I'm trapped in a block

Chapter 896 Not So Desperate

"Laoping? Laoping? Are you okay?"

Li Luo called out from behind, but Lao Ping seemed petrified, not moving at all.

There were some mottled stains on the worn little notebook, not sure if they were water stains or signs of aging. The words on it were also a little blurry. Li Luo was at a distance and couldn't see it very clearly.

However, she could hear Lao Ping's breathing becoming more and more rapid, as if he had seen some terrible truth.

"Laoping?" she called again.

This time, Lao Ping finally responded. He closed the notebook and turned to look at Li Luo: "What's wrong, young man?"

"What's written in that notebook? Why does your expression seem a little strange to me..." Li Luo asked curiously.

"It's nothing. This is a notebook. I know its owner." Lao Ping answered hesitantly.

"who is it?"

"Tang Qu, the builder of Mengdu, I have met him before. He is a middle-aged man who looks very kind. Although he is surrounded by a group of people, he is not arrogant. He walks in a hurry, but he never forgets to say hello to everyone he meets. It's quite strange..." Lao Ping recalled carefully and painted a general image of him.

"Why are his notes placed here?" Li Luo looked around the warehouse and asked in confusion.

"At first, his office was in the research institute, and he mingled with the researchers there every day. Later, no one knew where he went. Maybe when others were packing up his things, they threw his notebook into this warehouse."

After listening to Lao Ping's explanation, Li Luo nodded in understanding.

"What's written in that notebook? Did you get the answer you wanted?" She was still very curious about what was recorded in the little notebook.

"Got it..." Lao Ping looked at the notebook, thought for a while, and decided to tell Li Luo the contents: "The founder of Mengdu said that once you come to the bottom of the abyss, you can't go back."

"Can't go back?" Li Luo didn't quite understand.

"Yes, it can only go down but not up. So, no matter how fast the machine runs, it can't go anywhere else. It can only wander under the abyss..." When Lao Ping said this, his tone was a little lonely. It seemed that he was talking about the robot, but there was a bit of self-deprecation in his tone.

"Wandering under the abyss..." Li Luo said softly, and instantly understood what Lao Ping meant.

Her complexion changed slightly, her lips opened, and her eyes dimmed a lot...

Seeing Li Luo like this, Lao Ping felt a little regretful. He was old and it didn't matter whether he went back or not. But for a young man, this was a very cruel thing. It meant that he would have to spend his whole life under the abyss and would never see the warm sunshine again in the rest of his life.

However, Li Luo's expression quickly returned to normal, and his eyes lit up again: "Can you show it to me? If it's not confidential."

Seeing that Li Luo adjusted his mood so quickly, Lao Ping was unable to react for a moment and stood in a daze for a while holding the notebook.

"Young man, aren't you feeling uncomfortable?"

"What's wrong?" Li Luo showed a puzzled expression.

"You can't go back. You can only stay under the abyss forever. You are so young, you must be very unwilling that your life is confined here..." Lao Ping stopped talking, worried that he would irritate Li Luo.

Listening to Lao Ping's words, Li Luo shook his head: "It's sad, for sure...but I just feel that I have so much money left and I don't have a chance to spend it, which is a bit of a loss."

She sighed: "In fact, everyone who goes down to the abyss is prepared to never come back. It's so dangerous here, there will always be something that traps you, it's just that the way you are trapped is different."

"Besides, it's not that we can't go back..." Li Luo hesitated for a while, as if she was thinking about something. Her expression changed a few times, and she continued, "I know someone who went back from the Abyss. There must be a way to go back. There is no absolute in the abyss. Maybe that method is difficult and hidden, but it must exist." She looked at Lao Ping and asked, "This note was written a long time ago, right?"

Lao Ping nodded: "The latest one was written when humans first came to the bottom of Yuan Kong and built Mengdu."

"That's it." Li Luo nodded in understanding. "It's been a long time. Humanity's understanding of the abyss has been changing all the time. Many things that were absolutely impossible before have become possible now. Cutting-edge research has been reversing, and data has been breaking the old ideas. Even school textbooks have been revised one after another. Maybe what you just learned has become a wrong concept."

"Humanity's knowledge of the abyss has never stopped updating. When Dream City was first created, perhaps they just hadn't found a way to go back through the abyss hole, or hadn't found a way back. Just like the return passage between the first and second layers of the abyss, it took a long time to find it."

"Those things that once seemed hopeless, once you find a way, are no longer a problem. How can there be anything absolutely impossible? It's not all about 'lack of ability' or 'wrong method'. Maybe the passage upwards through the abyss is a staircase. If you climb up the stairs, you can go back. It's just that no one has discovered it yet."

As Li Luo spoke, his expression became more and more relieved.

"Even if I can't go back, it doesn't matter. If I can't go up, I will go down to the bottom of the abyss."

"There is a dragon at the bottom of the abyss that can fulfill wishes. As long as you make a wish to it, you can go back..."

"Wait a minute." Seeing that Li Luo was getting more and more outrageous, Lao Ping quickly interrupted Li Luo's speech: "Where did you hear that... there is a dragon at the bottom of the abyss? What is the principle of the dragon making wishes?"

"There is a dragon under the abyss in a novel, a very famous novel, The Great Rock Pool. Have you read it?"

"No." Lao Ping shook his head.

"It's said in Dragon Ball that Shenlong can grant wishes. Have you seen it?"

"I have seen this...but aren't these all fictional?"

"It doesn't matter whether it's fictional or not. No one knows what's at the bottom of the abyss. Maybe there really is a dragon? This is something that cannot be disproven. Only when we really get there can we know the answer. I have already seen the world above the abyss, so there is nothing to regret. I just want to keep going down and see the things I haven't seen..." Li Luo looked at Lao Ping and said seriously.

Lao Ping was stunned. He could feel that Li Luo was not lying. His words were full of yearning for the unknown and full of vigor, without a trace of despair.

His eyes blurred for a few moments, and he seemed to see the shadows of those young researchers in the research institute in Li Luo. They were all the same, with expectations for the future flashing in their eyes, as if they could get everything as long as they stretched out their hands.

This kind of self-confidence, on the contrary, disappears completely as one gets older, and is replaced by despair of the abyss.

"It's great to be young."

He looked at Li Luo and couldn't help but speak.

"Huh? What did you say?" Li Luo didn't quite hear clearly.

"It's nothing. I think you are quite optimistic." Lao Ping walked forward and handed the worn little notebook to Li Luo.

The things of the past were handed over to the people of the future in this way. Li Luo was holding the small notebook, still a little unresponsive.

"Look."

"Is there really nothing confidential?" Li Luo confirmed again.

"No, it's just a middle-aged man's whining. Don't take it seriously."

(End of this chapter)