Chapter 276: Chapter 273: Deep Recollection
Chapter 273: Deep Memories
Brother Lei was surprised to receive a call from Sun Keke.
Although he had always had her phone number, Sun Keke never called him.
And after picking up the call, hearing Sun Keke’s voice filled with panic and urgency, telling him to rush to the school in his car because something had happened to Chen Nuo...
Without a word, Brother Lei hung up and jumped right out of bed.
Well... when the phone rang, Brother Lei was otherwise occupied. The ’landlord’ he was attending to was Dazhi’s sister.
"Damn! Are you fucking really going?"
"Yeah! There’s an emergency!" Brother Lei hastily buckled his belt and then sat on the bed to pull on his T-shirt.
After putting it on, he realized it was inside out, pulled it off, turned it around, and put it on again.
"Are you really leaving?" Brother Lei’s girlfriend’s eyes widened.
"Really leaving! I told you there’s an emergency!"
"Go to hell!" Furious, the woman grabbed a pillow and threw it at him hard.
Brother Lei deflected it with a slap and, hesitating for a moment, dashed forward, ignoring his girlfriend’s struggles, and quickly kissed her on the face.
"All right, don’t be mad, it’s really an emergency! A big deal!"
Seeing Brother Lei’s solemn expression, his girlfriend stopped fussing and said softly, "Just don’t go getting into fights again! Be careful... keep safe! If something happens, don’t just rush in headfirst."
"I know!"
Brother Lei waved his hand dismissively and ran out, grabbing his car keys from the coffee table and hurried downstairs.
He drove straight to the entrance of No. 8 Middle School.
From a distance, he saw Chen Nuo sitting on a concrete pillar outside the school gate, head in hands, seemingly staring at the ground in a daze.
Next to him, Sun Keke anxiously scanned the road, eyes searching and waiting for something.
Occasionally, Sun Keke would also glance at Chen Nuo to check on his condition.
Brother Lei stomped on the brakes, stopped the car without turning off the engine, and jumped out.
"What’s wrong with him?" Brother Lei asked Sun Keke immediately, noticing that Chen Nuo looked off.
Sun Keke shook her head. "Take him home!"
"Okay!"
Brother Lei went over and patted Chen Nuo, who, after being patted three times, finally responded as though in slow motion and looked up.
When he first saw Brother Lei, his gaze seemed unfocused.
"Chen Yanluo, it’s me! What happened to you?" Brother Lei instinctively waved his hand in front of Chen Nuo’s eyes.
Chen Nuo took a deep breath and forced a weak smile. "Brother Lei, I’m fine... why are you..."
"Antarctica!!!" Sun Keke suddenly exclaimed in a low voice right next to him.
Brother Lei jumped!
And Chen Nuo, sitting on the concrete pillar, jolted violently!
He shivered, his gaze filled with hostility, his breathing suddenly heavy as he barked, "Stop talking!!"
With his hands clasped over his ears, Chen Nuo lurched to his feet.
Sun Keke rushed to grab Chen Nuo’s arm, pleading in a tearful voice, "Chen Nuo, let’s go home, okay? I’ll take you home."
Chen Nuo’s gaze cleared a bit as he gritted his teeth. "Right, home! Take me home first..."
Sun Keke helped Chen Nuo into the car and could feel his body weak and limp.
His face and body were drenched in sweat, soaking his T-shirt.
As he sat in the car, Sun Keke also slid into the back seat, sitting next to Chen Nuo.
Chen Nuo’s body was trembling, but he still managed to force a slight smile. "Don’t be scared... I can handle it."
"What the hell happened to you?" Sun Keke asked, tears streaming down, her voice filled with panic.
"Yeah, I’ll be fine once I get home. Don’t worry, I can handle it."
"Do we need to, you know, go to the hospital?" Brother Lei asked from the driver’s seat, looking back.
"No! Home..." Chen Nuo inhaled deeply and responded firmly.
Veins on his forehead bulged as he sat in the seat, sweating profusely.
After the car started, they drove down a street.
Chen Nuo’s eyes grew hazy, his breathing slowly stabilized, and he frowned, "When I get home, I need to rest... take a shower, change clothes..."
"Antarctica!" Sun Keke said shakily beside him.
"!!!" Chen Nuo’s gaze shifted instantly, glaring furiously at Sun Keke. "You... I told you to shut up! Stop saying it!!"
Chen Nuo even began to reach for the car door, heedless of the moving vehicle, as if he had the urge to jump out.
Sun Keke quickly embraced him.
Weakened, Chen Nuo struggled with all his might, yet he couldn’t even shake off Sun Keke.
"Brother Lei! Lock the doors!" Sun Keke shouted through gritted teeth.
Brother Lei, dumbfounded, instinctively locked the doors.
Chen Nuo, struggling, said urgently, "Stop it, don’t mention it again! I don’t want to hear those two words!!!"
Sun Keke bit her lip, holding Chen Nuo tightly, letting him rest his head against her chest, gripping him strongly while her own tears fell, dropping onto Chen Nuo’s hair.
The car drove down another street.
Chen Nuo gradually stopped struggling in her arms and seemed to be calming down. But when he turned his head to look at Sun Keke, his eyes held a hint of pleading...
Sun Keke’s heart softened, but then she remembered Chen Nuo’s words when he was lucid.
She forced herself to be stern and said softly, "Antarctica..."
Chen Nuo’s expression changed drastically, and he roared, "I TOLD YOU TO SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!!"
Brother Lei, who was driving, was startled and quickly slammed on the brakes, turning around and saying, "Yanluo, you, you don’t get angry! Uh, Keke, you guys should talk things out nicely, don’t set Yanluo off like this. If there are things that shouldn’t be said, let’s just not bring them up, okay?"
"Brother Lei, you don’t understand, just focus on driving and get us home quickly," Sun Keke said, her face pale as she shook her head.
The car had been driving on the road for about fifteen minutes before arriving at Chen Nuo’s neighborhood.
Brother Lei had already been driving as fast as he possibly could.
Chen Nuo’s condition was obviously getting stranger by the minute; his expression became increasingly vacant, and that look of desperately struggling against something was frightening to witness.
Afterward, whenever Sun Keke mentioned "Antarctica," Chen Nuo’s reactions evolved from initial rage, dislike, disgust, discomfort... to gradual numbness.
He seemed indifferent now, just bowing his head with his hands buried in his hair, breathing heavily as if forcibly suppressing some emotion, holding back some feeling...
By the time they got out of the car, Chen Nuo seemed unable to stand steadily—his spiritual power was so drained that he couldn’t even properly control his own body.
Sun Keke couldn’t support him on her own and needed Brother Lei’s help from the side.
Going up to the fifth floor to return home, Sun Keke was out of options, relying solely on Brother Lei to prop Chen Nuo up the stairs.
After opening the door to the home, they led Chen Nuo straight into his room.
There was no one else home; Ou Xiuhua wasn’t there, probably out selling vegetables or running errands.
Chen Nuo lay on the bed, and as Brother Lei was about to say something, Chen Nuo clenched his teeth and quickly said, "Brother Lei, you can go back, I’m fine."
"Ah? Is that... okay?"
Chen Nuo, as if restraining some emotion, took a deep breath and said, "I’m fine, you can go back. There’s no use staying here."
Brother Lei thought for a moment, nodded, but on his way out he pulled Sun Keke aside, "Keke, I’ll just wait for you in the car downstairs, call me if anything happens!"
He paused, then added, "Uh, did you two argue again? If you keep saying things that upset him, just stop, so you don’t fight again."
Sun Keke shook her head, "It’s not what you think, it’s fine now, you can go back. Actually, there’s no need for you to wait in the car downstairs."
"No, I’ll just wait in the car. I’ll go back when everything is truly fine. Call me anytime."
After saying that, Brother Lei left.
When Sun Keke returned to the room, she saw Chen Nuo had already sat up on the bed.
"Ant..."
"Alright, no need to say it," Chen Nuo interrupted with a bitter smile as he raised his head.
"...Antarctica!"
Chen Nuo’s face changed, and he said fiercely, "Didn’t I tell you I’m fine, no need to say it anymore!"
He took a deep breath and suddenly pounded his chest forcefully, then exhaled and his tone became apologetic, "Sorry Keke... I can’t control my emotions."
"I’m fine, you don’t need to worry about me... but what about you, what exactly is going on?"
"Um... there’s nothing wrong, I just... have a problem here." Chen Nuo pointed to his head. "I’m slowly gaining control again..."
He paused, then said in a low voice, "Could you get me a glass of water... I’m a bit thirsty."
"Okay, just a second," Sun Keke quickly turned and ran towards the kitchen.
Chen Nuo sat at the edge of the bed, sneering coldly, his voice tinged with a chill, "Who exactly has set such a mental trap for me! Ha! What a technique! It’s so subtle that I didn’t even notice it myself!"
Sun Keke brought over a glass of water, which Chen Nuo gulped down in two or three big swigs. He had sweated a lot, and the dehydration was severe; one glass wasn’t enough, so Sun Keke went to pour another one.
After Chen Nuo finished the second glass of water, he finally let out a breath.
"...South, South..." Sun Keke saw that time was almost up, and was about to shout again.
"Antarctica." Chen Nuo raised his head and gently smiled, volunteering to say these two words.
Although his body was still trembling and his fingers kept clenching and unclenching, this time he managed to softly utter these two words himself.
"You... are you alright now?" Sun Keke was somewhat surprised.
Although she didn’t know exactly what was happening to Chen Nuo, she remembered how resistant he was to these two words "Antarctica" before, and couldn’t even bear to hear them.
Now, however, he was able to say them himself.
So, her immediate intuition was that he seemed to have gotten control of something.
"Hmm, I can’t say I’m okay, but... I’ve caught onto some clues." Chen Nuo took a deep breath and said quickly, "I need to be alone for a while, Keke. Please go out."
"Eh? You alone? Can you manage?"
"Go out, be obedient." Chen Nuo gently took Sun Keke’s hand, gave it a squeeze, and softly said, "Don’t worry, I’m fine. If you stay here, I’ll be distracted. Could you please go out... Well, actually, you can go back to school."
"I won’t leave!" Sun Keke immediately shook her head, her tone very firm. "How could I possibly leave with peace of mind when you’re like this?"
"..." Chen Nuo exhaled.
"I’ll wait in the living room, you... call me if you need anything."
"Alright." Chen Nuo nodded. Then, his tone became a bit more serious, and he spoke in a low voice, "I need... to rest for a while. Later, no matter what you hear, you must not come in to interrupt or wake me. Of course, there probably won’t be any noise. I mean, if there is anything, you still mustn’t come in. You can’t interrupt me, understand?"
"...I understand." Sun Keke was a bit nervous and couldn’t help asking, "You, are you going to practice healing? Like, in the movies?"
"...Somewhat like that." Chen Nuo chuckled and nodded.
Then, seeing Sun Keke again checking the time, Chen Nuo sighed softly. He suddenly reached out, pulled Sun Keke closer, and quickly pecked her on the face. "Antarctica! There, you don’t need to keep shouting. I can say it myself now."
Sun Keke’s face turned red, and she stepped back. "Then, rest up. I’ll go out now."
The girl almost ran out of the door and closed it behind her.
Chen Nuo’s smile gradually faded and solidified, his gaze becoming more and more serious.
"Spiritual... Imprisonment!"
This was a method of controlling others’ consciousness or subconscious.
As someone with powerful spiritual abilities, Chen Nuo was naturally not unfamiliar with such things.
As an Ability User, to be silently and unconsciously subjected to spiritual imprisonment.
Forbidden to recall or even think about "Antarctica"?
What exactly had happened?
Then, who was the one who imprisoned his consciousness?
Most importantly, Chen Nuo thought of several thought-provoking details!
The incident in Antarctica had happened in his past life! Up to this point in this life, he had no connection with the Antarctic incident!
That is to say, this spiritual imprisonment definitely was not something done to him in this life after his rebirth in the past half year!
Then that was... even more terrifying!
In his past life, when he experienced Antarctica, he was already at the Controller Level with top-notch capabilities!
To impose such a spiritual restraint on a Controller-level powerhouse without being noticed, that not even the Controller himself, who routinely examined his own Consciousness Space, could detect it—how incredibly sophisticated must the method of imposing this mental bondage be?
It was almost as if everything about Antarctica had been erased from his brain!
"But, if it’s spiritual restraint... memories can’t possibly be erased..." Chen Nuo sneered, talking to himself.
When it comes to methods of spiritual restraint, memories are not erased.
If one were to explain it figuratively, memories are merely cloaked.
It’s a form of intense psychological suggestion used to make one overlook something quite conspicuous that shouldn’t be ignored.
For instance, if there was an egg on the ground right in front of you.
A normal person would find it odd, wondering how an egg ended up on the ground.
But then, if everyone around you, the whole world, were to tell you, "That’s perfectly normal; eggs are supposed to be on the ground..."
One person, ten people, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand people saying the same.
Then, you would start to think... oh, this is normal, not out of place at all.
You would start to ignore it...
This is one form of psychological suggestion.
What Chen Nuo encountered, however, seemed to be another kind.
He had been implanted with a strong psychological suggestion of... negative emotions!
Everything related to Antarctica in Chen Nuo’s mind was marked with strong negative feelings.
Disgust, aversion, annoyance, anxiety, pain...
The instinct of a normal human is to avoid such negative emotions—unless one is a masochist.
A normal person would instinctively avoid and resist things associated with such negative emotions.
Under such psychological suggestion, Chen Nuo, whenever he inadvertently recalled something about Antarctica, would just remember the beginning and then instinctively felt unhappy and uncomfortable, stopping himself from continuing the thought.
Day after day, year after year.
Everything regarding Antarctica had gradually faded and been forgotten in his heart.
Until this rebirth, when he once again encountered the unfolding of the Antarctic incident!
There was no escaping it!
Because... whoever had set up the spiritual restraint behind the scenes probably hadn’t anticipated that one day Chen Nuo would be reborn into the past and relive the Antarctic incident.
Hmm, the hidden perpetrator is untraceable at this moment. But... since they’ve restrained my spirit, not wanting me to remember... then the core issue must be what happened in Antarctica, something someone doesn’t want me to remember, doesn’t want me to recall! Therefore... recalling memories about Antarctica is the key to all the problems!
With that thought in mind, Chen Nuo slowly lay down on the bed.
After a deep breath, he closed his eyes and entered his Consciousness Space.
He seemed unable to recall the events in Antarctica.
But he was certain, spiritual restraints could only cloak memories, not erase them.
Therefore, the memories of Antarctica should still exist within his Consciousness Space, just concealed by something.
With careful examination, they would surely be unearthed.
His Consciousness Space was still that same drafty environment.
In the hazy chaos, a wisp of Chen Nuo’s spiritual power drifted slowly, carefully searching every inch of this space, trying to find anything slightly amiss.
Soon, he vanished from the spot.
He had descended countless layers in his Consciousness Space, trying to reach the deepest layers.
Those capable with spiritual power would actively expand their Consciousness Space, digging deeper to strengthen their spiritual power.
In this regard, Chen Nuo was a true expert.
Exploring the deeper layers of the Consciousness Space actually poses a risk to the physical self if one’s strength is insufficient.
If the main consciousness gets lost in the vast depths of the Consciousness Space, one might fall into a slumber, unable to find their way back.
Once the main consciousness is lost, it could lead to various unknown dangers.
After exploring for a while, Chen Nuo had a sudden inspiration.
I’ve got it.
He began to actively recall the keyword "Antarctica" within his main consciousness.
Indeed, a wave of negative emotions quickly surfaced.
Chen Nuo immediately felt a faint resonance coming from within the Consciousness Space...
Darkness, boundless darkness...
Void, a boundless void...
Where Chen Nuo’s main consciousness drifted or how deeply it had penetrated into the layers of his Consciousness Space, he had no idea...
Suddenly...
He snapped his eyes open!
SHHHH... Blinding light and scorching hot water lashed against his body.
He squeezed his eyes shut, then cracked them open for two seconds.
As though acclimating to the brightness, Chen Nuo slowly opened his eyes.
Hot water was pouring down from the showerhead.
Rinsing Chen Nuo’s body.
He took a moment to think, glancing around.
This was a shower room.
A narrow space.
Chen Nuo quickly pulled open the shower door, stood barefoot on the floor, looked at the washbasin nearby, grabbed a towel, and hastily dried himself off.
Outside the cramped bathroom was a tiny room.
A bed occupied almost two-thirds of the room space.
The walls were a mix of metal and wood, and they held a hint of rust.
Above, the ceiling bore energy-saving lights that glowed, with metal pipes alongside.
Chen Nuo frowned.
Clean clothes lay on the bed; he looked them over carefully and began to dress.
Underwear, outerwear.
Finally, a bright red cold-weather jacket.
Chen Nuo grabbed it and threw it over himself.
Beneath his feet, there was a faint, yet regular swaying.
Once dressed, Chen Nuo went to pull open the door and stepped out of the room.
There was a narrow corridor outside, leading to metal stairs at the end.
Chen Nuo ran quickly towards them, ascending the stairs...
A gulp of icy air filled his lungs.
Chen Nuo’s spirit was invigorated!!
This was a ship deck.
There weren’t many people on the deck; the ground was damp, cold, and slippery.
In the distance lay an expansive sea, with frigid winds, and icebergs drifting faintly in view.
The ship’s bow was fitted with sharp ice-breaking equipment.
This icebreaker moved silently through the sea...
Footsteps came from behind.
Chen Nuo turned his head and saw a familiar figure.
Tall and burly with short hair.
Dressed in a black cold-weather jacket, his face hidden behind sunglasses.
"Davarishi?" Chen Nuo blurted out instinctively.
"Davarishi?" Vanel paused, then chuckled. "I like that title, Lord Yanluo."
Chen Nuo: "..."
He frowned at Vanel before him, feeling something odd about his face... The stubble was thicker than when they had parted days earlier, giving him a more rugged appearance.
And it was then, in the reflection of Vanel’s sunglasses, Chen Nuo saw himself clearly!
And all at once, all consciousness, all reactions, snapped back to clarity!!!!
The figure in the sunglasses... was a bit blurry...
Instinctively, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a pair of glasses, and placed them on the bridge of his nose.
Soon after, the world became instantly clear!
Chen Nuo stared at himself in Vanel’s sunglasses...
A round, pudgy face, harmless in appearance, even exuding a sense of placid simplicity.
Short hair, tall stature.
But, of course, this "self" was certainly not his own image!
Not the appearance of the eighteen-year-old high school student Chen Nuo!
But rather...
From his previous life...
Chen Yanluo!
"Lord Yanluo, how was your rest? Good, wasn’t it?" Vanel greeted him cheerfully, inhaling deeply. "It’s getting colder. We’re about to cross the westerlies; it’ll only get chillier. This cold air is indeed invigorating, though."
Chen Nuo listened quietly to Vanel’s words.
Suddenly, Vanel looked over Chen Nuo’s shoulder, a respectful smile appearing on his face.
"Her Majesty the Empress!"
Chen Nuo turned around sharply!
A few steps away, on the upper deck platform...
A figure in a bright red cold-weather coat was standing by the railing.
Her hair, like seaweed, was tied up, a face stunningly beautiful, yet it seemed as cold as frost, distancing others miles away.
But those bright eyes, like cold stars, still irresistibly drew lingering glances.
Chen Nuo took a deep breath...
Lu Xixi seemed to look back at Chen Nuo too, but her eyes bore an expression of disgust.
Far away, the Starry Sky Empress huffed coldly, "Detestable fellow."
Chen Nuo heard her words.
Then, the next second, he heard himself respond as if by instinct.
"Hmph... bothersome old woman."
Chen Nuo was stunned!
The vast sea.
The cold wind.
The lonely icebreaker.
The Starry Sky Empress!
Chen Yanluo...
Antarctica!
...His previous life!
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