"You don't like roses," said the shop's regular customer, "or don't you like red?"
Luo Binhan slowly moved his eyes back to the table. He didn't know what his expression was when he looked at the paper rose decoration on the wall just now, which made the other party make such a judgment. But he really wasn't admiring them. It had been two days since he woke up from the nightmare, and he no longer felt any flowers or colors to be bright and beautiful. As he stared at the delicate origami, he just noticed that they were actually a little old, perhaps because the moisture had made their edges curled and wrinkled.
"They're fine," he said. "I just remembered something...something else."
"Emotional?"
“Just about gardening.”
Red-haired Anthony Kent glanced over the top of his laptop screen. His name was only told to Luo Binhan yesterday. The name he gave may not be his real name, because Luo Binhan always felt that his last name and first name were too common, and the combination seemed quite familiar. However, he did see the other party's signature on the note left for the shop owner yesterday.
That was the only foreign text on the entire note. The main content is written in Chinese characters. The handwriting cannot be said to be beautiful and smooth. At least the strokes are clear and easy to identify. It just looks very jerky, like the handwriting of outstanding primary school students he can see on TV programs. Only the signature was in English, and the foreigner who was fluent in Chinese still signed an elegant and scrawled English name.
"Why don't you sign your name in Chinese?" he asked with interest.
"I'm just used to it," Anthony said. "Anyway, he knows I wrote it."
"You don't have a Chinese name? I mean a more localized one?"
Anthony shook his head disinterestedly. Luo Binhan couldn't help but start to wonder whether this matter was reasonable. But he has nothing to complain about - on the Anemone Road in Regenberg, he has never used another local name in the true sense. Although Yu Xiaorong does not know a few Chinese characters, he can speak it as well as Anthony ( Malcolm is not that proficient in Mandarin, but he will also call him "Ronaldo" in a slightly weird tone. Sometimes he will also call him "good guy" in a funny way, but that is not a real person. His name is a cultural joke just based on the pronunciation of his name. He never imagined that Yu Xiaorong's neighbors would call him "Hans" or "Lucas" one day. It sounds like it has nothing to do with him.
He also asked Anthony what the "M" between the "A"s meant.
"In memory of my grandmother," Anthony said. "They say she had some psychic qualities."
"Really?"
"I don't know. That's what my parents told me. My sister knew it was going to be a red-haired girl before she was even born. She played a little bit of poker and had a crystal ball. The crystal ball was real. , now in my sister’s studio. She thinks it’s cool.”
"Is there anyone else in your family who is a psychic?"
"No, it's not that exaggerated. Anyway, I have never encountered anything strange." Anthony said casually, "You have to know that there are too many family legends like this in our place. The old houses in the country are simply haunted, not to mention our family. There are also several redheads who make some stupid claims... devils, psychopaths, witches, whatever. You don't believe this, do you?"
"I don't really believe it - unless I see it with my own eyes."
"I don't believe it," Anthony said. He frowned suddenly, and after a moment said, "I guess I'm kind of a skeptic."
"You have no religious beliefs?" Luo Binhan asked. Out of caution he added: "Just curious, if you don't mind."
Anthony showed an indifferent attitude. "I don't," he said bluntly. "If you're talking about any religious organization, or any book that someone calls a holy book, I can't believe that. I admit there are some things that are weird- For example, this store is indeed a small probability event in reality - but I don’t believe in prayers and spells. I do believe in extraterrestrial life, and probability-wise they will exist.”
"What about the people around you? What do they think?"
"I said I don't have many friends," Anthony said dryly, "but as far as I know, people in the same circle as me are generally not very religious. We have too many other shit to worry about. How many people are interested in discussing this?”
He did not seem interested in this, so Luo Binhan never asked about this topic again. And maybe because of the exchange of names, maybe because he seemed a little depressed in the past two days, Anthony Kent treated him a lot more kindly invisibly. They were almost friends. Now when they sit at the same table, Anthony taps the keyboard more frequently.
Sometimes he could hear Anthony muttering a few vague complaints in English, as if he was encountering some trouble. When work was really not going well, he would even close the computer angrily and chat absentmindedly with Luo Binhan for a few minutes. Luo Binhan saw that he was not talking to him wholeheartedly, but just made some noise while thinking about other things. An assistant under him used to call this "changing his brain." He didn't mind others chatting with him like this. In fact, Zhou Yu often did this, but he concealed it better than Anthony. It is always difficult for outsiders to tell whether Zhou Yu is paying attention or is distracted.
"I hate changing other people's stuff," he said nonchalantly. "That's bullshit. It doesn't make any sense. I don't know why it had to have that paragraph added to it. I can do it better myself. Your 'gardening problem.' What is it?"
When he asked this question, Luo Binhan had already stopped staring at the paper rose. He is struggling to read a branch annual report that has just been sent to him on his mobile phone so that he can speak at a video conference next week. Nan Mingguang sent a message to remind him to meet with some old partners before going abroad. Sixteen calls came in in the morning, and Luo Binhan only recognized the numbers of two cousins and Xie Zhenwan. He didn't answer any of them, which was appropriate behavior until evening, when he could pretend he was in a meeting during the day. When he stared at last year's performance data, these things were spinning in his head like dirty water from a drum washing machine.
He suddenly felt something close to resentment towards Jing Huang, because of the nightmare in the garden, and because they left him in this bunch of damn meaningless things. He knew he shouldn't think this way, but the idea came to him so naturally. So he started telling himself to stop thinking about it and imagine that it was all false. Jing Huang has left, and Momoluo no longer lives in his home. It is impossible to verify whether they really exist. All this may be his own imagination, at least for now he can tell himself this, so that he doesn't have to think about the garden or whether Jing Huang will come back again. He has to pretend that nothing happened in order to realize the meaning of real life. He had to read this damn report.
Anthony patted him, and Luo Binhan raised his head as if he was electrocuted.
"You look really bad," Anthony said. "What kind of gardening problem could make you so distracted?"
"You want to say that the soul is gone?"
"I keep talking about wandering souls. Can't it be used like this?"
"We usually say 'mind wandering'."
"I thought this meant the same thing." Anthony shrugged, "The soul is the spiritual form of a person, right? But God is not necessarily the same. Don't you think 'soul wandering' is more reasonable than 'mind wandering'?"
Luo Binhan forced a smile. He put down the phone and rubbed his temples vigorously.
"This is an idiomatic usage." He explained dryly, "There is no strict reason, it's just that we all use it. If others are thinking about something blankly, we will use 'mind wandering'. There is also a word called 'lost soul' , but we don’t use it much at ordinary times.”
"Why?"
"It sounds more serious... like something happened in a big accident, or someone died or something. In our countryside, if someone has a fever and passes out, they will say that the person has 'lost his soul', which means that his part The soul is not in the body. We don't use 'lost mind' at this time."
"It's interesting. But actually your 'god' hasn't left, right? When you don't speak or pay attention to others, you are actually focusing your 'god' on another thing, just in your Inside the body. I don’t know why in many languages this kind of meditation is described as the soul leaving the body, as if you went to a place that doesn’t exist.”
He did go to places he shouldn't exist. Luo Binhan thought. That garden of hidden horrors. He clearly couldn't draw any specific outline, but when he recalled it, he felt like he was actually in it. What would Anthony Kent have said if he had witnessed that garden?
"It's quite strange," he said. "I haven't thought about it. I'm neither a linguist nor a religious expert."
"So what are you good at? Gardening?"
"I'm not good at anything." Luo Binhan said, "That's what we, the second generation rich, are like."
"I also know a rich second generation." Anthony said, "That person seems to be good at everything."
"Okay, that's just me."
Anthony glanced at him again, as if wondering if he was angry about this. Luo Binhan picked up a fries and stuffed it into his mouth indifferently. Didn't taste anything. After that night, he seemed to have lost interest in most pleasures. But he thought this was only temporary, just like the time when Jing Huang disappeared two and a half years ago, he was doing well after a brief period of confusion. Sooner or later he would forget about the garden, if there were enough bad things in his life.
Anthony Kent finally lost interest in gardening matters. He continued to type at the computer screen, and after a while he asked casually: "How is your old problem?"
"Same as usual." Luo Binhan said, "I didn't think of anything."
"And you just sit here."
"I'm going abroad to do some errands in a few days, and everything else will have to wait until I come back."
"at this time?"
"Got to meet some family members. We agreed."
Anthony Kent plodded on without interest. Luo Binhan didn't intend to say more. He knew that Yu Xiaorong's seaside holiday had ended yesterday, and he also saw that she had posted several pictures on the homepage of social networking sites, most of which were seascapes, two about interesting-shaped shells she picked up, and one that seemed to be a snake. Or fish skin. Judging from the condition of the photo, she has hung it on the wall of her bedroom, supported by a green and crisp bamboo pole.
Luo Binhan didn't know what this meant, but he was used to Yu Xiaorong's various whims. Maybe around this time she became obsessed with shamanism or druidry, or something like that. Although her mother is a complete materialist and never believes in anything with a mysterious color, Yu Xiaorong has been fond of scary legends about monsters or aliens since she was a child. Fortunately, her interest always came and went quickly, and she never really took the gods, ghosts, foxes and monsters seriously. She was just a little girl with an adventurous nature, and he didn't think it was a big deal - especially compared to her problem with picking a boyfriend.
He wanted to meet her and see if she had changed from two years ago. And Yu Xiaorong has sent messages two or three times asking when he will come to Regenberg. She hasn't told Yu Qingshu about his return yet, but she doesn't promise that she won't. If he didn't come, Yu Qingshu would appear in Lihai City sooner or later. He would rather get this done sooner than later.
"It seems you won't see him anymore," Anthony said.
"who?"
"The boss here. Now I agree with you, he is indeed avoiding you. He is always gone before you come."
Now Luo Binhan is not so urgent about this matter. The garden dream and Yu Xiaorong both occupied his thoughts, leaving him little energy to investigate this little mystery.
"I'll think about it when I get back," he said. "Didn't you ask him why he avoided me?"
"He didn't respond." Anthony paused and said, "You know what? I'm starting to think that you two might have something to do with each other."
"I guess you mean celebrating the holidays."
"Don't find fault. You know what it means."
Luo Binhan said nothing more. He was a little curious about how Anthony learned foreign languages - the tone and pronunciation were almost perfect, at least much better than Malcolm, but the words were not so precise. This does not fit in with his understanding of the rules of foreign language learning.
"I will find a way to let him see me," he said, "when I come back."
"You'd better make sure this store is still there when you come back," Anthony said. "It's really not very profitable here."
"Maybe it's just not profitable here."
Anthony Kent raised his eyes to look at him again. Luo Binhan didn't explain anything. He hasn't seen any unusual guests in the past two days. Two or three curious people walked in quietly and left after realizing that no one was working at the counter. The girl who once stared at Chen Wei never appeared again. Luo Binhan didn't know if this incident had something to do with him. If he thought that the shop owner was willing to let the business go completely in order to avoid him, it seemed a bit too self-centered. Is he that important? For a person who can let Chen Wei help with work? There is no way he can hurt the other person, unless the other person thinks that even one more word with him is intolerable. It's not entirely impossible that there are people out there who would scream at a fly or a bee.
This is not absurd. He thought to himself. Even if the lethality of flies cannot be compared with humans, their ugliness and noise are intolerable. Until he had studied the butterfly specimens in detail, he had never realized that the heads of lepidopterans looked so grim and monstrous, almost sinister. And that was just his own imagination, the butterfly or the moth never cared. He was no mere butterfly, and the thought of being so disliked by a stranger (or alien?) made him somewhat embarrassed. He can't help but think about the wrong things he has done in his life - there are too many, and he will definitely not be able to pass the moral scrutiny of the unicorn.
"I'm leaving." He said a little uninterested.
"Fair wind." Anthony said without raising his head. But he didn't use the wrong word this time.
Luo Binhan went to the counter to pay with his mobile phone. The payment account was personal and his name was "Gun N' Roses", but his avatar showed a sunny day that was too blue to be distorted. Nowadays, even the elders in his family group no longer use such boring avatars. He always weighs the true age of the mysterious shopkeeper every time he checks out. He couldn't help but test Anthony tactfully, wondering who would use the default desktop of an early computer system as an account avatar.
When he asked, Anthony Kent looked at him with raised eyebrows, as if he had said something rather inappropriate.
"You should be able to tell that these are two pictures, right? The one he used is definitely not the desktop wallpaper."
"I just think the styles are very similar." Luo Binhan said, "High saturation. Blue sky, white clouds and green grass. Distorted composite pictures."
"That's not a composite image."
"You mean his profile picture?"
"I'm talking about the default wallpaper you mentioned, the one with a small slope on the left. You must not have looked at it carefully. It is not a composite picture, but a real photo. The photographer named this photo 'Cloth' Lis' means bliss - I'm not sure I got the word right, it means 'as happy as in paradise'. I guess the guy who took the picture must have felt like he was in paradise. This photo is selling The price was astronomical."
"Oh." Luo Binhan said. After a while, he asked: "Where is the place in the photo?"
"It's completely different now. That area used to grow grapes. It was the territory of the wine industry. I don't know what it looks like now, but there are probably grape trellises everywhere. You can't replicate that. Photos – a lot of people have tried it.”
"I didn't think about it either." Luo Binhan denied, "I actually don't like that photo very much, even if it is real. It is perfect and hollow, and looks strangely uncomfortable. That's why I always thought it was a composite picture."
"It seems that you are not destined for bliss." Anthony said. On the flight to Regenberg, Luo Binhan always thought about this sentence.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
COVID-19 is not over yet.
Still alive.
