Infinite Nightmares

Chapter 325: Chapter 321: Real or Fake

The impostor was standing right at the door and had overheard his plan to escape. Zhang Wenda knew he was in deep trouble.

Without giving the man a chance to make a move, Zhang Wenda shot into action. He grabbed Song Jianguo and bolted for the door at top speed. Just as he reached the threshold, an icy voice rang out from behind him. “Wait.”

The atmosphere in the room instantly solidified. Time itself seemed to stop. In the small room, Zhang Wenda could hear his own heart pounding with perfect clarity.

‘So, it’s not going to be that easy to leave, huh? In that case, let’s do this the hard way! I’d like to see what the enemies in this place even look like!’

Zhang Wenda gritted his teeth. He spun around, bracing for an attack from the fake uncle, but instead, a mesh bag full of groceries landed at his feet. It was filled with instant noodles, canned yellow peaches, canned braised pork, and a few Red Fuji apples bearing red stickers.

“Take this for the road. Be careful out there, and don’t let anyone else see you.”

Staring at the items, Zhang Wenda felt a tremor in his heart. A powerful emotion surged through him.

Logic told him this uncle was a fake, yet he felt an uncontrollable urge to say a few more words to the man.

In the end, it was Song Jianguo who acted. She slung the mesh bag over her back, grabbed Zhang Wenda, and pulled him out of her home. “Hurry, we’re out of time!”

Dragged out the door, Zhang Wenda followed Song Jianguo as they weaved quickly through the hallways, searching for the so-called “Room 310.”

It was clear she was even more anxious than Zhang Wenda. She was drenched in sweat from the effort but refused to give up.

“Why are you helping me?” Zhang Wenda asked again. He was afraid she was deceiving him, but at that moment, he was even more terrified that she was helping him with all her heart.

Song Jianguo shot Zhang Wenda a harsh glare. “You don’t want to get out of here, is that it? Is now really the time to be asking such pointless questions?”

Zhang Wenda fell silent. With a light swipe of his finger, the gate to his Inner World opened. Everyone inside emerged, joining him in the search for Room 310.

They ran into a few neighbors along the way, but none of them seemed to have any intention of stopping Zhang Wenda. In fact, they would even make small talk with him.

Logically, having so many people searching should have been extremely efficient, but as time ticked away, they came up empty-handed.

Zhang Wenda glanced at his watch. Only five minutes left before time was up.

In that instant, everyone who was aware of Zhang Wenda’s thoughts quickened their pace.

Five minutes. Four. Three. The time dragged on, and Zhang Wenda’s consciousness began to grow hazy. ‘This place isn’t so bad, actually,’ he thought.

SLAP! A sharp crack echoed as Song Jianguo’s palm connected with Zhang Wenda’s face. “It’s not time to give up! Don’t you dare give up!”

She seemed to genuinely care about him.

Zhang Wenda stared at her incredibly familiar face and asked the same question again. “Who are you, really? Why are you helping me?”

Song Jianguo said nothing. She just stared at Zhang Wenda, her eyes brimming with tears, trembling with a look of pure desperation.

“Found it!” A voice made both of them snap their heads around. It was one of the clowns, standing by a window in the stairwell. He was pointing with his right hand at some quilts hanging out to dry on a clothesline.

One of them, a blue quilt, had large characters stitched into it: Room 310.

So Room 310 wasn’t necessarily a room. It could be something else entirely.

As everyone rushed downstairs, they saw a few women laughing and chatting as they came to take in the quilts. The bright sky was also rapidly changing color. ‘It’s time.’

As Zhang Wenda stood before the quilt, unsure how to enter this “door,” some children playing nearby gave him the answer. They roughhoused their way right through the hanging quilts, earning a chorus of scolding from the women.

“Hurry, there’s no time left!” Song Jianguo urged anxiously.

But Zhang Wenda didn’t move. Even as the final moment approached, he didn’t let his guard down. Her urgency seemed a little too intentional, making him suspicious.

‘Could this whole thing be a trap set by the neighborhood? Is this all just to lure me into an ambush?’

Fortunately, Zhang Wenda had already considered this possibility. At his command, one of the clowns stepped forward and walked straight through the middle of the quilt.

Its body was quite large, but as it passed into the quilt, it vanished instantly.

A few seconds later, the clown reappeared. It turned its head toward Zhang Wenda and made an “OK” gesture. “Safe.”

“Go, hurry! There’s no time left!” Song Jianguo urged again, her voice fraught with anxiety.

Zhang Wenda stood before the quilt and looked back at Song Jianguo one more time.

She really was helping him. Even if she wasn’t the real Song Jianguo, she held no malice toward him.

“Let’s go together.”

“I can’t leave this place, how many times do I have to tell you! I’m a fake!” She rushed over and quickly shoved the mesh bag of food into Zhang Wenda’s hands.

“If you’re a fake, then why are you helping me with everything you’ve got?” Zhang Wenda shouted as the sky finally went dark.

Tears streaming down her face, Song Jianguo rushed forward and pressed her lips deeply against his. “Because I love you! I don’t want you to die!”

At that exact moment, the thirty-minute mark hit. A powerful feeling of attachment washed over him. Suddenly, Zhang Wenda didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay here, in this perfect world where everything was wonderful.

‘Everything I know is here. Everything is so perfect. Why can’t I just stay?’

The feeling was so intense, so powerful that he almost threw open his arms to embrace the Song Jianguo before him.

There were no enemies here, no battles, but the place had other ways of making Zhang Wenda stay.

But just in the nick of time, a bitter, astringent black liquid was forced into his mouth by seven or eight cat paws. The contingency plan he’d set up earlier had finally kicked in.

As the vile taste filled his mouth, everything began to vanish—all the people nearby, and the sense of familiarity in his heart, which was now rapidly fading.

In that instant, Song Jianguo dissipated like smoke. A heart-wrenching pain shot through Zhang Wenda.

A red monster then rushed out and, with a furious roar, shoved Zhang Wenda forcefully through the quilt just as night fell.

His world turned upside down. A feeling of weightlessness washed over him, and then, with a loud SPLASH, he was thrown into icy-cold water.

The shock of the cold water snapped Zhang Wenda back to his senses. He suddenly understood: he had nearly fallen right into their trap.

If he hadn’t prepared ahead of time, he really would have been trapped there for good.

Wiping the water from his face, Zhang Wenda felt a wave of lingering fear. He hadn’t expected the place to be so insidious, capable of creating people he knew just to manipulate him.

Thank goodness he had made preparations. He had finally escaped that strange place.

But just then, an apple floated on the surface of the water, drifting slowly past him.

Zhang Wenda reached out and picked up the apple. Its texture and fragrance proved it was real.

He had clearly left, and he was clearly no longer under its influence, so why hadn’t this apple disappeared along with the fake Song Jianguo?

A horrifying thought suddenly surfaced in Zhang Wenda’s mind. ‘Could it be… that they were all real? That they all actually existed?’