Want you to believe
As soon as these words were spoken, the scene became quiet again. People looked at each other in confusion, while some just looked at their nails silently or picked up the tassels hanging from their waists and stroked them carefully. They didn't pay attention to his words, nor did they respond.
"A bunch of big guys, if you don't want to talk about the clues, just deny it. Isn't this just acquiescence?... This is going to be tough, it looks like a fight is about to start..." The man who had tried to smooth things over was secretly sweating, thinking about it and glaring at the man who brought it up. "After all these days without finding any clues, how many of them have a sharp mind? If you're so stupid, why are you still asking questions? Just follow the boss and don't pick a fight for no reason."
He cleared his throat and said, "What are you talking about?! We outsiders all have the same goal: to leave this mountain city. And the key to leaving obviously lies with 'Lynx Cat'. Why are we wasting our time with this useless talk instead of discussing how to enter the tower undetected?"
He glared at the man fiercely again and said, "It's already the fourth day. If we don't hurry up and get out of here, we're going to die tonight!"
Suddenly, everyone fell silent, agreeing with his statement, and turned to discuss the plan to sneak into the tower.
Several people in the crowd had ugly expressions on their faces, their expressions changed several times, and their lips moved several times as if they wanted to say something, but in the end they swallowed it back.
"Then let's gather under the tower in the evening," one person decided.
After noon.
"'Bobcat' is the patron saint of our place. He protects us forever and brings us peace and joy." A middle-aged woman on the street put down the straw target on her back, took a string of rosy candied haws from it and handed it to the girl in front of her. She answered with a smile after hearing the question.
Liu Jingyu opened her eyes wide in feigned surprise and asked, "Does 'Mountain Cat' have such powerful magical powers? Eternal peace and happiness—even gods can't promise that?!"
She reached out to take the candied haws from the middle-aged woman's hand. As she spoke, she seemed to catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye. Her gaze suddenly paused, but quickly returned to normal. She looked at the woman in front of her with a smile, as if she was very curious and fascinated by what the woman said.
"Of course." The woman smiled broadly, a hint of pride between her eyebrows, and said, "We live in a remote area, where people are poor and stingy. If He wasn't so powerful, why would we worship Him?!"
The woman had the unique habits of residents in a mountain town. When she heard people mention the deeds of the 'Mountain Cat', she stopped walking around the streets selling candied haws and happily told Liu Jingyu: "Look, in this remote little place of ours, before the 'Mountain Cat' came along, we were hungry and full, and people were lucky to be alive.
"At that time, 'Yanmao' had just arrived here, and no one believed in his magical powers. Some even wanted to drive him away...
"But what happens later? Twenty, thirty, thirty, fifty years later? Everyone is happy every day, there are no more quarrels, and everyone is living their lives happily! Only then do they realize how powerful the 'Bobcat' is!"
"Is that so?" Liu Jingyu's face was filled with admiration. Then he asked innocently, "What does 'long-lasting' mean? Does it mean blessing everyone in the city with good health and longevity?"
The middle-aged woman listened, the smile on her face growing wider, her shoulders shrugged slightly, and a low, restrained laugh escaped her throat, as if she were enduring some utterly ridiculous joke. She lowered her head, her mouth wide open, and muttered to herself, "How can it be enough? How can it be enough? How can it be enough? How can it be enough?"
After a long pause, she finally raised her head, her face displaying the same cheerful smile as before. She looked at the girl before her and said meaningfully, "Don't worry. You'll soon understand the magical powers of the Mountain Cat. Don't doubt Him. Every doubt you harbor in your ignorance will bring you deep regret in the future. Soon, you'll be praying devoutly and praising Him for everything..."
“?!”
Liu Jingyu's pupils shrank slightly. She didn't know what thought had just flashed through her mind. Her heart was beating rapidly and cautiously. Her lips trembled slightly, and then she smiled sweetly and said:
"I see."
She turned and left, her eyes instantly turning cold as she turned her back to the middle-aged woman, and her thin figure quickly blended into the crowd.
Liu Jingyu put the tempting candied haws he was holding between his fingers into the storage space. He followed the crowd forward, but his eyes dropped to look at the three scars on his left forearm.
Three.
How could that be?
The side effects of the dream and the celebration made it difficult for her body to stop the bleeding from the wound. Even after taking the elixir, a light white, slightly raised scar remained on her arm, which was slowly healing.
Liu Jingyu raised his right hand, and his right index finger gently slid across his left forearm, sliding straight across the two scars closest to his wrist.
——It should have been.
This should have been the scar she had cut herself with a dagger during the second night of the celebration in the mountain city.
But, not anymore.
She had only taken the pill and had not paid attention to the scars on her arm. After all, bumps and bruises were inevitable when walking outside. If she had not caught a clue out of the corner of her eye when she took the candied haws from the middle-aged woman's hand, she might have missed a clue inadvertently.
"The celebration was fake too..." Liu Jingyu recalled the two contrasting scenes recorded in the two jade pendants. "So, it seems that only during the day can we be sure that what we see and hear is real. At night, the slightest mistake can lead to disaster."
“How terrifying…”
She smiled and felt emotional.
In the evening, the orange light was dimly spreading over the earth. As the sun set, the city residents in the streets and alleys closed their stalls and walked home together with laughter and joy.
A grayish-white tower stood in a sparsely populated area, guarding its spot unchanged for eternity. Behind it, lush, tall trees formed a semi-encircling circle. At this moment, the many outsiders hiding among the trees glanced at each other, nodded, and quietly approached the tower.
They tiptoed to push open the stone door, which inevitably made a dull sound. Everyone looked back in fear, and seeing peace behind them, they walked into the gray-white tower with confidence.
A muffled yet somewhat sharp voice sounded again behind them. The gray and white ancient stone door was carefully closed. All the light disappeared at once, and everyone was in darkness.
The darkness is always unbearable.
The cold and damp air gently caressed the back of everyone's neck, and it couldn't be shaken off. It was as if a slender, soft, boneless hand was playfully climbing up along their spine, gently caressing their neck.
When the darkness blinded their eyes, the fear hidden deep within their hearts suddenly became infinitely magnified, and almost no one was immune. Accompanied by the panicked cries of lights and footsteps, the crowd shoved and jostled in panic.
"The light is coming, the light is coming!"
Someone deliberately lowered their voice to say something soothing, but the sound still sounded like thunder in the empty tower.
call--
Some gathered, some scattered, the darkness in front of the door lit up with flickering orange candlelight, and more and more flames lit up. Everyone held a candle in their hands, raised their heads and looked around.
"Let's go." Just as everyone was still excitedly exploring the surroundings, a calm voice sounded in front.
Soon, more and more people came to their senses and stepped onto the stairs.
"Huh?!" A strange cry suddenly came from the hesitant crowd at the back. "What on earth do you know? Why are you all going upstairs? Do you know the exact location of 'Bobcat'?!"
None of the people who stepped onto the stairs looked back, let alone paid any attention to him. They walked up the stairs intently, as if they hadn't heard anything.
"You, what do you mean?! Hey! You are not allowed to go, you must explain it to me clearly, otherwise we will not follow you!" The voice was filled with anxiety and shouted frantically, as if trying to stop them from going up the stairs with words.
The dozen or so people who walked up the stairs didn't even pause for a moment, but a few of them heard what was said and looked at us with disdain: "Who do you think you are?! You said you can't leave, so you can't leave? It's as if we have to force you to follow us!"
Just because they ignored them didn't mean the dozens of people hesitating downstairs wouldn't take action. They came to their senses, shouted, and ran up the stairs quickly, trying to pull the few people upstairs. After a while, they made a fuss and blocked them halfway.
"Speak clearly! What do you know?!"
"Hurry up and tell me what your purpose is! Tell me the truth, or I'll use force!!!"
"What exactly do you want to do by leading us to the tower?"
Veins throbbed in the foreheads of the dozen or so people stuck on the stairs, their anger surging as they shook off the hands of those behind them tugging at their clothes. If they hadn't been in a hurry and didn't want to make too much noise fighting in the tower, they would have already taken action. But now, they could only coldly retort:
"Follow me or not, you idiots, why should we care about you?!"
"I shouldn't have brought you here. You're of no help and will only waste other people's time!"
"With your brains, what's the point of telling you? Either stay downstairs or get out of the tower and don't get in the way here."
"If you're stupid, just listen. We'll get out of here eventually. Are you the ones hesitating and still trying to make trouble?!"
"You're all so stupid, you won't live long anyway. Instead of worrying about whether we'll hurt you, you might as well think about following us closely, maybe you can still have a chance of survival."
The dozen or so people who went upstairs turned around and glared at the people below fiercely, wishing they could fight with them.
They were hesitant and timid when they first discussed the matter at the city gate. They said they would split the troops into two groups but refused to do so. Now that they have entered the tower, they are dragging people away and not letting them go upstairs. If the situation was not so urgent and dangerous, anyone would have been slapped to death by these idiots!
"Why should we trust you?!" someone shouted, "Who knows what you are thinking? Why should we trust you?!"
A man on the stairs gnashed his teeth and said, "Do you believe me? If not, just leave the tower!"
"Why don't you just explain it to us? If you want us to risk our lives, you should at least tell us what happened!"
Someone upstairs sneered, "You're selling your lives? You're selling our lives, right?"
Another person also said: "For someone who hasn't discovered anything in all these days, with that kind of brain, it's useless to explain it to him. It won't help at all."
"Let go!" someone shouted coldly, flicking his sleeve to push away the people behind him, and turned to the people above, saying, "Hurry up! There's no need to say so much here before the residents of the city notice something is wrong and rush over!"
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