Chapter 45: Role Reversal—Would the Outcome Still Be the Same?

Home!
Lu Yuan was finally home!
"Why are the lights on?"
Suppressing the surge of emotion in his heart, Lu Yuan wondered if there was someone else inside his psychological clinic.
Oh!
Wait!
Lu Yuan suddenly remembered something. The very reason he had rushed back to the psychological clinic was to reclaim his original body.
Following this logic, it was only natural for someone to be inside the clinic.
Lu Yuan's body was right in there.
If there had been nobody inside, that actually would have been the strange thing.
Familiar with the route, Lu Yuan walked up to the entrance of his psychological clinic and tried to push the door open, only to find after a few attempts that it was bolted from the inside.
In his current identity as An Shi, he naturally couldn't possibly possess the key to the clinic.
Hesitating for a moment, Lu Yuan raised his hand and knocked on the door.
Thud, thud, thud...
The crisp sound of knocking echoed through the hallway.
After a while, footsteps sounded from within the clinic. As the door slowly swung open, a face thoroughly familiar to Lu Yuan appeared before his eyes.
It was his own face, the one he looked at in the mirror every single morning upon waking up.
Yet, the Lu Yuan of right now wasn't looking into a mirror; he was looking at another person, viewing another self from a completely independent perspective.
The "Lu Yuan" inside the door seemed no different from a living person. The moment he saw Lu Yuan, he was momentarily stunned, the look of scrutiny in his eyes exceedingly obvious.
After a few seconds, "Lu Yuan" finally spoke: "Excuse me, sir, is there something you need coming here this late?"
Lu Yuan, standing outside the door, was momentarily at a loss for words.
He didn't know what to say.
He had come to take back his body, but actually seeing his own body was vastly different from the scenario he had imagined.
In Lu Yuan's imagination, his physical body should have been lying motionlessly inside the clinic, waiting for its true master to return, rather than opening the door for him like a living person and exchanging polite pleasantries.
The "Lu Yuan" inside the door didn't urge him, merely watching the Lu Yuan outside with quiet stillness.
Lu Yuan fell silent for a moment, pulled his coat tighter around himself, and softly said, "Pardon me, are you Dr. Lu Yuan? I've come to seek treatment for an ailment."
Such a familiar opening line!
Lu Yuan was struck with a sudden jolt.
Right!
Wasn't this exact opening line what An Shi had said when he first found his way to the psychological clinic?
The scene was so familiar, feeling almost like an exact replica.
And the reaction of the "Lu Yuan" inside the door was identical to Lu Yuan's own reaction back then—first a moment of surprise, followed by a flash of delight in his eyes: "Please come in."
Lu Yuan knew very well what that flash of delight meant: it was the joy of a psychological clinic that hadn't seen a patient in ages, finally welcoming one at long last.
Lu Yuan's gaze grew complex.
If he were allowed to go back to that previous moment, would he still open the door for An Shi? Would he still let An Shi step into the psychological clinic?
Definitely not.
Yet now, Lu Yuan was using that very same method to deceive his own self in the dream realm, allowing himself to smoothly enter the psychological clinic.
The "Lu Yuan" inside the door glanced back at the Lu Yuan standing outside and asked with mild confusion, "Aren't you coming in?"
Lu Yuan let out a breath: "Pardon the intrusion."
Stepping across the threshold, Lu Yuan slowly closed the door behind him.
The warm lighting filled the darkness that Lu Yuan had walked through all the way here, calming his anxious and restless heart.
In the real world, the sofa in the psychological clinic had already been sold by Lu Yuan, but here in the dream realm, the sofa was still there.
"Have a seat first."
"I'll pour you a glass of water."
"Lu Yuan" imitated Lu Yuan's own behavioral habits, even mimicking his manner of speaking to an uncanny degree.
Lu Yuan couldn't help but fall into a daze.
Was this "Lu Yuan" before him an apparition? Or some other special entity? Or... was it really himself?
Steam rose from the glass of water.
Lu Yuan stared blankly at the white mist, momentarily unsure of what he should do.
"Lu Yuan" interrupted his jumbled thoughts: "Did you encounter some kind of trouble?"
The exact same script, but the difference was that Lu Yuan had gone from being the one who spoke those words to the one who listened.
Lu Yuan's gaze flickered slightly: "I... bumped into an apparition."
Lu Yuan repeated word for word what An Shi had told him back then, without changing a single character or syllable.
He wanted to see how the "Lu Yuan" in the dream realm would react.
Having listened to Lu Yuan's description, the "Lu Yuan," who had been quietly listening the entire time, stood up and walked toward the office desk. With his back turned to Lu Yuan, he pulled open a drawer: "Sir, do you smoke?"
In an instant, Lu Yuan smiled.
So...
The "Lu Yuan" in the dream realm had made the exact same choice as he had.
"I don't smoke myself, but I keep some cigarettes ready for my patients. See if this brand suits your taste." "Lu Yuan" sat back down on the sofa of his own accord and handed a cigarette out toward Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan didn't look at the cigarette; instead, he looked at "Lu Yuan's" pocket.
If his guess was correct, tucked inside that pocket was a personal stun baton—its shape, size, and even brand were things he could rattle off instantly.
Lu Yuan didn't take the cigarette.
He didn't smoke in the first place.
Even though he was currently using An Shi's body, certain habits ingrained in his bones could not be altered by this vessel.
"What's wrong?"
"Lu Yuan" proactively brought up the topic.
He seemed to be deliberately avoiding Lu Yuan's gaze, pulling the pocket of his clothes back behind him.
Lu Yuan shook his head, took the cigarette without lighting it, and simply stared straight at his own body: "Can you cure me?"
Hearing this question, "Lu Yuan" smiled and spoke: "I am a psychologist. Curing every single patient is my duty."
Lu Yuan sighed.
"You really aren't me."
As soon as these words left his mouth, the smile on the face of the "Lu Yuan" sitting opposite him stiffened slightly, his eyes dodging evasively: "Sir, of course I am not you. We are two different people."
Lu Yuan calmly gazed at this version of himself. No matter how perfectly the entity hidden within this body tried to imitate him, it could never be a hundred percent identical.
Lu Yuan would never, under any circumstances, claim that curing every patient was his duty.
"I am going to take back my own body."
Lu Yuan's gaze gradually hardened.
The "Lu Yuan" opposite him shifted through a series of expressions, his tone turning much colder: "I don't know what you're talking about. It's getting late. You should head back first and come again tomorrow."
Head back?
There was no going back.
Lu Yuan reached his hand inside his garment and slowly pulled out a utility knife: "Please give me back my body."
Taking advantage of the fact that Lu Yuan was still willing to speak calmly, voluntarily returning the body was the most peaceful way to handle this.
"I don't know what you're talking about." "Lu Yuan" let out a cold snort, drew a stun baton from his pocket, and aimed it straight at Lu Yuan.
The entity hiding inside his body probably wasn't a malicious apparition.
If it were a true apparition, it would have attacked long ago without needing to imitate Lu Yuan.
In the real world, Lu Yuan had relied solely on a stun baton to turn the tables and kill an appallingly deranged An Shi; stepping into the dream realm, the roles were now reversed.
The exact same standoff.
The exact same two people.
Would the outcome be the same as well?