Chapter 23#

The Self-Deceiving Liar (End)#

Lin Xiamian walked silently to the intersection.

Watching Lin Xiaodong drive toward him, he ultimately couldn’t hold back. His fingertips hanging by his side trembled slightly as he called out softly: “Brother.”

He wanted to apologize, but that car didn’t stop in front of him for even a single second.

Lin Xiamian could only watch helplessly as it drove past him, the pain and regret in his heart almost crushing him completely.

The car drove all the way toward the winding mountain road.

The system suddenly said: “There’s a car following you from behind.”

Lin Xiaodong frowned slightly: “Who is it?”

“Qi Huaishui.”

“That grandson still hasn’t been caught?” He was surprised. “I thought he had gone abroad long ago.”

System: “What do you plan to do?”

“It’s not a question of what I plan to do,” Lin Xiaodong said solemnly, looking at the rearview mirror, “but what he plans to do.”

If he were alone in the car, it would be easy; but the problem was that there was a pregnant woman in the passenger seat. If anything happened, it would be two lives lost.

Lin Xiaodong admitted the system must have been blinded to choose him as a “good person,” but he was someone who took promises seriously. Since he had promised to take care of her, he would definitely ensure this girl’s safety.

This was his bottom line as a human being.

“I suspect someone around Gu Xi was bought off and told him the license plate number,” Lin Xiaodong thought quickly, recalling what the man had told him before. “Although I haven’t been at the company lately, I’ve gathered quite a bit of information from colleagues. The Qi family has indeed been messed up badly this time, but they deserve it.”

He said “sit tight” to the girl beside him, then stepped on the gas, and the car zoomed out instantly. Qi Huaishui, seeing he was exposed, stopped pretending and immediately followed closely. The two cars staged a scene of “Fast and Furious” on the mountain road, the level of thrill approaching a 5A-rated roller coaster.

Lin Xiaodong couldn’t care less right now that the girl was vomiting all over Gu Xi’s car. All his attention was focused on the road ahead, his palms full of cold sweat—God knows, he had only had his driver’s license for less than a year!

The roads here were characterized by being winding and tortuous. At the third curve, Qi Huaishui took the opportunity to catch up. He was much thinner than when they last met, presumably having his body hollowed out by drugs; now he looked almost like a skeleton. Holding a bit of hope, Lin Xiaodong rolled down the passenger window and shouted to him: “You have the wrong person! I’m not Gu Xi!”

Qi Huaishui was indeed stunned for a moment when he saw it was him.

But soon, the man sneered, gritting his teeth: “But you’re Gu Xi’s lover, aren’t you? I remember you—you’re that bitch who ’touched porcelain’ with me and then ruined millions of dollars’ worth of my goods!”

After saying that, with a face full of ruthlessness, he yanked the steering wheel hard, using the car body to ram Lin Xiaodong’s car out of the lane. If Lin Xiaodong hadn’t reacted fast enough, the car would have been knocked directly down the cliff.

The girl covered her mouth and screamed. Lin Xiaodong pressed his lips tight, took a quick glance at the surging river below, suddenly took a deep breath, pressed her toward his side, and turned the steering wheel to ram back.

With a loud crash, Qi Huaishui appeared to be dazed by the impact. Lin Xiaodong seized the chance to step hard on the gas, leaving him behind and speeding forward.

Lin Xiaodong knew Qi Huaishui would definitely react soon, and it wouldn’t be so easy to lose him then. Just ahead was another curve. He didn’t dare slow down this time, directly drifting through the curve with a crazy turn of the wheel. But just then, a large truck suddenly appeared driving in the wrong direction ahead!

“Holy f-f-fuck…”

Lin Xiaodong subconsciously blurted out a string of curses. He turned the wheel to the left to try and mitigate the impact, but instantly realized a pregnant woman was sitting in the passenger seat. At the last moment, he forcefully stopped his instinctive movement and turned the wheel all the way to the right.

With a “boom,” the car was knocked flying.

The interior of the car was turned upside down. Fortunately, there were airbags. Lin Xiaodong only felt that the few seconds of rolling down the cliff were as long as a lifetime. Only when the car fell into the river water did he loosen his gritted teeth. In the final seconds before the water flooded the car, he struggled to unfasten his seatbelt, took the unconscious girl from the passenger seat, and swam out the window.

The place where the car fell was in the middle of the river. Lin Xiaodong was a good swimmer; normally, swimming back and forth twice would be no problem. But his leg had broken during the tumble just now, and he had countless wounds of all sizes on his body. Carrying another person, he swam with great difficulty, almost losing strength and sinking several times.

System: “Can you swim to the other shore?”

Lin Xiaodong had no strength to answer, but the system knew his thoughts and let out a sigh: “Get ready. I’ll help you with a forced departure ahead of time.”

The youth used his last bit of strength to push the girl in his arms forward when he was almost at the shore. The next second, a wave hit. Lin Xiaodong let go, closed his eyes, and allowed his body to be submerged by the turbid river water.

In the void space.

“Host 68711 task completed, departed world. Requesting connection to headquarters.”

“Connection progress 10%, 20%, 30%… Connection failed.”

“Permanently clearing host’s relevant memories…”

“Clearing progress 10%, 20%, 30%… Clearing failed.”

“Checking host’s mental and physical state…”

“Checking progress 10%, 20%, 30%… Checking complete. Host’s state meets standards, approved to enter the next world.”

…

…………

“Calculated wrong.”

Lin Xiaodong sat on the lawn, patting his tail with a serious face.

That’s right.

In this world, he had a tail.

A fish tail.

“Never expected it,” he said despondently. “Turns out that fortune teller was quite accurate. The one who warded off disaster for Gu Xi wasn’t anyone else but myself.”

The system said nothing.

According to normal rules, Lin Xiaodong shouldn’t remember anything about the previous world now. But clearly, headquarters and its own program both had major problems, for reasons unknown.

It had previously thought that perhaps sacrificing one programmer wasn’t enough.

But now the system had changed its mind.

For problems of this magnitude to occur, a big boss at the very top must have made a move against the Transmigration Department.

“Eh, why aren’t you talking?” Lin Xiaodong had been rambling for a long time before realizing that the only dialogue partner on this planet besides himself had been silent for a long while. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” the system said. “It’s just that I still can’t contact headquarters, so I can’t report your reward points.”

“Oh right, reward points,” Lin Xiaodong only just remembered. “But I didn’t use that stuff in the last world either, so whatever.”

System: “Sorry, this is our work error.”

“Oh, why so polite between us,” Lin Xiaodong gave a light cough. “Although you made me travel to another world without my consent and frequently threaten me with lightning, I still love you most. Mwah~”

the system’s core program couldn’t help but shudder: “Give it a rest. I’m not Lin Xiamian. Instead of flirting with me here, you’d better quickly check this world’s plotline.”

“Fine, fine. So how’s my character persona in this world?” he came back to his senses and asked with expectation. “In the first task world I didn’t have much experience, and the persona didn’t seem very distinct. I heard this time it’s a very exciting, high-difficulty challenge?”

System: “You’re half right.”

“The exciting part? I love excitement!”

“No, the high-difficulty part,” the system said slowly. “Congratulations. In this world, you’re a fool.”

Lin Xiaodong: “…………”

Grass grew out. (A Chinese internet slang for “f-word.”)

He incredulously flipped through the plot introduction and found that in this world, he had transmigrated into a merman who had just recently reached adulthood. He had lived with his parents and clansmen on a remote, small planet since childhood. There were no humans or technology here, only vast grasslands, lush forests, and a lake called “Garan” by the merfolk, their “Sacred Lake.”

For thousands of years, the merfolk had bred and lived peacefully and happily here. However, everything changed shortly after the little merman was born. The starship of the human imperial family landed on this planet, kidnapping all the young merfolk. The only survivor was the little merman, who was not yet six years old and had a cognitive disability.

In the following dozen or so years, the elderly merfolk died one by one. This planet was also judged by interstellar exploration ships to be an uninhabited garbage planet with no rare minerals. Starships carrying garbage traveled back and forth in the universe, dumping all the waste produced by people on the Central Planet here. From then on, the blue sky was gone, and the area of Garan Lake shrank repeatedly.

By the time the little merman grew up, the originally vast lake was left with less than one-third of its original area.

“So, the lesson of the last world was not to be a ’licking dog’ brother-con, and this world is about protecting the environment?” Seeing this, Lin Xiaodong couldn’t help but ask. “This summary you gave me can at most be called background introduction.”

System: “Keep reading.”

In the final part of the material, it was written: “One day, an escape pod crashed on the planet. The human inside was a young major general who had been harmed by spies for resisting the imperial family’s tyranny. However, out of fear and dread of humans, the merman chose to stay far away when the escape pod burned due to malfunction, leaving the major general to be consumed by the fire.”

“Shortly after, the military army arrived. Upon finding the major general dead, they took the merman away and imprisoned him secretly for a period. To combat the spread of interstellar brainworms, the merman became a sacrifice, forcibly sent into a laboratory for a prefrontal lobotomy. Eventually losing his autonomy, he sang day and night for his enemies until death.”

Lin Xiaodong was silent for a long time.

“This is too tragic,” after a while, he lamented deeply. “Family all dead, home destroyed, the one time he didn’t save someone he ended up sacrificing himself too.”

System: “But that major general was innocent.”

“Is that so?” Lin Xiaodong countered. “Race hatred aside, his status alone can hardly be called innocent. In any war, civilians and soldiers are two completely different concepts.”

The system couldn’t convince him and could only say: “Anyway, you can’t do that. Failing to save someone goes against the original intention of the task and will be automatically judged a failure.”

“I know.”

Lin Xiaodong answered casually.

As a merman for the first time, he was still a bit unaccustomed, swinging his silver tail behind him and waddling forward. After a long while, he finally climbed over the small hill ahead and arrived beside the legendary Sacred Lake.

But when Lin Xiaodong looked up, the breathtakingly beautiful scene that met his eyes made him involuntarily hold his breath.

It was a crescent-shaped lake.

The lake water was as clean and clear as air, with a soul-stirring azure color, like a quiet and deep blue eye. Green grass grew on both banks, and as the breeze blew, transparent ripples rose on the lake surface, beautiful like a fairyland.

Lin Xiaodong slowly walked to the lakeside, lowered his head, and reached out to touch the water surface.

The lake water carried a hint of coolness. The merman’s instinct within his body rejoiced and was invigorated. At the same time, the memory of being swept away by the surging river not long ago came rushing back. Although the system had helped his consciousness leave the small world immediately, the taste of suffocation while drowning was truly memorable.

The system silently watched Lin Xiaodong. This was why headquarters required them to clear the host’s relevant memories immediately after finishing a task.

Death, even if actively chosen by oneself, is never an easy thing.

Lin Xiaodong composed himself and slowly submerged his entire palm in the water, followed by his arm, half his body, and finally his entire body.

As a merman, water was their home. Lin Xiaodong soon adapted to this brand-new feeling. He watched the world below the lake with novelty, swinging his silver tail fin, swimming rapidly in the lake like a real fish.

The water flow seemed to obey his command. What the lake water brought was no longer fear, but comfort, joy, and freedom.

Like a baby returning to its mother’s arms, at this moment, Lin Xiaodong finally understood why the merfolk called Garan Lake the “Sacred Lake.”

“If I went to a swimming competition now, I’d definitely be miles ahead,” he said cheerfully to the system.

But no matter how joyful swimming was, it couldn’t fill his stomach.

For some unknown reason, no fish or shrimp lived in Garan Lake. The merfolk usually survived by picking wild fruits from trees or planting some crops themselves. But now only Lin Xiaodong was left on the entire planet—no, only one fish—and no one had taught him how to farm, so every day he could only go to the garbage heaps to find food.

He climbed ashore dripping wet and walked with a face full of sorrow toward the direction the system indicated.

He was probably even poorer now than in the last world, Lin Xiaodong thought sadly.

At least before he hadn’t fallen to scavenging for a living.

Passing through a transparent air barrier that spanned the sky, the further he went, the worse the environment became. The heavy stench of garbage wafted over in waves with the wind. Lin Xiaodong couldn’t help but cover his nose, only then realizing that this barrier also had an air-purifying effect.

“I feel like I’m stinking from head to toe, like a giant can of herring.”

He complained to the system with a sigh.

The extinction of the merman race was also because of this. Besides interstellar pirates kidnapping all the young merfolk and causing a generational gap, another point was that merfolk needed to live in humid, clean, and fresh-air environments. If away from water for a long time, the skin on their legs would crack. In more serious cases, they could even die from dehydration, becoming a genuine dried fish.

However, the little merman had lived alone on this desolate garbage planet for over a decade.

Lin Xiaodong stood before the mountains of garbage. Even though he was prepared, a dazed expression still couldn’t help but appear on his face.

“This… this is a garbage dump?” he murmured. “This is simply an ocean made of garbage, isn’t it?”

All kinds of discarded items, expired food, even industrial waste and animal carcasses could be found inside. Lin Xiaodong didn’t dare get too close, because with one wrong touch of some toxic chemical, he could go directly GG (good game).

He scavenged on the garbage pile for two hours. during that time, a starship flew overhead. Without even landing, it directly opened its hatch in mid-air, dumping tons of garbage, almost triggering a garbage mountain tsunami that would have buried the merman standing below.

“I want to curse,” Lin Xiaodong coughed several times, his face covered in dust, gritting his teeth in anger. “No wonder merfolk are naturally kind and pure yet still can’t help but harbor resentment. This is like a neighbor killing your whole family and then throwing garbage onto your bed. How the hell can one not curse!?”

System: “Don’t be angry. I’ll play SpongeBob for you.”

Lin Xiaodong: “…………”

Great!

The system indeed knew him very well. Although he was unwilling to admit it, Lin Xiaodong was indeed soothed.

But as he rounded a garbage mountain, he suddenly heard a low, raspy groan from a corner.

The little merman was stunned for a moment, thinking wasn’t there no other living person on this planet besides him?

He boldly poked his head out to observe and found the source of the sound was a damaged escape pod.

The hatch had been opened. A black-haired man in a pure black silver-buttoned military uniform was unconscious on a distant garbage heap. He seemed to have hit his head; his eyes were tightly closed, his face covered in blood, his lips pale and dry, and his cheeks flushed with a high fever.

Lin Xiaodong understood: this should be that unlucky Imperial Major General from the original world line plot.

The merman cautiously drew closer, but as he clearly saw the man’s appearance, he stopped abruptly.

“System!”

System… System is playing dead, don’t cue.

“No, you’ve at least got to give me a reason, right?” Lin Xiaodong pointed at the unconscious man and asked with a face full of disbelief, “Why is Gu Xi here? Don’t tell me he also transmigrated!”

System: “M-maybe he just looks similar?”

“Bullshit!” Lin Xiaodong cursed. “Do you believe that yourself?”

The merman stood with hands on hips, striding aggressively to the side of the escape pod. He looked down and carefully observed the man’s features. His original doubt immediately turned into absolute certainty—no mistake about it, this was Gu Xi.

Although the features were more mature, with a sharp feeling different from the last world, look at this waist, this butt, these abs—how could they be fake?

The system couldn’t help but ask: “There are many people in the world who look alike. Why are you so certain?”

“Duh,” Lin Xiaodong said expressionlessly, “I’ve slept with him hundreds of times! If I couldn’t recognize him, would I be blind?”

System: “…………”