Möbius strip
"They all look the same, wearing all kinds of clothes, some are the first time I've met them, some are the second time I've met them, and some are the ones I haven't met at all.
She told me we couldn't go back, she said this was a Möbius strip. They laughed and cried at me, they yelled like crazy, she told me to look back, she said, "Look back!"
Qi Jing blinked, tears streaming down his cheeks. He began to tremble uncontrollably, his head filled with tiny, hoarse cries. He gasped, "She said there are many of her here, but none of them are her. She said that what is true is false, and what is false is still false."
Qi Jing couldn't control his emotions and started crying. He turned his head to look at Shu Yan. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but he couldn't lift his hand.
He felt very strange and his heart was blocked. He wished that time would stop and it would be nice if they could just look at each other.
Qi Jing just kept crying as she looked at Shu Yan, even though her eyes were filled with tears and she couldn't see him clearly, and her ears were buzzing.
Wang Shitou waved his hand in front of him. Several people stood there motionless. They wanted to go forward but were afraid that he was in a nightmare and that waking him up would make him crazy.
Shu Yan called his name softly, very softly. He looked at Qi Jing's tear-stained face and trembling body, and his voice was so soft that it trembled.
"Qi Jing."
He took a small step forward, but Wang Shitou stopped him. He approached Qi Jing very quietly and slowly, trying to hold his hand.
After holding his hand, she used her other hand to wipe his tears without any rejection and gently called his name.
"Qi Jing."
The Xiaoxiao in Qi Jing's mind gradually began to blur, the hoarse crying slowly disappeared, his eyes began to see clearly, and the buzzing sound in his ears turned into the sound of Shu Yan.
Slowly, he saw Shu Yan in front of him, heard his own name clearly, his body stopped shaking, and his emotions calmed down.
He looked at the person in front of him and felt the warmth in his hand. He looked down and saw Shu Yan's hand. He asked him, "What's wrong?"
Feeling a little itchy on his face, he reached out and touched it, then said, "Did you kiss me? Why is your face wet?"
Shu Yan was stunned, his face turned cold again. He let go of his hand, took a small step back, and looked at him without saying a word.
Zhang Heqian was a little bit unbelievable when listening to what he said. He looked at Qi Jing who was still crying and asked him, "You were not like this before."
Qi Jing looked at him with some confusion. He was very curious why he said that: "Huh?"
Zhang Heqian didn't reply, but Wang Shitou beside him asked him: "Don't you remember what you did just now?"
Qi Jing shook his head: "What did I do? Haven't I been standing here the whole time?"
After he finished speaking, he looked at Wang Shitou and found that not only Wang Shitou had a strange expression, but even Shu Yan was looking at him with an inquiring look.
"?"
Qi Jing took a step back and accidentally knocked a photo off the wall.
When I picked it up, I saw it was a small photo.
He wiped it and hung it back up, but no matter how hard he tried, it just wouldn't stick. He had no choice but to find a nail from his bag that he didn't know where it came from and nailed it back up.
He looked at the photo, and when he turned back, the photo didn't fall down again. No one said anything when they saw his action. Only Ma Liangchen looked at the time and said, "It's past ten in the morning. We should go back. We have to rush to the next mission point tomorrow."
The passage was short, but they needed to go up to the ground.
The long staircase was a bit tiring to walk up. Shu Yan walked in front, while Ma Liangchen and Zhang Heqian walked in the middle with Qi Jing between them, telling him what happened to him just now.
Shi Yuncheng and Wang Shitou were walking at the back. They looked at the photos as they walked, trying to find themselves among the hundreds of photos.
When he was about to go out, Shi Yuncheng wanted to look back, but was interrupted by the sound in front.
Ma Liangchen: "Hey, there's a blind box at the door!"
Several people gathered together in an instant. The blind box was placed at the door of the villa where they first entered. The surroundings were very quiet, and crazy vines were everywhere, but this time, their way back to the service desk was not occupied by vines.
Ma Liangchen opened the blind box and found only a card inside, which read "One plus six tips: one plus one equals two, one plus two equals three, one plus three equals four, one plus four equals five, one plus five equals six."
"What's this?" Ma Liangchen looked at the card: "Do we look like stupid people?"
Zhang Heqian took the card and looked at the one plus six clue on it: "I know this problem, it equals seven!"
"Get out of the way!" Wang Shitou snatched the card from his hand and looked at it carefully, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see anything.
This is a white card that is as ordinary as it can be. They all know that one plus six equals seven, but the key is that they don’t know what this seven refers to.
The confused people decided not to touch the cards anymore. They put the cards away and walked towards the sun.
It was just after ten-thirty in the morning, and the sun was shining brightly. Without the vines blocking their way, they would reach their destination in less than two hours. Shi Yuncheng, the last one to leave, closed the empty blind box and put it back. He looked back at what looked like a basement door.
The red wooden door was identical to the one they had chiseled open inside, and there were also nails on the door frame that was visible outside. The lights inside had also been turned off after they left, so this time they could no longer see inside.
He would also not have seen the photos printed on the door that they had broken into, which were exactly the six of them, no more, no less.
As a gust of wind blew, the wooden door slammed shut, completely blocking his view.
After everyone left, the door of the villa was opened from the inside.
A man in white clothes picked up the blind box on the ground. He looked in the direction where several people left and smiled happily.
After the man went in, the sunny weather outside suddenly became dark, and a group of red birds were circling in the sky.
But within a quarter of an hour, it began to drizzle, and the circling birds stopped under the eaves of the villa, staring motionlessly at the place where Qi Jing and the others left.
After walking for more than two hours, they finally arrived at the service hall. They had not eaten since yesterday afternoon, so they discussed and decided to eat first, then go to the notary office to exchange the card for points, and then go back to take a shower and sleep before starting the next task.
But when they went to the notary office to exchange it, they were told that it was a useless card and could not be exchanged for points.
Wang Shitou was speechless: "What do you mean by a waste card? Didn't you say that any blind box found outside can be exchanged for points here?"
The waitress was very calm and smiled as she called out Wang Shitou's number: "0951234. We clearly state that blind boxes purchased outside can be redeemed for points here, but your card is shown as expired, so it cannot be redeemed for points. I hope you understand!"
Wang Shitou really wanted to argue with him. Why did they leave it out there after it expired? Besides, who knew the card would expire? There was no expiration date written on it! But there were many people in the queue behind him.
On the way back, he became more and more angry: "This notary office is crazy! Why leave it at the door if it's expired?"
Master Yuncheng hugged Wang Shitou, agreed with him, and took him to avoid people on the road.
When they had washed up and were lying in their beds at night, Qi Jing began to review what had happened that day.
He remembered what Zhang Heqian had said to him after he was sucked into the photo. He wondered why an expired card appeared at the door. What did the message on the card mean?
"Brother Shitou, let me see that card." Qi Jing turned over and sat up.
Wang Shitou threw the card under the pillow over and asked, "Catch it. Look, if it were you, the notary office should have exchanged it for us. After all, they were the ones who put the blind box there and got the stuff inside. They should take full responsibility!"
"But how did the lady at the information desk know my number? She's not secretly in love with me, is she?"
Zhang Heqian sat up in shock and looked at him: "Are you so shameless?"
Wang Shitou: "? What's wrong? Are you shameless?"
Ma Liangchen also sat up and said to Wang Shitou seriously, "He is implying that you are shameless, not praising you for having dignity."
Shu Yan and Shi Yuncheng both sat up. Qi Jing was still looking at the card, a white card with nothing on it except these few words.
"Who put this card there?"
Wang Shitou: "Isn't this something done by the notary office? Otherwise, who would have an expired card?"
"Yeah, who would have an expired card?"
Qi Jing looked at them, and several of them thought of the same thing.
Shu Yan: "Mobius strip."
Zhang Heqian: "You mean, this card wasn't placed there by someone from the notary office, but by someone who arrived earlier than us? But who else could have arrived earlier than us? Aren't we the first group?"
Qi Jing: "Isn't the Möbius strip a loop? This card is expired and hasn't been used. That means it belongs to the person in the previous loop. We are a new loop, and the blind box in the previous loop is expired. So, as long as we succeed this time, we can break the loop and go home."
Qi Jing became happier as he spoke: "I have a feeling that we should be able to return home successfully this time."
Shi Yuncheng ran to Wang Shitou's bed during his speech. He hugged Wang Shitou and said, "But how can we break this cycle?"
Qi Jing took the cards and said to them, "One plus six equals seven. The seventh person must be the one from the previous cycle."
Several people seemed to have opened a valve and kept talking. They were all discussing what they would do after returning home. Zhang Heqian said he would work less overtime, Ma Liangchen said he would try to have a relationship, and Wang Shitou said he would go traveling with Shi Yuncheng.
Shu Yan was the only one who didn't speak. He just listened to them quietly and wondered, would it really end like this?
At night, it was quiet and they all fell asleep, but the clue card slowly floated up, slowly projecting a person.
The person who came in was the one who had left the villa during the day. He held a fan in his hand and looked at the people in the room. He whispered, "Go to sleep. A new cycle will begin soon."
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