Cave
Nian Ziqing has personally demonstrated to me countless times what choices an arrogant and greedy gambler will make when faced with huge profits.
I knew he probably didn't completely believe me, but with my proposal and threat, he had no other choice in his current situation.
Because no matter how he boasted about his own importance, and repeatedly mentioned the tempting scene of the underground palace in the snowy mountains, I was only clear about one thing: only I, as a guide, could lead him out of this predicament. He asked me to do it.
Nian Ziqing obviously knew it too. He was silent for a while, then laughed shrilly: "How do I know if you will mislead me?"
I was too lazy to argue with him, so I said coldly, "Did you make a blood oath fall from the sky out of thin air? If you have the ability, why don't you just dismiss the strange story? I guess the blood oath is probably related to the banyan tree's wish-making mechanism."
"The banyan tree cannot create something out of nothing. It can only use existing things or developments to create a deformed wish fulfillment. Can something made out of thin air be used by the banyan tree mechanism? If the banyan tree does not even have this default identification ability, then you are just a waste."
Nian Ziqing's breathing became a little uneven after hearing my ruthless words. After a while, he said with a sinister smile: "This is also the knowledge of the Zhang family. The Zhang family knows so much..."
I really have no patience for him. Especially in his various behaviors, he seems to have an inexplicable contempt and fanatical yearning for the Zhang family, as if being a member of the Nian family is something shameful, and he wants to peel off that layer of skin and change his surname to Zhang immediately.
He interrupted:
"We don't need to do a real blood oath ceremony, right? In my experience, a banyan tree is as insidious as a ghost. If you just give it some verbal guidance with a similar intention, it should fall into the trap."
Nian Ziqing was forced to be quiet for a while, and seemed to be unable to bear it, so he changed the subject abruptly:
"We have to flee from here immediately. These hollow metal gas roots are themselves a kind of passage and vehicle, which can be diffracted all the way to the edge of the town."
diffraction?
My eyelids twitched; his choice of words was strange.
He didn't seem to realize that the words he used subconsciously were very uncommon, and he said anxiously, "This place is too close to the platform building, and high temperature and high pressure will come soon, and then it will be absolutely over."
"Those long men..."
"That's also a vehicle! Vehicles can't be destroyed!" Nian Ziqing was a little exasperated, "Are you going to leave or not? It's too late!"
The more anxious he was, the calmer I became. I said slowly, "People here are immortal. Why are you in such a hurry?"
In the darkness, Nian Ziqing shuddered visibly, his teeth chattering, and he didn't say anything more. I felt the stone shell under my feet moving slightly, as if Nian Ziqing had directly entered the fleshy carpet formed by the banyan tree's roots and swam out without looking back.
I was really surprised by his fear and panic.
I also walked forward quickly. The hollow tubes of those aerial roots were winding, but people walking in them could feel that every time the tubes were lowered to a certain level, the entire channel would obviously become hotter and softer, and then begin to rise up to avoid them.
As we walked, the layer of flesh under our feet seemed to have finally found traction and began to stretch forward. The young man's face was moving forward almost insanely underneath.
I realized later that it was not intentional, so I sighed and said, "You really are not even a human being now? Are you going to die?"
What responded to me was Nian Ziqing's loud cursing, but at this moment, his voice trembled and turned into horror that burst out.
"quick!"
"When night falls, everything except the houses and vehicles will be destroyed!"
"Not a human... Not a human..." He howled as if he suddenly remembered something, "Not even one!"
I don't know why my scalp also tingled and I quickened my pace. I felt that at this stage, he seemed to be exposing an extremely important core information due to the contamination and assimilation of the tour guide.
As if by some strange coincidence, we ran faster and faster in the pipe. The hollow tree roots became thinner as we went further out, and I had to crawl on all fours with my hands supporting my head and lower body to squeeze out a little breathing space for my chest.
It was not an illusion. The surroundings continued to become quieter. Occasionally, I could feel something solid under my feet or on my head for a moment, which was when I passed by a spherical rock.
These are definitely not things that can be created by human power. The only thing I can accept is that these strange spherical rocks already existed and were just being used.
Even in the increasingly narrow and cramped pipes, because of the unreasonable ups and downs and winding of those pipes, I gradually came up with an idea: all the mechanism designs are built around these spheres.
Maybe it's not that the platform building and this underground space are just located in the center of the town, but the other way around.
Because of the existence of this thing, there was such a vast expanse of abandoned land in front of the Snow Mountain Underground Palace, but a small town was built here, spreading outward around this central point that had been determined long ago.
But I walked past and touched those spheres, and apart from being hollow inside and having a layer of glaze on the outside that seemed to be naturally fired under high pressure and high temperature, they did not give me any other unusual visual sensations, nor did they make me feel dangerous.
I was still climbing forward. The passage was so narrow at this time that I was almost stuck in the spreading fleshy tree carpet. I accidentally touched Nian Ziqing's astonished face several times.
Putting aside the disgusting part, what made me feel familiar and creepy was the young man's expression.
He was so frightened.
That expression... I had also felt it on the head of driver Lao Zhao. It was a completely unexpected look of shock and despair. It was like something that was out of plan, and suddenly the sky and the earth collapsed, destroying all rational cognition.
But why is Nian Ziqing like this?
At this time, the aerial roots seemed to have reached the end. My palms, elbows and knees were almost all worn out and covered in blood. The burning pain was unbearable. Going further, there was no longer a gap that a human could pass through.
I'm not surprised, this is the passage that should be provided to the banyan tree. It's already very good to be able to walk so far and hide here.
The young man's face was still trying to squeeze in. I picked up my still hot cell phone and smashed it against his face like a brick. After several hits, he finally came to his senses with a scream.
"It's the end, then what?" I said, "There's no night here?"
Nian Ziqing seemed to be in a trance for a moment. I pushed him away with the mop handle and stuck him against the pipe wall as far away from me as possible. Then he said strangely, "No. There is no hole here... There is no hole here."
As he spoke, he slowly regained a trace of greed and eagerness. I just felt something moving nearby, as if it was trying to get closer: “As long as I can hide here until the next day... With so many vehicles, after entering the mountain, I can go as deep into the underground palace as possible.”
My heart skipped a beat and I thought to myself, this is bad. He is about to escape, but he is short-sighted again.
What did he suddenly realize midway through that made him overwhelmed by the temptation I had created for him with my lies? Did he suddenly feel that he could be alone?
No, that's not right. Whatever he had in mind, he couldn't have known it yet, or he would have attacked me directly.
Cave.
What does it mean to have no holes?
I silently recited in my mind, and my mind quickly flashed through all the information I had gathered after entering the underground. Also, the words that Nian Ziqing said unconsciously. When I mocked him for not being a human, he said in horror with enlightenment, "Nothing."
It's strange, but according to the information he has, people like us in this small town are not absolutely immortal.
What could it be? It's like a fog, and I feel like there are too many fragmented details that are difficult to piece together.
I subconsciously asked myself: What is the information gap between me and Nian Ziqing?
It shouldn't be some information that the Nian family left for their descendants. Those important core knowledge might not have been preserved, otherwise Nian Ziqing wouldn't have repeatedly misunderstood and done so many malicious and useless things.
That was after we separated.
After the bus went underground for unknown reasons, it was still daytime everywhere. Nian Ziqing and the driver Lao Zhao must have witnessed something while driving, which led to the shocking answers.
This answer made Nian Ziqing suddenly enlightened during his escape just now.
"...Is it a shadow?" I suddenly said, and the young man's approach suddenly froze.
He seemed to utter a few "ah" sounds, constantly resisting the guide's instinct to explain. I could almost imagine his ferocious expression at that moment.
That's right.
A very subtle sense of awe welled up in my heart, for the core rule that was truly hidden in this small town.
At this time, it succinctly and clearly governs all seemingly unrelated signs into a simple operating rule. It is almost fascinating to realize its looming existence.
I couldn't help but want to explain. My own reason told me that I should say it out loud: "The so-called immortality here, the abnormal definition of human beings, and the strange petrification and deathly silence... So that's how it is."
Nian Ziqing suddenly asked in a stern voice: "You know?"
He seemed unable to accept it, and said quickly, as if to interrupt me and stop me from continuing: "The Zhang family can't even know this! They, they can't possibly save this kind of information for you."
I shook my head. I still couldn't see anything around me, and I couldn't light a light source to demonstrate.
But I still said, "You are young, have you been to school? Have you heard of Plato?"
Nian Ziqing seemed to be caught off guard by a blow. He was stunned for a moment, and his voice rose and fell rapidly, unconsciously with a certain shame and humiliation: "...Yes, yes."
"Which one has? Have you ever been to school, or have you ever heard of Plato?"
He was stunned again and started cursing.
When I heard him call me a psychopath, I actually felt like laughing, so I continued, "Then you should know the Dongxue theory he proposed."
The so-called cave theory assumes that we are all trapped in a cave and tied up tightly. The only thing we can observe is a screen in front of us. Behind the screen, there is a light source formed by a fire, and someone walks by with tools, casting a shadow.
The people in the cave can only see the strange shadows in the firelight, and they will regard this as the true appearance of the world.
I thought, if there is a light coming from the front and shining on us at the same time, the shadows will overlap.
At this moment, if people outside this metal pipe could somehow see our overlapping shadows, they would think that this was a monster with two faces, one of which was hanging in the air.
What if there are more people... for example, more than ten or dozens of guys, and they all walk around in front of the fire at the same time, and the light from all around casts all their shadows together?
Observers will notice a huge fused humanoid figure with many arms, legs, and heads. This figure is changing and shaking in the light and wind, and its shape is constantly changing. Even each face can maintain its own consciousness and can have a conversation.
To the observer, the scene was both horrifying and incomprehensible.
At this moment, he might be frightened and try to fight back against the alien. However, when his weapon passed by, it would alarm the jumping fire ears and surging air currents, and at most it would change the outline of the light and shadow slightly, but would not be able to harm the shadow itself.
This would cause the person to shout in fear: "These monsters are immortal!"
The more people walked into the cave and approached the blazing fire that never went out, the more people would be "swallowed" and "assimilated" into the deformed giant human body.
Observers come to the conclusion that people lose their correct cognition, are actively confused, and are immersed in human form.
As the crowd continues to move, at a certain moment, the observer will find with horror that the faces and limbs of the people are actually scattered, moving independently, searching for new victims.
"——But the storm came, and the fire was slowly blown out by the strong wind, and the shadow became fainter and fainter. All I could observe and touch was the cold and hard screen."
I said, feeling strangely moved: "This is the meaning of night: once there is no light at all, the shadows will disappear, right? This world that exists only in the projection because of the cave will also gradually disappear."
Until tomorrow comes, when the fire, no, the moving sun or moon, hangs out again to shine, the shadow will reappear, still looking distorted, grotesque, and immortal, but extremely plain and in line with simple common sense.
The definition of human beings has not been distorted.
The fact that human consciousness always maintains its final clarity in the midst of distortion does not come from the special mercy shown by ghost stories.
All of this can also be explained by the reverse rules of moving the mouse.
If the darkness of the night is equal to the complete day, then the light will come from all directions and dominate every corner.
I stayed in the hospital for more than half a month not long ago. The principle of the shadowless lamp is this: in the light with no blind spots, the shadows will disappear, and people will also become blind and unable to recognize objects.
I have witnessed many bizarre and terrifying ghost stories, but I never thought that the rules of ghost stories could be so strange and yet so natural, simple and beautiful.
At this moment, I felt a sense of awe, just like the ignorant primitive man in the cave, peeking out of the cave, having countless childish fantasies about the natural light of the sky; but stopped in my tracks due to ignorant fear, and could only silently wait for the enlightenment of the sun and the moon.
It was at this moment that I realized how courageous it was for our ancestors to use their wisdom to build a small town in this dark world of cave science.
It is precisely when people step out of the cave that they can get rid of their shadows and the ignorant worship of the sun and the moon.
"...So, the Nian family's heritage has also experienced earlier discontinuities and misinterpretations." I said, with a strange sense of heaviness and relief, "It's not a tour guide. This place doesn't call for a 'tour guide'. It's a man-made embellishment and deliberate misleading."
In the darkness, Nian Ziqing slowly uttered a very hoarse and almost desperate question from his throat.
"What is needed here is a witch."
I said, "The goddess and the banyan tree both originated from this place. The Snow Mountain Underground Palace hopes to promote a shaman who will lead everyone to worship in ignorance from among the 'people'.
It is not the guide who leads the way, but the priest who leads the sacrifice into the mountain; it is not the tour guide who explains the scenery, but the shaman who teaches awe and fear to the blind fools, and teaches the false truths in the shadow world. "
But those who realize this have misinterpreted the correct answer like a shadow and completely hidden it.
Perhaps before this group of people, the town was really just an altar and a large cauldron filled with meat, which was used to provide food for imaginary gods and demons. The meat in the cauldron was cooked by the ever-active volcano below.
The gray snow fluttering in the sky may have been just ashes before our predecessors threw themselves into it.
It was man who overturned the cauldron, suppressed the fire, replaced the ashes with himself, and finally built a sailing boat.
Since then, talented people have supported each other and slowly tried to get out of the primitive cave.
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