Chapter 132 The True Meaning of Death
Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel both thought that Yu Sheng was mentally ill.
"She died an hour ago!" Rapunzel stared. "Her organs - including her heart and brain - had long since stopped responding to life! We checked, and of course she was dead..."
"No, she's not dead, at least not yet." Yu Sheng still shook his head, the confusion on his face gradually faded, and his expression began to firm up. "I don't know how to explain it to you, but I can feel that... she is still on the side of the living. She hasn't stepped over yet."
As he spoke, he touched the bloodstain on the girl's neck with his fingers again.
In the fleeting black, white and gray illusion, he felt as if he "understood" something, but the feeling was fleeting, and when he looked back to grasp it, he couldn't.
Little Red Riding Hood seemed to have thought of something: "You...can't communicate with the dead like you did in the museum before? So you think she's still alive?"
Yu Sheng hesitated for a moment and nodded.
Little Red Riding Hood widened her eyes, subconsciously doubting Yu Sheng's judgment, but seemed to have an unrealistic fantasy left in her heart: "But..."
Yu Sheng waved his hands vigorously, quieting her and the long-haired princess who was about to speak.
"You don't understand. It's not just because we can't communicate with the dead. I... can feel that she is still here," he said as he began to check the girl's wounds. He suddenly took out a knife from his pocket. Under the astonished gaze of Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel, he cut his palm and smeared his blood on the fine cracks on the girl's arm. "Do you understand what I mean? I mean, in my opinion, she is still alive and well. She is just asleep, sleeping in a dream of impending death..."
Irene seemed to have finally thought of something. She jumped down from Hu Li's arms and ran to Yu Sheng's side: "Did you see something again?!"
"See... yes, you could say that, I suddenly understood something," Yu Sheng muttered, smearing his own blood as if he were mutilating himself, and suddenly raised his head to look at Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel - they had subconsciously felt uneasy after seeing his actions and wanted to step forward to stop him, but they all stopped at the same time after seeing this look, "You keep your distance, yes, just stand there, the balance is very fragile, she will fall to the other side..."
Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel took a half step back, but the questions in their eyes fell on Yu Sheng at the same time.
"Do you know how bees determine the 'death' of their companions?" Yu Sheng suddenly said to them.
Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel looked at each other, wondering why the other party suddenly asked such a question.
"Pheromones," Yu Shengze did not wait for their answer, but spoke on his own, "The most direct way for bees to determine the death of their companions is pheromones - dying bees will release volatile substances, which are then received by living bees, so they will rush to 'bury' their dead companions and clean their bodies out of the hive. This can effectively prevent the spread of diseases in the hive... But there is a problem with this identification method, that is, in our view, 'pheromones' and 'death' are not always equal.
“If we artificially apply a specific volatile substance to a living bee, then even if it is alive and kicking, or struggling desperately in the hive, its companions will still regard it as a dead bee and forcibly dispose of it like a corpse. This is because in the eyes of the bees’ limited nervous system, a bee that emits the ‘smell of death’ is a corpse, even if it is struggling hard. They do not understand the characteristics of death other than pheromones.
"But for the living environment that bees have to face, this judgment is actually sufficient - humans' boring "interference" is something outside of natural conditions, and bees, within their limited evolutionary scope, do not need to consider these."
Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel listened to Yu Sheng in a daze, watching the blood silently seeping into the small "corpse" on the bed. An inexplicable... shudder suddenly rose in their hearts, "You..." Little Red Riding Hood finally couldn't help but break the silence. She swallowed and looked at Yu Sheng with a somewhat unfamiliar look, "You want to say, we are..."
"Bee." Yu Sheng raised his head and looked calmly at the girl in red in front of him.
He lowered his head again, and his blood-stained palm gently brushed the forehead of the child named "Xiaoxiao", leaving a fleeting trace of bright red on her forehead.
"Faced with 'interference' beyond your understanding, the disguised 'death' confuses you - the heart stops beating, the brain stops, the nervous system collapses, the blood stops flowing and gradually cools down, then the cells decay on a large scale, the enzymes become inactive, and the body begins to digest itself... People regard this as a sign of death. If a person exhibits these characteristics, then he is dead..."
Yu Sheng thought that it was the same for him - when he met these "characteristics", he died.
"Dead" in the eyes of ordinary people.
But he just continued to live in a way that ordinary people could not observe and understand, and waited for the short-term "symptoms" called "death" to subside from himself.
"…Maybe I've never been resurrected."
He muttered softly.
The little corpse lay quietly on the bed. As the blood seeped into her, Yu Sheng gradually understood her "death" and his own "death".
He felt that the surroundings were a little quiet, so he looked up, only to see Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel standing aside in an almost timid manner, looking at him with eyes full of anxiety. Irene was standing beside him, she looked up, there was no anxiety in her eyes, but she seemed quite confused.
Only Hu Li was neither confused nor uneasy. Although she didn't understand, she nodded with an "understood" look on her face, and said with emotion: "My benefactor seems to be realizing the truth."
Irene was stunned: "...You can accept anything, right?!"
"We still have three hours, maybe even less." Yu Sheng suddenly said.
Little Red Riding Hood was stunned: "Three hours? What?"
"Pull her back," Yu Sheng raised his hand and pointed at the thin and frail figure on the bed, "The connection established by my blood is not enough. She doesn't know where to go. Next, some 'manual intervention' is needed - Irene, I need your help."
The little puppet didn't react for a moment: "Ah...ah? How can I help?"
"She's still dreaming, a dream that doesn't rely on the brain," Yu Sheng said casually, "Do you remember how you found me in the Black Forest? It was a similar process. You found her, and then sent me there."
Irene finally realized: "Oh! No problem, just find a place to lie down - or sit down. I've taught you this once. You don't need to do anything, just stay calm."
At this time, Little Red Riding Hood also reacted immediately - although she was still full of questions, at least now she knew what Yu Sheng was going to do: "Wait, you want to take the initiative to enter the 'Black Forest'? To find her?"
"yes."
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"I'll go with you!" said Little Red Riding Hood immediately, and then added, "I know the place better than you do!"
Yu Sheng frowned and looked at Irene: "Can you bring one more person?"
"It should be fine," Irene thought for a moment and nodded confidently, "She already has a deep connection with the Black Forest, so I don't need to do anything to maintain the connection. In theory, I just need to guide you and make sure you can go in together."
"Then let's try it," Yu Sheng nodded without hesitation, sat down on the ground next to the crib, patted the ground next to him, looked up at Little Red Riding Hood, "You sit here."
Little Red Riding Hood said "hmm", walked over silently and sat down next to Yu Sheng.
Rapunzel looked a little worried: "Is it really possible? I've never done this before?"
Little Red Riding Hood was silent for a few seconds, then turned to look at Yu Sheng next to her and said, "Give it a try."
Pitch-black threads emerged from Irene's hands, and then grew wildly throughout the space, interweaving into a huge and complex net in the blink of an eye. The puppet carefully controlled this "net" and gently covered the air above the small bed.
The ends of the silk threads hung down from the air, like countless tentacles extending from some strange jellyfish, and began to drill into the dreamer's body silently.
Rapunzel subconsciously took a half step back, turned her head to look at Hu Li who was still calm beside her, and finally couldn't help but speak: "Are all the people in your 'inn' so weird?"
Hu Li had no idea what the other party meant. She just looked at Irene's wonderful operation with admiration and nodded in admiration: "Irene, maybe you can become a weaving fairy."
These were the last words Yu Sheng heard before he fell into a dream.
And the last thought in his mind was that Irene seemed to have become stronger.
The next second, he felt dazed and falling at the same time, and he felt himself falling rapidly in the darkness with another consciousness. When he felt a solid touch from under his body, he slowly opened his eyes.
The endless black forest came into view.
(End of this chapter)
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