Clown Game
Chapter 314 - 301: Doubts (Part 3)

Chapter 314: Chapter 301: Doubts (Part 3)

"Are you real?" Bai Xiong repeated the extremely stupid question, "What the hell are you talking about? You’re standing right here!"

"Yeah, I know," the homeless man nodded, "You might not understand what I mean. Look, I breathe, and it even hurts when I slap my own face... But I always feel like something’s not right. For instance, I shouldn’t possibly know you, yet you give me this bizarre sense of familiarity. As if we’ve known each other a long time and we’re even on good terms."

Bai Xiong looked at the guy in front of him with a disgusted expression, "I don’t want to have anything to do with you. I’m not crazy!"

"Maybe you are, you just don’t know it..."

Bai Xiong was clearly becoming unhappy, "I don’t want to listen to your crazy talk anymore."

"But you stopped!" the other immediately said.

"What??"

"You stopped... You were already at the corner of the street and as soon as I called you, you stopped."

"So what?"

"And you’ve talked to me for this long. Normally, you wouldn’t listen to me say all this. I’m just a homeless man, dirty all over. Look at these scars, nobody has good feelings toward me. If there wasn’t a reason, do you think you would be standing here right now?"

By now, the homeless man had walked up to him, and Bai Xiong could clearly see his disgustingly awful face... So, he hesitated for a moment... Yeah, why would I stand here listening to him spout nonsense?

At that thought, he immediately turned around to leave.

But the other clearly didn’t want to let it go just like that, "Every day when you pass by, you look at me subconsciously. In fact, you used to know me, you just don’t know it, and I’m the same."

"Sicko!" Bai Xiong cursed without looking back and quickened his steps.

"I saw you this morning, on the road, at that car accident, casually eating breakfast in front of that person’s corpse!!"

Bai Xiong didn’t respond to him, letting the sharp voice pass behind him, while comforting himself that it was just a bit of sleepiness in the morning, just a slow reaction.

"I’m so hungry! Hungry enough to go crazy!!" That person was still shouting relentlessly, like a madman.

"Dammit, what do I care if you’re hungry!" Bai Xiong cursed inwardly. By now, he had walked a considerable distance, and the voice through the alley was fading.

"I feel like something’s wrong, but I don’t know what it is... Anyway, I haven’t eaten in over a week, haven’t had any water!! So hungry, thirsty enough to go mad, but I’m still alive!! I can still shout... I can still..."

Bai Xiong broke into a jog, escaping the range of the voice. He didn’t know what he was afraid of, he just wanted to get home quickly, back to a real life.

...

...

What normally took 5 minutes, Bai Xiong ran in less than two, heaving as he pushed open the door of his home, wiping his forehead subconsciously.

Then he looked at his palm somewhat blankly... In fact, there was no sweat at all.

"What’s wrong?"

Song Xuan walked out of the kitchen, still wearing that apron, holding a soup spoon in the book.

"Uh... nothing, it’s just that I ran into... No, I mean how come I’m not sweating."

Song Xuan frowned, "Sick!" She eyed him suspiciously, then turned and walked back into the kitchen.

.....

Dinner was ready,

very suddenly.

Bai Xiong sat on the sofa, not even realizing how much time had passed before the food was brought to the table. It was still roughly the same, he had been eating it for many years, and could recall the taste with his eyes closed.

Exactly the same as when he ate it.

"Why are you acting so strange today?" Song Xuan pushed a bowl of rice in front of him and asked.

Bai Xiong looked at the rice, piled up grain by grain, when suddenly the thought occurred to him that if he ate it grain by grain, he might never finish the bowl. He quickly snapped back to reality, "Oh, it’s nothing. Just... what do you think a person would look like if they didn’t eat for a week?"

"Huh? Why are you asking that?"

"Just a random thought."

"They’d definitely starve to death, or at least be half-dead," Song Xuan sat down and replied casually, as if chatting about everyday matters.

Picking up his chopsticks, Bai Xiong stared at the food but had no appetite: "Then... if someone went more than a week without eating anything, not even drinking water, would they still be jumping around and even able to shout?"

"Of course not, they’d die without water. You’re not a kid anymore. Okay, stop your wild thoughts and eat your meal!"

"Oh... eating..." Bai Xiong said absentmindedly, but made no move to eat. He just sat there blankly and then suddenly put down his chopsticks, "... I... want to lose weight!"

...

...

From that day on, Bai Xiong’s lifestyle changed, or rather, he began intentionally doing some strange things.

Firstly, he told his wife that she needn’t bring his portion of dinner anymore. Although Song Xuan didn’t understand why he wanted to lose weight, she didn’t stop him, perhaps thinking he wanted something to do because life was too boring.

Secondly, he completely gave up on transportation, running to and from work around several blocks every day, and he also worked extremely hard as if he intentionally wanted to exhaust himself.

Lastly... he gave up breakfast and lunch as well.

Bai Xiong didn’t know why he was doing this. The behavior was absurd, unreasonable, stupid—he was well aware of that, but he just felt like doing it and had to do it. It was like looking at the homeless man subconsciously, as if the real self inside was pleading, seeking a lethal way out to keep on living.

Some voice was desperately, urgently trying to tell him the truth that was hidden away.

But he couldn’t hear it.

...

So a week passed.

Dragging his exhausted body, Bai Xiong came to the alley again,

He was very hungry and very thirsty, these thoughts screaming in his head, urging him to eat or drink something with the terror of near death, but Bai Xiong did not comply. He found it strange how he could possess such strong willpower, which seemed impossible for an office worker.

However, this was not as surprising as the fact that "he was still alive."

What... exactly is wrong with me?

He felt puzzled, frightened, perplexed, but these emotions were also incredibly stiff,

The feeling was too strange.

He had to know the truth.

...

Bai Xiong arrived at the corner where the homeless man usually stayed.

But there, no one was present anymore. In their place, on the wall, a huge arrow spray-painted, pointed toward a pile of rubbish next to it.

Bai Xiong instantly knew what it meant. He ran over and began frantically searching through the trash.

Finally, he found a plank of wood.

On it was a telephone number written in spray paint.