Chapter 166: Buzhou Mountain (VIII)
Lu Ren jumped into the dimly lit door like a rabbit.
He slammed the door shut and leaned against it, listening to what was happening outside.
Fortunately, the zombie world war he envisioned never happened.
The strange creature that looked like a zombie did not chase after them. It would be more accurate to say that it did not even move a step.
It was so quiet outside the small door that nothing seemed to have happened. All the thrilling events just now seemed more like Lu Ren scaring himself.
The whole world was silent, with only the sound of Lu Ren's heart beating violently.
Lu Ren took several deep breaths before finally calming his heartbeat.
Behind the small door, just as Mr. Si said, was a canteen. The metal benches, tables and chairs were neatly arranged, and it was obvious that it was very formal back then, but now it seemed to be abandoned, with thick dust accumulated on the tables, chairs and the floor.
There is a large window on one side of the cafeteria. The afternoon sun shines in, illuminating the floating dust in the air clearly. It looks like small insects flying up and down. The scene is really nostalgic and retro.
But Lu Ren didn't have any leisure time at the moment. He just felt like he was falling into an icy cave.
Mr. Si, who had walked in before him, was not here, or more precisely, Mr. Si should not have been here at all - the ground was clearly covered with thick dust, if someone had been here, there would be no way that there would not be traces left. But now, there was not even a footprint on the dust.
Mr. Si, who had chatted with Lu Ren and insisted on introducing this small building to Lu Ren, seemed to have never appeared.
He was like a bait that led Lu Ren into this room, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Lu Ren swallowed, trying to stop his imagination from wandering. He shouted to the empty cafeteria, "Si Yuan?"
No response.
Lu Ren's brain took only 0.01 seconds to make a decision: This won't work, I have to run.
Lu Ren began to calculate the shortest escape route: "Although the main entrance is blocked, we can go out through the back door, which is right behind the cafeteria, near the stairs. If we run, it should take no more than three minutes."
Huh?
A question popped up in Lu Ren's mind: "Why do I know there is a back door here? Isn't this my first time here?"
To get to the back door, one has to go around the entire cafeteria, and Lu Ren definitely can't see that door from where he is standing now.
But Lu Ren just knew it.
"It feels like I've been here hundreds of times." Lu Ren thought so as he unconsciously took the first step. He left a heavy first step on the thick dust, as new as the first word written on a white paper.
As Lu Ren walked forward, he kept muttering to himself, as if warning himself: "Don't look in the direction of window number two. The old woman there might dig out her eyes and eat them when she's hungry."
In fact, Lu Ren’s brain could no longer keep up with his mouth, and even he himself could not figure out what was coming out of his mouth.
Old woman?
Where did this old woman come from? Wasn’t he the only one here from the beginning to the end?
While Lu Ren was wondering, he had already arrived at the so-called back door. As long as he opened this door, he could immediately run back home, back to the small home with three people that he loved.
Lu Ren couldn't explain clearly what he was waiting for.
But he did not open the door, and instead looked at the winding stairs.
It was very strange, this so-called "Investigation Bureau" was full of weirdness. Not long ago, he was frightened by the sudden appearance of a figure, but from the second he started calculating the escape route, he suddenly felt surprisingly at ease, as if he had come to the place he was most familiar with.
There seemed to be a voice in his heart urging him to go upstairs.
Lu Ren chose to follow his inner voice. He walked through the back door and slowly went up the stairs. He passed the second floor and saw the empty office. He felt a little lost. Lu Ren didn't know what he was expecting, but there was always a voice in his mind saying that this place shouldn't be like this. It should be full of laughter and people.
Lu Ren passed by the third floor and saw a creepy red door at the end of the corridor. It was a creepy scene, but the funny thing was that someone wrote the big words "Adhere to the path of sustainable development" in yellow paint on the door. The suffocating feeling of fear disappeared in an instant.
"This handwriting is so ugly." Lu Ren couldn't help but complain after just taking a look.
"But it's okay." Lu Ren thought thankfully, "If it weren't for these few words, he might not have dared to go any further ."
The fourth floor was still an empty office. Lu Ren did not stay for too long, but continued to move up. He had a hunch that the thing that urged him to keep moving up was on the fifth floor.
At the end of the stairs on the fifth floor is a tightly closed door, which seems to be quietly waiting for someone to open it.
It seemed like the answers to all questions could be found behind that door.
Lu Ren looked at the door and took a firm step toward the stairs . However, at this moment, a familiar female voice sounded behind Lu Ren: "Are you leaving?"
Hearing the voice, Lu Ren turned around suddenly and saw his parents - Zhang Chunhua and Lu Mingyue.
In an instant, everything around him became blurred, and everything around Lu Ren seemed to sink into the deepest darkness. The only thing he could see clearly was the gate standing quietly in front of him and his parents who were looking at him eagerly behind him.
There were tears in Zhang Chunhua's eyes, and Lu Mingyue's eyes were red unconsciously. They just stood quietly behind Lu Ren, looking into Lu Ren's eyes.
In response to Zhang Chunhua's question, Lu Ren nodded.
Lu Ren didn't understand where Zhang Chunhua meant by "walking", but before he could figure it out, his body had already reacted.
"Really?" Zhang Chunhua looked reluctant, "Then..."
The illusion woven by the cocoon was already crumbling, and Lu Ren was only one step away from leaving here.
At this time, the ability of the cocoon was in a very unstable state, and the entire illusion began to turbulent. Realizing this, the cocoon would emit a colorless and odorless gas that would wrap around the person in the cocoon. This gas would also directly cause the person in it, that is, Lu Ren, to be in a state of half-sleep and half-wakefulness, and the whole person would be unable to make normal logical judgments.
This is also the reason why it is difficult to break through the cocoon of retrogression, because everyone who enters the cocoon will fall into a state of losing judgment when they are about to break out of it.
If the entire tracing back cocoon is a huge computer system, then the members of the Household Registration Bureau who suddenly appeared are the viruses created by Lu Ren in order to escape from the tracing back cocoon. The reason why Zhang Chunhua and Lu Mingyue, who were created based on Lu Ren's memory, appear here is because the two of them are like the firewalls of the computer system, and are safety devices to ensure that Lu Ren cannot escape from here. They will say some touching words to keep Lu Ren forever in this dream from which he cannot wake up.
Some of the best words to express your love for your son.
There are thousands of ways to express love, but each has a corresponding template. So when faced with thousands of words to choose from, Su Huijian will choose the least OOC one based on Lu Ren's memory.
This time, after a long period of calculation, the Cocoon found that the least OOC sentence it could choose was:
"Remember to be careful on the road."
In the eyes of Lu Ren, who had not yet woken up, this was just an ordinary reminder, just like the words he heard when he went downstairs to the supermarket to buy things every day.
So he just nodded stupidly and said, "Okay."
Then Lu Ren opened the door in front of him very casually. He didn't even look at what was behind the door. He turned his head and said to Zhang Chunhua and Lu Mingyue: "I'll be back soon. I want to eat--"
However, the next second, Lu Ren took a step in the air. He instantly felt that his body was out of control and he fell down.
Lu Ren fell on a patch of grass. The lush and green grass effectively offset the impact of the fall.
And at the moment of falling, Lu Ren's mind became clear again, and those previously vague memories returned to Lu Ren's mind in an instant.
This also means that Lu Ren has escaped from his own illusion.
At that moment, Lu Rencai truly realized what he had just experienced.
The last words that Zhang Chunhua and Lu Mingyue said to Lu Ren were probably earnest advice for Lu Ren's unknown future. They didn't want Lu Ren to experience the pain of losing his loved ones again, so they let Lu Ren go to the future he had already decided in chaos.
Use the vivid past to comfort the uncertain future.
The Cocoon of Retrospection cannot create a person out of thin air. All the characters in the Cocoon of Retrospection are derived from the memories of the people who entered the cocoon. In other words, the reason why Zhang Chunhua and Lu Mingyue made this choice is because Lu Ren is sure that if they encounter such a situation, his parents will definitely do the same.
If the dead have souls, then these souls may be rooted in the blood of the living.
Although he managed to escape the dangerous cocoon, Si Yuan has not been found yet. Lu Ren knew very well that there were many things he should do at this moment, such as figuring out where he was, but Lu Ren could not move.
At this moment, Lu Ren burst into tears.
Lu Ren hugged his knees and curled up into a ball. He told himself: "One minute is enough. After these three seconds of sadness, I will continue to do my business."
Just as Lu Ren was crying, a clear child's voice rang out beside him: "Who are you? Why are you still crying ?"
Frightened, Lu Ren raised his head and found a child of eight or nine years old standing in front of him. He looked innocent, and stared at Lu Ren with clear eyes. But what really shocked Lu Ren was not the sudden appearance of the child, but the child's face. Although it was shrunk, Lu Ren could recognize the face at a glance. He couldn't help but call out the name in surprise: "Si Yuan?!"
After hearing this, Si Yuan, who was playing the trumpet, had a puzzled expression on his face. He asked, "Do you know my mother?"
