Clown Game
Chapter 317 - 304: Doubt (Six)

Chapter 317: Chapter 304: Doubt (Six)

The sound of a sharp blade slicing through skin and flesh.

Bai Xiong couldn’t believe it as he turned his head.

Before his eyes, Chen Xiao had plunged the knife into his own neck... tracing a curve around his chin, blood sprayed out like a waterfall, and then he collapsed into a pool of blood.

...

He... was dead.

Nonsense, he definitely was dead. And his death was incredibly abrupt, without even a last word! It was as if he had hurriedly called himself here, and then politely greeted him.

"Yo, hello there, I’m about to die."

Then he died...

But what even is this!!! Who does that?

Bai Xiong was utterly bewildered, standing rooted to the spot. He found it absurd, laughable, surreal, inexplicable.

He even thought for a moment it was just a prank, until the gushing blood nearly reached his feet, and the smell of blood jolted him awake. And he realized that the strange guy in front of him was already a corpse.

Bai Xiong quickly braced himself against the wall to prevent himself from collapsing. A wave of panic flooded his mind, but he dashed out of the room before he could even scream.

...

At the front door...

Along the way, Bai Xiong hardly knew how he had made it back. He pushed open his room door frantically.

Song Xuan looked at him, puzzled, "Why did you come back so early today?"

Bai Xiong tried to suppress his fear, "Oh... got off work early."

"Got off early?" His wife paused, suddenly noticing his pale face, "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing... feeling a bit unwell," Bai Xiong said, "Also, I’m hungry!! Hurry up and make something to eat!"

...

Bai Xiong was indeed very hungry.

And very thirsty.

He drank all the drinking water at home, several liters, and he also ate a lot, a whole pot of rice, which should have exceeded the size of his stomach by volume, but he kept eating. The chewed food seemed to vanish somewhere down his esophagus, and his brain casually provided him with a sense of satiety.

Bai Xiong didn’t care, this feeling of fullness was enough, his stomach full, very real.

He didn’t know when he had finished eating, nor did he know if his wife was frightened by his devouring manner. He lay down on the bed, needing rest, needing a night’s time to drive away everything he had seen that day.

The room full of flies, maggots, corpses, magazines, photos, Chen Xiao dying in front of him, and his so-called "shared consciousness" nonsense.

All of this, was just a dream, and everything would be over when he woke up.

He kept telling himself that over and over. And then he closed his eyes.

...and actually fell asleep.

...

The night had passed.

Actually, Bai Xiong didn’t know whether he had slept or just blinked, but the sunlight outside the window told him it was the next day.

His wife was still asleep... Why was she always asleep every time he woke up? It had been this way for many years, without exception.

Getting cleaned up... Why was this mirror placed at such a height, had he not realized when installing it that it couldn’t even fully reflect his face?

Now that it came to it... when was this mirror put here? When was this house renovated? I... when did I marry Song Xuan??

Bai Xiong shook his head in agony. He couldn’t remember many things, as if they had never happened.

"Is this world... real???"

"No, I can’t keep thinking about these strange questions, or I’ll go mad too!"

He quickly stopped his train of thought, put on his clothes, and walked out the door.

It was that ghostly weather again, gloomy and cold, as if the mornings in this city only had this one version. Not many people were outside; Bai Xiong continued to walk toward the breakfast diner almost reflexively...

Those people had already been standing there, waiting for their breakfast, as though they were always here performing a play for someone.

"Two burgers," he said as usual, but suddenly, he seemed to remember something, "No, I want five!"

Bai Xiong changed his order.

...

Quiet.

No one showed any special reaction; perhaps in their thoughts, there was no response to this scenario.

"What am I thinking?"

What’s wrong with this world? —— It seemed like everything was operating in a quiet and steady manner. The chain reaction from that car accident had completely disappeared, with no reports, no discussions. Recalling, it seemed that the bloodstains on the street after work had disappeared at some unknown time. And these people... Do they wear the same clothes every day? Maybe not? Song Xuan? How long have I known her? 5 years? 10 years? She didn’t seem to have changed at all... No, can I not remember what she looked like before?

The meals, those flavors, were they unchanged? The clouds in the sky, did they drift past at the fixed times every day? These bricks on the ground, if carefully looked for, could two identical bricks be found embedded in different streets? If I’m just living in a shared thought, could it be that I’m reliving a period of time, with every year’s chimes, even every weekend at midnight, my memory gets reset to repeat all these experiences... without my knowing?

Bai Xiong couldn’t suppress his thoughts, his head was dizzy!

What’s wrong with this world??

He couldn’t keep thinking.

He felt like he was going insane!!!!!!!

Just like that lunatic, Chen Xiao...

Yes, lunatic!

He just died in front of me!!!!!!!

Truly absurd

...

Suddenly, a car horn honked, and Bai Xiong suddenly came back to his senses. He found himself already at the road in front of the factory, with the red light shining ahead, the burger in his hand had been bitten down by more than half... and all these, he had done unknowingly, as if consciousness was uncoupled from his body.

Bai Xiong took a deep breath, thinking that he must have been influenced by that lunatic, the world is fake? Ha, how could that be.

Thinking this, he quickly took another bite of the burger; its flavor right on the tip of his tongue, the soft texture was incredibly real.

"This world is real."

He told himself...

Afterward, his head subconsciously turned sideways.

...

...

The burger in his hand dropped to the ground with a "plop."

——————

Bai Xiong took a step back, fiercely suppressing his own fear, managing not to scream like a woman.

Next to him, a man holding his factory’s briefcase was mysteriously looking at him.

"What’s wrong with you?"

He asked,

"Oh, you mean these two scars? I accidentally cut myself when I was a kid, scared you, didn’t it? Sorry about that..."