Chapter 29: Little White Lotus

After another ten minutes of chaotic bickering, both sides finally, reluctantly, managed to clear up the misunderstanding.

“So your way of saving someone is to send Alice flying along with a plastic mannequin? Do you have any idea how fragile his body is?” Zhang Hengheng was furious. His playing cards practically jabbed at the other’s nose.

Lei Jue knew he was somewhat in the wrong, but refused to back down, his voice still booming: “I admit I was a bit heavy-handed, but the situation was urgent! That creature’s hand was right against his neck. If I hadn’t reacted so fast, your teammate might be dead. Getting hurt is better than being dead!”

“He needed you to save him? The ghosts and monsters haven’t even fully awakened yet. Apart from moving a bit strangely, those plastic mannequins aren’t even strong. You think Alice can’t run?”

“Can he even run in that sickly state? What a joke!” Lei Jue, whose skin had cracked from the earlier explosion, felt his temper flare, his tone turning sharp. “Without me, he’d still be dead!”

“Heh, did you know Alice’s wheelchair is electric? Did you know it can climb stairs? Do you know how much that wheelchair cost! He didn’t need you sticking your nose in where it didn’t belong!” Zhang Hengheng roared back.

“Didn’t you guys attack without a word too? What right do you have to lecture us? My clothes are scorched and I haven’t even settled the score with you yet!”

“You deserved it!”

While Zhang Hengheng aggressively confronted them, Ying Zixin watched Yin Luo crouching by the wall, and softened his voice: “Does it still hurt? Can you stand up?”

Yin Luo silently shook his head. His black, choppy hair covered his eyes, making him look even more fragile and pitiful.

Lei Jue grumbled: “I fed him a Scarlet Fruit Pill. Logically, any external injuries should be healed. Fifty points a pill, you know!”

“And you still have the nerve to shout about it? If it weren’t for you, would Alice be hurt? You’re bragging about fifty points?!”

“You wanna fight?!”

“Heh, you think I’m scared of you?”

“Wait, are you… Yin Luo?” At that moment, the girl in the tracksuit, who had been pondering for a while, had a flash of inspiration. She finally pulled a name from her memory—somewhat familiar, but mostly foreign.

Zhang Hengheng and Ying Zixin snapped their heads towards her.

“You actually know him?” Lei Jue’s eyes widened.

“Shut up! You know him too!”

Lin Rudong pushed him aside and turned with a smile: “Looks like I remembered right. I’m Lin Rudong. We were in the same class in high school, but you only attended the first year before dropping out. I was the class monitor back then, and I registered a lot of the info, so I remember you quite well.”

She looked at his pale face and added: “Do you remember?”

Yin Luo had no impression.

Even the word “high school” felt somewhat distant to him.

To think that in one small Reality Quest, he would run into several players who knew him, one after another. It was rather intriguing.

So, what should he do next?

Should he travel with these players and explore the secrets of this instance? Or follow his instincts, turn hostile immediately, and go solo?

He was extremely aware of his own physical condition, capable of detecting every subtle change.

If in the Instance World, it felt like breaking free from all the heavy shackles that bound him, light and pain-free… then in the Real World, it was as if a mountain were pressing down on his back. Every step forward required immense mental effort.

Reality Quests fell somewhere in between.

Upon first entering, it felt no different from the outside world. But as time passed, that crushing weight, that pressure that made him feel like he could barely breathe, was slowly lifted. He could finally stand up straight and catch his breath.

So, even if he acted alone, he wasn’t afraid.

Wait, this is a bit like what players say about the dungeon’s ghosts gradually awakening, isn’t it?

Yet I’m clearly just a weak, helpless little pitiful thing. At most, I have a few grudges to settle. The black-haired youth sighed inwardly.

After hesitating a moment, curiosity about the past won out.

Yin Luo put away the giant cleaver of murderous intent in his heart, switching it for a “soft knife” to draw out.

He whispered: “I don’t remember.”

As if afraid this sentence might be misunderstood, the black-haired youth quickly added: “Sorry, I had a serious illness a few years ago. My body and mind… deteriorated a lot. I’ve been in treatment all these years. I’ve forgotten many things. It’s not that I deliberately don’t recognize you.”

“Ah, no wonder… we should be the ones apologizing.” Lin Rudong’s expression was complex. “But it’s been six years. I didn’t expect you to hardly change at all.”

Zhang Hengheng forcibly suppressed the urge to whistle, listening with relish. His eyes were full of thirst for gossip, practically shining with the words “drama” and “tea.”

At the same time, a snowy white long ear also secretly perked up.

Without leaving a trace, Yin Luo immediately pushed it back down. “What was I like before?”

Lin Rudong thought for a moment: “I think… you spoke very quietly, were very shy, the overly polite type. The girls in our class actually liked you quite a bit. Sometimes they’d even discuss you in private, because you were good-looking.”

Oh?

Yin Luo was slightly interested.

“What about the boys?” the qualified supporting lead in the baseball cap asked.

“Probably many didn’t like him. At that age, those guys had excessive self-importance, always finding fault with this or that.”

“But our school was very strict, and your family situation seemed quite good. Not many people openly bullied you.” Lin Rudong appeared to be a quiet, scholarly girl, but she spoke very directly once she opened her mouth.

The few of them immediately conjured an image of an isolated and ostracized youth, and turned condemning eyes towards Lei Jue.

Lei Jue instinctively took a step back: “Why are you looking at me? It has nothing to do with me! I wasn’t even familiar with him. I was a sports student, rarely in the classroom!”

After six years, Lin Rudong’s mindset was no longer that of a young girl. Having met many more people, she felt a bit sentimental reminiscing: “Looking at it now, people like you are actually quite rare. Maybe we should have cherished that back then.”

“Was it really like that?” Yin Luo tilted his head. “Sounds nothing like me now.”

“I think it’s quite similar,” Lin Rudong said.

“People change, Alice. Aren’t you quite gentle now too?” Zhang Hengheng shrugged. He actually wanted to say “easy to bully,” but out of respect, he swapped it for a nicer word.

“No, completely different,” Yin Luo said softly.

“Different how?”

Different in every way.

It’s almost like the person you’re describing… isn’t me at all.

The black-haired youth flipped over the white rabbit doll in his arms, looking at its ruby eyes that vividly projected an expression of innocence. He smiled.

Head lowered, his voice sounded as fragile as a candle flame in the wind, ready to go out at any moment: “I could run and jump before. Now I can’t even walk on my own. And…”

“My wheelchair is broken too. I’m nothing but a burden here.”

“This…”

Lei Jue looked at the wheelchair, twisted beyond recognition over ten meters away, and finally felt a bit of guilt: “How about… I go search the department store, see if there’s one?”

“Something like that from decades ago is pretty rare. Chances are slim.” Lin Rudong wasn’t optimistic, and glared fiercely at Lei Jue again.

“I’ll carry you.” Ying Zixin suddenly spoke.

“Ah? No, that will just drag you down.” Yin Luo hurriedly shook his head, shrinking back.

“It’s fine.” The crew-cut youth shook his head. “Hengheng and I usually just follow behind anyway. My attacks don’t require much movement.”

“But…”

Ying Zixin didn’t speak further. With a pull of his arms, he hoisted Yin Luo onto his back.

“Then… I’m sorry for troubling you.” The black-haired youth bit his lip. Out of guilt, even the tips of his ears flushed a faint pink.

He seemed unwilling to burden his teammates, yet reluctant to abandon hope of survival—a picture of inner conflict.

“An acquaintance! Also a schoolmate!” Man Yue, holding binoculars, excitedly slapped He Yaokun’s shoulder. Although she could see perfectly clearly without the aid of tools, in moments like this, missing the binoculars somehow felt like something was lacking.

“…”

The besuited man rubbed his forehead: “You’re being a bit of a creep like this.”

“Hey, this is called information gathering. Don’t you get it? This Reality Quest is so strange. I need to figure out why the game insisted on pulling us in here.” The short-skirted girl rubbed her hands eagerly. “No interesting monsters, so running into interesting people is still good.”

“He’s interesting?”

“He’s not?”

He Yaokun, with the poised grace of a crane, clasped his hands behind his back: “Haven’t we seen plenty of people like this in games?”

“Oh?”

“You know, that type… the Little White Lotus?”

Man Yue paused, only realizing what he meant a beat later. She burst out laughing on the spot, laughing so hard she couldn’t catch her breath, unable to utter a word for a long moment.

“You…” The suited man didn’t understand her humor. “Don’t choke yourself.”

“No way. I’m contacting Jing Song the moment I get back. Tell him to get ready to take the kid,” the short-skirted girl said excitedly.

She also planned to describe this “Little White Lotus” characterization to Big Star Jing in full detail.

He Yaokun was somewhat exasperated, about to say something, when he suddenly spun around, shielding the girl in the short skirt.

“They’re here.”

Behind them, countless plastic mannequins with stiff, halting steps emerged from the darkness, advancing towards them. Some wore new display clothes, others had been abandoned for who knows how long, missing limbs. Still others were contorted into twisted poses, only able to crawl along the ground.

But the closer they got, the more natural their movements became, as if they were a dense, dark mass of real people.