Sunday, July 28, 2019.
It is midsummer, and for this city known as Yandu, it is also the most difficult time of the year for the residents of this city.
High temperatures have persisted for days, turning the city into a sweltering furnace with temperatures exceeding the 40-degree mark. It was noon, with a high temperature of 40 degrees and the harsh sunshine overhead, it was almost impossible to see any pedestrians walking outside in many streets and alleys in Yandu.
The summer in Yandu is like this. It is not particularly friendly to most people. For example, the weather is as hot and humid as if you are in a steamer, or the scorching sun is hot enough to fry eggs on the road. At the same time, there are also the annual Heavy rains during the flood season that can paralyze Yandu's drainage system and turn an inland city into a Venetian water city... these have become Yandu's annual summer routine.
The meteorological department has issued a red high temperature warning for several days in a row, calling on citizens to reduce their time outside, try to stop outdoor work during high temperature periods, and stay indoors or in a cool place to avoid heat stroke. After all, staying outdoors in such extremely hot weather for just half an hour may cause heatstroke. If there is nothing urgent, almost no one would choose to go out at this time to suffer.
So although you can see all kinds of vehicles rushing on the road, there are only a few pedestrians on the sidewalk. And the baby-faced young man wearing a yellow T-shirt and black trousers who specially carried a shade and walked quickly across the street. One of the very few pedestrians on the street.
In such a sunny weather, not only do you have to walk on the street against the high temperature, but your ears are also bombarded by the endless chirping of cicadas and the piercing noise of vehicles on the road. These chaotic factors are mixed together , turning this place into an environment where it is very easy for people to become upset and irritable. No one wants to stay here for a long time, even the baby-faced young man who is temporarily staying under the shade of the tree is no exception.
Wu Ming, twenty-four years old. I live in an old community in the old city of Yandu with mostly middle-aged and elderly residents in their 50s and 60s. I am single. He is a dance teacher at a student extracurricular specialty training institution in Yandu. I don’t smoke, and I drink only a little bit of wine. No bad habits. If drinking a cup of hot milk, doing soft exercises for twenty minutes before going to bed, and then sleeping soundly until dawn can be considered an advantage, then Wu Ming can also be considered an advantage. There are basically no interpersonal relationships to speak of. There are no relatives or friends who can be considered good friends, and the relationship with the neighbors is only maintained at the level of nodding and saying hello when they meet. It is no exaggeration to say that even if Wu Ming died suddenly at home one day, he would only be discovered when his body rotted and smelled and alerted the neighbors.
Except for the occasional chuunibyou, he is just an ordinary office worker living a peaceful life.
Wu Ming, who was standing under the shade of a tree to let out the heat, wiped the sweat off his face with a tissue he took out from his pocket, then skillfully took out his cell phone, put it to his ear and muttered to himself: "Ah ah ...It's me. The organization's obstruction to my daily life has intensified. They destroyed the cooling device there, and they did not hesitate to use [suggestions] on ordinary people to eliminate the traces of my existence, causing the teaching operation to fail. Hmm , although it is unclear what those guys want to do now, for the sake of safety, I will reduce the contact in the near future to reduce the possibility of you and this encrypted information channel being exposed to them... Well, I wish you good luck. el psy congroo"
Wu Ming, who had never dialed a number at all and had not even unlocked his phone from the beginning to the end, finished talking to himself as a routine, put away his phone lightly, and wiped the fresh air on his forehead. After coming out, Khan looked at the main road in front of him, which had almost no shade, and fell into deep thought.
On such a hot day, Wu Ming did not hide at home like others, holding an ice watermelon and enjoying the summer time with the air conditioner blowing on. Instead, he ran around outside and talked to himself on his mobile phone like a psycho. Is there something wrong? The reason - apart from the fact that he was suffering from Chuunibyou again, the more reason was that his original travel plan was disrupted by a sudden unexpected event today.
According to the original plan, Wu Ming was going to teach children in the amateur dance class today. However, after taking more than an hour to get to school, he was told by the school that classes would be suspended today. The reason for the suspension was that the temperature was too high in the past two days. Moreover, at this juncture, the air conditioner broke again. In order to prevent teachers and students (mainly students) from heat stroke, the school decided to temporarily suspend classes until the air conditioner in the classroom was repaired.
Originally, all teachers and students in the school should have been notified of this matter, but only Wu Ming was missed by the school. This resulted in him not only running around all morning, but now he was in the dilemma of having to walk for half an hour under the scorching sun to get home.
Walking in the sun for half an hour in such extremely hot weather will definitely cause heat stroke. But Wu Ming, who has lived in this urban area since he was a child, also knows very well that there is no McDonald's near this main road where he can relax and drink while enjoying the air conditioning. It takes a quarter of an hour to reach the sun - and the owner of the store is so stingy that he never turns on the air conditioner in the store a few times throughout the year.
It's not like Wu Ming has never thought about taking a taxi home, but unfortunately the roads home now are either blocked due to subway construction, or the already narrow roads are full of cars parked on both sides. Cars outside can't get around at all. Otherwise, Wu Ming wouldn't have to walk for more than half an hour every day and go around such a long way to take the bus.
After much deliberation, he finally decided to buy two cans of cold drinks and go to a nearby park in the middle of the lake to find a bench with shade to rest. After the hottest hour or two, he would go and have something to eat. Go home and rest - anyway, today's lesson plan has been disrupted by unexpected circumstances, so Wu Ming is ready to take a long-awaited mental break and go to a nearby park to spend a leisurely and idle day.
If this is the world's attempt to add a little spice to Wu Ming's boring life, then Wu Ming has to admit that this spice has had some effect. Although he feels that his life is still boring, at least now he finally has something like this. It's time to immerse yourself in your own delusions and entertain yourself.
While Wu Ming was thinking about the gains and losses, he walked into the lake center park carrying a cold drink he had just bought from a street food store. He picked a bench that looked relatively clean under the shade of a tree and used the rest of his body. After wiping the last two pieces of paper, he sat down carelessly. He unscrewed the ice water he just bought and drank half of the bottle in one go. He immediately felt that the heat was gone. His body was completely relaxed. Wu Ming, who was leaning on the back of the chair, enjoyed the rare coolness brought by the ice water and the breeze, and the reflection of the lake in front of him. The sparkling light made him squint his eyes.
Wu Ming couldn't help but be distracted by the familiar scenery in front of him. Although he hadn't been to this lakeside park for almost six years, it didn't seem to have changed much. It was different from the surrounding residential buildings that had been demolished due to urban planning. Compared with other districts, time seems to have left no trace here, whether it is the layout pattern around the park or the rippling lake in front of us.
Everything in the park in the center of the lake remains as Wu Ming remembers it.
The familiar scenery in front of him was not much different from his memory. For a moment, Wu Ming even had a subtle illusion: he felt as if he was still living six years ago. For Wu Ming, the passage of time has brought about The changes in Wu Ming's life have been fixed since six years ago. Taking that day as the dividing line, he felt that he had become a robot without consciousness. Most of the time, Wu Ming's brain was in a semi-empty state, and he worked mechanically every day. I go to a training institution to teach children. I just go to eat and sleep to maintain the normal operation of my body. After class, I don’t participate in any entertainment activities and go home on time. Every day I live like a zombie because I am alive. Life.
Only when he is alone like now, 'his' consciousness will occasionally come to life, but for the next day's cycle, 'his' consciousness will die again and continue to cope with the same life as a machine.
Wu Ming has been living this kind of life for six years, and he knows very well that if nothing unexpected happens, his life, which is as mechanical as copying and pasting, will continue to cycle in the future.
"Hey! What are you looking at? Are you so entranced?"
Wu Ming, who was relaxed and slumped in the chair, was startled by the unexpected sound that came from behind him. He turned around unexpectedly following the sound, only to realize that the person who almost scared him to jump out of the chair was a slender man. A short-haired girl with slender legs was looking at her with a smile, as if she didn't realize there was anything wrong with her startling behavior.
She was a pretty girl, with piercing green eyes that seemed to have infinite vitality. She had short, shoulder-length black hair, fair and delicate skin, thin lips, and a tall nose. From her appearance, she looked a bit Asian and European, which made Wu Ming couldn't help but look at her twice. The short-haired girl's pure and bright smile seemed to have a wonderful magical power to soothe people's hearts. He was frightened. Wu Ming, who was jumping, also felt that his accelerated heartbeat had become calmer.
Perhaps because of the recent hot weather, the short-haired girl also dressed very refreshingly. She wore a white short-sleeved shirt on her upper body, with a big bow tied with a thin blue ribbon at the collar of the shirt, and a light blue short pleated skirt on her lower body. , and what impressed him most was the girl's big, sparkling eyes. Wu Ming had not seen such clear and lively eyes in a person of his own age for a long time.
Eyes as clear and bright as a child's.
Perhaps it was for this reason that Wu Ming was involuntarily attracted to these eyes. After looking at each other for a few seconds, he realized that his behavior of looking directly at the other person seemed a bit impolite. He looked away and subconsciously lowered his voice to answer. Said: "Well, it's nothing. Just think that I am just staring at the lake to pass the time."
The short-haired girl said "Oh" and didn't pay much attention to Wu Ming's obviously perfunctory answer. Then he suddenly remembered the purpose of running over to chat. He took out a crumpled piece of paper from nowhere and handed it to Wu Ming and asked: "Um, do you know the address of the Lucky Ancient God's office above? Is it near here?”
"Lucky Ancient God Office?" Wu Ming took a look at the crumpled piece of paper from the short-haired girl's hand and found that the address written on it was not far away: "The address is indeed nearby, but because of the demolition It's quite troublesome for you to get there from here. You first walk along this road and cross the road in front, then turn left and cross two intersections, then turn right and turn onto a path along the lake, and then follow The path goes around the lake for about half a circle and then..."
Wu Ming tried his best to make the route simple and clear, but judging from the short-haired girl's eyes that gradually became dull and distracted as time went by, his efforts obviously failed.
Looking at the dumbfounded expression on the short-haired girl's face, Wu Ming was sure that the other party didn't hear a single bit of what he just said, and might not even remember it - this expression was something he could at least distinguish among those children in the last class. He had seen their faces more than a dozen times. He had seen this level of observation through many battles. After a moment of silent thought, he felt that it would be better to do something good and help others every day than to stay here in a daze. Wu Ming had already made a decision in his heart. Although his reason was still telling him not to mind his own business, he still took the initiative to propose to the short-haired girl in front of him.
"How about...shall I take you there?"
"Really?" The short-haired girl who had been unconscious for a long time suddenly came back to reality. The expression of excitement and surprise on her face was just like an African who finally got an SSR after going through all kinds of hardships: "Then we have to hurry up. It’s time! I defeated the boss and got rid of those superpowers who like to throw fireballs. I have to go to the office and seek shelter before they catch up!"
Wu Ming was a little confused by the short-haired girl's words: "Huh?"
"You promised to take me there, but you can't go back on your word!" The short-haired girl immediately became anxious when she saw that Wu Ming didn't answer. She was afraid that the former would regret it the next second and run away, so she grabbed his wrist and walked forward. While patting her chest, she assured him that nothing would happen: "Don't worry! I'm also a superpower, and it's amazing! I can protect you even if something unexpected happens!"
Although Wu Ming didn't understand what the short-haired girl was saying at all, as a qualified chuunibyou, even if he couldn't understand what the short-haired girl said, he could accurately capture the chuunibyou elements in the other person's words, and after calming down After analyzing the .jpg, I deduced the possibility that is most suitable for the current situation - this girl must be a chuunibyou like me!
So Wu Ming, who was originally a little interested, suddenly became excited: he decided to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and play with this short-haired girl.
Thinking of this, a smile gradually appeared on Wu Ming's expressionless face, and his eyes that were originally like stagnant water began to bloom again, and his voice became low and deep due to pretentiousness: "I already fully understand what is going on. But We first need to figure out their purpose of hunting you. Are you designated for purification or are you listed as a recycling sequence?"
The short-haired girl tilted her head and looked at Wu Ming in confusion: "They seem to want to take me back..."
"Recycle the sequence? That's easy. Let me introduce myself formally. My name is Wu Ming, the leader of [Valhalla]. I specialize in providing help to [abnormalities] like you, and by the way, to the mysterious organization that is hunting you... …" Wu Ming paused deliberately when he said this. From the perspective of the short-haired girl, the temperament of the baby-faced boy in front of him seemed to have changed drastically. He spread his hands with a confident and calm smile on his face. He continued: "Tian Du."
