An alarm sounded. The whole room shook fiercely as though there was an earthquake. Kou Tong leaned against the wall, feeling a hole open in the wall behind him. He knew that this was the beginning of a chain collapse. The first layer of lock had activated, causing the collapsing space to return to the original dimension. 

He watched the people being tossed this way and that in the shaking space and unsteady frequency. He thought, There is nothing undefeatable in this world. 

All things mutually enhance and inhibit each other. For example, bone deep love, which seems so strong, will in fact still lose to time. Time will spoil all things, influence them imperceptibly; and no one knows the mechanism behind this reaction. However, even deeper hatred can always pierce through time, keep the same thing in a person’s heart for decades as though they were a single day; even if it was like a demonic obstacle, it would still never be regretted. But the most deeply carved hatred, meeting tenderness that lingered on to death, would still slowly thaw…

All things—courage, determination, dreams, hatred, grief, misery—seem so powerful, can defeat so many other things, but can also be so easily be defeated by so many other things, like a never-ending game of rock-paper-scissors. 

Like the sudden eruption of fear and despair in them, which was one of the few things that could surmount the life instinct, could nonetheless still be suppressed by the even more powerful lock of the space’s rules. 

Kou Tong sighed softly. “Xiao Zhi, put down the glass. Have you forgotten? Here, even if you break your head in two, you still won’t die. The program has been activated. No one can stop it.” 

He Xiaozhi, duped, stared blankly at him, face covered in tears. Suddenly, he pushed Huang Jinchen aside and charged into the study. He hauled up Qin Qin, who still hadn’t recovered consciousness, and shook her with all his might. “Wake up! You can stop this, can’t you? You have so many cards, you must be able to stop this thing!” 

Before, he had felt great consolation because he could save his companions. Though he was scared, though he lacked self-confidence, he still worked very, very hard to protect his companions; yet in the end, he had become his own enemy. 

But no one rebuked him, because everyone was blank. Kou Tong’s mom pulled Manman into her embrace—in fact, to her, as far as her real memories of her son went, Kou Tong ought to be a clever, occasionally mischievous little thing like this. But in the blink of an eye, he had grown up so much. 

Huang Jinchen sighed, squatted beside Lao Yao, and patted him on the shoulder. “Think of your wife and kid. Without you, how are they going to live?” 

Kou Tong kicked him with the tip of his foot, and Huang Jinchen realized that, as a nonprofessional, he had said the wrong thing. 

If they weren’t his wife and kid, who would have the leisure to care whether they lived or died? It was precisely because he knew that they couldn’t live without him that, over time, the yoke he was wearing had become so heavy. 

Kou Tong looked at his hunched figure and said, “Everyone gets old, just like all children grow up. When you’re truly so old that you can do nothing and can’t protect them, your blood will continue to flow in your son.” 

Yao Shuo didn’t move. 

But Kou Tong smiled. “In fact, I very much envy your son. Sometimes I think it would be a good thing if I’d had a father like you, a father who secretly bought me water pistols when I was little, who was reticent, but whom I knew I could always phone for help when I was in any difficulty…even if one day I learned that you weren’t so omnipotent.” 

Another rapid alarm. A second round of shaking began. They went on to the second level of the chain collapse. 

Kou Tong wasn’t worried. A manually analyzed path wasn’t as good as a memory chip; there were five minutes of buffer. Each layer of lock took thirty seconds in all from being set off to cooling and freezing the space. Ten layers of lock were enough to hold until the moment they left. A problem that could be solved with simple arithmetic wasn’t a big problem. 

Qin Qin was at last awakened by the disordered spatial frequency and disordered surroundings. She opened her eyes wide and looked at the unfamiliar people and room around her, as well as the frantic He Xiaozhi, sniveling and crying. He Xiaozhi clutched the front of her clothes. “Please, I’m begging you, make it stop. I don’t want to go, I don’t want to leave this place!” 

Qin Qin automatically made a grab for the control box, but she came up empty. Her fingers went through the box. 

“While the control box is counting down to a space jump, in order to avoid accident, it will turn into C substance,” Kou Tong said softly. 

Qin Qin looked at him and bit her lip fiercely. She suddenly reached into her pocket and took out a big stack of cards. “Kou Tong! You traitor! Don’t even think of running!” 

Huang Jinchen frowned and stepped to the side, blocking the door. He looked at her coldly. Qin Qin irresistibly retreated a step to the side. All the cards floated in front of her. Huang Jinchen’s hand was already holding a loaded gun. As soon as he thought that this room would soon be full of all kinds of monsters and demons, he felt his head swell and really wanted to shoot this troublemaking woman dead. 

But before they could directly cross swords, the floating tarot cards, as though struck by lightning, suddenly crackled, then fell to the floor like ash. Qin Qin’s face went white. She had an impression that originated in imagination that some power had been pulled out of her body. 

Huang Jinchen stared blankly. Someone behind him quietly said, “This is what happens when the clash between your own paranoias and the inherent meanings of the cards reaches a certain threshold.” 

He looked back in astonishment and found Yao Shuo standing up, supporting himself against the wall. A mirror shard created by the cracking space had drawn a long cut on the back of his hand, but he had no idea. 

Though he looked exhausted, he was still desperately straightening his shoulders. He had spent his whole life this way, and if nothing happened to change it, he would continue this way—this was the kind of person he was. 

A hand fell on his shoulder. Lao Yao threw Kou Tong off without so much as looking at him and coldly said, “I’m not a little lady sitting weeping, waiting to be comforted by a psychiatrist. I have no use for your nonsense theories and fake kindness.” 

…Becoming sarcastic, he was still as unreasonable as before, clutching his self-respect tightly. 

He Xiaozhi’s expression was blank, but Qin Qin burst into tears. 

Illusion was like her protective shell, and she had now become a turtle without a shell, her original form revealed. 

The third alarm sounded—the shaking this time was stronger than any time before, because the control box’s tracing of the path would soon conclude, and this frequency would soon be obliterated. 

Like a frail little girl, Qin Qin sobbed piteously. “Dr. Kou…Dr. Kou…” 

Kou Tong’s heart suddenly softened. 

Each one of them, in this space full of recollections and dreams, had gotten what they wanted and suffered pain like the death of a thousand cuts. It wasn’t only a polite expression of sympathy. 

No healer was a machine. Due to nature or experience, he might even be more sensitive than others. 

This was a sudden reversal of sentiment…

…But Kou Tong didn’t notice it. 

He was silent for a while, walked over, squatted down, and hugged Qin Qin around the shoulders—her shoulders were very narrow. Whenever he hugged a girl, Kou Tong was always extremely careful. He couldn’t imagine why their bones would be so fine, as if they could be measured with two hands, so frail, like…a certain smiling person in his memory. 

In his heart, women…always had a sort of nearly deified significance. 

Qin Qin dove into his embrace. Huang Jinchen’s brow furrowed tightly, but in the end he thought that it wouldn’t be good to fuss about a little thing like this, so he put his gun away and turned his head, putting it out of sight and out of mind. 

Kou Tong, patting her on the back, looked up at the path on the control box—they were almost there. 

His emotions complicated, he breathed a sigh of relief. 

Kou Tong knew that there was about to be a fierce stripping of the spatial frequency—all the mirrors would shatter. In that instant, the second time axis would crumble entirely, and Lao Tian’s stopped time would once again move forward. Manman wouldn’t be able to speak again. 

And she also…

Qin Qin suddenly grabbed Kou Tong’s collar with one hand and raised her head. There was no moisture in her eyes, but they were flickering… Her lips moved. In a strange tone, she said, “Tell me, why did you…” 

Just then, Kou Tong’s mom suddenly charged over and pushed her aside. The sharp mirror fragments stabbed her. Droplets of blood and shards flew; then they were suddenly fixed in the air. 

Her eyes turned halfway; she didn’t have time to look towards her son to make sure he was safe. 

There was only…a mother’s gaze that would always stop on her son. 

All the mirrors collapsed at the same moment. They had come to the end of the path. Words popped up on the control box: Retrieval complete, order executed. 

There was a sensation of falling. Everyone’s vision went black. Perhaps it was his mistaken impression, but Kou Tong thought that a little girl’s cry, like a kitten’s, came from behind him: “Mom…” 

This voice was extremely hoarse, as though it hadn’t been used in years; the pronunciation was even a little indistinct. 

Kou Tong closed his eyes. Then he was caught by a pair of arms. There was suddenly light in front of his eyes, stabbing his pupils so they contracted sharply. He nearly cried. His legs folded uncontrollably. He took half a step back. Before he could fall, he was tightly held. 

The shouts of a crowd of people came to his ears: “They’re out, they’re out! My goodness…that was so hard!”