Lin Xiao sat at the dining table, his mind racing as he tried to piece together what had happened.
The twin moon's sudden disappearance, coupled with the eerie fact that no one seemed to remember its existence, left him with more questions than answers.
He needed a plan, a way to understand and deal with the situation.
His first thought was to call Li Jing. If anyone might have noticed something unusual, it would be her.
But as he dialed her number, the call went unanswered, just as he had feared.
A knot of anxiety tightened in his chest, and he found himself absentmindedly biting his nails—a habit he'd long since outgrown but had returned in moments of intense stress.
His sister noticed and frowned. "What's wrong?" she asked, her voice tinged with concern.
Lin Xiao hesitated, not sure how much he should say.
He knew that his sister, like everyone else, had no memory of the twin moon, and explaining the situation might only confuse or worry her more.
"I'm just... trying to figure something out," Lin Xiao replied, trying to keep his tone casual. "Something strange is going on, and I can't seem to wrap my head around it."
His sister raised an eyebrow, sensing there was more to it than he was letting on. "Strange? Like what?"
Lin Xiao considered telling her the truth but decided against it.
The last thing he wanted was to drag his family into something they couldn't understand, especially when he barely understood it himself.
"Just some stuff with the game I was playing," he said, forcing a smile. "It was more intense than I expected."
His sister seemed to accept the explanation, though she didn't look entirely convinced. "Well, don't stress too much about it. It's just a game, after all."
Lin Xiao nodded, but his mind was already elsewhere, running through possible scenarios and what his next steps should be.
He needed to find Li Jing, or anyone else who might have noticed the twin moon. And if no one remembered, he would have to dig deeper.
For now, though, he would keep his suspicions to himself. There was no need to alarm his family, not until he had more concrete information.
Lin Xiao's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as the ground beneath him began to tremble.
At first, it was a subtle vibration, but within seconds, it intensified into a violent quake that made the entire world seem like it was being torn apart.
The walls of the house creaked and groaned as if struggling to hold themselves together against the immense force.
Dishes rattled in the cabinets, and the table where Lin Xiao sat started to shift, skidding across the floor. His sister screamed, grabbing onto the edge of the table for support as the floor beneath them seemed to heave like the deck of a ship in a storm.
His mother, wide-eyed with terror, tried to steady herself against the wall, but even that was trembling like it was about to give way.
Lin Xiao barely had time to react before a deafening crack echoed through the house. The ceiling above them buckled, and chunks of plaster and wood began to rain down. A massive piece of the roof broke loose, hurtling directly towards him.
In that split second, Lin Xiao's instincts kicked in. He raised his arms to shield his face, bracing for impact, his heart pounding in his chest. Time seemed to slow as the debris fell, and for a moment, he thought this might be the end.
The weight of the roof was about to crash down on him, and there was no way he could avoid it.
Lin Xiao closed his eyes, bracing himself for pain, but nothing seemed to have happened.
Lin Xiao opened his eyes, heart pounding, and found himself sitting on the bathroom floor, the VR headset still in his hand.
The harsh reality of the crumbling house, the earthquake, the fear—it was all gone, replaced by the quiet stillness of the bathroom. It was as if none of it had ever happened.
He blinked, still dazed, trying to process what had just occurred. The weight of the roof, the panic, the sheer terror—it all felt so real.
But now, here he was, back where he started, the cold tile floor under him, the distant hum of the house's air conditioning the only sound in his ears.
Had it all been a dream? A hallucination? Or something else entirely? The lines between reality and the game were blurring in ways that made his head spin.
He looked down at the VR headset in his hand, almost expecting it to start glitching or dissolving, but it just sat there, innocuous, as if mocking him for ever believing in the reality of what he had experienced.
Lin Xiao stood up, legs shaky, and leaned against the sink, staring at his reflection in the mirror. His face looked the same,
but there was something in his eyes—a lingering fear, a trace of doubt. Had he really just imagined it all? And if so, what did it mean that he was back here, completely unharmed?
He couldn't shake the feeling that something was still very wrong.
The game, the mysterious events, the sudden earthquake—none of it made sense. And now, even the reality he thought he knew was starting to feel uncertain.
Lin Xiao needed answers, but where could he possibly find them?
He gripped the edge of the sink, trying to steady his thoughts, but they kept racing, spiraling into questions he didn't know how to answer.
What was real? What wasn't? And most importantly, what was he supposed to do next?
Lin Xiao decided to open the window and check the moon.
Lin Xiao's heart raced as he flung open the window, desperate to make sense of the chaos that had just unfolded. But what he saw made his blood run cold.
The twin red moons were back, hanging ominously in the night sky.
They glowed with a deep, unsettling crimson, their light casting eerie shadows across the landscape.
The moons appeared closer than before, their surfaces marred with dark, swirling patterns that seemed to shift and writhe as if alive.
The sight was almost mocking, as though the celestial bodies were laughing at his confusion, their presence a cruel joke on his sanity.
The way they hovered, dominating the sky, filled Lin Xiao with a sense of dread, as if the moons themselves were toying with him, testing his resolve.
The twisted reflection of the moons on the windowpane seemed to sneer at him, daring him to question what was real and what was merely an illusion.
Their oppressive presence felt like a challenge, a reminder that no matter how hard he tried to grasp the truth, it would always slip through his fingers.
Lin Xiao stood there, staring up at the twin red moons, feeling utterly helpless against the mysteries that seemed to be closing in on him from all sides.