Faced with Lin Sanjiu's discovery, the woman in the glass tube rely furrowed her brows and sighed. Her expression revealed not a hint of surprise, only an exasperated resignation, as if to say, 'I already knew this.'
The tour guide froze for two seconds, uncertain how to react to her. Her expression cycled through a whirlwind of emotions, like a rapidly spinning lantern. However, for the present-day Lin Sanjiu, this wasn't much of a dilemma.
"I thought an empty display stand might give so clues," Lin Sanjiu said, hopping forward. "Since it's not empty, let's move on."
"Huh? But..." The tour guide instinctively turned halfway as Lin Sanjiu started to leave, yet she hesitated and stopped herself.
"If this has turned into a Rashomon situation where it's impossible to tell who's lying, what's the point of staying? Can you X-ray her physiological structure?" Lin Sanjiu shot back. "Even if she's not lying, she's pretty enough. It's not like she's that pitiful."
"You don't understand! Being beautiful makes it worse!" The tour guide's face suddenly flushed as anger rose visibly within her. Typically quick to cave under Lin Sanjiu's persuasion, this ti she stood firm, as though rooted to the ground. "If she's a duoluozhong, fine. But if she's human, then—then I—"
Even in her anger, she didn't dare utter "I want to save her." After a mont's thought, she made a concession. "I'll report this to the nearest organization."
If she refused to leave, Lin Sanjiu would have a hard ti dealing with the situation.
"You're not afraid of the escaped duoluozhong anymore? This place could have people showing up at any mont, and they'll make you pay for damages. Aren't you scared of that?" Lin Sanjiu challenged.
The tour guide hesitated for two seconds before realizing, "Wait a minute. You were the one who turned that duoluozhong into pulp, so why would I have to pay? And besides, if it were you trapped here, wouldn't you want soone to rescue you? Especially since she's a woman. That makes it even more..." Her voice trailed off as she seed to recall sothing deeply unsettling.
Lin Sanjiu, who was far more familiar with the horrors inflicted on won, didn't need the reminder.
Though her ti in the Garden of Eden now felt like a faded mory, and she was no longer the sa Lin Sanjiu from back then, her thoughts still brushed against that dark place. It felt as though, in a fleeting glimpse, she had touched the restless, buried anguish of countless others like her. Though the emotions from that ti had dulled, their lingering shadow still unsettled her.
She glanced at the woman in the display and reluctantly muttered through clenched teeth, "Ten minutes. No more."
"I knew you weren't a bad person deep down." The tour guide's eyes lit up with a hopeful gleam. "Maybe life out there in the wild world has been too harsh on you, making you seem a bit cold. Honestly, who wouldn't want to live in a more civilized world?"
'Uncivilized people,' Lin Sanjiu thought but kept the comnt to herself.
1
Inside the display, the woman, unable to follow their conversation entirely, nonetheless caught on to their intentions through their body language. She imdiately dropped to her knees on the platform and pressed herself against the glass tube. Her eyes brimd with tears of disbelief.
"Will you save ?" she mouthed, gesturing toward the outside of the glass. "I promise I won't cause you any trouble!"
The tour guide, finally understanding, froze awkwardly, her lips unable to form words. "Well, it's not... uh... I could report this..."
"My na is Yao Han," the woman said, or at least, that was what her lip movents suggested. She didn't seem to notice the tour guide's hesitation and asked gratefully, "What about you?"
Behind the glass, even if the woman had the ability to exploit their nas, it seed unlikely she could do anything about it. Lin Sanjiu's thoughts naturally wandered to Ji Shanqing, who had once asked for her na with a sinister intent. Back then, she had resisted unwrapping the grand prize, only to discover he was such a fiercely genuine and pure soul.
1
"I'm called... Bee Sting Venom," the tour guide replied nervously.
'What kind of parents na their child that?' Lin Sanjiu wondered. 'Were they hoping her na alone would scare off enemies? No wonder she never says her full na.'
"There's an entrance," Yao Han imdiately mouthed, pointing to the base of the platform. "I was brought in from underneath. The platform should be able to open."
Bee Sting Venom, the tour guide, quickly shook her head.
She was just an ordinary person, perhaps willing to do small acts of kindness, but she would never dare risk her life and safety. "N-no, I can help you by calling for help..."
Yao Han froze, as if only now realizing that their plan didn't involve freeing her right away.
"Please," she said, suddenly panicked, more so than when she had thought the two might abandon her earlier. There was no greater tornt than being led to the edge of hope only to be pulled back into despair. "Please, I'm really not a duoluozhong. I don't know how to prove it. I truly can't. But please, I..."
At first, the tour guide managed a few more shakes of her head, but soon she stood frozen in place.
Yao Han's words grew faster, more frantic, and increasingly incoherent. The two outside couldn't even decipher her lip movents anymore. All that remained was the overwhelming tsunami of desperation on her face, pounding against the glass tube in silent sobs that the suffocating quiet extinguished entirely.
It was as if they were caught in the grip of a silent tragedy, unable to tear their eyes away or even turn their backs. Sohow, the soundless anguish seed more haunting than if it had been scread aloud.
Whether it was a human or a duoluozhong, if it could suffer to such a degree, then surely the pain itself made no difference, did it?
1
The thought flickered briefly in Lin Sanjiu's mind before she forcefully pushed it aside. 'Am I losing it?' she thought. 'It was bad enough when I empathized with others before. Am I seriously considering feeling sympathy for a potential duoluozhong now?'
"I'll do it," the tour guide said at last, gritting her teeth. She glanced at Lin Sanjiu, and seeing that the latter rely frowned without objecting, she stepped forward. Pressing her hand against the glass, she had to repeat herself several tis before the woman inside gradually cald down, though her trembling remained uncontrollable. "Tell , where's the entrance?"
Lin Sanjiu quickly hopped over, craning her neck to look. Yao Han hastily wiped her tears away, though her shoulders continued to shake uncontrollably, as if she couldn't stop hiccupping. She pointed to the edge of the glass tube.
Below the glass enclosure was a pitch-black platform, about a ter tall, made of a material so dull that it reflected no light. On closer inspection, even Lin Sanjiu's posthuman eyesight could only just make out two extrely fine seams, as if a hidden door had been cut into the platform.
Behind the glass, Yao Han waved her hands to draw their attention.
"I can't open it from the inside," she mouthed, her expression a mix of wanting to cry and laugh. Kneeling on the floor, she repeated, "Thank you, thank you so much..."
Lin Sanjiu thought for a mont and asked, "People enter through here for the 'experience,' right?"
It took Yao Han so effort to understand, but she nodded. "So, once you're inside, you'll probably have to figure out how to open the platform from underneath. I don't know exactly how. It's not like I could see much when I was captured."
Reading longer phrases from lip movents wasn't easy, requiring both guessing and gesturing. By the ti Lin Sanjiu more or less understood, Bee Sting Venom—the tour guide— was already feeling around, trying to find a way to open the platform.
A glass enclosure containing a person or duoluozhong would logically have been tightly secured. Yet, surprisingly, the platform seed designed for ease of access. After pressing randomly a few tis, the tour guide heard a soft click. The black platform shifted slightly, revealing a crack. It looked like a small door that could be opened with a push, allowing soone to crouch and enter.
Lin Sanjiu pressed her Higher Consciousness against the tour guide's shoulder. "Wait."
The tour guide, who carried such a ferocious na, instantly looked up, her face pale with anxiety. "Is soone coming?"
"No..." Lin Sanjiu glanced up at Yao Han. "I think this really is a duoluozhong."
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