Chapter 709
Chapter 709
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 709
>Chapter Title: Projection
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Chapter 709: Projection
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> Hearing this guy still asking if he’d eaten at a time like this, Li Huowang felt a little speechless. “Mr. Qing, I’ve already eaten. Can we talk business now?”
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> “Then trouble you to wait a moment. I haven’t finished yet.” Qing Wanglai picked up his bowl.
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> Hearing him say that, Li Huowang couldn’t help but furrow his brow. What was wrong with this Qing Wanglai? “Can’t you talk while eating?”
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> “Ancient wisdom says: don’t speak while eating, don’t speak while sleeping. Besides, talking while eating leads to insufficient chewing, poor digestion, and you might bite your tongue or choke.” With that, Qing Wanglai handed the phone back to Yang Na.
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> Since the other party had refused so clearly, and Li Huowang needed something from him, he had no choice but to wait.
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> Seeing his girlfriend Yang Na’s hesitant expression, Li Huowang spoke up. “Don’t just stand there. Eat while they eat. Don’t starve yourself. Have more.”
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> “Okay then. Huowang, I’ll hang up the video for now. We’ll chat after I eat.” With that from Yang Na, there was a beep, and the video ended.
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> Staring at the still screen, Li Huowang sighed. Why were all the people Qian Fu found so weird? Qing Wanglai might not be insane, but he didn’t seem very reliable either.
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> Li Huowang stood up and went to the window, lifting a corner of the starry sky curtain to sneak a peek outside. The sky had already darkened, but he could feel those gazes intensifying. They were still there!
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> “Swish~!” The starry sky curtain was yanked open again, exposing Li Huowang directly to their stares.
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> “Come at me if you dare! I’ll make sure you go in upright and come out sideways!!” Li Huowang gripped his dagger, teeth clenched tight, eyes blazing with ferocity.
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> But clearly, because Wang Wei had acted earlier, these people didn’t seem planning to make a move right away.
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> Whether they were plotting something or not, for now they just watched. They stayed that way until the video invite music rang out again, with no movement.
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> The starry sky curtain was quickly drawn shut. When Li Huowang tapped open the phone again, the scene had changed to a new environment—small, looking like a single dorm room.
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> Compared to a typical guys’ dorm, this one was obviously much cleaner and tidier. Most things in the room were white, no anime posters or anything on the walls—just a single scroll painting, spotless.
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> Qing Wanglai held a cup of green tea to his lips and took a sip. “Hello, Li Huowang. Let me reintroduce myself. I’m Qing Wanglai. They’ve told me about what’s happening with you. Now, let me share my thoughts.”
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> “First off, the restrictions on you are severe. Being watched like this means you can’t do anything. We need to figure out a way to temporarily restore some freedom for you.”
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> “Wait, wait a second.” Li Huowang interrupted Qing Wanglai.
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> “What? You don’t want your freedom back? You want to keep being trapped in this complex forever?”
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> “No. Before we get to the real business, I need to confirm one thing first. About them—those trying to abduct me—what’s your take?”
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> “Do you think they’re Leo aliens or some underground group spying on special abilities?”
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> Qing Wanglai smiled. “Why would you think I’d believe that? Do I look insane to you?”
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> “So what do you think? What’s the truth of all this? Who are they really?” Finally, a normal person’s explanation. Li Huowang felt sweat beading in his palms.
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> Qing Wanglai took a slow sip of tea before speaking. “Physicist Julian Madacina proposed a hypothesis: our universe might be a holographic image. Everything you see, everything you perceive, is a projection. I accept that hypothesis.”
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> “Huh?!” Li Huowang was stunned for a moment. What did this guy even mean? And hadn’t he heard something like this before?
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> “What do you think is real, and what’s fake?” Qing Wanglai asked.
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> “Could the world be a massive illusion, a refraction from some existence? Like our shadows. We’re their shadows.”
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> “.” Li Huowang stared silently at the man on the screen, suspicion rising in his heart: “This guy’s probably insane too, just undiagnosed.”
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> “I don’t buy your view.” The speaker wasn’t Li Huowang, but Yang Na.
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> She seemed like a different person, none of the softness she had around Li Huowang—now sharp and aggressive.
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> She clutched the cup in her arms tightly, her gaze piercing. “Science is bold hypotheses, carefully verified. Until proven, it’s just a hypothesis. What key evidence do you have to back yours?”
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> “Heh, of course I do.”
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> “Show it then. I don’t believe you have any.” Yang Na’s tone was openly skeptical. “If you had decisive proof, you’d be winning Nobel Prizes, not sitting here.”
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> “I can’t show it to you, just like how my shadow can’t convey to your shadow what our world is like. They don’t even have thoughts. They move only because we move. How could I convey it?”
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> “Nonsense! You’re no different from those online pseudoscience crackpots. I’m really questioning how you even got your graduate degree!” Yang Na stood up angrily, any goodwill from his appearance vanishing without a trace.
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> “Imagine: compared to us, how simplistic our shadows are. If living, breathing people like us—with blood, flesh, and substance—are shadows of some existence, can you even fathom what they must be like?”
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> Seeing Yang Na fall into thought, Qing Wanglai continued. “What if their projection isn’t just a flat person, but our entire world? If our whole world is merely the projection of a single existence, what kind of being would that be?”
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> Seeing Yang Na open her mouth then close it, Qing Wanglai pressed on. “You can’t imagine it, because you don’t even have the organs to hold that imagination.”
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> As Qing Wanglai spoke, his expression grew distant. “But I’ve seen it. I glimpsed it once. Of course, I forgot it immediately, but I still remember how insignificant I felt in that moment.”
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> “Our so-called thoughts are merely refractions of their breath. We exist only because they do. Even our...” At this point, Qing Wanglai trailed off. He clutched his head, a hint of pain crossing his face.
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> He turned, opened a drawer, pulled out some capsules, popped them into his mouth, and washed them down with long-cold tea.
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> The room fell quiet. No one spoke.
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> After a while, Qian Fu’s voice rang out in the room. “What a load of crap. You making this up? I still say it’s Leo aliens.”
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> (End of chapter)