Chapter 133.2
Xiao Tangqiu was immersed in the warmth of getting along with his parents after a long absence, but he couldn’t help but feel dazed for a while. Even the warmth of being with his family couldn’t fill the vacancy in his heart. What was the important piece of the puzzle that was missing in his heart? Who was he waiting for?
He looked at Tang Mianmian subconsciously, trying to find the answer only to see Tang Mianmian’s lost looking face. After a few seconds, Tang Mianmian shouted, “f.u.c.k! Done it! I’ve done it!”
Xiao Tangqiu paused, “What?”
“That role! I got it!” Tang Mianmian was excited, “The director said that after reading the news, he knew that I was missing because I was involved in this hotly discussed kidnapping case, so he is going to give me another chance tomorrow to join the cast directly! With extra scenes!”
Xiao Tangqiu, “…Extra scenes?”
Tang Mianmian smiled, “He said that he found inspiration from this kidnapping case and plans to use this material to add a plot to the script, which will be played by me! I feel that I will become a big star soon and reach my peak!”
Xiao Tangqiu smiled, “Then I wish you success.”
“Heheh, I’ll invite you to dinner next time!” Tang Mianmian looked at Xiao Tangqiu excitedly, “Your mouth is so blessed! You just said that it’s a blessing in disguise and it’s actually a blessing in disguise!”
Xiao Tangqiu was dazed and seemed to remember something, but it quickly pa.s.sed again.
Half an hour later, he returned from the hospital to his former home. Mother Xiao immediately went into the kitchen and got busy while Father Xiao was in charge of the miscellaneous stuff.
Xiao Tangqiu originally wanted to help but was kicked out by Mother Xiao in the name of getting in the way. He sat on the sofa for a while, then got up and went into his old room.
Although Xiao Tangqiu had moved out to live on his own, his room had remained the same. He walked around the room and suddenly noticed a few notebooks on the bookcase.
Those were the notebooks he used to write novels in during junior high school.
He hesitated for a moment, took out the notebooks, opened them one by one, and looked at them one by one… He was not surprised to find that it was all shameful junior high school black history.
Just when he was too ashamed to continue reading, he suddenly turned to a novel called Abyss.
…Abyss?
Xiao Tangqiu stared at the name closely and his heartbeat thundered.
Badum! Badumbadum! Badumbadumbadum!
He couldn’t wait to continue reading.
After Xiao Tangqiu finished reading this novel, which could only be regarded as an outline, his heart almost jumped out of his chest, and his breathing was labored…
At this moment, a large number of images suddenly flooded into his mind and scene after scene quickly flashed before his eyes. In the end, he finally couldn’t bear the crazy influx of memories and knelt on the ground with his head in his hands.
The notebook slid to the ground and automatically opened to the page of the protagonist’s settings. Written in the protagonist’s name column was…
“Shen Yuan.”
“Shen Yuan…”
“Shen Yuank2026;”
Xiao Tangqiu held his head and closed his eyes in pain, calling the name over and over again, “Shen Yuan!”
Who was Shen Yuan? Who was Shen Yuan?
Right!
“Meng Xinghek2026;”
Xiao Tangqiu opened his eyes suddenly, “Meng Xinghe!”
At this moment, he finally found the lost piece of the puzzle in his heart.
He got up and rushed out without hesitation.
Xiao’s mother just came out with the first plate of fried dishes, “Xiao-Qiu, are you going out? It’s so urgent?”
Xiao Tangqiu was not in the mood to explain. He nodded hastily, opened the door, and rushed out.
“Come back quickly! The dishes won’t taste good when they’re cold!”
He quickly put Mother Xiao’s voice behind him, raised his hand, and stopped a taxi.
“Drive quickly! I’m in a hurry!”
The driver was startled and quickly stepped on the accelerator, “Where are you going?”
Xiao Tangqiu was stunned… Where to go?
The driver was speechless, “…No way? You look to be in such a hurry but you don’t even know where you’re going?”
Xiao Tangqiu didn’t know which warehouse he was rescued from. He quickly took out his mobile phone and tried to find the news report, “It seems to be an abandoned warehouse…”
“Oh!” The driver suddenly reacted, “You mean the scene of the amnesia kidnapping case?”
Xiao Tangqiu froze for a moment, “You know?”
The driver shrugged, “Young people these days just love to join in the fun. Today I have taken a few young people like you who are curious and want to watch the fun.”
Xiao Tangqiu gritted his teeth, “Yes! Take me there!”
The driver smiled and said, “Are you sure? The suspect was just caught today, and the scene is still cordoned off. You can’t go in. You can only look at it from a distance. If you get closer, you might even be regarded as a suspect!”
Xiao Tangqiu said firmly, “It doesn’t matter, I’ll take a look from afar!”
The driver shrugged and stepped on the gas to start accelerating.
Xiao Tangqiu didn’t know how long it was before the driver took him through the wilderness and they saw a huge abandoned warehouse in the distance.
“We can reach here at most, it’s blocked ahead.”
Xiao Tangqiu pursed his lips, “I want to go down.”
The driver wanted to persuade him, “People can’t go in.”
Xiao Tangqiu paid without hesitation, then opened the door and got out.
The driver shook his head and drove away.
Xiao Tangqiu looked around for a while. Fortunately, the warehouse was very large and there were not too many guards. He quickly found an opportunity to sneak in.
The warehouse was large and empty. Other than some abandoned debris piled around, there were dozens of hospital beds in the middle, and there were several machines next to each hospital bed.
Xiao Tangqiu had never seen those machines and had absolutely no idea what they were used for.
At the center of those beds, there was a very different bed with many machines around it, and there seemed to be a machine for oxygen delivery. But the oxygen tube connected to the machine was thrown to the ground.
The hospital bed was empty.
Xiao Tangqiu walked towards the hospital bed slowly. He stretched out his hand and gently stroked the bed. But the bed was extremely cold and there was no trace of body temperature left by a living person.
He bent down and picked up the oxygen tube that had been thrown to the ground, his hands trembling and his eyes dull.
Just then, a voice sounded.
“Hey! Who are you! This area is off limits! Don’t come in casually! “
Several police officers rushed in and were about to take Xiao Tangqiu away, but one of them suddenly recognized him, “Wait a minute… this seems to be one of the victims.”
Soon, other police officers recognized Xiao Tangqiu’s appearance, “Yes, he is one of the victims we sent to the hospital before.”
Xiao Tangqiu suddenly grabbed the hand of one of the policemen and couldn’t wait to ask, “Where is he? Where is he!”
The policeman froze for a moment, “Who?”
“Where’s the person on this hospital bed?” Xiao Tangqiu bit his lower lip, trying his best to restrain his emotions, “…Where’s this person?”
The policeman said with a puzzled face, “When we came, this hospital bed was empty.”
“There was someone on this hospital bed? Who was it? Was he also a victim?”
Xiao Tangqiu stared blankly at the hospital bed, and under the police’s questioning, his eyes suddenly turned red, and big teardrops poured out.
The police officers could only quiet down and let Xiao Tangqiu fall on the empty hospital bed and cry loudly.
Xiao Tangqiu finally remembered everything, the incredible world of horror games, the people he knew in that game, the Abyss Demon, Shen Yuan, and… Meng Xinghe.
He also remembered that he personally unplugged Meng Xinghe’s oxygen tube, that he left Meng Xinghe alone in that empty, cold virtual world, and that he personally… killed Meng Xinghe.
How fortunate was he to have a man die for him twice?
The first time Meng Xinghe died in a car accident to save him, the second time Meng Xinghe had him unplug his own oxygen tube to save him.
How unlucky for Meng Xinghe to be destroyed by the same person twice and die twice for the same person.
No matter how much Xiao Tangqiu deceived himself that maybe Meng Xinghe was not dead, that he didn’t see Meng Xinghe’s body with his own eyes, he couldn’t. Because he couldn’t erase his memory of unplugging Meng Xinghe’s oxygen tube. Meng Xinghe, who couldn’t breathe on his own, lost the oxygen supply tube and could only suffocate to death.
The collapse of that horror game world meant the death of Meng Xinghe?
He finally mustered up the courage to walk towards Meng Xinghe, but Meng Xinghe easily pushed him away.
He left Meng Xinghe alone in that virtual world, but Meng Xinghe also left him alone in this real world.
If…
If he had woken up immediately after leaving that virtual world, he might have had a chance to re-plug Meng Xinghe’s oxygen tube and saved Meng Xinghe’s life…
If he had noticed that something was wrong with Meng Xinghe and stopped in time after Meng Xinghe said “I’m glad that at the end of each of my life, the person I saw was you”, maybe Meng Xinghe wouldn’t insist on staying alone…
If that crash hadn’t happened seven years ago, Meng Xinghe wouldn’t have been brain dead…
If…
Too bad there was no if.
Xiao Tangqiu cried bitterly and collapsed on that cold hospital bed. He hated himself for remembering everything after everything was irreparable, and he hated how he still remembered all of this. Maybe like Meng Xinghe wanted, forgetting was truly the best and blissful end?
Why did he still remember all this?
Why did he remember all this, but he couldn’t fix anything?
…Maybe this was Meng Xinghe’s punishment for him, to let him live in the world with such heavy sins in his life. He would never be able to come out of Meng Xinghe’s death in this life, carrying the shackles on his back, unable to let go, couldn’t forget, couldn’t get rid of.
Xiao Tangqiu finally got his lost memories back, but would rather not get them back at all.
Because the missing piece of the puzzle in his heart couldn’t be found anymore… the person he was waiting for would never come back.