When Li Baiyu rushed out of the hospital to find Tuantuan, she suddenly saw her university classmate, Cong Nanxue.
Cong Nanxue, looking relaxed, was sipping a cup of milk tea slowly.
Seeing Li Baiyu’s anxious expression, Cong Nanxue smiled and said:
"It’s just a cat, why are you so concerned?"
"It’s not just a cat; it’s my family." Li Baiyu said seriously.
"Oh, how could a cat be family? I’ve long advised you to find a date. Being single for so long isn’t good. Look at you, going crazy over a lost cat—it’s pathetic and laughable."
"Go away, don’t bother ."
"I’m leaving? I’m your good friend, and you’re asking to leave!"
"Your existence only makes feel a sense of deceit."
"How can you say that? I get it, you must be anxious. It’s okay, I’ll help you look for the cat."
"Get lost!" Li Baiyu yelled at Cong Nanxue, her limbs flailing, hair flying, trembling all over.
A traffic cop, thinking sothing was wrong, ca over to inquire, only to be driven away by Li Baiyu with harsh words.
"That’s how it was, in the middle of the road, I lost my composure and couldn’t calm down, let alone think of going to the university to look for the cat."
Li Baiyu recounted calmly.
"Cong Nanxue, is she your illusion?"
Shen Jingqi twirled the pen in his hand.
Li Baiyu looked up.
"How did you know?"
"You said it yourself; I just drew the illusory subject out of it."
"From a realistic perspective, it can be said it’s an illusion." Li Baiyu gently tapped her lips.
The skin on her lips was slightly dry, suggesting the owner needed so moisture.
But Shen Jingqi quickly shifted his gaze; now wasn’t the ti to care about that.
"Tell about your findings. How did you co to think of Cong Nanxue as your illusion?"
"I have two pieces of evidence."
Li Baiyu first t Cong Nanxue when she was in her first year of college.
There were four people in the dormitory.
Two of the roommates were from the sa hotown and were very close, often chatting in a dialect they both understood, always going to class, eating together, and inseparable from dawn till dusk.
Li Baiyu had a neutral relationship with the two of them, cordial and considered harmonious.
Cong Nanxue was another roommate who mostly kept to herself and spoke very little.
Over ti, Li Baiyu and Cong Nanxue beca good friends.
The two attended classes together, ate together, and Li Baiyu often confided her thoughts to Cong Nanxue.
Cong Nanxue always maintained a listener’s deanor, patient and empathetic, making Li Baiyu feel for a ti that she was a crucial social support.
Li Baiyu felt that friendship required balance, that it shouldn’t always be one person listening and the other always confiding.
She also tried asking Cong Nanxue if there was anything she needed, things she could reciprocate.
Cong Nanxue gently said there was nothing to worry about, remarking that true friends don’t tally their give-and-take.
Li Baiyu once cherished such a friendship, but later occurrences were unacceptable to her.
It was sothing very banal.
Li Baiyu said to the two roommates who had just returned to the dorm:
"Cong Nanxue and I got a few theater tickets, we have two extra, would you like to go?"
The two roommates appeared sowhat surprised:
"Cong Nanxue, who is she? Never heard of her."
"Is she your friend? Where is she now?"
"In fact, at that ti, Cong Nanxue was sitting right beside , right in front of them." Li Baiyu’s expression beca a bit detached:
"Evidence one is that my roommates had never known of Cong Nanxue’s existence."
Shen Jingqi pondered:
"Cong Nanxue and your two roommates never interacted?"
"I didn’t notice. I might have assud they interacted. Even if they didn’t, I didn’t question it. Mainly, those two often returned to the dorm very late, by which ti Cong Nanxue and I were already asleep. Also, we were in different majors. The four of us never really gathered."
"What year was this?"
"Around the second sester of sophomore year."
"What happened next, after you found out Cong Nanxue as a roommate didn’t exist?"
"Then, I asked other classmates. All said they’d never heard of Cong Nanxue, nor witnessed her with . Since we attended classes together, if she existed, classmates would have seen her."
"Moreover, the bed where Cong Nanxue was seemingly residing actually had no occupant. Our dorm officially had only three people. This was confird with the dorm head."
There was a fleeting sadness on Li Baiyu’s face.
"You probably felt very distressed."
Shen Jingqi asked: "How do you perceive the situation?"
"I began to suspect Cong Nanxue was just my illusion. She was not real, rely a fignt of my imagination. And does this indicate a problem with my ntal state?! It’s sothing I’d rather not confront. Adding to it, if Cong Nanxue never existed, indeed it would make very sad."
"So, I started to ignore her, thinking she was rely an illusion anyway."
"Did Cong Nanxue realize that?"
"She didn’t know and continued interacting with just the sa. Although I found it a bit amusing."
"Right, the second piece of evidence."
Li Baiyu chuckled:
"Cong Nanxue does not age. She’s perpetually 18 years old."
"According to so studies I’ve co across over the years, human body cells typically renew every one to three months. A person’s appearance and state also change sowhat over ti. But Cong Nanxue’s look now remains identical to eight years ago, without any change whatsoever."
Shen Jingqi had encountered several patients with ntal symptoms, but unlike Li Baiyu, who could detect or doubt being in an illusion or delusion, they were mostly unwaveringly convinced of the reality of what they saw or heard.
In Li Baiyu’s records, illusions were indeed listed.
But the illusion was noted with quotation marks.
This suggested that Li Baiyu’s illusion might not be so straightforward!
"Actually, when you beco aware that what you see and experience is an illusion, you’ve already transcended the state of illusion."
Shen Jingqi responded thoughtfully.
Noticing the shifting expressions on Li Baiyu’s face, Shen Jingqi sensed he might have grasped sothing and carefully ventured further:
"You might still be unsure if you’re truly experiencing illusions. Or, even if you do think it’s indeed an illusion, there may be sothing more troubling than the illusion itself. If you’d like, you can share it with ."
"It’s indeed a peculiar situation, sothing utterly unbelievable." A slight tremor was in Li Baiyu’s voice.
"After discovering the first piece of evidence, I conducted various investigations and found no one aware of her existence. I grew doubtful of her, realizing she was my illusion. For a period, I ignored her. Yet, she treated well, just the sa. Gradually, I resud interactions with her, acting the way we did before. Though, cognitively, I knew sothing by then."
Li Baiyu spoke continuously, as if a bit relieved.
"I thought that would be the end of it. Whether she was an illusion or delusion didn’t matter, as long as she posed no harm. So, that’s that. But then, I discovered sothing else."
Taking a deep breath, Li Baiyu continued slowly:
"Cong Nanxue actually has a student ID number."
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