Artifact Report

Chapter 66 Mai Minghe: Re-entering the Nest

...Tell me, what is going on here?

How come he's back in less than a day after leaving the nest?
Mai Minghe held his head in his hands, at a loss as to what to do next.

She fell into the nest about ten minutes ago.

Mai Minghe originally thought that he would fall back into St. Louis Hospital, where he would have to be careful of "Jonah" and the slender resident, and also hide from the Morgan family's pursuers, so he had to escape from St. Louis Hospital as soon as possible.

But she didn't expect the nest to be so considerate and completely save her the trip.

She fell into a bathroom cubicle—it wasn't clear which bathroom it was, but there was an advertisement for alcoholic drinks on the back of the door, so it definitely wasn't a hospital bathroom—and she landed squarely on the toilet.

Is the landing point random every time you enter the nest?
How can we ensure that the people sent by the Hunter family can come in and act together?

The Morgan hunters would surely follow him into their lair the moment they saw him flee. Where would they land? Would they come after him first, or rescue Jonah?

It seemed that at least they did not fall into this quiet bathroom - otherwise she would have heard the noise long ago.

Mai Minghe plucked up the courage to open the door a little bit and took a look through the crack.

…A woman was standing in front of the sink, putting on makeup in front of the mirror.

Are you a resident?

Why did the residents need to touch up their makeup? Did the woman know that there was an extra person in one of the cubicles?
Forget it, I’ll wait until she leaves before going out, Mai Minghe thought.

Because the woman was standing at the far left end of the sink, right next to the wall, from Mai Minghe's perspective, if he opened the door a crack, he could only see her back and not the mirror.

Seen from behind, the woman was wearing a light lotus-colored slim-fitting dress, a thin platinum belt, and high heels of the same color as the dress; not only did she look normal, she also looked quite delicate - but this was a nest after all, and who knew what kind of face the woman would reveal when she turned around?

This is the nest, right?

She has experienced too many unexpected things, and she can't guarantee that nothing "unexpected" will happen on this point.

Mai Minghe retreated silently, simply lowered the toilet lid and sat on it.

Through the space under the door was the tiled floor outside; if the woman left the bathroom, you could just see her feet as she walked past.

The partitions on both sides of the bathroom are neither grounded nor ceiling-reaching.

Mai Minghe sat on the toilet, always feeling a kind of uneasiness in her heart; she looked down at the ground next to her, and then looked up at the top of the partition, always afraid that something that shouldn't appear would appear somewhere without her noticing.

However, several minutes passed, and the cubicles on both sides were quiet and empty; there was still no sound in the entire bathroom, and no one in high heels walked out.

Could it be that the woman had already discovered her and was waiting for her outside without saying a word?
Mai Minghe's eyes swept across the empty ground outside the door again and again. This thought became more and more noisy, and she gradually began to feel restless - she couldn't sit here forever.

However, one thing seems to be confirmed at the moment: it has been such a long time, and even if the Morgan family followed her in, they did not stay nearby.

Mai Minghe didn't know how long he had waited. Finally, he stood up and silently opened the door a crack again.

...The huge pair of snow-white eyes that met her through the crack in the door really only existed in her imagination.

Well, the most frightening thing is to scare yourself.

The woman was still standing in front of the sink, putting on makeup, without even turning her head.

Aren't there harmless residents in the nest? "Jonah" seemed to have told her this during a chat in the morgue. Although there probably weren't many harmless residents, would she just happen to run into one?
There was a bit of luck in this idea, so Mai Minghe did not open the door and walk out; she sat on the toilet again.

She didn't lock the door. First, she was afraid that the noise would be made when locking the door, which would alert the residents outside. Second, she was worried that the cubicle itself was unsafe, and she couldn't afford to waste time unlocking the door when she needed to escape. Third, if someone outside wanted to come in, Mai Minghe could sit on the toilet and stretch out her legs to hold the door open, and she would still have time to lock the door then.

Thinking of this, she tried to lift her legs and put her feet on the door to make sure that she could quickly hold the door shut - confirming things that were within her control was a way to calm herself down.

She put her foot down and her eyes fell on the alcoholic beverage advertisement behind the door. She felt a nerve in her temple jump suddenly.

Just now, because she was worried that something would come out of the gap above and below the partition, Mai Minghe didn't look at it carefully. She only knew that it was a liquor advertisement; but at this moment, she didn't know why, she always felt that this advertisement was a bit uncomfortable.

Gather together at this moment and share the softness

Above this line of eight large characters, on the left is a close-up of a bottle of wine, taking up one-third of the space; on the right is a female model with exquisite makeup, raising a half-full glass to her smiling red lips.

Perhaps because the ad was placed in the women's restroom and the target customer group is women, the scene in which the female model drinks also clearly shows that she is having a party with her female friends; sitting opposite her is a young woman whose profile can only be seen, and the two clink their glasses and laugh happily.

……and many more.

Mai Minghe narrowed his eyes. The female model, whose face he could see straight ahead, raised her glass to her lips; but the woman, whose profile he could only see in profile, was clinking glasses with hers—two tall glasses, gently clinking together on the table between them, the clear wine sloping slightly.

...Where did the third wine glass come from?
When she first glanced at the picture, she thought there was a third person at the party; but now, looking more closely, she saw that there were only two female models in the picture.

Mai Minghe followed the wine glass in the middle and saw the hand holding it, the wrist, the arm, and finally found the fork at the elbow joint - the female model with her face exposed actually had two forearms extending from her elbow; one was clinking glasses with a friend, and the other was holding up the wine glass.

No, it's not right to say that it extends from the elbow.

Although at first glance it does appear that the female model has two left arms, if you look closely, you will find that the left elbow is actually two overlapping images, and the elbow of the arm holding the glass is slightly deviated.

Below the ad, where the product copy should be, there are a few lines of text like this:
Multiple images, embracing possibilities

This is where the fun begins
Please make the right choice in the precious moments of your life.

Disclaimer: What you see has been processed by PS, please carefully identify the risks
...What do you mean? None of these sentences have anything to do with alcohol.

Mai Minghe stared at the advertisement for a while.

Apart from the extra arm, she couldn't see anything strange about the advertisement; she even touched it with her hand and found that it was just an ordinary piece of paper that was stuck on. If she wanted to, she could even pick it off.

Is this also some new thing among young people that she doesn't understand?
For example, she had heard about PS from the social worker and knew that it was something for young people, something to do with photos, and seemed to make people look more beautiful - she didn't understand anything more than that.

But it doesn't feel right.

I quietly opened the door and took another look. The woman was still standing there putting on makeup. It seemed that she had not moved at all from then until now.

Sure enough, he hasn't left yet.

She looked at the advertisement behind the door, then looked at the woman's back through the crack in the door, and her gaze returned to the advertisement again.

Could there be some connection between the two? Or does this ad contain some kind of information related to this place?

Otherwise, why would advertising copy be written as if it were talking to itself?
The idea seems too whimsical, but isn't the nest itself a very whimsical place?

Mai Minghe should see that in the nest, it is actually the worst thing to do to deny something using common sense.

Take a closer look at the ad.

Mai Minghe examined the entire advertisement inch by inch with the meticulousness of a detective examining a murder scene. When she looked at it for the third time, she finally noticed something was wrong.

The female model with her front face exposed has a different color from the female model with only her side face exposed.

"Color" does not refer to the difference in the depth of their skin color, but... light color, yes, light color.

The female model with a full face is shrouded in a layer of yellowish and dark tones, as if she is sitting under the soft light of a restaurant bar, which is quite suitable for the advertising scene.

However, the female model on the other side of the photo has whiter and brighter hair and skin than the person opposite her - although the difference is slight, it gives people the feeling that the light illuminating her is definitely not a soft yellow light, but a white light.

The side of the picture close to the Maiming River is the brightest part of the two people; that is to say, if this is the scene in the picture, the light source is on the side of the Maiming River.

But if you say so, it would be wrong: because in the picture, there are several small spotlights embedded in the ceiling behind the two female models; one of them, perhaps because the bulb has been changed, is different from the other yellow lights and is emitting a ball of white light.

The light source should be on my side, so why is it on the opposite side?
In other words, how could it be possible that the light source is on the opposite side but is illuminating your side?

Could it be that there are white lights on both sides, but the one on my side is not captured in the photo?

Mai Minghe thought about this and looked at the third arm. After a few seconds of thought, her eyes returned to the text below.

"Multiple images"...images?
Speaking of reflections, there should be a mirror...

In the advertising picture, there is no reflection of either female model.

Mirror……

Mai Minghe stood up from the toilet seat.

She suddenly thought that she only saw the back of the woman putting on makeup outside the door, but she never saw what the woman was putting on makeup on.

Logically, there should be a mirror there, right?

(End of this chapter)