Shadows Across Time

To be honest, my first reaction at this moment is: I don’t believe in fate.

In other words, at least having witnessed so many predecessors along the way, and seeing them fight against fate in their own different ways, no matter whether they were determined or embarrassed, lonely or hideous, keeping their promises or twisted, they all showed the undying spirit of human beings to keep striving forward.

Having seen so much, I absolutely do not believe that people can only bow down in despair in the face of ghost stories.

“There has to be a way,” I said to myself, with a desolate resolve welling up in my heart.

If the fate of being shrouded by the moving rat really leaves no room for struggle, what is the point of the efforts of the predecessors? As a person of later generations, perhaps if we had known that the Nian family would eventually be dispersed and destroyed, what would it be like for Xu Ping to hold on alone in the long time ahead?

Although ghost stories are scary, they also have their own rules to follow. Now, with the help of my friends and family, I have learned all the rules of the game to the greatest extent possible. The answer must be hidden in it, but I was lazy and didn't notice it.

So, what is, what is the answer.

I squatted down slowly with my head in my hands, cold sweat pouring out. At this moment, I could no longer feel the pain from my injuries. I only felt indescribable anxiety and frustration, and I felt like I had gone crazy.

For a second, a kind of easy temptation was placed in front of me, as if a voice whispered, come, ask for help from the sentry box. In the dying state, the sentry box will infinitely magnify people's inspiration to drive the weak prey towards the weird story and the essence of the weird story, just like a parasitic iron wire worm driving a praying mantis to drown in the water.

But before that, people can gain unimaginable wisdom and enlightenment, far beyond the limits of this mediocre flesh and blood body. There, at the end of the beauty given by the ghost story, you can find the ultimate answer to save your family.

This is the absolute protection that the booth gives without hesitation, and this is the answer to victory. All you need to do is take one step forward and pay a little more.

—Aren’t you willing to risk everything, Xu Ranxing, the voice whispered to me dreamily? You’re going to lose control anyway, so why not just take a risk for everyone?

My hands began to tremble and I unconsciously placed them on my neck which was torn open by the monster baby.

But it hurts so much. It hurts so much.

At this moment, I realized the insurmountable terror brought by the moving rats. It was as if something had suddenly shattered my mind and frightened me. The instinct for survival in my body actually made me feel endlessly cowardly. I couldn't exert any strength. It seemed that the courage that could have determined to die had disappeared in an instant.

I was in a trance for a moment, staring blankly at my slowly falling hands, wondering, why? Why am I afraid to die? What else am I reluctant to give up?

"Meow……"

In my arms, Dongzai tried to raise his head and buried it in the crook of my neck, rubbing it gently. He seemed to understand my pain and cowardice. He cried out again and licked the tears on my face gently and ignorantly.

I stared at it blankly, as if all the strength in my body had been drained away at once.

After a moment, I stood up holding the cat, tightened the chain knot outside the iron door, and without listening to the noise inside, turned around and walked outside.

The fog outside the old house has dissipated, and now one can clearly see the dusty street lamps and the silent van in the distance.

As long as I walk forward, forget everything behind me, and follow the path that Zhang Tianyi and Sanyi have paved for me at their own expense, I will be able to leave safely. Sanyi also said that I don't have to bear any burden.

"Meow?"

The little tabby cat cried out in confusion.

I looked at it blankly, and after a while I realized that I had been gritting my teeth. Although I couldn't see my facial expression, it seemed that it was not numbness, but a kind of extreme anger.

"..." I sighed softly, "I wanted to run away, Dongzai, you saw it."

"Meow!" The little fat cat came up to me excitedly and licked me endlessly, until my saliva was all over me.

Well, I have escaped anyway.

I rubbed my aching forehead, turned back to the iron gate, grabbed the chain and slammed the door hard.

There was no movement inside, the dense fog seemed to have swallowed up all the sounds. I took a deep breath and shouted inside, instinctively knowing that the two damn guys could hear me:

"Brother! I've got an idea, so take it for a spin. Hang on, don't take the initiative to seek death! I know you won't be bitten so easily if you don't want to!"

Regardless of whether anyone was listening inside, I let out my full voice and continued to knock on the door: "Did you hear me? Now I'm going to get some people to implement my plan. I didn't run away and abandon you, so don't accuse me of being disloyal later!"

With a bang, half of a broken chair flew out from the broken small window above the iron gate.

"Look, this is probably Sanyi, that stubborn ass, yelling and trying to rush out and beat me up." I said to Dongzai, pointing behind the iron gate, "Do you know what he's going to say? He's definitely going to call me crazy."

It doesn't matter, I thought to myself. At this moment, I felt an unprecedented strange calmness. I raised my middle finger to the door and shouted, "Stop talking nonsense and listen to my instructions! Brother, you take care of my brother!"

“Bang!”

I ducked and hid my head to avoid the other half of the broken chair that flew out of the small window. I seemed to hear that thief Zhang Tianyi laughing in a very wicked way.

Damn, "Believe it or not!" I was furious, "Am I smarter or are you smarter?!" I'm serious, if you don't want to believe me, then forget it, Xu Ranxing wouldn't lie, okay.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

"--wait for me!"

After making sure that the people inside understood, I laughed, turned around, and this time without hesitation, I ran towards the van in the distance, holding the cat.

Ten minutes later, I was almost blind due to excessive blood loss, so I pushed open the car door I hadn't seen for a long time and fell on my back on the cold floor of the van. During the period, I fell several times due to the loss of consciousness caused by the pain all over my body.

I paused on the car floor for ten seconds, then began to search the car with difficulty, and finally found the spare walkie-talkie in the toolbox.

Fortunately, this is a car borrowed by the Zhang family, and this commonly used antique is still available.

I smiled again, feeling extremely lucky today, turned on the free channel of the walkie-talkie, and began searching for a signal that could be connected.

Based on my understanding of Yan Mo's behavior, although he agreed to the plan of my two troublesome brothers, he should have already arrived nearby and was ready to fill in and bury the body if it failed.

After a moment, there was a pause in the intercom. It was Yan Mo's voice, who asked solemnly, "Advisor?"

"It's me. We haven't failed yet."

I said, my heart slowly relaxed, but then my eyes started to go dark again and my consciousness became increasingly blurred. I knew that I had been injured too much and my body could no longer support me.

I can't fall down, at least not now. I raised my hand and bit my arm hard, trying to keep myself alert despite the pain. "Now, I'll take the time to explain the key points of the matter. Don't ask questions, just tell me whether it's true or not, okay?"

"Advisor, you go ahead." Yan Mo became serious.

"Do you already know why Zhang Tianyi and Sanyi want to feed the Holy Infant?"

"Yes, I know almost everything."

I said okay, listen, "There is nothing wrong with your plan, but there are alternative options."

With the rustling sound of the intercom, my heart was beating so hard that I felt very uncomfortable. I knocked on my chest hard and whispered reluctantly:

"First, the best sacrifice that the Holy Infant needs is not Zhang Tianyi, but the wanderers. To put it bluntly, the Holy Infant needs the banyan tree and the wall rats. Those things are more useful than Zhang Tianyi."

"Secondly, Nian Huairen must be the only one who cannot be divided, so Sanyi must also die with Nian Huairen. This logic is correct, but not entirely correct.

Sanyi can indeed be a part of Nian Huairen. But for Nian Huairen, the birdman, he claims to be the last orthodox of the Nian family, but is temporarily trapped in a weak and ordinary body, so he can only wrong himself and still be Nian Huairen for the time being. But in the heart of the birdman, he is the only Nian Ziqing. "

"Nian Ziqing, we have one. Once in the snow mountain town, that bastard fake was planted in the sprouting banyan tree. You have seen it, and the broker's wife also knows it."

"——Do you understand? We need the young banyan tree that has already been planted. It can meet all the current needs of the Holy Infant."

There was a stunned silence on the intercom. Two seconds later, Yan Mo responded firmly without any questions or objections:

"Okay, we must do it at all costs. Consultant, how do you think we can move the banyan tree here as soon as possible?"

I took a long breath and said quickly:

"I know what you mean, it's okay, don't think about risking human lives, it can be done.

What must be confirmed is that the timeline of the banyan tree is reversed. After the community saw it, the banyan tree was born and disappeared completely in the past that we all experienced. So there is no banyan tree in the world now. In the snow mountain town, the banyan tree only existed for a moment to absorb geothermal heat and sprout and bloom again. So if you want to find the banyan tree now, you can only go back to the past to find it. "

"——But there is a way. It requires comb jellies."

"Ctenophores can move lake water. Wherever they are, there will be a lake, and the banyan trees will move with them."

“As long as you sow comb jellyfish here in the old house, the banyan trees will automatically come over and start growing at the past time node.

The comb jellyfish can reproduce over a period of eight years, which is enough time to bring the lush banyan trees to the Holy Infant. This includes the young banyan trees that were planted only half a year ago.

In the past six months, no, in the past eight years, none of us have come to the Nian family's old house. And since the comb jellyfish disappeared after I broke the closed loop, no one has seen it so far.

Therefore, it is possible that comb jellies have already appeared here. We have a one in ten thousand chance of helping comb jellies to create this closed loop hidden in the past.

In theory, there are no timeline or causal paradoxes.”

On the other end of the intercom, Yan Mo stood up and yelled at someone:

"Where's Gao Liu? Where's the broker?"

There was chaos on the other end of the intercom.

In a hurry, a voice that seemed to be Fang Ao shouted loudly, panicking:

"Aren't there comb jellies in the world? Advisor, Captain Yan, you don't want to kill Gao Rui and the instructor for sacrifice, do you? Gao Liu only has a little recovery ability, and he doesn't have comb jellyfish blood!"

I was stunned, and I didn't know why I started laughing. I couldn't stand it anymore. Yan Mo seemed to kick Fang Ao: "Gao Liu's mother, Tour Guide Gao left a small bottle of amulet for the consultant!"

Fang Ao shuddered, "Yes! There is a dried dormant comb jellyfish in there! Oh my god! That's the last one! After all, our mother is a reliable lifesaver!"

He ran out frantically, and seemed to be holding another intercom and shouting, "Zhang Jia, Brother Xiao Yi! Didn't your uncle go to help Xiao Rui carry the coffin? Where is our mother? She is far-sighted. It's time to kowtow and shout for help. Hurry up!"

Alas, these bandits.

In the midst of the chaos, my eyelids drooped. This time, I was too tired. I told Yan Mo not to worry, and immediately fell asleep holding the cat.

…

When I woke up, it was raining heavily.

Miraculously warm rain water flooded over my instep, almost submerging the van. I struggled to move, and found myself tied up like a dumpling, wrapped in thick white gauze everywhere, with a fat cat sleeping soundly on my arm. Two damn door gods fell to my left and right, both covered in blood, sleeping soundly with their eyes closed.

There was a buzzing sound in the sky. It was a helicopter. It must have dropped something in from a distance very cautiously. No one was brave enough to come in and take the risk.

At such a long distance, I wondered if the pilot was the captain who finally got what he wanted, I thought slowly, looking towards the old house of the Nian family. The iron gate there had been opened at some point, and the fog had disappeared without a trace.

The comb jellies and banyan trees must have been here before, dragging their prey back to their nests, back to a certain moment in the past, through the stream of time where the comb jellies thrive and grow.

But maybe not today, not at this moment, but in the new closed loop created silently and tacitly by the comb jellyfish and I, at any moment in the past eight years.

At a point in time that none of us can see, across the long shadow of time, the comb jellies brought down rain, bringing lakes and banyan trees; the wall rats merged with the Holy Child, muttering nonsense and asking these foolish bees to make wishes.

This time, the two sides made wishes to each other and asked for things, and the twisted rules were tightly coupled. The thick fog with abundant water vapor filled the never-satisfied lake. The wishes that the rats in the wall and the holy infants recited to the moving rats would never stop from then on.

Whether it is the banyan tree, the holy child, or the moving mouse, they should all be able to get satisfactory rewards.

When the blood-stained goddess opened her arms to me, was she waiting for today's brief, cold and greedy reunion? Did she also embrace these homeless, ignorant and pathetic strange babies greedily and forgivingly, just as she once embraced Zhou Tingmao?

My mind suddenly flashed back to the floating bodies I had seen in the lake water that was divided into cold and warm layers, trapped by the roots of the banyan tree. I didn't know how many of them were rats in the wall, and how many were actually holy babies who were brought back to the past and got their names from the rats in the wall.

Unlike us mortals, the banyan tree and the goddess probably have enough power to classify the holy infants so that they can have their own different selves. They don't have to be crowded and trapped in the same annoying name, and don't have to blindly wait for the next decay.

Are those spaces separated like grids, those cold water bodies in the layers above the warm lake water, spreading today's cold mist?

I fell into endless reverie and suddenly felt that this world was really interesting.

Ever since the Goddess allowed me to keep that little bottle and a tiny comb jellyfish sleeping inside it, I still couldn't escape the comb jellyfish from using my brain. It just took so long to get the results, the Goddess was too patient.

"Please, please, I didn't get anything in return for such a successful sacrifice. You two should give me something this time, and repay the mouse for me. It's not too much to let me live to be old, right? I will be considered a high-quality sacrifice."

I muttered, realizing that I was indeed very shameless, and couldn't help but smirk. "It's an equal exchange, happy cooperation."

As for the next time... Well, I'll settle the score with these troublesome ghosts when they become greedy and come to cheat me again.

The rain brushed across my face, warm and gentler than amniotic fluid, licking my wounds and reminding me of the boulder at the bottom of the lake where Tour Guide Gao was sleeping.

The fat little cat shook its wet fur in its sleep, moved, and nestled in my arms contentedly. I closed my eyes, sincerely thanked the past rain, and fell asleep again with peace of mind, knowing that a new tomorrow would soon come.

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