Chapter 126: The Alter Ego Says He Loves Me (15)
Xiao Yinnian had originally thought that after being so high-strung in the sanatorium for so many days, he would sleep like the dead once he relaxed at home.
In reality, however, he didn’t feel sleepy at all.
Piecing together the truth of the sanatorium incident: the original medical staff had been using unconventional methods to treat the patients, which eventually led to a backlash.
The patients in the hospital had locked the original staff in the dark underground and taken their places, pretending to run the sanatorium.
“Do you think those real doctors and nurses in the cages were actually normal people?”
Xiao Ji said, “In the background of the mission line, many sanatoriums in that era were torturing patients under the guise of treatment.”
Electric shocks, beatings, forced medication, and even organ transplants or other human experiments.
Truth be told, in that entire sanatorium, whether they were the “real” patients or the “fake” ones, none of them were necessarily innocent.
The patients had been caught in the rain, so they wanted revenge—they even wanted to tear apart everyone else’s umbrellas.
And those medical workers who were later imprisoned had also become true patients through day after day of torture.
Xiao Yinnian lay there for a while, then suddenly remembered something and checked his phone for the time.
“The date hasn’t changed. It’s still the day we rushed back from [Wish] overnight. In other words, the passage of time in the real world isn’t affected by the mission world.”
Xiao Ji hummed in agreement. They had realized this the moment they returned and saw the lingering steam in the bathroom.
Xiao Yinnian licked his lips. “Then tell me, if someone dies in the mission world, can they come back? Will they stay in the mission world forever, or disappear in some other way?”
“It’s not important,” Xiao Ji answered. “That has nothing to do with you.”
“Are you so sure we can survive until the end?” Xiao Yinnian asked.
Xiao Ji couldn’t see the expression on Xiao Yinnian’s face.
He really wanted to rub Xiao Yinnian’s head and pull him into his arms to comfort him.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything right now. He could only say to Xiao Yinnian, “I promise it won’t be long. I will bring this all to an end.”
Xiao Ji always spoke like this—neither hot nor cold, neither salty nor bland—yet he always possessed an inexplicable sense of credibility.
Humans naturally admire the strong.
The more excellent a person is themselves, the easier it is for them to develop an admiration for someone even stronger.
Xiao Yinnian was silent for a long time before suddenly saying in a joking tone, “Xiao Ji, you’re so amazing and omnipotent. Once you get your own body, you probably won’t want to be friends with an ordinary person like me, right?”
“Friends?” Xiao Ji repeated the word with a slightly strange tone. “What makes you think we would be friends?”
Xiao Yinnian was stunned, then cursed, “You bastard! You’ve looked down on me from the start, and you never planned on being my friend, did you?”
“Xiao Ji, is someone like me, Xiao Yinnian, not worthy of you?”
Hearing this, Xiao Ji suddenly laughed out loud but said nothing.
Xiao Yinnian felt rejected. His cheeks began to heat up. He wanted to say something more but felt like he was overestimating himself. His chest felt tight, so he eventually chose to shut his mouth.
“Are you angry?” Xiao Ji asked him.
Xiao Yinnian didn’t make a sound.
Xiao Ji softened his tone and coaxed, “You’re thinking about it the wrong way. What I want is more than just being ‘friends.'”
Hearing this, Xiao Yinnian finally said awkwardly, “Don’t even think about making me call you ‘Godfather.’ That’s my bottom line.”
Xiao Ji was speechless. After a while, he said, “Don’t ask anymore. You’ll know when the time comes.”
Xiao Yinnian chatted with Xiao Ji for a while longer before he truly felt sleepiness washing over him. He drifted off in a daze.
In his dreams, he once again dreamed of the past.
When he woke up the next day, the weather outside was gloomy. Heavy dark clouds hung over the city, making Xiao Yinnian’s already dampened mood even more oppressive.
He called his direct supervisor to take leave and drove back to his hometown in the neighboring province, heading straight for the suburban women’s prison.
From the moment he woke up, Xiao Yinnian hadn’t said a single word.
He looked at the high walls surrounding the high-voltage electric fence and the heavy iron gate. Sitting in his car, he lit a cigarette.
Once the cigarette had burned down to the filter, he got out of the car and walked toward the prison visitation area.
Xiao Yinnian submitted his documents and application. After waiting outside for a full hour, he finally saw the person he wanted to see.
A woman in a prison uniform.
Perhaps life in prison wasn’t easy; the woman looked old beyond her years, and her mental state didn’t seem very good.
But when she saw Xiao Yinnian, she was clearly happy. She smiled at him, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes spreading out.
Xiao Yinnian raised his hand to touch the woman’s face through the glass. He managed to force a smile and picked up the phone.
“Mom.”
Aside from the four years of university when he found it difficult to return, Xiao Yinnian basically made time to visit Mother Xiao every month after graduation.
In the past, he didn’t know the truth. He only felt that Mother Xiao had been driven to the edge, and for her to end up like this, it must have been because she couldn’t take the abuse anymore and did it to protect her son.
But having gone through what he just did, Xiao Yinnian faintly felt that the truth might not be so simple.
Mother Xiao currently knew nothing. She asked about Xiao Yinnian’s daily life, work, and even teased him, saying he wasn’t young anymore and it was time to find a partner.
But Xiao Yinnian remained silent.
Mother Xiao noticed something was wrong with his mood and asked tentatively, “What’s wrong?”
Xiao Yinnian stared at Mother Xiao’s face for a long time. Finally, he shook his head as if nothing were wrong. He pretended to be lighthearted and said he just missed her. They chatted briefly about daily life, and then he left the prison.
Back in his car, Xiao Yinnian suddenly broke down.
He rested his forehead against the steering wheel, tears falling uncontrollably.
After an unknown amount of time, he said to Xiao Ji, “With her gentle and timid personality, how could she possibly have killed someone…”
Xiao Ji watched him cry and knew that Xiao Yinnian had realized the truth about what happened back then.
He didn’t know how to feel and couldn’t find the words to comfort him.
Because, other than the culprit who caused all this—Xiao Yinnian’s biological father who had already been reincarnated—the soul of the original host that Xiao Ji had replaced was the true killer who had let Mother Xiao take the blame and suffer for all these years.
Fortunately, although Xiao Yinnian had guessed the truth, he didn’t push the responsibility onto Xiao Ji.
In his own words, Xiao Ji’s appearance was also because Xiao Yinnian wanted him to appear—he wanted Xiao Ji to bear the things he couldn’t handle himself.
If Father Xiao hadn’t died back then, it was hard to say whether the one who died later would have been Mother Xiao or Xiao Yinnian himself.
The sub-personality wasn’t wrong. He had simply protected Xiao Yinnian.
Xiao Yinnian was in a bad state, so Xiao Ji took control of the body to drive him home.
Strangely enough, on the way back as they passed a section of the provincial road, they encountered another car accident.
This time, a car in front had suddenly blown a tire and flipped into a vegetable patch by the roadside.
The vehicle burst into flames.
At this time, there wasn’t much traffic on the provincial road. The few passing cars stopped on the side of the road. Some people called the police, while others tried to help.
Unfortunately, it was all in vain.
037 suddenly appeared at that moment. Looking at the raging flames, he said to Xiao Ji, “Can you believe it? It’s Wang Ran and Zhao Xiaoyu.”
Translator’s Note: Ouch, poor Mother Xiao. Xiao Yinnian is finally realizing that his “hero” protector (the original sub-personality) was the one who committed the crime he’s been mourning. And talk about karma for Wang Ran and Zhao Xiaoyu! They didn’t even make it back to their own lives for long. 037 is the system name, by the way!
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