Just as he was saying these words, the environment around them quietly changed. The aluminum alloy sliding window turned into a wooden, faded window frame. The white wall, freshly painted before the year, was now covered with mottled moss. The floor tiles disappeared, replaced by a cement surface stretching out, and not far away, a black figure was slowly approaching them.
“Tap, tap, tap…”
At the critical moment of life and death, He Cheng, with an unknown source of strength, leaped up from the ground and grabbed Gong Kang, shouting: “Run quickly!”
The two young men ran wildly down the corridor, forgetting that they had already been walking on the third floor for ten minutes without going downstairs. It seemed no matter how they ran, they remained in the same place. The footsteps behind them were unhurried yet followed closely, getting closer and closer.
He Cheng felt he was about to run out of breath, gasping heavily. Gong Kang beside him was also drenched in sweat, his steps growing slower.
Laughter surrounded them from all directions. In his over twenty years of life, He Cheng had never been so acutely aware of approaching death.
At that moment, a flash of clear light suddenly appeared around them.
A breeze from an unknown source gently swept through, and wherever it passed, the old corridor shed its illusion and restored its true appearance. A voice, both distant and near, leisurely sounded:
“Law, law, law, element without law, empty, empty, empty, not empty. Grieving spirits and souls originally the same, who speaks of dreams in dreams? The path of mystery, rootless tree, all are illusions, break!”
The suffocating oppression and fear instantly dissipated. Before the scattered starry light had completely faded, a young man approached with a smile. In this scene, he himself seemed like part of the illusion – jade-like features, elegant temperament, transcendent and refined.
In fact, Luo Yingbai was not originally someone who liked to smile all the time. He was born with a cold and aloof face reminiscent of a high mountain flower, always surrounded by a melancholic aura.
Whenever his lips didn’t curl and he didn’t smile, people would immediately perceive him as weak, helpless, and pitiful.
Unable to bear such “care,” he had to smile frequently, using his expression to prove he was fine and loved. Over time, it became a habit.
