Chapter 102 The Old Campus: So, filming death is necessary to provide nourishment...
Xue Chao turned his head and saw Fang Tailai squatting behind a large flowerpot in the corner, like a melting mushroom. He said to the mushroom, "I heard you came to kill me."
Fang Tailai lay prostrate on the peace tree: "...Jump up and hit your knee? That would be humiliating."
Xue Chao also squatted down, parted the branches and leaves of the peace tree, and went straight to the point: "How were those morpho butterflies created?"
He knew this was the last time she would use the magic pen. Fang Tailai's dead fish eyes lifted an inch, like the reflection of a fish leaping out of the water: "A butterfly that can leap over death is naturally nurtured by death. Do you know what it means to digest food in its original broth?"
Xue Chao gave her ambiguous answer a light hum and then asked, "Where was it built?" Fang Tailai lay flat and said, "I don't know."
She acted as if it were perfectly justified to give up, as if she were waiting for him to make a move, and if he didn't, she seemed to just go to sleep.
Xue Chao, however, sensed something unusual. Fang Tailai clearly knew, but insisted he didn't, which meant he was revealing that she had someone backing her, something he couldn't say out loud.
Fang Tailai certainly wanted to snatch the butterfly, essentially to save his own life, but he didn't agree with the organization's arrangements. Perhaps it was because she had just stopped him, so she reciprocated with a well-intentioned reminder.
The teacher, represented by the projector head, stood at the other end of the corridor. The projector head projected onto the wall above the Peace Tree, displaying a bright red countdown. The projector head also emitted an ominous, faint beeping sound.
Xue Chao pulled the lying corpse Fang Tailai up and ran to the teacher. Before the teacher could understand their enthusiasm, he used plant roots to tie Fang Tailai up and made him suppress the teacher's struggles. He then unscrewed the screws and brutally "opened the teacher's brain."
The classic red and blue lines, and a time bomb.
"Who has no sense of public morality..." Fang Tailai's desperate statement was cut short before he was shoved into the head of this despicable projector. Xue Chao looked at her firmly: "Take it apart."
Fang Tailai: "?" The child had many questions. "I don't know."
Xue Chao politely replied, "I don't know either."
"Then why didn't you dismantle it?"
Xue Chao looked at Fang Tailai, whose luck score was a full 90 points, with an inscrutable expression: "You don't know anything, you seem to be lucky." It's precisely because you don't know anything that you're being fooled.
Fang Tailai remained silent: "You're just trying to trick me."
Xue Chao smiled innocently: "I just don't want to tear it down."
Fang Tailai hesitated, looking up and down. Xue Chao was idly twirling a knife in front of her. He didn't look at the bomb, but quietly stared at Fang Tailai, like an assassin observing a target in the dark. No matter how cruel he was going to do next, it was out of business considerations, pure indifference, without any grudges.
Just as the "corridor train" projected out of the second teaching building, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. Before he could see it clearly, his third eye automatically displayed the values. After realizing it was Fang Tailai, he reached out and grabbed her. He had no good intentions or purpose; he was just lending a hand.
But by sheer coincidence, Xue Chao suddenly noticed a yellow flower petal tucked into Fang Tailai's short hair. In his subconscious mind, Jiang Ming's face replaced Fang Tailai's, dancing wildly and menacingly in front of him, like the suspenseful smile in the final scene of a villain's trailer, stirring up a bit of his hostility.
A little devil popped into his mind, reciting Jiang Ming's numerous crimes, the countless times he had tricked him, and the attempt to kill him in the previous instance, though unsuccessfully. These memories, like dragonflies skimming the water, finally settled on the tattooed man who was invoking the gods. In this memory, He never appeared, but it was precisely because He deliberately didn't appear that He left the deepest impression on him.
Fang Tailai must have been bewitched by Jiang Ming, just like how he bewitches his followers... Blood doesn't flow to heaven, lives don't fall to earth, aren't they just willow catkins in the air? To lure people into willingly wandering and drifting, that's truly a cult...
A thought crossed his mind: Could Fang Tailai be one of His followers?
If she becomes a believer, wouldn't Jiang Ming be able to bestow his divine power upon her?
Who exactly is the person in front of him, and can he really be trusted?
He was having quite a bit of internal monologue. As for Fang Tailai, he kept solving the questions under the watchful eyes of the proctors, which annoyed her. With five seconds left on the countdown, she made a snap decision, grabbed the knife, and slashed at the red line.
Xue Chao's mind was filled with conspiracy theories, which seemed to be confirmed by the knife. He quickly gripped the back of the knife, felt a sharp pain, stopped its downward trend, and then reversed it to sever the blue line.
At the last second, the bomb stopped.
However, Xue Chao didn't stop. He got up and ran, and Deng Dayun, who rushed out of the classroom, missed him.
Xue Chao's parkour skills were already superb. The further away he got from Deng Dayun, the more strange ideas he had, like the clouds parting to reveal true clarity.
It's not that he doesn't believe in conspiracy theories; on the contrary, in the game, he doesn't mind treating anyone as a scoundrel who is immoral but not stupid. It's just that just now, his mind was filled with all sorts of conspiracy theories. He seized on a bad idea that he could use to make a fuss, and then he started to expand on it like a bull in the stale, ignoring everything else.
He was clearly looking at Fang Tailai, but his mind was filled with thoughts of Jiang Ming, as if he really had feelings for the unlucky god and was indulging in romantic fantasies.
That sounds like a disgrace.
Looking back, it feels like I've been brainwashed by my own mind.
It's a psychic ability. Fang Tailai had warned him that there were other people around. Jiang Ming either always appears in front of people or hides silently like he's dead, unlike him, so it must be Deng Dayun.
Does ability breed evil in people?
The moment he snatched the knife, he wasn't trying to stop Fang Tailai; he was treating her as Jiang Ming's shell and wanted to kill her.
At the time, he was still under the influence of his superpowers and did not trust Fang Tailai's choice, instead choosing the blue line.
The bombing really stopped... so Fang Tailai didn't choose randomly; he knew which line it was, he was just putting on an act.
But it turned out he made the right choice, so perhaps he benefited from her good fortune?
However, it wasn't that simple. Upstairs, the bomb exploded with a loud "boom." Cracks quickly spread to the walls around Xue Chao, but instead of shattering, they wrapped around him like a giant spider web, keeping him in a shape that was neither breaking nor crumbling.
Xue Chao curled his lip. Indeed, no one had said that cutting a certain wire would prevent the bomb from detonating. It was possible that either wire would detonate. They were just trying to buy time and trap him here.
The building with its broken "patterns" tightened inwards, deformed and unable to support anyone. All exits were blocked, and the thick, twisted cement walls were impenetrable. The butterfly was caught in the net, waiting for the hunter. He heard Deng Dayun chiseling at the wall upstairs.
Jiang Ming not only trapped the butterfly, but also his teammates, as if he wanted to monopolize the fruits... However, Xue Chao ducked into the corridor and moved away from Deng Dayun's direction, but Jiang Ming didn't appear out of nowhere for a long time.
Xue Chao suddenly realized that Deng Dayun and Fang Tailai needed the Flash Butterfly to leave the instance, but did Jiang Ming really need the Flash Butterfly?
Should we capture him, or hide Himself?
It's better if he doesn't come; seeing him is annoying. Xue Chao voluntarily entered the teaching building, which resembled a mutated stone cave.
The choice of the Third Teaching Building was not good. It has activity rooms for various clubs and contains the things he needs. It's likely that when his butterfly head is discovered, the butterfly-catching team will be in the Third Teaching Building, so he will have to make do with what's available there.
He rushed to the video studio. Thank goodness, the camera wasn't crushed. He found the familiar camera and turned it on. It showed the video of "Deng Dayun's" death—a dark stairwell, a pool of blood, a male classmate with his head broken, the camera showing classmates screaming, and then suddenly the screen turned into static, with a crackling sound, like a cassette tape had stuck.
This isn't a camcorder that can play cassette tapes... Xue Chao removed the camcorder's battery, shook it, and found it was hollow. He pried it open, and inside was a roll of film.
The image on the white expanse was clearer than before, with filamentous structures stretching out, interspersed with patches of brownish-red and blackish-yellow spots resembling eyes.
It is the back of the Morpho butterfly's wing.
When its magnificent wings are folded, its brownish-red back blends into the environment, and the black and yellow spots are the eyespots on its wings.
With its wings folded and a white background, this is what a butterfly looks like in its cocoon, not yet fully formed.
Fang Tailai said, "A butterfly that can fly over death is naturally nurtured by death." The camera showed footage of "Deng Dayun" dying... So we need to film death to provide nourishment and help it break free from its cocoon and become a butterfly.
The most urgent thing was to get out. Xue Chao returned to the floor where the bomb was located. The teacher's head, which was part of the projector, had been crushed into a meat patty. The blown-out head was stuck in the gap. He cleared away the debris. The inside and outside of the projector were burned, but the red wire was intact.
So no matter which wire is removed, the bomb will explode, it's just a matter of time. Xue Chao inserted the scalpel above, tied it with plant roots, and retreated downstairs by pulling the plant roots along. When he felt the position was right, he gently pulled, and another explosion resounded throughout the building.
The second attack successfully breached the precarious wall. Xue Chao kicked a hole with all his might, quickly pulled up the rope, tightly protected the camera, and swung away by a nearby tree. The explosion was powerful, leaving multiple holes in the teaching building. He lost his footing, was thrown off a large tree, and rolled twice.
Before the teaching building collapsed, Xue Chao filmed a video of Fang Tailai's "corpse" on the ground. The corpse's head had been transformed into a hooded head with earphones, and the blood had dried. As he filmed, he observed the scene and couldn't help but marvel at how realistic it was, whether it was a superpower or a prop.
After recording the death of "Fang Tailai," the teaching building finally succumbed to the pressure and, like a sandcastle collapsing, disintegrated grain by grain.
The sky was filled with colorful ribbons, and the bombing of the teaching building was indeed a "surprise box". Even though Jiang Ming was not there, he still left behind his performative and neurotic style. The uneven sunflower head was hit by the blast, leaving a big crater. The flower seeds were scattered like the Mediterranean Sea.
Xue Chao raised the camera and recorded a video of the sunflower's disheveled face, focusing on the flesh and blood at the base of the stem as footage of "Jiang Ming's" death.
The two were still buried in the "sand pile." Xue Chao returned to the bar first. The kitchen had already been cleaned up, and all he could find were ashes. But in the burnt-out boiler, he found the head of the Red Rose, which was like a legendary relic. But it was hard to say whether it was a merit or a karmic debt.
After he finished filming the scene of Sheng Hong's death, as he turned to leave, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a tiny flash of light, like inside the stamen of a rose petal wrapped in layers.
Xue Chao brushed aside the ashes and pulled out a small diamond crown pendant from the rose. The rope hadn't been burned off; someone had torn it, and it was stuck between the petals.
Was this thing already here?
This tiny, narrow cord doesn't look like a keychain... it looks like a phone charm.
In fact, "Sheng Hong" should have had a cell phone more than "Fang Tailai". "Sheng Hong's" storyline has elements of live streaming. "She" regards beauty as the ultimate goal and wants to enjoy everyone's attention, so it is reasonable for her to have a cell phone for live streaming.
But what about mobile phones?
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