By the time Lin Jianyuan returned to the Bureau, the containment report was almost finished.

There was only one blank left.

[Containment Location]

Lin Jianyuan thought about it, then gave the director another call. After reading through the containment report, the director smiled and said in a gratified tone,

“Lin Jianyuan, I knew you were perfect for an office job!”

Lin Jianyuan: “...” Director, that's not the kind of thing you should be praising me for.

Anyway, since he got approval, there was no reason not to go ahead with it.

Lin Jianyuan turned to his roommate. “Wife, can you take me to Jingwei*?”

“Sure.” His roommate took his hand. “What are we going there for?”

His roommate never seemed to dampen his enthusiasm.

Lin Jianyuan remembered the last time they captured [Remorse]. It was the same then.

Lin Jianyuan told him to eat it, so he simply opened his mouth and took a bite. Only after gulping the whole thing down did he ask what Lin Jianyuan just fed him.

That kind of trust. That completely unreserved, unconditional trust and support.

How could Lin Jianyuan possibly not love him to death?

…

Wang Yiling came to the Mental Health Center again.

She knew she was sick. She always knew she was sick.

But her parents didn’t believe her until she broke down at home and started slamming her head against the wall.

Her follow-up appointment was supposed to be yesterday.

But yesterday, for some reason, tears started streaming down her face the moment she walked into the Mental Health Center.

She didn’t even know why she was crying. All she could do was force herself to keep walking until she reached the restroom. She wanted to find a stall, lock the door, and hide inside while she cried, so she wouldn’t disturb anyone.

But she couldn’t even make it to a stall. She really couldn’t.

By the time she reached the restroom entrance, she no longer had the strength to go any farther.

Crying seemed to use a different kind of strength, and it was the only strength she had left.

So she stood in front of the mirror, covered her face, and sobbed.

The sound quickly drew other people’s attention.

She knew crying like this would make people notice her, but she couldn’t control it. She didn’t want to cry. She didn’t even know why she was crying.

Nothing happened. Everything was perfectly fine. So why… why…

Ah. Actually, it wasn’t that she truly didn’t know why.

After she cried herself exhausted, she raised her head and tried to turn on the faucet to wash her face.

Then she saw her reflection in the mirror.

So ugly.

That was her first thought. So ugly. So hideous.

The makeup she worked so hard to apply before leaving home was completely ruined.

Her smeared eyeliner looked like earthworms flattened by cars on the road, streaked messily across her face.

So ugly. So ugly.

She shouldn’t have put on makeup.

I shouldn’t have put on makeup I'm ugly to begin with What was even the point Makeup couldn’t save me anyway Who do I think am I Did I really think someone as stupid as me could just follow some beauty influencer’s video and magically learn how to do makeup I'm so dumb I could never do anything right My grades are bad I'm stupid and bad with people All I ever do all day is cry cry cry…*

Her emotions, which were already on the verge of collapse, reached their peak when she accidentally met someone else’s eyes through the mirror.

It was a man.

An unfamiliar adult wearing a white shirt.

Wang Yiling didn’t expect to make eye contact with a stranger through the mirror, much less have him witness her at her ugliest.

The last scraps of her self-respect were shattered.

Crying really did seem to use a different kind of strength.

She didn’t even have enough strength left to stand, yet somehow she still had the strength to cry. How ridiculous.

…Luckily, she met a gentle cleaning lady.

She felt incredibly embarrassed. Crying here got in the cleaner’s way, but the cleaner really was very, very kind, very gentle, and very patient as she comforted her.

The cleaner even told her things like, “Such a pretty young girl…”

Wang Yiling knew it was only meant to comfort her. She knew she was ugly, stupid, and useless. It was just that this was the Mental Health Center.

She was sick. The cleaner knew why she was here, which was why she comforted her so gently.

Wang Yiling knew the woman was genuinely a very, very good person, and she also knew she couldn’t let a stranger’s kindness go to waste.

That was why she came back to the Mental Health Center today.

Need to see a doctor. Need to take medicine.

We need to work hard to get better.

Her father said, “You’re only a kid. What's with all this depression? All you do every day is cling to that phone instead of studying properly. Who even knows what you’re doing on it? I think you’ve just spent too much time on your phone! You can’t do this, you can’t do that. What exactly are you going to do after you graduate? If you can’t study, then stop wasting our money and just find someone to marry early!”

Her mother said, “Stop watching those makeup videos! What, are you trying to become an influencer? You have the energy to put on makeup but not the energy to study? Stop pretending! You’re only in eighth grade! What does a child need makeup for? Who are you dressing up all flashy like that for? Why can’t you put some of that effort into studying? After all these years, can’t you just make something of yourself for once, even if it’s only for my sake?”

Need to see a doctor. Need to take medicine.

We need to work hard to get better.

Only then would she have the strength to read, the strength to study, and the strength to go to school.

The strength to open her eyes and look at tomorrow’s sun.

…The restroom seemed like a refuge.

She was already so tired she had no strength left before she even did anything.

Every single time, she had to rest here first. Rest. Gather some strength. Only then could she go see the doctor while her father grumbled impatiently.

Wang Yiling stood in front of the sink, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

Okay. Okay. That’s enough. Go out.

She took a deep breath, then another.

Clutching the tiny bit of strength she managed to gather, she prepared to leave, but from the corner of her eye, she suddenly noticed the mirror.

Huh?

She always hated looking in mirrors because she hated seeing her ugly, fat self reflected back at her.

But today… Today, something seemed different.

Her skin looked really good and fair.

For the first time, she realized that there might actually be something nice about her chubby face.

Her skin was honestly pretty good. Even her messy hair didn’t look greasy.

Instead, because she casually tied it up before leaving home, it looked like that thing people talked about online. What was it called again?

A high crown*?

Was she one of those legendary people with a high crown too?

Wang Yiling stared at herself in the mirror in astonishment. Her reflection stared back, eyes wide in equal astonishment.

Like a fawn that suddenly leapt out of a dark forest and into open grassland.

Wh-why did I look so… so pretty today? Is this real?

Wang Yiling rubbed her eyes in disbelief, then, when no one was looking, secretly tapped the surface of the mirror.

Really? It really was just an ordinary mirror? Not some magical mirror with a built-in beauty filter?

The corners of her mouth tried to lift, but she restrained herself.

…Maybe, um, maybe it was because I just cried again?

My eyes were swollen from crying, so maybe that made them look especially big? Round and watery?

Ah. No wonder the cleaning lady yesterday called her a pretty young girl.

So that was it!

Even so, Wang Yiling couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from rising.

Suddenly, she felt like maybe she wasn’t completely useless after all.

She wasn’t actually the worthless person her parents said she was.

Then, Wang Yiling remembered something the doctor told her: “A lot of the time, you’re not actually the one who’s sick. If you really feel like you can’t breathe anymore, come stay at the hospital for a few days. Think of it as changing environments and giving yourself a proper rest.”

…That’s right. Studying was important. School was important.

But thinking that she herself wasn’t important... That's wrong.

If “she” stopped existing altogether, then who would study? And who was she even studying for?

She knew what she needed to do now.

Wang Yiling took a deep breath, straightened her back, lifted her chin, and walked out of the women’s restroom.

For the first time in her life, that little girl walked out with an enormous presence.

…

Lin Jianyuan crouched at the restroom entrance, observing the results.

Objectively speaking, this looked extremely creepy.

But then he remembered that he was a certified psychiatric patient himself, and suddenly stopped caring.

Everyone who came to this hospital was a fellow patient anyway. His fellow patients could cut him some slack!

“Wife, wife, how’s it going on your side?”

Lin Jianyuan sent his roommate a voice message on WeChat.

His roommate replied almost immediately. “There are tons of people taking selfies in the restroom. I searched Little Red Book and someone’s already asking what kind of new influencer photo spot this is. Other people are seriously discussing the technical reasons why photos taken here look so good.”

Lin Jianyuan: “Pfft.”LOL.

As expected, the Slurping Ribbonfish was still as effective as ever.

Wherever it went, it made people take selfies.

Lin Jianyuan didn’t even know what he was thinking at the time. The idea just flashed through his mind…

And as it turned out, the results were pretty good.

The ribbonfish was very cooperative. Once captured, it promptly told him everything about itself, including its anatomy.

It turned out that its insides were structured like a grapevine. Each grape was independent, while a central vine trunk managed them all.

The moment Lin Jianyuan learned that, a bizarre idea popped into his head: Why not put it in the Mental Health Center?

The inspiration came from making eye contact with the girl with the ruined eyeliner in the restroom yesterday.

The ribbonfish fed on “the feeling of falling from heaven to hell.”

Obviously, Lin Jianyuan didn’t bring it here to give it an all-you-can-eat buffet. He only permitted the first half, the “heaven,” and forbade the “fall” and the “hell.”

With his roommate’s help, Lin Jianyuan fixed the ribbonfish onto the mirrors in every restroom at the Mental Health Center.

And so, the end result was this.

The Mental Health Center’s restrooms were about to become the next trending Little Red Book photo spot.

Which was… pretty unexpected.

To keep it from interfering with the Mental Health Center’s normal operations, Lin Jianyuan had the ribbonfish crank the beauty-filter effect all the way up on the mirror in one obscure corner with the least foot traffic.

The mirrors in the other restrooms were set to thirty percent.

That way, anyone coming just to take photos would gather in that corner, minimizing disruption to the rest of the hospital.

After observing things for a while, Lin Jianyuan confirmed that the “restroom beautification project” was running smoothly.

Every single person who walked in looking miserable or numb, man or woman, came back out glowing with energy, the corners of their mouths all uncontrollably curling upward.

One look and you could tell they were secretly pleased as hell.

Excellent! Very spirited!

Lin Jianyuan sent Angel Eyeball flying around to record everything like a body camera. In a couple of days, he planned to go back to the Bureau and use AI to write an analysis of how the project was running.

Now the matter could finally be considered properly resolved.

Time to go home!

Night.

Lin Jianyuan was busy outside all day, and on top of that, he got Merit +1 +1 +1… So he went to bed early.

Even asleep, the corners of his mouth were uncontrollably curling upward like crazy. One look and you could tell that he was secretly thrilled as hell.

Xie Yu extended a length of intestine and gently poked him. He pressed the corner of Lin Jianyuan’s mouth down, and it sprang back up.

He pressed it down again, and it sprang back up.

Cute. Bouncy.

Xie Yu watched the smile on his sleeping face and couldn’t help smiling too.

So he leaned over and kissed him.

chu~

Thinking about Mirror Abyss being tied into knots and given the name Slurping Ribbonfish was so funny.

Thinking about the Mental Health Center’s restroom turning into an influencer photo spot was also so funny.

And thinking about Lin Jianyuan specifically video-calling him just to show him the mirror exploding was unbelievably, ridiculously funny.

So funny. And so handsome.

His human was so handsome.

Xie Yu couldn’t resist wanting to kiss him again, and as he kept kissing him, he couldn’t resist slipping inside.

He couldn’t resist doing it the way Lin Jianyuan liked, letting the tip of his tongue curl like a snake, hooking around him and entangling with him.

He didn’t really understand.

Why did a tongue meant for tasting food need to taste another tongue?

But whenever he did this, Lin Jianyuan would stupidly forget to breathe.

His heart would start pounding wildly. His body temperature would rise, and his breath would turn hot.

His entire body would start giving off an incredibly delicious scent.

Tasty… Mm. So tasty…

It was a long time since Xie Yu last ate like this, unable to stop.

Even though there was no food. Even though that kind of thing never appeared on his menu.

But when he thought of the way Lin Jianyuan looked as he started the video call and asked him, “Baby, isn't it pretty?”

At that instant, the mirror surface shattered into countless pieces.

Countless silver-white shards flew in every direction while his human remained calm and smiling. The light in his eyes shone as he turned the camera toward the most splendid, dazzling silver-white fireworks.

He asked him, “Baby, isn't it pretty?”

So handsome!

Xie Yu wanted to eat. He wanted to eat more.

His greedy appetite seemed like it could never be satisfied, and yet, it also seemed like perhaps it wasn’t appetite at all.

He didn’t understand.

“Mmph…”

Maybe Xie Yu ate too aggressively, because the sleeping human shifted faintly in discomfort.

Xie Yu immediately withdrew one mouth.

He didn’t forget to breathe, did he?

Xie Yu touched the tip of Lin Jianyuan’s nose with his duodenum.

Good. He's breathing properly.

What a good boy.

Xie Yu smiled and used the thinnest, softest length of intestine to gently stroke his human’s lips.

Lin Jianyuan liked doing this to him too, but Lin Jianyuan used his fingers.

A finger touching someone’s lips felt different from lips touching lips.

It was different, but it was also a very, very nice feeling.

Xie Yu liked it a lot, but he didn’t have hands.

No. He did.

He almost forgot. He rarely did housework these days, so he hardly ever took them out.

Xie Yu opened his mouth wide and rummaged around inside his own stomach.

He felt around on the left, then on the right.

Hm? Where did I toss them?

Oh, found one, but only one.

That's fine. One is enough.

Xie Yu attached the hand to his body.

When he looked up, he noticed that Lin Jianyuan’s lips were slightly parted.

He forgot to close them again.

Lin Jianyuan didn’t normally sleep with his mouth open.

Naturally, Xie Yu was the one who pushed his lips apart.

He kissed Lin Jianyuan for so long that he practically molded his mouth into the shape of a kiss.

So cute.

Now he wanted to kiss him again.

Xie Yu lovingly stroked Lin Jianyuan’s lips, just like Lin Jianyuan liked doing to him.

I love him so, so much!

His human. No. His lover.

He stroked them gently and slowly. He felt every warm, delicate detail of those soft lips beneath his fingertips.

This time, Xie Yu was using a “hand.”

The “human hand” he grew specifically for Lin Jianyuan, copied from the “white moonlight” in Lin Jianyuan’s dreams.

He really, really wanted to kiss him. He was really so cute.

Xie Yu was never the type to deny himself anything, and he was even less inclined to hold back with his deeply sleeping lover.

So Xie Yu propped himself up, preparing to feast on his sleeping lover once again.

But then he suddenly remembered a Little Red Book post from earlier.

“What does it feel like when the whole thing goes in?”

He froze.

The finger gently stroking his lover’s lips stopped too.

For some reason, as if driven by an inexplicable impulse, he slipped the tip of his finger inside.