It had to be said, seeing the world from this angle made many things feel completely different.
For example, the zombies crawling across the playground—their intimidation factor had already been greatly reduced because Lin Yan was there, and now that Xu Zhiyi was looking down at them from above, they seemed even more harmless.
Times had changed!
However, the wind at high altitude was bitingly cold. Even in her padded jacket, Xu Zhiyi shivered, and especially with her hands gripping Lin Yan's cool hair, she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for herself.
Besides, why didn't he carry her in a princess hold like in those idol dramas?
That would have been far more romantic.
And her physiological fear of heights showed no sign of easing—proof being that her heart was pounding nonstop. Lin Yan could have easily carried her at waist height, so why did he have to put her on his shoulders at such a high position? Even if the view was better, it was still terrifying.
It must be terrifying for Lin Yan's hair too!
But soon, her question was answered.
Most of the zombies, as before, were smart enough to steer clear of them. But some charred, mindless creatures crawling aimlessly on the ground caught sight of them and charged madly at Lin Yan like bulls seeing a red cloth.
Xu Zhiyi was so startled she didn't know what to do with her legs, kicking in the air and nearly falling off—until Lin Yan grabbed her calf and pressed her back into place.
The charging zombies were useless, passing through him like they'd touched a ghost, unable to even slow Lin Yan down in the slightest.
Still shaken, Xu Zhiyi turned to glance back at him. Good thing, good thing—no wonder Lin Yan had made her sit on his shoulders. If he'd carried her like in those idol dramas, they definitely would have crashed into her.
This was way more thrilling than any amusement park ride.
The sky was brighter than before, and Xu Zhiyi could see more details. The mindless zombies had withered, blackened limbs, and their school uniforms were half-burned, as if they'd just escaped from a fire.
By the side of the speaker's platform, a wisp of green smoke rose from a large sandalwood-colored incense burner, the smoke curling and winding upward.
Xu Zhiyi couldn't help but take a second look.
Through the window, the two-meter-tall Lin Yan sent her into a classroom on the second floor.
Xu Zhiyi certainly didn't want to part ways with him just like that. She clung to the window, and even though she knew he couldn't understand what she was saying, she still tried her best to gesture, "Brother, where are you going?"
The dark figure tilted his face up, his blurry features offering no response.
Gray mist gradually rose, swallowing his figure.
Once her vision cleared, Xu Zhiyi craned her neck and searched for a long while. Only after she truly couldn't find Lin Yan's figure did she turn her head back in defeat and begin to survey what kind of place he'd sent her to.
It was similar to the classroom that had been used as an exam room.
But here, the traces of student life were more evident.
Books were piled on the desks, along with tissues and loose pens missing their caps. Xu Zhiyi casually opened the English book on the nearest desk and even saw notes marking Chinese meanings for the vocabulary words.
It was He Xiaoman's.
After reviewing some middle school English knowledge for a while, Xu Zhiyi wiped her dazed face and walked over to the teacher's podium, where a stack of practice workbooks sat.
She began flipping through them one by one.
In the hallway, faint rustling sounds of something crawling arose—very subtle—but Xu Zhiyi, focused on analyzing the exercises, didn't notice.
Each name corresponded to two exercise books.
For example, these two English exercise books labeled "He Xiaoman"—one was filled with perfectly correct standard answers, the handwriting neat as the top-student notes that had once been all the rage in the market.
The other was scrawled in messy handwriting, with answers wrong left and right.
Both exercise books had been graded in the same handwriting. The English teacher was very kind, writing comments for each of them at the back—"Great job" for the good grades, and for the poorer ones, "Improvement from last time, keep it up."
Every student received positive encouragement.
But this made it hard for Xu Zhiyi to understand—how could the teacher treat the real students and the fake ones the same?
Wasn't this supposed to be one of those shady schools where "bad students are sent in for reform, to be remolded into model good students"?
Her mind flashed to the contents of the note—the teacher had been deceived by him, which was why he'd been kept here all along.
They really liked the teacher, and now it seemed the teacher genuinely liked them too.
Xu Zhiyi checked the handwriting on the comments again and suddenly realized they were all in the same handwritten regular script as the blackboard in the examination room and the whiteboard on the main stage.
Recalling the lonely chair on the main stage, and how every signature was only ever "Hua Mei" the teacher, Xu Zhiyi arrived at a somewhat absurd conclusion.
This Meihua Junior High, with its one teaching building and two dormitory buildings, seemed to have only one teacher.
This staffing arrangement was only like the after-school care class she'd attended in the first semester of her senior year.
She'd been there with two or three elementary school students. When parents picked them up late and the auntie had free time, she'd glance at their homework, though she only occasionally gave a comment or two.
But a junior high this big, with only one English teacher—the principal must wake up from a bed of five hundred square meters every day, right?
Just as Xu Zhiyi was in the middle of her mental storm, overlapping footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the door. She hadn't seen anyone yet, but her instincts already told her the newcomers meant trouble, and her fists clenched tight.
Brother…
Brother still hadn't come back.
The door was pushed open, and four or five familiar faces with smiles plastered on them slowly approached her.
"Aren't you on our side?" their voices rang out from their throats simultaneously. "Why are you wearing their nameplate?"
Xu Zhiyi broke out in a cold sweat, but at least her outward demeanor was cooperative: "…I can take it off now."
It seemed too late.
The Smile Squad kept closing in: "The teacher misses us, not them!"
Xu Zhiyi had no choice but to retreat to the window, starting to calculate the odds of escaping by jumping out.
Two floors—a jump probably wouldn't be life-threatening.
Just as she was weighing whether to climb over the windowsill, a knock suddenly came from the door.
—That crawling creature she'd pinned under the bookshelf in the library.
Xu Zhiyi: "…"
Meeting an acquaintance, the other party strained to lift its head and glance at her nameplate. Its crawling suddenly stopped, and instead it began hissing loudly in place, as if trying to draw the others' attention.
Xu Zhiyi, who had been drafting her last will and testament, paused.
Those fake-smiling students really were drawn over, turning in unison and letting her go, instead surrounding the crawling creature, their mouths spewing that mentally corrosive chant of "imposter."
Footsteps suddenly echoed from the hallway again.
It wasn't Lin Yan either—it was the sound of the proctor's cane striking the floor, one deep tap, one shallow, as it dragged across the ground.
Every student in the classroom froze in unison, like children caught misbehaving by an adult, lowering their heads.
There was no better opportunity to escape than this.
Xu Zhiyi looked out the window. A cool breeze blew past, and within the black mist spread a familiar chill.
Someone was softly calling her name—Lin Yan's voice.
She stopped hesitating. Stepping onto the chair by the window, she leaped into the black mist. It caught her gently, like cotton, swallowing her into the vast darkness.
When light met her eyes again, she had already landed safely, standing at the corner of the teaching building.
Lin Yan stood beside her, steadying her, his gaze soft.
Seeing her brother again, Xu Zhiyi curved her lips to smile back at him—but her peripheral vision caught a familiar figure, and the smile on her lips instantly stiffened. Her words came out stammering: "Brother… the one behind you…"
Seven or eight meters away stood a young man, his demeanor gloomy, his expression icy.
Coincidentally, he looked exactly like Lin Yan.
"…"
Within seconds, Xu Zhiyi shot away from the current Lin Yan, darting several meters back.
She looked in panic at the two Lin Yans before her.
The same face, and nearly identical expressions of surprise. Their gazes at each other were tense and confrontational, as if they might attack each other at any moment.
But for some reason, they each took a step back, choosing peace.
And simultaneously turned toward her.
The young man on the left reached out his hand to her, saying gently, "Come on, Zhizhi, let's go home."
The one on the right had a noticeably darker expression. He only called her name in a low voice, "Xu Zhiyi."
—"Come with me."
—"Come over here."
The two said in unison: "He's the fake one."
"…"
Xu Zhiyi looked left and right, full of hesitation.
Her brother had times when he was good-tempered and times when he was bad-tempered—she really couldn't tell them apart. She could only speak in a weak voice, "Then… do you have any way to prove you're the real one?"
The Lin Yan on the left smiled gently. "Do you still want to drink corn and pork rib soup? And red bean pudding—I've remembered all of it."
Xu Zhiyi immediately: "Brother!"
This was something she and Lin Yan had only discussed. She nodded, touched, and her neutral toes had already shifted more than halfway toward him.
But she was still a fair judge. She suppressed the impulse to run straight over and hide behind him, continuing the process. She raised her chin at the impostor beside her with an air of dignity, signaling he could begin his defense. "Do you have anything else to say?"
The impostor looked at her, his gaze indifferent.
Xu Zhiyi's intuition told her he was a little angry. Her spinning toes quietly shifted back to neutral, and she felt inexplicably flustered, a hint of guilt creeping in.
"You have a professional course exam at four p.m. on January seventh. After we get back, I'll supervise your review."
Xu Zhiyi: "…Brother!!"
The moment he said that, it basically killed the competition to tell real from fake. Xu Zhiyi quickly darted behind the Lin Yan on the right, calling out "Brother" with eager sweetness.
Lin Yan tilted his head, lowering his gaze to look at her.
The neck he turned was fair and clean, with no scar on the skin.
Xu Zhiyi's hand, which had been reaching to hook his hanging fingertips, paused, then slowly withdrew. She turned to look at the other Lin Yan, who was still holding a smile, gazing at her gently.
…How fake can they be!
Xu Zhiyi stumbled back several steps.
On the right, Lin Yan saw her retreating and his expression turned even colder. "He's clearly deceiving you after eavesdropping on our conversation. Xu Zhiyi, can you no longer even tell who your brother is?"
The Lin Yan on the left was gentler: "It's alright, Zhi. No matter who you choose to be with, I'll be happy."
Xu Zhiyi: "…"
You're both out of character!
Even if she couldn't recognize her brother, he would never scold her so harshly—but he also would never let her leave with a fake Lin Yan while wearing a look of understanding and tolerance.
Both of these people were impostors.
Xu Zhiyi was deeply worried about her real brother's whereabouts. She steeled herself and slowly backed away, while the two brothers quietly watched her movements.
They stood perfectly still, yet their eyes betrayed the sorrow of being abandoned by her—especially one whose lips were curved up, but whose expression was clearly a forced smile.
Xu Zhiyi's heart was about to shatter. She truly couldn't bear seeing her brother like this.
Suddenly, a sobbing, pleading voice surfaced in her mind: It was you who wanted me to come back. Why won't you accept me now?
It wasn't her voice, nor Lin Yan's. It was chaotic and clamorous, as if multiple voices were layered together—male and female, young and tender.
Begged with such sorrow, she could no longer move her feet.
With a troubled expression, she halted in place, forming a strange three-way standoff with the two before her—peaceful and silent.
Xu Zhiyi almost wished one of the Lin Yans would suddenly contort his face and attack her, so she could be freed from her guilt. But left and right, they merely watched her in silence.
Soon, however, as if hearing her wish, the good-tempered Lin Yan suddenly said, "She can stay with both of us at the same time, you know."
Xu Zhiyi's scalp went numb, and she protested with full clarity: "That doesn't sound good!"
But they seemed to turn a deaf ear and walked toward her anyway.
She tried to run.
She couldn't.
She looked down and was horrified to discover that because of her momentary soft-heartedness, she could no longer move at all—beneath her feet, a patch of viscous swamp had formed without her noticing, and her feet had already sunk in past the ankles, numb and trapped.
Meanwhile, the smiling Lin Yan on the left was about to take her hand.
She hid her hands behind her back, refusing to let him.
The left Lin Yan stopped. The other Lin Yan wasn't so patient—his face darkened, and he reached out to grab her wrist from behind.
"I won't hurt you… but if you're unwilling to stay with me, at least give me back my phone… okay?" he said in a low, hoarse voice.
It was a heartbreaking sound. Xu Zhiyi's resisting movements froze, and her dodging became barely perceptible.
She was almost about to let him take her hand.
But the next second, she wasn't grabbed by the ill-tempered Lin Yan. Instead, her body was lifted into the air, her waist gripped as she was hoisted up.
"…"
Suspended in midair, Xu Zhiyi turned her face and met the pitch-black ghostly phantom with blurred features. She immediately called out "Brother!" in delighted surprise.
The dark figure held her with one hand, shielding her eyes with his chest, then reached out and effortlessly crushed the two counterfeit Lin Yans before him.
They cooperated well too, dying without a sound, so as not to startle Xu Zhiyi.
By the time Xu Zhiyi lifted her face from Lin Yan's embrace, she was already back in the second-floor classroom. The shadowy figure stood bent before her, the pitch-black ghostly phantom enveloping his body gradually receding to reveal the pale, handsome face beneath.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" he asked.
"No!" Xu Zhiyi answered loudly.
Surviving the ordeal had her spirits running high, especially after that incredible business with the two brothers appearing.
She introduced cheerfully, "Brother! Actually, they were pretty good to me! One of them even saved me! Though his later actions weren't very like you, at least he had a kind heart!"
Lin Yan patted her head.
Seeing her this spirited, she really must be fine.
"So you recognized that both of those people were impostors?"
"Of course!"
Lin Yan's cool hand took her wrist, and he let out a low chuckle. "I thought, if I'd arrived just a little later, you might have been fooled by one of them."
Remembering that she really had almost held hands with the counterfeit Lin Yan, Xu Zhiyi couldn't help feeling guilty. She drooped her head sheepishly and explained, "…There was a reason for that."
"Oh?"
"They knew me very well, and they knew things only we knew. They even talked a lot like you…"
Xu Zhiyi reenacted their conversation with great flair.
In their agreement to go home, they hadn't mentioned the specific type of pudding, yet the good-tempered Lin Yan had been able to name red bean pudding.
And the bad-tempered Lin Yan went without saying—he even knew she had a professional course exam.
So her momentary loss of judgment and failure to recognize her dear brother was entirely forgivable.
—Xu Zhiyi used that line as her conclusion.
She blinked and asked again, "So, dear brother, why are there two of you here?"
Lin Yan smiled silently.
Only when she was feeling guilty and begging for forgiveness would she call him so sweetly.
Still, he resolved his dear sister's confusion.
"In this Instance, those who are missed will appear repeatedly in that form," he said softly. "They inherit my memories, a part of my emotions…"
Because he had a little sister who missed her brother very much.
So there would be three of him here.
Xu Zhiyi felt a little embarrassed hearing that, but soon she narrowed her eyes and demanded, "But I'm not here, Lin Yan. Don't you miss me?"
"This is a trap for players—I'm a ghost." Lin Yan smiled politely. "It's fine that you're not here. If a second or third Xu Zhiyi really appeared, and I couldn't bring myself to strike, and you couldn't beat them, we siblings would be done for."
"…"
Xu Zhiyi was furious, then had to admit he had a point. But she also felt that Lin Yan's "couldn't bring myself to strike" was a subtle jab at her for being too soft-hearted with the bad-tempered Lin Yan.
That really wasn't fair, so she immediately recounted the last words he'd said before disappearing, emphasizing that his tone had sounded truly too sorrowful.
Lin Yan nodded thoughtfully. "…That's understandable, actually."
He took out from his pocket the phone with no casing and a cracked screen. "This phone you gave me—it really isn't mine."
Xu Zhiyi's eyes went wide.
"Phones can't be brought into the Instance," he said, "so this is a fake phone—one your fake brother brought along. Though calling it a phone is generous; at best, it's a photo frame that needs charging."
The real brother let out a chuckle. "I just charged it. Zhizhi, guess what's inside?"
Xu Zhiyi: "Instance secrets, the truth of the world, a priceless treasure?"
"Mhm, a priceless treasure." Lin Yan pressed the phone screen on.
Caught off guard, a photo of her leaning against Lin Yan's chest, fast asleep, popped up. "Th-this—" Xu Zhiyi's face flushed red, and she stammered, "Your phone has the same thing too—how is it a fake phone?"
Lin Yan swiped the screen open. Same thing—still that photo of her sleeping.
A genuine photo frame that needs charging.
"…"
Xu Zhiyi stared at it, utterly bewildered, unable to comprehend. Even as Lin Yan pushed her toward the window, she kept fiddling with the phone, trying to find even a trace of technological residue inside.
She found nothing.
Only the cool wind slapping messily against her face.
Since this phone was so useless, what did the bad-tempered version of Lin Yan want it for?
She lowered her eyes, feeling inexplicably a little sad.
Meanwhile, Lin Yan had already fastened his muzzle himself, then came over to pinch her cheek, making her look out the window.
Visibility on the field was even better now. The monsters were busily crawling around, living very fulfilling lives.
Her gaze swept past the incense burner on the platform. White smoke rose from its mouth, and something was struggling, taking shape inside the burner.
What was terrifying was that she felt the silhouette looked a bit like her brother.
Xu Zhiyi frantically tugged at Lin Yan's sleeve. "Brother, look—!"
Lin Yan hummed in acknowledgment. "Your fake brothers are about to be born."
"…"
Xu Zhiyi didn't dare miss a single detail, her eyes glued to the Lin Yan who was slowly taking human form. He rose to his feet gradually—though the distance was great, she could vaguely sense that a smile seemed to hang on his face.
It was deeply unsettling. She quickly glanced several times at the grim-faced Lin Yan beside her to cleanse her eyes.
Seeing her look over, Lin Yan instinctively began to curl his lips into a smile at her, but she immediately stopped him, unreasonably telling him not to smile for now.
Lin Yan: "…"
After this version of Lin Yan walked a few steps and began wandering aimlessly on the field, the incense burner stirred again.
It was about to generate another Lin Yan!
Was the whole field going to be filled with her brothers in a moment?
Xu Zhiyi cried out in alarm inwardly, then imagined hundreds of Lin Yans coming to hold her hand—and for a moment, she didn't know whether to be scared or blissful.
Where would he even find that many hands to hold!