When Lu Li asked them how long they had been here, the rat man was confused again. Its memory could only be traced back to the recent past, and the further ones were forgotten. Moreover, except for the rat habits of eating, sleeping, and wandering around, it did not have much memory.
"I will take you to find a wise man. The wise man will definitely know the answer."
The mouse man said, bringing Lu Li closer to his companions. After eating, they no longer ran around like the rats, but continued to eat, moving in circles around the food to avoid Lu Li.
Lu Li observed the souls in their bodies. The faces of the souls were unclear... These survivors were on the verge of collapse.
They have lost their nature and self.
It is easy to distinguish the wise among the rat population: its rat has a gray beard and is wise due to its age, but it is just in front of Lu Li and food. It is no different from other beings in the group.
Avoid Lu Li and continue eating.
"This is wrong...this is wrong..."
While the rat man was trembling and murmuring due to the wise man's lack of response, Lu Li observed the scattered food crumbs. The evenness of the bread crumbs and minced meat meant that they did not accidentally fall into the bottom of the well.
Looking up at the wellhead where the light shines, is there anything feeding these rat people?
"Where is it up there?" Lu Li woke up the delirium Rat Man and tried to explain it in as much detail as possible so that he could understand: "The top of our heads."
"Wise men say that is the source of life that gives them." the mouse man said piously.
Judging from the behavior of feeding food, this is no problem.
Lu Li continued to look at the mouth of the well. It was about seven or eight meters away from the bottom of the well. The rock wall became straighter and straighter as it went up. Not even a cat could climb up.
"Does the light always exist?"
The light source is obviously not natural light, nor is it a dark luminous body such as fluorite. Only oil lamps or light sources can emit light.
You can figure out where it is by asking about the interval between replacement oil lamps.
"No, there was a solar eclipse the last time we were fed."
It was easy to understand what solar eclipse meant, but when Lu Li asked when was the last time he was fed, the rat man couldn't answer.
"Feeding" is equivalent to "day" for humans in the rat-man community. It is the same unit of measuring time. If we continue to ask, the rat-man can only answer the still confusing "how many times have we slept" or "how many times have we run out".
Lu Li stayed at the bottom of the well for a while, wanting to communicate with them and their wise men, but after eating, the rats and humans soon began to sleep, and when Lu Li approached, they would bump around again.
The rat people encountered in rat holes are the only exception.
Lu Li invited it to take the tribe and leave with him, but it was rejected. They didn't want to leave.
Maybe staying here for a while can make them change their minds, but Lu Li needs to go back now and bring the news about the chef and the rat man back to Claire and others.
"Do you want to leave?"
The rat man was a little reluctant to give up, but still agreed to take Lu Li out.
They left the bottom of the well where the light shone, returned to the darkness, and followed the rat man through the rat hole.
It was quite difficult to remember the direction and height, even if the Doomsday Book was still there. After a few minutes of walking through cracks and tunnels, Lu Li, who had gray hair, followed the rat man to a rat hole.
The room with the giant kitchen table and chandelier outside was empty and silent.
The Rat Man was not happy about this.
"This door should be open..." The upright mouse man murmured: "This is wrong... this is wrong... this is wrong..."
Lu Li passed by it and drilled out of the rat hole.
The room is not big, and there are wooden boxes of sundries piled up in the corner. It should be the utility room leading to the kitchen.
The oil lamp placed on the kitchen table meant that no one was here. Lu Li tried to pull the doorknob, but the fact that it didn't move meant that it was locked.
"Why do you always think you are wrong?" Lu Li asked without looking back, observing every corner.
"Because I made a mistake..." The mouse man fell into guilt.
"What's wrong?"
"I... don't know." The confused rat man couldn't answer, and his barren rat head was stinging from overuse.
At the same time, Lu Li found a copper key hanging on the wall next to the door.
"The key is there."
Lu Li said to the rat man and came to the bottom of the copper key.
The location of the key is a bit high, so even if you extend your tail, lie down on the wall or jump up, you still can't reach it. There is no broom or mop long enough in the utility room, and even a cat can't pick it up.
Lu Li looked at the wooden planks and blocks piled in the corner and the rat man walking out of the rat hole, and got an idea.
Knock down the plank, drag the plank and wood block under the key, and arrange it into a seesaw.
Lu Li jumped on the kitchen table, commanded the rat men to stand at one end of the seesaw in cooperation, and then jumped down.
"Wow"
He exclaimed and flew up with the rat man, sliding down with the copper key, and was caught by Lu Li who rushed to the landing point.
The rat man who got stuck in Lu Li's back clawed his hair and crawled out.
"Do it again!"
The excited rat man stood on the seesaw, climbed onto the kitchen table with Lu Li, jumped off, and took to the air again.
This time the rat man landed on the copper key accurately and pushed the key off the nail.
Lu Li below wrapped his tail around the copper key and caught it as it jumped down.
Lu Li came to the door, inserted the key into the keyhole, turned it slightly, and then pulled the doorknob with his tail.
Katsa
The door was pulled open a crack.
Lu Li peeked out from the gap. In the quiet corridor outside the utility room, the lizard maid wiped the inlaid window.
Bat guards monitor the corridor at the end.
Lu Li quietly returned to the utility room and closed the door.
The door they struggled to open was not the exit.
"I can't get out of here, is there any other exit?" Lu Li asked the rat man.
"This is wrong...this is wrong...this is wrong..."
The Rat Man once again fell into violent self-denial.
Lu Li waited for it to get out of the state and asked again.
"Other exits...I know, but I'm afraid..."
"There is more than one exit, there is always one you can leave from."
Lu Li "encouraged" the rat man to regain his confidence and led Lu Li to the second exit.
They passed by the kitchen where the cook was busy, crawling under the table and between her legs. They met the cook who was hiding in the warehouse and stealing food, and passed behind it. They climbed up the rope in front of the napping cook, and climbed through the rat hole in the wooden beam.
leave.
The castle is quite vast, so vast that even the rat holes are like mazes, criss-crossing. But bat guards are stationed in every corridor. The rat people are disappointed and self-denialed again and again, and they go to countless exits.
Walking through the dark and quiet tunnel, gradually, the cool surface breeze blew from the front.
The rat man took Lu Li to the new exit: the rat hole at the base of the outer wall of the castle.
A dark and putrid moat stretches across the front.
"This is wrong...this is wrong...this is wrong..."
The rat man held his head in pain and screamed.
Lu Li lifted the cat boy and looked at the light reflected from the head maid's tower window in the distance.
"That's right." Lu Li said.
"This is wrong...this is wrong...this is...right."
