10 Dayu's Flood Control ⑨
◎Reversing cause and effect◎
After the loudspeaker announced "The End", the world everyone lived in changed dramatically in an instant.
The cruise ship behind them disappeared, and Gun and his subordinates disappeared with it. After drifting on the sea and the ship for several days, they finally landed on solid ground.
Looking up, the village, once covered in mud, was revitalized, and trees that had long been drowned were sprouting new green branches. Before them, a weathered apple tree was laden with large, heavy fruit.
Everything around was new and peaceful, as if the flood had never occurred.
In an instant, everything changed.
Everyone stared in amazement.
The actress rubbed her belly with one hand while looking at her watch.
On the dial, the pointer rotates rapidly clockwise at a speed that is difficult to see with the naked eye.
Until the pointer could no longer withstand such changes, sparks flew from friction, and a burnt smell was emitted, and finally it clicked, completely declaring it scrapped.
The actress burned her wrist, pulled off her watch, and put it in her pocket, not daring to touch it again.
Tao Ran suddenly said "Hey" and looked over: "What's that on your hand, a tattoo?"
He saw a set of numbers engraved on her wrist bone. It had been blocked from view by the watch before, and no one had noticed that she had this on her body.
The actress was stunned for a moment, then forced a smile: "Ah, yes, a tattoo."
As she said this, she retracted her wrist and put it behind her back so that Tao Ran couldn't see it.
Tao Ran shrugged and turned to look around.
The actress let out a long breath, raised her hand quietly, and her eyes fell on the string of numbers "tattoo".
00:36:23
She blinked.
Suddenly, the "tattoo" number on the wrist jumped silently.
00:36:22
It turned out to be a countdown.
-
Tao Ran turned his gaze away from the actress and looked curiously at the new world in front of him.
The ground they stood on was dry and hard. The apple trees overhead were densely leafed, and the bright sunlight was blindingly white. The sounds of children playing came from behind the trees.
"Is there someone behind the tree?" Tao Ran was stunned when he heard the noise.
"It seems so," the scholar nodded, "Let me find out a little bit."
He ran down the hillside and around the apple tree, and saw two children about seven or eight years old, dressed in coarse linen, hiding under the tree canopy, playing with gravel and mud.
He reached out to stop one of them, squinting his eyes and smiling, and asked, "Excuse me, young senior, how long has it been since the great flood?"
The child blinked and asked crisply, "A flood? We haven't had a flood here."
The scholar smiled and said, "You may not remember it. Go back and ask your parents and elders. Maybe they know."
The two children looked at each other and shook their heads: "I haven't heard the elders say that either."
"...That shouldn't be the case." The scholar pressed on, "You have a leader called Gun, and he cured the flood. Haven't you heard of him?"
"Chief Gun?" The two children frowned. "Who is this? We have never had a chief named 'Gun'."
The scholar's heart skipped a beat.
He straightened up, rubbed his chin with his thumb, and looked at their eyes. They didn't seem to be lying.
Could it be that...
After they changed history, the trajectory of the entire world became completely different from before?
The scholar's eyes suddenly widened. "Oh no! Oh no! If that's the case, then we'll all be the biggest sinners in history."
The scholar stamped his feet in a hurry and accidentally stepped into the gravel and debris piled up by the two young seniors.
He was stunned for a moment.
Gravel...
Gravel?!
The scholar suddenly came to his senses, apologized several times to the two young seniors, and turned to leave.
But when he looked back, he almost sprained his waist.
Tao Ran was seen holding the apple tree with his hands and feet in a funny posture, trying his best to climb up.
However, the eldest young master had been spoiled and pampered since childhood and had never done such a thing. He crawled for a long time but did not move at all.
When others climb trees, they are like monkeys climbing trees, moving sideways and vertically on the trees as if they were walking on flat ground.
And Tao Ran climbing a tree was like being a monkey.
The craftsman couldn't bear to see this, so he walked over and pulled Tao Ran, whose face was flushed red, away, saying, "Alright, don't move. I'll pick it for you."
After saying that, he rolled up his sleeves and climbed into the tree canopy in two or three steps. He spotted the ripe apples, picked them and threw them into Tao Ran's arms.
Tao Ran was enjoying himself by receiving the answers one after another when he suddenly let out an "Ah".
The craftsman came out from the gap and looked at him: "What's wrong?"
Tao Ran's face turned pale as he held up one of the apples: "There's blood on it!"
"Blood?" The craftsman was startled and subconsciously looked at his palm.
Sure enough, the wound on the palm of his hand was bleeding profusely, with scarlet liquid dripping down.
"It's okay, it's mine." he said.
Tao Ran breathed a sigh of relief: "So that's how it is! I was so scared! Be careful then!"
The craftsman nodded slightly and wiped the fruit on his clothes. He thought that he had picked enough fruit and should have enough to eat, so he planned to go back the way he came.
Tao Ran was worried watching from below. It was easy to go up, but it was dangerous to come down. If you were not careful, you might step on empty air. If the craftsman fell from the tree, it would be his fault.
Just as I was thinking about it, I heard a cracking sound above my head, and several thin branches fell straight down.
Tao Ran looked up suddenly: "Are you okay?"
Fortunately, the craftsman was still standing steadily on the tree and seemed to be fine. He just looked a little dazed and was staring at his palm in a daze.
"It's okay, I'm fine." The craftsman said softly, quickened his pace and came down from the tree.
As soon as he landed, he spread out his palms and kept muttering, "How could this be? This is impossible."
"What's impossible?" The scholar suddenly came up to him and asked.
The craftsman was startled and quickly pulled his hand back, but the scholar grabbed it and said, "Wait, where's the scar on your palm? Why is it gone?"
The sunlight filtered through the gaps in the treetops and fell onto the craftsman's hands. Under the spot of light, his palms were clean without a single scar.
"Yeah...how did it disappear?" the craftsman murmured softly, "When I got down from the tree just now, I was distracted and accidentally got scratched by a thin branch that came across."
He gestured on his palm: "Right here, the scar is in the exact spot. It was still dripping with blood, but with just a scratch from the tree branch, I saw it disappear with my own eyes. Isn't that strange?"
The scholar's face changed when he heard this, and he squeezed the craftsman's hand tightly, "Are you serious?"
The craftsman said, "How could it be fake? If you don't believe me, look at the bloodstains on my clothes. And the apple in Tao Ran's arms is stained with my blood. And before on the boat, you saw a scabbed scar on my palm, and you asked me what happened..."
The scholar's face lit up with excitement, and he turned and ran: "I know! I know!"
Tao Ran, still chewing an apple, approached the craftsman and looked at the scholar's back curiously: "What did he know that made him so happy?"
The craftsman was also confused: "Go and take a look."
-
Zhu Heng and his companions were staying on the sunny hillside next to the tree. They were afraid of being accidentally injured by the craftsmen throwing apples, so they stayed far away.
The actress had difficulty moving, so she sat down on the soft grass and turned her head to look at Zhu Heng not far away. He stood alone in the wind, the corners of his clothes puffed up, as if he was about to melt into this oil painting-like world.
She hid her eyes and turned to look at the vast expanse of white sunlight, the lush green grass, and the apple trees laden with red fruits. It was so beautiful that it seemed unreal.
He raised his hand and looked at the string of numbers engraved on his skin.
00:21:16
The countdown keeps running.
She held the diary in her arms, stroked the cover, and said jokingly, "This place has beautiful scenery. It would be a good place for a cemetery."
Zhu Heng's eyes moved slightly.
A gust of wind blew, and the sun baked the grass and soil, giving them a fragrant smell, which mixed with the aroma of apples and hit him all at once.
Zhu Heng's black hair was blown by the wind, and his gaze followed the wind and fell on the actress's belly. He quickly retracted his gaze, lowered his eyes, and remained silent.
The actress touched her belly, her eyes softening. "What do you think...if a person saw their destiny at birth, would they still choose to come to this world?"
The young peasant girl was stunned for a moment and said, "That depends on your luck."
The actress chuckled. "Not great, but not too bad either... By the way, have you ever delivered a baby?"
She used "you" instead of "you guys".
On the hillside, the wind speed gradually slowed down, and Zhu Heng looked up.
...Who are you asking? Him?
Zhu Heng glanced at the peasant girl next to him, but the actress stared at him straight, and the answer was obvious.
He didn't know what to say for a moment, hesitated for two seconds, and shook his head.
Actress: "Okay, if I really give birth, you can help me take care of it."
Zhu Heng: “???”
Are you blind?
The peasant girl looked at the actress in shock, then back at him, her face full of gossip.
The actress burst out laughing: "I'm just joking, don't take it seriously."
-
The scholar arrived at this time.
He ran up to the group and gasped, "Come here, I want to show you something."
As he said this, he took off his black boots and held them out in front of everyone.
The actress uttered a "huh" and fanned her nose: "What's so good about your stinky boots?"
The scholar pulled open the boots and said, "No, look, what's inside the boots?"
The little peasant girl took a closer look and said, "There's nothing here."
The scholar smiled slightly: "Nothing, right? That's right."
He explained, "Just now, I was asking those two young seniors over there about something, and I stepped into some gravel. My boots aren't deep, so the gravel should have gotten into my shoes, right? But no, not only that, the gravel that was originally in my boots is gone, completely gone."
The peasant girl's heart skipped a beat. "The remaining sand?"
"Yes! I first discovered the debris in my shoes when I was still in the cabin, when I gave..." The scholar tilted his head and raised his chin towards the craftsman who followed behind him, "...the time when I gave him the spoiler. From the moment I stepped on the sand in the cabin, to now, when I stepped on the gravel, my boots are actually clean. Have you noticed anything?"
The peasant girl thought for a moment and said, "Are you trying to say that the sequence of events is reversed?"
"Yes, it was because I stepped into the sand pile under the tree that I found gravel in my boots half an hour ago in the cabin."
The scholar narrowed his eyes and smiled. "It's not just me. A similar thing happened to the craftsman, too. Just now, he was climbing a tree and got scratched on the palm by a branch. That's why there was an old scabbed scar on his hand on the boat. As time passed, the scar grew newer, until the moment the scratch occurred, the wound disappeared."
The scholar came to a conclusion. He spoke very slowly, enunciating each word: "In this world, the result comes first, then the cause."
The reason why sand appeared in the shoes of the scholar in the past was because the scholar in the future stepped into a pile of sand.
The craftsman of the past had an old wound because the craftsman of the future scratched his palm while climbing a tree.
"Oh my god, that's what happened." Tao Ran yelled, drawing everyone's attention. "I noticed apple flesh in my vomit on the boat earlier. I was wondering why. I don't remember eating apples a few days ago."
As he spoke, he held up the half-eaten apple in his hand for everyone to see, and threw a few more to Zhu Heng: "Brother Zhu, you eat too, you must be starving!"
Obviously, because Tao Ran in the future ate the apple, apple flesh appeared in the vomit of Tao Ran in the past when he was seasick.
Tao Ran continued, "Now, me, the scholar, and the craftsman, each of us has experienced a corresponding cause-and-effect inversion event. What about you? What are you three?"
"Water bag." The scholar spoke. He looked at the little peasant girl and said, "You should correspond to the water bag that gets more water the more you drink."
The peasant girl immediately pulled out a water bag and handed it to everyone: "Is this it?"
The scholar took it and shook it. "Yes, I remember when we were on the boat, it was only half full. But now, it's only a mouthful away from being full. So, it seems that your cause will have to wait a little longer."
The scholar looked at Zhu Heng again: "Brother Zhu should also know this."
Naturally clear.
Zhu Heng nodded. The water inside was the one he drank in the cabin earlier.
As for the actress, the changes that have taken place in her are the most obvious. Although she is currently like a peasant girl and the "cause" has not yet occurred, the "result" has already occurred.
So……
"Where's Brother Zhu?" Everyone looked at Zhu Heng. "What are you corresponding to?"
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