Chapter 892: The Tu Mi Flower
"This is truly too difficult."
I shook my head, ultimately unable to offer any solution.
"Brother Yang... the stages you mentioned are already abstract for someone like me, and then you want to use imagined objects to record abstract things... I simply can't think of suitable 'anchor points' on the spot."
"Really..." Aries slowly showed a disappointed expression. "Even someone like you finds it hopeless?"
"Someone like me?"
I felt I had let down Aries's expectations. He thought I would have a way, yet I disappointed him.
Did Aries not see me as a clever dog in his heart?
But then again, although I couldn't provide the separate "anchor points" for each stage and state that Aries mentioned, I did happen to know a suitable "anchor point" for what he had just described as the "pure white symbol."
Perhaps I could only tell him this one anchor point. As for those abstract things he brought up... I'd leave them for him to figure out himself. Intelligent people handle intelligent matters—I believed he could manage.
"Just use the tu mi flower," I said softly.
"A flower...?" Aries looked at me, but he clearly hadn't heard of this plant. "Can a flower be used as an 'anchor point'? Do such things have any correlation with memory?"
"I haven't tried it, but I think the principle is similar." I thought for a moment and said, "How should I put it? Whether it's a sales tactic from flower suppliers or the meanings poets have given to flowers, every flower has its own language. In essence, that's already a kind of memory association."
"Flower language..." Aries murmured the two words.
"For example, red roses symbolize love. Whenever you see a red rose, you think of it as a 'symbol' of love. This simple flower language has made red roses the best-selling flowers in the world. Another example is baby's breath, whose flower language is 'willing to be a supporting role.' Once you remember that meaning, when you want to silently protect someone, you choose to give them baby's breath."
"Interesting." Aries nodded. "Just like 'love'—something I used to think was meaningless, but now it might come in handy. It seems there really is no such thing as useless knowledge."
"Mm... I hope it helps you," I said. "Brother Yang, perhaps you can use a 'layered encryption' state to lock your memories. I'm not sure if I'm making myself clear enough, but it's like an onion—it needs to be peeled layer by layer. You can separately tell the meaning of this 'flower language' to a few people you trust, people you might only encounter under certain conditions. That way, they won't show up too early, and you can let your states progress step by step."
"Yes. That's how I've always done it, but I just hadn't figured out the 'anchor points,'" Aries said. "Now that you've cleared things up, the situation is basically clear. If one day I truly lose my memory, I can first use the subconscious left behind to awaken myself at the shallowest level and act on instinct. As I act, I'll trigger various 'anchor points' to unlock different states. Finally, I'll tell the 'flower language' you mentioned to a few important people... and they will activate my deepest layer of memory."
Aries grew more and more excited as he spoke, and I started losing track of what he was saying.
"Yes... this way, I will absolutely never lose my memory..." Aries's eyes flickered. "I'll use these ingeniously angled 'anchor points' to pull back all the memories they've taken from me... and then use his hand to destroy my own psychological defenses and become something beyond human..."
I felt like Brother Yang might be losing his mind a little.
I couldn't understand a single word he was saying.
"Dreams have 'anchor points,' reality has 'anchor points,' people are 'anchor points,' events are 'anchor points,' the brain is 'anchor points,' even flowers are 'anchor points'..." Aries continued muttering to himself softly. "This way, you have no choice but to return my memories to me..."
I had always thought that Aries's talk of "losing memory" was just a hypothetical, rare scenario, but he was actually racking his brain for a solution.
Why was he so certain he would lose his memory?
It was as if he had chosen this path himself.
Knowing full well he would lose his memory, he still insisted on planting countless "anchor points" in the "Land of Endings" and walking this path to the end.
This utterly baffled me...
"What was the flower you mentioned called?"
Hearing Aries's voice, I snapped back to attention and looked at him.
"Uh... the tu mi flower," I repeated. "I don't know if it's 'karma' or 'causality' at play, but your description just now was a perfect match for the appearance and flower language of a flower I saw yesterday."
"Tell me about it."
"The tu mi flower is pure white, but it only blooms in one season: summer." I recalled the contents of the book I had read yesterday and said to Aries, "This flower appears with 'summer' and disappears with 'summer.' When the tu mi flower falls, it also marks the end of the blooming season. When it falls, all other flowers fall as well, so it carries the meaning of 'end' and 'finality.'"
"And its flower language?"
"Beauty at the end of the road," I said.
"Beauty at the end of the road..." Aries nodded. "When everything has faded away... is there still anything beautiful?"
"Perhaps the fading away itself is a kind of beauty," I said.
Aries fell silent after that, just staring blankly at his cup. I knew the time had come.
I had finally helped him solve another problem. Now it was time to set out on my own journey.
"If there's nothing else... I'll be going now."
"Oh, by the way." Aries turned his head to look at me, then said, "Do you still remember Sheep?"
"Sheep...?" I nodded. "Of course I remember... he was one of the 'Zodiacs' who interviewed me..."
"He's dead."
"Huh?" I processed the meaning of those words. "He... got gambled to death?"
"I don't know." Aries shook his head. "I only know he's dead. Such a pity. He didn't make it until I arrived. He died before I became 'Earth-level.'"
"How could that be...?" I said. "Didn't you tell him to choose hidden game venues as much as possible? Besides, I haven't seen him at all in all this time."
"Apparently, they ran into a tough opponent," Aries said. "An organization that specializes in tackling various games studied Sheep's game in detail and made a move on him. But it doesn't seem to have been a 'life gamble.' They probably used some scheme to make Sheep break the rules himself."
To be honest, hearing that Sheep died filled me with both sadness and worry.
Sadness because Sheep was, after all, a comrade from many years ago, and one of the few who knew the truth. Though we hadn't had much interaction, his death still left an empty feeling in my heart.
Worry because... Sheep was like me—a pawn of Aries... yet he died.
Aries hadn't protected him.
Was it because Aries never promised him "absolute safety"?
"Yan Zhichun, I remember you said Jiang Ruoxue is on the other side of the city, and that organization operates there," Aries said. "While you're at it, help me look into it."