Volume 11: The Days of Traversing Through the Mirror
Right and Wrong
World Line Convergence
Having finally figured out who was real and who was fake, the three of them repeated their old trick1 and began to debrief in an empty classroom.
Unlike Shen Maomao, as soon as Lou Jingmo entered, she found herself instantly teleported from the academic building to a place that resembled a library. There was no one there, but for some unknown reason, all the doors and windows connecting to the outside were shut. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t open them. In the end, she could only wait in the library for dawn. It was there that she found the fake Shen Maomao.
“To be precise, she was the one who found me.” Lou Jingmo crossed her legs2, her hands folded on her knees. She glanced at Shen Maomao several times as she spoke. “She might have inherited your stup… purity. She called me ‘Lou-jie’ right away, probably to increase her credibility, but that’s what made me suspicious.”
Shen Maomao was sometimes very stupid, but at other times, she was frighteningly smart.
She had hinted to her not to expose her identity, because she had used special means to get in, with the goal of preventing the game from increasing its difficulty. Shen Maomao was ghostly clever3; how could she suddenly call her “Lou-jie”?
Shen Maomao: “You think I didn’t catch that? Are you calling me stupid?”
Lou Jingmo looked innocent. “How could I?”
Shen Maomao wiped away non-existent tears from the corners of her eyes. “Let’s get a divorce. The kids and the house are mine.”
Lou Jingmo: “The thing you’re thinking of is beautiful.”4
Peng Xiaorui coughed awkwardly. “Um… Maomao, did you find out anything from following Zhan Xin?”
Shen Maomao’s expression turned serious. “Not really a finding, but Zhan Xin told me her story. She said she has kleptomania and can’t control her desire to steal things. Later, her roommate found out, and she ended up being ostracized by her entire major.”
Peng Xiaorui had a sudden realization. “So that’s why she had an extra hand on her back when she turned into a monster. Isn’t a thief called ‘three-handed’5?”
“But there’s one thing that bothers me. She said the things she stole became more and more valuable, but that imposter told me kleptomaniacs can’t control themselves at all. So it’s very likely Zhan Xin was lying. Maybe she was stealing for other reasons.”
“You trust her that much…” Lou Jingmo suddenly said from the side in a ghost-like voice.
Shen Maomao jumped in fright. “Holy shit! Don’t scare me like that!”
Lou Jingmo pulled her into her arms, using her back to block Peng Xiaorui’s view as she reached for her chest. “Feeling guilty? Hmm?”
Shen Maomao laughed from the tickling. “Stop messing around, hahahahaha, stop, stop!! Can we discuss this whole vinegar jar6 business when we get home?”
Peng Xiaorui, the third wheel, spoke up weakly, “Could you please spare a thought for us single dogs7? You don’t have to love, but please don’t hurt…”8
Embarrassed, Shen Maomao lightly punched Lou Jingmo’s chest, got off her, and straightened her clothes. “What about you? How did it go with Wu Huiling?”
Peng Xiaorui said, “She and I were discovered when we went downstairs. That girl is a damn good fighter. She subdued me in just a few moves and even said she was going to spit on my wound… I’m a highly educated person, not like this bunch of idiots in this school who don’t even know that AIDS isn’t spread through saliva.”
The Shen Maomao from this school: “…” Felt offended.
However, she did know that particular fact.
Peng Xiaorui continued, “She saw that I wasn’t scared at all, said she admired me, and wanted to treat me to a meal. She also told me her story. She said the reason she was ostracized was that the girls in her class were jealous of her good looks, jealous that she had licking dogs9 chasing her and could maintain a ‘fish pond’.”10
Shen Maomao: [old man on the subway looking at his phone.jpg].
“She seems to be extremely confident in her looks, and her private life is also quite a mess. I always thought she got HIV by accident, but it turns out it was because of group… you know. She admitted it very frankly. Her attitude towards men is that as long as she finds them attractive, she won’t turn anyone away. A few men who had girlfriends even asked her out, and she kept them all on the hook.”
At the end, she couldn’t help but sigh, “Truly, the dry die of drought, while the flooded die of flood.”11 As she said this, she glanced at the two sitting together, her implication unclear.
Shen Maomao summarized, “So, we were wrong from the start. The two of them aren’t completely innocent, but their sins didn’t warrant death.”
Peng Xiaorui nodded. “I think the theme of this instance is probably school bullying. But the game creator is very cunning. It made the victims of the bullying into imperfect victims. That way, we can’t accurately judge Its intentions or figure out which side It’s on.”
If you say It’s on the side of the student body, their actions were indeed a form of school bullying. But if you say It’s on Zhan Xin and Wu Huiling’s side, their own conduct is highly reprehensible… It’s like both sides have a point, yet neither side is in the right.
“Maomao’s girl.” As they were pondering the plot, Peng Xiaorui suddenly called out to Lou Jingmo.
“Hmm?” Lou Jingmo raised an eyebrow at her, her expression showing she was quite pleased with the title.
Peng Xiaorui: “Have you seen anyone else? We found Wu Mei’s body in the academic building. If she got in, then the newbie who was with her should have gotten in too. And Bai Lu—I’ve only run into her imposter once since we got here. The school is only so big, so where did the real Bai Lu go?”
Lou Jingmo: “I saw the newbie, but I’m not sure if she was the real one.”
Shen Maomao: “Huh? She was in the library too?”
“Mhm, and something seemed to be wrong with her mentally. As soon as I got close, she would scream, ‘It wasn’t me!’ and had no other reaction.”
Shen Maomao’s eyes widened. “Could she have been—by that player who never showed up at the start?!”
Peng Xiaorui nodded. “I’ve thought something was off about her for a while. But it’s a shame about Wu Mei, dying just like that…”
Lou Jingmo bent her index finger and tapped the table. “Stop feeling sorry for others and start worrying about yourselves. Because of the mirror, my identity has been exposed. It’s very likely the game’s difficulty has already increased without us even realizing it.”
Peng Xiaorui’s eyes widened in surprise. “What… you guys have hidden identities? Are we even playing the same game?”
Shen Maomao couldn’t help but laugh and explained, “No, it’s not that. My girlfriend’s level is pretty high, so she used an item to fool the game and get in. I didn’t expect her to get exposed anyway.”
Peng Xiaorui: “Crap. I’m starting to doubt if we’ll be able to get back tonight at all…”
Shen Maomao: “I’m warning you, don’t raise a flag.”12
Peng Xiaorui immediately covered her mouth and mumbled, “I misspoke. We’ll definitely get back!”
Shen Maomao: “…” That’s an even bigger flag.
With Peng Xiaorui’s massive flag, she felt that tonight was destined not to go smoothly.
…
Night fell, and the bell rang for the end of the last class.
Everything seemed to be replaying. Just like last night, they were huddled on the stairs, waiting for it to get dark.
The moment the last student left the academic building, all the lights inside went out instantly. Boundless darkness enveloped it, turning it into an isolated island.
“Sob… haa…“
“Sob, sob, sob… Gasp, gasp…“
The sounds of crying and panting came together from the darkness, startling awake Shen Maomao, who had been leaning on Lou Jingmo’s shoulder, drowsy with hunger. “They’re here?”
Lou Jingmo: “They’re here.”
They didn’t even have to think to know who would be crying here at this time.
She stood up, wiping the drool from the corner of her mouth. “Didn’t we already save Zhan Xin? Why is she still appearing in the academic building’s bathroom?”
Lou Jingmo said, “It’s probably World Line Convergence.”13
Peng Xiaorui had a face full of dazed cunt-ness14. “Huh?”
Shen Maomao: “I can’t explain it well, but you can probably understand it as: the past we participated in didn’t cause the future to change. That’s called World Line Convergence. If it had changed, it would be called world line divergence.”15
Peng Xiaorui was in the clouds and fog16. “So does Zhan Xin still recognize us?”
“Not necessarily.” Shen Maomao turned on her flashlight and said, “Anyway, let’s ignore her for now. We have the keys, so we can go investigate the teachers’ office first. We might find something.”
Peng Xiaorui: “Is it really okay to just leave her there crying?”
Shen Maomao said calmly, “She’s a big ghost now. Crying a little won’t break her. Her parents don’t need to worry so much.”
Peng Xiaorui: “…” God his mother17 ‘parents’!
The three of them felt their way to the counselor’s office. Shen Maomao took out the key ring and had Lou Jingmo shine the flashlight for her as she began searching for the right key with a jingle, jangle. Luckily, they all had labels, so it wasn’t too hard to find. She found it quickly.
She stuck the key into the keyhole, turned it once, and clearly heard the click of the lock.
Then she tried to press the handle down, but it wouldn’t budge.
“What’s wrong?” Peng Xiaorui asked.
Shen Maomao: “There’s… something blocking the door from the inside, I think.”
Peng Xiaorui: “How about I give it a try?”
Shen Maomao immediately made way for her. “Be my guest.”
Peng Xiaorui gripped the handle with both hands and pushed down with all her might, her face scrunching up from the effort. She was just short of lifting her feet off the ground to add her body weight to it.
After half a minute of this, she gave up. “I can’t do it. This isn’t a fake door, is it?”
Shen Maomao looked at Lou Jingmo. “Lou-jie?”
Lou Jingmo: “Do we have to open the door to get in?”
Shen Maomao’s eyes lit up as if she’d had an epiphany. She waved the other two over. “You two, stand back. Let me.”
Lou Jingmo raised an eyebrow at her and took two steps back.
Peng Xiaorui also retreated to the same spot.
Shen Maomao narrowed her eyes, used a small gadget that temporarily increased her strength, then loosened up her ankle, bent her knee, and kicked the door.
THUD— A loud bang echoed, so loud that even the crying from some unknown location stopped for a moment.
“HEY—” Lou Jingmo shouted, but Shen Maomao had already launched a second kick, completely drowning out her voice.
THUD—!
THUD—!
THUD—!
After three such kicks, the door panel, having taken too much, finally gave way. It collapsed with a crash, taking the door frame with it. The walls on either side crumbled, kicking up a cloud of dust that blew right into their faces.
Lou Jingmo: “Ptooey, ptooey… I FUCKING MEANT FOR YOU TO CUT THE DOOR OPEN WITH YOUR DAGGER!! NOT KICK IT DOWN!!!!”
The author has something to say:
555518 thank you to the little cutie who recommended this on Weibo19, but you’ve pierced my fragile little heart. Single dogs are dogs too; you don’t have to love, but please don’t hurt QWQ. Besides, the romance is just a slow burn20! Isn’t it sweet at all?!!!
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