It was quiet outside Death Valley, the sky was full of huge stars, only the searchlights on the snow line were still a little bright, and the surrounding area was completely dark.
Zong Jianguo is directing the team members to cook here. It is rare for him to go to the kitchen manager to pick out some vegetables. While picking out, he still feels disgusted: "This is a barren mountain, and the vegetables are all compressed. I just order noodles. Can it be eaten? Forget it, let’s make do with it.”
Mr. Zong has good cooking skills. He used to take care of the meals at home when he didn't go out to shoot movies when he had nothing to do. Grandma Ailian just needs to wait for dinner. After all, when Zong Jianguo married Wang Ailian, he was regarded as high-ranking. When he married, he promised his father-in-law that he would never let Ailian's ten fingers be stained with Yangchun water in this life. All the housework at home was left to him. Dry.
After so many years in the Pisces Jade Pendant movie, it is no exaggeration to say that most of the time Zong Jianguo survived by relying on his good cooking skills and the consistent recipes every time he went out. Sometimes he would try some weird and dark dishes, and one time he even ate himself so badly that he collapsed all the way, almost failing to catch up with the opening of the ghost gate.
Seeing his grandson once in a while, Zong Jianguo hummed a song, rolled up his sleeves and began to process the ingredients.
I don't know how long this realistic script is,? There are a lot of black technologies. It's incredible that you can bring a small portable stove to cook in such a cold place.
He deftly revived the wilted vegetables after frosting, picked up a bowl and poured seasoning, matched several bowls of mixed noodles, and poured a small half bottle of chili sauce for his own portion.
After getting these things ready, Zong Jianguo raised his head and saw Zong Qi walking slowly towards him with a small bucket.
"What are you doing? You're dawdling, why did it take you so long to decorate the snow? You see that everyone else has eaten it, and you smell it, aren't you hungry?"
The latter touched his head: "I don't think the snow over there is clean, so I picked it up a little further away."
"It's not clean. No one comes to this Death Valley. The herdsmen don't let the herds go here. You dig down, and it's clean. Isn't the Tianshan ice spring mineral water outside just a big truck? Is it installed here?"
Zong Jianguo waved at him without raising his head: "Hurry up and bring it here, I've prepared all the ingredients. How about it? It's been a long time since you tasted your grandfather's handicrafts, right? I remember when you were young, you were the most obedient when eating gone."
"If you are not allowed to watch TV, you will be angry. Once you said you were going to run away from home, but in the end, you came back obediently and hungry by meal time..."
Zong Qi squatted on the ground, staring at the melting snow water in the small pot. Watching them turn from ice cubes to liquid, white mist slowly floats on the surface of the water, and finally bubbles pop out, looking like they are finally boiling.
Zong Jianguo counted the fun stories of his childhood, put the ingredients in his hand bit by bit, and picked up the chopsticks to stir in it. Zong Qi also couldn't see what he put in, there were dried chilies, cooking wine, and even various strange Chinese medicine seasonings.
The seasoning-laden soup began to shrink, and the rich aroma spread around, and the white noodles rolled up and down with the flames.
"I'll get you some more, look at you skinny, does your boyfriend usually not feed you?"
When picking up the noodles, Zong Jianguo specially filled a bowl full for Zong Qi.
Zong Qi suddenly remembered that when he was a child, in order to let him eat more, his grandfather used a rice spoon to press down the rice desperately every time he served it. His bowl of rice is as thick as two bowls of others.
Zong Qi stirred the pot with a spoon: "What about my boyfriend, I can cook by myself too!"
Zong Jianguo was taken aback: "Oh, you know how to cook by yourself?"
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he laughed again: "That's right, Ailian has such a young temperament, if she goes to the kitchen, it will probably blow up the kitchen, how can she cook by herself."
"Actually, no, grandma can still eat when she cooks."
Zong Qi took a large bowl full of noodles and skillfully stirred it with chopsticks, while being careful not to spill the soup.
After grandpa disappeared, grandma has been cooking at home.
It's just that grandma's cooking is really not very delicious. Later, Zong Qi moved a small stool by himself, stepped on it and waved a spatula to cook.
Zong Qi remembered that when grandma tasted his first bite of the rice, she was silent for a while, and said that in the future, you can cook the rice at home if you have time.
"Then it becomes me cooking and grandma getting ready to wash the vegetables and do the dishes."
Zong Jianguo slapped his legs and laughed loudly: "Hahahahahaha! It's something Ailian would do!"
He rubbed Zongqi's head: "But you actually know how to cook, so let me try it sometime."
Zong Qi: "When I take grandpa out from here, I will take grandpa to do whatever grandpa wants to eat."
Zong Jianguo curled his lips: "Pull you down, whether you can go out or not is another matter."
"You can definitely go out." The expression on the face of the black-haired young man suddenly became serious, and he looked directly into Zong Jianguo's eyes: "Grandpa, I will definitely take you back. For sure."
Stared at by such pure and determined eyes, Zong Jianguo thought for a moment that this kid had discovered his plan.
"Eat your noodles well!" He slapped Zong Qi back with a slap.
Of course, how is that possible. Zong Jianguo thought.
After going retrograde here for a full sixteen years, Zong Jianguo finally figured out that the filming of this movie is not a simple time reversal at all.
If it was just a simple time reversal, then why did so many soldiers stationed here become walking dead who lost their minds and only knew to follow orders blindly
They have clearly become NPCs in this realistic script, not because of the influence of the environment, but because they are willing to give up their self-awareness on their own initiative. In other words, this is also a kind of kindness, after all, the death of the spirit is much better than the annihilation of the soul.
Although the system is behind the scenes, it is indeed a helpless move.
The Pisces Jade Pendant can only be opened so many times, and the consequences of losing it are hard to predict.
If he is the system, after the director fails to shoot and chooses to stay in the copy, he will make the same decision.
Over the years, Zong Jianguo has silently accepted his fate.
After all, after so many years, no matter how hopeful and stubborn, that's all.
Zong Jianguo is too aware of his body that has been eaten away by ghost energy. If he doesn't care about it, the result will be nothing more than ending his life in pain. It's better to make the final decision, give up self-awareness, let the system take over this body, become the real gatekeeper of hell, and continue to shine for the good of the country.
This decision may be difficult for others, but it is actually okay for Zong Jianguo. After all, he was able to do the feat of staying in the filming cycle and sending out other teammates and actors, sacrificing himself to save tens of millions of people, which seems not difficult to answer.
Looking at Zong Qi's sleeping face in his sleeping bag, Zong Jianguo turned over and breathed into the dark night sky.
Originally, if Zong Qi hadn't come, maybe he was already in the process of being assimilated by the instance.
Unexpectedly, when Zong Qi came, it could be regarded as a last bit of comfort for him, which actually contributed to Zong Jianguo's determination.
"Ai Lian is gone. With my old bones, this is the only thing I can do for my grandson."
He laughed at himself, helped Zongqi to twist the quilt, stood up again, and lit another cigarette for himself.
...
The next day, everything went according to plan.
When they came to the depths of the Death Valley, the team members tied slipknots on their bodies, lined up neatly one by one, and groped forward.
The water in Yaochi is still surging in front of the mountain wall, so clear that the bottom cannot be seen.
Zong Qi went into the water with Zong Jianguo, and the latter urged, "Do you understand what I said?"
"Understood!!!" Zong Qi shouted: "Then, did Grandpa understand what I said!"
"Let's talk about it later." Zong Jianguo said perfunctorily, "If you can really take out the Pisces Jade Pendant, I will call you Grandpa after you get out, okay?"
Zong Qi: "..."
A group of people swam towards the mountain wall, passed through the familiar diaphragm, and entered another cracked space.
Zong Jianguo glanced at Zong Qi in warning, and led the deputy captain to grope forward.
Zong Qi didn't dare to go forward to touch his grandfather's brow, but frantically called for his foreign aid.
"Nyarlathotep! Lord Nyarlathotep! Respect the unparalleled handsome Nyarlathotep!"
In the air, a black mist gradually formed.
Only this time, what appeared from it was not the face of the black pharaoh, but a human figure condensed from the black mist.
"This space is a bit interesting." The black pharaoh was not in a hurry, but walked around nearby, and said with great interest.
Zong Qi almost died of anxiety.
Entering the ghost gate means entering the third act. The time on his pupils moved forward rapidly, and only half of it passed in a blink of an eye. If Nyarlathotep walks around a few more times, the ashes will be cold.
Naia has long seen Zong Qi's urgency.
He still had a conscience this time, and he probably wanted to see what Zong Qi would choose in the end, so he fled into the black mist very readily.
About three minutes later, Zong Qi suddenly heard the whole world start to shake.
Thousands of ghosts screamed in the distance, the earth trembled, and tens of thousands of pale ghost claws stabbed from behind the blood gate.
Zong Jianguo, who was leading the team to rush towards the blood gate, changed his expression, and was about to yell and retreat, but turned around to find that these ghost claws ignored them directly, and instead grabbed them in the direction of the blood gate.
Zong Jianguo: "???"
He has reincarnated here more than 1,700 times, and this situation has never happened once. Could it be... related to the Pisces jade pendant
The deputy captain suddenly exclaimed: "Captain, look quickly, Yupei!"
Sure enough, on the Blood Gate, the jade pendant originally inlaid in it seemed to be pulled by a strong force.
The crimson indescribable tentacles full of ferocious minions protruded from the black mist, and easily grabbed the Pisces jade pendant.
Not far away, those who looked directly at this scene were all dazzled, with temporary tinnitus, and indescribable ravings coming from their ears.
Zong Jianguo muttered to himself: "Isn't it true that this kid's S-level foreign aid is so powerful?"
The riot/movement lasted for a moment.
A moment later, the Pisces jade pendant fell off from the blood gate, was rolled up by the tentacles and thrown away, and submerged in the mist again.
Zong Jianguo's pupils shrank suddenly, and he rushed out like an arrow from the string, reaching out his hand to catch it.
Then he saw—
The Pisces jade pendant drew a parabola and fell steadily into Zong Qi's hands.
The latter was standing where he was, looking at the Pisces jade pendant that had automatically slipped into his hand, and hadn't recovered for a while.
"Hurry up, throw him into the fairyland!" Zong Jianguo roared.
Zong Qi stood where he was and saw Nyarlathotep smiling expectantly.