Two months ago, Saint Dilly Orphanage.
Ji Minghuan and Kong Youling were huddled in a corner of the computer room, sharing an old, antique keyboard that no one knew where it ca from, playing the two-player ga Fireboy and Watergirl in the Forest Temple.
Their shoulders were pressed together, arms touching. The two small faces in front of the screen were completely focused, eyes shining bright.
While trying to pass a small level, Ji Minghuan deliberately ssed around and moved Fireboy’s butt off the switch, causing Kong Youling’s Watergirl to fall into the lava.
He giggled to the side.
The white-haired girl gave him a sideways glance and lightly bumped his shoulder with her head.
That single, unconscious touch pulled Ji Minghuan into a completely unfamiliar world that belonged solely to him.
Ji Minghuan had never imagined that the shape of his own ntal world would be a library.
But thinking about it, it made sense: growing up, the only place he felt a sense of belonging was the library in the orphanage. Neither the kids nor the nurses liked to go there. It was ignored, as if the huge library existed for him alone.
The library forming his ntal world had several differences from the real one. Most of the shelves were empty, and the ones with books were divided into sections with signs: mory, Emotion, Knowledge...
He and Kong Youling sat in the empty library, staring blankly at each other.
It was a long mont before Kong Youling looked away from his face, lifted her head, and curiously looked around, her snow-white bangs swaying lightly.
“This place...” she opened her mouth.
“You just spoke?” Ji Minghuan was stunned for a long ti. That was the first ti he had ever heard Kong Youling speak.
It was also the first ti Kong Youling had heard Ji Minghuan’s voice, and for a mont she froze.
They tilted their heads, looking at each other, like two little penguins eting on the ice, sizing each other up.
Soon, they realized this wasn’t the real world, but a space residing within their minds.
In the ntal world, the mute could speak, the deaf could hear. So until they were taken to the Research Facility, for that one month, relying on Kong Youling’s ability, the two of them often played in each other’s ntal worlds.
Kong Youling’s world was a winter street, snown piled along the sidewalk, children chasing and laughing, lanterns hanging everywhere, fireworks blooming in the sky;
Ji Minghuan’s world was a twilight library, the sun outside always half-sunk below the horizon, the other half eternally resting atop the mountains.
Not long after that, Ji Minghuan, an ordinary person, sohow began to show extraordinary talent inside his own ntal world.
He had asked Kong Youling to try entering many people’s ntal worlds—nurses, teachers, other kids—but most of the ti, she’d take one look and co right back.
Then they quickly discovered: Ji Minghuan was the only one who could twist the shape of his ntal world, altering its form. In essence… it was actually a form of splitting: he split off a new ntal space and temporarily overlaid it atop the original.
It appeared as though he had truly changed his ntal world.
Ji Minghuan would often pull Kong Youling into his ntal world to play.
She said she wanted to see the sea, so he created an ocean. The two of them sat barefoot on the sand, gazing at the sea under the sunset, watching the waves rise and fall, boats swaying hazily in the distance.
She said she wanted to see the universe, so he built one out of images from books. They drifted aimlessly and alone, like one among countless teor fragnts. The universe was silent and vacuud, but minds could speak, and they could hear each other.
But even Kong Youling, a psychic-type Esper, couldn’t do these things herself.
That was the most inexplicable part.
Soon after, Ji Minghuan no longer needed to rely on Kong Youling to enter his own ntal world at will.
So during that month in the confinent chamber, he wasn’t driven mad by boredom. Most of his hysterical behavior was just for the benefit of the researchers behind the surveillance caras.
Most of the ti, while he seed to be lying on the bed doing nothing, he was actually roaming within his inner world.
He could reshape that world at will with his imagination—create a TV, a computer loaded with gas.
From the Instructor’s recent probing, Ji Minghuan should be a psychic-type Esper just slightly weaker than Kong Youling.
Because he had to break through two “protective layers” before he could reach soone’s true ntal world;
Whereas Kong Youling didn’t need to—she could reach into the deepest layer with just a stretch of her hand.
Either psychic abilities didn’t work on people of the sa type, or Kong Youling’s level was just far beyond the Instructor’s, so he couldn’t break her ntal defenses.
Since there was no way to get around Kong Youling, the Instructor could only co by every now and then to probe Ji Minghuan’s id.
The Instructor had no idea that Ji Minghuan, supposedly an “ordinary person,” could freely manipulate his ntal world, even altering its appearance—no wonder he kept getting tricked during each test and left totally baffled.
Every ti the Instructor entered his ntal world, Ji Minghuan could stand above it all like a god, watching from a higher dinsion, observing every corner of the world, taking in the Instructor’s every move.
But even if the Instructor did manage to find Ji Minghuan’s id, it probably wouldn’t help.
Because Ji Minghuan’s id didn’t speak—it was just an empty shell. He had kicked it into the library corner long ago and never looked at it again.
All the “ids” the Instructor had encountered before were just Ji Minghuan’s disguises.
Back to the present—after the Instructor left, Ji Minghuan’s mind returned to reality.
He rolled over in bed, opened his eyes to the empty confinent chamber, then shut them again. No more movent—he slept like a corpse, peaceful and still.
From the surveillance footage alone, any researcher would simply think he was asleep.
No one could guess that Ji Minghuan’s consciousness had already left that gloomy cage and entered the body of another boy in Lijing.
...
...
Lijing, China – Guyimai Neighborhood
Controlling the body of Gu Wenyu, Ji Minghuan woke up on the bed in the room.
He opened his eyes and glanced at the wall clock—it was five in the morning. He reached under the pillow, grabbed the phone, turned it on, and disabled “Do Not Disturb” mode.
With a ding, several WeChat ssages popped up—all from the sa person.
【Gu Qiye: Tickets are booked, 9 PM flight. It only takes 2–3 hours from Lijing to Tokyo. We’ll check into a nearby hotel right after landing—I booked it already, right next to the airport.】
【Gu Qiye: Make sure to tell Dad and have him prep in advance.】
Ji Minghuan yawned, smacked his lips, and typed back on the virtual keyboard.
In the dim room, the screen’s glow lit up his eyes, which still held sleepy tears.
【Gu Wenyu: Oh. I’ll go tell Dad. When we get to Tokyo, I wanna check out Akihabara. Heard it’s a “paradise for otakus.”】
“Going to Japan tonight, huh? That ca fast… kinda curious what Big Bro would do if he bumped into Little Sis and her leader over there.”
Ji Minghuan muttered softly, opening his ho screen calendar for a glance.
Today was July 12, 2020—
Nine days until the underground auction in Tokyo began.
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