All along, Shen Ti's way of cognition and feeling the world is vague and fast. In his eyes, all things are like massive amounts of data, poured into his brain through some kind of channel, absorbed and mastered extremely quickly, without too much attention and analysis, not necessary.
So he observes most of the time, but only in observation.
Everyone you meet in your life is like a simple sample, read the past all the way, like turning the pages of a book, leave what you have learned, and let go of irrelevant meaning.
Flipping through the book of the world smoothly, until this moment, Shen Ti stuttered for the first time.
He got stuck on a page called An Wujiu's illustration.
This beautiful and intricate illustration seems to have been inserted out of nowhere. It appeared unexpectedly in all scenes that could have been predicted, disrupting Shen Ti's pace. In this regard, his observation level is far beyond the perfunctory of a sample, but involuntarily trying to go deeper and deeper.
From then on, a desire sprouted, to understand, to master, to get in touch. Shen Ti defines it as curiosity for the time being.
He didn't want to casually turn over the page of An Wujiu, so he stayed for him.
After entering the new room, Wu You's first reaction was to look up at the ceiling. The dome here is somewhat similar to the one in the bunker last time, and there are even religious murals on it. The murals are dominated by gold and white, depicting the pope and believers, but in the middle is a black oval with sharp ends.
After watching for a long time, I gradually developed a strange feeling, like seeing an unfathomable eye, an endless black hole.
"Thanks."
The uncontrollable and misty thoughts were interrupted by a word of thanks, Wu You came back to his senses, turned his head and looked over, it was Nan Shan who was surrendering.
"Sure enough, I've stumbled. If it wasn't for you, I might be in trouble now."
When the two were about to look at each other, Wu You turned his face away.
"Brother Wujiu saved you."
"I... just got a needle."
Nanshan smiled, thanked him as before, and corrected the content, "Then thank you for giving me the needle, otherwise I wouldn't be able to wake up."
After finishing speaking, he turned around again and bowed his hands to An Wujiu.
Seeing Nanshan thanking him, An Wujiu wanted to wave his hand, but felt his wrist was restrained, only then remembered that his hand was still tightly held by Shen Ti, so he raised his hand, trying to break free from Shen Ti's grasp.
But Nanshan stretched out his hand of peace first, and pressed the two connected hands of An Wujiu and Shen Ti together, "I understand, I understand..."
What does he know? An Wujiu was very inexplicable.
But he was still concerned about Shen Ti's physical condition, so he asked again, "Are you okay?"
Shen Ti seemed to be distracted, but when he came back to his senses because of his words, those green eyes glanced at him.
"fine."
He realized it later, and let go of An Wujiu's hand, but he didn't let go directly, but loosened his fingers, paused for half a second, and finally let go.
An Wujiu was finally able to focus on this circus.
This place is completely isolated from the outside, bigger and more empty than imagined, the room is filled with a strange mist, and the humidity makes this place exude a decayed and damp smell.
The four walls are painted with various circus animals, monkeys wearing red square caps, elephants with vests, tigers and rings, and fluffy white rabbits in black top hats. But about the ages, most of these supposedly bright paintings have been stripped of their colors, and everything has become old, yellowish and gray, like works from another generation.
Nevertheless, it is not difficult to get a glimpse of the prosperity of this circus theater.
Josh picked up the boxes and cards thrown by An Wujiu from the ground, and he found that these cards were basically written for A02, and rarely for D03, that is, himself.
"Did you find this in that room?" He handed it to An Wujiu.
The cards are full of children's handwriting, which is crooked and cute. Many of them were given to A02, thank him for the small cakes and gifts he gave them, hope he can come to this floor to visit them more in the future.
Some of them told A02 about the pain of their illness, and they could watch cartoons when they wanted to eat candy and infusion; others hoped that A02 could tell them more stories.
It is not difficult to see from these cards that these children really like A02.
"This one is so cute." Josh read it out, "Brother A02, can you not bring A01 when you come next time, he is too fierce, I don't like him, I only like you."
Zhong Yirou, who was still weak at the side, laughed softly, "This feels... very similar to what Wu You would write when he was a child."
Wu You disagreed, and pushed down his hat, out of sight and out of mind.
The previous video and audio, as well as these cards, seem to be depicting the people who work here to them, especially A02, so much information about him has already appeared even though he is only on the second floor.
An Wujiu thought, if he wanted to find an exit from here, the story of A02 might be an important opportunity.
The milky white mist stretched all the way to the mahogany stage on the far right, and the already large stage seemed even more empty due to the emptiness. Behind the stage is a dark red velvet curtain, like a peaceful pool of blood under the breeze, and the layers of waves seem to be frozen.
"I thought there was really a circus performance here..." Josh looked around, the circus theater was so empty that he could almost hear the echo, "There is nothing."
Originally they spread out and checked around, but an inexplicable strangeness hovered over the empty theater like vultures, and the gradually diminishing sense of security in their hearts made them gather again involuntarily.
Wu You's mind was a little confused at the moment, his eyes kept looking at Nan Shan. After the injection of the medicine, Nan Shan woke up and could stand like them, but his lips were terribly pale.
"I have something to say." Wu You opened his lips, his voice echoed for a long time in the eerily quiet theater, attracting everyone's attention. Wu You walked up to Nanshan, without saying anything, he stretched out his hand and pushed his collar away. At the beginning, Nan Shan felt strange, so she raised her hand subconsciously, wanting to ask him what's wrong.
But he soon saw Zhong Yirou's expression on the other side changed, becoming very ugly.
Wu You was very close to him, raised his eyes to meet him, then stepped aside and said to everyone, "I also discovered it during the first aid. The scar on his neck is almost the same as Zhong Yirou's."
At this moment, many things have found the reason. Nan Shan finally understands why she often has an inexplicable feeling of suffocation, and she can't adjust even after taking a deep breath.
An Wujiu approached a little closer, staring at the scar on Nanshan's neck, the scar had turned purple in color, and its width was almost the same as that on Zhong Yirou's neck, half a knuckle's width, with lines left by weaving on it.
"It shouldn't be," Josh was puzzled, "Yirou was strangled by that fake Wugui. Erci and I saw it with our own eyes. We rescued her at that time, but Nanshan never strangled her neck." Well, how could there be strangle marks? Could it be... "
He uttered a very terrible conjecture, "Is this strangle mark contagious? Just like an infectious disease?"
"If it is really contagious, it should be passed on to us, but it is Nanshan. According to the current situation, it can only start from layer to layer. Both of them are from the E layer, so there will be the same infection. Something happened." Yang Erci calmly put one arm around Zhong Yirou's shoulder to support her, "The altar definitely does not want a family-style ending, this game is a mechanism of layering up to break through the level, maybe it is to prevent Everyone can get to the top floor safely and find the obstacles to the exit."
Josh's focus was on 'starting layer by layer', and he felt uneasy, "Is the next one going to be me?"
An Wujiu continued: "It's just a guess. How the strangle marks came about is still unclear. Everyone can stick to the last floor together. Don't panic, or you will defeat yourself."
His tone was very firm, as calm and sure as if he had built a long ladder on top of the magma at a critical moment, as if everything was in his calculations. All of a sudden, Josh felt at ease again.
In fact, An Wujiu felt that the same wound on Nanshan's neck was not as simple as an obstruction mechanism. When they reunited with them on the first floor, An Wujiu heard Zhong Yirou talk about being strangled by the fake self with a whip.
The wounds on Nanshan and Zhong Yirou's necks seemed to be caused by the whip.
Suddenly, a gust of cold wind blew up out of thin air in the theater, and the wind rolled up the mist, blurring the vision for a moment. At this moment, all the lights were extinguished, and darkness covered everything like a monstrous ocean wave.
In the next second, a bunch of cool white ceiling lights above the stage came down like a sharp knife, breaking through the darkness. After the ceiling lights, a few small lights lit up on the ceiling above the stage, like sparse stars in the night sky.
"Sit down, everyone."
A high-pitched voice appeared, speaking in a strange tone like a fairy tale, "Sit down, sit down!" But the voice was heard, but the person could not be seen.
Everyone looked around for the figure of the speaker, and when they turned around, they found that there were six more mahogany chairs neatly arranged in the empty place behind them.
There are red projections floating on the chairs, marking their names, and everyone has their own chair.
Except An Wugui.
"If you don't sit down, the show won't start."
"Sit down." Yang Erci sat down first, "It should be a new game."
The others also sat down one by one, except for An Wujiu who had no choice but to stand aside. He looked at the others, and his eyes stopped on Shen Ti's body, but he didn't expect that this guy just happened to look up at him. The two stared at each other for a few seconds.
Then, Shen Ti patted his legs together towards An Wujiu.
An Wujiu froze for a moment, then turned his head away.
There must be something wrong with this person.
This action was Shen Ti's search for a certain memory in a short period of time. The mother sitting on the steps by the side of the road patted her child's legs, and the child happily passed by and sat in the mother's arms.
But this effect seems to be... not feasible in practice.
Everyone was seated according to their names, but the voice did not appear immediately, Wu You was a little surprised, "Why is there no seat for Brother Wu Jiu?"
Is there any danger
An Wujiu was calm, he didn't think too much because of his specialness, he turned his face to comfort Wu You, but suddenly found that all of their chairs were not right.
Each one was bleeding along the chair legs, and at this moment, the blood was all over the floor.
"Why are you bleeding?"
Hearing his question, everyone looked down at themselves. They didn't feel any pain, but there seemed to be a hole in their stomach, and fresh blood gushed out continuously.
Nan Shan asked about the blood on her hands, and it didn't feel right.
"It's like a hallucination," he said.
Still, that real fishy-sweet flavor spreads through the moist mist. In the darkness, there seemed to be countless pairs of eyes staring at them, and that strange and indescribable feeling began to erode the whole body little by little.
"Thank you for coming to the theater! I am your Mr. Rabbit!"
Everyone raised their heads when they heard the sound, and a rabbit wearing a black top hat suddenly appeared in the center of the stage, bowing to them very gentlemanly.
"Now that everyone is here, let's get started."
He straightened up, raised his arms and clapped his furry hands. Suddenly, a white peony appeared in his hand. Mr. Rabbit smiled and threw the peony flower from his left hand to his right hand, and one peony flower changed from one to two.
He giggled, jumped and turned around, and the peony flowers became a whole bunch, which could hardly be held.
"There are so many flowers, we have to find a way to use them up." Mr. Rabbit held the flowers, danced around the stage twice, turned his two ruby-like eyeballs, and stood still in the center of the stage. Finally, throw the bouquet in your hand into the sky.
The snow-white peonies turned into dense petals all over the sky, like a rain of flowers that blurred the vision. After all the petals fluttered and fell, two golden birdcages juxtaposed together appeared out of thin air in the center of the stage.
"It's turned into a cage!" Mr. Rabbit jumped forward, opened the door of the birdcage, and got in. "It's just me!"
An Wujiu, who was standing by the side, looked at the others, and found that the blood had disappeared in an instant. Everyone was silent, almost concentrating on watching the performance of the rabbit on the stage. It seems that there is an inexplicable attraction that draws everyone's attention to the stage, and there is no escape.
Except for Shen Ti, he was still the same as before, lacking interest in everything, raised his hand and yawned, sat on the chair and stretched, and finally collapsed on the back of the chair.
The rabbit came out of the cage, "I need to separate the two of them now, yes, separate them." After finishing speaking, he bounced and pushed the two huge birdcages away, and pushed them to both ends of the stage.
"The performance will start right away, everyone, don't worry." Rabbit jumped to the center of the stage by himself, looked left and right, confirmed the positions of the two birdcages, and then looked towards the audience.
"Now I need a volunteer. That's right, this magic trick needs another person. Who is willing to come up and experience it?"
No one spoke, but the rabbit's scarlet eyes were fixed on An Wujiu, with a weird smile.
"Then invite the gentleman who received the flowers to come on stage."
An Wujiu froze for a moment, then suddenly felt something, he raised his hand, and pinned a peony to his right ear.
"Don't go up." Shen Ti, who was still sleepy just now, was extremely sober.
"Oh, if no one comes up..." Rabbit's lips were raised, as if he was smiling all the time, "Then I can only use some impolite methods to pick someone up from below, which may be very dangerous."
Hearing these words, An Wujiu still walked towards the stage.
"Tasks always have to be done."
Shen Ti knew that these words were meant for him.
He got up to replace him, but found that he couldn't get up, couldn't speak, and couldn't make An Wujiu stop.
The body seems to be fixed on this chair.
An Wujiu finally walked onto the stage, the rabbit jumped to his side, a huge sense of oppression enveloped him.
"I assure you, this performance will bring the greatest joy to your friends, trust me!" He stretched out a furry hand, pointing the direction to An Wujiu.
"Now, please enter the birdcage on the left."
An Wujiu did as he did, he walked over and observed the structure of the cage, it was similar to the previous warm-up match with the caged bird, the workmanship was fine and it was difficult to escape.
He walked into the cage, and the rabbit followed, closed the cage door, took out a huge lock, and locked the cage.
Then, he bounced to the other end of the stage and locked the other empty cage.
Mr. Rabbit returned to the center of the stage, and at the same time as he opened his arms, two pieces of black flannelette descended from the sky, and they were put on the two birdcages impartially, completely covering the golden silk cages.
"Now, everyone, don't blink, I will let everyone see the most exciting teleportation!"
Instant transfer
An Wujiu in the cage stretched out into the darkness, couldn't see anything, only heard the voice of the rabbit.
"Countdown! Three—"
Shen Ti in the audience also felt very bad. He struggled with all his strength, but he still couldn't get up from this chair.
"two-"
"Ann..." He tried hard to speak, but could only utter incoherent monosyllables.
But An Wujiu heard it, and he also wanted to speak, but only for a moment.
"one!"
The black flannel on the left birdcage was lifted off.
There was nothing in it, only a lonely snow-white peony that fell in the cage.
The rabbit giggled, picked up the peony and threw it down the stage. The flower fell on Shen Ti's lap along a parabola.
Looking up again, Mr. Rabbit has come to the right side of the stage. He grabbed the black flannel and pulled it hard.
"This is the miracle of teleportation!"
An Wujiu, who was still in the birdcage on the left, was teleported to the birdcage on the right across a long stage.
"Surprised? Excited?" The rabbit hopped around the stage.
The door was opened, and An Wujiu came out with a calm expression on his face.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Beautiful, you can step down and hug your friends."
An Wujiu walked off the stage and walked towards Shen Ti with a faint smile on his face.
Seeing him appearing safely, Shen Ti's heart gradually relaxed, but perhaps because of the weird atmosphere here, an indescribable emotion surged in his heart, and his brows furrowed unconsciously.
In front of the stage, the magical transmission of two golden birdcages was wonderful. Behind the stage, a huge red velvet curtain concealed a huge, preserved flower-like glass installation.
A water pipe is attached to the top of the airtight glass device, and the water is poured into it continuously, a little bit below the bottom, without the chains that lock the ankles, without the feet and knees, and spreads to the waist.
The unconscious An Wujiu was immersed in the water, the hem of his white shirt gradually floated and swayed.
Like a fragile and beautiful white peony.