Chapter 034 Timeline
This feeling is very strange. I was clearly the one who lit the lotus lantern, but the people in the painting were blaming each other, saying that the other person lit the lantern.
I told Wang Yue about it, and she stood in front of the painting, concentrating on it without blinking. She nodded gently, "Your idea is not fanciful. There is only one possibility. What happened in the painting really happened . When you lit the lamp, the timeline in the painting moved forward."
I suddenly understood: "You mean, before I lit the menorah, the timeline in the painting was stopped. The moment I lit it, the whole painting began to move."
"The incident of lighting the lampstand," Wang Yue said softly, "did happen in the world of the painting."
We stopped talking and looked at the screen together. Those people gathered together, as if they were having a heated discussion. At this time, one of them turned on some kind of light source, and the brightness suddenly increased, illuminating the entire temple. At the moment the light came on, I finally saw the faces of those people clearly. I was so shocked that I was stunned on the spot.
The man who lit the candlestick just now turned out to be my father! Among the people who came in later, there were two women, one of whom was indeed my mother!
"This is my dad and mom." I shouted.
"Ah?" Wang Yue screamed and covered her mouth with her hands: "Your parents? Your parents are from the geological exploration team. Is this their exploration mission?"
I didn't say anything, just stared at the screen, every cell in my body was boiling.
I also recognized a person, he was my father's colleague and good friend. I often saw him come to my house to drink with my father. I called him Uncle Chen. Uncle Chen was also in the painting, arguing fiercely with my father. It seemed that their conflict was not about whether to light the candlestick or not, it must have accumulated for a long time.
Mom mediated and persuaded Uncle Chen and Dad. The others didn't interrupt and just watched quietly from the side.
Because there was no sound, I couldn't hear why they were arguing.
At this moment, someone suddenly pointed at the lotus lamp on the incense table, and everyone in the painting looked over. Wang Yue and I also looked over, not knowing what was going on.
I saw that the lotus lampstand began to rotate by itself, and starting from the bottom, the lotus decorations actually bloomed, first at the bottom, and then layer by layer. The visual effect was truly dazzling.
The lotus flowers on the four sides of the lampstand changed colors, appearing black, red, green and yellow.
The four-colored lotus petals were spinning rapidly. At this moment, the figures in the painting were standing unsteadily and looking down at their feet, as if an earthquake had occurred in the temple.
Wang Yue and I both saw a lot of dust falling from the beams of the temple. The strange-looking roof of the temple was shaking violently. The people in the paintings all fell to the ground. Their first reaction was to run outside, but the door of the temple was tightly closed and could not be opened even if they pushed it.
Uncle Chen suddenly pointed at the lotus lamp on the incense table and said something loudly. I could see the shape of his mouth. He was saying that the shaking of the temple was all caused by the lamp.
Dad and Uncle Chen barely stood up, stumbling to the incense table, looking at the lotus lampstand at a loss. Dad stretched out his hand and kept twisting the lampstand, but the lotus petals on it seemed to be made of metal and were extremely sharp. With this twist, my dad's right hand was immediately scratched, and blood oozed out. You can see that the small area of the canvas has turned red.
The earthquake became more and more severe. Many spider-web-like textures appeared on the ground of the temple and grew rapidly. Someone lost his grip on the flashlight and it fell through the gap. Under the ground was a dark abyss that led to nowhere.
I was so horrified that my heart was in my throat. I was concentrating on watching when Wang Yue suddenly pushed me and said, "Lin Cong, the four colors of the lampstand are the same as the colors of the handles of the chest of drawers inside."
I suddenly remembered, yes. But even if it is the same, so what, I still have no clue.
"The two are related." Wang Yue said hurriedly: "I understand. We must align the colors and put them where they belong."
"But how do you align it?" I asked.
There are currently four colors, black, red, green and yellow. Does anyone know which color is in which position?
Wang Yue stared at the lotus lamp on the screen, thinking hard, as if she had discovered a pattern. But I had no idea, my heart was in a knot, hoping that she could figure out the pattern quickly.
The scene on the screen became more and more dangerous. There were big cracks all over the ground, as if there was an earthquake. One of the expedition members lost his grip and fell in. Mom was holding on to the pillar tightly. There was an abyss under her feet. She was shouting something. Uncle Chen and Dad were studying the lampstand.
At this time, a huge texture quickly spread to the incense table. I almost screamed when I saw it. Dad and Uncle Chen reacted quickly. They quickly climbed onto the incense table. At this time, the ground under the incense table collapsed, and a deep black hole appeared.
Wang Yue frowned, looked at the lampstand on the screen, and shouted: "I know, it's the five elements!"
"What do you mean?" I asked quickly.
Wang Yue said: "Black is related to water, which is Xuanwu, referring to the north. Yellow is formed from gold, which is Baihu, and belongs to the west. Red, brighter than fire, belongs to Zhuque, and belongs to the south. There is no need to talk about green."
"Switch quickly." I yelled.
Wang Yue reached out her hand and touched the painting, but it could not affect the painting at this moment, nor could it touch the lamp inside. At this moment, my father lost his balance and fell off the incense table. I almost suffocated and screamed. Uncle Chen in the painting reacted very quickly and reached out to grab it. My father's fingertips touched his hand lightly, but did not touch it. The two looked at each other. At this moment, my father's eyes were full of grief. The next second, he fell into the abyss and was never seen again.
At this moment, my eyes went dark, I almost fainted, and fell backwards. Wang Yue supported me and said, "Lin Cong, you have to be strong. The solution to this mechanism is not in the painting, but in the chest of drawers inside! Let's go quickly."
I managed to calm myself down, and she pulled me into the bedroom. We stood in front of the chest of drawers, and Wang Yue encouraged me with her eyes: "Lin Cong, only you can activate the mechanism, so you do it."
I gritted my teeth, pressed the ring and started to rotate it, turning the black to the top, the red to the bottom, the yellow to the left, and the green to the right. As soon as I finished rotating, I heard a crisp "click" sound, and the door of the chest of drawers opened!
Wang Yue and I looked at each other in bewilderment, and I mustered up the courage to open the door of the cupboard. The door creaked open, and the things inside were revealed.
The moment I opened it, my heart almost stopped. There was really a person inside the chest of drawers!
Hanging in the cupboard is a puppet wearing red clothes. It is carved out of wood, with its eyebrows, eyes and facial features outlined with cinnabar. It looks vivid and like a paper doll used in rural funerals.
A string was tied around the puppet's neck, and the puppet was hung on a clothes hook above the chest of drawers. The dummy swayed gently back and forth, which was very scary.
As soon as I saw this puppet, I thought of the aunt in red clothes from my childhood. I quickly closed the cupboard door, and my heart was very upset.
Wang Yue looked at me with sympathy and held my hand.
"Oh, by the way, let's go out and look at the painting first." I was thinking about my parents. When we came to the outer room, Wang Yue held up the desk lamp and looked at the wall. This time, the picture seemed to have changed dramatically.
Everything in the painting stopped. Time stopped again.
I saw on the screen that almost all the members of the exploration team were wiped out, only my mother was holding the pillar in fear. Uncle Chen was lying on the incense table in the distance. Only the two of them survived.
Between the two of them was an unfathomable black abyss, and the huge hole in the ground seemed to lead to an unknown world underground.
The picture froze at this moment and did not move.
I roughly figured out that I had just twisted the handle of the chest of drawers and broken the mechanism, and then the timeline on the screen stopped.
The situation here is very strange when you think about it carefully. If the scene in this painting really happened, it is very likely that it was my mother and father’s last geological expedition two years ago, which took place in Phoenix Mountain. Then their experience two years ago actually coincides with my behavior in the bardo two years later!
I have absolutely no idea about the logic and cause-and-effect relationship here. My mind is a complete mess.
If I can get out, I must confirm whether the scene really happened and it is not an illusion. To do this, I must first rescue my mother. In addition to my mother, there is another crucial person, Uncle Chen.
I remember very clearly that when the bad news about my parents came, I asked my leader who was still alive at the time. The leader hesitated for a long time before revealing two pieces of information: one was that the incident happened in Fenghuang Mountain, and the other was that there were two survivors at the time, in addition to my mother, the other was Uncle Chen.
Later I looked for Uncle Chen, but his whereabouts were unknown. I asked many leaders of the Geological Research Institute, but they all said that the matter was confidential and the files had been sealed. So I gave up.
Looking at it today, he was also a witness to the accident.
Wang Yue gently took my hand and said, "Lin Cong, we have to go back and check the chest of drawers. There must be clues and mechanisms for the next step. Come back with me, okay?"
At this point, I was close to collapse. This bardo realm was indeed not fun. Every mechanism hurt me so much.
