Revisited Reality

Li Huowang’s gaze went blank as he scanned the hospital room, the thought churning in his mind: What if this world is real?

He was a Heart-Element. A Heart-Element capable of elevating Danyangzi to immortality! If he had truly, inadvertently tapped into the Primordial One Qi within him, turning out a little gold would be child’s play.

“But…” A flicker of pain and hesitation crossed Li Huowang’s face. “Why now? I had North Wind in my grasp. I was this close to shaking off the hallucination. Why now, of all times…”

The conflict on his face deepened. Once again, he was caught in that impossible division. If this hallucination could be real, then what had all his desperate effort—all his suffering—been for?

“What if this world is real?” The thought burrowed into his skull like a parasitic worm, churning his once-calm mind into chaos.

Li Huowang gritted his teeth and jerked his head up, slamming it against the wall. He sought to drive the unbearable feeling away with pain.

“No. No! NO!”

“Son! What’s wrong? You’re scaring me!”

Sun Xiaoqin was terrified by his outburst. She dropped the food container, lunged forward, and wrapped her arms around his head, stroking his short hair again and again.

The soothing touch stopped him. He closed his eyes in agony.

It wasn’t wasted effort he feared. It wasn’t torture or death. What he feared was slipping back into that crack between reality and illusion—that feeling was worse than anything. If he could be one hundred percent certain this world was real, it would be fine. But he still only had a hypothesis. No matter how convincing it seemed, there was always that sliver of possibility it was false.

“Is that even possible? How could it be? I haven’t even learned the cultivation method. How could I tap into the Primordial One Qi so easily?”

“And it doesn’t add up. If both worlds are real, why can I bring gold into existence here but not there? Does the Heart-Element ability depend on location?”

Li Huowang thought it over, then glared at the bedside table, trying to will a big lump of gold into existence. Nothing happened. He tried to move the table with his mind. Still nothing.

No matter what he tried, the veins bulged on his neck, his bloodshot eyes strained—he looked terrifying.

“Son, please stop scaring me. I can’t take it. What’s wrong with you?”

Sun Xiaoqin’s choked voice made him look up at her. He saw the crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes. It had been so long. He suddenly realized how much older his mother looked.

Even if she were fake, the sight made his heart ache unbearably.

“Mom, I’m fine. Really.” His face softened as he whispered the reassurance. He couldn’t act on impulse, couldn’t indulge baseless speculation—that would only drag him back into the quagmire of his own doubts.

His mind spinning faster, Li Huowang shook his head hard and took a deep breath to steady himself.

If he suspected this world might be real, he should look for solid evidence to disprove it, not spiral into his own thoughts. At least as things stood, the probability that this world was real didn’t seem high.

“Otherwise, how do you explain me being able to bring things from that world here, but not take anything from here back there? Unless… that world is the fake one?”

Li Huowang tilted his head, leaning into Sun Xiaoqin’s embrace, savoring this rare peace. It was something he had longed for in his dreams in that other world.

“Mom, how is Yang Na?” he suddenly asked.

“Yang Na? She’s doing fine.” Sun Xiaoqin’s voice wavered slightly. She quickly masked her panic by pulling a tissue from her bag to wipe his face.

After dealing with those Zuowandao tricksters for so long, Li Huowang could easily tell when Sun Xiaoqin was lying.

“Mom. What happened to Yang Na?” His heart grew heavy, as if he already knew the answer.

Sun Xiaoqin tried to hide it, but he caught every evasion. Pressed repeatedly, she finally let out a helpless sigh.

“Don’t blame her. She hasn’t been able to come lately. Yang Na is a good girl.”

“I’m not blaming her. I just want to know where she is now.”

“She took a leave of absence. Her parents took her to see a doctor.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Li Huowang tensed.

“Nothing serious. Just a little depression. She can’t eat or sleep well.” Sun Xiaoqin picked up the food container and resumed feeding him.

He chewed mechanically, hardly tasting the food. Thinking of the girl who had been by his side since childhood, reduced to this… his heart bled.

She had given him so much. And he had nothing to give her in return.

“It’s fine, son. I hear it’s a minor illness. She can take medicine for it. Don’t blame yourself.”

“Mom… can you unbind me for a moment?” Li Huowang asked suddenly.

Sun Xiaoqin hesitated, the food container in her hands, but then she nodded firmly. “Alright! You must be going crazy, tied up like this every day. Stretching your limbs would do you good.”

She began to untie the restraints on his straitjacket.

Almost immediately, a tense male voice crackled from the surveillance camera in the upper left corner. “Hey! Auntie Sun, what are you doing? Stop!”

“My son’s arms and legs are bound! He’s suffocating! Don’t worry, I’m here! He’s perfectly well-behaved!” Sun Xiaoqin’s movements quickened.

“I’m on my way! I’m coming right now!” The camera went silent.

The moment Li Huowang was free, the door slammed open with a bang. Two burly guards wielding batons burst in.

But faced with Li Huowang—whose limbs were slightly atrophied from lack of exercise—they stopped at the doorway, swallowed hard, and nervously called for reinforcements on their radios.

He was on everyone’s mental list in the entire ward as the violent madman. Notoriously hard to handle.

Li Huowang ignored them. He swayed on his stiff, aching limbs and walked to the window, caged by iron bars.

He looked at the patch of sky beyond the bars, grabbed the railing, and reached out.

A sliver of warm sunlight touched the tips of his unnaturally pale fingers.

Feeling that warmth, a flicker of longing and yearning rose in his heart. “If all of this were real… how wonderful that would be.”