She Is Lying

Another loop.

Yue Shi didn't go to the top floor to walk that corridor full of rules; he didn't want to see Tang Zhuhe for the time being.

He didn't linger in the lobby either. As soon as the reset happened, his figure vanished from the spot.

In the lobby, Ling Xun stood by the service desk, a cigarette still dangling from his mouth.

The receptionist hung up the phone and slumped down as if she had no bones, resting her chin on her arms as she looked in the direction where Yue Shi had disappeared. Her voice was lethargic. "He gave up that quickly?"

The staff member who had been typing pushed the keyboard into the drawer, leaned back against the chair, and crossed his legs. "It's only been a few times and he's already giving up? That doesn't sound like him."

"Who knows what he's up to now?" someone else remarked, taking off their glasses to wipe the lenses with the corner of their shirt before putting them back on.

Ling Xun didn't join the discussion. He took the cigarette from his mouth and tapped the ash into an ashtray. "He won't give up."

...

Yue Shi found a random spot to observe the full view of Amber City.

The sun rose from the east, shining on the city's skyscrapers. The glass curtain walls reflected light pollution, and the streets stretched out in all directions like blood vessels.

People were walking, cars were driving—everything looked normal.

But Yue Shi knew that this normalcy was merely a facade. This city was a machine running erratically, with every gear spinning frantically.

The Information Ghost drifted out from the button of his collar, floating in mid-air. It glanced at the city in the distance and then at Yue Shi.

"I didn't expect that this world's loop was actually created by the director." The Information Ghost's voice was filled with both sentiment and confusion, sounding rather complex.

Yue Shi sat on a public bench. The snow leopard cub squatted at his feet, licking its paws with its tongue.

"Tang Zhuhe is lying. Didn't you see it?" he said, his tone absolute.

The Information Ghost was stunned. It drifted in front of Yue Shi and tilted its head. "You think Amber City's loop wasn't caused by Tang Zhuhe?"

Yue Shi shook his head, his gaze falling on his own hands. "Actually, I don't know who the culprit behind the loop is. But I know that Tang Zhuhe is definitely hiding a lot of things."

"How can you tell?" the ghost asked.

Yue Shi picked up the snow leopard cub from the ground and placed it on his lap. The cub squirmed a bit reluctantly before finding a comfortable position to curl up in.

"First, those ridiculous rules in the top floor hallway and the rules at the entrance of the Director's Office—what is the point of their existence?"

The ghost thought for a moment. "To prevent people from entering?"

"Prevent who?" Yue Shi asked back. "Prevent transmigrators? Prevent local residents? What could be so valuable that Tang Zhuhe needs to be so defensive?"

The ghost immediately recalled those rules.

【If you discover that the office is not normal, please exit immediately.】

【If you discover that there is no director in the office, only a black Guanyin statue, please exit immediately.】

"Could it be that Director Tang has mutated and doesn't want the local residents to see?" the Information Ghost speculated wildly.

Yue Shi rolled his eyes. "I didn't ask her just now, but those rules should be meant to ward something off."

"Secondly..." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.

The paper was folded twice. He unfolded it and spread it out on his lap. The snow leopard cub curiously stretched its head over to sniff it and then sneezed.

"Tang Zhuhe gave this to me in the last loop. This paper actually wasn't reset during the loop." Yue Shi looked at the paper; it bore Tang Zhuhe's handwriting, written with a black felt-tip pen.

The ghost drifted over and leaned in close to the paper. The content on it was a string of strange symbols, like some kind of code.

"Most importantly, Tang Zhuhe said she could let me leave the Bewitching Beauty Painting Workshop entirely," Yue Shi whispered.

The Information Ghost fell into deep thought.

Yue Shi continued, "According to her previous description, she shouldn't have known that Amber City had become a room within the Bewitching Beauty Painting Workshop."

"But then she said she could let me leave the workshop entirely, which suggests she seems to have known about the Bewitching Beauty Painting Workshop for a long time."

The ghost drifted back into the air, crossing its arms with a complex expression. "Actually, there's nothing wrong with Director Tang lying. After all, everyone has secrets. What you told her wasn't entirely the truth either."

Yue Shi nodded. "I'm not that hypocritical. If I can lie, others naturally can too. It's no big deal."

"Whether Tang Zhuhe's words are true or false doesn't matter. I don't necessarily have to figure out what exactly happened to Amber City."

"The key issue now is that Tang Zhuhe said she can let me leave the Bewitching Beauty Painting Workshop entirely. How much credibility do those words have?"

"If she can leave, why doesn't she leave herself?" the ghost's voice was very soft, its data-composed eyes flickering with doubt.

A gust of wind blew, making the leaves in the green belt rustle. The snow leopard cub rolled over on Yue Shi's lap, changing to a more comfortable position.

Everything went black.

...

During the next few loops, Yue Shi still didn't go to see Director Tang. He teleported to various corners of the city, wandering aimlessly.

The loop cycle of over six minutes was too short—so short that an ordinary person couldn't even finish walking down a single street. Fortunately, Yue Shi could teleport and go anywhere he wanted.

He saw the varied lives of the people within the loop.

At 9:30, the moment the loop reset, the city turned as usual.

Someone was buying soy milk at a breakfast shop, someone was waiting for a bus at the station, and someone was waiting for a red light at an intersection.

Everyone was repeating their actions, their expressions either numb or manic.

Yue Shi stood at the entrance of a breakfast shop, watching a middle-aged man pull out his phone to scan a payment QR code, then take a basket of soup dumplings, walk to a seat by the window, dip them in vinegar, and eat.

He performed this entire sequence of actions with his eyes closed because he had already eaten the same soup dumplings countless times.

When he first realized the loop existed, he was incredibly grateful that he was eating soup dumplings—there was no danger, and he could savor the delicious food over and over again.

The tenth time he ate them, he thought they were okay.

The hundredth time he ate them, he felt a bit like vomiting.

His taste buds didn't tire; they would be reset with every refresh. His stomach would also be hungry every time it refreshed.

But his memories didn't disappear; he was truly sick of it.

Now he was just mechanically chewing. Although he could choose not to eat, there wasn't much else he could do in six minutes.

He had already done things like going on a mad stabbing spree many times. Since it was an infinite loop, he had done everything he hadn't dared to do before.

But by now, he was even tired of those crazy actions.

Yue Shi went to the park again.

An old man was sitting on a bench, holding a newspaper in his hand and a thermos on his lap.

He unfolded the newspaper, put on his reading glasses, and began to read.

Even though he could already recite the contents of the newspaper—even backward—he still had to read it.

It wasn't because he wanted to read; if he didn't read the newspaper, he simply didn't know what else these old bones of his could do.

Even if he wanted to go mad, he couldn't beat anyone else.