under fern mountain

Chapter 17

Shi Ran moved his stiff fingers and continued to type a line on the keyboard.

——What kind of prank is this?

The cursor quickly moved again, and 'Messiah' responded.

——Is it a prank, I found out after we talked... Do you know how to enter the game?

Of course Shi Ran knew that he had seen Pei Haojie playing games countless times, even though he had never tried it himself.Picking up the brain wave spectrum reader on the table, it still looks like it was thrown on the table last night, shriveled and messy, like a metal corpse.Shi Ran felt very resistant just touching it.

After struggling and hesitating violently, he imitated Pei Haojie and put it on his head.

The effect was immediate, the scalp began to feel hot and numb, and the thin electric current penetrated deep into the scalp like passing through every strand of hair, eroding his cortex.The picture of the room in front of him began to become blurred, and the smell, hearing and touch senses entered a state of shielding, except that the consciousness was fully awake, and the whole body seemed to be deeply anesthetized.Brand-new images rolled in from the edge of his field of vision, sounds came from the depths of his mind, and at the same time he smelled a familiar scent.

Opening his eyes, he was standing in the middle of a huge six-way intersection, surrounded by countless holographic screens, reminiscent of Times Square in New York.Snow fell in the sky, faintly glowing.Looking up, the word Messiah appeared at the end of the snow.

Two doors appeared before him.One door is marked to enter, and one door is marked to exit.Shi Ran's heart was beating extremely fast, and he walked slowly towards the door where it was written to enter, feeling that every step he took was so real, indistinguishable from real life... He even felt the coldness of the snow and smelled the smell of snow.

Is this the Messiah?Shi Ran thought.

He let out a sigh of relief, and finally walked to the door.First tentatively pushed the door, but the door did not move at all.Try again, all the holographic screens turn into flashing red at the same time and sound a warning horn - Error, DNA test failed, no permission.

"Messiah, I know you can hear." It took Shi Ran a while to calm down, and he turned his head to look at the boundless sky, "Give me permission!"

The snow began to fall crazily in an instant.

Shi Ran pushed the door again, indifferent, he pushed again, and began to hit, and so on and so on - countless bright red screens flashed layer by layer, sirens sounded continuously, and the vision of the whole city was completely blocked, leaving only a circle of red The storm swept and spread around him!

Suddenly, both the snowstorm and the flickering error screen paused.The red holographic screen began to fade away, replaced by green 'verification successful' screens.

The door in his hand finally opened a gap.Shi Ran pushed the door open and entered.

He returned to the rental house before they moved.

This is a place he is too familiar with, both the light and the smell are engraved in his soul, but there is something different.

Hanging their clothes to dry on the balcony, succulents and cacti on the window sill, wind chimes hanging at the door, slippers are in pairs, the refrigerator is full of food, wine and fruit, and two people are posted on the wall of the bedroom The poster of my favorite movie, a guitar on the bay window, and the room that should have been full of games smelled of flowers and tea, as if it had been transformed into a tea room.

He returned to the living room, and was caught off guard when he saw a person sitting cross-legged on the sofa...

The same face, clean shirt, shorts, holding a coffee cup in his arms, looking relaxed and comfortable.

For a moment, Shi Ran seemed to see himself five or six years ago.He appeared in front of him like a mirror image, pure and gentle, without thorns all over his body, and his brows would not wrinkle habitually.

... Seeing the young man in front of him who was exactly like him, Shi Ran felt unprecedentedly horrified!

He seemed to have fallen into an ice cave, his hands and feet were cold, and he began to tremble uncontrollably.

"What's going on here?" He stared at the mirror image of himself in front of him, "Who are you?"

"I am you." The young man turned the cup in his hand and looked at him, "I let you enter this space briefly by stealing Pei Haojie's DNA authority. I know you have a lot of questions, but I don't have much time, I I have something to tell you...what's wrong with you?"

The same eyes, the same voice... the same, even the same breath... Shi ran back step by step.

The young man was halfway through speaking, but suddenly found that something was wrong with Shi Ran.He put down the coffee cup, jumped off the sofa, ran to his side, and held Shi Ran's shoulder.Just by touching him, the young man could feel his rapid heartbeat and breathing, as well as his emotions on the verge of limit.He could feel that his mind was in a mess, as if he had been greatly shocked and would die the next moment.

"You can't stay here anymore, you must quit the game immediately!"

"Get out!" Shi Ran suddenly kicked the person in front of him with strength from nowhere, "Stay away from me! Don't touch me!"

The young man let go of his hands and raised them up: "Today is not a good time, come to me after you calm down."

The body is squeezed to be thinner than air, the consciousness is ejected in an instant, the five senses are quickly withdrawn, and the body returns to reality.

The moment he realized that he had returned to the real world, Shi Ran tore off the music reader from his head and fell to the ground.He gasped for breath.

Pei Haojie was squatting on the side of the road, and there was a litter of newborn kittens hidden in the bushes.The three cubs were screaming softly, and he poked their dirty heads lightly with his fingers, thinking that they didn't know how to escape.The female cat is not around, is it looking for food?Winter is almost over, will it still snow?If the city is buried under heavy snow, can these three new lives survive?

A piece of snow fell on the back of her hand, Pei Haojie looked up at the gloomy sky... Is it really going to snow?The airflow is getting colder and begins to smell of snow.Pei Haojie put the shopping bags from the supermarket aside, found a piece of waste plastic sheet nearby, spread it out on the bushes, and hoped that it could temporarily protect the three cubs.

There are too many unsaved people in this city, let alone cats?He stood by the bushes for a while and watched, then picked up the shopping bag and left.

No one can really save anyone.

When he got home, his shoulders were already wet from the snow, his fingers were a little frozen, and he moved very slowly. Even so, Pei Haojie was sensitive to the fact that the atmosphere was not right the moment he opened the door.

The room was dry and cold, the air conditioner was not turned on, the window was open a crack, as before he left, snowflakes squeezed in from there, and there was a wet mark on the window sill.The kitchen was not on, and the bedroom door was ajar. When Pei Haojie walked over, the door was suddenly pushed open.

Shi Ran appeared in front of him, holding tiny pieces of metal in his hand...that was the music reader for "Messiah", and in the other hand, he was holding something hard, and the muscles and bones on the back of his hand were all stretched out. White, looks hideous.

"Last night, I asked you, what is it that made you so dazed?" Shi Ran felt his palms prickling, as if he had been stabbed by the metal casing of the optical drive, "Today I understand."

"What do you mean?" Pei Haojie looked at him directly.

"It means that I have seen everything in the game. The succulents and cacti on the windowsill, the wind chimes, the limited edition sneakers you missed, and me..." Shi Ran smiled stiffly, "You know, I am now I’m so afraid to communicate with you. I don’t know when I started, I’ve been cautious and fearful, as if any inadvertent word, action, or decision of mine will make you unhappy and make you think a lot. I know from that day on, my cautiousness and trepidation are no longer because of you, but because of myself, just like last night, just like now... I'm really afraid that I can't help but say a lot of mean and vicious things to you. "

Shi Ran didn't look away, but his eyes gradually turned red: "But I love you? I should love you!"

Pei Haojie looked away as if she couldn't stand it anymore: "Of course."

"When I gave you this set of games, I was really trying to change, learning to treat you better, learning to make you happy... Li Qinger told me that falling in love is difficult, and life is also difficult. It's not easy to fall in love and live at the same time... I thought you could see everything I did, but what did you do?" Shi Ran wiped her eyes vigorously, "Is it because I'm not good enough? Is it because I am not enough? Why is it at such a time...you still have to do this kind of thing in the game!"

Pei Haojie finally showed a painful expression, but couldn't utter a single word.

"The me of five years ago... the me of five years ago! When you quarreled with me countless times because of this game and alienated me, what were you thinking?"

Shi Ran couldn't describe what he experienced in the game today.When I saw the game and myself and the space, it seemed that all these five years had evaporated.Are they hallucinations?Or never existed?Those precious moments that he thought were happy, cherished, and treasured, were discarded and folded in another space, all overthrown and denied.

"How did you get in?" Pei Haojie finally gave up any possibility of surviving, "My DNA is needed to log in to the game, and you have never logged in to any of my accounts...Did Mr. Lin give you the phone number?"

"No one guides me." Shi Ran rarely lied to him.The focus should not be lightly shifted to anything else, "Is that all you have left to say?"

listen to him.Shi Ran took a deep breath, forced to calm the blood that was rushing fiercely from his heart, and told himself to listen to him again.Although Pei Haojie's concealment has disappointed him countless times... But looking at the person in front of him, Shi Ran knew that no matter how many times he could give him another chance.As long as he is willing to tell the truth, as long as he can show even a little sincerity, there is still room for things to come back to life.

Pei Haojie just stood motionless opposite him.There are many complicated things flowing in his eyes, including things that Shi Ran has never seen before, confusion, pain, distortion, struggle... In the room, invisible and silent waves rolled, and finally he died peacefully on the beach superior.

"Shi Ran." Pei Haojie's voice was intertwined with the continuous tinnitus, it was hollow and distorted, numb and depressed, "You and I, let's separate for a while. The current state of you and me is not suitable for us to continue to be together .”