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At this point, the stream has gone back online already. XĂź Beijin has to explain himself to the viewers once again, with the exact same excuse, although the comments are visibly less lively.
XĂź Beijin is feeling slightly pessimistic, thinking the viewers might be about to unsubscribe already.
What follows, though, shocks him a little.
“uwuwu Beibei i thought id lose you forever”
“Bei! I will never leave you as long as you’re still streaming!”
“my Bei, make sure you pay attention to what might get censored, a lesson learnt, am i right? [sigh emoji]”
“yeah, the detective dalao might be interested in the truth, but I’ll be fine with rubbing my nose on Beibei’s handsome face! [shy emoji]”
“Beibei, kisses, cheer up!”
XĂź Beijin lowers his head awkwardly while thanking them quietly. He can feel their kindness and concern for him, which allows him to more quickly shed his almost frigid emotional state from earlier.
He can’t help but think, if Lin Qin were here, he’d definitely say he’s overthinking things again.
… Hmm, why does he keep bringing up Lin Qin?
XĂź Beijin reflects for a bit. When this is done and over with, he checks the stream to find the Missiontakers having a chat with Dai Wu already.
The Missiontakers met Dai Wu slightly east of the amusement park, as he was heading for the building. XĂź Beijin can see that he must be heading to him to tell him to come back to the amusement park when the execution here is over.
That said, if that’s the path he took, he shouldn’t have been so late arriving at his bookstore the last run, and even the first run too…
XĂź Beijin thinks about it, and then realises it must be the Missiontakers both times.
The first run, the Missiontakers were right there to see the execution, and then went inside to search, before coming back down to talk to him. To maintain secrecy and keep their mission from being compromised, Dai Wu had to come no earlier until the Missiontakers have left for good.
The second run, the Missiontakers came to see the execution, and later, they dispelled the fog. The circumstances must have changed because of that.
This third run, the Missiontakers have managed to stop him right in his tracks, even.
Compared to the other survivors in their tattered clothes, Dai Wu is quite visible among them thanks to his comparatively much cleaner, formal clothing. That is how he stood out to the Missiontakers when they searched around.
Mu Jiashi is wondering quietly, “is he some higher ranking member among the amusement park cult…? But why would he be outside?”
Having been stopped on his way, Dai Wu shows a wary, uncomfortable stance, asking, “who are you? What are you doing? You won’t get away trying to do as you please here!”
Mu Jiashi and Fei glance at each other before Mu Jiashi asks, wording himself carefully, “we know that, soon, someone will be pushed down the rooftop of the tall building…”
Dai Wu’s expression visibly changes.
“We heard it is a form of punishment,” Mu Jiashi says, “but, what is the punishment for?”
He is trying to fish information out, but it is clear right now from how Dai Wu is acting that there is something behind the death of the person.
Dai Wu is quiet for a moment before asking, “will you let me go if I do not answer?” Then he glances over at the rather bulky build of Baldie and Biceps, and sweeps his gaze across the rest of them, before finally saying, “I presume it’s a no.”
Baldie and Biceps are now quietly standing on either side of Dai Wu, just in case he tries to run.
Dai Wu is unexpectedly cooperative, however, merely making a bitter ‘heh’ and saying, “oh please, I’ll answer whatever questions you have, ok?”
“So, can you tell us the answer?”
“We… we host a tribunal for heresy every week. All the survivors who have been sentenced will be executed,” Dai Wu then points towards the building, “normally, that involves jumping off that building.”
“So what about the person that’s going to die? What did he do to get sentenced?”
“He…” Dai Wu seems hesitant.
Baldie furrows his brows and starts cracking his knuckles.
Dai Wu looks intimidated, and says, “don’t, please, I’m just… trying to put it into words,” he pauses for a bit and continues, “our beliefs involve self-restraint and maintaining calm, but he…
Once, when he was looking for food, something happened; we have these fixed teams who search for food regularly, and that time, he… his food, was robbed by other survivors, is what we heard.
Then he had this extreme hatred for that person. He felt that we were doing nothing to help him, when in fact, it was simply that we didn’t know who was the survivor who stole his food in the first place.
After that, he became more paranoid and even schizophrenic, and even accused us of trying to rob his food, calling us thieves and other names…”
The Missiontakers all look odd, their faces all have ‘are you saying you are not?’ written all over it.
Dai Wu doesn’t know what they’re thinking, and merely looks somewhat disgusted and disdainful when saying, “he really… went overboard.
He said he was writing a novel, he’ll write everyone he hates into the novel and make them suffer inside to achieve catharsis. We didn’t think much of it back then.
But his obsession seemed to only worsen more and more. It looks like he ended up unable to distinguish the imaginary from reality. He became even more deranged and worrying, so… we have declared him a ‘heretic’ to be exiled.”
When they heard about how that dead person wrote characters into the novel to suffer, the Missiontakers all had slightly weird looks as they start thinking about some possibilities, but then, they are in shock at the outcome.
Mu Jiashi is the first to ask, “that’s the reason you’re executing him?”
“Like I said, it was only an exile at first, but he doesn’t want to, and even wanted to attack us. That’s why it’s been raised to an execution,” Dai Wu says plainly, “he has become an Impurity.”
The Missiontakers feel like laughing at the absurdity of it all inside.
From the dead person, to those survivors in the cult, to even that enemy of the author, who they don’t even know if he could be said to have deserved it… It all seemed unusually twisted and unbelievable.
Someone robbed someone else’s food one day, and suddenly, this mysterious, peculiar Nightmare arose.
Dai Wu says, “that’s everything, so can you let me go now?”
He is eyeing the Missiontakers warily.
Mu Jiashi asks, “so what are you going to do?”
Dai Wu tells them, “to deal with the eventual corpse,” he pauses, and adds, “and also tell the guy in the bookstore to change shifts.”
Mu Jiashi is surprised to hear that this is related to that bookstore owner at all.
“Do you know about there being a book in the store…” Then Mu Jiashi stops himself, realising that something feels off, “did you just say that the person wrote a novel? Was it finished?”
Dai Wu is knitting his brows in thought, and then tells them, “I don’t know. It probably… isn’t finished. It only happened recently, and he proclaimed about writing us into his novel only a few days ago.”
It’s incomplete?
Mu Jiashi asks with a shocked tone, “It’s incomplete… Then why is there a completed novel in the bookstore?”
“What completed novel?” Dai Wu is clearly baffled, “what are you talking about?”
Fei gets it, and also appears spooked, suggesting with hesitation, “could it be, that this is a dream, so the novel’s contents have been extrapolated to completion?”
“No… I mean to say…” Mu Jiashi explains, “a dream… Right, this is a dream, but, it is also internally consistent, logic-wise.”
Fei doesn’t understand what Mu Jiashi is saying.
Instead, it is Collector who asks with a deep interest, “you are simply saying, that at the same time, a person says the book is incomplete, but there is another person that possesses the completed version, and this is contradictory?”
Mu Jiashi nods.
“So why would that be?”
They fall into thought for a moment.
Suddenly, Mu Jiashi asks, “what you write down is nonsense; people falling out of the sky… Does that ring any bells?”
The other Missiontakers all look at each other nonplussed.
In the bookstore, Xü Beijin is also murmuring the words, “all words are gibberish, falling…”
Then, he suddenly gets it.