"Zhao Mu's situation is different from ours..."
"We are 'collections' of mirages, but they are not, because even we don't know whether they should be considered human beings."
As the old man narrated bit by bit, Pei Wende also began to understand bit by bit the "history" that happened in this fog.
Just like what the old man said before, almost everyone in the village now is the "collection" of Mirage, a ray of obsession of those who have fulfilled their wishes.
But apart from the identity of "the person in the painting", the people living in the village are actually no different from ordinary people.
They need food, farming, and emotional outlet...
No matter which era or place they come from, since they are ordinary people living here in groups, they will naturally develop feelings and get married as time goes by.
Then the question arises, are the children born to those couples considered human beings?
According to the old man's narration, no one among them realized the seriousness of this problem at first. After all, those children looked no different from ordinary children.
Can cry, can make trouble, can grow up...
Apart from being born in this fog, these children look no different from ordinary people.
It wasn't until they were seventeen or eighteen years old, approaching adulthood, that problems arose.
"They...will disappear."
The old man couldn't figure out how to describe that strange phenomenon.
People in the village only know that all children born to the "people in the painting" will be summoned by the mist when they are seventeen or eighteen years old, and then suddenly disappear into the mist one day.
Or to be more precise, those children who were born in the fog eventually returned to the fog and became part of this fog, just like the "people in the painting" who were swallowed by the fog.
The only difference between the two is that the "person in the painting" will be assimilated by the fog only when he intends to escape from the fog.
And those children who are born in the mist will be assimilated by the mist when they reach adulthood.
No matter how many ways the villagers tried, they could not prevent this inevitable fate. They could only sadly accept the fate of their children "growing up and dying".
This situation continued until the arrival of the young scholar.
"Young scholar?"
Keenly capturing the key words in the old man's words, Pei Wende immediately thought of the young man who went to Tongqing Temple.
"Yes, that's a scholar who looks to be in his early thirties."
"We don't know his name because he never lived in the village."
"But everyone in the village knows that the scholar is not an ordinary person, and may not even be a human being."
After the young scholar came to the mist, the originally peaceful mist would make strange noises from time to time, sounding as if it was resisting the invasion of something.
And after learning about the situation in the village, the young scholar offered to help the villagers solve the problem of children dying when they grow up.
To be honest, no one believed what the young scholar said at first.
Because in the eyes of the villagers, the young scholar is as trapped in the fog as himself and others. He is the "person in the painting" who is trapped here forever, and it is impossible to come up with any solution to the problem.
However, with so many people in the village, there are always some couples who can no longer bear the pain of losing a child and take the initiative to go to the mist to seek help from the young scholar.
What method the young scholar used to solve this problem is unknown to the people in the village until now.
But the only thing that is certain is that the children of couples who have sought help from young scholars have indeed escaped the fate of "growing up and dying".
“But it doesn’t come without a cost.”
Sighing deeply again, the old man's eyes showed a rare look of fear.
"In return for helping the children escape their fate, one of the couple must surrender his own life."
"Or take the initiative to escape from the fog and help the scholar explore the rules of the fog at the cost of his own life."
"Or it can be the carrier of the 'Mirage Pearl', which can suppress the more and more frequent riots of those invisible monsters on behalf of the scholar."
There was no need for the old man to give any further description. Pei Wende finally knew where the skeletal giant he had seen before came from.
Pei Wende can even roughly guess the origin of the "mirage bead".
It is nothing more than a prop created by a young scholar who is not willing to be trapped here in a special way, specifically used to check and balance those invisible things.
Even the increasingly frequent riots in the fog are most likely caused by young scholars constantly encouraging villagers to escape from the fog.
"It's just that the people in the village are just mortal bodies after all. How can they contend with the fog for a long time?"
"Any existence that turns into a skeleton giant can only last for ten years at most before being assimilated by the invisible monsters deep in the mist."
Although ten years is not a long time, the people in the village cannot bear it because they are all old monsters who have lived for hundreds of years.
Most of the villagers who are still willing to give birth to children after living for hundreds of years are those who underestimate their own lives and regard children as their only hope.
Subtly, the villagers reached a strange tacit understanding and deal with the young scholar, "one life for another."
Such days continued until a few decades ago, when the new "person in the painting" - Zhu Nu, came to the village.
Zhu Nu was a native of Tanzhou during the reign of Emperor Dezong of the Tang Dynasty. She also appeared in the mist because of a deal with the "mirage".
If we look at it according to normal circumstances, Zhu Nu's next life trajectory will be the same as that of the villagers in the village.
After living for who knows how many years, either taking the initiative to leave the mist, or giving birth to a child, the final result cannot escape the ending of assimilating with the mist.
But the problem arises here, Ada falls in love with Zhu Nu.
Ah Da is not a pure "person in the painting", but a member of the new generation who is gradually growing up.
As a new generation who does not know the truth about the fog, Ada is born with curiosity and longing for the outside world, so he naturally becomes obsessed with Zhu Nu from the outside world.
It was Ada who, as the heir of the "Man in the Painting" and also inherited the attribute of "eternal life", finally realized what heartbeat was after living for an unknown number of years.
So, what happened next was a matter of course.
A Da and Zhu Nu married and learned from each other the truth that the villagers had been hiding.
"Then Ada followed the same path as his parents..."
"In order to free Zhao Mu from the fate of death, he is willing to serve as the carrier of the 'mirage' and transform into a giant skeleton that can suppress invisible things."
There was both envy and regret in his tone, and the old man who could not give up "eternal life" whispered.
"And unlike the previous villagers who persisted for less than ten years, he persisted for a full twelve years this time, and there were few turmoils during this period..."
—Recommendation ticket—Monthly ticket—
