After the Little Crybaby Enters the Nightmare Cycle
Chapter 72

Mosaic School (23)

Getting the clue for tonight’s forbidden rule all depended on Chi Nan and Tang Yu’s group.

No one expected that the emotional theme of ‘sadness’ that they were originally least optimistic about would actually become their last hope. In Classroom 103 of the boarding school that Chi Nan couldn’t see, the remaining nine sleepwalkers nervously waited for the last six minutes of the countdown like they were waiting for their final judgment.

In the immersive acting class, the rainstorm gradually subsided and the sky was getting brighter. However, the frightened maid forgot to extinguish the candles.

The madam’s neck was bitten and she fell dead. The head of her husband kept biting and biting before gradually stopping. The heads of the couple were intertwined in a strange posture. It was as if the madam had two heads and it was full of irony.

Her husband’s eyes were open in a persistent and sad manner, as if he couldn’t rest his eyes until he had bitten off the madam’s head.

“Chi Nan, what are you doing?”

It wasn’t until Chi Nan walked toward the corpse that Tang Yu’s mind returned and she asked in a trembling voice.

Chi Nan carefully avoided the blood on the ground. He walked to the table, took a few paper towers, and crouched down in front of the two corpses. He wrapped the paper towels around the blood-stained knife and carefully removed the boning knife from the madam’s hands.

He said in a low voice, “I can probably guess where my younger brother’s head is and I want to verify it.”

Chi Nan wasn’t satisfied even after wiping the blood stains from the boning knife. He turned to the maid and wondered, “Is there any alcohol?”

He had to sterilize the knife that had cut the frozen corpse.

The maid recovered and directly took the alcohol that had been placed on the table for the madam. “We are just about out of alcohol. I think Young Master might need this.”

“Thank you.” Chi Nan took the alcohol and poured half the bottle directly on the blade to sterilize it.

Under the pressure of the countdown, Tang Yu finally decided to dissect the dead madam’s stomach. She gritted her teeth and said, “If…you really can’t do it, you can let me try. I am timid, but I’m actually not that afraid of bloody things…”

Of course, she was still afraid. It was just that Chi Nan had done too many things. She didn’t want to be a burden on him.

Chi Nan shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not afraid of this either.”

He paused before adding, “In addition, this experiment might need to be completed by my own hands.”

Chi Nan took the sterilized knife and walked toward the bedroom.

Tang Yu was completely confused. Didn’t Chi Nan want to cut open the madam’s stomach to verify it? Why go somewhere else?

Chi Nan stood in front of the mirror and neatly took off his shirt, revealing a deep and long scar on his left shoulder. In the mirror, this surgical scar looked distorted and hideous.

He breathed out slightly as he pointed the tip of the knife at the scar in the mirror.

If he followed the plotline given, the logic that the younger brother was killed by their mother and became an evil spirit, returning to their mother’s stomach to carry out a revenge plan made sense. However, it was by no means 229’s logic.

If the other person was 229 then he might hide here—this shoulder with the scar.

The end was where it began. The answer could only be found when returning to the end.

“Chi Nan, you…!” Tang Yu guessed the meaning of Chi Nan’s action and exclaimed. She had seen the memory video so she also understood. Chi Nan was going to cut the scar on his shoulder again and use his blood as the twin brother to replace the head that was an important item!

Chi Nan might not be able to perceive emotions, but he was very sensitive to pain.

He gritted his teeth and watched his movements in the mirror. The tip of the knife sank into his flesh. Blood dripped down along the contours of his collarbone…

In a few moments, the porcelain white sink was stained red with blood, and the sweet fragrance of the small white flowers blooming next to the mirror became even stronger.

Tang Yu looked away and couldn’t bear to watch. Meanwhile, Chi Nan’s hand became more agile. He soon cut the entire wound that had been healed for so many years, opening his flesh on both sides. The wound was so deep that one could almost see his bones.

Chi Nan found that he couldn’t feel any pain in this body custom made for the character. This feeling was very subtle. He could feel the coldness and sharpness of the blade cutting through his skin and flesh, but there was no pain. It was as if he wasn’t himself.

Chi Nan suddenly had a thought pop into his mind. The other person… Would 229 feel hurt due to his cutting action?

Then he thought that he didn’t need to worry about 229. After all, this guy could smile as he was shot through the heart.

Chi Nan saw that almost enough blood had flowed and methodically wiped away the blood stains on his fingers.

“Can I be allowed to replace you?” he whispered to the reflection in the mirror while taking off his glasses at the same time.

The ‘Chi Nan’ in the mirror flickered like there was a bad signal. A moment later, CHi Nan saw his green-eyed self again.

He remembered that last night, through the elevator door, the ‘brother’ outside the door told him that he had perfectly designed the reunion of the brothers.

The so-called perfect design…was it to swap with each other and look at each other through the mirror?

At the same time, the female teacher’s voice full of satisfaction came from the system.

[Congratulations to the ‘sadness’ team for replaceing the important item. Favorability has increased by 20 and there is now an accumulated favorability of 90.]

Chi Nan received the system notification and stared at himself in the mirror. “229, is it you?”

The mirror only reflected his green eyes and questioning look honestly. There were no suspicious signs at all.

“Chi Nan, you’ve changed back…!” Tang Yu stared at the green-eyed Chi Nan in front of the sink with disbelief. She gulped hard before hesitating. “So what are you now…?”

Tang Yu had just watched the memory projection not long ago and was a bit confused. She didn’t know whether the green-eyed man in front of her was the Chi Nan she knew originally or the younger brother whose head was cut off by his mother in the plot…

“It is still me.” Chi Nan used the gauze medicine the maid handed him to clean the wound while answering. It might not be painful, but it didn’t seem possible to let the blood flow continuously.

He paused before explaining, “Ever since we opened the wardrobe in the spare room that day, the soul of the ‘younger brother’ has been hidden in my body. The wound just has to be opened and the soul of the ‘younger brother’ will be released. I am playing the role of the older brother and can change back to the appearance of green eyes… In other words, I can become the appearance of the ‘younger brother.’ Thus, the younger brother’s head is naturally found.”

It had to be a clue, or the story designer wouldn’t need to let the ‘younger brother’ have the same green eyes as him.

However, why was the character of the older brother wearing Ye Chang’s glasses and why was the color of his eyes exactly the same as 229’s eyes? Could it be that 229 used the big brother role to give him hints? Or was it just this guy’s bad taste?

“It turned out to be like that. Still, there are the last 10 points of favorability…” Tang Yu finally smoothed out the twists and turns, but before she could finish speaking, the system voice rang out again.

[Please hurry. There are three minutes left until the end of the class. The two students still have this time to perform. Please replace the last favorability trigger plot as soon as possible and complete this performance test.]

“There isn’t much time left, but we don’t have any clues. The system hasn’t given any new hints…”

Tang Yu frowned. Previously, they had the clear goal of looking for the head and increasing the young brother’s favorability, but this time the system didn’t give them any useful clues. It just coldly reminded them that time was almost up.

She was like a desperate student about to finish the exam, but was still clueless about the final question.

The information item had been found and the truth of the story revealed. What else needed to be done? Or had they missed an important piece of information previously?

Chi Nan finished bandaging his wound and carefully wiped off the blood stains. Then he looked at himself in the mirror. “Is it enough to shed tears?”

He remembered that before the elevator door opened last night, the little guy outside the door had emphasized again, “Brother, I like the way you cry.”

It was just like the words that 229 often said.

In addition, crying was in line with the ‘sadness’ theme of this performance class. The system had repeatedly mentioned that students participating in the acting test should maintain the theme.

No matter how he thought about it, the correct option seemed to only be ‘tears.’

Chi Nan blinked and the green eyes in the mirror image became darker, gradually turning into pure black.

The person in the mirror wasn’t wearing glasses. Chi Nan looked at this familiar yet strange appearance and was stunned. For a moment, he felt that the grown-up You Yu was standing opposite him…or standing in the mirror and staring at him.

Unexpectedly, the system was heard again. This time, it was 229’s voice.

“Brother, it isn’t that easy to pass every time.”

Chi Nan glanced at Tang Yu, who hadn’t reacted at all. He instantly determined that the system had turned on the private chat mode for him.

In other words, in this storyline, only the character played by Chi Nan could hear the voice of the ‘younger brother’. After all, this soul was currently growing in his body and his power was rapidly increasing.

“So are there any additional rules for the tears?” Chi Nan asked calmly and politely. His face had quickly returned to its blank state.

“The older brother must genuinely shed tears for the loss of his brother, or the younger brother’s soul can’t rest in peace.”

The man in the glass was completely free from the shackles of common sense. He seemed unaware that he was playing as a mirror reflection and leaned forward with his hands on the sink.

Chi Nan met his smiling gaze. “How can it be considered genuine?”

The man in the mirror had interest in his eyes. “For example, you need to mobilize your emotions and try to shed tears for ‘me’ without the help of sugar, physical contact, or other factors.”

He smiled happily. “Brother, I won’t help you cheat by pressing down on your teardrop mole this time.”

Chi Nan: “……”

“You actually know this feeling. For example…when you shot me in Candleman Town, when you asked Rui Rui for her lucky candy on the train to Dawn Base, or when you went back to Room 206 of Apartment 57 in the North Third District alone.”

The person in the mirror suddenly looked deeply at Chi Nan with complicated and unpredictable eyes. Then he smiled. “I’m not mistaken, right?”

The moment Chi Nan was examined, he suddenly understood that everyone was afraid of the dream makers because the dream makers could perceive the fears in the depths of the human subconscious. Then they would use extremely beautiful techniques to visualize these fears, letting the human imagination grow the fear infinitely. The fear would amplify and finally engulf the body.

He used to have no fear, so he wasn’t afraid of the dream maker’s direct gaze, but now…

Chi Nan pursed his lips and answered without any fluctuations, “So you’ve been spying on me ever since you were shot in the heart?”

The person in the mirror was stunned for half a second. Then he gave a half truthful smile. “In any case, all I have is time.”

“Yes.”

The person in the mirror told him, “Brother, time is running out. I’m afraid that if you don’t replace a way to shed tears…”

“It is you who should shed tears,” Chi Nan suddenly said while staring directly into the mirror. “The green-eyed one is the younger brother and the black-eyed one is the older brother, right?”

“That’s right.”

Chi Nan pointed to his green eyes in the mirror. “So now I am the younger brother.”

The man in the mirror seemed to choke up. Then he raised an eyebrow and looked at Chi Nan like he found it more interesting.

“Brother, I like the way you cry,” Chi Nan stated in an expressionless manner, “So I have to trouble you. In order to avoid failing my acting class, I can only wrong you to cry, thank you.”

He was always so polite with his words and his sincerity was hard to refuse.

The man in the mirror stared at him before making an ‘oh’ sound.

“Chi Nan, it turns out that you also want to see me cry.”

Proofreader: Kat