48 Hours a Day

Chapter 713: Illusion

Rabbits would bite their enemies when forced into desperation. Shen Dongxing, however, had no idea what he would do when someone forced his hand.

He had never gotten into a fight before since young, and even after gaining superpowers one could only dream of, the only thing he did was to let his figurines go out for a walk in the evening.

What Yogurt did next almost caused Shen Dongxing to wet his pants.

After coming out of McDonald’s, Yogurt headed to a 24-hour convenience store and bought a penknife. The two then headed to the parking lot, where Yogurt unpacked the knife and handed it to Shen Dongxing.

She rolled up her sleeves and said, “Come on.”

“Come... come what?” Shen Dongxing took the penknife and did not know what to do with it.

“Torture me,” Yogurt blinked. “Did you really think that you could just sit there and do nothing? My dad needs to know that you are desperate. They have been to your house, and there is a high chance they have begun suspecting that you and I have been faking the whole thing. We have to show him some proof.”

“How do we prove it?” Shen Dongxing asked with trembling hands.

“Don’t you know how to torture people? Ugh. Forget it. I’ll do it myself,” snapped Yogurt as she snatched the knife from Shen Dongxing. In a clean, unfaltering swipe, she made sure she exerted every ounce of her strength when she cut herself. The knife went in all the way, splitting its way into her muscles, causing bright red blood to gush out from the deep wound.

Shen Dongxing was shocked as he witnessed the terrifying scene unfolding in front of him. “You are crazy!” he yelled while instinctively taking-off his t-shirt and wrapping it around Yogurt’s arm to stop the bleeding.

“Wait here! I’ll go buy some gauze and iodine,” he blurted in panic.

As he ran towards the convenience store, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and whispered in embarrassment. “Um... can you lend me some money? I just remembered that I have no wallet.”

“Don’t waste your time. Just stay here!” Yogurt rolled her eyes. She did not use Shen Dongxing’s t-shirt to stop the bleeding. Instead, she deliberately dabbed and rubbed the wound with it, causing the shirt to be awash with bloodstains. She then threw the t-shirt back to Shen Dongxing.

“Put it on!”

“What?”

“Don’t make me repeat it,” Yogurt growled impatiently.

Seeing that Yogurt was getting angry, Shen Dongxing quickly put on the bloody t-shirt.

However, Yogurt still seemed unsatisfied. She frowned. “You’re too weak. Do you even know what to do when forced into a desperate situation?” She then took some of her blood and smeared it on Shen Dongxing’s face and neck, making him look a lot more terrifying.

“Hmm.” Yogurt took two steps back, cocked her head, and took a better look at Shen Dongxing. This time, though, she seemed satisfied. After that, she stabbed her arm twice without so much as a twitch on her face.

“I... we can fake the wounds and blood! I know a friend who does a great job.” Shen Dongxing’s lips quivered as he spoke, and his forehead was sweating profusely.

“Don’t be stupid,” Yogurt snorted, “My dad is just bad, not stupid. You can’t possibly fool him.”

“Then... Then you can’t keep hurting yourself either!” Shen Dongxing was almost crying.

Yogurt’s expressions remained stoic she as inflicted cut after deep cut on her arm. After a while, four gaping slash wounds were very visible. At the same time, she said lightly, “Compared to the suffering my mother had to endure over the years, this is nothing. Rest assured, I will make him pay for what he’s done to us.”

After that, Yogurt made another sixteen cuts on the same arm. Fortunately, the last ten cuts were not as deep as the ones before. With all that blood and slashes on her, she looked appaling. Even the keenest skeptic who saw her would not doubt that she had been severely tortured.

Yogurt then threw her mobile phone to Shen Dongxing and said, “Record a video of me. Keep the first part of the video at around 10 seconds long.”

Shen Dongxing shakily pressed the record button with his trembling hand. After that, she saw Yogurt crawling on the ground in horror, crying and begging for mercy. Her blood began to stain the green grass of the parking lot.

After that, Shen Dongxing recorded a four-second video of him chasing Yogurt, then took a few more photos for good measure.

“It’s done. You can go buy the gauze and iodine now,” Yogurt said and took out fifty yuan from her wallet.

Seeing Shen Dongxing subconsciously walking towards the convenience store, Yogurt quickly halted him. “Hey, hey, what are you doing? Do you want the store’s employees to call the police?”

“Take off that shirt and wash away the blood on your face and hands.”

“Oh... Oh!”

Shen Dongxing snapped back to reality.

When he returned five minutes later, Yogurt had already composed the videos and pictures into an email and sent it to 1810. She then sat on the flower bed in the parking lot, watching Shen Dongxing kneeling beside her, tending to her wounds.

In the quiet and dark, their breathing was audible to each other.

After a while, Yogurt suddenly asked, “Why did you stop talking to me? Did my behavior scare you?”

Shen Dongxing shook his head, and tears started flowing down his cheek.

“You are a man. Stop crying! I didn’t even hurt you. I’m the one who’s gotten hurt here. If I didn’t cry, you have no right to cry!” Yogurt said.

Shen Dongxing wiped away his tears, but made no attempts to defend himself.

“Sometimes, I get very curious. What do you like about me? I have an awfully bad temper, I can’t cook and do housework, and I don’t treat you well. Revenge is all I’ve been thinking about. Even after we’ve stayed together for so long, I never allowed you to hold my hands. I know that you haven’t achieved much in the past, but you are an agent now. If you go and work for one of the three major guilds, I’m pretty sure tons of girls would start coming after you, and those will be more beautiful than me. Why are you so stupid? Why must you cling on to me?”

After running here and there for the entire day, fatigue was beginning to plague Shen Dongxing. After helping Yogurt bandage her wounds, he slumped to the ground in exhaustion. He did not immediately answer, but instead, he asked, “Do you remember what happened when we first met?”

“I remember what happened to you. A few senior students were bullying you at the bus stand because you didn’t steal enough money from home for them,” Yogurt nodded.

“At the time, everyone pretended not to see me. They walked past me as quickly as they could. And I still remember the feeling of helplessness I felt that morning, as if the whole world was gray... until you stopped them.”

“Initially, I didn’t want to stick my nose into your business,” Yogurt laughed. “But I remember how you kept crying. The sound of it frustrated me. I thought to myself, how did a boy like you become so weak? All you did was to cry endlessly. I have been through so much horror, yet I haven’t shed a single tear. So, why cry over such a small matter?”

“I probably... fell in love with you at that time,” confessed Shen Dongxing. “I didn’t expect to meet you again after moving house and transferring to another school. When I knew you were a player, I was so happy. For a long time, you have always taken care of me. I didn’t expect that someday, I’d be able to help you. So when you came to me, I never thought of rejecting you.”

Yogurt fell into silence. After a while, she spoke again, “You know that I’m just using you, right?”

“Well, I also know that you like girls and not boys,” Shen Dongxing said. “I once sneaked upstairs to look for you during the inter-class exercises. To my surprise, I saw you having an intimate session with another girl in the classroom. So, I went off and cried for the whole afternoon. You kept asking me who bullied me... I know that you will never join one of the three major guilds with me. You are just lying. But I was still delighted just listening to what you have to tell me. When we were at McDonald’s, I was elated when you fed me French fries. Do you know who Fitzgerald is?”

“Yes, the guy who wrote The Great Gatsby.”

“He used that book to predict his tragic fate perfectly. And he saw the source of all his pain and tragedy, yet still chose to plunge into the illusion without looking back. In the end, he sacrificed his life for it. I never understood his choice when I was young, but now, I understand him perfectly. Sometimes the illusion is just too beautiful to resist.” Shen Dongxing said.

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