121: Chapter 121 Whom Do You Trust?

Li Taiping's hand was frozen stiffly on the rusty metal doorknob.

To enter was unknown terror.

To retreat was an eerie tenderness.

"Wooo... wooo..."

Behind him, Su Jie's sobbing had completely spiraled out of control, turning into a collapsed, wailing cry.

Having just been shoved violently by Li Taiping, she had lost her balance and fallen heavily to the floor.

Her thin cartoon pajamas offered no protection whatsoever; her lower back had slammed hard against the sharp edge of the bed frame.

Bright red blood instantly soaked through the fabric.

Wisps of blood slid down her fair skin, dripping onto the grey composite wood floor, a shocking sight.

But the physical trauma was clearly far less than the acute pain in her heart at this moment.

She didn't even bother to wipe away the blood, simply sitting there slumped on the floor.

She tilted her head back, staring fixedly at Li Taiping's back with eyes filled with utter despair.

"What on earth is wrong with you!"

Su Jie cried heart-wrenchingly, her voice so hoarse it was agonizing to hear.

"It must be that ghost outside the door! It's it! It's the one that's been giving you nightmares these past few days! You've been targeted by them, you've been brainwashed by them!"

She cried while haphazardly wiping her tears with the back of her dust-covered hand, making a mess of her originally delicate face.

"Do you know how scared and heartbroken I felt listening to you talk in your sleep every night?"

"I'm your wife! Li Taiping, open your eyes and look at me! We've been together for so long, do you not even recognize me now?"

"Just what kind of ridiculous nightmares are you having? You keep muttering all sorts of nonsense!"

"What global transmigration? What Abyssal Sea Region? What Many Children, Many Blessings ship? What Captain!"

Su Jie's emotions were already teetering on the edge of a breakdown.

She roared incoherently, every word carrying thick tears of blood.

"If you want many children, many blessings... I can bear them for you! I really can!"

She desperately crawled forward two steps, reaching out a trembling hand to grab Li Taiping's pant leg.

"As long as you work hard, I'll do my part too!"

"Think back to our days before..."

Su Jie's voice lowered, carrying an irresistible sorrow and intimacy.

"I gave my first time to you... We were in this small room every day, on this bed, in intimate contact.

That warmth, that feeling—have you really forgotten it all so completely?"

"Can you still not recognize me?!"

"These past few days you were sick, lying on the bed like the living dead. Which day was it that I didn't take the initiative to serve you?"

"I was afraid you'd suppress yourself too much, afraid your mental state would have problems. I even..."

Su Jie bit her lip hard, a flash of shame and grievance in her eyes.

"What you released almost filled the cup by the bed! And now you're faking amnesia with me?!"

"You actually don't believe me!"

"You're actually choosing not to believe the wife you share a bed with, all for the sake of some monster outside the door that you haven't even seen and don't know what it is!"

Boom—!

On the back of the hand Li Taiping used to grip the doorknob, veins bulged one by one.

Listening to Su Jie's words, which were packed with information and even extremely private details, the throbbing in his heart surged wildly like a tsunami.

It was too real.

These details, these intimate bedroom secrets known only to the two of them—if it wasn't the real Su Mei, who could speak of them so clearly?

His hand began to tremble violently and uncontrollably.

It was a physiological spasm under extreme tension, after his muscles had lost the support of transcendent power.

He slowly turned his head.

In his vision, Su Jie, crying like rain on a pear blossom and full of despair, was looking at him with the gaze one would give a stranger or a heartless man.

Blood was still flowing from her lower back, staining the floor red.

A faint smell of blood even began to permeate the air.

Li Taiping opened his mouth, but his throat was as dry as if he had swallowed a handful of sand; he couldn't utter a single word.

What is real? What is fake?

He interrogated himself frantically in his mind.

If the seafaring survival world was real, then how to explain this powerless body he had now? How to explain these seamless realistic details from Su Jie's mouth?

If this post-apocalyptic world before him was real, then were those battles at sea, that power he gained by risking his life, really just a grand dream he fantasized to escape the pressures of reality?

Was the Su Mei outside the door real?

Or was the Su Jie in the room real?

Who exactly should he believe?

Or rather...

A flicker of extreme coldness flashed in the depths of Li Taiping's eyes.

All of this, from beginning to end, was fake!

It was all a giant scam targeted at him, intended to completely obliterate him!

Thud—! Thud—! Thud—!

Just then, the knocking outside the door suddenly intensified!

It was no longer slapping with a hand, but had turned into dull thumping sounds!

That monster, or rather that person, was practically using their entire body to slam against the door frantically!

The old security door let out an overburdened creak, and white dust from around the doorframe fell in flurries.

That shrill voice pierced through the iron door, stabbing straight into Li Taiping's eardrums.

"Taiping! Wake up! That's a hallucination! You've been deceived by the dungeon's mechanical monster!"

"I'm Su Mei! I'm your Su Mei!"

"Have you forgotten what we did on the ship? Have you forgotten Xia Zhi's sword? Have you forgotten Lin Weiyu's cat ears, fox tail, and cow body? Have you forgotten that everyone is still on the deck waiting for you to return?!"

"Hurry and open the door! It's sucking away your Yang energy! If you don't open the door now, it'll really be too late!"

Buzz—

Li Taiping's head felt as if it had been struck hard; his brains seemed to be boiling.

Two completely different, yet equally and terrifyingly real sets of information, crashed frantically within his brain, which had already lost its spiritual protection.

This was simply going to tear his sanity into pieces!

He turned his head, looking at Su Jie who was slumped on the floor.

Su Jie's eyes were full of pain and pleading.

He turned his head again, looking at that security door that was vibrating violently, as if it would be burst open in the next second.

The voice outside the door was laced with urgency and despair, the kind of emotion only comrades who had faced life and death together would have.

Both were Su Mei.

Both claimed to be the real one.

Both had thrown out ironclad evidence that he couldn't refute!

How the hell was he supposed to choose?!

"Hubby..."

Su Jie wept, ignoring the sharp pain in her back as she propped herself up with her hands, inching toward him bit by bit again.

She dragged a striking trail of blood across the floor.

"Don't open the door... I beg you, don't open the door... I'm scared... I'm really so scared..."

Her eyes were filled with supplication; that fear of the unknown thing outside the door didn't seem faked at all.

Li Taiping stared fixedly at her, then suddenly turned his head to look at the door.

His breathing became heavier and heavier.

His chest heaved violently.

Calm down!

Li Taiping, fucking calm down!

He let out a savage roar in his heart and bit down hard on the tip of his tongue!

A strong metallic taste of blood instantly exploded in his mouth, and the sharp pain turned into an electric current that shot straight to the top of his head.

This ruthlessness finally allowed him to forcibly pull back a sliver of clarity from the edge of collapse.

Panic solves nothing!

In this shitty world, panic only makes one die faster! Not even a bone fragment would be left!

He closed his eyes, forcing himself to block out external interference. His brain began to operate rapidly like a precision instrument, frantically analyzing the dead end before him.

...