Mutated Tao

Crunch! Chen Hongyu munched on a bag of chips loudly as she watched TV. She glanced to her side and noticed Qing Wanglai, Zhao Shuangdian, and Li Huowang talking incessantly.

“Why is he going crazy again?” she asked.

Zhao Lei had been furiously tapping on his phone, but he paused to look at Li Huowang. “He’s saying that he can reset the flow of time and is trying to convince them.”

“Hm?” Chen Hongyu was surprised. “I thought his special power was conjuring things out of nothing? When did he get an upgrade? How come I didn’t know about it?”

Zhao Lei remained silent, his attention still fixed on his phone, though he couldn’t help but hear Li Huowang’s words.

“I’m telling the truth. I know it happened—I was there! Why don’t you believe me? That factory is the Siming, and everything about it disappeared when we killed it, even your memories of it!”

Qing Wanglai whispered to Zhao Shuangdian when he noticed Li Huowang’s excitement. Soon, Zhao Shuangdian nodded.

Even though they said nothing, Li Huowang could tell what they were thinking from the looks they were giving him. He’d seen them before.

“Are you thinking that I’ve gone crazy? I’m not ill!” Li Huowang paused. “Well, maybe I am, but they’re just hallucinations! They can’t erase everyone’s memories of the Siming!”

Qing Wanglai raised his hands and patted Li Huowang. “Alright, Li Huowang, don’t be hasty. We said nothing about your illness. It’s just that this is very difficult for us to understand.”

Li Huowang took two steps forward and glared at Qing Wanglai. “What’s there to understand? The factory is a Siming’s projection. Once the Siming perishes, everything about it disappears!

“A Siming has no past or future. They merely exist, and everything about them is erased once they cease to exist! It also explains what Zhuge Yuan had written on his fan!”

“Hmm… Who’s Zhuge Yuan? Why is there a new character?” Wu Qi asked in confusion.

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With a cigarette in her hand, Ba Nanxu looked at the excited Li Huowang, her face etched with irritation. “What’s a Siming? Did you call us here to show off how crazy you are?”

“I understand. I think I know what he is trying to say,” Qing Wanglai said, clearing his throat. “He’s talking about his own world. It seems like he just grasped a very important rule within it.”

“Tsk. Do we need you to explain that? Isn’t it the same as him becoming crazy again?” Ba Nanxu said, exhaling her cigarette smoke toward Li Huowang.

Li Huowang replied, “Shut up! I’m doing my best to understand everyone’s world, so you should try to understand mine too! This is important—it will change how we will fight our enemy!”

“You’re right, but you did say time itself was reset. I think that’s a bit too far-fetched even within our world.” Zhao Shuangdian said, highlighting the inconsistency in Li Huowang’s narrative. “I’ve studied the worlds of other people, and none of them have claimed that their timelines were reset.” ŕ

“Is what you perceive the truth? This is not the first time I’ve experienced it—it’s the third! I only realized what was happening after the third time!”

Li Huowang was still in the middle of explaining when Zhao Shuangdian cut him off. “Okay, we get it. No need to go into more detail. So, just to clarify, you’re confirming that you’ll be collaborating with us on the sixth of next month, right?”

“That’s not the point! What I mean is—”

“Yes or no?”

“Yes.”

Li Huowang felt that his words were ineffective. Even if he continued explaining, he was sure they wouldn’t believe him.

“Fine, we will stop here today. I have a meeting later. Feel free to contact me on WeChat if there’s anything else.”

Zhao Shuangdian passed a smartphone to Li Huowang before exiting Qing Wanglai’s mansion with the rest of them.

“Oh, you are leaving now? Are you not staying for a meal? Qing Wanglai is great at cooking,” Wu Qi said.

Zhao Shuangdian reached for the door. “No need. I’m on a diet and don’t eat lunch. We’ll see each other next month.”

“Wait!”

Zhao Shuangdian frowned and turned to Li Huowang. He had called out to her to stop her from leaving.

“Your… your weapon is a sniper rifle, isn’t it?”

The hall fell into silence, save for the sound of the television.

Zhao Shuangdian froze, and Li Huowang smiled. The timeline had been deleted, resulting in a different outcome. None of them remembered anything except for Li Huowang, who still retained all memories from the deleted timeline.

Li Huowang smiled confidently. “You never told me about it before. Can you guess how I knew about it?”

Zhao Shuangdian immediately turned to Qing Wanglai. “Did you tell him?”

Qing Wanglai’s smile disappeared as he shook his head. “No, I never told him anything about you.”

Just as Qing Wanglai finished speaking, Li Huowang revealed more information. “That’s not all I know. I also know that you have a companion called Ling. She used a computer to lead us through a route. Her face occasionally twitched, which made me believe she was sick.”

The words of Li Huowang shook Zhao Shuangdian’s confidence while strengthening his own.

In a normal timeline, Li Huowang wouldn’t have known any of this. Yet here he was, aware of things he shouldn’t have known. This indicated that Li Huowang was telling the truth, and Zhao Shuangdian’s actions proved it.

Li Huowang said resolutely, “I’m not lying! I experienced all of it—it actually happened!”

“Wait for me.”

Zhao Shuangdian exited the mansion and returned after a while. This time, she had a laptop with her.

She turned on the laptop and quickly typed something on it. Li Huowang realized that she was serious and trusted him now.