Before death arrived, Old Mrs. Ji managed to recover a little of her reason.
In the timeline where she had lived, Song Zang had done far too many terrifying and brutal things. The impression he left on her was too deep, creating endless psychological shadows.
But the Song Zang sitting beside the hospital bed, happiness written all over his face, looked very much like the happy family she had occasionally imagined.
Song Zang had not eaten his lover. He had not turned into some neither-human-nor-ghost monster. He was doing very well. There was a little more flesh on his cheeks, and no hostility at all in his beautiful, glossy black eyes.
Old Mrs. Ji endured her instinctive fear and forced herself to look at him several more times. Perhaps because she was nearing death, countless emotions welled up inside her.
If back then she had not judged people through a prejudiced lens, if she had not scrutinized every woman who came near her son with a bellyful of bias, if she had not driven Song Lan Jing to leave for a distant city during postpartum confinement…
Would the Song Zang truly connected to her by blood in that timeline still have rotated those cold scarlet compound eyes, looked down at her throat from above, and decided without hesitation to personally eliminate her?
If Song Zang had protected her, would she still have lived under constant threat of death, suffering in despair and hiding inside a house for the rest of her life like a rat in a sewer?
Old Mrs. Ji lay quietly on the hospital bed and cried, using vocal cords already on the verge of collapse to explain the last of what she knew, little by little.
“Your mother was the real spacetime traveler. By a twist of fate, she saved my life, your life, and many, many others… She is also the person in this world who loves you most.”
The invisible erasure mechanism unfolded in full. Her eyes had already begun to dissolve, mingling with the hot, salty tears and smearing across her face.
“To live in this perfect new world, we murdered your grandfather and grandmother… cough, cough. It’s a pity I never raised you for even a single day. I wronged you.”
“At least you didn’t become that demon, demon demon demon!!! Ahhh!! Ahhhhh!!”
By the end, the expression that had still been somewhat kindly suddenly twisted into something ferocious. She stared through empty eye sockets and convulsed on the hospital bed, screaming miserably.
The entire bed shook. Its four corners scraped across the floor tiles with harsh creaks, rocking violently under the tremendous force of her twisting arms.
Yin Chen reacted instantly, pulling Song Zang backward. He pressed the call button beside the bed and said quietly, “Her brain is about to burst. Stay back for now.”
When Old Mrs. Ji was admitted, she had undergone a full series of examinations. The cranial CT already showed extreme pathological changes and severe deformation of the brain cavity.
The doctor reading the scan could barely believe she was still alive. Every minute and second she continued breathing could be counted as a miracle.
The nurses had been mentally prepared and arrived quickly. They intended to go through the motions and send Old Mrs. Ji for emergency resuscitation, but Song Zang stopped them.
“Bang!”
“Ring, ring, ring…”
The midnight alarm he had set in advance rang almost immediately, alternating with the muffled explosive sound. Song Zang blankly silenced his phone and looked at Old Mrs. Ji’s now-unrecognizable face.
Brain matter seeped from the empty eye sockets, making her thin cheeks look even more skeletal.
Her suffering was over. The corners of her mouth pulled upward into an almost eerie curve of peace.
Song Zang said nothing. He lowered his eyes and discussed arrangements for the remains with the doctor.
The lawyer, called back to work in the middle of the night, looked more shocked than ever.
Yin Chen collected samples of the abnormal brain tissue and the grotesquely swollen arm muscles and sent them to the research institute. The funeral home soon dispatched a vehicle to take away the bodies of the Ji couple.
Cremation, along with two reasonably respectable burial plots, was the closure Song Zang was willing to give them on account of what Old Mrs. Ji had said before dying.
Song Zang did not sell the apartment in Jinyuan Residential Complex. He replaced the security door, removed data and electronic equipment that still held some value, then sealed the place completely.
They stayed in Sen City for several days. Once the kinship verification results became legally valid, they smoothly took possession of all the property, had someone buy the plot of land Yin Chen wanted, and even managed not to miss out on their camping experience.
Song Zang took Yin Chen wandering through streets and alleys, showing him the milk-tea shop, privately owned convenience store, and internet café where he had once worked part-time… and the experience, when he had been younger, of secretly picking cigarette butts from beside trash cans and bringing them back as tribute to the orphanage’s little gang boss.
Although Song Lan Jing had not raised him, he had still been perfectly capable of surviving well on his own.
Looking back from the present, leaving the child in a relatively dependable orphanage and allowing Song Zang to grow up freely and successfully, though lonely, really did seem like a wise choice.
If Song Zang’s emotional anchor had existed in the real world, perhaps he would never have risked his life and opposed the powerful game system for a reason almost impossible for outsiders to understand: giving Mask 【freedom】.
In some unseen way, everything had been the best possible arrangement.
As Song Zang revisited the places of his past, he gradually came to terms with things and his mood steadily improved. Yin Chen’s expression, on the other hand, grew darker and darker.
“You lived like this when you were little?”
Song Zang paused, somewhat surprised. “Huh? I thought you already knew.”
“I only know about your life during the beta test. I can’t see anything further back than that either.” Yin Chen snatched the starch sausage coated in chili powder from Song Zang’s hand, took a bite, and slowly radiated gloomy resentment. “If you don’t tell me, I know nothing.”
“…Yin Chen, are you thinking about killing everyone who bullied me when I was little?”
“…Mm.”
“Then shut your brain off.”
Song Zang pinched the muscles in Yin Chen’s arm as they quietly tensed and narrowed his eyes in emphasis.
He did not think his childhood had been especially miserable. It had been a very valuable form of training.
Learning early how to face the world’s malice and loneliness had indeed left the child he once was with a few psychological shadows and minor problems.
But that period when he could rely only on himself had also laid a solid foundation for every challenge he later endured in the Infinite Game.
There were countless players who collapsed psychologically and gave up on life or lost their reason. Some specifically attacked their own teammates inside instances. Some became addicted to virtual storylines and refused to leave. Some beta-test players even started worshiping cults… They were far more unhinged than the current player population.
Later, the appearance of the game forum finally gave players a way to help one another. They spontaneously formed a more relaxed and harmonious mutual-aid community, which did effectively relieve many players’ sense of helplessness.
Before that, however, everyone basically had to endure on their own.
Song Zang did not dare imagine whether, if he had grown up in a happy family and been spoiled and cherished in every possible way, he would still have possessed the resilience and determination to spend several days silently hiding alone inside the hot, wet, foul-smelling digestive organs of an enormous monster.
“I suffered, and because I endured it I received something in return. That’s only natural. But I don’t want anyone else to have to suffer.”
On the expressway back toward Luo City after changing their route, Song Zang sat in the passenger seat holding Hot Dog and suddenly spoke with unusual seriousness.
Yin Chen paused and said meaningfully, “Song Zang, do you really care about other people? Besides me, and the two dogs in this car…”
Song Zang abruptly sat upright. “Lan Yu Heng wants to resurrect her mother. Zhang Ming Shen’s daughter died of leukemia. Chi Yan’s real dream is to build a time machine. Xie Chun Ye had a younger sister named Xie Dong Ning who died saving someone.
“And, um… Mr. Butler became the way he is now because he used to be too good-looking. He was trafficked overseas and went through a great deal before being rescued and brought home in his teens. He’s had more than forty plastic surgeries. His parents didn’t want him either. Without the new life the Infinite Game gave him, he would already have ended his own life.
“I investigated Qiu Shuang too. On the surface she’s a wealthy young lady, but she was actually born only to donate bone marrow to save her older brother. Before she was old enough, her brother had already died. Her whole family subjected her to cold, silent emotional abuse throughout childhood. Xiao Li Li and Lin Wen Jing were her only friends.
“Yin Chen, I’m not the Song Zang from the extinction branch. I won’t become like him either… although it did look pretty exciting. There are people in this world who deserve to matter to me, and I’ll care about them.”
“Mm. You’re kinder than I am.” Yin Chen lowered his phoenix eyes thoughtfully. “But the version of you that isn’t kind really was quite exciting.”
“Stop thinking about it. There’s no way I’m eating your entire body now!”
“But you were so beautiful.”
As Yin Chen spoke, he expressionlessly drove into a service area. He looked completely composed, except that his gradually lowered voice carried a desire difficult to describe.
“…How do you know I was beautiful?” Song Zang suddenly grew a little nervous.
“Before her brain completely collapsed, its functions went out of control. The information flowing through it could no longer be regulated by the neural network and dispersed outside the body in the form of energy. I can capture that escaped information precisely and reproduce the memories she once had.”
Song Zang understood and could not help marveling at the enormous gap between species. As long as enough information was collected, Yin Chen could perfectly reproduce another person’s experiences and circumstances. What a complicated and advanced ability… No wonder Yin Chen had been able to help him recover his memories.
Yin Chen stopped the car, pulled Song Zang into his arms with one hand, and lowered his eyes to trace every detail of his face. “I saw you at your most painful, your most insane, and your most beautiful. I liked it very much.”
“You liking it still doesn’t make it okay.” Song Zang raised a hand and pushed lightly against his chest, blushing as he tried to change the subject. “The car’s out of fuel. Hurry up and get in line.”
“I know. That’s why I need to quench my thirst.”
Yin Chen bit down on Song Zang’s lips and pressed the hand Song Zang had placed against him even more tightly.
Clinging to Song Zang regardless of place or occasion was one of Yin Chen’s habitual problems. Players led by Ning Ran had formally complained about it many times.
Song Zang had never thought about correcting him, because the sight of Ning Ran bristling with outrage always made him want to laugh.
The consequence of never correcting a bad habit was… reaping what he had sown on an empty expressway.
After filling the car with fuel, the two followed the map to the nearest hotel, quietly checked the dogs into care, and quietly took off their clothes and entered the bathroom.
Their schedule was delayed by another half day.
Song Zang’s mindset had originally been very steady. They were a young couple traveling together. They should do whatever they wanted. Going a little slower or faster along the way was perfectly normal.
Until Yin Chen, a clean freak who could not stand the mess in the bedroom, lazily dried his hair and began tidying the clothes and luggage scattered everywhere… and found the ring.
The ring Song Zang had worked so hard to have secretly custom-made had been discovered!!!
Yin Chen looked surprised too. He turned the brilliant diamond ring between his fingers and gave Song Zang a half-smile. “This is for a proposal and engagement, right? I’m the only one who can wear it?”
Song Zang’s vision went dark. His body reacted faster than his brain. In practically an instant, he threw off the blanket, slid smoothly out of bed, snatched the diamond ring away, and dropped to one knee.
He used so much force he nearly pulled away the bath towel wrapped around Yin Chen’s waist along with it.
“Baby, I originally wanted to propose to you while bungee jumping in Bei City. The risk is too high for ordinary people, and last month I finally managed to grab tickets for two slots. My backup option was extreme skydiving, with the plane climbing to exactly 5,200 meters. I made sure the altitude would be precise.
“My backup backup option was a self-funded rocket-launch experience in Country M. I’ve already booked a place in the queue. It’s scheduled for the end of this year. Once your passport comes through, we can leave whenever we want…”
Song Zang had kept the ring hidden and agonized over many different proposal plans. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected the enormous diamond he had concealed all the way through the trip to be inexplicably discovered by Yin Chen in an utterly ordinary hotel room.
Damn it!
“Yin Chen, will you marry me? I only want to travel across Earth with you, collect marriage certificates from every country in the world, and stay with you forever and ever.”
Yin Chen remained silent, and Song Zang felt strangely nervous.
He did not need an extreme sport or a near-death experience. He was wearing comfortable summer sleepwear, his knee pressed against the hotel carpet and his back resting against the soft mattress, yet his heartbeat sped up on its own and even the simplest breath became difficult.
He closed his eyes, held Yin Chen’s hand, took a deep breath, and spoke again. “I only love you.”
Yin Chen lowered his eyes and stared at Song Zang, then curved his lips. “You aren’t even willing to eat my whole body. How dare you say you love…”
“You’re not allowed to joke while I’m proposing!”