VAP - Chapter 149
Chapter 149: The Intersection of Illusion and Reality (14)
Yue Du was completely unaware of this shift in consciousness. She had activated sleep mode and wouldn’t wake up until the pre-set time… unless disturbed by an external factor.
That’s right, an external factor.
The first thing Yue Du did after waking up was to give the external factor that was getting handsy with her a flick on the forehead.
Ji You clutched her forehead where she’d been flicked, feigning grievance. “That hurts.”
Her acting was off the charts. In the blink of an eye, a shimmering mist of tears welled up in her eyes, as if she were truly in pain.
Yue Du didn’t realize this was Jealousy; she thought it was Little Gluttony who couldn’t sleep and had come to bother her. She glanced at her host’s forehead. It was smooth and fair, without the slightest hint of redness.
“Does it hurt? If it hurts, go to sleep. You won’t feel it when you’re asleep.”
Ji You sighed. “My coming-of-age day isn’t even over yet, and Sister is already so cold to me. I guess acting spoiled is a privilege reserved for children.”
As she spoke, her slender fingers began to misbehave under the thin blanket. Ji You’s body temperature was always on the cool side, yet her touch felt like a sudden, searing flame, making Yue Du jolt. Before she could even move much, Yue Du’s breathing grew ragged.
Yue Du’s gaze was dazed for a moment. She panted softly, and it was a long while before she managed to say, “No, how are you— You’re not…?”
Ji You said, “Of course I have my ways.” She paused, her tone meaningful. “I couldn’t miss today for anything.”
Yue Du had just spent half the day fooling around with Little Gluttony, and now she had celebrated the coming-of-age ceremony again with the newly emerged Jealousy version of her host. By the time her breathing had completely returned to normal, she was too tired to even speak. The excessive pleasure brought a mental fatigue that made her want to immediately activate sleep mode and close her eyes.
Ji You clung to her, not letting her sleep. “Don’t forget, you still owe me my coming-of-age gift.”
Yue Du: “…” She thought that inventive session of passion just now was the gift. So it wasn’t over yet?
After a brief, inexplicable silence, Yue Du said with resignation, “What do you want?”
Ji You lowered her head to Yue Du’s ear and whispered, as if sharing a sweet secret, “I want Sister to like me the most. Only me.”
Yue Du thought to herself, Who else could I like if not you? But before she could speak, she suddenly understood Ji You’s meaning.
The “me” she was referring to was just the consciousness of Jealousy itself, separate from Gluttony, and certainly not including the host’s other facets.
This was a trick question!
Helpless, Yue Du tapped Ji You’s soft cheek with her fingertip. “I like Ah Jiu the most.” The moment she finished speaking, she felt the cheek under her finger puff up indignantly. Ji You whined, “That’s not the answer I wanted to hear… Sister, you promised me. You can’t go back on your word.”
Her words started in a wheedling tone, but toward the end, they became tinged with a cold, sinister jealousy, as if she weren’t targeting her other facets, but a hated enemy.
Yue Du looked seriously into Ji You’s eyes.
They were dark, deep eyes. When that cold, sinister look surfaced from their depths, it was like a black scorpion revealing its sharp stinger, the tip glinting with the poison of jealousy.
The host had never been a harmless character; Yue Du had known that for a long time. But Jealousy was perhaps the only one whose possessiveness was so strong that she genuinely wanted to kill her other selves.
Because she was “Jealousy.”
The original sin itself.
“Of course I can say that,” Yue Du said slowly after a moment of silence, her gaze lowered. “But even if I do, we both know what my true feelings are.”
Ji You leaned against her side and said frankly, “That’s true. But I just want to hear Sister say it. I’ll be happy if I hear it.” As for whether she would save this scene to provoke her other selves later, that was uncertain.
Yue Du felt as if she could see the scorpion’s stinger raised high.
In the end, Yue Du did not grant Ji You’s wish. She just gently steered the conversation away, saying, “Let’s pick a different gift.”
Ji You wasn’t annoyed, as if she had expected her sister’s reaction. So, with almost no pause, she threw out another request: “Then, I want Sister to not get angry with me in the future.”
Can’t get angry = the host has a guilty conscience = she has already done something that would make someone angry.
Yue Du gave a half-smile. “Not planning to keep hiding it from me anymore?”
Ji You obediently shook her head.
Yue Du asked, “Is it about the mental space?”
“…Not just that.”
Yue Du thought she had already figured out most of what her host was hiding, but she didn’t think there was anything in it that would make her angry.
“I won’t get angry.”
Ji You muttered under her breath, “Well, it’s not that you can’t get angry. It’s fine to get mad at my other self. Trust me, she’s much darker than Sister imagines. She’s a black sesame tangyuan—white on the outside, black on the inside.”
Yue Du didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Of course, black sesame tangyuan didn’t exist in this world, but she had redeemed food from her original world several times as a treat for her host, and that included black sesame tangyuan. It hadn’t been many times, yet Ji You had remembered it all this while and was even using it as a descriptor. One could say her resentment ran deep.
Having bad-mouthed her other self in front of her sister, Ji You finally quieted down and let Yue Du go to sleep. Yue Du couldn’t have been happier and immediately activated sleep mode.
Ji You rested her chin on her hand and watched Yue Du intently for a long while. Finally, with a grin, she gave Yue Du’s earlobe a gentle bite and closed her eyes as well.
The next day, Yue Du successfully reaped a Little Gluttony who was puffed up with anger like a pufferfish.
After all, Gluttony hadn’t lost consciousness on her own, allowing Jealousy to take advantage. After being suppressed in the pitch-black depths of her consciousness for a whole night, she floated back up on her own and angrily threw the unruly Jealousy back into the mental space. The two consciousnesses were not that different in strength; if Gluttony got serious, it would be difficult for Jealousy to win against her.
“Sister, did that person say anything last night? Did she bad-mouth me? I knew she wouldn’t behave—” Ji You said, gnashing her teeth. She was so angry that tears welled in her eyes, making her look quite pitiable.
Perhaps because her age was a mere fraction of her other selves’, and because she had been spoiled by the System since she was young, Gluttony always had an innocent and natural air about her. Even if she was dark on the inside, it didn’t show on the surface—the complete opposite of the dangerous and profound “Ah Jiu”.
When getting angry in front of Yue Du, she absolutely couldn’t show too much danger or pressure. She had to seem more childish, her anger leaning toward a pout. Ji You was well-versed in this art, and it wasn’t long before Yue Du was holding her, coaxing and comforting her.
As for the “dangerous aura from the abyss,” the “terrifying air of wanting to devour her opponent,” and the “dark background music and grand display befitting a final boss at full rage”—of course, she would save all that for her clash with Jealousy back in the mental space. To display it in front of her sister would be foolish.
Once Ji You had aggrievedly stopped complaining, Yue Du tapped the tip of her host’s nose and smiled. “Alright, are you hungry? Let’s have breakfast first.”
Ji You was sullen. “I want to eat what Sister makes.”
Yue Du hesitated. “Me? My cooking isn’t very good. I’d rather not make you suffer.”
Ji You: “Sister’s cooking is the best in the world!”
She said it so decisively, as if it were true, but Yue Du knew her own limits. Making Ji You eat her cooking instead of the food from the System store felt like child abuse to her.
But Ji You insisted. Yue Du had no choice and reluctantly baked some sweet potato cakes.
The sweet potatoes here were called “white potatoes,” but their appearance had nothing to do with the color white. They looked like pitch-black blocks of wood. Fortunately, their taste was decent… but unfortunately, in Yue Du’s hands, they became plain and unremarkable. Oh, and a little burnt.
Ji You, however, ate them happily. She finished all the sweet potato cakes and then asked Yue Du with an unsatisfied air if there were any more. Yue Du looked at the burnt black crumbs left on the baking pan and said guiltily that there were none left.
Watching Ji You eat the delicious delicacies redeemed from the System store, only to then raise her chin and comment that they weren’t as good as what her sister made, Yue Du couldn’t help but feel a heartfelt sense of shame, as well as a deep respect for her host.
As expected, love makes one blind and also ruins one’s sense of taste. It could even make a good, obedient child tell barefaced lies.
After the meal, Ji You was clingy with her sister for a while before saying she needed to catch up on sleep and returning to her room.
Forced to sleep for a whole night—what sleep was there to catch up on? Yue Du knew she was probably going back to her mental space to settle scores with Jealousy, so she didn’t say anything more, curious to see what Ji You would work out with herself.
Ji You flopped onto the bed and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was already inside her mental space.
Ji You’s mental space manifested as a quiet forest. Giant trees with straight trunks soared into the clouds, their branches lush with verdant leaves. The bark was a beautiful, pure white, as lustrous as white marble.
The branches and leaves of the trees blocked out the sky, making it feel cool and secluded underneath, but not deathly still. Besides the deep green shade that symbolized life, there were also animals inhabiting the forest, like white rabbits and spotted deer, moving about. A clear stream flowed through the woods, its gurgling sound like the clinking of shattered jade.
A complex of white temples stood silently in the depths of the forest, yet it didn’t seem abrupt or out of place, like a divine relic lost in a primeval forest. Wisps of mist floated through the woods. There were only a few thin tendrils in front of the temples, but it grew thicker farther out, until the outermost layer was completely shrouded in white fog. It was impossible to see anything more through the wall of mist. The swirling fog made it seem like an ethereal fairyland.
No matter who came, they would never guess this was a mental space and not a real place.
Only its master was almost the polar opposite of the space’s atmosphere.
Gluttony stood at the outer edge of the forest. The same Gluttony who seemed childishly cute even when angry in front of Yue Du now had an ice-cold expression. Her long, wine-red hair hung down, looking ominously tinged with the color of blood from a certain angle.
Facing the territory on the other side, shrouded in white fog, she said coldly, “Come out.”
After a few seconds, an unhurried reply came from the other side. “What, done with your fake crying for Sister? Now you’re here to settle scores with me?”
Gluttony gave a cold smile. “Fake crying? With Sister, all my emotions are genuine. Do you think everyone is as hypocritical as you, Jealousy?”
She enunciated the last two words with particular force, the mockery practically overflowing from her voice.
Provoked, Jealousy’s voice instead grew softer, whispering, “When it comes to hypocrisy, the feeling is mutual.”
Gluttony didn’t answer immediately. She waved her hand, and the wall of fog blocking her way began to slowly disperse. Jealousy sensed her movement and also took a step forward on her side, hastening the fog’s dissolution.
When the white fog gradually dissipated, two identical figures stood facing each other. Between them was a deep pool. It wasn’t large, and its outer edges were a deep jade-green, but the center was nearly pitch-black, a testament to the water’s depth.
This was the deep space within the mental space that symbolized the subconscious. It was the place of deep sleep shared by the two consciousnesses, and it was also where Gluttony had been thrown last night.
Jealousy glanced airily at the pool’s surface and gave Gluttony a light jab. “Didn’t you sleep comfortably in there last night? Why use catching up on sleep as an excuse again today?”
Gluttony said, “You dare bring that up—”
“Why wouldn’t I dare? After all, I was very happy last night.” Jealousy tapped the corner of her mouth, her meaning clear.
Behind her was also a forest. At first glance, it looked identical to the one behind Gluttony, and in fact, it was.
Every giant tree, every stream, and even every little beast moving through the woods was the same.
They stood at opposite ends of the deep pool, like a pair of mirror images.
“No matter how many times I see it, this scene is always so unpleasant,” Jealousy said.
For once, Gluttony agreed. “Yes. I can’t believe I’ve tolerated it for this long.”
“So you don’t plan to tolerate it anymore, is that right?”
“Aren’t you thinking the same thing?”
“Yes. Because I am you, and you are me. So we both know.”
Jealousy turned her head, staring thoughtfully at her other self. She suddenly let out a short laugh. “The reason you won’t tolerate it anymore today is because of last night, isn’t it? Want to know what happened? I won’t tell you, and Sister won’t either. It’s my and Sister’s, sec-ret.”
The next moment, Gluttony’s eyes widened.
In an instant, the mental space transformed. The jade-green leaves turned to black ash, the streams were dyed with blood, the beasts scattered into dust, and all the trees withered and twisted simultaneously. Pale sunlight, no longer blocked, shone down directly, yet it seemed to make the dead forest even more deathly still.
Even the deep pool glowed with a bloody light, gradually solidifying from the shore toward the center. Only the temples on either side remained as they were, as if untouched by time.
“—Come on. I knew this would happen sooner or later.”
They spoke at the same time. Because their timbres were identical and their speaking speed was synchronized, it sounded like a single person speaking loudly.
Wisps of mist coiled up again. Under the cover of the mist, two forces quietly struck at each other, carrying over a decade of accumulated coldness, showing no mercy.
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