Flash
"Counselor? Where are you hiding?"
"--consultant?"
The midday sun made me drowsy.
The shouting in my ear became louder, and I opened my eyes sleepily. I saw a face that looked like a Tibetan fox calling me suspiciously in front of me.
I was stunned for two seconds before I realized that we had been out of the Pit Tales for two whole days.
Seeing that I woke up, Fang Ao stuffed lunch into my hands, moved the umbrella in front of my lounge chair, and went back to his work.
With the meal in hand, a lazy person like me of course continued to lie under the shade of the tree, coughing fakely from time to time to avoid being lazy, and received caring greetings from a crowd who knew the situation but indulged in it.
It may be strange to say, but when we woke up two days ago after escaping from the trap, we found ourselves in an unknown valley, and the scenery around us was extremely subtle and charming.
We were lying in a pit. In the lonely pit, there was only the carriage of my small grocery store lying sideways, and inside were all the guys.
I was lying on the iron sheet outside the carriage in a very weird position, like I was hatching an egg, and I almost got a stiff neck. When I went to open the store, I woke people up one by one and pulled them out. I really felt like I was hatching an egg and drawing cards.
Oh, that might be quite ambiguous, I mean a literal pitfall.
Gao Liu took a quick glance and concluded that this was a dried-up lake.
On the cracked lake bed, there were obvious traces of water flowing. There was also a huge banyan tree on the shore, its brown trunk was completely dehydrated and shriveled, and all its roots were withered and dead.
It is rare to see such a large banyan tree that requires several people to hug. I am afraid it must have grown for a hundred years. I can't help but feel sorry for it.
Team leader Zhang Jia said, "A banyan tree cannot accommodate people, and if the tree grows too big, people will die." This banyan tree grows in a valley that is closed on all sides, which means "trapped." It may not be a bad thing for it to die along with the drying up of the lake.
I was skeptical, thinking that "Rong" is the same as "Rong". For example, the Rongxing community where I used to live was actually originally named Rongxing. As a feng shui tree, a large potted banyan tree is also lush and leafy, so I don't see anything wrong with it.
Besides, the banyan tree is a species with extremely tenacious vitality. Unless all the leaves are cut off, the water source is cut off, and all the parasitic roots are dug out, it can take root even in the cracks of rocks and continue to dive deep underground.
Such a tenacious tree must have suffered from drought for who knows how many days in a row, with no replenishment of water in the lake and not a single drop of rain from the sky, which led to its end.
It tried so hard but still couldn't escape its fate and couldn't even wait for a storm. What's wrong with me feeling sorry for it?
Zhang Jia looked at me helplessly and said, "Okay, okay, okay, we are a big feudal dregs family. How dare a humble servant like him speak? Of course, I, the ancestor, have the final say."
I was very satisfied, so I let him go.
He looked at me with a mixture of laughter and tears, and pinched his fingers, as if he was itching to hit me and had the burden of being a "loyal servant".
Of course, I must point out that we were all exhausted after escaping the trap, and we couldn't even open our eyes to say a few more words. I did this kind of joking and argumentative thing once.
After that we set up camp and everyone was busy. I just acted like a mascot and waited obediently for the meal every day.
During this period, Yan Mo contacted the Zhang family and the accompanying helicopter.
After talking with them, I found out that our group had traveled thousands of miles and was now near the former capital of the Chu State, Yingdu, and had already reached Hubei, far away from the pits and dense forests.
The other people in the camp were still staying there obediently, but the tunnel that had been dug disappeared and no one was inspired anymore.
Since the pit was temporarily hidden, this trip was completely over. However, the communication was not stable, and we were still in an unclear situation after coming out of the ghost story. We were afraid that there might be some hidden dangers. After discussion, we decided to stay in the valley for two days and investigate everywhere to find out what was going on.
It must also be said here that Xu You's vitality was comparable to that of a banyan tree, and he managed to hold on and not die.
I don’t know if it was because I asked Jingjing to help push Xu You’s treatment box to the tunnel entrance that he was also affected. Anyway, when I opened the store door, Xu You also appeared in the corner of my grocery store, dying but still having a breath.
Therefore, yesterday evening, a guy named Zhang came over to pick up Xu You and took him away, saying that he was looking for a place to treat his injuries.
As for Yan Mo, his identity was rather awkward at the time, so he was tacitly handed over to me to be promoted as my deputy. The others just pretended to be deaf and dumb and their past was written off.
I thought to myself, isn't this a promotion in name only, don't I know that I'm a fake?
But I think it will be difficult for the Zhang family to deal with me now. Maybe because I have done real things and have improved my "resume", they plan to just vaguely admit it and wait to deal with it coldly later.
However, these are just my guesses after all. Before Xu You was picked up, I deliberately kept the guy named Zhang and asked him to take a walk and chat by the lake.
Xu You had to use special equipment to protect him and fix him, which really took time. The guy looked at me and said in a deep voice, "Okay."
The two of them came to the lake. I didn't know what was wrong with the guy. He was wrapped up tightly. I couldn't even see his eyes clearly. I couldn't help feeling a little nervous.
The man was quite tall and walked with big steps. He was surprisingly considerate. He even slowed down his pace and patiently walked with me around the dry lake bed for I don't know how many times, listening to me racking my brains to talk nonsense.
But when I asked him what his name was, he seemed to smile and didn't answer.
I was a little embarrassed, thinking that he seemed easy to talk to, why was he so distant? There was no need for that, you see, everyone respects me.
He stared at the lake bed, and after a while he asked me in a hoarse voice, "Have you ever seen it flash?"
I don't know why, but I always feel that he is very kind, but I can't really tell from my impression. I just feel that at least in recent years, I don't seem to have formal contact with him. At this time, I wonder what does flashing mean? I suspect that this person is suddenly playing with art.
He stood still, as if thinking. After a moment, he looked at me and said something that made me feel a little creepy.
He said: "Have you ever felt your memory jump extremely? It seems to be coherent, but countless details are missing. Suddenly you are from one place to another, and many things happen suddenly."
"It's as if these memories, although they belong to you, are incomplete and only flash intermittently before you."
I had just experienced two strange stories and I couldn't stand such metaphors, allusions and rhetorical questions. I stopped immediately, stared into his eyes and asked him what he said.
He pointed to the cracked lake bed and told me everything he knew. He started by asking me, "What would have happened if you woke up and the lake was still there?"
I took a quick look at the lake bed and saw that he really wanted to have a serious discussion with me. He had no intention of shirking responsibility, so I said seriously:
"Then we're going to drown. Although the team is full of veterans and most of them can swim, the most serious problem when they fall into the water in an instant is that their muscles are prone to cramps due to sudden hypothermia. If there are dense algae or aquatic plants in the water, coupled with choking, even those who are good at swimming will find it difficult to survive."
Oh, Gao Liu is still alive. Her physique is really enviable. I'm afraid that even if we all sink to the bottom, she will still be able to struggle to the shore and inherit our tragic legacy.
Brother Zhang nodded, not knowing that my thoughts had already flown eight hundred miles away, and asked again: "What if they don't drown in a short while? How many people are you willing to save?"
Me? I'm a landlubber who can only be rescued.
But I roughly understood what he meant. His question was actually asking me how much I was willing to pay to save people, and what level of sacrifice would make me "unwilling" to pay.
Since I am inevitably a hindrance in this difficult situation, I have to direct others to save people. But everyone's life is life, and I guess my bottom line is that I can't lose a life for this.
Speaking of this, I remembered how our group of people escaped from the pit and ran to this broken place, and my imagination ran wild.
"You mean, I flickered, too? Did I miss something?"
Strangely enough, we were able to talk peacefully about such a terrifying topic. Although the topic had gone off topic, I had a hunch that he was really talking to me about the core issue.
He also asked me if I had met any outsiders in the past two days.
I was stunned, thinking that the adults are really gods, and they really exist. On the first day, the guys we sent out for patrol encountered a group of people, who seemed to be a tour group. They said that this valley was their tourist attraction, and there were artificial landscapes carefully built by the tour group on the road.
It was the team leader who heard the news and went over. He said that the tour guide didn't seem to be lying, but this valley and the lake bed where we woke up were both of great importance, and there might be some aftermath, so he stopped the tour bus with all his might.
The tourists originally wanted to complain, but the only advantage of Xu You's caravan was that it was rich. As the designated team leader, Zhang Jia, calmly gave money to each tourist in turn on the spot.
Finally, the whole tour group left in high spirits.
Only the female tour guide was paid a large sum to stay as our temporary guide because she was familiar with the place, which gave her a second job.
After hearing what I said, Brother Zhang asked softly, "What would happen if they didn't run into you? For example, if you were at the bottom of the lake and hadn't come up yet?"
Why does this sound so unlucky?
But I kind of figured it out. He seemed to be telling me that different choices would lead to different results.
"So, the essence of flickering is that the original choice has changed? Of the other possible things that should have happened, only some common fragments remain? Are all the contradictory parts skipped?"
The more I thought about it, the more interesting it seemed, and I couldn't help but give it some further thought.
If that's the case, the metaphor of flickering is quite apt.
Just like when playing games, sometimes some specific plots will be saved separately by players.
If the game character suddenly saw the freeze-frame images of different branches in the save file at this moment, he would probably feel that his experience was flashing in a coherent and fragmented manner.
Having said that, the topic seems a bit vague.
I also felt that the man in front of me seemed unusual, and I began to doubt him. I always felt that he could not be just an ordinary Zhang's servant.
Bad ideas started to emerge in his mind, and he was thinking about how to find an opportunity to test his background and whether he could detain this man for another two days without delaying Xu You's treatment.
Probably because he saw my eyes moving around furtively, Brother Zhang felt a little headache, and he cooperated by raising his hands to show surrender, and said that he could also reload the game and make one of the three choices.
I immediately perked up and asked him what the hypothesis was this time and what I could choose.
He asked: "If you are in danger now, the people around you are missing, and the situation is full of mystery. At this time, you are given a lamp of Allah, and you can only make one wish, and this wish will come true. What would you say?"
I thought about it and wondered, "Help, what happened, and...who are you, Genie?"
Oh, I can only choose one, and I want the truth.
He nodded, seemingly not surprised, and was about to say something.
However, since it is just a hypothesis, why should I be so polite? I thought to myself that this person is still a little bit stupid and not brave enough.
"If I could control the little character in the game, I would complete it no matter which route I choose."
I interrupted him with a clear conscience and completely unreasonable words: "If the game character is trapped in a certain save file, he can only watch himself "flash" in vain. Then why can't I just go through all the save files? I can always meet up somewhere and rescue the person, right?"
Brother Zhang was stunned for a long time, then looked at me with a complicated expression.
When he looked at me like that, I felt inexplicably uncomfortable and suddenly felt that something was wrong.
When Yan Mo tried to hint at me, did he also wink and make eyes? This, is it impossible?
Have I stepped into another strange story by going out of the wolf's den and into the tiger's den? Can this strange story go through the A and B world lines according to my choice?
If I were a player, who would be the blinking little character trapped in the save file? Is this person facing the frozen images of different save files at the same time, feeling extremely confused, contradictory and puzzled?
What about Brother Zhang in front of me? Is he a player, or is he also flashing? Does he want me to find him in the save file?
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