“Finally, I’ve been waiting for you.”

 

According to the schedule description on the official website, Lu Mingze’s mother had a lecture at University A tonight, so Xing Ye drove straight to the University A campus.

His younger brother Xing Shuo sent a message saying that he was not very familiar with Lu Mingze. He only knew that Lu Mingze went abroad after graduating from high school and seemed to have returned to China in the past two years, but Xing Shuo was not sure whether Lu Mingze had entered a company to work.

Xing Ye still remembered that Lu Mingze had once told him that he had no talent for business and had no intention of joining a company. Instead, he had some academic aptitude and was willing to study under Lu’s mother, hoping to become a teacher with students everywhere. If nothing unexpected happened, after returning to China he should have pursued a domestic graduate degree, then served as Lu’s mother’s assistant for a period of time, studying continuously until around forty, publishing some papers—no matter how one looked at it, he would at least become a junior scholar.

Little Mirror truly loved listening to Lu’s mother’s lectures. In the past, when he could return to reality but could not sleep, he had relied on listening to recorded lecture videos on the computer every night to endure each long, sleepless darkness.

If Xing Ye’s guess was correct, since the Lu Mingze of this world had not become a vegetative patient and had returned to China, there was a very high probability that he had become Lu’s mother’s assistant, handling miscellaneous tasks.

Lu’s mother’s lecture at University A tonight was also perfectly timed—so coincidental that it seemed as if it had been prepared specifically for Xing Ye.

Every detail and coincidence arranged by the system was meticulously designed; there were no useless clues. Therefore, Xing Ye concluded that the “Lu Mingze” of this world would definitely appear at tonight’s lecture.

Lu’s mother’s lecture was open to the public, and people outside the university could attend as well. However, because her lectures were extremely popular, advance registration on the official website was required, and entry was granted only with a verification code.

When Xing Ye registered in the afternoon, there were still available slots. At 7 p.m., he presented his verification code, entered the University A library auditorium, found a seat near the front, and sat down to wait for Lu’s mother to appear.

Xing Ye himself had been a student at University A. Although he had been expelled due to certain incidents, he was very familiar with the structure of the auditorium. In the past, he had even served as a professor’s assistant, so he knew that there was a small lounge behind the auditorium where professors’ assistants usually stayed.

After the lecture began, noticing that there were no security guards inside—only students—Xing Ye quietly moved along the wall from the side and slipped into the lounge.

There was only one young man inside, sitting at a desk, obediently lowering his head as he took notes.

Without needing to look up, just by the swirl of hair at the crown of his head, Xing Ye knew that this person was Lu Mingze.

Hearing someone enter, Lu Mingze raised his head, revealing that stunningly beautiful face that could make one lose focus, and asked gently, “Is there something you need?”

As early as that morning, after meeting Xing Shuo, his younger brother had helped Xing Ye buy a set of formal clothes. Now Xing Ye was dressed in a perfectly tailored and expensive suit. As the saying goes, “people rely on clothes,” (NT: appearance greatly influences how others judge you). With good clothes and natural presence, no matter where he went, he would not be mistaken for a bad person.

Looking at Lu Mingze’s face, Xing Ye said, “I’m here to look for something.”

“Look for what?” Lu Mingze tilted his head and asked.

“May I borrow your phone for a moment?” Xing Ye said. “Actually, I’ve never seen that thing clearly. I need to make a call to confirm.”

This was obviously an excuse, riddled with flaws. Lu Mingze thought for a moment and asked, “You… want to borrow my phone to call yourself, so you can get my phone number?”

That line of reasoning was quite reasonable. After all, there were far too many people who pursued Lu Mingze, and he had encountered all kinds of tactics. The excuse Xing Ye had improvised was indeed not rigorous and sounded very much like a pick-up attempt.

“You can think that if you like,” Xing Ye said as he pulled over a chair and sat opposite Lu Mingze, looking at him. “I need to verify some things.”

Lu Mingze’s personality was still kind and obedient, just like in the real world, and he remained a perceptive person. After looking at Xing Ye for a while, he said, “You don’t seem like a bad person. Then I’ll lend it to you—but don’t mess with the apps on my phone.”

“Alright,” Xing Ye nodded.

Lu Mingze then dug his phone out from beneath a pile of documents and handed it to Xing Ye.

The moment Xing Ye took hold of the phone, he let out a soft sigh in his heart and said, “I’ve finally found you.”

Immediately afterward, a voice with a sobbing tone appeared in his mind: “You were too slow! It took you a whole day to find me. I was scared to death all day long, worried sick—waaah!”

Xing Ye looked at the shiny, mirror-like phone case on “Lu Mingze’s” phone. His fingertip lightly brushed across the reflective surface. Right in front of “Lu Mingze,” he removed the phone case and installed it onto his own phone.

“Lu Mingze”: “???”

Maintaining a politely courteous smile, Xing Ye said, “This is exactly what I was looking for.”

After saying this, he returned the phone—now missing its case—to Lu Mingze, then stood up and prepared to leave.

“Wait!” “Lu Mingze” grabbed the corner of Xing Ye’s clothes, his face full of confusion as he asked, “You came to my mother’s lecture, snuck into the lounge, racked your brains to borrow my phone, and your final goal was just to take my phone case?”

“That’s exactly right,” Xing Ye replied with a polite smile.

“Lu Mingze” stood up angrily and said, “Stop putting on such a fake smile! That’s my phone case—give it back to me!”

While circling verbally with “Lu Mingze,” Xing Ye asked in his mind, “Can you transfer your consciousness?”

“Not just now. Once you touched me, I could,” Lu Mingze’s voice responded in his head.

“That’s great,” Xing Ye let out a small sigh of relief. “There’s a small makeup mirror in my left pocket. Transfer into it. I’ll return the phone case to him.”

“I’ve transferred. Give it back to him!”

After confirming that Little Mirror had returned to his side, Xing Ye put on a regretful expression, sighed softly, and handed the phone case back to “Lu Mingze,” saying, “Then I’ll return it to you.”

“Lu Mingze”: “???”

What was going on?! A complete stranger borrowed his phone, took his phone case, and then returned it—who on earth was this person?

After returning the phone case, Xing Ye did not linger. He was eager to properly communicate with the real Lu Mingze. Carrying Little Mirror, he quickly left the auditorium, reached the parking lot, drove far away from University A, and only then stopped the car, finally letting out a breath of relief.

He took out the makeup mirror and opened it. At last, he saw Little Mirror’s familiar face.

Seeing Xing Ye, Lu Mingze was also extremely excited. Inside the mirror, he opened his arms toward him and said, “This whole day and night scared me to death! All my abilities were completely locked, I couldn’t transfer my consciousness, and the person holding me looked exactly like me. Luckily, I stayed alert and didn’t say a word. No one should have noticed that I was inside the mirror, right?!”

Unable to hug Lu Mingze, Xing Ye instead poked Little Mirror’s two palms with his fingers, counting it as a hug.

After calming down a bit, Lu Mingze began recounting what he had experienced during the past day and night.

Because every world Xing Ye entered was extremely dangerous, Lu Mingze had already grown accustomed to staying quiet after entering a new world and not showing his face in the mirror. After the game began, Lu Mingze called out to Xing Ye in his mind, asking what the final stage was like, whether there were people around, and whether he could show his face.

After calling for a long time with no response, Lu Mingze discovered that all his skills had been locked. Surrounded by pitch darkness, he began to panic. Fortunately, Lu Mingze remembered the hospital world where Xing Ye had lost his memory, and thought that perhaps another accident had occurred and intimacy needed to be rebuilt. So he comforted himself while patiently waiting for someone to find him.

Unexpectedly, he waited until dawn and still did not see Xing Ye. Instead, a person who looked exactly like him picked up the phone. Seeing another “Lu Mingze” holding him and being extremely close with Lu’s father and mother nearly scared him to death.

Unable to find Xing Ye, with his skills locked and even his owner replaced, Lu Mingze couldn’t help but let his thoughts spiral wildly. He guessed that maybe Xing Ye had failed the final stage, and some external consciousness had occupied his body, leaving him forever as a tool that could never regain a body.

Thinking this, he nearly burst into tears. Fortunately, deep down he still firmly believed that Xing Ye would not lose so easily, and he continued waiting patiently.

Thankfully, he didn’t give up and finally waited for Xing Ye to find him.

The moment Xing Ye’s fingers touched the phone case, all of Lu Mingze’s abilities were instantly unlocked. He immediately used “Hearts connected as one” to cry loudly in Xing Ye’s mind, venting all the fear and anxiety he had endured over the past day and night.

After crying enough, Lu Mingze asked, “Why were we separated? Why is there another me? What exactly is going on in the final stage? And how did you find me?”

Faced with his rapid series of questions, Xing Ye first comforted him softly. Only after Lu Mingze had calmed down quite a bit did he say, “I still haven’t completely figured out what exactly needs to be done in the final stage, or where the true difficulty lies. But as for why there’s another you—and why you were in his possession—I more or less understand that.”

Xing Ye also briefly recounted his own experiences during the time they were separated, including the appearance of his already-deceased parents and younger brother, as well as the existence of another “Xing Ye.”

He said, “Once I confirmed that the final-stage worldline differed from the real world, and that there was another ‘me’ in this world, I came up with two guesses regarding your whereabouts.

“The first guess was that you were in the hands of the other ‘Xing Ye.’ The main purpose of that would be to confuse you—make you mistake him for me, fight alongside him, and regard the real me as your enemy.”

Lu Mingze shook his head in the mirror like a rattle drum, wiping away tears as he said, “That’s impossible. I have ‘Eye of Truth’—there’s absolutely no way I’d mistake someone.”

Xing Ye nodded and said, “That’s why I quickly ruled out that guess. Even if the system copied another me, there would never be two completely identical people in the world. I believe you’d definitely be able to see the difference—and the system should be able to predict that as well.

“So then I thought about the system’s motive for separating us. That part was easy to guess. Your intimacy with me has already reached 100, and your starting skills, QR codes, and achievement titles are all very powerful. By separating us and sowing discord between us, lowering our intimacy below 80, our combat strength would drop drastically, and it would become very difficult for me to win.

“Therefore, the place where you were located had to be somewhere extremely effective at lowering intimacy. So I guessed that not only does this world have another me, it also has another you—and that you were on the other Lu Mingze.”

“How would being on another Lu Mingze lower our intimacy?” Lu Mingze asked, puzzled.

Xing Ye poked his cheek and said, “If I treated ‘Lu Mingze’ as you, believed that in this world you had returned to your own body and fallen in love with him, while you stood right next to us watching—what would you think?”

Without thinking at all, Little Mirror said, “I’d be furious to death! I’d never forgive you again! No amount of coaxing would work! You’d actually be intimate, right in front of me, with another person who looks exactly like me—what’s the point of keeping a lover like that? Break up!”

Xing Ye: “……See? That’s how the intimacy drops. A rift forms between us, and it would be impossible to ever return to a level as high as 100.”

 

Translator : DarNan