Blade and Swift

The old man in the leather jacket looks very trendy, no matter in his attire or in his mentality.

The old man walked to the edge of the bed and sat down, and suddenly he looked kindly to Yan Xichen: "It's come to this point, it seems that I can't make it clear."

"Grandpa!" Duan Mingyi obviously disapproved of the old man's actions.

But in the end, under his insistence, Duan Mingyi reluctantly walked to Yan Xichen's side.

"Let's get to know each other formally. I'm Duan Yun, the grandfather of this child. I picked you up on No. [-] Road this morning and brought you back." The old man stretched out his hand, and there was a little smile in his eyes. His back seemed to straighten slowly, with a sense of strength that he didn't have before, "I'm also one of the watchmen in Area C, welcome to wake up, my child."

In the bakery, the aroma of baking is overflowing, the sun is warm through the glass, the words CLOSE have been flipped on the glass door, the bread machine is still humming, but there is no one in the shop.

Yan Xichen sat in front of the window, like a dream, a lot of information and shocking new cognitions were washing his brain, he really needed some time to digest.

Just now, he did have many doubts, but following Duan Yun and Duan Mingyi's narration, he gradually calmed down, and his heart sank to the ground.More of an almost dizzying sense of uncanny.

According to Duan Yun, he is no longer in the original world.Not only that, Duan Yun told him that his smooth and worry-free life for 20 years was not real, it was just a dream of his.

Yan Xichen suddenly remembered the little boy.At that time, the little boy said, let him wake up from Utopia.

Duan Yun frowned when he heard this: "Little boy? He brought you out?"

"you can say it this way."

"I will remember this first."

The old man dipped his chopsticks into the water and drew a circle on the table.

"The world where you lived a perfect life before, we call it... the watch world."

There is the subconscious desire of people, a perfect dream created for themselves.It’s just that the watch world seems too real, unless people in this world have doubts about the world and no longer trust, they will wake up from the watch world.

Yan Xichen is one of them.

"Then where is this place? It doesn't look like the real world." Yan Xichen asked intently.

"This is not the real world, this is the 'inner world'." Duan Yun dipped his chopsticks in some water, and drew an arc and a circle.

"The other world?"

"Have you played "Silent Hill"?" Duan Mingyi interjected.

Yan Xichen nodded with a complicated face: "The world is divided into three layers, the real world, the outer world and the inner world. These three spaces cover each other and are independent of each other. But isn't this the concept and setting of the game? It turns out that I am not a real world. In the dream, did I time travel to the game?"

"It's okay if you understand it that way. This space is formed by people's will, so it appears to be the environment of human life, but it is actually completely different from the real world."

There was a few seconds of silence between the three of them.

Yan Xichen looked like he had been frozen.

After a few seconds, he stood up and left: "I must be dreaming!"

"It's normal for you to not be able to accept it for a while. Let's just think of yourself as time-traveling. It's better to accept it." Duan Mingyi said next to the old man. He obviously didn't have the patience of the old man. "Compared to the outside world, we are at least in the inner world now. It's conscious."

Yan Xichen thought for a while, then returned to the table and sat down again.

"Be more specific."

"Before that, let me ask you a question." Duan Mingyi sat next to Duan Yun, and seemed to have finally seriously started the conversation with Yan Xichen.

"Do you believe that certain things in the world can be transferred by personal will?"

"I don't believe it." Yan Xichen thought for a while, then looked seriously into Duan Mingyi's eyes, "I believe in science."

"Then we can't talk about it." Duan Mingyi threw the pen in his hand, and leaned back as if he was too lazy to talk.

This person has a really bad temper...

"Okay, I believe it." Yan Xichen quickly changed his words, "Go ahead, please."

"After waking up from the watch world, I will come here—the inner world, but I can't return to the real world. All of us are trapped here." Duan Mingyi took a deep breath, and his expression didn't look like he was joking at all.

Duan Mingyi got up and opened the blinds by the window, the sunlight came in stronger and brighter.

Yan Xichen could see the street outside the window, the red lights at the intersection, and the merchandise in the window, everything was so real.

If someone came over to him now and told him that this was a prank show, Yan Xichen would believe it without hesitation.

"You should be thankful that this is a space of human will, instead of being full of monsters like in games." Duan Mingyi lowered his voice, his eyes dimmed, "But sometimes, human hearts are more terrifying than monsters."

Until now, every word Duan Mingyi and Duan Yun said caused a storm in his heart.

Because every word they uttered was subverting his perception of the world.

The most unacceptable thing for him is that they said that everything in his memory was all fake, and it was a beautiful world shaped by his subconscious yearning.

But how is this possible?

His mother's warm milk in the morning, the smell of his father's scrambled eggs, and the sparkling rhinestones on his sister's strawberry hairpin... He could feel all these clearly, how could it be fake?

"How is this possible?" Yan Xichen continued to ask with difficulty, "There is no gap in my memory growing up, and my past life should not be fake."

"As I said just now, we are all trapped here. When you are in the world, you are like a person who is haunted by your own dreams, and you will not realize that you are in a fake world." Duan Mingyi looked at him deeply, There is something in it.

Yan Xichen felt his throat starting to dry out, and every syllable he uttered became dry: "The real world..."

"There is no way out." Duan Yun restrained the smile on his face, making a cross between the real world and the inner and outer world.

The aroma of bread rolled in the air, and there was steam on the glass windows.

The sunshine was gentle, but Yan Xichen broke out in a cold sweat.

"Are you serious?"

"Seriously." Duan Yun nodded at him very seriously.

"In that case, how come I have no memory of the real world at all?" Yan Xichen retorted.

Duan Mingyi nodded his head: "Because the longer you spend in the watch world, the more blurred your memory and feeling of the real world will be. Gradually one day, you will only remember everything in this world. You said, at least in the current world, you are sober."

Yan Xichen felt that his thoughts were in chaos, like falling into an ice cave, and he didn't even know how to react at the right time.

"You'll get used to it." Duan Yun shook his head, stretched out his hand and pressed his shoulder, "There's still a lot you don't know about this—the inner world, and you will have more and more questions in the future. But as time goes by, you I will gradually understand."

"The address on the note I wrote to you belongs to the main watchman in Area C. We call him Mr. Yu. You go to him, and he should give you an explanation." Duan Mingyi stood up, and this action meant that he wanted to end the incident. talk.

"I have another question. What exactly are the watchmen you're talking about?" Yan Xichen also stood up.

"It's like the person who manages this area. This is very complicated to explain. You just got here. I can understand that you want to figure everything out, but even if I tell you everything now, your brain may not be able to digest it. You will understand these questions gradually in the future." The old man patted him on the shoulder, "Xiao Yi didn't agree with us explaining these things to you, but your situation seems to be more complicated. You just came to the other world It caused trouble, so be careful when you go out."

trouble?

Yan Xichen thought of the woman who fought with him just now, and the shocking attack reaction that erupted from his body just now.For 20 years, he was just a milk tea shop owner. Even if he had experience in an office, he was just a clerical worker.But when he sensed danger just now, his body's reflexes and control over attacks were the kind of conditioned reflexes that could only be developed through hard training.

He couldn't explain why his body had an innate fighting instinct.

Yan Xichen felt that he not only doubted the world and life, but now he even doubted himself.

"But you can go now." Duan Mingyi interjected, the impatience on his face was already evident.

Yan Xichen was still staring at his palms in a daze, and when he raised his head, his face was blank.

"Xiao Yi, send him to Mr. Yu and see what he has to say." The old man turned his back to them and took off his leather jacket. Now he is just like an ordinary and kind old man. Do your part."

People come and go on the street, which looks no different from the real world.

Yan Xichen couldn't accept such a setting any longer, and at this moment he carefully looked at the streets and alleys of this world.

The place didn't look like any other city he knew, with buildings and buildings in different styles, some from the 80s, others modern.

Although Duan Yun had heard so much just now, Yan Xichen had many doubts in his heart.

Under Yan Xichen's constant pestering, Duan Mingyi almost impatiently led him the way while answering Yan Xichen's various questions.

From Duan Mingyi's words, Yan Xichen learned that the inner world is divided into 26 areas from A to Z, which are divided into two types: the stable area and the chaotic area.

The Anding area is mainly inhabited by ordinary people, and each district has 2-3 watchmen. The duties of the watchmen are not only to manage and protect the residents of each Anding area, but also to make major decisions in the inner world.

The chaotic area, as the name suggests, is very dangerous because of the constant fighting.And all the battles happen because there are two forces with different positions in the other world, fighting against each other.

"Why do forces still exist in the other world?" Yan Xichen asked.

"We want to break this world and go back to the real world. Naturally, some people don't want to break this world, but want to continue living in the gentle world. It's like some people want to wake up, but some people just want to wake up. I want to keep dreaming." Duan Mingyi frowned, probably aware of his displeasure when talking about those who defended the world, and he said, "It's not that whoever is right is right, the position is just different."

"Do you know how to break this space?" Yan Xichen finally regained his energy.

"It's just an idea, and I don't know if it's useful, so I told you just now that there is no way to return to the real world. We are indeed trapped here. Let's talk about it later." Duan Mingyi didn't explain much to him , stopped in his tracks, "Here we are."

At the Y-shaped fork, a triangular building, the Iron Building, stands in front of it. It looks like a medieval European-style building. There used to be many buildings of this style in the old Shanghai Concession.

Duan Mingyi and Duan Yun said that this is Area C, and there is no division of cities in the world, so there is not much reference to the world map in the real sense, but such a distinctive style of architecture still makes Yan Xichen feel very timeless.

After entering the bow door, there is a tiled hall inside, which looks like a Chinese-style decoration style, which is completely inconsistent with the outside.As soon as you enter the door, you are facing a wooden counter with bright lights. A middle-aged man who looks like a gentleman is sitting in front of the counter and reading a newspaper.

The middle-aged man didn't seem to realize that someone was coming, until Duan Mingyi brought Yan Xichen up to him and knocked on the table: "Uncle De, a newcomer is here."

The middle-aged man named Uncle De shook the newspaper, glanced at them, and switched Erlang's legs: "Oh!"

Yan Xichen: "..."

Duan Mingyi: "You take him to register?"

Uncle De raised his head and glanced this way: "The new little brother is very handsome."

Yan Xichen briefly looked at Duan Mingyi.Yan Xichen couldn't read Duan Mingyi's eyes, but he felt that Uncle De was pretending to be confused with them.

"Mr. Yu, is he there?"

It seems that Mr. Yu, as Duan Mingyi said, is the head of the guard in Area C.

"He's gone out." Uncle De put down the newspaper, "It's better to take him back first."

Duan Mingyi seemed a little unhappy: "He came in from the passageway in C area, anyway, register the information first?"

Uncle De said nothing: "It's the same if you ask your grandfather to register. He is also a watchman."

Duan Mingyi's face was getting darker and darker, Uncle De was in control of the situation, and he was not afraid at all.

Uncle De seemed to have had enough of teasing Duan Mingyi, and finally put down the newspaper: "Mr. Yu went to work in another district, and I don't know how long he will be back. It's the same if you stay with Duan first."

Yan Xichen felt that Duan Mingyi, who always had an unhappy face and was choking when he talked, was so deflated that he felt a little fresh for no reason.He watched the two of them arguing so closely for 10 minutes. Duan Mingyi failed to throw away Yan Xichen's hot potato as he wished, and could only lead him back the same way with an unhappy face.

"I'm sorry." Yan Xichen apologized, but his expression seemed quite comfortable, and he followed Duan Mingyi step by step, "Who would have thought that I would be a hot potato here, and everyone would find it troublesome?"

Duan Mingyi walked ahead without saying a word.Yan Xichen couldn't see his expression, but he always felt that he just rolled his eyes.

After walking for a long time, no one paid attention to anyone, Duan Mingyi took a deep breath and turned around, as if he finally couldn't bear to say something to Yan Xichen.But just as he turned around, his eyes were suddenly attracted by something above Yan Xichen.

"careful!"

Before Yan Xichen could react, Duan Mingyi rushed over and pushed him against the wall.Duan Mingyi used so much strength that his entire back hit the wall and it hurt.

But Yan Xichen didn't care about the pain, because there was the sound of glass shattering in front of him, which was very shocking just to hear it.

Yan Xichen raised his eyes blankly, and his gaze stopped not far away.He froze.

Where he walked just now, more than a dozen pieces of sharp mirror glass, as long as a forearm, were stuck upright on the ground.These obviously cannot be regarded as ordinary mirror glass, but should be sharp weapons.

The author says:

Before this chapter, everyone said that they didn’t understand it very well, so I revised it again, my pot