At 1:45 in the afternoon, Qisi stood alone in the middle of the garden full of roses, holding the [Destiny Pocket Watch] he borrowed from Chang Xu.
The air is filled with gray mist. On both sides of the path covered by twisted branches and vines, huge roses hang their heads wetly. The deep red color is as rich as blood, exuding a cold atmosphere. .
Qisi's fingers caressed the petals of the roses, and finally stopped on the most beautiful rose. He held the thorny stem of the rose and used his wrist force to break off the flowers and leaves.
He had never taken care of flowers and plants on weekdays, so the folds were not pretty at the moment. There were green filaments connected to the fractures, just like the capillaries of a poisoned person.
Qisi looked down at the rose in his hand, showing disgust. He touched the special bracelet on his right hand, but couldn't find the blade, so he could only resort to the next best thing and pull out the thin wire, straighten it and use it as a saw to sharpen the fracture.
"You picked the roses," said a voice, as cold as a snake's message.
"You picked the roses." Countless voices merged into one voice, chanting the same words.
A drop of rain fell from the high sky, hitting Qisi between the eyebrows.
He raised his eyelids and looked around. In the thick fog, clusters of gray shadows stood among the rose bushes, like scarecrows on duty, but they had clearly appeared not long ago.
There were corpses, including men, women, old and young. Some had rotted to the point of leaving only bones, while some had vaguely visible features of their lives.
Qisi saw Shen Ming's face among the figures surrounding him. The face of a newly deceased ghost was lifelike, and the cracked skin showed a sickly paleness.
The dead who were buried here in reincarnations gathered here at this moment, and countless three-day time and space overlapped at this moment.
"Why can't I pick roses?" Qisi tilted his head and asked with a smile.
Lightning suddenly struck across the gray-purple sky, illuminating the monster-like gray castle in an instant.
The light and shadow flickered, one black and one white, followed by the rumble of thunder.
Heavy rain fell from the sky.
The blood-stained white shirt was soaked by the rain, and the blood stains that had already condensed were surprisingly smudged. The rich reddish brown was diluted into a dreamy light pink, making Qisi's whole body sway like a charm.
He asked again: "Why can't I pick roses?"
Just like he asked "Miss Anna" in the garden at nine o'clock in the morning.
"The rose belongs to me, and it can only belong to me." At that time, the woman in black, who looked like a ghost but still had a bit of life left in her, said.
Qisi asked again: "Is the same true for beauty?"
Miss Anna replied: "Yes, beauty belongs to me..."
"So, is it beauty itself or the person or thing that possesses beauty that you love?"
Upon hearing this, Miss Anna smiled, her lips blooming like blood flowers. She turned around and walked away on the path covered by flower branches, dragging the hem of her black skirt on the ground and swaying.
At this moment, Qisi knew what he was asking. He raised his eyes past the figures and looked into the distance where the smoke was steaming, and his eyes met the graceful black ink marks.
The hour hand of the pocket watch points to the hour.
It's two o'clock in the afternoon.
…
Room 3.
Lin Chen sat by the bed without saying a word, watching Chang Xu at the desk flipping through the notes written with clues, and then using a pen to record the key points on a blank piece of papyrus.
Sudden variables and complex information flowed one after another in a very short period of time. Lin Chen's brain was already blank. He could only remember a few details that Qisi told him before leaving, and deduced them over and over again in his consciousness. Make sure nothing goes wrong.
It was Ziss who extended an olive branch to him when he was most helpless and led him safely all the way to the present. He even risked his way to the third floor to make up for his negligence.
Now, he must not let go of the chain under any circumstances, otherwise not only himself will die, but also Qiss...
The responsibility was too heavy, and Lin Chen's palms began to sweat again, making the blade in his hand slippery and difficult to hold.
He subconsciously put down the blade and rubbed his hand on the sheets.
Chang Xu, who had his back turned to him, heard the sound, his ears moved slightly, and asked without looking back, "What's wrong?"
...Brother, do you have eyes on your back?
Lin Chen's heart skipped a beat, but he immediately adjusted his mentality and said, "I...I'm a little nervous. What kind of method did Brother Qi have in mind to clear the level?" As he spoke, he carefully moved the blade again. Hold it in your hand.
Chang Xu did not doubt that he was there, and answered truthfully: "I don't know."
"Dang, Dang."
A solemn and solemn bell sounded outside the door, and it rang twice in succession.
Lin Chen jumped up suddenly, raised the blade high and stabbed Chang Xu's neck, almost touching the skin!
The latter, as if he had been warned, turned his head to avoid it, and pressed him on the bed instead.
The blade in his hand was taken away, Lin Chen gritted his teeth and kicked randomly.
About an hour ago, Qisi entered the room first, put the blade into his hand, and told him word for word: "Brother Shen was killed by Chang Xu, and there is something wrong with Chang Xu. If I fail to come back before two o'clock , you must kill Chang Xu immediately, otherwise we will all die."
At that time, he looked at the serious look on the young man's face and forgot to ask the reason. He just muttered: "I...I can't do it..."
"You must do it." Qisi's eyes were as dark as a pool of stagnant water, and his smile was miserable. "This is the last resort. The only one I can trust is you. The blade I gave you is the only weapon I carry with me. Just treat it as I'll be a gambler for once and make a desperate bet."
He was about to say something else, but Qisi turned around and opened the door, letting in the gloomy Chang Xu...
Memories swam in his mind, and Lin Chen got the strength from nowhere, raised his head and knocked Chang Xu on the chin, making a gesture to grab the blade.
Chang Xu was in pain and his eyes were slightly sharp. The moment he was about to touch the blade, he hit his neck with an elbow.
Did it fail after all?
Lin Chen smiled bitterly in his heart. The strongest emotion was not the fear of death, but Qiss's guilt.
He still betrayed people's trust, and now everything is over...
The sound of broken bones sounded, Lin Chen's pupils slowly expanded, and his whole body went limp as if all his strength had been drained.
Chang Xu watched this scene quietly, confusion slowly appearing in his eyes.
what's the situation? Why did Lin Chen suddenly want to kill him? What happened?
And... why was there a strong sense of déjà vu when someone attacked me from behind and scratched my neck, but I couldn't remember it?
Chang Xu touched the back of his neck and fell into deep contemplation of self-doubt, gradually becoming messy in the wind.
…
At exactly two o'clock in the afternoon, in the sea of roses, Qisi inserted the sharpened rose into his heart with his backhand.
The blood flowers bloomed with a rich color on the white background, and the pain that was enough to shatter sanity swept through his brain. The world in front of him suddenly collapsed and became dark. He gasped and murmured:
【My chest is rotten...】
The heart seemed like countless insects writhing and crawling, taking root in the skin and blood vessel walls, extending all the way along the flow of blood, going deep into the organs, until they occupied every inch of the body.
The limbs began to melt, and the flesh and blood began to disintegrate from the edges, dripping...
[Flesh and blood spread on the ground...]
Zou Yan's performance set a good example, and Qisi determined that roses are the key to human beings becoming ghosts, and four lines of poems are spells or formulas.
The rose inserted into the heart grew vigorously with the chanting, spurting out from the mouth and nose, and black and green branches stretched out from the fingertips of the limbs.
[The rose lives here]
The dominance of consciousness is wavering, and self-perception is being tampered with and recast inch by inch.
Humans, non-humans, ghosts, monsters, beasts, gods... countless kinds of thoughts gathered together in one place, exploded, and turned into little red debris scattered in the ocean of thoughts.
【Please believe that you are human】
The prompt text on the system interface almost drips with blood.
The scene of Shen Ming's death flashed across Qisi's mind. It was undoubtedly the result of complete transformation into a ghost and the loss of human cognition.
It's too ugly and he doesn't like it.
He opened his eyes and took in the eight characters on the system interface.
The perception of time is distorted, and the short few seconds are stretched out, like a slowly plucked string in an eternity of night.
【Tomorrow we will live together forever...】
The heavy rain that hit me suddenly hung in the air, like a bead curtain strung by threads that stopped at a certain moment.
The raindrops refracted the gray-purple halo, and slowly rose up in the next second, flying high into the sky.
——Time travel is triggered.
The colors in front of him were knocked over and blurred into a ball like confused oil paints.
Zeiss maintained the posture of inserting the rose into his heart with both hands, and the turbulent consciousness slowly settled, accumulating at the bottom of his mind like snowflakes.
He looked in the direction of the castle and laughed out loud.
Whether Lin Chen kills Chang Xu or Chang Xu kills Lin Chen, it will lead to the same result.
All he wants is to turn back time at two o'clock.
