Artifact Report

Chapter 160 Mai Minghe: There is still a back-up plan
Mai Minghe has lived for eighty-six years, but this is the first time he has met a young man like Fu Tailan.

She always felt that the process of a child growing up was like the process of a small world gradually solidifying.

Orange juice, eggs and bread, the scolding or stories they heard, the pocket money lost in the video game arcade, the first person they liked, tenderness or indifference, love or abuse... everything, either flowed through them or was absorbed into their bodies, becoming the soul and flesh needed for growth.

But the things in Fu Tailan's body seemed to have melted away before they had time to solidify.

He was enveloped in a hazy, misty air. His appearance was not shaped by the human world, but merely the accidental movement of the mist, which would disperse and change with each new scene.

Perhaps it was because he looked so good that when he smiled gently from the haze, people felt that behind the clouds were stars and moons, and that they were gods; but the essence of stars and moons was rocks, and gods did not exist.

This is Fu Tai Lan.

He may be a person with few desires; but once he wants something, nothing is an obstacle.

What kind of "freedom" does he want?

Why would winning the nest domination game set him free?
Mai Minghe had many questions; if the situation were different, she might still hope that Fu Tailan could get what he wanted - but the only thing she must not let him take away was the "snake belt".

As she walked from Mai Minghe to the stairs, she was thinking about what Fu Tailan's next step would be.

He never left her sight, and Mai Minghe saw everything he did, so it was impossible for Fu Tailan to set a trap in advance - but for some reason, she always felt that she was walking step by step into the trap.

Fu Tailan didn't want to kill anyone himself... but he also refused to give up the Snake Belt. So, was there something out there that would do the killing for him?
What is it?
This apartment building was temporarily under renovation. Fu Tailan, like them, had no idea what was inside or what would happen.

In other words, he was able to detect a certain danger by inferring the environment.

Since he can do it, then I should be able to do it too...

Mai Minghe stood on the stairs, several guesses flashing through his mind.

By explosion? But he was already on the stairs, not on the third floor; if he wanted to blow up the floor beneath his feet, he should have done it earlier.

At this moment, Fu Tailan suddenly said, "Will you give it to me yourself?"

"You mean the false image on my body?" Mai Minghe asked back.

Did this kid think that after taking off the "snake belt", he would still have the strength to walk and hand the things to him?
"Yes," Fu Tailan nodded, "I don't necessarily want you to suffer. If we can get it peacefully, that would be best."

As he spoke, he walked around the sea reeds, keeping a distance of one meter from them, and walked along the other side of the corridor. He walked to one meter away from the stairs and stopped.

In this way, the three people's positions formed a triangle - Mai Minghe stood on the stairs, and on his left and right were Fu Tailan and Hai Luwei respectively.

and many more.

In front of her, he deliberately walked to a place only one meter away from the stairs. This could only make Mai Minghe think of one purpose: the moment she dragged her injured foot down the stairs and stepped on the ground, he could rush within one meter and detonate the floor beneath his feet.

In other words... Fu Tailan wants to trap himself on the stairs.

Danger from stairs?

When Mai Minghe realized this, she saw Hai Luwei staring behind her and suddenly took a breath - before she could look back, she heard a crisp "clang" sound, and a flattened empty Coke can jumped and rolled down from the top of the stairs and landed on the ground on the third floor.

...Coke can?
"Here it comes," Fu Tailan said in a low voice, half bewildered and half regretful.

What's coming?
Mai Minghe suddenly turned his head, and his vision was shrouded in a shadow.

A huge dark hole with a metallic glint on the edges was pressing against the ceiling, blocking the entire staircase.

Behind the huge mouth, there seemed to be a long body dragging itself down the stairs at a rapid speed. Before the vaguely familiar, square black hole could pounce on them, a strong, foul odor had already hit them in the face.

Is it a garbage pipe?
Garbage pipes that shouldn't exist in apartment buildings?
"If you come down here, I'll blow up the floor beneath you."

There was no threat or murderous intent in Fu Tailan's tone, as if he was just retelling the sad ending of a TV series.

"It just treats people like garbage,"

As he spoke, the garbage pipe was rumbling down, about to hit the Maimin River—"but it will leave behind a false image."

"You guy—" Sea Reed shouted.

Fu Tailan didn't look at him, but turned around and fired a shot in the direction of Hai Luwei.

He did not aim at Sea Reed, and the shot hit the wall, seemingly just to force him back; the latter indeed staggered a few steps away and shouted something, but Mai Minghe could no longer hear it clearly.

From the dark depths of the garbage pipe, a sharp, thick stench seemed to twist together, forming a joyful scream:
"Garbage, garbage, garbage, humans are all garbage, I want to clean up the garbage"

...So that's it.

She suddenly asked for her phone back after she had walked up the stairs, which was just a way for Fu Tailan to keep her on the stairs.

But how did he know that the garbage pipe was actually a resident wandering in the corridor?

Shadows, stench, paper balls, wet tea bags, plastic bags, and the dark howls from deep within the pipe all came pouring down on my head; the black, stench had already stuck to my back.

Below, Fu Tailan was waiting motionlessly, ready to cause an explosion at any moment.

However, at that moment, Mai Minghe didn't hesitate at all, he jumped down the stairs.

A faint cry of surprise came from the sea reeds.

The weight hit the injured foot, and it felt like the wound was about to explode, sending a piercing pain that was enough to tear my vision apart.

Mai Minghe endured the pain and didn't dare to delay, immediately turning over and standing up. The garbage pipe had also rushed to the first step and suddenly stopped before hitting the third floor. As expected, it would only attack people who stopped on the stairs.

"Garbage, garbage, come back! The destination of garbage is the trash can. I am here and I will not leave if you don't collect at least one piece of garbage. I will not leave. You can't go upstairs again."

Can’t go upstairs anymore?

Mai Minghe could no longer suppress her anger and did something that she would never do if she were calm: she suddenly turned around and grabbed the metal cover of the garbage pipe.

The endless screaming from deep within the pipe paused, becoming a single, "...Hmm?"

Mai Minghe gritted his teeth and exerted all his strength, gripping the garbage pipe tightly with both hands and actually pulled it down the stairs - with a "bang", the garbage pipe hit the ground heavily.

For a moment, even it seemed confused.

Fu Tailan was like a garbage pipe at this moment, with his mouth open in a daze.

"Aren't you going to blow me up? Come on!"

Mai Minghe felt as if the massive garbage pipe was about to wriggle back. Unable to hold it back any longer, he shouted angrily, "Where are you going? Where's that momentum from just now?"

Without waiting for the garbage pipe to recover, she turned and shouted at Fu Tailan, "I'm standing right here, you blow it up! Blow me and this thing together, and that'll clear the way for you to go upstairs."

Fu Tailan blinked a few times, looked at the garbage pipe, looked at the Maiming River, and then looked at the garbage pipe again.

"I think the garbage tearing each other's garbage shouldn't affect the garbage pipes."

From deep within the garbage pipe, a voice reeked of oil: "Let me go quickly! This isn't a plea."

As if he hadn't heard what it said, Fu Tailan touched his nose and said in an unclear voice: "...You found it."

"nonsense."

Mai Minghe felt that he could not hold down the garbage pipe after all, so he let go of it, and it immediately retracted to the first step - but as expected, it did not move. A huge black square hole blocked the entire staircase.

This made her even angrier towards Fu Tailan.

"You're not only the best at lying, but you're also very good at making people forget you're a liar. I've finally discovered that every word you say is a trap."

Fu Tailan scratched his hair and put the gun back to his waist.

"What?" Hai Luwei fell to the ground, looked around, and asked, "What, what happened? What did he lie to us about?"

"I don't know how long in advance he planned everything,"

Mai Minghe held back his anger and said, "He wanted me to stay on the stairs and divert the garbage pipe so that it could do the dirty work for him. But to trap me on the stairs, he had to cut off my escape route. In other words, he had to find a way to make it impossible for me to go downstairs.

"This way, if I hesitate even a moment when the garbage rushes down the pipe, I won't be able to avoid its attack."

Fu Tailan drooped his eyebrows and eyelids and sighed.

"There's no thirteenth unexploded bomb," Mai Minghe stared at him and said, "right?"

Hai Luwei was startled and turned towards him.

Fu Tailan's lie was planted early on, like a subtle clue - when no one thought there was any need to lie, he had already quietly inserted the lie of the "thirteenth unexploded bomb" into everyone's consciousness.

Everyone knew that Fu Tailan was obsessed with the false image of Mai Minghe; but at that time, who could have imagined that he would take the initiative to create a lie that would force him to distance himself from Mai Minghe?

With the "thirteenth unexploded bomb", Mai Minghe would naturally believe that the explosion rules on the third floor of the apartment were not over yet; in this way, Fu Tailan could stand quietly one meter away and watch her being swallowed by the garbage pipe because of a moment of hesitation.

By then, she was dead, but Fu Tailan hadn't even raised her hand.

He just said a few words.

"Do you really think that if you kill me with a few words, your hands and your conscience will be clean and at ease?"

Mai Minghe looked at him and almost wanted to laugh. He didn't know whether to say he was angry, disappointed, or pity.

"Unless you kill me with a bullet, you can't take my fake image away. Give up."

Fu Tailan shrugged his shoulders.

"Really?" he said lazily. "I doubt it."

Mai Minghe's heart tightened, but he remained silent. Was he trying to be brave?
"You're right. I'm reluctant to shoot you." Fu Tailan's voice was light and distant, his eyelids half-closed. "You're a good person. You came to us specifically to tip us off, so we could save Jonah. You have good judgment, too, and you meant it sincerely when you praised me."

Mai Minghe didn't say anything.

"But if what you have is one of the seven targets, then it's extremely important to me. So important... that I can't just make a plan of action."

Although Fu Tailan always looks dazed and lazy, when he moves, he is much more agile and precise than Mai Minghe expected - especially when his opponent has a broken ankle.

Hai Luwei had just been forced back by a shot and fell to the ground. Just as he was trying to stand up slowly with the help of the wall, Fu Tailan had already come to his side and gently grabbed the back of his hair with one hand.

"Did you all forget about the elevator?"

Fu Tailan said this, and pushed with his hand, sending Hai Luwei's head into the wall.

　I drew a rough sketch of the building, but after uploading it I found that I had forgotten the entrance door and mailbox... Anyway, you just have to bear with it, as long as you can see that there is an "elevator" on the wall next to the stairs leading to the fourth floor.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)