This is what happened on the eve of the collapse of this world.

It was that bright afternoon.

Shi Xue sat quietly in the library. When she's alone, she likes to come here.

It's quiet and you can occasionally hear someone flipping through a book.

She picked a window spot. The glass was so clean that it reflected her appearance.

Downstairs, in the crowd of people coming and going in and out of the library, a woman with long hair suddenly raised her head.

She seemed to be looking here. This made Shi Xue feel a little uncomfortable.

Let's read a book.

However, just as she was spreading the book on the table, a man sat across from her.

"Chonglin?" she whispered.

"There's something I want to tell you. ”

His voice was not loud, but he didn't deliberately lower the volume.

"Hmm, does it have to be here? Can't you send a message?"

"Well, I feel the need to talk face-to-face. ”

"So what's it, so formal?"

Shi Xue closed the book for the time being.

"About that bird. Where do you put it?"

She was stunned, her eyes becoming alert.

"Not long ago, I went to the Nameless House. The store manager said that the bird was actually Liu Xili......"

"No way. ”

She shook her head and firmly said that Liu Xili would not do such a thing.

Compared to an outsider who takes pretense as a profession, it is really an irrational choice to question his friends.

"It doesn't matter if it's true or not...... What is important is another thing: the degree of decay of the robin's carcass does not correspond to what we call the time of death. ”

"What are you talking about?"

Shi Xue looked at him inexplicably. Chonglin went on to explain:

"How do you usually keep that box? We don't have a refrigerator in our dorm, right? On such a hot summer, it should be quickly decomposed by microorganisms. But Koney told me that she saw a very complete corpse. ”

She still just looked at Chonglin in a daze, not knowing why. But she seemed a little upset and began to run her hair constantly.

"Don't you think it's strange? Inexplicable immediacy, and abnormal time? We haven't clocked in a long time, haven't we? It's been a long time, so why haven't we had an exam yet?"

"Because there's still more than a month before the exam? What are you talking about?"

She thought he was really weird.

"A month ago, Director Gu also said that we are still a month away from the exam. And do you remember the reunion day activities? But until now, there has been no preparation at all, which is very strange!"

"If you keep quiet, you'll make a noise. ”

"Where's the people?"

Shi Xue turned her head suddenly, and her gaze swept over the entire reading area.

The rows of chairs were empty, except for three or two books that were turning restlessly in the wind.

The doors and windows are closed, where does the wind come from?

"So where the hell is the robin?"

“...... What does this mean? As for preservation...... I have my own way. ”

"Don't you think...... Don't think it'......."

Chonglin wanted to speak and stopped, and his ability to express himself was limited at this time. He didn't know how to organize his complex cognition in smooth language.

It was painful for him.

"I don't think so. ”

She interrupted him and replied in a decisive tone. Chonglin noticed something was wrong.

"Really?"

"Yes. ”

There is no hint of doubt, and there is no room for a hint of questioning.

"What about the name, how do you explain that?"

"What's the name?"

"What are the names of the store manager and her assistant, do you remember?"

"Of course, Konai and Jiang ...... What do you mean?"

Halfway through her words, she stopped abruptly.

"You mean...... I shouldn't know their names?"

"That's right. From start to finish, there has never been anyone at any time to tell us who they are. But we just got it. Don't you notice? It's not quite right. ”

"Maybe it's just that we don't remember...... You don't say any more. ”

Shi Xue casually opened a page of the book, holding her head in her hands and facing the book. It's like a little animal that is determined to concentrate on reading, and it's like a little animal protecting itself.

Chonglin saw that the page was empty.

Just like their thoughts at this point.

"What are you running away from?"

He asked a rare question. It was hard to say this, as if it had used up all his life's courage.

The wind inside was stronger, tearing her hair wantonly.

"The world is normal, and this is the world I live in. ”

Shi Xue clenched her teeth, and every word seemed to be squeezed out of her throat.

Chonglin vaguely felt that something had changed.

He turned his head to look out the window, and there was a hazy white mist.

Snowing?

He quickly dismissed the idea. He looked closer, and saw that the white was actually a thick layer of frost condensed on the window.

It's frost.

Frost is the product of the condensation of water vapor when the warm indoor air in winter meets the glass that is frozen cold outside.

He tried wiping it and found that it wouldn't come off.

On the outside.

Chonglin finally noticed that the air conditioning in the library was too low.

But that's just what he's just realizing.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

He always had a feeling that she was the one who was abnormal in this world.

Shi Xue hugged her head tightly and curled up together. Chonglin reached out and patted her arm gently.

As cold as winter iron.

It's not like human body temperature.

The hoarfrost on the windows is starting to brighten, which means that it may be getting dark outside – albeit suddenly.

A flash of lightning flashed, and the blinding white light darkened the room for a moment.

In the rolling thunder that followed, Shi Xue's stomach was a little nauseous.

You can get along well, don't you?

In this silent storm, she was like a fragile young shoot, struck, torn, and swayed in the wind.

Another vertiginous bolt of lightning.

In an instant, she saw the same woman from before.

At the moment when lightning struck the world again.

For a moment she peered out the window from between her elbows.

Just for a moment.

The glass reflected everything in the room, and the figure of the woman with long lead-gray hair at her eye level looked as if she was standing in the room.

Who's that?

What she knew, she should know.

But who is that?

That person, not normal.

This world is not normal.

She thought so.

It seemed like it was just a moment, and it seemed like a long time later, and she woke up like a dream and realized.

Many times, many things she doesn't understand, she has to get by, like everyone else.

But many things, once you study them in detail, will find flaws.

And Chonglin and they found this flaw.

Or rather, these.

There was a small shrill laugh all around, as if mocking something.

Shi Xue hugged herself tighter, but this did not give her any more security.

Everyone's face was strange except for her friends, and they didn't seem to see her.

Like the people in the library before, or the students in class meetings.

They exist when they are needed, and disappear when they are not.

She had not intended to unconsciously avoid these questions as she did now. On the contrary, when she wants to ask something clearly, she has a headache. Then the person in front of him disappeared.

Man cannot live in isolation from the collective, and neither can she.

Just like in the past, with friends and Liu Xili Chonglin, they squandered their vast college years in a prosaic way.

I thought that nothing would be fine if I curled up in my circle of friends, she thought so.

However, it turned out that she was wrong.

Whether it's a few friends or a large group, no matter which one you break away, mistakes will happen.

Before, Shi Xue thought that it was her own problem, and her memory was confused.

But these objective facts are now put on the table by Chonglin, so she has to face them.

Those parts that disappeared happened to be the ones she had no memory at all.

The first thing I felt strange was when she was walking down the hallway one day with the review materials in her arms. She was walking with her head down when she noticed someone in front of her head-on.

She subconsciously closed her eyes, but nothing happened. When she opened it again, the man was already behind her.

The corridor is narrow.

Did he walk through her?

If you think about it carefully, you can't see his face clearly. Even if it's close.

Very close.

But that reason became more and more abundant and clear as time passed.

It's like a naughty cat living in my heart, scattering all my thoughts and memories like playing with balls of yarn.

Now, the scratched flesh is blurred and riddled with holes.

The truth is like a relentless poisonous arrow piercing into the heart, putting the hot light into the heart.

Smoke, fire, burn until the flames engulf everything.

The laughter around them became more and more obvious.

Obviously, Chonglin also heard it.

There was a roar, and everything in front of him was ghosted. He tried to stand up, but it felt like the world was spinning.

Earthquake?

Even though Shi Xue's arm was really cold, he still grabbed her again and prepared to flee indiscriminately.

Chonglin's hand passed through her, and he turned back in horror.

Shi Xue flickered unrealistically like a TV that had lost its signal.

The hanging lamp suddenly slammed down. The moment it swept past the snow, she vanished.

It's like a screen with a power cut off, or a picture scroll that suddenly falls to the ground.

Without thinking too much, he frantically pushed away the table and chair in front of him and fled towards the door.

But the moment he left the building, it was a different view.

The blood-stained remnant sun was on the canopy, slowly, slowly sinking.

In the warmth and tranquility, pedestrians walk comfortably on the street.

It's too much comfort.

When it got dark, he turned his face and looked in the direction of the library. The building is still intact, and you can see the students by the window reading seriously in the bright room from the transparent glass of the second and third floors.

Where is it true?

Or is it all fake?

It was all very perverse, at least not what he saw it now.

It's like some force is controlling everything, but it can't be perfected because of many details.

He knew he needed to be a bystander. The more loopholes he learned, the more he discovered the incompleteness of the story.

Everyone is the protagonist, it's just that in time and space, because of the difference in personal positions, there are subtle distortions.

So the stories of different pages are crumpled together and put together into a ridiculous farce.

- To be continued -