Zhao Shuangdian's fingers, painted with clear nail polish, tapped the blue bottle in front of Li Huowang. "And this—this is the real world. All the other worlds outside it are merely one of its facets."
Inside the now-closed Blood Society Fire Tattoo Shop, Zhao Shuangdian continued explaining everything to Li Huowang.
"We can peer through one facet and glimpse some information, some changes, but it is difficult for us to understand the whole of reality."
"The reality we perceive is always a portion of reality altered and distorted by our cognition. True reality has always remained unknown to us."
"So your theory is no different from Qing Wanglai's Projection Theory?" Li Huowang asked, looking at the dark-blue liquor bottle before him.
Li Huowang recalled that bizarre world, White Jade Capital, and the worldviews of the others as well.
Li Huowang's words made Zhao Shuangdian shake her head. "No, they're different. His view is that everything is the projection of some existence."
"But I believe all of this truly exists. It is merely one facet of reality. Like the blind men feeling an elephant—can you say an elephant's leg is not part of the elephant?"
Hearing that, anger rose in Li Huowang's chest. "Stop using metaphors! I don't want to hear any more metaphors about elephant legs and elephants! I just want to know what the real thing actually is!"
"Oh? How much do you know about Hilbert Space? I can try to explain it to you."
"What space? Didn't you say you used mathematics?"
"Forget it. Let's keep using the elephant metaphor. It's easier to understand."
Li Huowang sat there in silence, digesting her explanation. He had no idea whether Zhao Shuangdian was telling the truth, or whether this was yet another delusion from a mental patient.
Though Zhao Shuangdian