My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 775 Unrecognizably Different

Chapter 775: Chapter 775 Unrecognizably Different

Li Huang’s parents began to recount the past they had always been reluctant to speak of after watching Han Fei’s dance.

"My mother passed away when I was very young, and my father was the pillar of our family. At that time, his dancing was not recognized by the mainstream. Plus, he had a bad temper, was stubborn and refused to bow his head, so the troupes he worked with always relegated him to the edges of the stage in supporting roles. Later, due to some conflicts, my father was forced to leave the troupe, and he could only maintain our family’s livelihood by taking on odd jobs every day."

"We were really poor back then, but my father always taught us that even in poverty we should not lose our dignity, because if we did, the light in our eyes would fade away."

"My father was truly a good man. When new neighbors moved in, and he found out that the couple was blind, he would actively offer help. In the beginning, he even asked us children to spend more time with the neighbor’s kid and include him in our play."

"It was then that I met him, that child from a visually impaired family, whose name was Gao Xing."

When Li Huang’s father mentioned this name, all color drained from his face, which turned pale in an instant.

"Gao Xing’s father had become blind from a car accident when he was a child, and he lost the hearing in one ear. When he grew up, he married a woman who was blind from birth. Their life was difficult, shrouded in perpetual darkness, until Gao Xing was born."

"The child’s arrival was like a beam of light shining into a dark cell, and both parents regarded him as a gift from heaven."

"Raised by his blind parents, Gao Xing had all of their best qualities: kindness, gentleness, and even at a young age, he was very considerate and caring towards others."

"He knew he was different from his parents and got used to communicating with them in ways other than ’seeing’. He would sit next to his parents and describe his new friends’ appearances, place the clay figures he made into his father’s palm so his family could guess who he had molded by touch, and brought fresh flowers home so their scent could fill the little secluded house."

"In the era we lived in, it was rare for blind people to go out on their own. Gao Xing’s parents often stayed home, earning a meager income by handcrafting woven goods."

"They would only leave the house once a week, delivering the crafted items to traders and then going to the market to buy daily necessities."

"When their family went out, Gao Xing would be their eyes, leading his mom and dad along the sidewalks, amidst the stares of others."

"The blind cannot see the faces with varying expressions, but Gao Xing could. From a young age, he witnessed the exploitation by petty traders who would speak warm words but had scornful looks in their eyes."

"It was then that Gao Xing understood a truth—he had to work twice as hard as other children to live as ordinarily as anyone else."

"Time passed, and Gao Xing started school, where he met many children his age and began to change slowly."

"While his parents taught him kindness, they also etched a sense of unease about the outside world deep into his heart."

"When other children talked about various things, Gao Xing realized he had nothing; when other children were picked up by their parents’ cars, Gao Xing had to wait alone until the end; when other children were bullied at school, their parents would rush to their defense, but Gao Xing could only endure. He didn’t want to trouble his parents, nor did he want other children to know his parents were different from theirs."

Speaking of which, Li Huang’s father sighed softly, "The schools at the edge of the Old City District are too backward, one teacher has to look after too many kids, and simply can’t keep up. Whether Gao Xing was bullied or not, I’m not sure, but I know his family could only afford that kind of school."

"This child’s experiences have indeed been rough, but not quite what I had imagined." Han Fei was looking for the mastermind behind the three major crime organizations, a bonafide super criminal.

"Further on, there was the redevelopment and demolition of the Old City District, the spread of automation and mechanization; low-skilled labor was no longer needed, and the blind couple gradually stopped receiving orders."

"My father was very kind-hearted; after he learned about the neighbor’s situation, he pretended he knew a few bosses and would buy some handmade goods from the neighbor’s home every month. At that time, our house was already full of their handicrafts stored under the bed."

"Life went on like this for a long time, Xinhu started building Smart New City, two technology giants rose, the Old City District gradually fell into disuse, its peripheries were replanned as remote suburbs, and fewer and fewer people lived there. We grew up in this kind of environment."

"Around the time I was in junior high, one night, my father suddenly knocked on my door, entered my room very seriously, and then said something to me that I still can’t forget to this day."

"He warned me sternly not to have any more contact with Gao Xing’s family and mentioned that we would be moving away from here soon."

"I didn’t know what my father had seen or heard; I just felt it was very strange at the time."

"The next day, when I went to school, I ran into Gao Xing. He had become even thinner, and there were injuries under his long sleeves."

"He greeted me with a smile, just as before, his expression bright and enthusiastic, his eyes full of kindness and joy."

"I wanted to go over to him, but then I remembered my father’s warning and didn’t respond to his greeting, just walked away. I could see the surprise and a hint of sadness on his face; besides me, he seemed to have no other friends in the compound."

"Everything changed three months later, while I was fully preparing for my entrance exams, Gao Xing’s parents were murdered. The killer was a habitual burglar who did not expect to be discovered by Gao Xing’s parents, a violent fight ensued, and the thief killed Gao Xing’s parents by accident."

"I was especially upset when I heard the news, and I wanted to go and console Gao Xing."

"At his parents’ funeral, I saw Gao Xing for the last time."

"He said that he would eventually live in the tallest and most luxurious building in the city, and if he couldn’t earn everyone’s respect, he would make everyone afraid of him."

"I couldn’t understand his thinking, just like I couldn’t understand how such a kind-hearted child could gradually become what he is now."

"At that time, I still felt very sorry for Gao Xing, but my father seemed to dislike him, didn’t even attend his parents’ funeral, and chose to move away immediately."

"Ever since we left the compound, our family seemed to have a change in fortune. My father’s dance began to be recognized, he earned more money than we ever dared to dream of, we no longer had to worry about living, we moved from the edge of the Old City District to its core, and from there to Smart New City..."

Li Huang’s father held his wife’s hand, "Just when I was about to forget about Gao Xing, my father suddenly came to me one night and told me a very terrifying thing."

"At first, when the thief broke into the house and stole from us, it seemed that everything was related to Gao Xing."

"He used the thief’s hand to kill his blind parents who raised him."

The words of Li Huang’s father sent shivers down the spine, and Li Huang, standing beside Han Fei, was hearing this for the first time as well.

"Not long after my father told me this news, he disappeared."

"On the third day of his disappearance, we received a pair of eyeballs and a note that read: ’Now you should understand me, right?’"

"Since that time, my family’s situation has gotten worse and worse, as if all our luck had run out. We failed in everything we did, until Li Huang grew up, and then our home finally returned to normal."

The incidents from the past, which Li Huang’s parents didn’t want to bring up anymore, became like a needle buried in a sponge. The harder they tried to remember, the more it hurt.

"Were you threatened by Gao Xing? I remember the police were supposed to help you look for someone, but you refused their assistance."

"I’m sorry, I’ve told you everything I could." Li Huang’s father looked at Han Fei, "Keep your distance from him, anyone who gets close to him, whether they mean well or ill, they all die."

"I’ll be careful."

"You don’t understand!" Li Huang’s father grew agitated, "He’s different from the criminals you’ve pursued before. There’s a fundamental difference! He..."

Li Huang’s father was interrupted mid-sentence by an anomalous noise from the phone, as if a vase had been blown over and shattered.

"Anyway, don’t try to find him. It’s best to abandon the thought altogether." Li Huang’s father spoke with resolve, "If it weren’t for the fact that you’d previously saved Li Huang, and could dance my father’s dance, I wouldn’t be telling you any of this."

The video call was cut off, and Li Huang’s house became very quiet.

"I’m hearing this information about that person for the first time, my parents never told me these things." Li Huang picked up her phone, she had tried her best to persuade her parents.

"They’ve already told me a lot." Han Fei called Li Xue again, hoping she could help investigate Gao Xing.

Minutes later, Li Xue brought grim news to Han Fei; there was no such person as Gao Xing in the citizen information database, and the police had investigated the words Li Huang’s father had said, finding no existence of Gao Xing in any data.

In the files that the police had found, the blind couple had indeed died at the hands of a thief, but they had no children in life. Gao Xing seemed to be someone Li Huang’s father had fabricated.

"Something’s not right, where’s the problem in all this?" Han Fei frowned, deep in thought, when his phone vibrated again. Liuli Cat was calling, "What’s happened?"

"Caibao was attacked! The assailant is no ordinary player!"

"Is he okay?" Han Fei stood up immediately, asking worriedly.

"He was targeted in the game. I’ll let Brother Huang Ying explain," Liuli Cat handed the phone over to Huang Ying.

"Han Fei, you’ve provoked some very dangerous people this time, the infamous Cocoon House Hackers!" Huang Ying’s voice was low, "I installed some plugins in Liuli Cat’s Game Box for virus detection. Those hackers aren’t trying to destroy Liuli Cat and Caibao’s game accounts; they’re trying to trace back through those accounts to find Liuli Cat in reality!"

"Perfect Life is controlled by Smart Brain, it shouldn’t be easy for these hackers to succeed."

"The information barrier is a protection set up by Xinhu’s network security division for all citizens. Only hackers who have successfully breached it earn the title of Cocoon House Hacker. They’re extremely skilled, and this time it seems to be a joint effort by many people. I can’t understand why so many vicious characters are after a virtual image of Sunshine Boy," Huang Ying sounded somewhat incredulous.

"How likely do you think it is that Caibao and Liuli Cat’s information has been leaked?"

"There’s no risk of leakage for now, but it’s hard to say in the future." Huang Ying had a security assessment done specifically for this incident, which also served as a reminder to him.

"The online preliminaries should be ending soon. Give me that virtual image; I’ll play the role from now on." Han Fei didn’t want anyone to be harmed because of him.

"Alright, I’ll inform Caibao."

...

Thick curtains blocked out all sunlight, and even at noon, this musty-smelling room remained devoid of any light.

In an old building in the Xinhu Old City District, a young man was counting money on the table, not having seen cash for a long time.

"Are you sure about the Cocoon House Hacker you contacted for me? There’s no mistake in the person?" Across from the young man sat a man wearing a Guinea Pig mask, his gaze sinister as he scrutinized the report in his hands.

"Positive. Underneath that male avatar should be a female gamer. We hired the best psychological analyst who observed all her footage and deduced her personality and habits," the young man said without lifting his head.

"Could I have been mistaken? But why did he just happen to appear so conveniently? And chose to be in the same exhibition hall as Ye Xian?" The Guinea Pig read from the report, "Female, introverted, somewhat socially anxious in front of strangers, but loud and careless after getting comfortable..."

The Sunshine Boy in the report was vastly different from the one the Guinea Pig had in mind – as different as a seal from a sea monster.

"This is too strange, it seems I need to go there personally and check things out."