"There was a mont when they died but weren't completely dead—a state of being both dead and alive." —This was the Fortune-teller's conclusion.
Her face was wrinkled like a stead bun, and she didn't seem very confident in her own divination.
Chu Changge and Xiao Qiao had been driven out by Gu Mian, so only the two of them remained in the room.
The Fortune-teller glanced at the two lots on the table again. "If one person had drawn this result, it might be my divination error. But since both of them drew the exact sa lot... I don't think it's an error."
Gu Mian also stared at the lots on the table. "So, they're in a state of being both dead and alive right now?"
It didn't look much like it.
The Fortune-teller shook her head, looking troubled. "I don't know. This state of being both dead and alive could have existed in their past, it might be their present, or it could even be in their future."
She lowered her head in sha as she spoke. "My capabilities are limited. I can only divine that they were in this state at so point, but I don't know whether that ti is in the past or the future."
Gu Mian had just discussed Schrödinger's death of the Evil God Statue in the instance with Lu Yi. No sooner had he done so than Chu Changge and Xiao Qiao also manifested this state.
Are their situations similar to that of the Evil God Statue? Gu Mian fell into deep thought. Do all Guardians share this state?
The Fortune-teller gave him a strange look. "This is the first ti I've encountered such a thing in divination. You discovered sothing in the instance and brought them here for divination, right?"
She had asked sothing similar before, but Gu Mian hadn't given an answer.
This ti, Gu Mian still didn't answer her question. He just leaned back on the sofa, thought for a mont, then asked, seemingly out of nowhere, "Have you ever heard of a wired radio?"
The Fortune-teller didn't know why Gu Mian had suddenly brought up radios. She recalled various things from the past twenty years and hesitantly nodded. "I've heard of them a few tis."
"Radios broadcast in real-ti, right?"
The Fortune-teller nodded again, still hesitant. "It seems so. When they receive a signal, they only get a live broadcast. So radios might have a replay function, but I've never seen one that advanced."
"What if, one day, a broadcaster is right in front of you, but the radio is playing his live broadcast? What would that an?"
Fearing the Fortune-teller might not understand, Gu Mian generously offered himself as an example. "Suppose I'm the broadcaster. I'm standing right in front of you now, yet you can hear my live program on the radio."
The Fortune-teller had no idea why the topic had suddenly veered in such a bizarre direction.
She swallowed hard and guessed, "Then... I'd guess you've seen a ghost."
What a simple guess.
"By the way," Gu Mian turned to look at the Fortune-teller. "Can you make amulets? The kind you see in TV dramas—where the main character draws a terrible lot, and an old Taoist priest descends from the heavens to give him an amulet, saying, 'This charm will definitely keep you safe.'"
The Fortune-teller: "..."
I'm a Fortune-teller, not a Taoist priest!
However, she could indeed fold talismans. Fortune-tellers could create luck charms, which might slightly increase one's luck, but they consud a lot of energy, and their effectiveness wasn't guaranteed.
She had made them a few tis before, but the effect was practically nil. She wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but it seed that after wearing a luck charm, her chances of encountering ghosts in an instance actually increased substantially.
The Fortune-teller hesitated for a mont. "I can't make amulets. Would a... less-than-useful luck charm be acceptable?"
A luck charm? Hearing this, Gu Mian's eyes lit up. There's such a good thing?
He slowly nodded and said, in a tone feigning reluctance, "A luck charm would also be acceptable."
The Fortune-teller, noticing the strange light in Gu Mian's eyes, remained silent for several seconds before speaking. "I'll need a few pieces of foldable paper..."
No one had lived in this room for a long ti, so the only paper she had at ho was toilet paper.
Hearing this, Gu Mian rummaged in his pocket for a mont before finding a slip of paper. "Will this kind of paper do?"
The Fortune-teller took the [Dungeon Entry Ticket (duplicate ticket)] from Gu Mian's hand and fell into deep thought. Casually pulling out such a rare, special item... Is this the world of the rich?
In the end, Gu Mian tore several pages from one of Chu Changge's books and gave them to the Fortune-teller. He watched her fold them, then happily left with a string of luck charms.
The Fortune-teller in the room slumped onto the sofa, utterly exhausted and completely drained.
As soon as the luck charms made by the Fortune-teller were brought back to their room, everyone scrambled for them.
Fatty was the first to grab one. He held the luck charm, made from folded book pages, in his hand. "Can it really bring good luck? If it actually works, wouldn't this be a lifesaver for the Doctor?"
As he spoke, he grabbed the prettiest one and slipped it into the pocket of Chu Changge, who was beside him. "'He who is near vermilion is stained red; he who is near ink is stained black.' Brother Chu, you go into instances with the Doctor every day, so you should carry one too, to avoid being 'infected' by him."
Is the idiom 'He who is near vermilion is stained red; he who is near ink is stained black' really used this way?
Gu Mian deliberately took one down and hung it around the neck of Xiao Qiao, who was enjoying the free al beside him. Tonight's dinner was Fatty's special egg-fried rice and pork hock soup simred in a clay pot. Xiao Qiao was currently locked in a battle of wits with a pork hock in her bowl.
Thinking of what the Fortune-teller had said about Xiao Qiao being both dead and alive, Gu Mian frowned.
Just then, Chu Changge's voice sounded beside his ear—the first words he had spoken since Gu Mian returned from the instance. "You took us to find the Fortune-teller as soon as you got out of the instance. Did you discover sothing in there?"
The Fortune-teller had asked a similar question, but ultimately, she hadn't received an answer.
"I saw Lu Yi," Gu Mian said, turning to look at him. "Lu Yi told about how you two t in the Slaughter ga instance. So, you two were having all those conversations behind my back in so unknown corner."
Chu Changge adjusted his glasses, showing no sign of guilt at being caught red-handed. "Because there wasn't much valuable information in those conversations, I didn't tell you about them afterwards."
Gu Mian recalled what Lu Yi had told him. "Let's set that aside for now. The world you're from, Second World, is designated Number One, also known as the First World, right?"
Hearing this, Chu Changge remained silent for a few seconds before nodding. "Yes."
"So, coming from the First World, your designation is also No. 1, right?"
Chu Changge was silent again, this ti for longer, before finally nodding in agreent.
Gu Mian continued, "Do you rember about half a year ago? It wasn't long after the global ga started. I was fiddling with the radio here, and we heard a broadcast."
Fatty leaned in. "I rember that! It was sothing like, 'Boohoo, I'm the No. 1 Guardian, and I accidentally lost the person I was supposed to follow for thirty years! Where the heck did No. 2 Guardian go? Why isn't he out looking for anyone?!'"
Gu Mian: "..."
He rembered the original wording was different—especially the absence of "boohoo"—but Fatty hadn't misrepresented the overall aning.
"It's strange," Gu Mian said, frowning at Chu Changge. "Have other Guardians from your world co to Earth?"
He recalled Chu Changge saying before that each Low-Dinsional World could send out one person at most.
Yet, half a year ago, Gu Mian had indeed heard that live broadcast with Chu Changge.
Chu Changge had been right beside him at the ti; the broadcast couldn't possibly have co from him.
At this mont, Xiao Qiao, who was busy eating, suddenly raised her head. "That's impossible. There's only him. Each world only has one."
Xiao Qiao was quite firm about this.
"Perhaps soone faked it," Chu Changge said, adjusting his glasses. "Soone might have fabricated the identity of the No. 1 Guardian back then and broadcast it for us to hear."
Gu Mian stroked his chin. "There must be a reason for it. That broadcast must have been intended to convey so ssage. At the ti, I was completely unaware of what a Guardian was, and neither was Fatty. Thinking about it now, only you knew about Guardians, and this person impersonated you. It's highly likely they wanted to get your attention. I'd guess that broadcast was probably ant for you."
Chu Changge lowered his gaze. "I thought so too, but I've never managed to figure out the intention behind that broadcast."
Gu Mian turned to Xiao Qiao. "Only Guardians from Low-Dinsional Worlds would know about other Guardians. So, the person who impersonated Chu Changge and made that broadcast must have been a Guardian from another world."
But what was the point of impersonating Chu Changge?
"It wasn't ! I never impersonated anyone!" Noticing Gu Mian's gaze, Xiao Qiao raised her hand, vehently claiming her innocence.
Xiao Qiao really didn't seem like the type to do sothing that clever.
What Gu Mian didn't understand was why a Guardian from another world would impersonate Chu Changge to make a broadcast, and why they, of all people, had happened to hear it.
It was truly strange.
He then thought about the "No. 2 Guardian" ntioned in the broadcast and turned to Chu Changge. "Do you know who the No. 2 Guardian is?"
Chu Changge turned to glance at Fatty and, after a few seconds, answered, "The math teacher."
As expected…
Fatty's dad.
"He's already dead," Xiao Qiao added, gnawing on a pork trotter.
Fatty pouted, his eyes welling up.
"You knew he was dead too?" Gu Mian asked Xiao Qiao, surprised.
Xiao Qiao had only t Gu Mian after the global ga started, so logically, she shouldn't have known about his math teacher's death.
"There's a sense," Xiao Qiao said succinctly. "The oppressive feeling... it vanished."
Oppressive feeling?
Can Xiao Qiao feel an oppressive feeling from other Guardians? If a Guardian dies, does she sense it imdiately?
Presumably, during the dragon boat event, Xiao Qiao had identified the real Chu Changge by sensing this oppressive feeling.
But why would she feel an oppressive feeling from other Guardians?
Gu Mian asked Chu Changge, "Can you also sense an oppressive feeling from other Guardians?"
Chu Changge shook his head slightly. "Guardians have a sense for each other. I don't feel an oppressive feeling, but I can sense it if a Guardian dies."
Gu Mian quickly ran through a ntal list of people around him who had died, from his childhood to adulthood. "Can you say how many have died so far?"
"The teacher from the Second World…" Chu Changge seed to be listing the deaths according to world sequence.
But he paused after the first na. Just when Gu Mian thought that was the only one, Chu Changge's voice continued, "The Fifth World: Lin Xiaowei."
Fatty gasped, looking anxiously at Gu Mian.
He rembered Brother Chu ntioning that Lin Xiaowei was a childhood playmate of Gu Mian. When others dared not approach Gu Mian, this girl had fiercely defended him, even puffing up his face with her playful attacks. But in the end, she was crushed by fate, sacrificing her own life to resist Gu Mian's destiny of death.
Fatty felt a wave of sadness. Lin Xiaowei's story seed to have ended before it truly began.
Gu Mian smoothed the hem of his clothes, then looked up and gave a soft, "Mm."
Chu Changge turned his head slightly and continued with the death toll, "The Sixth World: Song Yu."
Fatty looked up curiously. This was the first ti he had heard this na. Judging by the na, it should be a woman. Did she die without anyone knowing?
As he wondered about this, he looked at Gu Mian, only to see that Gu Mian's expression was unchanged, as if he had already expected it.
"Doctor, do you know this person?" Fatty asked cautiously.
"Yes," Gu Mian said, looking up. "She was the woman who almost beca my mother."
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