Chapter 147: Silhouette in the Rain 9
After the white mist blocking their vision gradually dispersed, the two found themselves currently standing on an empty street. Before them were two rusty iron gates. Above the gates were several round iron plaques that should have originally had words on them, but now, due to the erosion of time, the paint had peeled away, leaving only some dark red paint marks.
Yi Ke recognized where this was at a glance, and his grip on Zhuang Ningyu’s hand unconsciously tightened—Little Pegasus Amusement Park.
Zhuang Ningyu also didn’t expect that he would return to this rule zone. Mixed memories suddenly flooded into his mind: the little girl swallowed by space, the scalding splattered blood, the rapidly spinning distorted world, and the clear sound of all his bones shattering. The old injury on his knee once again seeped familiar soreness. The bleak sunlight shone down, which should have brought a bit of warmth, but his entire spine was crawling with cold.
Yi Ke asked, “Why is it here?”
Zhuang Ningyu shook his head. He had also thought Liam would create a passage, just like he had done at Bluebird Pavilion, to lead him to his true destination, such as some experimental institution. Why would the other party replicate Little Pegasus Amusement Park? Or was Little Pegasus Amusement Park itself that passage?
When the original amusement park rule zone first appeared, Yi Ke hadn’t yet entered the Order Maintenance Department, but he was familiar with every detail of this rule zone. The current questions were not only why Liam wanted to replicate Little Pegasus, but also how Liam was able to replicate Little Pegasus. According to regulations, every mission data from the action team would be encrypted and stored in the information database, requiring special authorization to access. So how did Liam obtain the original data?
“Information leakage, virus intrusion, or infiltration and bribery of certain key positions—there are too many possibilities, not surprising,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “I’ll report this matter privately to Department Chief Huo. You don’t need to upload it.”
Yi Ke stopped pressing his phone. “Why? Do you know who did it?”
“I don’t know who did it,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “But I know you previously had Little Wang illegally retrieve Little Pegasus Amusement Park mission data twice. If they really investigate, you’ll be the first one caught.”
Yi Ke: “…”
Yi Ke: “Wife, I was wrong.”
Yi Ke: “How did you know?”
Zhuang Ningyu answered calmly, “Because the minute you contacted Little Wang, the next minute he came to me asking how to handle it. I agreed, and only then did he give it to you.”
Yi Ke honestly said with his mouth, “Mm.” In his heart, he thought, although Little Wang betrayed me, he chose loyalty to my wife. Little Wang is a good person!
Communication signals in the rule zone were very weak, basically unable to contact the outside world, so currently, the two’s world consisted only of this amusement park before their eyes.
In stark contrast to the deathly silence inside the rule zone were the piercing sirens outside. At Fuxing Street, the demolition engineering team’s yellow police tape had all been replaced with the Order Maintenance Department’s red and blue police tape. The identity of the deceased shot by Yi Ke had been confirmed—a fugitive escaped murderer, a B-class evolver.
“Department Chief Huo,” Ye Jiaoyue reported. “We can’t find the entrance. The entire building is sealed by white mist.”
In the research team’s vehicle next door, He Mo was leading people to study how to enter. Liam had obviously learned from his previous experience at Bluebird Pavilion—this time the method of closing the rule zone was much more complex. Huo Ting said, “Have the technical department restore communications as soon as possible.”
“Okay.” Ye Jiaoyue nodded, then asked somewhat puzzled, “Department Chief Huo, why did they want to kill Little Yi?”
“Perhaps it wasn’t to kill Little Yi,” Huo Ting looked at the dense white fog before him, his voice stern. “But to trap Ningyu alone in the rule zone.”
…
Accompanied by a sharp “creak,” the amusement park gates opened to both sides. The glass at the ticket booth had long since shattered and fallen away. Thick dust covered the table. In the park, only half of the broken Ferris wheel remained, the paint-peeled merry-go-round, the roller coaster tracks hanging in the air like dried snake skin, the joints threatening to break at any moment. This place looked like it had been abandoned for over a decade, but actually, not much time had passed since the incident. Zhuang Ningyu said, “Back then, this place was still very lively.”
Little Pegasus Amusement Park was built with government funding and was considered a supporting facility for the adjacent Qingya Green Path Park. The package ticket price was very low, so even though the park facilities were old with no novel attractions, many children still came to play here every weekend, until later, when a little girl drowned in the amusement park’s artificial lake. Her body was washed by the current under a tour boat, and it took a full three days before she was discovered by a boat worker.
The police quickly launched an investigation. In the final case report, the little girl had committed suicide because she was bullied by classmates at school.
“After that, the amusement park went into decline for quite a long time. After all, those who came to play were children, and parents always had to be extra careful and concerned about such incidents,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “Later, after a year or two, the government replaced a batch of new amusement facilities, and the park’s traffic gradually returned.”
Then the rule zone appeared.
On that Friday, a teacher from Zhiyuan Elementary School took the children on a spring outing and ended up trapped in Little Pegasus Amusement Park. Zhuang Ningyu was in charge of this rescue operation. As soon as he led the team members through the white mist, their eardrums were pierced by sharp, loudspeaker sounds.
The broadcast announced that “exams are about to begin.”
This wasn’t a simple exam, but an exam based on life and death. The protagonist of the Little Pegasus Amusement Park rule zone was the little girl who drowned in the artificial lake two years ago, Zuo Maimai. During her life, Zuo Maimai had no friends at school and was very lonely, so the rule zone specially set up this exam for her to screen out “good children” and “bad children.” Good children could leave the amusement park, while bad children had to stay here to receive education. Zuo Maimai transformed into the supervisor and punisher of all bad children.
“That was the rule zone with the most bugs I’d ever encountered,” Zhuang Ningyu said as he walked, telling Yi Ke. “You should have seen it in the report too. Much of its logic simply couldn’t be self-consistent. The most basic and obvious one was that Zuo Maimai changed from a victim to a complete bully, and her bullying targets were innocent children from another school who had no connection with her whatsoever.”
Yi Ke asked, “Was that when you started to realize the rule zones were gradually collapsing?”
Zhuang Ningyu shook his head. “No, I realized it very early on, but that time was particularly obvious. The rule zone lost its most basic logic of good and evil. It was like a game should have had ten keywords, but the system only captured five. Yet it didn’t stop because of this to complete the necessary items, but rather brutally generated a seemingly normal but actually error-riddled game based on just these five keywords.”
According to the rules, at least one “bad child” must remain to receive Zuo Maimai’s reformation and become her eternal playmate. It was specifically noted that Zuo Maimai didn’t like adults—she only wanted to be friends with people her own age.
The faces of the class teachers leading the group turned white. At least one child had to stay—what was the difference between this and sending a child to death? Of course, Zhuang Ningyu wouldn’t let this happen. He had to ensure all trapped civilians safely left here, and it was even more impossible to actively sacrifice any child just to satisfy the rule zone’s desire for righteous judgment.
In the end, he chose to start with Zuo Maimai. Using his stable mental power and powerful affinity, he effectively soothed Zuo Maimai and finally got her to agree to be friends with an adult. By then, the “exam over” bell had rung. With Zuo Maimai’s nod, the last batch of students forcibly confined in the “bad children zone” were also able to successfully evacuate. The action team members wanted to come back and pull their team leader out together, but Zhuang Ningyu had already closed the examination hall door.
Only then did the team members suddenly understand that the rules hadn’t actually changed—a “bad child” was still needed, and the team leader had used himself to replace the students who had been trapped in the “bad children zone.”
“Team Leader Zhuang!”
The wild wind scattered the team members’ roars and also scattered the white mist. Blinding light poured in. The next instant, everyone who passed the exam returned to the amusement park in reality. Only Zhuang Ningyu remained in the last piece of the rule zone.
The parents waiting outside Little Pegasus Amusement Park had long been anxious. Now seeing their unharmed children, they finally felt relieved, embracing each other and crying tears of joy. But amid this mixed laughter and crying, one parent’s voice was particularly sharp and jarring. Wei Liying grabbed an action team member’s clothes, loudly and anxiously asking, “Where’s Xiaofang? Where’s our Xiaofang?”
This question stumped the action team member. Weren’t all the children out? At this time, Wei Liying saw her daughter’s class teacher and rushed over, pulling her and asking, “Teacher Long, where’s my daughter?”
The class teacher looked around and indeed couldn’t find Wei Xiaofang. Her face immediately turned white.
The action team member also became anxious and questioned along, “What’s going on? Didn’t we tell you to do a roll call and confirm?”
The class teacher’s voice carried a sob. “I, I, I did call roll, but it was so urgent just now, and the scene was chaotic. I didn’t notice… Why did she run around!”
Wei Liying’s lips trembled. In her heart she knew her daughter must have been left behind in the rule zone. Her vision darkened and she lunged forward to fight with the class teacher. The other teachers and team members hurriedly held her back. Having lost a child from her own class, the teacher was certainly panicked, but with no other solution, she could only comfort Wei Liying while also comforting herself, loudly saying, “Team Leader Zhuang, Team Leader Zhuang is still inside. He’s saving your child. He will definitely rescue Wei Xiaofang!”
The other parents also joined in persuading her. Yes, you see, Team Leader Zhuang hasn’t come out yet, so he must be saving your daughter.
Wei Liying nodded in confusion. Great hope was thus constructed.
The action team members were full of pent-up anger but couldn’t express it. They could only disperse the parents on one hand, telling them to quickly take their children to the medical examination vehicles, while on the other hand calling their team leader, wanting to notify him there was still a child in the rule zone.
But the phone went unanswered.
Halfway through reminiscing, Zhuang Ningyu gently touched the decayed fake wooden lamppost before him with the back of his finger. The curled paint shell immediately fell down with a “rustle.” He sighed and continued, “I originally thought I was the only person left in the rule zone, but unexpectedly, after the examination hall door closed, I turned around to see Zuo Maimai holding Wei Xiaofang’s hand.”
The two stood side by side. For Zhuang Ningyu, this scene was comparable to a horror story. His scalp nearly exploded at the time.
“Then new rules appeared,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “Or rather, it wasn’t really rules, but a discipline guide for ‘bad children.'”
The method of discipline was mental pollution. Zhuang Ningyu gave his protective bracelet to Wei Xiaofang, but she still couldn’t resist pollution concentration as high as 1000+. The little girl screamed in pain, already on the verge of death, while the rule zone’s loudspeaker kept looping “bad children who bully classmates should be punished,” its voice sharp and piercing, making one’s heart numb.
According to Zhuang Ningyu’s original plan, after arranging for the main force to leave, his next step was to forcibly assimilate Zuo Maimai’s mental world, helping her step out of the shadow of being bullied, or simply forget about it, because he discovered that Zuo Maimai’s choices would affect the rule zone’s logic. So as long as Zuo Maimai agreed, he might be able to leave safely. But Wei Xiaofang’s appearance disrupted all deployments. Angered by the screaming, Zuo Maimai dragged up an iron chair and madly fought back against the bad child who had once bullied her.
Zhuang Ningyu had no other choice but to first snatch away the iron chair while beginning to forcibly purify the environmental pollution concentration of the entire amusement park.
“Warning: Resistance forbidden. Bad children must obediently accept punishment!”
“Warning: Resistance forbidden. Bad children must obediently accept punishment!”
“Warning: Resistance forbidden. Bad children must obediently accept punishment!”
Red subtitles kept flashing across the sky above the examination hall. Zhuang Ningyu had no time to pay attention, even though he knew he shouldn’t resist the rule zone, or at least should find a less obvious way. But Wei Xiaofang’s breathing was about to be completely stripped away by mental pollution. He could only grit his teeth and hold on. This blatant “cheating” behavior that ignored the rules was met with the rule zone’s mad counterattack. After multiple attempts to increase pollution concentration were all suppressed and purified by Zhuang Ningyu, it actually chose to openly violate the initial rules, forcibly stripping the right to choose from Zuo Maimai’s hands and making the ultimate judgment of “friendship failure” on her behalf.
The bell rang, space twisted. Zhuang Ningyu was violently thrown out of the rule zone in the spinning, melting world. The severe pain of his entire skeletal system being compressed instantly plunged him into deep unconsciousness. When he woke up, it was already half a month later, and a colleague was keeping watch by his bed.
“What about that child?” His first words were to ask about Wei Xiaofang’s situation.
Ye Jiaoyue shook her head, her voice very low. “Couldn’t save her.”
The moment the rule zone made its judgment, Zhuang Ningyu decisively held Wei Xiaofang in his arms, but the little girl still couldn’t escape misfortune. A broken rib pierced straight into her lung, causing massive bleeding.
“Why, why are you alright!” In the amusement park, the collapsed Wei Liying was heartbroken, shouting at Zhuang Ningyu on the stretcher.
Afterward, the relevant departments visited Wei Liying many times, trying to explain that Zhuang Ningyu really had done everything he could, even still unconscious in the ICU due to multiple bone injuries throughout his body. The reason he was injured so severely was entirely because he wanted to protect Wei Xiaofang in his arms as much as possible, so he chose to tense his body into an iron plate at the moment of spatial tearing, serving as part of the little girl’s external skeleton—otherwise, given his ability to infinitely squeeze into spatial distortion gaps, he most likely could have preserved himself.
But Wei Liying wouldn’t listen. She only determined one thing: her daughter was dead, but the person who tried to save her was alive. The huge disappointment after the collapse of huge hope was like a dead-end street, completely trapping her. Later, when her entire mental condition developed problems, she could listen even less.
Zhuang Ningyu said, “Wei Xiaofang had poor hearing, so she wore a hearing aid year-round. That day she didn’t deliberately leave the group—she should have been looking for her cochlear implant. After finding it, she clutched it in her hand and ran back in a hurry, but it was already too late. The child wasn’t at fault either, it was just…”
Yi Ke made an “mm” sound and reached out to rub his head.
The specific rules hadn’t appeared yet. The amusement park was surrounded by white mist on all sides. Zhuang Ningyu found a cleaner bench to sit on. The two together looked at the strange red sun suspended motionless in the distance.
Modified rule zones and original rule zones always had some differences. The original version announced via loudspeaker that there would be an exam as soon as you entered, but this replicated version had no sound until now, remaining completely quiet.
“Different specific rules, even different basic logic—all normal occurrences in replicas,” Yi Ke said. “But why did even the location change this time?”
Zhuang Ningyu was also thinking about this question. Little Pegasus Amusement Park was at least forty kilometers from Fuxing Garden. Why would this replica appear at Fuxing Garden? Could it be that Liam’s research on rule zones had some new technical breakthrough?
Yi Ke shook his head. “Fortunately, ‘Project Bedrock’ is about to launch. Otherwise if they keep researching, who knows, they might appear directly in our bedroom in the middle of the night one day.”
Zhuang Ningyu was amused and laughed “pfft.”
“What are you laughing at? I’m serious,” Yi Ke also smiled. “Our bedroom is very valuable, okay? Surely many people want to see it. The Invisible Giant might even specially set up a tourist attraction for this, specifically responsible for sending people to our bedroom. After all, they’ve always been unethical and keen on making money.”
Zhuang Ningyu imagined this scenario and felt this absolutely could not happen. The main reason was that Yi Ke’s pants when sleeping were always barely there—looking like he was wearing them but also only looking like he was wearing them. Whether it was ninety-nine-yuan-with-free-shipping puppy pajamas or thirty-eight-thousand-yuan LV pajamas, nothing could stop him from hanging at neutral and flying free. Although Zhuang Ningyu was used to it, he absolutely would not allow Invisible Giant tour groups to get used to it along with him.
“Thump, thump!” Footsteps suddenly rang out.
The two put away their smiles and dodged in unison behind a tree.
“Thump, thump!” The footsteps continued.
The accumulated fallen leaves and dead branches on the ground were heavily trampled and broken. Sunlight dragged out a long shadow on the ground.
Yi Ke thought, a giant?
Zhuang Ningyu was also rapidly recalling in his mind whether there were any giant characters in the Little Pegasus Amusement Park back then. There shouldn’t have been—at most there were a few balloon people, but balloon people’s bodies were very thin and tall. Judging from the shadow, it didn’t quite match.
“Thump, thump!” The footsteps came closer and closer.
“Thump, thump!”
A huge paw suddenly appeared in the two’s line of sight. Brown, furry.
Like… a toy bear’s paw.
“Thump!”
The sunlight was blocked by the tall, strong body, then leaked out again with its movement. Zhuang Ningyu was dazzled, his eyes slightly blurred. It was indeed a bear, wearing a red hat, dressed in a blue wool coat. Paddington Bear, a very famous classic character from British children’s literature. In recent years it had even been made into an animated film with decent box office. Zhuang Ningyu had also gone to see it. He remembered the theater was full of children at the time. Calculating the release time, Wei Xiaofang should have also seen it.
Paddington Bear kept walking around, as if looking for something. As the search time grew longer, its expression also changed significantly, from initially peaceful, gradually evolving to anxious, and later even faintly irritable.
Yi Ke said puzzled, “Why do I feel its face is so awkward… not quite…”
He deliberated, trying to find the most precise word to express his thoughts. “Normal.”
Zhuang Ningyu spoke at the same time as him. “Genuine.”
Yi Ke looked at him. “Not quite genuine?”
Zhuang Ningyu nodded. “Haven’t you noticed? That’s a knockoff bear.”
Although he couldn’t quite remember what Paddington Bear specifically looked like, his impression was that it should be round and lovable. But this giant bear before them seemed very weasel-faced. Looking carefully, both the eyes and mouth were crooked, the edges of the clothes were hemmed one long and one short, and under the blue coat, a bit of pink dress hem that didn’t belong to the character was even exposed.
Genuine dolls at most would just have poor workmanship, but would absolutely never change the IP’s basic appearance design. So this was a knockoff bear.
The knockoff bear kept rummaging. Although its behavior looked very rough, its voice was very gentle, even as if it was pinching its throat to call out.
Yi Ke turned his ear to the side but couldn’t hear what the other was calling for a long time. Zhuang Ningyu also didn’t hear clearly at first. His hearing would only evolve under specific conditions, such as when extremely tense, but now, facing this somewhat comical bear, he wasn’t too tense, so he could only, like Yi Ke, stick his head out.
“Fang—”
The wind suddenly passed through the white mist, delivering a clear character.
Zhuang Ningyu and Yi Ke’s backs instantly went numb. The two seemed to simultaneously realize something.
“Fangfang—” The knockoff bear was still continuously, anxiously calling.
“Buzz, buzz, buzz.” The phone in Zhuang Ningyu’s pocket suddenly vibrated. The knockoff bear paused its rummaging, its gaze fiercely looking over.
The surroundings were very quiet.
Two minutes later, the knockoff bear withdrew its gaze and continued searching toward the other end. Only then did Zhuang Ningyu take out his phone and answer Huo Ting’s call.
“You—”
“Yi Ke and I are both fine,” Zhuang Ningyu interrupted him. “We’ve returned to Little Pegasus Amusement Park and encountered what seems to be Wei Liying in monster form.”
Huo Ting’s hand holding the phone tightened slightly. He turned to ask the person next to him, “Where’s Wei Liying been recently?”
His subordinate hurried to check. Under normal circumstances, after being discharged from the hospital, she should be at a government-established welfare institution. But the welfare home director said, “Oh, Wei Liying? Some relatives came from her hometown a while ago, saying they’d take her back for a wedding banquet and stay for a while. She left.”
“She left, and you just let her leave?”
“Ah, we let her. Why not? This isn’t a prison, and Wei Liying herself said it was her relatives. She looked so happy. We confirmed multiple times before agreeing. Besides, you know, she has… that terminal illness. It’s pitiful. She wanted to return to her hometown to fall like leaves returning to their roots. Could we really stop her?”
The staff called back to Wei Liying’s hometown. As expected, the other party answered in confusion, “No one went to pick her up. There haven’t been any weddings in the village recently either. Did you get it wrong?”
Zhuang Ningyu hung up the phone and sighed deeply, turning to look at Yi Ke.
The matter was already very clear. Someone had taken Wei Liying out of the welfare home and killed her at Fuxing Garden in order to create a rule zone.
This Little Pegasus Amusement Park wasn’t the real Little Pegasus Amusement Park, but Little Pegasus Amusement Park in Wei Liying’s obsession, so it could follow its host and appear anywhere.
The knockoff bear was still continuously calling out.
Wei Liying had finally gotten her wish to become a monster, entering the rule zone, only to search for her daughter.
Zhuang Ningyu’s mood was complex. Although Yi Ke had learned part of the truth, he was still puzzled. “Why would Liam create such a rule zone? Although becoming a monster has always been Wei Liying’s extreme wish, he has no reason to help her. And trapping you here has no benefit for Liam either.”
Zhuang Ningyu shook his head and said softly, “When the rules appear, his purpose will also appear.”
