The road to Aries City is not far. During the trip, Momolo was as interested in everything as a primary school student participating in a spring outing for the first time. From the music played in Luo Binhan's car to the origin of the name Aries City, he is interested in everything.
"There is a legend about this place." Luo Binhan told him, "In ancient times, this place was a large swamp, and few people lived nearby. One day, an army passed by here while marching and got lost. The leading general met a man in the swamp. The old man who was grazing asked him how to leave. The old man told him that he needed to step over the back of the white sheep. The general did as he said, and found that the sheep's back became wider and longer. He walked on the sheep's back. He didn't know how long it took before he fell, and then he found himself outside a small town. He walked in and asked where it was, but he couldn't understand a few words the people in the city said. When he finally asked someone, he realized that he was still there The swamp, it’s just that five hundred years have passed since he set out.”
"Is this true, Mr. Luo?"
"Anyway, I've read this statement." Luo Binhan read the sign on the highway. "But I don't think it's very credible. There is generally no evidence for the ancient miracles here, and they were only active in the era before the advent of cameras. I have also heard a more reliable statement: the large swamps here are drying up. It used to be in the shape of a goat's horn, so it was called Baiyangze. Then there were Baiyang Village, Baiyangji, and Baiyang City... The history of this place is longer than Lihai Mayor."
"But why the white sheep, Mr. Luo?"
"Hmm... I don't know. Maybe because there's a lot of reeds there? That spot looks white in the fall."
Luo Binhan turned the steering wheel and saw that the vegetation on both sides of the road had begun to change. The distant signs and lamp posts are hidden in the light blue mist. He doesn't come to Aries often, although they do have some business here. It is closer to a tourist city than Lihai City. There are no developed industries and commerce or famous large enterprises, and the scale of agriculture is also limited. Most foreign tourists come here for its wetlands and migratory birds. When he was studying, the school liked to use this place as a picnic spot for spring and autumn outings. They will fly kites in the forest park outside the wetland, or organize group games. That would be a relatively interesting part of the trip, because the morning trip always went to places in Aries City that minors found boring, such as the anti-drug education base and the history museum.
He still remembers that the school once organized them to watch a performance in Aries City. He could not remember the content of the performance at all, but an anti-drug promotional video played during the intermission left a very terrifying impression on him. He remembered that many young men and women were dancing around the house and laughing maniacally; a haggard and deformed man committed suicide by sticking his toothbrush through his nostrils into his head; a couple beat each other during a drug addiction, and then jumped off the roof one after another. .
Thinking back on this, he felt unbelievable. Had he really seen these horrific scenes in middle school? Aren't schools afraid of scaring a student into having mental problems? He couldn't help but suspect that he had misremembered and incorporated some hearsay stories into his memory, but those scenes were absolutely true before his eyes. He could even recall the bleak face of a drug addicted woman looking up when she jumped from the building, and the outline of the toothbrush handle tilted up on the human face. He can even memorize the angles and shading of every shot. It was hard to believe that his imagination had made it all up on its own.
However, there were some details that made him not so sure. For example, the young woman who jumped off the building, for some reason he always felt that she had Zhou Yu's face, which was pale, gloomy, and unhuman due to drug addiction, and she fell downwards in slow motion from the rooftop. During the time when Zhou Yu was missing, he would occasionally see this scene in his overtired nightmares. He had never mentioned this matter to Zhou Yu, but before he witnessed the weird thing, the vague similarity between that shot and Zhou Yu had always made him deeply uneasy. Both he and Zhou Yu thought they knew her, but many people around them thought they knew him or her until the murderer was revealed.
But things are different now. Now it's all over. He knew Zhou Yu's secret, which was far from the answer he had secretly feared. But he couldn't tell which answer would make him feel better. An unknowable supernatural weirdness, or a chemical with clear principles and horrific consequences. What difference does it make to him? They had the same consequences for him.
"Mr. Luo?"
"Oh," Luo Binhan said, "I was a little distracted. I remembered something from the past."
He found that he often thought of Zhou Yu after he came back. But it wasn't out of sadness. Many times it's not even sentimental, just the emptiness of everyday life. Realizing that someone in your memory will never appear in your life again is like missing a piece of a complete puzzle. People can't help but look into that hole and imagine what it looked like when it was originally complete. But what is the difference between a slightly incomplete puzzle and a complete one? There's not that big of a difference, right?
Momolo has always been very interested in his secular life, but Luo Binhan didn't want to talk about his feelings for Zhou Yu. He didn't want to see the Yongguang clan full of emotions in this matter, even if it was completely sincere - no, it was precisely the sincerity that would make him feel more annoyed. He preferred cold polite greetings. He didn't mention Zhou Yu a word, and only talked about the terrible drug movies in his memory, so as to warn Momolo not to trust the local "good Samaritans" too much. He felt that his worries were not groundless, because Momolo's current human appearance seemed quite valuable, but his demeanor and demeanor seemed quite easy to deceive.
"If someone wants to give you candy or a drink on the street, just walk away and don't talk to them," he explained. But he really didn't know if there were any man-made objects here that could affect Momolo. "Hmm...Has anyone of your kind ever been addicted to drugs?"
"Yes, Mr. Luo. The instructor has specifically told us about this type of enemy!"
This was not the answer Luo Binhan wanted to hear, but he still asked Momolo to talk carefully. He heard Momolo mention a type of microorganism that can float across the universe. When it falls into the atmosphere, it will release toxins, putting all life forms on the planet into a hypnotic state, and then spread and devour the entire planet little by little; There is also a type of plant that is a companion species of a specific monster. When the host is dormant, it will remain in a seed state. Once the host is about to wake up, they will sprout and bloom in advance, causing organisms that come into contact with pollen to fall into an unnatural state. In a state of euphoria, the host will wither and wither again when it falls asleep again.
"...Plants with this habit are generally called..."
"The flower of the end of the century." Luo Binhan said.
"Does Mr. Luo also know?"
"Listen to what Brother You said."
"Mr. Luo and Upsilon-senpai seem to get along very well!"
Luo Binhan himself does not agree with this conclusion. Of course he didn't hate Upsilon, but he wasn't sure about Upsilon's true opinion of him. Sometimes he felt that the real Upsilon was far from the protagonist of "The Legend of the Wandering Heroes of White Star". He thought again of the day when they had brought the illegal candy tree to maturity, and Upsilon had talked to him about the tree species. Tree. plant. animal. Intelligent life. Pure race. The flower of the end of the century. But none of this mattered to him.
"I heard that there is a disease that is very common," he said. "It's commonly known as sugar addiction, and it affects many races."
"Yes. While adaptations vary between species, this is one of the most prevalent diseases within the Alliance."
"I've never quite understood this." Luo Binhan said, "I thought there weren't that many sweet things in the universe - I checked online yesterday, and in fact most of the birds here can't taste sweet things. I I used to think that the tastes outside would be more...how should I say, diverse?"
"But Mr. Luo, there is no absolute relationship between sugar addiction and sweetness. Just like Mr. Luo, although you can't recognize the fragrance of oxygen, you are also an oxygen-loving creature. Substances that can excite nerves do not necessarily require receptors to identify them. .”
"Does that mean I might have a sugar addiction?"
"No, Mr. Luo! You have no problem at all! Your physiological structure does not need to worry about sugar addiction, because the toxic dose should be reached before the addictive effect is formed."
"Then I'm relieved." Luo Binhan said.
They had a little trouble crossing the checkpoint. Several policemen stood at the checkpoint to randomly check the passing vehicles. Luo Binhan noticed that two of them were not wearing traffic police uniforms. He didn't look at them more, so as not to arouse unnecessary suspicion, and they didn't question him any more. It was obvious that they were not looking for two young men in a flashy sports car.
They passed the checkpoint smoothly and entered the forest park connected to the wetland. It was a day with a moderate temperature, and the parking lot of the park was almost full. It took a lot of effort for Luo Binhan to squeeze his car into the stupidly designed empty space. His hands on the steering wheel were sweating, and he began to regret why he had to drive here. Jing Huang did say that he could be brought over with him, but he only said that he would do it by himself. He also had to get used to this damn car and this damn traffic.
"Why do we have to come here?" he asked Momolo as he bought his tickets.
"Mr. Xuanhong said we should take a shortcut."
"I know that's what he said. But what exactly is a 'shortcut'?"
Momolo just shook his head innocently. Luo Binhan didn't expect him to answer. It seems that this is another little secret among some ancient laws. shortcut. The word brings to mind portals, wormholes or secret passages. None of it was unusual, but what Luo Binhan couldn't figure out was why this shortcut ended up in the wetlands of Aries City. There was really nothing special there, except that he met Jing Huang for the first time there, and there were Asabam's dead colleagues. Putting all this aside, all he could think of was that it might be a good place to bury the body. No one cares about those deep reeds, dark puddles and rugged caves during the season when migratory birds don't come. In the triangle area formed by Aries City, Lihai City and Wojiao City, this wetland is an ideal location for small and medium-sized crimes. But they are only small and medium-sized. Really big cases will only happen among the crowd.
The lack of people and the remoteness may be the reason why Jing Huang chose this place, if they really plan to open a portal or something. There might be loud noises, strange lights in the sky, fast-spreading UFO rumors, and then the police would look for a suspicious young man driving a red sports car at the checkpoint. Luo Binhan was too lazy to think about this part. He bought two shaky three-ball ice cream cones and sat with Momolo by the lake waiting for nightfall.
He noticed that the sky was filled with clouds, a blue-grey color before the evening rain. The lake surface reflecting the skylight therefore takes on a deep and dark dark green tone, while the vegetation on the lakeside is so bright and eye-catching. If he looked carefully, he could see flowers of various colors blooming everywhere, but all he felt was the rich and quiet greenery. The boats on the lake and the tourists on the grass seemed to have disappeared. He saw only an endless and beautiful forest like shadows, and this deep forest was slowly melting and reorganizing. It was a green curtain of rain and floating clouds, gradually immersing him in eternal silence. His left hand had touched the green and moist waves, and the cold was rising upwards.
"Mr. Luo, are you leaving?"
Luo Binhan blinked. He saw that the setting sun had already set on the top of the forest, and a few tourists were heading towards the exit. He and Momolo had already finished their ice cream. There were two or three raindrops hanging on the back of his hand. He immediately stood up and walked towards the depths of the forest park with Momolo. Under the cover of banana bushes, they easily climbed over the wall and entered the protected area at the back of the park. When crossing an open space covered with tuberoses, Luo Binhan noticed an elevated structure in the distance that seemed to be equipped with a camera, but a large crested bird stood on the top of the elevated structure. It lay quietly and seemed to be looking at them.
It was completely dark. The thick and deep meadow is intertwined with the impatient chirping of insects. Luo Binhan could hardly see clearly what was four or five meters away. Not only because the moon was hidden behind the dark clouds, but also because Momolo, who was leading the way, was glowing slightly. It was supposed to be as bright as a flashlight, but it actually made the surroundings darker. Apart from the perfectly shaped, slender and extremely holy back of his head, Luo Binhan didn't know what else was in front of him.
But the rest of his senses were sharpened. He could hear the scraping of grass blades and the impatient stirring of cicadas and crickets. Occasionally, he felt the flapping of wings above his head, but did not hear a bird song. The rain and mist were filled with the refreshing fragrance of vegetation and the rotten smell of dead leaves and branches. He thought strangely that this was the smell of life and death. He seemed to have never been aware of the existence of this smell before. Even on the night he met Jing Huang, the smell was never the primary memory point for him.
Two cold-toned lights shone in the distant night, like two fireflies flying out of the grass. But the distance between them remains stable and continues to expand. Finally, a black cat suddenly appeared on Momoluo's shoulder, its cold eyes looking at Luo Binhan arrogantly. Its fur was covered with raindrops, and it seemed to glow when it was on Momolo. Luo Binhan felt a little unsure.
"Hmm." He said, "Is that you?"
"Don't ask stupid questions," said the black cat. The tail flicked impatiently. Its silver eyelashes and the flesh pads exposed when it raised its claws made Luo Binhan feel familiar. When he tried to pick up the cat's paw and touch it to see if it was still a rocket, the slap on his nose brought him back to yesterday.
"Where did you go?" he asked calmly, holding his nose. "I haven't seen you for a while, and I thought you didn't want to care about this mess."
"I'd rather not care." Black Cat said coldly, "But I still have a promise."
"Then why are you here? Say goodbye? Or go with them?"
"That kid is going to take a shortcut."
"Then?"
"He needs me to help him open up shortcuts."
The black cat's glowing eyes moved, showing disapproval. "It would be a waste of effort," it commented.
"But you still came to help." Luo Binhan said, "I think you actually like to join in the fun. Anyway, there is no loss to you."
The black cat snorted dully. He put his feet on Momolo's shoulders, and then jumped onto Luo Binhan's shoulders. Luo Binhan immediately took a breath as his uncut claws dug into the thin summer fabric. He wanted to drive the black cat away from him, but the latter put his head in his ear and whispered: "You should also go and see that place."
"Where?" Luo Binhan asked with a twisted face. He suddenly felt that the cat's weight was far more exaggerated than its appearance.
"Shortcut." Black Cat kicked his shoulder and said, "A place you should never go."
I was infected with COVID-19 last weekend, but I'm recovering. I wish everyone is safe.
It is indeed a disease more dangerous than the flu. Fortunately, it has entered the recovery process. Please rest assured.
(End of chapter)
