Operation Red Book

The red book was spread out in the middle of the wooden table, with a new page opened.

In the upper left corner was a pile of quill pens and two open bottles of ink, with black ink staining several sheets of white paper, on which lay a large stack of jagged documents.

In the upper right corner is a dim oil lamp. The dark yellow light illuminates the old pages of the red book, as well as Ivy, who is sitting with a pen in her hand and a frown on her face.

"So, who will go first, you or me?" Ivy sat at the wooden table with a serious expression.

"You go first. Didn't Ivy say that the handwriting on it is very similar to yours?"

A pale face emerged from the darkness above his shoulders, and his lips moved slowly.

Ivy thought for a moment, dipped the tip of the quill into the ink, and raised it above the page.

She remembered the scene in the movie very clearly, where ink accidentally dropped onto a blank piece of kraft paper, and Harry Potter discovered the secret only when he hurriedly tried to wipe it off.

The sparkling ink gathered at the tip of the feather pen, shaking back and forth as if it was falling or not, making both of them feel heartbroken.

"Student Ivy, why isn't it falling off?"

"Why are you asking me? I'm not a physicist!"

Ivy frowned at Joshua's stupid question. She bit her lower lip, and worry and nervousness crept into her heart again.

What if this is just an ordinary notebook? What if the ink doesn't get absorbed? What if the book is damaged and the instructions are no longer visible? Do we need the instructions? Do we need this red book to go back?

Ivy was confused by her own questions, everything around her became blurry, and she felt the air around her becoming increasingly tense.

"So annoying, so annoying!"

The depressed mood made Ivy's thoughts a mess.

She felt a little sleepy, not sure if it was because of the hot summer night or because of her depressed mood.

In short, her high spirits had already disappeared before the game even started.

Ivy made a "tsk" sound and decided to go all out. When the ink was about to leave the tip of the pen, she put the pen down without hesitation.

The bean-sized ink beads rolled back and forth on the paper, slid down, and formed small puddles on the wooden table.

The paper of the red book was spotless, as if the ink beads had never invaded its territory.

"Huh?" Ivy and Joshua widened their eyes at the same time and exclaimed in surprise in tacit understanding.

Ivy has often seen such scenes in the lotus pond in summer, but the paper is not lotus leaf, which makes people puzzled.

Joshua picked up a tissue and soaked up all the ink on the wooden table.

"Is the ink okay?" He looked at the black color on the tissue, then leaned in and sniffed it gently.

Ivy touched the old paper of the red book, and the large and small particles and lines were clearly felt under the friction of her fingertips.

"This is just ordinary paper. This kind of friction...should be very suitable for writing."

Ivy still didn't believe it, so she picked up a piece of white paper and dipped it in ink.

The quill soaked through the white paper very smoothly, and the traces of ink were clearly visible.

She drew a few more lines on the red book, but the rough paper became smooth the moment the feather pen touched it, and the feel and touch were completely different.

The ink rolled around on the paper again and all slid onto the wooden table beside it.

Joshua and Ivy looked at the blank red book, their minds full of questions.

"It seems that JK Rowling's method is not feasible. After all, this is not Tom Riddle's diary."

Ivy sighed with relief, and her tense body relaxed.

She leaned back in the soft chair, pressing her hands against her swollen temples.

"But I still think there is a soul living inside. Otherwise, all this would be too weird. But whose soul is it..."

Joshua stood aside, muttering to himself, obviously interested in the anomaly of the red book.

"It's up to you. If there's a soul, there's a soul. Anyway, it's not me. My three souls and seven spirits are all here fine."

Ivy tilted her head back and pounded it hard. Her head hurt more and more. She thought she had a cold and it was time to go to bed and rest...

"But this handwriting is definitely from Ivy, otherwise it doesn't make sense... Please forgive me, now I don't think it's a soul, I suspect it's time..."

"You can doubt it yourself. I want to rest. Don't disturb me tonight."

Ivy covered her ears, manually blocking out Joshua's annoying words, and walked out of Joshua's room without looking back.

Only after Ivy walked down the stairs did Joshua come back to his senses from his thoughts.

"Okay, okay, Ivy, thank you for your hard work. You should have a good rest..."

He responded dimly, but Ivy was no longer visible on the dark second floor.

Joshua stretched. He always easily immersed himself in his own thoughts and would forget the passage of time if he was not paying attention.

Perhaps it was because no one was willing to contact him since he was a child, so he had plenty of time to talk to himself, and thus formed a habit.

He didn't know how long Ivy had been gone, but he felt his waist was already sore.

Joshua was about to go to the living room to pour himself some tea. Putting aside the issue of the red book, there were still many SCO files that needed to be dealt with.

He stiffly picked up a tissue to wipe the ink left on the table, but suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar line of words on the open red book: "Are you there?"

The English letters were arranged neatly, stroke by stroke, in very small font size, appearing alone in the upper left corner of the blank page.

This line of handwriting is not as flowing and coherent as Ivy's, but it is neat, straight and round. The letters are separated by a small distance, like little tadpoles lying motionless at the bottom of the sea.

Joshua put down the tissue in his hand and slowly sat down at the wooden table.

He was a little at a loss, looked left and right for a long time, and finally took down a document he had reviewed.

"No need to get the document, it's just your own handwriting, Joshua."

Another sentence appeared on the red book, and Joshua's hand holding the document trembled with fear.

Joshua has a habit when writing his name. He likes to write the first letter "J" of Joshua in French round font.

Joshua's parents' names both start with J, so he has had an extra preference and attention for the letter J since he was a child, and naturally invested some little ingenuity in it as a child.

He hastily put the document aside and picked up the quill dipped in the ink bottle, not caring whether the black ink would stain his hands.

"No, I can't write it down..."

With the quill in his hand, Joshua remembered the magical scene.

The quill was filled with ink, and before it could gather at the tip of the pen, it dripped down and splashed onto the blank page.

Black flowers bloomed beneath the revealed words, covering up a large area.

"Oops, oops!"

Joshua hurriedly picked up the brick-like red book and shook the black ink down.

But the ink was not isolated from the paper as before. Instead, it became lighter and lighter, and disappeared without a trace along with the words that had appeared.