area51novel Chapter 21 Zhalan and Joe
Chapter 21 Zhalan and Joe
After leaving the library, the two rested briefly in the corridor. Ron shared his current time and his conjectures about verifying "057's" identity with the two outside the door.
Due to the side effects of using the watch, Lizzie has now transformed into the appearance of a middle-aged woman.
She rubbed her slightly sore lower back and said, "This dream didn't give a specific deadline for the mission, which I think is actually quite dangerous. This watch face gives me a strange sense of crisis."
"Mission deadline?" Ron was unfamiliar with this question, as it was his first time entering such a place.
"Well, generally speaking, a deadline will be given. If you can't solve the problem and find a way out within the safe time, then you'll probably just have to wait to die." Lizzie felt a little tired, so she leaned against the wall to rest for a bit.
"I'll go to this reading room in a bit." Seeing that Lizzie's complexion wasn't good, Tian Tian, out of kindness and also to verify the clues, took the initiative to take on the next task.
So Tian Tian and Ron went into the reading room on the left.
After entering the reading room, Ron seemed to suddenly remember something, quickly took out the banana he had gotten in the restaurant that morning from his pocket, glanced at it, and then put it back in his pocket.
Then the two arrived at the dilapidated little bookshelf, and time was turned back to October 2010.
In the darkness, Ron couldn't see what "009" looked like, but the voice sounded familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before.
As time continues, the young man who broke down the door reappears in the scene, and the events are consistent with Lizzie's account.
After the man smashed the computer and stood up, Ron sensed something was off about him, so he went around behind him to his side.
Only then did we see that the man had swallowed a very small object he was holding in his hand.
The door was flung open, and when Ron saw the man who had fired the shot, his pupils constricted sharply. It was the same policeman who called their roll every morning and evening.
After hearing the man speak, Ron was certain that he was the "009" who had conspired with Quaid in the dead of night.
After the shooting, Ron lingered a few moments to confirm his suspicions. "They really are looking for something." Ron saw several prison guards pretending to tidy the man's clothes, but actually searching for something.
After searching through everything, he secretly whispered a few words to the person who fired the shot.
Out of caution, Ron looked around for a while longer, and only stopped when he found no new clues.
The two walked out of the reading room, and Ron quickly said, "I'm now 90% sure that '009,' which is now '057,' is the prison guard who takes our roll every day."
"Also, the relationship between this young man in the reading room and Joe is unusual."
"I noticed he swallowed something before he died. I didn't see it clearly, but that thing must have been very important to us."
"So what we need to figure out now is how this '009' replaced '057,' which is Joe's. And what exactly did this young man swallow, right?" Lizzie summarized briefly.
"That's right, and I noticed before that this young man and Joe have a good relationship; they must be friends," Tian Tian said, sharing her thoughts.
"Sigh, we still don't see where the way out is." Ron felt that this wasn't enough. "There's still one room left, let's continue."
"That's progress, we're actually doing pretty well. It's only the second day, so it's really not slow," Tian Tian said encouragingly, looking at the somewhat dejected Ron.
"Look at this banana." Before entering the house, Ron took out the banana. The banana, which had been relatively fresh just moments before, was now rotten.
"That's just a guess. I took an unripe banana this morning and went into the room twice, so it's spoiled now." Ron showed the banana to everyone.
"So I think not only humans, but also animals and plants should be affected by this dial, as long as they are living things."
"So, according to you, inanimate objects like metal can also be alive, right?" Lizzie put forward her hypothesis.
"Not necessarily, but not absolutely impossible either. What I can confirm right now is that it involves animals and plants." Ron did not completely refute Lizzie's guess.
This is a good discovery; they can use restaurant food to offset some of the loss of lifespan, albeit a small amount, but it's better than nothing.
"Who's going last?" Ron asked, looking at the three men.
"I'll do it." Without hesitation, Lizzie and Tian Tian spoke at the same time, since neither of them had looked around this place and didn't want to miss any clues.
"Let's go together then. Sister Xi, you stay outside and wait for us." After instructing Zhang Qingxi, Tian Tian and the three of them went into the room together.
Ron slowly rewinds time.
First, at the end of June 2010, the three heard a sobbing sound coming from the back of the reading room.
"My sister couldn't possibly have committed a crime... I don't know what to do now, Zhalan, please help me think of a solution."
The three carefully approached the source of the sound. At that moment, Qiao was kneeling, her hands tightly gripping the hem of the young man's clothes, sobbing and pleading.
"Don't worry, there's definitely a way. Don't cry." The young man named Zhalan helped Joe up from the ground with his arms, his eyes filled with worry and anxiety.
"They say she leaked prison secrets to the outside world. What secrets could a prison possibly have?"
She was just an ordinary police officer who had never been here before. Her only connection to this place was with me and my grandfather. Joe continued to sob, but all three of them could see that Zhalan's expression froze for a moment.
After that, it was all Zhalan's comforting words and promises to help Joe.
After that, the two never appeared together again. Zhalan would occasionally appear here alone, sometimes lost in thought, sometimes pacing back and forth, as if waiting for someone to appear.
Ron moved the time forward to August 17th.
"Beast! He's a beast! Your uncle... he actually did that kind of thing to Jenny!" Joe's hands gripped Zhalan's collar tightly, his eyes bloodshot with rage, and the veins on his forehead bulging.
Zhalan's arms hung limply at his sides, his eyes filled with tears, his face full of regret: "I really didn't know, please forgive me, if I had known he was such a shameless person, I would never have begged him!"
"It's all my fault, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have let her do such a dangerous thing in the first place."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I wanted her to help me investigate some things about my mother's company, but I really didn't expect them to treat her like this. I'm sorry, it's all my fault."
"Why didn't you tell me? Why did you make the decision yourself!"
The argument between the two then escalated, and they parted on bad terms.
Ron continued to move the time forward, but the footage that followed only showed Zhalan alone. After 2012, Zhalan was no longer there.
To figure out their relationship, Ron once again turned back time.