Replay
In the faint sound of flowing water, I floated up and down, feeling itchy and numb all over and very weak.
I couldn't see anything in front of my eyes, but I could still feel a bright light shining in front of my eyelids.
“…”
I gradually regained consciousness and found myself back in the warm waters of the lake. The feeling of being unable to see was very familiar.
The difference is that I was luckier this time, and there was no wound on my forehead. I guess it was because I woke up earlier, which prevented me from being unlucky enough to drift with the current and hit debris in the water "two days later."
This time the extremely strong light before my eyes was not from a mining lamp, but rather from the natural light of the sky. There was a special freshness and clarity in the air that could not be ignored, a special feeling after the rain.
Based on the perceived brightness of the sky, I roughly estimated the exact time.
Since the storm had just passed, the tour guide and the others were dying in the collapsed cave, and the snail man had already attacked Yan Jinger.
If there is no external interference, the following things will happen in the next two days:
The tour guides gradually felt the sound of the parasitic seeds of the banyan tree germinating in their bodies and waiting to break out of their shells, and heard the chatter from the first group of tourists;
The tourists sixteen years ago were about to be drowned by a sudden storm chasing their prey, but they were still complaining to the creepers in ignorance;
Zhou Tingmao has recovered the memories of the Skinner and returned to the state of the Mud Demon. He instills information into the Snail Man and sinks into the pond.
Also, in this world, my guys are all immersed in the lake, with the banyan tree injecting parasitic tree species and foam into their chests. During this time, the thin banyan tree aerial roots in the water will replenish their oxygen and energy consumption, forming flesh and blood armor.
I couldn't help but hiss. Even though I knew all of this was bound to happen eight years ago, it seemed like it was intentional now. The timing was too terrible.
It seems that all tragedies can be changed with just a slight touch. The temptation that is within reach makes people's hearts move, and then they become anxious.
"Meow……"
As I was quickly recalling the sequence of events that would happen during this period, Dongzai suddenly jumped out of my backpack and was soaked by the lake water just like the backpack.
"——Okay, don't move for now."
The man holding my collar said in the water, and with his other hand he pushed the wet little fat cat back to my shoulder to prevent it from slipping down again.
"Which deity are you rushing to worship in such a hurry?"
My mind froze for three seconds before I came to my senses. There was no one else here, so I calmed down and greeted him, "...Brother."
Zhang Tianyi hummed indifferently, and Fushui seemed to be very relaxed, as if he was not holding a living person, but a feather, and smiled. "If you have something to say, just say it. However, you followed me out of the blue without even saying hello in advance. I didn't prepare any cookies this time."
“…”
I was speechless. I knew he was not joking, but I immediately felt my head starting to hurt.
I found that he was actually quite nice when he pretended to be unfamiliar with me in front of others. He looked like a master, quiet and efficient, not as unpredictable as he is now.
I was thinking about these critical time points, and I felt the light in front of me flicker slightly. He raised his hand and tried to gesture in front of my eyes. I looked up and waited for him to show me his magic again.
Actually, to be honest, the last time I lost my sight, what exactly blocked my vision, and why he cured me with just a touch of his hand, is still an unsolved mystery.
But this guy is more difficult to deal with than a ghost story. I can't figure out anything related to him at all. Just don't use your brain. I've gotten used to it and just let it go.
I was complaining in my heart, but he shook his hand again and said thoughtfully:
"You can't see?"
The tone was very sincere and didn't sound like a joke.
I was stunned and my heart skipped a beat.
He didn’t know? Then what about last time…?
How come there are still unsolved mysteries here? This question must have been clearly expressed on my face, which was very frustrating.
"Hey, of course."
At this moment, Zhang Tianyi suddenly said, "Don't think about why. Let me ask you a question."
"ah?"
I subconsciously said yes, a little anxiously.
At this critical moment, why didn't he ask me what was wrong with me, or ask me how I was going to save people?
"——Based on your past personality, you love to get to the bottom of things. Even if you can't discipline someone, you have to do something to make things difficult for them."
He said, as if smiling, which made me feel a little uncomfortable for no reason. "Why didn't you try to interrogate me after we met again?"
I was stunned. This question was so strange that I had never thought about it.
From a rational and logical point of view, I certainly have many reasons to understand and forgive him. From the various things that have happened along the way, it seems that there is no room for us to reminisce behind closed doors.
But now it's just the two of us, and we've known each other since childhood. After thinking about it, I had to admit that these are secondary and are not obstacles.
Because I don't seem to be a reasonable person. I am a living ancestor.
"Now I ask you, and ask you to find a way to force the question, what are you going to do?" he asked again.
What to do? I blurted out, find a random opportunity to kick him a few times. Find an opportunity to do something within my control and force him to beg me.
The key to confrontation is to first clearly measure your own value and importance. If both sides are forced into a dead end, someone will have to bow down first. I am already familiar with this kind of thing.
……strangeness.
I was stunned.
Zhang Tianyi's seemingly casual question is correct, so why don't I do it?
Confused, and a very strange, inexplicable uneasiness, very slight, but slowly crawling up my back.
I had a vague feeling of avoidance and felt that I shouldn't delve into this issue too deeply.
"Let's talk about the comb jellyfish and the banyan tree first," I forced a smile and changed the subject. "Those in the closed loop can't be saved, but those of us who didn't belong to the people eight years ago can just avoid the two-day parasitic incubation and leave the lake early to return to the right time point."
I paused, thought about it, and added:
"In two days, when the third storm comes, we can take the opportunity to go back. Anyway, I can't swim, so whether I can see or not doesn't really affect the overall situation. You can trouble yourself to fish a few guys out of the lake first. Once we wake a few of them up, we'll have more manpower and you won't have to keep going in the water. The main problem is how to fish Gao Liu out, but since we have a tour guide here..."
“—I don’t care about that.”
Zhang Tianyi said calmly, and then there was the sound of the wrapping paper being opened, and something was stuffed into my hand. I was confused for a moment and realized that it was chocolate.
"No cookies this time." He repeated again. I couldn't see his expression at this time, which made me feel uncomfortable. "Have some chocolate, or get it from your store."
I can no longer tell his emotions from his tone, I can only recall what he might look like now through my memory. But the only thing I can remember is that night, he, wearing a milky white and slightly yellowish water jacket, said nothing, and looked at me quietly in the water.
I shook my head and subconsciously held the chocolate in my hand. At this moment, my cold body temperature was not enough to melt the hard chocolate ball, but the increasingly strong uneasiness made me feel that I had to continue to infer something.
Is there anything I can think about? I seemed to urge myself, and then I breathed a sigh of relief:
Yes, I can’t see that this can actually be explained.
"Ctenophore," I said, smiling with some relief. "Look, comb jelly, didn't I tell you that comb jelly is invisible, but it can sense light. So, that's right. If I don't know when I was parasitized and assimilated by a comb jelly, it's reasonable to temporarily express the symptoms of a comb jelly."
"...Xu Ranxing."
"——Indeed, what we have observed before is the parasitism of the banyan tree, but it seems that we have no idea what the parasitism of the comb jellyfish is like, except for the small jellyfish on the back of the snail man's hand.
What it has shown so far are just hunting techniques, and the guide and the glasses have been completely fused with the comb jellyfish. Therefore, I actually don’t know the intermediate state and process of this parasitism.
So, if my vision is restored later, it's just that the comb jellyfish parasitism has reached a new stage and I am more adapted to its pollution. But unlike the banyan tree, the final host of the comb jellyfish currently looks more like an ordinary person... It's possible, right?"
"——Xu Ranxing." He interrupted me with a heavier tone.
I felt a little annoyed, so I stopped and stared at him in front of me, and suddenly I felt a surge of anger.
"You're shaking."
He said softly, and after a while, he rotated the hand that was holding me, as if he was taking off a coat and putting it on me.
The warmth brought by the thick jacket and the body temperature of the person remaining on it made me shiver again for no apparent reason.
Moreover, it turns out that Zhang Tianyi hasn't changed into water yet. Could it be that he found another set of equipment somewhere else two days later?
That's right, he once told me that his backpack was left in a grass nest on the shore.
This means that he may have brought me to the surface of the lake without my knowledge, and then Dongzai stayed on the tree to protect me from drowning. So it makes sense that Zhang Tianyi left alone to do something during those two days and prepared what he needed.
"...Xu Ranxing, don't you think you are abnormal?"
Zhang Tianyi said, completely ignoring my inferences and chatter. "Don't you realize that you have been scared all the time?"
It was like a momentary tinnitus.
My voice stopped and was stuck.
The unique slightly bitter fragrance of the chocolate in my hand reminded me of the moment in the convoy at the beginning. It seemed like I was eating chocolate non-stop and breaking out in a cold sweat without noticing.
It seemed that it was at that time that I discovered the man in the wall and heard Zhang Tianyi’s reminders and warnings to me for the first time.
At that time, he told me not to think about it, to have a good sleep, and everything would be fine.
However, things are different now. After so many things, we have finally achieved the final closure. Our top priority is to completely solve the problem and get out of trouble in time. What exactly does Zhang Tianyi want to say at this time?
Although I thought so, I couldn't help but squeeze the chocolate in my hand tightly and fumbled to put it into my mouth.
It was at this moment that I discovered something that I had never noticed before.
I actually kept mumbling to myself.
Yes, I just didn't make any sound, but at this moment, even though I couldn't see anything, I felt my lips moving constantly.
“…”
I muttered something.
Such a scene seemed to have happened before.
The seemingly plausible yet consistent picture made me realize that something very important was repeating itself.
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