Chapter 168: As real as sunset, as fleeting as morning dew

After leaving the real dream, Qingshuijian's consciousness continued to float in the darkness for an unknown amount of time.

Finally, the dark world was illuminated by white light.

When he woke up, Shimizu found himself lying in a white ward that gave off a clean feeling.

After a slight dizziness, Shimizu slowly opened his eyes.

The unfamiliar white ceiling and the faint smell of disinfectant in the air made him wonder, "Where is this?"

After looking around, Qingshuijian found himself lying in a single room, wearing the standard blue and white hospital gown.

His head still felt heavy, and Shimizu took a while to remember that he had entered Sakurai Haruka's heart world before. Although it was a bit difficult, fortunately the problem was solved smoothly.

Then, Shimizu quickly recalled that he had been in a car accident before entering Sakurai Haruka's heart world.

At the moment when the truck was about to hit him, Sakurai Haruka rushed towards him without hesitation...

The last memory was of the two people falling on the road, dying.

Am I dead...

No, if I were dead, I wouldn't be lying in bed thinking about such questions like now, but would be enjoying a baby-like sleep in the morgue.

While thinking about his current situation, Qingshuijian found that both of his hands seemed to be tightly held by someone.

Turning around, Shimizu saw Amamiya Iori and Shimizu Reina standing on the left and right of the bed.

Both of them were lying on the bed, seemingly asleep, but their hands were tightly holding Qing Shuijian's.
The two people sleeping beside the bed looked as if they had just cried, with faint traces of tears still remaining on their cheeks.

Seeing Amemiya Iori's face up close again, Shimizu felt indescribably complicated.

It was not the girl in the game illustration, but the living Amamiya Iori in front of him.

Earlier, in the real world within that dream, Shimizu recalled a memory.

It was during graduation season when Shimizu Miki expressed his feelings to Amamiya Iori and then kissed her.

Although it was short, even when he just recalled it, Qingshui Jian could feel it was infinitely beautiful.

And now, the girl he had kissed, the pair of lips he had kissed, was right in front of him...

"Brother, brother..."

While Shimizu Mita was lost in thought while staring at Amamiya Iori's charming lips, Shimizu Reina on the other side rubbed her eyes and looked at him in disbelief when he woke up.

"Brother, is it really you?"

"……it's me."

Otherwise, there is no one else here, right?
Shimizu Mitsu looked at Shimizu Reina in confusion, who was saying silly things as soon as she woke up. Then she pinched her tender cheek without mercy, crying in pain, trying to confirm that this was not a dream.

"It hurts so much... Am I really not dreaming?! It's really my brother! My brother is not dead!"

Shimizu Reina rushed over excitedly, and the noise also woke up Amamiya Iori.

"Honey?"

Amamiya Iori, who had just woken up and opened his eyes, looked at the two people hugging each other.

……

……

A few minutes later.

"So that's what happened... The doctor said I had a severe head injury and had died from excessive blood loss..."

Before Shimizu Ken could finish his words, Shimizu Reina's hand had already covered his mouth.

"Don't... don't want to hear that kind of words again."

She kept shaking her head vigorously.

“Reina…”

Shimizu Reina was even more excited than Shimizu Ken had imagined.

While she was crying, Shimizu suddenly discovered that her abnormality value was much higher than before.

[Heroine's name: Reina Shimizu]

[Current abnormal value: 52/100]

[62/100]

[72/100]

How come after entering Sakurai Haruka's inner world, the abnormal value of Shimizu Reina outside increased so much?
Shimizu Mi clearly remembered that when Shimizu Reina was first revised as the heroine, the outlier value was only 52 points.

And now, her abnormal value is as high as 72.

If this happens one or two more times, will he enter Shimizu Reina's world of mind again?
If possible, I really don’t want to go to Qingshuijian again after just coming out of there.

"My dear, Reina has been taking good care of you because she said she would never believe that her brother would die, and she certainly wouldn't believe that he would leave her alone."

As Amamiya Iori relayed the story to Shimizu Ken, Shimizu Reina's face gradually turned red like morning dew on peach blossoms. She said, "That's not true," while waving her hands in panic to deny it.

Whether it was there or not, Shimizu Ken could see that the two of them cared about him, in addition to Shimizu Reina, Amamiya Iori was of course the same.

Qingshuijian comforted the two people who were worried about him and said that he was fine.

He knows his own body better than anyone else.

Before entering Sakurai Haruka's heart world, he was hit hard by a large truck and suffered severe head injuries.

He was already dying at the time, and even if he was rushed to the hospital immediately for emergency treatment, his chances of survival would be slim.

However, Qingshuijian now feels that his body is very healthy. Not only does he not feel any pain in his body, there is not even a trace of a scratch.

It felt as if he had never been hit by the truck at all.

However, in contrast, Rena Shimizu's abnormality value increased by a full twenty points.

Shimizu Mi still remembers that when Shimizu Rena was first revised into the heroine, she was stimulated by witnessing his palm being cut by a pair of scissors, and the abnormality in her body directly acted on Shimizu Mi and healed the injury on his palm.

Reina Shimizu's abnormality does not affect this world, but directly affects him.

Qing Shuijian had guessed about this before.

But now, he had clearly been in a car accident but had no injuries on his body. Perhaps it was because Rena Shimizu's abnormality had affected him again.

It seems that after learning that the doctor had declared Shimizu Ken dead, Rena Shimizu was greatly stimulated, causing a sudden surge in abnormalities to act on him again, and his body was pushed back to a time period before the car accident.

So... it was Shimizu Reina who saved his life! ?

Shimizu looked at Rena Shimizu, whose eyes were still bloodshot, and decided to pay close attention to her condition in the next few days just in case.

"Reina, can you stay at my house for a few more days?"

"Huh?!"

It can be seen that Reina Shimizu was a little surprised and seemed a little happy when Shimizu Ken suddenly asked this.

"But, but my parents will be back tomorrow..."

"May I?"

Shimizu confirmed again.

"Hmm... yes, it should be possible..."

Shimizu Reina lowered her head slightly, hesitated for a moment, then nodded and hummed softly. In this way, in addition to ensuring that Shimizu Reina would not be stimulated in the near future, Shimizu Jian could also confirm another thing.

That is, Reina Shimizu's abnormality value seems to have never decreased.

For example, Amamiya Iori and Sakurai Haruka would use the automatic correction function of the script to automatically reduce the abnormal values ​​a little bit every day.

However, from the time Rena Shimizu was revised to the heroine until now, except for the 20-point surge caused by the car accident of Miki Shimizu, her outlier value has always remained at the original 52 points.

Logically speaking, after such a long time, even if it is a little bit a day, Reina Shimizu's abnormal value should have decreased by more than ten points.

Could it be that... there is no way to automatically reduce the abnormality in Shimizu Reina's body?

As soon as this thought came to her mind, a line of words appeared above Reina Shimizu's head.

[Spectral script 3.0 currently has no way to correct the special heroine due to abnormal correction. 】

A special heroine?
Qingshui frowned slightly, not quite understanding what the special method was.

He looked carefully at Reina Shimizu in front of him. Her little face was indeed more beautiful and delicate than that of ordinary girls.

But other than that, no matter how he looked at it, he didn't feel that there was anything different between her and other ordinary little girls.

"Little girl..."

Shimizu Ken looked at Shimizu Reina and a scene suddenly flashed before his eyes.

Before this, Shimizu had briefly seen this scene on the side of the road a moment before the car accident.

He reached out his hand to the bewildered Reina Shimizu on the roadside, and then—a truck sped over...

"What on earth is that..."

Qing Shuijian couldn't tell whether the image that flashed by for the second time just now was his memory or something else.

If this happened to most people, they would probably regard it as an illusion, ignore it and continue with their lives.

Just like the hippocampus effect, people sometimes feel that they have done something before, or have experienced a similar situation in person, but if they really think about it carefully, they can't remember it, and ultimately they are forced to let it go.

If it were in the past, Shimizu might have come to the same conclusion.

However, during the time he was asleep, he recalled the memories about Amamiya Iori that seemed like the past and also like memories.

Although he thought of it inadvertently in his dream, Qing Shuijian was very clear - perhaps his brief return to reality at that time was just a dream, perhaps the big sister he met was also a dream, perhaps even the potato stew he ate was...

But the part about Amamiya Iori was definitely a memory that he had actually experienced personally!

But the question is, why did Shimizu forget such an important memory...

There is no way he would forget such an important memory, or even his feelings for Amamiya Iori.

And rather than saying it was forgotten, it was more like it was deleted.

It's like the save file of a game that I've already completed has been deleted...

Ever since recalling the memory related to Amemiya Iori, Shimizu Mi has always had an indescribable feeling.

Not only that, there is now a most important issue that he needs to figure out.

If the memory with Amemiya Iori was his past memory, then where did this memory come from?

According to Shimizu Mi's memory, he confessed his feelings to Amamiya Iori during graduation season, which was the day of his high school graduation ceremony.

However, he is only in his second year of high school.

How could he, who is only a sophomore in high school this year, have memories of more than a year in the future?
It has clearly happened before, but not in the past, but in the future.

When Qing Shuijian realized this, he was indescribably shocked.

Could it be that I have traveled to the future?

But this is obviously impossible to do.

If it was last week, it would have been possible to do it using the system.

However, Shimizu did not do such a thing last week.

Speaking of which, last week, Shimizu used the system to perfectly capture five heroines, but how did he get the system, and how did he become so familiar with it...

According to the game setting, Shimizu has had this special ability of the system since the beginning of the game, but in fact, he does not remember how he first came into contact with and understood the various functions of the system.

Simply put, it seems that Shimizu Miki skipped the tutorial and went straight into the level.

He couldn't explain this strange feeling, and he couldn't get over it because he had no clue.

Moreover, Shimizu could vaguely feel that there seemed to be a blank period in his memory.

Although it was just his intuition, it seemed that the blank period was not just one or two days, but a long period of time...

However, Shimizu was unable to confirm this based on his existing memory.

From childhood to adulthood, for a total of 19 years, he had remembered everything since he could remember. Although he could not guarantee that he remembered every little thing clearly, he had not forgotten most of the big things.

At least, there was no such long blank period in his memory.

If I had lost a few years' worth of memory, I should have noticed it pretty quickly.

unless……

Shimizumi's brain was thinking rapidly. In Sakurai Haruka's inner world, Shimizumi had entered a fragment of her memory.

In that scene, there were some discrepancies between her memory and Shimizumi's memory.

In her memory, Shimizu Mi attended that party, but Shimizu Mi had no memory of it.

This memory doesn't match Qing Shuijian's.

If it is said that when Sakurai Haruka first came into contact with Shimizu Mi, the memories she recalled were not just those from last week.

It is even possible that there are other memories mixed in besides those of this and last week.

If this is true, perhaps the memory of Amamiya Iori that I accidentally recalled this time also came from outside these two weeks...

If you want to understand this clearly, you still need to confirm with Haruka Sakurai.

"Iori, what day is today?"

"Today... should be the 10th. My dear has been in a coma for a day and a night."

"one day one Night……"

Only one day and one night had passed, but Qingshuijian felt like he had been sleeping in darkness for several months.

At this moment, Qing Shuijian suddenly remembered something.

"Iori, what about Haruka?!"

"remote……"

"Yes, how is Haruka?"

At that time, when the out-of-control truck suddenly rushed towards Shimizumi, Sakurai Haruka didn't even think about it and rushed up to help him block it...

Shimizu Mitsuki was lucky enough to survive because of Shimizu Reina, but what about Sakurai Haruka?

In his last memory, Shimizu Mi only remembered that Sakurai Haruka was pale and fell on the cold road with a weak breath, looking so helpless and fragile.

"Dear, Haruka..."

(End of this chapter)