No Wind【Overhaul】
I have no conclusion as to whether Ding Jiu's attempt was successful.
Because a paradox that is difficult to think about is that although the blood brought by his death has spread in large quantities and covered many old footprints on the rooftop, there are still many bloody footprints scattered in the corners and have not disappeared suddenly.
In order for so many double footprints to form, two impossible conditions are required:
First, the dead Ding Jiu somehow continued to wander around the rooftop until it was full.
Second, after I had witnessed the beginning and end of this chain of death, I still followed Ding Jiu's footsteps for some reason in the future, and the guys around me did not try to stop me.
To accomplish these two points, the more terrifying possibility I can think of than the vague theories of ghosts and gods is that someone took away Ding Jiu's limbs and shoes afterwards, artificially created the remaining footprints, and used some means to drive me crazy and control me to obey orders in a daze.
The problem is, under the current situation, unless all my companions are killed, there is no way I will be left alone to suffer.
But to be honest, apart from the unreasonable rules, my guys are actually very difficult to kill.
Even if the whole army is wiped out, Zhang Tianyi can still survive and take me away with him. If we really reach the point of desperation, I would definitely rather kill myself and do everything I can to make the other party remember me. No one can use me to do anything disgusting.
...Unless they are like Lao Lin and Ding Jiu, who gave up resistance one by one for the sake of protection and were willing to choose death.
This is not completely without the possibility of manipulation. In the causal chain of death that has already occurred, there are strong bindings hidden deeply.
Only when the parties involved (the murderer and the deceased) are tempted to kill will they suddenly realize what fatal consequences an unintentional word or action of theirs in the past may bring.
This actually means that although we are numerous, we are invisibly isolated as individuals, forced to give up our original advantages and self-protection capabilities, and have no chance to ask for help or help each other. Everyone involved is deprived of the ability to think rationally at the moment of life and death.
It's very strange, as if something is maliciously guiding us to subconsciously regard self-destruction as the only solution.
I felt a strong sense of strangeness, as well as a deep-seated malice and insidiousness.
Something was using me as bait, trying to cut the people around me, making me the most innocent yet efficient executioner.
What is the purpose of that force?
Killing someone doesn't require such complicated tricks. If Ding Jiu didn't save me and let me get into trouble, it would essentially make no difference to the ghost story. Whoever dies doesn't die. My life is not more valuable than anyone else's.
Does it want to torture me? Drive me crazy with guilt? Does it have a special grudge against me? But rules are impersonal.
No, that's not right.
I tried to imagine a cruel and vicious mastermind who had a long-standing grudge against me, and attempted to draw a portrait of him.
But the "persecution delusion" in my intuition just couldn't work. Instead, there was a voice in my subconscious mind vaguely saying that the death reversal was not directed at me, or even at any of us.
It's so weird. The contradictory and counterintuitive conclusion makes me want to vomit blood.
Seeing that I remained silent for a long time, a guy came over and gently touched the back of my hand, "Advisor, it's getting dark, let's go outside and find an open area to set up camp."
In some strange tacit understanding, no one asked me what I had figured out. I hesitated for a moment, wondering whether I should give them an early warning or just brush it off to avoid reminding them too much of their "self-sacrifice" that would only quench their thirst with poison.
Wu Chou, on the other hand, didn't think too much about it. He asked me honestly with a bitter face, "Now that we're gone, do we need to relock the rooftop iron door? Let me tell you, I can only pry it open, I can't fix it."
Zhang Jia came over and unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and was about to stuff it into my hand. He was a little confused by what Wu Chou said and angrily said, "What time is it, and you are still meddling in this?"
Wu Chou was also stunned, and cried out in grievance: "I don't know how to do anything else. If I don't worry about this, what else can I do?"
I was actually quite envious of his personality that was so focused on picking the lock. For a moment, my mouth was full of the strange taste of apple cider vinegar, which was so thirst-quenching that it was a bit too much. I handed him the mineral water and asked him if he wanted to drink it.
Wu Chou shook his head like a rattle, looked around, and simply stuffed the water back into Zhang Jia's hand, saying cautiously: "I won't take the water from my ancestors, or I will repay you with a spring of water later, which will be a great loss."
Seeing the transparent bottle of mineral water being tossed back and forth in the hands of the three of us, Xu You on the side was not polite. The old guy squeezed in angrily and took the mineral water away with his hand.
He groaned before he drank it, and it seemed like he was being suspicious: "Why isn't it icy? How could it thaw so quickly?"
Zhang Jia was stunned. "Boss, there's no need to do this just to grab some water, right?"
Although he said it unintentionally, I was startled for no reason and looked at Xu You's hands.
"Did you get the water from the RV?" Zhang Tianyi asked suddenly.
Wu Chou and Zhang Jia obviously didn't understand what was going on, but they nodded their heads vigorously reflexively.
Yes, after what happened to Xiaoyu and the other two, most of them now dare not touch the supplies left by the tenants in the community, nor will they use drinking water that may be indirectly contaminated by the corpses in the wall.
"There's a small refrigerator in the RV. I prepared a full fridge before we set off." Zhang Jia said subconsciously. He seemed to have noticed something. His expression became serious and his speech became fast. "I have always been in charge of the food and water for the consultants myself. I won't let others tamper with it."
I pressed his shoulder and whispered "Brother Xiao Yi" to tell him not to be too nervous. "It's not that there's something wrong with you. Don't learn Xu You's feudal old-fashioned way. Do you really think you're a life-saving lackey?"
I reached out to grab the mineral water bottle. The outer wall was completely dry, and there seemed to be nothing unusual when I shook it in my hand. However, just as Xu You said, the mineral water that had just been taken out of the car refrigerator was no longer cold.
I thought about it and asked Zhang Jia, and he brought this water just before we went upstairs this time, because he saw that I was still coughing and was worried that my throat could not take it.
It was a cool day, so it didn't take us too much time to open the doors one floor at a time and go up. Normally, the ice water shouldn't thaw that quickly.
It doesn't make any sense, but this small, unreasonable change gave me a very subtle sense of déjà vu.
I touched Zhang Jia's jacket pocket and it was wet. He had been carrying ice water, so the water droplets on the outside of the mineral water bottle must have accidentally rubbed against it.
“It was still cold when I took those two steps,” I said in a daze, “but someone took away the temperature just before and after… This scene looks so familiar.”
Before he could finish his words, everyone's eyes tightened and suddenly focused on Xu You, and his face turned green on the spot.
To comfort me before going upstairs, he had just heated a cup of apple cider vinegar for me, and his other arm was still cold from the heat dissipation.
"Uncle, your fake superpower, as I remember, is based on the transfer of heat, right? It can heat, but from another perspective, it can also remove ice?"
"...You mean," Xu You pointed at himself and said strangely, "I'm about to change my job to a milk tea shop clerk? I want to change it to 50% sugar for you without ice?"
Even though I was feeling extremely heavy-hearted at the moment, I was so upset by what he said that I had no choice but to yell at him to get lost. I told him to reflect on his sinister and cunning character and wonder under what circumstances in the "future" he would commit suicide over a bottle of ice mineral water.
However, I have to admit that this is indeed a very difficult picture to imagine.
Under what circumstances would Xu You deliberately use his ability to change the state of a bottle of mineral water? Could it be that he was trying to give a targeted warning?
Zhang Tianyi and I looked at each other and both came up with some very strange assumptions.
It sounds like... as if at some point later on, we were trying to create an inverted chain of causality ourselves, one that was transparent, simple, and harmless.
Is it? Is this a sign, a sign of going back to the cause and effect and swimming upstream?
The strong smell of blood was still all around. Looking at the guys on the rooftop, they were all a little frightened by this sudden situation. Even Fang Ao, the most talkative one, was hunched in the corner.
I suddenly felt a rebellious desire to get to the bottom of things. I touched my back with my backhand and asked suspiciously, "Why don't you just stick a piece of white paper on my back and write some key information? If the metaphor that originally only existed in our discussion is revealed, I will not be able to ignore it."
Being able to project information into the past, even if it succeeds only once, is equivalent to letting us predict the future. Isn't our current predicament that we have no way to take precautions after the cause and effect are reversed, and we can only put out fires on the spot? If there is really a one in ten thousand chance of operation, I would definitely not be willing to waste it on playing dumb and torturing mineral water.
No matter how you think about it, this doesn't make sense.
"Then maybe the focus is not on the temperature and the mineral water itself."
Xu You suddenly said, his face not looking good, and he met my gaze solemnly.
"Maybe... all I want is an anomaly that can be discovered immediately. And it can be immediately associated with me, not some other weird thing, so as not to cause any misunderstanding or panic."
I was stunned, thinking that Xu You's idea was not impossible. After all, it was a trick he created at some point in the future, so we still have to respect his own train of thought.
Maybe, as he said, this is actually a three-dimensional barrage of "high energy ahead"; I shouldn't dwell on specific things, but think about what things or changes at this moment require my immediate attention and vigilance. Bricks might fall from the sky later, and Xu You's instructions are for us to get out of the way quickly to avoid getting into trouble.
After reaching this conclusion, all of us present breathed a sigh of relief.
Compared with the various unpredictable and bizarre changes we encountered today, this obvious "crow's mouth" can be considered kind and touching.
We just didn't know what the crisis that was about to come was, so we took a deep breath and adjusted our formation. Xu You grabbed me by the collar and threw me into the guys' protective circle that was like an onion.
Surrounded by the crowd, I couldn't help feeling a little nervous. I saw Xu You calling Zhang Tianyi and wanted to discuss with him about going to both sides of the team to stand guard.
It was at this moment, seeing Zhang Tianyi and Xu You turning around and talking, I don't know why, I was a little distracted.
...It seems like something is still weird.
In the final analysis, it still comes down to the same old question: why go to all the trouble of using your supernatural powers? If you have the time, wouldn't it be better to just write me a detailed and concise strategy note of a few hundred words and put it in your pocket?
Unless, my heart skipped a beat, my back felt cold, and a thought flashed through my mind like lightning.
Unless Xu You wants to convey a message to me that can only be understood by me alone. It's not that he doesn't want to be straightforward, it's that he can't.
The people around me can't be trusted, and it's just such a simple thing he wants to tell me.
Damn, why did this old guy seem to be winking at me just now?
One second, two seconds, I was surprised at my sudden awakening and calmness. I looked at Xu You who suddenly turned his head and looked at me, without showing any abnormality.
"——In fact, there is a very simple answer that can also explain the current situation."
At this time, Zhang Tianyi said leisurely, stepped to my side, and put his hand on my shoulder:
"Just now, when the two of us were alone on the rooftop looking at the bloody footprints, everyone's attention was on us. Xu You could easily do something to the mineral water in Zhang Jia's pocket. Zhang Jia was brought up by him, so he wouldn't be on guard against him at all."
"In this way, as long as he cooperates with everyone and acts surprised and ignorant, he can mislead us into thinking in a mysterious way, thinking that this is really something he did at some point in the future, and it was transmitted back through the inverted rules of cause and effect."
He smiled and said, "Why are you trying to make false claims and tell tales? Captain Xu, this is not very kind of you."
Xu You raised his eyelids, his face twitched slightly stiffly, and he stared gloomily at Zhang Tianyi's hand on my shoulder.
This guy moved so fast that I didn't have time to react at all. I wonder how he got around Xu You who was standing between us, and I was already under his control.
I was like this too, and the guys around me who were still on guard around the rooftop were even more confused. Wu Chou let out a confused cry and asked in surprise, "Advisor? Brother Zhang?" He seemed to be at a loss.
I felt mixed emotions and cursed him in my heart, "You bastard!" and couldn't help but sigh.
"Brother, you are lying to me again. Will you ever stop fooling this stupid boy?"
I said, no wonder the awkwardness caused by emotional dislocation disappeared from some point in time, and I could call him by his name naturally again and again, "...You are my brother, not Zhang Tianyi."
"I should have noticed it earlier. During the confrontation in the hospital, you recalled too many childhood memories that only you knew. I was tricked by Huang Yazi using the same trick just now, so how could I not be prepared for you to do it again?"
So the reason why he was often absent-minded and silent these days was probably because Sanyi, this bastard who never came home all day, really wasn't familiar with how I and my cheap brother Zhang Tianyi got along.
But they do have the same face, and to some extent, they are the same person. After all, they have been with me for more than ten years and are related by blood, so it is really difficult to tell the difference.
"It was him who promised you that he would not lie, not me." After I revealed the last bit of the window paper, the smile on Sanyi's face completely disappeared.
Perhaps out of inertia, this time he didn't have such a strong sense of boredom and fatigue. Instead, there was still some remnant of the demeanor he imitated from Zhang Tianyi. At this moment, the strange and inhuman feeling made me feel almost numb as if I was electrocuted for an instant.
Damn it, I had planned everything, but I didn't expect that I would always seek security next to him, a master, like a conjoined twin. Even Xu You, the old fox, couldn't find a chance to completely pull me away. It's hard to say whether this is a kind of black humor.
The distance between us was too close, there was no way to escape. I stepped back reflexively, and he held my shoulders tightly, a creepy cold temperature pressed against my bruised throat.
I understood what he meant, and my heart sank completely, knowing that if I dared to resist, he would not hold back. With his skills, it would be easy for him to crush my throat before anyone could react.
"Compared to this," he tilted his head to look at Xu You who was approaching him in a flash, and slightly exerted force on his hand. Xu You immediately stopped, gave up the opportunity for close combat without hesitation, raised his hands high and stepped back.
The guys who had gathered around also retreated, standing still ten steps away, and instantly fell into heavy silence.
Sanyi continued, "At the hospital, we both set up a trap to trick Huang Yazi, and attacking me was just a formality...Xu You, you and Yan Mo wanted to turn the fake into real and take the opportunity to kill me, right? You were too murderous."
"Today, taking advantage of the old man's incident, you found an opportunity to fight me in front of the RV to test my strength. You hit me so hard, it's not to decide the winner, it's to decide life or death."
"Did you intend to attack Zhang Tianyi, or did you suspect me from the beginning?"
Xu You was an old and shrewd man after all. He didn't answer Sanyi's question, but exchanged a quick glance with me.
"One question for another. Sanyi, what is the purpose of your trip?" I understood and said calmly, "He won't speak unless I nod."
Sanyi sneered immediately, "You seem to have not seen the situation clearly. Xu Ranxing, what can you bargain with me now?"
I shook my head. "You didn't lead me all the way here just to strangle me to death."
That being said, I didn't have any extravagant hopes of convincing him, nor did I feel so good about myself that I tried to use the emotional card to beg for mercy. Xu You and I had the same idea. Anyway, we could delay the conversation as long as possible. Only when I had the initiative in the topic would I have room to turn things around.
I just thought to myself that it's up to fate, and I steeled myself to hold the back of his hand that was still on my throat. I shuddered at his unusually cold body temperature. "Anyway, you'll have to tell me your purpose sooner or later, so why not trade it now?" My whole body tensed up, ready to get beaten.
Unexpectedly, Sanyi didn't get angry. He just looked at me for a while, his expression somewhat subtle: "...Is this all you want to ask?"
This question was incoherent and made me slightly stunned. All the emotions I had accumulated were gone. "Then what should I ask?"
As soon as they looked at each other, San Yi's eyes were cold.
The awkward silence lasted for two or three seconds, and then I was stunned and figured out what was going on. I couldn't help but feel a sense of absurdity.
Although this bastard is heartless and ungrateful, it doesn't stop him from accusing me of not caring enough about my other brother and not asking about his life or death immediately. This guy is so fickle and difficult to deal with, but how can I be in the mood to be a psychologist when so many people have died? I can't stand it anymore and I want to punch him.
"I know Zhang Tianyi is fine." There was no reason for this statement, and I myself felt confused, but this did not prevent me from being confident from the bottom of my heart. "You don't have to ask me why. The worst that can happen is that you put his body in front of me. It doesn't matter. I won't give up."
"So," I calmed myself and reiterated, "One question for another, who goes first?"
This time Sanyi was silent for a long time.
After a while, just when I was beginning to wonder if the negotiations had failed and I was going to be killed, I finally heard Sanyi say:
"Aren't you looking for the base camp of the wanderers? I told you before we set out that I know the place and I will take you to your destination. I also told you that the Waterless Land is right here. I have said all this nonsense once, isn't it? Otherwise, what do you think I am doing?"
The evening wind blew by at the right time, with a mournful sound. I, who had been actively complaining in my heart, stood there in a daze, my mind suddenly in a mess.
"Except for temporarily impersonating Zhang Tianyi, I have not done anything to hide or mislead you since you escaped and woke up for the second time in Zhang's hospital.
Sanyi didn't give me any time to buffer, and said coldly, "So, you and Xu You shouldn't have exposed me in the first place. Wouldn't it be better to be confused and solve the crisis together? It doesn't matter who is standing here now, 'Zhang Tianyi'."
Slow down, slow down, slow down, my mind is a mess. A voice shouted, "What's Sanyi doing? Is he like us, only knowing one side of the story?"
Oh my god, what on earth is he doing here? Is he just here to work for my family for nothing out of resentment? Are you kidding me?
"and you--"
"It should be time." He suddenly interrupted me, his expression was indescribably strange, "Answer the phone, and then I will tell you how to read and use the map that Huang Yazi left behind in your hands."
Telephone?
The next second, a sharp vibration sound exploded in my pocket.
My scalp went numb and I took a deep breath. Under Sanyi's gaze, I took out my cell phone and moved my fingers stiffly to the speakerphone.
Immediately afterwards, everyone's cell phone started to buzz and vibrate. The numbing series of sounds was like a swarm of dying bees, bringing an irresistible feeling of suffocation. It seemed that there was some extremely important news that had to be told to me immediately. After finding that I didn't answer the phone, they immediately called everyone who could contact me.
"——Advisor, Huang Yazi has been found."
Yan Mo's voice said sternly on the other end of the phone:
"Huang didn't leave the hospital. She didn't just run away right under our noses."
"It may sound strange to say this, but we found Huang's body in the hospital morgue."
These few short sentences were like a thunderclap, and the chill immediately spread all over my body from my heels to the ceiling, making my hands tremble with cold. "When did it happen? Who did it?" A bad premonition came to my mind.
No, it must not be what I think.
But the opposite happened:
"Yes, the body is very old, completely dehydrated and tanned. She definitely didn't die recently. It's very similar to the abnormal conditions you found in the community. Time was tight, so we only had time to do a simple autopsy. We found that she seemed to have fallen from a height and died. Some of her internal organs were ruptured and displaced, and she was bleeding heavily."
"But she looked very peaceful, as if she had crawled into the cubicle of the morgue and lay down by herself."
"—Look."
Without any warning, a photo popped up.
In the picture, the deceased had changed into a neat new set of clothes. The round-faced nurse who had received me before was gently stroking her overly young face with some reluctance. She must have just finished dressing her up.
The girl in the photo looks far from adulthood. She has a short buzz cut to disguise her age. Her hair looks prickly like weeds due to lack of care.
She closed her eyes and placed her hands neatly in front of her abdomen. Her frozen face seemed to be just asleep. But it could be seen that she was smiling, with a kind of tired relief.
This should be the second time I have seen a similar scene in my life. Even though many years have passed, the familiar feeling of fear immediately hit me.
My ears started to ring, and I was overwhelmed by great confusion and bewilderment. Almost subconsciously, I covered my aching right ear with force and glanced at Sanyi.
He ignored me, without any expression, and motioned for me to continue listening to the phone.
"That is to say... for at least half a year, our Zhang family has been dealing with a dead person."
Yan Mo said again:
"The bigger problem is that if we want to trace the origin of this corpse, it will be difficult to find a specific answer. In the past six months, the number of our fellows who died has dropped dramatically, and those who didn't come back were basically deformed beyond repair and buried in ghost stories. Therefore, the morgue has basically been vacant for a long time."
There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "Advisor, you should know why this is happening."
Yes, I know, because in terms of the time point, I was already involved at that time.
As fewer people died, the remains could not be brought back, so the morgue was naturally left unused, and no one would go out of their way to take a look. So the body of a half-grown child lay there alone, with no one noticing.
But, will such a thing happen?
My head suddenly hurts a little.
Someone had died before I entered these events, and lay quietly in the cold morgue until I found her when I reached the end after a long time had passed.
But in the brief encounter we had, she didn't even reveal the slightest bit of strange emotion.
I could never think that this person, who left me the key information about the waterless land and carefully calculated all her affairs, was unaware of her own death.
This is a victim who has personally experienced "reversed cause and effect" and was aware of his own death during his lifetime, and even accepted it calmly despite knowing it.
--Why?
"It's not just Huang Yazi."
Yan Mo sighed, "It's full of people. The morgue is full of dead people."
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