"...In other words, Xue Jin sensed that something was wrong after all?" Lin Sanjiu took a big step and walked up the two stairs, with a wry smile in her voice.
"Isn't it? She started muttering halfway through. If Bai Xiaoke hadn't been needed for the operation, she would have done it by herself." Li Tao was small and walked very hastily to keep up with Lin Sanjiu.
Speed. Her bright, puppy-like black eyes were filled with a relaxed smile: "...Originally she meant that after I find you, I will take you away even if I drag you alive."
"Ahem!" Lin Sanjiu felt more relieved after knowing that the operation outside had just started a few dozen minutes ago. She used polishing compound to illuminate the steps in front of her, and was a little dumbfounded by Xue Qui on the other side of the Garden of Eden. "She said it was dangerous for me.
We’ve all gone through it, it’s just a copy. Look, we’ve all gone up several floors now, aren’t we okay?”
It's not necessarily true that there are several floors, because the Black Tower only has the bottom and the top; the ones in between are just one floor after another, like endless spiral staircases. If the energy center is really in the Black Tower, then it must be in the tower.
No doubt; at this moment, the two of them had climbed four or five winding stairs, but the end of the stairs above their heads could not be seen yet.
"Oh, by the way, what does that copy look like? How did you get out?"
Even Lin Sanjiu couldn't answer this - she pondered for a while, looked back at Li Tao, and suddenly smiled: "Actually, I don't know either... Why don't you let me tell you the story in the copy?
See if you can find the answer, even if there is one more cobbler, it would be good."
After that, she told Li Tao what happened in the copy in as much detail as possible.
The story lines of the fairy tale copy were interspersed with each other and the time was messed up. Lin Sanjiu herself found it very difficult to tell it; but what she couldn't believe was that after she finished her messy narration, Li Tao actually understood it.
.
"...I can only come out by luck. Because I really can't figure out what is going on with this copy..."
In the flickering silver light, while listening to the regular footsteps of the two of them, Lin Sanjiu let out the confusion that lingered in her heart.
Next to her, Li Tao was silent for a while, seeming to be stumped. The silver light illuminated the ascending stairs in front of her, but her expression could not be seen - after a long while, she said softly: "Three
It’s quite interesting that the ages of the two protagonists don’t match up..."
"What do you think?" Lin Sanjiu asked with interest.
There was still a long way to go before the top of the tower; out of caution, she did not completely let go of her speed. During the journey before reaching the top of the tower, she was willing to listen to Li Tao's opinion.
Li Tao's steps slowed down unknowingly, and she smiled hesitantly: "...It's just an idea. I don't know if it's right or not."
"What does that matter? You tell me."
"...I feel that if you think with the logic of 'because something happened in the past, something will happen in the future', it may be fundamentally wrong." Li Tao captured the first sentence.
Lin Sanjiu caught Lin Sanjiu's attention: "I think these three stories should actually be separate and have nothing to do with each other."
"Eh? But the death of the prince...and Laila's mirror...how to explain it?"
Li Tao seemed to find it a bit tricky to express her thoughts correctly - after thinking about it, she asked: "Do you have any paper with you?"
Lin Sanjiu stopped and rummaged through her card library. Most of the supplies were found in the extreme temperature hell. There were not many paper products left under high temperatures; she finally pulled them out from a roll of toilet paper.
One piece and handed it to Li Tao.
"I want three." Li Tao took it and said.
Lin Sanjiu was stunned, as if she had grasped something vaguely. She still didn't understand it. She handed over two more pieces of paper, turned the toilet paper back into a card, and was about to put it away together with other things when she suddenly found that there was something in the middle.
Hold the diary card.
"Ah, isn't this my cute little beauty!" - This is the only sentence on the card.
Before Li Tao saw the embarrassing card, Lin Sanjiu quickly put it into her body - and then raised her head nonchalantly. She found Li Tao pondering, holding two pieces of toilet paper between the fingers of her left hand. She pinched them with her right hand.
Take the last one and place it below them.
Now, the three pieces of toilet paper appear in the air as upper, middle and lower layers.
"Each piece of paper represents a story." Li Tao cleared her throat, her voice filled with excitement, as if she enjoyed deciphering. "They are parallel, do not interfere with each other, and each has its own time flow."
"The story with the largest time span and the fastest flow of time is the story of Bluebeard." She said as she took out the top sheet alone and used her fingernails to draw a short bar and a dot - the short bar and the dot.
The dots have repeated the interaction several times, representing high frequency. "Bluebeard met the fairy when he was seven years old, and married Lyra when he was almost forty. There were nearly thirty years in between."
Lin Sanjiu nodded, indicating that she understood.
"The next one is Little Red Riding Hood." This time, the bars drawn by Li Tao were slightly longer, and the frequency of bars and dots became lower. "From Emma to Little Red Riding Hood, almost twenty years have passed."
"So, the one with the slowest flow of time is Cinderella?" Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but ask.
"That's right. While the other two stories - oh, think of them as these two pieces of toilet paper - move forward for decades, only a few months have passed in Cinderella's world."
After saying that, Li Tao drew a long line and a dot on the third piece of paper. A short piece of toilet paper only accommodated two long lines and ended up at the end.
She once again placed the three pieces of paper in a parallel position. The only difference this time was that Li Tao pulled a hairpin from her hair and pointed the tip at the toilet paper.
"Now I am the old fairy. I tricked Cinderella into agreeing to punch a few holes in her layer of paper."
Lin Sanjiu vaguely realized something and felt a patch of hair rising on her back.
"This dot is like the time period when the prince was looking for Cinderella." The tip of the hairpin in Li Tao's hand poked a hole through the dot of the third piece of toilet paper and penetrated it. It reached the second layer.
The hairpin changed direction. "In this layer of Little Red Riding Hood, go through the time when Little Red Riding Hood encounters the werewolf."
"Now, the countless tiny bacteria and dust on the toilet paper followed the holes and came to a new layer of paper. Whether it was the 'werewolf' bacteria that came to Cinderella's paper, or the 'prince' bacteria that came to Little Red Riding Hood's
On paper... Anyway, at this point, characters and stories from two different time flows merge."
"I am also a...bacteria that shuttles back and forth between three pieces of paper." Lin Sanjiu stared at the toilet paper and smiled softly. Because the place where the toilet paper was punctured was not straight up and down, it was a little distorted.
In the dim silver light, it seemed to be floating in the air with life.
Li Tao nodded with serious eyes. "If you follow the same pattern and pierce a few more holes, the strange phenomenon you have seen will appear. For example, Bluebeard from the past and future will exist in the palace at the same time."
She plucked out a piece of her hair, picked two far apart points on the Bluebeard paper, pierced two holes, and threaded the hair through it. The two ends of her hair hung down on the Cinderella paper, and she pierced a
Click and pull gently, the Bluebeard paper immediately wrinkled, and the two points were tightly attached to a certain point on the toilet paper below.
"That's why the old man said to Blue Beard, 'Eighteen years is much shorter than you think'!" Lin Sanjiu murmured, half in amazement and half in confusion.
Li Tao smiled slightly: "That's right. Once you realize that the essence of the three stories is actually a 'three-layered' story, you will find that nothing is certain and can save three people at the same time - because
You're just an outsider. You can't penetrate the story levels like that old fairy. And the existing 'intersection point' - let's call it that, does not connect the three levels at the same time."
"Could it be that... copies can also deceive people?"
"No, that stone tablet didn't lie to you." Li Tao waved with one finger, crumpled the three pieces of paper into a ball, and threw them away. "That was a narrative trick."
"...Narrative trick?" Lin Sanjiu repeated softly, walking slowly up behind her.
"It's very simple - the protagonist of the story of Little Red Riding Hood is Little Red Riding Hood. The protagonist of the story of Cinderella is Cinderella. Then why is the protagonist of the story of Bluebeard, Lyra?"
Li Tao's soft and tranquil voice spread gently in the darkness, like a wave hitting the stone wall - but to Lin Sanjiu's ears, it sounded like thunder.
"Because, because..." She wanted to say something, but she got stuck. Because she suddenly realized that even she didn't know why she thought Laila was the protagonist——
"Shouldn't the protagonist of the Blue Beard story be Blue Beard?" Li Tao laughed.
"However, the stone tablet says that the three protagonists are all in a life-or-death situation and need me to save them - and when Laila saw Bluebeard, her life was indeed in danger -"
"Then what were you planning to do at that time?" In the dim silver light, Li Tao looked back at her.
"I planned to... kill Bluebeard." Lin Sanjiu responded blankly, understanding.
At this point, it was already clear - as long as Lin Sanjiu didn't kill Blue Beard, it would be equivalent to saving his life. However, I am afraid that no one involved in this situation could understand this at the time.
"Although the entire copy is a trick, it will be useless when I meet you." Li Tao smiled softly, "No matter who it is, as long as they think about it more, they will definitely not let Bluebeard go - after all
He showed the most doubts. Once you get stuck in your thinking, it may be difficult to make the right decision... But fortunately, you are a person whose muscles act before the brain, so you can solve the copy cleanly."
Lin Sanjiu really didn't know if this was a compliment to her.
After a while, she said in a low voice: "No, aren't you very powerful? Just listening to my retelling, you have already analyzed everything... If it were you, you would be able to see through it very quickly.
.”
Li Tao suddenly said "ha" as if she was a little embarrassed: "What? I'm just a bystander... If it were me, I might not be able to come out."
"I have two final questions that I would like to ask you." Lin Sanjiu said suddenly.
"What?"
"The first question is, what is the content of the dungeon you broke through in the Black Tower?" Lin Sanjiu's attitude was not harsh, as if he was just making things up.
Li Tao, who had been climbing the stairs in front of her, suddenly stopped. In the dimness, her figure stood upright, but she never looked back.
"The second question is, your name is not Li Tao. Who are you?" (To be continued)
ps: In order to be a man who keeps his promise and is strong and majestic, I stayed up until almost three o'clock, finished writing and added more...
I owe a total of three chapters plus more updates, and today I finally paid off the earliest debt... Concubine Ni, come and check it out! It's not easy, I'm in tears! Next, there are Douwan and Tohfrs's He Shibi to conquer.
!(fog)
Thank you to Mirror V Balance for your rating votes and 2 peace charms, and to Baiqiang (eh? Is there a word missing?) for the peace charms!
I feel that this three-layer setting is very painful to explain, and the space is not enough. I don’t know if I have explained it clearly before moving on to the next plot. I always feel like I will be bombarded by the comment area...