The Well of Despair

However, as news spread that Kitagawa Ryo had gained the Kitagawa Family's recognition and become the sole heir, Amasawa Ichika's situation, who had been intimate with Kitagawa Ryo in the White Room, changed once again.

She was allowed to revert to her surname, "Amasawa".

"I really want to feel cool this Ichika."

Amasawa Ichika still wore her hair in pigtails, and she stretched out her arms to hug Kitagawa Ryo tightly.

Among the test subjects in the White Room, the Fifth Generation had the healthiest mental state. Except for one child named "Takuya" who could not accept the fact that Ayanokoji Atsuomi had left and the White Room had been disbanded, most of the children adapted to the outside world quite quickly.

Amasawa Ichika is the best among them. Judging from her appearance and communication skills, she is no different from the child outside the White Room.

They are even more emotionally expressive than children outside.

In Kitagawa Ryo's view, what she is showing now is more of a childlike, natural dependence and closeness.

Especially those eyes that were the same color as Hotaru's; to Kitagawa Ryo, Amasawa Ichika was more like a younger sister.

However, from President Amasawa's perspective, he prefers to interpret the intimacy between the two as another level of emotion. Rather, this is the scene he wants to see, and this is the reason why he is willing to acknowledge Ichika.

"Since Ichika is here too, let's go see the snow together."

After exchanging a few casual words with Amasawa Ichika, Kitagawa Ryo didn't forget the purpose of his visit. He nodded to President Amasawa and then started walking towards Yuki's hospital room again.

The two adults exchanged a meaningful glance, each with their own thoughts, before President Amasawa spoke first:

We won't go.

"I also need to talk to President Amasawa outside."

So the two of them headed towards the exit, but unexpectedly ran into Sakayanagi Arisu at a corner.

"Miss Sakayanagi?"

Both of them looked surprised, but Sakayanagi Arisu reacted quickly and spoke first to explain:

"My father asked me to come find Liang, saying that the police still have some specific questions to ask."

"I see."

No wonder.

Both President Amasawa and President Tsubaki were somewhat embarrassed, because in truth they both wanted to do the same thing, and the person in charge of that thing was standing right in front of them.

"Kitagawa-kun is inside, in my daughter's hospital room."

Pointing in a specific direction, President Tsubaki and President Amasawa then hurriedly left.

Meanwhile, Sakayanagi Arisu, who had been standing still, quickly followed in the direction the other person had given her. A strange unease lingered in her heart, like a faint, ethereal thread.

Xue sat on the bed, wrapped in a blanket embroidered with a blooming white cherry blossom. She was enveloped in the cherry blossoms and snow.

Then a slender hand reached out from among the flowers and touched the phone that was placed to the side.

Xue hesitated for a moment while holding her phone, put it down, then hesitated for a while before picking it up again.

The screen lights up, dims, lights up, dims.

She kept pressing the raised button on the phone, the screen flickering in and out of Xue's palm, like lips that wanted to open but then closed.

I'll come see you tomorrow.

After all that fuss, Xue finally opened her chat history with Kitagawa Ryo, then peeked half her small face out from under the covers, staring at the sentence with only her exposed eyes.

Just as she was hesitating whether to send a message to ask where the other person was, the door to the ward was finally pushed open.

It's Kitagawa Ryo.

The moment he appeared, you could feel your heart overflowing with intense emotions.

But in reality, they might not even be clear about what is genuine and what is just a delusion.

The feelings of yesteryear, the feelings of this moment.

"It looks like the recovery is going quite well."

The ward was quite spacious. After Amasawa Ichika greeted Yuki, Kitagawa Ryo took the remote and turned on the TV for her, letting Ichika sit on the sofa next to him to watch the program. Then he walked over to Yuki's bedside, sat down, pulled up a chair for himself, and said with a smile.

"Yes, my father and mother are very good to me too."

Xue nodded obediently, loosened the blanket she was wrapped in a little, and leaned against the headboard to talk to Kitagawa Ryo.

If Kitagawa Ryo was the most tormented experiment in the White Room, then Yuki was undoubtedly the second.

In fact, Kitagawa Ryo himself only learned about what the White Room had done to Yuki afterward.

Moreover, judging from Suzukake Tanji's testimony, Yuki's fate was entirely due to Kitagawa Ryo's existence.

If it weren't for him inspiring Suzukake Tanji's Harlow's Monkey Experiment, Yuki wouldn't have been selected from the fourth generation, nor would she have experienced the subsequent series of events.

However, all of this had become irretrievable memories of the past, so Kitagawa Ryo shook his head, letting go of all those thoughts, and continued to inquire with concern:

"Snow—what are your plans after this?"

In fact, judging solely from her performance in the White Room, Yuki is definitely a genius by all accounts, and could even be said to be more outstanding than Amasawa Ichika.

"... I don't know, my father said he'd send me abroad to study or something."

When the topic of the future came up, Xue suddenly became somewhat lost. Not only her, but every child who came out of the White Room showed this emotion. After all, for them, everything in the White Room represented their entire past life.

Therefore, Xue could only laugh, somewhat confused and troubled, at this question.

Her first smile was natural, but every smile she gave afterward was learned from Kitagawa Ryo.

"Has your father ever mentioned anything related to me?"

"They just told me to get closer to Ryo, but I feel like we're already very close."

Xue answered honestly, and as if to prove her point, she reached out and poked Kitagawa Ryo's face, which was very close to hers.

"It's so good to see Ryo like this now."

Her fingertips transformed into her entire palm, and Yuki stroked Kitagawa Ryo's profile with a blissful smile.

She had seen Kitagawa Ryo's blood, and even slept on it for a whole night.

Compared to Kitagawa Ryo during the White Room era, Kitagawa Ryo's health has undoubtedly improved significantly, a change that is clearly visible to the naked eye, which makes Yuki genuinely happy.

"In a few days, there will be a chance to meet with Suzukake Tanji, the assistant in the White Room. Would you like to go?"

Kitagawa Ryo didn't resist Yuki's closeness. He remembered what Yuki's father had said about her and took the initiative to speak.

In Kitagawa Ryo's view, rather than being bound by the past, it is better to try to overcome the fear in one's heart.

The assistant in the White Room, Suzukake Tanji himself, was secretly transferred to the Kitagawa Family at their insistence.

Since the White Room case wouldn't be made public anyway, the Naoe Faction was happy to do the Kitagawa Family a favor.

Incidentally, it was Tsukishiro who found and captured the escaped Suzukake Tanji.

After all, this is the kind of business he's always been in.

Upon hearing the name Suzukake Tanji, Xue's face paled, and her expression became somewhat strained.

"You need to go see him."

Just as Xue was pursing her lips and remaining silent, another voice suddenly came from outside the door.

The person who pushed open the door and walked in was Sakayanagi Arisu had caught up with them.

Excluding Amasawa Ichika, who was watching a dating reality show with great interest while propping her head up with her hand, the remaining three people formed a stable, almost solid triangle.

The first to extricate himself from this love triangle was Kitagawa Ryo, who smiled in the direction of Sakayanagi Arisu:

"Why Arisu here today too?"

"If you want to take this further, you have to see him."

But Sakayanagi Arisu ignored Kitagawa Ryo's words. She simply walked up to Yuki and spoke to her in an almost provocative tone.

"Only by getting past him can you truly understand yourself; otherwise, he will always be the guy who can shatter your entire life with just one sentence."

Sakayanagi Arisu didn't hold back in bringing up the topic of the past. Even though she hadn't participated in that period of time at all, perhaps it was because she had never been involved that she could speak so frankly.

"Or perhaps, your fear of seeing the other person is an admission that the feelings you have are all fabricated by that person?"

"That's not true at all!"

The sudden increase in volume made Amasawa Ichika, who was engrossed in a dating reality show, turn around and look curiously at Kitagawa Ryo.

Xue clutched her chest, as if feeling her heart pounding there, and replied:

"No, I don't believe that, I would never, absolutely not."

Anyone who sees those videos will feel that her feelings for Ryo were artificially created, and even her father was just trying to establish a connection with the Kitagawa Family by pretending to be sincere.

Suggestive, repetitive brainwashing; a confined environment artificially created with a suspension bridge effect—who would call the emotions born under such circumstances normal?

The TV on the wall is replaying the first episode of the popular dating reality show, "Daily Life of Geniuses".

Two sets of footprints walking side by side on the beach recede into the distance in the upward-sweeping shot, while a voiceover reads in a deep, affectionate tone:

[Others may be your hell, a place where armor formed from the scars of the soul, swords forged from defensive gazes, labyrinths of language, and traps concealed by smiles. Behind all that, of course, a lonely heart still trembles, and an undying yearning for communication remains.]

"I want to too..."

"I also want to openly tell Ryo that I like her, and like an ordinary girl, every smile, every gesture is moved by the person I like."

"But every time this happens, there's always a voice in my head commanding me to 'fall in love with him,' even when I didn't even know what 'falling in love' meant."

"I... want to be like you too."

The way Yuki looked at Sakayanagi Arisu was like that of a wounded animal.

The other person's gaze reminded Sakayanagi Arisu of the first time she went to the White Room.

She followed her father, walking step by step down the long corridor, peering curiously through the one-way glass into the rooms on either side, enthusiastically discussing the living, moving creatures inside.

It's so similar!

They looked just like children visiting the zoo for the first time.

Chapter 117: The Pit of Despair

As she spoke, Xue's eyes filled with glistening tears, which rolled down her face and onto her clothes and blankets.

Humans are creatures that learn to cry before they learn to laugh, because the birth of life is accompanied by a cry.

We laugh when we're happy and joyful, and we cry when we're sad or scared. Although there are also instances of crying from joy, the act of crying itself is something that makes those around us feel a strong emotion.

A smile is essentially an expression made by the facial muscles, the orbicularis oculi muscle around the eyes, and the corrugator supercilii muscle around the eyebrows. Once you've smiled, it's hard to find any trace of it anymore; the upturned corners of your mouth can return to normal in just one second.

But crying is different. Just like sadness, which has a lasting effect, every cry is not something that can be easily erased or eliminated.

Yuki is a child whose smile warms people's hearts, and her tears can also easily convey sadness.

"Did you feel relieved after saying those words?"

Faced with Yuki's question, Sakayanagi Arisu simply closed her eyes and looked at the other person seriously as she answered.

At the moment she first went to the White Room, she did not deny the pride she once held as a genius, nor did she deny the kind of bloodline-like argument she had once been obsessed with.

Sakayanagi Arisu was shaped by her unique family environment and congenital physical defects before the age of seven, but all of that became a thing of the past as she recovered and got to know and date Kitagawa Ryo.

So after hearing Yuki's thoughts, a strange anger welled up in Sakayanagi Arisu's heart.

This anger quickly hijacked her voice:

"What did you say? You want to be like me?"

"Sometimes I've thought about what would have happened if my father had sent me to the White Room back then..."

"You've spent your entire life in the White Room so far, but haven't I spent most of my life in the 'White Room' as well?"

"Everyone, please be quiet for a moment."

Kitagawa Ryo reached out to stop the two, whose emotions were becoming increasingly agitated. He himself was also feeling a bit of a headache. The last time he encountered two people who were so incompatible was Karuizawa Kei and Ichinose Honami during the second simulation, and the end result was a bloody fight at the Fireworks Festival.

It must be said that Kitagawa Ryo's words carried considerable weight for Sakayanagi Arisu and Yuki, and they tacitly fell silent, their gazes fixed firmly on him.

Rubbing his temples, Kitagawa Ryo showed a slightly tired expression:

"What I'm trying to say is that everything you've said is already an unchangeable fact that has already happened."

"Furthermore, the White Room incident is not completely over yet. Both Arisu and Yuki want to see its final outcome with Ayanokoji Atsuomi, and that's the most important thing right now."