Astrology Hall with Flesh and Blood

Chapter 20

She could see everything in front of her as clearly as if she were standing under a spotlight on a stage, witnessing the dense crowd of people below. The objects under the fluorescent lights were all too familiar: desks, filing cabinets. The whole scene was like a view through a camera lens, a square and orderly block, and as she moved left and right, the image in front of her moved in sync.

"You're awake?" A familiar male voice was like a godsend to Yan Wuyue. The astrologer! He was right beside her!

It was infuriating! She could clearly hear him so close, yet she couldn't see him at all. Besides her head and neck, her hands and feet seemed bound by some invisible force, rendering her unable to move freely. Oh, but jumping up and down and moving left and right were possible—it was like a character in a 2D game, needing to use all four keys to move! Helpless, she could only resort to crab-like steps, inching her way towards the astrologer.

Stop! What did I bump into? Since I couldn't turn my head, I could only strain my eyes and try to look to the side—hopefully I wouldn't become cross-eyed! Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a strand of silver hair. The astrologer was doing the same thing, trying her best to extend her field of vision.

"What on earth is going on?" she blurted out anxiously. "Why are we acting so strangely, and our bodies aren't obeying our commands?"

Her hands groped frantically around her until she touched another cold hand, which she grasped like a lifeline. Strangely, her reason told her it was the astrologer's hand, but why did it feel so strange? It was as if the hand was just a thin sheet of paper, shapeless at all…

She couldn't help but tell him about her doubts.

“So you haven’t discovered it yet,” the astrologer sighed, a wry smile on his face. “I thought someone as clever as you would have already figured out the wonders of this place.”

She tried to shake her head, but unfortunately, she couldn't even do that. So she had to settle for second best, rolling her eyes left and right to indicate that she didn't know.

"Stick out your tongue," the astrologer told her.

She opened her mouth, sticking out her small pink tongue; at first everything was normal, but just as her tongue was about to stick out, an invisible force stopped it from moving forward. No matter how much she sweated with anxiety, her tongue simply wouldn't come out. It was as if there was an invisible barrier in front of her mouth, and even with all her strength, she couldn't break through that barrier.

"Could it be...?" A bizarre thought involuntarily surfaced in her mind. Her hand covered her body, slowly sliding down her neck. Suddenly! Without warning, she let out a bloodcurdling scream, a scream that could be described as horrifying and utterly shocking:

"Aaaaaaah! Where are my breasts? They're gone!"

"Even if it's only a 70B, it's still a chest that took five years and a lot of hard work to grow! How could it just disappear like that?! What am I going to do?!"

Someone chuckled:

"Oh, you're a 70B, that's a bit small..."

Yan Wuyue's face flushed red instantly. "None of your business!" she cursed vulgarly. "A ghoul dares to criticize someone's figure? Shameless!"

Only after she said it did she realize something was off; that flippant tone didn't sound like it came from an astrologer. Sure enough, the astrologer chimed in, complaining that she had wronged him.

“Not just your chest…” At this point, Yan Wuyue became suspicious again, feeling that the astrologer was chuckling, “our nose, chest cavity, pelvis, feet… and other things with thickness have all disappeared.”

“No, to be precise, only the thickness has disappeared. What remains are only the length and width,” he added.

No wonder their necks couldn't turn, only their eyes could, and no wonder their limbs could only move horizontally. In other words, their entry from the real world into the photograph meant they had moved from a three-dimensional world into a world with only two dimensions: length and width.

"So, does that mean we've all become people in this photo?" Yan Wuyue deduced. "If someone were to look at this photo from the Ivy Ghost House, they would only see us moving around in the photo, like in a two-dimensional game, only able to move up and down and left and right in two dimensions, unable to escape the photo. They would never imagine that we are actually still alive."

"So that's it!" She suddenly understood. That explained why the photo was so eerie, with the dozen or so senior brothers and sisters appearing and disappearing at will. They were originally living, breathing people, only now transformed into two-dimensional beings who could only move within the photograph. So… those dozen or so people, along with An Lin and Lonely Ox, were still living within that photograph?

And that damned Da Wenxuan is here too!

Volume Two: The Haunted House Incident (Part Ten)

"Everyone, look closely," a man's voice sounded somewhat familiar, "there's a bracelet in front of us, isn't there?"

The chattering of many people indicated that they could see clearly with their squinting eyes. Indeed, in this extremely narrow two-dimensional world, communication without sound was almost impossible. Fortunately, the silver bracelet was shiny and smooth; otherwise, with Yan Wuyue's current eyesight, she wouldn't have been able to see it at all.

The person cupped the bracelet in their palms, then made a swift, dazzling movement. When their hands opened again, the bracelet was gone!

"How good is my telekinetic ability?" The man spread his hands and shook his whole body to prove his innocence. "Why don't you guess where that bracelet went?"

"It's in your hidden pocket!" someone shouted.

"You ate it!" some people said.

"No, no!" The man's tone was full of smugness. Suddenly, his optimistic voice turned to Yan Wuyue, "Do you know where it went, Junior Sister?"

It really was him, Da Wenxuan! Yan Wuyue was furious when she got angry, and her words became even more unrestrained:

"What a joke! How would I know about your little tricks!"

"Enough with the nonsense, release Lonely Cow and the others from this damned photo, or else..."

She seemed to hear Da Wenxuan's laughter, "Otherwise... what will you do to me?"

“Otherwise…” She hesitated for a moment, then suddenly remembered the astrologer, and raised his hand high, “Otherwise, the ghouls will eat you!”

"No!" the astrologer cried out, his panicked tone revealing the extent of his shock. "It has nothing to do with me! I hate men's flesh the most, it's old and hard, and it's easy to get stuck in my teeth!"

"If it were you, I might consider it..." Before the astrologer could finish his almost teasing remark, Yan Wuyue had already put her hands on her hips and shouted in a commanding voice:

"Dawenxuan!"

"Hand over Lonely Cow and Anlin!"

Out of her sight, Da Wenxuan slowly straightened up, and the people surrounding him stepped back. He walked steadily toward her sideways.

"The reason you deliberately rushed into the photo was to save those two people?"

What a bizarre scene! The two stood almost shoulder to shoulder, head to head, about to engage in a fierce verbal battle, yet their eyes were fixed straight ahead, unable to exchange even a moment's words. Yan Wuyue straightened her neck and shouted:

"Of course! If you don't release them, I will never forgive you!"

Now, her only weapon is her voice. Da Wenxuan chuckled softly.

"Maybe they don't want to go back! They're so engrossed in their happy life together that they don't even bother with our group activities... I think even if you wanted to take them with you, they probably wouldn't agree."

What?! Yan Wuyue's heart sank. In just a few days, their progress had been so fast? In the real world, An Lin clearly avoided Lonely Cow. Even though Lonely Cow was full of enthusiasm, Yan Wuyue, as an outsider, saw right through him. Then again, although An Lin was outstanding in appearance and had a likable personality, attracting many suitors, Lonely Cow wasn't bad either. In terms of talent, passion, and character, he was a perfect match for An Lin. Even if An Lin suddenly changed her mind and accepted him, it wouldn't be surprising... Judging from the photos, they were so intimate, didn't that confirm their relationship?

That being said, why did Yan Wuyue feel a slight tightness in her heart when she first heard the news that the two of them were dating? Was it simply because it was too sudden?

"I've always found it strange that even if you're willing to stand up for a friend and jump into an unfamiliar world, your enthusiasm for helping others seems a bit excessive..." She listened nervously to Da Wenxuan's words, afraid that he would reveal some unspeakable truth, "Or perhaps, you're just obsessed with someone..."

"Stop talking!" Like a thunderclap from a clear sky, Yan Wuyue's sharp shout startled Da Wenxuan, silencing him completely. "Stop talking!" she repeated fiercely, "Say another word and I'll kill you!"

The voice of the Lonely Cow seemed to appear out of nowhere, tinged with a hint of doubt:

"Yan Wuyue? What are you doing here?"

That was the sound she so desperately wanted to hear—ever since he screamed and disappeared into the Ivy Haunted House, she had clenched her fists in her dreams, vowing to find him. Now her wish had finally come true. Lonely Cow, though blind, the sound clearly told her that he was right beside her.

Immediately afterwards, An Lin's soft voice rang out:

"Niu Niu, who is it?"

There's nothing more to say, nothing more to ask. Lonely Cow caught up with An Lin, perfectly fulfilling his wish while cruelly shattering all of Yan Wuyue's fantasies.

Ever since their first meeting beneath Guo Moruo's statue, that solitary figure standing in the rain had been deeply etched into her mind. Together, they built the astrology forum from scratch, working tirelessly without complaint. Her own personality was too fiery; though her inner desires were noble, they often clashed with the equally impatient Lonely Taurus. Even so, their relationship was still quite good; at least for Lonely Taurus, she was an indispensable work partner and arguing buddy. Without one of them, the other would be equally listless.

However, she was not among his potential girlfriends...

Because of a traumatic experience in high school, the outwardly strong Yan Wuyue becomes timid and hesitant when it comes to matters of the heart. She'd rather let her feelings fester inside than utter a single word. Since An Lin joined the astrology section, Lonely Ox's eyes lit up, and he immediately became her devoted servant. To win An Lin's favor, he even insisted on having Yan Wuyue as an advisor.

"You're a woman, after all. You should know what girls like, right?" He earnestly asked Yan Wuyue for advice.

What do you mean by "at least she's a woman"? She's clearly a vibrant and energetic 19-year-old female college student! Yan Wuyue wanted nothing more than to punch his nose flat. She suppressed her anger, but then an even more egregious attack came:

"I think we should forget about it. A strong girl like you would probably like ghosts and monsters, and it would be terrible if you scared Anlin! She's very delicate!"

Idiot, idiot, idiot! Why are you bullying yourself like this? Yan Wuyue knew she wasn't gentle enough, obedient enough, or as feminine and lovable as An Lin, but she was still a normal girl with emotions and desires! Who could stand being hurt like this by the boy she liked every day?

Volume Two: The Haunted House Incident with Spider Lily and Ivy (Part Eleven)

"How pathetic," Da Wenxuan said mockingly as he appeared beside Yan Wuyue. "A beautiful young woman bravely rescued her lover, but unfortunately, he doesn't appreciate it at all!"

Yan Wuyue suddenly reached out and grabbed his arm with a force that seemed unusual for a girl. "I told you, don't say another word!" she threatened menacingly. "Did you hear me?"

“Lonely Cow, Anlin!” she shouted their names to mask her inner turmoil. “I caught him! Let’s go out together!”

Yan Wuyue heard the heavy footsteps slowly approaching her, including those of her dozen or so senior brothers and sisters. "It's no use," someone shouted, "The process of entering the two-dimensional world is irreversible. Even Da Wenxuan can't get out."

"How could this be?" Yan Wuyue couldn't believe her ears. "But when I was in the Ivy Ghost House, I clearly saw Da Wenxuan, with a body exactly like the real person's."

Projecting a 3D object onto a 2D plane creates an image. In this process, information about the object's depth and invisible parts is lost, while only its length and width are preserved—this is dimensionality reduction. Conversely, it is impossible to reconstruct a 3D model from a 2D image because the lost depth cannot be recovered from the length and width.

As for why the Da Wenxuan she saw was no different from ordinary people... that requires his special explanation.

What the human eye perceives are actually two-dimensional visual images. Due to the different positions of the two eyes, two slightly different two-dimensional images are seen simultaneously. During this process, the brain can extract corresponding depth information from these two different two-dimensional images. By using the depth information from both eyes, not only can the distance between objects and the observer be determined, but the three-dimensional shape of each object can also be identified. In 1970, David Maar, a professor at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), pioneered a comprehensive research approach combining computational technology, biology, and psychology to study brain function, laying the foundation for computer vision. According to his theory, the real world is three-dimensional, while the world perceived by the human eye is only 2.5-dimensional. In his envisioned view, the brain constructs symbolic representations of the external world internally, revealing many aspects implicit in the retinal image. Maar believed that all of this could not be accomplished in one step; instead, he hypothesized the existence of a sequence of representations: the "primal sketch," the "2.5-dimensional sketch," and the "3D model" representation. The primal sketch reveals important information such as changes in light intensity, geometric distribution, and organization in the two-dimensional image. It processes features including boundary segments, spots, endpoints, discontinuities, and boundaries. 2.5D feature maps reveal the orientation (and approximate depth) and contours of visible surfaces in an observer-centric coordinate system. 3D model representations describe various shapes and their spatial organization centered on the object. (For more on this part of Maar's theory, see his seminal work, *Computer Vision*.)

“In other words, the world we live in has ‘depth,’ but it’s different from the depth in a simple three-dimensional world. To an observer in the real world, every point in our world has ‘depth,’ and the observer’s brain extracts this ‘depth information’ to perceive that we have a three-dimensional shape; however, we ourselves cannot escape this world because that so-called three-dimensional shape simply does not exist.” Da Wenxuan continued to explain, “Welcome to the 2.5-dimensional world.”

Oh… Yan Wuyue slowly understood. Since human vision is 2.5-dimensional, it is natural not to be able to distinguish between the real world and the 2.5-dimensional world. Under the collective consultation of the brain's neurons, both are judged to be equally real.

The 2.5-dimensional and depth information deceived not her eyes, but her brain.

So... the reason why the "fluorescent lamp" room sometimes goes back to fifteen years ago and sometimes to five years ago is because these are all 2.5-dimensional images?

“Yes, you are very intelligent,” Da Wenxuan replied, his tone carrying a subtle, unspoken meaning. “This room holds special significance for me…”

"So, whenever something memorable happens, I scan its 2.5-dimensional image into my brain and replay it exactly as it was at certain times." This is the so-called mystery of the time tunnel. In fact, those things only exist in Da Wenxuan's mind and are projected from time to time to deceive the eyes of ordinary people.

Is it worth commemorating? Yan Wuyue's heart skipped a beat.

"You recorded images from fifteen years ago?" She slowly deduced, "Or are you saying you've been here since fifteen years ago?"

No one could see the bitter smile creeping onto Da Wenxuan's lips. His voice trailed off for a moment, then suddenly broke into a spirited shout:

"In short, you can't go back, junior sister!"

"Let's have fun together! Here, there is no suffering of birth, old age, sickness, or death, nor the torment of joy and sorrow, only sunshine, warmth, friendship, and endless fun!" He turned to the group with great enthusiasm. "Now, I'll perform another show for you, shall I? This time, I'll bring back the missing silver bracelet!"

This is awful! Is Yan Wuyue destined to be trapped in this tiny photograph for the rest of her life, forced to watch Lonely Cow and An Lin's intimate moments? A world without birth, aging, sickness, and death is so cold and hopeless. Even if she could live forever, what difference would it make from being in prison? At least in prison there's hope; one day she'll be released. Even with a life sentence, everyone has a chance, and eventually, she'll die and find eternal release. But here? Ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years, or even longer—forever imprisoned in a 2.5-dimensional world, unable to escape. It's practically an eternal hell…

"Are you afraid of death?" the astrologer, who had remained silent, asked her. She had asked herself the same question before deciding to enter the photograph.

“No…” This time, she finally understood, “I am more afraid of living an endless, mindless, zombie-like existence than of a short-term death.”

“Just like me now…?” The astrologer let out a soft sigh, a sigh that contained such a painful past that it sounded so heartbreaking. “Then, can Yan Wuyue break down the wall connecting the 2.5-dimensional world and the real world? For the freedom and death you yearn for.”

"I'm looking for it myself, no need for you to remind me!" Yan Wuyue grumbled at his nagging while straining her eyes to observe Da Wenxuan's every move. He was performing his "telekinesis" trick again; with a beautiful feint, the silver bracelet flew back into his palm. Exclamations of amazement rose and fell, but even those weary gasps seemed to please him. Heaven knows how many times he'd performed this trick in this world of photographs over the years. Even the most brilliant trick gets tiresome after a while, let alone something as simple as magic...

Wait, something's not right! She jumped up suddenly, like Columbus discovering a new continent.

Volume Two: The Haunted House Incident (Part Twelve)

More than a decade ago, when special human abilities were all the rage, she watched some live performances by so-called "qigong masters." Although those performances were eventually refuted as "magic" and "pseudoscience" and were heavily criticized by the academic community, the words of one of the "qigong masters" left a deep impression on her when she was young.

The master claimed that his so-called telekinetic abilities, such as taking pills from a sealed medicine bottle, were simply transferring those pills to a fourth-dimensional or even higher-dimensional space imperceptible to ordinary people. Similarly, suppose there exist two-dimensional beings, for example, existing within a painting. When we humans place a watch on this painting, the two-dimensional beings would certainly find it strange—why is there an extra watch? If we then remove the watch from the painting, the two-dimensional beings would be even more curious: "Where did the watch go?" To them, this mysteriously appearing and disappearing watch was a case of "divine vanishing." If it had been in the painting from the beginning, wouldn't removing it be seen as "divine disappearance" by the two-dimensional beings? A god—humans from the three-dimensional world—taken it away!

(The higher dimensions mentioned here do not include the dimension of time. One of the most famous theoretical physicists of our time, Harvard University professor Lisa Randall, and others believe that the universe has ten or more dimensions, and that our four-dimensional spacetime—comprising three spatial dimensions plus one time dimension—is actually just a subspace of a higher-dimensional universe. For theories on this topic, see superstring theory and works such as *A Brief History of Time* and *Warped Space*.)

Similarly, perhaps some humans with special abilities can indeed communicate between the three-dimensional world and higher dimensions, and allow objects to move freely between them. If, if what Da Wenxuan just performed wasn't magic at all, but genuine, unmistakable "telekinesis," then his special ability might actually be able to take them out!

"Perhaps the world here is indeed a 2.5-dimensional world, as you say, but is there really no way to return from 2.5 dimensions to 3 dimensions?" she began to question Da Wenxuan.

“The lost information cannot be recovered,” he replied. “You can see the calm lake, but you can never guess what kind of undercurrents are surging beneath the surface. The seaweed, fish, shrimp, and rocks all disappear beneath the ripples of the lake.”

"But even if you've blinded me with 2.5D images, why does my sense of touch feel so real? I touched that pen and magazine with my own hands; don't tell me that was an illusion too. Even if the eyes can lie, the touch doesn't!"

“Especially that silver bracelet…” she gradually raised her voice, feeling her friends gather around her, all holding their breath to listen to her analysis, “The bracelet travels back and forth between two worlds; you even use it to guide us into the world of the photograph. If the bracelet is also a 2.5-dimensional image, it just doesn’t make sense!”

"Your 'telekinesis' performance was basically sending the bracelet into the real world, right? That's why it disappeared from here. And then, it reappeared because you 'grabbed' it back from the real world! So, in that sense..."