Chapter 033 Vase
I was amazed by this change. These four colors looked like puzzles in some kind of game. You had to align the colors to open the mechanism.
I asked Wang Yue what she thought.
Wang Yue shook her head blankly and gently touched the ring. From her furrowed brows, it could be seen that she had no idea.
We were studying the cabinet together. Suddenly I saw something flash through the crack of the cabinet door.
I stuck my butt out curiously, aimed my eyes at the gap in the door, and prepared to look inside. Suddenly, an eye appeared in the depths of the gap, looking at me from inside!
I was totally unprepared. I screamed, my scalp exploded, and I sat down on the ground in fright.
Wang Yue came over to help me up quickly, "What's wrong with you?"
I stammered, "There's someone in the cupboard. Looking at me."
Wang Yue pulled me up, leaned over to look, and said in confusion, "No one is there." I held her hand, my palms were sweaty, and I mustered up the courage to look over again. This time I was shocked, the eye was clearly still there, looking outside.
My hair stood on end, and I pointed inside and said, "Can't you see it?"
Wang Yue shook her head and said nothing.
I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and told her not to joke.
Wang Yue was a little angry: "Is this the time to joke? Am I such a careless person?"
I murmured, am I the only one who can see this?
Wang Yue asked curiously, "Is the person inside looking at you?"
I stood next to the cupboard and mustered up the courage to take another look. The eye was still there. Wang Yue reminded me of this and I suddenly realized something was wrong The eye was not staring at me. I was standing next to the cupboard. If the eye was looking at me, then the eyes should be following me. But at this moment, the eye was just looking straight ahead.
I told Wang Yue about this discovery. Wang Yue seemed to be thinking about something. She looked across the cupboard and I followed her. Across the cupboard was the bed and behind the bed was the desk. It looked like nothing special. But there really was one.
Wang Yue and I looked at the desk, on which there was a round vase.
I looked at the eye in the cupboard, then at the vase, and became more and more certain that the eye was staring at the vase.
This is the realm of the bardo, and everything that appears is not given for nothing. Is there something fishy about the vase?
Wang Yue and I walked over to the vase at the same time. The vase was made of celadon and felt smooth to the touch. The belly in the middle and upper part was particularly large. I picked it up and looked inside. It was empty. I casually turned the vase upside down and turned it over. There was nothing inside.
Wang Yue said softly: "Lin Cong, move the vase and see if your eyes follow it."
Don’t say this girl is smart. I moved the vase on the table for a distance and then looked at the eyes in the cupboard. The eyes had indeed changed. It was really following the vase.
"This is a clue." Wang Yue said, "It seems that the key to our solution lies in this vase."
I couldn't imagine what could be wrong with a vase. I looked at it over and over again.
I had a big clue map in my mind. Now I was basically sure that the door we were going out of was deep in the corridor. It was too dark there, so we had to have some lighting to get out. The only lighting tools we had were the table lamp outside and the matches Wang Yue had found.
So what is the connection between the match and the vase in front of me? The celadon vase is not a flammable object.
The clues also include the strange paintings on the wall and the chest of drawers in this room. Can these be connected together? My head is a little bit exploded.
I flicked the vase with my fingers, and something strange happened. A trace of texture appeared at the point of the flick. Wang Yue and I looked at each other, and I flicked the surrounding area with my fingers. Sure enough, a texture appeared with the tapping. I kept flicking, and the textures gradually connected together, the area became larger and larger, and formed a pattern.
When the pattern appeared, Wang Yue and I were dumbfounded.
This pattern is a lotus, and the technique used is outlined in red and blue. The fine lines are intricately intertwined to form layers of blooming lotus petals. Wang Yue looked at me and shouted, "The painting outside!"
Holding the vase, I ran out with Wang Yue to the living room. Wang Yue raised the table lamp and shone it on the painting on the wall.
This painting shows a group of explorers entering a temple. Among them, there is a woman whose profile looks particularly like my mother.
Our focus at this moment is not on these people, but on the lampstand above the incense table in the painting. The lampstand is in the shape of a lotus, blooming layer by layer, and the painting is extremely exquisite.
I picked up the vase and compared the pattern on it with the lotus lampstand in the painting. They were exactly the same lotus, even the smallest details were perfectly consistent.
"This is a hint." Wang Yue said: "The key thing is the lotus lantern in the painting!"
I put the vase aside and gently stroked the lotus lantern in the painting. What secrets did it hide? Wang Yue stood aside, frowning, and could not see any clues.
"Any ideas?" I asked.
Wang Yue frowned and said, "I don't know. Think about it. This painting didn't appear for no reason. Can you recall your experience with this painting?"
I quickly held out my hands. “I can be 100% sure that I have not experienced what is in the painting. I have definitely never been to this temple.”
"You said this person looks like your mother?" Wang Yue pointed at one of the people at the door.
At this time, the light in the painting changed again, and the man fell into darkness, with his facial features disappearing and unable to be identified.
My mind was in a mess. I stared at the lotus lampstand, then looked at the explorers in jackets in the painting. I seemed to be thinking of something, but I had no idea what it was.
As I was thinking about it, I suddenly had an idea. It seemed to connect the two: the lampstand and the matches...
I looked at Wang Yue, and Wang Yue looked back at me. She was frightened , "What's wrong with you?"
"I suddenly thought of something." I said, "The lotus lantern in the painting is extinguished, which means it is related to fire. And you found matches. Could there be any connection between the two?"
Wang Yue took out a matchbox from her pocket and gently opened it. There were only two matches in the box.
"You mean, we can use matches to light the lamp in the painting?" Wang Yue said softly.
My throat moved. To be honest, I hadn't really thought about it in this direction. It was too outrageous. I denied it as soon as the thought came to my mind.
I just roughly guessed that there was some connection between the two, but I didn't have the imagination to think that a real match could light a lamp in a painting.
I wondered, “Will it?”
“You can try.” Wang Yue said, “This is the bardo realm, where anything outrageous can happen.”
I took a match out of the matchbox, and Wang Yue suddenly said, "But we have to be mentally prepared."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Wang Yue pointed to the matchbox and said, "There are only two matches here, which means we only have two chances to light the fire. The number of matches matches the corresponding mechanism. If we guess wrong, we will waste a match. Then if there is another chance to light the fire later, we will have no way to do it."
I didn't expect it to be like this, so I blinked and said, "One carrot, one hole?"
“That’s what I mean.” She nodded. “If we waste the key item, we won’t be able to crack it even if we find the corresponding mechanism later.”
When she said that, I immediately felt the severity of it.
I hesitated a little: "So will I use it this time?"
"You decide." Wang Yue said gently: "Even if we can never get out again, I'm happy because I'm with you."
I was a little touched by these words. To be honest, I had feelings for her, but they faded after the previous incident. Now that I have experienced what happened here, I suddenly feel that having such a girlfriend is actually not bad.
I looked at the painting, then at the matches in my hand, thought for a moment and said, "Then use it. You'll need it anyway, so there's no point in keeping it."
Wang Yue said “hmm”.
I slowly struck the match, and the flame started burning. I slowly moved the match and aimed the flame at the lotus lampstand in the painting.
The closer I got, the more I regretted it. I thought our idea was a little ridiculous. Could it be lit? It was okay to waste a match, but if the painting was lit, would the whole house catch fire?
But there is no turning back in archery. Now that it has come to this, I can only grit my teeth and take a gamble.
The match head finally touched the painting, and the flame licked the drawing paper. My heart was beating so fast that it almost jumped out of my chest. Half a second, one second... After that, the wick of the lotus flower lampstand in the painting suddenly emitted a wisp of smoke, and then it burned and a small flame popped out. As the flame appeared, the match in my hand suddenly disappeared and turned into nothing.
Wang Yue and I looked at each other, clapped our hands, and excitedly shouted at the same time: "Yeah!"
We guessed it right!
The lotus lamps lit up, and the scene in the painting began to change. Wang Yue and I felt like we were watching a movie. In the painting, first the explorer in front of the incense table raised his body, and then the explorers at the back door walked into the temple together.
A person who came in later raised his hand, pointed at the person in front of the incense table and said something loudly, as if accusing him. This is a painting, and you can only see the dynamic evolution of the picture, but you can't hear the sound.
The more I watched, the more I felt that the person behind seemed to be blaming the person in front for not moving without permission and lighting the lotus lantern.
