Toba stopped in front of the door to the front hall.
"I will wait here." It said respectfully, with several slanted eyes on its face staring at the door.
Ji Xun agreed. All that is needed in the front room is the head of the house. He asked Jing Huang to sit on the water couch beside the corridor and wait, then he pushed open the ajar door alone.
He entered the front room. As midnight approaches and the task is not completed, the room is no longer able to accommodate visitors. It became infinitely vast, and the ground changed ambiguously in the scorched brown-red air, sometimes like sand, and sometimes like mud. The airflow distorted the light and blurred Ji Xun's vision, preventing him from seeing any clear outlines.
The air is filled with various unspecified smells. Metal, oil and blood, sometimes flesh and decay, hung high in the sky with a huge and dim red sun, which seemed wider than the ground beneath his feet. All kinds of phantoms emerged from its radiant light. Mountains and cities. Palaces and tall trees. An army with swords and swords.
Their images were very close to him, but the sounds they made were far away, as if they were coming from a certain pipeline. Another murmur clung to his ears. A high-pitched but slight musical sound. Like a meaningless whisper.
Ji Xun lowered his head and walked forward. He showed no fear or anxiety, everything was planned. When he turned away from the hill-like herd of beasts, he finally saw a golden bell hanging in the air. Its round and hollow spherical shell is constantly rotating in the opposite direction to the inner core. A subtle but clear ringing sound continued to emit from the hexagonal cavity. The frequency in each hole is different.
This is the only tangible object in the room that can be clearly seen. Ji Xun walked near it and knelt down facing it.
"I'm ready," he said.
The ringing continues. His vision became more cloudy and hazy. Red threads like blood vessels spread before his eyes, forming patches and patterns, squirming as if alive.
Imagine. He understood this and continued calmly. Giving form is not a necessary step in this work, but doing so allows for additional signs to be observed. That's why he always puts off walking into the front room until the last moment.
The red grew and began to form outlines. Eventually it became an ethereal and light figure. This hazy red shadow is taller than the golden bell, and its details are very blurry. Her voice came from heaven.
"Q&A 1." Hongying said.
"I will stay in the house." Ji Xun said, "It is the same today and it will be the same tomorrow."
The smell of corruption in the air faded. He looked up at his interrogator. The edge of the red shadow was twisted as if burning.
"Q&A 2." Hongying said.
"I no longer have any interest in the outside world." Ji Xun said, "All history has ended. All I can look back on is the past."
The sky darkened rapidly. A gapless metal plate emerges from behind the extinguished sun.
"Q&A three." Hongying said.
Ji Xun was silent for a short moment. He looked at the blood flames emanating from the edge of the red shadow. Imagine. From his imagination. Like Jing Huang, he had seen too much potential history.
"I feel happy," he replied calmly. "Nowhere else would satisfy me more than here."
Behind him, on the phantom of a giant tree filled with corpses, the crows let out a distant and shrill scream. The cry immediately disappeared into the dimming light like a burning red shadow.
The original appearance of the front hall gradually emerged. This small and low rotunda has nothing from the sky. It is made of very little wood, as well as metal, composite materials, cables, energy pools and acoustic vibration devices. This small space is the only part of the house that cannot be modified without permission. Visitors stay in this room and everything they say must be sincere.
Ji Xun knelt and sat on the floor in the center of the rotunda. By the light of the electric lamp, he stared at the golden ball hanging from the ceiling. It no longer spins. When Ji Xun pushed it with his fingers, there was no sound of collision.
He stood up from the ground, opened the door and walked out of the front hall.
Outside the door, the butler Toba was still waiting for him. Jing Huang sat on the cold water couch, leaning against the wall, and fell asleep sleepily.
Ji Xun wakes him up. After a short rest, the patient's eyes seemed clearer than before.
"Today is over," he said.
Jing Huang glanced towards the front hall. For patients with dissociation disease, it is already a strong reaction to the outside world. Ji Xun took it as a positive sign.
"Maybe," he said tentatively, "you go in with me next time?"
Jing Huang shook his head.
"It's best not to do that," Toba said in his naturally sarcastic tone. "Just do the patient a favor. Don't give him any difficult problems."
Ji Xun just smiled slightly.
"The questions and answers will not embarrass the patient." He still advised, "My answer will be the first answer. As long as I am still in this house, there will be no penalty for the second answer."
He tried his best to arouse Jing Huang's interest, but the effect was not significant. Toba tapped his heels and walked around in front of them.
"It's past midnight," he announced as if with joy. "It's a new day."
"He should rest for a while." Ji Xun said. Sleep has nothing to do with the physical body, but is to repair the disordered spirit.
Toba leads the way. He led Jing Huang back to the tenth floor. This time Ji Xun used his ability as the head of the family to greatly reduce the number of steps on each floor, but did not erase the parts created by Jing Huang.
They returned to the door they had left just before midnight. Ji Xun opened the door, revealing the simple but neat grotto behind. There was a straw mat spread under the corner farthest from the door, which looked shabby and not comfortable enough.
But that was enough. Before opening the door, Ji Xun had already designed a thermal insulation system under the mat, which was enough for people to sleep peacefully.
He sent Jing Huang to the table and quietly closed the door. Toba's crooked eyes looked at him with a smile.
"I assume you don't plan on going to bed on time," it said.
In fact, Ji Xun never fell asleep. He had many alternatives to sleeping to relieve physical fatigue. He only takes short breaks after concentrating his thinking to refresh his mind. But now he didn't need to fix it, and he felt his mind was still clear.
"What time is it now?" he asked.
"It's a quarter past midnight. Do you want something to eat?"
Ji Xun refused without interest. He spent much time eating and drinking only on ceremonial occasions. Some people are passionate about this kind of entertainment. He knew that Jing Huang also retained quite a few dietary habits—but that was limited to vegetarian food.
religion. When he walked to the study, he thought of this word from Jing Huang's meal. There is little practical benefit, or should I say, more benefit to be gained from practicing religion in this city. Because every family gets unlimited. Beliefs become cyclical fads, just like clothes, games, and philosophy. People will agree on what concepts and rules to follow during this period, and sometimes they even hold sacrifices at someone's home. They can perfect their religious activities because all details can be learned from past history. This may also be a clever bit of entertainment, since building a sense of limitations can help prevent wandering sickness.
He didn't know what kind of belief Jing Huang followed. Some kind of mild animism. he reasoned. Or moralism. Emphasis on compassion and kindness.
Perhaps he will intervene in Jing Huang's fantasy from this perspective. He thought as he opened the door to his room. Then he stepped onto an ice field under a dark, deep sky. The ice field was a cross-section of a certain period of history. There was only a small open space left, and a black stone tower stood there. His usual study and research room.
Beyond the clearing, the black tower is surrounded by unknown darkness. A heterogeneous space that reflects the appearance of the soul. Sometimes, something lurks in the darkness, watching this lonely abode. They will even knock on the door in a playful manner. Once, Ji Xun fell asleep briefly. When he opened his eyes, he found that the outside of the tower was covered with flesh and blood as thin as slices of paper. He did some testing and found that the flesh and blood were exactly the same as his own body's blueprint.
A cunning and vicious offender. But he didn't care, because they couldn't break through the black tower, let alone appear in front of him. This is the past, and at the same time it is his house. His authority as master is unshakable.
He climbed the spiral steps outside the Black Tower, but did not enter the study immediately. On the way, he stopped and stared into the darkness outside the tower. When he put his thoughts and imagination into his sight, the invisible spiritual essence squirmed and reorganized the scene in his mind.
Geometries outlined by lines of energy swirl and glow in deep space. They are visual projections of four-dimensional structures. Every time Ji Xun flipped it over in his imagination, the dimensionally reduced picture also changed accordingly. He thought about it, looking for a possible exit. Pictures of light filled the sky in his thoughts. However, when he tried to manifest this super-four-dimensional body in physical materials, the energy was annihilated due to the contradiction of his thoughts. His handy scratch paper returned to pure darkness.
Ji Xun stood on the spiral steps. He was not disappointed, because after all it was just a method of training. If he wanted this hypergeometre, the house could be made directly for him. What matters remains a verifiable path.
He can continue this training until Toba comes and tells him that Jing Huang is awake. But he heard the faint chime of time in the tower, and a strange sense of familiarity made him stop. Three quarters in the morning. He stood outside the tower for two full moments.
Perhaps it’s time to return to the study and return this space to its historical owner. Now, he prefers to focus on research on dissociation disease.
He walked up the spiral staircase and returned to the study. The interior still retains its original state. A book is spread out on the table, a story about the adventures of a soothing person. At this time, Ji Xun had no intention of reading this book, and his strange feeling of being separated from reality had completely faded. He stretched out his hand and ran his fingertips over the bottom line.
"...the solution man shook his body vigorously. He shook himself up and became calm and intelligent again. Now he starts his next move..."
The writing shattered before his eyes. From those tiny pinpoint slits, each bursting point of light is brighter than a star explosion. Ji Xun lost consciousness in that hallucination.
He sat as stiff as a corpse. Several minutes. Wet footsteps sounded outside the tower, and someone tapped their heels happily on the ground.
"Three quarters and seven cents! Three quarters and seven cents!" Toba Monster shouted with a smile, "The time has come, you dead man! Come and find some fun for us all!"
