Chapter 043 Three Sentences Fill the World-weary Villain with Hope (VIII)
"What happened?"
The sound of knuckles tapping on the bookshelf interrupted their conversation. Ming Shaotu came around from behind another bookshelf, his eyes passing from You Fei to the trash can next to him, and finally fixed on Chen Yunli.
The light bulb on the wall flickered, and a distorted light slid across the lenses of his glasses, and then receded like the tide, revealing a pair of gentle and calm eyes.
Being stared at by these eyes, Chen Yunli felt a little nervous unexpectedly, and even felt that his eyes were full of deep meaning.
"I just handled a stained book." Chen Yunli pondered for a moment, attributing his nervousness to the worry of making a mistake on his first day. He then offered to explain, opening the trash can again and motioning him to examine the scraps of paper inside. "Staining should be considered a type of abnormality with books. Mr. Ming, I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"
Staring at the pale snake tail frozen at his feet for a moment, unable to move, Ming Shaotu calmly adjusted his glasses. "You did a great job. By the way, I found the remaining two books with abnormalities. I'd appreciate your help in dealing with them."
"Oh, okay."
Chen Yunli nodded hurriedly. Although he didn't show it on his face, he had already sensed something was wrong.
When You Fei saw him tearing the book, his reaction was not normal. It was as if he was not tearing a paper book, but twisting red-hot steel with his bare hands.
Could it be that what he saw was different from what other people saw?
How big a difference would that be to shock You Fei so much that she would subconsciously use a respectful title for him?
Chen Yunli followed Ming Shaotu to a bookshelf not far away, reached into his pocket and rubbed Chen Wenjian's head.
This guy was acting strangely when he left the library yesterday. I guess he saw something extraordinary. I have to ask him about it after get off work.
While thinking, Chen Wenjian touched his fingers with his wet nose. At the same time, he also saw the two "abnormal" books that Ming Shaotu mentioned.
Two books sat side by side on the second shelf. One was an ancient, vertically bound volume, its pages old and yellowed, and so battered it looked as if it had just been unearthed from a tomb. The other was a hardcover illustrated album, its cover missing.
"What do you want me to do with it?" Chen Yunli pulled out the two books and flipped through them casually. The contents were ordinary. "Should I tear them up and throw them away like I did with the last one?"
Ming Shaotu's eyebrows twitched slightly: "...Just do as you think."
"good."
Since the old employees had spoken, Chen Yunli was too lazy to think of other solutions. He leaned against the bookshelf, tore off the pages of the books one by one, tore them into pieces, and threw them into the trash can at his feet.
Ming Shaotu took off his glasses, and his unprotected eyes were immediately faced with the unbearable truth.
There was a roar in his mind, and his rational thinking and emotional thinking were instantly mixed into a puddle of mud. His vision changed from clear to colorful, rotating, messy and sharp blocks of color, and his body surface also changed synchronously.
Dense granulation tissue grew wildly in the eye sockets, and after the facial features were dislocated, organs of the same type but different shapes proliferated in large numbers. A faint sound of sticky tentacles wriggling could be heard from under the black cloak, and thick black liquid dripped from between the fingers all over the ground.
The scene in front of him was reflected in hundreds of eyes all over Ming Shaotu's body, clear and distorted.
Chen Yunli held a huge eye with pupils in each hand, and with a little force, he squeezed them and made them burst.
Green mucus and bloody flesh fragments trickled down from between his fingers, but not a single bit could stain his slender white fingers, and they turned into smoke and dissipated a second before hitting the ground.
He used his thumb to pick up the last bit of meat left in his palm and fed it to the two-headed baby snake crawling at his feet. The baby snake didn't dare to open its mouth, so he pinched its seven-inch part to force its mouth open and stuffed the food in.
"Why are the trash cans in the library so difficult to open?" Ming Shaotu's six pairs of ears heard him say this.
Chen Yunli stomped on the pedal three times before the lid of the trash can creaked open. After throwing the shredded paper in, he looked up and saw the same expression on Ming Shaotu's face that You Fei had just seen.
Chen Yunli: “?”
No, what did they see?
"I..." Ming Shaotu stretched out his mouth, which was covered with dense teeth, and uttered a hoarse voice with effort, as if he was pulling his upper and lower lips that were sewn together.
Chen Yunli was shocked when he saw his pale face and dull eyes. He no longer cared about his doubts and raised his hand to pat him on the shoulder.
"Mr. Ming, are you okay? Are you feeling unwell?"
The moment his hand landed on Ming Shaotu's shoulder, Ming Shaotu felt a warm current flowing into his severely mutated body, as if a fire had been lit on a haystack, burning away the extra growths inside and outside his body and filling in the missing parts.
Ming Shaotu shuddered, and the strange and terrifying scene before him receded like the tide, leaving only a little dizziness and tinnitus to show that everything that had just happened was real.
He quickly put on his glasses and pressed his sore brow. "It's nothing. It might be because of the low temperature in the rain. I caught a cold and feel dizzy."
"Are you really okay?" Chen Yunli looked at his face. Although it looked a little better, it was still too pale. "Anyway, the three work tasks for today are completed. Why don't you go lie down over there on the table and rest for a while?"
"……good."
Ming Shaotu walked out of the bookshelf, looked around, and then turned back to look at him who was still standing there.
"Mr. Chen, while I'm on break, please patrol the bookshelves every two hours to check if there are any new unusual books. If there are any, you can resolve them on your own without asking me again."
Chen Yunli smiled and said, "I understand."
Watching Ming Shaotu walk towards the long table, Chen Yunli slowly put away his smile, reached out and knocked on the bookshelf beside him, as if thinking about something.
"You guys, and this place... isn't that what I saw?"
…
Ming Shaotu slept until the end of the get off work day. During this time, Chen Yunli inspected the bookshelves on time according to his instructions, but did not find any new unusual books.
At the same time, a strange atmosphere lingered in the library, composed of dim lights, damp cold wind, and the fading sound of rain. It was depressing, dull, and cramped, making him often feel like he was in a small, cold cave, rather than a spacious library that still felt empty even after being stuffed with a mountain of books.
In addition, You Fei's strange looks from time to time exacerbated the weirdness of the atmosphere, making him feel at a loss from what to do.
Fortunately, the closer it gets to the end of the get off work day, the weaker the atmosphere becomes, as if the things that created the atmosphere are slowly relaxing.
This further confirmed Chen Yunli's guess - there were things in the library that he could not see, which might be attached to some entities and could be destroyed by him without his knowledge, so he developed a fear and even a fear of him.
This made him feel like he had accidentally entered a cool novel and obtained a golden finger for perspective deviation.
At five o'clock, a long bell rang from the clock tower on the top floor of the library.
You Fei almost jumped up from behind the table, woke up the sleeping Ming Shaotu, and pulled him out with sleepy eyes.
His face was filled with deep fatigue, but his steps were not slow at all. It seemed as if it was an instinct engraved in his bones to leave the workplace immediately after get off work. Before leaving, he did not forget to pull Chen Yunli with him.
"Mr. Chen, let's go."
Chen Yunli followed them for a few steps, and suddenly remembered that the room key was left on the table, so he let them go first and went back to get it.
At that time, the time had come to 5:01. You Fei and Ming Shaotu ran out of the door, stood on the steps and looked inside.
All the lights in the library went out in an instant, and darkness drowned out the outlines of all objects, turning the spacious hall into a bottomless abyss.
The towering tower is coming to life at a speed visible to the naked eye. The mottled plaster is peeling off the pale walls, revealing fine silver lines, which then expand and contract like the scales of a giant snake exploding with a single breath.
The light from the two lanterns on the bell tower was also expanding and brightening, like the open pupils of a snake.
The steps in front of the library were smoothed out inch by inch, slowly surging from top to bottom like waves, then folding and gathering from both sides to the middle, gradually revealing its original appearance - a flat snake tail.
Ming Shaotu and You Fei could not stand and were almost blown off by the flapping snake's tail. At that moment, Chen Yunli quickly walked out of the dark giant mouth.
When he stepped onto the first step, the snake's tail stopped moving.
As it stepped onto the second step, the snake's tail stopped changing and stretched out stiffly, with its scales and flesh stretching and spreading out.
After stepping onto the third step, the tail completely turned back into a staircase.
Ming Shaotu and You Fei stared blankly behind him - under the high and vast gray-black sky, a giant silver python stood tall like a pillar of heaven, with its head lowered, its eyes staring coldly at Chen Yunli's back, and it spit out its tongue from time to time.
His body was so large that even when curled up, it still covered the entire city, and most of his body had returned to its original form. Only the part where Chen Yunli was standing, only the part where he was standing, could only maintain an illusion in the eyes of ordinary people.
Because of his existence, Ming Shaotu and You Fei can even look directly at His true appearance without being contaminated or alienated.
“Why not…”
Chen Yunli approached Ming Shaotu, and stopped asking questions halfway because he saw the "truth" in his eyes that he had guessed for a long time.
He saw a giant python that was both terrifying and divine, and superimposed on it was an illusion of immortality that was maintained because of his own perspective.
"……Stimulate."
Chen Yunli blinked and looked back, only to see the library. When he looked back into Ming Shaotu's eyes, he saw the library reflected in his eyes. The giant python seemed to be an illusion or a figment of his imagination.
He frowned and asked Ming Shaotu, "Is this the library?"
Ming Shaotu exchanged a meaningful look with him and took off his glasses - without protection, he could not see the "truth", only illusions.
You Fei also noticed this and rubbed her eyes in shock, only to find that it was still the same. The "real world" that was enough to destroy their sanity could no longer be seen by them, just like...
Some people use their own vision to solidify the world into the safest form.
"This is a library," Ming Shaotu replied. "As long as Mr. Chen works here, this will just be a library. A safe library, and it will always be safe."
Chen Yunli paused and understood his hidden meaning.
He scratched his head in amusement and muttered, "I never thought I could be this powerful."
The three of them walked down the stairs side by side. Chen Yunli didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that the two colleagues around him were in a particularly good mood, especially You Fei, whose steps were so light that she could even jump up.
When they reached the intersection of Songbai Street, Chen Yunli was just about to ask something out of curiosity when he heard two beeps from the front.
He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a sapphire blue car parked on the side of the road. The window was rolled down and Youfa waved at him with a smile.
Chen Yunli stepped forward, and Youfa got out of the car and opened the door on his side, making a "please" gesture: "Mr. Chen, I'm here to take you to the dinner. Get in the car."
Ming Shaotu and You Fei curled their lips, wanting to pretend they didn't notice his peacock-like attentiveness, but he had specially changed into a newly tailored white suit, combed his hair back in a style rarely seen in a hundred or eighty years, and even sprayed expensive perfume. His whole body exuded the word "showoff", which was completely different from his usual cool and capable image, making it difficult for them to pretend not to notice.
Especially since Ning Bufan had just performed the same trick on Ming Shaotu this morning, Yufa's thoughts were even more obvious.
Chen Yunli could naturally sense his attentiveness and found it a bit amusing: "Mr. Youfa, you're too polite. Since this is a gathering of colleagues, aren't the two of them going to join us?"
Yufa raised an eyebrow and waved his hand without turning back, as perfunctorily as possible: "Of course we are together. Come on, get in the car."
You Fei rolled her eyes.
Chen Yunli then got into the car and thanked Youfa.
"We're all colleagues, just like everyone else. Don't be polite." Yufa held the car door with one hand and reached towards his waist with the other. "You have to fasten your seatbelt in the back seat too. Come, Mr. Chen, I'll teach you..."
However, before he could finish his words and his hand had just reached the edge of Chen Yunli's pocket, a cat's head suddenly popped out at lightning speed and opened its mouth to bite his wrist.
Yufa suddenly withdrew his hand, and Chen Wenjian's teeth collided with each other, making a sound like metal clashing, sharp and piercing, making people's teeth ache.
Everyone present was shocked.
"Oh." You Fei lowered her head and met the murderous Chen Wenjian's eyes. The corners of her mouth curled up, "Is this the small 'ferocious beast' that Mr. Chen raised?"
Chen Yunli was stunned, while Chen Wenjian pressed his hands against his ears and a low roar came out of his throat.
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