Suddenly I realized (end with an inverted V)
In our world line, admittedly, no one was in trouble, and it seemed that I was lucky enough to get the "good ending" directly.
But Zhou Tingmao was not there.
When I found that Xu You could still be saved in the dried-up lake bed, I immediately went to look for Yan Jing'er with great joy, but I never saw him.
Reason tells me that the reason we can survive is because all the deaths are in the gestation and reset of the pit underground palace.
But this reset itself only starts from the moment we crawled into the pit tunnel. The health and life and death of all of us can only be traced back to the moment we crawled down the endless tunnel.
Therefore, although Xu You came here by chance, his alienated distortion did not change because he was in the camp above.
It was an extremely stingy favor from God that he allowed Xu You to escape from the shadow of the pit.
As for Glasses, maybe God was bullying the weak, he just happened to be bleeding to death in front of me in the camp. He revealed that he was not a "fetus" and was in a time other than reset, so no matter how many times this information will not be erased.
His body in the underground palace was alienated by the pit. Only a vague obsession drove his dead body to try its best to do something for us, which did not even give him the ability to communicate.
As our entire cycle was reset and we escaped, his death was forever frozen before this cruel miracle. Time rewound and he became a corpse again.
The female team doctor in the camp followed my initial instructions, cremated Yan Jing'er, and sent him back to his hometown.
This is also why, the "me" in another world line had such complicated emotions when I met him again in the bluestone, and then I deceived myself and chatted with him as much as possible.
Because I already knew that Zhou Tingmao was gone no matter what.
Perhaps there are some fragments of his words left in the strange stories he was once involved in, or maybe there was even a Zhou Tingmao who existed in the past, but his time was indeed completely stopped and interrupted.
At that time, I treated Zhou Tingmao in Qingshi as a "past image" and relied on Gao Liu's own calmness and tenacity, so I accepted the reality without being too sad.
Until this moment, the tourist continued tremblingly:
"He, he didn't come to seek revenge on me for some reason. Instead... Instead..."
Zhou Tingmao, with his limbs bent and his body bare, struggled in the water. Suddenly, the door made of black hair in the water flashed. He seemed to have seen something by accident and froze in his place.
Then, this ill-fated man saw something in the mirror formed by the rippling water, and he slowly relaxed.
He exhaled lightly, his expression changing from laughing to crying constantly, and finally he probably smiled, but the smile looked extremely ugly on that hideous face.
The tourist screamed, turned around and ran. Behind him, there was the sound of water movement, and a figure on all fours suddenly jumped over and smashed his head to the ground.
The strange face with small pieces of skin constantly falling off was pressed very close to him.
"What's your name?" The eerie voice, like frosted iron, asked cautiously, as if it had never scared anyone before and had no imposing manner, but it directly made the tourist terrified.
He burst into tears: "I...I..."
"Okay, Snail." Ni Zhongsui patted his face gently, as if he was very envious, and sighed worriedly.
"You know what? In my life, since the accident, I am the only one who is sober and not afraid now. Because I just ran out of that pit, and then I ran into evil again. I even mixed in with other hikers who were freeloading on a group tour to try to stabilize myself, but I ended up forgetting myself. Don't you think I'm unlucky?"
The snail man didn't understand anything and could only shake his head in despair.
The Devil in the Mud continued to smile bitterly, his expression constantly changing, and even for a moment, he became very similar to the relatives of the Snail Man.
"I may collapse again now. What Yan Touer said when he pushed the two of us out was right. This damn pit thing is not designed for humans.
If it wants something, it might be to get an individual like it. We are just little bugs that arrogantly entered its paradise, an insignificant byproduct. So, even if we survive and escape according to the rules, we will find that we are unable to bear the things that it invisibly bestows on its kind. "
Hearing this, my whole body was shaking, and a huge voice in my mind was shouting frantically: "Eight years ago, not today, this happened eight years ago!"
The snail man suddenly raised his head, and his expression became extremely similar to the strange tour guide. His entire demeanor and tone changed drastically, as if he had completely entered into the scene, and his voice was full of emotion.
"...Yes." The strange creature crouched down, staring at the man who had completely collapsed and was in a trance from time to time wanting to trust him, and said, "This is eight years ago."
No, no, the extreme horror shudder made me sweat profusely.
He was talking to me.
Zhou Tingmao, who had completely collapsed into a mud monster, was not talking to the snail man who had harmed him. He was talking to myself in another world line, eight years later, through this murderer!
"Advisor." He said, and smiled an unusually terrifying smile, this time it was very unfamiliar and awkward. "In the camp... I was too hasty at that time, I didn't apologize to you, nor did I say..."
"--Thanks."
My throat suddenly became blocked and I couldn't speak. The truth and the answer to the mystery didn't seem to matter anymore.
"You should have felt it. There seem to be two world lines and two directions of development here."
His dark eyes never moved away:
"But the years are different. This is eight years ago. This day eight years ago is the same as the day you are on. To be honest, I was scared when I first realized this. If it was Captain Yan, he would definitely not be so cowardly with me."
Yan Er was also cowardly that day when he rescued us. He and I were the most cowardly. I forced myself to smile and answered in a nonchalant manner, but I realized that Zhou Tingmao couldn't hear me.
Zhou Tingmao continued to "look" at me. He thought for a long time before he said to the snail man who had been completely bewitched by the mud monster and had calmed down:
"He has been parasitized by the banyan tree. I heard the sound of sprouting in his brain. He can't be saved. Maybe he can live for another twenty minutes."
"So, I will leave a reminder for you on the back of this dying little snail's hand, hoping that it can reach you with my thoughts.
However, there is an eight-year time barrier after all. Even if the flashing overlap is only for a moment, the snail will still be very slow and may miss something.
But when you see it, your brain must be better than mine, and you will understand it immediately. For those things I can't understand, I'll rely on you."
"It's weird, you know? I feel like I'm completely captured by this place. It gave me a wish to make my wish come true."
"There is another person, who was captured first. I don't know who that person is, but I can feel that he exists. He also has a wish that can be used."
"But we don't know how to use it, how to save the people we care about. We have been waiting, waiting for someone to not let it go to waste, and help us use this opportunity to make a wish."
"I feel like an endless earthworm now. No, it doesn't seem that disgusting. It's more like... a streamer. What's the name of the one that's wrapped around the arms of fairies in period dramas?"
He smiled shyly:
"In short, I can see all my own time and experiences, separated one by one, like links without a beginning or an end, and they keep flashing like stars. I can see this day eight years ago, this day eight years later, including the me in the future who is in the convoy with you, and the me in the camp."
"——So that's where I'll end up."
"I'm sorry, I have to tell you. I have never left here after being captured by the "Goddess". The Zhou Tingmao you saw later was just the last part of me that remained in normal time.
So don't be sad about my leaving, I am not him.
It... after he left, his brain might be even less effective. So I'm sorry for those self-righteous things that I thought I could help save people but kept messing up."
My vision suddenly blurred.
"But I still ask you to come and save me eight years ago, save us, and come here to get this opportunity to make a wish of 'whatever you wish for'. Please let the 'glasses' you know survive, and leave here alive, until we meet again eight years later, until Yan Tou'er and the deputy captain can finally get out of the pit today. This is the last closed loop."
He looked at me seriously. Although he was asking for help, his face was full of strong reluctance and desire. His speech speed was getting faster and faster:
“At least this one thing, a useless, selfish and cowardly person like me can definitely do well.
I'm not that great, but I know it! I can save them both. I'm not a fluke failure. I won't screw up again. Why can't someone like me do that?"
The last sentence was spoken very slowly, as if it were some uncertain hope and struggle.
I know he is convincing himself.
Because this person, when facing a desperate situation, left me a message saying that he would rather escape death in his dreams and sleep forever. If the final closed loop he mentioned really exists, then in order to achieve it, he must stay awake and walk to the end he knows. This decision must be very difficult for him.
After saying that, Zhou Tingmao's chest heaved violently. After a long pause, he finally pointed solemnly at the back of the snail man's hand, reminding me to look at it, as the most important information was in it.
"Go ahead, Advisor. I'm only on the mountainside here. Go straight to the top of the mountain and don't look back."
As if he heard something urging him repeatedly, he turned around and walked back to the inconspicuous deep pool.
Black hair floated in the water, and the door opened a tiny crack.
The old goddess in green clothes leaned out from there, opened the door to the fairyland, and stared at the monster in the mud in front of her with an extremely charming and loving look.
She lowered her head tolerantly and embraced the wanderer. Her layers of sleeves covered his deformed and embarrassing body. Her long black hair fell to hide his bloody face, leaving only his eyes that were still as dark and bright as those of normal people.
"——The immortal stroked my head, tied my hair... and granted me eternal life."
She and he spoke together, and the humming sounds melted and overlapped. Zhou Tingmao laughed happily, and suddenly sank into her chest, following her into the extremely deep and quiet lake.
“Pah.”
An extremely small sound but as loud as thunder suddenly woke me and everyone around me up.
The snail man looked at us blankly, in a trance, and then a faint black color appeared between his lips.
Zhou Tingmao was just like his name, he heard the countdown of time and death for this person.
“That tour company, they made a mistake.”
I suddenly said, feeling genuinely ridiculous:
"In order to get the only chance to make a wish and have it come true, they sacrificed so many lives. What on earth do they think they are worshipping? What are they researching? What are they connecting?"
The moment Zhou Tingmao told me that the world of heavy rain was eight years ago, I finally realized what a black humorous misunderstanding this was.
How blindly greedy and arrogant people are in the face of strange stories, they actually think they can profit from them and grab them at will.
But it was wrong, not one, but two.
What we actually have here is a huge weird story with two completely incompatible rules, each entrenched at a point in time, and now running against each other.
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