Love, death, and false man

Chapter 58. The Prisoner in the Reflection

After morning self-study ends.

Extremely anxious, Fang Yan needed nicotine and ran into the stadium's fire escape.

At the end of the eerie corridor, the emergency exit light marked "EXIT" seemed like a ghostly eye peering out from another dimension. Its green light gleamed with a chilling blue light, as if shrouded in a heavy mist.

A layer of dust had somehow settled on the lampshade, making the light even more murky, like the dim and hazy gaze of an old person, weakly casting its light around them.

Aside from a group of delusional senior high school students puffing out swirling, melancholic smoke.

Fang Yan actually found... Xiao Long here. He left his bag in the morning and disappeared. Did he come here to wait for him?
The grenade launcher was in the guitar case on his back, the water blade arm armor was in the sleeve of his school uniform on his left hand, and he carried all other equipment with him.

Fang Yan slowly approached Xiao Long, on high alert, and discovered that he was smoking.

Xiao Long also saw him and revealed an unbelievably calm smile.

"You finally came."

"Are you waiting for me?"

"Yes, I knew you would come here."

"Where are your accomplices? Where are they hiding? Call them all in."

Fang Yan kept an eye on everyone in the fire escape. If anyone made any unusual moves, he was not to blame but himself for firing.

"I have no accomplices, I did not betray you."

You think I'd believe you?

[You have been redirected to the [Hunter Channel]]

Fang Yan immediately took out his pistol and pointed it at Xiao Long's head, as if the two were in another dimension, and the others in the passage were completely unaware.

"You are my only friend."

"I've said it before, an inescapable chain of suspicion has been formed, and someone has to die. Don't fucking try to play this game with me."

“I’m not lying. So far, everyone who has approached me has had a terrible purpose, even blood relatives, who harbor suffocating expectations. I know this is due to the different historical contexts we’ve experienced… even though I know it deeply…”

Xiao Long's voice trembled slightly, but he quickly regained his composure. "I'm an oddball. Escaping is my usual tactic, which has led me to become deeply entrenched in the internet and become what people call an 'online opinion leader.' I'm afraid of everything, afraid of contacting real people, afraid of being given high expectations. All my passion is placed on virtual anime characters. I have no friends."

"I am not your friend."

"For me, even true friends wouldn't help their partners kill, let them go in a brutal game where you have to kill them on sight."

"I'm so fucking..."

Fang Yan suddenly stopped, completely unprepared for this situation, but he did not put down his pistol.

Xiao Long doesn't smoke; he just wanted to try it out, and he coughed a little from the fumes.

“A life lived in fear is not a real life. I am weak... while you are strong, you are a truly upright person, and you have made me realize this.”

I will keep this secret forever, until I die, or you have no choice but to kill me here.

Xiao Long took a drag of his cigarette, his tone indifferent.

"Are you trying to morally blackmail me?"

Fang Yan sensed the sincerity in his words. Damn, this anime guy talks so eloquently. He put down his pistol, but even so, the Emmanuel Monastery was still there.

He is now territorial; No. 6 Middle School is Fang Yan's territory, and as long as the Ascetic Cultivation Society exists, he will continue to plant his flag on his territory.

"Thank you, thank you for believing in me, it feels so good. I have something to give you, it's in my bag, a map of the Emmanuel Monastery, I've memorized it, I'll give it to you when I get back to the classroom. I haven't had breakfast yet, I'm a little hungry, I'll go to the convenience store, I'm off now."

Xiao Long stubbed out the cigarette with his gloved hand.

"I don't know how to say it... I misunderstood you. I shouldn't have used that attitude that day."

Fang Yan then realized that the Salvation Army's code of conduct had almost turned him into a complete killing machine.

Xiao Long simply waved his hand dismissively and left the fire escape. Fang Yan stared absently at the EXIT emergency exit sign, then lit a Hongtashan cigarette and started smoking. He wondered where Wang Ying had gone. Logically, this fire escape should have been Wang Ying's home; he was always there during raids on prostitutes. This sudden change in behavior was definitely suspicious.

I brought the grenade launcher with me, but it turned out to be completely useless.

at the same time.

Inside the teaching building, in the classroom of Class 1, Grade 11.

The homeroom teacher of Class 1 introduced Nie Shan to the students and asked Nie Shan to introduce herself.

Nie Shan was a generous person, and he spoke quite naturally in a standard official tone, proper and in accordance with the Zhou Dynasty's rites.

The girls in Class One were already getting excited about the handsome transfer student. Transfer students always carry an air of mystery, bringing a sense of novelty to the long-stagnant atmosphere and making people curious and eager for answers.

After arranging a seat for Nie Shan, the girl sitting behind him immediately started chatting him up, much to her own surprise.

Which school did you attend before?

"Um... No. 10 Middle School."

Why did you transfer to No. 6 Middle School?

"In order to prevent safety accidents."

"Is it some kind of lame joke?"

10/11—8:19
The second year of high school, class 2 has already started its first class, which is chemistry. The chemistry teacher, wearing Mediterranean glasses, is putting on a show on the stage.

But Fang Yan wasn't interested at all; Old Bi Deng probably thought he was performing some kind of amazing magic trick.

For Fang Yan, all exams are meaningless. As long as he uses his unbeatable problem-solving skills, his knowledge level will surpass all the authorities in the academic world today.

"Have you and Xia Bing actually gotten to that point yet?!"

Weng Qing turned around and asked Fang Yan.

Although she didn't understand why Fang Yan suddenly wanted to change seats, she switched with him, feeling quite embarrassed. Su Ci was also a gossipy and mean person, and was probably already badmouthing herself on social media.

"I've already said it, we have a platonic relationship, understand? That time at the bar was just her impromptu performance. Although we've kept in touch since then, we're just ordinary friends."

"I can't believe it... This is how it's set up? A rebellious high school girl likes thugs, a rebellious adult girl... likes murderers! Can this world even get any better?! My goddess!"

"What the hell is this murderer? I've already said it's not like that... Fuck, think what you want."

Fang Yan kept looking at Xiao Long's seat. The empty combat chair was nowhere to be seen. Even if he had gone to the convenience store, he should have been back by now.
Just when he thought this.

Within every fold of the leaden-gray clouds lay a lurking, simmering melancholy, while withered branches trembled and rustled on the ground in the autumn wind.

All the grid-like security bars on the windows and the grid-like aluminum tripods for individual combat tables and chairs are like an intricately woven maze, with each turn leading to a deeper void.

At the end of the abyss, there are countless blue and white outfits, each a fixed version of the same person, devouring the other.

A figure suddenly darted past between the fences.

boom!
It's like the dull sound of a fledgling bird being crushed in the palm of a cruel child.

Fang Yan sat by the wall, only drawn by the noise.

She stood up, pushed aside one student after another, and slowly squeezed to the window, becoming one of the many heads darting around, peering out from behind the fence.

The abyss never gazes upon anyone; man is merely a prisoner of his own reflection, completing his eternal embrace with nothingness in his fall.

That's just...

A pool of blood and mud.

I'll kill your mother!

The seventeen-year-old outlaw thought so, even though he was just a middle-aged man in some obscure monastery.

(End of this chapter)