novelnext Chapter 114 The Frail Connors
Chapter 114 The Frail Connors
Chapter 114 The Frail Connors
(The plot begins with the Three-Body Problem war, and the foreshadowing is described in reverse chronological order.)
Lady Shangdu wore a light purple sleeveless tight-fitting dress, with a slit from the thigh down to almost the waist, just like a cheongsam.
She was standing in front of her psychic hut to greet Connors.
At this moment, Connors' clothes were almost completely soaked, his body was trembling uncontrollably, and his face was filled with fear.
"A friend of mine said you could help me."
Lady Shangdu, with her long black hair draped over her shoulders, stood before Connors, her tone revealing concern:
"I feel like you don't know yourself any better than I do about you. Come over to the fireplace to warm up and get rid of the chill."
And tell me what happened.
Connors, with a weak and helpless expression, followed Lady Shangdu to the table and sat down. Feeling the chill on her body gradually dissipate as the firelight dissipated, she slowly spoke:
I keep having a nightmare—
"In my dream, I was a farmer who accidentally threw my axe into the river. A man with a goatee emerged from the riverbed, holding two axes—one was my iron axe, and the other was a golden axe—"
"His expression was terrifying—this dream happens to him every day."
Connors looked extremely frightened, and as he spoke, tears welled up in his eyes, which he couldn't help but wipe away with his hand.
The expression on Lady Shangdu's face gradually changed from indifference to confusion. She reached out and took Connors's tearful little hand in her palm.
She saw the future, but it wasn't Connors' future:
Above the now-ruinsed metropolis, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman looked down at the lifeless city below.
"I saw the devastation after a great war, and I also saw a word that defined it: The Three-Body Problem."
Lady Shangdu withdrew her hand from Connors's, clutching her head and instinctively reaching for her hair.
"The Three-Body War? What is that?"
Connors interrupted Lady Shangdu's thoughts:
"What's wrong with me? Can you help me?"
A bluish-green light flickered at Lady Shangdu's fingertips. Ignoring Connors sitting opposite her, she placed her hand on the tarot cards on the table.
"The tarot cards will tell me who will start this war and how I can stop them."
The first card she flipped over depicted two figures, an adult and a child, with the word "Boy" written underneath.
The child was unremarkable, but the adult behind him had a fist raised to the sky, with lightning flashing around him and a large, thick lightning bolt symbol on his chest.
"I haven't met him yet, but I know who he is and how wrong it was for him to be chosen."
Click!
It was raining heavily outside the psychic hut when a large bolt of lightning struck, the sound startling Connors.
"Please tell me quickly, what misfortune will befall me?!"
However, the lady of Shangdu, sitting opposite her, whose figure was accentuated by her form-fitting dress, did not answer. Instead, she turned over two more tarot cards:
"It's not about you yet—it's about the Justice League."
Connors saw images of Wonder Woman and Superman on the tarot cards, with the words "hero" and "warrior" written below them.
Setting the revealed cards aside, Lady Shangdu revealed the fourth card and then exclaimed in surprise:
"No! It can't be her!"
The image on the card is of a woman whose entire body is covered by a red robe and whose face is also covered by a hood.
But that's irrelevant; the skull-shaped box the woman is holding identifies her:
"It's Pandora! She is one of the three Primarchs, despised by the gods, and she was cursed by the Ancient Council to have immortal life."
They walk among us—"
The tarot card has the word "humanity" written on it.
Opposite Lady Shangdu, Connors hugged herself tightly. She was still shaken by the thunder and didn't react to Lady Shangdu's words.
Lady Shangdu continued to flip cards, and the fifth card was a man wearing a strange helmet.
"This is the second Justice League, a team created by human hands rather than by destiny."
Why can't I still see the parts about you?
Lady Shangdu looked at the girl opposite her as if she were seeing a lingering fog. She turned over the sixth card, which was still not about her, but about Batman.
The card reads "Detective".
The seventh card reads "Alien," depicting a green-skinned, red-eyed creature known as "Mars Manhunter."
"The real intentions are concealed by lies, and Martian Manhunter is not the only one among them who is in disguise. They all have secrets."
Although Lady Shangdu wanted to help the girl sitting opposite her, the tarot readings today kept revealing other related content, which made Lady Shangdu suspicious, and she couldn't help but want to continue to explore what would happen next.
The eighth card is a faceless man wearing a long black suit and tie, with a top hat on his faceless head.
"What is this? Why doesn't he have a face? — He's not the guy from my dream."
Connors glanced at the eighth card, saw the word "Riddler" written below the Faceless Man, and, while breathing softly into his clasped hands, said pitifully:
"Please stop flipping the cards and tell me what you saw?"
"Oh, right, the goatee-faced man in my dream had two lines of blood painted on his face. He said, he said—"
He said, "Welcome to the Dray Union!!"
Just as she was speaking, Lady Shangdu had already turned over the ninth card, and then her face became unusually flustered, even her usually calm tone turned sharp:
"No!! I know what 'The Three-Body Problem' means now!"
"They're here! Some of them are already here!"
"I need to warn the Justice League!"
Lady Shangdu looked even more helpless than Connors when he first entered the psychic hut. Just as she was about to get up, Connors grabbed her hands across the table.
Connors' expression changed from fear and helplessness to gradual surrender:
"You can indeed see the future, Lady of Shangdu. But unfortunately, you can't see anything about me."
"Magnification" and "Master of Lockpicking" lock away all of one's own information; this is the method Connors used to deal with Lady Shangdu's prophetic abilities.
"Who are you?" Lady Shangdu tried to break free from Connors's hands.
No matter how hard she tried, her hands crackling with blue-green lightning, the seemingly frail girl opposite her showed no sign of strain, handling her as easily as if she were handling a chick.
"I want to make sure you don't warn anyone about their future," Connors said with a smile.
Her image gradually transformed from a frail and helpless young girl into a robust woman with a smile on her lips, wearing a trench coat commonly seen in Gotham, with a black smoke cape draped behind her.
Outside the psychic hut, countless vines soared into the sky, completely enveloping the hut and making it an area where not even a wisp of wind could penetrate.
Inside the psychic hut, slender and resilient vines spread across the ground like snakes, climbed onto the table, climbed onto Lady Shangdu's chair, and bound her body, which was dressed in a close-fitting long dress, in a special way.
"You can call me an outsider," Connors said with a smile, reaching out to pinch Lady Shangdu's soft cheek.
His fingers slid across her face, following the curve of her swan-like neck, and rested on Lady Shangdu's shoulder.
Before Lady Shangdu could scream again, vines sealed her mouth and blindfolded her, effectively imprisoning her in the chair.
"My acting skills seem to have improved quite a bit."
Connors glanced at the tarot cards on the table and walked out of the psychic hut without a care. The vines along the way automatically gave way and closed up again after he left.
Inside the small house, only Lady Shangdu remained, bound and gagged. On the table, the ninth tarot card depicted Connors' black cloak billowing in the wind, with flames of war raging behind him.
Below it is written the word "outsider".
[Today's Gossip: The Three-Body War (Ongoing) - The Three-Body Problem]