The Rubik’s Cube of memory spins faster and faster!

Countless long-buried memories surge forth like a raging flood!

Scenes flash before his eyes like a kaleidoscope!

Henry Clark feels dizzy and lightheaded!

The deepest secrets buried in his heart are suddenly unearthed!

“I once liked a girl…” Henry Clark clutches his forehead, gritting his teeth as he speaks.

“What’s wrong with you! I don’t have time to listen to your love story!” CC roars amidst the blaring alarm!

“She was my deskmate…”

“I! Don’t! Want! To! Hear it!”

“I don’t even want to say it! Isn’t this all for you?!” Henry Clark shouts, raising his head and pointing at the safe:

“19990707! Her birthday!”

Henry Clark feels like a clown.

His most unspeakable secret, the last shred of dignity in his life, has been torn away!

“Hurry up!”

Click, click, click.

CC quickly spins the combination dial! She slams her fist onto the lock!

It doesn’t open.

“The password is wrong!”

Wah! Wah! Wah! Wah!

【00:41:47】

“20150609!” Henry Clark shouts, covering his ears!

“What date is that now!? Don’t tell me it’s the day you confessed!” Amid the blaring alarm, CC screams at the top of her lungs!

“Stop guessing! Just enter the code already!”

“It’s in!”

【00:41:56】

CC grits her teeth!

She uses all her strength! Slams the lock hard!

Bang!

……

It doesn’t open.

Henry Clark suddenly feels weak all over, dizzy and faint.

With his last glance, he looks at CC in front of the safe.

Through his blurred vision…

CC turns her head.

A resentful gaze pierces straight into his soul—

“Liar.”

【00:42:00】

Boom!!!!!!!

Boom!!!!!!!

Boom!!!!!!!

A scorching white light bursts forth, swallowing everything…

……

……

The twelfth lunar month.

Early winter, before dawn.

In a clean and tidy bedroom.

Henry Clark opens his eyes…

Chapter 7 Analysis

Tonight is especially quiet.

Perhaps because the weather has turned cold, the night market stalls downstairs have quieted down early.

Henry Clark opens his eyes.

Stares at the ceiling.

He doesn’t get up for a long time.

There’s a sense of discomfort all over his body.

It’s a kind of…

Indescribable shame.

At his age, he’s still shouting out embarrassing stories from his adolescence.

Henry Clark rubs his feet, wriggles left and right on the bed, wrapping himself even tighter in the quilt.

Luckily, it was just a dream. Anyway, everything resets tomorrow, and no one will remember.

But he never expected—

After going all out like that, the safe’s password was still wrong! It really makes Henry Clark wonder if it’s even his own safe.

“Forget it, forget it.”

Henry Clark scratches his head, lifts the quilt, and sits up:

“Let’s get to work first.”

After all, dreams are fake; what matters is working hard in reality.

After putting on his pajamas, Henry Clark turns on the desk lamp and sits at his desk, drawing the Keke Cat from his dream onto sketch paper.

The design of 【Keke Cat】 is simple and refined, with few details, so it’s very easy to draw.

It takes less than 20 minutes.

Henry Clark completes the front, side, and back views of Keke Cat on the sketch paper.

Whether it’s the limbs, clothing, tail, shoes… Henry Clark faithfully recreates everything 1:1 from his memory of the dream.

“Perfect.”

Henry Clark wipes his hands and blows away the eraser shavings on the desk:

“With this level of completion, I can easily hand it in tomorrow.”

Looking at the Keke Cat sketches in front of him…

Henry Clark can’t help but think of Big-Face Cat again.

After these two nights of dreams, he’s finally figured out the whole story between Big-Face Cat and the code expert CC.

Rustle.

Henry Clark takes out another sheet of blank paper and starts organizing his thoughts:

【Story Flow】

1. Big-Face Cat’s daughter was killed when she was six years old. He wants revenge for his daughter and needs a lot of money.

2. The code expert CC wants to get into the bank vault. Her goal is to open Henry Clark’s safe and get what’s inside.

3. CC deceives Big-Face Cat, saying there’s a lot of money in the bank. So the two agree on a secret code and plan to meet and rob the bank together.

4. Big-Face Cat always wants to kill the others and take all the money for himself; while CC plans to kill Big-Face Cat after entering the vault—after all, there’s not a cent inside, and Big-Face Cat would never let her go, so she has to strike first.

5. In the end, Big-Face Cat doesn’t get the money, CC doesn’t open the safe, and both lose.

Snap.

Henry Clark caps his pen.

Looking at the analysis he’s written.

This is the story of Big-Face Cat and CC. They’re like NPCs in a game world, repeating this plot day after day, year after year.

Henry Clark knows very well…

Even though he’s only played with them for two nights.

The grudges between Big-Face Cat and CC have already cycled countless times over the past twenty-plus years, playing out every night, starting and ending on time.

If he hadn’t gotten involved, their ending would be the same every day.

“But…”

Henry Clark taps the blank paper with his pen: