Chapter 57: Memoryless Deduction

Qiu Yinong woke up on the ground.

She clutched her splitting, aching head and rolled on the floor. It took a long time for the sharp pain to fade before she finally looked at her hands.

'Blood?'

'Did someone crack my skull open?'

'Who am I?'

'Where am I?'

At this thought, she let out a yawn and reached into her pocket, finding a few pieces of chewing gum.

She pulled one out, peeled off the wrapper, and tossed it into her mouth, chewing away as she continued to yawn endlessly.

Then...

Struggling to her feet, she spotted a beanbag chair not far away and threw herself onto it without a second thought, lying flat on her back.

'Something is poking me.'

She pulled the hard object from her waist. It was a solid black pistol, its dark surface gleaming with an iridescent sheen.

However, the trigger could not be pulled.

She casually tossed the pistol onto the coffee table.

Besides the pistol, there were five books about the textile industry on the table.

'I cannot remember who I am.'

'Which means I have amnesia...'

'But my basic common sense is still intact. I know a pistol is a pistol.'

'This is a secret room.'

'So my primary task is to escape this secret room. In situations like this...'

'There are usually clues.'

'Strange, why is my reasoning so smooth? I guess... it is because I am just that smart.'

Dumping out the contents of her backpack, she found nothing but food and medicine, so she emptied her pockets entirely as well.

A few pieces of chewing gum, one glass bead, and a crumpled little ball of paper.

She unrolled the slip of paper:

"The Bodhisattva said: Your Hinayana Teaching cannot transcend the deceased; it can only mix with worldly matters. I have the Mahayana Teaching, the Tripitaka, which can transcend the deceased to heaven, deliver suffering people from torment, cultivate a body of infinite longevity, and achieve a state of no coming and no going."

'This is from Chapter 12 of Journey to the West, when Guanyin Bodhisattva was fooling Tang Sanzang.'

'But she was slapped in the face with the truth in Chapter 13, when Tang Sanzang successfully transcended the spirit of the hunter's father.'

'Guanyin Bodhisattva was lying.'

'What is the meaning behind tearing out the passage where Guanyin Bodhisattva tells a lie from Journey to the West?'

'And leaving it on me... Is it a warning to be careful about lying?'

'Wait.'

'How did I know this was from Journey to the West?'

'Unless...'

'Unless I was so deeply familiar with Journey to the West in the past that it had practically become my common sense.'

'Just like the pistol. It is highly likely that I saw pistols often in the past, which is why I know a pistol is a pistol even after losing my memories.'

'Be careful about lying?'

'Who should be careful about lying?'

'I should be careful about lying!'

'Is lying prohibited?'

'If I break this rule...'

Qiu Yinong looked at the pistol on the table. In common understanding, a pistol symbolized righteous judgment.

'Will I be shot to death for lying?'

'This is just my deduction. Although I cannot get a confirmation, I still need to be careful and avoid lying as much as possible...'

She crumpled the paper back into a ball, adopted a shooting posture, and tossed it in a high arc.

Where the paper ball landed...

There were four other paper balls.

Qiu Yinong's pupils shrank instantly at the sight. She stared intently at the five paper balls on the floor.

She realized that all five paper balls were identical in both size and how they were crumpled.

'Let me get this straight.'

'Does this mean someone else threw paper balls exactly like I just did?'

'But everyone's strength and throwing techniques are different. How could five people possibly throw them into the exact same spot?'

'Unless...'

'I was the one who threw all five paper balls!'

'Conclusion: I have appeared in this secret room five times, and I lost my memory every single time.'

'Interesting.'

'Since it was me, and I am this smart, I definitely would have left some clues behind.'

Qiu Yinong slowly stood up and began searching the secret room for the clues she had left for herself.

Soon enough.

She walked directly in front of the beanbag chair, where she found a proper chair and a mirror.

In the mirror, Qiu Yinong had several bloody scratches on her forehead, but that was unimportant.

What was important was that on the surface of the mirror...

There were two passages of blood-red text.

The first passage read:

"The chair has the effect of the Great Memory Restoration Technique; sitting on it will immediately restore your memories."

'Like hell I would believe that!'

'Do I really look incapable of deducing how I got these head injuries?'

'But, this handwriting...'

The second passage read:

"This body is not mine. This is the fourth loop. The future me must figure out why I ended up in this body during the fourth loop. Also, the glass bead should be a memory anchor."

Qiu Yinong carefully examined the words written in fresh blood on the mirror.

Pondering for a moment, she walked over to the coffee table and wiped a bit of blood from the wound on her head with her finger.

She copied the two passages from the mirror onto the table, only to discover...

The handwriting on the mirror and the handwriting on the coffee table were completely identical.

'I was the one who wrote the words on the mirror!'

Wiping the bloody words off the coffee table with her sleeve, she returned to the mirror.

'In other words, I have occupied someone else's body and looped through this secret room five times.'

'During the first four times, I managed to deduce the two pieces of information on the mirror.'

'Wait.'

'If I occupied someone else's body, does that mean someone else occupied my original body?'

'Is this a soul swap?'

'Or a memory swap?'

'Since I have amnesia, it is highly likely to be a memory swap. After all, a soul swap would not necessarily affect memories...'

'Which means that at least two people have had their memories swapped.'

'If there are more people, it becomes even more troublesome. If we assume there are five people and memories swap during every loop, then it means I would have to loop five times before I could return to this body.'

'Then this would not be the fifth loop, but the twenty-fifth loop!!'

'If there are ten people...'

'Then it is the fiftieth loop!'

At this thought.

Qiu Yinong habitually picked up a piece of chewing gum from the table. Without even tearing off the wrapper, she pinched it between her index and middle fingers, miming the motion of smoking a cigarette. She brought it to her lips and took a deep drag.

She inhaled absolutely nothing...

Looking down at the chewing gum in her hand, something suddenly clicked in her mind, and she hurriedly looked at the floor.

'There is only one piece of chewed gum on the floor, not five.'

'This proves that the chewing gum cannot loop, but the paper balls can.'

'Meaning the chewing gum and the paper balls have different properties; one exists within the loop, while the other does not.'

'Since that is the case, then...'

She looked back at the items on the coffee table, her gaze locking onto the pistol and the glass bead.

The glass bead was labeled with the number 2.

The solid black pistol gleamed with an iridescent sheen.

'These two items look completely out of place next to the food and medicine on the table.'

'Is it possible that these two items, or at least one of them, are also part of the loop?'

'It is the glass bead!'

'After all, the writing on the mirror never once mentioned the pistol. Plus, I just deduced that the pistol is meant for shooting liars.'

Qiu Yinong picked up the glass bead.

'Since this thing is a memory anchor, how am I supposed to use it?'

'Wait.'

'If the glass beads can loop, then why do I only have one on me?'

'Should I not have five?'

'There are two possibilities.'

'One: the previous four beads have already been used.'

'Two: if a glass bead is not used, it will not loop.'

'There are no instructions on the mirror on how to use the glass bead. How did the past me know that the glass bead was a memory anchor?'

'The answer lies in...'

'The first passage: the chair has the effect of the Great Memory Restoration Technique!!!'

'How did I know that?'

'Unless, during the last loop when I occupied another body, I used a glass bead to preserve my memories for the next loop!'

'Which means I deliberately omitted the method of using the glass bead, wanting myself or others to deduce the answer.'

'Simply put, let us assume there are four people looping: A, B, C, and D.'

'The first time, my memory appeared in A's body. I used the glass bead to save all the memories of everything that happened to me while in A's body. Because of this, when my memories were transferred to B, I still retained my memories from when I was in A's body.'

'While in B's body, I possessed the memories from A's body. Thus, in B's secret room, I wrote down the first passage on the mirror!'

'But there is a problem here. If that is the case, why did I not retain the memories from the previous loop this time?'