Artifact Report

Chapter 262 Mai Minghe: A Braid

Mai Minghe suddenly felt very emotional - it turns out that the difference between hunters and ordinary people is sometimes hidden in such a tiny and brief gap, flashing by in a flash.

No matter how much a hunter believes that he can break the situation through force, he will never give up using his brain.

After Suo Beihua said "I'm not going out", there was no one in the stairwell. The first thing she asked was the most natural, convenient and lazy response - why?
At that moment, Mai Minghe could almost hear the faint whistling sound of everyone's thoughts racing.

With the interview already confirmed as a failure, there was only one natural reason why Suo Beihua didn't go out: she felt unsafe outside. This was obvious without asking, so there was no need to waste words on it.

The real key is, what made her notice something was wrong?
If she didn't tell me, would I be able to tell what was wrong?
If I rashly ask her the reason, will it affect my judgment?

If something was indeed wrong outside, how could one explain the scene before him, especially the sky west beside the road?
When the hunters spoke, they were almost cautious.

"I was just thinking about that... The Kai family seems to often use this warehouse as a checkpoint for interviews."

Li Sidan spoke slowly and thoughtfully, "It was the Kai family hunters themselves who warned us of our transformation. So it's quite normal that Tianxi wasn't surprised at our strange appearance... They should even have surveillance equipment to monitor our performance, so it wouldn't be surprising if they knew who we were."

He added, "Ah, well, I'm not saying I'm right. This is just what I was thinking."

"Tianxi is not in the checkpoint, so his cognition may not be affected by this building. If you are worried about this, we can ask him from the side." Mai Minghe thought for a while and added.

Hey, isn't she constantly thinking? Is she becoming more and more like a hunter?

Suo Beihua drooped her eyelids, not knowing what she was thinking.

"What exactly did you find?"

Aimeili finally asked.

"Although digging a hole and crawling out does sound too simple, from another perspective, if the nest simply puts the real way out right before our eyes, making us doubt and worry, trapping ourselves, wouldn't that be something the nest would do?"

Mai Minghe didn't have much understanding of this, but Li Sidan and Robert nodded repeatedly.

"...You all think that this cave is the way out?" Su Beihua finally spoke.

"No," Aimee replied immediately, "I'm just expressing my thoughts and judgment. I might be convinced by your opinion - but you have to start talking."

Suo Beihua pursed her lips, remained silent, and glanced at the outside world from the crack. Tianxi seemed to be looking for a climbing point in order to throw the rope up.

"...If you want to laugh at me, there's nothing I can do." She took a deep breath and said with a determined look, "Tianxi's braid has changed direction."

The stairwell was silent for a few seconds before Robert said, "Huh?"

"That's it?" He said with a hint of disbelief. "Such long hair, just reaching out and brushing it, moving it from one shoulder to the other, isn't that too normal? Can this be called a suspicious point? And how do you know... you... don't... have..."

As he lowered his head to wind up the spring again, Li Sidan added to what he hadn't finished saying: "Do you remember the direction of his braid? Even if you're sure you remember it correctly, this..."

"You two have never had long hair, have you?" Suo Beihua said stiffly, "His braid isn't tied in the center of the back of his head. In order to allow the braid to hang down from one side to his chest, he started braiding it from behind his right ear. That way, the braid would always hang down in front of his right shoulder. From our perspective, the braid is on our left."

"I've never had long hair... So what if I start tying it behind my ears?" Li Sidan asked.

"If I braid it behind the right ear and then pull it to the left, my hair will become unruly and unruly, and it will also loosen the braid," Mai Minghe explained. "When I was young, I was a childcare worker and braided a lot of little girls' hair."

"Why are you talking so connoisseur--never mind. If his braid came loose and he re-tied it on the other side, wouldn't that be possible? They've been waiting outside for over an hour, so it's normal for them to re-tie their hair, right?"

Li Sidan paused, then said placatingly, "It's not that I don't believe you, it's just that this braid... doesn't really count as evidence. Sometimes a hunter's intuition is hard to explain. Are you experiencing an inexplicable hunch?"

Suo Beihua opened her mouth—at that moment, she clearly wanted to refute, but she stopped herself in time and changed the subject: "Hmm... yes. Maybe it's my intuition."

Even if it cannot be called a suspicious point, if one person has a hunch that something is wrong, it will inevitably cause others to have concerns as well.

Several people looked back and forth at each other's different faces, and for a moment, they were a little unsure of what to do next.

"Who wants to stick their head out first and try it?" Li Sidan said half-jokingly.

Many of his sincere words were always said in the form of jokes, but no one paid any attention to him.

"Or we could ask him some questions," said Aimee, standing at the edge of the crack. It wasn't clear from the nutshell, but she seemed to be staring downstairs at Tianxi, who was trying to save the people. "See if his answers are consistent with our experiences." "What questions?" Robert said, turning the clockwork absentmindedly.

It seemed that he had rarely let go of the spring since then; the sound of the spring being wound up was constantly lingering in the stairwell. Whenever Mai Minghe thought the spring was tight enough and would definitely last for a while, after just a few minutes, Robert would start winding it up again.

Everyone was silent for a while, and Mai Minghe looked at the location of the crack.

The hole was quite high, and given her height, it could only barely point at her face. "Should I ask him what color the badge the Kai family gave me?" She suddenly had an idea. "He shouldn't be able to see the badge on our chests."

When they threw this question down, Tianxi seemed both amused and angry.

"Orange, fluorescent orange." He put one hand on his hip and said, "So I'm here trying to save people, and you're up there being suspicious. Anything else? I don't care."

"Did you change the direction of your braid?" Aimee asked directly.

Tianxi was stunned and touched his hair subconsciously.

"No, you're definitely remembering it wrong. I've always worn my braid on the left side. When I was a kid, I went hunting with my father and brothers and fell down a hillside, cutting a flesh wound on the right side of my neck. Boys think having a scar is something special, so I deliberately braided my hair on the left side, showing the scar on the right. As I grew up, the scar became lighter and basically unnoticeable, but the habit stuck with me."

Everyone couldn't help but turn around and look at Su Beihua.

She just stared motionlessly at the road outside the cave and the west sky. When Mai Minghe looked at her, he found that the expression on her face was almost painful - as if she both hoped that she was wrong, and was really afraid that she was not wrong.

It’s just a braid... Is she so confident in her memory?

"Do you think we are what we are now?" Aimeili asked again.

"Yeah. Don't you guys still look at each other the same way now? Didn't you just say you'd all left the checkpoint?"

"Then I am..."

"Aimeili," Tianxi said, raising his hand before she could finish, pointing at each person one by one as if by name, matching each name with their face. "By the way, you all failed the interview, you know."

If he said that they should get out immediately and that they could discuss entering Kai's house, it would be quite suspicious; but Tianxi didn't seem to be in a hurry to force them to crawl out.

Everyone then asked Tianxi a few questions based on their experiences during individual interviews, and it seemed that there was nothing wrong with them.

"What should we do? Does anyone still have any doubts? No one?" Li Sidan took a step back and whispered, "I also think there seems to be no problem. Um... who wants to go out first?"

Mai Minghe looked at Su Beihua again.

Her hands, hanging beside the snake's tail, were clenched into fists, the white joints almost breaking the skin.

"It's okay if you don't want to come out," Tianxi shouted, "Didn't I tell you that the two of them have already gone in to rescue you? I originally planned to let them come out, but I can also let them turn around and find you from the inner floors. Let them take the lead and try to climb out, that should be fine, right?"

It was obvious that everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and several backs and shoulders softened and relaxed.

"Okay then," Li Sidan said, his body trembling and swaying, but he slowly calmed down. "We'll wait."

Although the stairs are infinite, the people spit out by the floors always seem to be near each other; it is not a fantasy to find them in the endless stairwell.

...Now, can we only wait for rescue?

Mai Minghe looked at the small figure on the street outside, thinking a little confusedly.

Tianxi took out a wireless walkie-talkie - or rather, it looked like a wireless walkie-talkie. Mai Minghe didn't know what specific technology was used to allow it to be used in the nest.

“…Can you hear me?”

Faintly, she heard Tianxi's voice carried by the wind. "...Yes, continue... Yes, they don't dare to come out... Well, when you and Connie go to rescue them, be careful too."

Mai Minghe was stunned.

Who is the person who came to rescue?

　My physical condition has not been good these past two days. I have to ensure the quality and update at the same time. I feel quite exhausted... If these chapters are not well written, please don't tell me.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)