Artifact Report

Chapter 22 Jin Xueli: After Life and Death

It is said that when a person dies, all his life memories will flash before his eyes like a revolving lantern; Jin Xueli now knows that this is neither wrong nor right.

She lay on the cold floor of the exhibition hall, but she seemed to have become a small boat. The rope tied to her had loosened, and she was drifting slowly towards the foggy river.

Sometimes the fog would dissipate, revealing the scene when she first arrived in Blackmore City; at that time, she was sharing a semi-basement with someone else, looking out the living room window at the street, seeing shoes and trouser legs coming and going.

Sometimes she saw clients who were doing business with her for the first time, looking at the fake image over and over again under the desk lamp. The light fell into their eyes, making their eyeballs and suspicion translucent.

The experiences closest to her, like opening the passage, getting stalked, being murdered, seem more like things that happened to other people, just flat, white narratives, invisible through the fog. Instead, the moments of time and age are more vivid: serving her mother's baked onion pie, always going to a classmate's house in seventh grade... Open the door, walk in, and she can go home.

Pulled by distant memories, Jin Xueli drifted away; the desperate "gurgling" sound from her injured throat was almost inaudible.

Her head was immersed in a pool of blood, and her Styx flowed out.

"Die," a voice floated above, hissing and leaking.

Jin Xueli was somewhat brought back to life by the farewell.

...How could this happen?

She called a taxi, paid the fare, and followed the instructions carefully along the way, not daring to overstep the line. Her neck was sore when she got off the car.

She pretended not to notice the female resident climbing out of the elevator on her right, and finally entered the exhibition hall on the basement floor, holding her breath and preparing to go...

I have done everything and tried my best, but ended up like this. I am really unwilling to accept it.

A dark shadow crouched down, seemingly kneeling on the ground, looking at her.

Jin Xueli could no longer see the details, and only saw a blurry outline: the relatively round part was a head, and the part connected to the head was a neck; the black shadow protruding from the neck was the hunting knife she had inserted into the other person's throat.

As the shadow spoke, the hunting knife lodged deep in its neck trembled gently, rising and falling. The knife sliced ​​through its throat, and between the words, air hissed, "...Thank you so much! I just remembered I forgot the backpack."

Even if Jin Xueli was still thinking, it was impossible to tell from her appearance. The blood stained her neck dark red, as if her neck had been wiped away, and her body fell silent and motionless.

When she jumped into the first taxi, she must have accidentally stepped on the "copied" grid.

She still remembered that as soon as she raised her foot, someone suddenly pulled the off-road bag on her back, causing her to almost fall backwards; Jin Xueli stood firm and turned around, only to see her own face - there was no abnormal deformation, her face was smooth and smooth, just like looking in the mirror.

She was stunned.

"When did you become a copy of me?" the "Golden Snow Pear" glared at her and spoke first. It seemed to want to push her, but was a little afraid to touch her, so it shouted, "Get away from me!"

It turns out that the "to be copied" written in the grid will really only make her be copied?

That seems to be true. Copying something doesn't necessarily mean the original will be damaged...

Apart from the appearance of an extra clone, Jin Xueli felt that there was nothing wrong with her body. The most uncomfortable thing for her was just one thing - "Jin Xueli" seemed to have inherited both her body and mind, and now wholeheartedly believed that it was the real owner.

...Then how could she be absolutely certain that she wasn't a resident? She was equally convinced that she was the real Jin Xueli.

No, that wasn't right, that couldn't be; this was the resident, and it was going to the Museum of Modern Art in his place.

There is a key piece of evidence that can prove that she is the real Jin Xueli - the backpack, hunting knife and mobile phone have always been with her and have not been copied; the other person has nothing on her.

"I was so focused on how to jump on the car that I forgot to take my off-road backpack. I was standing in the grid, and it was too heavy to carry, so I put it on my feet..."

The dark silhouette of a human face floated before her, leaking air as it said, "Something happened afterwards that caused me to leave the backpack, but I forgot because I gave that memory to the driver."

It seems that even at this point, "Golden Snow Pear" still does not consider herself a resident.

It paused here, as if remembering something. "I was originally going to ask you about Article 4 of the riding regulations: can you just hold your head up high after paying the fare? But you're a resident, so what are the consequences if you don't follow the regulations?... Never mind, it doesn't matter. I got off the bus safely anyway. I didn't expect you to bring me something."

...I'm so unwilling.

At that time, she did not dare to continue fighting with "Jin Xueli" because she was afraid of stepping into a punishment box; she called a taxi again, paid the fare with her memory, followed "Jin Xueli" with her neck hung down, and got off at the Museum of Modern Art.

He did whatever it did along the way, and finally followed it into the underground exhibition hall. He seized the opportunity and inserted the hunting knife deep into its throat.

Jin Xueli heard that the residents could not be killed. Even if they died temporarily, they could be reborn somewhere else.

But residents are subject to rules beyond life and death, so the attack will still have some effect - she just didn't expect that the only effect of a knife stuck in the resident's neck would be a leak in the trachea.

She then let go of her hand in a daze and looked at "Jin Xueli".

When it spat, nothing came out of its dry black hole-like mouth; now that the knife was inserted into its neck, only air hissed out, but no blood flowed out.

The other person also stood there, his eyes rolling down to look at the hunting knife, and then looking up to look at her.

For a second or two, neither of them forgot to move.

"Jin Xueli" slowly grinned at her, her teeth familiar to her. She had brushed each one countless times, examined the color and shape in the mirror, and could recognize them at a glance - but now they were in someone else's mouth.

…That's disgusting. "I got stabbed in the neck," the resident said matter-of-factly after a second or two. "Since you copied me, your neck should have been stabbed too."

As soon as these words fell, Jin Xueli's neck opened its mouth.

...Why? How could this happen?
It's so cold outside the body; once the blood vessels and muscles are torn open, it's like a splash of ice water is poured into the cracks, and the pain is only felt later.

The sudden chill on the neck was then washed away by the scalding blood, leaving a patch of blood on the face of "herself" opposite her - Jin Xueli tightly covered her torn neck with one hand, subconsciously trying to press the wound again, but blood still gurgled out from between her fingers.

In her dying and shattered consciousness, she fell to the ground.

Her eyelids froze half open and half closed, and her soul drifted into the deep fog.

****
Jin Xueli endured the discomfort and fear that made her hair stand on end, pressed her neck tightly with one hand, and gripped the handle of the hunting knife with the other.

Her palms were filled with cold sweat, her legs were too weak to stand, and she could only slowly slide down to sit on the ground; a few steps away, a corpse that looked exactly like her was lying on the ground, under its half-open eyelids, its eyeballs like solidified dead fish belly.

"Jin Xueli" didn't stab deep enough and missed the key part, which might be a blessing in disguise.

She knew very well that pulling out a knife from a wound would only deepen the wound and cause heavy bleeding; the first rule of first aid was "Do not remove anything from the wound." Sometimes, a blade inserted into the body could temporarily block the wound and reduce bleeding.

The reason why "Jin Xueli" died from the same injury but he was still alive was probably because of the key difference that the hunting knife stopped the bleeding - it turned out that the residents were not immortal, at least the "vulture" could kill them.

The logic behind killing it is a bit confusing: you have to let it copy itself into a second version first, and then after it suffers a fatal injury, you have to remind it to copy the fatal injury, and then it will die.

Even if it's just an injury that looks like a fatal one, it's fine.

Although she knew she wouldn't die, having a knife stuck in her throat was a torture to her nerves. Besides, she couldn't call an ambulance or go to the emergency room in the lair, and there was no way she could climb up a tall building with a knife stuck in her neck, then jump from it and return to Blackmore City for medical treatment...

I had to do it myself.

She found a spare T-shirt in her backpack and wrapped it tightly around the knife, wrapping it around her neck so tightly that she saw stars and couldn't breathe. She gently felt the tip of the knife under her skin, finding its position, and prepared her fingertips - if the knife was pulled out, she would immediately apply pressure to the wound, not risking heavy bleeding.

Jin Xueli knew that the nest was not safe, and she had probably given herself first aid many times; but even though she had taught herself basic first aid and had sufficient preparations in her bag, such an injury was beyond her imagination.

Even she herself didn't know how she stopped the heavy bleeding and clumsily sutured the knife wound - it was truly a miracle.

Although the "operation" was successful, Jin Xueli still couldn't hold on and fell into a coma for a while.

When she woke up, the exhibition hall on the basement floor was still silent; she and her own stiff corpse were slumped beside a giant candle, listening attentively, and it felt like a grave.

Jin Xueli rested for a long time before slowly getting up.

The serious injury, lingering fear and fatigue made her want to go home early, curl up in the quilt and sheets, smell the familiar scent of jasmine laundry detergent, and fall into a long dream.

But it's not time yet.

Jin Xueli was also a little surprised; she had never expected that in the face of the false image, she would burst out with such unnatural resilience. How could an ordinary person survive a knife wound to the throat?
She walked up to the candle, hesitated, and put her hand on it.

A line of small words suddenly appeared next to the palm of my hand: 2009.4.22.

...In other words, the history at this location happened on April 2009, 4?

She was now standing several meters away from the candle head. Why did this single point represent April 2009, 4?

Jin Xueli thought about it, walked to the top of the candle, reached out and touched it, and sure enough, she saw her birthday - 1998.9.29.

So that's it... Her gaze followed the candle.

In other words, the flow of time wrapped in the candle starts from her birth and continues to the present day when she is alive; there is no future in the candle.

Is it because the future is so uncertain and chaotic that it cannot be predicted?

Although her desire to foresee the future was dashed, and she felt somewhat disappointed, from another perspective, it was also a strange comfort: since fate was not predetermined, she could still choose what to do and where to go. Humans are not little bugs in a transparent cage, with all their paths already defined.

In this world that is so unexpected and confusing, people still have a little control over themselves.

Of course, Jin Xueli was not so arrogant as to think that the nest would tailor a fake image specifically for her - no matter who touched the candle, the candle should display history from the day of that person's birth.

After walking a little further, she estimated that it was about time, so she put her hand on the candle again and searched.

May 2026.5.2, . She successfully found the time when she first met the harasser Anthony.

Jin Xueli had an idea.

She squatted down and found an ignition switch from under the metal slot. With a "click", fire ignited under the candle.

She wanted to try and see if she could put an end to this matter from the beginning.

　The sleep debt I accumulated from all the traveling and exhaustion a while ago has finally come back to haunt me now that I'm back... No matter how much coffee I drink, I'm sleepy from the moment I open my eyes in the morning until I go to bed at night... By eight o'clock, I can't take it anymore and have to go to bed...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)