breathe

Is this the inside of the underground palace?

Hadn't I already escaped from the snowy mountain town, been hospitalized twice, and gotten rid of the moving rats long ago? How could I have run back to the underground palace that I had no chance to see? Was he wrong, or did I misunderstand him or misunderstand something?

My mind was a mess, I had no idea what he was talking about, but I felt a sense of relief.

Perhaps because the situation had gotten so bad, I fell into a strange calm. Facing Taizi's weirdness, I just asked:

"Why do we need clothes? What is the definition of clothes?"

He sneered again: "If they are all black spots, they can't be fixed. Brother, let's wait for death together."

Taizi stared at me, and his expression suddenly became strange.

He whispered, "Is it really impossible to repair it?" He looked greedily at my body from top to bottom. "Apprentice, we should cooperate. I still want to take care of you as much as possible. I don't want to... turn you into new clothes."

I was confused by his tone and was startled.

Damn, this guy is still a little bit out of his mind. He seems to be wavering between the two identities of fake Xu You and Taizi. It's not that he is deliberately deceiving me, but it seems that he believes this from the bottom of his heart.

What happened? Did he lose his own identity? Did he substitute himself into the fake Xu You or Tai Zai to convince himself and stabilize himself?

But when he enters into each identity, what he says seems to be extremely honest and true, and the logic in each perspective is self-contained and clear.

There is no way to reason with a madman. My hair stood on end. I tried to test him:

"...Uncle, I can help you mend your clothes, but can you first tell me, your disciple, why this is the Snow Mountain Underground Palace? Didn't we blow up the underground palace?"

Taizi was slightly stunned.

"Uncle...? Uncle... Yes, the team leader, Xu You, said in the team... He said he was your uncle..." Taizi's expression changed, as if he was gradually confirming it, "Yes, apprentice, I am your uncle."

He seemed to cheer up and showed a stiff smile: "Disciple, you asked a good question. I told you in the convoy that you should study hard, so that you can survive even if a meteorite suddenly hits you on the road... You did a good job."

My eyelids twitched when I heard that.

Xu You did say this to me, but that was when I was bickering with Xu You and asking him to draw me an escape map. This lunatic actually heard this, he hid it so well.

But he didn't know that "superpowers" were nonsense, so he was not one of the key members including the team leader.

I suddenly felt a little depressed, and thought that it would be great if I could directly identify his appearance. Then I could check his true identity afterwards, and everything would become clear.

Seeing that he seemed to be calmer after mumbling to himself, I changed my mind and asked softly, "Uncle, do you know anything else? Tell me first?"

I didn't have much hope at first, I just wanted to calm him down and stop him from getting impatient and hurting others. But this time, I got an unexpected response.

The crazy Taizi smiled wider, somewhat complacently: "I know a lot, a lot... not only that black notebook, I also wrote something. When they asked me to write it, I knew that no one understood Yishu better than me."

His eyes suddenly moved, staring at me with a little excitement: "Have you seen it? It's a blue travel brochure."

It was like a thunderclap hitting my forehead. I was so frightened that my hands and feet went numb and I looked at him in shock.

Travel brochure?

That manual that made me feel very unnatural and as if I understood it too deeply, saying something about comb jellies, sponges, and lake water?

I was once surprised, wondering who could write such a thing, and why the people in the travel agency still had such a huge, superficial and weird misunderstanding about the Goddess, but I didn't expect it to come true here.

Seeing my expression change, Taizi suddenly became excited: "You know! You understand, right? I knew there would be someone who could really understand!"

Oh damn, I almost couldn't control myself and stepped back. A bitter taste suddenly rose in my mouth. I thought to myself, this is too bad. Who the hell is this guy?

Fortunately, Taizi was still immersed in the intoxication of playing Xu You, and did not forget my question. He asked eagerly, "Are you asking me why this is the Snow Mountain Underground Palace? Do you want to know how the water and electricity are connected here?"

I looked at him and my heart started pounding.

"——This half-finished underground palace is not completely built."

He lowered his head and thought for a while, then muttered in a trance-like manner, "Someone discovered the "wall" here first, and then built a building to surround and hide the wall, and then erected four tall murals on the outermost layer."

My immediate question was, “Why use so many walls to hide something that is actually a wall?”

Taizi suddenly stopped.

He scratched his hair, a look of confusion and fear appeared on his face. "Yes, why?"

"It seems... it seems that there is something inside the wall that cannot be let out. Someone needs to guard the wall... Someone needs to go inside the wall and keep guarding it, don't let the rats in the wall come out, don't let the rats see outside the wall..."

He raised his head, his eyes suddenly filled with resentment.

"Why do I know this? Disciple? Am I not Xu You?"

I was listening with fascination and anxiety, but when I saw his reaction, my scalp tingled. I thought something was wrong, his logic collapsed, and he came to his senses.

His thoughts quickly turned to pulling him towards Taiwanese cognition.

Before I could think of how to write the story, an accident happened.

That gentle breathing sound rang out again.

Taizi and I both heard it.

Even though he was in a frenzy at this moment, Taizi obviously couldn't understand. He looked at me, and we both saw the sudden fear in each other's eyes.

Damn, I screamed in my heart, how come Taiwanese is really completely unaware of this breathing sound.

What on earth could this be? Even this mysterious and secretive madman was troubled by it.

At that moment, the situation was chaotic and the two people who were about to fight each other stood stiffly in place, not daring to move.

"call……"

The breathing sound was still there, but strangely, I felt like it was trembling a little bit.

Is this really human breathing? I'm not sure.

Moreover, this time, I felt that the breathing sound seemed to be slightly misaligned with the human skin in Taizi's hand.

I suppressed my fear, slowly stared into Taizi's eyes to prevent him from losing control, and took a step closer to him.

The breathing sound became clearer.

It seems to be a little higher than the human skin, closer to Taizi's arm, or near the forearm.

An inexplicable sense of familiarity came over me, and I blinked, feeling like something was wrong.

This picture is kind of intimate.

Yes, it’s very strange. The first word that popped into my mind was “kindness”.

I suspected that I was completely fooled by the influence of Taizi, but once this thought came to me, it became clearer and clearer. Even the explosive amount of information and unsolved mysteries just now were not as vivid as the unknown slight joy that was emerging in me.

I couldn't help but slap my head hard, it was quite loud, and I looked at Taizai who had a ferocious and frightened expression.

Wait, I think I know.

In this extremely twisted and weird scene, I suddenly felt a sense of humor and commonality.

Because I realized that this terrible lunatic was in the same situation as me.

No matter how many secrets he possesses, how deeply he hides, or how distorted and weird he becomes, he is still a living person after all, and is bound by human thinking logic.

He believed what Xu You had said to me.

I had deceived Nian Ziqing before, and he believed it again.

When I couldn't tell the difference between people and things, was driven crazy, began to have a mental breakdown, and was suffocated by the Taizai I had ignored until then, his experience was not much different.

Because for him, there has been something he can't see following him closely these days, making soft breathing sounds from time to time, and he can't get rid of it.

This caused him to fall into cognitive confusion and self-questioning again and again when looking at human skin.

But I finally recognized this extremely light breathing sound.

Just because Taizi and I accused each other of being crazy and couldn't understand each other's logic, I made a mistake.

I had a preconceived notion that a sound that was close to the ground, right above the human skin, moved with the human skin, and came after the beeping sound could only be human breathing.

So, is there something that can stay very low to the ground, can silently follow people's movements, and can respond immediately to the buzzing of insects...

And, how can it remain unseen by others?

Can the breathing sound of this thing be very close to that of a human?

Yes, I have seen it, many times.

I was probably not sure whether to laugh or cry, so I actually took another step towards Taizi and stretched out my hand. After a moment, I felt a slight weight on my hand.

Then, the weight shifted to my shoulders, along with the extremely light breathing sound brushing past my ears.

Taizai's face immediately changed, and he stared at me in confusion, looking like he was about to go crazy again.

On my shoulder, the culprit, the fat cat in a white scarf and white gloves, gently rubbed my cheek in grievance, and after a long while, it purred faintly, expressing its infinite confusion and ignorance. It seemed that it was afraid and confused and did not dare to meow at all.

I touched the little fat cat on my shoulder, but in Taizi's eyes, I must have been crazy and was touching a ball of air tenderly, which made him almost burst into tears.

He probably didn't have time to get lost in the confusion of his own identity. The new unknown had obviously made his thoughts a mess.

"…This is my cat, named Dongzi." I introduced it to him sincerely in a weird mood, "Although I really want to beat it up and change its name to Gou Shixi."

"When Dongzai is scared, he will stick close to others and try to get them to notice him. I experienced this a long time ago. But fortunately, he is quite well behaved. At least he didn't bite anyone or hit your shoes this time."

Taizi stared at me, his pupils slowly dilated: "You...what are you talking about?"

“When a cat is hunting, it can hold its breath for long periods of time and move silently in a low position.

Sorry, I meant that Dongzai was attracted by the glowing red leech in the intercom.

But it was timid, most likely just curiously approaching the human skin, not daring to really hook the strange insect. Therefore, only after each beeping sound of the insect would it be attracted and try to observe and make some breathing sounds. "

"Meow……"

The little fat cat murmured in grievance on my shoulder with a feeling of uneasiness.

Taizi's expression froze for a moment.

I'm sure he heard a cat's cry that he had never heard before, but it should have been more difficult for him to accept than the sound of breathing. It seemed that he simply regarded it as an illusion, and his expression was frozen.

He stared at my shoulder, then at me, looking like he was going crazy. "You, were you meowing? Do you think there's a cat here?"

"...Yes. Yes, yes, yes. That's me yelling, everything you said is right." I let out a long sigh, thinking that this guy is not making any sense.

Dongzai squatted on my shoulder and rubbed me again in confusion, as if he had finally found a supporter.

The warm body temperature passed over me, and I felt a little angry and amused, but when I put myself in the Taiwanese's perspective, I couldn't help but shiver.

In other words, in Taizi's eyes, he was folding a dead person's skin, even repeatedly processing it. But he could always hear the sound of breathing, and even occasionally felt something warm rubbing against him, but he could not see or touch anything.

Given the agility of cats, I have no doubt how the little fat cat has been following him closely in recent times, how it has silently slipped past his collapsed and waving arms, and how it has been watching this strange human's madness with innocent confusion.

Especially after seeing me.

Dongzai had always had a sense of protecting his dining partners and would warn me of the invasion of strange stories.

After discovering that Taizai was always crawling around me, the tabby cat probably could only understand that it was some kind of large carnivore. It became more vigilant but fearful and insisted on standing between us, following Taizai and refusing to leave, for fear that he would suddenly turn around and attack me.

But Dongzai obviously couldn't control his instincts during this guard duty, and he would often be distracted and curiously catch insects. Sometimes he would curiously lean close to Taizai and make a soft breathing sound.

After all, it is just an invisible, "non-existent" cat.