After hearing Lenora mention that an "unspeakable mass" rushed out of the light cocoon and caused her "drifting house" to temporarily lose control, Zhou Ming's expression became subtle for a moment - he thought about it for a moment and thought that the thing might be the bag of "junk" that he threw out.
He originally intended to use that thing as a "medium" to establish communication with visitors outside the door.
But now it seems that the communication was a bit rough.
Fortunately, Lenora didn't seem to encounter too much trouble because of this accident - and she didn't notice the subtle silence of the "Thousand Faces of Starlight" in front of her.
Zhou Ming quickly took this opportunity to change the subject: "What happened after you lost control for a short time? You said you 'overdid it'... What does that mean?"
Lei Nora didn't seem to doubt anything. She just frowned and thought after hearing this. After a moment, she recalled and said, "After the drifting house was temporarily out of control, I fell into the deepest part of the fog and stopped near an invisible... 'border'. I don't know how to describe that border to you... It actually has no entity, and you can't see anything visually, but the fog stopped there. Beyond that boundary, there are large areas of... nothingness."
She slowly stopped, as if she felt that her description was still not accurate enough, and frowned in distress. Zhou Ming immediately noticed this, and his expression gradually became serious: "Nothingness?"
"Yes, nothingness. It's not darkness, nor is it 'nothing' in the general sense... I don't know if this is accurate - even if it's 'a place with nothing', there is at least a 'place', but that place... is beyond the scope of my rational explanation," Lenora thought hard, even recalling and describing the scene she saw seemed to be a very difficult thing, "Do you know the world in the eyes of people who are born blind? Those who have never seen the slightest light, and even lost their visual structure. Many people think that the world in their eyes is dark, but in fact, the world in their 'eyes' is an extreme 'emptiness'..."
She paused, and couldn't help but open her hands to gesture, and continued, "They can't see 'darkness', because strictly speaking, 'darkness' is also a part of vision. They have never seen any color or shape, so even the word 'darkness' is an abstract and incomprehensible concept to them. So from a visual perspective, what they 'see' is not black, but 'emptiness'. Colors have never existed, outlines have never existed, and the entire world does not exist from a visual perspective.
“And outside of that boundary, this is what I felt.
"I felt like I should have 'seen' something in front of me, but it was beyond my understanding and perception, so that I couldn't leave any 'image' in my mind. I felt like I heard some kind of sound, but no matter how I felt at the time or how I recalled it afterwards, my mind was blank - I stood at the invisible end, and I clearly realized that there was a 'border' there, and the border should have an 'opposite', but it... didn't."
Lenora waved her hand, as if even now, recalling the strange and terrifying feeling at that time still made her feel a little uncomfortable.
"There is no 'other side'..." Zhou Mingze frowned slowly after hearing the other party's abstract and incomprehensible description. He pondered and guessed about the scene, and gradually made some associations, "It's like a piece of paper without a 'back side'?"
Lei Nora opened her eyes wide in surprise, and then she saw the "starlight entity" in front of her suddenly raised its limbs again. In the focus of thousands of eyes and starlight, a... structure was gradually taking shape.
Zhou Ming tore off a piece of white paper, twisted it, and connected the beginning and the end.
"Knowledge" flooded into Lenora's mind, and at this moment, she understood the Möbius strip structure.
The vast "nothingness" opened its door to her.
"That's the feeling!" She suddenly woke up from her trance, staring at the structure floating in the chaos with her eyes wide open, "That's it! A boundary without an 'opposite', a piece of paper without a 'back'! A limit, a true 'end'!"
The structure dissipated silently.
Zhou Ming loosened the connection of the Möbius strip. As the paper tape fell on the table, he muttered to himself thoughtfully: "Is this the external barrier?..."
Of course he knew that the shelter barrier built by the "Gods" should not be so simple. The Möbius strip was just a "model" that was easy to understand - the two could not be equated, but judging from the "border scene" described by Lenora, they must have something in common.
Lenore looked at him with puzzled curiosity.
"You have reached the true end of the world—perhaps even beyond the place where the ancient kings stayed," Zhou Ming stared at the "Frost Queen" with an uneasy tone, "You saw... the scene beyond the border, but that is beyond your understanding..."
He slowly stopped.
The Möbius strip has no "end". For a "creature" staying on the surface of the strip, no matter how far it goes in the strip, it will never reach the "border" of the strip, let alone notice that there is an "invisible end" there, and thus feel confused and fearful about the "nothingness" it sees before its eyes - but Lenorah, this reckless traveler, she noticed the existence of that "end" at some point in the past.
She experienced "dimensional upgrading" - although she felt that she only saw "nothingness" because she could not "recognize" the scene there, at that moment, she did briefly change from an individual trapped on the surface of the ring to a person standing outside the ring.
He did his best to explain it all to Lenora, the strange phenomena she had seen, and the "upward" nature of her experiences over the past period of time.
"Knowledge" impacts Lenora's mind, reshaping her cognition and nature.
But she accepted it all with joy.
This was exactly what she had been looking for on her journey, and this was exactly what she wanted at this moment.
She wanted to witness more scenery and understand everything she saw.
"I should leave," she said, standing up suddenly.
Zhou Ming looked at the Frost Queen with some surprise, and seemed unable to react for a moment.
"I want to go there and take another look," Lei Nora turned her head and stared at Zhou Ming with eyes full of starlight—the starlight seemed to have been reflected in her eyes forever. "I understand more, I have a feeling... This time, I seem to be able to see something in that 'nothingness', something... something that I could not recognize before, but it does exist."
Zhou Ming was silent for a moment and slowly stood up from the sofa.
"You think there's 'something' in that nothingness?"
"Yes," Lenora nodded without hesitation, with a conviction and determination that others could not understand, "I have seen them and heard them, but it was like a breeze blowing over stones, and it never left any traces in my mind - just like fingers cannot distinguish colors, eyes cannot judge cold and warm, my reason is not enough to understand things beyond the 'end', but now... I believe things have changed, I can see them, even if it's just a little bit."
Zhou Ming stared intently into the eyes of the "Frost Queen".
"You are making a very risky decision," he said suddenly, "You almost got swallowed by the 'end', and now you are going back."
"Yes, it's adventurous," Lenora suddenly laughed with joy and brilliance, "Travel is always accompanied by adventure."
"… like another 'deep dive program'?"
"... Yes, it's like another 'deep dive plan'," Lenoir slowly put away her smile and nodded gently, "My own deep dive plan."
She turned her head and looked away, took a deep breath, and after a moment of silence, she said thoughtfully: "You see, I am really not suitable to be a 'queen'."
Zhou Ming said nothing, but slowly walked to the window connected to the "drifting house".
After a long moment, he said, "I can't leave here—so don't forget to tell me what you saw."
Lenora nodded happily: "Okay, I'll do your eyes."
She returned to the "crack" and prepared to return to her "drifting house" - a new journey was waiting ahead, and she was ready.
Zhou Ming looked at the ambitious Frost Queen.
For a moment, he felt that it seemed a little indecent to let the lady climb out the window again. It seemed a little undignified as the beginning of another great journey.
But soon he felt that... there didn't seem to be anything wrong with this.
The queen, once trapped in a cage, can now travel in any way she pleases.
His guest left.
With a slight vibration, the window closed again, and the scene outside the window was shrouded in thick fog in the blink of an eye - Zhou Ming had no time to confirm how the "drifting house" moved, and it had disappeared from his sight.
He stood by the window in a daze, staring outside for a long time, then looked away and swept his eyes across the living room.
It was as if what had just happened had been a dream—a mind trapped forever in a cabin dreaming of having a visitor.
But when he came to the sofa, he saw that the paper tape that had been twisted into a Möbius strip was still lying quietly on the coffee table, with the edge of the tape still slightly curled up.
On the white paper next to it, there is an outline of a lantern with an ancient shape.
Someone had indeed visited here.
Zhou Ming breathed a sigh of relief. He felt as if he was a little relieved. Then he smiled and shook his head, then walked towards the door of the apartment.
Open the door, the black fog that keeps expanding and shrinking and wriggling is just like before...
Duncan opened his eyes in front of the Lost Man's Gate.
(End of this chapter)
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