My current setup and the story I told Teacher Wang Ren still have some gaps. At this moment, all I can rely on is my wife, Lin Han. I need to use her lie to stall for time. Honestly, very few people can deceive Teacher Wang Ren. Among those still alive, Old Ghost can probably do it, and Cao Qian can too. Perhaps the new head of the Gao family, Gao Ziyan, could also manage it.
However, if any of these individuals were to appear, it would alert Teacher Wang Ren and make her suspicious. She would investigate and investigate, and my plans would be exposed. At that point, all my efforts would be ruined.
...
If Lin Han were to deceive Teacher Wang Ren, it would be different. Even if Teacher Wang Ren were to be cautious and not underestimate Lin Han in the slightest, she would still look down on her. At this moment, her attitude wouldn't matter because her position dictates it. It's like one person standing on a ladder and another sitting on the ground. When they talk, no matter how the person on the ladder behaves, they must look down at the person on the ground. This is a matter of positional relationship. Social positional relationships are the same as physical positional relationships.
...
Besides this, there's a crucial point. There's a possibility that what Lin Han said is true, or rather, that I deceived Lin Han.
Teacher Wang Ren would definitely want to know why I deceived Lin Han, but she wouldn't investigate me. There would be no need. She could simply ask me. She wouldn't need to show extra attention to me over such a minor matter.
...
Lin Han was calmly lying outside, as if her husband had truly committed suicide by burning charcoal. She suppressed her grief, showing great strength and unwavering faith that I would wake up.
Besides her, there were two other companions.
To be precise, they were two completely unsuspecting companions. Da Huang felt that not staying over after drinking with me that day was a wrong decision. If he had stayed, there would have been no way for me to attempt charcoal suicide.
All in all, the charcoal incident was an accident. Da Huang felt incredibly guilty. Seeing the strong Lin Han, he wanted to retreat to a corner and cry. Fatty, seeing this, felt it too. If you cry, I cry too.
In this atmosphere, it was truly impossible to discern the truth from falsehood.
...
Everything is ready, only the east wind is lacking.
"Hypnosis?"
Xiao Zi An looked at me in surprise.
"Yes!" I nodded firmly.
"You want me to hypnotize you?"
"Aren't you a psychologist?"
"That's right, but that was a long time ago."
"Do you still have the skill?"
"Then let's do it!"
As long as you believe in the hypnotist and don't fight them with your conscious mind, they can operate, and you can mentally chant, "You can't hypnotize me, you can't hypnotize me!" If you have that intention, no one can hypnotize you.
...
The first person I saw when I woke up was Da Zhou. Da Zhou earnestly recounted the events, trying to get me to confirm the nature of the incident, whether it was suicide or murder.
I thought carefully, my mind a mess. After some deep thought, I said seriously, "I don't remember going to the kitchen."
"Teacher Wang Ren went to the scene to assess it. She said the black film you watched had a hypnotic effect."
"Was I hypnotized?"
"It seems so."
I was hypnotized? Did I have hallucinations? I don't know, and I'm still unclear about what happened. My mind is blank, with no thoughts. Why was I hypnotized? That black film had been in the study for many years. Who would have known it had a hypnotic effect?
As I was pondering this, Da Huang burst in, not caring about anything, and knelt before me...
Seeing Da Huang with a snotty, tear-streaked face, I felt a sense of unease. This unease wasn't due to my current predicament. My feeling was that it was all too familiar, as if I had seen it somewhere before, dreamt it, or relived it.
...
Could Da Huang handle this?
Handle it?
Why did I have the thought of "handle it"?
Was I faking it?
...
Later, Yu Xiao Luo and Luo Bo also arrived. Luo Bo talked to me about counter-surveillance and asked why I went to the kitchen to boil water. I was drunk and thirsty; wasn't it logical to go to the kitchen to boil water? However, I didn't directly answer Luo Bo. I wondered what would happen. Could it be... could it be that I was faking it?
That feeling surged in my heart again. I quieted down and tried to recall carefully. It felt as if this was a trap I had set. Seeing me silent, they thought I needed to be alone.
When they left, I called Da Huang and asked him to find something for me at Wende Xiaoyuan. What I needed was the part that Da Huang had removed from the phonograph. Facing this eerily familiar scene, a single sentence came to my mind: "I glanced into time and saw you; when you saw me, I saw all the time that followed."
Da Huang didn't say much. He went to Wende Xiaoyuan, found the part he had removed, and brought it to the hospital. I caressed the part, thinking that as soon as Teacher Wang Ren arrived tomorrow, everything would be over.
...
At that moment, I had a dream. In the dream, I experienced this scene, and then based on it, I set up a trap called 'Time'. I wanted to make Teacher Wang Ren realize that I had seen all the 'time' that followed. Therefore, I had to guide Wang Ren to utter that specific sentence, to make her understand the concept of time entanglement.
What needed to be done now was to guide Wang Ren, to make her follow my script and fall into the trap obediently.
...
But at this moment, my vision began to blur. Was I hypnotized? It didn't seem so. It was as if countless fragmented sub-consciousnesses were piecing together. I saw things, but not things I normally saw. It felt as though my eyes had become microscopes.
My body was shattered, limbs reconnected, and fluids flowed back. Yes, this time I saw clearly. A foot crushed me and then swept me into the trash can. From the fragments of time flowing backward, I could vaguely sense that I was an insect.
"No, no, no!"
I shouted, "It's not time for this yet! I haven't been hypnotized, so why are consciousness and memory being transplanted and replaced?"
Just then, a voice seemed to come from my ear.
"Tang Nan, can you hear me?"
"Tang Nan, can you hear me?"
"If you can hear me, I'll count to one, two, three, and you'll wake up."
"One, two, three..."
I opened my eyes and first saw Lin Han's anxious face. Just as I was about to speak to her, she turned to Teacher Wang Ren and said, "Senior Uncle, has Tang Nan truly woken up this time?"
Hearing Lin Han say this, I was astonished, but I sensed something was wrong. I looked down at myself and realized I was wearing a hospital gown. Looking around, I seemed to be in a different hospital room.
"What's going on? When did I get here?"
Hearing me speak, Lin Han's face was filled with tears, and she sobbed, "Husband, is it you? Is it really you?"
"Of course, it's me."
Hearing me say this, Lin Han rushed forward and hugged me tightly. I, still somewhat dazed, held her back, but through the gaps in her hair, I saw Teacher Wang Ren's face, wearing a smile of complete control.