This actor is full of tricks.

On the day of the college entrance examination, Lin Jue got out of bed with some difficulty. The strange voice from last night appeared again, calling him "brother" in a very anxious tone. It felt as if he was sleeping in a dark, airtight room, and the owner of the voice was knocking on the window outside, seemingly trying to wake him up.

This caused Lin Jue to wake up and fall asleep repeatedly throughout the night, tossing and turning. Moreover, his dreams were always bizarre and fantastical. In his dreams, he was completely transformed, as if he had become a god who controlled fire. All the people he knew in reality became the characters he played in his dreams.

Zhou Yue, Li Ge, the taxi driver, and the man in the raincoat who killed his neighbor—he experienced one bizarre and strange event after another in his dreams as these people.

"This seems to be the daydream I had last time. The dream is becoming clearer and clearer, and I can remember it completely, but many details are still very blurry."

Lin Jue poured himself a glass of water. He didn't know why he was having such a strange dream again. In the dream, Zhou Yue and the others were all dead, but in reality, they were alive and well.

"Could it be that my heart is too dark? Surely not, I've never thought that way."

He shook his head. They say that what you think about during the day, you dream about at night. He didn't know if this dream was some kind of omen.

"I hope it's just my imagination. I should focus on the exam first." Lin Jue picked up his pencil case. Since the exam center was quite far from where he lived, he splurged and took a taxi. Once he arrived, he would check the fare. If it was too expensive, he would choose a cheaper hotel near the exam center.

Because of the college entrance examination, traffic control was implemented on the roads, but the journey was smooth. Lin Jue left home at 6:30 and arrived at the examination site at 7:10.

"Thank you, driver." Lin Jue took out his money to pay the fare. Just as he opened the car door to get out, a jumble of electronic noise suddenly rang in his ears, as if countless people were wailing in his ear.

He couldn't make out what the sound was, but it conveyed a despair as vast as the ocean, which instantly overwhelmed him.

In just a moment, he had difficulty breathing, the world spun before his eyes, and he collapsed to the ground.

"classmate!"

"classmate!"

Before he lost consciousness, he saw the taxi driver hurriedly get out of the car and rush towards him; he had only one thought in his mind.

My life seems to be over.

……

When Lin Jue woke up, he found himself lying in a hospital with an IV drip in his hand. The ward was dark, and he was all alone.

His head was still a little dizzy, and it took him a while to realize that he was going to take the college entrance examination today.

He sat up abruptly, turned to look out the window, and saw that the sky outside had darkened and it was already evening.

Upon seeing this, all the color drained from his face instantly. He staggered toward the window, completely ignoring the broken needle in his hand that was bleeding profusely.

It wasn't until he saw the waning moon hanging in the night sky that he finally realized he had really missed the first day of the college entrance examination.

The first day of the college entrance examination consisted of Chinese and Mathematics, which meant he lost a full 300 points. Even if he did well on the later exams, he would still struggle to reach the second-tier university admission line.

All the hard work he had put in over three years of high school was wasted in this moment. The intense stimulation made him nauseous, and he kept dry heaving. Tears, snot, and saliva mingled together. All the negative emotions he had managed to suppress surged out at this moment, spreading like vines all over his body.

"Hey patient, why aren't you lying in bed and resting?!" The nurse on rounds rushed in at that moment: "Your long-term malnutrition has caused you to have severe anemia. You shouldn't be wandering around anymore; you need to rest in bed more."

Are you anemic?
Lin Jue gave a wry smile. He had been following Dr. Zhou's instructions to supplement his nutrition these past few days, but his body's foundation was severely depleted and could not be restored in just a few days.

He had tried so hard to change his situation, but this damn life played a cruel joke on him.

"Forget it, I'm not getting treatment anymore, I don't have the money."

He stood by the window for a long time until the nurse impatiently urged him on. Only then did he pull the broken needle out of his hand and walk out of the ward in a daze.

"Hey, you kid really are..." The nurse tried to stop him, but Lin Jue pushed her away. She gritted her teeth and said angrily, "If you really want to be discharged, you have to go through the discharge procedures. Also, you still owe money for today's treatment. You have to go and pay it first."

Lin Jue didn't say a word. He went to the payment counter, paid off the outstanding medical bills, and left the hospital with a thin discharge slip in his hand.

He didn't know how he got home. When he looked at his house, which was completely dark, he suddenly felt that everything was terrible.

A cold, dark home, missed college entrance exams, a lonely and impoverished life—everything was terrible. It felt like the whole world had abandoned him, not even leaving him a tiny corner. He desperately tried to squeeze in, but the world just slapped him hard, leaving him battered and bruised.

He didn't have the strength to go back to the room, so he collapsed on the floor, the surrounding air pressing down on him, and he seemed to hear that voice again.

Come, let me show you the deepest despair in the world.

……

The next day, as soon as Lin Jue opened his eyes, he found that everything around him had faded in color. Everything in front of him had become a black and white silent film, without sound or life.

He got up from the sofa expressionlessly. Even though it was the second day of the college entrance examination, he had no interest in taking the exam. He slowly washed his face and brushed his teeth, chewed on the dry cutting board he hadn't had time to take with him yesterday, and cleaned the house.

He took the group photo out of the cabinet, hung it back on the TV wall, stood in the living room staring at the photo for a long time before slowly moving his feet and leaving the house.

The pedestrians on the street were in a hurry, each with their own things to do. Their expressions were different, but they all carried aspirations and longings for the future.

Lin Jue walked aimlessly with his head down. Although the pedestrians were just black and white pictures in his eyes, all the expressions on them were particularly glaring to him, making him feel ashamed and wanting to escape.

"Beep beep beep beep beep beep!!"

Just then, he heard a horn behind him, and a taxi stopped beside him. The driver leaned out of the driver's seat, looking very friendly: "Young man, is that really you? I thought I had mistaken you for someone else. Do you remember me? You bought me a Coke and a burger last time."

Lin Jue certainly remembered this driver. The driver had asked him a question before, asking if people always end up with nothing when they reach middle age. Lin Jue couldn't answer that question at the time.

But he should have an answer now. Some people may be destined to have nothing from the very beginning. No matter how hard they try, the so-called bright future is nothing more than an exaggerated rhetoric used to fantasize in despair. (End of Chapter)