Artifact Report

Chapter 150: Fu Tailan: A Short Ten Minutes

When he came to his senses, he was standing in the dark and narrow corridor of the apartment.

Take one more step and you can walk through the door of Room 209; reach out your hand and you can touch the TV screen.

Hot sweat, panting, trance, dull pain on his face, and tears... His hands and feet were weak, and he looked up at the screen in a daze.

Just as my mother was pulled in, the car door slammed shut.

The woman, acting as bait, hurriedly got on the car; soon, it sped away.

On the endless silent highway between heaven and earth, only my mother's car was parked on the side of the road, with the door half open, empty, and there was no Fu Tailan in the car.

He clearly rushed over just now.

He did not obey, he had made his choice; but when Fu Tailan rushed out, his foot was tripped by something - he staggered, and when he regained his balance, he saw the apartment corridor again.

Fu Tailan covered his mouth, lowered his head, and saw a backpack at his feet.

The backpack he had been hanging on one shoulder had slipped off and fallen to the ground, just in time tripping him and waking him up.

No...I'm afraid it's not that simple.

The illusion on the second floor of the apartment was as vivid and strong as reality; when the backpack fell to the ground, he was unaware of it, and even if he tripped over it, it would not break the illusion created by the apartment.

Could the real reason be what my mother said?

Fu Tailan suddenly raised her head.

Now rush into the screen, drive after her, call the police immediately, it's still not too late, you can still save her——

...Stop joking.

In reality, he didn't know whether the woman driving the car was his mother or not; because Fu Tailan had never seen his mother.

Even the only photos available were blurry and whitish, making the images unclear; moreover, the photos were too flimsy to create a true and complete image of a person.

He didn't even know if it was a true parallel reality.

When he bent down to pick up the backpack, his fingers trembled and he grabbed the strap several times before he could get a firm grip.

Looking at the screen, the road, the summer sky, and his grandmother's house at the end of the road, which he would never see, Fu Tailan backed away from the door of Room 209 step by step. As he left the screen, a sharp cry for help suddenly rang out from Room 209: "Xiao Tai!"

It was she who was calling herself, mother——

The emotion of wanting to rush in and the rationality that pulled him back were two forces that he could not balance; he became a small boat that was unable to move against the two raging waves, his feet could no longer support him, and he fell heavily to the ground.

Fu Tailan lowered her head between her knees, hugged her legs and cried softly.

The distant rationality was still analyzing the situation; thoughts one after another pushed away the fog created by crying and entered the mind.

The first possibility is that he misunderstood.

She said that just to get Fu Tailan to go back to the car - the other party had a gun, and if he was shot, the situation would be irreversible.

That still meant that Mom wanted to save him.

The second possibility is... the parallel reality created by the apartment, and the mother in the parallel reality, should not actively remind him not to go in.

What she said might just be another form of "Flytrap".

The mother in the parallel reality wanted to let him know how much she loved him and how much she hoped he would be safe. To this end, she did not hesitate to pretend that he would escape from the parallel reality. Only in this way would Fu Tailan willingly choose -

He refused to think about it any further.

In the reality on this side of the TV, he didn't know whether his mother was really like the one on TV, and he had never spent seventeen years with her.

In the reality on the other side of the TV, he didn't know if that was his mother.

If the parallel reality was fake, then Mom was also an illusion—rationally, that might be a little better. But for some reason, Fu Tailan didn't even want to think about it.

If the alternate reality is real, and not something the apartment uses to harm people, then that means...

Fu Tailan allowed his mother to be kidnapped and did nothing.

Either way, it seemed like it was meant to torture him.

and many more……

Fu Tailan raised his head in a daze, looking at the blurred light and shadows alternating between light and dark on the opposite wall. His whole mind was tightly grasped by a sudden thought.

There was one way—only one way—that he could be certain of the truth.

Just go in.

Is the parallel reality a lie? Is there really a mother waiting for him... He will know as soon as he enters the TV in Room 209, right?
Of course, if the parallel reality didn't exist, then entering it would mean the end of "Fu Tailan." It didn't seem like Fu Tailan valued his life that much, but he wouldn't hesitate to abandon it.

After all, after he went in...what about Fu Han? What would he do?
Just as he was lost in thought, a pair of cold hands touched his neck.

The next second, the hand clamped his throat tightly like an iron lock.

Fu Tailan shuddered and subconsciously tried to grab those hands, but was pulled back by a strong force. The back of his head hit the floor tiles with a "bang" - the impact was so hard that his vision went black.

In a flash, Fu Tailan remembered the blurry light and shadow on the wall in front of him, and suddenly understood everything.

As he stumbled away from the door of Room 209, as he fell to the ground crying and with his vision blurred, he did not notice that he had fallen right at the door of Room 210.

The TV in Room 210 was always pointed at his back; unlike other TVs, it made no sound at all, as if it realized that it was best to wait quietly.

Fu Tailan was in a trance and sat there for thirty seconds without realizing it - those hands were there to "take" him into the parallel reality of Room 210.

When Fu Tailan was grabbed by the neck and dragged into Room 210, he almost wanted to laugh out loud.

Don't be too ridiculous, right?

He had even abandoned the reality of his mother, yet the apartment building wanted him to enter another place, who knows what? Did it think he would just accept his fate and go in?
As he was dragged through the door, he struggled to stretch out his arms and grabbed the door handle - the pressure on his neck instantly increased several times, causing the blood to rush into his head and his vision to become blurred.

Gritting his teeth, Fu Tailan resisted the dizziness caused by lack of oxygen. He steadied himself with one hand and reached into his lower back with the other to touch the gun.

In the narrow space, several consecutive gunshots like explosions made his ears numb.

He couldn't see whether he hit the TV, but he felt the hands on his neck seemed to loosen slightly. He immediately seized the opportunity, turned over and jumped up, and rushed out of Room 210.

Covering his throat with one hand, Fu Tailan bent down and took a few breaths.

After he walked a few steps away from the line in front of the TV to make sure he would not be connected again, he raised his eyes and glanced at the TV screen in Room 210.

...It's so funny that I'm playing the role of a father in a family photo.

Fu Tailan lowered his head and laughed intermittently. His laughter gradually changed from soft to hard and crisp, and there were heavy gasps in between his laughter.

"...too impatient," he said to the corridor, "once it's thirty seconds, you can't wait to pull me?"

The apartment was quiet and there was no echo.

There was still only one family photo on the TV in Room 210.

"If you had waited just a moment, I would have stood up and walked back to Room 209."

He panted, wiped his face, and wiped all the sweat, tears, and blood onto his sleeves.

"You're playing with people's hearts to this extent, but you didn't consider that people might walk back on their own initiative?"

But thanks to its impatience, Fu Tailan finally woke up.

"I never had a mother. For all these years, it's just been me and Fu Han," he said almost calmly. "The woman you portray on TV has nothing to do with me."

After a pause, Fu Tailan smiled sarcastically.

"When I was little, I didn't know how many times I fantasized about a mother more ideal than her," he said. "No matter what, it doesn't affect this reality, does it?"

Even at this age, he was almost deceived by the image of a mother; this matter cannot be told to the hunters in the family faction, it is too embarrassing.

Fu Tailan took out his cell phone and looked at it.

The last photo in the album was a photo he took of a resident's mailbox.

Putting away his phone, he looked up at the end of the corridor and said, "Have you had enough fun? Then I'm going upstairs."

The second floor of the apartment seems to be just a corridor full of various parallel realities, but it contains many hidden means of harming people.

But strangely, Fu Tailan was not angry.

He fell into hallucinations like a fool, quarreling with his mother, worrying about her, afraid, and crying in a trance...

After being fooled for so long, Fu Tailan thought he should be so angry that he wanted to burn down the building - but he did not feel any anger in his heart.

He turned around in the corridor and instead of heading towards the stairs at the end, he walked back to the door of Room 208 without saying a word.

He looked at the TV screen, adjusted his backpack, and took a deep breath.

Let’s go, I’m going upstairs.

As he rushed towards the TV, Fu Tailan closed his eyes.

...Anyway, he was still briefly and truly loved by his mother for ten minutes.

　Ladies and gentlemen, I want to apply for a day off because I have to celebrate my family’s birthday on Friday. I won’t update on Friday. Can I update on Saturday instead?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)