9
We hurriedly took shelter inside Building 4.
Sage said, “The plaster statues are used by the art students, they’re on the fifth floor!”
We chased up to the fifth floor.
I finally saw her–my shadow.
We had the same hairstyle, the same clothes, even the pimples on our faces were in the same places.
“Miss Shadow, having fun pretending to be me?” I asked with a stony face.
The shadow smiled at me.
She didn’t answer my question, but instead declared to me: “It’s too late, Aria, you can’t stop me.”
“What am I stopping you from?” I asked.
“Don’t try to trick me into talking,” the shadow seemed to see through me, smiling blatantly, “I know you have a lot of questions, I won’t answer any of them.”
“You can keep guessing, the more you guess, the more mistakes you’ll make.”
“Fine, then I’ll make a bold guess!” I stared at the shadow unrelentingly, not giving an inch, “I guess your goal is to replace me, to become the
master of this body.”
“Am I right?” I asked.
The shadow just smiled without speaking.
I didn’t care about her reaction and continued my speculation: “You’ve already secretly started implementing your plan to replace me.”
“The first thing you did was to attract attention.”
“You needed to get the attention of some people, to make them think you are Aria Day.”
“Your first step has already succeeded.”
“Its effect on me is that I’m gradually sinking into sleep, and once I fall asleep, it’s not easy to wake up…”
“When you completely achieve your goal, I might really never wake up again.”
“Because by then, I will be your shadow.”
I stopped talking and looked at the shadow’s reaction.
The smile had unknowingly disappeared from her face, replaced by a rather displeased expression.
I continued: “Now, you’ve started implementing your second step. The plaster statue that just fell towards me was your handiwork.”
“Although you threw the plaster statue at me, you can’t kill me, right?”
“There have been many opportunities to kill me.”
“You didn’t do it, instead going to great lengths to lure me to Building 4, then throw a plaster statue at me. It’s because the rules limit how you can harm me, isn’t it?”
“What are the rules?”
“Do you dare tell me?”
By this point in my questioning, my tone had become somewhat aggressive.
The shadow still didn’t make a sound, but the way she looked at me was no longer relaxed.
I curled my lips into an extremely contemptuous smile, striking her facade with a mocking tone: “You don’t dare tell me because I’ve guessed everything right. It’s not so easy to replace the master, is it, Miss Shadow?”
“Hah!” The shadow finally couldn’t stand my provocation and sneered, “In fact, it’s not as difficult as you think. Shadows replacing their masters happen every day in the human world, there are quite a few such people around you.”
“It’s just that you haven’t noticed.”
“What’s laughable is that you even actively seek reasons to excuse the shadows.”
“Someone you haven’t seen for a while, when you meet again, they’ve undergone earth–shattering changes.”
“You say, this is growth.”
“Someone who’s been through a major illness, after recovery, their personality changes drastically.”
“You say, they’ve had an epiphany.”
“Someone who was always cheerful and talkative becomes wooden and introverted.”
“You say, this is life.”
“You’ve never suspected that they might have long been replaced by their own shadows, no longer the person you knew.”
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