96: Chapter 96 Zhou Mo

"Ding-dong—the train is arriving. Please stand behind the yellow safety line while waiting..."

Accompanied by a dull, screeching sound of metal against metal, a stifling gust of air—mingled with the smell of human sweat, cheap perfume, and the distinct scent of the subway—rushed toward him.

Zhou An snapped his eyes open.

The harsh, glaring incandescent lights of the subway ceiling caused a brief, intense wave of dizziness on his retinas.

He instinctively reached for his waist.

However, the texture he felt was merely coarse fabric. All he touched was a canvas messenger bag, washed to a faded color with frayed straps.

"Where... is this?"

Zhou An was completely stunned.

He lowered his head to look at his attire.

He was wearing an extremely ordinary white cotton T-shirt, and on his lower half, a pair of faded jeans.

On his left wrist was an old Casio watch with a worn-out strap.

Zhou An looked up, bewildered.

What came into view were office workers with headphones on, scrolling through short videos, and students with backpacks, laughing and playing.

The crisp, articulate voice from the subway announcement carried a sense of reality that made one want to cry.

"It's still the same as before..."

Zhou An rubbed his throbbing temples; his brain felt like it had been stuffed with a tangled mess.

He looked at the evening rush-hour subway station, which he knew all too well.

Young people scrambled desperately to squeeze into the carriage a second before the doors closed to catch their ride, while elderly men and women wearing matching tourist hats strolled leisurely, carrying thermos cups and chatting loudly as they walked.

Common, noisy, yet filled with the vivid, bustling atmosphere of daily life.

And he felt as though he had just had an extremely long, oppressive, and insane dream.

In that dream, there were countless warships, endless slaughter, and also... a quirky girl.

But as he fully woke up, the images from that dream were melting and blurring at an incredible speed, like snow exposed to the scorching sun.

The girl's face began to become incomplete in his memory, and he gradually forgot what she looked like.

"Buzz—buzz—"

The phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated violently. Zhou An reached out numbly, took out the domestic smartphone—which had a small crack in the top right corner of the tempered glass screen—and glanced at the date and unread messages.

[May 18, Saturday, 10:30]

The first message that popped up on WeChat carried a familiar contact name: [Little Sister].

"Brother! I've arrived at Exit C of Zhongshan Road Subway Station! Is that crappy interview of yours over yet? Hurry up and come out to pick me up!"

Looking at this vivid message with its exclamation marks, Zhou An's sluggish brain finally began to function slowly.

That's right, he was a senior student about to graduate. This morning, he had just gone to an internet company in the city center for a second interview, where he was pinned down in a conference room by an HR manager with a receding hairline who was aggressively cutting his salary offer and feeding him empty promises.

After coming out, he had sat on a bench in the subway station, dazed, waiting for his little sister, Zhou Mo, who was a freshman in college, to come find him for the weekend.

Everything was so logical, so natural, as if that doomsday game really was just an absurd nightmare born from the high pressure of job hunting.

Zhou An took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the eerie sense of unreality in his chest. He stood up and, following the crowded flow of people, slowly walked out of the subway station.

Just as he exited from Exit C, the bright sunlight spilled onto his face, carrying a hint of early summer heat.

By a flower bed not far away, a girl with a high ponytail was standing on her tiptoes, looking around.

She was wearing a light yellow floral dress and a pair of clean white sneakers.

The girl's appearance was extremely pure; her face, devoid of makeup, was full of youthful vitality, and her large eyes were lively and cunning, like a freshly bloomed gardenia flower that had never been ravaged by wind or rain.

Seeing Zhou An walk out with the crowd, the girl's eyes lit up. She immediately waved the two cups of iced lemonade she was carrying and ran over like a happy little deer.

"Brother! Over here!"

Zhou Mo grinned and shoved a cup of lemonade that was still steaming with cold air into Zhou An's hand, then naturally hooked her arm into his: "How was it? Did the interview go well today? Oh my, look at these dark circles under your eyes. Have you been staying up late again recently?"

Feeling the cold touch of the plastic cup in his hand and listening to Zhou Mo's chirpy, vibrant voice, Zhou An's nerves, which had been taut like a bowstring, finally began to relax bit by bit.

"It was alright, just the usual. HR has so many tricks."

"Come on, my treat today. I'll take you to have a good meal and satisfy your cravings."

A gentle smile tugged at the corners of Zhou An's mouth, and he reached out to affectionately ruffle Zhou Mo's smooth hair.

For the rest of the day, everything was as mundane as it could be.

Zhou An took his little sister to check in at the city's busiest commercial street. Like two ordinary young people, they stood in line for half an hour under the scorching sun to buy pastries from that newly opened trendy shop. In the afternoon, they ducked into an air-conditioned arcade and spent the whole afternoon obsessively playing the claw machine, eventually only catching one ugly-cute green frog.

But amidst this bustle filled with the atmosphere of daily life, the observant Zhou Mo keenly sensed that something was wrong with her brother.

He was too quiet.

The sharp-tongued brother who usually loved to bicker with her was like an old man burdened with heavy thoughts today.

He would often stop while walking and stare blankly into thin air with unfocused eyes.

In the evening, when the streetlights began to flicker on.

The two of them sat in an extremely popular Korean barbecue restaurant.

On the charcoal grill in front of them, the fatty pork belly was sizzling under the high heat. Golden grease dripped along the texture, sparking an incredibly tempting charred aroma that made one's mouth water.

"Brother, what is actually wrong with you today?"

Zhou Mo poked at the grilled meat in her bowl with her chopsticks, listless, not eating. Her clear, large eyes were filled with confusion and worry as she stared at Zhou An: "From the moment I picked you up at the subway station, you've been depressed and distracted. Did the interview crush you? If it really didn't go well, let's just find another one. You're so smart, you'll definitely find a good job. Don't put so much pressure on yourself."

"No, I couldn't even be bothered to pay attention to that HR person."

Zhou An snapped back to reality, smiled, picked up the stainless steel tongs on the table, and skillfully flipped the meat, placing the slightly charred slices onto his sister's plate: "It's just... I feel like I had a very long, exhausting dream last night. The things in the dream were too chaotic, and I still feel a bit dizzy now; I haven't fully recovered yet."

"Tch, I thought it was something serious. You scared me!"

Hearing this, Zhou Mo let out a long sigh of relief and pursed her lips in annoyance.

Then, her eyes rolled around.

She leaned in close to Zhou An mysteriously and lowered her voice: "Hey, on a serious note. Mom called me a couple of days ago and was beating around the bush, asking me if the 'pig' she raised had managed to root out any cabbage outside! Big brother, give me the honest truth. In these four years of college, have you found me a sister-in-law?"

Hearing the words "girlfriend," Zhou An's action of flipping the meat froze abruptly.

A clear image jumped into his mind without warning.

It was a young girl wearing a white spaghetti-strap top and denim shorts, straddling the back of a leather sofa, pressing a cold can of soda against his neck, laughing in a quirky, mischievous way.

The corners of Zhou An's mouth curled up into a gentle arc, involuntarily.

"Yes."

He heard himself say softly.

"Holy crap?! You really do?!"

Zhou Mo was so shocked that her chopsticks fell onto the table, her eyes wide as copper bells.

"What is she like?! Tell me about her, quick!"

Zhou An leaned back against the chair, his gaze becoming incredibly distant.

"Her... she is a very magical girl."

Zhou An's voice was very soft, carrying a hint of doting affection that even he himself didn't notice.

"She is very smart, a genius with super strong hands-on skills, but also like a lunatic. She's always boisterous, quirky, and has a sharp tongue."

"She likes to tinker with machines. But, when she dances, she is especially beautiful..."

Zhou An paused, the smile on his face deepening: "Oh right, she always has a very pleasant smell of lemon dish soap on her."

Listening to her brother's smitten tone, completely lost in love, Zhou Mo was so excited she slapped her thigh: "Oh my god! She sounds like a super unique goddess! Big brother, you've hidden this so well. We're almost at graduation, and you've never mentioned a word about it at home!"

"There's no time like the present!"

Zhou Mo pulled out her phone and urged excitedly.

"Brother, hurry up and call her, ask her to come out! Since I'm here today, bring her out for me to meet!"

Bring her out to meet.

"Bring her... out?"

The smile on Zhou An's face instantly froze.

He instinctively reached for the phone in his pocket, wanting to dial that number.

But... what was the number?

Where did she live? Which city was she in?

Why... in the real world, could he not find a single trace of her existence?!

"Boom—!!!"

A sharp pain, as if it were tearing his soul apart, exploded deep in his brain without warning!

"Brother! What's wrong?! Don't scare me!" Seeing Zhou An suddenly clutch his head in pain, his face pale as paper, Zhou Mo was so frightened she immediately stood up.

But Zhou An could no longer hear her voice.

The noise of the barbecue restaurant was infinitely stretched and distorted in his ears.

The barbecue restaurant in front of him, emitting warm yellow light, was peeling away in pieces like shattered glass.

Replacing it was the blinding light of particle cannons, broken armor, and that incomparably huge scale!

"Kill me... Boss..."

Luo Ning's face, covered in blood and eyeballs, flickered crazily in the hallucination.

"No!!!"