Chapter 930 - Chapter 930 Weekend Arrives
Chapter 930 Weekend Arrives
“Not bad, a qualified popcorn flick,” Franca remarked sincerely after exiting the cinema, savoring the experience for a few seconds.
Beside her, the dispersing crowd poured into the now-closed mall, walking towards the still-operating elevators under dim lighting.
Jenna remained silent for a moment, then said with a mix of longing and dejection, “With movies now, will anyone still watch plays…”
Understanding why Jenna would say this, Franca replied in a comforting tone, “People still watch them. Plays and operas have different characteristics and charms compared to movies and TV shows. A large portion of people will still appreciate them, they just won’t be the mainstream of society anymore.
“And besides…” Franca deliberately lightened her tone. “Theater actors are actors, and TV and film actors are actors too.”
Jenna immediately fell into contemplation.
“That’s true, but the performance setting has changed, and many acting techniques need to be altered, otherwise they’ll seem exaggerated…”
As the dispersing crowd thinned out, Lumian thoughtfully said, “If the power of the Mother Tree of Desire can penetrate Mushu Hospital, wouldn’t actors be easily influenced?”
“Uh…” Franca hesitated for a moment, then sighed, “It’s possible. Some of them live lives of debauchery and overflowing desires.”
Lumian nodded, holding Ludwig’s hand as he followed the audience ahead towards the elevators still operating for cinema-goers to leave after the mall’s closure.
Along the way, Franca found the environment very dim, with the few lights still on only illuminating the path and obstacles enough to prevent tripping and collisions.
“It has the atmosphere of a bizarre story,” Franca hadn’t forgotten that their outing tonight was to test the boundaries of the phrase “beware of the night”. From the information provided by the Major Arcana card holders, she knew that Sequence 4 of the Seer pathway, which was also the The Fool pathway, was called Bizarro Sorcerer. So, she deliberately used “bizarre” to describe the story rather than “ghost”.
Hearing this, Jenna, already highly alert, became even more vigilant.
Lumian, acting as if nothing was wrong, led Ludwig into the elevator. But when Franca and Jenna followed, he kept pressing the door open button and turned to smile at the others in the elevator.
“Sorry, I still have a companion who hasn’t come in yet.”
The departing audience instinctively looked outside the door, finding the elevator lobby empty and no footsteps approaching from afar.
Their hearts suddenly suspended.
Lumian released the button and smiled at everyone. “Alright, he’s in now.”
The gazes of others in the elevator suddenly froze.
They hadn’t seen anyone enter the elevator.
Slap! Franca patted Lumian’s shoulder, saying amusedly, “Feeling happy about playing a prank, aren’t you?”
After entering the dream city, influenced by online information and daily environment, she gradually recovered the tone and manner of speaking of a “local”.
After the playful scolding, she quickly apologized to the others in the elevator, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, my friend’s brain often has spasms; please forgive his poor mental state.”
The initially angered audience members, seeing such a beautiful woman sincerely apologize, felt embarrassed to make a fuss, but still turned their gaze towards Lumian.
He should apologize himself!
Lumian immediately bowed slightly.
“I’m sorry, my joke went too far.”
The people in the elevator looked over Franca and Lumian, some feeling sorry that such a flower had found a mentally unstable young man, others thinking the young man’s face was wasted and wanting to crowdfund treatment for his brain.
At this moment, the elevator doors slowly closed, descending.
Suddenly, the lights inside the elevator started flickering.
Everyone’s hearts leaped to their throats.
Franca and Jenna were reminded of the phrase “beware of the night”, while others recalled Lumian’s prank earlier.
Fortunately, the flickering lights didn’t affect the elevator’s operation. Some audience members left on the first floor, while others, along with Lumian’s group, went to the underground parking lot.
Back in the rented gray sedan, Franca didn’t remark that “everything was still normal, it was just an interlude within an interlude”.
She firmly resisted any behavior that might raise flags.
She turned to Lumian and asked curiously, “Why did you suddenly pull that prank earlier?”
Lumian chuckled.
“At that moment, I suddenly thought, what if Anthony’s Psychological Invisibility’ became uncontrollable, wouldn’t something similar happen? So I tried it out.”
Hearing Anthony’s name, Franca and Jenna quickly turned to look at the back seat.
Seeing Anthony, they both quietly sighed in relief.
Thank goodness, he did get in the car.
I remember him getting in!
Lumian continued, “Besides, a not-too-excessive prank like that in a relatively enclosed environment like an elevator, combined with the night factor, might allow us to experiment with some things without drawing too much attention.”
“Did you find out anything?” Franca pressed.
“I’m not sure if the subsequent flickering of the elevator lights was a product of the experiment,” Lumian replied thoughtfully.
“Does that count?” Jenna felt it was just a simple mechanical failure that didn’t lead to anything unusual afterward.
Lumian chuckled.
“Don’t you think the elevator light flickering made it feel more like a bizarre story?
“The prank I pulled was also intentionally developing in the direction of a bizarre story.”
Franca, who had driven the car out of the parking space, suddenly realized.
“Is this based on the description of Bizarro Sorcerer in the materials, to see if it could trigger the instincts of the dream subconscious and bring about certain controllable changes?”
“This is more likely to happen at night, which belongs to the more evil and unpleasant side of the dream.” Lumian had similar thoughts before going out.
They didn’t dare to do more experiments and returned to their rented community by car, fearing to stimulate the Celestial Worthy and draw His gaze.
Nothing happened along the way.
Back in the rental apartment, Lumian looked around and said, “Preliminarily, it seems that if we don’t interact with Mr. Fool and important dream figures, or investigate mystical issues, it doesn’t seem likely for us to encounter anomalies even if we head out at night.
“Of course, this is just the result of one night’s experiment and can’t be turned into a conclusion yet. It needs to be repeated multiple times for verification.”
Franca and Jenna sighed in relief, their spirits less tense.
Ludwig’s face showed joy. “Does that mean we can go out for barbecue now?”
Franca glanced at the naive little boy and grumbled inwardly,
The main reason we don’t take you out for barbecue at night isn’t “beware of the night”, it’s poverty!
…
Weekend, in the rental apartment.
A blackboard formed of frost was attached to the wall, its surface pinned with sketches and photos, each surrounded by sticky notes of different colors with words and descriptions.
These sketches and photos corresponded to different target personnel. White sticky notes contained the squad’s observations, and for comparison, relevant content from the materials provided by the Major Arcana card holders was excerpted and recorded on light green sticky notes, placed adjacent to the white ones on the frost board.
Having his Conspirer ability suppressed to Sequence 7, Lumian stood before this frost blackboard in order to reduce the burden on his brain, rubbing his chin and looking back and forth, trying to find potentially problematic details that the Major Arcana card holders might have missed.
“No particularly valuable findings, except for that unfortunate incident,” Franca shook her head after reviewing seven or eight times.
Anthony nodded in agreement.
Jenna looked at her phone and said, “We should go to Dream Tutoring Classes now.”
Ludwig, who was watching cartoons and constantly “ordering” based on the cartoon content, immediately looked crestfallen.
“Mm.” Lumian withdrew his gaze and stuffed the frost blackboard into Jenna’s Traveler’s Bag.
After parking the car diagonally opposite Dream Tutoring Classes, Lumian led Ludwig out of the car.
He said to Franca, Jenna, and Anthony, “From now on, keep your distance from me and Ludwig. Don’t call, don’t send messages. Ludwig and I won’t be coming back tonight either. We’ll regroup with you tomorrow morning after confirming there are no issues.”
Franca and the others nodded solemnly, without objection.
This was because Lumian might soon encounter Mr. Fool’s dream image, Zhou Mingrui, at Dream Tutoring Classes and have a brief exchange, which could potentially be discovered by the Celestial Worthy and result in being kicked out of the dream. Therefore, the team had to split up to avoid one person’s ejection affecting the entire team.
Each person could only be kicked out of the dream three times, absolutely no waste allowed!
After closing the car door, Lumian held Ludwig’s hand as they crossed the street at the pedestrian crossing and entered Dream Tutoring Classes.
“Welcome, Li Lu,” said the dark-skinned receptionist, recognizing Ludwig.
He didn’t have a strong impression of the little boy, but rather of his mother.
Ludwig’s face darkened, and he didn’t respond.
The dark-skinned receptionist turned to look at Lumian. “He needs to sign in. You are?”
“I’m Li Lu’s father,” Lumian replied calmly.
The dark-skinned receptionist was stunned.
It’s one thing for Li Lu’s mother to look young, but how is his father also so young?
Early love, early marriage, early childbirth, right?
After signing in, Lumian was led by the receptionist to the door of the Beginner English class.
The foreign teacher, Anderson, was already standing at the front of the classroom, a handkerchief covering his left fist, smiling at the room full of children.
“Guess what I can make appear?”
“A flower!” “A ping pong ball!” “A panda!” The children happily played along.
Anderson removed the handkerchief, revealing nothing.
“I made air appear!” he announced loudly.
The children let out mocking sounds, but Anderson remained smiling.
He saw Lumian and Ludwig at the door and walked over, saying to Lumian, “Are you here for the Beginner English class too?
“Although you’re a bit old and your brain might be set, it doesn’t matter. Wanting to learn is always a good thing, of course, good things don’t necessarily lead to good results.”
“I’m Li Lu’s father,” Lumian pointed at Ludwig, not at all provoked.
He took the opportunity to say, “Mr. Anderson, can I add you on WeChat? If Li Lu doesn’t behave well, you can contact me anytime.”
Anderson looked at Lumian for a few seconds, then smiled. “Okay.”
Through scanning the code, Lumian added Anderson Hood’s WeChat.
The foreign teacher’s WeChat name was “A name that leaves a deep impression on you”.