Chapter 47 Reappearance: Traveling through the scene
"What? What secret ritual?"
In the quiet small chamber music hall, Sheeran's doubtful voice echoed.
"No problem, Carol." Joan agreed gently and happily, "We still have to go to the tool storage room and clean up the place first."
As Joan was setting up the altar, Fanning gave Sheeran a brief explanation:
"This is the place where I saw Teacher Anton for the last time. Joan has a ritual that may help us see some scenes from the past."
"It's also the scene where I traveled through time." He added in his mind.
Sheeran asked Fan Ning in a low voice: "Does this have anything to do with you becoming a knowledgeable person?"
Fan Ning nodded: "Yes, they are all things studied by mystics."
"Don't forget that you promised to have a serious talk with me."
"I remember it."
The altar was quickly set up, and Joan recited the prayer written in Tulungarian that Hiram had taught her, praying to the "Winter Wind", the Lord of Witnesses.
Finally, a break point of the triangle surrounded by coarse salt was erased by Qiong's fingers, and it was pointed at the mirror sunk in the water.
"I still can't seem to see clearly." Qiong squatted next to her, her little face full of doubts.
"Why didn't it work these two times?"
Fan Ning walked over: "Let me give it a try."
He activated his inspiration and imagined that the ball of spiritual bodies coming out of his chest slowly expanded and covered the water in the basin.
Under the jumping sparkling light, some disturbing colors and patterns were "peeled off".
Scattered, partial, jumping revelations appear on the mirror surface in the water.
He saw the students in the auditorium. They were sparsely seated, no more than thirty.
The camera switched to show me in a black dress sitting in front of the piano, with a female classmate in a white dress behind her playing the violin. Teacher Anton, wearing a tacky formal suit with a belt tied in a slightly awkward position, stood aside and kept explaining.
"Teacher Anton" Fan Ning saw the teacher's voice and smile for the first time after traveling through time.
His mood fluctuated slightly, but he still controlled his inspired "observation".
The camera switched to show that after class, the students stood up from their seats in twos and threes. Teacher Anton left the class in a hurry with his briefcase. Sitting in front of the piano, he waved goodbye to the teacher.
The camera switched, and a man and a woman wearing high-collared black dresses stepped onto the stage to communicate with themselves.
The camera switched, and he was sitting in the front row of the auditorium, listening to the girl playing the piano, with his eyes closed and nodding to the beat with his head. The boy stood beside the stage with his hands behind his back. During this period, the two people had some eye contact, and Fan Ning also noticed
The boy's hand behind his back had a band wrapped around his fingers, and what seemed to be a small red drinking cup was tied to it.
The camera switched and the light in the scene darkened in a very short time, as if the lights in the concert hall went out.
blacken?
The effectiveness of the secret ritual is now gone? Fan Ning's heartbeat quickened and his brows furrowed.
When the retrospective ritual was performed on the other two deceased people in Hall 4, it ended after the scene turned black. In the end, I was startled by the reflection of my own face.
However, the current scene happens to be close to the moment when I travel through time.
Fan Ning was a little unwilling, and he still kept staring at the ripples on the water.
However, this time it seems a little different.
"Why are the water surface and the mirror surface always dark?"
"Nature is not a reflection of normal things nearby. The secret ceremony is not over yet?"
"I woke up from darkness"
Fan Ning's inspiration continued to burn, staring intently at the mirror under the water.
“I don’t know how long I can hold on to this kind of all-out stimulation.”
Fan Ning gradually began to feel dizzy. During this period, Qiong seemed to want to speak out, but he raised his hand to stop her.
Nearly a minute passed——
Suddenly a faint light flashed in the darkness, and then two more incandescent lights flashed in a very short period of time!
The darkness continued, and after a few seconds, the reflection of his face appeared in the mirror.
The inexplicable cold wind extinguished the candles on the altar.
"it's over."
Fan Ning took a deep breath and stood up unsteadily: "Thank you, Qiong."
After cleaning the altar, Qiong walked up to Fan Ning and looked up at him with her smooth little face.
"You're welcome, Caroln~ It's strange, why is it you who see the scene every time? What did you see this time?"
Fan Ning thought for a while and then said: "There is something wrong with the two people who came to the stage to communicate."
"What's the meaning?"
Fan Ning said: "Do you remember that when we were backtracking in Hall 4 yesterday, four or five people came on stage to communicate with the deceased after the show. Since their clothes were relatively homogeneous, I couldn't see anything special.
"
He paced back and forth on the stage: "But after two comparisons, I found that the man and woman I communicated with on Friday night were also in the group the day before!"
Qiong's eyes widened: "You mean, the same two people went to Hall 4 where our academy rehearsed on Thursday and Hall 1 where you experienced on Friday?"
"Yes, they wear formal suits with higher collars."
"They may be the instigators?" Joan asked, "Caron, do you want to follow this characteristic and investigate the classmates who have been at the scene? Maybe we can provide the police with more valuable clues and find them out.
Woolen cloth!"
Fan Ning thought about it briefly.
He decided to give Joan complete trust in this incident from now on, just like Sheeran.
So he fully described the scene he just saw, and then recounted what he actually saw that night, except for the time travel.
While listening to Fan Ning's story, Qiong circled the ends of her hair with her fingers.
"So, these two people died directly at the scene? And you suspect that it was related to you?"
"Yes." Fan Ning nodded.
At first, he was a little depressed because it was pitch dark and he still couldn't see what happened before and after the time travel.
But then I saw the white light in the darkness, and the flash
He suddenly realized that the human silhouettes on the stage were not necessarily his classmates in school.
So the motivation for these two people to come on stage is not necessarily to exchange music.
So these two people are not necessarily "victims".
I also suddenly understood why among the rumors in the school, everyone only heard about the death of two classmates - because the disappearance of these two people in the world did not happen around their classmates, nor was it a horrific suicide. The police
It's easy to control the message.
The two men first used some tricks on their two classmates, causing them to go crazy and commit suicide the next day.
And when he repeated the same trick on himself the next day,
A white light flashed in the darkness. After waking up, two humanoid silhouettes appeared on the stage intact.
There are various signs that these two people failed to achieve their goals.
As for Teacher Anton's shooting and suicide after leaving the scene, it had nothing to do with these two people, at least not directly related to that night - judging from the teacher's diary, his mental state had been wrong for a long time.
"I don't know why, both scenes were in darkness at the end, as if the lights were turned off, but the above process guess is what I think is the most likely."
Fanning finished the analysis to Sheeran and Joan.
But in his mind, he was thinking that these two people were "killed" by him unintentionally? Because of time travel? Or because of the art museum key? Or both?
Qiong's pretty face looked a little tired, and she patted her mouth: "So our investigation has moved forward a step further, and it has become clearer."
"That's right." Fan Ning nodded slightly, "There are only two questions for the next step. Who are these two people and what is their original purpose."
Qiong yawned and said: "From my experience, as long as one of these problems can be clarified, the other one will be easily solved."
"Qiong, thank you for your help. It's very late today and I can hardly keep your eyes open. Please go home first."
"You're welcome Carol, I ate too many of your pastries and I'm sleepy."
Qiong stretched out her hands and supported the corners of her eyes cutely.
"Qiong, for the auction tomorrow night, I'll meet you at the school gate after class in the afternoon."
A row of weak gas lamps was lit downstairs of the Conservatory of Music, and Joan's family's private carriage had been waiting for a long time.
Fan Ning opened the curtain, symbolically gently put his hand on Qiong's fair and slender arm, and helped her onto the carriage.
Holding his cane, he watched the carriage drive away, watching Sheeran and Qiong wave goodbye to each other, wondering whether today's clues might be related to Sheeran's attack that night.
The two of them were walking on the campus at night, and some distracting thoughts from the rehearsal flashed through his mind in pieces. Fan Ning sighed slightly.
If you don't find the slightest connection with your past life, maybe one day you can accept everything in this world with peace of mind and leave the time-travel incident as a completely unknowable event.
But I discovered the fragments of the music and the paintings in the art gallery... Those inexplicable connections with the past life made me always feel like an uneasy passerby, not knowing what tomorrow will bring or where the ending will go.
I hope the risks around Xilan will be lifted soon. It’s not good for me to live in a little girl’s house all day long.
The direction of the next investigation, if you choose to be more radical, you may be able to get some information by attending the gathering of "Sylvia" as the people in gray say. If you are conservative, you will first wait for the team from the Guidance School to return from investigating the mysterious incident in the South Pier area.
Let's look at the situation again
"Caron, are you in a bad mood?"
"No, I'm a little sleepy too."
The two went home and after washing up, Fan Ning continued to give Sheeran instructions before saying good night to each other as he had done several times before.
It should be possible to resume the exploration of Miyong today.
He was going to study the key to the art museum and the church pointed to by the "Endless Fugue" road sign of the Lord of Witnesses.