Chapter 581: Chapter 579: Insights
"Rember the alchemist’s wife who ca back to life and that figure clad in a rubber suit that appeared and disappeared into thin air,"
Li Ang pinched the keychain he had obtained in Room E between his fingers, gave it a flick, and made the keychain with its seven keys jingle.
"These seven keys each correspond to Rooms A through G.
"The back of each is marked with a number:
"0, -72, 72, -24, -48, -2, -0.
"At first, I couldn’t understand the aning of these numbers, thinking they were digital lock codes or combination lock codes for safes.
"It wasn’t until I entered Room F at 10:05 and got the letter."
He said slowly, "The letter from Room F instructed
to put the sugarcane into the feed chute of Room F, so that the machine in Room A could produce battery fluid, claiming that producing the battery fluid would take at least two hours, and if I hadn’t entered Room F by ten o’clock, I would miss the final chance.
"However, there’s sothing very illogical about this letter. No matter who left the letter, they predicted with remarkable accuracy the ti I would enter each room, even accounting for the ti I spent exploring the corridor and being distracted by the rubber-suited figure. But in Room F, despite not wasting any ti en route and being only five minutes late, it stated that I had already missed the final opportunity—either to remove the battery from my shoulder and insert it into the slot in the stone wall, taking a gamble with my life, or do nothing and wait to die there."
Li Ang paused, then continued calmly, "That’s very strange. On the floor of Room F, there was a piece of sugarcane. Based on previous deductions, the so-called battery fluid was actually L-glucose, ant to provide
with Energy. So why wouldn’t I just eat the sugarcane, which could give
sugar, and then safely remove the battery from my shoulder and put it in the wall slot? There was absolutely no need to go through the step of starting the machine in Room A.
"Unless the sugarcane hadn’t undergone the process of changing chirality, making it impossible for
to eat it directly and use the sugar within to provide Energy for my body, forcing
to follow the steps ntioned in the letter."
Li Ang lifted his arm and knocked on the half-open stone wall with his knuckle, saying indifferently, "The keystone of the entire Mobius corridor lies in this stone wall. Passing through the wall changes chirality; co out again, and it becos normal. The sugarcane on the floor of Room F was of the right chirality.
"There were two possibilities to explain this. The sugarcane was hidden inside this rubber suit, which isolates the corridor’s chirality-reversing effect, and was brought in stealthily. Or, there exists so secret passage in this corridor that leads directly into the room from the outside without going through the wall. The rubber suit I’m wearing lacks so components and cannot isolate the chirality-reversing effect, but it’s very tight inside, leaving no space for a piece of sugarcane as long as an arm. Nor does the sugarcane show any signs of wear, sweat odor, or rubber sll."
Li Ang shook his head. "Therefore, only the second possibility remains: that there is a secret passage in the corridor. I searched through all the rooms, and the most likely secret passages are the square tal plates on the ceilings of Rooms D and E. The figure in the sa rubber suit first appeared walking out of the stone wall in the corridor. The second ti, it appeared at the entrance to Room D. And the third ti, it erged carrying the Deford Monster through the stone wall.
"Initially, I thought the Deford Monster existed within Room D, but after considering the secret passage inside leading to the outside world, I ca up with a new explanation. The figure in the rubber suit carried the Deford Monster down from the floor above.
"The numbers on the back of the keys in my hand aren’t a code, but rather each room’s ti relative to the outside world.
"Room A’s ti aligns with outside ti.
"Room B’s ti is 72 hours prior to outside ti.
"Room C’s ti is 72 hours ahead of outside ti.
"Room D’s ti is 24 hours prior to outside ti.
"Room E’s ti is 48 hours prior to outside ti.
"Room F’s ti is 2 hours prior to outside ti.
"Room G’s ti aligns with outside ti.
"With this understanding, all the inconsistencies are explained. I heard you and your father talking in Room C. The ti was 9:30 PM on March 7th. Your father decided to go down the well and carry out the final plan. If we roll back 72 hours from then, the corridor’s ti should be 9:30 PM on March 4th.
"The corridor ti was 9:15 PM on March 4th. The conversation between the couple I heard in Room B actually took place at 9:15 PM on March 1st. At that ti, the Alchemist’s wife was comforting her husband, and everything was normal.
"The corridor ti was 9:45 PM on March 4th. In Room D, the Alchemist I heard crying was actually crying at 9:45 PM on March 3rd.
"Furthermore, at 9:15 PM on March 3rd, soone led you and your mother away. At 9:40 PM, he took Siri away. Between 9:40 and 9:45 PM, your mother died.
"In Room E, the conversation I heard between the Alchemist and his wife actually happened at 9:55 PM on March 2nd. This corresponds with what the Alchemist wrote on his calendar: on March 2nd, he went to Astris to receive a dal on his wife’s behalf.
"After sorting through all the tis above, the correct external tiline should be:
"On March 1st, the Alchemist gave Alice—that’s you—the third quarterly Turing test. The weather the day before was terrible, ruining his experintal samples.
"On March 2nd, the Alchemist went to Astris. That night, Siri had a nightmare, dreaming of soone in the cupboard. At 9:55 PM, the couple talked, and the Alchemist gave his wife the dal.
"On March 3rd, at 9:15 PM, soone led you and your mother away. At 9:40 PM, he took Siri away, which subsequently led to your mother’s death. At 9:45 PM, the Alchemist talked to you.
"On March 7th, at 9:30 PM, the Alchemist had tried every thod but still couldn’t produce the correct dication, so he prepared to go down the well."
Li Ang raised his index finger and said in a solemn voice, "At this point, his wife and daughter were already dead. So why did he still talk about making the dication? Why did he still talk about saving his wife and daughter? The answer is simple: he wanted to use the corridor’s ti-distorting ability to go back to the past and avert the tragedy.
"On that calendar, the entry for March 3rd was ’listen to self-summary three days hence.’ The annotations on the calendar were clearly made before the tragic events of March. At that ti, the Alchemist didn’t know his wife and daughter would die.
"At 9:15 PM on March 3rd, soone who looked like the Alchemist appeared and led you and your mother away. Where was the Alchemist himself at this ti? He should have been in Room C, listening to the self-summary from three days later.
"The Alchemist had known about the corridor’s abnormal ti for quite a while and had been utilizing it. He would stay alone in the corridor’s Room C from ti to ti. Since the ti in Room C is 72 hours ahead of outside ti, as long as he developed the routine of being in the ground-level room above Room C on ti to state aloud the results and insights from his experints over the past few days, he could avoid many detours, effectively saving ti and striving to develop the dication sooner. Other rooms were also formatted to allow listening to sounds from upstairs, which were most likely designed for this very purpose."
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