Chapter 172 The Fifth Day After the God's Departure (9) "Mom, it's me..."
Holmes said, "After eliminating the impossible, what remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Those details buried in Xie Tan's memory—some self-consistent, some still perplexing, and some seemingly insignificant—were all strung together and given a complete interpretation when substituted with a conjecture he had always avoided and dared not think about.
His comic system is the complete eye of observation!
First of all, the stories in comics all develop within the same worldview, because they are observations of this world.
Secondly, according to the prophecy interpreted by the witch.
First, the observer ignores time and space. However, the comic book "Strange Tales" is different from traditional comics. The story does not develop linearly in time, but is a collection of stories. The time and space span between the stories are often very large, and the connection between them is not strong.
Even within this main series, which is essentially a resurrection story, there are several independent episodic stories interspersed throughout the manga. These stories likely depict events that occurred in the abandoned timeline, and there's also a new story called "Museum Horror" that involves ancient ghost tales from the past.
Secondly, the eye of observation leans towards the darkness, making it easier to capture darkness, which means it is easier to observe events that lean towards darkness. Therefore, this is a horror comic.
Thirdly, since the eye of observation is born from the sun, it can naturally see the sun itself. Therefore, it often observes ghostly events happening around Lu Jinzhao, and Lu Jinzhao becomes the "protagonist" rather than Lu Jinzhao always getting involved in these ghostly events.
Then came the barrage of words and the knife.
It is obvious that forums are a collection of voices.
That desire that can transcend everything is the knife.
As for the hands of the clock, Xie Tan hadn't figured it out yet, but he speculated that it was related to the flow of time in the two worlds.
Since this comic, this comic system, is the Eye of Observation, how was it formed?
He recalled that most of the time, even though he hadn't done anything, things would still develop in a way that suited his image, including the order and method of storytelling in the comics, the camera angles given to him, the atmosphere created, the lines edited, spliced, and modified for him... It was a huge favoritism towards him.
There's also number 7, who is very familiar with the roads in Fiddler City, especially Fiddler University. The Black Goat map was drawn under his seemingly unintentional guidance. And the house that appears at the beginning of the first story is, coincidentally, Xiao Liu's house, right across from the protagonist.
And the "blank" positioning written in the plot.
Chekhov's gun is about connecting his blank space with the cause and effect of this world. In addition to the house key and inhibitor he brought, Number 7 also said that the things in that house belonged to him, so he became a student majoring in art history at Dicho University.
Art history... Xie Tan recalled Xiao Liu's doodles in those books, and his thoughts drifted to the distant past.
He had never seen his mother's face, nor did he know her name. Her existence was as if it had been erased, a taboo subject that no one would ever mention.
Before he was seven years old, he always wanted to see her, but after her death, it all became meaningless; they were people who were not meant to be.
So he didn't pursue her past, just as he considered himself a stranger to his biological father, so too was his mother.
But that day was his junior high school graduation, and naturally, he wasn't invited to the graduation party. He didn't want to stay in his empty house, so on a whim, he rode his bike around the city.
He didn't know where he was going; he just headed towards a deserted place, towards the edge of the city, as if he wanted to run all the way to the edge of the world.
The sudden rain extinguished his delusions.
He took shelter from the rain under the eaves of an empty shop in front of a rental ad. Many shops in this area had gone out of business. It was a mixed and backward old town. The eaves were of limited length, and when the wind blew, the rain still fell on him at an angle. Before long, half of his body was wet, and he sneezed.
If he gets sick, that would be troublesome, as his illnesses are always accompanied by problems with pheromone secretion.
He regretted it a little. There was nothing special about today. Wouldn't it have been better to just stay home and sleep?
He's already starting to calculate how many inhibitors are left at home.
Across the street was an old bookstore, its light dim in the drizzling night.
The bookstore owner, who was about to draw the curtains, pushed up his reading glasses to make sure there really was a student standing across the street. He opened the door, waved to him, and gestured for him to come in and take shelter from the rain.
Xie Tan hesitated for a moment, then saw that the old man had been waiting for him with the door open and had gotten a little wet. He remembered that he had just received an inhibitor yesterday and made sure that the inhibitor patch on the back of his neck hadn't been rubbed off, so he quickly rushed into the house.
"Thank you for your help. I'll stay here and leave when the rain gets a little lighter." Xie Tan stood awkwardly on the doormat.
"Come in quickly, what nonsense are you talking about? Oh, my ginger tea is ready, sit down, child."
Xie Tan was led to a seat by the old man, sat down stiffly, took the towel and ginger tea, and quickly thanked him, "No need for that, thank you..."
"Oh dear, do I look that unsteady on my feet?" the old man asked with a smile.
"...No, that's not what I meant." Xie Tan didn't know what to say and silently wiped his hair.
"I also have peach shortbread and sesame cakes. My son and daughter-in-law bought them at noon. It's a well-established brand, and I love the taste. Ah, you young people probably don't like such hard food, right? Let me see, I still have some here..."
"This is great!" Xie Tan, who was initially hesitant to eat it, immediately took a piece and praised its taste.
"Haha, that's good." The old man said, "Judging from your school uniform, you're from No. 5 Middle School, right? First year of junior high?"
"The third year of junior high." Xie Tan answered hesitantly. Did he look that young?
The old man did some calculations and exclaimed in surprise, "Oh my, this year's middle school entrance exam? The results must have already been released. When school starts again, you'll be a high school student."
"Yes."
"That's great. Study hard and grow up to be successful."
"Thank you." Xie Tan noticed the old man was looking at him with a somewhat reminiscent gaze, and couldn't help but ask, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Hmm? Ah, you just look familiar... I have an old customer, you look a bit like her." The old man pinched his glasses, squinted, and finally, he showed a nostalgic look. "That girl used to come here often to browse for books. She would read everything. She read all those obscure books in this room that no one else bothered with."
Xie Tan: "She must be very knowledgeable."
"Haha, she was definitely watching with a learning mindset, very attentive, and even taking notes, but if you ask me, her real interest should lie there."
The old man pointed behind him, and Xie Tan turned around. There was a best-selling bookshelf facing the door, full of comic books and romance novels that were popular among young people.
The old man said, "She also told me that she wants to try being a cartoonist in the future."
Xie Tan: "A cartoonist? That's amazing."
The old man laughed again: "Let's listen to her. She has so many things she wants to try. I wonder when she'll get a turn!"
Xie Tan was taken aback by this answer and smiled slightly in response.
He thought that person must be very different from him.
"It won't be long before the rain stops. Those comics are the kind of books your age like to read, they can help you pass the time. Oh right, that weirdly scary comic is really popular now, it's just..." The old man peeked out and saw that the "Strange Tales" section in the prime spot on the bestseller shelf was empty. He smiled helplessly, "It's just that popular."
"It's okay, I'll just read this." Xie Tan picked up an old comic book from the corner, which looked quite vintage. It was wrapped in a transparent plastic cover and had a note that read "Presented by Yiyi".
The old man looked at the comic book in his hand and said, "You two really have a connection. This comic book was given to the bookstore by her."
Xie Tan looked at the words on the note: "Is this her name?"
"Sometimes the friends who come with her call her that, but that's what I wrote. Later she saw it and said I wrote it wrong, that it's not this 'Yi'. But I didn't change it, her character is too complicated, haha."
"So that's how it is."
Xie Tan initially kept an eye on the rain outside the window, just wanting to get home quickly so as not to disturb the old man's rest. But as he looked at the comic, he got engrossed in it, and it unexpectedly suited his taste.
So before leaving, the old man gave him this comic book.
"Don't make excuses. This comic is too old. No one will read it if it stays here. She'll be happy to find someone who shares her taste."
"Well... thank you."
He left with the book in his arms.
He finished reading the comic book before going to bed that night. Strangely enough, the story ended with the main characters, who had defeated the boss, attending their graduation ceremony. They threw the books into the air and shouted, "Happy graduation!"
Xie Tan touched the line of words, smiled, and whispered, "Thank you too, Miss Yiyi."
Looking back now, it wasn't the word "dependence" that mattered, but a much more complex one...
In the storyline of the "Strange Tales" comic, his name comes from the incantation in the first half of the book, which quotes the poem "Spring pours into the empty pool, the ancient mirror reflects the gods," while the incantation in the second half of the book quotes the poem "Bright ripples reach the bottom, strange flowers begin to bloom," with the two lines echoing each other.
according to.
Ripples.
“漪” is the opposite of “潭”.
Taking half from each creates a "strange tale".
The Double Pupil Project is an observation plan that integrates two observations, Observation 6 and Observation 7.
Observation 6 is the same as Xiao Liu, and its systematic number is "7".
Xiao Liu said that if he survives, he should give himself a new name. So, if the Eye of Observation of the Complete Body is formed by the restart plan of Observation Six and the new Observation Seven, it also deserves a new name.
—The Strange Tales Project.
Xie Tan felt a chill run down his spine.
Going back further, Xie Tan remembers very clearly the year when the "Strange Tales" comic began serialization.
Because his mother passed away that year.
There's also the system cat that disappears whenever she appears, but she can "see" him whenever they meet.
Speaking of which, the system cat stayed by his side whenever it was awake. The first time he trusted it was when the water from the faucet flowed over his palm, reminding him of his mother's already cold body, and the system cat hugged his hand with its warm body.
He completely trusted it because it confidently promised that it would fulfill his wishes.
Sometimes it would suddenly change from a silly state to a different feeling, as if another soul had briefly descended into the system cat's body... just to see him and keep him company.
There's also the saying "crows are like writing desks".
He once taught her to say she was a "crow" to deceive the Xia family.
desk.
It turned out that this was a riddle that only he could understand.
He thought, ah, so her name is Xie Yi.
It turned out that he had seen her face before.
With the premise of "time travel" in mind, he became the last person to see through this secret.
Xie Tan stared at the slowly blinking eyes of the pen on the phone screen, and surprisingly, he could see gentleness in this inhuman image.
Mother...Mom.
During that ceremony, his mother somehow escaped to another world, a brand new world without demons and monsters, and regained her freedom.
It must have been thanks to Jinzhao's help. She had initially made a wish to Jinzhao to leave the cage that imprisoned her and gain freedom, and Jinzhao once again fulfilled her wish.
But because of him...
He later learned that she had fallen into a deep sleep shortly after giving birth to him.
19 years ago, it was the year she left this world, and it was the year he was born in another world.
She didn't enjoy her new freedom for very long.
It must be because of that curse, the curse of the Demon Mother!
His appearance reconnected her with her original world, which is why she died. It must have been because of him that she...
Frenzied thoughts swirled in his mind like a storm, scraping every nerve with excruciating pain.
His expression was blank as he said in a daze, "Mom, am I your curse?"
The eyes in the phone suddenly turned into black smoke, emerged from the screen, and dispersed into the surrounding fog.
Xie Tan raised his head.
The dazzling array of scenes kept flashing, and the fog around him seemed endless.
All of this describes Xie Yi's rich and colorful life after arriving in the new world.
Just like in the comic book world, she traveled all over the world, saw many new sights, made many friends, and had several romances. She tried everything, releasing all the nightmares of being trapped in the black goat into the passion for life. She was always unrestrained and always full of energy.
She has lived in the ABO world for many years, built her own career and family, but she is still adventuring and experiencing real life.
She was also waiting for an old friend to arrive as promised.
The day she finally found out she was pregnant, she was overjoyed and eagerly awaited his arrival.
On the day he was born, she thought that the name she had been considering for so long would finally come in handy, and she hoped he would like it.
But amidst her joy, she heard the ticking of the clock again.
The voice was so distant that she felt momentarily disoriented.
She remembered, the curse.
The curse that was placed on her child.
Two worlds that were separated were reconnected by a curse, and time was readjusted. Thus, the year he was born in this world coincided with the year she "died" in the other world.
She regained consciousness.
There is no past, and even after escaping to another world, she still couldn't escape the curse of the black goat.
The one who tied the knot must untie it; without resolving this issue, she will never achieve true freedom.
She has already stolen far too many good times because of this child; now it's time to face the reality.
She used the last of her time to say goodbye to everyone once again, just as solemnly as before.
She closed her eyes.
When I opened my eyes again, it was a preview image for the first story in the first series of "Strange Tales".
That was a panoramic view of Dichu City, captured in an oval-shaped lens.
Like someone's eyes, overlooking the entire city.
The scene in the fog disappeared, and before Xie Tan could recover, the fog blew towards him, slowly gathering into a human shape.
Before he could react, he was hugged.
The woman's long hair fell over his shoulders, and she had a faint fragrance. She was so light, as ethereal as mist, but her embrace was strong, just as he had imagined for 19 years.
He seemed to have retreated into a warm haven, back to the safest amniotic fluid.
“We have met three times. The first time, you enabled me to give birth to the God in the Mirror and escape the Black Goat; the second time, you enabled me to transform from a scrap observer into a flawed observer, escaping the fate of being captured and refined into observer two; the third time, you enabled me to become a complete observer in a failed ritual, giving me the opportunity to go to another world, where I no longer have to live in fear, can do whatever I want, and spend the most carefree time.”
Her voice was clear and melodious, right beside his ear, like a dream.
"I should have died when I was seven years old, in countless timelines. My dear, it was you who gave me three lifetimes of impermanence, three rebirths, three freedoms, an eye that can see countless possibilities, an adventure in another world, and countless beautiful moments."
"You are not my curse, you are my miracle."
Xie Tan listened blankly, then instinctively hugged her back. Something warm flowed down his cheek; he pursed his lips—it tasted salty.
“I am the one who should feel guilty. I left you when you were seven, leaving you to suffer an ominous curse and grow up in loneliness and pain… We are able to reunite today because of your strength. You have done so well… You have worked so hard all this time.”
She loosened her embrace slightly, cupped his face in her hands, gazed at him for a long time, and a gentle smile appeared between her brows and eyes.
She placed a kiss on his forehead.
"My child, I love you."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
