Artifact Report

Chapter 9 Jin Xueli Goodbye

"Thanks for the ride,"

The driver's back remained motionless, the only absolutely still object in the moving carriage. "You've arrived at your destination."

Jin Xueli was standing on the street next to the Museum of Modern Art; with a "bang", the car door closed behind her.

She turned her head subconsciously and saw the red taillights of a yellow taxi driving into the fog rising from the depths of the night and the white steam rising from the sewer outlet, and then it blurred into the distance.

…She seemed to have forgotten something.

Jin Xueli stood on the road, watching the taillights of the car disappear into the dark night, the blue mist and the white smoke, but she didn't know why she kept staring at it.

Of course, she knew that a part of her memory had been taken away as fare, and it would be impossible to get it back no matter how hard she tried.

But Jin Xueli felt that what she had forgotten was something beyond that memory, as if there was something she should have paid attention to but she didn't - sometimes before she went out, she would vaguely suspect that she had forgotten to bring something. That feeling was just like now, as if there was fog covering part of her brain, and she couldn't clear the clouds or see the moon.

Often at times like this, no matter how much you think about it, it is a waste of effort; you have to wait until the person goes out and the time comes to use it, then you will slap your thigh and suddenly realize it.

Forget it. She got out of the car with her arms and legs intact, and her head was still on his neck. Even if she really forgot something, it was obviously not a matter of life and death, and she would remember it sooner or later.

She lay on the glass door of entrance D, looked inside first, and then carefully pushed the door open bit by bit.

Unlike Blackmoor City, the buildings and facilities within the lair were almost never locked. If you encountered a door that wouldn't open, it was likely a hunter was inside. The faint comfort of a lock seemed to make humans, having ventured deep into this strange and treacherous place, cling to it even more tightly.

After all, people cannot survive without a sense of security. If everyone knew everything that was happening in society, no one would dare to leave their homes, right?

Jin Xueli held the door open with one hand, but did not go in. She waited for a few seconds, and seeing that there was still silence behind the door, she took a step in as quietly as possible and stepped on the floor.

Even though it was late at night, half of the lights in the museum were still on, and the corridors, exhibition halls and elevators were immersed in disinfected white light.

Perhaps because it's a modern art museum, the lighting design and architectural style give it a sense of emptiness and coldness. Walking between the stagnant white walls and white light, it seems too alive, its vitality too fervent, too redundant, and out of place.

Following the signs, she quickly found the elevator.

The announcement gave three main instructions: one, "Take the first elevator on the left"; two, "Don't look at other elevators"; and three, "Go to the basement level"—all simple. Fortunately, when she got on the bus, she hadn't paid the fare according to her memory, otherwise it would have been very difficult.

Jin Xueli pressed the button, stood at the door of the first elevator on the left, and began to observe her nose with her eyes and her heart with her nose.

This shabby place is sometimes really unsurprising; when a crisp "ding" sound broke the silent air, the elevator on the right arrived first.

The dead silence lasted for a moment, and then it slowly opened like a zipper as the elevator door opened.

Jin Xueli didn't look, but the hairs on her body stood up like little antennas; her eyes were fixed on the closed elevator door in front of her, and she vaguely felt that the elevator on the right was not empty, and there was something in it.

Come on, she had already made up her mind. Not to mention the residents, she would never even blink even if a pile of money poured out of the elevator on the right.

"Great, there's someone outside..."

A woman's voice, like a thread, was pulled out of the elevator by an invisible hand, trembling in the air. "Listen to me, I came down from the third floor. Something serious happened there..."

Don't talk to me, Jin Xueli told herself secretly, I am deaf and blind.

A blood-red "28" lit up on the display screen of the first elevator on the left; this building only had three floors above ground.

"Don't be afraid,"

The woman's voice, originally a thread-like sound, gradually grew thicker, as if it had roots. It was also possible that the woman had slowly climbed out of the elevator, and the source of the sound was approaching Jin Xueli.

"I'm also a hunter from Blackmore City, looking for the artifact I hid... But after I came in, I got the time mixed up... What month and what day is it now? The day I came in, Reagan was giving his election speech."

I am blind and deaf, I am deaf and blind, Jin Xueli repeated this to herself several times like a mantra.

She pretended to be casual and took a step to the side - but she didn't dare to retreat too much, in case the elevator door opened and she couldn't rush in immediately.

"You must not get on the elevator,"

As the sound got closer, it no longer resembled a thread, but rather a gurgling stream of sewage gushing out of a black hole. "I really shouldn't have listened to the host... The first two times I got off easy, but the third time led me to a dead end. Luckily, I reacted quickly..."

When she heard the word "host," Jin Xueli almost couldn't resist the urge to turn her head. She still stared at the elevator, but her heart felt like it had been stabbed, beating uncontrollably, and her ears were filled with a pounding sound.

Her eyes were fixed in mid-air, not daring to lower them; a dark shadow slowly rose from the ground and stopped on her chest, as if listening attentively.

...My heartbeat quickened. Does that mean I’m responding to that woman?

Jin Xueli didn't dare react rashly. The sound of her breathing and the dark shadow on her chest lingered in the cold and silent elevator for a few seconds—but finally, the ding of another elevator arriving shattered the stagnant air.

The door to the leftmost elevator opened.

Wait, that woman stopped in front of me. I should go around her to get past her... But if I go around her, does that still count as ignoring her? But if I don't go around her, I can't bump into her either, right?
Jin Xueli stared at the door as it slowly opened, revealing the empty elevator car. Just when she was undecided, she felt the dark shadow on her chest suddenly shrink to the side and retreat.

"Hateful..." the woman seemed to mutter.

Jin Xueli never speculates why good things happen to her when they happen; because good things are very fragile and cannot withstand scrutiny.

As the shadow in front of her moved aside, she immediately strode into the elevator and pressed the door closing button again and again, as if she wanted to press it through the panel; at the same time, her eyes were always turned to the side, not even looking out the door.

But even without looking, I could feel from the corner of my peripheral vision that there seemed to be a dark shadow on the ground, its limbs swaying on the ground, like a giant lizard, slowly crawling into the distance.

It was not until the elevator door closed completely and sank to the underground floor with a rumbling sound that Jin Xueli let out the breath that had been clenched in her chest.

Up to this point, she had strictly followed the broadcast instructions and should not—

"...I got away with it the first two times," the woman's voice suddenly echoed in her mind, "but the third time led me to a dead end."

Jin Xueli rubbed the corners of her eyes and decided to suppress this annoying and distracting thought for the time being.

The "Virtual Guide to Infinite Fantasy" was meant for the denizens of the nest, so it wasn't surprising that the woman knew the host.

Compared to the lizard-like residents in the elevator, she still trusts the radio host more; of course, this "trust" also contains three parts of suspicion, three parts of vigilance, and three parts of scrutiny.

However, the next few minutes seemed to prove that the radio host hadn't lied. In the dimly lit basement exhibition hall, she had almost no trouble finding the exhibit called "Candle Tears"—to be honest, it was even harder not to find it.

Jin Xueli was standing in front of the exhibit, dumbfounded.

Because the exhibit called "Candle Tears" is a giant white candle that is almost as tall as her, several dozen meters long, and placed horizontally on the ground.

If it were not for its waxy, milky white texture and the arm-length black wick hanging down from one end, it would probably look more like a giant's beam. The candles were placed on a number of iron racks specially made for them, with a row of metal slots underneath, and it was unclear what they were used for.

"Is this an artifact?"

The candle was so large that Jin Xueli walked around it for a while but couldn't quite complete a circle. "I can't tell if it's powerful, but it's really big..."

How could she carry it back alone? Could she just cut off a piece?
She couldn't even figure out what the purpose of this illusion was, so naturally she didn't know if it would work.

Generally, art exhibits are accompanied by a brief introduction to the work and the creator. Based on experience, if there is detailed information about the fake, it is likely to be in the introduction.

Sure enough, when Jin Xueli walked to the other side of the candle, she found that the introduction to "Candle Tears" covered half of the wall.

Some say time flows like water; others say it is speed. But artist Jodi Picoult believes time is like wax… The time we are living is like a melting candle, with the illusion that its form is still in our hands; but once this moment passes, it becomes solidified wax, permanently fixed in history.

“…The artist’s interpretation of time ultimately resulted in the exhibit ‘Candle Tears.’ The giant candle that the audience sees represents a long, primordial period of time.

"It is an interactive artwork where visitors can light a fire under the iron frame, bake candles, and watch them gradually deform and drip wax."

In the midst of a sentence formed by neat black characters, there are crooked handwriting interspersed; it seems that the person who originally introduced the "Candle Tears" print deliberately wanted to print a section of neatness and wit, and a section of chaos and madness.

“It’s an artifact, an artifact, an artifact that melts time.”

"To melt time is to liberate history from its confinement! Look at your history now, don't accidentally kill your past self. How about putting me in there, next to your past self?"

The next paragraph of words returned to normal.

"When the candle becomes transparent due to heat, the audience will notice the contents wrapped by the artist in the wax. These represent historical events that occurred in the original time. By reshaping and shaping the hot wax and changing the contents of the wax, the audience can change the 'original history'. The artist believes..."

After reading this, Jin Xueli could no longer hold back and turned to look at the giant milky white candle behind her. For a moment, she didn't know how to digest this shock.

Can you change time—no, change history—by melting and reshaping this candle?
Did she understand correctly?

If she understood it correctly, then it deserved to be called "one of the most powerful artifacts."

She needed to take a closer look at the specific usage instructions, preferably try it out herself, and see what impact it would have on her in the future.

After gaining a preliminary understanding, she could consider her next step. Cutting a piece off and taking it away probably wouldn't work; even if other hunters helped move it, they wouldn't be able to do so because everyone had different access points and couldn't go back together. It seemed she had no choice but to hide it for now...

This was the last thought in Jin Xueli's mind before she turned around and had a hunting knife stabbed into her throat.

　I took a break for half a year. Other aspects are not so good, but my hand speed is almost regressing... I found that you all have a kind of resolute beauty. I am obviously not a donkey who can pay off his debts within a month by updating 20,000 words a day, but you guys were too determined when injecting funds, and I was so scared that my donkey legs were shaking.

　　For example, Wanjin... If you don't feel sorry for her, then I do. Can our relationship last forever? Okay, I owe this to the sixth fat kid. And then there's 95. She's not my underdog. I don't know what potential 95 saw in me, but she's willing to contribute her manpower, money, and effort. Okay, another fat kid...

　　I don’t ask how many flowers are in bloom, grandma, don’t you know what I look like? And the tall fish always stand on the side of the eggs, Linze, Shimodiege, you are all my readers, I can really take it slow, I can’t always pull at you, a group of sheep, right?
　　I'd also like to thank Haiyan Qifeng, Love Letter W0ZV, nestea, Fengyin (do you two seem like new readers? Or are you just quiet?), Dongxie (I feel like you two are from the same series?), Banxia Xiaojie, Jianbing Fujin (please f*cking stop), Kafka, Qiqi, Junmixi, Xuanfeng Feiwan, Qiwu, Weiba's Leave Application (I think it was reversed), and so many others for their support and encouragement... The Chinese word for "thank you" seems to have worn white out! I haven't written anything good, so how can I deserve it?

　　Chapter 7 update ahhhhhh
　　Or maybe we should go and catch the seven gourd brothers.
　　PS: This book definitely won't be that long about the end of the world! Even 18-year-olds cherish their lives! Maybe two or three years, I said in my youthful arrogance.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)