Chapter 012: Puzzle Solving
"What's the reaction?" I asked.
Uncle Zhong said, "It's a reaction from the unknown. Lin Cong, your main task now is to contact Wang Yue and help her get through the bardo and find her father. It will be good for you, me and everyone else. Don't make any trouble."
I had no choice but to sit in front of the mirror again. Uncle Zhong continued to write on the back of my neck. After a tingling sensation, I fell into a drowsy state again.
At this time, a voice came : "Lin Cong."
It was Wang Yue who said, "Lin Cong, I knew you could come. You didn't disappoint me." I was shocked. I had heard this sentence for the second time. I immediately understood that what I heard was indeed a recording. Every time I came in, the whole process had to start from the beginning.
"Lin Cong, don't blame me. I spent three full years looking for someone like you, and finally I chose you. You are kind, smart, and you seem to be a person with good fortune..."
I listened patiently until she said, "I need your help. Stand up now."
This time I didn't dare interrupt at will. If I went out and came back in, the whole recording would have to start all over again. With my temper and patience, I couldn't bear it.
I stood up obediently, my head still lowered, and it was difficult to open my eyes. Everything was dim and hazy. One thing I was quite sure of was that the place I was in was definitely not the original room, but outdoors. As for where exactly, I couldn't tell.
Wang Yue's voice was instructing me: "Go forward, ten steps forward."
I took a deep breath, trying to maintain my current state, then began to lift my right foot and moved forward with difficulty, step by step. After walking about ten steps, I vaguely felt that there seemed to be a wall on the opposite side, so I stopped.
"Take off the bracelet," she said.
I gently pressed the two sides of the bracelet, and the mechanism made a slight "click" sound, and the bracelet fell off my wrist. I held the bracelet and lifted it up. Wang Yue said, "Put the bracelet in the groove in front."
I fumbled around and found a groove on the wall in front of me. I gently put it in. As soon as I put it in, I heard Wang Yue's surprised voice: "Lin Cong!"
I shuddered and immediately realized that the person speaking now was not the recording, but Wang Yue herself!
"Wang Yue." I responded.
I couldn't raise my head or open my eyes, and could only rely on my ears to capture information about the outside environment. Wang Yue was so happy that she cried, sobbing: "Lin Cong, you are really here."
"Where are you?" I asked in a deep voice.
“Since you’ve come this far, many things should be clear to you.” Wang Yue said, “I’m in the bardo realm now. Uncle Zhong must have explained what the bardo realm is.”
"He didn't explain it clearly. He just said something about being neither yin nor yang, and that it was the place governed by Meng Po. He also talked about the intermediate state body or something like that," I said.
Wang Yue's voice came from the wall: "Just know this, don't delve into it. I'm here now."
"What about me? Am I also in the bardo?" I asked.
Wang Yue said, "No, you are in the mirror. This mirror is the magic weapon I have been looking for for many years, and it is used today. It is a switching station between the Yang world and the bardo realm. You can contact me when you leave the soul in the mirror, and I will tell you the help you need in the bardo realm."
I asked in confusion, "Why can't I go directly into the bardo? Can't I go in?"
"No, you can come in." Wang Yue said, "The situation here is very complicated. To put it simply, the bardo is a space that is related to a person's state of mind and karma. All people who die will enter the bardo to be judged. As for how to pass through this purgatory, it is not something that ordinary people can imagine. Now that you have entered the bardo, the environment inside will change and variables will appear, which will only make the problem more and more complicated."
I couldn't hear or understand what she said, so I held my breath and said, "You've killed me!"
"Don't worry." Her voice was gentle: "I am confident that I can rescue Dad. This is also the agreement between Meng Po and me. After I come back to life, I will keep my word and be your best girlfriend!"
I sneered, "You are so cruel. You have pledged my soul to the ghost. If it weren't for Uncle Zhong, I would have become an idiot now."
Wang Yue paused and did not continue the topic. Instead, she said softly, "I won't hurt you. Please help me get through this first hurdle."
I didn't say anything. She felt guilty and said slowly, "I have a string of numbers in front of me that need to be deciphered. Now I am in this purgatory, and I am also in an out-of-body state. I don't have the support of a physical brain, and many of my memories and abilities have been stripped away. You must first help me decipher the mystery of these numbers. You must remember the numbers, which are '612, 601, 620, the middle is empty, 529, 617...' You have to help me decipher the empty numbers in the middle..."
Her voice suddenly began to drift and sound a little creepy: "Now I have started the purgatory process. I only have seven days. If I can't get out within seven days, I will be trapped in the bardo forever! Trapped forever... The countdown has begun now."
I was sweating all over and had no time to solve the numerical mystery. I didn't even write down those numbers.
"Can I help you solve it now?" I asked anxiously.
"You need to go out and find Uncle Zhong, and you two can crack it together." Wang Yue said, "After you crack it, come back in, and then come back here. I'll wait for you! Here you are just in a spirit state, which is very unstable. You must return to your spirit and combine it with your body. Go out quickly, because time is running out."
I quickly said, "Say the number again."
Wang Yue repeated it again, and this time I remembered it clearly. I suddenly raised my head and opened my eyes again, and found myself back in the bedroom.
I felt dizzy and stumbled, and almost fell. Uncle Zhong and Li Daming quickly supported me. My legs were a little weak and my head was covered with sweat. They helped me sit down.
I looked around and saw that the bedroom was filled with thick black smoke. I could only see the area in front of me. It was pitch dark. It occurred to me that the bracelet had been left in the groove on the wall in the mirror. Without the bracelet, I fell into the black smoke again.
Uncle Zhong was squatting beside me, holding a candle. His old face was visible in the black smoke. The flame was swaying weakly. There seemed to be wind, but it could not be felt.
"How is it?" he asked in a low voice.
I took a deep breath and told him what had just happened. Uncle Zhong paused for a moment and said, "The trial has begun. There are only seven days left."
"Seven days to crack these numbers?" Li Daming said, "It's not difficult."
Uncle Zhong shook his head gently: "There is more than one level of the trial, there are seven levels in total, and they are related to each person's karma. Therefore, we must seize every minute and every second, because we really don't know how difficult the next level that Wang Yue will face will be, and there is only seven days!"
Li Daming seemed a little excited and clicked his tongue a few times.
Uncle Zhong asked me, what can you think of about numbers?
I shook my head and wiped the sweat from my forehead to show that I knew nothing.
Uncle Zhong looked around and said, "This isn't a good place to think. Let's go out and talk."
The three of us came out of the bedroom and went to the living room outside. We looked at the clock and it was now one o'clock in the middle of the night. We had been busy for more than an hour, but none of us felt sleepy.
Li Daming was rummaging through drawers in the living room.
I sat on the sofa, hugged my shoulders and asked, what are you doing?
Li Daming dug out a stack of A4 paper and a few pens from a cabinet, took them over and said, "Since we have to crack the numbers, we can't just use our brains to think. A good memory is not as good as a bad pen."
The three of us took paper and pen. I repeated the string of numbers again, and Li Daming and Uncle Zhong both wrote it down on paper.
I also wrote down a string of numbers on the paper: 612, 601, 620, XX, 529, 617.
Li Daming said curiously, they all seemed to start with six words.
"There's a 529 in it," I reminded him.
"I think it shouldn't be difficult," said Li Daming.
Uncle Zhong rubbed his chin and said, "Don't underestimate the Bardo. It's mysterious and unpredictable. You can't use the thinking of the Yang world to deal with it. The space there is different from what you imagine."
Li Daming blinked and said, "Is there more to it?"
Uncle Zhong looked at him admiringly and nodded: "Who knows."
Li Daming looked at me and said, "Lin Cong, is your brain okay?"
“Don’t underestimate people.” I said, “I also graduated from a 211 university.”
Li Daming smiled but said nothing. The three of us found our own places and started to discuss with the papers. It was just a few numbers, what was so difficult about it? I looked at the two people and wanted to show off my skills and crack it as soon as possible. But once I started, I found that it was really not easy.
First of all, this string of numbers is not arranged in order of size, so will there be arithmetic differences in the middle? 612 minus 601 equals 11, and 620 minus 601 equals 19, and finally 617 minus 529 equals... I raised my eyebrows, as if I couldn't see any pattern.
Their performances were also different. Li Daming used the calculator on his mobile phone, while Uncle Zhong sat in the corner, looking at the numbers and muttering like chanting scriptures. It was unknown what he was thinking about.
The paper was covered with numbers, and the calculation seemed to become more and more complicated. I knew intuitively that I had calculated wrongly, and there must be some unexpected trick here.
