"Bang!"
The school doctor was thrown to the ground, feeling very unwell after the sudden impact with the concrete floor.
Two coughs came out of his throat involuntarily.
"Who is it?"
He was somewhat angry.
He didn’t understand why, just after waking up, he was being treated this way.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a man carrying him and running chaotically. The man’s shoulder pressed into his stomach with every jostle.
Moreover, when jumping through the window, he was scratched by shards of glass, leaving him with bleeding cuts.
"Why are you here?"
Hoàng Tuân led the school doctor to a relatively safe place.
He squatted down and asked the school doctor with a flashlight shining on his face.
The latter was blinded by the harsh white light.
"Okay, okay! Put the flashlight away!"
The school doctor covered his eyes with his hands, hurriedly saying.
"Oh, right."
Hoàng Tuân seemed to just realize this.
He moved the flashlight to the side...
As his vision gradually recovered.
The school doctor finally saw clearly the man who had carried him on his back.
A big backpack, an axe...
Such a distinctive outfit immediately triggered his memory.
"It's you?!"
After seeing his face.
The school doctor seemed to have seen a ghost, desperately backing away, even trying to stand up and run.
"What are you doing? Why are you running?"
But as he retreated.
Hoàng Tuân grabbed his left ankle.
The immense strength from his left arm was like a chain, making the doctor unable to move.
"You... stay away from me! I know I was wrong! Please let me go!"
The school doctor's mental state seemed unstable.
Hoàng Tuân felt the doctor had gone somewhat mad after seeing him.
Strange...
He hadn't done anything excessive to him last time, right?
He just sat down and talked...
Why was he so scared?
"Calm down first."
Hoàng Tuân tried to persuade the school doctor.
"I'm calm, I'm calm... I will behave, please spare me."
However, the school doctor's condition remained unstable.
His face was still pleading, continuously begging Hoàng Tuân.
This.
Made Hoàng Tuân feel somewhat uncomfortable and confused.
He had no choice but to draw out his axe and place it against the doctor's neck like last time, his face turning serious.
"If you don't tell me everything, I'll chop your head off."
Turns out.
Violence is the simplest way to solve problems.
If it doesn’t work.
It just means it's not violent enough...
Under such threats, the school doctor didn't dare to continue talking nonsense. After a moment of stunned silence, he swallowed hard, forcing himself to calm down.
"How do you feel now?"
Hoàng Tuân asked.
"I feel much better. I feel much better now." The school doctor replied with a smile that looked worse than crying.
"Good, that's good." Hoàng Tuân nodded, continuing, "Now tell me, why are you still here?"
"Huh? Wasn't it you who locked me here?"
The school doctor was stunned, looking at Hoàng Tuân in confusion.
"Me?"
...
"Why does this person seem abnormal?"
"If you just woke up and were carried by such an abnormal person, then seeing clearly that your rescuer is holding a bloody axe, anyone would be abnormal..."
"No, that's not what I meant. I said that as a victim, no matter what, the person shouldn’t react this way after being rescued."
"It seems... Did you notice, when he saw that guy’s face, he suddenly became very scared, as if fearing he would be eaten alive."
"Could there be a grudge between them?"
"Possibly."
"..."
...
"I don't quite understand what you mean, explain it clearly."
Hoàng Tuân didn't understand what the school doctor was saying.
Although the other's mood was unstable, normally, he wouldn't be talking nonsense.
"That day, didn't you come to the medical room, we had a bit of a conflict, then you demanded I explain the world's plan."
The school doctor, while speaking, paid attention to Hoàng Tuân's expression, simultaneously very nervous, afraid Hoàng Tuân would get angry and kill him.
He believed Hoàng Tuân could do it.
"Then I told you about the breeding at Trần Hưng Đạo High School, and you knocked out the guards, tied me to the bed with ropes so I couldn't escape."
"Later, you still regularly had someone bring me food..."
After the school doctor finished speaking.
He observed Hoàng Tuân's expression for a while, still unable to read his thoughts.
Hoàng Tuân's mind was somewhat confused.
What the school doctor said had nothing to do with what happened that day.
"Could his memory also have been altered?"
Hoàng Tuân thought.
He stared at the school doctor for a moment and then asked, "Does the method you use to ensure your memory is not assimilated actually work?"
"Yes, because I am among the first group to arrive in this world, so I am one of the first to understand the issue of assimilation. Both the principal and I..." Although he didn't understand why Hoàng Tuân was asking this, he still answered truthfully.
But when answering this.
The school doctor hesitated for a moment.
"What's the matter?" Hoàng Tuân asked.
"We all have a ghost inside us, which can resist the assimilation. Ghosts cannot be killed; even if suppressed, our memories remain clear."
The school doctor gritted his teeth and told everything.
He looked at Hoàng Tuân.
To prevent him from killing him because of the ghost inside, he hurriedly added, "But the ghost in us is very docile. As long as we are not dead, the ghost will always stay inside us. Conversely, only when we die will the ghost come out."
Hoàng Tuân could understand the doctor's meaning.
The other just wanted to say.
As long as he was safe, there was no need to worry about the ghost escaping from his body.
And not to take his life.
Otherwise, he would indirectly release the ghost...
Alright.
Hoàng Tuân wasn't very concerned about killing the doctor.
Currently, he still had many questions to ask the other, and killing the school doctor wouldn’t benefit him.
The other's worries.
Were entirely overthought...
"If his memory hasn't been altered, then is it possible this school doctor is from a parallel timeline?"
"Myself in that parallel timeline..."
Wait.
Hoàng Tuân felt he might have thought of something.
His brain was thinking quickly.
"Could it be my memory that's been altered?"
"Let’s go over it again. That day, Lê Na and I encountered ghosts in the principal’s office, then escaped through the window, followed by Hồng Mạnh."
"I saw their ill intent towards Lâm Hùng, so I went with Lê Na to the medical room..."
"After arguing with the two guards, I used force and politeness to demand the doctor tell me about their plan.”
“Maybe they thought I wouldn’t care after knowing the truth. After all, I was just another victim trapped in this world, so they told me everything without hiding anything.”
“Then I believed them and didn’t interfere, living my own life as they wished.”
"I trusted..."
"I didn’t care about anything."
"So I obediently went back to living my own life?"
Hoàng Tuân's heart suddenly tightened.
He realized something was wrong.
Normally.
If at that time, immediately after learning about such breeding of ghosts, even if he chose to support, would his careful nature allow them to act without supervision?
"If... if I could go back, after hearing their story."
Hoàng Tuân mentally replayed the events.
He relaxed his mind.
Wanting to replace it with his true self...
"I would still believe in the plan."
"But after believing, I definitely wouldn’t let them proceed without verifying how they bred the ghosts, what types they bred, to what extent, or whether they were as reliable as they said..."
"At worst, I would see the process firsthand."
"Seeing they did what they said..."
"But in my memory, I just left then..."
"And this guy says I didn’t support it, instead, I opposed it, knocked out the two guards, tied him up, and sent people to regularly bring him food."
"Could it be my memory that's been altered?"
"But, I clearly used the ability to modify the plot before, to prevent being affected by assimilation..."
"Assimilation effect..."
Hoàng Tuân thought of something terrible.
He even found it hard to accept this result.
He remembered clearly.
The content he modified was: Hoàng Tuân gradually forgets who he is..., modified to Hoàng Tuân gradually remembers who he is...
If this modification was wordplayed in some way.
Then his memory could be affected.
It's not impossible...
The school doctor just watched Hoàng Tuân's increasingly grim face, wanting to say something but not daring to speak.
In this somewhat stifling atmosphere.
Silently.
He prayed the other wouldn’t tie him up in the medical room like last time.
Even though someone brought him food.
But on days he couldn’t move at all, he even had to wait for someone to clean up his mess.
It was truly torturous...
He could only rely on sleep to numb the time.
Like the cough just now.
It was because he had just woken up and caught a cold without a blanket.
It sounded a bit funny.
But he woke up and coughed because of discomfort from the cold...
"If it's as you say, what happened to the two guards you knocked out when you tied them up? Where did they go?"
After a while.
The school doctor finally heard Hoàng Tuân's question.
He honestly replied without thinking.
Recalling the situation, he said, "After tying me up, you dragged them out. I don't know where they were taken, but I never saw them again."
"And the principal?"
"I never saw him either, after you tied me up, I really didn’t see anyone else except the person who brought food..."
"Tell me, what did the person who brought food look like?"
Hearing the question.
The school doctor didn't understand why, glanced at Hoàng Tuân, paused for two seconds, then answered, "Isn't she... your sister?"
...
...
"Tell me, if Hoàng Tuân knew everything, would he be angry?"
Occasionally reaching out to catch a snowflake.
To let it melt in the warmth of her palm.
She was always very gentle, no matter the circumstances, she would always have that gentle and warm voice.
"Would he... be angry?"
Hoàng Lan only lowered her head.
Asking in a monotonous voice devoid of emotion.
"He's not your brother, his name is Hoàng Tuân, just an outsider, your so-called brother is just what you thought."
"He remembers who he is and knows this place is fake."
Thanh Linh explained Hoàng Tuân's situation without reservation.
Though not tactfully.
Though this would make Hoàng Lan sad.
But that’s how it is...
There’s no way to change this.
After all, this world is just the happy life Hoàng Lan yearns for, artificial and illusory, she must learn to accept it.
"I know many of my brother's memories are still there."
"But I think my brother, he would love this place, this world, and me a lot..."
Hoàng Lan said.
She slightly raised her right hand.
On it.
Was a bracelet with a classic style and unique aesthetic favored by Hoàng Tuân...
"Look, my brother gave this to me. It's the first birthday gift I received."
Hoàng Lan smiled.
She showed off her gift to Thanh Linh.
She demonstrated that, besides those who were assimilated, she was still cared for and loved.
"You think Hoàng Tuân really wants you as his sister, so... you worked hard to hypnotize him, hoping he would always stay by your side."
"I just... don’t want to lose him, don’t want to lose this home."
Hoàng Lan’s feelings were complicated.
She no longer knew if what she was doing was right or wrong.
Hoàng Tuân was indeed an outsider.
Before Hoàng Tuân and the others arrived, she had created a fake brother and father to live with her.
Those fake brother and father also loved her very much.
But ultimately, they were just her illusions, like puppets, without their own thoughts and unable to think...
Everything the puppet brother and puppet father did.
Was all a script she wrote.
Until Hoàng Tuân and Dĩnh Phúc appeared.
Then she had real family members, flesh and blood, with their own opinions and thoughts.
"A home is incomplete without anyone..."
Hoàng Lan said to herself.
Thanh Linh knew her current emotions were complicated, she also knew the girl found it hard to accept this truth.
Deceiving oneself.
Is often the most dangerous action...
Thanh Linh took two steps forward, placing her hand on Hoàng Lan's head, gently speaking as if comforting a child.
"Hoàng Tuân, he doesn’t belong to anyone."
"Not to you, and not to me..."
"Anyway, he’s leaving soon, do you think he would stay here forever..."
Hoàng Lan said nothing.
She seemed to already know the answer.
She lowered her head in silence.
Unable to hold back her tears anymore, they quietly fell from her eyes...
Falling to the ground.
Melting into the white snow...