Checking for Hidden Threats

Lumian had some guesses based on the style of tonight's events and was prepared to see one or more Dream Image, but the people who appeared at the Emergency Center were completely unexpected:

It was Grisha, Peng Deng's roommate!

His sharing an apartment with Peng Deng does indeed suggest that he has a certain special status, and we have observed him, but we haven't been able to find out who he corresponds to in reality... Is he the mastermind behind tonight's events? What is his true purpose? Lumian's thoughts were in turmoil, and he became increasingly puzzled.

He had already identified the person behind tonight's events as the That One who believed in the "Aurora Order" and was looking forward to confirming some things. However, Grisha was completely lacking in the style of "I am watching, I am listening, I know." He was eccentric, paranoid, and rude.

"Him?" Franca reacted slower than usual, then leaned closer to look at the image of Lumian on the phone screen.

The sudden surprise made her a little angry.

"Discovering unexpected people is also a rewarding experience." Lumian had calmed down.

"Hmm." Franca didn't say anything more.

Lumian didn't rush to leave. Instead, she took out a cracked Vanity Mirror and carefully examined it.

His behavior caught Franca's attention. Franca turned her head to look at him, and asked with a hint of doubt, "What are you doing?"

"Check if the Mirror World has recovered, and whether the corresponding shattered mirror has evolved into a new Mirror-Behind Region," Lumian explained simply. "Rosanne didn't bring her phone, and I don't have any other Beyond Ability. I need to use the Mirror World to send her a message saying that you are safe and that she can take Zhou Mingrui away from the Underground Area."

"There's nothing urgent right now. What if Zhou Mingrui really discovers something?"

Franca paused for two seconds:

"Zhou Mingrui went to the Underground Area?"

"Won't there be any problem with this?"

The Underground of Mushu Hospital is a product of the fusion of Dream Subconsciousness and the Abyss symbolized by the "Mother Tree of Desire." Even if it cannot actually endanger Zhou Mingrui's safety, it will cause him to encounter his past psychological shadows again, awakening strong stimuli that once existed, thus bringing about significant Change. These Change are unpredictable and could be extremely good or extremely bad. Therefore, Lumian's team did not want Zhou Mingrui to enter the Underground of Mushu Hospital at this stage.

Lumian looked at Franca, chuckled, and said, "Plans can't keep up with Change. The most important thing just now was to rescue you. Everything else can be considered later, and we can make up for it later. At worst, this mission will fail completely, and we can send another group. At worst, we can all face the Apocalypse together. We can't let you die here now."

Franca stared blankly at Lumian for a few seconds, unable to say a word.

After a while, she looked away, sighed, and said, "Some things can never be made up for..."

Hearing that sigh and those words, Lumian finally felt that Franca had come back to life from her previous Aura of Death.

He didn't press for details, waiting for Franca to calm down before explaining. Looking at the Mirror in his hand, now broken into three pieces, he said, "The Mirror World has been restored, and the larger Mirror Fragments has once again become Mirror in the Mysticism sense."

After speaking, Lumian added a sentence, imbuing it with a shimmering, Gloom, which then disappeared into the largest fragment of the Vanity Mirror.

Mushu Hospital, basement level 2.

Rosanne walked ahead, leading Zhou Mingrui, sneaking along the corridor, glancing left and right every now and then, looking for the missing Luo Fu.

Just as she turned her gaze to one of the rooms, and Zhou Mingrui looked to the other side, she saw a passage of text flash across a shard of broken glass on the floor:

"Luo Fu has gone home."

"Hoo..." Rosanne quickly turned around and said to Zhou Mingrui, "I received news that Luo Fu has escaped."

Zhou Mingrui glanced at Rosanne but didn't ask her how she received the message.

He had just observed that Rosanne seemed to be in a hurry when she left home; she didn't even take her phone with her.

After leaving the Underground Area of Mushu Hospital and being sent back to Dechuang Garden by Zhou Mingrui, Rosanne met Lumian-na and Luo Fu in the entrance hall.

"You just got back too?" Rosanne blurted out.

Holding the two Mirror Fragments, Lumian glanced around and said, "I went and fixed the hospital's security camera footage."

Although tonight's events do not involve a criminal case and are considered a "natural Calamity" with no Police investigation into the truth, Lumian still felt that caution was necessary.

Rosanne was stunned for two seconds:

You have a lot of criminal experience...

Lumian then said to Rosanne, "Thank you for your help. Without your timely assistance in getting Zhou Mingrui to the second basement level, neither Luo Fu nor I would have escaped. We would have been completely swallowed up by that illusory Abyss."

Rosanne couldn't help but smile, forcing a modest reply, "It's mainly because Zhou Mingrui was willing to risk his life to save people; he's always been a good person."

"It's quite remarkable that you were able to persuade him in such a short time," Lumian said, not holding back his praise.

"It's alright, it's alright." Rosanne shifted her gaze somewhat uncomfortably.

She walked briskly into the elevator that had just reached the first floor.

After following them inside, Lumian said to Rosanne, "We want to check your room and find out the hidden danger."

"Okay, okay!" Rosanne remembered that she had inexplicably appeared in the Underground Area of Mushu Hospital.

She can't sleep soundly until she finds the bad guy lurking in her room or nearby!

Upon entering Room 1502, Lumian naturally began inspecting every corner, while Franca also perked up, silently touching different objects.

After a few dozen seconds, Lumian walked to the living room Glass Window and said to Rosanne, who was standing near the Coffee Table, "I'll do a ' Magic Mirror Divination ' to see if I can get an answer or some insight."

Rosanne nodded repeatedly.

Lumian reached out his hand to the transparent glass that had become a Mirror in the darkness of night, and began to chant the corresponding Incantation.

He can now only perform "Magic Mirror Divination" by inquiring about his own spirituality.

As soon as Lumian asked the question, a Gloom shimmer suddenly appeared on the glass surface.

The shimmering light reflected a scene, corresponding to Oil Painting painting of Colorful-Feathered Parrot.

"It?" Rosanne suddenly turned her head to look at the wall behind her.

Did the accomplice I created betray me?

Almost simultaneously, the Colorful-Feathered Parrot flew out of the Oil Painting, attempting to break out of Room 1502 and escape.

However, the doors and windows were already locked, and it kept running into obstacles.

"Why?" Rosanne cried out.

The Colorful-Feathered Parrot responded with clear human words:

"I am not your Marionette, I serve..."

Before it could finish speaking, its body suddenly disintegrated. First, its feathers fluttered away, and then its flesh and blood fell off drop by drop like melting paint.

In just two or three seconds, the Colorful-Feathered Parrot turned into countless tiny specks of paint, which splashed onto the Ivory Floor Tiles.

"It's been taken over by someone else," Lumian concluded in the book.

"How could this be?" Rosanne was both shocked and bewildered.

This is something I drew stroke by stroke; why is it being controlled by someone else?

If it were another version of myself secretly Resurrection within me and subtly influencing my paintings, I could accept that. But how could an outsider do that?

Lumian glanced at Rosanne:

"You can't absolutely trust anything—not others, not your drawings, and not even yourself."

"I understand..." Rosanne recalled the past, and remembered that other version of herself.

Lumian thought for a moment and suggested, "Why don't you stay with us tonight, just in case anything else happens?"

He planned to take a picture of every item and every corner of Rosanne's room tonight and send it to Anderson to see if there were any remaining problems.

"Okay," Rosanne agreed quickly.

Whether or not she found the Colorful-Feathered Parrot, her original plan was to pack her things, find Hotel with a good price-performance ratio, book a room, and stay for two or three nights.

After settling Rosanne and Jenna into Room 2303, Lumian took Franca and led her around room 1502 to take pictures, making sure not to miss anything.

After taking the photos, he immediately sent them to "a name that impressed you," concluding with, "Can you find any potential problems with these photos?"

After a while, Anderson Hood responded:

"Are you inviting me to play the 'Spot the Difference' game?"

"I suppose so," Lumian replied nonchalantly.

He waited patiently, and Past four or five minutes, he finally received a message from Anderson Hood:

"If it were me, I would show other people perfectly fine photos and ask them to find the problems."

Does that mean everything's fine? Lumian muttered to himself silently.

Anderson Hood then sent another message:

"That blank section of the Oil Painting is really an eyesore; let's add some Paint to it."

Lumian nodded thoughtfully, then asked, "Can you control what other people draw?"

"There are many ways to control the objects in the painting. One is to become a symbol of the Painted World; another is to give them a more complete life; a third is to endow them with Humanity; a fourth is to utilize their essence as information and reorganize the corresponding information; and a fifth is to seize upon the fact that they possess sentience and turn them into your own Marionette..." Anderson unusually gave a long list of answers, and finally said, "After reading this, don't you feel that every possibility you've considered cannot be ruled out?"

"You've gone into such detail just to see if I answer 'yes,' haven't you?" Lumian said, showing no emotion.

In his view, finding out the remaining hidden dangers in the room was not that significant, because it had already been confirmed that Rosanne was being targeted by a certain force or enemy. If the other party was not identified and eliminated, even if the hidden dangers were eliminated today, new ones would appear tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the Colorful-Feathered Parrot was controlled and couldn't finish its sentence.

Seeing that Anderson Hood did not reply, Lumian stood up and looked at Franca.

Franca was standing by the window of Rosanne's house, silently gazing outside.

Lumian walked over to her and looked in the same direction as her.

He saw the late-night food stalls on the street in the distance, the people eating and drinking Late Night, and the many rooms in the high-rise buildings inside the residential area still lit up, adding to the night scene.

Lumian for a while, then turned her head to look at Franca.

Franca watched intently, her gaze seemingly unwilling to look away for even a second.

After a while, she sighed softly, "The night is so beautiful..."