Asabam's words made Luo Binhan lose interest in this topic. He didn't ask her why she said that, because he expected that the dwarf star guest wouldn't answer. So he no longer spoke with his mouth, but complained in his head.
No matter how perfect a creature is, you have to eat it, right? He said in his heart.
Garfield agreed: "Conservation and circulation are the basic rules."
Luo Binhan thought this request was unreasonable. A perfect creature, although perfect, still has to plunder from the imperfect outside world. He pressed Garfield if anyone had conceived of "a perfect creature that requires no external matter."
Garfield thought for a while and then said: "I don't know whether the technology can be realized from it, but theoretically it obviously has serious problems. If it does not ask for anything from the outside world, it means that it does not have any need to pay attention to the outside world. Any organizational structure that senses the outside world would be redundant...Does it need to be intelligent? Does it have emotions? I guess it doesn't have to communicate with, or be interested in, other creatures...Can it actually survive?"
Couldn't it not eat or drink and still be interested in the outside world? Luo Binhan asked persistently.
"You mean," Garfield said slowly, "like Ancient Law?"
"Uh." Luo Binhan said. Once again he lost faith and interest in perfect creatures. In order to prevent Garfield from continuing to misunderstand Ancient Law, he kindly reminded the cannibal that Ancient Law did not ask for any external substances. According to Luo Binhan's experience, they will ride on your head and dominate you, not only consuming money, takeaways, televisions, sports cars, and red roses, but also devouring brain cells like cannibals.
"Sounds a lot like a monster called the Sea Old Man," Garfield said thoughtfully, "but I haven't heard of them consuming red roses."
Luo Binhan swore that it was because he had never seen a real devil. There is no need for summoning rituals or sacrifices. They will knock down the spacecraft as you walk on the road, plant them on your sofa, and watch the entire fifty-two episodes of "Little Magic Fairy" while lying down. They will never pay you a penny, nor do they do any housework or labor. The only reason to hand you toilet paper is because it's too noisy. If the oil bottle falls over, not only will they not hold it up, but they will also walk around to watch the excitement. He ensured that everything he said was completely true, and even used the viewing history on his tablet as proof.
"Okay." Garfield concluded at the end, "Maybe the rumors are different from the facts... I did hear that the devils will deliberately create rumors and spread wrong perceptions about them."
Luo Binhan was satisfied for the moment and temporarily forgot about the unpleasantness with Asabam. At this time, he had no idea how far he had gone. Looking back, the giant screen has disappeared deep into the river mist. The flowers and leaves on the river became more and more dense, making it difficult to see the bottom of the river clearly. The mist was changing, the shadows were shaking and the light was moving, as if countless things were quietly sliding past them on both sides. Their presence is so real and strong, yet silent and invisible.
This weird atmosphere quickly consumed Luo Binhan's joy. He looked around several times and even walked to the side to determine if there was anything else around him. Asabam said nothing about this, but Garfield always asked him why he did this.
"There is someone here." Luo Binhan answered this every time.
Garfield tells him no, and in fact they did find nothing. But that feeling did not go away because of this, and Luo Binhan gradually became irritable. He remained silent, trying his best to restrain himself from paying attention to his surroundings, and just followed the direction of the current. At this time he heard a faint sound coming from the fog again.
"Vero." Someone called.
Luo Binhan rushed into the depths of the mist. He knocked open the lotus flowers, stems and leaves, and still saw only empty and endless water. Just when he was about to admit that he was crazy, a vague singing voice sounded from a distance. The singing voice was extremely ethereal, it was difficult to distinguish the male and female, and the lyrics were completely unfamiliar, as if they were composed of meaningless syllables. It was not as fleeting as the hallucinations Luo Binhan had experienced before, but existed for a long time, coming from the side of the water flow. It sounded far away and high - like it was coming from the shore.
There was no way this was some kind of mishearing. Luo Binhan was determined to figure this out. It could be said that he rushed in the direction of the singing recklessly, but only took three or four steps. The shadow in his body forced him to turn around and continue to follow the direction of the water.
"What are you doing?" Luo Binhan asked angrily, "I can't even see who is singing?"
"Follow the water," Asabam replied, "the singing is not important."
"Wait a minute, can you hear me?"
Asabam remained silent. She clenched Luo Binhan's teeth tightly, unable to utter a clear question. Luo Binhan had no choice but to move forward. The song followed them as if the singer was accompanying them on the shore. The song was empty, neither emotional nor eerie, as emotionless as the wind blowing through the leaves. It doesn't make people feel scary, but it makes people feel more lonely and depressed. Luo Binhan could neither pry into the truth of the singing nor open his mouth to shout to stop it. He felt as empty as water in his heart, and the unbearable loneliness gnawed at his chest. He had no choice but to quicken his pace, hoping to escape from the surrounding singing.
Garfield was quiet for a long moment. It wasn't until Luo Binhan almost forgot its existence that it said again: "It's so quiet here."
Quieter than an extinct volcano? Luo Binhan asked angrily.
"You just can't realize it." Garfield said, "Nature is not silent, it is just subtle and difficult to feel. When I was still one with the mother body, I could hear the growth of moss and the accumulation of minerals. They are always moving with time, and when the temperature changes Everything is different, too. And underground, well, there's always a lot of activity deep underground. The flowing rocks there rub against the bottom, louder than any waterfall or torrent you can remember. But here, these fogs, Flowers, water... they exist, but they are so quiet, as if all the sounds come from ourselves. This place is suitable for people who love solitude."
Luo Binhan grunted a few times. He didn't like the topic either. The song made him feel discouraged and indifferent to everything. Sometimes he even wanted to just sit in the water, not going anywhere, not thinking about anything. Lihai City and Silence are as far away as his imagination, but the only things that are real are singing, flowing water and lotus flowers.
He walked dully, his eyes unfocused and his ears deaf, until Garfield said, "What's that?"
Luo Binhan was called by it several times, and finally looked ahead listlessly. He saw another curtain falling from the sky and falling in front of the water. It is as thin as cicada wings, as bright as star dew, and at the same time, there is something dark and close to scarlet revealed from behind the scenes.
He stared at the curtain and poked Assabamu behind him. At this time, the pressure between his upper and lower gums had disappeared, so he opened his mouth and said to Asabam: "Are we walking back again?"
"This is the second way." Asabam said.
The second way. Luo Binhan remembered. There are three curtains in Garfield's unfortunate story: the first is loneliness; the second is terror. Now Asabam says this is the second way, and she obviously knows Garfield's story too.
"Horrifying." He repeated, "How scary can it be? What the hell is scary?"
"This has nothing to do with you." Asabam said.
Luo Binhan admired her greatly for saying such words to her. This sentence simply contains profound life truths, guiding people how to stay away from troubles and feel at ease. Again he stormed toward the curtain. When his fingers touched the curtain, he felt bitingly cold, as if he were in a world of ice and snow, and the singing that followed him on the shore also disappeared. Luo Binhan didn't allow himself time to think. He grabbed the hem of the curtain and violently raised it into the air.
The mist disappeared beyond the curtain. He saw a scarlet sky exposed behind the curtain, with golden, orange and cyan light surging on the scarlet surface, like an endless lake of flames. The thick dark clouds and majestic mountains are as black as iron, like a huge cage that covers the sky and the earth. In the middle of the mountains on both sides, the river flows like a giant python, with a turbid yellow and red color.
