Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 802 Dream

It's the bathroom.

In the bathroom, the mother's white dress was soaked with blood from the bathtub, and she looked at Yu Shijiu through the transparent glass door.

"Shi Jiu..."

The mother's voice came from behind the glass door, soft, angry... and resentful.

"Shi Jiu..."

It was his mother calling him.

Yu Shijiu stared blankly at her mother, who was covered in blood, behind the glass door, and unconsciously took a step forward.

"Mother……"

Yu Shijiu called out to the woman in a panic through the steam, and ran forward, but tripped on the threshold.

He looked down in astonishment and saw that his hands and feet had become noticeably smaller and shorter.

It's chubby, with a slight indentation on the back of its hand. It's the result of its mother's loving care and delicious food every day.

It was a long, long time ago, when I was a little chubby.

In that instant, Yu Shijiu felt as if his breathing had stopped.

His mind was in complete chaos, countless distorted and confused memories enveloping him like an inextricable cocoon, suffocating him to the point that he could hardly breathe.

In reality, there was never any Dawn Game... there was no Anjie, Chen Yi, Xu Han, He Lingling, Xuexue, Uncle Gong, Miss Madam... were these all just his fantasies in the sanatorium?

From beginning to end, he was trapped in that dream about his mother's recurring deaths... right?

"Meow."

The sudden meowing made Yu Shijiu, who was lying on the ground, tremble for a moment.

The chaotic emotions that had enveloped him seemed to have been scratched away by a cat's claws, completely dissipating around the orange and white kitten in front of him.

The little orange cat stared at him with its eerie green eyes, meowing urgently, and even trying to push him with its paws.

But he was too heavy; the little orange cat couldn't push him at all and could only meow and try frantically.

"..."

Feeling the warmth of the soft cat fur close to him, Yu Shijiu blinked slowly.

His gaze passed over the little orange kitten struggling to move its tiny body and landed on the mother's face behind the glass door.

Her mother looked at her with sorrow, the cut on her wrist was exposed, the muscle layer, the light yellow fat, and the gushing blood were particularly conspicuous under the bathroom light, so conspicuous that Yu Shijiu's breathing became rapid again.

"Mother……"

Yu Shijiu called her softly, then scooped up the little orange cat that was trying to push him away with his chubby little hands, and climbed up to approach the glass door of the bathroom step by step.

call--

The exhaust vent above his head in the bathroom made an echoing sound, as if something unseen was hovering over his head, silently blowing air incessantly.

Who is it? Is it Dad? No—that beast can't be called Dad, it's a beast—no, beast isn't right either, so what should it be called? What should it be called?

Yu Shijiu's mind was filled with all sorts of extreme and nasty emotions, and her round eyes grew redder and more painful—"Meow?"

The little orange cat in his arms seemed to be hurting a bit from his holding, but it didn't scratch him; it just licked his cheek with its tongue.

The soft, barbed tongue licked her cheek, bringing a strange, slightly itchy sensation, and Yu Shijiu stopped in her tracks on the spot.

Behind the glass door, inside the bathtub, his mother was still staring at him. Tears mixed with blood welled up in her eyes, dripping down her chin and into the bloody water beneath her, mingling together.

"Shi Jiu... save... save Mom... save... save Mom..."

"Save Mommy... Mommy... If Mommy dies... you'll be all alone... what will you do... what will you do..."

"Mom...Mom doesn't want to die...Mom really doesn't want to die...Ah...I can't bear it...I'm not reconciled...Mom...I'm not reconciled..."

With great difficulty, the mother stretched out her hand, its flesh torn and bleeding, dripping onto the floor tiles. Her cries for help grew louder and louder, echoing throughout the entire bathroom.

yes……

Yu Shijiu's expression became somewhat wooden. He held the little orange cat and stood by the glass door, slowly pushing it open. Then he used his body to block the glass door and stared at his mother in the bathtub.

The bright bathroom light illuminated the glass door, which was hazy with steam. Yu Shijiu stood in the light, holding the little orange cat. His chubby, tender face was suddenly made clear and distinct by the light.

"Mother."

Yu Shijiu said softly, "Look."

He lifted the dirty little orange cat in his arms, his round eyes curved into crescents, and round teardrops rolled down, wetting a small patch on the little orange cat's head.

"Meow?"

Yu Shijiu was completely unaware of what was happening. He continued to say to his mother in the bathtub, "Look, I'm not alone anymore."

The mother in the bathtub stopped shouting. Her beautiful, round almond-shaped eyes, just like Yu Shijiu's, were red and swollen, carrying a delicate fragility that seemed to be on the verge of death.

"It's very well-behaved."

Yu Shijiu looked into her eyes and said, word by word:

"It's very well-behaved. Its name is Feifei (Fatty), which I chose because I want it to become very fat, which means it can eat lots and lots of delicious things..."

As he spoke, Yu Shijiu's body began to grow rapidly. Soon, his small, chubby fingers began to grow long and thin, like malnourished bamboo poles.

Yu Shijiu, now twelve years old, looks incredibly thin, a far cry from his chubby childhood self.

The little orange cat in his arms seemed to have gotten a bit fatter, and its originally dirty and tangled orange and white fur had become smooth.

“Look,” Yu Shijiu said with a smile, her eyes crinkling, “Feifei has gotten fatter.”

His mother remained silent in the bathtub, simply gazing at him with those similar eyes.

"...Actually, I'm doing very well."

Yu Shijiu pulled his sunken cheeks upwards. He was smiling, a habitual, mechanical smile, like a robot that had been forced to smile for a long time.

"I will kill Liang Guodong..."

Yu Shijiu said softly.

His body grew much taller again, and this time, the boy, whose face still retained some of his childishness, was covered in blood.

The seventeen-year-old boy, holding—no, dragging—a large orange cat that was already half his own size, smiled at his mother in the bathtub.

There was a hole on the side of his temple from which blood was constantly gushing out, slowly soaking into his half-grown hair that hadn't been trimmed in a long time.

"I'm starting to have friends..."

Yu Shijiu said, "Mom, I've avenged you."

"..."

The bathroom lights began to flicker and crack, and the glass door beside them started to shatter. Similarly, the mother's body in the bathtub began to break into pieces.

Yu Shijiu's pupils suddenly contracted. He took a step forward, and the next second—the big orange cat beside him disappeared.

"Fatty..."

Yu Shijiu was panicked, but then she heard her mother calling from inside the bathtub.

"...Shi Jiu...come to Mommy's..."

The mother's dismembered body looked horribly gruesome, with internal organs mixed with blood dripping into the bathtub, a scene so bloody it was chilling.

But Yu Shijiu seemed oblivious to all of this. He stepped into the blood-soaked bathroom, and the shaky glass door behind him made a loud bang.

The glass door exploded.

Sharp shards of glass flew towards him, and Yu Shijiu could already feel the sharp wind whistling past his ears—

But he was not harmed in the slightest.

"Shi Jiu..."

His mother's gentle voice rang in his ears.

Yu Shijiu's pupils had dilated to their maximum as he stared at his mother, who had suddenly stood up from the bathtub.

His mother's body was torn apart, her twisted form enveloping him in her arms, the strong smell of blood and the fragrance of shower gel completely filling his breath.

"...Be...careful......"

He looked up and saw a smile on his mother's face, which was covered in blood-red cracks, as if she were comforting him or worried about him.

As I slowly turned around, I saw the shards of glass from the explosion piercing into my mother's torn flesh; all the shards of glass had been blocked by my mother.

Yu Shijiu's suppressed emotions finally erupted. He opened his mouth, and his throat seemed to be stuffed with cotton as he let out a hoarse, sticky shout.

"mom, Mom, Mom……"

"Why are you crying?"

The mother's broken body began to dissipate, and just before it disappeared, her intermittent voice finally returned to normal.

"You did very well."

His mother gently hugged Yu Shijiu, patted his head as she had when he was a child, and said softly:

"Shi Jiu, be kinder to yourself, even kinder, okay?"

"mom!"

Yu Shijiu choked up, tears streaming down his face, one by one.

"I haven't introduced you to my friends yet, and also to the person who's raising Feifei with me... I haven't had a chance to introduce them yet, please wait a little longer, okay..."

"..."

The hand that was stroking Yu Shijiu's head suddenly disappeared, and his mother, who was protecting him, also vanished until only half of her face remained faintly visible.

"Snap—Sizzle—"

The shards of glass that Mom had been shielding could no longer hold, and they fell to the floor with a piercing sound.

Yu Shijiu's eyes were bloodshot. He reached out to grab the last half of his mother's face that had disappeared, and roared:

"Mother--"

"Shi Jiu!"

"Shi Jiu!"

"Shi Jiu, wake up! Shi Jiu, wake up! You can't sleep anymore! You can't sleep anymore!"

"Oh my god," Xu Han was on the verge of collapse, staring at Yu Shijiu who wouldn't wake up no matter how he called. He turned to He Lingling and asked, "What's going on? Why can't we wake Shijiu up either? His innate skill isn't 'Ghost Eye'!!!"

Equally anxious, He Lingling rolled her eyes: "What's the use of yelling at me? Keep shouting! Your foster mother will be here soon!!"

Xu Han was sweating profusely with anxiety: "How could I not know that my foster mother is coming soon!"

"Don't worry, don't worry," Chen Yi tried to calm things down. "It's alright, your foster mother shouldn't do anything tonight. After all, tonight is just for us to sleep..."

Beside Yu Shijiu's bedside, An Jie frowned as she looked at his sleeping face streaked with tears. A complex emotion flashed in her eyes. Then she took a deep breath and raised her hand—

"Sister An!"

Chen Yi whirled around and grabbed her hand, exclaiming in horror, "You can't hit her face! Shi Jiu has such an innocent face! How could you do that?!"

He Lingling and Xu Han were also quite frightened, with the latter muttering:

"This...this is really not allowed! Is it even possible to slap someone in the face like this?"

He Lingling thought about it seriously for a few seconds: "Actually, I think we can give it a try..."

"What the hell?!" Xu Han exclaimed in despair. "What if Shi Jiu wakes up and slaps me?! He's got the strength to send me flying against the wall!"

"Stop," He Lingling said, bewildered. "Why did An Jie slap you?"

Xu Han instantly calmed down and said, "Then can I let Shi Jiu hit Sister An? That would hurt our relationship. It's okay if Shi Jiu hits me, I don't mind."

He Lingling: "..."

Chen Yi, who had just prepared his words to mediate the fight, stammered, "...Uh..."

Anjie: "..."