by N. Heller
However, the doorbell continued ringing. "Ding dong. Ding dong." It rang for a few times, totally annihilating the silent atmosphere. Lin Sanjiu aimed the light toward the door and her heart thumped violently. She had already stealthily activated her [Mosaic Censorship].
The large door opened with a loud rumble, just like when she first entered. When the door opened, the light from outdoors leaked in. Lin Sanjiu subconsciously felt a sense of relief. There was only a dim light coming in from the door, so it was probably still deep in the night.
The person who walked in seemed surprised to be greeted by a bright light. The person paused and called out, "Miss Lin?"
Lin Sanjiu sighed in relief and put down her hand. She let out an exhausted chuckle and replied, "It’s you."
Chapter 144 - The Reveal
"So... you’re saying that Xueqin noticed that something was wrong anyway?" Lin Sanjiu said with some awkwardness as she took a large step, climbing the stairs two at a time.
"Yeah! She started grumbling about it midway to our destination. She would definitely come here herself if she didn’t need Bai Xiaoke to help her move." Li Tao was short so she had to move much faster to match Lin Sanjiu’s speed. Her bright, puppy-like raven eyes showed a light-hearted cheerfulness, "She actually wanted me to look for you and then use whatever means to bring you back."
"Huh!" Lin Sanjiu was reassured when she found out that the operation outside had only been ongoing for less than an hour. She couldn’t help finding Xueqin, who was at the other side of the city, rather amusing. She used her [Ability Polishing Agent] to light the next few steps ahead and continued, "I have been through all those dangers she warned about. It is just a pocket dimension. Look, we have already climbed so many stories, and we’re still fine."
Lin Sanjiu was a bit wrong about her description, as the black tower technically only had two stories, the ground floor, and the top floor. The middle portion of the tower was just an almost endless flight of stairs. Naturally, if the power source was really located in the black tower, it could only be on the top floor. Both women had already climbed up four to five segments of the spiral staircase but they were still unable to see the top floor.
"By the way, what was the pocket dimension like? How did you escape?"
Lin Sanjiu wasn’t quite sure how to answer Li Tao. She hemmed and hawed before she turned to look at Li Tao and suddenly smiled, "Actually, I don’t know… Why don’t I tell you what happened? Maybe, you might unravel what have transpired. Two heads are better than one!"
After that, she recounted her experience in the pocket dimension, providing Li Tao with as many details as she could. As the storylines and timelines within the fairytale-themed pocket dimension were in such a mess, Lin Sanjiu found it hard to even put it in words. Unbelievably, Li Tao actually understood her confusing narration.
"I think I escaped because of dumb luck. No matter how hard I think, I can’t make sense of that pocket dimension..." Lin Sanjiu confessed her perplexity under the glimmering silver light and their steady footsteps.
Li Tao remained quiet for a while. She seemed to be stumped as well. As Lin Sanjiu focused the light ahead, she couldn’t see Li Tao’s expression. After some time, she finally spoke softly, "It’s quite interesting that the age of the three main characters contradicts their existence on the same timeline…"
"What are your thoughts?" Lin Sanjiu asked inquisitively.
They were still quite a distance away from the top of the tower. To be on the safe side, Lin Sanjiu didn’t use her maximum speed to race up the tower. Right now, she was more than willing to hear Li Tao’s analysis. Li Tao slowed down her steps subconsciously and laughed a little hesitantly, "This is just my thoughts, I don’t know if it’s right."
"It’s alright. Just speak your mind."
"I think that it is fundamentally wrong to use the assumption that past events affect future events," Li Tao already caught Lin Sanjiu’s attention with her first sentence, "I think that all three stories were actually independent, and have nothing to do with each other."
"Huh? How do you explain the prince’s death and Lila’s mirror?"
Li Tao seemed to realize that it might be quite difficult for her to express her explanation. After thinking for a bit, she asked, "Do you have a piece of paper?"
Lin Sanjiu stopped and looked through her deck of cards. Most of the items she had were things salvaged from Hyperthermal Hell and not many paper-made products could survive the high temperature in that world. In the end, she tore a piece of toilet paper and handed it to Li Tao.
"I need three pieces," Li Tao replied.
Lin Sanjiu froze for a moment, feeling as if she almost sensed something but failed to understand anything in the end. She tore off another two more pieces of toilet paper and changed the toilet roll back into a card. After that, she packed and prepared to store her cards. Suddenly, she noticed her Diary Card.
"Ah, isn’t that my super-cute girl!" A single line appeared on the card.
Now, the three toilet paper created a model with a top, middle and bottom level.
"Each of this pieces of paper represents a story." Li Tao cleared her throat and spoke excitedly as though she enjoyed this process of revealing this mystery, "They are supposed to be on parallel planes so they can’t interfere with each other and they each have their individual time streams."
"The story which covers the longest time frame, and also the story with the fastest flow of time, is Bluebeard’s story," as she said this, she took the top-most piece of paper and embossed a short line on the paper followed by a dot using her fingernails, she then repeated this a few more times[1]." Bluebeard met the fairy when he was 7 and only married Lila when he was almost 40, there are almost 30 years in between.
Lin Sanjiu nodded her head to show that she understood that point.
"Next, it is Red Riding Hood’s story," Li Tao drew slightly long lines and added fewer dots. "There is about twenty years from Emma’s past to when Red Riding Hood appears."
"So, the story with the slowest flow of time must be Cinderella’s story?" Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help adding.
"That’s right. When the two stories… Um, you can just look at these two toilet paper… move forward about ten over years, only a few months would have passed in Cinderella’s timeline." After she said that, Li Tao drew a very long line a dot and another long line. The length of the paper only allowed two long lines to be drawn.
She stacked the three pieces of paper together once again. But this time around, she took a hairpin from her hair and aimed at the paper using the sharp end of her hairpin.
"Now, I am the Old Man Fairy. I deceived Cinderella and got her approval to create a few holes in her layer of paper."
"This dot represents the segment of time when the prince was looking for Cinderella," Li Tao used her hairpin and perforate the dot on the bottom piece of paper. She reached the second layer and moved it towards another dot, "It coincides with the time when Red Riding Hood meets the werewolf.
"Now, the microorganisms on the surface of the toilet paper ‘leaks’ into the second layer when the holes are created. You could say that the ‘werewolf’ germ had now contaminated the Cinderella paper or the ‘prince’ germ is now on the Little Red Riding Hood paper. Thus, the characters and scenarios on two different timelines are blended at these points."
"So I am also a… germ which can travel between the three pieces of paper." Lin Sanjiu stared at the toilet paper and laughed wryly as the holes created were not aligned, and the papers were a little twisted. Under the dim silver light, they seemed to possess their own little lives.
Li Tao nodded with a serious expression, "As shown, you saw the weird occurrences due to the multiple holes within the layers. For example, Bluebeard of the past and future can exist in the palace at the same time."
Li Tao pulled a single strand of hair from her head and poke her hair through two dots that were far apart from each other. She then pulled the two ends of her hair
together and pull them through the single hole on Cinderella’s paper. When she pulled her hair together, Bluebeard’s paper immediately crumpled together so that they converged at a single point.
"That was why the old man told Bluebeard that eighteen years are much shorter than you think!" Lin Sanjiu muttered half-stunned and half in awe.
Li Tao smiled faintly, "That’s right. Once you realized the essence that the stories exist on three different layers, you will know that there is a single action that can guarantee the survival of all main characters. As you are just an outsider, you cannot create holes in each layer like the Old Man Fairy. On top of that, some of the ‘intersections’, let’s call it that, might not connect all three layers.
"You mean the pocket dimension lied?"
"No, that stone tablet didn’t lie." Li Tao waved her hand. She squished the three pieces of paper into a ball and threw it aside. "You could say that there was a red herring."
"A red herring?" Lin Sanjiu parroted as she followed behind Li Tao, climbing up the steps slowly.
"It’s simple. If Red Riding Hood is the main character of the Red Riding Hood story and Cinderella is the main character in Cinderella, then what makes you think Lila is the main character in Bluebeard’s story?"
Li Tao’s gentle, subtle voice rang out softly in the darkness like a gentle tide upon the walls of the tower— ironically, the meaning of the words were like explosives to Lin Sanjiu.
"Because…" Lin Sanjiu wanted to say something but she was stuck because she didn’t know why she assumed that Lila was the main character.
"Shouldn’t Bluebeard be the main character in the story of Bluebeard?" Li Tao chuckled.
"But, the stone tablet mentioned that all three characters were in grave danger so I have to save them. At that point, when Lila saw Bluebeard, she was in danger—"
"So, what did you plan to do then?" Li Tao turned to look at her, with the dim silver light around them.
"I decided to kill Bluebeard." Lin Sanjiu replied mindlessly. She understood now.
With that being said, things were now very clear for Lin Sanjiu. If Lin Sanjiu didn’t kill Bluebeard, it automatically counted as her saving him. However, no one directly involved in that moment would have thought of that.
"You can say that the entire pocket dimension is a trap but it is useless against you," Li Tao laughed quietly. "Other people wouldn’t leave Bluebeard to his own devices if they considered the situation. After all, he seems like the most suspicious person. Once a person decided on this, it would be difficult to make a different choice. However, for a person like you who uses her muscles before her brain, it is apparently easier for you to efficiently solve the puzzle."
Lin Sanjiu really couldn’t decide if Li Tao was praising or mocking her. After a while, she commented softly, "No, if it was you, you would quickly see through the trick. You are really good, you managed to analyze the situation by just hearing what I said…"
Li Tao quickly felt a little embarrassed and answered, "Huh? Nah, it is just that I can see it a little clearer as an observer… If I really entered that pocket dimension, I might not be able to escape."
"I have another two questions for you." Lin Sanjiu suddenly said.
"What are they?"
"Firstly, when you first escaped the pocket dimension in this black tower, what was it like?" Lin Sanjiu didn’t use a demanding attitude but said that casually.
Li Tao who was ahead of her suddenly stopped. She stood still in the darkness and did not turn around.
"For my second question... Your name is not Li Tao. Who are you?"
Chapter 145 - What Are You Planning?
While they chatted, both women were already more than halfway to the top of the tower. If Lin Sanjiu looked down from where she stood, she could only see a murky darkness below her. The silver light from her [Ability Polishing Agent] could only reach the handrails of the segment of staircase one story beneath and darkness swallowed anything beyond that. Being close to 200 meters above the ground, Lin Sanjiu felt her palms getting sweaty when she looked downward, even though she couldn’t really see anything clearly. She quickly looked away and wondered why she never realized in the past that she was a little acrophobic.
She looked at the silhouette in front of her and then at the remaining stairs leading upward. The top floor was about ten stories above them and they would be reaching it soon.
"Ah…" Li Tao—or rather the woman who called herself Li Tao—suddenly raised her head and let out a long sigh. She stroked her own hair and said, "Really." She turned to her side under the dimly lit space, showing her very slim side silhouette.
"Is this what you call a ‘beast-like instinct’?" she c.o.c.ked her head asking. Lin Sanjiu could not see her expression in the darkness, she could only see the woman’s black, shiny eyes. "How could you see through my performance if you can’t even understand that pocket dimension?"
"Who are you?" Lin Sanjiu said icily with a monotonous tone.
Li Tao smiled unexpectedly and ignored both Lin Sanjiu’s question and animosity. Li Tao continued up the staircase, one step at a time, minding her own business. She seemed totally unconcerned that Lin Sanjiu might just spring a surprise attack from behind. She stopped only when she reached the next turning point on the spiral staircase. She lowered her head and looked down at Lin Sanjiu. Her previous lively, lighthearted persona, which was akin to a small animal, faded gradually from her face just like melted snow. It was replaced by the aura of a calm and m.a.t.u.r.e woman.
"Say, how did I expose my identity?" she asked gently, enunciating each word clearly.
Lin Sanjiu knew that if she wanted to reach the top of the tower, she had no choice but to go through ‘Li Tao’. She took a deep breath and continued climbing the stairs.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" While she noticed ‘Li Tao’s’ slightly surprised expression, Lin Sanjiu tightened her muscles and forced a relaxed smile, "If you also want to head to the top of the tower, why don’t you come along. Let’s talk along the way."
‘Li Tao’ was stunned for a moment and finally uttered softly, "Ballsy."
Lin Sanjiu smiled faintly, but she walked cautiously close to the wall. When she saw ‘Li Tao’ slowly climbing up the stairs again, she explained slowly, "If I didn’t have my Diary Card, I wouldn’t be suspicious of you."
"Oh? You mean the card you told me to stick on Gong Daoyi?"
"Yes." Lin Sanjiu replied as she narrowed her eyes and looked at the woman nearby, who was still ahead of her. The woman seemed relaxed and unguarded and Lin Sanjiu couldn’t really understand why. "One of the features of my Diary Card is that it will address the people I know by their names. Yet, though I know you, the Diary Card just referred to you as ‘super-cute girl’.
If it was once or twice, I would have accepted that it is due to the crappy personality of the card. However, when I was bathing, I already had a very slight suspicion about it because my Diary Card did not refer to you as ‘Li Tao’ even once."
"But seriously, your card is a little…"
"Unreliable, right?" Lin Sanjiu finished her sentence, "Since I’ve never seen it do that, I really couldn’t be sure. But when you said, ‘If I entered that pocket dimension’, I suddenly realized that there was a problem… Why weren’t you s.u.c.k.e.d into the pocket dimension when you entered the black tower?" Lin Sanjiu asked rhetorically while she stared at Li Tao’s back. Anyone else would think that once they broke out of the pocket dimension, the next person who entered the tower would not face the same problem. However, Lin Sanjiu remembered a small detail. She remembered the words "No. 72 Pocket Dimension Quest". That is to say, every person that entered that pocket dimension should confront a different situation. Even if the fairytale scenario had been solved, the pocket dimension still existed and Li Tao should have been s.u.c.k.e.d into a different scenario. But that didn’t happen. From the time she walked through the door till now, nothing had happened to her. That would only mean that Li Tao ha
d already escaped that pocket dimension once.
"I see." Li Tao sighed but seemed unaffected. "I was a little perplexed when I found out that your experiences in that pocket dimension were different from mine… I admit I am too engrossed with the three timelines, I missed this detail."
Lin Sanjiu didn’t say a word.
That wasn’t the only reason. When she looked into Bluebeard’s room, the person she saw was Li Tao. Recalling that image, the aura of the person in the illusion was closer the latter’s current persona than her previous pretense.
"What are you planning?"
When Lin Sanjiu said that, she probably wouldn’t know that the Aliba, the Chief of Police, asked the same question at the same time while he was far away in his own abode. When Aliba woke up from his dream, the woman beside him was still fast asleep. Even after a while, he still felt groggy as if his mind was still tethering between his dream and reality. He didn’t know what woke him up. He only noticed the shadow of a person sitting at the end of his bed when he sat up to grab a glass of water. The person was watching him with folded arms and he didn’t know how long that man had been sitting in the dark.
Not fully awake, Aliba froze for half a second. The green led digits on his clock skipped, showing "01:26".
"Hi," the voice from the black shadow was like a refreshing spring, lithe and even with a tinge of humor, "Good evening."
[There is a gun in the bedside drawer.] Just as this thought flashed in Aliba’s mind, he suddenly heard a ‘click’ sound from the man’s hand. A few pieces of black metal parts dropped from the man’s hand onto the carpeted floor, creating a muffled noise. Aliba knew that he certainly couldn’t dismantle a gun that fast.
"Gong... Gong Daoyi?" Aliba asked quietly, he tried his best to keep his voice calm as he controlled his suddenly palpitating heart. "I advise you to leave now. If I activate the alarm, this place will be securely surrounded within ten seconds."
"But, I only need three seconds to kill you."