Artifact Report

Chapter 315 Fu Tai Lan: Companions Who Will Never Return After Tonight

As the smoke gradually dissipated, Green—no, Brianna—was kneeling on the ground, lying beside Vesilé's body.

She looked down at him, her face shrouded in smoke, blurred by streaks of white.

It was hard to say whether she looked like she had just woken up after a long sleep, or whether she had been awake for a very long time but could not fall asleep; in the smoke, her eyes burned brightly, hazy, blood red and dry.

"...Dad?" she asked softly, her head bowed. "Are you alright?"

Compared to her, whether she was luckier or more unfortunate, Fu Tailan didn't know.

The laughter died in his chest, and his eyes welled up with tears from the smoke. He wiped away his tears and, with almost calm composure, remembered what he needed to do.

This scene before him is ultimately someone else's fate. No matter how long he stands here and watches, his time off will eventually end, and he will return to his own sentence.

One father died, but the other must be brought back to life.

Fu Tailan began to retreat step by step, silently.

He covered his mouth and nose, struggling to suppress a cough, so as not to wake Brianna from her intoxicating, hypnotic state.

As he approached the door, he glanced back—the cube-shaped black shadow in the safe room hall had shrunk and drooped as if deflated, lying in a corner, showing no trace of what Brianna had once deeply feared.

Vesilé is dead, so the illusion has returned to normal.

On the ground nearby, there were several metallic-looking objects; those shapes were all too familiar to him—"KEY".

Besides the black square and the three letters, there was another small, dark blue, square-shaped object on the ground. He couldn't see what it was for a moment. Since Vesilai had hidden the target illusion of the "key" in the black square, could it be that another target illusion was hidden with it?
Fu Tai Lan didn't get the blue item on the 16th, but that doesn't mean he can't get it on the 26th, right?
There were three target decoys in the safe room, and one more was inside the mouth of the dead Vesilé…

Fu Tailan recalled what Wei Xilai had said: as long as he didn't cooperate, no one could take it away; once he died, it would be impossible to take it away again.

It was a tongue-shaped illusion that lived in a person's mouth, and it required the original owner's active cooperation to move it from one person's hand to another...

Could the handover method be related to the form of "speaking"?
When a person dies, they can no longer speak, and naturally, they can no longer produce anything. This condition is met.

External forces can compel a person to twist their limbs and perform actions they do not want to do, but external forces cannot sway a person's mouth or say a word on their behalf—at least, human power cannot.

The condition of not being forced is also met.

So that brings us to something... there seems to be something Brianna has never known...

Fu Tailan looked back.

Brianna gently raised her hand and touched Vesilé's wide-open, frozen eyes.

He turned around, trying not to make a sound, and quickly rushed into the safe room hall, striding towards the black-clad figure and the surrounding shadows.

Fu Tailan bent down, swept his arm, and picked up the letters "E" and "Y". Just as he was about to straighten up, he heard a gust of wind rushing behind him. It was too late to dodge, so he simply rolled on the spot and stopped himself in a rather disheveled state. He looked up.

Brianna stood a few steps away, her upper body bare; her beltless trousers hung loosely on her hips.

She was still holding that short stun gun in her hand.

Having missed her attack, she was now slowly lowering her hand.

Her face was so calm, as if it had never shown any expression at all. It was as if it were an ancient rock, existing long before humans could even feel emotions.

“…I thought you didn’t care about this anymore, sister.” Fu Tailan looked at her, a breathless laugh escaping her lips. “Why did you lie to me?”

You lied to me.

Brianna picked up the stun gun and casually swung it around in mid-air.

"You told him that you came back only to ensure that history doesn't change... That was a lie you told me, wasn't it?"

Yes.

No one says that you have to lie to the person you're lying to.

Fu Tailan put on a wronged look and got up: "Sister, what I said just now was to help you."

Brianna tilted her head and thought about it quietly for a moment.

"If it were just to ensure that history remains unchanged, you shouldn't have come back at all. Your return is what created the biggest variable in history."

Having just murdered her own father, she could have remained distracted for a while longer; there was no need for her to react so quickly.

By the 26th, everything had settled down. We cannot go back to the past; history will not change anyway.

Even though it was only after his return that history was brought about... he was caught in a timeline like an ouroboros, unable to distinguish cause and effect.

"So... you came here because of the target illusion, right?" Brianna asked. "You weren't actually removed from the list?"

Fu Tailan stared at her intently for a few seconds.

“I’ve been expelled,” he finally sighed, his shoulders slumping. “I didn’t lie to you.”

It might be easier to tell the truth to Brianna. Who else could one tell besides her?
“I was drafted on the evening of the 15th, but I was removed from the list in less than ten days.”

Like someone who has just woken from a nightmare, you always want to tell someone about it. Otherwise, it feels like you're alone with that nightmare, forever trapped together. "Why?"

“...Because of my dad,” Fu Tailan said.

Brianna understood, and she believed him. She didn't say it out loud, nor did her expression change—but he just knew.

Her next question confirmed this: "Then what's the point of having a target illusion?"

Fu Tailan subconsciously reached into his pocket to take out a cigarette, but remembered that he had already finished the last half of it.

He stood there blankly, as if he had lost his cane and forgotten how to take a step.

“We must save him,” he finally said, his voice muffled and nasal, as he lowered his head.

“…Save me?” Brianna’s composure finally cracked.

Fu Tailan wiped his face. He kept his face very low.

Brianna suddenly laughed, her voice hoarse from the smoke, sounding like the cawing of a crow.

"So pitiful, so pitiful, so pitiful."

……resident?
This feeling—is it from the residents—is it from the residents?
She covered her face with one hand, laughing as she said, "I can't believe you're even more unlucky than me. It seems you didn't even have a choice. So he must have loved you to some extent. You're so pitiful, so lucky, so unfortunate."

Fu Tailan raised her head and stared at her blankly.

“Sister,” he said involuntarily, taking a step closer to her. “You…”

Brianna's eyes were frighteningly bright.

That's true. She certainly didn't change her original appearance to resemble George Green because she liked him.

“I’m sorry,” Brianna said softly, regaining her composure. “I really mean it.”

Fu Tailan didn't say anything.

"Your presence here tonight is the second best thing that has ever happened to me in my life."

Brianna sighed softly, seemingly quite content. "I really wish I could help you achieve your wish... but when it comes to the Domination Game, that's a different story."

She pointed the short stun gun at the fake image on the ground.

Fu Tailan could now see the small, dark blue illusion clearly: it had a white "W" printed on its surface; anyone who glanced at it would probably immediately realize that it was exactly the same as the Word text editing software icon.

"Perhaps in the future, after I win the game of domination, before I close the nest, I will try my best to satisfy you. You can save whoever you want... okay? I'm willing to swear to you."

Fu Tailan closed her eyes and smiled. "Close the nest?"

Brianna hummed in agreement.

"Is that why you want to win the game of domination?"

"Do you have another reason?"

of course.

"What impact does the lair have on the world, how many tragedies has it orchestrated, who has become the richest man, and who has become a corpse..." Fu Tailan looked at her quietly and said in a low voice, "I don't care at all."

Brianna didn't say anything.

"I only know one thing. If freedom exists in this world, it must be in a nest."

He vaguely recalled the apartment building he had followed Mak Ming-ho into, with its rows and rows of television screens on the second floor.

It is a nest, only in the nest can he stretch out on the autumn grass and watch his claws spread out like petals in mid-air; he can drive with his mother, whom he has never had before, on a straight and long highway, where the cornfields shimmer in the sunlight.

The nest had always been so gentle with him.

"I don't know yet what I can do or achieve after I win the game... but I think I can discover that slowly. I will have plenty of time and all the freedom in the world... maybe I can even choose a destiny and be reborn, if I want to be reborn again."

A dreamlike expression also appeared on Brianna's face.

“That’s great,” she agreed. “Sometimes I don’t know which side is home.”

Fu Tailan looked at her; he knew she hadn't finished speaking.

"But that won't work."

Brianna smiled and said, "I don't need that kind of freedom... I just need a path that will take me back to her. I hope the Nest never touches her again. I'm sorry."

Then there's no way.

Even if I were about to lay a hand on you, you've survived tonight, sister.

(End of this chapter)