Leo strolled leisurely along a daily path, sniffing outside the fence of each household's front yard and nibbling the grass blades that had absorbed water droplets and insect eggs. Now it calmly accepts the rope held by Luo Binhan, but it doesn't like to get close to Zhou Yu, just like its little master.
Its timidity seemed strange to Luo Binhan, so he spent most of his energy observing it, studying how it turned left and right as if nothing had happened, and glanced at the two of them furtively from time to time. That demeanor made him look unusually intelligent. He thought of Fake, and then thought of the lop-eared doctor who had been favored by Yalalijia. This is indeed the case. If Leo could be as smart as a human being, or think like a human being, and still retain the keenness and toughness of a canine, he would definitely be more popular than many humans.
But Yaliga doesn't have a canine head. He thought carefully about every member of the Silence, as well as the temporary passengers like him, and found it interesting that most of them still had heads similar to his on the surface. What's the reason? he asked himself in his mind. Is there another place where a dog leads an ape for a walk? But this was just a very superficial identity change. He already knew that outside the sky, there were indeed some races that never raised animals or raised them in captivity. He couldn't imagine how they lived, it was beyond his life experience. But he did know a counterexample.
He laughed oddly. Zhou Yu, who was looking around at the surrounding trees and single-family buildings, paused. Luo Binhan had no choice but to explain to him what he had heard from Ya Lai Liga about how the ancient and noble Alicorns lived in primitive times: they were vegetarians who lived on grains and grass blades, but they domesticated a species called "wild animals". Hu's animals are used as laborers. They do not want to carry out slavery to foreign races, but this kind of beast is lazy and cruel by nature. It not only commits various crimes among its own kind, but also tries to destroy all species that coexist with them. The ancestors of the Skyhorned Ones had to bring this low-grade and extremely fertile herd under their control in an attempt to reduce their impact on the environment. As a result, "yahoo" became the only animal they kept in captivity and enslaved.
Zhou Yu listened to the story with his usual calm expression, and it was unclear whether he understood the omitted parts. He asked: "What happened next?"
"What if I say they killed all the yahoos?"
"That's also a solution."
"They don't." Luo Binhan said, "They don't kill animal babies, and they can't stop the reproduction of yahoos - this kind of thing does not respect time and place, and does not care about means and morality - so they can only put this kind of thing They were kept in captivity on a desert island. Later, they moved away to a more fertile and... interesting place, and established a kingdom without such things. Since then, they have not raised or enslaved other animals."
"That's best for them."
"But why a yahoo?" Luo Binhan asked himself, "You see, this thing is not the worst species they have ever encountered, but the worst among the things they can deal with - the weakest among the bad things. The worst among weak animals. What characteristics put it in such a bad position?"
"Is it bad?"
"Not bad enough?"
"It's just an inevitable position in the ranking. According to you, there must be the most harmless among weak animals, and the most dangerous among harmful animals. Do you think it would be better in that position?"
Luo Binhan shook his head and watched Leo knock down a clump of sage with withered ends. He tightened the leash slightly to prevent the dog from digging into the more fragile plants in someone else's front yard.
"Maybe that would be easier," he said. "Either you can't do anything at all, or you can just go the same way. That gives you a clearer sense of where you stand, rather than..."
His voice dropped, almost whispering to himself: "Arrogant and ridiculous."
Zhou Yu still looked at him as usual. In his unsurprised gaze, Luo Binhan secretly felt a sense of comfort. He had never seen Zhou Yu look at him with sympathy or disappointment. Perhaps Zhou Yu had never looked at anyone else with such eyes since he was born - not even his father, who rarely appeared. He is so constant and indifferent, running according to his own will, like an indifferent fire hydrant standing next to a carnival scene. Even in a distant foreign country, he can bring familiar order and stability to Luo Binhan, as long as he doesn't enter the kitchen.
"But," he said briskly, "doctors must think it makes no difference if you can only see people in the operating room and the examination room. No one can show off during an anal exam anyway."
A very inconspicuous smile appeared in Zhou Yu's eyes. Luo Binhan didn't know if he had performed anal examinations on people, but there must have been many interesting stories about such things circulating in the hospital. As the saying goes, "There are no heroes in the eyes of servants," but what power and glory can a patient retain while paralyzed on the operating table? Luo Binhan's thoughts moved away from the ancestors of the Skyhorns, when he heard Zhou Yu talking.
"There is indeed no difference." Zhou Yu said, "No matter what position the species is in, death is the same."
Luo Binhan couldn't help but take his eyes away from Leo who was chewing the grass leaves. He looked at Zhou Yu with a bit of surprise and found that the latter was staring at the shadow at the bottom of the street lamp column. In an instant, he noticed that there was an indescribable look lurking under that calm face, as if he was staring at a flourishing scene that no one was witnessing.
He suddenly looked at the shadow under the streetlight, where there was only an emptiness with flying dust.
"What are you looking at?" he asked.
Zhou Yu just shook his head, with a look of dullness and confusion caused by lack of sleep on his face. As they stepped over the lamppost, Leo lifted his legs to pee under the lamppost. There were several echoing dog barks in the distance, but the road they were walking on was extremely quiet, and they didn't even meet a few people walking out after dinner.
In the past, Luo Binhan's frequent visits made him a semi-familiar face in this community. Most residents knew that he was from Yu Xiaorong's family. But he had never been particularly close to anyone, so when he and Zhou Yu wandered alone, the acquaintances they met by chance could only smile at them. He no longer has to think hard about how to make small talk, because here he plays a stupid, ignorant foreigner who can't even understand the local dialect. And this actually made him happy.
They walked undisturbed to the edge of the town. The night breeze is cool and filled with the fragrance of jasmine and lavender. Luo Binhan released the traction rope and allowed Leo to stretch his muscles in this open field. He and Zhou Yu walked onto a lush green hill covered with green onions. When Luo Binhan used a wooden stick to push aside the thick dead vines, revealing some traces of rock ruins underneath, Zhou Yu's surprised look made him feel a sense of accomplishment.
"My sister brought me here." He sat down on the ruins, not caring about the mud accumulated on the stone surface. "She liked to bring her dog here to play Frisbee when she was a child."
Zhou Yu didn't sit down together, obviously because of his preference for cleanliness. But he pressed his fingers on the moss-covered rock and slid along its gray and rough surface, like a blind man reading a Braille book.
"I heard that this place used to be a church," Luo Binhan gestured to a rough area, "a very small stone church that was still there a hundred years ago, maybe two hundred years ago, but then one day it collapsed."
"Isn't it built again?"
"The new one is in town. It's a beautiful white spire building. If you're interested, I can take you to see it tomorrow."
Zhou Yu didn't show too much enthusiasm for this proposal. He was still observing the lines of the broken stones. "Do you know why this place collapsed?"
"There's no accurate explanation." Luo Binhan glanced at Leo running under the hill. "Some said it was because of the earthquake, and some said it was due to plane bombing during the war. In short, nothing complete was gone, including the church and the buildings behind it. The cemetery – they used to be able to pick up a few fragments of tombstones and they’re in the museum.”
He turned and looked behind him. At the foot of the hill facing the sun, there are shadows that cannot be touched by the evening sun. The overgrown greenery extends out, leading to the woods a hundred meters away. This empty space may once have been lined with tombstones, but now there are only the grassy wives and wives. The thought that many dead people might be sleeping under these grass roots did not frighten him. Maybe it's because he has experienced too many strange things, maybe it's because Zhou Yu is standing next to him at the moment - knowing that he is getting along with someone who has been able to sleep in the morgue since he was a child does feel quite safe. If the corpse really rises from the ground, Zhou Yu will make up his mind on what to do.
A strong wind blew from the direction of the woods. Luo Binhan felt dust getting into his eyes, and he turned his back to look at the town. From where they sat they could see a large residential area. Under the purple light of the setting sun, the houses between the courtyard and the shade are as exquisite as miniature models. Their crimson roofs and green-yellow walls are particularly bright in the afterglow. There are hanging flower beds outside almost every window, and the most colorful and lush hanging basket flowers in spring and summer are cultivated inside. Gorgeous petunias and geraniums overflowed outside the altar, and countless colorful curtains hung down.
It all makes the town feel like a paradise, even though it's not actually that old. No matter how much they look like warm and lovely wooden houses with a long history from a distance, most of the red-roofed buildings are new buildings made of cement. Under the fairy-tale style, they have strong skeletons and tenacious resilience... just like Yu Xiaorong who lives here.
Luo Binhan's eyes jumped, wandering along the ridge line illuminated by the afterglow, trying to find the unique yellow and purple pansy outside Yu Xiaorong's bedroom, but he didn't recognize it after all. He could only point to the parts he recognized and tell Zhou Yu the story: a row of arcade-style double-story buildings dotted with Du Juan, including a flower shop, a beer hall, a grocery store, a bakery, a hotel and a cinema; Going up the ramp at the back of the business district, there is a garden square and service center surrounded by fir trees. Many festival activities are held there. He has experienced Oktoberfest and Halloween dances; from the east side of the garden square, The path goes down, passing through the fir forest and the villas with rose-colored stone walls and vast gardens, which is the church still in use in the town today. Two cemeteries were opened in the woods behind the mission hall, where Protestants and Catholics were buried respectively.
He kept introducing the most lively and beautiful places in the town, trying to make Zhou Yu feel the exotic customs and customs. But his own thoughts escaped from all these paintings. Incredibly, when he was in the apartment in Lihai, he always thought of this place, looking forward to leaving everything behind and coming here. But when he really looked at Regenberg, his impression of Lihai City became clear again. : It is not the blue sky, white walls or flowers, but a hollow and subtle noise that echoes in countless long nights. It comes from the cars running outside the window or the buzzing electrical appliances in the room, making people realize that they are in a stable, stable place. Within a huge and indifferent system; there are also pale and dim dawn moments, it seems that there has never been a memory of the morning sun shining like fire, the sky only slowly brightens, leaving the long night silent in the gray wet mist or thin rain. It disappeared, and then the dark and regular silhouettes of the buildings gradually appeared outside the window.
Suddenly, he understood why he was thinking of Lihai City at this moment. He stopped talking and turned to look at Zhou Yu, looking at the monotonous black coat, the unhealthy expression and the calm and distant expression. An idea came to him: it was Zhou Yu's arrival that led to his association, and it was Zhou Yu who brought Lihai City into Regenberg.
Zhou Yu was also looking at him. He seemed to have been staring for a while and found something interesting on his face. Luo Binhan touched his face to make sure there was nothing on it - unless Yu Xiaorong wiped ink on his face while he was not paying attention.
"What happened to my face?" he asked in confusion.
"I didn't see any of the places you just mentioned." Zhou Yu said, "The distance is too far. I can only see some rough street outlines under this brightness."
Luo Binhan understood immediately. He made a mistake, but fortunately it was in front of Zhou Yu instead of Yu Xiaorong, so it was not a disaster. He coughed awkwardly, but Zhou Yu just smiled slightly and didn't ask anything. Instead, he raised his hand and rubbed his eyes: "My eyesight is worse than before. It's difficult to see clearly in dark places. "
"When did it happen?" Luo Binhan asked immediately.
"About two years ago. Since it doesn't affect daily life, it doesn't matter."
Luo Binhan looked at Zhou Yu's vagina with suspicion and found no sign of wearing contact lenses. He knew that many doctors were myopic, and the lenses Luo Jiaotian wore in high school were already quite heavy. But he always thought that Zhou Yu's eyesight was very good, just like Zhou Yu's physical fitness. When I was a student, many cultural teachers believed that nerds like Zhou Yu should stay away from strenuous exercise. This was one of the many misconceptions caused by Zhou Yu's gentle and silent image. Luo Binhan still remembers one year's school sports meeting. Unfortunately, Zhou Yu got the task of long-distance running competition. The class teacher wanted to change him to the long jump team out of good intentions. When many teachers discovered that Zhou Yu could even place in the top three in the competition, the shock on their faces made Luo Binhan so happy.
But, that's all in the past. At this moment, the passage of time suddenly came to Luo Binhan's consciousness. He thought about how many times Zhou Yu had been hospitalized in the past few years, how many irreversible effects his unhealthy routine had had, and what a serious blow that terrible incident had been. Everything has changed. Zhou Yu is not much younger than him, and he is almost thirty years old. The reason why he hasn't felt the burden of time yet is because he is still a diligent and wealthy man, and because of the things Jing Huang gave him to drink.
If he continued to stay here, he couldn't help but think that he would probably witness Zhou Yu's funeral, or even Yu Xiaorong's funeral. In the end, Yu Qingshu's nightmare that he worried about all day long would come true. In his later years, he would lie alone in a hospital bed suffering pain, while the world abandoned him mercilessly, not bothering to take another look at this dying waste. With this imagination, he looked at Zhou Yu carefully, trying to find the subtle wrinkles at the corners of the other person's eyes, or an inconspicuous white hair. But strangely enough, he felt that Zhou Yu's appearance had not changed at all. It seems that he is still the same Zhou Yu who won third place in the long-distance running competition ten years ago and shocked the class teacher.
"Where are the others buried?" Zhou Yu asked.
"Who?" Luo Binhan said absently. He was still thinking about what Zhou Yu would be like in his later years. Maybe it will be a replica of Zhou Geqing, but it is said that Zhou Yu's profile is more like his mother... Who did he listen to?
"Where are people without faith buried? Is it also behind that church?"
"Oh...not necessarily." Luo Binhan turned his thoughts back to understand the question he heard, "There may be another public cemetery, I guess that's the case. There are still Buddhists in this town."
He shrugged: "You know, my mother likes to talk about how after a person is cremated, he has to pick out big bones and beat them before putting them in a box. She even thinks that's funny. But she's even more tired of digging holes and digging holes for the dead. Carrying the coffin.”
“Are burials mainstream here?”
"Half and half," Luo Binhan said casually. He really hadn't thought about it carefully, because Yu Qingshu had already told him his intention to donate his body - if there was no market demand by then, his mother added, she would rather be dumped into the sea than pay a cent. Meaningless cemetery use fees. She even actually saved a sum of money so that her two children could take a luxury cruise commemorative trip after her death, and throw her ashes into the sea along the way. Luo Binhan is no longer surprised. His mother has always been a pragmatic woman.
Zhou Yu, who also knew about this, smiled vaguely, as if to say that this was indeed the Yu Qingshu in his impression. In order not to say anything bad about slandering their elders, they invariably looked away and looked for other topics. Luo Binhan's eyes drifted to the farthest corner where the setting sun could shine, to an area of somewhat old townhouses. The white walls were already mottled with rusty yellow. It's one of the oldest buildings in town, and it's also the easiest place to see new tenants and new faces. His heart sank slightly, remembering the terrifying atmosphere that once lingered there.
"Lenny Colin," he murmured. He had never seen this person before, but his appearance was clearly engraved in his mind, and he could even pronounce the name with a German accent.
Because of his tone, Zhou Yu turned her eyes towards the woods behind her. Luo Binhan smiled at him, shrugged and said, "A criminal who used to pester my sister."
"Is she a teacher at her school?"
"Primary school teacher." Luo Binhan crushed a piece of gravel with the sole of his shoe. "A crazy lunatic who thinks he can absorb life from children, by being with children... like that."
He kicked the gravel down the green hill with an expressionless expression, and then found Zhou Yu looking at the woods behind him again. "What are you looking at?"
Zhou Yu turned her back to him and said softly: "It seems like someone is inside."
Luo Binhan glanced into the woods. The sun had already set in the west, causing the shadow of the hills to cover the edge of the woods, leaving a shadowy dark outline. He searched for human traces among the dense tree trunks and swaying branches, but found nothing. When he did this, Zhou Yu was already walking down the hill.
Luo Binhan grabbed his shoulder: "Where are you going?"
"Let's check a little bit. If someone is really trapped in there, we can help."
"No one would get lost so close to the town," Luo Binhan said, dragging Zhou Yu back a little. "If it was a murder and dumping the body, it usually has to be two kilometers further."
Zhou Yu returned to the top of the hill obediently, but still looked around frequently. His look made Luo Binhan feel both funny and slightly uneasy. He remembered Yu Xiaorong's advice and thought that he really shouldn't take the risk of letting Zhou Yu get close to the woods, otherwise he might fall over due to the tangled roots.
"You must be dazzled." He said, "My eyesight is better than yours now. There must be no living people walking in the woods. And if there is really a dead man's schoolbag stained with blood that is tempting you, we have to run faster. .Come on, we should go back now."
He pulled Zhou Yu down the hilly land from the sunny side. The latter didn't struggle, but sighed strangely.
"You don't really want to see the blood-stained schoolbag, do you?" Luo Binhan questioned.
"Even if I see it, what does it matter?"
"Misfortune has arrived." Luo Binhan reminded him of Hannah Zahn's dinner table ghost story.
At this time, the bright light of the setting sun shone on them, giving Zhou Yu a rare trace of vitality and enthusiasm on his face. Luo Binhan saw him looking at the top of the hill for the last time, smiling thoughtfully.
"Then let it come." Zhou Yu said.
Leo suddenly barked at their feet and pounced on a flying white butterfly. All the dogs in the town barked. I don’t know which one howled first, and then the other dogs responded. The continuous barking was like a warning bell before an earthquake.
