Chapter 37: Death (Bonus Chapter 1/1)

“Huh?!” x2

Looking at Huimengyi in the mirror, Ye Jinyi raised her left hand—at the same time, the Huimengyi in the mirror raised her right hand to match.

“So strange.” x2

Ye Jinyi had just said that when the Huimengyi in the mirror repeated it word for word.

As Ye Jinyi puzzled over what was going on, her attention was suddenly drawn to the threads connected to her own body.

“What’s this?” x2

Just as Ye Jinyi shifted her gaze to the strings, Huimengyi suddenly felt her body released from its restraints.

“Turn around!”

Instinctively, Huimengyi flicked her hand—instantly, the threads connected to Ye Jinyi spun her around 1800 degrees.

By the time the threads stopped spinning, Ye Jinyi had already fainted.

“Well?!”

Huimengyi stared at the threads extending from her fingertips.

She moved them slightly—and in the next moment, Ye Jinyi’s left leg was yanked upward, suspending her in midair like an upside-down marionette.

“Ah, this…”

Huimengyi hurriedly retracted the string that had lifted her.

“So… I can control Ye Jinyi?”

It became clear: when Ye Jinyi noticed her through the mirror, she could control Huimengyi.

But now, with Huimengyi holding the strings, she could control Ye Jinyi.

“What kind of two-player three-legged race is this…”

Huimengyi had to give it to whoever designed this system—they must have a giant brain bubble in their head to come up with something like this.

Still, now that she understood the basic rules, Huimengyi tried manipulating the threads to guide Ye Jinyi back to the bed to rest.

After all, sleeping on the cold floor wasn’t ideal.

“This is… so hard to control…”

Huimengyi had never learned proper puppet manipulation.

Playing a marionette game like this was genuinely beyond her skill set.

She struggled to maneuver the strings, but no matter what she did, Ye Jinyi just couldn’t stand upright.

“I’ve had enough!”

Frustrated, Huimengyi yanked the strings upward and just flung Ye Jinyi directly onto the bed.

Brute force really is the solution sometimes!

Honestly, being a little rough isn’t always the wrong answer.

After tossing Ye Jinyi back onto the bed, Huimengyi finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Hope she’s okay.”

Considering how much force she used just now, she couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be any issues.

All she could do now was place her hope in Project Hope.

Huimengyi exhaled and began thinking about her current situation.

After all, school was starting soon.

If she didn’t get back in time, this wouldn’t just count as skipping class—it’d be full-on academic abandonment.

“I’m too young to be setting a new record in truancy…”

Panic started to rise in Huimengyi.

In the dream.

Ye Jinyi lounged in a luxurious palace, sipping iced fruit tea and eating strawberry cake—looking every bit the pampered noble lady.

She stuffed herself wildly as servants kept bringing more and more food, but nothing seemed to satisfy her.

“More food! More food! More food! Keep it coming! I want two more plates of roast meat!”

Gurgle~

Clack!

Ye Jinyi slurped the very last drop from her drink, then slammed the empty cup down on the table with satisfaction.

“So gooood~”

She rubbed her belly, basking in the gluttonous joy of it all.

But just as Ye Jinyi was savoring the pleasure, a voice—identical to her own—suddenly echoed inside her mind.

“I’ve got a strawberry here. Want it?”

“Yes!”

Without hesitation, Ye Jinyi climbed up onto her chair, ready to receive the strawberry from whoever said that.

“Huh?!”

Only then did she realize—the girl handing her the strawberry was none other than the one who ruined her life!

“Uwah!”

In an instant, Ye Jinyi panicked and fell right off her chair.

“Ugh…”

She pushed herself off the floor and stood up, immediately glaring at the girl in front of her.

“What are you doing here?!”

Ye Jinyi had had it with this ghost!

Would she ever stop haunting her?!

The girl suddenly wore a melancholic expression.

“I just wanted to share a little snack with you… and you call me a clingy ghost? Why is it always the good people who end up hurt, huh?”

“Stop!”

Ye Jinyi cut her off—no way she was letting this nonsense slide.

If it weren’t for this girl, she’d still be at her job, working happily at the company!

Thinking for a moment, Ye Jinyi finally pieced it together.

“Wait a minute… This is my dream, isn’t it?”

“Bingo! Correct answer.”

The girl walked over and gave Ye Jinyi a round of applause, clapping enthusiastically in praise of her intellect.

“You may be kind of dumb, Miss Ye Jinyi, but in some areas, you’re surprisingly sharp.”

“So? How’s that secret phrase I gave you working out?”

“I’m not dumb!”

Ye Jinyi huffed.

But after a moment, she gave up trying to argue.

“Wait, hold on… When did I ever use your secret phrase?”

Slap!

The girl smacked her own forehead dramatically.

“How should I even respond to that? Is this what happens when you speak without thinking?”

“Sorry, but thinking is a bit much for me right now.”

Ye Jinyi gave up entirely.

After all the chaos inside the barrier, she’d already snapped. Even now, she barely felt alive.

“Come to think of it, the only time I actually felt alive was… when I bit my sister’s shoulder…”

As she remembered, she suddenly felt utterly humiliated.

At this point, Ye Jinyi felt like a walking joke.

She turned again to the pale-yellow-haired girl.

“So… can you give me a real answer? Am I actually alive right now or not?”

“You’re alive. Very much so. At least biologically speaking.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ye Jinyi stared at her, suspicious.

“Biologically speaking”

What other kind of definition was there? Spiritual? Emotional?

Don’t be a riddle-spewer—people like that never end well!

The girl took Ye Jinyi by the hand and led her back to the table.

Once they were both seated again, she began to explain.

“It’s exactly what it sounds like. Your brain’s fine, your heart’s fine. So yeah, you’re definitely still alive.”

“As for what I meant besides biology—Miss Ye Jinyi, aside from your physical functions still being intact, you’ve actually been dead for a while now.”

Ye Jinyi blinked in confusion.

Wait… there were other kinds of life and death?

“First off, from the night you turned into this version of yourself, you were effectively dead to the human world. That’s called social death.”

“Second, when even you can’t say for sure whether you’re really alive or not—that’s psychological death.”

“Stop, stop, stop! What even is all this?! That counts as death too?!”

Ye Jinyi quickly cut her off—any more of this, and she might actually start thinking.