“There was never any Immortal Pharma, testers or Bai Feng who lost her mind trying to find his children. Everything is a dream. The night gentleman you see before you now is the real me.” When Bai Feng said these things, Gao Ming felt his heart palpating. His head pounded.
The red candles flickered. The characters on the wall became blurred. The joyful air in the room surged at Gao Ming. They morphed into red lines and bound around Gao Ming.
“I am a night gentleman.” A mysterious power drilled into his mind. It carried Bai Feng’s voice. It echoed in his heart like an old friend. Influenced by this voice, the joy Gao Ming absorbed earlier came alive. They became viscous and grew in his body. They consumed his other emotions. They formed a web to control his anger and sadness. Only the remaining joy was ignited. Happy memories bloomed in his mind. Gao Ming couldn’t help but smile. Smiling was enough… He only needed that.
“You are like me. We live here. We have seen too many memories of the others. We mistook their lives as ours. What you remember is a dream. Only by abandoning them can you meet the real you.” Bai Feng approached Gao Ming gently. She appeared to grow taller. The familiar face became unfamiliar.
Joy expanded crazily within his body. At the last moment, joy entered Gao Ming’s heart. It wanted to help Gao Ming overcome all of his despair. The red joy expanded like a web. However, the despair didn’t dwindle. If anything, the heart became more pained due to the stimulus.
Gao Ming’s heart felt like it had been pierced. He held his chest and fell to the ground with one knee. He tried so hard to smile, but the despair overwhelmed him. The joyful web could haul up the despairing memories, but it couldn’t drain the sea. More joy sunk into Gao Ming’s heart. There appeared to be a crack in his heart that connected to the abyss.
Eventually, Gao Ming’s residual joy was exhausted. The memories that contained his joy started to pour into the abyss. The awakening from the nightmare, the first ray of the sun, the warmth, the light and the gentlemen careened into the chasm in his heart.
In his mind, a fat cat called Fa Cai jumped over. It meowed endlessly. The memory changed. The cat was picked up by a pair of hands. The cat became smaller as if time was flowing backwards.
The fair arms patted the cat’s butt. Liu Yi’s face was covered by joy. She hugged Fa Cai and stood inside the memory. She had a bright smile. Gao Ming suddenly realised that his joy and happiness surrounded one person, Liu Yi.
The joy grabbed Gao Ming’s memories and dragged Liu Yi’s face into the crack in his heart. It wanted to shove Liu Yi into the abyss.
Gao Ming’s knees fell to the ground. His eyes popped with blood. He didn’t feel a shred of joy. His body shook from pain.
“Stop! Stop!” Before the memories related to Liu Yi were torn apart, a voice echoed from the crack in Gao Ming’s heart.
“Stop! Stop!” The crack widened due to the stimulus of joy. In the bloody wound, there were many torture devices and Gao Ming’s dead faces.
“Have you forgotten about us?”
“Have you forgotten about yourself?”
“Have you forgotten about them?”
The dead Gao Mings turned into malicious ghosts to crawl out of the crack. However, they were blocked by a powerful force. However, their intense resentment blasted at the joy within Gao Ming. The web weaved by joy was severed. Even the joyful air within Madam Xi’s room was affected.
The candlelights were extinguished. Broken red lines fell down from Bai Feng’s body. The confusion in her eyes disappeared. She slowly regained herself.
“Gao Ming?” Bai Feng’s eyes finally focused, “Why are you here? It’s too dangerous! Let me help you out!”
“Don’t get close to me…” Gao Ming spat out blood. His heart was in pain. It felt like many hands wanted to yank his heart apart.
Gao Ming looked down. The blood city tattoo on his chest deepened. His heart was located in the tallest and central part of the city. Due to the influence of Xi Gods, the wound in Gao Ming’s heart worsened and that caused him to remember more things.
“Are you alright?” Bai Feng couldn’t remember how she had harmed Gao Ming, “We entered the path together. I saw a door before me. I opened it and landed in the old house beside the Xi Residence. You were not with me.”
Gao Ming didn’t reply. He already noticed the problem. Of all the testers, he appeared to be the only one who was not ‘born’ in the village.
“I found some books and food in the house. Then, I was chased by a mad person. I had no choice but to escape into the Xi Residence.” Bai Feng smiled bitterly. “Then, I competed with three other testers. In the end, I was chosen to be the night gentleman. I was supposed to marry Madam Xi tonight.”
“What happened to the three testers?”
“They died.” Bai Feng kicked away the red lines on the ground. “My memory paused at the moment I became the night gentleman. My last memory was drinking a liquid in a cup with the Xi character in the main hall.”
“In other words, I wasn’t talking to you earlier.” Gao Ming stared into Bai Feng’s eyes, trying to figure out what was wrong.
“Of course, it was not me. Why would I harm you?” Bai Feng picked Gao Ming up from the ground. “I suspect I was possessed by the Xi God after I drank from that cup. After all, I am supposed to marry Madam Xi tonight.”