pair of eyes not far from my field of vision. He pressed the tip of his tongue firmly against his jaw, like a hungry wolf licking its prey under the moonlight.

"Why... are you here?"

Lin Yu's familiar yet unfamiliar figure stood at the other end of the flickering warning line.

He squinted at me as if the man in front of him was a sworn enemy who took all his prey.

After that, he said as if he was squeezing words out of his teeth.

"Yo... It's been a long time. Su Ruoyang."

——Maybe, it's wonderful for me that the world is moving now.