A Manual for Surviving a Weird World

Chapter 363 Speculation on Memory Media
A sliver of moon hangs in the starry night sky, its light as white as water, filtering through the gaps in the curtains and dappling the bed, illuminating a graceful, snow-white waistline. A few beads of sweat, glistening with translucent light, slowly slide down the beautiful waistline, dripping onto the sheets and spreading into tiny water stains.

Xia Yubing lay motionless on the bed, drenched in sweat. The room was so quiet that only their heavy breathing could be heard. Ning Zhe knelt behind her, closing his eyes to savor the wonderful tranquility after the storm had passed.

After a long while, Ning Zhe opened his eyes, bent down to pick up his coat from the ground, and took out his phone to check the time:

09月11日，凌晨02:12，距离天亮还有约4小时。

"It's almost time." Ning Zhe looked up at the moon hanging outside the window, his eyes calm.

Xia Yubing was still a little confused and her head was spinning: "What did you say is almost time? Is it dawn yet?"

"It's still a long way from dawn. Are you out of your mind? You don't even remember the time." Ning Zhe turned off his phone and placed it face down next to him, picking up the clothes scattered on the ground one by one, and asked seemingly casually, "Do you remember what we just did?"

"Huh? Just now..." Xia Yubing's expression froze, and a series of unspeakable images flashed through her mind, instantly sobering her up. Recalling the novel experience of taking a different approach, her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment: "How could I not remember that kind of thing... Wait, why are you suddenly asking this?"

After spending some time together, she had gained a certain understanding of Ning Zhe's personality; he rarely spoke without a purpose.

Since she asked such a question, does it mean that Ning Zhe thinks she might have forgotten what just happened?
"It seems you still remember." Ning Zhe nodded in satisfaction. This reaction meant that Xia Yubing's memories had not been altered by Fenwu.

Fenwu implants the 'Tai Sui' worm into other people's brains to alter their memories. If Xia Yubing also has the worm parasitizing her brain, then she should be like Bei Dang before her, and Ning Zhe can use Tai Yi's simulation ability to delete a small part of her recent memory.

Since she can't do it, it means that the worm isn't in her brain.

"If that were the case, then I'd practically be rolling around in bed with Fenwu tonight." Ning Zhe imagined the scene and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Even now, he still hasn't figured out what the triggering medium for 'Tai Sui' is, or what specific conditions need to be met for a worm to be implanted and memories to be modified.
Information about Fenwu remains shrouded in mystery, but one thing is certain:
"My memories have indeed been altered by Fenwu." Ning Zhe confirmed this fact in his mind once again.

Back when he was in Taoyuan City with Bai Zhi, he was killed once by Yu Ziqian. At that time, Ning Zhe was a security guard at Hengsha Ecological Park. Yu Ziqian had branded him with the idea that "I must kill Ning Zhe," and he committed suicide on the spot by shooting himself.

At the time, Ning Zhe only had a vague understanding of the triggering conditions for the thought imprint, assuming that the power of the god who could not be looked at directly was to force others to believe something, so he did not delve into it further. But now he has mastered Jueyuan, and he fully understands the rules of Jueyuan.

"Jueyuan can only solidify a person's existing ideas into a mental imprint, but cannot make a person generate ideas that they did not originally have."

So why was I successfully branded with the idea that "I must kill Ning Zhe"?

Could it be that I already had suicidal thoughts?
What a joke! No one knows Ning Zhe better than himself. He is absolutely certain that he has never had even the slightest suicidal thought.

"Given that I didn't want to commit suicide, how could Yu Ziqian have successfully imprinted the idea of ​​'killing Ning Zhe' on my mind?"

The only explanation is——

“My memories have long been altered by Fenwu.” Ning Zhe sighed softly, raising his hand to stroke Xia Yubing’s smooth back from top to bottom, already understanding in his heart:
"At some point in time, without my knowledge, I had already been implanted with the idea of ​​suicide by Fenwu. This ambiguous idea was solidified into a mental imprint by Yu Ziqian, which ultimately led to my suicide in a hospital in Taoyuan City."

No wonder Ning Zhe always found himself on the defensive when facing Fen Wu; it turned out that Fen Wu had already planted a fatal hidden danger in his mind.

But when exactly?
Through what means?

What method was used?

How exactly did Fenwu implant the 'worm' into Ning Zhe's mind?

Ning Zhe was completely clueless.

As Ning Zhe pondered, Xia Yubing, who had been lying on the bed next to him, sat up, clutching her pillow. Her body was still limp and weak, but her mind was clear. She looked at Ning Zhe and asked, "You just asked me if I remembered what I did... Why did you ask that? Did you think I would forget?"

“You could say that. I do think you might forget,” Ning Zhe said lazily. “Fenwu is the Ascendant who has been chasing me. He has the ability to modify other people’s memories. As of now, I know of more than ten people whose memories have been modified by him.”

Based on the available information, the individuals whose memories have been confirmed to have been altered by Fenwu are:

Tian Chengyun, Yu Ziqian, Tian Zaixu, Feng Yushu, Bai Zhi, Yan Yukuan, many prisoners in Shenyu Valley Prison, Fusoles, Pétain, Plumeria... and Ning Zhe himself.

These people come from all walks of life: there are those who have risen through the ranks like Yu Ziqian, ordinary people like Tian Chengyun, illiterate farmers like Tian Zaixu, European noblemen like Fusoules and Pétain, and even prisoners who have spent their lives in the deepest dungeons of Shenyu Valley...

Ning Zhe patiently listed out the identities of these people one by one, while Xia Yubing sat quietly beside him, hugging a pillow.

“These people come from vastly different backgrounds and are physically far apart, making it impossible to find any common ground among them.” Ning Zhe thought for a moment and said, “If we had to say, are these people all human?”

Xia Yubing pursed her lips, knowing he was joking.

"Ghosts are rules, and the activation of rules requires certain conditions to be met; a specific medium is needed to exert influence on this world..."

Xia Yubing glanced sideways at Ning Zhe's jawline, outlined by the moonlight, her thoughts drifting away as she murmured:

"The Four-Faced Buddha influences people through 'observation,' the Gambler influences people through 'gambling,' the Snake God influences people through daily fortune telling... Fenwu's ability is to modify other people's memories. Could his medium for influencing others also be 'memory'?"

“That’s what I can’t understand.” Ning Zhe shook his head and said, “Most of the people I just mentioned are ordinary people. They don’t even know that there is such a thing as ‘Fenwu’ as an ascendant. They may not even know that there are ghosts in the world.”

(End of this chapter)