Chapter 35 Elevator (12) "Because crows resemble writing desks?"...
Xie Tan bent down, picked up the gold pocket watch with his other hand, and put on the polka dot clown costume.
He took the pocket watch, straightened up, and the clown disappeared.
Open the pocket watch; the hands are still hands, but the dial has changed—it's a miniature version of Chang Ming's family clock.
On the top floor, the long-necked mother spat the clock into the shrinking drink. He only managed to retrieve the hour hand; the clock face was washed away and couldn't be found at all, so he used a cookie instead.
Now, the watch face is in his hand, not showing the year, but the normal time.
Xie Tan heard the strange meowing and looked up to see a familiar set of white teeth laughing, stepping on other monsters as he jumped down, appearing and disappearing until he finally vanished completely.
The Cheshire Cat has been released? Then he can leave.
But people wanted him dead, and he just left like that; he's too good-natured.
He gripped his pocket watch and walked toward the elevator that had been open all along.
As a pillar of the wonderland, the entire elevator is clearly visible, like a perspective view from the trailer, and it is the slowest to crumble.
Xie Tan guessed that perhaps the fairyland covering the apartment building had collapsed, but the elevator could still exist for a while, making it the last place to crumble.
Monsters would occasionally jump down the elevator shaft and run away on the elevator car, while the real Mad Hatter had long since fallen to the ground.
Xie Tan straightened it, leaned it against the elevator wall, and hung the pocket watch around its neck.
The black flames burned away the upper two floors and spread to the first floor, killing most of the monsters. Strange screams lingered for a long time.
As the flames shrank and burned the fairyland toward the last remaining elevator car, Xie Tan turned the clock backwards and stepped out of the fire circle.
Chang Mingai's toy figure suddenly slipped out of his sleeve and fell into the fire; Xie Tan couldn't retrieve it.
Time in the fairyland reversed again, returning to seven minutes earlier, one minute before Zhu Fengliang blocked him.
The power is insufficient, and the scope of the reversal is limited, only affecting a small part of the fairy realm near the clock. But that's just how small the fairy realm is right now.
Its influence extended to the Mad Hatter with the pocket watch.
Back then, the Mad Hatter in Wonderland wasn't this one, but...
Zhu Fengliang watched in horror as the black flames rushed into the elevator car, but he was unable to escape. His hands and feet were bound by the man-eating flowers, and his neck was being strangled.
He caught a glimpse of the golden light under his neck—it was the pocket watch!
The black flames relentlessly eroded the elevator car. Huazhi sensed the danger and clung to him even more tightly, trying to hide behind him.
Zhu Fengliang spotted Xie Tan outside the firelight, his eyes widening instantly, bloodshot, and he screamed hysterically, "Why? Why do you always get in my way! What do you want to do?!"
Facing imminent death, he desperately wanted a reason: what was the boy's purpose? What wrong step had he taken? Why had his plans failed one after another? Why had he ended up in this dead end? Had he already become the boy's pawn?
Give him a reason, a reason why he lost everything, so that he can die knowing the truth!
Outside the burning elevator car, the boy merely smiled casually: "Because crows look like writing desks?"
Zhu Fengliang was stunned. He didn't understand at all, but because the sentence was so vague and riddle-less, a chill and fear that was more intense than he had ever imagined finally crept over his entire body, leaving him speechless.
It was as if the person in front of him was just saying, "I don't know, I just did it."
Does this even need a reason?
The boy had already turned and left.
Xie Tan walked out of the apartment building and turned back slightly.
In the last flickering light of the elevator car, a slender figure appeared behind the kneeling cultist, her long hair swaying slightly.
She raised the axe high, aimed it at the believer's neck, and swung it down fiercely—
The black flames swallowed up the last bit of paradise.
Xie Tan touched his sleeve. So he went to deliver the final blow?
He looked away and headed to the station.
The fire died down, the apartment was restored to its original state, and the people outside the fairyland found nothing from beginning to end.
Xi Rui walked around to the back door of the apartment and watched Xie Tan's departing figure.
Xie Tan noticed him.
That glance she gave him was a chillingly sharp look.
He then entered the apartment elevator and confirmed that Zhu Fengliang was dead.
What a pity, he thought Zhu Fengliang would be able to extract some information about Mr. Cat in the end, but he was useless.
After completing the final inspection, Xi Rui immediately ran to the road to hail a taxi, gave the address, and drove off.
Lu Jinzhao was the last person to leave the apartment.
Holding the balloon, he slowly walked out of the apartment building and headed to the station.
Night had long since fallen, yet the apartment building felt like an afternoon sun-drenched day with the air conditioning malfunctioning.
There was a hallucinatory burning smell in the air, which, rather than making people feel hot, brought a sense of destructive panic, like a sudden near-death experience.
Only when another bus carrying passengers from the bus stop in front of the apartment left did the strange heat slowly dissipate and the coolness of the night allow me to dare to enter the apartment.
In another apartment, Chang Mingai slowly opened her eyes.
She had slept for so long that seeing the familiar room again felt like a lifetime ago.
But it doesn't seem that far away. She just saw it, but it was her... bubble clone?
Those dreamlike experiences, instead of becoming blurred as she slowly got up, became clearer and clearer, merging into her original memory.
The bubbles in the art gallery game simply disappear, but this clone, who sees herself as the original, simply returns to her body.
They merged.
A small rabbit-shaped nightlight was lit up by the bedside.
At this time, she usually leans against the headboard, scrolling through her phone or reading a book, so she will turn on a small night light.
But she had been asleep for a year, and the light was still on. It could only have been left on by her parents, who knew her habits. The room was clean and bright, just as she remembered it.
It seems she just had a bizarre dream.
She got out of bed, mentally prepared herself for a while, and pushed open the bedroom door. Her mother and father were sitting at the dining table eating, but they were silent.
Everything in the house was kept as it was, but without her mischievousness and her voice, it felt somewhat empty.
This is more like a dream that is being desperately held onto, a fragile bubble that will burst at any moment, leaving not even a glimmer of hope for the two people at the table.
Chang Mingai thought that being influenced by the fairyland would make her subconsciously feel fear and terror, but when she saw her mother and father looking over in surprise, her eyes instantly reddened, and she ran over crying to hug her mother.
Feeling her mother's embrace and her father's pats, and hearing them both sobbing uncontrollably, she finally realized that she had indeed had a very long dream, and that they had experienced a long separation.
And it almost turned into a permanent separation.
Fortunately, she woke up, and they were real; they were embracing each other.
After composing themselves, they sat down at the dining table, which was set with her favorite dishes.
She slowly recounted everything from her dream, while her parents listened attentively, not thinking it was just a pipe dream and not wanting to miss a single detail.
They were just relieved that their daughter had woken up.
They comforted her, embraced her again for a long time, and then offered to visit her the next day to thank her friends who had woken her up.
"Wait a minute, Xi Rui messaged me. He knows I'm awake. He seems to be downstairs."
But Chang Mingai knew that her home was not close to the school or Zhongbin Apartment, and Xi Rui came to find her right after leaving Zhongbin Apartment.
"Xi Rui? Quickly call him up."
Xi Rui arrived in a hurry, without bringing anything. He apologized with a smile, and his parents complained about his politeness before warmly welcoming him in and offering him a pair of chopsticks.
Xi Rui thanked him obediently, then looked at Chang Mingai for a moment before opening his arms and saying, "Old friends meeting again, aren't we going to give each other a hug?"
Chang Mingai complained, "It's too cheesy for us to say this privately." But he took the initiative to hug her.
"I'm so glad you're awake." Xi Rui truly felt the presence of her friend, and her heartbeat, which had been racing all the way, gradually calmed down.
"I also want to thank you."
They sat back down. This wasn't Xi Rui's first time at her house. While praising the aunt's cooking skills, he asked, "Why are you thanking me?"
Before he arrived, Chang Mingai would pop up in the community, asking why they all stood him up.
The group chat became active, with people explaining the situation, chatting idly, and Lu Jinchao and he joining in the complaints.
Xi Rui knew that Chang Mingai was actually testing their reaction. When she woke up from the fairyland, she would still have some impressions of the dream - the experience of the bubble clone was like a dream in her memory, and it would slowly dissipate.
Moreover, he never appeared in Chang Ming'ai's clone's perspective.
Chang Mingai shook her phone: "Xie Tan told me that the gold pocket watch was given to me by you."
Having escaped danger in the fairy realm and even awakened her original form, the person she was most grateful to was Xie Tan. After catching up with her parents, she sent Xie Tan a heartfelt message of thanks and said that her family wanted to invite him to dinner to express their gratitude.
Xi Rui stared intently at her: "You remember?"
Chang Mingai was confused: "I just slept for a year, I don't have dementia. Don't you remember what just happened? Do you think I'm like you, who spent a year cultivating the Tao on the mountain and only remembers that the food given to us by the scenic area was pretty good?"
Xi Rui realized that the bubble clone had merged with her.
Chang Mingai also realized that the president was talking about a clone, and sincerely said, "I am very grateful to myself today."
That bubble was created because it "didn't want its friends to worry and also hoped to wake up."
Chang Mingai fully accepts her own desires and the existence of that alter ego, so even though the bubble bursts, they achieve a shared understanding and merge at the moment of their return.
Xi Rui recalled asking Xie Tan, "Which is more important, the real one or the fake one?" Xie Tan replied, "Neither is important."
So that's how it is.
Xie Tan had already planned for this outcome from the beginning; once truth and falsehood were intertwined, none of them mattered anymore.
They will all survive.
That made him seem cold-hearted and heartless.
But he wouldn't change his mind. He was different from Xie Tan and the others in the gang. The Chang Mingai they knew was that bubble clone.
If he had to do it all over again and could only save one, he would of course choose his true friend of three years.
Even if it is a clone formed from the desires of the original being, it is still just a monster.
How can you count someone as a person?
When Mom heard them talking about Xie Tan, she again suggested thanking him in person. Chang Mingai was worried: "Xie Tan said it wasn't necessary, it wasn't a big deal... That might really be the case for him, and he just doesn't like being bothered."
Xi Rui offered a suggestion: "Didn't you say that your classmates all wanted to thank him and treat him to a meal? I also want to invite him to join the club. Let's do all three things at once. Chinese people tend to compromise, so he'll choose to end the pain quickly rather than suffer for a long time."
Chang Mingai: "Genius, but is this to thank people for going? Why do you seem so eager to recruit others?"
"Nonsense, you see a mythical beast running around outside and don't want to catch it and raise it? Another eccentric!" Xi Rui suggested cheekily, "Have Jinzhao go and ask."
"You're asking them to use their good looks again, but don't you even consider who the target is? Xie Tan is handsome himself, and do you really think he's the kind of person who would be seduced by good looks?"
"You didn't see how they were exchanging glances at the tea party, completely ignoring everyone else. They're even going on a date to see a movie tomorrow!"
Chang Mingai exclaimed in surprise, "Really?"
One was a close friend from the club, and the other was a classmate and partner. Chang Mingai fell into deep thought, recalling the faces of these two people, and accepted this couple in 0.1 seconds.
"Alright, I'll have Jinzhao ask him."
"Then I'll be going now. I haven't submitted my thesis yet. Goodbye, Uncle and Aunt. Get some rest."
After confirming with his own eyes that his friend had woken up and was safe and sound, Xi Rui finally remembered the crucial thesis. Moreover, since his friend had just woken up, he knew his friend would want to spend time with his family. So, he left like the wind.
On the way, he didn't forget to offer a few more words of comfort to his friend.
I won't change my name until I get my Taoist certificate: [Your class will definitely have to cut back on courses, but who cares? The leave I gave you for recuperation isn't over yet, and another long weekend is coming soon.]
I won't change my name until I get my Taoist certificate: [We didn't get to play the murder mystery game, but we can go on a trip! Travel agencies, go go go!]
Alice Takes Over Wonderland: [Available]
Alice Takes Over Wonderland: [Meimei Goes Out to Play!]
Xi Rui returned to the real club base of Di University. When he tapped the mirror, the mirror was shrouded in black mist, revealing an obsidian-like texture.
The space in the mirror has no boundaries, and darkness spreads in all directions.
He threw his paper in and entered the mirror world.
"Vice Leader".
There was no response from the mirror, but Xi Rui was used to it and described the situation in Wonderland, followed by the death of his colleague.
"When the mirror's power was being recovered, Zhu Fengliang and Fairy Realm were burned to death by the gods' flames." His eyes were cold. "He brought this upon himself. He was a murderer to begin with, and he just used the little bit of divine power bestowed upon him by the cult to satisfy his perverted desires."
Xi Rui casually brushed it off with a few words, focusing instead on the mysterious and unpredictable young man.
He waited for a while before the voice in the mirror, which had no discernible characteristics, spoke, but then brought up another matter: the whereabouts of the Black Goat family.
Xi Rui was surprised: "You mean, some believers have discovered their whereabouts? Didn't they completely disappear into seclusion? I thought they knew their power was gone and found a dignified way to wait for death."
But that's not actually the case. After the goat painting was completed, black goats gradually showed up in various places, clearly indicating that they were taking action.
The deputy leader said, "The ghostly figures in the rain, used by the Black Goat bloodline, are no coincidence."
Xi Rui's long-standing doubts resurfaced. Although he looked down on Zhu Fengliang, he was still quite capable. Was it just an accident that his distant relative was able to take control of the Ghost in the Rain and orchestrate a series of murders?
He had a flash of inspiration—no, don't forget, in the end, no one succeeded; the boy ruined everything.
"Is this related to Xie Tan?"
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