Chapter 1262: The Diligent Gardener Bohemia
'Is it over?'
Bohemia suddenly let out a sigh. Her body relaxed, but her mind was still full of jumbled and confused thoughts. Although she had realized that she was a posthuman on a doomsday, trapped in a family pocket dimension, she couldn't shake off the shadows of the six years of married life she had spent in just one night. Those memories haunted her like remnants of a past life.
"Y-you're not dead," she said again. "I didn't kill you..."
"Well, you can't really say that." Yuan Xiangxi's voice sounded weak and feeble. "You know, my situation is special. If it were two other people who entered, one of them would have to die."
If five people entered, then four would have to die... This pocket dimension was truly brutal.
After a moment's rest, Bohemia felt strength returning to her body. But as she walked down the stairs, her knees were still trembling.
"What the hell were you doing?" After recovering, she thought of her husband standing in the darkness and couldn't help but want to scratch him to pieces, "Was that husband really you? How could you do such a gho—"
Yuan Xiangxi suddenly yelled from downstairs. "Do you want to say it again?"
'Right.'
Bohemia quickly rubbed her face. Having survived alone in the Twelve Worlds, she had long been accustomed to harsh words, and now, suddenly, she had to suppress her anger and speak politely. It felt a bit awkward. "N-No, I guess not. Even if it could be triggered again, we must get out first..."
She quickly swallowed the last sentence, "Otherwise, the people who come in will be stuck here for a lifetime."
Yuan Xiangxi sat up from the pit, covered in dust and splinters. The make-believe game was over, and his expression returned to its usual dullness as if he were perpetually drowsy and confused. "Hmm... the pit is still here, and the floor hasn't been restored. Well, maybe you're right."
Bohemia wasn't sure what she had said was right. After pondering, she couldn't figure it out and simply said, "I knew it was right."
Yuan Xiangxi looked at her for a few seconds and asked her teasingly, "Are you still confused in the head?"
"You have the nerve to call someone else confused with that face of yours?" Bohemia was so angry that she couldn't find a place to vent, so she stomped downstairs. "Get up quickly. Let's get out! You locked the front door, right? Get the key!"
"It wasn't me who locked it," Yuan Xiangxi said, following her to the front door. "The pocket dimension locked it on its own, I think. You try- Oh, it's open?"
Seeing the blue sky outside and the distant mountains surrounding the basin, Bohemia couldn't wait any longer. She rushed out of the door, crossed the porch a few steps, and stopped on the open ground outside to catch her breath. The sunlight finally started to evaporate the coldness in her body. Even though it was morning, the sun was as warm and hot as in the afternoon.
Feeling someone following her, she immediately turned around and glared at the person. "What do you mean? The door is open; why are you surprised?"
"The floor hasn't been restored yet," Yuan Xiangxi said, still looking half-asleep, pointing to the doorway. The wreckage of the first floor was still visible from the half-open door. "It means there's still a tail to this, but since it let us out, maybe this tail has nothing to do with us."
"How do you know?" This guy's brain wasn't any faster than hers. How could he think of that?
Folding his arms, Yuan Xiangxi searched his mind in distress for a while before finally coming up with an explanation, saying, "Ah, you know those movies where they leave a loose end at the end and then make another one... I feel it's similar to that. We went through this part of the plot, and at the latest, it only went up to 1981, but no one said the story of this family ended in 1981."
"I haven't seen that kind of movie," Bohemia said stiffly.
"You haven't lived," Yuan Xiangxi said regretfully.
"I can survive. Can you?" Bohemia wished she could poke his eyes out with her fingers. "You're talking nonsense. The wife I played killed everyone in the house and was free a long time ago. She left; she's dead. What story is there to tell?"
Yuan Xiangxi touched his lips a few times and said, "That may not be the case. Don't forget the photos in the darkroom. The husband didn't take them, but they were the last roll of film left on camera. It shows that the wife survived alone and instead gathered the family members together to take some strange photos..."
Bohemia didn't say anything.
"You know it's true.'' Yuan Xiangxi turned his head and poked her elbow.
Bohemia couldn't say a word. She stared at the white house in the distance. Slowly, she raised her hand and gestured for him to look.
From the half-open door, a hand stretched out, growing longer and longer, soon revealing a shoulder and more shoulders. No matter how long it stretched, the head could never be seen. The hand reached the porch and felt around until it found the reminder left by the previous person. With a quick jerk, it disappeared behind the door.
The door slammed shut, and both of them were startled.
"What is... what is that?" Yuan Xiangxi said, even more afraid than she was despite already being a ghost. "Isn't that arm too long?"
Bohemia didn't answer—because as soon as the door closed, footsteps came from inside.
Although they were far from the house, they could clearly hear the sound of a single person's footsteps unhurriedly ascending step by step. When it reached the second floor, it stopped, and a door creaked open. The footsteps came in their direction, and with a whoosh, they stopped.
Both of them instinctively looked up.
Another Bohemia holding a baby stood in the second-floor bedroom, just opened by the window. Behind the fluttering window curtain, a swollen and pale face appeared silently.
When Bohemia met the face of the other Bohemia, she felt as if she were submerged in ice water, and her body and mind became numb, unable to move—until she suddenly came to her senses with a shiver and realized that there was no one in the bedroom window anymore. She squeezed out a voice, "Is it finally over now? Let's... let's get out of here!"
"Fetch water..."
"What water? Stop talking nonsense."
Puppeteer's face suddenly surfaced. She rubbed her face hard, calmed down for a few seconds, and knew this wouldn't work. "Go to the storage room at the back and get the buckets. You won't activate the pocket dimension. But don't talk to yourself on the way!"
"Why would I talk to myself when I have nothing to do?" Yuan Xiangxi muttered, his eyes fixed in place as if he had gathered some courage. He moved slowly, like a snail without its shell, each step hesitant and reluctant. He circled around the house at a distance, and when he had to approach the warehouse, each step seemed like he was avoiding landmines. After two or three minutes, Bohemia saw him return with two buckets, and she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
They didn't say a word on the way back—they had suddenly been inserted into another twisted and dark life in their own lives. Even though it was a pocket dimension, even though it had ended, it still took them both a while to digest and calm down.
"I've been thinking. I suspect the wife may not have known why she didn't eventually leave the house." Yuan Xiangxi squatted down, letting the buckets fall into the pond. Suddenly, he said, "Although the husband locked all the doors and windows, she couldn't have had the key, and the whole house was like a prison... But how could she not try to break a window? What happened in the house later that kept her from leaving?"
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