Chapter 123: Change in Memories

Whether the Cameraman had noticed it at the time or not, from Yan Jing's perspective, the girl had definitively changed.

Starting the very next morning, she sought out the Cameraman. Holding a single chopstick, she smiled:

"Ah Ji, didn't you say your older brother taught you how to fight when you were little?"

"He did."

The Cameraman nodded.

"Could you teach me, then?"

The girl pressed the chopstick into the Cameraman's hand and smiled:

"I read in a book that you need a knife to fight, but it doesn't look like we have any here."

She stuck out her tongue and laughed. "I don't actually want to go fight anyone, though. I just want to try it out, so a chopstick should be enough."

"Yeah."

The Cameraman nodded.

And so, for the entire afternoon, the two of them did nothing else but practice knife fighting.

With a chopstick.

Whenever the girl swung the chopstick, her ponytail flew up as she lunged forward. The Cameraman watched, completely entranced, his camera lens focused entirely on her face.

As she swung the makeshift weapon over and over, sweat plastered her bangs to her forehead and dripped into her eyes.

The stinging sensation made her squint, and she missed the plastic water bottle serving as her target several times in a row.

The Cameraman offered her a tissue.

To his surprise, the girl simply leaned her face toward him.

"Wipe it for me, Ah Ji. My hands are all sweaty too."

The Cameraman didn't overthink it and simply wiped the sweat from her face.

But Yan Jing, who was rapidly scrubbing through the Cameraman's memories, sensed something off.

Compared to before, the girl was clearly taking more initiative.

While the two of them had shared intimate moments in the past, she had never actively asked for them. They were usually ambiguous situations brought about by unintentional accidents.

"Long hair gets in the way during a fight. A lot of people who use knives keep their hair short on purpose—especially in the front, so they don't have loose strands flying around."

It was just a casual remark from the Cameraman. Yet unexpectedly, by the time they met again for dinner that evening, the girl had cut her hair short.

"Does short hair look good on me, Ah Ji?"

the girl asked.

"It does."

The Cameraman stared blankly for a moment before answering.

As far as he could remember, this was the first time she had ever asked him how she looked.

Hearing his response, the girl didn't act shy like she used to. Instead, she pursed her lips and said, "Are you just lying to me?"

"No, it really does look good."

The Cameraman replied.

"I don't believe you." The girl tilted her chin up.

"What would make you believe me?"

the Cameraman asked.

The girl didn't answer immediately. She lowered her head, poking at the leftovers on her plate with her chopstick:

"The books say that men always prefer pretty women. Even if a man falls in love with a woman at first, the moment she stops being pretty, he'll stop loving her."

Then, she looked back up at the Cameraman, her eyes filled with innocent confusion:

"Is it true what the books say, Ah Ji?"

"No."

The Cameraman shook his head:

"No matter what you look like, I'll always like you."

The girl finally broke into a smile at his words.

"You're just coaxing me again, Ah Ji."

Despite her words, the girl was smiling very happily this time.

It was as if she had finally confirmed something and could put her mind at ease.

Two more days passed.

The day of the girl's screening arrived.

Over those two days, the girl had bombarded the Cameraman with questions about fighting even more frequently.

She didn't just ask about knife work, but also about technique and how to generate power.

Sometimes the Cameraman actually felt a little anxious. He had only been a five-year-old child when he learned all this, so he hadn't exactly grasped the true essence of it. He was afraid he didn't know enough to teach her properly.

But every time he hesitated, the girl would reach out and pinch his cheek just like before:

"Oh, hush! You're already amazing. Don't look so down!"

It was just that over the past few days, her pinches felt noticeably lighter, and her hands felt smoother. Whenever she let go, the soft pads of her fingers would trace a gentle curve down his cheeks.

On the night of the screening, the Cameraman tossed and turned in his room, unable to sleep.

He had asked her several times over the past few days where their screening would take place, but she had merely shaken her head, her eyes sly:

"It's a secret!"

"You aren't allowed to come looking for me that day, Ah Ji. You have to wait until I pass the screening, and then I'll come find you! Remember that!"

Eventually, giving up on sleep, he got up, pushed his door open, and walked out into the main hall.

He planned to stare up at the ceiling to soothe his anxious mood, just like he always did.

But suddenly, he noticed a sliver of light.

The flash of light was fleeting, practically imperceptible in the massive, gloomy hall, but the Cameraman managed to capture it through his camera lens.

Scrubbing back through his recorded footage and reviewing it, he pinpointed the exact spot where the light had originated and slowly made his way over.

His intuition told him that this might be where the screening was taking place.

Driven by curiosity, he quickly arrived outside a set of doors.

This was the White House's group activity room. It was the largest room in the entire facility, roughly the size of two or three school running tracks according to the books he had read.

Once every three months, the "teachers" would bring the children here to play games and demonstrate what an intimate relationship between a man and a woman should look like.

Aside from that, the room was kept tightly locked at all times.

That was exactly why the Cameraman felt increasingly certain that this was where the screening was being held.

Faint, agonizing screams were drifting out from behind the doors. In the dead silence of the hall, the sound was chillingly real, yet utterly unbelievable.

Feeling a bit rattled, the Cameraman reached out, intending to crack the door open just enough to see what was inside.

But to his shock, right at that very moment, the doors were violently shoved open from the inside!

"Ah Ji."

The girl stood in the doorway, staring at him. She was drenched in blood.

Her short hair clung to her cheeks. She looked like an evil ghost, her eyes carrying an unquelled fury as she muttered his name.

"Why did you come?"

Then, just as the Cameraman opened his mouth to explain, she made a "don't speak" gesture, shut the doors again, and returned to the room.

From the sudden hitch in the footage the Cameraman recorded at that moment, one could see his inner panic.

It was only because the girl's expression had been so completely unfamiliar, as if she had been possessed by a demon. Her eyes had been glacial, her expression furious, and her hands stained with blood.

Gripped by this intense unease, the Cameraman walked away.

He returned to his room, locked the door, and curled up in the corner.

Yan Jing guessed that he had probably regressed to the state he was in when his older brother had abandoned him.

He was terrified that the girl was going to abandon him, just like his brother had.

And Yan Jing's guess was clearly spot on.

It wasn't long before there was a knock at his door. This time, when the girl stepped inside, her expression was far colder than before.

As for the Cameraman, he acted as if he had done something wrong, taking a long scolding from the girl.

It wasn't until the girl's face finally broke into a smile again that the Cameraman's face followed suit with a smile of his own.

"Ah Ji."

The girl threw her arms around him.

"I didn't mean to yell at you just now."

"I was just terrified that if I didn't pass the screening, I wouldn't be able to stay by your side."

"But everything is fine now... It's all fine. I passed the screening. From now on, the two of us are never going to be apart again."

"Yeah."

The Cameraman hugged her back.

At that moment, he stopped thinking about what the girl had just been doing, why she was covered in blood during a screening, or what she couldn't let him see.

He just wanted to hold her tight. He didn't want her to ever leave.

Watching this scene, Yan Jing nodded. Just like in his previous life, every single one of these affectionate, proactive girls had the potential to become a master at dog training.