<h4>Chapter 1554: College Student Wu Yiliu</h4>


    Lin Sanjiu knew that she was still trapped within Wu Yiliu, this stranger''s body, having just escaped into the stormy forest with him, still talking to Abby—but in the next instant, the scene suddenly changed.


    The vivid, real dream of being trapped in a mountainous pocket dimension had gone away like a receding tide. When she came to her senses again, she was sitting in a university ssroom.


    It was thest row of seats in the ssroom, with students scattered sparsely in groups of twos and threes. Some had their heads buried down, some lifted up, making it hard to tell if anyone was really paying attention to the olddy droning on at the front. The air conditioning was somewhat unstable, humming along with the airflow, rising and falling. The windows were scorched bright by the summer sun, and vague shouts asionally drifted in from somewhere outside, where a PE ss was being held.


    What was most peculiar was that Lin Sanjiu''s perception seemed to be divided into twoyers. In the firstyer, she was sitting in a university ssroom; beneath that, she was still standing in the pouring rain in the forest, talking aloud to Abby.


    It was as if two televisions were ying two different images, and only she was not watching from afar, but in the midst of it. The two events were happening simultaneously, utterly unimpeded by each other, and she didn''t find it strange or unnatural at all.


    Of course, whether sitting in the ssroom or standing in the forest, neither was her but Wu Yiliu. When Lin Sanjiu looked down at the textbook on the desk, the hand resting on the Concise Introduction to Logic was lean and sinewy, clearly a man''s hand.


    She couldn''t say why, but just like a dream that didn''t make sense, she knew that this was a memory of Wu Yiliu attending college in his home world.


    During this time, while the apocalypse had not yet destroyed the human world, Wu Yiliu''s world was on the brink of falling apart.


    He didn''t know when his problems began, and he had tried countless times to trace back and find the root cause, but it was like probing into fog without even a hint of possibility. It''s how most of life was lived, in a muddle, and when you looked back, all you got was confusion.


    He reached this point in his thoughts and deeply pinched the corners of his eyes. He had to transfer schools on time, apply forw school on time, and follow his family''s nned path... He had no room for error.


    "The feedback on yourst assignment has been sent back. This time, look at the assignmentyout. The deadline is before next Friday..."


    Even though the subject had long since lost its status as a required course and the students taking it were few, the olddy still prepared and taught the ss with dedication. As soon as she finished speaking, the other students stood up and left, leaving only Wu Yiliu sitting still, unmoving.


    When he could avoid being close to others, he would. His sses were almost all during unpopr timeslots, and he always wore a hooded sweatshirt and earphones. If he saw someoneing from a distance, he would detour around them. The friends he had yed withst year had gradually drifted away, no longer associating with him. No girls wanted to talk to him either, because even Wu Yiliu found his reflection gloomy and reclusive.


    "Yourst paper was very good." The olddy suddenly smiled at Wu Yiliu as he finally stood up to leave. "I''m looking forward to your next assignment."


    Wu Yiliu froze, quickly sneaking nces at the olddy from under his hat. Her thin, curly hair and pale skin were no different from usual. But he still didn''t dare to approach and thank her, so he stood far away and mumbled an "okay," waiting for her to turn and leave.


    The olddy nced at him, about to leave, but turned back and asked, "Are you encountering any difficulties?"


    Wu Yiliu was taken aback.


    "I''ve noticed a significant change in you recently," the olddy said calmly. "If there''s anything you need help with, you cane to me."


    She didn''t seem to expect a response, just picked up her bag, nodded at him, and left the ssroom. Wu Yiliu remained rooted to the spot, clutching his backpack straps so tightly that his knuckles turned white.


    How dare he speak to others? He would be treated as a mental patient — no, he was quite sure that he was now a patient suffering from schizophrenia; but at the same time, contradictorily, he believed that everything he saw was real.


    As he hurried through the corridor, Wu Yiliu kept his head buried as low as possible, not daring to look at people. Even so, he couldn''t escape the sudden sound of footsteps behind him and a hand that pped his shoulder, almost causing his heart to jump out of his throat. "Hey! Are you done with ss?"


    The speaker was Li Bo, a fellow high school student. Among Wu Yiliu''s increasingly distant friends, Li Bo was probably thest one who hadn''tpletely faded away. He turned his head and found that beside Li Bo was a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl, who was his new girlfriend, apparently named Alice.


    "Yes," Wu Yiliu replied, wanting to leave. "I''m going home now..."


    "Why are you always running off," said the tall, burly Li Bo, holding Wu Yiliu''s shoulder firmly with one hand. "We''re going to Denny''s for dinner. Want toe?"


    Wu Yiliu quickly nced at the two. The brown-haired girl''s face showed neither displeasure nor enthusiasm; she seemed indifferent whether Wu Yiliu was there or not, like he was just her boyfriend''s charity project. Li Bo looked almost the same as he did in high school, carefree and straightforward. Both seemed quite normal.


    Their normalcy was like thest remaining bastion of sanity, especially among the hallway''s shifting, melting, distorted faces.


    Upon reflection, Wu Yiliu realized he had never seen their faces show any signs of distortion.


    This couldn''t prove anything; a face that was dissonant yesterday might look normal today, only to change into another distortion tomorrow. He might have just missed the moments when their faces changed.


    But perhaps touched by the olddy''s concern earlier, he found himself nodding — he hadn''t really talked to anyone in a long time, and he was not averse to socializing. Wu Yiliu''s face had never changed, so there must be others like him in the world, so why couldn''t Li Bo be one of them?


    He followed the couple, still habitually hiding his head under the shadow of his hat''s brim, asionally darting his eyes forward and then quickly retreating. He could feel Alice subtly distancing herself, which was understandable. Once he had seen his reflection in the ss, appearing like a cringing, sneaky, gloomy ghost, even he found it repulsive.


    It was these people... it was the faces of those around him that were problematic, but he was forced into the role of a reclusive rat.


    When the three reached the entrance of the academic building, a tall, ponytailed girl strided towards them from the opposite side. She was beautiful, standing out even among the horrific human masks around her, like a beacon of perfection in this world.


    Wu Yiliu caught a glimpse of her and, despite his current mental state, couldn''t help but look at her twice. Just as they were about to pass each other, he couldn''t resist and nced at her again with the corner of his eye. She really was beautiful, and he was d to see such a face amid the world''s dissonant visages—


    A ponytail sprang from her forehead, suspended between her eyes, swinging left and right with her steps.


    A surge of acid from the depths of his stomach almost spilled from Wu Yiliu''s lips, and he mped his mouth shut, struggling to swallow back the retching sound and the acid.


    The girl obviously noticed. After they brushed past each other, Wu Yiliu heard her stop and seemed to look back at him. He forced himself to keep a straight face, enduring the pair of eyes partially obscured by the ponytail behind him, acting as if nothing had happened, following Li Bo and his girlfriend out of the teaching building.


    He dared not let others know that he could perceive and recognize their deformed faces, especially since everyone else seemed to be oblivious to the changes. If all this was due to his schizophrenia, then he also dared not let normal people know that he was seeing things that didn''t exist.


    Either way, he dared not say anything.


    He didn''t breathe a sigh of relief until they were out of the school gate. Outside, there were more people but fewer with mutant faces. He didn''t know if it was because the number of normal people diluted the number of those with deformed faces. But one thing remained the same: besides him, no one showed any signs of abnormality.


    By the time the three of them reached the nearby Denny''s, Wu Yiliu had already regretted it, but since they were here, he had to manage through the meal. They sat down, ordered from the waitress, and chatted for a while—mostly Li Bo engaging Wu Yiliu in conversation, encouraging him to get out more, while Alice just sat by the window, sipping coffee.


    Denny''s wasn''t crowded that day, and the few patrons present looked normal. In the ten minutes or so waiting for their food, Wu Yiliu felt himself rx somewhat. His heart had be a frightened rabbit, always ready to bolt at the slightest noise. The rare chance to sit quietly in public, sipping coffee, felt like he had returned to reality after a nightmare had receded.


    The steam from his coffee cup warmed his eyes.


    The waitress came over with their tes, saying, "Curry chicken and garlic bread," as she set them down in front of Li Bo. Alice''s scrambled eggs were served too. Only Wu Yiliu''s order was missing. He looked up at the waitress, who immediately smiled and said, "Yours ising right up."


    Wu Yiliu lowered his gaze, staring at his tightly clenched hands under the table, watching them turn white, his whole body tense, not daring to make a sound. The waitress nced at him with her ck, slit-eyed gaze that reached her mouth corners, then turned and left. Li Bo and Alice did not react.


    "I''m going to start eating. I''m starving," Li Bo said without any concern for table manners. Wu Yiliu nodded absentmindedly, his mind still haunted by images of swinging ponytails and ck-hole eyes. A few seconds passed before he realized he was listening to a sticky tearing sound.


    He slowly lifted his head.


    Alice had already taken off her entire face, carefully rolling it up and cing it on the side of the table. What was revealed underneath, Wu Yiliu still had no proper words to describe.


    Li Bo was still tearing while saying to him, "You always look so stern. Aren''t you tired? Take it off. Let me see."