The fading world seemed as though it would scatter with a single gust of wind. Chen Ge looked down at his hands, which had already turned ash-gray, and realized the world behind the door was far more troublesome than he had imagined.
"My thoughts are getting sluggish. I can't afford to keep dragging this out."
Fang Yu's world behind the door was much larger than Wu Sheng's. Apart from the orphanage, most of the buildings looked identical, making it incredibly easy to get lost.
It had taken Chen Ge ages to finally find the way out — a narrow path hidden within a forest of gray.
No scent of flowers, no birdsong. All around him were gray canopies and white trunks.
Both his hands and feet had turned ash-gray. Chen Ge felt as though his walking speed was growing slower and slower, but that wasn't actually the case. He had no idea why it felt that way.
"No matter what, I have to find Fang Yu!"
The trees were dense and layered, the path winding with no end in sight. Chen Ge could only keep moving forward. He was gambling.
As long as he stayed in Fang Yu's world, his memories would slowly vanish. He couldn't use the same approach as in Wu Sheng's world — he couldn't just sit in one place and wait for Xu Yin and the others to appear before making his move.
Here, every minute and every second was precious. It was just like Fang Yu's own life — from the moment she opened her eyes in the morning, her memories began their countdown even as they were being written. She had to find the people in her memories before midnight, because she knew that when she woke the next day, everything would turn blank once more.
He walked for what felt like an eternity. Just as Chen Ge was growing numb, the view before him suddenly opened up.
At the end of the path stood a wooden house, surrounded on all sides by blooming flowers, with toys scattered across the ground.
He pushed open the door. The hand gripping his backpack slowly tightened. He saw a girl sitting in the center of the house.
She wore pure white clothes, her deep gray hair falling around her shoulders. In her arms she cradled a small fishbowl, and inside, a blood-red goldfish was swimming.
It twisted its body up and down, but the fishbowl was limited in space — the world it could touch was only so large.
"Fang Yu?"
At the sound, the girl in the pure white coat turned to look at Chen Ge.
She had the same face as Fang Yu, but her eyes were completely devoid of life — like a wooden puppet.
"I finally found you. Let's go home."
The woman's body shifted slightly. Her lips parted just a little, producing no sound, but she seemed to be repeating the word "home."
Chen Ge looked at the girl in the pure white coat, his gaze slowly settling on the fishbowl. The only color in this world was that blood-red goldfish.
Stepping inside, Chen Ge helped the girl to her feet. She let him handle her however he wished, as though she were nothing more than an empty shell devoid of any consciousness.
"There are still a lot of people at home thinking about you. They worry about you all the time."
The girl clutched her fishbowl, Chen Ge holding her arm, and together they slowly walked out of the wooden house.
The moment they stepped beyond the doorway, the goldfish in the fishbowl writhed in the water, as though it were trying to leap out.
"Why do you keep holding the fishbowl? Is that goldfish important to you?"
"Mm." A single, simple syllable — but it was the first sound Chen Ge had heard in Fang Yu's world behind the door.