77 Zhuang Zhou Mengdie 03
◎The bottom line of fate has been revealed to him◎
Zhu Heng wiped away the goose bumps on the floor and couldn't help but smile again.
Half a second later, the smile froze on his face.
He stretched out his slender white index finger, placed it on the cube, wiped the moisture from his breath, and looked closely.
He and Helan Dao arrived at Quanzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty on the fourth floor, but did not meet Liu Qiaoer. They held hands in the room and used tea leaves that appeared out of thin air to go to the next world.
Where is Liu Qiaoer?
Zhu Heng subconsciously looked up to see the final outcome. The already faded picture flashed twice and then returned to its original color.
Something seems wrong.
Zhu Heng walked away and arrived at the next dungeon, "Tokyo Dream", but something even more unexpected happened.
After Helando came out of the "Silk Road" copy, the subsequent plot did not develop according to the previous script, but skipped all the intermediate plots and jumped directly to the appearance of the Judge.
These judges appeared in the "General History of the Universe" system because of the White Butterfly Prophecy, with the purpose of taking away Helando, the owner of the White Butterfly revealed in the prophecy.
Zhu Heng finally realized that he had made a big mistake.
Everything he did so far was intended to alter future history, but the most crucial element was the White Butterfly prophecy. Dr. Xu was right to say he was the only variable, but that was because of him as the White Butterfly's master, not just as an ordinary person.
If his life story had nothing to do with Bai Die, then his existence would be meaningless...
Thinking of this, Zhu Heng suddenly looked up and looked at "himself" in the cube.
As expected, as Helan Dao was taken away by the Judge, the figure of "Zhu Heng" in the three-dimensional world trembled, and his body slowly became transparent, and then disappeared from Zhu Heng's sight bit by bit.
Zhu Heng looked at everything happening in front of him and gently rubbed his thumb.
His disappearance wasn't unexpected. Without the Tokyo Dream dungeon, there would be no City upon City plot; without City upon City, there would be no arrangement for him to send himself to an orphanage. This meant that the logic couldn't connect, and this storyline had completely become a parallel universe.
Not to mention, the "Zhu Heng" here is just his projection, not the real him. Even if there are no other accidents, this projection will eventually disappear on its own, just like the actress.
Zhu Heng frowned.
But why does he still exist now? If Dr. Xu's theory is correct, he is indeed a four-dimensional life that unfolded into a three-dimensional shape, came to the three-dimensional world, and then returned to the four-dimensional world by piecing himself back together. This means that he is not a projection, but the real mother, the real Zhu Heng.
In a flash, Zhu Heng suddenly figured something out.
Since the "Zhu Heng" who was placed in the three-dimensional world was the one who unfolded from the four-dimensional world, he should not have used projection in the hotel in the beginning, or at least it can be said that this was not the starting point for him to go to the three-dimensional world.
The real source is in the City on City copy - the moment when he sent his infant self to the orphanage.
That is the real and complete him.
Zhu Heng stood up straight. He found the block that belonged to the plot of City upon City. At this moment, the scene inside the block was as if frozen, appearing gray, waiting for Zhu Heng to change history and "restart" it.
Just as Zhu Heng was about to unfold himself, the white butterfly suddenly flew in front of him again. Zhu Heng saw it and stopped moving.
Unfolding himself is different from casting a shadow. The latter is just his clone. Even if it is separated from his body, his real body can still exist in the four-dimensional world, standing at the highest point and seeing the whole picture.
But the former allowed him to completely leave the four-dimensional world and return to the three-dimensional world. Even if he left a projection here, it would not last long.
So before he actually left, he still had some things to arrange in advance.
For example, let Bai Die change her owner and let Liu Qiaoer reappear.
Zhu Heng immediately came to the Tokyo Canmeng copy. Like the City on City, the plot here had long been frozen, as if someone had pressed the pause button.
But there is neither Zhu Heng nor Liu Qiaoer here, it is just an ordinary copy.
However, this was not a difficult task for Zhu Heng. He projected two shadows in the three-dimensional world again, one in the shape of Liu Qiaoer, and the other one into himself. He could use his own projection to deal with it for a few days, which should be no problem.
He wiped the dust off the cube and injected a trace of consciousness into it. This trace of consciousness immediately turned into the appearance of a white butterfly, leading "Zhu Heng" into the dream and possessing Liu Qiaoer.
The rest of the story goes on as usual until the day when Liu Qiaoer made her first prophecy. At this moment, the white butterfly beside Zhu Heng suddenly became agitated. Zhu Heng glanced at it indifferently, stretched out a hand to wrap it, and then arranged his three-dimensional self to speak the prophecy through Liu Qiaoer's mouth.
Just after the prophecy was spoken, Zhu Heng saw that the dead souls in the universe were running around in excitement, and then gradually gathered in the same direction.
He unconsciously let go of the white butterfly in his hand, and then he saw that those transparent wronged souls began to have color and slowly condensed into the shape of a white butterfly.
As butterflies, they used the same sensory system and the same eyes to gaze at Zhu Heng from afar and solemnly said, "Our God, our grievances will never fade away; we will never forget your kindness. We will transform into wind and rain, and swear to follow you until death. We will transform into the smallest matter in the universe, guarding you and waiting for you until you return."
Zhu Heng’s first reaction was to look at the end of the tunnel: the final doomsday scene of mankind was completely gloomy, as if there was no more "life".
So that’s how it is, Zhu Heng suddenly understood.
The white butterfly changed its owner from then on.
But Zhu Heng frowned again. If this was the true origin of the white butterfly, then what did it have to do with Zhuang Zhou? Why was it called Zhuang Zhou Butterfly?
Although he was extremely puzzled, Zhu Heng knew that now was not a good time to dwell on this issue. He saw that the historical line of the three-dimensional world was undergoing earth-shaking changes.
As the White Butterfly changed its owner, Helan Dao, who was originally taken away from the Silk Road, was sent back as if nothing had happened. Zhu Heng tentatively asked about it, but found that the history of the past had simply evaporated and no one remembered it anymore.
Zhu Heng secretly breathed a sigh of relief. After doing all this, he finally arrived at the City on City copy. He took one last look at the entire three-dimensional world, and then without hesitation, he unfolded himself from a four-dimensional form to the shape of a three-dimensional creature - a baby boy.
Zhu Heng left a shadow and asked the shadow to put himself, who had unfolded into a baby boy, back into the three-dimensional world and place him on the bed in the Qin Palace, and then quietly waited for the arrival of "Zhu Heng" and Helan Dao.
The following plot went very smoothly, and he was sent back to the welfare home by "himself" as he wished, officially starting a new cycle of life.
This time, I think we're really on the right track...
Zhu Heng, who had left the four-dimensional world, although still retained some of the abilities of a four-dimensional life form, could not resist the onset of sleepiness, which dragged his consciousness into darkness.
After an unknown amount of time, Zhu Heng finally woke up.
He opened his eyes and looked up. The white ceiling was pressing down in front of him. He yawned and suddenly felt that something was wrong.
After being stunned for a few seconds, he suddenly turned over and got up, looking around, and found that he was lying in the same hotel. The sky outside the floor-to-ceiling window was covered with dense fine lines. At this moment, the sun was setting, and the golden sunlight in the sky swept the entire field of vision.
While he was in a daze, there was a rhythmic knock on the door. Zhu Heng came back to his senses, got out of bed and opened the door.
Outside the door was an elderly, gray-haired hotel waiter, pushing a silver cart and bringing Zhu Heng dinner for today.
Zhu Heng pressed his aching solar plexus, and without saying a word, made way for the waiter, allowing him to push the dining cart into the living room.
Zhu Heng picked up a towel and planned to take a hot bath to refresh himself. Just as he was about to go into the bathroom, he caught sight of the waiter's back and stopped.
Then he strode forward and grabbed the waiter's wrist.
"It's you." Zhu Heng said.
The waiter's back flashed, and he slowly turned around and looked at Zhu Heng with a smile: "Did you recognize me? Long time no see."
"It wasn't that long. To me, it was just a blink of an eye." Zhu Heng let go of the waiter's wrist. "Isn't that right, Zhuangzi?"
Zhuangzi took off his waiter's attire and burst into laughter.
Zhu Heng sat down in the window seat, rubbing his head as he continued to ask Zhuangzi, "Why are you here?"
"You should ask yourself why you are here," Zhuangzi said to Zhu Heng.
Zhu Heng frowned and said, "I just..."
Zhuangzi interrupted him, shaking his head: "Don't even mention what happened just now. How can you be sure that what happened just now wasn't just a dream?"
"Dream? If that was a dream, then I can also say that everything that is happening now may also be a dream."
"That's true," Zhuangzi said with a smile. He winked at Zhu Heng with a sly look on his face. "Do you want to know what Tao Ran saw in the cave?"
When Zhu Heng heard Tao Ran's name, his heart moved.
Sensing the slight fluctuation in Zhu Heng's mood, Zhuangzi raised his eyebrows, a little surprised: "You are a little more human this time than before."
"Am I familiar with you?" Zhu Heng was a little impolite.
"Not really," Zhuangzi waved his hand. "You and I have only met a thousand times under the same circumstances."
"A thousand times? You mean, in this hotel?"
Zhuangzi put his hands in his sleeves and explained with a smile: "You enter the 'General History of the Universe' system from here, go all the way to the fourth dimension, and then find a way to come back. Then you continue to return to the hotel and wait until the sun sets completely -"
He pointed at the sunset outside the window: "—You will enter the Universal History once again, go to the fourth dimension once more, and come back once more... and then repeat endlessly. So I said, we have met thousands of times."
The atmosphere in the room was a little quiet.
Zhuangzi suddenly walked to the French window, his robe and hair moving without a breeze. He closed his eyes and gently shook his head, his expression unclear as to whether it was laughter or tears. He chanted rhythmically, "You, mere mortals, hope in vain to change the course of the universe. You try to change the sun and moon, to make the world anew, but in the end, it's all just a dream, a dream of the yellow millet, Zhuangzi's butterfly. I've seen the rise and fall of half a lifetime, buried in the world of mortals, with no place to rest. Why bother?"
After the song was finished, Zhuangzi slowly opened his eyes and sighed softly, "Taoran had already seen your end, in that cave. But he didn't know that these words were actually spoken by me."
"You can choose to continue on the predetermined historical path and repeat this cycle; or you can choose to leave here and retire like me. After all, the demise of the universe is inevitable, and human intervention is beyond our control. It's better to let nature take its course and let everything happen as it should."
Zhu Heng said nothing. He raised his eyelids, looked past Zhuangzi and looked at the thin line in the distant sky.
The cards of fate have been revealed to him, and it is time for him to make a decision.
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