Duosheng Danyuan

"Brother Changfeng, what should we do now... huh?" Lin Xu turned his head away, just about to discuss a solution with me, but out of the corner of his eye he saw that what was originally just one thatched hut in front of me had now become three!

Even more bizarrely, of the two extra huts, one was noticeably larger than the other two, practically a standard four-person room.

Following Lin Xu's gaze, Su Wanqing also turned her head, and like Lin Xu, her eyes were filled with terror.

"Just as I suspected, my guess was right." I stood up, dusted off my pants, and said with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Seeing my expression, Lin Xu's tension visibly eased, but I could still detect a hint of urgency in his tone. This was understandable; fear stems from the unknown. He hadn't anticipated the addition of a tenth person to our group, so naturally, he felt uneasy.

"Literal meaning." I took a step closer to Lin Xu, took Su Wanqing's hand, who had been hiding behind Lin Xu, and grinned at Lin Xu under the latter's surprised gaze. "You talk to them, I'll go in with Su Wanqing first."

"Eh?"

"Why?" Lin Xu frowned, seemingly very displeased.

"Qian Zhe hates me so much. I'm afraid he'll do something stupid and cut ties with me first, which would be bad for unity and for everyone. You're different; they like you."

"Hehe..." Lin Xu's lips twitched, speechless.

"Brother Gu, I still..."

"You're coming in with me." I ignored Su Wanqing's hesitation and said in a tone that left no room for argument.

"Ah, okay then." Su Wanqing shrank her neck and didn't say anything more.

"That's all, Lin Xu, see you later." I waved and took Su Wanqing's hand, quickly entering the thatched hut.

As soon as I entered the hut, before letting go of Su Wanqing's hand, I immediately rolled up her sleeve.

"What are you doing!?"

"Don't be nervous, I'm the same as you." Looking at the bloody words on Su Wanqing's arm, I comforted her and also showed the bloody words on my own arm.

About fifteen minutes later, Lin Xu bid farewell to the seven people outside and entered the thatched hut.

"Huh... Ah? What are you guys doing?"

Seeing the scene inside the thatched hut, Lin Xu felt even more disoriented than when he was outside.

I saw Su Wanqing sitting on the sofa in the living room, holding a can of cola in her left hand and potato chips in her right, with a pinkish tinge that looked like dragon fruit juice on the corner of her mouth! I was sitting next to Su Wanqing, wearing headphones and playing on my phone.

"Ah, Brother Lin! You're back?" Upon seeing Lin Xu enter the thatched hut, Su Wanqing immediately put down her drinks and snacks, smiling broadly at him, completely losing the tension and unease she had felt outside the hut.

"What... what's going on?" Lin Xu walked towards us step by step, struggling for a long time before finally sitting down on the sofa in the living room with great restraint.

"Relax a bit, make the best of it," I said calmly, taking off my headphones.

"Brother Lin, why don't you go check out your room first? Brother Gu and I have already chosen our rooms, so the last one is yours."

"Ah, no, wait, you haven't answered my question yet. What's going on?"

"Go to the room and see for yourself," I said, taking a sip of my cola.

"Mmm." Su Wanqing nodded along with me.

"...Alright." Seeing that the two of us were so insistent, Lin Xu stood up and walked towards the room Su Wanqing pointed to.

"Um..." Standing in front of the door, Lin Xu placed his hand on the doorknob and hesitated before glancing back at us. Under Su Wanqing's resolute gaze, he sighed and slowly pushed open the door.

"So, this is how it is?" Pushing open the door, the familiar decor inside made Lin Xu instinctively take two steps back.

"Unbelievable, isn't it?" I grinned.

"But this is really heartwarming!" Su Wanqing said with a smile.

Behind the door, Lin Xu's room was exactly the same as his original room in the real world.

"This is really...sigh, I don't know what to say. Is this some kind of kindness the world has given us?" Shaking his head with a wry smile, Lin Xu returned to the sofa, a look of bewilderment on his face.

"I don't know." I shook my head, a slight look of worry on my face.

"When Gu-gege and I first came in, this was indeed a dilapidated thatched hut. I even thought it was a hundred times more exaggerated than the 'Humble Abode' in 'The Humble Abode Inscription'!" Seeing the continued confusion on Lin Xu's face, Su Wanqing began to explain our experience to him. "But after we opened the door to the room, everything changed. The originally bleak thatched hut was transformed into the simple living room we see today, and Gu-gege's and my room are exactly the same as we know them best."

"That's right." I nodded, echoing Su Wanqing's words.

"Are these things also from your room?"

"That's right, I have my own mini-fridge and snack cabinet in my room. This cola and snacks are all from my room." Su Wanqing smiled especially innocently when she mentioned snacks.

"This isn't the phone I usually use; it's the old one I left at home. From this incident, it seems that the supplies in the room don't change what each of us owns, but rather what's already in the room." I fiddled with my phone, which I bought five years ago, explaining my analysis to Lin Xu.

"I see." Lin Xu nodded, then thought for a moment and added, "Although I don't have much hope, I still want to ask, is there a signal?"

"Of course not." I shook my head and spread my hands, saying, "Everything I can listen to or watch on my phone has been downloaded beforehand. I can't access anything that requires internet access."

"My room does have its own WiFi, but I just tried it and it didn't work." Su Wanqing sighed and shook her head in slight frustration.

"It's alright, this is normal." Lin Xu sighed, smiled at Su Wanqing with feigned ease, then turned to me and said, "So, can you tell us your guess now?"

"No problem," I nodded. "But before I share my guess, I need to confirm one thing."

"What's wrong?"

"Su Wanqing, you're a first-year high school student, so you should be sixteen years old now, right?"

"Oh, yes, is there a problem?"

"Take a look at this." I took the mirror I had taken from my room out of my pocket and handed it to her.

"What's wrong? It's just a mirror." Puzzled, Su Wanqing picked up the mirror and carefully examined her appearance. After a long while, she tilted her head and asked me, "What's the problem?"

Does the person in the mirror look the same as the person you remember?

"What?" Startled by my remark, Su Wanqing shuddered instantly. She quickly scrutinized herself in the mirror, and after a long while, stammered, "It's...it really is different!"

"What's different?" Lin Xu still didn't understand the situation and asked in confusion.

"My ear piercings are gone. They were done by my mom after I graduated from junior high school. Now they're gone."

"This..." Lin Xu's gaze shifted to me, his face filled with even more confusion.

"..." I sighed and rubbed my forehead in exasperation. I took the mirror back from Su Wanqing's hand and handed it to Lin Xudao, "Take a look."

"What are you looking at... Eek!" Lin Xu picked up the mirror, and before he could finish his muttering, he suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

"Brother Lin, what's wrong?"

"You, you, you, I, I'm... what's wrong with you?" After looking in the mirror, Lin Xu's gaze darted back and forth between the mirror, Su Wanqing, and me. After a long while, he finally managed to stammer, "What kind of hell is this place...?"

"Alright, don't be surprised. This kind of thing will probably happen more often in the future. Get used to it." I said calmly, taking the mirror back from Lin Xu's hand.

"No, what have you two been talking about since just now? Why can't I understand a single word?" Su Wanqing's gaze darted back and forth between me and Lin Xu, still completely bewildered.

"Wait a minute, let me think..." Looking at Su Wanqing's incredibly slow reaction time, I didn't know what to say for a moment. After biting my nails and thinking for a while, I handed her the mirror again and said, "Besides your ear piercings, do you feel like you've become cuter? Like you've gotten a little smaller."

"Let me see... Hey, you know what, it's true."

"Alright, now take another look at us."

"You guys? What's wrong...? Oh!"

In Su Wanqing's eyes, the tall and thin Gu Changfeng suddenly appeared short, his once resolute face now looking almost childlike and adorable. Lin Xu, standing behind Gu Changfeng, was even more striking; the handsome, bearded man with his British-style features had also become a ten-year-old child, just like Gu Changfeng!

"Do you understand now?" I asked, somewhat helplessly, as I took the mirror back from Su Wanqing's hand.

"When did you find it?" Lin Xu asked me, pursing his lips.

"When we were in the Refining Heart Hall, there was glass in that place, and it was dark outside the window. The glass window was no different from a mirror."

"So, you can see changes in yourself just by looking in the mirror?"

"I don't know, but judging from your performance just now, it seems so."

"This is too weird." Trying to smooth the goosebumps off her skin, Su Wanqing still felt a chill.

"Indeed." Lin Xu sighed, agreeing with Su Wanqing's opinion. "Moreover, I didn't feel any changes in my body until just now."

"But there are actually clues to follow, such as when we faced Elder Jianshan."

"What do you mean?" Su Wanqing asked, puzzled.

"Hmm...right, how could I have overlooked that? Now that I think about it, no wonder I thought Elder Jianshan was so great! But why? Why didn't I have any doubts at the time?" Lin Xu frowned, puzzled.

"I don't know either, I feel the same way you do." I shook my head and shrugged helplessly.

"So, that's your guess?"

"Of course not, this has nothing to do with my guess."

"So what is your guess?"

"It's not some grand discovery. If I had to put it simply, like yours, it's a puzzle solved from the surface of the mystery."

"Just to be on the safe side, I'd like to ask you first. Your guess is probably related to that extra person, right? Just now outside, you seemed completely unconcerned about the tenth person, as if you knew about her existence from the beginning."

"That's right. But before I share any clues, I need to confirm something with you." As I spoke, I rolled up my sleeve, revealing dark red blood-written characters on my arm.

Seeing my actions, Lin Xu did not hesitate. He rolled up his sleeves, and sure enough, there was the same message engraved on his arm as mine.