From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

"Come on, come on!"

"Who else! It's just a life, who's afraid of who! Come at me!"

"Let's die together. You want to end it all? I'll play along to the end. Come on, let's die together, ending everything once and for all. No one needs to suffer anymore."

He was mad, utterly and completely mad.

His eyes were bloodshot, his face bruised and swollen, blood dripping, wielding his fists with a murderous aura, attacking indiscriminately, his staggering steps swaying in the clouds, the last bit of strength in his body exhausted. Finally, he knelt down, endless grievances and anger tearing apart his heart and lungs.

He wanted to cry but couldn't, finally just shouting, using up all his strength to scream.

However, he couldn't hear. It was as if he wanted to vent all his emotions at once. Why? Why wouldn't these people let him and his mother go? Why, when they already had nothing, did they still want to drive them to extinction? Why, when they were already living in hell, could they still not see the end?

Why had he always been patient, always yielding, always trying to understand that they were all victims, that they also had their own unspeakable suffering, only to end up wounded all over? Why did victims have to hurt each other? Why didn't they give him and his mother a chance to start over? Why did their guilt and concessions become the soft spot and weakness for those victims to be aggressive?

Why!

What in the world is wrong with this world?

Ah, ah ah ah, ah ah ah.

Shouting, shouting, Ansen tried to vent all the emotions from his body.

"Ansen!"

Someone was calling out, but Ansen didn't want to listen, and refused to calm down.

He wanted to escape, to escape to the ends of the earth, away from his father and also away from his mother. He even wanted to escape from himself. He had never hated himself so much.

His incompetence. His weakness. His stupidity. His fragility.

He hated himself. He just wanted to strangle himself and end it all.

Escape, sprint, dash.

The biting cold drilled into his pores along his feet, and he realized that he had entered the beach again. The waves bound his ankles. Before he could react, it dragged his body into the ocean, swallowed by the endless blue.

Whoosh!

A wave crashed down on his head. Ansen subconsciously held his breath, and his whole body plunged into a blue expanse. The boundless blue surrounded him, and the cold, salty seawater penetrated into the wound. The bursts of stinging and pulling almost tore his skin. His internal organs could feel the bone-deep pain, and he couldn't help but struggle, trying to get rid of the pain.

Then, he suddenly realized, why not just let it be, just end it like this.

The waves roared in his ears, and the deep and clear blue entered his body along the wound. The blood vessels became icy cold, and oxygen bubbles squeezed out of his lungs little by little. He gradually gave up struggling, gently swaying and slowly sinking with the flow of the waves. A stabbing pain spread from the lungs as the center.

So, is this the end?

Ending, doesn't seem so bad.

His eyelids were a little heavy, slowly closing. The endless blue became deeper and deeper, and finally evolved into black. The boundless black completely surrounded him.

This is good, it's all over, there's nothing to worry about anymore.

Full stop, this is the full stop.

"Ansen, Ansen… Ansen!"

A voice, suddenly and forcefully, pulled Ansen out of the water in one fell swoop. Oxygen broke through the bubbles and forcibly poured into his throat. The weight of gravity strangely dragged his body towards the ground. The upside-down inversion made the world spin rapidly. Ansen sat up directly, panting heavily with sweat all over his head. His brain was so swollen that it was about to explode, and his whole body was sore—

As if he had been beaten up badly.

"Ansen…"

"Ansen, what's wrong? Talk to me, what's wrong? Don't scare Mom."

That was…

Dazed, half-dreaming, Ansen looked over in the direction of the voice.

Then, he saw Nora's face.

Ansen's brain spun for a while, unable to distinguish between dream and reality. The Nora in front of him also overlapped with the face of his mother in his previous life.

Those worries, those fears, those tears flickering faintly in the depths of her eyes.

So, is he still in a dream now? Or has he returned to reality again?

But, how to confirm, where is reality?

Perhaps, he is still trapped in his previous life. The so-called transmigration and rebirth is just a dream. He briefly returned to reality just now, and is now returning to the dream?

The past three years, just his own imagination?

Because reality is too painful, so he has drilled into his own fantasy world again?

A pain, pulling and exploding in the temples, as if the entire skull was being pried open, the nerves were stretched to the extreme and almost breaking, the pain was so extreme that he couldn't shout out, all the sounds disappeared into the deepest part of the soul.

A jolt, the muscles cramped up, and in an instant, his breath was cut off again.

"Ansen…"

Beside him, someone handed over a glass of milk. Ansen looked over in the direction of the milk, first seeing Lucas, and then seeing Charles. The whole family was there.

What's going on here?

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?

The confusion of dream and reality, the entanglement of the past and present, made Ansen lose direction.

Ansen took the milk, gulped it down in one breath, and the cold, almost stiff stomach seemed to finally have some warmth, and his consciousness was slightly clearer.

Looking left and right, the ocean, disappeared, the beach is also gone. This is just an ordinary hotel room, a room that has been all too familiar recently.

Dream, or reality?

Ansen showed Nora a smile, gently twitching the corners of his lips, "Nightmare. I just had a nightmare, a very long, very long nightmare."

Lucas frowned, "What did you dream about?"

Ansen's words stuck in his throat, and he said half-jokingly, "My previous life."

Charles relaxed a little, "Not good?"

Ansen spread his hands, "My current appearance should be the answer, right?"

Nora didn't speak, just pressed her forehead against Ansen's forehead, as if Ansen was still a seven-year-old child, testing Ansen's temperature in this way. A touch of tenacity was revealed in those slightly red eyes. Although Ansen resisted, Nora stubbornly insisted on completing the action.

Temperature, okay, no fever.

Ansen waited with a lifeless face for Nora to finish testing his temperature with her forehead, then looked at Nora, revealing a helpless shallow smile.

"Are you sure now? I'm fine."

"I'm not a child anymore. I told you I'm fine, then I'm fine. If I'm sick, wouldn't I know it myself?"

While saying that, he lifted the quilt, his feet stepped on the ground, his toes curled up, carefully feeling the pull of gravity and the sense of solidity from the ground. The heart that had been floating in mid-air finally slowly returned to the ground.

Ansen took a step towards the bathroom, but as if a clone couldn't control his body, his knees softened, and his whole person fell forward, finally barely supporting the ground with his hands, his breathing becoming disordered again.

"Ansen!"

Lucas took a step forward to protect Ansen, but was half a beat too slow.