Wei Dong choked back tears, curling up tightly in a ball, and hissed hoarsely towards the door of "Tiger Learning Skills": "Ke'er—Ke'er—come back! Come back to me! Ke—ow—"
A large cat crashed heavily into the room, shoving Wei Dong along with it. Wei Dong was slapped on the back of the head. Looking up, he saw the cat leaping up and diving into Mu Yiran's arms.
"Ke'er—" Wei Dong scrambled to his feet in terror, "He's completely turned into a cat?! What do we do! What do we do! Can he still leave the painting?! Boss! Boss! What do we do?!"
"It's alright," Mu Yiran said calmly, holding the cat tightly, "He hasn't completely transformed yet. His pupils are still human. There's still time—" It
was exactly eleven o'clock.
The box in the center of the room opened with a "snap."
Neatly arranged at the bottom of the box was a stack of brightly colored cards, each bearing a poster for one of the thirteen animated films. However, the posters lacked the film titles, and a pen lay beside them.
There was no paper with instructions, only cards and a pen.
"Are we supposed to write the titles on the cards?" Wei Dong wondered. "This seems too easy."
"It's not easy," Qin Ci pointed to one of the cards. "We don't know which animated film Zhao Haicui died in."
Wei Dong froze, muttering after a long pause, "So… we're going to die in this round…"
"Xiao Ke doesn't know this film either?" Qin Ci asked anxiously.
Ke Xun was only licking his bloodied paw, seemingly oblivious to Qin Ci's words.
"I consider myself to have seen almost every old animated film, but this one is completely new to me," Qin Ci frowned, deep in thought.
"The final question is this, which is somewhat unexpected," Luo Wei, who had been silent until now, suddenly said calmly.
"No, this is a logical question," Mu Yiran said. "If we compare the doors to each hidden world to the beginning and end of each stroke of the character '米' in Miren's signature, then the title of each animated film is perhaps the stroke between the beginning and the end. We've already 'written' the character '米,' but there's still one stroke missing—the beginning and the end, only the middle stroke is missing."
"What are we going to do? None of us have seen this animated film!" Wei Dong looked at his buddy, who was tickling his chin with his hind leg in Mu Yiran's arms, and felt a pang of sorrow.
"Anyway, let's write down the other titles first," Qin Ci said.
Time always flies when life and death are at stake. Everyone stared helplessly at the last card.
If they still couldn't think of the animated film's title by midnight, would they all die here together?
"How could we possibly guess the title…" Wei Dong murmured. "It's not like guessing right or wrong, front or back, or even the numbers one through nine. There are so many Chinese characters, how are we supposed to piece together the title? Who even knows how many characters are in the title…"
"It's like looking for a needle in a haystack…" Qin Ci murmured as well.
"Perhaps we can still use classification, elimination, this method, that method, to narrow down the range of possibilities." Luo Wei's voice was icy, his gaze falling on Li Yaqing's body scattered throughout the room.
Everyone knew that Luo Wei had fallen into hatred and grief again, because even he, a top student, couldn't think of a more useful, scientific method at this moment.
"Meow~~~" Ke Xun let out a long moan in Mu Yiran's arms, then raised his head, looking at Mu Yiran with an adorable expression.
His meow had no meaning, it was just happiness and affection. He was about to completely transform into a cat, and had long forgotten the emotions and thoughts of a human.
Mu Yiran looked down at him. Ke Xun's eyes, so clear and innocent like an animal's, made his heart clench inexplicably.
When he completely became a cat, he would forget all the emotions he had as a human, even the memories of joy and sorrow, and even more so, all the cartoons he had watched during his carefree childhood.
This couldn't be.
He couldn't let him lose all of this.
Mu Yiran raised his eyes and quietly looked at the card in front of him: "All cartoons have a story source. Some come from fairy tales, some from myths and legends, and some from historical records.
"The story of the rabbit throwing fire has a bizarre premise, a strange plot, obscure metaphors, a cruel style, and a mythological ending. I don't think its source is a fairy tale.
"If it comes from myths and legends or historical records, then there should be some clues."
"The old man in the story is ragged and haggard. In this desolate, snowy mountain cave, what would we do if we were in his shoes?"
"We'd probably be cold and hungry, until we die," Qin Ci replied.
"If this isn't a fairy tale, then why are there monkeys, foxes, otters, and rabbits in this cave besides humans? Did they come to warm themselves because of the fire?" Mu Yiran continued calmly and collectedly, "Many animals could come to warm themselves, or even other animals. Why these four in particular? The premise is too strong. I can only assume their purpose has nothing to do with warmth.
" "The monkey, fox, and otter are all holding something in their hands. The monkey is holding fruit, the otter is holding fish, and the fox is holding a lizard."
"We all know that monkeys mainly eat fruit, and it's reasonable that otters eat fish. If we disregard whether foxes eat lizards, then on the surface, these three animals are holding their everyday food.
"They came to this cave, holding their own food, but didn't eat it. What's their purpose?
"The rabbit is clearly in the same boat, coming to this cave for some purpose. However, the other three animals all brought their own food, so why didn't the rabbit?
"If the rabbit also brought its own food, what would it be? Only grass. As for the idea of the little rabbit eating carrots, that's a fairytale. Human-raised rabbits can certainly eat carrots, but wild rabbits seem to have more convenient access to the grass growing everywhere. Picking carrots from the ground is unrealistic."
"So let's look at the nature of the food those three animals are holding—fruit, fish, lizard, and the rabbit can only hold grass. Why isn't it holding anything?
" "Considering the ragged old man, possibly starving and freezing to death, could we speculate that the monkey, otter, and fox are offering their food to him?"
Qin Ci, Wei Dong, Zhu Haowen, and even Luo Wei all stared at him, as if struck by a sudden realization.
"Although lizards aren't a common food, they are still edible meat," Mu Yiran continued calmly. "Fruit, fish, and meat can all be food for the old man, but grass isn't, so the rabbit is holding nothing.
" "Just because of this, is the rabbit going to commit suicide by throwing itself into the fire? This rabbit's pride is a bit too strong.
" "Then why are these animals offering their food to this old man?"
"Considering the later plot, the old man lifted the rabbit, carried it to the heavens, and placed it on the moon, indicating that this old man was not an ordinary person, but a deity.
"Do deities need animal food? Would deities suffer from hunger and hide in caves?
"Clearly, this is a common trope in myths and legends: deities disguise themselves as mortals to test their character. However, in this story, there are no mortals, only animals.
"Following this common pattern, those who pass the deity's test and ultimately ascend to immortality, or achieve a perfect ending, are mostly guided by the deity personally.
"In this story, the one personally guided by the deity is this rabbit, the rabbit that holds nothing in its hands, while the other three animals that held food for the deity did not ascend. "
The fundamental reason for this outcome, I think, can only be related to the rabbit's subsequent act of throwing itself into the fire." If the rabbit threw itself into the fire out of shame for not bringing food, then its ascension to heaven by the gods would be utterly inexplicable. Therefore, I believe there is only one reason why it passed the trials of the gods and was granted ascension.
"The rabbit threw itself into the fire not out of shame, but because it had no food to offer the old man, it offered itself as food, throwing itself into the fire for the old man to eat."
"Holy crap—" Wei Dong was shocked. "This story is simply—it has—I don't know how to say—"
"Cruel kindness, tragic humility," Mu Yiran said.
"Yes!" Wei Dong nodded with a frown. "I don't like this story."
"The formula of this story can be found in many specific stories," Mu Yiran said. "The story has a strong sense of moral instruction, enlightenment, and self-sacrifice, so I think the blueprint for this story is neither a fairy tale nor a folk legend, but comes from a doctrinal allusion. "
Although I haven't seen the animated version, I vaguely remember watching a science program on TV when I was a child, I don't know what kind of program it was, and it mentioned a doctrinal allusion story."
"I've completely forgotten what the story was about, only that the narration mentioned the name of the allusion it referenced. I found the name strange and interesting, so it left a deep impression on me.
"The name of that allusion is called 'The Jataka of the Rabbit,' and it specifically mentioned that the doctrinal allusion had been adapted into a classic story. The story's name is:"
Mu Yiran picked up a pen and wrote its name on the card:
"The Rabbit in the Moon."
Just before midnight, thousands of rays of light emanated from the box in the center of the room, accompanied by a pleasant, childlike melody. A picture frame vaguely appeared in the light, and in the center of the frame were two words full of fairytale charm, just like the two words that children see at the end of every old animated film, words that leave them wanting more and reluctant to part:
Goodbye.