Chapter 138 New Comic Version
Yan Shi moved closer to the table and looked down at the drawing paper.
Lin Cai's radiant smile leaps onto the first page of the drawing.
When Yan Shi glanced at it from afar, he only recognized Lin Cai's comic book image and judged it to be "The Curse of the Laws". But now that he got closer, he realized that it seemed to be different.
Yan Shi has read through all the currently updated content of "The Curse of the Laws" page by page.
However, the content on the drawing paper was not any of the plots that Yan Shi had seen.
Yan Shi remembered that the third episode should be about Lin Cai's internship at the headquarters of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs.
On the drawing paper, the background is an extremely luxurious corridor: crystal chandeliers, jade and jewelry, and gold-inlaid carpets.
Lin Cai and several familiar figures lined up in the corridor, walking cautiously.
Yes, the Zhihe Light Squad.
Yan Shi looked at the figures on the drawing paper and slowly recognized them.
So, in this third episode, where is Lin Cai now?
Yan Shi turned to the next page.
The camera zooms in from a distance, then cuts to a close-up of Lin Cai.
Lin Caibian followed closely behind the person in front of her, her gaze falling on the oil paintings hanging on the corridor wall.
The camera followed Lin Cai's gaze and focused on the painting next to her.
A woman adorned with gold and jade, and wearing a heavy, exquisite cloak, stood smiling before the throne. Her movements were graceful, her expression relaxed, and a smile played on her lips. Beneath her feet lay vast swathes of severed limbs and bones.
The oil painting brushstrokes are exquisite and delicate.
The bloodstains on the large skeletons were similar in color to the throne, making the whole scene blend together seamlessly.
What's even more terrifying is that it sends chills down your spine.
Lin Cai withdrew her gaze and silently bit her lower lip.
She didn't look at the other paintings, but lowered her head and continued walking forward.
Suddenly, Jian Yun, who was in front of her, stopped.
Lin Cai leaned over Jian Yun with some confusion and looked ahead.
Her pupils contracted sharply in an instant.
Yan Shi: ?
She turned the page with curiosity.
The next page is a huge expanse of dark color.
Yan Shi's pupils also contracted sharply.
In the center of the image, a creature, perhaps a person, is nailed to a jewel-encrusted, gleaming gold cross.
Her head drooped unnaturally, her hair a tangled mess of congealed blood. Sharp, thin nails pierced her wrists and arm bones, suspending her there. Her chest was bare, revealing stark white bone beneath. Beneath the bone lay her internal organs, now a jumbled mess. A hand pierced through the bones of her chest, churning its contents wantonly.
Looking further down, her legs were empty. Beneath the cross were two legs that had been forcibly torn off.
Soft light from the magic circle flashed across the ground intermittently. With each flash, the creature on the cross would twitch.
“Wow,” a masked woman, the owner of the hand that passed through her chest, said excitedly, bringing a small camera closer to the cross. “Our auction house’s Light Array is the best! Look! This cargo is still alive.”
"Are there any VIPs who would like to see something more vivid? Let me know through your displays!"
Behind the screen was a large display. More than ten messages had just been scrolled through.
[Let her make some noise. This constant twitching is so boring; who knows if it's a conditioned reflex or if she's actually alive?]
[Pry open her eyes and pull out her heart to show her.]
Can you slice off the flesh from my arm?
...
Meanwhile, in a corner of the one-way glass corridor upstairs, Lin Cai's mouth was tightly covered by Lan Xiaoshuang, who was walking behind her.
"Don't make a sound!" Lan Xiaoshuang warned Lin Cai, staring at her intently. "Otherwise, your future will be over."
Lin Cai's eyes were wide open, and tears streamed down her face. She shook her head desperately.
Lan Xiaoshuang slowly released her hand from Lin Cai's mouth.
"This is the Otherworld," Lan Xiaoshuang said doubtfully. "You've really never seen a scene like this before?"
Lin Cai's gaze remained fixed downwards.
Lan Xiaoshuang shrugged and walked forward to Zhihe Qing's side.
The situation is very complicated. They are standing in a corner of a one-way glass corridor, and they have to go through this corridor to get to the exit of the black market.
However, one-way glass is inherently very unsafe.
The lighting downstairs was dim at the time; if there were motion-sensor lights in the corridor, they would light up when they went up.
Then all the living beings below will see them.
The consequence is that they are no different from the beings on the cross.
After Lan Xiaoshuang left.
Lin Cai slowly slid to the ground, curled up, and tears slowly soaked her clothes.
There was a dark bubble on her head.
'How could you treat someone like this... It's not real, it must be a dream...'
Below the corridor, the revelry continued. Above, Lan Xiaoshuang and the others solemnly dismantled and analyzed the magic array in the corridor. Lin Cai huddled there, silent.
The drawing paper has reached the bottom.
Yan Shi turned the drawing paper back to the first page and remained silent for a long time.
On the first page, Lin Cai's smile remained radiant and passionate, overshadowing the large expanse of dark color below.
Yan Shi roughly understood where Lin Cai was in the third episode.
black market.
However, the black market depicted on paper is far larger than the real one, and the transactions within it are far more sordid, bloody, and cruel.
Yan Shi slowly clenched his fist.
This black market no longer exists.
She glanced at Lin Cai's smile on the drawing paper again, then walked to the table in front of her.
The fifth episode was on the table next to me.
On the cover, Lin Cai is seen running desperately amidst raging flames. The magnificent beams, the sparkling chandeliers inlaid with diamonds, and the exquisitely framed oil paintings along the corridor are all falling and plunging into the fire.
Flames surged and swirled around Lin Cai's clothes and hair. The ends of her orange hair curled up and turned a charred black.
It looked as if it was struggling to jump off the drawing paper.
Yan Shi stopped and turned to the words.
The opening scene is taken beneath the glass corridor we just saw.
There were no hosts or audience members left. The cross stood alone on the platform, a beam of light shining down from its top. The creature on the cross continued to twitch intermittently.
Lin Cai stood at the back of the auction hall, looking towards the central stage.
"Lin Cai? Lin Cai?" Lan Xiaoshuang called out to her from the doorway, "Something's happened up ahead. Let's go while security is lax."
Lin Cai's gaze remained silently fixed on the cross. "Lan Xiaoshuang," she said calmly, "you guys go first, I have some things to do. I'll catch up with you later."
Lan Xiaoshuang stopped in her tracks: "It's dangerous here."
Lin Cai: "I know."
"Be careful." Lan Xiaoshuang didn't try to persuade her any further. "I'll wait for you at the exit for ten minutes."
After Lan Xiaoshuang left, Lin Cai walked towards the central platform.
The person on the cross continued to twitch from time to time due to physical pain. Noticing the figure in front of her, she slowly looked up.
The drawing paper here gives her face a close-up.
Bloodstains were congealed on her forehead, and her stray hairs were disheveled. Yet her eyes remained bright and calm.
Like a still, calm lake.
Yan Shi stared at the painting in shock.
The person on the cross was so familiar that Yanshi couldn't help but recognize him.
It was the height of spring and autumn.
Lin Cai looked down and met Sheng Chunqiu's gaze.
Sheng Chunqiu asked in a hoarse voice, "A newcomer to the auction house?"
"This is not a good place. If possible, you should change jobs as soon as possible."
Lin Cai: "You can't even take care of yourself right now, and you still have time to worry about my future?"
Sheng Chunqiu chuckled softly, and with that laugh, her whole body trembled violently, and she spat out a mouthful of blood. "This is my duty."
"Everything is for the purpose of maintaining order."
"Is the order you maintain just so you get hung on the cross?" Lin Cai said slowly.
Sheng Chunqiu struggled to lift her head higher so she could see Lin Cai more clearly. As she moved, the scab broke open, and blood flowed down her cheek.
“I know what I should say,” Sheng Chunqiu said, “but there’s really nothing to say.”
"The victor is king, the loser is villain. This is my end."
Lin Cai suddenly bent down and poked at the exposed flesh inside Sheng Chunqiu's ribs, and Sheng Chunqiu groaned.
"Don't you hate it?" Lin Cai asked, her face expressionless, but tears were already rolling down her cheeks.
Sheng Chunqiu: "This is the other world." She said with relief, "I had already envisioned my future a long time ago."
Perhaps because he hadn't spoken in a long time, Sheng Chunqiu continued, "There are too many things to hate. When my dearest friend was having his bones extracted and melted down, I hated; when everything I stood for was shattered, I hated; when justice could not be served, I hated."
"But in the end, I realized that there was no one I could hate. All living beings were accomplices, and all living beings were also victims."
"I have no other way out."
Lin Cai forcefully wiped away her tears: "What do you mean there's no way out?"
"I'll take you away, I'll take you away from here."
Sheng Chunqiu shook his head: "You should leave. This place is far more complicated than you realize."
Her gaze was gentle yet firm. "Don't be afraid. After you exit through the back door, turn right and go straight ahead; that's the finish line. Keep running, and don't look back."
Lin Cai nodded heavily and ran forward.
Lan Xiaoshuang was waiting for her.
Countless people are waiting for her.
'I hope this place can be completely destroyed,' Lin Cai thought as she ran.
Are you sure you want to include this as part of a fairy tale?
High in the sky, a voice asked.
"Fairy tale?" Lin Cai laughed mockingly. "Hahahaha, this place is not a fairy tale at all."
As she laughed, tears welled up in her eyes. "I'm sure! I hope this place can be destroyed forever, completely."
"If this is part of a fairy tale."
As you wish.
As Lin Cai ran forward, the buildings behind her collapsed, and every piece of gold tile and jade fell to the ground and turned into dark powder.
On the drawing paper, Lin Cai serves as a dividing line, with rich, deep colors in front of her and contrasting black behind her.
Further ahead, Lan Xiaoshuang anxiously reached out her hand to Lin Cai, "Lin Cai, hurry! This place is about to collapse!"
Lin Cai stepped onto the stairs in front of her and leaped upwards. On the stairs, there were severed limbs and white bones.
The composition is strikingly similar to the oil painting in the corridor in front.
Lin Cai grasped Lan Xiaoshuang's hand.
The flames engulfed everything behind them.
Lin Cai, covered in dust and dirt, sat outside the ruins eating a biscuit.
Zhihe sighed, "It's over, the black market is gone. How are we going to explain our practical experience to our teacher?"
“Tell the old woman we’ve investigated the black market thoroughly. The only problem is, the question stem is gone.” Lan Xiaoshuang sighed as well. “The old woman won’t deny it, will she…?”
She put the biscuit in her mouth and snapped a few more photos of the ruins behind her, saying, "Let me take some pictures to prove it."
Lin Cai: "Shouldn't you get full marks for your practice if the black market is gone?"
“Of course not.” Jian Yun sat next to her, intently eating a cookie, and replied, “The practical exercise mainly tests a team’s ability to cooperate, explore information, and survive. The fact that the question stem is gone means that the black market itself wasn’t challenging enough. It means the question was made easier.”
“As we all know,” Lan Xiaoshuang continued after taking the photos, “the maximum score for easy questions is only 70 points. The minimum score for difficult questions is 60 points.”
“Luckily we chose a large black market, otherwise it would have been all for nothing.” Lan Xiaoshuang took a bite of her biscuit. “Let’s rest for half a day and then change the topic. According to intelligence, there is another large black market on the other side of the Giant Jaw Plain.”
Lin Cai gripped the biscuit bag tightly. "There's so much black market activity, and nobody cares?"
"What are you talking about?" Lan Xiaoshuang was amused. "Mind the black market? Who has nothing better to do than that?"
Lin Cai: "The Bureau of Extraterrestrial Affairs, isn't there a Bureau of Extraterrestrial Affairs? They handle illegal cross-dimensional travel, so they should also handle all security-related issues, right?"
"The Bureau of Foreign Affairs?" Lan Xiaoshuang took another sip of water and shoveled the biscuit down her throat. "Isn't the Bureau of Foreign Affairs one of the means by which each city controls its own territory?"
"They only manage what the city lord wants to manage. The black market, with its complex relationships and involvement in various places, is outside their jurisdiction."
“And in fact,” Lan Xiaoshuang shrugged, “the management of the Bureau of Dissidents is very subjective. It’s purely a violent institution used by the City Lord’s Mansion to maintain its rule.”
...
Yan Shi's gaze fell on "the violent institution of the City Lord's Mansion to maintain its rule," and he chuckled softly as he took out his phone from his pocket and snapped a picture of the sentence.
She roughly knew what this place was.
The "Curses of Laws" on the table are all descriptions of Lin Cai from the future, based on her timeline.
That's quite ironic.
Yan Shi slowly walked forward along the long table.
The comic book chapters on the table progressed slowly, and Lin Cai's expression on the cover became increasingly composed.
Her eyes slowly lost their radiant smile, and her face became expressionless.
As she walked further, Lin Cai's expression softened with a faint smile.
However, after only a few words, at the next table, the figure on the cover was not Lin Cai, but a woman with black hair.
The woman's hair was short, casually tied back with a hair tie. She sat on the rooftop of a dilapidated building, one leg propped up, the other dangling, her face resting against her protruding leg, stray hairs falling onto it. Her eyes were languid, not looking at the camera, but rather gazing lazily into the distance.
Behind her, the setting sun was perfect, incredibly romantic.
Yan Shi looked at this page with a sense of unfamiliarity.
The woman's features were familiar to her; she saw herself in the mirror every morning when she woke up.
However, the drawing of Yan Shi on this page is exceptionally casual and freehand.
Yan Shi expressionlessly took out his phone again, opened the scanning software, carefully took a picture of himself, added it to his favorites, and then put his phone away with satisfaction.
Nice drawing. New screensaver.
Just as Yan Shi was about to turn the page to see what the vague details of Lin Caiyu's future would be like, a shout suddenly came from not far behind her.
"Lanlan! Don't look! Don't look!"
Yan Shi looked back and saw that the door to the main hall, which had been tightly closed, had been pushed open a crack from the outside.
The sound came from the gap.
Yan Shi: ?
She couldn't help but look at the tightly closed door.
The doors to the main hall were very tall, carrying an aura of silent desolation.
Compared to the main hall's doors, Yan Shi below looked like a chess piece.
At that moment, the tightly closed door was forcefully pushed open from the outside.
Yan Shi clenched the drawing paper in his hand.
"Lanlan, please don't look back. Please." Her voice was already choked with sobs. "There's nothing to see."
"They're all fake."
Author's Note: This part of the plot was seriously stuck, so I've revised it and added 1300 words of new content. There will be an update today.
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