There was one thing that Jania had never seen since she was born. She's seen pedophiles and murderers, drug addicts and real gangsters getting into trouble. She's seen so much danger that even Malcolm says she's a magnet for trouble. But even so, there was still something she couldn't imagine, and that was her mother crying. For as long as she could remember, her mother had always been a stubborn and difficult person, someone who gave opponents a headache just looking at her. She had seen her mother become irritable when she encountered setbacks, but she had never seen her show weakness. However, that kind of thing did happen, and that kind of thing only existed in her brother's memories.
There is a theory that mothers prefer their first-born children. That's not necessarily true, but Zhannia sometimes feels that Yu Qingshu's attitude towards her brother is different from his attitude towards her. There was a bond between them that was based on trauma. When Jania and her mother would argue head-on, mother and son would sidestep each other in front of something invisible, as if there was a wound there that Jania couldn't see - of course, her brother was doing well. This can be seen from all aspects, and he has not been treated badly on the other side.
Does she love her brother? There is no doubt about it, just as Hannah loves her sister too. But on the other hand, her brother didn't grow up with her, and he wasn't Malcolm's child. At least half of him was unfamiliar to Jania. What if they were not related at all? Will they still care about each other's situation? she does not know. Maybe nothing will change, maybe everything will be different. They often quarreled. But what if he disappeared, or died. How sad her mother would be. That would also be beyond the imagination of Jania, and she didn't want to think about it.
Realizing that Zhou Wenxing also had a brother was Zhaniya's breakthrough. She had known this for a long time, but she had not thought of it as something particularly noteworthy. Life, animals, and humans are all similar on a natural scale. Common ground can be infinitely explored, exaggerated and praised infinitely, but most common ground has little meaning. Two very similar people can despise each other and firmly believe that they are incompatible with each other.
However, Zhannia feels that the key point in this matter lies in grasping and imagining the main features. She doesn't yet believe in souls or spirits, nor is she convinced that people have some indestructible "quality," but she knows that people's actions must have motives. Motivation often precedes formal principles and principles. It is closely connected with instinctive desires, which is closer to the "essence of the soul" than character. That is to say, if you know what the main motivation of a person's action is, you can also roughly know what he will do - whether he does it wisely or not is another matter.
Detective Dubois began to slowly study Zhou Wenxing along the path of motivation. Want to understand an object that is completely different from yourself? You need an entry point. A starting point that allows people to change their stance and put themselves in someone else’s shoes. For the famous detective Dubois, her long-term worry about her sick brother was a shortcut to get closer to Zhou Wenxing. She ran out tonight because of him. What about Zhou Wenxing? If this strange young man also traveled a long distance for his brother, then all his seemingly confusing actions revolved around a meaningful goal. She couldn't see what it was yet because she didn't know his brother. She has not yet been able to see through the facts that connect actions and motives.
So what about starting from herself? She also has an older brother. Her brother was indeed a patient. And if she wanted to make him "normal," or, in other words, keep him away from the temptation of death, what would she do? She wanted him to see a doctor, that was easy enough—but if she wanted to send him to a psychiatric clinic or a counseling room, she first needed him to admit that he had a problem and get him treatment and help. How to get her brother to face himself, to bring that sick, disguised persona out into the light, so that they could truly begin to heal. However, her brother's problem is probably not organic, which is very different from a disease that can cause high fever and hallucinations. What kind of disease did Zhou Wenxing's brother suffer from? Has he recovered? Or has it become a permanent disease? The cliff of intelligence crossed her path, and she had to find a new bridge to continue.
"What kind of person is your brother?" she asked Zhou Wenxing.
She felt that Zhou Wenxing was surprised by the question she asked. He looked at her outside the bamboo raft as if he were seeing her for the first time. But when they first met, he didn't look at him like a stranger.
"It's hard to explain clearly in a few words." He said, "He used to be a very good person, but that may just be that he didn't show himself to outsiders. He felt that he had an obligation to complete some important tasks, but it seems It seems like he got it all wrong."
"What mission is that?"
"It's like renovating ancient buildings. Remove inappropriate things from ancient buildings."
Jania was confused for a moment. This answer is too specific to sound like a lie. But that sounds like something Malcolm would do.
"Is that his...his main job?"
"It's no longer the case. It requires long-term recovery."
"He's still sick. How is he doing?"
"It has stabilized." Zhou Wenxing said.
"Does that mean he hasn't recovered yet?"
"I guess so."
"Then... what exactly is his illness? Is he still having a fever? Or is he hallucinating?"
Zhou Wenxing tilted his head and thought for a while, then said with a smile: "Have you ever seen a person who fantasizes about being a plant? He squats beside the wall every day motionless, as if waiting for sunshine and rain."
Paranoia. Zhaniya took a step towards the other side of the cliff. Zhou Wenxing did not shy away from talking about her brother's condition, which she did not expect. But then Zhou Wenxing asked: "What do you think of your brother?"
"What?"
"What kind of person do you think your brother is?"
"He...he's pretty good. He's a pretty good person, and he often takes care of me."
Jania answered vaguely. Zhou Wenxing acted as if he knew she wasn't telling the truth, but he didn't get to the bottom of it and just kept that uncomfortable smile. Jania told herself again that maybe it was prejudice. If she had seen Zhou Wenxing on the shore, she would not have felt so uncomfortable, but seeing a living person floating on the sea like a ghost, the feeling was completely different. He also had an arm that was horribly damaged. He is a real person with super powers and has been to so many places. It's not certain that he can still be considered a human being, but he has certainly experienced many dangers.
- He must have been through a lot of dangers.
Jania stopped pacing in the Dubois Imagination Studio. When the terrible inspiration suddenly came, she seemed to hear the rumble of thunder above her head.
The noise of the tide completely disappeared. For a long time, she stared at Zhou Wenxing with all her attention. He looked at her too and seemed to understand what she was thinking. No. No. No. He just gets it. He knew it from the beginning.
"He shot you," Jania said.
When she revealed the answer, Zhannia felt that there seemed to be approval in Zhou Wenxing's smile. But that could just be her desire to be right causing her to misunderstand. She didn't have time to verify further, because Akurabin spoke from behind.
"Oh," Akurabin said cheerfully, "It's thundering."
Jania initially thought of it as a metaphor for the atmosphere, like the calm before the storm. But soon she realized that Akarabin was just stating the facts. The dull thunder did not originate from the processing of her imagination, but actually resounded in the sky.
She looked up in surprise. She had checked the weather forecast in the afternoon but did not remember that there would be a thunderstorm tonight. The weather this year was indeed abnormal, but she thought the weather forecast for that day would be more accurate.
A thunderstorm is coming. There are far and near, rolling incessantly. Before Zhaniya could think of how they should protect the raft, raindrops had already hit her cheeks. For a moment, the entire sky turned pale, and the lightning shot across the sky like a giant's sword. Zhaniya seemed to have never seen such violent and huge lightning in her life, and it even made her think that the thing was a monster made of white electric current. When she lowered her head, she saw a dark wall rising from the sea. It was a combination of storm and wave, and it rushed in front of her from the distant sky in the blink of an eye. She heard nothing and saw nothing but the roar of thunder and the echoing roar of the ocean.
Her body seemed to disappear in the boundless fear, and could only spin and spin with the violent wind and water. After completely losing the concept of space, she saw a city in the distance while wandering. Is that city on the shore? Nautical miles? Or in the air? She couldn't tell. But she vaguely felt that it was not Esgetef Island, because it was full of tall buildings and lights. She thought of Atlantis, and the Hanging Garden of Babylon. The city seemed to be a square and regular model, and at the same time there was a sky filled with heavy rain.
What a strange place, she thought to herself, before falling sleepily. In that black sleep, she felt that she was still on the small wooden boat in Akira Bin, undulating regularly with the waves. It felt comfortable and peaceful until she felt a cold rope tightening around her chest. She struggled uncomfortably, as if a stone was falling in her lungs, ready to fall into her stomach after breaking.
What a strange place, she thought to herself, before falling sleepily. In that black sleep, she felt that she was still on the small wooden boat in Akira Bin, undulating regularly with the waves. It felt comfortable and peaceful until she felt a cold rope tightening around her chest. She struggled uncomfortably, as if a stone was falling in her lungs, ready to fall into her stomach after breaking. No, she didn't want to stay in this uncomfortable body. She wanted to come out of her shell and fly away lightly, like a bird or a butterfly.
Zhaniya still had her eyes closed, and her arms were fluttering toward the void. She vaguely remembered being on a boat, or in the water. When she remembered this, the pain of suffocation also followed. She coughed and retched uncontrollably, and the rope from her chest moved to her abdomen. The salt water came back up in her throat and it felt really bad. She gasped desperately, with countless small black insects flying in front of her eyes, but her swaying consciousness relaxed because she understood that she was not drowning in the water. She is breathing, which means she is alive.
When the visual impairment caused by the lack of oxygen disappeared, the little black bugs flying in front of her eyes returned to the gray sky before dawn. The dawn has not yet appeared, but Zhaniya has been shaken to a daze. She feels that she has been soaking in the ocean of eternal night for a whole year. Her whole body is filled with the fishy smell of seawater, and she has never forgotten what it was like during the day. Something happened.
She lay there in a daze and exhaustion for more than ten seconds, and finally realized that she was lying on a beach. Her palms gripped the slippery sand, reminding her that the nightmare storm seemed real. The bamboo raft was overturned by the storm, and she experienced two seemingly impossible shipwrecks overnight.
When Jania finally recovered from her drowning and began to wonder how she had survived, she got the answer in the pain beneath her breastbone.
Someone had given her CPR, maybe half a minute ago. But that was very strange, because she did not fall into the water very close to the shore. How did her rescuer get her to shore in such a short time? Until her rescuer called her, the question occupied Jania's mind so much that she did not consider who had saved her. The answer was not difficult to find. After all, the person who rescued her was not a mermaid who couldn't get ashore. He had been squatting next to her and started to pat her cheek to confirm whether she had any reaction.
Jania glanced at him. She didn't know if she should be surprised, but when Zhou Wenxing called her again, she still tried her best to raise her palms to show that she was conscious.
"You need blankets and hot water." Zhou Wenxing said.
Jania nodded her head exhaustedly. She felt so weak all over that she couldn't sit up at all. But when Zhou Wenxing sat next to her and looked at her, she suddenly remembered what they were talking about before the raft overturned. Her chest suddenly tightened, and she gained new strength out of thin air. But she did not sit up, but continued to lie down, looking around.
"Where is he?" she asked. "Is Akurabin okay?"
"Maybe he drowned."
Jania glared at him. She didn't quite believe the answer, because Zhou Wenxing's expression looked like he was joking. She didn't want to be the target of a prank, so she resisted asking further questions and instead said, "Don't tell me this is a desert island."
"Don't worry, this is the northern coast of Esgetef Island. When you can stand up, you can go south along the coast. I think you will meet someone who can help you soon."
"You're not going to go back with me?"
"Yes, Jennifer, I'm leaving."
When she heard Zhou Wenxing say this, Zhannia immediately took it as good news. She was not seriously injured and could take care of herself. But she didn't feel happy about it. She weighed it and finally asked almost recklessly: "Where are you going?"
"I don't know what you want to ask. If you take it literally, I am a person, that's all."
"Your...your magic, is that something you were born with?"
"That doesn't matter, Jennifer. It doesn't matter to you what abilities I have, because I don't intend to use them on you. You really want to live, so it's almost time for me to leave."
Hearing this strange assurance does not really reassure people, but instead arouses panic and alarm. Zhaniya wandered her gaze carelessly, looking at the sky where raindrops were still falling. All the details about what she had seen that night were rushing through her mind, and when the first ray of dawn broke through the clouds, another kind of spiritual light suddenly shone in her heart. Once again she stood on the shortcut gained by shifting positions, and the fog that obscured her vision dissipated. There may be inhuman weirdness and mystery in that strange world, but the basic motivation is still so simple and clear. The answer can be derived from this without requiring mastery of any arcane knowledge.
"Your brother is the sea monster," Jania gasped. "He's something like that, isn't he? His hallucinations turn him into a monster. That's why he's worshiped by others... What is that? Him Can you make others hallucinate?"
She felt Zhou Wenxing stand up from her side. He is really leaving. She should have let him do this, but a strong impulse told her to grab his ankles. This is so stupid. She mentally yelled at herself.
"What does this have to do with him?" she asked urgently. "Why did my brother shoot you? What happened to him?"
"Jennifer, just live your life. Things like your brother are incurable."
"Fuck you. Where is he?"
Zhou Wenxing leaned over and grabbed her wrist. Zhannia didn't feel that he was very strong, but her hands couldn't exert any strength. She let go of him involuntarily.
"Life is composed of the closure of a finite structure," she heard Zhou Wenxing say. "If you cannot accept the isolation from the real world, that is, the infinite world, then you cannot maintain life. The so-called psychotherapy is to let people Be able to accept that you are closed and repressed, and continue this repression. People who can have sweet dreams in a cage can be cured, and people like your brother are useless."
Jennifer felt Zhou Wenxing's hand holding hers was so cold, and the coldness made her sleepy. Her heavy eyelids gradually closed again. Before she fell into sleep, Zhou Wenxing gently covered her eyes with his hand. Zhaniya looked at the sky through his fingers, only to find that it was still night. The stars are shining brightly, converging into the shape of a river. And a fireball is crossing the galaxy.
The cold hand left her face.
"Goodbye, Jennifer." Zhou Wenxing said, "It would be better not to meet again in the future."
Jennifer finally fell asleep. In her dream, she saw herself standing up from the beach alone and walking towards the hotel to the west. The dream felt so real that she even thought about the chaos of the night as she walked. She felt strange, worried, and even more annoyed. But then she thought about Klein, and it actually cheered her up in her depression.
Do you know what the most disgusting thing is? She said to herself. The thing I can't accept the most is not the sea monster and the magician, but Klein. If I were killed by Kollein, people would lament that his last victim did not escape his fate. They will think that I am worthy of sympathy and love. They would print my unlucky story in newspapers and online and spread it everywhere, hoping that my soul could rest in peace, and then exclaim how dangerous and terrifying Klein is. And that’s the sickest thing of all—the expression of awe and wonder at the triumph of evil.
Jania was awakened by a search and rescue team siren. When people organized ships and helicopters to search for her traces on the sea, the sky was completely bright, but it was still cloudy. Jania opened her eyes on the beach. Her calf was severely swollen, and there was a bamboo pole beside her arm with a shallow smile carved on it. Zhaniya grabbed the bamboo pole and limped towards the west coast, thinking that she looked very majestic now. She would inevitably have to fight with her mother, but that didn't matter now.
The search and rescue team went to sea, and she didn't meet anyone familiar and reliable on the way. It wasn't until Jania was almost walking to the beach that she saw Anti-Pierre standing on the beach. Mademoiselle Ondy looked very depressed, which was not surprising, but what surprised Jania was that there was a dark-haired man standing next to her.
The man was wearing a long black coat that was inappropriate for the time, and both hands were covered with black leather gloves. He looked somewhat suspicious. But the position where he stood revealed his closeness to Anti-Pierre. Mademoiselle Antique's shoulders were almost touching his, and she was constantly gesturing to him.
Zhaniya observed from a distance for a while, and finally walked over full of questions. As soon as she appeared on the beach, Mademoiselle Antiy pounced on her and strangled her like a sea serpent. Jania screamed in pain, and Angie let go of her hand and examined her calf in great surprise. While Miss Ondy was busy with her head down, Jania and the strange man stared at each other. This person looks like an Asian, and his face looks quite young, but he feels very reserved. He did not seem like the kind of person that Anti-Pierre would like. She also noticed with sharp eyes a small bandage exposed under the glove on his right hand.
The man looked at her for a moment and said in English: "Hello, Jania."
"Who are you?"
The other person wanted to answer her. But then the cell phone in his coat rang. He nodded hastily at her and took out his cell phone to answer it. Jania waited to see him take off his gloves to unlock the screen, and it turned out to be a pair of capacitive gloves. He put the phone to his ear, listened first, and then answered. Jania listened carefully, but didn't catch anything useful. Anti-Pierre ran to get her a towel and hot water, leaving her standing with the strange young man. This black glove looked so weird that Zhaniya couldn’t guess what he did for a while.
She heard him say in Chinese: "Are you back?"
Jania shook her head. A wonderful feeling arises spontaneously. After a dreamlike night, what else can't happen?
Black Glove put down the phone. The two of them watched quietly for a while, as if waiting to see if a kind person would jump out and introduce them. The good fairy did not appear, and her Aunt Pierre seemed to think that Mr. Black Gloves was no harm to her at all.
"Do you still have your cell phone on you?" Black Glove suddenly asked.
Jania raised her eyebrows. She didn't know who would ask such a question to a missing person who survived a catastrophe. This black glove is as inexplicable as Zhou Wenxing.
"I can recite my mother's phone number," she said rather bluntly, "Thank you for your concern."
"Your brother will call you later."
Something wonderful really happened. Jania suddenly discovered that weirdos all over the world knew her brother and were happy to run up to her to tell him. She never knew her brother was such a public figure. But since Zhou Wenxing played tricks on her once, the black gloves might play tricks on her a second time.
"How do you know?"
"He just called me."
Jania stopped talking. She and Black Gloves glared at each other. Perhaps her somewhat rude look misunderstood him. Black Glove seemed to think that she already understood who she was, so there was no need to introduce herself.
"Well..." Black Glove said hesitantly, "Don't tell your brother that I have been here, okay?"
This sentence caused a flash of inspiration in Zhaniya's head, and her detective instinct had already realized who the black glove standing in front of her should be. Suddenly, everything seemed to fall into place. What appeared in Zhaniya's mind was Chirabin's slightly evil smile. Did he say something? Everything was connected, but she couldn't see it.
Jania put her hands on her hips and looked up at the man and then at the beach in the distance. She knew her expression must be strange.
"Well, okay," she said, "Okay, I won't say anything. Let's leave it at that. We'll discuss it later. I have to take care of my legs first. And my mother."
"Your mother won't know about this."
"That's great. Well...my brother won't know either, will he?"
Black Glove nodded. Their conversation came to an end again. Finally, Jania couldn't help it anymore and asked her biggest question about the man. That's not to say she's jealous or anything, it's just a suspicion she caught out of professional habit. Her brother is her biggest target of investigation. Ignoring the suspect's important interpersonal relationships is a serious mistake for a first-rate detective.
"...Why did he call you first?" she asked.
