Doomsday Wonderland Chapter 144: Answers
"...In other words, Xue Jin sensed that something was wrong after all?" Lin Sanjiu took a big step and walked up the two stairs, with a wry smile in his voice.
"Isn't it? She started muttering halfway through. If Bai Xiaoke hadn't been needed for action, she would have come by herself." Li Tao was small and walked in a hurry to keep up with Lin. The speed of three drinks. Her bright, puppy-like black eyes were filled with a relaxed smile: "...Originally she meant that after I find you, I will take you away even if I drag you alive."
"Ahem!" Lin Sanjiu felt more relieved after knowing that the operation outside had only started a few dozen minutes ago. She used polishing compound to illuminate the steps in front of her, feeling a little dumbfounded by Xue Qui on the other side of the Garden of Eden. "I have experienced all the dangers she mentioned. It's just a copy. You see, we have gone up several floors now, aren't we okay?"
It's not necessarily true that there are several floors, because the Black Tower only has the bottom floor and the top floor; the ones in between are just layers after layers of seemingly endless spiraling stairs. If the energy center is really in the black tower, then it must be at the top of the tower. At this moment, the two of them have climbed four or five winding stairs, but the end of the stairs above their heads cannot be seen yet.
"Oh, by the way, what does that copy look like? How did you get out?"
Even Lin Sanjiu couldn't answer this question herself - she pondered for a while, looked back at Li Tao, and suddenly smiled: "Actually, I don't know either... Why don't you let me tell you the story in the copy? Talk and see if you can find the answer. Even if there is one more cobbler, it would be good."
After that, she told what happened in the copy. He told Li Tao as much detail as possible.
The story lines of the fairy tale copy were interspersed with each other and the time was messed up. Lin Sanjiu herself found it very difficult to tell it; but what she couldn't believe was that after she finished telling the messy story, Li Tao actually Got it.
"...I can come out. I rely on luck. Because I really can't figure out what is going on with this copy..."
In the flickering silver light, while listening to the regular footsteps of the two, Lin Sanjiu let out the confusion that lingered in his heart.
Li Tao beside him was quiet for a while, and seemed to be stumped. The silver light illuminated the ascending stairs in front of her, but her expression was invisible for a long time. She just said softly: "The three protagonists are not of the same age, which is quite interesting..."
"What do you think?" Lin Sanjiu asked with interest.
It was still a long way from the top of the tower; out of caution, she did not completely let go of her speed. During the journey to the top of the tower, she was willing to listen to Li Tao's opinion.
Li Tao's steps slowed down unconsciously, and she smiled hesitantly: "...It's just an idea. I don't know if it's right or not."
"What does that matter? You say."
"...I think that if you think with the logic of 'because something happened in the past, something will happen in the future', it may be fundamentally wrong." Li Tao's first sentence This caught Lin Sanjiu's attention: "I think these three stories should actually be independent and unrelated."
"Eh? But the death of the prince...and Laila's mirror...how to explain it?"
Li Tao seemed to find it a bit tricky to express her thoughts correctly - after thinking about it, she asked: "Do you have any paper with you?"
Lin Sanjiu stopped and rummaged through his card library. Most of the supplies were found in the Extreme Temperature Hell. Paper products exposed to high temperatures don't retain much; she finally pulled a piece of toilet paper from a roll and handed it to Li Tao.
"I want three." Li Tao took it and said.
Lin Sanjiu was stunned, as if she had grasped something. Still haven't figured it out. She handed over two more pieces of paper, turned the toilet paper back into a card, and was about to put it away together with some other things, when she suddenly discovered that there was a diary card sandwiched in the middle.
"Ah, isn't this my cute little beauty!" - This is the only sentence on the card.
Before Li Tao saw this embarrassing card, Lin Sanjiu quickly put it into her body - and then raised her head as if nothing had happened. He found Li Tao pondering, holding two pieces of toilet paper between the fingers of his left hand. Holding the last one in his right hand, he placed it below them.
Now. Three pieces of toilet paper appear in the air as upper, middle and lower layers.
"Every piece of paper represents a story." Li Tao cleared her throat, her voice filled with excitement, as if she really enjoyed deciphering. "They are parallel, do not interfere with each other, and each has its own time flow."
"The story with the largest time span and the fastest flow of time is the story of Bluebeard." As she said, she took out the top one alone and drew a short bar and a dot with her fingernail—— The short bars and dots interact repeatedly several times, representing high frequency. "Bluebeard met the fairy when he was seven, and married Lyra when he was almost forty. This was nearly thirty years."
Lin Sanjiu nodded, indicating that she understood.
"The second is Little Red Riding Hood." This time, the bars drawn by Li Tao were slightly longer, and the frequency of bars and dots decreased. "From Emma to Little Red Riding Hood, almost twenty years have passed."
"So, the one with the slowest flow of time is Cinderella?" Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but ask.
"That's right. While the other two stories - oh, think of them as these two pieces of toilet paper - move forward a few decades, Cinderella's world has only a few... Moon." After saying that, Li Tao drew a long line and a dot on the third piece of paper. A short piece of toilet paper only has room for two long bars.
She placed the three pieces of paper parallel again. The only difference this time was that Li Tao pulled out a hairpin from her hair and pointed the tip at the toilet paper.
"Now I am the old fairy. I tricked Cinderella into agreeing to punch a few holes in her layer of paper."
Lin Sanjiu vaguely realized something and felt a patch of hair rising on her back.
"This dot is like the time period when the prince was looking for Cinderella." The tip of the hairpin in Li Tao's hand poked a hole through the dot of the third piece of toilet paper, piercing it. After reaching the second level, the hairpin changed its direction. "In this layer of Little Red Riding Hood, go through the time when Little Red Riding Hood encounters the werewolf."
"Now, countless tiny bacteria and dust on the toilet paper followed the holes and came to a new layer of paper. Whether it was the 'werewolf' bacteria on Cinderella's paper or the 'prince' bacteria When it comes to the paper of Little Red Riding Hood... Anyway, at this point, the characters and stories on two different time flows merge."
"I am also a...bacteria that shuttles back and forth between three pieces of paper." Lin Sanjiu stared at the toilet paper and smiled softly. Because the place where the toilet paper was torn was not straight up and down, it was a little twisted. In the dim silver light, it seemed to be floating in the air with life.
Li Tao nodded seriously. "If you follow the same pattern and pierce a few more holes, you will see the strange phenomenon you see. For example, Bluebeard from the past and the future will exist in the palace at the same time."
She pulled out a piece of her hair, selected two far apart points on the Bluebeard paper, pierced two holes, and stringed the hair through. The two ends of the hair hung on the Cinderella paper, and were pierced with a point. With a slight pull, the Bluebeard paper immediately wrinkled, and the two points were tightly attached to a certain point on the toilet paper below.
"That's why the old man said to Bluebeard. 'Eighteen years is much shorter than you think'!" Lin Sanjiu murmured, half in amazement and half in confusion.
Li Tao smiled slightly: "That's right. Once you realize that the essence of the three stories is actually a 'three-layered' story, you will find that nothing is certain and can save three people at the same time. ——Because you are just an outsider. You cannot penetrate the story level like that old fairy. And the existing 'intersection point' - let's call it that, does not connect the three levels at the same time."
"Could it be that... copies can also deceive people?"
"No, that stone tablet didn't lie to you." Li Tao stretched out a finger and waved it, crumpled the three pieces of paper into a ball, and threw it away. "That's a narrative ruse."
"...Narrative trick?" Lin Sanjiu repeated softly and followed her slowly upward.
"It's simple - the protagonist of the story of Little Red Riding Hood is Little Red Riding Hood. The protagonist of the story of Cinderella is Cinderella. So why is the protagonist of the story of Bluebeard, Lyra?"
Li Tao’s soft and calm voice. It spread gently in the darkness, like a wave hitting the stone wall - but it was heard in Lin Sanjiu's ears. But it was like thunder.
"Because, because..." She wanted to say something, but got stuck. Because she suddenly discovered that even she didn’t know why she thought Laila was the protagonist——
"Shouldn't the protagonist of Bluebeard's story be Bluebeard?" Li Tao laughed.
"However, the stone tablet said that the three protagonists were all in a critical situation of life and death and needed me to save them - and when Laila saw Bluebeard, her life was indeed in danger -"
"Then what were you planning to do at that time?" In the dim silver light, Li Tao looked back at her.
"I planned to...kill Blue Beard at that time." Lin Sanjiu responded blankly, understanding.
At this point, it was already clear - as long as Lin Sanjiu didn't kill Bluebeard, it would be equivalent to saving his life. However, I am afraid that no one involved could understand this at the time.
"Although the entire copy is a trick, it will be useless when I meet you." Li Tao smiled softly, "No matter who it is, as long as you think about it more, you will definitely not let Bluebeard go. ——After all, he showed the most doubts. Once you get stuck in your thinking, it may be difficult to make the right decision... But fortunately, you are a person whose muscles act before the brain, and you solved the copy neatly."
Lin Sanjiu really didn't know if this was a compliment to her.
After a while, she said in a low voice: "No, aren't you very powerful? Just listening to my retelling, you have already analyzed everything... If it were you, it would be very fast You can see through it."
Li Tao suddenly said "ha" as if she was a little embarrassed: "What? I'm just a bystander... If it were me, I might not be able to come out."
"I have two final questions that I would like to ask you." Lin Sanjiu said suddenly.
"What?"
"The first question is, what is the content of the dungeon you broke through in the Black Tower?" Lin Sanjiu's attitude was not harsh ~IndoMTL.com~ It seemed that he was just making common sense.
Li Tao, who had been climbing the stairs ahead, suddenly stopped. In the dimness, her figure stood upright, but she never looked back.
"The second question is, your name is not Li Tao. Who are you?" (To be continued)
ps: In order to be a man who keeps his promise and is strong and majestic, I stayed up until almost three o'clock, finished writing and added more...
I owe a total of three chapters and more, and today I finally paid off the earliest debt... Concubine Ni, come check it out! It’s not easy, I’m in tears! Next, there is Dou Wanhe's He's Bi to conquer! (fog)
Thank you for the review votes from Mirror V Balance and the 2 peace charms, and thank you for the peace charms from Baiqiang (eh? Are there any words missing?)!
I feel like this three-layer setting is very painful to explain. The space is not enough. I don’t know if I have explained it clearly before moving on to the next plot. I always feel like I will be bombarded by the comment area...
Ah, let what must pass be bygones be bygones
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