"Later, although we followed the security guard to the road light that was closest to the Teaching Building, it took us almost ten minutes to run from the security guard to that road light."

"Throughout the process, either distance or time, or perhaps both, had an issue."

"From my recent experience, the problem seems to be with the distance."

"I discovered in front of the Dormitory building that the road lights moved with the stretching of the ground, thereby increasing the distance between them."

"Therefore, I believe that as the school map layers descend, the road lights between them shift, the exact distance I am not sure of, but one thing is certain."

"Under abnormal weather, the sequence of the road lights is consecutive."

Lin Yi, while speaking, retrieved the map from the student handbook.

On the "normal" map, publicly displayed, a road ran between buildings, flanked by road lights with scattered numbers.

"Under normal weather, the sequence of these road lights is random, but with the descent of the school map layers during abnormal weather, their positions become orderly in the movement."

"During the day, there's no need to look at the road lights, so during the day, it doesn't matter whether the lights are correctly positioned as long as they are on either side of the road."

"The same applies at night, the road lights distributed on either side just need to be functioning."

"However, it's different in exceptional weather conditions."

"I believe, the function of road lights is not only illumination and shelter but also act as beacons, guiding us to escape when layers descend, just like... exit signs."

"Are you done?" Tian Bufan glanced at Lin Yi."

Lin Yi thought for a moment, then nodded, "That's pretty much it, I guess."

"Now it's my turn." Tian Bufan said.

Lin Yi watched Tian Bufan intently, awaiting his view on the road lights."

"Firstly, your understanding of the road lights is quite close to mine, but still slightly lacking."

"You're not just consoling me, are you? Is it a tiny bit or a lot?" Lin Yi made a hand gesture indicating 'a little', which he particularly disliked."

"look at this." Tian Bufan signaled for Lin Yi to come closer."

Next to him was the paper he took from Lin Yi. While Lin Yi was speaking, he had already tampered with the paper.

The treatment was simple: he made two tiny holes in the paper and threaded the ends of a silk thread through each hole.

"These two dots represent two different buildings, and this thread represents the road between them."

Lin Yi nodded; this step was in line with his earlier thoughts, and if he wasn't mistaken, Tian Bufan would next scrunch up the paper."

As Lin Yi had anticipated, Tian Bufan crumpled the paper into a ball, then flattened it on the table."

Next, Tian Bufan traced the exposed part of the thread on the paper with a pen and added some dots."

"We can consider this as the school layout under normal layers," Tian Bufan pointed to the flattened ball of paper and added, "the same as the map included in the student handbook."

"These two dots represent two buildings."

"The line I drew with the pen represents the road between the buildings."

"The dots I marked along the line represent the road lights along the way."

Lin Yi nodded; so far, all these matched his "understanding."

Tian Bufan slowly unrolled the paper, explaining as he did so: "This is the process of layer descent."

"As the layer begins to descend, the map stretches and warps... but this distortion and stretching is actually an unfolding of the school in a literal sense."

"As it opens up, the originally disorderly road lights will regain order... but the distance between them becomes uneven, which is why it took us ten minutes earlier."

After fully unrolling the paper and finding the position of the dots, he used a pen to write some numbers in sequence."

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6..."

After writing, he scrunched up the map once more, and indeed, the numbering of the road lights appeared distorted."

"After the layers are restored, it turns back into this shape."

Lin Yi nodded, probably because the previous sense of crisis had been too intense, so his understanding of the road lights and the school's abnormalities was particularly profound."

Tian Bufan said, "These are also my findings, but... I did this demonstration especially for you, don't you have any other discoveries? Any further insights... do you?"

Lin Yi was slightly stunned; he thought carefully but couldn't grasp what Tian Bufan wanted him to discover."

Tian Bufan glanced at the clock on the wall and smiled, "Alright, you've thought for a minute now, time is tight, let me explain."

Lin Yi awkwardly touched his nose."

Tian Bufan continued, "About the problem with the layers."

"You see... when the school's layer falls, the map unfolds, and when the layer restores, the map reverts, right?"

"Yes," Lin Yi listened."

"Here's the issue," Tian Bufan said, "have you noticed? Whether the layer is falling or restoring, we are still on the same piece of paper."

Lin Yi's forehead showed a few question marks: "???"

"Don't understand?" Tian Bufan asked."

"Not really."

"emmm..." Tian Bufan paused, thought about how to phrase his explanation, then said, "Let's put it this way."

"This is a map layer of the campus," he held the paper in one hand and placed his other hand under the paper, "this is another 'world.'"

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