Rose Factory

The iron gate swings open, and Tang Er, standing in front of it, does not move.

It was as if he had been transformed into a wooden statue in an instant, or rather, at the moment, he wished he was just a wooden statue.

The factory worker pushed him twice, but Tang Er hit the tall man, he could not push, this time the "test paper" in the cage suddenly moved his finger, slightly moved towards him.

Leaning against the wall, the lax eye of the "test paper" tried to focus on Tang Er to fight, and he let out a very weak, questioning, hoarse voice: "...... Captain?"

With just such a soft sound, Tang Er, who had been sinking in place, felt as if he had been hit by a gunshot, so painful that he almost had to grit his teeth and grimace in order to control his expression.

Tang Er fights with scarlet eyes, holding on to the wall to stabilize himself, he is not looking at the man in the cage, or the test paper.

Something drained Tang Er's strength, leaving him exhausted, bruised and disfigured, so that he could only rely on external objects to support his body, and step by step, he stumbled into the cage that had been trapping him, trapping Su Yang.

Tang Er hit walked to the front of the test incense paper, and it was at this moment that he clearly saw the other party's full appearance.

Su Yang's whole face is in bloom, with roses in her eyes like a field of flowers, and her face is covered in flesh and blood, wearing the uniform of the Deputy Chief of the Bureau of Dangerous Heretics, even with her license plate.

Su Yang's work photo on the license plate was bloodstained and dirty.

This face, and this work photo, reminded Tang Er of the time when Su Yang was shot by the Clowns, a time when the team's heartbreaking screams still seemed to echo in his ears.

Tang Er Ta was like an out-of-body experience, his expression was blank as he looked at the videotape that recorded Su Yang's death, and his brain was like a malfunction, echoing only one sentence over and over again - if only I had been next to Su Yang.

--If only I had been caught with Su Yang, if only I had been caught instead of Su Yang, if only I had been Su Yang.

If only I were the one being tortured, the one in pain, the one dying.

--Why does it have to be Su Yang every time, every time?

Does it have to be the most important person that he, a coward of so many timelines, is too afraid to tell, too afraid to look squarely at, too afraid to look at or say more than a word to?

Tang Er hit closed his eyes, the back of his hand holding the wall was bruised, and his whole body was almost unsteady on its feet.

Su Yang had a very faint, very faint light in his eyes, he didn't seem to feel any pain in the way he was right now, his epidermis jagged face was pure, he seemed to want to smile at the sight of Tang Er's trust and joy in hitting this captain.

But cut skin and muscles block Su Yang's smiling movements.

So the corners of his mouth curved halfway down and fell impotently, and only his tone remained pleased, "It's really you, Captain!"

Su Yang tried to raise his hand to reach the corner of Tang Er's shirt, but failed several times, and his hand trembled from the exertion.

Once again, when Su Yang was about to drop his hand, Tang Er Ta finally half squatted down in silence, and very gently, with his shaking hand, he lightly, from a little distance, covered the back of Su Yang's hand with emptiness.

Su Yang weakly gasped twice, leaned against the wall morosely, half-closed his eyes and smiled at him, suddenly turned his hand to hold Tang Er hit the hand.

Tang Er hit a deep breath to suppress those surging emotions, and for the first time in this timeline he didn't reject Su Yang's closeness, but instead shook Su Yang back. his voice was hoarse and arduous: "Well, the captain's here to get you out."

"No, can't ...... save me out! Cough cough cough-" A somewhat exasperated and helplessly amused look appeared on Su Yang's face.

He seemed, as he had done in every previous fight with Tang Er, to agonize over his captain's reckless resolution, but ultimately remained patient to persuade the other.

Su Yang's speech sounded a bit broken due to her rapid breathing, "It's useless if you save me out, I'm really dying."

Su Yang's eyes drooped and her tone dropped, "My family, my parents, my crew didn't last, they all withered away, and now it's just me, but I won't last much longer."

"I'm just upset, upset that I can't do anything in front of this thing, I'm too much of a loser." Su Yang's tone was in a very slight trance as he looked up, the rose extra clear in his light colored eyes as he clenched the hand Tang Er fought to pull away, "But Captain you are different! You are the one chosen by the Seer! You can surely change all of this!"

At this moment, Tang Er played as if all the memories in the timeline were bound up in this one sentence.

[Captain! You can do it!

[Captain, I believe you!

[Captain, ahem, as long as you're alive, we have hope!]

Countless, all, different Su Yangs with bloodied, broken, pale, scarred, or bloody faces, all gazed at him with bright eyes of relief and hope, calling out to him Captain.

Then the next moment laughing and dying for him, the souls all fading into the light in an instant, without a trace.

Tang Er fought a blurred consciousness as he watched Su Yang anxiously watching his face, and for a moment, he felt that what he was receiving was no longer Su Yang's mandate and trust, but a desperate curse and distance.

Su Yang shifted his body forward with difficulty, he leaned on Tang Er hit's shoulder and lowered his voice, "Captain, listen, there is no point in saving me from getting out of here anymore, you're mixed up here, you should be getting promoted to Factory Worker already, and right after that, you'll be promoted to Perfumer, and there's an antidote to Rose Perfume, but the antidote is only known to every Factory Manager. "

"Once you've been promoted from perfumer to factory manager, you'll know what the antidote is." At this point, Su Yang was a little out of breath, and he leaned back to rest his head on Tang Er's beaten shoulder, then quickly went on, a smile in his tone, "At that time, you'll be able to save these contaminated people."

Tang Er hit can't say exactly how long he was quiet before he hoarsely spoke, "...... And you?"

Su Yang didn't say anything, just quietly leaned on Tang Er's shoulder, eyes closed, her chest rising and falling slightly.

Their tacit understanding doesn't need them to say anything, both of them understand what kind of decision Su Yang has made - Su Yang has decided to sacrifice himself to do the test for Tang Er Ta, so that Tang Er Ta can be successfully promoted to factory worker.

This is the equivalent of having Tang Er fight to kill Su Yang himself to save everyone else in this game.

Even if this Su Yang was just a character in the game, just a fake Su Yang, Tang Er couldn't lay his hands on him.

"But Captain ...... " Su Yang leaned against Tang Er hit shoulder and opened his void eyes, as if muttering softly, "I'm impossible to save back, I'm addicted. "

"Captain, be a person to look away, death this kind of thing ...... human beings are all going to die." Su Yang's tone carried a little, casual, indifferent smile, as if he was coaxing Tang Er to fight, "If I have to die, I hope my death means something to you."

"I'm actually really glad that I was able to see you before I completely wilted, because it at least means that my self-torture of struggling with pain for so long as if I were being foolish and unwilling to give in to rose perfume was meaningful." Su Yang turns her head over Tang Er's beaten shoulder and gazes at him very softly, "My meaning was waiting until I saw you, Captain."

Tang Er could see the cracks on Su Yang's face deepening and peeling away, blood seeping out from the edges, and Su Yang, reflected in his pupils, becoming more and more like a rose.

More and more like a monster.

Never before had he seen life speeding through a man's body so clearly.

Su Yang looked prayerfully at Tang Er and fought.

Tang Er hit a little bit loosened Su Yang holding his hand, and then again empty grip that he voluntarily loosened the hand, he lowered his head, can not see the expression, voice hoarse to almost inaudible: "...... detection, what to do?"

Su Yang smiled from the bottom of her heart, "Thank you, Captain."

"Right." Su Yang seemed to have remembered something important and her face became grave, "Captain, do you still remember that living heretic Liu Bai that you captured and then escaped? When you leave here later, if you have the chance to find him, please make sure to kill this person."

"This is the man who blew up the factory we went to test on the same day he escaped the Dangerous Heretics Treatment Bureau."

----------

One wall away in another cage.

After Lu Yizhan had a hard time figuring out that this Bai Liu in front of him was really Bai Liu who had turned into Liu Jiayi, the two of them were very free of tension and chatted one after another.

Bai Liu lifted his eyelids and glanced at Lu Yizhan sitting across from him, "I blew up the Rose Factory?"

"Yes." Lu Yizhan didn't seem to think he was talking about anything very important either, his body and tone were relaxed as he lay back on the bed, resting his hands behind his head, "I and also the other Dangerous Heretics Bureau staff saw it, and I'm packing my bags with the level of knowledge I've had of you for ten years that the person standing on top of the Rose Factory, the one who claimed that he was going to blow up the factory, was certain that it was you. "

"You said you were going to set off an explosion, leak dried rose leaves Wa Si, and destroy the world, and I had several conversations with you, and finally determined that you were this you I knew correctly." Lu Yizhan said as he leaned back.

The timeline of this game, Rose Factory, is ten years later in the real world.

Bai Liu combed through Lu Yizhan and the timeline of what he said.

The explosion that triggered the worldwide popularization of the dried rose leaf Wa Si occurred the day after Bai Liu escaped the Dangerous Heresy Treatment Bureau.

On the same day, Lu Yizhan and Su Yang, the deputy chief of the third branch of the Dangerous Heresy Bureau, both came to the Rose Factory to investigate the factory that had been forcibly seized but secretly restarted - this was what Bai Liu had read in the factory's newspaper, and it basically matched with the reality that Bai Liu had surmised. This is what Bai Liu read in the newspaper of this factory, and it is also consistent with the reality Bai Liu had deduced, and also consistent with what Lu Yizhan had just said to him.

As for what Lu Yizhan said happened afterward, Bai Liu raised his eyebrows after hearing only a few sentences.

Lu Yizhan said that when they arrived at the factory, they searched everywhere in the factory for vessels suspected of stocking dried leaf roses Wa Si, and that the whole factory was particularly strange, with all the instruments, but the people seemed to have disappeared into thin air, not knowing where they had gone.

They searched tirelessly into the early hours of the morning, and found nothing but some iron pots and distilling apparatus bearing the residue of the rose exercise.

At this time Bai Liu appeared out of nowhere on the roof of the Rose Factory as if he had fallen from the sky, holding a large lama from somewhere, one hand in his pocket lazily shouting to the crowd below--

Lu Yizhan said, while using his hands to compare a big lama to imitate the scene: "I'm anti-social Bai Liu, because I've been laid off for more than a month, I can't find a job, and I don't have any money to earn, I'm very sad, I think the world is going to end up with me, so I'm going to detonate this factory later on and let the rose dried leaves Wa Si leak, and let everyone else end up with me."

Bai Liu is eerily silent for a moment, then asks rhetorically, "And then the Rose Factory explodes?"

Lu Yizhan nodded honestly, "Well, then you disappeared completely, and because of that, for a while the Dangerous Heresy Handling Bureau had a wanted bounty on you that went up to sixteen million dollars, and I was kind of moved."

Bai Liu squinted at Lu Yizhan, who was lying on the bed, "You don't think I did the explosion?"

If Lu Yizhan is really sure that Bai Liu did the explosion, as long as he can still move, as soon as Bai Liu walks in, it is guaranteed that this person will jump up from the bed and kill Bai Liu on the spot.

But the fact that Lu Yizhan is now calmly lying in bed and talking to Bai Liu proves that Lu Yizhan felt that the explosion had nothing to do with Bai Liu.

Lu Yizhan was quiet for a moment before speaking, "I'm sure it was you who shouted from the roof of the Rose Factory that you were going to blow it up, and I'm also sure that less than fifteen minutes after you said that, the Rose Factory exploded, and there was this perfume leak that endangered everyone."

Then Lu Yizhan gives a very clueless speculation, "But I don't think you did this."

Bai Liu asked back with amusement, "Why?"

Bai Liu seldom doubted Lu Yizhan's assumptions about him, who probably knew him better than he did, and never lied to him.

Lu Yizhan said that the man standing on the roof was his Bai Liu, and Bai Liu estimated that it was really him.

Lu Yizhan looked up at the top of the cage for a moment, as if in a daze, before replying to Bai Liu's words, "It's very unprofessional and subjective, and I'm sure you wouldn't do such a thing."

Bai Liu swept him with slanted eyes, "I never knew that you would actually trust my character?"

Lu Yizhan let out a slow "Eh" and turned his head over to give Bai Liu a flirty look, "It's not because of that, I can't believe your character."

If it weren't for the strange lines on Lu Yizhan's face, their conversation would have been as muted as the usual gags.

Lu Yizhan looked at Bai Liu : "But I believe in the ethics of your dealings, you made a ten year hot pot deal with me yesterday, there's no need to go and destroy the world when you haven't even gotten a meal yet, how much of a loss is that, I don't believe that you're capable of doing such a thing."

"Uh-huh." Bai Liu glances at Lu Yizhan, "I feel the same way though, but the others don't, do they?"

Lu Yizhan smiled and turned his head back again, his tone emotional, "Indeed, I was the only one among the personnel who went to the factory that day who felt that way, and the reasoning for the speculation was too subjective to convince them, which is why the high bounty on you came later."

"It's a pity that they didn't last afterward, and they all left one by one." Lu Yizhan's expression finally became complicated as he let out a long sigh, "It seems like there is only one person left in this world who can still hold on and believe in you, and one person who hates you."

The person who believes in Bai Liu is obviously Lu Yizhan, according to the game designer's bad taste, if Bai Liu is not wrong, the person who hates him should be Su Yang - at this time Tang Er hit the corresponding test incense paper is most likely Su Yang.

Lu Yizhan went on, "I've been thinking about the ten years I've known you here, trying to find clues in there as to what you really are that would corroborate my suspicions that you wouldn't have set off the Rose Factory, while the other guy kept emphasizing the evidence, emphasizing that he saw you set it off with his own eyes. "

Lu Yizhan stares straight up at the ceiling, his tone becomes very, very soft, as if he's talking to himself, "What kind of person are you that turns out to be the only reason for our survival."

"And the memories are so late in the process that I'm beginning to wonder if you even exist, if you're not just a friend, a murderer, a kind of self-compensating salvation I fantasize about because I'm so lonely here - knowing you exist makes me at least simmer with a little bit of hope. "

Bai Liu calmly sidled his head, "So?"

Lu Yizhan complained and gave Bai Liu a blank look, "At least sympathize with me, I'm so miserable."

Lu Yizhan was quiet for a moment as he smiled, "So for a while whenever someone came in to test a perfume, I would ask them - do you know Bai Liu, and what do you think of him as a person?"

"Probably because I was so cooperative in testing the incense, and they basically answered, I got many, many answers about [Bai Liu], but none of them could convince me that you really existed, and none of them could describe anyone I knew."

Lu Yizhan sat up with great difficulty on the edge of the bed, he took two deep breaths and looked up at Bai Liu: "Now it's your turn to answer my question, do you know Bai Liu?"

He looked directly at Bai Liu, who was standing by the bedside, without looking at his eyes : "--What kind of person do you think Bai Liu is?"

"I know Bai Liu." Bai Liu very calmly looked at the weakly gasping Lu Yizhan and said, "He is a shameless, despicable, no empathy, uncompromising, no conventional social consciousness, unusual value orientation, nor acceptance of universal moral subterfuge abduction , in short, a complete asshole, coupled with a very strong desire for money, makes him a rather dangerous character by all accounts."

"Uh-huh." Lu Yizhan nodded gravely, "It's the Bai Liu I know, yes, go on."

Bai Liu stared at Lu Yizhan for a long time before he said, "He is indeed your friend, so even if he is such an asshole, he will still honor his deal with you - I won't detonate the factory, and if the person standing on the roof of the Rose Factory is indeed me, there should be some sort of circumstance that forced me to say that, to make that choice, but I won't do anything to break the deal."

Lu Yizhan was stunned for a moment, and he smiled heartily, "Yes, that's what I believe."

Bai Liu stepped forward, "Alright, enough nonsense with you, teach me how to detect."

Lu Yizhan flinched for a moment and smiled helplessly and miserably, "You're being overly cruel aren't you Bai Liu, I've just heard from that factory worker that your guy's talent is very likely to test once and get me killed eh!"

"You may die here." Bai Liu swept Lu Yizhan a glance, "But the real you won't die, want to make a deal with me? I can stop this explosion that has already happened and save you and the others."

Lu Yizhan looked at Bai Liu for a long time, although he didn't seem to understand what Bai Liu was saying, nor did he know how Bai Liu could have prevented what had already happened -

-- but he knew that at least fifty percent of the deals the man Bai Liu talked about were things he could possibly do on his own.

"Yes!" Lu Yizhan replied in one breath, his eyes glowing, "What was the deal?"

Bai Liu: "Treat me to twenty years of hot pot."

"With the previous ten years, that's thirty years! That's too much!!!" Lu Yizhan screamed miserably, "Look at me now, I may not even be able to live that long!!!"

Bai Liu glanced at him, "Then try to live to see that time in order to make this deal with me."

Lu Yizhan was dumbfounded, he looked at Bai Liu who had an indifferent expression and couldn't hold back his laughter.

Caring about people are so beat around the bush - and really in person.

--------

Su Yang grabbed Tang Er's beaten hands, it was rare for him to have such a remorseful look on his face, "Captain, every day that I and the rest of the team have been here we have regretted that we didn't carry out your orders seriously, if only we could have killed Bai Liu the day we captured him, so many people... ..."

His light-colored eyes filled with tears and his voice was dry and broken, "So many people would not have died because of Bai Liu's retaliation, because of something like this leaking and spreading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Captain, if only I could have stopped this from happening in the first place, it's all my fault ......"

Su Yang seemed to be overwhelmed by some kind of extremely heavy responsibility and emotion as he slowly bent his body down in front of Tang Er's fight.

He seemed to have aged dozens of years in an instant from remorse and self-loathing, the bones in his spine bulging like beads on his excessively thin back, too bony to stand upright.

Tang Er fought clenched fists - it was all too late for this Su Yang in front of him.

But it's still not too late for him.

As long as he gets through the level in time, finds the antidote, and kills Bai Liu -- all this he's seen, this Su Yang who's in so much pain she wants to die -- none of this will ever happen again.

Tang Er mentally calculated the time that corresponded to the end of the game, as well as the time that Su Yang had just told him that Bai Liu had triggered the explosion, and his eyes couldn't help but glaze over - this was the equivalent of Bai Liu going to the factory and triggering the explosion immediately after he had cleared the level.

You have to kill Bai Liu in the game to do that!

He already knows the antidote will be available once he becomes the plant manager, Bai Liu can't stay!