The TV was showing a talent show. The whole family…yes, after all this time, eating together and living together, facing danger together, experiencing all those unbelievable things, fussing and squabbling, they had become a kind of temporary family, living together in a slightly dangerous paradise beyond the world. 

Lao Yao brought out his sarcastic nature in full force, doing his utmost to provide a disparaging point by point commentary for each contestant. Kou Tong’s mom rolled around on the couch laughing. He Xiaozhi was sitting on the other end, a relaxed and happy smile for once appearing on his face. Lao Yao seemed to have some sense of achievement from his speech. His always tense cheeks relaxed, and he outperformed himself, as if playing up to his audience… Probably no matter how reclusive, how unfriendly, how hostile towards others, a person would still hope for others to notice him, have all kinds of reactions to his words. 

So-called loneliness, in the final analysis, was only everyone being busy with their own lives; a person had words in their heart but found that there was no one to listen, had emotions on their faces with no one to see. 

When Kou Tong returned, only Huang Jinchen, who was fighting over fruit mousse with Manman, noticed. 

There was a dead leaf on Kou Tong’s shoulder and grass that was no longer fresh after leaving the circle on his pants. Huang Jinchen raised his wrist and looked at his watch. There was about another hour until Qin Qin woke up. 

Huang Jinchen reached out and stroked Manman’s head. He used too much strength, messing up the little girl’s neat braid, earning himself the little lady’s glare. Then he cheerfully stood up and followed Kou Tong into the study. 

Qin Qin was quietly set aside. However you looked at her, she only looked like a slightly gloomy ordinary young woman. Brushing shoulders with her in the street, no one would give her a second look. Who could know how much trouble her inner world actually contained? Watching Kou Tong take out the control box once more, enter the code, unlock the keyboard and screen, then quickly modify the program he had already written, Huang Jinchen leaned against the wall behind him, arms crossed over his chest, and softly asked, “Should we prepare to leave?” 

Kou Tong nodded. “I’ll do my best to make the process seem a little more sudden, but when they notice it, they’ll still feel great fear, and during the fear, their intellects will lose control. I need to be on guard.” 

Huang Jinchen was silent for a while, then said, “You’ve thought it through comprehensively.” 

A smile quickly appeared on Kou Tong’s face, then quickly disappeared. The UV-protection lenses he was wearing shielded his eyes, making his features look a little cold. Huang Jinchen suddenly thought he looked a little uncomfortable, so he walked over and took Kou Tong by the chin. “Come on, give me another smile first.” 

Kou Tong stroked his head. “Be good, I’ll love you when we get home.” 

That was all right. At least he seemed a little lively. Huang Jinchen smiled and put both hands on the desk. “Don’t force yourself too much. You don’t want to ascend to immortality.” 

Kou Tong shrugged and blurted out, “A man needs to be a little hard on himself.” 

As soon as Huang Jinchen heard this, he gripped Kou Tong by the chin and turned his face away from the screen, pulled off his glasses, and seriously said, “Hey, hey, look at me.” 

Kou Tong asked, “What?” 

Huang Jinchen pointed at the tip of his nose and asked, “Do you know who you are?” 

Kou Tong knocked his finger aside. “What’s all this trouble?” 

Huang Jinchen turned his finger around and pointed at himself, saying, “From now on, you’re my person. Do you understand? Anyone who wants to be hard on you has to get past your man first, including you. Got it?” 

Kou Tong didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

But when he narrowed his eyes and looked at Huang Jinchen’s expression, he found that he wasn’t joking. Instead, he was unusually solemn, even a little menacing. His voice was low and threatening. “You’ve boarded my pirate ship now. It’ll be hard to get off. If you don’t want to take a bullet one day when you’re getting close to some new flame, you had better understand what to do.” 

The smile at the corners of Kou Tong’s mouth vanished. He looked into his eyes seriously for a moment, then asked, “Are you threatening me?” 

Huang Jinchen put on a fake smile and said, “There are very few people in the world who can hear a threat from me. Most of them go see the kings of hell without knowing anything about it.” 

There is a type of man who, when smiling, is more lovable than anyone, easier to bully than anyone. If you want to roll him into a ball, he’ll lie down on the ground and roll up himself; if you want to roll him out flat, he’ll obediently lie flat. But as soon as he stops smiling, he makes you think that it would be frightening to say a single sentence to him. 

Unfortunately, these two were both this kind of person. 

The space in the study suddenly seemed to become narrow and cramped. The chatty atmosphere from earlier suddenly cooled, as though something was on the verge of breaking out…

For the first time, Huang Jinchen didn’t give way by a single step. 

After a moment, at last Kou Tong’s eyes were the first to soften. He laughed. “All right, you’ve threatened me, that shows boldness of vision. I like that.” 

Huang Jinchen reached out and softly moved aside a strand of hair long enough to fall over the bridge of his nose. Then he straightened up, counting it as having scored an interim victory. Kou Tong looked at him and suddenly said, “You don’t need to worry that I’ll disappear when we get out. As long as I don’t get trapped in the crack of some space, I’ll definitely still be here.” 

Huang Jinchen paused. After a while, his eyes slowly curved, and laughed softly and quietly said, “I know.” 

Kou Tong quickly modified the already written program. He wanted to “reinforce” the space. If, in the instant of noticing that they were about to leave this space, someone’s consciousness collapsed, the control box would automatically secure the space and return to the previous program. This wasn’t hard. For Kou Tong, it was a project of only fifteen minutes. 

Then he tapped on the enter key with one finger.  

The living room lights seeped in through the crack in the door. Kou Tong stared for a moment, then opened the study door a bit. The laughter outside suddenly came in. As if listening to some wonderful music, he listened for a long time, then frowned and asked, “If I activate the program now, would it be too cruel?” 

Huang Jinchen looked out in the direction of his gaze. After a while, he softly said, “Supposing that everyone has to die once, I think that dying in your dreams without knowing anything about it is much better than hearing from the hospital that you have a terminal illness and hanging on more dead than alive for a year or more. Anyway, the outcome is still the same.” 

That makes sense, Kou Tong thought… But for some reason, he couldn’t press the key. 

All of a sudden, he laughed mockingly. “Children have poor self-control. They laugh when happy and cry when unhappy. They want whatever they want. They never control their own desires. Many children, even if you tell them that if they don’t eat the piece of candy in their hand, they can get two pieces of candy, they still won’t be able to resist getting an advance on that bit of happiness. Many people are still like that when they grow up, unable to control the conflict between reason and desire, extremely lacking in self-control, like…” 

“Even people who don’t lack self-control can encounter circumstances they can’t control,” Huang Jinchen interrupted him quietly. “If a person was really as invincible as you say, could really not care about anything, could weigh everything with reason, he would suffer a great deal.” 

Kou Tong sighed softly. Then, without warning, his finger laying on the keyboard pressed down. There was a long warning sound. His cheeks and lips were so pale there was hardly any color in them. When test data quickly flashed over the control box screen, he gently covered his own chest. 

In fact, it wasn’t such an unbearable pain.

In fact…it was only his chest being tightly clutched, then a temporary blank in his mind. Kou Tong couldn’t help standing up and opening the study door. He raised his head and looked at the people watching TV in joyous harmony. Kou Tong’s mom wiped away tears of laughter and carelessly asked, “Tongtong, was there a sound just now?” 

“Yes.” Kou Tong narrowed his eyes, screening them with his thick lashes, not letting the tears glimmering there show. “I’m being asked to come back.” 

Everyone froze. 

Kou Tong slowly walked over, bent down, and hugged her. Quietly, he said, “Mom, I have to go back.” 

Kou Tong’s mom seemed to sense something. She put her arms tightly around him, her nails clutching his shirt. 

“OK…” she responded after a while. Deep sorrow that others couldn’t understand flashed over her brow. She softly said, “Go on then. Just don’t forget you have a mother when you’re out there.” 

Kou Tong closed his eyes and quietly said, “I won’t forget…” 

I’ll never forget you, not until I can also pass through life and death and wait for you to meet me. 

Yao Shuo seemed to abruptly understand something. His expression stiffened at once. He Xiaozhi, meanwhile, suddenly began to scream, as if faced with enormous fear. 

Then the familiar shaking began. The control box was going to take them back to the original…cold, oppressive, imperfect world. 

He Xiaozhi wildly attempted to escape, but the control box had secured everything. He was like a caged beast, desperately throwing himself at the walls and mirrors. 

Manman sat blankly on the couch. After a long time, she said like a kitten, “I won’t be able to talk again?” 

He Xiaozhi’s eyes were blood red. He suddenly grabbed a leftover shard of mirror and pointed it at his own neck. He screamed, “Stop! Stop it! Don’t come near me! Make that thing stop!” 

He would rather die in a cosy nest than return to the outside. 

Yao Shuo squatted down, covered his head, and curled up amid the sounds of the teenager’s screams and the girl’s crying.