For the first few seconds, Jin Xueli stared from afar at her own back as that other self lit a fire. Her mind was almost a battlefield after a nuclear explosion. Fragmented thoughts drifted like radioactive dust, unable to take shape.
Why did she have two strands of memories in her head?
In the first strand, on the night she met Anthony, the creep who harassed her, there had been no car crash at the bar's back door. She had not mentioned owning a hunting knife, so Anthony had not "borrowed" it.
She had entered the Nest, hoping to bring back something that could get rid of Anthony, only for an unexpected complication to arise: at the chalk house drawing, a resident had copied her appearance.
That resident wholeheartedly believed it was "Jin Xueli" herself.
It had even come up with an explanation for why it had no backpack, phone, or hunting knife: their struggle before getting into the car had left it in such a hurry to board that it had forgotten its things.
The truly thorny part was that if the resident believed so firmly that it was the real Jin Xueli, that meant she could not rule out the possibility that she herself was the resident, either-Jin Xueli had originally thought that since she had the phone and hunting knife, she had to be the original. But what if she had merely forgotten how she had snatched those things?
Hadn't a stretch of her memory been taken away after she got into the taxi? If that memory happened to be of how she had stolen those things from the original after becoming Jin Xueli, she would have no evidence left to reassure herself.
Between herself lying on the floor and the other one sitting before the candle, which was the resident?
No... this question is a bottomless rabbit hole. If I fall in, I'll never climb out. I can set it aside for now. Let's assume I'm the real Jin Xueli and work through the timeline.
After the resident left, she had called a second car, strictly followed the taxi passenger instructions, and trailed the resident all the way to the Museum of Modern Art. On the first basement level, Jin Xueli had seized her chance and plunged her knife into the resident's neck.
Not one of the things she had hoped for had happened.
The resident had stood where it was, both hands covering the wound. In that brief glance, she had not noticed whether it was bleeding, and she had never had a chance to look closely-because soon, the resident had looked at her and smiled, revealing a familiar set of teeth.
"Since you copied my appearance, your neck should get punctured too."
The first strand of memories ended with her neck suddenly splitting open, blood spraying everywhere, and her crashing to the floor like a stone statue smashed apart.
Jin Xueli knew she had died.
Yet death had not been her end. After death, she had gained a second strand of memories.
On the night she met Anthony, a black SUV had charged straight at her, slamming into the back door after she narrowly dodged it. Starting with a conversation about the driver being a bodyguard, she had mentioned to Anthony that she owned a hunting knife. Not long afterward, he had demanded it from her.
When she entered the Nest, Jin Xueli had even cursed under her breath-with one less weapon, she could not help feeling a little insecure.
After that, the second strand of memories had been no different from the first: she had listened to the broadcast, stepped onto the chalk house drawing, called a taxi, and been copied by a resident... The only difference afterward was that when the second strand of memories ended, she had opened her eyes on the floor.
Watching the figure's back before the candle, Jin Xueli got up as silently as she could. The floor tiles were smooth and cold, without a trace of blood.
The second strand of memories had replaced the first, becoming the latest version of history that had actually happened. Thus, she had not stabbed the resident, nor had her own throat been slit by a single sentence.
She dared not stand fully upright for fear of being noticed by the resident, and could only retreat behind a pillar on her hands and feet, holding her breath so tightly that even her chest began to ache faintly-she had to suppress it, or she was genuinely afraid she might accidentally start sobbing.
...How could a person's throat be slit by a single sentence?
Compared with having a mouth open on her neck, for a moment she did not even know which frightened her more: being inexplicably killed again, or discovering she was not a real human at all and could only wander the Nest as a resident from now on?
If she was not a resident, why had her neck so obediently copied the other one's wound?
Jin Xueli could not answer a single one of these questions.
With her back against the pillar, she squeezed her eyes shut and covered her mouth, wishing she could draw herself inward into a ball that the Nest would never discover again.
No, calm down and think first...
There were several pieces of circumstantial evidence that the other one was the resident: first, it had no phone, hunting knife, or backpack; second, according to the first strand of memories, it had not followed the passenger rules after boarding the taxi, yet it had still gotten out unharmed.
Third-and this was the strongest evidence-the neck had only a thin layer of skin wrapped around arteries, nerves, blood vessels, the windpipe, and the throat. Could a living person stabbed in the neck really give themselves first aid and carry on as though nothing had happened?
Jin Xueli calmed down a little and cautiously poked her head out to look.
The resident was still sitting before the candle, repeatedly adjusting the Fire Trough's flame, seemingly impatient with how long the candle was taking to melt. As the candle gradually softened and drooped, it formed a nearly transparent pool of Candle Tears in midair. From this distance, Jin Xueli could only faintly hear what sounded like someone calling "Mr. Wei" within the Candle Tears.
The candle had to be the key reason she had returned from death and acquired two strands of memories.
The broadcast had called it an immensely powerful Phantasm, and apparently that had been no lie-its power was undeniably astonishing if it could even drag a human life back.
Why was the resident so fascinated by it?
Jin Xueli looked around and discovered a lengthy exhibit description covering the opposite wall of the gallery-generally, some form of "item description" would exist near a Phantasm in the Nest. This appeared to be it.
However, the exhibit description was across the gallery from her. If she wanted to go over and read it, she would have to pass behind the resident.
No matter how she looked at it, she had to deal with the resident first.
Regardless of whether she was truly the real Jin Xueli, as long as the "Jin Xueli" beside the candle died, she would naturally become the "real Jin Xueli"-right?
When her own continued existence was at stake, it seemed even something fundamental, something principled, could be glossed over... Before today, Jin Xueli had never imagined she would have such a thought.
But if the resident could kill her with a single sentence, how was she supposed to kill a resident?
Jin Xueli swept her gaze around and spotted her hiking backpack slumped on the floor not far away, its opening sagging to one side, exposing the rolled-up hand towel and miscellaneous items inside.
"Where did he go?"
In the distance, the resident was still staring intently at the Candle Tears as it muttered, sounding very impatient. "He seemed to say something really important just now... didn't he? Where did he say it...?"
While all its attention was on the candle, Jin Xueli quickly took off her shoes and walked toward the backpack one step at a time in her socks. Sure enough, she made no sound.
As she passed the backpack, she reached inside, hooked out a long towel, and hurriedly retreated a few steps toward the other end of the hall-she dared not stand in the open, sparsely furnished gallery and look up at the item description, so she first slipped behind another exhibit at the far end of the hall. This exhibit was quite far from the candle and consisted of long pieces of wood bundled together, radiating outward in a spiral. It was attractive enough, though she could not tell what it was supposed to be, but at least it could just about conceal a crouching woman.
Sooner or later, the resident would notice she had disappeared from the floor.
Even if its attention was entirely on the candle for now, it would soon discover that its neck was completely intact and its injury had been erased. This was her only chance to strike first, but how should she use it?
Should she use this opportunity to read the candle's description first, or attack the resident first?
If she attacked first, would the candle become the resident's means of turning the tables and killing her? Had the candle had anything to do with her throat being slit by a single sentence just now?
Unfortunately, when Jin Xueli had followed the resident downstairs in the first timeline, she had not had a chance to read the candle's description carefully.
Whenever people made a choice at a crossroads, they could never foresee the chain of domino effects that would follow; just as Jin Xueli had never imagined that entering the Nest to deal with Anthony would lead her to information about a Phantasm, or that searching for that Phantasm would lead to her being copied by a resident.
Which path should she choose?
After hesitating for a while, Jin Xueli did not know exactly what drove her to take out her phone, turn off the shutter sound, aim it at the exhibit description on the distant wall, zoom in, and take several photos in succession.
Before she could enlarge the photos and read the description carefully, the resident suddenly stood up-her entire body contracted, almost shrinking two sizes, as she stared at its back through a gap between the long pieces of wood.
It had not noticed anything wrong yet. It seemed dissatisfied with the section of candle in front of it. Resting a hand on the candle, it took a few steps as though searching for something, then crouched down again and opened the Fire Trough with a click.
Like waterweed, the flames swayed in the air, lighting up the brows and eyes it shared with her.
Jin Xueli relaxed slightly, enlarged the first photo, and began reading quickly.
The description in the first photo was closest to her, and although the lettering was blurry, she could still make out its general meaning. By the time she finished reading it, her mouth had already gone dry: no wonder she had been pulled out of her fatal ending in the first timeline. It had actually been because the resident had accidentally changed history-she had never imagined that the Nest contained anything so inconceivable.
If I could bring it back to Blackmoor City...
She opened the second photo, but because neither its angle nor its distance was as good as the first, she really could not make out the exact words.
Never mind. I've already figured out the most important thing: although the candle is powerful enough to reverse history, it can't be used to launch an attack.
Then let's act according to the original plan.
Having made her decision, Jin Xueli pressed with two fingers and locked her phone.
The screen went black in an instant, reflecting her second face.
Lately, I keep feeling like all the stats are going crash, crash, crashing down... This must be my punishment for writing niche stuff (just kidding).
I have to get on a plane again tomorrow aaaaaah.
When on earth can I finally go home and lie down in peace aaaaaah.
(End of chapter)
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