Epiphany (2/2)
Su Zesui stared at the projection in front of him.
The game character had collected the last piece of information in the dungeon, assembled it into a completion report, and the final animation of the dungeon played—
The evil doctor lived in a bustling city and, using a high-end computer, remotely controlled the staff on Atel Island to conduct biochemical experiments.
Living in a highly civilized world, yet committing barbaric acts…
The dungeon’s animation was stunningly detailed, the world-building vast, and the plot full of twists, but Su Zesui couldn’t focus on it at all.
All his attention was drawn to the sprawling, brightly lit city where the evil doctor resided. Even though the scene lasted only a few seconds, it lingered in his mind.
Since <Echoes of the Abyss> was developed abroad, its setting naturally reflected that. English was visible on every street corner, and looking up, one could even spot iconic landmarks from a foreign country.
All of this instantly stirred Su Zesui’s dormant memories.
For a moment, he felt as if he were actually inside the scene depicted in the animation—
Towering skyscrapers rose beside him, neon lights illuminating the streets beneath his feet. Snow swirled through the air, lifting trash bags from the roadside. Pedestrians and vehicles intermingled, bustling everywhere. A mixture of desolation and luxury coexisted in the city’s atmosphere.
Yet he felt only the former. He was bewildered and lonely, out of place in the foreign metropolis.
His English was poor. Unable to communicate, alone in an unfamiliar place with no one he knew, he didn’t know where to go or what to do next. His life felt like falling snowflakes, aimless and scattered…
This memory fragment had no cause or effect, only a hazy, surreal image, impossible to grasp.
In another universe, Su Zesui was very poor. He had to save money for his brother’s treatment and couldn’t afford to go abroad. And here, as far as he knew, he had never studied overseas.
——So when was this memory from?
Horror games always liked to hide Easter eggs at the end of dungeons, <Echoes of the Abyss> was no exception.
Once the high-quality animation ended, a bloodthirsty, mutilated mutant lunged at the screen, roaring to set up the next dungeon boss.
Although Gu Yilan quickly covered the boy’s wandering eyes, the creature’s hoarse roar alone was enough to terrify Su Zesui, who was lost in thought, causing him to struggle violently.
He felt as if he were tied in the center of a rope, being pulled apart by the confusion of his memories and the terror of the game, on the verge of being torn to pieces.
Just as his vision was about to blur, he heard Gu Yilan softly hiss and say, in a low voice, “You hit my wound… it hurts a little.”
Instantly, worry surged, pushing all the emptiness aside for reality.
Su Zesui snapped back to himself, flustered, and raised his hands, wanting to check the man’s thigh where he had collided, but didn’t know how: “S-sorry…”
“It’s okay. It just hurt a bit. Some ointment should make it fine,” Gu Yilan said, lowering his gaze to observe the boy’s expression, offering comfort.
Su Zesui hurried to grab the ointment from the drawer, muttering, “Ointment… ointment…”
The boy in his arms twitched, then quickly regained control of his body, breaking free from the emotional grip. He eagerly began to crawl over to fetch the ointment from the bedside, clearly pulled out of the whirlpool of memories triggered by some unknown object.
Recovering memories was something no one could help with—he had to navigate the fog and piece them together on his own.
Gu Yilan exhaled softly. When Su Zesui returned, he ruffled his hair absentmindedly and said, “Take your time. Don’t rush.”
Su Zesui didn’t catch the hidden meaning in his words and clutched the ointment. “Okay. I—I’ll be gentle.”
. . . . .
The next day, after taking two days off, Gu Yilan finally appeared at Physics Laboratory Building at University A.
The junior students in the same group, having endured two days of his “puppy profile picture” attacks, were eager to see him in person—to cleanse their eyes of the frozen, cold handsome face that had been “contaminated” by that cute profile picture.
But when they saw the boy who always accompanied him and noticed the matching couple outfits they were wearing, their eyes—and brains—instantly went haywire.
Everything about the scene was absurd, unbelievable, and mind-numbingly shocking.
As a result, the quantum mechanics PhD group in A University’s physics department came to a standstill for an entire day, consumed with gossip. They even dug up Gu Yilan’s long-ago comment that the boy was “just a younger brother” to chew over again.
They shook their heads in wonder, exchanging silent glances that said it all—no words were necessary. The story was too explosive, anyone who knew understood immediately.
But the protagonists of this drama remained unbothered, their faces impenetrable as brick walls. Gu Yilan even kept the puppy profile picture, sharing research papers in the group chat and tagging everyone to read them, supposedly to help with their lab reports.
The papers were indeed helpful, saving the juniors a lot of time. The issue was—no one had ever seen Gu Yilan be so kind before…
With the school physics competition approaching, Su Zesui, despite relying on knowledge from another “universe,” already had far more skill than necessary, yet still studied frantically, plagued by insecurity.
Only during the brief moments before sleep would he curl up in Gu Yilan’s arms, watching him play horror games to relax his overworked brain.
Sometimes, he was so exhausted that he could fall into a deep sleep even amidst the jump-scare background music of a horror game. The force with which his eyelids closed was comparable to the bite of an adult crocodile.
Finally, a few days later, the school physics competition arrived.
Considering Su Zesui’s special circumstances, Gu Yilan arranged with the school for him to have a separate exam room. He encountered no one during the test except for a few brief questions from a documentary reporter at the door.
Luckily, Su Zesui wore a mask and a baseball cap the entire time, barely affected by the presence of others.
This school competition followed the official CPhO format: a three-hour exam with the option to submit early.
But Su Zesui had always been a diligent student. Even after finishing all the questions and double-checking his work, he stubbornly stayed in his seat until the exam bell rang, waiting for the proctor to collect his paper.
There weren’t many participants this year, and A City No. 1 High School had a grand entrance, so the sparse crowd outside didn’t pose any distraction.
Su Zesui immediately spotted his parents, big brother, and Gu Yilan not far away.
His parents held the classic “Apple” electronics trio, while his brother, seeing him emerge, immediately pulled out his phone and shouted from a distance for him to smile. He acted as if Su Zesui had just finished the college entrance exam.
Su Zesui felt both nervous and excited, lowered his cap, and jogged over. Taking the tulip Gu Yilan handed him, he whispered, “Thank you.”
“Suisui, you’re amazing! You finished your exams perfectly.”
His parents didn’t ask about the results; they just praised him incessantly, making Su Zesui blush. “I—I wasn’t that great.”
Gu Yilan curved his lips and added, “Just… moderately impressive.”
After a simple family meal, the afternoon arrived.
It was time for Su Zesui’s scheduled session of <Echoes of the Abyss> with his classmates.
Gu Yilan delivered as promised, having the butler prepare a dedicated game room with the finest German-imported equipment currently available.
When the classmates entered, they exclaimed and inspected the limited-edition consoles in awe. Even Su Zesui, normally very cautious with his mask and cap, didn’t notice the extravagance at first.
Tong Jing marveled, “I wish my dad would buy me equipment like this. Su Zesui, your parents really treat you well—you must be their precious child.”
Embarrassed to reveal the truth, Su Zesui opened the projector and carefully handed out the controllers, diverting attention: “Let’s—let’s play.”
Seeing their faces, he remembered fragments of past memories.
These three classmates had been his closest friends in high school. They were all poor students from wealthy families and shared a love of gaming. In short, they were kindred spirits.
Because of this familiarity, Su Zesui didn’t feel as scared as he might have expected. He replayed Gu Yilan’s words from that day in his mind, and though still nervous, he looked like a normal person.
Feng Chengwen draped an arm over his shoulder. “I heard you switched from literature to physics for the competition? Why, man? Are you changing classes then?”
“N-no,” Su Zesui steadied himself. “I’m self-studying. No need to change classes.”
Tong Jing gave him a thumbs-up. “Awesome. But now’s not the time to study—let’s play. I’ve been wanting to play <Echoes of the Abyss>, but my dad confiscated my console. Said he’d return it after I hit top twenty in the grade.”
While waiting for Tong Jing to start the game, Feng Chengwen leaned close to Su Zesui’s ear and whispered, “Actually, switching classes would be fine too. A few days ago, Zhou Qizhao even insisted that I go out with him, but I refused. You know, you…”
“What’s wrong with you?” Feng Chengwen asked, looking at the boy gripping his game console, his whole body trembling. “Why… why are you shaking?”
“Who asked you to go out?” Su Zesui blurted out.
“Zhou Qizhao… you’re annoyed by him too, right? That guy…”
Su Zesui felt as if a lightning bolt had struck him on the head. His body was in the present, but his soul had already traveled to a desolate land, enveloped by boundless loneliness and despair. He wanted to die, but couldn’t, so he could only trudge on, exhausted.
For some reason, just hearing that name made him unbearably, overwhelmingly sad.
“Wuwuwu… bro… brother,” Su Zesui suddenly couldn’t hold back. The expensive game controller slipped from his hands, crashing to the floor and breaking apart.
He fled the game room in panic and ran toward the study on the second floor.