Ice skates forward, regardless of east or west.

Chapter 31 Aurora on Ice

At three in the morning, the abandoned ice rink was transformed into a huge, cold execution ground.

It's not a metaphor.

It is the execution ground in the literal sense.

Twelve holographic projectors were set up by Ling Wuwen around the ice rink, emitting a low hum.

They cast a pale, cold light in the darkness, cutting the entire ice surface into sharp geometric shapes.

The air was thick with the smell of ozone and the burnt smell of overheated electronic components, which mixed with the chill of the ice surface to create a nauseating chemical odor.

Gu Xidong stood in the center of the ice rink.

He was only wearing a pair of black training shorts, his bare upper body gleaming like marble under the cold light, and a thick elastic bandage wrapped around his left knee, like a black shackle.

He's been skating here for two hours.

Uninterrupted.

Ling Wuwen's request was simple to the point of being cruel: "Glide at a constant speed, keeping your heart rate above 180 until I say stop."

There is no music.

There is no rhythm.

The only sound was the monotonous, sharp "hiss-hiss" as the ice skates cut through the ice, like a dull knife repeatedly cutting into one's eardrums.

Gu Xidong's breathing had long since become erratic.

His lungs felt like they were on fire, and every breath he took was filled with the smell of blood.

Sweat rolled down his forehead and dripped into his eyes, causing a stinging sensation.

My vision began to blur, and the outlines of the projectors at the edge of the ice rink distorted and deformed in my field of vision, like a group of monsters crouching in the darkness.

But he didn't stop.

He can't stop.

Because Ling Wuwen was sitting on a high platform by the ice rink, holding a tablet computer with his physiological data displayed in real time on the screen—

Heart rate: 192 bpm

Blood oxygen concentration: 90%

Core body temperature: 39.2℃

Every number was fluctuating wildly on the edge of the critical point.

"Three minutes left." Ling Wuwen's voice came through the speakers hidden around the ice rink, cold and clear, as precise as a scalpel.

"Your blood oxygen level is dropping. If it falls below 88%, you will experience hypoxia hallucinations."

Gu Xidong gritted his teeth and did not respond.

His left leg had begun to cramp, the muscle fibers like taut strings, each contraction bringing a tearing pain.

But he forced himself to keep pushing the ice, to keep gliding, to keep spinning in this execution ground of light.

It resembles a perpetual motion machine.

Like a fool.

Just as the timer jumped to two hours and one minute—

The lighting on the ice rink suddenly changed.

The twelve holographic projectors switched modes simultaneously.

The pale light disappeared.

Instead, a flowing, dreamlike aurora borealis appeared.

Green, purple, blue, and red.

Countless ribbons of light flowed, swirled, and intertwined above the ice surface, like a silent dance from the depths of the universe. The light and shadow they cast rippled across the ice, transforming the entire ice rink into a giant, flowing kaleidoscope.

It's breathtakingly beautiful.

It was also so eerie that it sent chills down your spine.

Gu Xidong suddenly stopped in his tracks.

He looked up at the flowing band of light overhead.

For a fleeting moment, he thought he was truly hallucinating.

"Keep skating."

Ling Wuwen's voice rang out again, but this time, there was a subtle, almost imperceptible, gentle quality to her tone.

"Look at the light."

"Follow the light."

Gu Xidong took a deep breath and forced himself to start pushing off the ice again.

He glided through the aurora borealis.

The light flowed around him, rippled beneath his feet, and spun before his eyes.

The sound of ice skates cutting through the ice gradually faded away, replaced by a deep, resonant hum that seemed to come from the depths of the earth.

That's a low-frequency sound wave emitted by the projector.

Ling Wuwen did not tell him.

That was a frequency she had specially set—7.83 Hz, the Earth's natural resonant frequency, also known as the "Schumann wave".

Studies have shown that this frequency can directly affect the alpha wave state of the human brain, inducing deep relaxation and even... awakening deep memories.

Gu Xidong was unaware of these things.

He just felt that his consciousness was starting to drift away.

It drifted away from the body.

Drifting away from the ice rink.

Drifting towards some distant, dark place...

"Gu Xidong!"

A voice suddenly exploded in his ear.

It wasn't Ling Wuwen's voice.

It was a boy's clear, panting voice.

Gu Xidong suddenly turned around.

Above the ice rink, amidst the flowing aurora borealis, several dazzling white flashes suddenly appeared.

a bit.

Two times.

Three times.

It resembles a camera flash.

It's like... those few lights in the stadium that suddenly go out and then suddenly come on again—

"lamp--!"

The boy's voice rang out again.

This time, the voice was filled with terror, despair, and a kind of tearing pain, as if the person was on the verge of death.

Gu Xidong's pupils suddenly contracted.

His body stiffened instantly, as if struck by an electric current.

He saw it.

In the gaps where the aurora flows, in the glittering white flashes—

He saw a scene.

A scene he has seen repeatedly in countless nightmares over the past three years, yet desperately tries to forget when he is awake.

That was the scene at the competition three years ago.

The National Sports Center Figure Skating Rink.

He stood in the center of the ice rink, having just completed his iconic "Burning Black Swan" spin, and the entire audience rose to their feet, cheering and applauding thunderously.

And ten meters behind him—

His partner, Ling Wufeng, was climbing up from the ice.

The boy's face was contorted in pain, his left hand clutching his right ribs, where something seemed to have struck him.

But he didn't stop.

He gritted his teeth, pushed off the ice again, and skated toward Gu Xidong.

His lips were moving, as if he were shouting something.

But Gu Xidong couldn't hear.

The stadium's sound system was playing rousing award ceremony music, and the audience's cheers were deafening.

He could only see Ling Wufeng's lip movements.

The lip movements were—

"Gu Xidong! Light—!"

then.

The screen disappeared.

The aurora borealis is flowing again.

The ice rink returned to calm.

Gu Xidong stood frozen in place, his ice skates deeply embedded in the ice, his whole body like a sculpture suddenly frozen in place.

His heart stopped beating at that moment.

On the high platform.

Ling Wuwen's fingertips lightly swiped across the tablet screen.

She turned off the low-frequency sound wave generator.

But her fingers were quickly typing a string of code on another hidden control interface.

That was a backend access key for the lighting control system of the National Sports Center, which was used three years ago.

She hacked into that long-abandoned database.

I pulled up the operation logs of all the lighting equipment that night.

Then--

She synchronized the log data to the holographic projection system in real time.

Above the ice rink, the flowing aurora borealis began to undergo subtle changes.

The color of the light strip gradually transitions from dreamy green, purple, blue and red to a cold, industrial silver-white.

The trajectory of the light band also began to become regular, precise, and even... mechanical.

That is no longer the aurora.

That is--

"Lighting data visualization"

Ling Wuwen murmured to herself, her voice so low that only she could hear it.

She was recreating the lighting from that night.

Through holographic projection, those dry, cold equipment logs that only engineers could understand were transformed into light and shadow that Gu Xidong could "see".

She was forcing him to recall.

In the way he was most familiar with—

light.

Gu Xidong knelt on the ice.

It's not that I'm physically exhausted.

It's a cognitive collapse.

He stared at the silvery-white, mechanically flowing bands of light overhead, watching them flicker, fade, and switch in a strange, unsettling pattern—

a bit.

Two times.

Three times.

It was exactly the same as the white flash I had just seen in my hallucination.

It was exactly the same as the lights in the gymnasium that suddenly went out and then suddenly came back on that night, just like I remembered.

"Well--"

A suppressed gag, as if forced out from deep in his throat, burst from his mouth.

He suddenly lowered his head, braced his hands on the ice, and his body began to tremble violently.

Acid churned in my stomach, mingling with bile, the smell of blood, and all the pain, repression, and despair of the past three hours—

"vomit--!"

He vomited.

It was spat onto the ice.

The deep yellow, viscous liquid reflected an eerie, bile-like luster under the silvery-white light.

He vomited violently.

He vomited until his whole body convulsed.

He vomited until his face was covered in tears and snot.

Like a useless person who has been completely hollowed out, completely destroyed, and completely reduced to his original form.

On the high platform.

Ling Wuwen watched quietly.

Her finger was still on the tablet screen.

Her eyes were unfathomable.

For a fleeting moment, her fingertips trembled slightly, as if she wanted to turn off the projection and end this cruel "treatment".

But she didn't move.

She just watched.

Watching Gu Xidong vomit, tremble, and break down on the ice.

I watched it for a full three minutes.

Gu Xidong's vomiting gradually stopped, leaving only violent panting and uncontrollable trembling.

She then closed the tablet.

He walked down from the platform.

She walked to the edge of the ice rink and took out a bottle of electrolyte water from the insulated box.

Unscrew the bottle cap.

Then, she skated over to Gu Xidong on her ice skates.

She did not speak.

She simply bent down and handed the bottle of water to Gu Xidong.

Gu Xidong did not look up.

His gaze remained fixed on the puddle of vomit on the ice.

His body was still trembling uncontrollably.

But his right hand slowly and tremblingly rose up.

He didn't go to get the bottle of water.

But -

He grabbed the wrist of Ling Wuwen who was handing him water.

His palms were burning hot.

It resembles a piece of red-hot charcoal.

His fingers dug deep into Ling Wuwen's wrist skin with force, almost digging into the bone.

Ling Wuwen's body suddenly stiffened.

But she did not struggle.

He didn't pull his hand away either.

She simply lowered her head, looking at Gu Xidong's hand that was gripping her wrist tightly, at the bulging veins on the back of his hand, and at the paleness at his fingertips from the force.

Then, she raised her head and looked at Gu Xidong's face.

The dejection, anger, and confusion of the past were gone from that face.

There was only a lucidity that was almost insane and on the verge of collapse.

His eyes were fixed on her.

Deep within his pupils, the silvery-white, mechanically flowing band of light above the ice rink was reflected.

"What you just did..."

Gu Xidong spoke up.

His voice was hoarse, like two rusty pieces of iron rubbing against each other.

Every word seemed to be forcibly ripped out from the depths of his throat.

"...in the projection..."

He paused.

Take a deep breath.

Then, with all his remaining strength, he uttered the last three words:

"What was added?"

The air seemed to freeze at that moment.

Above the ice rink, the silvery-white band of light continued to flow, flicker, and fade regularly, mechanically, according to the data from the lighting log three years ago.

a bit.

Two times.

Three times.

It was like a silent, ghostly trial from the past.

Ling Wuwen looked at Gu Xidong.

Looking into his eyes, I saw a lucidity that was on the verge of collapse.

Looking at the almost ferocious obsession on his face, as if he had finally grasped a sliver of the truth.

She did not answer.

She simply and slowly placed her other hand over the hand that Gu Xidong was using to hold her wrist.

Her hands were cold.

Like ice.

Her palm was pressed against Gu Xidong's burning hot hand.