The Beloved Heiress's Dark Side (14)
Meng Yuening nodded: "Yes, that should work."
So, Fan Siqi took the Eye of the Full Moon and burrowed underground.
The others were responsible for checking the area on the ground.
Professor Pan said, "It's too dark here; we need lighting to see clearly. I have two Crescent Eyes that I can use for illumination, but the light is rather weak. Do you have any other lighting equipment?"
Jian Tanxi and the others shook their heads: "No."
"It seems I have no choice but to use my Crescent Eye."
The Crescent Eye is a one-time lighting item that emits light for one hour after being turned on, but the light is relatively weak, not much better than the light of a firefly.
Professor Pan said, “I’m old and my eyesight isn’t good, so I’ll keep an eye on the ground for anything unusual. Zhang Dayong, check the tree trunks for any hollow parts; the brain might be hidden inside one. Jian Tanxi and Meng Yuening are young and have good eyesight, so you two will be in charge of the higher areas. If you see anything unusual up there, check it immediately.”
As for Qu Chen, let him run around freely; maybe he'll discover something. I just asked a passerby for a leash, tied one end to my wrist and the other to Qu Chen's, so I don't have to worry about him getting lost.
Jian Tanxi and the others nodded and said, "Okay, let's divide the work like this."
The leash has two wristbands at each end, connected in the middle by an elastic cord similar to a telephone cord. Parents and children each wear a wristband. The child can run around freely, but once the cord in the middle is straightened, the child can no longer run.
Therefore, the area a child can run out of is limited, and their whereabouts are always kept in the hands of their parents.
Qu Chen was initially being led by Professor Pan, but after Professor Pan put a bracelet on him, he was allowed to run on his own. Qu Chen ran forward as fast as a puppy, very happy.
The others walked slowly behind, observing all directions within the walnut grove.
They walked and discussed as they went.
Jian Tanxi asked, "Why does Ou Bao'er want to store everyone's brain separately?"
Meng Yuening said, "Perhaps it's to prevent people from easily finding all the brains."
"But wouldn't it be simpler for her to just destroy everyone's brains? Why go through all this roundabout methods?"
"Perhaps she didn't want to destroy her family's brains? I don't understand... If she still cared about family ties and didn't want to destroy the Ou family's brains, then why did she remove their brains and turn them into zombies?"
Zhang Dayong said, "Could she have been forced into it?"
Jian Tanxi said, "She's the darling of the family, who can force her?"
Professor Pan analyzed, "Perhaps, those aliens controlled Opal to create obstacles for us, making her do so many heinous things."
Jian Tanxi said, "Perhaps that's really the case..."
The light from the Crescent Moon Eye was so faint that Jian Tanxi had to strain to see clearly the top branches and leaves of each tree.
This is the time when walnuts are ripe, and the branches and leaves are laden with them. The walnuts block the view, further reducing visibility.
Jian Tanxi said, "It makes me want to eat walnuts."
Meng Yuening asked, "You like to eat walnuts?"
"No, I don't usually eat them. But now, there are walnuts all over the mountains, so I can't help but want to eat some."
"Let's not eat it yet. What if we accidentally eat Master Ou's brain?"
"You think Ou Bao'er's true feelings were just what they said? Did Third Master Ou's brain get turned into a walnut? But how was that done?"
"I can't think of any other meaning right now. However, making a brain into a walnut is indeed absurd. Although the brain looks like a walnut, how can different things be transformed into each other?"
"Perhaps it was done using some special method... Anyway, I won't eat walnuts for now."
After walking for a short while, Jian Tanxi felt her eyelids drooping, her eyes were completely unfocused, and she couldn't think straight.
It seems I'm really exhausted.
Meng Yuening is similar.
Professor Pan noticed everyone's fatigue and suggested, "How about this, we lie down and rest for twenty minutes. We have a Pomodoro Technique, which can be set to count down for 20 minutes."
Jian Tanxi and Meng Yuening were more than happy to accept this suggestion.
If you're not in good spirits, you simply can't perform the task. Sharpening your axe before chopping wood is essential; after setting the Pomodoro timer, everyone lay down.
Almost the instant her head hit the ground, Jian Tanxi fell asleep.
Because she slept very well and always kept a warning in mind, she didn't dare to completely relax, so she woke up after sleeping for a short while.
The Pomodoro Technique hadn't been set yet, so she simply lay there quietly.
Suddenly, she noticed something strange about the branches and leaves of one of the walnut trees.
She rubbed her eyes, looked closely, and it was indeed as she had thought.
So she nudged the others and said, “Wake up… Look, don’t the branches and leaves of that walnut tree look like a complete walnut… or a complete brain?”
Everyone was woken up and looked in the direction Jian Tanxi was pointing, and sure enough, it looked very similar. It would have been hard to notice this if they hadn't been lying down.
The tree's branches were crooked and twisted, but observing their trajectory, they all clustered together, tightly connected. Combined with the dense foliage, the whole tree resembled a giant brain.
Zhang Dayong said, "Is this a coincidence, or... wait, the leaves of that tree won't be blown by the wind."
After Zhang Dayong said that, everyone realized it too.
The wind wasn't strong, but the leaves of the other trees were swaying slightly, except for the "brain tree."
It's so strange that it doesn't move at all, unless these leaves are just an illusion.
When everyone went to the tree again, they discovered that the walnuts on the tree were stuck to the leaves and did not grow naturally.
Now everyone is even more certain that this tree is not normal, and it is very likely that it is the brain of the second master of the Ou family.
Meng Yuening said, "'Second Uncle's brain is hidden in the forest,' so that's how it's hidden... He disguises his brain as a tree, so that ordinary people can't find it at all."
Zhang Dayong asked, "If this really is the brain of the second master of the Ou family, how can we restore it?"
Everyone was stunned and stood there, not knowing what was going on.
At this moment, Fan Siqi, who was walking through the soil, crawled up from beside the tree.
He patted the dirt off his clothes and said, "I feel this tree is very cold, which is a bit strange. Maybe the brain is hidden right under this tree."
Jian Tanxi said, "No, the brain isn't hidden down there, it's up there. Look—"
Fan Siqi looked up and also noticed something amiss: "So that's how it is, what a brilliant concealment... What should we do now?"
Jian Tanxi said, "We can't do anything about it... We can't just uproot the tree, can we? Even if we did, we couldn't install it into Master Ou's head. Fan Siqi, you're knowledgeable, have you ever heard of any method that can turn the brain into a tree?"
"I've never heard of that before... But if the branches and leaves of this tree are the brain, then what are the trunk and roots? If we cut off the trunk and roots, could there be a solution hidden inside?"
Meng Yuening asked, "Won't cutting down the tree trunk damage the brain?"
"Probably not. As it stands, the upper part of this tree is a complete brain structure, while the lower part is completely superfluous. How about this, we pull the tree out first and then study it further."
Jian Tanxi said, "If we uproot the tree, it will inevitably have to be laid horizontally. Wouldn't that compress the upper branches and leaves, potentially damaging the brain?"
That concern is not unreasonable.
Zhang Dayong said, "How about this, I'll uproot the tree, and you guys quickly check the bottom for any clues. If there aren't any, I'll immediately lay the tree upright so that the top won't be damaged."
No one had any objections.
So Zhang Dayong activated his "Strength to Uproot Mountains" superpower and quickly uprooted the tree.
Everyone crowded around to look at the bottom and found that there was a talisman with a cyclic arrow drawn on it.
No one knew what the talisman meant, so Fan Siqi suggested, "Let's tear it off and try it."
Since there wasn't much time to consider it, no one objected; they figured they might as well try anything.
Fan Siqi immediately tore the talisman off.
Unexpectedly, at that very moment, the tree's branches and leaves transformed into a human brain, while the trunk and roots became a box.
The brain slowly fell into the box, and then the lid closed automatically.
Everyone tried it and found that the lid could be opened directly without any mechanism.
The box also emits cold air, so it must be a specially made box for preserving the brain.
Professor Pan took out his age pen, tapped the brain, and said, "This brain is 53 years old. It should be the brain of the second master of the Ou family."
Jian Tanxi said, "Great, we've found another one."
No one dared to let the cold air spread, so they quickly closed the lid and put the box in their backpacks.
Fan Siqi held the talisman torn from the tree, studied it for a while, and said, "The cyclic arrow on this talisman seems to mean 'transformation.' Let's call this talisman the 'Transformation Talisman.' Its function is to transform the form of objects, such as turning a brain into a tree. I wonder if this talisman is still useful."
Professor Pan said, "It's probably useless now. Even if it were useful, it probably wouldn't be able to be used by us. Many items are bound to their owners, and I think this talisman is no exception."
Meng Yuening said, "Why don't we give it a try? Let's turn this stone into a building block."
Meng Yuening picked up a stone from the ground and handed it to Fan Siqi.
Fan Siqi stuck the transformation talisman on the stone and said, "Turn it into building blocks."
The stone remained unchanged.
It seems this talisman has a bond with its owner. It's just unknown whether it's still effective. Fan Siqi didn't discard it; she temporarily hid it in her bag, just in case she needs it later.
Next, we need to find Master Ou's brain.
With the tree example from earlier, everyone was much more accepting of the fact that Master Ou's brain had turned into a walnut.
Jian Tanxi asked, "There are so many walnuts here. Are we going to search for them one by one? Even if we collect all the walnuts, we still won't be able to determine which one is Master Ou's brain. Walnuts are so small that it's impossible to attach a conversion talisman. Ou Bao'er probably used other small tools to turn Master Ou's brain into a walnut."
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