Chapter 21 Tide's Maxim (Part 3) Whether it's a cycle or a whirlpool...
Whether it's a cycle or a vortex.
Is it a revelation of light or a premonition of disaster?
Trash should stay in the trash can.
Xia Zhu grabbed a net and plunged it into the water, directly scattering the symbols that were still forming. He then scooped up the remaining floating objects one by one, completing the task in a series of fluid movements.
The man had said that wandering around the campus was not allowed, and perhaps the only opportunity to look around for more clues was when cleaning the pond. She had noticed it earlier; there seemed to be a path to the right of the building, leading somewhere unknown, and now was the perfect time to investigate.
Xia Zhu pulled her raincoat tighter and struggled against the wind.
After walking a few steps, the school gate came into view, dilapidated and decadent, just like always.
That's not the point. The point is that a long seawall extends out into the deep sea from outside the tightly closed school gates. From Xia Zhu's perspective, she can see a cliff slightly higher than the seawall on the right, while huge waves several meters high crash ashore on the left.
However, there was a fist-sized lock on the iron gate, so it was highly likely that students inside the school could not easily leave.
Xia Zhu roughly estimated the surrounding walls and felt that she should be able to climb over. Something glimpsed in the rain curtain in the wind. She went closer and found a bronze nameplate embedded in the gatepost.
The text above was obscured by rainwater and algae. Xia Zhu reached out and wiped some of it away, revealing the text carved underneath.
"School 6174"
Do the numbers represent the order of the sequence or their names?
Xia Zhu tends to favor names.
6174 should be the name of this school.
She was still pondering the meaning behind the school's use of this string of numbers when she looked down and saw a leaf clinging to her shoe.
As if afraid the strong wind would blow it away, Xia Zhu's shoes were its only support, and you could even tell how hard it was from the frequency of its trembling. But no matter what, it couldn't withstand the erosion of the sea wind. A corner of the leaf was lifted up, revealing golden veins like an eye.
His eyes blinked frantically at her as the torrential rain poured down.
The sound of rain blocked out all subtle noises, such as footsteps that were right next to her. Xia Zhu felt as if her back was shrouded in some kind of fuzzy veil, or rather, her body hairs stood on end due to her sixth sense that she could perceive everything. She slowly straightened up and turned her head.
A grotesque, distorted face was pressed against the tip of her nose.
The fishy smell came over me without warning.
"Didn't I say... that you're not allowed to move around freely on campus...?" It was that man. His face was slightly swollen, which was different from this morning. It seemed that he had been soaking in the water for a long time and had been soaked, which had stretched his shriveled face.
"I was wrong, teacher." Xia Zhu bowed deeply and perfectly.
The man seemed surprised by her reaction; a hint of astonishment could be seen on the floater's face.
"I'll let it slide this time... but don't let it happen again..."
"Yes!" Xia Zhu returned the Young Pioneers salute, then pulled down the brim of his hat and quickly left.
He pretended to be a fallen leaf, swaying left and right as he drifted behind her.
Feng and Feng waited anxiously in Xia Zhu's room until the lock turned and she appeared unharmed at the door, at which point they were finally relieved.
She stood at the doorway, took off her raincoat, and shook off the raindrops.
"Are you alright, Azhu?" Feng Feng took her raincoat. "We were watching from the window. You had just left when that teacher appeared. I released the blinds to warn you. He didn't do anything to you, did he?"
"Nothing much happened..." Xia Zhu told the two of them what had just happened.
"Symbols? What kind of symbols?" Unfortunately, there was no paper or pen here, so Xia Zhu could only use his finger dipped in water to roughly draw a rough sketch on the ground.
"What does this mean?" Feng Mian asked.
The symbol is divided into two parts. Xia Zhu pointed to the outer triangle and said, "I recognize the outer part; it's the Penrose triangle."
The infinitely looping triangle created by the illusion of a two-dimensional plane symbolizes a logical paradox.
"But the meaning of the middle letter is unclear."
The three of them squatted on the ground, deep in thought.
"We still have too few clues!" Feng Feng stood up and put his hands on his hips. "It seems that cleaning the pool is the only opportunity. Whoever gets to do it should take the chance to investigate more."
As night fell, only a corner of the world was revealed. With no clues yet, it seemed all they could do was wait. They all returned to their rooms, hoping for a peaceful night.
The water stains drawn on the floor lingered, remaining in the center of the room. Even lying in bed, she could still see them by turning her head. In her incomplete vision, the edges of the water stains seemed to be slowly spreading, threatening to cover the entire room. Yet, when she sat up and looked closely, they were no different from their original form. The more she stared at them, the more a vortex swirled in her brain. Her temples and eye sockets throbbed with pain, forcing her to close her eyes and force herself to sleep.
Even so, my mind was filled with triangular symbols of different sizes, growing more and more densely packed, threatening to fill my skull and burst it.
Fortunately, this situation only lasted a short while. Xia Zhu frantically chanted, "In order to carry out a sacred siege against this ghost, all the forces of old Europe have united." Since she couldn't do it in Chinese, she tried her broken Russian. Finally, she fell asleep to the constant repetition of the declaration.
It wasn't until midnight that thunder woke Xia Zhu.
Her chest was still pounding. She sat up and looked out the window. The sea and sky stretched to the horizon. Even though it was open on all sides and the sea was vast, she subconsciously knew there was no way to escape. There wasn't even a single boat with a bright yellow light on it.
This feeling of powerlessness can cause symptoms similar to claustrophobia.
As she looked away, she noticed two water streaks on the windowsill. Xia Zhu's eyelids twitched. She got up and leaned against the windowsill, watching the water streaks extend along the outer wall into the darkness.
The rain has subsided, and the pool downstairs is quietly revealing its dark interior.
There was nothing else unusual in the courtyard. Xia Zhu closed the glass window and lay back down on the hard bed.
The third day of the dream.
The bell rang again. Xia Zhu had finished washing up and was squatting in the corner staring at the few clumps of red algae.
As they expected, today's class was no longer held in the classroom on the third floor.
Following the crowd down to the second floor, Feng Feng whispered against Xia Zhu's arm, "This morning while washing up, I found that triangular symbol under the sink." Her eyes were fixed ahead, her light-colored pupils unfocused. "I wonder if it was there all morning or just appeared, and what it means?"
The classrooms on the second floor were no different from those on the first floor, and Feng Mian was still sitting in the same spot.
The teacher entered the classroom as the last bell rang, carrying a stack of books, but this time he wrote "Literature Class" on the blackboard instead of "Biology Class".
The book that was handed to me turned out to be a collection of poems, but calling it a collection of poems isn't quite accurate, because the thick book contained the same poem the whole time.
It was another overcast day, but thankfully it didn't rain. Amid the rhythmic sound of the waves, the man asked all the students to recite the poems they held. He himself wandered between the seats, checking who hadn't opened their mouths, staring intently at them with his invertebrate-like eyes.
A salty wind, carrying grains of salt, rises from the sea, turning 458 pages of a book, where 458 identical verses flicker between them.
"Even though that light pierced through the storm and the night,"
"What though that light, thro' storm and night,"
“A distant tremor.”
"So trembled from afar."
What could be purer and brighter than this?
“What could there be more purely bright”
"On the morning star of truth?"
“In Truth's day-star”
It's Edgar Allan Poe's "A Dream," which Xia Zhu once read in the library.
Three hours, reading a short poem made one dizzy, from extreme thirst to feeling like drowning. The wind blew incessantly, and Xia Zhu even felt scratches appearing on her cheeks, like a rock weathered over millennia. If it weren't for the clock slowly turning above the blackboard, everyone would have wondered if time had stopped, or if it was rushing towards an endless end. Her bottom had been stuck to the chair for what felt like thousands of days.
Xia Zhu subconsciously felt that something was wrong with these courses, but she just couldn't quite put her finger on the key point.
"Alright... that concludes today's literature class... We'll be doing cleaning duties after class... The students responsible for cleaning will need to clean the sink separately after meals; the tools are in the storage room next to the sink..."
"The one cleaning the pool is... number 2... Feng Feng..."
I thought it wouldn't rain today, but as soon as I sat down in the cafeteria, raindrops started hitting the window. The menu was exactly the same as yesterday's.
Fish soup, fish paste, braised fish head.
Numb classmates and mechanical teachers.
"It's my turn to clean today, why don't I take the opportunity to look around?"
“You were caught by that man yesterday. He said this is a one-time thing, so don’t take any risks for now.”
"So, has our suspicion changed?"
The three huddled together, rummaging through the mushy food in their bowls. Their suspicions remained with the teacher. Xia Zhu took the opportunity to mention the water stains on her windowsill, reminding everyone to be careful at night, as something unexpected might happen. Moreover, this dream didn't seem to be as simple as the initial impression of school oppression.
After dawdling over their food, they parted ways at the stairwell.
Feng Mian and Xia Zhu returned to her room together, and the two of them leaned against the window, watching Feng Feng's every move.
She had heard Xia Zhu describe the cleaning process, so she took her tools from the warehouse, put on her raincoat, wrote her name and number on the sign-in sheet, and began to scoop up floating debris from the pool. The edge of the net occasionally touched the barnacles clinging to the edge of the pool, making a dull sound. She wondered if these attached creatures also needed to be cleaned, so she moved a little closer and used the net to poke the pool wall hard.
Suddenly, something grabbed the end of the tool and pulled Feng Feng down with it. The speed was so fast that she almost couldn't react. Countless vines quickly grew out of her palm. Some wrapped around the handle of the net, some circled around her waist, and then snaked up to the pillar behind her and wrapped tightly around it several times before she could finally steady herself.
The two people by the window felt a tightness in their throats; if either of them were in that situation, they probably wouldn't be able to handle it.
It has to be the genius girl from the Feng family.
After some effort, Feng Feng pulled the net back to the ground, exchanged a glance with Xia Zhu, and then released the vines again.
This time, the vine slid from the edge of the pool to the bottom, carefully exploring along the side walls.
When the vines reached the pool wall facing the sea, they discovered an opening that seemed to connect to the ocean.
Seeing that there was nothing else, she retracted the vines, picked up her tools, and prepared to put them back in the warehouse. However, she noticed a clump of green water plants in the net, which seemed to contain something.
There was a knock on the door, and Feng Feng, wearing a dark raincoat, stood at the door.
Her red hair was slightly damp, and her gaze was unfocused, not looking at the two of them.
"I found something in the net bag."
Feng Feng reached into the pocket of his raincoat, and when he opened it again, a human molar appeared in front of them.
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