"I don't know if you've noticed, but Ah Quan is actually acting quite contradictory right now."
After Lin Sanjiu briefly shared her thoughts, she realized there was too much to explain. She began pacing, lost in her own thoughts.
The grand prize and Yu Yuan were sitting nearby, their heads turning left and right like two sunflowers following the sun as they watched her pace.
"He's not a bad person, and he doesn't want to make things hard for us. It's just that the situation has forced him into a position where he can't take risks with us. This is an unprecedented matter, after all. He has no idea what impact our attempts to escape might have on the memoirs, so naturally, he's worried," she explained.
Yu Yuan's face remained blank, as if he were saying, 'Is there anything I don't already know?' In contrast, the grand prize nodded eagerly. "Sis is right; I feel the same way!"
Lin Sanjiu hadn't even gotten into the main part of her explanation.
She sighed inwardly and continued, "This contradiction is clear in his actions. On one hand, he led us away from the urban memoirs, which are important areas. On the other hand, he couldn't help but give me a lot of crucial information that might help us get out."
Yu Yuan might as well have been sleeping with his eyes open—he showed no reaction. Compared to him, Ji Shanqing was the perfect listener. He leaned forward and urged her, "Then what? What information?"
Lin Sanjiu wondered if they truly didn't know what she was about to say.
"The most critical piece of information he gave us is this: we're not actually inside a real pocket dimension."
This sentence seemed to have a magical effect. The "sleeping" Yu Yuan suddenly perked up, and Ji Shanqing's expression turned serious. They exchanged a glance, as if contemplating something, and then the grand prize quietly said, "So Sis figured it out too."
Indeed, if this were a pocket dimension, it would all be far too unreasonable.
According to Ah Quan, a group of people transformed him into a pocket dimension because he refused to cooperate with their attempts to manipulate others' memories. Assuming he wasn't lying, the purpose of this pocket dimension would be to "control others' memories."
But how could the prey enter a place where humans couldn't even set foot?
If the prey couldn't get in, how could their memories be altered?
"Also, you've experienced several memoirs by now; you must have noticed they're all passive, static. They don't change unless someone interferes. But even when we do interfere, it doesn't affect our own memories. This pocket dimension doesn't seem that cunning," Lin Sanjiu pointed out.
"What I don't understand," Yu Yuan said, "is what these memoirs actually are if this isn't a pocket dimension."
It was rare to see something even the Veda couldn't comprehend. Lin Sanjiu spoke with the feeling of explaining musical notation to Einstein. "You and the grand prize might find this hard to grasp because you lack the human... um, emotional aspect tied to this."
Seeing that neither of them seemed offended, she went on, "Ah Quan himself mentioned that he needs to read memories to control them. But once he reads a memory, the person's thoughts and experiences become like an extension of himself.
"If the people behind him wanted him to erase, say, Wu Yiliu's memories, would he be able to do it easily after feeling such overwhelming empathy for Wu Yiliu? He said he only deals with significant memories, not minor ones, and completely deleting them would pose an even greater psychological barrier."
They both nodded.
"Maybe it's a limitation of the pocket dimension, but he still has to erase the person's memories. So what could he do? If I were him, I'd secretly keep a backup copy of the original memory," Lin Sanjiu mused. She then made a comparison she thought Yu Yuan might appreciate. "I think that's exactly what Ah Quan did... these memoirs are his backup data."
"So, this place is a data warehouse that Ah Quan created," Ji Shanqing summarized. "The warehouse can exist in a dimension where no one comes or goes, but the pocket dimension itself has to be located in the human world."
"Exactly," Lin Sanjiu said, excited to see they all agreed. "If we can enter the pocket dimension from the warehouse, we can reach the human world where the pocket dimension is situated."
"The biggest issue is figuring out how to enter the pocket dimension from the warehouse," Yu Yuan said. "There must be a link between the two; otherwise, Ah Quan wouldn't be able to store the memories he extracted from the pocket dimension into the warehouse. This connection point..."
He trailed off, but he didn't need to finish—the others had already thought of the same answer.
The place Ah Quan least wanted them to enter, and the most likely connection point, was the urban memoirs.
"So, the first step is to go back."
Easier said than done—since Ah Quan controlled their current location and had no intention of moving it back, how could they manage it?
Luckily, Lin Sanjiu had an idea.
"I only use my fists against cunning and malicious people," she said as she summoned a large piece of white paper and a pen, handing them to the grand prize. "But when it comes to dealing with someone honest... I have plenty of ideas."
"That's not exactly a compliment in human terms," Yu Yuan muttered, leaning over to watch Ji Shanqing take the paper and start writing quickly.
"Don't just stand there; you've got a job too," Lin Sanjiu said, nudging him.
In no time, the white paper was covered with large, bold characters. Lin Sanjiu looked it over and felt satisfied. She raised it high towards the chaotic gray sky. She wasn't sure if Ah Quan would see it; if he had left them on an "island" and wasn't paying attention, she'd look a bit foolish, holding up the paper like a petitioner in the capital.
It seemed the worst-case scenario was unfolding: her arms were aching from holding up the paper, but there was still no response from Ah Quan.
Could it be that he wasn't watching them at all?
Lin Sanjiu put the paper down and gathered with the other two, whispering to each other.
"We can send him messages this way, but Ah Quan has no way to reply to us. Let's try this: you stay here and don't move," Ji Shanqing suggested, trying to reassure her. "Yu Yuan and I will go check the perimeter. If he really did bring another memoir, it might be here by now."
When the two left, it was just Lin Sanjiu and the paper with the message.
The content of the note was straightforward and reasonable: even if they were "isolated," they hoped Ah Quan could bring a memoir suitable for resting, instead of a chaotic blank one that could drive people mad.
Ah Quan wasn't a bad person; he might actually agree to the request if he saw it. After all, whether they were in Memoir A or Memoir B, as long as it was an "isolated island," it made no real difference—so why not make it a bit more comfortable for them?
Sure enough, about ten minutes later, Ji Shanqing's voice came from afar, "Sis, he really brought a new memoir!"