Chapter 858: Thanks to Drinking that Pot of Tea
...This was troublesome.
Lin Sanjiu lay motionless and stiff on the rooftop, silently cursing in her mind and secretly praying that there would be no wind this morning. She could feel her four tea leaf brothers in her pants pocket jostling around, busy with something, never idle for a moment. But she couldn't utter a word now, so she could only hope that the movement of her pants fabric wouldn't be projected as well.
After all, she couldn't afford to be discovered in any way.
"How much longer do we have to squeeze here?" a faint voice sounded through the fabric. "Hey, can you hear us? Why aren't you responding?"
Of course, she could hear them, but she couldn't speak or move at the moment.
Lin Sanjiu didn't expect to be attacked when she thought there was no one in the shop. Although her entity projection was an exact replica of herself, it had no combat abilities. This had been clearly explained in the "Designer of the Other World" document. She had almost been startled and jumped off the projection device. Fortunately, she reacted in time and managed to restrain herself.
...The small camera she had specifically bought just yesterday seemed to have fallen and rolled away with the head. After a few rotations in the footage, she saw the shop's floor and the hand of the entity projection — that familiar hand of hers — softly landing on the ground. The five fingers were weakly curled, and a pool of blood slowly spread from the direction of the wrist.
Normally, even if the entity projection's head was chopped off, it would still maintain an upright posture according to Lin Sanjiu. The reason it fell to the floor now was all thanks to her quick reaction. She had leaned backward and fallen straight down, causing the projection to collapse — the tea leaves even exclaimed, "Ah!" when that happened.
She hadn't put the tea leaves into the projection device, so she didn't have to worry about them being projected as well.
...But what should she do now?
Lin Sanjiu lay on the platform of the projection device, feeling a bit dumbfounded.
"Entity projection" seemed like a great idea, so why did she end up in such a miserable state? What happened that left her lying alone on the rooftop, unable to move, staring blankly at the sky? She had already made a very good plan, but who could have imagined that things would change so quickly, and she wouldn't even have a chance to implement the plan.
"You're a duoluozhong, right? Come here and clean up the shop for me." After a commotion, the voice of the boy suddenly entered her ears.
Ah, so the earpiece was still working.
Lin Sanjiu felt like her head was being picked up by the boy because his voice sounded very close.
"I'll turn on the lights a bit brighter, and you prop the body up against the wall. What are you standing there for? Start cleaning!"
Did Naga-ashi also go inside?
The footsteps of the boy echoed, always close by. Then, a burst of noise informed her that her head seemed to be placed on a table. From the footage transmitted by a small camera, Lin Sanjiu saw her "corpse" being dragged and lifted up, the hand shaking as it left the ground before disappearing from the camera.
It seemed that as long as she didn't make any movements, the physical projection would be manipulated like a real corpse.
Taking advantage of the opportunity before the lights were turned on fully, Lin Sanjiu quickly closed her eyes, which had become dry and reddened from the wind. Now her head was carefully examined under the light by the boy, and she couldn't keep her eyes open forever. If by any chance she blinked, everything would be exposed. The eyelids of the dead body, which were initially open, might also close due to the vibration, but she didn't have to worry about arousing suspicion.
"So, this is the Pygmalion Choker."
The boy's voice came through the earphones with a tone of exclamation.
Upon hearing this, Lin Sanjiu's heart skipped a beat. It seemed that the boy had indeed taken off the choker under the bandage.
Did he put it on?
She perked up her ears, not daring to miss any sound. After several seconds, she didn't hear the sound of the choker opening and closing with a snap. Instead, she heard the sound of a drawer being opened, something being placed inside, and then closed again. Finally, she breathed a sigh of relief.
He probably didn't put it on... That was lucky. If the boy had really put on the choker, he might have immediately noticed something was wrong.
Because it had been so long, she couldn't remember if she had told Luce and Masah about the Pygmalion Choker when they were in the extreme temperature hell. However, this choker had been with her for a long time and had almost become her symbol. Just to be safe, she had prepared a choker on the neck of her physical projection as well.
The boy had indeed heard about the choker, and perhaps it was for that reason that he deliberately chose to cut off her head.
"But now, it has already been more than ten minutes," Mrs. Manas's voice spoke in her mind. "Once it reaches thirty minutes, the power of description will cease to exist. You can't describe it again, otherwise, the head on the other side will also start talking!"
Lin Sanjiu had collected quite a few metal objects like razor blades and used the power of description to transform them into the shape of a choker. This morning, she controlled her physical projection and put it on.
"If he opens the drawer after ten minutes and finds that the choker has turned into a pile of metal pieces, it will undoubtedly make him suspicious," Mrs. Manas whispered, "And your physical projection can only last for two hours. Once the time is up..."
"Wait," Lin Sanjiu suddenly interrupted her in her mind. "Listen."
Just then, the earphones happened to transmit a vague and lengthy sentence from Naga-ashi: "... Why did you put the head in a box?"
After the duoluozhong reminded her with that sentence, she also felt that the voice coming from the earphones was somewhat strange. The boy's voice remained close, but it sounded muffled, as if there was a layer of interference. "Duoluozhong, don't speak casually. I don't want to hear you talk."
Naga-ashi seemed to mumble something and then fell silent. Another burst of noise came through Lin Sanjiu's earphones, mixed with the sound of cabinet doors opening and closing, and the rustling of paper. When all the noise subsided, she could clearly feel that her head had been confined in a narrow space—a space that isolated the sounds of footsteps and cleaning from the store.
Lin Sanjiu hesitated and slowly opened her eyes. A thin line of blue sky filled the gap between her eyelids. After waiting for a while and seeing no response from the earphones, she gradually opened her eyes wider.
Four round leaves stood in a row next to her head, staring at her with their small eyes. She didn't know when they had emerged from her pocket. They seemed to enjoy looking down on her from above.
"Did you have a stroke?" asked the third leaf with concern. "I've only heard about it before, but this is the first time I've seen it."
"Fortunately, you're still alive," said the fourth leaf gently. "But what will we do if you have another stroke after we leave?"
Lin Sanjiu rolled her eyes at them. She had so much to say, but she couldn't speak.
"Our companionship mission is almost complete," the eldest leaf said understandingly. "A pot of tea provides five days of tea leaves for companionship. After the companionship ends, we will be reborn."
Reborn?
These chubby leaves chose to tell her this when she couldn't move or speak!
Now that her head was placed inside the box, as long as she remained silent... Lin Sanjiu thought about this and looked at the round leaves as they slowly opened their mouths. The eyes of the four brothers were drawn to her, watching her lips move for a while, but they shook their heads in unison and said, "No sound, can't understand."
How dare she speak normally in the presence of posthumans?
Lin Sanjiu was both angry and anxious, and she could only carefully squeeze out a faint stream of air between her lips and teeth, using a low breath to ask, "When are you leaving?"
"This afternoon," Luther said matter-of-factly, "You drank the tea five days ago this afternoon."
"Help... me out, please."
"What?"
"Set... set that shop on fire," Lin Sanjiu said in a hushed voice, "Burn down my physical projection."
If that shop lost her body after the fire, they would naturally suspect a connection between the fire and the body. If the personalities began investigating who set the fire, it would be perfect. They would be led completely astray—they would never suspect that the ones who set the fire were four round tea leaves.
The four round tea leaves all looked bitter.
"...Please."
"We'll give it a try," they sighed and looked at each other, "This really is a difficult task."
It did sound quite incredible to have a few tea leaves set a fire—if it weren't for the drastic deviation from her plan today, she wouldn't have been forced to resort to this strategy.
"When the fire starts, I'll come find you," Lin Sanjiu smiled slightly at them, "Then we'll go together to find the owner of the Round Tea Shop."
Although they were round, short, slow in movement, and talkative, Lin Sanjiu cherished their companionship. As long as the fire could be started successfully, she had a high chance of getting rid of Luther's personalities, and her actions would be much freer. "...It would be great if she could find a way to keep you by my side."
"What?" The four round tea leaves suddenly seemed on the verge of tears, "Can't we be reincarnated?"