Chapter 355 Silence of the Lambs

Plumeria once thought about a question that many people have thought about: What do people see after they die?
This is a very tricky question. People who have not died cannot answer it, and people who have died cannot answer it either, so there has been no answer. Now she finally seems to see the answer, but the answer is that she can't see anything, only darkness.

The boundless darkness.

The Taiyi is formless and without substance, without form or division, chaotic and unclear, and unable to distinguish between clear and turbid. What can be done?

This is a state of nothingness, where even the "I" does not exist. Space is both large and small, time is both slow and fast, and consciousness is both light and heavy, as if it is sinking into the vast ocean, and floating outside the starry sky.

Maybe it was a moment, maybe it was ten thousand years, a fog suddenly filled my muddled mind, boundless, something was hiding in the hazy gray fog, swimming like a snake, dancing like a dragon, two curved long horns looming, a body of shiny scales dripping with emerald green, it was a huge monster that blocked out the sky and the sun.

A bright red figure stood in the mist, humming a song she couldn't understand as the huge figure moved:
[Swaying faintly, without a trace]

[As bright as water, as brilliant as the sun]

[…Bright and clear, the blue and white porcelain shines brightly in the sky]

[Vaguely, the smoke and clouds are boundless and the dragon is swimming...]

Plumeria's Chinese language proficiency was not very good. She could barely read and write some written expressions in the textbooks. She could guess that this sad tune with a slight accent of Qinzhou rural dialect seemed to be a Chinese song, but that was all. She had no idea what the song was about.

So she tried to get behind the red figure, and through the hazy gray fog, she looked at the "Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix" pattern embroidered with gold thread on the blood-red brocade, and spoke carefully:

"Mud Howl?"

The melodious and sad song came to an abrupt end, and the deathly silence was as dark as ink. Plumeria was stunned for a moment and wanted to call out again, but suddenly, the beautiful head with cloud-like hair and golden flowers turned 180 degrees and faced behind her. The face without any facial features was blank, which scared her and made her stagger.

Plumeria collapsed on the ground and subconsciously looked up at the sky. A huge face with obvious snake features suddenly emerged from the mist.

"ha--!"

Plumeria shuddered all over and sat up suddenly subconsciously.

"Good night."

A lazy male voice came from beside her, familiar yet unfamiliar, as if she had heard it for the first time, and as if she had grown up listening to this voice.

Plumeria opened her eyes. The bright white light made her eyeballs hurt slightly. She felt hot and sticky all over. She reached out to touch her chest. Her underwear was already soaked with sweat. Her heart was beating non-stop in her chest. The heavy feeling of suffocation made her feel chest tightness and she kept gasping for breath.

When her eyes slowly adjusted to the light, Plumeria looked around and found herself lying on a sofa, covered with a woolen blanket. There was a chessboard on the table next to her. A handsome young man with black hair, black eyes, and obvious oriental features was sitting opposite the table, holding a chess piece in his hand, looking at it and playing with interest.

"Good night." Ning Zhe held a chess piece in his palm and said gently.

"Um... good night?" Plumeria nodded politely and asked, "What time is it now? Where is this place? And, you are..."

"Come here and play chess with me." Ning Zhe did not answer her question, but just said his own words.

Plumeria was stunned for a moment. She was still a little dizzy after just waking up. She stared at Ning Zhe's face blankly. She felt that this face was so familiar. She felt that he looked a bit like herself. "Who are you?"

"Oh... I almost forgot to introduce myself." Ning Zhe put the chess piece in his hand back on the chessboard. Plumeria looked down and saw that it was a black 'pawn'.

"My name is Ning Zhe, Ning means rather break than bend, and Zhe means to protect oneself."

After that, Ning Zhe continued, "Okay, now you know my name, what should you call me?"

Plumeria's eyes wandered, as if she was thinking? As if she was reminiscing. A memory that didn't exist and shouldn't exist emerged from the depths of her mind to the surface, like a thread, lingering and unclear.

Gradually, the look she gave Ning Zhe changed. The confusion of waking up from a dream began to dissipate, and what replaced it was something deeper, the docility of a lamb, the blind obedience of a believer, and an emotion that is difficult to describe in words. Two lines of clear tears slid down her cheeks to her chin and dripped onto her collarbone.

"My Almighty Lord..."

The girl murmured softly as she lifted the blanket and walked down from the sofa. She knelt down in front of Ning Zhe with her graceful body, her voice trembling: "I am finally by your side."

Ning Zhe stretched out a hand, and Plumeria lowered her head respectfully, resting her cheek on his palm, looking at him with awe and admiration, with tears in her eyes.

Ning Zhe gently stroked Plumeria's delicate cheek, and his understanding of "Taisu" deepened.

According to Fenwu's current performance, Taishou's ability to affect memory has many forms:

[Delete], [Paste], [Edit]... maybe there is something else, but it is not clear, at least Fen Wu did not show it.

"The identity of 'Fenwu' obtained by Taiyi is incomplete, and the simulated 'Taisui' is also specious."

"The ability to [erase] memory is very limited. When used on Pétain, it can only erase a small part of his memory when he entered the opera house. It cannot be done for even a second longer."

"I don't have the ability to [paste] memories at all. I used the rules of Taiyi to let Plumeria steal my identity, and then I stole Ningzhe's memories and the memories of Plumeria as known to Meilin and implanted them into her mind."

Later, Taisou was used to delete all memories except the latter, which led to the current situation.

"I do have a little bit of [Edit] ability, but not much. I tried my best to experiment repeatedly, but I could only barely confuse the concept of 'God' that Plumeria has believed in since she was a child with the memory of 'Ningzhe' that she once had but deleted. This created a slight opportunity for Jue Yuan to stamp her with the idea that 'Ningzhe is God', that's all."

The Taisui simulated by Taiyi can only interfere with people's memories to this extent. If it were not for Jueyuan's broad triggering conditions, it would be able to fix cognition into a mental imprint with just a slight opportunity. Such a thin slice of identity would hardly be of any practical use.

“But with Jue Yuan, the situation is different.”

Ning Zhe removed his hand from Plumeria's face and looked at her expression of intoxication and loss, feeling somewhat puzzled:

"Jueyuan's rules seem to be very compatible with 'Taisui'. In a different way, if Fenwu had brainwashed Yan Yukuan and impressed upon him the thought that 'I am Fenwu', then even if the Blowing Lantern Ghost later shouted his name until his throat was broken, Yan Yukuan would not have been shaken in the slightest about his identity."

"The compatibility between Jue Yuan and Taisou is really good, even a little... too good."

It was so good that Ning Zhe couldn't help but doubt. Fen Wu had been pestering him relentlessly since Yu Ziqian's death, and even now had chased him to the Apennine Peninsula. Was he so persistent because of Zhao You, or because of... [Jue Yuan]?
(End of this chapter)

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