Chapter 123: Preparing for Imprisonment, Part 1

Dust was sprinkled, fingerprints extracted, categorized and labeled. Finally, the three fingerprints were placed onto the fingerprint analyzer. Jiang Chi looked up at the screen where the comparison was loading.

The progress bar surged forward like a runaway stallion, while the dense streams of data rolled like a roaring tide, rising and falling without pattern—just like the restless, fluctuating emotions of a certain young man.

The match percentage… one hundred percent.

Jiang Chi staggered backward as if struck hard, almost falling to the ground.

One hundred percent.

One hundred percent.

One hundred percent!

All belonged to the same person.

Ji Qingchan, Bao Yue, and Ji Yueniang were all the same individual.

“No, how could it be the same person!”

“It definitely shouldn’t be!!”

He suddenly exploded in rage, wildly charging toward the lab table and smashing the fingerprint analyzer to pieces on the floor.

“Trash. Garbage!”

“Trash. Garbage!!”

“This can’t be true! It can’t be true!”

“It’s absolutely fake! It must be a malfunction with the device!!”

He raged, cursed, and went completely mad, his mind spiraling out of control. But when he looked again at the big screen showing the names “Bao Yue,” “Ji Qingchan,” and “Ji Yueniang,” with fingerprints matching at one hundred percent—

He snapped back to clarity, then completely lost his sanity. His Qingchan was Ji Yueniang, his Qingchan was Ji Yueniang…

Hot tears slipped from his eyes, trickling down his cheeks, soaking his clothes, then dripping onto the floor, splashing like little drops of water. Jiang Chi covered his face and sobbed uncontrollably.

Why was Ji Qingchan actually Ji Yueniang? Why?

When he found out that Ji Qingchan wasn’t a student at Wanqing Yongxing School, Jiang Chi had already braced himself mentally. He could accept that Ji Qingchan had deceived him; he could accept that she approached him with an agenda; he could accept that her name might not really be “Ji Qingchan”… After all, he could just break her legs and lock her up in a cage in the future. As long as he called her “Ji Qingchan” for the rest of her life, she was Ji Qingchan!!

But now, she was Ji Yueniang. Ji Qingchan was Ji Yueniang. Two completely different people—even their genders were different.

Jiang Chi didn’t understand what losing face meant, or what silver coin transformations were, or crying hysterically in front of the whole school.

But he knew this: his girl was gone, the girl he loved—the pure-looking girl with a fiery soul, the chatterbox with a mischievous spirit—was gone, never to return.

He leapt onto the lab table, wildly smashing every piece of equipment until they were shattered to bits, venting his anguish against the walls.

He regretted it.

He regretted learning the truth.

He shouldn’t have known the truth!

Without the truth, his Qingchan was still Qingchan—not Ji Yueniang.

Jiang Chi wished he could go back in time. He wished he could cross time and space. He wished he could stop himself from investigating the truth. But all he encountered was a solid, impenetrable wall.

On the other side of that wall stood a girl. It was Ji Qingchan—his Qingchan.

Jiang Chi wanted to cross over, to embrace her, to take her away from this false world. But no matter how hard he pushed against the wall, all he could do was lean on it and watch Ji Qingchan slowly disappear, gradually transforming into someone else—a handsome, delicate-looking boy named Ji Yueniang.

“No! This can’t be real! Ji Yueniang, you bastard! It’s all your fault! All your fault!”

He pounded and screamed like a madman.

“Beast, scum, let go of my Qingchan! Give me back my Qingchan!”

But the “Ji Yueniang” on the other side of the wall didn’t seem to care at all. He continued to consume “Ji Qingchan,” devouring her, replacing her, erasing her existence.

When he finished “eating,” he even turned his head toward this side, tilting it slightly, smiling half-heartedly.

The young man struggled to stand, his blue eyes bloodshot and wild. Pointing at the bloody handprints smeared on the wall, at the “Ji Yueniang” beyond, he laughed and cried, half mad, half delirious:

“Ji Yueniang, it’s you. It’s all you!”

“You’re the reason I lost love! You’re the reason I lost love!!”

“I want you dead! I want you dead!!”

He shouted madly and charged toward the “Ji Yueniang” in his vision. His fingernails dug into the wall, bleeding red droplets that slowly spread across the surface.

His eyes were bloodshot, his face twisted with rage, like a wounded beast. In his eyes were only madness and hatred.

No one knew how much time had passed. Perhaps it was the knocking on the door from outside. Perhaps it was the blood staining the wall. Or maybe it was something else.

Jiang Chi suddenly felt tired and wanted to sleep.

So he lay down on the floor covered in broken glass and equipment debris, his battered hands quietly folded on his chest. He spent a few minutes recalling everything about him and Ji Qingchan before closing his eyes.

He clearly knew that when he woke up this time, besides the “Ji Qingchan” living in his memories, the world would no longer have “Ji Qingchan.” She never really existed.

……

“Mr. Jiang, please stay calm. Please stay calm. I guarantee that Junior Jiang… Mr. Jiang is not in any life-threatening danger inside.” Outside the suburban laboratory, Zhang Junfang was sweating profusely but forced himself to remain calm and reassure the family.

After such a long experiment, so long that the other party’s father had sent people to check on him, Zhang Junfang was beginning to regret it. If anything happened to Junior Jiang inside, he felt he would be looking at at least a year in prison.

“I’m calm, but Dr. Zhang, could you be a little less calm?” Jiang Yushu’s voice came from beside him, tinged with an inexplicable distance. “I believe in my son. He wouldn’t do anything irrational over some emotional issues.”

“Hurry, hurry, this way!”

“Breach the door! Breach the door!”

“Where’s the diamond drill? Hurry!”

Though they said this, when a group of burly demolition workers jumped down from the truck to forcibly break in, both men instinctively stepped aside.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The diamond drill roared, striking the door so forcefully the ground trembled slightly. But before long, the drill sputtered and stopped.

“What’s going on?”

“Boss, this door’s material is unusual—the drill bit broke.” One of the demolition workers shouted.

Behind them, Jiang Yushu glanced at Zhang Junfang, who awkwardly scratched his nose and gave a sheepish smile.

“A wealthy benefactor invested a lot initially, so I reinforced it a bit.”

“Break down the wall!” the demolition leader ordered again.

When the door is harder than the wall, the wall becomes the door. Just as the diamond drill was about to start again, the front door suddenly opened.

Jiang Chi emerged, fists dripping blood, his handsome face pale as death. He lowered his head, nobody able to see the sickness and hatred burning in his eyes.

“Dad, you’re here.

I’m so tired. I want to go home.”