Chapter 133: The Vanished Accomplice

"What are you doing?" Qin Mo watched as Ji Ning, taking advantage of the empty Louis Vuitton sunglasses counter, tried on a pair of shades.

"Buying some time. I have to go home and turn myself in, at least. I can't just get nabbed halfway there." Ji Ning rummaged through the counter and found a pack of face masks.

"No." Qin Mo stopped him bluntly.

Ji Ning shot her a glance, thinking, *You’re the one being hunted, and you’ve got a thousand stories to tell. You certainly don't want to get caught, but I’m not in your position.* "If you want to run, go ahead. I’ve got parents to support and a life to live."

"You have to come with me."

"Why should I?"

"Because..." Qin Mo paused. She knew Ji Ning would never believe her talk about dreamscapes, but she couldn't think of a convincing lie on the spot.

In any case, Ji Ning could not be arrested. If he were, she would be left in an absolutely passive position. Not only would she have to deal with whatever mental avatar Adonis might send next, but the primary purpose of her arrival here would also become impossible to achieve.

She opened her mouth, but no words came out. The dreamscape didn't just constrain Ji Ning; it constrained her as well. She was facing a seventeen-year-old Ji Ning. From his perspective, they were just strangers who had met a few days ago. She had no leverage to bind this boy. Responsibility, emotion, promises—those things were too distant for him. Right now, he was just a law-abiding kid.

"I cannot be caught," Qin Mo said softly.

Ji Ning didn't even look up. "That’s up to you. If I were you, I wouldn't have stayed here once that thought crossed my mind."

"You have to help me." Qin Mo repeated the words silently in her heart: *I have to help you.*

"I’m just an ordinary seventeen-year-old, the kind of person who dissolves into a crowd. I can’t help you with anything." Ji Ning headed toward the fire exit.

"No." Qin Mo grabbed his hand. She spoke each word clearly, as if to him, and as if to herself. "You are different to me. You stand out in a crowd the moment I see you. I need you."

Ji Ning froze, letting her hold his hand. In a moment where time was precious, he spent a full minute thinking. Perhaps it was the moonlight that night that had stirred his budding heart, or perhaps the softness of her touch—he didn't pull away.

Standing at the entrance of the fire exit, the boy avoided her firm, trusting gaze. *Why are you so sure I’ll agree?* he wondered. *What gives you the courage? Is it because you have no other choice, or because when a lie is repeated enough, even the liar starts to believe it?*

"I’ll do what I can."

Hearing this, Qin Mo felt neither a sense of relief nor joy. From that long night when she first met him, she knew she could always rely on this guy.

"Talk while we walk." Ji Ning didn't let go, pulling a smiling Qin Mo toward the exit.

"Where are you planning to run to?"

"I don't know."

"Where are your family and friends?"

"You are the only friend I know here." Qin Mo paused, feeling deep down that it was more accurate to categorize Ji Ning as the former option.

Ji Ning stopped and turned to look at her, feeling as though she were just trying to stir up trouble. "Before you came to this city, where did you come from?"

"A place very, very far away." Qin Mo blinked.

"Can you cooperate? We are in a very serious situation."

"I know, but you wouldn't believe the truth." Qin Mo sounded aggrieved.

Ji Ning was speechless. That kind of nonsense wouldn't even fool his younger brother. The idea that he was living in a fake dream was, to him, an unfalsifiable proposition, like the "brain in a vat" theory.

"Let’s go to Ulaanbaatar, then." Qin Mo looked at the map on Ji Ning’s phone. After a brief moment of thought, she offered the name. During her contact with Adonis’s dreamscape, she had reached a crucial conclusion: all dreamscapes are constructed based on the participant’s own world. Adonis could not conjure up things the participant had never seen or known.

"What on earth is that?" That was Ji Ning’s first thought. He pulled out his phone and only found the place on the edge of a world map. It was the capital of Mongolia—nothing but sky and grass, cows and sheep. What was he supposed to do there, play the role of Su Wu?

The name was a mouthful. Qin Mo didn't believe Ji Ning knew anything about it. She was more inclined to believe that as they moved further away from the city, the entire dreamscape would experience something like a failure in its rendering modules. When that happened, the mental shackles the sunglasses placed on Ji Ning would weaken. Once she played her trump card, she was sure he would remember everything.

"Are you kidding? What are you going to do there?"

"Herd sheep."

Ji Ning stared at her until he was certain she was serious, then she stammered out a barely plausible excuse. "I actually really like lamb skewers. Since we’re on the run anyway, why not go somewhere with good food?"

Qin Mo had only brought it up because of a coincidence. Once, on a whim, Ji Ning had wanted lamb skewers, and the Ambrosia Restaurant naturally provided whatever was requested. Qin Mo still remembered that meal: the grilled lamb was golden-brown on the surface, yet the juices remained succulent. When you bit into it, the meat easily separated from the bone. The heat carried the aroma, and the "crunch" of the bite was filled with flavor. Every taste receptor on her tongue was intoxicated. With just a sprinkle of cumin, the fat in the lamb seemed to undergo a chemical reaction, becoming incredibly delicious. Even Qin Mo, who usually disliked lamb, couldn't help but gorge herself. That dinner had made her remember the origin of the lamb the server had specifically mentioned: Ulaanbaatar.

After hailing a taxi, Ji Ning opened his phone and began pondering the map.

"How about Myanmar? We go to Yunnan first, then cross the border." Ji Ning’s voice trailed off as the taxi jerked.

The driver in the rearview mirror looked terrified. Ji Ning calmly began to explain, "My girlfriend and I are planning a budget road trip." He then started chatting aimlessly with Qin Mo about travel plans.

The sunglasses and mask made it impossible to tell Ji Ning’s age, and although the driver laughed and played along, he made a mental note of these two passengers.

Once they got out of the taxi, Ji Ning’s first words were, "Go pack your things. We’re leaving in a while."

"Okay. But a small question: why did you say we were going to Myanmar in the car?"

"When the news breaks, the whole city will know two people are on the run. I’m sure that driver will report our conversation to the police. Even if it’s just a minor distraction, it will buy us more time before we’re caught."

"You’ve got a real talent for this." Qin Mo nodded.

Ji Ning, who was changing his shoes at the door, glanced back at her without saying a word. *You’re the one who’s a natural-born villain,* he thought.

After the door opened, Ji Ning’s mother was preparing lunch. Ji Ning hurriedly said, "Mom, Qin Mo and I are heading out for a while this afternoon."

"Who is Qin Mo?" The woman, busy stir-frying, poked her head out, looking confused.

Both of them stood frozen in the living room. Qin Mo walked straight into the kitchen, but the gaze of Ji Ning’s mother passed right through her and landed on Ji Ning, as if there were nothing in front of her.

"Mom, it’s the person right in front of you..." Ji Ning felt as if the world were an absurd movie, and every bizarre event had started the moment Qin Mo entered his life. "You can’t see her?"

"See who?" Ji Ning’s mother turned off the gas. She looked at her son with deep concern, thinking that perhaps the recent academic pressure had caused him to have a nervous breakdown.

Ji Ning wanted to say more, but seeing the lonely look on Qin Mo’s face, he swallowed his words.

"Never mind." He took Qin Mo into his room and locked the door.

"Is the world going crazy, or am I?" Ji Ning paced back and forth. In just a few short hours, his world had flipped, leaving him feeling profoundly alienated.

"Adonis has noticed my existence. He has stripped me from the dreamscape. Apart from you, I’m afraid no one can see me anymore."

"What Adonis, what dreamscape? It’s all nonsense." A strange anger rose in Ji Ning, as if he were being played for a fool. He couldn't imagine that the most absurd stories could become reality.

He turned to ask Qin Mo, but the room was empty. There was no one else there, only the air, which seemed to still hold her warmth.

An indescribable fear engulfed him. A dull, heavy drum seemed to start beating in his mind. Each time the heavy mallet fell, the pain deep in his marrow grew more intense.

Ji Ning collapsed onto the bed. His vision grew dark, and the intense pain made it impossible to open his eyes. He struggled like a fish out of water, helpless against it all.

A knock finally came at the door, and the drumming faded. Ji Ning stood up shakily and opened the door.

His mother looked at him with concern, wanting to ask but unable to speak. Finally, she said, "I’ll help you get a month off school. I’ll take you to see a psychiatrist tomorrow." With those words, she hugged Ji Ning, her eyes brimming with tears.

Ji Ning reached up to touch the moisture on his face. They were tears—tears triggered by pure, physical pain.

*Qin Mo? What Qin Mo?*

Everyone denied her existence.

On the second day after Qin Mo disappeared, Ji Ning’s mother took him to see a psychiatrist. It was a private clinic; the doctor was polite, asking questions, talking, and prescribing medication—everything was methodical.

"This is a very common form of hysteria caused by psychological stress. Go home, take your medicine on time, and keep a positive mood. It should clear up in a few weeks. Please don't carry such a heavy psychological burden..."

Ji Ning looked at the pills in the small bottle. They were red, like a cluster of flames. It was just like the choice Neo faced in *The Matrix*: take the blue pill, and it’s all over; you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. Take the red pill, and you stay in Wonderland.

But Ji Ning didn't take them. Because as he left the clinic, he saw a trench coat hanging on the coat rack.

Nobody reported anything about the shopping mall, either. It was as if nothing had happened, and business continued as usual.

Everything made sense now. The girl of unknown origin with her absurd reasons was nothing more than his own fantasy. Like Don Quixote fighting windmills, he had been living with his own delusions.

That fluttering emotion was just a mental illness, and the memories of the time spent with Qin Mo were merely memory deviations caused by a mental breakdown.

Because it was a madman’s fantasy, Qin Mo had chosen such an absurd, ridiculous lie. That was why she had expressed love to him upon their first meeting—like a *deus ex machina* in a play, she represented the fantasy of the opposite sex in his heart. Everything followed a logical path, and perhaps that was why he had fallen for her so quickly; after all, she was the perfect template for a woman in his mind.

Everything related to her was his own fantasy, including what happened at the mall. Just like a third-rate novelist’s work, beautiful women always inevitably led to a hero saving the day. Those people in trench coats had been part of his fantasy from the start.

Ji Ning put on his headphones. The computer screen was playing *The Matrix*. He spent the entire weekend watching the trilogy. The long progress bar slid toward the end as time passed, and then he would tirelessly click the mouse to pull it back to the beginning.

"You know something is wrong with this world, but you don't know what it is. It’s like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad."

"The world has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. What truth? This is not your world, or rather, this is only your world."

"You live in a prison you cannot feel. All your true memories have been erased, and false memories have filled your past."

At this moment, Ji Ning was truly like a patient with a mental illness. Bloodshot eyes were visible; every day, besides eating and sleeping, he huddled in his room thinking about those few days he spent with Qin Mo. He had to figure out if it was real or fake.

Almost every boy at his age fantasized about having a youthful romance with a bright-eyed girl, but he was certain not everyone encountered his situation. The girl named Qin Mo made him doubt the world. Either he had gone mad, or the world had.

Ji Ning changed his clothes. The person in the mirror looked like a stranger: messy hair, lifeless eyes, pale skin—like a net-addicted teenager who had just spent the night at an internet cafe.

He slipped out of the house and wandered aimlessly through the noisy streets, like a bird with nowhere to go.

Although he didn't know his destination, he subconsciously walked near his school. He stared silently at the empty street. If not for these ripples, he would be sitting in class right now, waiting for the bell to ring. But with the appearance of the girl named Qin Mo, everything had become completely different.

He still remembered meeting her right here, with a pack of dried noodle snacks in his pocket, pushing his bicycle toward the intersection.

Was that when he had fallen into a hallucinatory dream? Or was that the moment he had begun to face the reality of this world?

He stood there alone, as if a play button had been pressed in his mind. He finally understood why he felt so listless: his heart was empty, likely from the very first time he saw her, yet he couldn't grasp what kind of emotion that was. A timid child naturally hesitates when faced with an outstretched hand.

Less than twenty meters away from Ji Ning, Qin Mo was watching him quietly.

At this moment, she appeared dreamlike and transparent. Adonis’s psychic power enveloped her completely. If the entire dreamscape were an ocean, she was a fish that had leapt out of the water.