However, there was a problem now.
How should she explain her current appearance to Ye Wanqing?
“What on earth are you up to? Stop being mysterious, or you can expect to sleep on the streets tomorrow.”
“Little Mouse Mu is so heartless. I came specifically to help you, and yet I’m treated as the culprit instead?”
Hearing this, Su Mu’s brows furrowed, ‘She still dares to talk back.’
“Fine, once I find a way out, I’ll deal with you immediately.”
Seeing that Su Mu wasn’t joking, Ye Wanqing became a bit more serious.
“Wait, wait! Don’t! I’m not joking with you. You really have traveled through time, back to three years ago. Right now, you should have just awakened your abilities.”
“Why would I return to three years ago for no reason…”
Ye Wanqing interrupted Su Mu’s skepticism.
“I didn’t want this to happen either, but I really couldn’t stop her. You can think of it like this: there’s an absurdly strong person named Tang Yin. Out of jealousy, she attacked you and sent you back to this point in time for research. She wants to find out what happened between you and Tang Nai during this period.”
“What could happen between her and me? You’re definitely talking nonsense.”
Being repeatedly questioned by Su Mu, Ye Wanqing couldn’t help but feel a bit wronged.
‘If it weren’t for you, why would I have come along, and back to this worst of times?’
“Fine, if you don’t believe me, then I’m not helping you anymore!”
After dropping those words, Ye Wanqing’s voice disappeared without a trace, as if she had never appeared.
After calling out to her several times without receiving an answer, Su Mu began to panic.
If she really had annoyed the other girl, wouldn’t she be left all alone to be trampled upon?
It wasn’t that Su Mu was unwilling to believe her; it was just that the situation was far too absurd.
For her to believe it, she needed at least some time.
Su Mu sat at the computer desk in distress.
She turned it on and entered her password.
The feeling of operating the mouse felt a bit foreign, and she pressed the wrong numbers several times.
When she opened the Forum, she felt even more lost.
‘Was the version from a few years ago really this unfamiliar? What was I doing back then… right, I was telling those people about what happened today.’
In her private messages, she quickly scrolled to the top conversations.
The moment she saw those sharp words, it felt as if a bomb had exploded in the back of her head, causing her pupils to shrink.
[Stop looking for me, I don’t want to hear it. The past is the past, now please let me go. I have my own life.]
[Is it fun to torture me? Or have you reached a point where you can find pleasure from my suffering? You definitely want to eat me, right? Forget it! A Magical Girl will definitely turn you to ash!]
[Go die, you monster! Go die, you monster! Die, die, die, die!]
Su Mu clenched her hands tightly, her teeth biting deep into her lower lip until it almost bled.
Her heart felt as if it were weighed down by a shackle, locked tight.
Every beat was heavy and agonizing.
‘I already knew. I’ve endured it once. Why does it still hurt so much?’
A moment later, her breathing returned to a steady rhythm, but that sense of oppression remained pressed against her chest.
It was as if it were telling her that living as a Strange Person was an original sin.
At the same time, on the other end of the network, the negative emotions of those anonymous people who feared Su Mu were being squeezed out.
They transformed into Dark Magic Power, seeping into the deep Dream World and transmitting directly into Su Mu’s dream.
Finally, they appeared within her yet-to-be-formed Monster Core, flowing through her bloodstream and into her entire body.
The sensation was intoxicating.
The pain receded, her troubles were briefly forgotten, and the fatigue of staying up late was swept away.
While it wasn’t exactly joyful, compared to the pain, it was good enough to make her long for more.
Su Mu calmed her emotions.
No matter how real it felt, she tried to convince herself that this was just a dream, a prank by Ye Wanqing.
***
About three days later, Su Mu sat at the desk with a haggard expression.
Even though only three days had passed, she had become as thin as if she had been starving for a week.
This was no illusion.
As a Strange Person, she had not consumed a normal meal until now.
Because no Dark Magic Power had been received, the instinct buried deep in her body began to attack her, using a lethal sense of hunger to force her to hunt for food.
This also made Su Mu thoroughly believe that what Ye Wanqing had said was true.
Thinking of the latter, she couldn’t help but feel guilty.
Ye Wanqing had not appeared again over the past few days.
Recalling the other girl’s words, Su Mu became somewhat worried.
‘I should have trusted her more.’
“Then buy me some milk tea.”
“Gah!”
After several days, Ye Wanqing’s sudden appearance startled Su Mu.
However, she still couldn’t see where Ye Wanqing was; she could only hear the voice coming from her mind.
“Believe me now? I’ve had a terrible time these past few days. I couldn’t do anything. I only just found a chance to slip out and find you. Hey, speaking of which, it’s only been a few days, why do you look so terrifying? You haven’t been eating, have you?”
Ye Wanqing’s voice carried a hint of worry.
She was truly concerned that Little Mouse Mu might lose her mind and starve herself to death.
“You probably thought I was lying to you the whole time. It’s my fault for joking around. Don’t torture yourself. If you die here, you’re dead for real!”
“I believe you. So, where are you now?”
Hearing Su Mu’s steady voice, Ye Wanqing felt relieved.
“I’m in your dream.”
Su Mu was slightly startled.
No wonder Ye Wanqing could hear her inner thoughts; just like Irina, she had entered Su Mu’s dream.
But how did she find it?
Wasn’t it said that the Dream World was complex and intertwined, making it difficult to pinpoint another person’s dream accurately?
If she had tried to search for it blindly, Ye Wanqing indeed wouldn’t have been able to find it.
However, coincidentally, when Irina had taken her wandering through the Dream World, she had specifically led her to the base of Su Mu’s dream.
She had remembered the coordinates, never imagining they would come in handy at a time like this.
Ye Wanqing was currently sitting in the small interrogation room, in the seat that originally belonged to Irina.
Although Su Mu wasn’t across from her, Su Mu’s inner thoughts would pass through the barrier and arrive here, allowing her to hear everything clearly.
“Then why didn’t you say anything for the past few days?”
Hearing Su Mu’s question, Ye Wanqing’s expression darkened, and the liveliness left her voice.
“I… I’m trapped.”
Like Su Mu, Ye Wanqing had also been sent back to the point three years ago.
At this time, she was still being held in Tang Yin’s Research Institute as a core research subject, cooperating with various experiments.
Even with the aid of several years’ worth of memories, Ye Wanqing couldn’t escape the Research Institute.
At this point, she was still very weak, but Tang Yin hadn’t changed at all—she was still irrationally strong.
No matter how much she wracked her brains, she couldn’t escape.
She could only take advantage of the moments when Tang Yin’s attention was on other research to sneak out and enter this interrogation room.
“How can I help you?”
Su Mu’s direct question warmed Ye Wanqing’s heart.
She quickly replied: “Go find Tang Nai. She has a way.”
“Huh?”
Su Mu’s brows furrowed.
‘In the end, do I still have to get involved in an ill-fated connection with that person? With her personality, asking for her help will probably incur a lot of debt.’
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