Doomsday Wonderland

Lin Sanjiu knew that she was still trapped within Wu Yiliu, this stranger's body, having just escaped into the stormy forest with him, still talking to Abby—but in the next instant, the scene suddenly changed.

The vivid, real dream of being trapped in a mountainous pocket dimension had gone away like a receding tide. When she came to her senses again, she was sitting in a university classroom.

It was the last row of seats in the classroom, with students scattered sparsely in groups of twos and threes. Some had their heads buried down, some lifted up, making it hard to tell if anyone was really paying attention to the old lady droning on at the front. The air conditioning was somewhat unstable, humming along with the airflow, rising and falling. The windows were scorched bright by the summer sun, and vague shouts occasionally drifted in from somewhere outside, where a PE class was being held.

What was most peculiar was that Lin Sanjiu's perception seemed to be divided into two layers. In the first layer, she was sitting in a university classroom; beneath that, she was still standing in the pouring rain in the forest, talking aloud to Abby.

It was as if two televisions were playing two different images, and only she was not watching from afar, but in the midst of it. The two events were happening simultaneously, utterly unimpeded by each other, and she didn't find it strange or unnatural at all.

Of course, whether sitting in the classroom or standing in the forest, neither was her but Wu Yiliu. When Lin Sanjiu looked down at the textbook on the desk, the hand resting on the Concise Introduction to Logic was lean and sinewy, clearly a man's hand.

She couldn't say why, but just like a dream that didn't make sense, she knew that this was a memory of Wu Yiliu attending college in his home world.

During this time, while the apocalypse had not yet destroyed the human world, Wu Yiliu's world was on the brink of falling apart.

He didn't know when his problems began, and he had tried countless times to trace back and find the root cause, but it was like probing into fog without even a hint of possibility. It's how most of life was lived, in a muddle, and when you looked back, all you got was confusion.

He reached this point in his thoughts and deeply pinched the corners of his eyes. He had to transfer schools on time, apply for law school on time, and follow his family's planned path... He had no room for error.

"The feedback on your last assignment has been sent back. This time, look at the assignment layout. The deadline is before next Friday..."

Even though the subject had long since lost its status as a required course and the students taking it were few, the old lady still prepared and taught the class with dedication. As soon as she finished speaking, the other students stood up and left, leaving only Wu Yiliu sitting still, unmoving.

When he could avoid being close to others, he would. His classes were almost all during unpopular timeslots, and he always wore a hooded sweatshirt and earphones. If he saw someone coming from a distance, he would detour around them. The friends he had played with last year had gradually drifted away, no longer associating with him. No girls wanted to talk to him either, because even Wu Yiliu found his reflection gloomy and reclusive.

"Your last paper was very good." The old lady suddenly smiled at Wu Yiliu as he finally stood up to leave. "I'm looking forward to your next assignment."

Wu Yiliu froze, quickly sneaking glances at the old lady from under his hat. Her thin, curly hair and pale skin were no different from usual. But he still didn't dare to approach and thank her, so he stood far away and mumbled an "okay," waiting for her to turn and leave.

The old lady glanced at him, about to leave, but turned back and asked, "Are you encountering any difficulties?"

Wu Yiliu was taken aback.

"I've noticed a significant change in you recently," the old lady said calmly. "If there's anything you need help with, you can come to me." ƒrēenovelkiss.com

She didn't seem to expect a response, just picked up her bag, nodded at him, and left the classroom. Wu Yiliu remained rooted to the spot, clutching his backpack straps so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

How dare he speak to others? He would be treated as a mental patient — no, he was quite sure that he was now a patient suffering from schizophrenia; but at the same time, contradictorily, he believed that everything he saw was real.

As he hurried through the corridor, Wu Yiliu kept his head buried as low as possible, not daring to look at people. Even so, he couldn't escape the sudden sound of footsteps behind him and a hand that slapped his shoulder, almost causing his heart to jump out of his throat. "Hey! Are you done with class?"

The speaker was Li Bo, a fellow high school student. Among Wu Yiliu's increasingly distant friends, Li Bo was probably the last one who hadn't completely faded away. He turned his head and found that beside Li Bo was a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl, who was his new girlfriend, apparently named Alice.

"Yes," Wu Yiliu replied, wanting to leave. "I'm going home now..."

"Why are you always running off," said the tall, burly Li Bo, holding Wu Yiliu's shoulder firmly with one hand. "We're going to Denny's for dinner. Want to come?"

Wu Yiliu quickly glanced at the two. The brown-haired girl's face showed neither displeasure nor enthusiasm; she seemed indifferent whether Wu Yiliu was there or not, like he was just her boyfriend's charity project. Li Bo looked almost the same as he did in high school, carefree and straightforward. Both seemed quite normal.

Their normalcy was like the last remaining bastion of sanity, especially among the hallway's shifting, melting, distorted faces.

Upon reflection, Wu Yiliu realized he had never seen their faces show any signs of distortion.

This couldn't prove anything; a face that was dissonant yesterday might look normal today, only to change into another distortion tomorrow. He might have just missed the moments when their faces changed.

But perhaps touched by the old lady's concern earlier, he found himself nodding — he hadn't really talked to anyone in a long time, and he was not averse to socializing. Wu Yiliu's face had never changed, so there must be others like him in the world, so why couldn't Li Bo be one of them?

He followed the couple, still habitually hiding his head under the shadow of his hat's brim, occasionally darting his eyes forward and then quickly retreating. He could feel Alice subtly distancing herself, which was understandable. Once he had seen his reflection in the glass, appearing like a cringing, sneaky, gloomy ghost, even he found it repulsive.

It was these people... it was the faces of those around him that were problematic, but he was forced into the role of a reclusive rat.

When the three reached the entrance of the academic building, a tall, ponytailed girl strided towards them from the opposite side. She was beautiful, standing out even among the horrific human masks around her, like a beacon of perfection in this world.

Wu Yiliu caught a glimpse of her and, despite his current mental state, couldn't help but look at her twice. Just as they were about to pass each other, he couldn't resist and glanced at her again with the corner of his eye. She really was beautiful, and he was glad to see such a face amid the world's dissonant visages—

A ponytail sprang from her forehead, suspended between her eyes, swinging left and right with her steps.

A surge of acid from the depths of his stomach almost spilled from Wu Yiliu's lips, and he clamped his mouth shut, struggling to swallow back the retching sound and the acid.

The girl obviously noticed. After they brushed past each other, Wu Yiliu heard her stop and seemed to look back at him. He forced himself to keep a straight face, enduring the pair of eyes partially obscured by the ponytail behind him, acting as if nothing had happened, following Li Bo and his girlfriend out of the teaching building.

He dared not let others know that he could perceive and recognize their deformed faces, especially since everyone else seemed to be oblivious to the changes. If all this was due to his schizophrenia, then he also dared not let normal people know that he was seeing things that didn't exist.

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Either way, he dared not say anything.

He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until they were out of the school gate. Outside, there were more people but fewer with mutant faces. He didn't know if it was because the number of normal people diluted the number of those with deformed faces. But one thing remained the same: besides him, no one showed any signs of abnormality.

By the time the three of them reached the nearby Denny's, Wu Yiliu had already regretted it, but since they were here, he had to manage through the meal. They sat down, ordered from the waitress, and chatted for a while—mostly Li Bo engaging Wu Yiliu in conversation, encouraging him to get out more, while Alice just sat by the window, sipping coffee.

Denny's wasn't crowded that day, and the few patrons present looked normal. In the ten minutes or so waiting for their food, Wu Yiliu felt himself relax somewhat. His heart had become a frightened rabbit, always ready to bolt at the slightest noise. The rare chance to sit quietly in public, sipping coffee, felt like he had returned to reality after a nightmare had receded.

The steam from his coffee cup warmed his eyes.

The waitress came over with their plates, saying, "Curry chicken and garlic bread," as she set them down in front of Li Bo. Alice's scrambled eggs were served too. Only Wu Yiliu's order was missing. He looked up at the waitress, who immediately smiled and said, "Yours is coming right up."

Wu Yiliu lowered his gaze, staring at his tightly clenched hands under the table, watching them turn white, his whole body tense, not daring to make a sound. The waitress glanced at him with her black, slit-eyed gaze that reached her mouth corners, then turned and left. Li Bo and Alice did not react.

"I'm going to start eating. I'm starving," Li Bo said without any concern for table manners. Wu Yiliu nodded absentmindedly, his mind still haunted by images of swinging ponytails and black-hole eyes. A few seconds passed before he realized he was listening to a sticky tearing sound.

He slowly lifted his head.

Alice had already taken off her entire face, carefully rolling it up and placing it on the side of the table. What was revealed underneath, Wu Yiliu still had no proper words to describe.

Li Bo was still tearing while saying to him, "You always look so stern. Aren't you tired? Take it off. Let me see."