Please make a wish (end of volume 3)
Something was repeating itself. But it seemed different from any of my past experiences, and I had no reference to it.
This is a situation that is difficult to describe in words, because I was literally talking non-stop just now, hoping to use inferences to break some kind of uncomfortable deadlock.
But in fact, when I pushed the chocolate to my lips and accidentally touched them, I realized:
My vocal cords did not vibrate, I made no sound, and when Zhang Tianyi stopped talking, there was deathly silence all around.
But, but, even so, my lips were still moving at a very high frequency without any pause in between.
The movement is very stable, like a typewriter that has been set up so that each click will produce an even clicking sound.
When people speak, they have tone and emotion, punctuation and pauses, and overflowing and cadence. The opening and closing of lips should not be like this.
Besides, I have stopped talking at this moment.
But the flapping movement is still going on steadily.
For a moment, it wasn't even fear, but some kind of unspeakable solemnity that made me lose my logical judgment ability.
At this moment, it was only my body's instinctive reaction that made me put my finger on my lips again and start counting, comparing it with my pounding heartbeat.
There was a slight sound of water moving, and Zhang Tianyi pushed me backwards.
I was startled and found myself leaning against something cold and solid metal. I instinctively reached forward to grab it, but he let go and stepped back.
The lake and the darkness magnified my defenseless anxiety countless times. My breathing quickened.
"Your car," Zhang Tianyi said, "is just a piece of steel in the lake. Just hold on. It won't sink that fast."
I looked blankly in his direction and heard the sound of water gradually moving away from me.
It seemed that I should call him and stop him at this time, but I also knew that he had already gone into the water to save someone again.
It only left a huge unknown mystery, which shocked me, but before that it interrupted me repeatedly, making me afraid of thinking and language.
For the next half hour, there was only the intermittent sound of water splashing, the dull coughing of people after taking a breath, and the vomiting sound after being pressed;
And Zhang Tianyi occasionally swam past me and would stop for a moment, as if observing my condition. Sometimes this annoying brother would pat me like a retriever reporting on the progress of a mission, give me a new chocolate, and then swim away again.
I could only sit on the top of the carriage, holding on to the wet metal surfaces in vain. The darkness magnified my perception, and all the sounds around me, including the whistle of the wind blowing through the banyan tree, became extremely loud and noisy. This left me with almost no space to think.
Well, don't think about it, don't think about it, I said to myself, controlling my surging emotions.
At least at this moment, since I really have no way to do anything or react, I can only try to let go of everything and just wait for a result.
In my arms, the wet tabby cat rubbed against me affectionately and purred.
I subconsciously touched the cat and found that the only thing I could do was to sit there and pet the cat.
After a series of events, this is actually my most leisurely moment, except for the rest time I had recently when I was hiding in the shade to bask in the sun and arguing with the team leader.
No, even when I was basking in the sun, someone would occasionally report to me on the progress of their exploration of the valley, and I would often think about the clues that might be contained therein.
Only now, my thoughts are random and without any order, and my mind is empty.
I could only vaguely feel that Zhang Tianyi seemed to be using this method of "physical isolation" to force me to stop in all aspects.
This makes me want to laugh.
I once told him not to knock me out because I was afraid I would drown, and now he has really considered not doing that. From this point of view, Zhang Tianyi, the bastard brother, actually agreed to my request.
After a while, I was basically familiar with the sound of the wind around me, and even began to hear the turbulence of the tiny undercurrent below.
Zhang Tianyi swam to me again.
I have calmed down: "The rescue is over."
"Yeah, they're all hanging out."
Although I couldn't see it, for no reason, I felt that he was smiling and waiting for me to make a reaction that he had been waiting for a long time.
"I promised you, choose one out of three, I promised to only give you the truth."
"yes."
"...but I made the wrong choice." I sighed, and then I felt helpless. At this moment, another chocolate was put into my hand, and I put it in my mouth, letting it melt slowly.
"Xu Ranxing can ask for the truth, but the [tour guide] can't," I said, feeling everything gradually becoming clear, making me realize what kind of trap I was walking into, from which there would be no escape.
And Zhang Tianyi, my brother, stood on the edge of the cliff, staring at me.
I took a deep breath, reached out, and grabbed his wet arm tightly in the dark.
"Whether it's the banyan tree or the comb jellyfish, the two huge overlaps in these sixteen years both revolve around tour guides and tourists. The more I thought about it, the more I tried to get closer to the essence of the two strange stories, the more I became obsessed with their bizarre and terrifying scenery. I... I forgot about my [tourists]."
It is very difficult for people to overcome their own nature, and so am I. No matter how much I was advised and warned, I should not look at it or think about it.
It was me who brought everyone from the pit to the valley. I am the tour guide for this journey.
I had totally failed in my duties.
Just sixteen years ago, the original tour guide, the one sitting on the sofa, also brought tourists to the B&B.
But a sudden storm killed its visitors, and it was no longer possible for it to perform its functions.
When I arrived at the B&B with my group, the floating corpse on the ivy that was living on the banyan tree made us fall into a panic hallucination.
The tour guide who was captured by the comb jellyfish stared at me with his empty eyes through the air vent and the accumulated water.
"The banyan tree is waiting for us to make a wish. What is it waiting for?" I said, with a somewhat incredible answer in my mind. All its actions unfolded in front of me one by one, and they were so simple.
“A group of tourists who were separated from the main group arrived at the B&B, received a travel brochure, but could not enter the room.
So the tour guide… the tour guide got up from the sofa where he was resting, came to the only passable "door" and greeted us. He wanted to continue his unfinished duties.
If we fight in the hallucination and try to escape, and destroy the air vent, the barrier between us will be broken. Then... the tour guide will lead us on the way to the dying. Lead us into the homestay, into the water, and into the beautiful scenery of the fairyland of the goddess. "
Picture of a woman opening the door.
How come I only understand it now?
In the ignorant game between the banyan tree and the comb jellyfish, the comb jellyfish plays the role of "tour guide".
Therefore, the goddess stuck half of her swollen and pale limbs out of the bluestone, pushed open the door, waved to the tourists who were willing to embark on the journey, and led the tourists into its pavilions and terraces, murmuring constantly and telling the tourists about the scenery along the way.
The duty of the Goddess is to lead people, to lead the living to the fairyland, or to lead the dead back to the human world.
Goddess, no, the [Guide] had no ill intentions. She was indeed full of compassion.
But the code of compassion that comes from ghost stories has nothing to do with morality as understood by humans.
Eight years ago, the female tour guide did the same thing, with the same good intentions, leading the tourists to an absolute dead end. And with no ill intentions, in order to protect us, she led us, a group of new tourists, into the valley, opening a door across a thousand miles for us from the pit.
Now, eight years later, in order to prevent me from getting lost, Zhou Tingmao also endured great pain and told me all about his past journey. He showed me the passages hidden in caves and deep pools, and opened the door made of black hair in the lake.
Then to me.
I'm still replaying it all.
It was me who approached the banyan tree and the comb jellyfish, and introduced the "scenery" along the way in detail to the team leader, Yan Mo, Zhang Tianyi and all my guys who were connected with me through the walkie-talkie, depicting the originally vague and obscure horrific scene more and more clearly in front of them.
Moreover, when I left the main group and came to the lake eight years ago, at the same time, the team leader was carrying the travel brochure and the truth I told him, and rushed towards everyone without looking back.
In order to protect Rui Rui, to protect the guys, and for the heavy responsibility I entrusted to him, he would definitely tell everything. And Yan Mo got this information. As someone who experienced some of the events eight years ago, it was not difficult for him to get a glimpse of the whole picture of the past.
When he arrives, a new guide will be born again, who will further convert the remaining possible survivors into qualified tourists.
The initial closed loop was completed by humans and comb jellies together. Therefore, this eight-year time scale is not the comb jellies generously showing miracles to humans, but the other way around.
It is new groups of tour guides and tourists who come to this road, forming new closed loops with themselves, pushing the stream of time forward for the comb jellyfish so that they will not be trapped forever in the solidified eight years of the past and unable to move.
In this way, the comb jellyfish flashed and swam, and finally arrived today, sixteen years later.
"She" is so compassionate that she gives every [tour guide] enough freedom, allowing him/her to escape even for a short time, forget the horrible past, or remember every detail deeply, and tenderly open a door that everyone needs when the tour guide needs it.
It was as if people could get some special tolerance and concessions here. I even had the illusion that I could ask the comb jellyfish for help.
But the picture of a woman opening a door is, after all, a magnificent painting in the tomb of the deceased.
What was surging in the bluestone was always human blood.
It is a comb jellyfish, no different from a banyan tree, and similar to the white single eye in the Pit Moon Palace, except that it operates constant distorted rules indifferently and condescendingly.
Moreover, unlike the seemingly lush banyan tree, it is the ultimate winner.
Because at this moment, when I looked up at the huge, pale and swollen banyan tree, I realized that this was the end of the banyan tree.
The banyan tree is indeed strong. Eight years ago, the entire lake and even the soil of the entire valley were filled with the banyan tree's aerial roots.
Its power is boundless here.
The comb jellyfish made an all-round concession, turned into bluestone and dived away, leaving everything it had eight years ago to the banyan tree, and seemed to selflessly carry future rainwater to the banyan tree day and night, making it grow bigger and bigger.
However, the original lake water could accommodate sponges and comb jellies. But things became different when the sponges became too strong to climb out of the water, onto land, and gathered to form banyan trees.
It requires more water and more "wishes" to keep the banyan tree running.
The lake and valley could not support such an unprecedented growth of banyan trees.
So when we woke up eight years later, what we saw was a dried-up lake bed, rotting and dried-up parasitic roots, and sandy and petrified soil that had been completely drained away and no grass or trees could grow anymore.
Eight years later, the banyan tree had died.
Only the last gray banyan tree subspecies remained, which had degenerated into the weak sponge it was at the beginning and stopped at the ivy of the B&B.
Because only there is the last source of water.
But the homestay is filled with the lake water of sixteen years ago, with the first invincible goddess who descended upon the world, and on the sofa sits the first tour guide who led the way.
This is a deadly trap.
In fact, it was I who personally interrupted the banyan tree's final struggle, pulled out its only remaining body, and watched it rot and die.
From then on, the banyan tree could only flourish forever in the "eight years later" of the comb jellyfish's past, and could never reach the future.
And every future is a closed loop formed by the banyan tree trying to parasitize tourists, causing riots, and triggering tourists to survive;
It is a banyan tree that is about to sprout but is immediately interrupted by a comb jellyfish that takes away its water;
It was the new tour guide who brought the tourists who trusted him to the silent B&B, which naturally lured its only remaining offspring to appear and attempt to prey on the tourists, before being killed by the new tour guide.
This banyan tree, which operates through traps and wishes, has taken deep roots and cannot return to the state of a sponge or retreat back into the lake. It is also sleeping in the same beautiful dream of the past where the comb jellyfish provided whatever it wanted.
The eternal balance between the banyan tree and the comb jellyfish is maintained by the comb jellyfish dividing the past and the future into two, at the expense of the past. This balance is very much needed by both the comb jellyfish and the banyan tree, and neither will break it.
And we, faced with the strange stories that are running at both ends of time, are still willing to think about them.
"...comb jellies are different from jellyfish. Biologically, comb jellies have brains."
I whispered, shuddering at this "good" ending that I had personally walked to the end:
"And here, the brain of the comb jellyfish comes from every tourist and tour guide who enters its operating rules. Including you and me."
How despairing, horrible and ridiculous.
——It was because of it that I saw clearly the essence of the banyan tree’s operation.
How to set up this deadly trap for comb jellyfish is what I have come up with based on my current thinking.
Right now, at this moment, as a [tour guide] and [goddess], I told the comb jellyfish what to do.
Sixteen years ago, the comb jellyfish began to flicker, faithfully carrying out my instructions, providing me with all the clues I wanted, inspiring all the flashes of inspiration for me, and making wishes to me, its new host, with joy and trust.
And I have always responded.
In every closed loop that was originally vague, ambiguous and difficult to determine, I fulfilled its wishes, witnessed the occurrence of every node event, and guided it on the clearest path.
At this moment, I touched my lips again, which were moving silently.
It was indeed speaking, but it was not just me. It was all the people who were contaminated by me, who were gathered and connected by me.
As the brain that the comb jellies are fully supporting at this moment, all the comb jellies’ prayers come out of my mouth.
Because everyone is constantly whispering and there is no room for pause, the sound has become a steady, tapping movement.
There were too many voices, and they gathered together. The huge sound exceeded the limit of human hearing, and finally turned into a kind of silence.
Before my eyes, the future began to flicker.
The next eight years are about to begin.
"Xu Ranxing." Zhang Tianyi said, he put his hand on my throat, as if smiling, "I'll ask you again."
"——How much are you willing to pay to save someone from drowning?"
I suddenly realized and laughed in silence in the dark.
So this is what he meant when he asked me.
Now I have the answer.
For someone like me who can't swim, there is only one person I can save and sacrifice, and that is myself.
The most important closed loop, [I], can be severed.
As long as the closed loop fails, the comb jellyfish will have to roll back to the previous eight years with its banyan tree. The journey of these eight years will no longer exist.
In this way, I was able to save my companions who were drowned in the water step by step because of my trust in them.
This is the moment Zhang Tianyi has been waiting for.
Coming to this node and closed loop, listening to the comb jellyfish's wish, at this moment when the banyan tree's power is at its strongest, it must also follow the rules of the wishing mechanism and pay the price.
Now the comb jellyfish has no way to drive me away, having dived deep into its body and in its "thoughts".
In the darkness, I reached behind my head and touched, and sure enough, I touched the aerial roots of the banyan tree.
I couldn't help but laugh.
"I'm sorry, I don't really like the job of tour guide."
I said, everything before my eyes began to flicker and scream violently, and countless images in the eight-year scale flickered and collapsed. "Now, it's the turn of the weak and pitiful banyan tree friend to make a wish for me. After so much work in vain, I want to collect my reward."
The hand on the throat tightened suddenly without hesitation.
“Click.”
It doesn't hurt much, but the shadow of death is looming over me.
I heard the sound of some rules stagnating and the stream of time drying up and receding.
As the parasites of the banyan tree and the comb jellyfish tangled and withered in my body, I heard two invisible promises flickering in my consciousness, tempting me to reach out and grab them.
- Can people overcome the instinct of survival? Can they abandon hatred, arrogance and selfishness? Can they not pray to any gods in danger, fear and fatigue?
Two cold voices were whispering, an invisible scale was set up, with two completely different promises placed at both ends.
As one of the three animals on the altar, I heard the ghosts and gods declare:
One side said, may your wishes come true.
One side says longevity.
Are you kidding? I don’t want to choose the compensation at this time.
The point of confrontation is to force everyone into a dead end, at all costs, without any reasoning.
Now, I honestly say to myself that there is actually still a mystery that has not been solved: I want to know what will happen if the wish is fulfilled but the price is not paid and the rules cannot be implemented.
Ghost stories also have to abide by the rules that make them up, right?
I want to see it pay the price, I really want to. Like I said, I won't.
Who says I am an ancestor? I can’t control my curiosity about the truth and my desire to destroy as a naughty child.
"We're almost dead, why don't we do something cultured?" Zhang Tianyi's voice said casually in my ear with a smile.
Epitaph? Okay.
I laughed again and closed my eyes contentedly, allowing myself to fall into the unknown darkness in extreme weakness.
The cold lake water closed in from all directions in an instant, and I completely lost consciousness after my throat was broken, sinking deeper than even the comb jellies could reach. The green clothes of the goddess moved away from me.
"——Putting your head on the sharp blade is like cutting the spring breeze."
The person next to me said nonchalantly, his voice falling with me, becoming inaudible in the water. "It's like cutting through the spring breeze..."
(End of this volume)
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