Jania took the lead and sacrificed a precious Sunday night for the survival of a lobster. With the help of a salinity meter, it was not difficult to prepare sea salt water with a suitable concentration, but she had to worry about the broken water chiller causing her to lose her bet. She had to go to school tomorrow, so she couldn't add ice cubes to the water tank all the time, and it was too easy for the water temperature to fluctuate. She went to the study room to look through Malcolm's "Guide to Maintenance of Common Home Appliances", but couldn't find the item "water chiller for fish tank".
She figured she wouldn't be able to fix the clunky, old machine overnight, but luckily she could come up with a temporary alternative. The principle is very simple: a fan, a power switch that can set temperature control conditions, and a small household ice bucket that can cycle ice making. As long as they are properly combined, it can serve as her in just a few days. Simple water chiller. The entire assembly process was almost risk-free, but just in case, she dialed Hannah Zahn's phone number and put on a Bluetooth headset with a microphone to ensure that someone would always know if she was electrocuted.
"What are you fixing?" Hannah asked again.
"Cooler," Jania said, "to keep the lobsters cool."
"Your new pet?"
Zhannia had to explain to her the whole story. As soon as she told her the serious consequences of losing the bet, Hannah was already laughing brightly on the other end of the phone.
"Oh my God," she said, "Jennia, you're like two ten-year-olds. You know, last Halloween two kids dressed up as lobsters—or some other kind of monster—came and knocked on our house. Door. They were hammering each other in the head with fake pliers, and that's what you and your brother were doing."
"It's just a joke," Jania said disapprovingly.
"You've already installed a water cooler just for this joke. I'd rather you spend your time on homework. Jania, I really didn't expect you and your brother... to get along like this. The last time he was here, I I thought he was quite a mature person.”
Zhannia snorted from her nose: "He likes to pretend to be serious in front of outsiders."
Hannah laughed harder. They have always been each other's best friends. They know each other's family members and the bad things they have said as well as their own palm prints.
"But you're at a disadvantage now, Jania. My uncle also raised shrimp. Not the big lobsters, but mantis shrimp, but I guess the idea is similar - even if you do everything right, Even if it has the best environment and conditions, it will probably die within a few hours. After all, it is a shrimp that has been out of the water. Or maybe you just need to add some water to it and put it in the refrigerator. It can survive until next Friday on its own. It all depends on its own ability, not your efforts. Isn't this an unfair game?"
Jania sat next to the water tank and wordlessly put her hand into the tank to test the temperature. She was already a little tired, but from time to time, people and things that had nothing to do with the present flashed through her mind: Gerd Schilling, the Devotees, Nick Judit, Lenny Colin... She felt that her arms were a little cold, and her eyelids Too sleepy to fight.
"If you really want to win this game," Hannah said slowly, with a hint of slyness in her tone, "I know a fish market where you can order Australian lobster over the phone."
"That would be expensive."
"It won't be more expensive than a high-performance computer, Zhannia. At least I can afford it, and your brother is not short of money. If you really need to win this game, you can raise this in the tank." If it doesn't work, I can bring a fresh and energetic one over when your brother is not looking, and then take yours away. Can you determine in advance what day Mal will come? You have to do this well. The timing.”
Jania couldn't deny that she felt excited for a few seconds. Hannah was objective in her judgment of her chances of winning, and a scheming operation sounded so interesting in itself, even more attractive than simply winning the bet. She knew Hannah probably felt the same way.
"No," she finally said, "I'll just use this one."
"What is it about this unique lucky lobster that fascinates you?" Hannah asked.
"I'm going to call him 'Stupid Brother'." Jania said with a groan.
"Don't be like that, Jania. It's destined to be on the table. If you give it a name now, it will be reluctant to eat it later."
Quite the opposite, thought Jania. When the time comes, she will send it on its way with the joy and cruelty of victory.
By the time she lowered the lobster into the water, the bell above her head had struck nine. Her mother came to the basement once and urged her to go to bed early. However, Jania stayed until ten o'clock, observing the condition of the lobster while discussing with Hannah what she heard from Old Cologne today. Hannah didn't care much about it, her home was closer to the center of town and away from the woods in any direction. As far as Jania was concerned, she was one of the few people in town who had no feelings for the woods at all - neither love nor gratitude, nor awe nor concern. Although Hannah has lived in Regenberg since she was a child, she sometimes feels more like a big city girl.
“We seem to hear about this every few years,” she said light-heartedly. “Tourists lost in the woods, athletes attacked by wild animals on their morning jogs. And of course, there are homeless people now.”
"Not everyone died. In the past ten years, there has only been one who suffered a heart attack while walking, one who fell to death at the bottom of a hillside, one who was poisoned by methane gas, and one who was attacked by a wild boar in heat."
"Jennia!" Hannah whispered, dumbfounded. "You're not going to write down every person who died in the woods in your diary, are you? That sounds really weird."
Jania didn't argue with that. She didn't keep a regular diary, but she did circle the dates of fatal accidents on her calendar in the past. It was a psychology that was difficult to explain to others... She could not help but understand the details of a death, as if the more she knew, the better she could master the skills to fight and avoid death. Hannah didn't need to remind her that she knew exactly what a false sense of security this was.
"I wonder what their last moments were like," she couldn't help but whisper.
"Don't think about it, Jania. I'll see you at school tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow."
There was no sound in the basement. The lobster curled up quietly next to the foaming bubbles at the mouthpiece of the air pump, showing no sign of struggling or jumping. This seemed to Jania to be a good sign, indicating that it probably would not turn over and die within three or four hours.
She walked out of the basement. The clock in the living room was approaching ten o'clock, but her brother's bedroom door was open, and it was pitch dark inside. She stopped in front of the door, the idea of going in to search secretly flashed through her mind, but in the end she walked away - she really liked investigating secrets, but it was still unethical to open other people's personal belongings at will, and her brother was not Fool. It was basically impossible for her to dig out a complete crime plan directly from his suitcase or computer.
But where did he go? Zhannia searched both the study room and the courtyard, but didn't see anyone. Just when she was about to go upstairs to ask her mother, her brother slowly floated into the front yard from across the road like a ghost. The look on his face was mysterious, as if Moses had just stepped off the top of Mount Sinai.
"Where have you been?" Jania asked.
"Pierre's house." Her brother said, "Your mother asked me to deliver seafood to her."
Jania recalled the moment her brother was called away by her mother, three hours ago.
She asked suspiciously: "You also helped her cook a seafood feast?"
"No," said her brother in a deep tone, "but I learned a lot tonight. I mean, about the person of Anti-Pierre, and her Virgin and Savior who gave birth to thousands of monkeys. Mother of goats.”
"You should take a drug test," Jania said.
Her brother smiled mysteriously at her, looking more like a sign of insanity. Before Jania could protest, he lovingly rubbed the top of her head, then floated quickly into the room.
Jania angrily put her hands on her hips and yelled at him: "You should have your brain checked!"
Her voice echoed in the night. It's over now, Zhannia thought, there must be more than one neighbor quietly hiding behind the window watching. When her mother called out her full name from across the house, she snuck back into her bedroom, turned off the light and fell asleep.
"Yu Xiaorong!" her mother shouted in the corridor, "Have you brushed your teeth?"
"Tomorrow morning!" said Jania.
"Now."
Jania kicked off the blanket and took a shower and brushed her teeth within ten minutes. When she passed the door of her brother's room that was ajar, she found that he was still chatting with Renwang on his laptop, and the screen was filled with childish and weird pictures of aliens. She didn't watch those kinds of movies, but she roughly knew what they were about: the actors would put on two very distorted leather puppet costumes, one more like a human being, the other more like a dinosaur or a beast, and then Two types of aliens clumsily fight on miniature models of human cities, punching and kicking with holsters, or emitting simple flashing special effects. She didn't know what the fun was in such movies, but some people were addicted to them, and her brother's nervous laughter alone in the room made this hobby seem very suspicious. She poked her head at the door of the room until her brother found out and drove her to bed.
Jania fell asleep filled with hatred. She hated everyone who had time to create secrets because she didn't have to study or go to class. This hatred persisted until she stepped onto the school bus the next day.
"Jania," Hannah asked, "do you know when Mal will be back?"
"this week."
"What specific day?"
Jania could only shake her head. Malcolm has always been a person who lacks planning. It is not uncommon for him to postpone the scheduled departure day by one day because he overslept. Jania also found that accidents that lead to lateness or postponement often occur among this type of people. As time goes by, they themselves don’t like to talk too much about time.
"Maybe he wants to prepare some surprises."
"He's always been very interesting," Hannah said cheerfully, "Can I come to your house tonight? Just to prepare a group assignment? Let me also see what happens to people who have been in Africa for more than two years. .”
"Of course. Did you bring your pajamas? I have an unworn set here."
"No problem - and, Jania, I have to remind you, we do have group work. Miss Meng will let us do a presentation this Wednesday at the latest."
Zhannia stared blankly, she had never known such a thing existed.
"It's time for you to calm down, Jania." Hannah said, "The deterioration of law and order is something that the government and the police have to worry about. But if your grades decline, then what you will face is not the suppression of the 'Chen Mansion' ah."
"It's my mother."
"That's exactly the truth." Hannah said with a smile. "Unfortunately, the authorities nowadays are all cruel dictators."
Where Hannah picked up these political quips, Jania had no idea. Even among her peers, she was politically apathetic, with few political parties to support and no concern for the future promised by the big names in the news. But as she grows older, she has realized that this feeling of coldness is not something to be proud of - who is really outside it? When war and apocalypse come, opening or closing your eyes will not help. She was just willing to look at things that could be grasped and had clear meaning, such as a mystery, a murder, a mysterious weirdo... She spent another whole day studying in her mind wandering.
She began to look forward to it in the afternoon. Malcolm's hope of returning home tonight was like a feather in the breeze, swaying from time to time, but not very high. She really missed him a little but didn't think he would show up on Monday, maybe Wednesday or Thursday, but who knew? Malcolm also liked the unexpected.
Hannah followed her home, and while still on the way she was already talking about the group presentation. She and Allet have collected a lot of information and compiled a preliminary outline. If Jania wanted to prove that she had the same level of contribution, she would have to stand on the podium on Wednesday and tell the class her entire understanding of 17th-century French classical drama.
"What is the principle mentioned in "The Art of Poetry"?" Hannah asked encouragingly, "What is the law?"
"...Three unities?" Zhania said, "An event, a whole day, a place...well, it is...the creation criterion of classical drama, which has been followed until the rise of romantic drama..."
"Now our group assignments can always be judged, right?" Hannah said with some satisfaction, although Jania thought it was too early to say this, because Miss Laimeng had high requirements for the on-the-spot performance of the display. She tried hard to remember Molière and Corneille—the full name was Pierre Corneille. This familiar name gave her a sense of security.
She looked up and could already see the tip of the roof that belonged to Anti-Pierre, and Anti-Pierre himself standing in the street. She was talking to a visitor with a suitcase - or, to be precise, gesturing with him.
Hannah let out a small scream. They all stopped and looked at the strange visitor standing between Nos. 15 and 16, Rue Anemone, with surprise. He was not Malcolm, not Gerd Schilling, but someone Jania had not expected to show up. When Jania saw him, he saw them at the same time, and nodded to her from afar. But he didn't come over to say hello, maybe because of Anti, maybe because of Hannah.
Jania pursed her lips. Trinity and the dramatists suddenly disappeared. Blood was filling her brain, allowing her to hear the wind howling in the woods, the breathless barking of dogs, and—and the never-ending roar of the sea. She wasn't really surprised, because there had been too many coincidences these days. Her brother was back, and Malcolm was back at the same time, as if they were both pulled to the same place by a thread, and they were both hurried back to the stage across from Regen Bay. Does this mean something is going to happen? She answered herself loudly in her mind: Of course! certainly! certainly! Something is definitely going to happen!
"Zhania?" Hannah asked curiously, "Do you know who that is? He just said hello to us."
"I know," Jania said. "At least, I know his name."
"So, he's Mal's friend?"
"No, he is... my brother's friend."
Jania fell silent until Hannah's smiling face was gradually obscured by doubts. She must not understand why Jania didn't look happy at all. Jania knew that she could no longer stare at a guest like this. If she didn't get an answer for a long time, Hannah would undoubtedly think in a worse direction.
"He seems quite...kind." Hannah said intentionally or unintentionally.
"Yes," said Jania, "he's a medical student - I just didn't expect him to be here because I heard he's been busy."
"Does he speak German? Maybe we should take the initiative to go up and say hello to him... It seems that Miss Pierre likes him quite a lot."
Hannah added with a bit of confusion and novelty: "That's really fun."
"Yeah," Jania said reluctantly. She could hear a hint of gritted teeth in her words. Yes, she totally figured it out - what was the second piece of good news her mother didn't tell her.
