Chapter 87.1 - Made It Hard to Breathe

He Zhou couldn’t see anything.

He couldn’t even determine if he was still lying on the ground or not, but he could feel that raindrops were pelting his face.

He couldn’t ascertain whether black or gray clouded his vision. Everything was too muddled to tell.

...Qiu Yanzhi.

He Zhou opened his mouth, but found himself unable to make a sound.

Drip.

Another raindrop fell on He Zhou's face.

Qiu Yanzhi.

He Zhou repeatedly called his lover's name.

The raindrops seemed to fall even harder, a warm, unknown liquid mixed in.

He Zhou’s eyelashes trembled. He finally opened his eyes.

Those dark gray, hazy colours slowly faded away to reveal a faint red in front of him.

Immediately after, a pair of hands appeared before his eyes.

They were the hands of a boy.

Ghastly white and emaciated, their light blue veins were clearly visible. Beads of blood seemed to drip onto the boy’s hands before quickly being washed away by rainwater, sending wisps of red falling to the ground.

He Zhou looked up to see a childish face.

It was the face of a thirteen or fourteen year old boy. He was pale and slim to the point that his clothes appeared overly baggy. His bangs were on the long side. Now dampened by the rain, their owner impatiently brushed them to either side, revealing a smooth and clean forehead, clear, bright eyes and light-coloured lips.

--This...was the fourteen year old Qiu Yanzhi He Zhou had once seen in Qin He’s photo album.

Qiu Yanzhi had a death grip on his elbow. Raindrops landed on his nose ridge before dripping off the tip of his nose. He frowned and urged with some effort, “Help me out here, Qin He!”

A sudden thunderbolt lit up the skies.

Rendering He Zhou’s world pure white once more.

Countless images struck his mind in unison with the lightning.

......

Dense dark clouds gathered outside the window, lightning turning night into day for split seconds at a time. The booming roars from the skies made a shiver run down his entire body. A child dropped the lego piece in his hand. He shivered before finally bursting into tears, sitting on the ground and calling out for his Mommy and Daddy.

But no one answered.

The skies cleared up.

The child crawling about on the ground learned to play by himself.

He was a little older now.

He could walk, run, jump, do without his parents holding his hands, do without being embraced.

On this brilliantly sunny day, their family was out on a picnic. A dazzling smile lit up the face of Mother. He was happy, so he smiled as well.

Mother was wearing a beautiful dress, and Father was taking pictures with a smile on his face. He sat to one side and entertained himself by pulling out strands of grass.

Then the scenery changed to that of a school. A boy suddenly threw his bag down on the seat beside him. “There’s no one sitting here, right?”

He shook his head, so the boy sat down beside him and started to take a nap.

After an indeterminate amount of time had passed, the boy finally woke up.

He seemed to notice that He Zhou was looking at him. He raised an eyebrow, his demeanour like an aloof, solitary cat.

“I’m Xia Yuan.”

“Qin He.”

He Zhou heard himself say.

When the scenery shifted again, He Zhou saw that aloof and solitary cat curled up on the floor of the mall, being verbally ripped apart by a group of people, being kicked and beaten by a woman.

He rushed over and pushed those people away. Helping Xia Yuan up from the floor, they ran in the direction of the exit.

Hand in hand, they ran as fast as they could out of the mall and onto a deserted street.

By the time they finally stopped, his heart was about to beat out of his chest. He panted heavily.

Xia Yuan was panting too, but he suddenly shook off He Zhou’s hand before wiping at the sweat on his brow. Xia Yuan’s cheeks was a bit flushed after the run, but his eyes were ice cold when he looked up at He Zhou again. The corners of his lips tugged up into a seemingly mocking smile before he turned and left.

He Zhou stood frozen in place, somewhat at a loss for words.

Next came a rush of fragmented, jumbled memories.

A faraway light on a rainy night. The huge cargo truck that suddenly came into view.

Fresh blood, shrill screams. His parents tightly embracing each other in their final moments.

...When the image finally stabilized...he was being pulled out of the car by Xia Yuan.

He mooched off at Xia Yuan’s house for a while.

He confessed and got rejected.

He argued with Xia Yuan and they parted ways.

Then he was taken away by Grandpa

And his name was changed to He Zhou.

Actually, he was very angry with Xia Yuan.

Angry that he didn’t like him back, angry with him for being cold-blooded, bitter and full of lies.

When he parted ways with Xi Yuan, he thought hell would freeze over before they met again.

Yet not long after, he snuck over to Xia Yuan’s house to take a look.

Xia Yuan wasn’t there. Someone said he went to an orphanage.

In an effort to appease his newly accepted grandson, Grandpa said he would adopt Xia Yuan.

His mouth said things like, “What’s it to me if you adopt him or not?”

But he couldn’t help but run upstairs and wait by the window with baited breath when Grandpa next left the manor.

His heart seemed to stop for a beat when Grandpa’s car came back. He forgot all about the harsh words he had said to Xia Yuan when they parted ways as he frantically turned and practically ran down the stairs.

Grandpa got out of the car, but there was a little girl He Zhou didn’t know holding his hand.

Grandpa was a little embarrassed as he explained how Xia Yuan had already been taken in by his real father.

He Zhou pursed his lips without saying a word.

"This is the little sister I adopted for you." Grandpa said somewhat tentatively.

The little girl stared at him with her round, dark eyes. She beamed with joy as she called out, “Big brother!”

He nodded expressionlessly before turning to walk away.

“I...I found out which school Xia Yuan is currently attending. Should I have you transferred there?” Grandpa asked his departing figure.

He shook his head and declined at first, but it was barely two steps before he turned back again. “...Which school is he going to now?”

After finding out about Xia Yuan’s school, he couldn’t help but go to see him regularly.

It wasn’t until he went to study abroad that he took a picture of Xia Yuan sleeping on his desk from afar. After all, he would never get to see Xia Yuan like this again.

After returning to China, he invested in a virtual reality game called Devour Dream. It was an adaptation of a manga with no romance, just brotherly love.

Of course, since this plot-oriented media was forcibly adapted into a romance game, it was changed beyond all recognition.

The only thing it really shared with the original was the name. A vain attempt to mooch off the popularity of the original manga.

He Zhou was unwilling to invest in this game at first, but the game company’s stalwart efforts in begging him for investment paid off. He reluctantly watched the 3D virtual reality concept video they presented him, only to be blown away by the degree of realism in this game.

Since he now knew this game wasn’t as crude and forgettable as he had thought, he gave them all the investment they could need.

Just before the game launch, he, as an investor, got to playtest this VR game. A final check up of sorts.

No one could’ve imagined how wrong things could turn out.

Because he was only playtesting, He Zhou didn’t bind his mobile bank account in-game, nor did he choose any capture target at the start.

He followed the directions of the in-game AI, that thing called Big Yellow, as he explored, step by step, this overly realistic game world.

Before he set out to meet the five main characters, He Zhou first familiarized himself with his in-game identity.

He was still called He Zhou here. He had a pair of loving parents and a ‘Qikang-ge’ whom he had a crush on since childhood.

However, this ‘Qikang-ge’ wasn’t one of the five capture targets.

He was just one of the characters that came with this backstory.

This game had more than ten different identities and backstories arranged for players.

He Zhou just happened to get one that came with a white moonlight.

He Zhou’s seen that Meng Qikang before, but he paid him no mind. He was solely intent on going on a tour with his parents.

--This game was so realistic that he almost delusionally wanted to replace what was missing in real life.

Alas, it began to rain just as they set out.

Due to that car accident he experienced as a child, He Zhou would become dizzy and nauseous when riding in a car while it was raining.

He suggested to the driver that they head home.

The driver was taken aback but agreed. However, just as their car made a u-turn, the headlights of another car bore down on them.

His in-game mother screamed and threw herself into his in-game father’s arms.

This game couple that loved each other deeply died in front of him, holding each other in their last moments.

Leaving He Zhou alone, bleeding profusely from his head, to witness all this. His dazed eyes widened, almost unable to discern whether this was reality or not.

His mind was like quicksand, hovering on the verge of unconsciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw Meng Qikang opening the door of the overturned car and pulling him out of the car.

On that rainy night, Meng Qikang's face gradually overlapped with that of the 14-year-old boy.

Such a scene once again assaulted his already fragile psyche.

And made him completely lose himself in the game world.

He Zhou finally remembered everything.

He even remembered what happened right after the accident.

He saw Ye Hongyuan stumble out of the other car and look up at an azure hole in the distance with a confused and shocked look on his face.

He Zhou even clearly recalled the five NPC protagonists the developers had shown him before he decided to become an investor.

The junior student Ye Mingxu, the singer Gu Xingyu, the school idol Wen Qinghua, the painter Yun Fengyu…

And the CEO Ye Tongfang.

From the very beginning, there was no NPC called He Zhou.

Moreover, there was never a NPC made using an investor as a basis.

Ye Hongyuan only said those things to mislead and confuse He Zhou from guessing his true identity.

After seeing the azure hole and picking up He Zhou’s physical control device by chance, Ye Hongyuan accidentally stole He Zhou’s player identity and discovered the secrets of this game world.

Ye Hongyuan changed his name and escaped his role as a capture target. With He Zhou’s physical control device in hand, he became a special ‘player’ of sorts.

Meanwhile, the real player, He Zhou, had confused the game for reality after experiencing a car accident that happened to coincide perfectly with reality. He mistook himself as a protagonist in the game, thus becoming trapped within. Additionally, since there happened to be a vacancy for a CEO capture target, he became a coincidental replacement.

He was never a NPC to begin with. He wasn’t a model of someone else, a counterfeit, or a substitute.

He was the Qin He he had been so jealous and envious of.

He was Qin He, but he had fallen in love once more in this game as a NPC with his childhood crush.