Chapter 519 - 460: Brianna and the Seafood Soup-Eating Jin Xuelis

Chapter 519: Chapter 460: Brianna and the Seafood Soup-Eating Jin Xuelis

...Jin Xueli was completely useless.

At least, this Jin Xueli at the night university was utterly useless.

Brianna didn’t care about novel characters, curses, or why so many Jin Xuelis had suddenly appeared.

To be honest, the situation Jin Xueli found herself in was novel and interesting enough to chew on, offering a brief escape from her own grim reality—but that was all.

What she needed to find out most was the whereabouts of the radio.

But this conversation was making her hopes of finding the radio seem more and more remote.

A moment ago, she had patiently asked several questions, beating around the bush.

"The twenty-six of you, what did you all do?"

Afraid of arousing suspicion, Brianna quickly added a justification: "If you all did different things, weren’t you afraid the ’novel’ would just pick one event to describe? If that happened, ’Jin Xueli’ would just become another narrative perspective in the book."

"Ah, but we considered that very carefully."

Jin Xueli seemed quite proud, wearing an expression that was a mixture of wanting to boast and trying to be modest.

"We split into four groups, and everyone in each group had to do the same thing. Not only did we do them one after another, but the progress of the task also deepened incrementally.

"For example, say my group’s task was to finish a bowl of seafood soup. If the first Jin Xueli went, ordered the soup, and finished it, and the novel faithfully described her actions and then ignored the subsequent Jin Xuelis who repeated the task, wouldn’t our plan have been for nothing?"

"That’s true—" Brianna swallowed the second half of her sentence: ’so what?’

"So our solution was to not have the first Jin Xueli complete the task."

"You mean..."

"Using the seafood soup as an example again, the first Jin Xueli goes to the restaurant, sits down, and leaves. The second Jin Xueli goes to the same restaurant, sits down, and picks up the menu. The third Jin Xueli takes over, picks up the menu, and orders. The fourth waits for the seafood soup. The fifth takes a sip.

"And so on. The task of ’eating seafood soup’ will eventually be completed, but before it is, if the ’novel’ wants to follow the ’Jin Xueli’ perspective, it would have to repeat the process of ’go to the restaurant, sit down, order, wait, drink the soup’ over and over again... No novel in the world would be written like that, right?"

Jin Xueli’s face lit up. "If it doesn’t show the repetition, the ’novel’ won’t know which Jin Xueli will be the one to complete the task, so it can’t pick the final one as the main perspective in advance. Because not even we decided beforehand; we just improvised on the spot."

Brianna opened her mouth, thought for a few seconds, and had to admit that when the hive of Jin Xuelis put their buzzing heads together, they were actually quite clever.

’It would be even better if she didn’t use seafood soup as her example.’

"So you split into four groups. What did you all do?" she asked, forcing a kind and amiable expression onto her face.

"Me? I’m here to attend class. Our groups weren’t equal in size. Eight Jin Xuelis were assigned to attend class, because that’s the most important task, so we arranged for the highest level of ’repetition’."

Jin Xueli pointed at the night university behind her and said, "The university has a specialized course. It can’t remove the curse, but it can provide an indirect solution to neutralize it."

’Who doesn’t know you’re here to attend class?’

"What about the other three groups?"

Brianna raised her body slightly—they were getting to the important part.

Suddenly, Jin Xueli became tight-lipped. "They each had their own tasks."

’Obviously.’

"For example?" Brianna squeezed out the last dregs of gentleness she had left in her, feigning a casual tone.

"We planned some unimportant tasks that we also had to do one by one, just as misdirection. For example, finding more Original Liquid, contacting Scott, or searching for the resident whose trash can had a hundred million in cash..."

’Don’t be fooled by Jin Xueli’s seemingly careless, naive, and straightforward demeanor. When it came to the radio, she knew not to say a single word.’

Brianna decided to change her approach.

"...It’s this late. Your tasks should all be completed by now, right?"

’Moving the radio was different from eating seafood soup. You couldn’t have one person just leave it on the street for the next one to pick up in a relay.’

’Two Jin Xuelis at most would be enough to get it out of the room... but what then?’

’The next Jin Xueli would complete the series of repetitive actions and arrive at the room, but the radio would already have been taken by the previous Jin Xueli. She’d have nothing to move. She couldn’t just put on a pantomime with an invisible object, could she?’

’To maintain the "repetition," she would have to hurry to the radio’s new location and move it to another spot... but where was it moved to?’

’The Jin Xueli she had met in the room she was staying in was undoubtedly a member of the group responsible for moving the radio.’

’Why did she call Morando over?’

’If it was just for "repetition," Morando couldn’t add to that, because... there was only one Morando in the whole world.’

"Right," Jin Xueli said. "Actually, when I came to class, I found that the previous Jin Xueli had already finished the coursework. But it’s okay, it doesn’t affect anything. I’ll just continue the class, continue changing history—I mean, the more times the task is completed, the higher the repetition, and the more inconsistent the content becomes each time, making it less likely to be described by the novel. So, the more the merrier."

Brianna thought for a moment.

’If that was the case... she thought she might have guessed what Morando’s original role was supposed to be.’

’Putting the class group aside and just considering the radio-moving group—the Jin Xuelis had no phones, so they couldn’t contact each other, nor could they leave a note explaining where the radio went.’

’So how could the previous Jin Xueli let the next one know where to go to continue moving the radio?’

’Could it be that Morando was supposed to act as a guide, linking one to the next?’

’Huh? Was Morando supposed to tell the Jin Xueli who got knocked out where to find the radio?’

’But now he was severely injured by me and taken to the hospital by Han Liuyue... Did that mean the subsequent Jin Xuelis, just like Brianna, had no idea where the radio was now?’

As she was pondering this, the Jin Xueli beside her showed no signs of stopping her chatter—what a talkative woman.

"Let me tell you, there are four more Jin Xuelis coming to class after me. I’m the fourth one."

Jin Xueli was clearly pleased as she spoke. And why not? The method "Jin Xueli" had come up with this time was indeed clever and cunning, eliminating the biggest hidden danger. It was naturally a source of great pride in her life; anyone would want to talk more about it.

"That piece of history is being changed again and again. I don’t know what it will become in the end," Jin Xueli said with a laugh. "But the farther it gets from the original version, the safer I am, don’t you think? Where are you going? Where’s your home? Do you have a home in the Nest?"

Brianna, who had been treating her as background noise, abruptly stopped crawling.

’Wait, what did Jin Xueli just say?’

"You’re the fourth one to come to class, and there are four more after you?" she asked, staring at Jin Xueli, trying to maintain a conversational tone.

"Yep," Jin Xueli said nonchalantly. "We came in a specific order. Otherwise, if we all swarmed the same place at once, the plan would be ruined."

’But that face on the floor tile in the night university clearly said that six Jin Xuelis had already come to class tonight...’

’Yet the "class group" of Jin Xuelis was only on its fourth member.’

’In other words, of the six Jin Xuelis who had appeared at the night university so far, two didn’t belong to the "class group"—now that’s interesting, isn’t it?’

’The other two Jin Xuelis were most likely from the "radio-moving" group... Which meant Brianna’s initial suspicion was correct. Jin Xueli really had thought of hiding the radio in the night university.’

’The last two Jin Xuelis from the "misdirection" group shouldn’t be nearby.’

’The "Original Liquid" gas station was a long way from the night university. Scott was a human, so they wouldn’t contact him in the Nest. As for the resident with a hundred million in cash, who knows where they are... Besides, the Jin Xuelis from the "misdirection" group had no reason to go to the night university twice in a row.’

’Wait, wait.’

’Only one Jin Xueli was needed to place the radio in the night university.’

’So the second Jin Xueli—had she already moved the radio again? Where did she move it to?’

"I have a question." Brianna forced herself to remain patient and asked as calmly as possible, "Let’s say... let’s say it’s about this phone. If a previous Jin Xueli wanted to return it to the original Jin Xueli, but you have no way to contact each other after splitting up, how would she give it to her?"

Jin Xueli clearly hadn’t thought that far ahead.

"Just leave it in a place that a Jin Xueli would know!" she said with a laugh. "You want to give the phone back?"

Brianna’s heart skipped a beat.

"Yes," she said. "It would be safer for me to return it. After all, a Jin Xueli from another ’world line’ might disappear halfway... and then the phone would fall in some unknown place and be lost for good."

"You have a point."

Jin Xueli sighed, took out a pen and paper from somewhere, and quickly wrote down an address. "This is my home—Jin Xueli’s home. Just put the phone in a delivery box and leave it at the door."

She glanced down at Brianna’s body, then hesitated—it was obvious she had swallowed some words.

"The human world has been invaded by the Nest. It’s been changed beyond recognition," Brianna said coldly. "And I’m not the only resident like me walking around Blackmoor City anymore."

"Is that so..." Jin Xueli seemed dazed for a moment. "In that case... even if ’Jin Xueli’ got the money, it would be meaningless, wouldn’t it?"

Money was something Brianna almost never thought about. Whether she had it or not, "money" was just a piece of inevitable background noise in the world to her.

She didn’t understand why people would spend all their energy chasing after noise.

"Of course it’s meaningless," Brianna said. "Was it ever that meaningful before? It’s not like you were homeless and starving on the streets."

Jin Xueli gave a soft laugh.

In that instant, countless thoughts seemed to cross her mind, but none could be put into words.

"You’re really... you’re a really good person."

Brianna fell silent.

"I’ve done everything I was supposed to do... Lastly, can you do me a favor?" Jin Xueli said, pointing to her own neck. "Can you hit me?"

Brianna didn’t know why, but this time, she hesitated for a long while before hitting Jin Xueli.

Jin Xueli sat on the ground, her eyes level with Brianna’s, but she quickly lowered her gaze.

She said softly that if parallel world lines really existed, then she wanted to go home—perhaps all those Jin Xuelis hadn’t disappeared one by one, but had simply gone home one by one.

"I don’t have much, but everything I do have isn’t here."

Jin Xueli whispered, "Just by taking a hit from you, I can find out if my past life was just a dream or if it’s waiting for me somewhere else... That’s a great deal, isn’t it?"

’A great deal?’

As her palm landed on the side of Jin Xueli’s neck, Brianna suddenly didn’t know which outcome she hoped for more.

She both hoped that the Jin Xueli before her could return to another, peaceful world, and also that Jin Xueli would vanish like a soap bubble—proving that this night-shrouded world was the only reality she had.

’If there are no parallel worlds, where did all these Jin Xuelis come from?’

’If there are, if there are parallel worlds—’

Jin Xueli vanished.

The question still remained.

Brianna took out her phone. Morando was still unconscious.