Feathers rained down from the sky, like fragments of memories scattered in the silent space, falling endlessly.
A'tuo collapsed into the memory trial arena created by the Feather King. This time, it wasn’t night, it wasn’t a rainy day, but instead—
The moment during his fifth-grade nap.
Lying on the cool mat, he secretly held his phone, lying to his mother.
"I’m doing my homework, don’t call me, the teacher will scold me…"
That phone call was the last time he ever heard his mother’s voice.
The trial space trembled. A woman in a blue apron, walking hurriedly, emerged from the shadows.
Her face was blurry, but her voice was clear as day.
"A'tuo, Mom's here to see you. Do you remember the lie you told that day?"
A'tuo’s throat felt pierced by feathers, and he hoarsely cried out, "Mom… Mom?"
She didn’t respond, only slowly raised her hand—
A black feather grew from her palm.
"You promised you'd do your homework and not run off… but that afternoon, you climbed over the wall and went out. Who was it that got into the accident?"
A'tuo shook his head frantically. "I just… I just wanted to buy your favorite red bean milk… I wasn’t…"
The feather trembled violently.
His mother's body instantly cracked open, feathers piercing out of her skin, transforming into the shadow of his mother, now fully feathered, screaming:
"You made me miss the last call! You said you didn’t want me to pick you up, but that was a lie, wasn’t it?"
Screeech!!!
The second feather on A'tuo’s chest combusted and fell off.
It wasn’t being pulled out—it was burning!
The pain was so intense that he collapsed to the ground, vomiting feathers and sparks from his mouth.
Yeling, watching from the outskirts, saw this and her tears broke free.
Chuyao shouted in desperation, "When can we go in? If this continues, he’ll—"
The voice of the Feather King echoed in the space:
"There are still three feathers. If he doesn’t make it through the fifth, I will take control of his body and become the new Feather Judge."
Yeling whispered, "No… No, this can’t happen… I have to go in."
Chuyao blocked her way. "Are you crazy? You’re the only one he can trust right now. If you go in, you’ll become part of the trial!"
Yeling’s eyes turned red, her lips trembling:
"So what… He has already suffered for me. I can’t let him go through this alone… not anymore."
A'tuo knelt on the ground, tightly gripping the burned second feather in his hand.
Suddenly, he looked up.
"Feather King, I want to choose the next trial myself."
The Feather King paused for a moment, surprised. "You wish to choose your lie?"
A'tuo stood up, the feathers on his back trembling.
"I choose… Yeling."
"I choose the lie from that breakup—she never knew why I left, it’s time I told her."
The weight of A'tuo’s decision hung in the air. Each word he spoke seemed to shift the very space around him, a ripple that could change everything. The path ahead would lead him to confront the deepest of his lies—the ones that had lingered, unspoken, for so long.
ns216.73.216.240da2
and then Add to home screen.