"I..." Luo Binhan said, "I think that's..."
He murmured with a slight stutter. Under the ominous sky rolling like flames, the dark clouds resembled the flying smoke of insects, making his peaceful and beautiful childhood memories strange. Some hazy thoughts sprouted in his mind, making him notice that there were many details hidden in this perceptual memory, which were so unexamined and extremely weird.
They must have been very young at that time, he thought uncertainly, and the image of Zhou Yu sitting on the bow of the boat still remained clearly in his memory. At that time, Zhou Yu was wearing a white shirt, light cyan sportswear and dark black trousers. That was their junior high school uniform. But not the third or second grade of junior high school, otherwise they would not be able to spend such a long vacation in the mountains. And that memory rarely does not include Zhou Yu, which proves that it was an earlier period in their junior high school life. But if that's the case, why would the adults allow two little ghosts from the city to drive a boat alone in the mountains? How did they find such a perfect and usable boat in a deserted mountainous area?
They shouldn't even be there. Luo Binhan still clearly remembered how tall and steep the rocky gorge through which the stream passed was, and how endless the forest was, covering it to the end of the sky. That couldn't be the scene around Lihai City. What could be seen from Luo Binhan's ancestral home in the countryside should be many scattered and delicate small peaks, interspersed with paddy fields and staircases, as well as winding mountain roads that are increasingly mature. If that breathtakingly beautiful stream existed, and if the surrounding area was safe enough for even two children to take a boat trip, it would have been developed into a famous tourist attraction.
However, compared with all these doubts, Luo Binhan cared more about the shining cold star in Zhou Yu's hand. It might just be a thumbtack, a pebble, or the blade of a scalpel - at that time Zhou Yu had accumulated a lot of knowledge about medicine that his peers did not have, from his father who was a well-known brain expert - no matter Anyway, since Luo Binhan never saw Zhou Yu holding it again after that summer, it was probably an insignificant thing.
But Luo Binhan felt that the thing was very familiar. The cold star in his memory was looming in front of his eyes, shining with a metallic luster that made him uneasy, like a key to the terrifying truth. Why was it caught in Zhou Yu's hands? What was causing his uneasiness?
Luo Binhan thought hard about this problem. He even forgot what a dangerous and bizarre situation he was in, and just mechanically controlled the kink in his hands. The lotus leaf boat was rising and falling in the water waves, as if he was gradually groping deeper into his memories. Suddenly Garfield's voice sounded in his head.
"Your mind is confused," it said.
Luo Binhan then remembered that he was not alone in his thoughts now. It was inappropriate for an alien monster to know his private secrets, but at this moment he had no feeling of care in his heart, and he wanted to catch the cold star shining in the void with all his heart.
The thing was very familiar... a symbol full of dangerous metaphors at a moment when he hadn't been alerted, something that should never have appeared in his childhood memories. Luo Binhan almost caught it, but the lotus leaf boat shook violently. Only then did he realize that the river channels on both sides were narrowing, and the river water became fast and hot.
He quickly adjusted the knot and avoided the overly dense dead lotus bushes. The light of Leng Xing quickly faded away, but he still couldn't catch anything. After a while, the lotus leaf boat sailed into the second river bend. There was nothing on the river, and the dead lotus bushes had completely disappeared.
The rapids pushed the lotus leaf boat forward, so that Luo Binhan did not have to do any additional operations. He had to lie down on his side to relieve the torture caused by the hot wind behind him. While thinking about the mysterious past that he had lost, he observed the scenes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. The vertical peaks standing along the coast are as steep as smoke pillars, with no grass growing on their surface. He wanted to know what was behind the peak, but when he looked outside the peak, he could only vaguely see some kind of huge, distant shadow that seemed to reach the zenith, like the outline of the peak. Such shadows were arranged on both sides of the river, and Luo Binhan found eight in total.
The eight sky-reaching shadows all showed a slightly darker orange-red color. The top was submerged in the iron-hot red and bright sky. The clouds were very low, making people feel that the hellish sea of fire overhead was about to descend at any time. Luo Binhan completely lost the true appearance of Leng Xing in his memory. He had to give up temporarily and looked gloomily at the blazing sky that seemed to be approaching.
"The end is like fire," Garfield said in his mind, "but also like ice."
"Where is the ice?" Luo Binhan replied listlessly.
Garfield explained that it was just a metaphor, a confrontation between eternal chaos and order, and that no matter what form it took, it would lead to destined destruction.
It describes a legend about death and trials. In a place where time and space are confused by seven hills, the red sand that ends the world breaks down all matter in the world in the flying wind. The soul-eating rays of light dance on the tomb of stars, accompanied by the endless roar of the abyssal machine. Only the most gifted dreamers can get close, cast a hazy glance at the abyss, and then desperately escape in extreme panic and madness.
These incomprehensible babbles were not threatening, and they only made Luo Binhan feel sleepy. When Garfield talked about the song of all things, Luo Binhan's head suddenly sank and he fell into an extremely restless sleep. He knew that he had fallen asleep, but he was still strangely awake, as if it was just a false drowsiness where his body was paralyzed. There was a voice whispering in his ear, and he thought it was Garfield still telling a story.
"The pillars of the world," the voice said vaguely like an insect, "look, they are crumbling."
Luo Binhan was still asleep. In his dream, he could see everything around him. The eight distant shadow pillars surrounded the river, with countless light fragments flying from the top. He could see how clear and beautiful those spots of light were, like melting moonlight.
He could still hear the voice speaking, whispering something he had never heard before. In the distant kingdom of the underworld, on the edge of eternal hellfire and dreams, a great king was born from the void. He has infinite light and heat, which can be divided into nine rays of light, and then covered with the embers of hellfire to become the pillar of heaven supporting the lower realm. The world is thus isolated from the hellfire, and all living things sprout from the accumulated ashes.
"The lights of creation," the voice told him, "out of which the king created the earthly kingdom. His remaining light fell into the ground, and from the ashes came tiny maggots. They grew in different places and changed in their appearance. It’s different. He left the world to these sons of ashes to take care of, while he lived deep in the mist in the center of the kingdom... His flesh and blood, his descendants, were also born in that mist."
The more the voice spoke, the more strongly Luo Binhan realized that it was not Garfield, not Asabam, or even anyone he knew. The sound was somewhere between the whining wind and the buzzing of insects. Men, women, old and children could not distinguish the timbre. But Luo Binhan could understand every word it said. He felt that the thing was close to him and surrounding him, but he didn't feel panic at all. Through the veil of sleep, the nameless thing seemed to be trying to make some kind of plea to him. His heart had been touched by the heavy sorrow, and he wanted to know where it all started.
The land of mist. the voice repeated. Hellfire is approaching. Go find the light of creation.
The wind rustled loudly. Luo Binhan felt his body falling. He still knew that he was lying on his side on the lotus leaf boat, following the rapids across the scorched earth shore. At the same time, his consciousness followed the sound and went away, riding the wind and mist, into the gray and quiet winter dream.
