Don't worry about philosophy for a lifetime, and you will be happy for a lifetime
Of course, the above operations were all carried out secretly without the knowledge of ordinary people, including throwing unspeakable things into storage compartments and locking them up.
So much so that while Shen Yi and Chloe were discussing the rules and finalizing the translation details, the driver reminded them many times with great concern, asking whether they should pay special attention to these foreigners.
When Master was young, ghost stories had not yet exploded. He liked to listen to online novels, including ghost stories. He told Ji Yunding and Ji Liuxing some plots in the novels, including the open and covert struggles at home and abroad. The two were stunned and their brains went blank.
Ji Yunding felt that if she were in such a workplace environment, she would have quit her job long ago, but after thinking about it, she found that there was actually nothing wrong with the logic.
"That's understandable. After all, the civilized world often measures everything with money. If only people in the civilized world were dealing with ghost stories..."
When Ji Liuxing heard what Ji Yunding said, he thought about it from his perspective and nodded.
"When we were young, we never came into contact with money or anything like that, and there was no such thing as exchanging goods. But if the civilized world is like this, then this should be the meaning of 'useful' to us, and I can understand it."
"it works?"
Lin Shu had just collected the nearby flags and responded casually to Ji Yunding's question.
"Useless people don't have to exist. This is the rule of the family. 'Usefulness' is the standard to measure us. The civilized world seems to have further summarized this into money and power.
People in the civilized world are also quite crazy, quantifying the value of people with numbers. In a way, they are even scarier than us.”
For example, the tragedy that happened when Ji Liuxing was thirteen years old, his team members felt that they seemed "useless" in front of Ji Liuxing, and this kind of thinking is almost devastating for people from aristocratic families.
"That's not right. Life isn't meant to be meaningful."
Ji Yunding raised his hand and retorted again, frowning.
"To be alive is just to be alive, right? Even a paramecium has to be alive, why does it have to have so-called 'value'?"
Once you put aside the easy thinking that "money is value" given by society, you have to always ask yourself why you are acting. This is the favorite topic of investigators. When talking about this, they will not only quarrel at any time, but also ask others to judge the truth.
When the driver noticed that the three were staring at him, he pointed at himself in confusion, and only spoke after getting confirmation.
"I don't really understand the things that you young people are doing, but you need money to live. You need money to eat, buy a place to live, pay for medical care, retirement, insurance... you need money for everything.
My children have to go to a good school. If they have any hobbies, I have to consider whether I can provide them with interest classes.
To be honest, I came here to drive for you just for the money, but I ended up getting stuck here."
Although the country has done everything possible to ensure the mental stability of the investigators, even the drivers were specially selected to have good personalities, be talkative but not talk nonsense, but they are still ordinary people after all. It is impossible for them to think in the same way as someone like Ji Yunding, nor can they express their views so clearly, and they will go off topic while talking.
However, Ji Yunding thought of the dessert shop he and Li Fengqing owned, and nodded, expressing his understanding. Things that can bring happiness will become the standard for measuring everything... It's not surprising to think about it this way.
In this sense, it seems a bit arrogant to simply think that the standards of the civilized world are shallow and strange. After all, in the civilized world, you can't live well without either spirit or money, and the latter can be used to nourish the spirit to a certain extent.
The marginalized people from aristocratic families just have no concept of money, but their essence seems to have not changed. Everyone is pursuing happiness in this messy world.
Chen Yi was not a professional translator. When he came back to explain the details to Ji Yunding and the others, they were already talking about the fact that someone in the team had his investigator ID left in a ghost story and was taken to the police station on the way back, in an attempt to convince others that the dagger was just a pet.
"I roughly translated it, but it's a version that has been passed on twice anyway... Everyone, please be careful."
[Snowstorm area ahead, please do not go if you are not well prepared
1. Humans cannot fight against nature without preparation. Please equip yourself with as complete professional equipment as possible.
2. The roads are slippery on snowy days, please do not fall to avoid contact with the snow on the ground.
3. Be careful of snowflake accumulation and pay attention to the weight of the snowflakes.
4. If you want to pass through here, ask the snowflakes flowing under the snow in front.
5. Please be alert to possible avalanches.
6. Save us. 】
"Save us?"
Ji Yunding was stunned when she saw the last sentence. It was not like she had never encountered a situation where a monster asked for help. The last monster that asked her for help was the blood rain that kept her alive.
"Is there something strange about the consciousness combination here as well?"
"It's hard to say, but there's definitely something wrong with the snowflakes."
Lin Shu observed the snowflakes on his down jacket. At first glance, they all looked the same, but each one was subtly different.
Ji Yunding thought about it, sorted out his thoughts, and then spoke.
"Now we must first figure out what 'ahead' is. We just discovered that the ground is moving, and this may be related. If there are no other opinions, we will temporarily define the direction of the ground movement as 'ahead' and use this as a basis for exploration.
Then, regarding the points to be aware of on the road... Sister Chen Yi, please help me ask how the person over there died."
"I asked them. They said one of them died while exploring the snow quality. It was the same as our situation. The other one... was frightened mad. He won't live long."
Chloe saw Ji Yunding looking at her, shrugged, and made a helpless expression. The national conditions of each country are different, and their country does not require investigators to provide additional protection for ordinary people.
After Ji Yunding explained the investigator's code of conduct here to Chloe, she nodded and chose to accept the situation here temporarily, but also stated that they would not have any special protection for ordinary people on Ji Yunding's side, and explained that they might act freely when there were differences of opinion.
"Then please stay here for the time being as our radio guideposts. Go back to the car and warm up for a while. Isn't there plenty of gas in the trunk? It's okay, don't be afraid."
After Ji Yunding finished communicating with this side, he came to communicate with ordinary people.
"We will divide into groups and explore in different directions. We will come back in two hours. Please wait here patiently. Be careful not to touch the snow, do not walk out of the formation, and promptly shake off the snow on your body and the roof of the car. Do not do anything unnecessary."
As we all know, there seems to be no time limit in the ghost story, but even if you do nothing, the ghost story will change over time. Staying where you are may not be a safe thing, but this is the only way to accommodate ordinary people now.
And two hours was exactly the time Ji Yunding took to leave here to look for Chloe and the others. In this way, at least based on the known information, the possibility of getting lost due to position shift was avoided to the greatest extent.
It can be seen at this time that the sense of security brought by the government's propaganda work is still very useful. At least the two hesitated for a moment. They did not doubt what to do if their investigator ran away. They just felt a little worried.
Ning Huizhou was fine, after all, he had received training before leaving and had some understanding of the research team; the driver had a completely ordinary person's perspective. Seeing that Ji Yunding and Ji Liuxing were almost the same age as his own children, he couldn't help but say a few more words.
"Okay, okay, we'll stay here... If you're in danger, come back immediately. We might as well hold out for a few days and wait for the country to pick us up. What's the phone number of the Ghost Talk Bureau? Don't take any risks. Nothing is more important than your life."
Even if they called the Ghost Story Bureau, they finally found a group of people who would look for Ji Yunding and Ji Liuxing. However, Ji Yunding thought there was no need to laugh at the simple good intentions, so he just agreed.
In order to ensure that each group has someone who can predict the sound of an avalanche in advance, Ji Yunding and Lin Shu were in one group, and Ji Liuxing and Shen Yi were in another group; Ji Yunding was not in charge of Chloe's grouping, they just agreed on different directions and set off separately.
Considering that sound seems to be one of the influencing factors, Ji Yunding and Lin Shu decided to communicate only with hand gestures for the time being. The investigators have a complete set of secret hand gestures for communication, which is to deal with various occasions where it is inconvenient to speak.
The two walked on the white snow. There were no road signs, no directions, and no sounds. There was only a long trail left by Ji Yunding's hiking stick on the snow, and the brightly colored flags planted by Lin Shu at a distance.
In fact, this kind of environment is something that most investigators cannot adapt to. When no information flows into the brain, redundant thoughts will emerge one after another - this is also the reason why Wei Qianqiu could not participate in this operation.
As Ji Yunding walked, he thought about the situation of Shen Yi and Ji Liuxing. Shen Yi naturally received more information than others, so he was more adept at dealing with this situation; and Ji Liuxing should not need to worry, as neither of their symptoms mainly manifested as intrusive thoughts.
As for Lin Shu... After learning about the aristocratic family, Ji Yunding knew that her family's training method was very strange - only when you are afraid yourself can you inflict fear on others, so Lin Shu is actually accustomed to being in a state of constant fear.
Whether it is a familiar attitude, habitual physical contact, or being more willing to interact with the civilized world than others, these are all excessive manifestations of fear.
At this time, the two saw a blurry shadow from afar, and when they got closer, they found it was... a snowman?
A very stereotypical snowman, like one straight out of a fairy tale book, with a carrot nose and just the right amount of branch arms, and a red Santa hat on his head.
Ji Yunding and Lin Shu's first reaction was to take photos. On the one hand, it was for archiving, and on the other hand, they immediately agreed to take it back to show Wei Qianqiu - whoever survived would show it to her, and of course it would be best if both survived.
The two of them took a few photos like they were performing a duet, and just as they put away their phones, they heard a strange child's voice.
“It was an ordinary December 25th, and my home was swept away by an avalanche just ahead.
Daddy's belly was dug out, Mom's head was on the table, and I was slowly suffocating in the cellar.
Santa Claus, I will give you my favorite glass ball, please, save us."
The snowman suddenly spoke. It had no mouth, so it was unknown where the sound came from. Ji Yunding could only hear subtle vibrations coming from inside the snowman, directed into the ground, and then a rumbling sound came from afar.
The snow surface began to shake violently, and cracks appeared in some loose areas of the snow. Lin Shu and Ji Yunding avoided the cracks on the ground while communicating with gestures.
Obviously, an optional event appeared. To be honest, Ji Yunding couldn't say that there was no solution at all - using bipolar energy to distort space might work, but it was too difficult to ensure that there would be no avalanche at all.
The experts had explained before we came that the speed of the avalanche was about 30 meters per second, and it was accelerating. If they couldn't handle it all in a short time, the two of them would be dead during the energy decay period of the two poles.
There is too little information and the success rate is not worth the risk.
Seeing from afar several meter high snow waves coming towards her, Ji Yunding was about to leave when she found Lin Shu making a gesture to her.
Her ability... is useful against avalanches?
But Ji Yunding had no doubts, he just nodded and lifted Lin Shu up with one hand - Lin Shu's ability would cause her to completely lose control of her body when used, so in order to prevent her from touching the ground, Ji Yunding took action first.
Just a few seconds after the observation, the snow wave rushed over. Ji Yunding blinked his eyes and found that something seemed to be moving in the snow.
The squirming white arms broke through the snow, twisted like noodles, stretched out five fingers to grab Ji Yunding, and then stopped in front of her as if frozen.
Lin Shu's ability would put a huge burden on her spirit every second, so Ji Yunding immediately stretched out his hand, endured the severe pain and adjusted the range of his ability, throwing most of the raised snow surface behind him, skipping the snowman.
Until the sound like rolling thunder faded away, Ji Yunding gently put Lin Shu down, and supported her, breathing heavily. In the low temperature environment where water turned into ice, Ji Yunding could not sweat, but felt hot all over, so hot that his bones hurt.
It hurt so much, so much that her body thought she was going to die.
Ji Yunding couldn't be sure if it was his hallucination. The sunlight shone through the vaporous air, casting a colorful halo and falling on the snowman, making a slight sizzling sound similar to that of barbecue.
When the Santa hat melted, it turned into red water. When the branches melted, they turned into brown and green water. When the snowman melted, it did not leave clean, transparent water, but revealed its white bones.
The bone structure was clear and complete, except for the arms and legs which were missing - Ji Yunding had seen this in the book on human anatomy. Upon closer inspection, he saw that there was wear and tear on the clavicle, but strangely, the wear and tear was on the inside.
The glass bead was embedded in the eye socket of the skull. Ji Yunding squatted down and stretched out her hand to take it, but the glass bead rolled into her hand first.
It looks cheap and ordinary, but to be honest, Ji Yunding quite likes this kind of thing. If the occasion was not inappropriate, she would even want to put the glass ball on the ground and roll it a few times for fun.
There is no reason. Humans, like crows, don't need a reason to like shiny things.
The time was almost up, Ji Yunding gestured to go back, and Lin Shu also calmed down a little, nodded, and suppressed his frightened expression.
It was difficult to lift your feet in the snow, and after walking back with one foot deep and one foot shallow, Ji Yunding felt his legs starting to feel a little sore.
Of course, the experts’ opinion is that walking in the snow for four hours would only make your legs slightly sore, which is basically the same as Superman.
"Where is the driver?" After quickly exchanging information, Ji Yunding took a glance and frowned.
"No more. Ning Huizhou just said that the two of them wanted to clean the roof of the car so that we could rest after we came back. When the driver went out, he was afraid that we would not be able to find the way back, so he put the transceiver inside the car without permission. As a result, he froze within ten minutes of going out."
Ji Liuxing packed up the storage compartment in the car and found some personal items belonging to the driver.
"It should be a violation of the 'equipped with professional equipment' clause. From the description, it seems that removing the professional equipment would affect the hypothermia and not cause death, but he fell down after his legs froze."
Ordinary people are very vulnerable in ghost stories. Their basic physical conditions are not enough to support them to abide by the rules, and they have to face more harsh situations than investigators. Not to mention that people who live normal lives are not sensitive to rules and are prone to minor violations everywhere.
"The body is gone?"
"The body is gone."
Ji Yunding was silent for a moment and nodded to show that he understood, but when he heard Ji Liuxing's next sentence, he immediately realized that something was wrong.
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who dies."
His voice was very low, and only Ji Yunding should be able to hear it. Anyone could have said this, but it definitely couldn't have been Ji Liuxing. Looking carefully, Ji Yunding found that Ji Liuxing seemed to be really calm, much calmer than before.
Ji Liuxing had only shown such a calm attitude towards his own death before. If he hadn't noticed anything else unusual, Ji Yunding would have wanted to stab Ji Liuxing to see if it was real.
"We also encountered a snowman over there, but the content was a little different. I recorded it, you can watch it."
Ji Liuxing obviously knew that his behavior was very abnormal. Ji Yunding couldn't tell what he was doing, so he could only take care of the things at hand.
I am here. I am here.
Please dig me out and bury me somewhere I can't reach.
With that little skeleton, let me hold her hand.
I will give you my only property, please save us. 】
"It's not as difficult as your place, but the process is very tedious. Fortunately, Shen Yi can sense the approximate location. The rest is to slowly search and dig."
Ji Liuxing handed a few rusty coins to Ji Yunding.
"Boss, you take it."
"Even though I asked you to call me that, it still takes some time to get used to it."
Ji Yunding took it without hesitation - this kind of thing is usually given to the person in the team who is least likely to die.
"By the way, Ji Yunding, if you trust me, you can also put it in my internal organs."
"ah?"
"I removed half of the body's internal organs, so there's a lot of space left."
Ji Liuxing spoke slowly as he put the driver's cell phone into his backpack.
"…It's very troublesome to use it like this. Your blood will freeze instantly outdoors. Also, please treat yourself like a human being."
Although he replied like this, Ji Yunding knew that Ji Liuxing suddenly used the name "classmate Ji Yunding" again, which should be a hint that what he said was related to the last time he deliberately called him by this distant name.
In other words, what Ji Liuxing really wanted to convey was that his abnormality and the last time he was almost wiped out of all traces of his existence by the rules were related to the truth of this world.
"It's okay, it's just this level."
Ji Liuxing smiled, then naturally extended his hand to Ji Yunding.
“If there are no other problems with our two groups, let’s go and listen to the results of the communication between Lin Shu, Shen Yi and Chloe.”
Ji Yunding supported Ji Liuxing's wrist and helped him get down from the car safely - theoretically he should be able to stand steadily, but the investigator's principle is to use all means to reduce risks.
"They had an idea about 'the front' and said they would borrow our car to drive around."
Shen Yi saw Ji Yunding coming over and nodded to her.
"Does anyone know how to drive?" Lin Shu came over to take a look at the other person's driver's license, a little surprised. "No one in the group knows how to drive. No one wants to drive around in the civilized world... I don't think so. Does Ji Liu know how to drive?"
"If it doesn't matter if I flip the car over, I'll drive it."
"If it doesn't matter if I sink to the bottom, I can still swim." Ji Yunding complained.
"Eh? Newcomer... Boss, you can't swim." Lin Shu was a little confused about the address, but everyone was quite persistent in some aspects and just called him Boss.
"I didn't know it in my freshman year, but I know it now. It's just that Ji Liuxing's wording made me want to attack him, so I just wanted to say one sentence."
A nine-seater car is just right, but you have to stop from time to time to clear the snow off the roof.
Chloe said that their car was scrapped because of the weight of the snow. It seems that if the snow is allowed to accumulate, it will suddenly change rapidly when it reaches a critical point and become an incredible weight.
"The only directional reference here is the sun. We calculated it as we walked. According to Ji Yunding's speculation, we divided into two groups and recorded two traces respectively. The results showed that in fact all the traces were deviating towards the sun.
We believe that if we cannot calculate the exact deviation angle, it is not completely unreasonable to temporarily pursue the sun."
Ji Yunding also thought this statement was indeed worth a try. They had done their homework before coming here. It was said that the strange stories in this country often use some grand images and rules, which is a kind of local characteristic.
Unlike here, Ji Yunding's country has more daily and life-like scene settings. Depending on the history and geography, the content of the ghost story will also be very different, thus extending the regional ghost story study.
"So, did you encounter any snowmen?"
"I met one."
Based on the balance theory, the rules and information in the ghost story will also be adjusted according to the entrants. According to research, if an illiterate person enters the ghost story, the ghost story information will be presented in the form of oral or drawing.
However, people who have completely lost their ability to think, such as vegetative patients or patients with advanced Alzheimer's disease, are not affected by strange stories. This conclusion provides some evidence for the theory that strange stories are subjective manifestations.
Back here, Shen Yi translated the information given by Chloe.
[Moans echoed in my mind. Whose children did I kill? Whose family did I kill? And who killed me - the child of my parents and the support of my children.
I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home.
But I can't, I will bring pain to them, I will bring sin to them.
Please destroy my corpse and take this worthless honor.
Please, save us. 】
"Probably. I translated with accuracy in mind first." Chen Yi added, then acted a little uneasy. "Also, I always feel that the snow here... is very clean."
"That's what I was just about to say. According to Sister Lin Shu's ability, the snow here should be alive."
After Ji Yun got his bearings, he leaned back and rested as much as possible. Investigators in ghost stories did not care about their image when resting, and they would choose the method that would restore their physical strength the fastest.
"I'm concerned about the 'save us' they keep saying. What could they be?"
As they discussed along the way, Ji Yunding looked at the falling snow outside the car window and pondered.
Every snowflake is different, and after it is annihilated, there will no longer be such snowflakes in the world.
But does this really make sense? After all, almost no one can notice the difference, and no one cares.
Ji Yunding thought about it for two seconds and then gave up. He continued to think about the current situation - don’t worry about philosophy for the rest of your life and be happy all your life.
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