Chapter 1355: I EXISTED
SHEN JI YUN felt like his brain had turned into a ball of cotton. He could hear each word Luo Yan said, and he understood them one by one. But when he tried to put them all together, nothing made sense. Because what was Luo Yan trying to say?
He stood there, staring at the other. For a long moment, his mind refused to work. He heard every word, yet somehow couldn’t make sense of any of it. He had no idea how to respond. He wasn’t even sure what he was supposed to think. He opened his mouth to say something, only to close it again when no words came.
“Yan Yan, I—I don’t understand,” he said in a rough, confused voice. “What.. do you mean?
Luo Yan looked at the confusion written all over Shen Ji Yun’s face. His brows were furrowed, his eyes searching, his mouth slightly open like he wanted to say more but didn’t know how. He looked lost in a way Luo Yan had never seen him before. A helpless smile crossed Luo Yan’s lips.
Of course he would be confused. That was the only logical reaction. Shen Ji Yun cared about him, so he wasn’t going to jump straight to calling him crazy. Luo Yan should probably be grateful for that. But instead, all he felt was fear. Because what if Shen Ji Yun couldn’t accept the truth he had just shared? What if this was the one thing that finally pushed him away? He wasn’t sure he would survive that.
He shook his head. No. He shouldn’t be this pessimistic. Hadn’t he already told himself not to jump to conclusions? Shen Ji Yun hadn’t fully understood everything yet. He should wait until the other had the whole story and had time to process it. Only then, if Shen Ji Yun looked at him like he was some kind of monster, would he allow himself to panic.
Luo Yan took a deep breath and held Shen Ji Yun’s gaze. “The boy in that story was me. I died the day I left my dorm at T University nine years ago. When I woke up, seven years had passed and I was inside the body of the second young master of the Luo family.” He paused, watching Shen Ji Yun’s face. It stayed mostly blank, like he still couldn’t wrap his head around what he was hearing. “I’m not the original owner of this body. The real Luo Yan probably died a long time ago. All that was left was an empty shell. And then my soul, too stubborn to move on, found its way in and made it its own.”
Shen Ji Yun blinked. What Luo Yan had said couldn’t have been clearer. It sounded like something out of a fantasy, the kind of story you read in a novel. But the way Luo Yan had told it, the emotions that moved across his face and through his voice were too raw to be made up. Too real. But did that mean it was true?
He thought back to everything Luo Yan had just told him. It might be that Luo Yan genuinely believed these were his memories. Maybe, during those seven years in a a, his brain had constructed an entire alternate life for him. He’d read studies about that kind of thing. Sometimes, people in as experience vivid dreams or alternate realities that are so detailed they seem pletely real. Some even wake up believing they lived another life entirely, with detailed false memories that feel more real than anything else. So, it was possible that what Luo Yan described was a creation of his own mind during the a, not an actual past life.
If that was the case, Shen Ji Yun had no idea how to explain it to Luo Yan, especially when Luo Yan seemed so convinced those things happened. He didn’t want to dismiss what Luo Yan believed. But he also didn’t want to encourage something that might not be real. He had to be careful. He didn’t want to hurt him. But he also couldn’t just pretend it made sense. He just didn’t know how to start.
Luo Yan never looked away from Shen Ji Yun, catching every subtle change in his expression. His brows gradually knit together, his gaze unfocused as though he were trying to make sense of what he’d just heard. His lips parted, only to press together again without a word. The disbelief on his face was impossible to miss—or perhaps he simply couldn’t bring himself to accept it.
He let out a quiet sigh. He had known it would take time for Shen Ji Yun to believe something like this. That was only natural. But knowing that didn’t make it any less frustrating. Especially when it had taken so much out of him just to share all of that. To lay his past bare like that.
“I’m telling you the truth, Ji Yun,” he said, frustration bleeding into his voice. “Whatever you’re thinking right now to explain this away, it’s not that. Everything I told you really happened. The Luo Yan in my story was real. I was real.” He pressed a hand to his own chest. “I existed. Please don’t deny me by convincing yourself I made it all up.”
Shen Ji Yun was taken aback by the way Luo Yan had said his name. No “Brother.” Just Ji Yun. And the words that followed made him stop. The way Luo Yan said “I existed” hit something in his chest. It wasn’t just frustration in his voice. There was fear underneath. A quiet, desperate plea not to be erased. Not to have his truth dismissed as something imaginary. Shen Ji Yun had never heard him sound like that before. It made him pause. Made him reconsider everything he had been thinking just seconds ago.
Before he could think, he had already pulled Luo Yan into his arms. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Yan Yan. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m sorry.”
Luo Yan squeezed his eyes shut. The tears he had held back earlier spilled down his face again. He could only lift his arms and hug Shen Ji Yun back.
Reviews
All reviews (0)