Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 94: Chapter 94: Bai Wu’s Way of Handling (Two in One)

Bai Wu walked on the road heading to the Asylum, looking at people dressed in suits and leather shoes or driving their vehicles to work in office buildings, feeling as if he had returned to his past life.

It seemed as if he was in a certain block of seven hundred years ago, where there was a trendy cafe he often visited. He would sit by the window, casually peruse a publication, but he preferred to analyze the passersby.

The most pressing issue of the apocalypse was resource distribution.

And the High Tower’s resource distribution actually had serious problems.

It was like a cake to be shared among five people. The best approach would be to divide it equally so everyone could be fully satisfied. Alternatively, each person could get a piece according to their capabilities, even if that meant unequal portions.

But the High Tower’s method of distribution was for the first person to eat as they pleased. They could finish the entire cake or, if they stopped eating, they might even feed it to dogs or smudge it on walls.

Only after they had indulged and wasted enough would the cake be passed to the next person.

Then, the second person would do the same based on what the first person had done.

Sequence became hierarchy, and the lower strata were the last to get a taste of the cake.

They had no supplies; the leftovers they did have were all the discarded waste unwanted by those above.

This kind of social system had indeed seen insurgencies over the past seven hundred years, but its longevity boiled down to a simple reason—absolute power suppression.

If you wanted to survive, you had to live by its rules.

This ’it,’ Bai Wu suspected, originated from the sixth layer.

So, as much as it appeared similar to his past life, the third layer was completely different from his previous existence.

Passersby rushed to work in the companies of the fourth layer’s administrators, flaunting their identity cards when they encountered the lower citizens of the second layer.

In Bai Wu’s eyes, all of this was absurd and laughable.

Especially when he considered that if the sixth layer possessed a terrifying force that could crush the five layers beneath, the so-called citizens of the layers were nothing but livestock contained within cages of varying elegance.

Of course, Bai Wu didn’t know what was on the sixth layer.

He hadn’t even been to the fourth layer and just mulled it over in his mind for a while, not quick to question or become indignant.

The security outside the Asylum had significantly increased. Mostly they were from the Investigation Corps, but there were also a few members of the Garrison Corps.

Now considered a face-saving asset for the Investigation Corps, Bai Wu headed inside the Asylum to handle the procedures, and everything went smoothly.

To Bai Wu’s surprise, those hospital staff members actually belonged to the Garrison Corps, but they were also quite polite to him.

This led Bai Wu to guess that Ming Mende probably still valued talents and wanted to show off his spirit.

The inside of the Asylum remained as it had been before.

Two old men playing chess sat earnestly at either end of the board, which this time was set up for Go. One was playing Five-in-a-Row while the other played Go.

Incredibly, the two were able to engage in back and forth battles...

And Zheng Duoxi, the supposed doctor, had donned his white coat once again, but the nurse did not restrain him; it seemed the two had come to some sort of agreement.

Bai Wu felt that there were indeed secrets hidden within the Asylum, yet after Prayle’s Eye scanned the area, it didn’t uncover any significant secrets—just the ridiculous antics of the deranged.

He arrived at the sixth layer.

The transmigrator from 6-17 was using a slipper as a phone, calling the Space-Time Association because Miss Ma Lin had returned.

Sounds from 6-19 were still the continuous chant of "Ba, Ba, Ba."

When Bai Wu opened the door to 6-18, his first glimpse was actually quite startling.

Because Yan Jiu was in front of a mirror, smiling—that smile was extremely stiff, her eyes vacant and dull, very similar to her peaceful times as Evil Fallen during her harakiri phase.

However, as the captain had said, Yan Jiu was indeed beautiful. Even with an expressionless face, just as a decorative vase, she was still a pleasing sight.

Turning her head and seeing Bai Wu, Yan Jiu suddenly gasped, and her body, sitting on the stool, involuntarily leaned back and toppled over.

"Ouch."

She rubbed the back of her head where it had hit the ground, then stared at Bai Wu again.

[As the progeny of the child inside Evil Fallen’s belly, she wasn’t like the beings in mythological stories—the offspring of gods and humans, or demons and humans, or gods and demons—that possessed various advantages from both sides. However, she still had her merits: she could paint in extremely short periods, relying on her unreachable talent, and her paintings would be worth a fortune in the future.]

Bai Wu thought about it and realized it was true; if Yan Jiu’s arc on the mirror had been slightly off, he might not have been able to find the clue.

This girl, at least, was very intelligent.

Feeling that the atmosphere was too strange, he went straight to the point.

"Entrusted by the captain, I’m here to ask about some things," he said.

"Oh, okay. I’ve finished all the drawings; I’ll get them for you."

Bai Wu was taken aback and then saw Yan Jiu taking out a stack of drawings.

The content of the drawings was the experiences Yan Jiu had with Cain these past days. There were large blanks in the drawings, which Yan Jiu used to write down the conversations with Cain.

The details were so thorough, one could say Yan Jiu was like a human camera.

So much so, Bai Wu believed these drawings could be taken back, and it would be sufficient to analyze based on them, without having to question Yan Jiu further.

One could say Yan Jiu betrayed Cain at a speed comparable to his own confession in front of Ding Tai Sheng.

"Good, very detailed, I greatly appreciate Miss Yan’s cooperation. Then, I won’t disturb you any longer, goodbye," he said.

Bai Wu decisively prepared to turn around and leave. Yan Jiu looked at him puzzledly, obviously not willing to let Bai Wu just go like that and suddenly said:

"Wait a minute, Bai Wu, you said you love me, is that... true?"

Yan Jiu’s voice carried a trace of unease. In fact, she had seen some images and heard some sounds through that heart before.

But she was still looking forward to a miracle.

Bai Wu stopped in his tracks, and when he looked back, Yan Jiu’s fingers were interlocked between her left and right hands, with both thumbs continually spinning in circles.

She was clearly nervous, yet stared at him with wide eyes, a blank expression on her face.

Considering the captain’s words, Bai Wu realized that this indeed was an issue that needed to be addressed. He shook his head straightforwardly and said:

"Of course it isn’t true. At that time, the situation was urgent, and it was only to extract information. If Miss Yan misunderstood, I am truly sorry."

Yan Jiu trembled slightly, her neck tilting a bit, pondering something:

"Oh, is it because... you don’t like the gift I gave you? I have a lot of Tower Currency, I can give you that too. Or perhaps you can tell me what you like?"

"A gift? Oh, you mean those drawings. They are great, even seven hundred years ago, they would have been considered masterpieces. I like them very much and will treasure them."

Bai Wu certainly did not dare to accept Tower Currency under such surveillance. freeweɓnovel.cøm

Even though he was very fond of money, the currency of this world couldn’t buy delicacies, which directly downgraded it in Bai Wu’s list of needs.

"So you really like the gifts I gave you, but you don’t like me?"

"What does that have to do with the gifts?" Bai Wu found it strange.

Yan Jiu grew pale, her eyes filled with confusion.

Bai Wu’s words made her feel distressed and bewildered.

From a young age, Yan Jiu thought there was only one way to make people like her, and that was to give gifts.

As a child, the servants were afraid of her, generally avoiding her. Her father and brother for some reason always refused to let her leave the Manor.

She then silently observed what the servants liked and later discovered they liked Tower Currency. Yan Jiu would secretly take a stack of Tower Currency, asking the servants to play with her.

The charm of money was much greater than that of people; for Tower Currency, more and more servants played with Yan Jiu.

Yan Jiu thought she had finally found the way to make people like her, even though Evil Fallen told her through the heart that this was wrong, that real affection didn’t care about what you had.

But the young girl didn’t understand.

The servants grew bolder and asked the young Yan Jiu for more Tower Currency, which she initially agreed to.

But later, she realized when she couldn’t give more Tower Currency to a particular servant, their expression changed.

That’s when Yan Jiu thought one must always have gifts to give. Only by providing what people wanted could she always be liked.

Eventually... the servants were dealt with, she was scolded by her father, and she slowly understood that those servants had only been deceiving her.

People who don’t like you will still dislike you, no matter how many gifts you give them.

Yet every time Yan Jiu met someone willing to talk to her, she would prepare a gift. It was out of fear that without gifts, no one would be willing to pay her any attention.

She even prepared gifts for the transmigrator next door and the wounded veteran. Even when Cain abducted her, it was the same.

When Bai Wu said those words on the airplane, Yan Jiu thought she finally met someone who, as Evil Fallen had described, didn’t care what she possessed.

But now, Bai Wu made it clear that he didn’t like her. Everything was just her own wishful thinking.

Subconsciously, she thought of gifts.

But now even gifts were of no use, and she looked at Bai Wu, lost and confused, as if she had encountered a problem that she couldn’t solve.

Bai Wu was also somewhat at a loss, feeling a headache when dealing with this kind of issue.

But looking at Yan Jiu’s expression, he felt it would be inappropriate to just walk away.

He gradually caught up with Yan Jiu’s train of thought and could even deduce some of her past experiences.

"Troublesome, this must be Dwarf’s retribution."

Bai Wu still stopped in his tracks, then entered the house and sat down across from Yan Jiu.

"I don’t think Miss Yan, you currently possess the ability to truly like someone, and I even doubt that you can understand what it means to like someone the right way."

A beautiful and cute young female artist suddenly falling for him just because of a confession seemed logical in Bai Wu’s view, given Yan Jiu’s lonely past, but it also had significant problems.

The love Yan Jiu had for him was simply rooted in her lack of love. The situation on the airplane, in Bai Wu’s opinion, was such that even if any Tom, Dick, or Harry jumped out and shouted their love for her, she would fall for these people.

But this was pathological.

The way to treat this pathology was not by accepting her love, but by allowing more people to like and care for her.

To make her wholeheartedly believe that she too could make many friends in this world.

She didn’t need to humbly pour all her emotions into one person.

People always hope to be madly loved, but historically there have been many cases where that madness turned horrifying.

That kind of twisted emotion where "you only lost an arm, but she lost love" was very wrong in Bai Wu’s view.

He had no doubt that had he accepted Yan Jiu’s affection today and he was Cain, with a little instigation, another female Elijah could be created.

"I don’t quite understand. I think being with you, if you also liked me, is what I want to do most right now. Isn’t this liking someone?"

Bai Wu said,

"Do you have any friends?"

"No..."

"That’s really unfortunate, and I guess, throughout your life, probably the woman on the airplane was the one most willing to bother with you, right? You have a brother, a father, but they don’t like you either, do they?"

Yan Jiu nodded.

Bai Wu made a concluding statement,

"Therefore, normal emotions are something you, Miss Yan, have never experienced. Love, as a more advanced course within that spectrum, is certainly beyond your grasp."

Yan Jiu lowered her head, seriously pondering Bai Wu’s words.

"The typical sequence of human emotions involves first experiencing familial love, then friendship, and finally romantic love. And among all these emotions, romantic love is not essential; it’s a luxury of the spirit. In fact, when the pressure of survival hits, there are plenty of people without romantic love."

"I don’t understand."

"What I mean is, you can’t skip lessons. Familial love and friendship can be transformed to some extent, so before you experience romantic love, let’s start with the introductory course and lay a solid foundation."

Bai Wu’s smile was gentle,

"You haven’t experienced familial love or friendship, so perhaps what you yearn for is these two, not romantic love. We should take it step by step, and first recoup familial love and friendship."

If a person has friendship and familial love but no romantic love, that’s quite normal, at least by the standards of Bai Wu’s past life.

But the other way around often leads to problems. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

Yan Jiu felt that Bai Wu’s words made sense, but she suddenly thought of something and hung her head even lower:

"But who would come to see me? Besides the patients in the hospital, who would listen to me..."

"Someone will visit you tomorrow. She will become your good friend, and she doesn’t need you to give her gifts, of course, you can give her gifts, and she will certainly be very happy."

"Really?"

"Of course, making friends isn’t that difficult. You’re no longer on the fifth floor, and you will have quite a few friends you can confide in. These friends are also very cute and interesting, at least more so than me in terms of emotional intelligence."

In fact, Yan Jiu was a likable girl with a kind heart. But her childhood had shaped some of her pathologies and insecurities.

Fortunately, these pathologies weren’t exaggerated, and everything could still be corrected. Bai Wu had also thought of a very good candidate.

If Yan Jiu symbolized someone starved of affection and inexperienced in dealing with emotional issues, then Liu Chengzi was definitely someone loved too much and a master at handling such matters.

A true master is someone who can easily convert romantic love into kinship and friendship.

In the eyes of the Sea Queen, friendship was far more valuable than romantic love. She was indeed the perfect person to correct Yan Jiu.

However, the certain chemical reactions between people can be difficult to fully predict—one of humanity’s greatest skills is to create pitfalls for themselves, and the astute Bai Wu was no exception.

Yan Jiu nodded and said:

"I’m really looking forward to meeting her... But I have another question."

"Go ahead."

"What if, even after I’ve made good friends, I still feel that Bai Wu and they are different?"

Bai Wu seriously pondered this question for a few seconds, then shook his head and said:

"Don’t aim too high, keep your feet on the ground, step by step, first learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, then we can talk about calculus."

"Oh, okay, then will you come to see me?"

"Of course, I will, because from now on, we’re already friends."

Yan Jiu, who had been somewhat upset by Bai Wu, managed a smile upon hearing these words.

...

...

Having left the Asylum, Bai Wu felt a sense of relief. There were many tragedies among the disciples, and during the time of the apocalypse, there were tragedies everywhere outside the tower.

The system within the High Tower also condemned some people to live twisted lives. He couldn’t help everyone, but it was still a joy to be able to help even one person.

After returning to the Investigation Corps branch, Bai Wu took the sketches, ready to report some intelligence about Cain to Wu Jiu.

In fact, there wasn’t much content, and to find Cain, they would have to venture into the areas of the Traction Disc.

Upon seeing Bai Wu, Wu Jiu didn’t rush to discuss Cain’s matter, instead, he said:

"You did well this time."

Since Yan Jiu was under the care of the Investigation Corps’ Seventh Squad, and the monitoring of the sixth floor, Wu Jiu naturally had observation access.

Bai Wu’s behavior aimed to eradicate Yan Jiu’s loneliness at its root. His words seemed straightforward, but they also cut through to the essence.

Wu Jiu had already pegged Bai Wu as a lecher, so Bai Wu’s performance this time, he considered it as exceptional, because Bai Wu was unexpectedly decent.

"Captain, please don’t make me do that kind of thing again next time."

"I’m curious, what kind of woman would you like? What if Yan Jiu still thinks you’re more important than everyone else after she makes friends?"

"I want to reiterate, Captain, that romance would only limit my performance. Isn’t exploring outside the tower delightful, aren’t Spirit Possession items fun, or isn’t collecting Sequences interesting? Why must I like someone?"

Wu Jiu wasn’t surprised by this response:

"Speaking of going outside the tower, once you’re healed up, we can go out."

Bai Wu was surprised that the Captain was actually arranging for him to take the initiative to leave the tower. Especially since his injuries hadn’t healed yet.

"Is there a mission?"