Chapter 48: Killing Your Childhood Self with Your Own Hands

Going to an amusement park on one's fifth birthday is actually not a very uncommon thing.

In many happy families, children go out to play every year on their birthdays. Compared to an orphan like Lu Yuan, however, going to an amusement park for a birthday felt exceedingly rare.

"Why did you go to the amusement park by yourself?"

Lu Yuan's tone softened considerably.

Perhaps because he found the shadow of his own childhood in this child, Lu Yuan felt a trace of warmth and familiarity.

"I'm an orphan, so I could only go by myself. I was so smart back then; the uncle at the amusement park said I was too young and didn't have a parent with me, so he wouldn't let me in."

"I found a human trafficker and lied to him, telling him I couldn't find my home. He bought me food and treated me to games."

When he reached this point, the eerie entity's face was full of pride.

The shock in Lu Yuan's eyes grew even more intense.

The main reason Lu Yuan remembered the events of his fifth birthday so clearly was that it had been a crowning moment of his childhood.

Not only did he successfully sneak into the amusement park, but he also ran a human trafficker completely in circles.

Lu Yuan had never shared this incident with anyone else.

Only he himself knew.

Looking at his own body before him, Lu Yuan's thoughts drifted into a daze, as if he had been transported back to that fifth birthday once again.

"Is your name really Lu Yuan?"

An absurd thought suddenly sprouted in Lu Yuan's mind.

The eerie entity nodded seriously.

His expression didn't look like he was lying.

Lu Yuan's eyes flickered slightly. Without continuing to speak, he shouted the bloody characters before his eyes once more: "How can I take back my own body?"

This child could also see the bloody characters, though from his perspective, the characters were inverted, and being a five-year-old, he didn't recognize all of them.

The bloody characters twisted for a long time without providing an answer.

Lu Yuan was silent for a moment.

"How long have you lived here?"

Perhaps...

This child truly was Lu Yuan.

Hearing Lu Yuan's question, the child frowned and tried to recall for a long time. A young child's memory was inferior to an adult's, and thinking always required a long time: "I don't know. I only know I am waiting for someone."

Waiting for someone?

Lu Yuan's eyes flickered slightly.

The effect of the skill [Teacher's Majesty] was still active. Without Lu Yuan needing to actively ask, the child would blurt out everything he knew.

"It was also on my fifth birthday."

"I secretly played in the amusement park for a day. In the afternoon, when I was about to sneak out, I met an old grandfather."

"That old grandfather told me I wasn't an orphan, that I had parents, but they couldn't come to pick me up for the time being, and told me to wait."

The child wore an innocent expression.

Lu Yuan shook his head.

Perhaps only a child would believe such words, but Lu Yuan was already an adult; he no longer held any extravagant hope of finding his parents.

Lu Yuan grasped the key point in those words: "Was it that old grandfather who told you to keep waiting here?"

The child nodded: "He said as long as I wait, my mom and dad will come to pick me up and take me home."

Lu Yuan's first thought was An Shi.

But very quickly, Lu Yuan dismissed this judgment himself.

If this child truly was his younger self, then his fifth birthday was more than a decade ago. Counting back over ten years, An Shi would have been at most in his thirties at that time.

In his thirties, he would be a middle-aged man, not an old grandfather.

"Do you know what that old grandfather's name is?"

"I don't know. I only know his surname is An."

Surname An?

It seemed it was related to An Shi.

Even if it wasn't An Shi himself, it should be someone connected to An Shi.

The child was gradually growing accustomed to chatting with Lu Yuan, appearing more and more relaxed, and the wariness and vigilance in his eyes diminished greatly.

This eerie dream world had no daytime, only endless night.

For a five-year-old child, his concept of time was inherently weak, and having been locked up here all this time, naturally he had no idea how much time had passed.

Physically, he was already an adult.

Psychologically, however, his mindset remained permanently frozen at the age of five.

"You've waited for so long, don't you think that old grandfather was lying to you?" Lu Yuan couldn't bear to shatter the child's inner expectations, but continuing to wait like this held zero hope.

Although the child claimed with his mouth that it wasn't so, his evasive eyes still exposed his inner anxiety: "That old grandfather is a good person. He donated a lot of money to the orphanage. Grandfather the director told us he must be a good person!"

Lu Yuan's eyes were complex.

Actually...

What Lu Yuan wanted to say was that the director of that orphanage back then was no good thing either.

Ever since he started remembering things at age five, Lu Yuan's impression of the orphanage had grown increasingly worse, until finally he simply refused the orphanage's financial aid, going out to work and earn money for his own schooling himself.

Shortly after Lu Yuan entered middle school, that orphanage was forced to shut down due to a massive scandal.

The truth was cruel.

To a child whose memory was forever trapped on his fifth birthday, this kind of truth was far more cruel than having been born without parents.

"Who did that old grandfather ask you to wait for?"

A nameless intuition arose in Lu Yuan's heart.

The person this child was waiting for was him.

"A psychological counselor."

"The old grandfather said a psychological counselor would come to find me, take me away from this psychological clinic, and help me find my parents."

As expected!

Lu Yuan did not feel surprised.

Many things had an obscure sense of predestination, but what made it somewhat difficult for Lu Yuan to accept was that his life from the age of five had already been completely mapped out by someone else.

Just like a steadily operating machine.

Without errors.

Without pauses.

It seemed his own life had never been within his own planning, but rather a "Truman Show" masterminded entirely by someone else.

Lu Yuan slowly stood up, walked over to the side of his own body, and sat down shoulder to shoulder with it: "You can see the bloody characters in the air, right?"

The child nodded.

Lu Yuan called out in his heart.

The next second, bloody characters materialized in mid-air.

[Respected psychological counselor, you have yet to contribute to building a harmonious and stable society today. Please keep up the good work.]

Although the five-year-old child didn't recognize all the characters, he recognized the four characters for "psychological counselor."

The child instantly became excited: "Are you a psychological counselor?"

Lu Yuan nodded.

Right at that moment, the duration of the skill [Teacher's Majesty] expired. The child controlled Lu Yuan's body and jumped up with excitement: "You've finally come to find me."

"Can you take me to see my parents?"

The child's eyes were filled with yearning.

Lu Yuan opened his mouth to speak, but stopped.

Until this very moment, Lu Yuan finally confirmed one thing.

The child hiding inside this body was none other than his younger self—to be precise, his pre-five-year-old self.

Lu Yuan was already in his twenties; he had long lost interest in searching for his biological parents, feeling that living alone was quite fine as well.

Yet for his five-year-old self, the greatest wish was to find his parents.

At this very moment, facing his younger self's greatest wish, facing the boundless longing in the eyes of that five-year-old self, he was about to personally kill off the hope of his childhood.