by N. Heller
"What the f.u.c.k are you talking about?" Number 42 growled. As if he had heard some kind of joke, he looked at Lin Sanjiu with an unbelievable stare, "Are you stupid? To test for the purity of the water droplets, we first must fully absorb the water droplet into our body. That's to say, the moment I know the water droplet is not contaminated, somebody has already absorbed it. Hence doing a test won't work here! It's pure nonsense!"
"Yeah, you may be right; that is exactly what I thought until I saw your reaction just a moment ago," Lin Sanjiu grinned gleefully, "From that, I'm confident that you already know testing the purity of water droplets is the only way to get through this round."
If a moment ago the atmosphere in the chamber was considered as merely an uproar, then it was now had escalated to as chaos as a boiled porridge. Amid the noise, the countenance of Number 42 was getting colder. His jaw had tightened as a sardonic smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"If absorbing a water droplet is equivalent to a test to determine the purity of the water droplet as you said, enlighten me, then. How are you going to differentiate the water droplets since I have absorbed a droplet already?"
Without having to know the content of their whispers, Lin Sanjiu could tell from their glances that most of them must thought she was crazy.
Oh, she was. She had schizophrenia.
This sudden thought had Lin Sanjiu in between laughter and tear. Then, she slowly rose to her feet.
Lin Sanjiu's gaze that seemingly could peer into the deepest part of a soul swept across the crowd. When the clamor grew smaller, only then did she speak, "I know where the remaining pure water droplets are."
"What? Please don't make such an awful joke—"
Somebody screamed.
"You all have been deceived," Lin Sanjiu turned a deaf ear to the criticism and continued, "Let me explain it from the beginning. Harry told us that the number of pure water droplets down here is enough for eight of us to sprout, which is true; and these pure water droplets have been right in front of us since the very beginning."
"Are you saying all of these are pure water droplets?" Number 45 looked on the ground with one of her eyebrows raised. "But that still doesn't match with the number he gave."
"No, I'm not talking about that one."
Smiling, Lin Sanjiu turned around and pointed to something a little way off from them, "I'm talking about that one. All pure water droplets should be over there."
Everyone trailed her finger and their eyes met with the two doors that shut tightly on the other side of the chamber. Then, all of them were frozen, unable to process the situation.
"Why would all of us, including me, take the first door from the left without prior consultation when everybody arrived?" Lin Sanjiu's question followed.
"Because there's a notice on the door. The notice said it's for us, Number 42 till Number 49," Number 43 answered, his brows frowning deeply, "The other two doors should be for other batches—"
"Yeah, you're right. Because of the notice, so we all came through the first door," Lin Sanjiu swept her glance from the first person of the crowd until the last before shooting her question, "But, did the notice really come from Harry?"
"This is the chamber Harry specifically prepared for the seeds, so as a farmer, ask yourself, would you come down here to post a notice for your seeds? Yeah, you guys might say we are in a pocket dimension and this is all merely a part of the default settings of the pocket dimension…" Lin Sanjiu grabbed the notice from the door and showed it to the crowd, "... Can anybody see the difference in this notice in my hand?"
"What is it?"
"Do you guys still remember the notice board standing outside the pocket dimension?" Lin Sanjiu suddenly switch the thread of discourse and asked a question that has nothing to do with their current issue, "Anyone of you remembers what was written on the board?"
"The front said Harry's Farm," Number 44 replied, "On the back is a garrulous passage of alien scriptures which I didn't bother to read."
"Exactly, but let me add on something," Lin Sanjiu unfolded the notice on her palm, "Regardless of the name of the farm or the text, they were all written in several languages. Though I'm literate enough to read the Chinese and the English and recognize the Japanese, and the French, there are a few languages I have never seen nor read before."
"Okay now look at this notice again. Don't you find it odd?" The notice is only written in one type of script and Arabic numerals," Lin Sanjiu turned to look at Number 42, who remained frozen in his original position, "... The person who wrote this notice does not know other language nor he could write in another script, so he naturally uses his native language. Only the person that arrived first could have done it?
"Harry sounded surprised when we all gathered in a chamber. And the examples he gave when describing the water droplets were weird. He said that the water droplets could be taken with us wherever we go, like a pen or a paper, but here is the strange part: the water droplets look more like a rubber ball than a pencil or a paper," As Number 42 opened his mouth, Lin Sanjiu interjected, "The reason Harry didn't bring that person to light is that as the NPC, he couldn't intervene. All he could do is hide the hint in between his words. The experiment I conducted proves it."
Somebody screamed as if he had seen the light, "You— Yesterday night—"
"That's right," Lin Sanjiu nodded, "I blocked the only passage to the water droplets, and Harry didn't say anything."
"Of course, I have much more evidence to prove my words aside from this experiment," Lin Sanjiu leaned against the wall, staring at Number 42, "The first one is the writing on my record of water droplets should be similar to this notice. Also, if I recall correctly, our paper and pencil belonged to him. For the second point—"
Bathing under the intense gaze, Lin Sanjiu waved her hand over to the two doors not far away, "All of the water droplets are hidden in the chambers behind the two doors."
Chapter 427 - A Comeback!
As soon as those words were spoken, two figures dashed towards the other two doors on the other side of the hall. Standing with her arms folded together, Lin Sanjiu cast Number 42 a sidelong glance before joining the group.
Number 42 was the last person to move; his face was stoic as if it was a thousand years granite.
"Nothing!"
No sooner had Number 44 and Number 47 arrived at the second chamber did the voice of Number 44, which sat on a higher pitch range compared to most males, resonated from the passageway, "The structure here is similar to the previous chamber, but there's nothing here!"
Lin Sanjiu was stunned.
"The third chamber is empty too!" Another person chimed in from the third chamber.
Suddenly, everybody focused their gazes on Lin Sanjiu. Maintaining a rather safe distance between Lin Sanjiu and himself, Number 42 uttered a cold laugh.
"Do you know what are you doing, Number 49?" Number 47 frowned and asked, his voice was tetchy, "You spoke as you've seen through everything but look at this…"
"That's weird. According to Ji Shanqing's analysis, the remaining water droplets had to be in those two chambers—"
"So that's how it is." Lin Sanjiu exclaimed inwardly. The entire machination was as clear as blue sky in front of her eyes even without the use of her [Consciousness Mimicry].
"Number 45," Lin Sanjiu hollered, "Are there really no water droplets in the third chamber?"
"Yea, it's nothing inside," Number 45 answered. A hint of disappointment washed her face, "Jesus, don't just simply give people false hope while—"
"Did you check it with your own eyes, or they told you so?" Lin interjected while pointing at Number 46 and Number 48 behind her.
Number 45 was taken aback and while she stammered to construct her sentence, her countenance had changed, "Number 46 told me that the chamber was empty. Then, I saw Number 48 come out from inside, so I didn't bother to check again…"
"The second chamber is empty too!" Number 44 interjected, "You don't believe
us?"
"No, I believe you. The second chamber has to be empty. However,…" Lin Sanjiu gave a half-smile, swept a glance over the crowd as she sauntered towards the third door.
Though she remained silent through the process, the crowd somewhat understood the underlying meaning behind her gaze. As Lin Sanjiu made her move, some of them followed suit. Just when Number 45 hastily turned around, her gaze met with somebody behind her which gave her a huge fright.
"What a group of annoying chaps," Number 42's voice which lack of any emotion reverberated in the chamber, freezing everybody in their places.
Number 45 was shocked as she didn't realize when Number 42 had snuck behind her. She staggered two steps backward as she queried, her voice was thick with fear, "W-what do you want?"
"Interesting—"
While everybody else gasped with surprise, a thought flashed across Lin Sanjiu's mind.
Crouching in front of the door, Number 42, who portrayed as a calm, dependable middle-aged elder brother next door a few moments ago, had a different vibe now. Nobody could tell which part of him looked different as the changes were too subtle to notice, but he did exude a strange aura that made him looked completely different. Upon closer inspection, they couldn't even tell his age.
When Number 42 narrowed his eyes while scratching his face, somebody asked, though his voice was filled with uncertainties, "Is that Number 42?"
Hearing that question, Number 42 huffed a plume of air through his nostrils. His face full of annoyance and irritation as a sardonic smirk found its way and crawled upon the corner of his lips. He now looked like a frustrated a.d.u.l.t who had enough of nannying his own children at home.
If he weren't still wearing his usual clothing, Lin Sanjiu might even begin to think he was another person and not the Number 42 she had acquainted with not long ago.
"Impressive," Lin Sanjiu said, sending a cold stare at Number 42. Then, she praised, "Your mastery over the art of camouflage is truly amazing. With only a slight change in your expression, you look completely different."
Clap, clap. Two clear claps resounded from Number 42's palms.
"You have good eyes; I have to give you that one," Number 42 said, squinting his eyes, "Pretty awesome, right? Never have I thought I could turn this poor acting skill of mine, which has failed miserably in getting me cast in a movie, to a good account after the world has ended."
"Is this your doing? Are all the water droplets in the third chamber?" A sharp voice raised from the crowd. It was Number 44. He continued his outburst, "Move away now and let us in!"
"Why would you do that?" Somebody turned to Number 46 and Number 48, "Why would you two lie to us?"
"And, why is the second chamber empty? Please explain to us—"
Various kind of questions came pouring out from the crowd and soon all of the voice merged into a hellish noise that made the confined space seem hell itself. Lin Sanjiu stretched her arm forcefully, trying to silence the crowd. When they calmed down a bit, she sighed.
"This is not a small feat that could be accomplished alone, Number 42 needed some companions," Lin Sanjiu said as her gaze jumped from Number 42 to Number 48 and ended up on Number 46, whom she took extra time to look at his silky hair, "...I guess Number 46 and Number 48 are not an item. Both of them should be the companions of Number 42 and the three of them came into this pocket dimension together."
Number 48's highly strung nerve almost burst when he heard what Lin Sanjiu had said. As he stepped forward wanting to say something, Number 46 grabbed him by his arm and pulled him back, intervening what he was about to do. Then, he shot a cold stare at Lin Sanjiu.
The chamber suddenly fell silent. After a few seconds that seem to be like an eternity, Number 45 broke the silence; her unusual spiky tone filled the chamber, "Number 49, can you elaborate more on this? I couldn't understand at all."
"The second chamber is empty, right?" Lin Sanjiu turned around to explain to the crowd standing behind her, leaving her back wide open to Number 42 and his companion, "This is because Number 48 moved all the water droplets out from the second chamber. They are here, right in front of us. Initially, I thought the water droplets from the first chamber would be inside the second chamber, but I forgot that Number 42, too, has a spatial pocket."
"What did you say? All of these water droplets are from the second chamber? How do you know that?" Number 43 was confused. He studied the water droplets for a moment before asking, "I can't see any difference in them though."
Lin Sanjiu was tickled pink by his action. She summoned the card on her hand and waved it in front of the crowd. Then, she said, "All the water droplets are the same from their external appearance, I believe you all know about that. There is no way to tell them apart; however, that's not the case for me. I have a little trick of my own that could mark all the water droplets I have collected with numbers. For instance, I have found 24 water droplets, so my water droplets would be numbered from 1 to 24."
"Now, here comes the real thing. When I return to the hall just now, I've reverted all my water droplets to card form, then I found out that water droplet that should be the number 1 has become number 25," Lin Sanjiu turned her head over to look at the trio at her back and said, "This means that somebody has secretly moved my water droplets."
"But when?"
"Right after we all marked our water droplets and returned to the first chamber. Number 48 then began his given assignment."
"That's impossible," Number 47 refuted, "Nobody came out after we return to the first chamber. The chamber is filled with many cubicles; there are even cubicles on the ceiling. The person who was searching for water droplets in the cubicles on the ceiling would have been the first person to notice his movement if he tried to make his way out."
"That's because unlike all of us, he never returned to the chamber," Lin Sanjiu remarked as she looked at Number 48. Calling his appearance unassuming made it sound decent, but in fact, he looked like somebody had beat him with the ugly stick. He didn't have the head of silky hair as Number 46 possessed. Right now, beads of sweat began to ooze from his forehead.
"We made the headcount," Number 45 interjected, "Everybody is present at that time."
"Yeah, and no way Number 42 could lie. I saw Number 48 in the chamber with my own eyes," Number 47 added, "I saw both Number 46 and Number 48 when I moved to the next zone."
Number 42 and his gang didn't need to say anything and the rest of the seeds had already begun their articulate assault on Lin Sanjiu. If they had to say, it was quite amusing.
"Really?" Lin Sanjiu flashed a smile. She seemed somewhat unfazed by their interjection, "I saw Number 48 too. To be honest, it's too dark inside there, and all I could see was a head of silky hair glittering in the dark when that person snuck into a cubicle… At that time, I thought that hair obviously belonged to Number 46, yet he's wearing Number 48's number tag. Initially, I thought I saw it wrong but once I think about it, I realized that I might be right. As I mentioned earlier, the chamber is too dark. In a space devoid of light, we could only see an ambiguous figure and the only thing that assists us in recognizing our identity is the number tag. Also, don't forget that to elude the possibility of being observed, both of them would go as far as feigning as a homos.e.x.u.a.l couple, so—"
"Are you kidding me? We would die once our number tag left our body!" Number 45 said as she covered her mouth, "Harry had even emphasized on that!"
"Is it true? Why don't you try and bend your body a little bit?" Lin Sanjiu suggested as she bent down her body. The number tag which read Number 49 swayed away from her c.h.e.s.t and dangled in the air, "See? When we're looking for the water droplets, our number tag has left our body countless time. The only thing that never leaves our body is the ribbon around our neck."
This statement had obviously blown everybody away. All of them fell silent for a significant amount of time before somebody finally mumbled, "Could it be… Number 48 removed his number tag and gave it to Number 46? He only l
eaves the ribbon to himself?"
Number 48 suddenly burst, "You removes yours first!"
"No, I think that won't work," Lin Sanjiu rejected the idea, much to everybody surprise, "I revise my sentence. Removing only the number tag won't do the trick. The number tag comes with the ribbon. Once the number tag is gone, I think we would still die even we still have the ribbon on our body. But there is this precondition that grants Number 48 the leeway to carry out their machination."
"What condition?"
"I hope you guys haven't forgotten that a seed from the previous batch died," Lin Sanjiu said. She had begun to admire Ji Shanqing's sharp mind, "There should have been a number tag on that seed."
"According to Harry, three could cause the death of a seed. The first is if the seed lost his or her number tag and got crushed to death, he would just leave the body to rot in the soil; the second is similar to the first condition is that the body of whoever failed to germinate would be left by Harry to decompose in the soil. Harry won't dig the body out as well, but take note that in this case, the seed still has the number tag with him. Meanwhile, in the third and also the last condition, if the seed is dead due to poisoning, Harry will dig the body out along with the number tag."
"By now, I guess everybody more or less understood what happened to the seeds of the batch before us. In other words, in addition to the eight number tags of 42 to 49, there is a ninth in this chamber. If I'm right, Number 42 retrieved this number tag and handed it to Number 48. After all, Number 42 was the first person to arrive in here. He's the only person here who had the chance to commit such a deed. Hence, when Number 46 went back to the chamber with two number tags in his possession, Number 48 was left behind alone in the main hall. He moved all the water droplets of the first chamber away and replaced them with the water droplets from the second chamber. All those ideas such as a hidden passage, or spawning time suggested by Number 42 was to buy more time for Number 48 and to stall us. To make his plan more perfect, he even hid five water droplets in advance for us to find."