One hour before midnight. The ringing echoed throughout the city.
Ji Xun, who was sitting at the table and resting, opened his eyes and noticed that the flowers on the terrace were in bloom. His palms were still pressed against the pages. A storybook about adventure.
Yes. He remembered. He was reading this book before falling asleep. An adventure story about a solution man. The protagonist thinks by relying on the reactions of complex mixtures of ingredients in his body. He moved his fingers and found the last paragraph he had read before falling asleep.
"...the solution man shook his body vigorously. He shook himself up and became calm and intelligent again. Now he starts his next move..."
Ji Xun scanned the line of words and couldn't help but smile strangely. He felt that there was no need for him to read such a meaningless book. There are many more interesting works in the study, more arithmetic and theory. If he needs it, he can also ask the butler Toba to add new books to the demand list, and he will be able to find new reading materials in the warehouse by tomorrow.
But that's not something to rush into. There's only one hour left until midnight.
He walked out of the study. The butler, covered in a large smock, was waiting outside the door. He nodded to the other party to indicate that he had heard the bell.
The butler Toba still wrapped himself in a dusty smock, and squeezed a sinister smile from his rough and damp face. Ji Xun looked at it calmly. Toba has no real life, just an exquisitely crafted robot. Although it is set up to look so weird, it is actually responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of the entire house. Its shape comes from a book Ji Xun read in the past, about how a person who was persecuted by a slave owner was tortured, abused, used as a petri dish for fungi and viruses, and finally became a monster that could not be killed.
But that's just a robot. A butler made out of a story.
Toba's lifelike, sinister gaze fell on his face. It chirped and laughed.
"Are you going to the front room?" it asked. The voice was vaguer and harsher than in Ji Xun's memory.
"A little later."
"So maybe you're looking for some entertainment?"
Ji Xun thought about it for a while. He wanted to refuse directly, but tonight, he felt a little strange. He was already at home, the most stable and comfortable place in the world, but everything felt inconsistent.
He looked around the corridor. The decoration in the room tonight is warm and soft. The ground is covered with soft rose-red blankets, rose-shaped lights hang on both sides of the walkway, and the air is filled with a refreshing woody aroma. The walls were hung with baskets filled with fruits, vegetables and wine. Phantom-like green stars danced in the hallway, those were decorative insects. At the end of the corridor, a gold and silver deer head hung there, looking at him and the housekeeper from a distance, blinking its gentle eyes from time to time.
Ji Xun walked over. The deer's head hung down tamely, allowing him to stroke its antlers. Engraved on its head was the symbol of the House of Ethics, which he thought was probably a gift from the Promotional Day. Still, he felt something wasn't right.
The butler was still chirping and laughing.
"You're still not feeling well," it said. "Perhaps you'd like some food?"
He shook his head. Some families will have many cooks dedicated to making soups, meats, baking desserts, blending spices, or just to carve beautiful ice cubes and roots. He had been a guest in homes like that, but he had never made such a request in his own home. He, as well as the other owner of the house, have little regard for the pursuit of appetite.
The butler brought him a glass of soothing water. He drank it and asked Toba, "What is he doing?"
"Same as usual." Toba said, "You'd better take a rest before going to see him. I see you don't look good."
Ji Xun lowered his eyes in silence. When the housekeeper proposed to find some entertainment for him for the second time, he no longer objected, but allowed Toba to lead him to a certain door in the corridor. Behind that door was a space of pure darkness. He heard his footsteps falling into the void, making a sonorous and ethereal echo. The voice seemed to step into his heart, outlining an unknown hole.
Toba helped him sit in a soft void. It asked him if there was any program he wanted to watch, and Ji Xun shook his head flatly.
"You arrange it," he said. He knew those were the words the butler was waiting for.
The butler let out an excited gasp, like a wild beast growling. Ji Xun thought that its intelligent design might be too faithful to the original story. After midnight, he'll consider making some adjustments.
Toba has begun its performance. That must have been a well-planned play. From the depths of the dark floor came gleams of light. They are dark purple, indigo and off-white. There is a body in each light group, but it is not a pure dead body or unconscious living flesh. They have all been carefully transformed and decorated by the butler.
A pale and laughing skeleton, with a long dragon-like bone tail connected to the end of its spine; a group of tin men in gorgeous colorful costumes, with faces as flat as metal mirrors; a plump woman with pink eyes and navy blue hair, long A giant mouth full of fangs extending from her chest to her navel; a fish full of feathers; a man who replaced his eyes with two thin periscopes.
"Sing! Dance! You dead people!" Toba shouted, "Find some fun for your master!"
Then these dead people began to swim. They hovered under the dark and transparent floor, as if swimming in an abyss, and finally landed on the ground one by one. The laughing skeleton flew around the main seat, blowing up the fierce and biting cold wind. The Tin Woodman, dressed in costume, moves his limbs stiffly and comically, performing skits about combat.
They worked together to hang an old male corpse in mid-air, and in a violent swirling dance, they threw him into a pile of cobalt blue meat paste and a skeleton. The skeleton jumped down and danced on the floor with the pink-eyed woman. The man with thin periscope eyes sang along high and low, a pair of wings with braided hair fluttering above his head.
The dead reveled. Every minute there is a different play performed and a different song sung. dance. Courtship. duel. execution. They took off the skull's head and filled it with the blood of the woman with pink eyes. The blood turned into clear and fragrant wine. They presented the wine-filled head to the throne.
Ji Xun put the head on his lap and looked at the performance below emotionlessly. Toba was behind the seat, tapping his feet to the backing singers. When the corpse of an old man in work clothes with iron braces on his hands was swallowed by the blue-haired woman, he moved his fingers slightly. After a few more minutes, he lowered his eyes. The performance came to an abrupt end.
Toba tapped his heels. The stagnant dead man slowly sank downwards and disappeared into the bottomless darkness.
The butler asked, "What do you think?"
"I don't remember such a story in the study." The master replied lightly.
"This is an old script," Toba said. It chirped and laughed again.
Ji Xun drank the wine in the head. He still felt like something was wrong with him. He seemed to have just woken up from a long dream, but in fact he had only rested briefly for a quarter of an hour. In this family, he is not the one who indulges in fantasy.
"How long until midnight?" he asked.
"Six-quarters of an hour. Do you want to go to the front room?"
"No," Ji Xun said, "I'll go see him first."
They walked out of the dark room and returned to the rose-red carpeted corridor. Toba led him to a higher floor, walking a full ten floors.
"As a bedroom," Toba said as he walked, "his layout is a bit out of the ordinary."
Ji Xun walked up indifferently. When they finally opened the door on the top floor, what was revealed was an endless gray ocean. It rained continuously and the thunder roared. The person he wanted to see was wearing a loose hospital gown and sitting on a rock a little away from the door. Ji Xun stepped forward and woke up the other owner of the family.
"Jing Huang." He called.
