Everything stopped. The cloth hanging outside the nearby shops froze in the middle of a flutter. A villager stood with one hand raised, his face caught between fear and confusion. A child had stopped halfway through turning towards his mother, while a wooden coin slipped from a merchant's fingers and remained suspended just above the ground. Even the dust had stopped falling. But the strangest thing was the threads. The countless threads that were always moving, twisting and changing direction had become completely still. Not a single strand moved.
Xu Yang blinked. "...?" He remained where he was for a moment, staring at the frozen scene. Then he slowly turned his head. Shen Lian stood in front of him, her lips slightly parted. Qing Li was frozen in the middle of a step, one hand still raised. Yan Luo stood perfectly still beside him, his expression unchanged. Xu Yang blinked again. "Okay." He paused, looking from one person to another. "What?" He took a careful step forward.Nothing reacted. He took another step, then waved a hand in front of Shen Lian's face. She didn't move. "What?" he repeated, this time with more concern. He looked at the others before glancing down at his own hands. "No, seriously. What just happened?" He slowly turned in a circle, checking the entire square.
Everything remained frozen. Was this some kind of formation? Or i accidentally broken something again?...His gaze shifted towards the threads. They weren't moving either. Wait. Even the threads have stopped. Then this isn't an ordinary formation. He looked back at the frozen villagers, his ears twitching with unease. Did I accidentally trigger something? Please tell me I haven't broken the entire place...Xu Yang rubbed his forehead."Let me get this straight." He began walking slowly, counting on his fingers. "First, i woke up inside a novel. Fine. Then came the memory threads, reality splitting, and people somehow having two different lives." He raised another claw. "Still manageable." His gaze moved towards the frozen villagers. He spread his hands slightly. "And now everyone has stopped moving like poorly made background characters?" He stared at a man whose mouth was still open in the middle of a shout. "This was not in the plot."
Xu Yang walked over to Qing Li and waved a hand in front of his face. Nothing. He leaned closer, studying Qing Li's frozen expression. "You look even more annoying when you don't move." He paused, then tilted his head. "Actually, no. That's about the same." He stepped back and looked towards the threads. His expression gradually became serious. Usually, the threads responded as soon as he reached out to them. They moved with his thoughts, shifting and changing according to his will. But now, no matter how carefully he focused, nothing happened.
Xu Yang raised one hand and tried again. The threads remained still. His ears lowered slightly. "Okay." He stared at them for another moment. "That's new." He tried to reach for the nearest strand. There was no response. His expression changed. "So, someone has taken away my control." He paused, looking around the square. "Wonderful. That's exactly what was missing from this already terrible situation." He lowered his hands.The air remained completely still, but something about the silence felt different. It was not empty. Something was there, watching him.
Xu Yang slowly lifted his head. His golden eyes narrowed. "You again." No answer came. Yet the stillness seemed to deepen, pressing against him from every direction. Xu Yang held his gaze on the empty space for a few seconds before looking back at the threads. Then he noticed something. At the edge of his vision, a few strands began to move. Not freely, and not in their usual way. They were being pulled into place, one after another, as though an invisible hand was correcting their positions. Xu Yang's ears tilted forward. "There it is." He stepped closer, following the movement with his eyes.
Several silver strands slid over one another, while others were pulled back into the places they had occupied before the disturbance. "That's not their natural flow," he murmured. "That's correction." The threads tightened around the damaged connections. Their loose ends joined together, and the faint distortions disappeared. Xu Yang watched closely, his expression growing more serious with every movement. "You're doing this on purpose." He waited, but the threads continued moving without answering him.A cluster of strands slowly came together, forming a cleaner pattern than before.
Xu Yang tilted his head. "Rewriting connections..." He followed another strand as it slipped into place. "No. Not just connections. Outcomes too." A faint distortion vanished from the nearest thread. Xu Yang's eyes narrowed. "So anything that doesn't fit is simply edited out?" He walked towards the place where the shadow had collapsed earlier. There was nothing there now. Not even a trace of the strange presence that had taken shape from the old woman's memories. He stared at the empty space for a moment. "Impressive." His tail flicked once. "And a little terrifying." The threads continued their work, completely ignoring him.
Xu Yang crossed his arms and watched them. "What's the rule here? If something causes a contradiction, you erase it?" A nearby thread flickered faintly before returning to its original position. Xu Yang immediately noticed. His eyes followed it. "Ah!" He pointed at the strand. "So you are listening." He waited for another reaction, but nothing happened. His ears twitched. "Fine. Keep pretending." He raised his gaze slightly, studying the threads as they continued to repair the damaged structure. When he spoke again, his voice carried less disbelief and more suspicion. "Where do I fall in your correction?" The threads did not respond.
Their movements remained precise and steady, as though his question had never reached them. Xu Yang exhaled slowly and glanced towards the frozen villagers. Shen Lian, Qing Li, Yan Luo and the others remained trapped in the same positions. None of them knew what was happening around them. His gaze lingered on their faces. "So they forget," he murmured. His eyes lowered slightly. "And i remembers." He paused, then frowned. "That seems unfair." The strands tightened again, sealing the damaged connections.
Whatever had happened in the square was being covered over, piece by piece, until even the memory of the disturbance seemed to disappear from the surrounding threads. Xu Yang watched the process with growing unease. Everything was becoming too neat. Too orderly. It was as if someone had covered a wound without bothering to check whether it had healed. "You're not fixing the world." he said quietly. He tilted his head, watching another strand settle into place. "You're fixing the version of it people are allowed to keep." The threads continued moving without the slightest reaction.
Xu Yang let out a short breath. "So that's what this is." He looked towards the place where the shadow had disappeared. "You're cleaning up." His expression became colder. "Not fixing the problem. Fixing everyone's memory of it." He shook his head slightly. "Wow. That's actually worse." He glanced around at the frozen villagers again. "So whenever something inconvenient happens, you pause everything and pretend it never happened?" He gave a small, humourless laugh. "That's not stability. That's control. And frankly, it's cheating." Xu Yang lowered his raised paw. He could no longer feel his usual connection to the threads. It was as though someone had quietly removed him from a place where he had once belonged. He looked down at his paw, then back at the motionless figures around him. "Rude!" he muttered. His gaze moved over Shen Lian, Qing Li and Yan Luo.
All three were still frozen, unaware that the world around them had been changed. Xu Yang's tail flicked once. "So if he does something..." He paused, watching the final strands settle. "You erase it." His ears lowered slightly. "Then what's the point?" The threads completed their adjustments. One by one, they returned to their usual positions.Everything was in place.For several seconds, Xu Yang did not move. Then Shen Lian blinked. Her brows drew together as she looked around, clearly confused. "Why can you..." she began, but the words stopped halfway. She frowned and touched her forehead, trying to remember what she had been about to ask.
Qing Li shifted beside her and rubbed his temple. "What were we..." He paused, looking towards Yan Luo. "What were we talking about?" Yan Luo glanced around the square before answering. "The commotion stopped." His eyes moved over the surroundings with suspicion. Zhao Wei looked towards the villagers and forced a nervous laugh. "Well, whatever happened, it seems to be over." A villager nearby nodded quickly, looking relieved. "Probably nothing. Just a strange disturbance." Another man picked up the coin that had fallen from his hand and slipped it into his pocket. "That's right. Nothing worth worrying about."
The words sounded ordinary, but the fear that had filled the square moments ago was gone. Movement returned in fragments. The cloth outside the shops began fluttering again. The dust finally settled, and the villagers resumed their conversations as though no time had passed. Their fear disappeared first, followed by their confusion. Within moments, most of them had already forgotten why they had been frightened. At the centre of the square, the black cat stood motionless, watching everything.
Qing Li turned towards him. His eyes narrowed slightly as he studied Xu Yang. "You saw that, didn't you?" he asked, his voice low. Yan Luo gave a small nod beside him. "Yes." Qing Li let out a slow breath, his shoulders relaxing a little. "Good. For a moment, I thought I was imagining things." He glanced towards the villagers, then back at Xu Yang. "They don't remember." Yan Luo's expression remained unchanged. "They weren't meant to." Nearby, Shen Lian crouched slightly, keeping her attention on the black cat. She studied him for a long moment before speaking. "Strange." Qing Li followed her gaze and raised an eyebrow. "What is?" Shen Lian hesitated. Her fingers curled slightly as she tried to hold onto a thought that seemed to be slipping away. "I feel like I asked something important," she said slowly. "But I can't remember what it was."
Qing Li looked at her for a moment, then glanced at Xu Yang. "Perhaps you should stop asking questions before you forget the next one too." Shen Lian gave him an annoyed look. "I'm not the one who keeps talking when nobody asks him to." Qing Li placed a hand over his chest, looking wounded. "That's a terrible accusation." Yan Luo glanced at him. "It's also accurate." Qing Li turned towards him. "You could at least pretend to be on my side." "Why?" Yan Luo asked flatly. Xu Yang watched their exchange without moving. His ears twitched once. So it had hidden him. Or perhaps it had protected something else. The thought remained in his mind as he looked towards the villagers.
Everyone had returned to their usual activities. Nobody seemed to remember the black shadow, the frozen threads or the strange pressure that had filled the square. Yet something had slipped through. At the edge of the square, a young villager slowed down. He had been walking towards the market, but his eyes suddenly shifted towards Xu Yang. His steps stopped for a brief moment. "Huh..." He frowned, staring at the black cat. "Golden eyes..." He blinked, then shook his head as though the thought made no sense.
A moment later, he continued walking. Xu Yang's gaze followed him. His tail flicked once, slowly. That was not supposed to remain. And somewhere beyond the threads, something had just made its first mistake. The village forgot too quickly. That was the first thing that bothered Xu Yang. Not the silence, not the missing moments, but how easily everything had returned to normal. A basket that had been overturned was now upright again. A child laughed somewhere down the road, while two men resumed an argument about grain prices. Their voices were steady, as though nothing unusual had happened. "Probably nothing." one of them said, shrugging. The other nodded and continued counting his coins.
Xu Yang watched them for a moment before turning away. The village had returned to its usual routine, but the normality felt wrong. It was too smooth, like a painting that had been carefully repaired until nobody could see where it had once been damaged. He continued along the narrow stone path, his small black body moving lightly over the ground. His ears flicked whenever he heard a familiar voice behind him, but he did not turn around. Qing Li's footsteps soon caught up with him. "Are we really going to pretend nothing happened?" he asked, quickening his pace.
Xu Yang kept walking. "That depends." Qing Li frowned and moved closer. "On what?" Xu Yang tilted his head slightly. "On whether anything happened." Qing Li stopped for a moment, staring at him in disbelief. "You're doing it again." Xu Yang glanced back. "Doing what?" "That thing!" Qing Li pointed at him, his frustration returning. "Where you act as though everything is under control when it clearly isn't." Xu Yang blinked. "You seemed comfortable with it before."
Qing Li opened his mouth, then closed it again. "That's because you were a cat!" he exclaimed. Yan Luo walked past him without changing his expression. "Before, he was a cat." He glanced at Xu Yang. "Now he's a cat who turned into a human in front of an entire village." Xu Yang's steps slowed for a fraction of a second. "Ah." He looked ahead again. "Right." Qing Li stared at him. "That's it?" Xu Yang glanced over his shoulder. "What else?" "I don't know!" Qing Li threw up his hands. "Perhaps a little panic? A little concern? Anything that suggests you understand how ridiculous this situation is?"
Xu Yang considered his words for a moment. "Would you prefer me to scream?" Qing Li immediately nodded. "Yes!" Then he hesitated and rubbed his forehead. "Actually, no. That would probably make things worse." Yan Luo gave him a sideways glance. "At least you've understood one thing today." Qing Li turned towards him. "You really have no intention of helping me, do you?" "No," Yan Luo replied. Xu Yang continued walking, his tail swaying behind him. "I am reacting," he said calmly. Qing Li hurried after him. "How?" Xu Yang did not even turn around. "I left." Qing Li stared at his back.
For a moment, he seemed unable to decide whether to laugh or become angry. "Unbelievable!" he muttered at last. Yan Luo let out a faint breath that might have been amusement. They walked a few more steps before Qing Li's expression changed. The earlier humour disappeared, and he looked towards Xu Yang again. "That wasn't the real problem," he said quietly. Xu Yang did not answer. Yan Luo's gaze shifted towards the square behind them. "The freeze," he added. The word settled between them. Xu Yang's tail stopped moving. His voice, when he spoke, was quieter than before. "Not mine."
Qing Li gave a short, humourless laugh. "We figured that much." He glanced at Xu Yang. "You looked just as confused as the rest of us." Xu Yang did not argue. As they moved farther from the square, the village sounds slowly faded behind them. Voices, footsteps and the ordinary noise of daily life continued, but something about them felt distant. Yan Luo looked towards the air around them, his attention moving over things that ordinary eyes could not see. "Everything stopped," he said after a moment. "Not just the people." His gaze narrowed. "The threads stopped too."
Xu Yang's ears tilted slightly. "And my control over them." He said it quietly, as though confirming something he had already suspected. Qing Li's expression tightened. "So something interrupted you." Xu Yang nodded once. "Yes." Qing Li looked ahead, his lips pressing together. "That's worse." Xu Yang did not disagree. They passed a group of villagers gathered beside a wooden stall. A woman was talking about the weather, while her companion complained about the price of rice. Neither of them paid any attention to the three figures passing by.
Qing Li watched them for a moment. "They really don't remember anything." he muttered. Yan Luo glanced at the villagers. "No. They remember something else." Xu Yang continued walking. "They remember a version of the morning where I was never there." Qing Li's expression darkened. "If something can rewrite that..." He hesitated, then looked directly at Xu Yang. "It can erase you too." Xu Yang's ears twitched, but his pace did not change. "It didn't." Yan Luo studied him. "Which means it chose not to." Xu Yang looked ahead. "Or it couldn't." Qing Li frowned. "You're not sure?" Xu Yang shook his head. "No." After a brief pause, he added, "And neither is it." They reached Lin Chen's house soon after.
The house stood quietly at the end of the narrow path. Its wooden door was closed, and the windows remained still. Nothing about it suggested that anything unusual had happened nearby. Xu Yang stopped at the entrance but did not go inside. Qing Li crossed his arms and looked at him. "So, what now?" "We wait!" Xu Yang replied. Qing Li raised an eyebrow. "For what?" Xu Yang lifted his gaze towards the space above the roof. "For whatever stopped me."
Yan Luo followed his line of sight, though he could see nothing unusual. "You think it's still here?" Xu Yang remained silent for a moment. Then his golden eyes narrowed. "It never left." A faint shift passed through the air. It was so subtle that neither Qing Li nor Yan Luo noticed it at first. Xu Yang, however, stopped moving. His ears turned towards the empty space ahead, and his tail became still. Qing Li immediately noticed the change in his posture. "What?" he asked, stepping closer.
Xu Yang did not look at him. "Something changed." Yan Luo's expression sharpened as he began examining the space around them. "Where?" Xu Yang's gaze remained fixed ahead. "The threads." He paused, following a faint movement that neither of the others could see. "They're not stabilizing." Qing Li frowned. "Then what are they doing?" Xu Yang's tail flicked once. "Adjusting." He watched the invisible movement for another moment before adding, "To me." Neither Qing Li nor Yan Luo spoke. The meaning of those words settled between them. Whatever controlled the threads was no longer simply repairing the damage. It was responding to Xu Yang himself.
Far behind them, near the edge of the village, a man walking along the road suddenly slowed. His brows drew together as though something had brushed against the edge of his thoughts. He looked towards the square, then murmured under his breath, "Golden eyes..." He blinked and shook his head. The words seemed strange even to him. After a moment, he continued walking, and the thought disappeared as though it had never existed. Xu Yang closed his eyes briefly. He was not resting. He was listening, trying to sense something that could not be heard. When he opened them again, his expression was calm, though his golden eyes had grown more watchful. He looked ahead once more and spoke quietly, his voice carrying no doubt, only confirmation. "It's not over."