Food Supplements - Chapter 6

After a person goes through an intense emotional upheaval, there is often a brief period of calm afterward. During that short interval, the mind goes completely blank, almost numb, as though all emotion has been exhausted and there is no strength left for either joy or sorrow.

Qin Cheng had not experienced such a state in a very long time.

Over the past few years, while living with her illness, she had gradually grown accustomed to enduring everything. That endurance applied both physically and emotionally. Even though her feelings still churned and tormented her from time to time, she suppressed as much as she could. Whatever happened, she never allowed herself to lose control completely.

She had seen patients who had utterly broken down—those who sobbed uncontrollably, those who became hysterical, and those who desperately begged to die.

Of course, with their families and friends beside them to offer comfort, most of them eventually regained their composure.

But Qin Cheng had no one like that by her side.

That was why she had to be even more careful about controlling herself, lest her mind go blank, her blood rush to her head, and she do something foolish.

Fortunately, this rare loss of control had happened in a tiny place where she could not do anything reckless.

And even if it was only through a video, at least the most familiar voice in the world had been there with her.

As a result, this outpouring of tears did not affect her negatively. Instead, once she entered that quiet period afterward, Qin Cheng felt faintly relieved.

It was like the air after rain, washed clean of years of accumulated grime and dust. Her thoughts felt much clearer, and she was no longer quite so stifled.

Having not cried so freely in a very long time, she even felt a little embarrassed.

Despite knowing no one was around, she lowered her head as though trying to hide it and wiped her face. Then she looked around once more and finally released a long breath, returning to her usual self.

When she looked at her phone again, nearly two hours had passed without her noticing.

Because she had played the video repeatedly, the battery was once again almost depleted.

Qin Cheng sighed softly and switched it off.

Then she removed her pajama top and spread it over the stone. She placed the phone and hairpin inside, wrapped them layer by layer, and finally rolled the garment into a small bundle.

The phone’s importance went without saying.

But now that her mind was clearer, Qin Cheng had an increasingly strong feeling that the hairpin might be the key to solving some mystery.

Both objects had to be protected. Nothing could happen to either of them.

There was definitely no one else here, so it did not matter if she wore only her underwear.

She could simply pretend she was wearing a bikini at the beach.

Once she had made up her mind, the woman stretched and moved her arms and legs again. Then she gathered her courage and slowly slipped into the water.

She entered carefully this time because she could not afford to splash the bundle.

After lowering herself into the lake, Qin Cheng gritted her teeth and allowed her body to adjust to the cold. Then she raised herself enough to retrieve the bundle from the white stone.

She held it above her head with one hand and used only the other to paddle, while her legs kept her afloat.

In this awkward sidestroke, she began swimming toward the pale green water.

Naturally, such a posture was slow.

Fortunately, perhaps even suffering from the cold became easier with experience. Compared with the first time, when she had nearly lost control of her limbs, the piercing chill was still extremely painful, but at least her mind remained steady.

Maintaining a fixed rhythm, the woman churned through the water, moving little by little from the dark blue section toward the pale green one.

At last, she crossed the invisible boundary.

The bone-chilling water abruptly became warm, without the slightest transition.

The enormous difference in temperature was so sudden that her mind nearly failed to process it.

Fortunately, the water was also shallower on this side. After swimming a little farther, Qin Cheng adjusted her body downward and stretched out her feet.

When they touched the lakebed, she finally relaxed.

No matter how one looked at it, moving from cold water into warm water was far better than climbing directly from the cold lake onto shore.

She remained in the comfortable warmth for a while to recover, then continued forward as she had before, half swimming and half wading.

After some time, she successfully climbed onto the large black stone in the middle of the shallow-water section.

To test her theories, Qin Cheng did not bother drying herself or putting on her clothes.

The moment she reached the stone, she began touching and tapping everywhere, hoping to trigger the same phenomenon as before.

However, the result was exactly the same as last time.

Nothing happened.

She had already expected this possibility, so she was not discouraged.

She had planned to repeat everything she had done before, one step at a time.

Next, she walked around, stepping and sitting in different places to see whether her weight had accidentally activated something.

Once again, the answer was no.

The black stone island was about the same size as the white one. It did not take long to step across every part of it, but still nothing happened.

Then… the next thing she had done was wring water from her clothes.

Could the lake water be the key that triggered the change?

The moment the thought occurred to her, Qin Cheng hooked the small bundle over the crook of her arm.

Then she went to the edge, repeatedly cupped water in both hands, and poured it across the entire round stone.

Unfortunately, aside from becoming darker and shinier when wet, the black stone remained nothing more than a stone.

The change she had hoped for did not occur.

What detail had she overlooked?

Or had she been mistaken, and this place was not the key at all?

Qin Cheng pondered as she slowly paced around, unconsciously lifting the hem of her clothing to wipe the water from her hands.

Then she stopped.

Thoughtfully, she looked at the pajama bundle hanging over her arm.

In the final moment before she left last time, she had indeed been wringing out her clothes.

She even clearly remembered exactly which part of the fabric she had been twisting.

At the time, while wringing that section, she had idly thought that the pajamas were probably ruined. Never mind the hole—the cloth nearby had been soaked in blood and would be nearly impossible to clean.

The idea that the lake water and fabric somehow reacted with each other did not feel right.

So could the real interaction be between the lake water and… blood?

Qin Cheng raised an eyebrow.

There was no point in merely thinking about it. She might as well test the idea.

There had originally been blood on her hands from picking up the scattered objects, but she had washed them before scooping up water to take the pills. After swimming as well, her hands were now completely clean.

If she wanted blood, she would have to use the stains on her pajamas.

She carefully loosened one corner of the bundle and quickly found an area marked with blood.

Setting aside the older stains, the silver hairpin had rubbed against the cloth just now and left a fair amount of fresh red on it.

Qin Cheng did not fully unwrap the garment.

She held the bundle in one hand and pinched the bloodstained corner with the other. Then she carefully dipped that small section into the lake.

After wetting it, she squeezed the fabric hard, forcing out every drop.

The lake water mixed with blood had turned light brown.

It dripped onto the black stone but left no mark visible to the naked eye.

Yet the instant she finished squeezing and released the fabric, the woman, who had been watching closely, suddenly felt that familiar dizziness.

Darkness, then light.

Without realizing it, she was beginning to grow used to the sensation.

Habit truly was a frightening thing.

Still crouching in the same position, Qin Cheng looked around the pitch-dark room and rubbed her temples helplessly.

Despite her exasperation, she also felt a faint trace of joy.

It was the satisfaction of successfully solving a puzzle.

Whether she had stumbled upon the answer by accident or whether some deeper mystery was involved, this time she had returned through her own efforts rather than being thrown out without understanding anything.

Feeling somewhat pleased, Qin Cheng stood.

The first thing she did was touch her pants.

Sure enough, they were dry.

There was not the slightest trace of moisture on her body, confirming that the lake water did not remain on her after she left that place.

Then she quickly unwrapped the small bundle.

After confirming that both objects were still inside and could indeed be carried back with her, she finally relaxed.

Once everything had been checked, Qin Cheng took out the phone and pressed the power button.

She wanted to make sure it was undamaged, and she also wanted to use its light so she would not have to fumble for the lamp in the dark.

The phone started normally, its screen lighting up.

Qin Cheng glanced at it instinctively.

At first, nothing seemed unusual, and she was about to turn on the flashlight.

But just as she raised her finger, she hesitated and stopped.

What had she just seen?

After a moment, she looked at the screen again.

The lock screen clearly displayed:

Sunday, 6:32.

Wait.

It was already past six-thirty?

Six-thirty in the morning?

For a moment, the woman became confused again.

Thinking it through, the time seemed correct.

When she had been searching for the pills earlier, she had also checked the phone. It should have been around four in the morning.

After entering that strange place, she had spent more than two hours watching the video and releasing her emotions.

But if it was already past six-thirty, why was the room still completely dark?

In a southern city during April, even if the sky was not yet fully bright at that hour, dawn should at least have begun to lighten it.

When people become doubtful of one timekeeping device, their instinct is often to verify it with another.

Qin Cheng was no exception.

After standing there in confusion for a moment, she instinctively turned the phone and used its glow to illuminate the digital alarm clock on the cabinet.

The clock continued ticking regularly.

Its display clearly read:

4:17.

Four seventeen?

Qin Cheng frowned in thought.

When her pain had flared and she searched the floor for medicine, it had definitely been around four o’clock.

Afterward, she had entered the mysterious lake realm and remained there for more than two hours. The phone, which had accompanied her the entire time, confirmed that.

Yet now that she was back, both the darkness outside and the alarm clock left behind on the cabinet were telling her that it was still early.

More than two hours had definitely not passed.

Come to think of it, something similar had happened before.

The discrepancy had been even greater that time.

She had slept for hours inside the lake realm, yet when she returned, the blood on the floor had not even coagulated, and the clock showed that less than an hour had passed.

The first time she encountered this issue, Qin Cheng had been irritable and disheartened, so she had not thought deeply about it.

This time, however, a new possibility began forming in her mind.

It was not difficult to imagine once she accepted that the place was mysterious and might even exist independently in some other form rather than being a physical location in the real world.

The flow of time was different.

Only a theory like that seemed able to explain the discrepancy between the two places.

This was not mere fantasy.

It was a comparison of data.

She did not know exactly how many hours she had spent there the first time, so she could not calculate anything from that visit.

The second time, however, could be measured.

She had entered at four.

The difference between the phone’s display and the alarm clock’s display showed that two and a half hours inside amounted to only about fifteen minutes outside.

It was not as exaggerated as the old myths in which one day in heaven equaled a year on earth.

But based on her calculations, the ratio was still nearly ten to one.

Of course, she had too little data.

This was only an initial hypothesis, and the precise situation might still vary.

Even so, the existence of the phenomenon itself no longer seemed doubtful.

After reaching this conclusion, Qin Cheng instinctively closed her eyes and steadied herself.

Even she found it unbelievable and absurd.

For her, in a certain sense, this discovery was even more incredible than the existence of the yin-yang Bagua lake.

The lake was mysterious, but it did not seem especially useful.

For Qin Cheng, who had already reached the end of her life and had only a few months left, it might be less valuable than a single dose of effective painkillers.

Perhaps some treasure really was hidden in that impossible little world.

Perhaps this truly was an extraordinary stroke of fate.

But to someone without a future, no opportunity held any meaning.

But what if there was a place that could turn her remaining few months into more than ten months—or even several years?

What if it could somehow stretch out the future that was about to vanish before her eyes?

Wait.

Stop.

The woman shook her head, cutting off the beautiful fantasy in time.

No.

It could not possibly be that wonderful.

She needed to think more carefully.

A difference in the passage of time between two places did not mean that the human body also changed more slowly while inside.

Her phone had continued keeping time normally beside the lake.

Perhaps the passage of time experienced by objects and people remained exactly the same.

In that case, what did the time difference matter?

No matter where she was, her cells would continue dividing at their normal rate and her disease would continue worsening at its normal pace.

In the end, she would still die normally.

It might even be worse.

If she spent too much time in that strange place, perhaps only a few days would remain for her in this world, and she would quickly die from the progression of her illness.

As she thought this through, Qin Cheng gradually calmed down.

She pushed aside the distracting thoughts and used the phone’s glow to make her way slowly to the bedside cabinet.

Then she switched on the small table lamp, filling the room with its warm yellow light.

In theory, she had turned off this lamp only a few hours earlier.

But it felt as though it had been dark for a very long time.

So many unbelievable things had happened that night that when the warm light appeared again, she even felt a strange sense of nostalgia.

Qin Cheng leaned against the bedside cabinet beneath that familiar, comforting glow and opened the video on her phone once more.

“It’s my birthday today. I shouldn’t be clearing the table…”

The intoxicated woman repeated the words softly, her expression lost.

The short-haired woman beside her clearly did not understand and could only look toward the camera for help.

“Don’t look at me. I don’t know what’s gotten into her either.”

The image shifted slightly, as though the man behind the camera had shrugged.

“Then please help keep an eye on her, President Tang. I’ll call Sister Wan and ask what we should do,” the short-haired woman said with a frown.

Her tone had grown firmer and was no longer quite so patient.

“Sure, go ahead.”

The man laughed, clearly unmoved by either persuasion or force.

“She’s a grown woman. Are you afraid she’ll evaporate if no one watches her? If she really does, I’ll make sure to record it.”

While the two bickered through the camera, something one of them said seemed to suddenly touch the woman murmuring alone beside the table.

She abruptly slapped the tabletop, turned, and strode out of frame.

A short while later, she came marching back with a small bag.

From the moment she struck the table, a capable and forceful air naturally radiated from her.

Both her body language and her gaze were filled with authority.

The other two people in the room had no idea what was happening and could only stare blankly.

Yet the woman carrying all that imposing momentum did nothing dramatic.

She merely took an old phone from the small bag.

It looked cheap and badly worn.

And yet the battered device still started smoothly, lit up, and placed a call.

She stood there quietly listening.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting…

In the end, without saying a word, she hurled the old phone away.

The image froze there.

Qin Cheng pressed pause at exactly the right moment and stared at that scene again and again.

This time, she did not lose control and cry.

She merely closed her eyes and drew one long, deep breath.

Disappointment was still better than having no hope at all, wasn’t it?

Why was she afraid to hope?

So what if it was only a beautiful fantasy?

At worst, she would fall into despair one more time.

No matter what happened, things could not possibly become worse than they already were.

But what if…

What if the future vanishing before her eyes truly could be extended?

What if a miracle really existed inside that place?

Admit it.

She did not truly long for death.

Otherwise, she would not have struggled for four years through illness and longing.

She only scoffed at miracles because she had begged for one and never received it.

In a world where that woman still existed, Qin Cheng wanted to remain—even if she had to cling to it shamelessly.