The chat with Mom and Dad in her message list was still stuck on half a month ago.
The last message was a voice recording from her mother.
“Xingxing, your father and I may be out of contact for a while.”
“That’s because the area we’re about to enter had its signal towers bombed. They probably won’t be repaired anytime soon.”
“But we’re perfectly safe. We’re international doctors with no political affiliations, and neither side will consider us enemies. The organization has also arranged bodyguards to accompany and protect us.”
“As soon as the signal is restored, I’ll call you first thing.”
So it looked like she wouldn’t be able to contact her parents for the time being.
Should she read through her memories again?
Suddenly, a line of text appeared on the screen:
[Your experience time has ended. Please leave the Life Corridor.]
Yu Xiaxing tapped the screen a few times, trying to find somewhere to recharge her account, but there was no such option.
Even if she could pay for more time, she was too tense at the moment. She probably wouldn’t be able to enter a hypnotic state successfully… Maybe next time.
Besides, she still had unfinished business. Trying to handle too many things at once made her CPU overheat.
For now, she would find Professor Zhong and have him stamp the students’ certificates, bringing the matter to a complete end.
As for reading her memories, she could sneak back here behind Fifth Brother’s back in the future.
Yu Xiaxing rose from the chair and left the room.
Outside, Yu Zheng was already leaning against the wall in the corridor, waiting for her.
When he saw her, his eyes were still rimmed with red. Concerned, he asked, “What childhood memory did you see? How did you end up crying?”
Yu Xiaxing had already returned to normal, but she still pretended to wipe her eyes and said, “I saw how I sacrificed myself for you when we were children…”
“Back then, you repeatedly failed to do your homework. Whenever your teacher came to our house for a home visit, I would kneel on the floor and beg them to spare you…”
“It was so touching that I even moved myself to tears.”
Yu Zheng wore an expression of utter speechlessness. “…You really think I don’t remember that?”
Yu Xiaxing: “?”
She had made that up on the spot. Could it actually have happened?
Yu Zheng said, “That day, when the teacher came over, I told you to pretend to be a little sister who was extremely attached to me. Then I could tell the teacher that our parents were both in a war zone rescuing children, and had left me to care for my younger sister. That was why I truly didn’t have time to do my homework.”
Yu Xiaxing scratched her face. Vaguely, she began to remember…
Yu Zheng continued, “Then the teacher arrived and was asking me about our family situation when you came running in with a shovel and said, ‘Bro, that teacher who came for a home visit this morning has already been buried.’”
“Then you glanced at the teacher sitting across from us and gave him a sinister smile. ‘Bro, should we deal with this one the usual way?’”
“You scared the teacher into turning around and running away!”
Yu Xiaxing: “…I was trying to help you solve the problem at its root! Just tell me whether it worked or not. After that, teachers never dared come to our house again!”
Yu Zheng let out a cold laugh. “Ha. That’s right. They started contacting Grandpa directly and had him come to school to report me instead.”
“…”
Yu Xiaxing immediately changed the subject. “Did you do the questions too? What memory did you read?”
At the mention of that, Yu Zheng grew more serious. “I didn’t expect this machine to actually have something to it. Even when I entered random answers, it was able to access real memories.”
Yu Xiaxing asked, “What did you enter?”
Yu Zheng replied, “It asked what request my parents had refused when I was a child, causing it to become my lifelong regret. I said I wanted an aircraft carrier, but Mom and Dad wouldn’t give me one.”
“Ha…”
Yu Xiaxing couldn’t hold back her laughter.
Yu Zheng continued, “Then it asked what my most irreconcilable regret in life was. I said it was failing to become the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea.”
Yu Xiaxing stared at him in surprise. “You entered answers that ridiculous, and it still managed to retrieve a real memory? What did you see?”
Yu Zheng said, “I remembered watching a parody video on some website when I was in high school. It was about the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea operating an aircraft carrier… After I woke up, I realized that I really had seen that video!”
Yu Xiaxing nodded, understanding.
The reason Yu Zheng had been able to come up with such absurd answers was probably that the memory had always been buried in his subconscious. The hypnotic stimulation had simply brought it to the surface.
In any case, this Life Corridor really did have something to it.
Yu Xiaxing glanced around at the other rooms. Almost all of them were empty now.
“Let’s go find Professor Zhong. We’ll get the termination paperwork finished, then go home and sleep.” Her head was still aching a little.
Yu Zheng nodded, then suddenly remembered something. “I was only in there for about half an hour. When I came out, I happened to see an old man leaving another room. Qin Mei came over to receive him personally and acted very affectionately, even linking her arm through his. She said something about the auction starting and accompanying him to take a look.”
Yu Xiaxing nodded silently. “Considering what Yu Zhining told us about Professor Zhong pursuing Qin Mei recently, I’m guessing he wants to bid on something for her?”
“I think so too,” Yu Zheng said.
“Let’s go to the auction and get him to stamp the paperwork.”
—
Before long, the two of them arrived at a separate three-story building.
Two men in black suits stood at the entrance, and a sign beside the door read: Antique Exchange Auction.
They tried to walk straight in.
As soon as they approached, the bodyguards blocked their path. “Sorry. Only invited guests may enter this auction. It isn’t open to the public.”
Yu Xiaxing said, “We’d like to register on the spot. We can prove our financial standing.”
The bodyguards remained firm. “No! Please leave!”
They wouldn’t even give them a chance to verify their assets?
It seemed they weren’t genuinely interested in selling anything… or perhaps they simply didn’t want to sell to the two of them.
Yu Xiaxing could hear the host’s voice coming from inside. It sounded as though they were auctioning a vase.
She pulled Yu Zheng around and left first.
Once they were far enough away that the bodyguards couldn’t hear them, Yu Xiaxing said, “I’ve always felt that there’s something strange about this resort. But after experiencing it firsthand, everything seemed normal. They were open and aboveboard, and let us try everything.”
“Now there’s finally a place that won’t let us in. I suspect this is where they’re finally showing their true colors.”
“I want to see what they’re doing inside. Besides, Professor Zhong is in there. If something happens to him, we may not be able to get him to stamp our paperwork.”
Yu Zheng raised his eyes and studied the overall layout of the building. He then circled around it and took another look.
When he returned, he said, “Come on. Big Brother knows a spot with an excellent view. The two of us can see everything inside without being noticed.”
