I, the Ant
The player, Memory Master, woke up on an old wooden desk painted green.
It seemed that she had slept on her stomach for too long, and her eyeballs were pressed by her arms. Her vision was a little blurry. She could only make out a lit desk lamp in front of her and a flowing black line under it.
She rubbed her eyes and blinked hard, trying to relieve the discomfort of her eyeballs being squeezed.
After waiting for a while, the illusionist finally saw clearly that only 5 centimeters away from where she had just been sleeping, a string of black ants were transporting food.
They formed an arc on the green tabletop and moved forward in an orderly manner, as if to bypass the sleeping illusionist.
The illusionist looked in the direction they came from and found a small piece of steamed bun in the corner of the desk, covered with ants.
As the steamed buns appeared in my field of vision, an indescribable feeling of hunger quietly climbed up from my stomach and quickly took control of my brain.
Hunger licked relentlessly at every inch of consciousness, making the mind revolve around fantasies of food.
The illusionist felt his abdomen tighten into a ball, as tight as a rock. Every breath was accompanied by burning pain, and his vision began to blur.
Soon, thoughts and fantasies ceased to exist, and the edges of sanity blurred.
Hunger is no longer a simple physiological need; it has become a primitive driving force that motivates people to act, making them willing to give up everything just to obtain the most primitive and basic continuation of life - food.
Reaching out and grabbing the steamed bun, the illusionist swallowed it in one gulp.
There is no dry choking feeling, nor the disgusting feeling of ants struggling in the mouth as imagined, only the slight sweetness of maltose and the slightly fishy taste of protein.
The illusionist looked at the panicking ants on the table and licked the corner of his mouth with satisfaction.
She stood up with the help of the desk, only to find that she was a child less than 1.4 meters tall.
This body couldn't be hers. The illusionist looked down at her dirty hands and the washed-white sleeves and made a silent judgment.
She pulled the sleeve curiously, and when she was about to take it off, the door was quietly blown open by the night wind.
The illusionist slowly raised his head and saw a beautiful girl with white hair and golden eyes standing at the door. The girl was emitting a soft light in the dim outdoors.
After staring blankly for a while, the illusionist forced himself to focus on the old paper in the girl's hand.
The rules are written on the paper:
1. Ants are friendly, ants will not betray you, and ants are edible good friends.
2. Be polite to others. It is polite to bring gifts when you visit someone's home. Holding someone else's hands with your own is a timeless courtesy.
3. The name is the shortest curse. If you want to know the truth, you must call its real name.
4. If something looks like an apple, feels like an apple, and tastes like an apple, then it is an apple.
5. Please be careful in judging what you are.
The Memory Master finally remembered that she was a detective and came here to complete the game.
The conditions for passing the level seem to be related to the truth and real name in the third rule.
But these questions are too far away from the illusionist, and she doesn’t even know who she is now.
A muffled young female voice answered her doubts: "My name is Ren Shanshan, and this is my home."
The illusionist was startled. She looked around but didn't find anyone. It seemed like Ren Shanshan was talking in her mind.
But she soon accepted it because she found that she had memories of Ren Shanshan.
Ren Shanshan continued to introduce herself like she was telling a story: "Shan means Shan in Coral. My mother gave me the name. After I was born, my father wanted to name me Pan Di, but my mother stopped me."
"Because they named my sister Zhaodi, my sister was so angry that she kept arguing with them about changing her name."
"There was a cinema opposite the county hospital. There was a poster for the movie Shanshan on the outer wall. My mother decided to call me Shanshan."
"When I went to the police station to register my household registration, the staff asked my father which shan he was from. My father couldn't answer. He didn't know which shan he was from because he dropped out of school after graduating from primary school."
"Finally he said impatiently: 'Whatever you write is the right one. Why should there be so many rules about a name?'"
"So I was called Ren Shanshan." Ren Shanshan seemed to be telling someone else's story, "My father made that table. He is not a carpenter and doesn't know how to make things. He just did it to save money."
The illusionist looked at the green-painted table. The table was large and bulky, with uneven edges. The legs and the tabletop were connected by mortise and tenon structures. It was obvious that the person who made it had put a lot of thought into it.
She quickly asked a question: "Where are your parents? Aren't they at home?"
Suddenly, a woman's shrill howl pierced the night sky, and the illusionist shuddered.
The voice in my head is still talking to itself:
"That's the idiot next door. She calls him that when she misses her husband, who is never at home. There's only her and her son at home. There used to be a mother-in-law, but she died recently."
The illusionist asked again: "Where are your parents? It's too unsafe to leave you alone at home so late."
"Mental retardation means mental retardation. I'm not insulting her. I heard that she had a brain problem since she was a child. When she grew up, she was married to an old bachelor in our village and gave birth to a mentally retarded son."
"Hey, can you hear me?" asked the illusionist.
She had memories of the last time she entered the Kaleidoscope, and knew that this man was a madman who could spread the withered dynasty without hesitation, and a paranoid who was obsessed with killing people who committed suicide.
She would not feel any sympathy for Ren Shanshan because of her confession, but would only be full of vigilance.
Ren Shanshan couldn't hear what she said:
"But my mentally retarded husband is a very worldly-wise man. Every time he comes home, he brings fruit to visit my house and says all the nice things he can to ask us to take good care of his wife and son."
"So, I would always go over to see her with gifts, and she loved the elastic bands."
What kind of weird hobby is this? Where can I find elastic bands?
In order to comply with the second rule, the Memory Master rushed to the green painted table, opened the drawers and rummaged through them.
Before he had turned halfway through the drawer, the door opened and Ren Shanshan's parents came back. The illusionist slammed the drawer shut like a thief, making a loud noise.
Ren Shanshan's father was a man whose skin was darker than his hair. He reeked of alcohol and shouted unhappily, "What are you looking for?"
"She was looking through the drawers of her desk, and you were shouting at the child, 'Today is your son's hundred-day party, and everyone has to be happy.'"
The person who spoke was Ren Shanshan's mother, a woman whose eyes were yellower than her skin. She was holding a child wrapped in a red swaddle in her left hand and two red plastic bags in her right hand.
"Here, here." Mom stuffed two plastic bags into the memory master's hands.
In the dim light of the light bulb, the illusionist opened the plastic bag, which contained leftovers from the banquet.
It was obvious that the meal was prepared in a hurry, as pig's trotters, spare ribs, fried pork and steamed fish were all mixed together.
The illusionist frowned: "I'm not hungry, so I won't eat for now."
Dad sat on a chair at the door and smoked a cigarette: "Go and heat up some food, don't be angry, your mom picked out all the delicious food for you, she almost got into a fight with Huang Er's wife over the pig's trotters."
"That woman insisted on taking it back to feed the dog." The mother held her brother and boasted about her success, "Who would believe that? She just wanted to eat it herself. How could I give such a good thing to a dog?"
In the other bag were steamed buns and a few pieces of fried milk with the fillings leaking out. It seemed that the process of grabbing the fried milk was also quite bumpy.
According to Ren Shanshan's description, she has an older sister at home. The illusionist asked: "Where is my sister?"
"Someone's coming to Quanzi's mom's house, and she's too busy to handle it. Bring her back to help."
Ren Shanshan was like a robot triggered by a keyword: "Quanzi is a boy in the village who has the same birthday as my sister. The adults said they wanted to arrange a marriage for them, so Quanzi's mother treated my sister as their daughter-in-law."
Mom told me: "Don't leave any for your sister, you eat it all. If she wants to eat more, let her ask Quanzi's mom."
The illusionist walked out of the room silently, carrying the red bag, and the woman's scream was heard again.
Her mother called her: "The idiot next door is yelling again, don't mess with her, her belt is loose, stay away from her, don't let her lead you astray."
"The belt is not tight" implies that the mentally retarded person has problems with relationships between men and women. The illusionist was really surprised. How can a mentally retarded person have such problems?
She couldn't figure it out no matter how hard she thought, but she did understand why idiots like elastic bands.
Walking through the yard with its tethered dogs and free-range chickens and into the kitchen, the Memory Master was stumped.
There was a wood stove in the kitchen, and the illusionist had no idea how to make a fire. She helplessly put down the red plastic bag and strolled to the woodshed next door, where she saw several old and dirty elastic bands tied to the firewood.
After taking off the elastic band, the illusionist pulled it and found that it was still elastic. She took the elastic band with satisfaction and went to visit the neighbor next door.
Sneaking out of the door, Ren Shanshan's voice rang in her mind again:
"My brother's name is Ren Yewei, and today is his 100-day birthday party. Before the party started, my dad said he wanted to change my name to Ren Yelan. I disagreed, so I cried and made a scene, and he sent me home."
In fact, Ye Lan sounds more like a formal name than Shan Shan, but the Memory Master understands why Ren Shan Shan is unwilling to change her name.
Before her younger brother was born, Ren Shanshan was named so casually; after her younger brother was born, Ren Shanshan had to be changed to a name that matched her younger brother, which was really unfair.
Playing with the elastic band in his hand, the illusionist walked along the only main road in the village to the next door, where a little boy was standing in front of the gate peeing.
She looked away and stayed away.
According to Ren Shanshan, the little boy also has intellectual disabilities and should stop peeing on her.
However, the illusionist waited for a long time, but the little boy refused to put on his pants and walk away from the door, even though he had finished peeing long ago.
"Is your mother at home?" The illusionist stepped forward reluctantly, trying to persuade himself not to bother with a handicapped child.
"You're back" the little boy seemed to have finally waited for her.
He straightened his back and said proudly: "Look, this is a man."
"Get out of the way. I have something to do with your mother." The illusionist's face turned cold and he spoke in a threatening tone.
Unfortunately, she was using Ren Shanshan's childhood body, so the intimidation had no deterrent effect. The little boy seemed even more excited and rushed towards her with his naked butt.
The illusionist ran faster than she could see the fake person. She rushed into the lighted room and locked the door with a "click".
The little boy could only look inside through the window; his already flat face was squeezed into a pancake by the glass.
At the same time, there was a "pa pa" sound coming from behind the illusionist. She turned around and found that it was the mentally retarded woman slapping herself.
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