Exclusive Possession – CH 047

Chapter 47.

The pale yellow curtains were tinged with a golden hue by the morning light. The air was filled with the scents of flowers, grass, and river water; the morning was as peaceful and beautiful as a dream.

I lay on my side in bed, feeling sleepy but unable to fall asleep. Mu Xian was pinching my waist and buttocks from behind, meticulously and earnestly licking and nibbling, completing the “final step.” Occasionally, a shiver would come, making me giggle from the tickling, and then he would turn me over and lick my face. This intimacy lasted for a long time before he finally stopped holding me.

“Sleep a little longer,” he whispered in my ear.

“What about him?”

Yi Pucheng said they would meet up today.

But Mu Xian probably thought I was worried about Yi Pucheng, a potential threat, and replied indifferently without looking up, “We will find an opportunity today.”

I understood that he was looking for an opportunity to kill Yi Pucheng. After a moment of silence, I put my arms around his neck and said, “The most important thing to me is to leave here alive with you. Don’t let yourself get hurt again.”

He raised his dark eyebrows and looked at me, his gaze deep and unfathomable, his cheeks slightly flushed. I knew he was moved by my words; a sweet feeling welled up inside me, and my heart raced a little—was he about to say something to express his feelings? Like that sentence…

“Hua Yao.” He did speak, and my face flushed. I looked at him nervously.

“Let’s do it again.” His voice was deep and gentle.

I was taken aback, then both laughed and cried—okay, this was how he expresses his feelings.

“Absolutely not! I’m exhausted.” I immediately changed the subject. “By the way, I told you, Yi Pucheng can mimic human appearances. What if he regains his memories one day and impersonates you or me? Let’s set a code.”

“I won’t be fooled; I can smell your scent.”

I thought so too, so I said, “If we accidentally get separated and then meet again, I will ask you, ‘Can we get out of here?’ and you will answer, ‘The weather’s nice.'”

He paused slightly, then smiled and nodded. I smiled too, and we both fell silent for a moment.

I thought for a moment and decided I should tell him about the past, hoping it might help him recover his memories. So I said softly, “When I was fifteen, you were spying on me and secretly taking pictures of me by a stream. You took over 1,500 photos. The stream was wide and clear, and there was a big tree beside it…”

A faint smile appeared on his face: “Was that the first time you did it?”

“Of course not!” I was speechless. “I wasn’t even an adult back then.”

“Go on.”

“Yeah, you taught me how to fly a mech, a huge, black one, as tall as a five-story building; the first time you accompanied me to buy clothes was at the First Shopping Mall in the Wasteland…”

I started rambling on and on, and he listened quietly. Before I knew it, I fell asleep in his arms. I could only vaguely feel his kisses lingering on my cheeks.

***

“Miss, Miss, wake up! Wake up!”

“Hmm…” I vaguely recognized the voice and mumbled, “Morin, let me sleep a little longer… I’m so tired…”

At this, Morin’s voice became muffled again, and I could only vaguely hear some noise. I opened my eyes with dissatisfaction and was surprised to find that I was still lying in yesterday’s bed. The sunlight had already turned half of the room golden, and Mu Xian was still sleeping soundly beside me.

“It’s fake…” A broken voice suddenly rang clearly in my mind again. “Miss… Commander…”

I was startled awake and snapped back to reality—it was Morin’s voice! Was I dreaming or hallucinating?

I wasn’t dreaming. I just woke up and clearly heard his voice right there in my head.

“Morin! Morin!” I shouted. Mu Xian suddenly opened his eyes, sat up, and hugged me. “What’s wrong?”

I listened carefully to my surroundings, but all I could hear was the sound of the wind and the stream outside the window.

“Did you hear Morin’s voice just now?” I asked Mu Xian.

He stared at me: “No, it’s been very quiet the whole time.”

I told him everything that had just happened, and he frowned slightly: “Fake?”

Just then, a loud and nonchalant voice came from outside the window: “Get down. Let’s go.” It was Yi Pucheng.

Mu Xian got up and dressed, giving me a reassuring look. I nodded. Then he opened the window and said calmly to the people downstairs, “Wait a moment.”

I had just put on my trousers when I looked up and saw Mu Xian standing quietly by the bed. The sunlight painted his face a pale golden yellow, and his handsome features were as exquisite as if they had been painted with ink. His gaze was so cold and calm, with a hint of icy chill that made it impossible to look directly at him.

A strange feeling suddenly ran through me. Morin’s fragmented words resurfaced in my mind.

“It’s fake… Miss… Commander…”

A fake… Commander?

“Are you done?” A soft voice suddenly rang out. Mu Xian turned to look at me, a hint of tenderness rising in his dark eyes.

I snapped back to reality. What was I thinking? How could Mu Xian be fake? That familiar physical sensation, those words and actions that made my heart flutter—no one could imitate or replace that.

I quickly put my clothes on and smiled at him, saying, “Let’s go.”

A faint smile appeared on his face as he walked over and took my hand. The moment his cold fingertips touched mine, I inexplicably trembled slightly. He turned to look at me: “What’s wrong?”

“It’s okay, I’m just a little cold.”

He paused, then pulled me into his arms. I stopped thinking about that absurd idea, nestled tightly in his embrace, and we went downstairs.

**

Mu Xian and Yi Pucheng discussed for a few minutes downstairs and came up with a plan.

They decided to stay in the village temporarily—since they knew nothing about the planet, their chances of being rescued were the same no matter where they stayed. Besides, the conditions here were quite good.

However, we needed to go into the forest today to get some timber so that we could set off smoke as a warning if a rescue plane entered the atmosphere.

Beyond the river lay a misty forest. The soil was dark and damp, and the tall, greyish-white trees stood straight as pillars. The midday sun shone through the dense canopy, casting a pale golden hue over the mist.

Yi Pucheng walked at the front, his tall back resembling a door panel, yet his lines appeared long and strong. Mu Xian held my hand, our pace unhurried, his expression calm, as if deep in thought. The forest was quiet, the only sound the rustling of our footsteps on the thick leaves.

I couldn’t calm down; Morin’s voice kept echoing in my mind.

There were two possibilities: first, it might just be my imagination, since it had happened before. In that case, there was no need to investigate further. Second, it might indeed be him speaking to me through some mysterious method that I didn’t know.

If it were the second possibility, what exactly was he trying to say was fake? Mu Xian was definitely not fake, so was Yi Pucheng fake?

Or perhaps… A sudden thought struck me—this world was fake?

I almost immediately dismissed the idea—how could that be? Everything here felt so real—the dampness of the forest, the surging floodwaters, the ferocity of the wild animals… and if it were a fake world, how could we possibly be in it?

But in my mind, all the strange things and unusual signs that had happened in this world over the past few days kept replaying in my thoughts—

In the wasteland where I used to live, the colors of everything would change together—gray, white, red, and perhaps other colors—but the colors here were so normal.

This planet had exactly one day and one night, just like Earth.

We encountered hundreds of unicorns resting on the mountaintop, yet they didn’t make a sound. How could normal wild animals do that?

There were also massive floods that emerged from the ground, instantly engulfing the entire continent; they came without any warning.

There was clean water, clean land, and even the meat of unicorns was clean; the whole world was spotless.

There were also villages that suddenly appeared, beautiful, comfortable, and well-stocked, as if they had been prepared especially for us;

And it was such a coincidence that Mu Xian and Yi Pucheng both lost their memories at the same time.

…

“My friends, another surprise has been born,” Yi Pucheng’s slow voice drifted over. I was startled and looked up. There, I saw the edge of the forest. Through the sparse leaves, a vast, verdant meadow stretched out before us, and a magnificent, white stone castle stood tall.

Recalling my earlier guesses and seeing this mysterious castle, I couldn’t help but gasp. Yi Pucheng and Mu Xian turned to look at me almost simultaneously.

“What’s up?”

“What’s wrong?”

Meeting their sharp gazes, I shook my head: “It’s nothing, just a surprise.” Mu Xian looked at me with deep eyes: “Don’t be afraid.” Yi Pucheng glanced at me, a strange smile suddenly appearing on his lips. He turned around and was the first to walk out of the woods. Watching his retreating figure and remembering that Mu Xian was going to kill him today, I became even more uneasy.

Up close, the castle appeared even more magnificent and beautiful. The walls gleamed with a jade-like luster in the sunlight, and the entire castle boasted an elegant and rounded design. Yi Pucheng stepped forward and knocked on the large, round mahogany door, only to find it unlocked. He slowly knocked it open a crack.

Just as expected, the castle remained deserted.

But as we searched through the rooms one by one, we were still shocked. Every room was beautifully decorated; every room was filled with treasures.

The room was filled with jewelry, including diamonds, silver, and other materials I had never seen before. Most of them were elegant, dazzling, and exquisite, making me dazzled.

The closets were filled with women’s clothes, some simple and elegant, others bright and beautiful, all made of fine and soft fabrics, which made my heart flutter.

There were even boxes of children’s toys, exquisite and cute, and Yi Pucheng’s so-called “most expensive energy ore in the galaxy,” with a crystal-clear texture like water ripples… They filled the castle.

I’ve been to the royal palace on Stan Star, but even that didn’t compare to the opulent grandeur of this castle. And most of the furnishings seem designed for women and children. I wonder what kind of person the original mistress was to be so pampered by the castle’s owner.

Finally, Mu Xian and I went back down to the lobby, but Yi Pucheng didn’t come down with us.

“An emperor’s castle? That’s fucking extravagant,” he said. “If I don’t take it all with me, I will be doing a disservice to heaven and earth.” But he couldn’t possibly take it all with him. Right now, he was in a room full of energy ores, carefully selecting them.

The hall was quiet, the walls covered with Picasso-style abstract and exaggerated oil paintings. Mu Xian released me, frowned, and stepped forward to examine them carefully, probably trying to find some clues.

I wandered around the oil paintings aimlessly, but I couldn’t understand them at all, and my mind wasn’t on them at all. After arriving at the castle, I felt more and more that there was something wrong with this world.

Thinking of this, I couldn’t help but look at the castle gate a few steps away, and suddenly I wanted to take another look at what the outside world looked like. I walked slowly over and gently opened the door.

I froze completely—

This was……

How so?

“Hua Yao?” Mu Xian’s questioning voice sounded from behind.

I swallowed hard, my voice trembling slightly. “Mu Xian, come here. Outside…”

The outside world was no longer the same as before.

Nothing. Nothing at all. Blue sky, sunshine, forest, grassland—all gone. Before my eyes was a gray chaos, densely packed with dark, wavy lines of light, vast and boundless like the deep sea. Yet they were neither water nor mist. They appeared transparent and invisible, yet you couldn’t see what was inside.

Looking up from the castle gate, there was nothing but endlessness; looking down, there was only a bottomless abyss.

The chaos stretched endlessly; where was the bright and sunny world from before? The castle was now suspended alone in a void.

A cold sweat broke out on my back, and my hands and feet felt icy cold. What kind of place was this?

Mu Xian had already walked to my side, and I turned to look at him blankly. I saw his dark eyebrows suddenly twitch on his fair face, and a look of shock flashed in his eyes.

“Mu Xian…” My voice sounded dry and broken. “I think I know what Morin’s talking about. He’s saying that this planet, this world, is an illusion.”

Mu Xian’s eyebrows furrowed. He remained silent, staring intently at the emptiness outside the door.

After a long while, a faint, almost indifferent smile flashed across his face, and his voice sounded low and cold: “You are right. This is a scene that only exists in virtual space.”

I recognized that expression and tone; he was clearly angry. But what did “virtual space” mean?

He looked at me with his sharp black eyes, remained silent for a moment, and then slowly continued, “Hua Yao, real human bodies can’t enter virtual space. If this space is virtual, then we aren’t real either.”

My heart skipped a beat—what?!

I stared at him blankly for a few seconds, then asked almost with difficulty, “Then what are we?” If I wasn’t the real Hua Yao, then what was I?

Perhaps my voice was trembling too much, because he reached out and pulled me into his arms, whispering, “Don’t be afraid. I will take you out of here.”

I hugged him tightly, nodded, and heard him say, “Virtual space can only be constructed within computer programs. It seems someone has locked our consciousness in this virtual space.”

My breath hitched—so that was how it is! Right now, was it just my consciousness?

Can it be built by computer programs? That is…

“You can go now.” Yi Pucheng’s smiling voice came from behind me. I was startled and turned around to look.

Under the dazzling crystal chandelier, he stood atop the stairs, dozens of meters away, carrying a suitcase and wearing a relaxed smile. Upon seeing us, he was visibly startled, then a look of shock flashed in his eyes before he strode down the stairs.

“Damn it! Don’t tell me this is a virtual space!” he growled, his eyes coldly fixed on the door behind us.

Mu Xian and I watched him approach step by step in silence.

Is he still pretending? His reaction seems so real, as if he were completely unaware.

But if this were a virtual space, the most likely creator of this space was the cyborg Yi Pucheng.