Dragon Clan: They're all insane, and you still want me to slay dragons?

Page 6

"Stop your damn sarcastic remarks and cynical comments!"

Despite being lectured by Emmanuel, Gao Kui remained defiant, enduring the pain of tinnitus and auditory hallucinations like a round-headed old man, and roared at the other party: "What do you think you are? You are just an illusion."

"How I do things is none of your business."

For the true Emmanuel, Gao Kui is definitely revered.

But what you see before you is just an illusion.

In his past hallucinations, this Emmanuel, imagined by Gao Kui, had tormented him quite a bit. Upon seeing Emmanuel again this time, Gao Kui naturally began to frantically exhale.

The sudden breath startled Chu Zihang. "Gao Kui, how did I make sarcastic remarks to you?"

Are you hallucinating?

Chu Zihang looked in the direction where Gao Kui's gaze was focused, but naturally he couldn't see anything, since Emmanuel was just Gao Kui's illusion.

After a moment's thought, Chu Zihang understood Gao Kui's condition: auditory and visual hallucinations, suggesting his illness might be quite serious.

"never mind."

Emmanuel was about to scold and lecture "himself" a few more times, but then stopped himself. He could tell that Gao Kui was indeed regretting it and was just stubbornly breathing on him now.

A hundred words from a person are useless, but a single act of teaching can truly touch a person's heart. Emmanuel believed that Gao Kui would no longer casually stop taking his medicine in the future.

"Don't act like a child with me, it's pointless. I didn't come here to argue with you."

After a pause, Emmanuel rose and came to Gao Kui, raising his right hand to place on Gao Kui's shoulder: "I have come to strengthen you and to help you, to support you with my righteous right hand."

"If you really want to help me, then cure this damn mental illness of mine."

Emmanuel shrugged: "Sorry, that's the only thing I can't do."

"Heh." Gao Kui sneered, shaking off Emmanuel's right hand.

Brother, what about your mom?

If you can't even cure my mental illness, you're nothing but Emmanuel. A hallucination is a hallucination, an illusion is an illusion, and you can't fool me.

"I can only give you two pieces of advice."

First, tomorrow someone will extend an invitation to you; do not refuse. It is the promised land I have prepared for you, and your path will surely be prosperous, and all your endeavors will succeed.

Gao Kui ignored Emmanuel, treating him as if he were talking nonsense.

It's all an illusion, a hallucination. It's all fake, a lie!

Emmanuel continued, “Secondly, on your way home today, I suggest you take the viaduct if you want to see your Yuzuriha Inori again.”

Gao Kui suddenly raised his head, his burning golden eyes staring intently at Emmanuel, who was standing close by, his gaze unusually fierce.

But in the end, Gao Kui's emotions calmed down, and the golden flames in his eyes gradually died down.

Fake, all fake!

Emmanuel and Yuzuriha Inori are all delusions of grandiose thinking, hallucinations induced by schizophrenia, both then and now.

I am not His son, not Constantine, not Ouma Shu. Yuzuriha Inori is a fantasy of adolescence, and the Emmanuel before me is an illusion.

Gao Kui repeatedly reminded himself to stay clear-headed and not be deceived by illusions.

The warning in his heart took effect, and Emmanuel's figure and voice quietly disappeared from Gao Kui's sight and ears, just as suddenly as he had arrived.

All that remains is the tinnitus and auditory hallucinations, comparable to a thousand flies flapping their wings, and the constant tinnitus from a neighbor's renovation.

Having maintained his composure and dispelled all illusions, Gao Kui, having achieved a partial victory, lay down on the recently mopped ground, his eyes gently closed and his chest rising and falling.

"How do you feel now?"

Chu Zihang guessed that Gao Kui had temporarily gotten rid of the hallucinations and his mental state had returned to normal.

Despite the auditory hallucinations and tinnitus, Gao Kui shouted, "I feel fine... but Bro, I need to go home to take my medicine now. Can I hitch a ride with you?"

The rain kept falling. Gao Kui, who had just gotten rid of the hallucination, was in a hurry to go home to take his medicine, but he was afraid that the rain would worsen his already weak body, so he had to swallow his pride and ask Chu Zihang for help.

"I'll call home right away, you hang in there a little longer."

Chu Zihang took out his phone, dialed a number, turned on speakerphone, and watched Gao Kui with concern, observing the latter's condition.

The phone rang a few times before it was quickly connected.

"Zihang, is it raining where you are too?"

Oh dear, Mom's shopping with her friends at Jiuguang Department Store. It's raining so hard here, we can't even start the car. Let's have a coffee and wait for the rain to let up before we go.

Take a taxi home quickly, or call your dad and ask him to send a car to pick you up.

"Good boy, Zihang, Mommy's giving you a kiss."

A crisp "pop" sound came from the receiver, followed by the phone hanging up.

"pat..."

The phone slipped silently from my hand and fell to the ground.

Chu Zihang stood there stunned, his eyes even more vacant than those of Gao Kui and his fellow patients who could only stare blankly.

He dialed the wrong number.

He had intended to call his "dad" and ask him to send a car to pick him up. Perhaps in his haste, he inexplicably called his mother instead.

The important thing is that what Mom said and her tone were exactly the same as they were four years ago, not a single word was different!

Four years ago, on the day Typhoon Dandelion made landfall, the most important man in his life was left forever on that overpass, and disappeared from his life forever.

Chu Zihang has lost count of how many times he has dreamt of that day.

How could Chu Zihang forget him?

Only Chu Zihang remains to prove that the man once existed in this world. If even Chu Zihang forgets that man, then no one will ever remember him again.

Therefore, Chu Zihang clearly remembers every word the man said that day, and even all the events and details of that day, etched in his memory.

But how could they be the same?

How could what Mom just said be exactly the same as what she said four years ago?

With a sense of anticipation, Chu Zihang rushed to the window, suddenly opened it, and looked out, letting the wind and rain rush into the classroom, lashing his body and face.

Lead-like clouds piled up, and thunder rumbled intermittently.

What was originally just a common heavy rain in coastal cities has somehow turned into a torrential downpour, like water pouring down from a dam.

Just like the day before Dandelion made landfall four years ago, the typhoon arrived without warning.

Chu Zihang clearly remembers that no typhoon warnings were issued by the authorities in the past few days.

"Ding!"

The phone, which had fallen to the ground, suddenly emitted a notification sound.

Standing by the window, Chu Zihang lunged at his phone and looked at the screen: it was a text message from the local meteorological bureau, reminding everyone to prepare for Typhoon Hyacinth.

Chu Zihang's hand, which was holding the phone, quietly dropped. He knelt on the ground, his usually expressionless face twitching slightly, his eyes filled with a complex and indescribable expression.

It's as if God has cut the timeline out and pieced it back together haphazardly. My mother's words, exactly as they were, and the typhoon that came out of nowhere, all reappeared four years later, as if time and space had been distorted.

"Bro, could you please close the window? Do you think you're Andy Dufresne?"

Gao Kui shouted loudly; people with tinnitus and hearing loss always speak very loudly.

Exhausted, Gao Kui lay on the ground shivering. The cold wind was biting. "Why did you suddenly open the window? Are you acting out 'The Shawshank Redemption' with me?"

"Hehehe..."

Chu Zihang just smiled foolishly through his tears. This scoundrel from Shilan Middle School was at the top of the list of those who should be punished. At this moment, he didn't seem to be much smarter than Gao Kui's fellow patient.

I must be crazy. I must be schizophrenic like Gao Kui.

Thinking back carefully, I realize that for the past four years, I have been immersed in pain every day, unable to extricate myself, my heart filled with grief at all times.

It's quite normal for one's spirit and will to be broken by prolonged grief and pressure; Chu Zihang knew that it wasn't impossible for him to suffer from a mental breakdown.

but.

Even if he's gone mad, even if he's schizophrenic, if that day four years ago could be relived, it would mean that he would soon be able to see that man again.

According to the sequence of events that day, what should be next?

Chu Zihang suddenly turned his head and looked at the open classroom door, his eyes filled with hope.

A cute long-haired girl wearing a silver Hello Kitty hair clip suddenly poked half her head in.

Liu Miaomiao, it's Liu Miaomiao!

Chu Zihang remembered Liu Miaomiao. She was a girl one grade below him and a prominent figure at Shilan Middle School, who would perform a piano solo at the school's annual gala.

Most importantly, Chu Zihang remembered that four years ago, after he called his mother, Liu Miaomiao came to find him and asked if he wanted to go home together.

Fearing that his extra actions or words might disrupt the arrangements of fate, Chu Zihang, seeing Liu Miaomiao peeking out from behind the screen, remained kneeling on the ground, silently watching Liu Miaomiao, waiting for her to speak first.

Liu Miaomiao, who was being watched by Chu Zihang, was also startled after seeing the situation in the classroom.

Fragments of desks and books were scattered all over the floor. Exhausted, Gao Kui lay on the ground as if enduring some kind of pain, while Chu Zihang knelt on the ground with a blank expression, looking like a mental patient.

What's going on here?

Could it be that, following the mental breakdown of the once melancholic prince Gao Kui, Chu Zihang, the top of the list of villains to be killed, has also gone mad?

"No, I don't want that kind of thing!" Liu Miaomiao was on the verge of tears.

Actually, she used to have a crush on Gao Kui. When Gao Kui was in the first and second years of junior high school, before he went crazy, he was an extremely charming boy, even more charming than the melancholic prince Baggio.

At least in Liu Miaomiao's mind at the time, Gao Kui and Chu Zihang were the two most handsome boys at Shilan Middle School.

Even after Gao Kui repeatedly jumped around in the mental hospital, Liu Miaomiao still thought Gao Kui was very handsome. She felt that after Gao Kui got mental illness, his melancholy temperament emanating from within became even stronger and more charming.

She and Gao Kui were not classmates, so she had never seen Gao Kui lose his temper in class.

Until Gao Kui's delusions relapsed for the third time, he ran all over the school looking for a girl named "Yuzuriki", turning Shilan Middle School upside down.

Dozens of security guards and teachers surrounded and blocked Gao Kui. When someone called Gao Kui mentally ill, Gao Kui rushed over and beat him up.

Someone else yelled at Gao Kui, "Stop going crazy, you lunatic! There's no girl named Yuzuriha Inori in the school!" Gao Kui then abandoned the previous one and pounced on this person, biting and wrestling with him.

In the end, Gao Kui was kidnapped by people from the mental hospital, leaving behind a mess.

After that day, all the girls at Shilan Middle School, including Liu Miaomiao, were no longer fascinated by Gao Kui.