Split

Two months earlier, Saint Dili Welfare Home.

Ji Minghuan and Kong Youling were curled up in a corner of the Computer Room, sharing an ancient keyboard they had dragged over from who knew where as they played the two-player game "Forest Icefire Person."

Their shoulders were pressed together, their arms touching. Their little faces were utterly focused before the screen, their eyes gleaming.

As they were clearing a small stage, Ji Minghuan deliberately played a trick, moving the little fire character's butt off the switch and causing the little ice character Kong Youling controlled to fall into the lava.

He giggled beside her.

The White-haired Girl shot him a sidelong glance and lightly bumped his shoulder with her head.

That single unconscious touch brought Ji Minghuan into a completely unfamiliar world—a world that belonged to him alone.

Ji Minghuan had never imagined that his Spirit World would take the form of a Library.

But upon reflection, it made sense. Ever since he was little, the Library at the Welfare Home had been the only place where he could find a sense of belonging. Neither the children nor the Nurses liked coming here. It was utterly neglected, as though the enormous Library belonged to him alone.

Yet the Library that made up his Spirit World differed greatly from the real one. More than half its bookshelves stood empty, while the corners that did hold books were divided into several sections by signs: memories, emotions, knowledge...

He and Kong Youling sat in the empty Library, staring blankly into each other's eyes.

After a long while, Kong Youling finally looked away from his face. She raised her head and curiously looked around, her snowy bangs swaying slightly.

"Here..." she opened her mouth.

"Did you just speak?" Ji Minghuan was stunned for a long time. It was the first time he had heard Kong Youling speak.

It was also the first time Kong Youling had heard Ji Minghuan's voice, and she froze where she sat.

They tilted their heads, looking at each other like two little penguins meeting on the ice and sizing one another up.

Before long, the two realized that this was not the real world, but a space lodged within the mind.

In the world of the mind, mutes could speak and the deaf could hear. Thus, during the month before they were taken away to the laboratory, the two often relied on Kong Youling's ability to enter each other's Spirit Worlds and play.

Kong Youling's world was a street in winter. Snowmen stood along the roadside, children chased and played, lanterns hung through every street and alley, and fireworks bloomed in the sky;

Ji Minghuan's world was a Library at dusk. Half the sun beyond the windows was forever sunk below the horizon, while the other half hung eternally above the mountains.

Not long afterward, Ji Minghuan, an ordinary person, somehow displayed astonishing talent within his own "Spirit World."

He once had Kong Youling try entering many people's Spirit Worlds—Nurses, teachers, other children—but she usually came back after only taking a look.

Then the two quickly discovered that Ji Minghuan was the only one capable of twisting his own Spirit World and changing its form. Or rather... the essence of this was actually "splitting": he split off a new mental space, then used it to temporarily cover the original one.

It looked as though he had truly changed his own Spirit World.

Ji Minghuan often pulled Kong Youling into his Spirit World to play.

If she said she wanted to see the sea, he would conjure one. The two would sit barefoot on the beach, looking up at the sea beneath the setting sun, watching its surface rise and fall as the tide carried one or two shadowy boats, swaying hazily in the distance;

If she said she wanted to see the universe, he would construct one from the pictures in books. The two would drift through it like two fragments among countless meteor shards, lonely and aimless. The universe was a silent vacuum, but human hearts could speak, and they could hear each other's voices.

But one had to know... even Kong Youling herself, a Mental Superhuman, could not do such things.

That was the most inconceivable part.

Not long after, even without relying on Kong Youling, Ji Minghuan was able to enter his own Spirit World on his own.

Therefore, during that month in the Imprisonment Room, he did not go mad from boredom. Most of his hysterical behavior had merely been an act for the experimenters watching from behind the cameras.

Most of the time, he appeared to be lying on the bed doing nothing, when in reality, he was constantly roaming the world of his mind.

He could alter that world however he wished with his imagination, creating things like a television or a computer loaded with games.

Judging by the Instructor's probing over the past few days, he should have been a mental ability user whose power level was slightly below Kong Youling's.

That was because he had to pass through the two outer layers of "protection" before he could enter someone's true Spirit World;

Kong Youling, however, did not need to. With a mere stretch of her hand, she could cross those two protective layers and reach the depths of someone's heart.

Either Mental Superpowers did not work on others of the same kind, or Kong Youling's ability level was far too much higher than the Instructor's, making him unable to break through her mental defense line.

Since he could not find an opening through Kong Youling, he could only come every so often to probe Ji Minghuan's "True Self."

Naturally, the Instructor had no way of knowing that Ji Minghuan, supposedly an "ordinary person," could manipulate his own Spirit World at will and even alter its appearance. That was why he had been toyed with repeatedly during his probes, left utterly baffled.

Every time the Instructor entered his Spirit World, Ji Minghuan could stand like a god from a higher-dimensional perspective, overlooking every corner of that world and taking in the Instructor's every action.

But even if the Instructor truly found Ji Minghuan's "True Self," it would most likely have been useless.

Ji Minghuan's "True Self" could not speak. It was merely an empty shell. Back then, Ji Minghuan had kicked it into a corner of the Library and never paid it any attention again.

The "True Self" the Instructor had seen before had actually all been disguised by Ji Minghuan.

Returning to the present, as the Instructor left, Ji Minghuan's mind returned to reality.

He turned over in bed, opened his eyes and looked at the empty Imprisonment Room for a while, then closed his eyes again. No further sound came from him. He slept as peacefully as a corpse.

From the surveillance footage of the Imprisonment Room alone, any experimenter in the facility would probably think he was simply asleep.

No one could have imagined that Ji Minghuan's consciousness had long since left that dark cage and entered the body of another young man in Li Capital.

China's Li Jing, Gu Yi Mai Community.

Controlling Gu Wenyu's body, Ji Minghuan woke up on the bed in the room.

He opened his eyes and glanced at the time on the wall. It was five in the morning. He took the phone from beneath his pillow, turned it on, and disabled Do Not Disturb mode.

A ding immediately sounded, and several WeChat messages popped up, all from the same person.

Gu Qiye: I booked the tickets. The flight is at 9 p.m. It only takes two or three hours from Li Capital to Tokyo. Once we get to Tokyo, we'll head straight to a nearby hotel. I've booked that too—it's right beside the airport.

Gu Qiye: Remember to tell the Old Man so he can get ready in advance.

Ji Minghuan yawned, smacked his lips, and typed a reply on the phone's virtual keyboard.

In the darkness, the screen's glow lit up his eyes, which still brimmed with sleepy tears.

Gu Wenyu: Okay. I'll go wake up the Old Man. When we get to Tokyo, I want to visit Akihabara first. I heard it's an "otaku holy land."

We're going to Japan tonight already. That was fast... I'm a little curious what Big Brother would think if he ran into Little Sister and her group leader in Japan.

Ji Minghuan muttered softly, opening the Calendar on the home screen to check the date.

Today was July 12, 2020. Until the underground auction in Tokyo began:

--Nine days remaining.

Notice: Because this involves certain sensitive issues, "Instructor" has been changed to "Mentor" in this novel. Please do not mistake the character.

There will be another chapter tonight. Also, the New Book is now sixth on the overall rankings, so please send in more monthly votes!