Duosheng Danyuan

It was empty, but not nothingness; rather, it was simply an empty room. Its shape was a perfect rectangle.

Faced with this scene, I peeked around the room in disbelief, only to find one thing—there was absolutely nothing in the room worth exploring.

Just as I was marveling at the changes in Su Wanqing's room, I heard the sound of porcelain shattering coming from the kitchen.

Hearing the sound, I immediately turned around, but didn't see anyone come out of the kitchen. Frowning, I glanced back at the empty room behind me, gritted my teeth, gently closed Su Wanqing's door, and hurried to the kitchen to check.

"What's wrong?"

When I arrived at the kitchen door, I found Lin Xu bending over to sweep up the broken pieces of the plate on the floor, while the expressionless imposter Su Wanqing was cutting shredded meat on the cutting board. She turned her cheek slightly towards me and asked me without any emotion.

"Ah..." Seeing that cute face with that dead fish-like expression, I was speechless for a moment, just like Lin Xu. After a few seconds, I touched my nose and said embarrassedly, "I heard the sound of something being smashed and came to see what happened here."

"Oh." After hearing my explanation, Su Wanqing turned her head back and looked at the cutting board. She said while cutting meat, "Lin Xu broke the plate and is cleaning up now. Once he's done, you all need to leave. You'll only be in the way here."

"Ah... well, I often help with cooking at home. Just because Lin Xu can't do it doesn't mean I can't. How about I help you instead?" Not wanting to be kicked out like this, I forced out a smile that looked worse than crying and suggested to Su Wanqing.

"Get out." Like an owl, Su Wanqing mechanically turned her neck ninety degrees, her body not twitching at all. Her right hand, holding the knife, pointed at me along with her head, the tip of the knife aimed at my brow. She repeated coldly, "Get out."

"I-I understand." After a round of probing, I realized that the guy in front of me was not someone easy to talk to. So, after giving Lin Xu a signal to run away, I ran out of the kitchen before him.

Lin Xu then came out as well.

"Sit at the dining table and eat in ten minutes." Su Wanqing's cold voice came again from the kitchen.

As soon as I said that, I had no choice but to abandon my idea of ​​sitting back on the sofa with Lin Xu and instead sat at the dining table not far from the kitchen.

We sat down side by side at one side of the dining table, and Lin Xu and I exchanged a glance. Neither of us looked too happy.

"What happened?" I asked in a low voice first.

"That Su Wanqing's hand... no, it might not just be her hand. Her clothes aren't covering flesh and blood, they're covering bones!" Lin Xu was a little agitated, and his voice involuntarily rose a few decibels as he spoke the last few words.

I quickly patted him on the back and gave him a look, signaling him not to let "Su Wanqing" in the kitchen hear our conversation.

"Keep your voice down. If she hears us talking, it won't be good. You just said bones...you saw it with your own eyes?"

"Hmm..." Lin Xu nodded heavily, as if recalling the scene just now. His lips were even a little pale, but he still managed to suppress his inner fear and said to me in a slightly trembling voice, "When she was washing the dishes and the kitchen knife, she rolled up her sleeves. I could clearly see what was under her clothes—it was bone!"

"Her hand, or her hand?"

"...Sorry, I don't quite understand."

"What I mean is, when she rolls up her sleeves, her arms are all bones, right?"

"That's right."

"And what about her hands? Are they ordinary hands? Are they the same as Su Wanqing's hands, or are they just bones?"

"It should be...hand? I don't know..."

"Okay..." I bit my lower lip hard, my brows furrowed. After a long pause, I asked again, "What about her face? Is it still a face? Or is it a skull?"

"It's a face, I'm sure it's still a face," Lin Xu blurted out. "When I saw the skeletal arm under her clothes, I was so shocked that I dropped the plate and it shattered. At that moment, when 'Su Wanqing' turned to look at me, we made eye contact! I can confirm it, that face, that face is still Su Wanqing's face..."

"I see..."

"Did you find something?" Lin Xu was a little out of breath, but he immediately looked at me and asked anxiously.

"It's just a guess, but I think it's very likely," I said, resting my chin on my hand and pondering for a moment before voicing my suspicion. "This 'Su Wanqing' is dressed exactly like yesterday's Su Wanqing, right? I don't pay attention to these things, but Lin Xu, you should be more observant, right?"

"Huh? Oh, they should be the same... They're all normal girls' clothes, some big brands, easy to recognize... What's wrong?"

"My guess is that this 'Su Wanqing' is a completely fabricated simulation based on yesterday's Su Wanqing by Jingxilu. In other words, this Su Wanqing's image is exactly the same as yesterday's Su Wanqing."

"Is that so... So, what's wrong? I still don't quite understand."

"The literal meaning. Well, there might be some extensions. This 'Su Wanqing,' her essence might be a skeleton? I'm not sure, but based on the skeletal arm you saw, the appearance and flesh of this 'Su Wanqing' might be simulated by Jingxilu."

However, for some unknown reason, Jingxilu's simulation of this "Su Wanqing" only reached the surface of her appearance. Even the flesh beneath the clothes was not perfectly replicated. Therefore, whenever this "Su Wanqing" revealed a body part that the Su Wanqing of yesterday hadn't shown, what she presented to us was her true form—a skeleton.

"You mean, this 'Su Wanqing' is a skeleton in disguise?" Lin Xu's eyes widened slightly, and after a few seconds, he nodded in agreement. "I think that makes a lot of sense."

"It's just speculation for now. But it's not really a big deal." I licked my lips. At this moment, I was also shocked by what Jingxilu had done, and I was no less shocked than Lin Xu.

Although what happened today was within our expectations last night, the actual effect was much more exaggerated than Lin Xu and I had imagined.

It's like fantasizing about people flying or becoming ghosts after death. Fantasy is just fantasy. When people can actually fly or actually see ghosts after death, the experience of those who are there is far more real than that of those who are just watching from the sidelines.

This is how we feel right now.

"What did you find? You got here so quickly... I guess things aren't going well on your end either?"

"Yes." I nodded and told Lin Xu everything I had just discovered.

"I can't believe something like this happened... But I'm not that surprised. Maybe it's because I witnessed the horrifying side of this 'Su Wanqing' first. Oh, right, and what happened the day before yesterday, our first day in the hospital."

"The first day?" I asked, puzzled.

"Yes, didn't you say it on the first day? The buildings in this place seem to change depending on who enters. I think the reason Su Wanqing's room changed is because of this newly appeared 'Su Wanqing'."

"Oh...right, that's right." Lin Xu's words reminded me, and only then did I understand the cause and effect of the room's change.

Just like in this house, the three rooms we booked are exactly the rooms we each have in the zeroth reality. Why? Not because these three rooms were originally prepared for us, but because the three of us are about to live in these rooms.

Therefore, the first reality of Shengdan Academy generates individual rooms in the zeroth reality based on the differences between each of us. This should not only apply to us, but also to the "Su Wanqing" fabricated in this Jingxi Lodge.

"Hiss—does this mean that the so-called empty room I just saw wasn't actually empty at all, but a room that Jingxi Lu created specifically for this 'Su Wanqing'? No, no, 'Su Wanqing' was originally created by Jingxi Lu, so why would Jingxi Lu create something else for something it created? Hiss—no, no..."

My mind was in a mess. I slapped my hands on the dining table, stood up, and decided to go to "Su Wanqing's" room again.

Just then, "Su Wanqing" walked out of the kitchen again, expressionless, carrying a steaming casserole in her hand.

"Wan...Wanqing?" Meeting Su Wanqing's cold, dead-fish-like gaze, I twitched my lips and tried to greet her, hoping to ease the awkwardness.

"Sit down and get ready to eat." Su Wanqing put down the casserole, glanced at me coldly, and then turned and went back to the kitchen.

"..."

Watching Su Wanqing's retreating figure as she returned to the kitchen, I pondered and struggled for a long time before finally deciding to sit down.

"Su Wanqing" has appeared. Although it doesn't mean that Su Wanqing is in any danger, it's likely that Lin Xu and I will have to share a room with this "Su Wanqing" until the real Su Wanqing returns from the Old Xuan Palace.

Since that's the case, then I'm not in a hurry to risk going against Su Wanqing's wishes by forcibly going to her room to look for clues in front of her right now and in this place.

Currently, I still don't know who this "Su Wanqing" is. Her words can't be like those of an elder, which are equivalent to rules that must be followed; but similarly, her instructions to us don't seem like they can be ignored like those of Li Shuyan and Wen Guanmiao.

Just now in the kitchen, when she asked me to leave for the second time, although her words didn't carry any impatience and her actions weren't menacing, I still felt an inexplicable sense of danger.

How to describe it? Yes, like a machine. A machine itself doesn't evoke murderous intent, and its roar doesn't convey impatience, but some machines, their very existence makes people feel threatened.

Like iron smelting furnaces in chemical plants, tower cranes on construction sites, or high-temperature equipment in food processing, these machines themselves do not carry any murderous intent or emotion. They rely solely on human operation or the precise operation of equipment programs, yet they truly contain the power to kill people at any time.

That was my feeling when the dull and lifeless "Su Wanqing" in front of me just drew her knife.

So, at least for now, I dare not disobey her.