Tianyi
Zhang Tianyi and I looked at each other for about ten seconds. Strangely, I didn't say a word during that time, and I didn't know what emotions were exploding in my heart at that moment.
But only one thought popped up in my mind and said, "Oh, so that's how it is."
In this bizarre world, behind all the seemingly mysterious and powerful things is a sadness that ordinary people can hardly understand.
When I was a child, my younger sister Pingping and I read a tattered picture book about a whale that was born alone. The frequency of this whale's vocalization was about 52 Hz, while the frequency of other normal whales was only 15-25 Hz.
This means that in the eyes of all its kind, this whale is dumb, the sounds it makes will not be heard or understood, and it can only hum alone forever in the vast and deep ocean.
At that time, I could not understand the horror behind this story. I just yearned for how magnificent it would be to dive alone without being disturbed.
Instead, Ping Ping was silent for a long time, touching the album. The young girl had become accustomed to silence because of her increasingly ill condition. After a while, she whispered in a resolute tone:
"If we cannot be heard, is there any need for such an alien to continue to exist?"
After a pause, her precocious black pupils reflected a calmness that I could not understand, as if she was asking someone: "Can humans prove that they exist?"
My smart and younger sister had already seen through and understood the horrific scene, but it took me more than 20 years to realize it today.
“There are many people in this world who, for different reasons, will at some point realize that they are different.”
Zhang Tianyi looked me in the eye and said, "The problem is that when people get caught up in it, they can't tell what's behind this intense fear of being different.
Maybe it’s the body that’s gradually become a stranger due to disease and decay, but maybe it’s the truth that’s even more terrifying.
At this point, this alien can't find any way to verify, nor can it confide in anyone, and all of its past may turn into some fragile lie at any time."
I shuddered violently, sensing the solemnity behind these words.
More importantly, I realized an extremely terrifying guess. Once again, I felt where Zhang Tianyi's inner demon came from as never before.
——He was wondering whether Pingping’s death was really due to illness.
He wondered if the weakness and pain that Pingping experienced day after day was a lie that was grafted and forced upon her.
After personally experiencing the process of becoming a "Tian Yi", even I can hardly help asking myself:
How many things that I should have remembered clearly have been forgotten or confused in my memory?
How can I prove that my young sister existed throughout her life?
If she had endured the terrible predation alone early on, and had always made unheard cries, how many times had she turned to me and us for help?
Once I fell into this kind of doubt and self-questioning, the extreme panic almost drove me crazy in an instant.
Reason tells me that birth, aging, illness and death are normal things, and I shouldn’t push it too far-fetched;
But emotions said coldly that I must try my best to prove that every moment of Pingping's short and bleak life was real.
If there was even a moment of unnaturalness or lies, her past would have been exposed to ghost stories. The mere thought of this was unbearable.
But even so, with human's tiny cognition, it is almost impossible to distinguish.
The more deeply one understands ghost stories, the more ignorant and uncertain one will feel.
Now I finally understand what Zhang Tianyi has been trying to do all along. It's not just the obsession of "resurrection".
He was trying to chase after the strange stories, classify and summarize the various sequelae caused by the strange stories, so as to check them one by one and prove that Pingping was not involved. Only in this way could he get a brief peace.
But how many kinds of ghost stories are there in this world, how many interpretations and representations there are of the rules of ghost stories, and what their essence is, it is probably impossible for ordinary people to find out the end of this in their short lifetime.
I took a deep breath, but my eyes started to ache, so I had to pause for a long time before I slowly said:
"You haven't found any strange stories that match this yet?"
"No, not even the Prophet's Heavenly Clothes." Zhang Tianyi smiled, "But no news is good news. I originally just wanted to prove...she is still an ordinary child, and has not suffered more pain that we don't know about."
He paused and said frankly:
"It's probably just me worrying about nothing. Maybe I just can't accept that Pingping passed away just because of illness. I can't find an excuse to get over it. I can only blame it all on the ghost story and pray that one day when the ghost story ends, all the lost people will return home."
"——a little ridiculous?"
I shook my head, slapped my face hard, and smiled.
I understand. I understand.
All the horrors I experienced because of the ghost stories have now turned into blessings. I think I should be grateful that I was so deeply involved in it. Only by becoming an alien can I touch the lonely whale and hear her tender singing in the deep sea.
Perhaps when diving to the deepest bottom of the sea, there is still nothing around, and no singing can echo. But that moment of emptiness must be joyful and meaningful.
It was at this moment that I suddenly realized something:
"Why did Taizi go to that stone forest in the first place? Is there anything there that could attract the prophet?"
Then a voice almost trembled in my mind and said that Taizi’s motive was the same as Zhang Tianyi’s. Taizi was also proving that he wanted to prove the authenticity of his existence.
This may sound a little unbelievable.
But from the information currently known, the prophet's standards for selecting prey are very strict, and only those who are deeply contaminated by strange stories will be targeted by it.
This means that most of the time, the prophet may not be active, but is just quietly waiting for prey to appear.
So what is that part of the personality that is the fur doing during the prophet's moments of silence?
Taiwanese seem to have given me an answer: they always regard themselves as human beings, so they continue to act according to human definitions and logic, even though they themselves are still distorted compared to ordinary people.
Let’s put it in a very simple logic: when a person finds himself being vaguely invaded by some terrifying force, he will immediately take action, strive to save himself, and constantly try to prove himself.
But because of the existence of the prophet, the "Heavenly Clothes" that are like the brain in a vat will never discover that they are just replaceable organs of a certain existence, so their efforts are destined to be absurd and ineffective.
The confusion and patchwork of the prophets' power makes them live forever in a self-justifying deception, and they can never truly touch the answer.
In other words, it was only when I discovered the truth about Tianyi that I proved to Zhang Tianyi that I was still myself. Only those who can overcome this "barrier of knowledge and perception" can prove that they are not fake people.
After coming to this conclusion, I suddenly felt relieved.
This means that Zhang Tianyi has not completely turned into "Tianyi", he still exists in reality.
In this way, things are not hopeless.
"Of course, we must first reach a consensus: the pseudo-people who become Tianyi are not completely the same as the prophets, so the actions of the two are sometimes contradictory and divided."
Zhang Tianyi said, "A sad fact is that during the period when the prophet is full and silent, the pseudo-people have almost complete self-control. At that stage, the pseudo-people are no different from ordinary people. Therefore, after suspecting that they are abnormal, they will choose to gather together and try to keep each other warm and help each other."
My eyelids twitched and I felt a chill, but at the same time, I suddenly realized something and came to my senses in an instant:
"Logically speaking, they should have tried to contact the Zhang family?"
But the problem is that even if the fake person successfully infiltrates the Zhang family, once he gets deep into the ghost story, no matter how sincerely he and his companions trusted each other when they were together... the result will definitely be betrayal.
When reaching the core of the ghost story, because the ghost story pollution reaches the threshold, the sleeping prophet will smell the aroma of food and wake up. From this moment on, the pseudo-human loses all his autonomous self, and the prophet will float up and start hunting.
From the perspective of the Zhang family, the newly joined companion suddenly turned against them and killed their companion, then fled, and the rest of the truth was buried.
——Is this how the blame for betrayal was passed on to Zhang Tianyi?
Zhang Tianyi confirmed my guess, and not only that, he told me a more terrifying story.
Zhang Tianyi was not sure about other pseudo-people who might have existed, but Taizi once told Zhang Tianyi that he had once found a ghost story, but for some reason he lost consciousness halfway through, and always failed, as if he was forever shut out of the ghost story.
What made Taizai feel even more desperate was that he only knew who he had probably worked with, but he had no impression of this person. The only thing he could remember seemed to be some cruel betrayal and wailing.
He once complained with some resentment, saying that he didn't understand why the Zhang family was able to dominate while his own group had great difficulty in getting together, with some of their companions always disappearing inexplicably or going crazy and running away.
My hair stood on end when I heard this. Taizi didn't understand due to his knowledge and understanding obstacles, but it seemed very clear to the two of us at that moment:
The pseudo-people don't know what they are, and the criteria for inviting companions is mostly to see who has the same signs of distortion. Therefore, among a group of pseudo-people who stick together, most of the members of the organization are actually just humans like young people.
It might be okay to coexist at the beginning, but as the distortion deepens, humans like young people will gradually be transformed into delicious reserve food.
What inexplicable disappearance? It was obviously eaten up by the fake people inadvertently.
Those so-called crazy escapees were actually the lucky ones who were alert. However, after this incident, they would probably find it difficult to trust others, so they would not contact the Zhang family and inadvertently covered up the facts.
Wait, a vague flash of inspiration flashed by, and I seemed to have vaguely grasped something.
"That travel company... is it controlled by fake people behind the scenes? They themselves can't get close to the core of the comb jellyfish and the banyan tree, so they send other humans in again and again?"
"That's not all." Zhang Tianyi replied, "That's why I had a cooperation agreement with Nian Ziqing. He escaped."
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