Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

"Om—"

Alarm bells rang in her mind, and her temples throbbed—a feeling she knew all too well. It was precisely because of this powerful sense that Silver Frost had anticipated danger several times, reacting in advance and avoiding potential injury.

At this moment, driven by her senses, she felt a strong urge to draw her sword.

"How could this be? My spiritual senses..." Yinshuang thought to herself in alarm, "are they reacting to Wusheng?"

----

“So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is…” Correa was equally shocked, but her shock was more of an academic surprise, like a genius mathematician finally solving a problem that had troubled her for a long time. “No wonder I felt a strange sense of incongruity when I first met you. Now it makes sense.”

"Everything can be traced back to that day, to that memory you don't want to recall."

"when!"

"when!"

Koreya raised her hand and gently tapped the mirror twice.

The layers of worlds reflected in the mirror began to shake violently. Zhang Wusheng's mouth opened slightly, his gaze unfocused, staring intently at the countless reflections on the mirror surface, lost in them, unable to extricate himself.

"And then? Did you talk to your parents about it after the exhibition ended that day?"

“Say it? What’s there to say?” Zhang Wusheng turned his head stiffly, staring straight at her, and asked, word by word, “What will happen after I tell you? What will happen? I’ll tell Dad everything from beginning to end, without missing a single word, and let him help me get revenge…”

"and then?"

"Nothing has changed. The next day, when I woke up in bed, I was still a disabled cripple, a pathetic cripple who couldn't even run two steps!"

“But…” Hearing this, Yinshuang couldn’t help but interject, “He is your biological father.”

"He is also Honglu's biological father."

Having completely shed his pretense, Zhang Wusheng stopped making empty pleasantries and gave the answer he had been keeping to himself: "Honglu's mother is a descendant of the Ditasdorf family, a noble family in the south. He is the son of the 'Pearl of the South,' born into a blazing family under the spotlight of the entire south! He grew up healthy and without any misfortune or illness."

"Putting all that aside, let me ask you..."

"A son of noble birth, with unlimited potential and extraordinary talent."

"A son born with a disability, unable to do anything, and who will most likely have to rely on his family for a living in the future..."

"If you were him, who would you choose?!"

"How could this be..." Yinshuang was utterly astonished. "How could you have such...utilitarian thoughts? In your father's eyes, you and Honglu are definitely just as important!"

“You’re not him, how would you know?” Zhang Wusheng covered his face and sneered, “Pragmatism? That’s right, humans are driven by self-interest.”

"Those who are polite and courteous to me are just saying it. They show concern for me and seem very caring, but in the end, they are after my family and my background. The benefits I can give them are nothing more than that!"

……

Not good.

It's getting more and more extreme.

Koreya frowned slightly. So far, everything was going according to plan. But she hadn't expected Zhang Wusheng, after letting down his guard, to be so negative and pessimistic. This was completely different from the calm, composed, and methodical man she knew in the city hall.

She wanted to use the mirror to eliminate another Zhang Wusheng.

Perhaps... another Zhang Wusheng also hopes to eliminate him through the mirror.

"Wu Sheng, let's pause for a moment."

She gently placed her hand on Zhang Wusheng's shoulder and said, "Lower your head."

----

……

"……Eh?"

Despite being in a state of heightened emotion, Zhang Wusheng subconsciously did as she said.

If you were to look down, all you'd see is that carpet.

A black and white spiral.

Under his gaze, the pattern on the carpet seemed to begin to spin, faster and faster, as if to create a vortex beneath his feet.

"This is……"

"To prevent this, the carpet is specially made. It has a pattern that makes it look like it's spinning if you stare at it for a long time."

Koreya gently stroked the soft surface of the carpet. "Are you calmer now?"

"……Um."

“I think, through the recollection just now, you must already know. It was the experience that day, the pain, despair, anger, and the feeling of being betrayed by your loved ones... the impact of all these emotions, coupled with your personality, which is inherently suspicious and paranoid, and other factors, that caused your mental dissociation. Since then, you have been suffering from self-perception syndrome.”

Her tone was no longer gentle, but rather cold and emotionless, as if she were dissecting the illness from a third-person perspective.

For some reason, Zhang Wusheng's mood actually eased a bit as a result.

"You try to block out this painful memory and forcibly forget it, but this behavior has the opposite effect."

"reaction……?"

"Wu Sheng," Correa asked, "what did you have for lunch yesterday?"

"I do not remember."

“That’s right. Only things you truly don’t care about can be forgotten so easily,” Correa explained. “But your actions over the years, constantly trying to forget it, have only repeated the trauma it caused you over and over again.”

"The 'other you' you see is simply your psyche, born to resist excessive emotional impact. Repeating that event only amplifies its influence. Over the years, the hallucinations you've experienced must have become increasingly real, right?"

"He's like a tumor, growing out of you, absorbing the negative emotions in your mind, and constantly growing."

"This is the root cause of all the illness!"

----

Zhang Wusheng was utterly astonished, as this was the first time he had ever heard of such a novel theory.

"A tumor..."

“Wu Sheng, for your own sake,” Koreya said firmly, “it’s time…”

"Let go of this memory completely."

"As long as you don't let go, that other version of yourself will haunt you every day!"

Chapter 1006: Dragon

"Ah……"

"Hahahaha-!"

Upon hearing the unbelievable yet unusually sharp and childish laughter, Zhang Wusheng froze.

The laughter came from inside the mirror.

He turned his head away little by little—after losing his "gaze," the painful memory playing out deep within the mirror should have paused. Indeed, that was the case; the lights, the scene, the characters, and even himself at that moment, were all frozen in that instant, like a still oil painting.

However, there was one exception.

Deep within the mirror, another version of himself, with the appearance of a child, turned his head and stared intently at him through layer after layer of mirrors, while letting out a disdainful laugh.

"What an interesting guy, comparing me to a tumor?"

Zhang Wusheng, with his vertical pupils, sneered, "So, you'd rather accept her nonsense, let it all go, and continue playing the part of your loving family? Is this what they mean by 'if someone slaps your left cheek, you offer them your right'?"

"..." Zhang Wusheng looked at himself in the mirror, his pupils still somewhat unfocused.

"You want to forget that painful memory, don't you? But trying to forget for the sake of forgetting will only deepen the pain."

Koreya continued, "When I say 'let go,' I don't mean you have to forgive him. You're the one who was hurt, yet you're expected to forgive him... This goes against common sense and human nature."

"As I just said, true forgetting is when you're walking down the street one morning, after breakfast, basking in the sun, and suddenly realize that you haven't thought about it for a long time. When you truly feel nothing about it, it can no longer hurt you in any way!"

"When you wear glasses with red lenses and observe the world, the world will turn red."

"Similarly, when you look at everything with a gloomy perspective, what you get will naturally become very negative!"

"This world is very, very big, far more than just this one city, and far more than just those few people who laughed and mocked you in the exhibition hall back then..."

Go find your beauty, and embrace this world!

……

"Hahahaha—what a truly kind and beautiful heroine! I'm so moved I could cry." Zhang Wusheng, with his vertical pupils, laughed wildly in the mirror. "She should go into opera or theater; otherwise, it's such a waste of her talent!"

"And...how do you know..." Zhang Wusheng was silent for a moment, then said coldly, "Can I really find something as beautiful as this?"

"OK!"

Koreya stood up, clenched her fists, and answered with unwavering determination, "Didn't you already find it at the very beginning of the treatment?"

"..."

It was like a sudden, sharp rebuke, a gentle tap on the top of Zhang Wusheng's head.

He seemed to understand something and looked around.

Still.

This unrealistically beautiful grassland... is still there.

As if in response to his gaze, a gentle breeze blew, carrying the scent of earth and grass roots.

"Hey!" Zhang Wusheng in the mirror seemed to sense something was wrong and suddenly shouted towards the outside of the mirror, "Hey!"

"In fact, I have done the same experiment on many other people. They all suffered from serious mental illnesses for their own reasons. Some of them had symptoms that were even more severe than yours, and they had completely lost their ability to take care of themselves."

“Truly seriously ill patients cannot describe what is called a ‘safe and comfortable environment’. Their ability to pursue beauty has been completely destroyed, turning them into living corpses. Living is simply living, breathing, and waiting for death, nothing more.”

“But you are different. I can tell from your description... The first time you saw the grassland, although there were many details that were not realistic, it was beautiful, peaceful, and full of life, yet it was far away from human habitation. That is the best evidence!”

"Hello--!"

Zhang Wusheng, with his vertical pupils reflected in the mirror, suddenly contorted his expression, let out a roar, and walked towards him through layer after layer of mirror reflections.

"Your instincts still drive you to pursue a beautiful vision and a better life! Look around you: the boundless grasslands, the vast fields of lavender, and the clear skies—this is the true Eden that your heart yearns for!"

“Eden…” Zhang Wusheng murmured.

"How long are you going to listen to this nonsense?!"

Zhang Wusheng, with his vertical pupils, was enraged beyond measure for the first time. He passed through layers of mirrors and finally stood before the first one. Separated only by a single mirror, the expression on his face was crystal clear, distorted by rage and loss of control.

but……

"Boom!"

The hand that reached out bumped into the mirror.

He could no longer appear directly beside Zhang Wusheng as he used to.

"what?!"

His dragon-like vertical pupils widened in astonishment.

"Could it be that……"

Zhang Wusheng, with his vertical pupils, looked around and immediately figured out the truth behind being trapped in the mirror. He gritted his teeth and said, "No wonder... you asked him to imagine this grassland, and you were so meticulous about the details. So that's what you were planning!"

"abacus?"

Zhang Wusheng was quick-witted and immediately understood: Through their recent investigations, Ke Leiya had proven that this so-called "other self" was also a product of her own imagination. And this grassland, meticulously crafted to be as realistic as possible in every detail…

It has already exhausted a great deal of its own imagination!

As a result, the amount of imagination that can be allocated to this "illusion" naturally decreases.

His influence over himself seems to...

It's not as strong as it used to be.

Brilliant idea! Brilliant concept!

Even in his confused state of mind, Zhang Wusheng couldn't help but admire her. A psychiatrist, truly remarkable!

----

Zhang Wusheng, leaning on his crutches, slowly and laboriously stood up.

"Think about it carefully, this kind of thing is too strange no matter how you look at it, isn't it?" Zhang Wusheng in the mirror gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice, "I am a part of your past. How can a person cut off everything from the past and pretend that it never happened?"