Gongsun Ce didn't know that he had become two people in the eyes of his girlfriends. At this moment, he was walking listlessly in the town, bathing in the warm sunshine with his two companions.
There are almost no prosthetics in the small town of Novi, and there are very few aircraft or holographic billboards, which reminds Gongsun Ce of his childhood hometown. There is also a newsstand on the roadside here. The paperback version of the Bible is placed in the most conspicuous position. The adult magazine with exposed cover is mostly wrapped in a black plastic bag by the stall owner. In conspicuous yellow fonts, it reads "Minors". Purchase prohibited."
When Qiluo went to buy adult magazines, she deliberately used her abilities to disguise herself as a middle-aged man. She was worried that if she showed her normal appearance, she would be caught by the conservative-looking old man and lectured her.
"You can't buy this kind of three-dimensional magazine in Cangdu~" Qiluo's eyes lit up.
"Remember to lend it to me after reading it." Gongsun Ce said absently, "How is the progress of the investigation?"
Qiluo said helplessly: "Gongsun Ce, Alandia and I have just discussed it, and the conclusion is that the church has responded and we don't need to intervene. Are you not listening at all?"
"When did you say that?" Gongsun Ce's eyes were blank, "Didn't we just get off the car..."
"We've been off the bus for two hours." Dawn Knight said, "Ce, I suggest you go have lunch, interact with the locals moderately, see the scenery outside the city, and focus on the real world instead of In the practice of fantasy.”
"I'm very focused," Gongsun Ce said. Qiluo pulled him hard to prevent him from hitting the telephone pole on the street. The two ladies had to hold his arms one on the left and the other on the right, otherwise Gongsun Ce, who was in a daze, might get lost on his own.
Gongsun Ce did not lie. His spirit was indeed concentrated inside his body. Ever since that night, he always felt that he would disintegrate into millions of pieces of ashes again and become countless burning flames. He will be everywhere and omniscient, like an air of existence. The worst thing is that he subconsciously feels that there is nothing wrong with this, so Gongsun Ce always needs to concentrate on calming down this desire to disperse.
Gongsun Ce felt that he only spent about half a second adjusting his state, but when the real reaction came, he was already sitting in a restaurant, and Qiluo hit him on the head with the menu.
"What do you want to eat?" Qiluo repeated angrily, her breasts swaying with the slapping movements.
Gongsun Ce's eyes wandered for a while. The aroma of toasted bread, steak, and fried food reached his nose during this process, and the hunger in his belly made him gradually regain his usual feeling. "Let me take a look." He took the menu and found that there were surprisingly many options on the menu. In addition to the same fried chicken, burger, wrap, and pizza, there were also fish and chips, beef kidney pie, and fried eggs.
"I'll have a specialty burger with fries and a vanilla milkshake. How about you?"
"I want a sandwich and fried chicken~"
"I haven't had pie in a long time." Alandia said, "But..."
"Let me ask for you."
There was a middle-aged woman with blue hair standing behind the cashier. Gongsun Ce walked over and said hello, "Hey, is the pie here authentic?"
"One hundred percent authentic." The woman spoke with an accent from the Kingdom's countryside. "My mother is from Morton, and she taught me this dish step by step."
Gongsun Ce deduced from her accent and the apron embroidered with the Kingdom Cross that this was not a lie. He paid the bill and ordered Alandia's favorite salad and black coffee.
There were not many customers in the small shop. Apart from their table, there was only a middle-aged policeman and an old man with an old-fashioned temperament. The two men shared the table and ate their own food. The policeman listened to the old man complaining.
"One generation is inferior to the other." The old man cut the burrito angrily. "One generation is inferior to the other! There is no faith, no will, no wisdom, no knowledge of respecting history and tradition, and no knowledge and vision to look forward. This is what young people are today. Man. This morning I saw a girl, probably a student, who said that all the fog on the ground should be sucked away and people could live on the ground... I can't believe that such rude and arrogant words would appear in this peaceful town of ours. superior."
"It's okay. Think about the youngest son of the Thrilai family." The police officer's voice was strong. "He was addicted to drugs last week and drove his car rampantly in the town."
"Drugs, the Internet, vulgar music, and cheap sensory stimulation. These things have ruined an entire generation." The old man dismissed it. "Last month, my grandson went to Misty City to attend a celebrity concert. After he came back, he began to support those with epilepsy. The patient's 'new civilization'. He wants to vote for Gaius just because the star likes it. He doesn't even understand what he is supporting, he supports it for the sake of support."
The police officer munched on the pie and sighed: "In this fragile era, people's positions can be easily changed by a song."
"They don't have anything of their own in their minds. They should all go into the fog more often." The old man said with disdain, "Now they don't even want the fog, stupid kids!"
Gongsun Ce's attention was attracted by the discussion between the two, and he said hello: "Good afternoon, gentlemen. I didn't mean to eavesdrop. This place is not big. I always thought the fog here was harmful to people."
"Hello, young man. Why do you think so?" the old man asked, "Because that's what the computer says? Popular science on the radio? Or is it the introduction in the pamphlet?"
Gongsun Ce scratched his head: "It's all there."
"Ha!" the old man shook his head and laughed, "That's what I just said, your mind is full of other people's things. The basis of your thinking is the cheap knowledge you obtained in fragmented time, but you don't know the true nature of that knowledge at all. Fake. It’s just that you think they are real.”
Qiluo said unconvinced: "But we just came out of the fog! We all saw the magic fog with our own eyes. Those bad phantoms are so embarrassing."
The old man laughed louder, and the middle-aged policeman couldn't help laughing.
"Sorry, there is no harm." The policeman said, "I think of the first time I went on a date with my lover. We walked in the fog according to the old tradition, and the magic fog started to move... It was really embarrassing. I suffered a lot that day. Five slaps.”
"Why is there such a strange tradition?" Qi Luoxu said with eyes, "It feels like it is the trigger for the breakdown of the relationship."
"On the contrary, the fog allows us to maintain our simplicity and original intention. In any era, this is the most precious wealth." The old man finished eating the burrito and stood up from the table, "Girl, your judgment is only based on what you see. That glance, but the sage tells us that seeing may not be true. If you have time, you can take a few more looks. Mist is a good thing."
The two people who finished their lunch left after saying goodbye, and the waiter brought their lunch to the table. Gongsun Ce regretfully found that the pictures of this store were seriously inconsistent with the real thing. The "specialty burger" in the picture was mediocre, but what was actually served on the table was two large pieces of buttered bread and a large plate of torn bbq barbecue.
"Boss, are you sure you served the right dish?" Gongsun Ce pushed up his glasses.
"This is the local specialty." The middle-aged woman told him with a smile, "What you see and what you get are always different."
Fortunately, the lunch of the other two people was not that special. Judging from Alandia's satisfied expression, the beef and kidney pie was indeed genuine. After eating haphazardly for a while, Gongsun Ce felt a little more at ease. He walked out of the fast food restaurant and fell into deep thought again.
"Should we go for a walk in the fog again?" Qiluo suggested.
"I find it very interesting..." Gongsun Ce nodded slowly, "I want to know what I will see."
The Weatherlight was driven away, so they simply rented a car. The paint of this car is a beautiful fiery red, and it looks like a burning fire under the blue sky.
Gongsun Ce and Qi Luo sat in the back seat together, feeling the breeze blowing from the window. Alandia stopped before she could reach the maximum speed. A girl in her early ten years was standing in the middle of the driveway, making a gesture of hitchhiking to them. The girl had colorful hair, wore a bright silver tights, and was holding a half-eaten chocolate pie in her hand.
"..."
"..."
She and the three people in the car looked at each other for a while, then opened the door and sat down on the passenger seat.
"I want to listen to music," she said.
Alandia randomly tuned a radio station, and the anti-Shinto black metal from Zero Island was playing on the speaker. The alien girl seemed to feel good about it, bouncing her head to the songs of "Ghost Cry and Wolf Howl".
"We can give you a ride, but please fasten your seat belt." Alandia ordered. Qi Luo deeply admired this. It was like standing up when you encountered a terrorist hijacking the plane and reminding him to put your phone into airplane mode. People who can do such things not only have the courage to do so, but also have the courage to do so. There are more problematic brains than the robbers.
The alien girl fastened her seat belt obediently, turned her head to look at Gongsun Ce, and let out that strange, familiar laugh.
"That's funny," the girl said. "You're about to fall apart."
Gongsun Ce weighed his arm: "I think I'm pretty solid."
"She turned you into fire. Fire is changeable." The girl raised a red flame in her hand and watched it scatter into countless sparks. "You became too early. Can you master selflessness? You Is it fire?”
"I……"
"Ce, you are a human being." Alandia said first, "Go and see the fog, it will be helpful to you."
Gongsun Ce nodded subconsciously. He didn't understand what the girl was talking about, and he fell into that confused state again. The car drove in a strange atmosphere, driving out of the town and into the fog.
·
After two hours of racing, Shigure Rei arrived at the next town on the map, Enhu Town. The signboard near the town shows that this is the hometown of "The Second Runner-up of the Charming Mist State Girls' High School Table Tennis Competition", which seems to be trying to find ways to add characteristics to the town.
"There are many such towns." Putana told them. "A small town only has a few hundred people. It has no characteristics. Many people are suffering from unemployment or layoffs. The Tata Star Town I want to go to It’s this kind of town.”
"Are the big cities in this state like this?" Qin Qianbai asked.
"The largest city here is called Fog City, which is very close to where I go to school. It is much better than small towns. At least there are large shopping malls, holographic advertisements and aircraft stores. We can watch Gaius's speech in the square. "When it comes to politics, Putana is very excited, "Have you heard of his name?"
Shigure Rei smiled: "He is very famous."
"He is the best politician of this century." Putana said this with pride. "Unlike those who engage in politics for money and power, he really wants to do something practical for this land. 'Long-term stagnation brings the limits of civilization, and the new generation of Usters needs a new civilization.' How wonderful to hear this!"
Shigure Rei nodded while listening: "It makes sense."
"A star I particularly like, Ariel is also his supporter. She just came to this small place to hold a concert last month. It was awesome. We sang together with her." Putana beamed, " She is also a supporter of the movement to drive back the fog and return to the soil. You see, our enthusiastic and charitable act has been supported by many aspects of society, and Usters does not only have one voice."
"Is she more famous than Xingli?" Qin Qianbai asked.
"Xingli? She's almost gone. Idols hyped up on the Internet are incomparable to powerful people."
Qin Qianbai disagreed with this, and Shigurei hurriedly asked before the argument escalated: "It's dinner time, are you hungry?"
Putana insisted on paying for the lunch of the three of them, so the huntress parked the car next to a restaurant and asked the little girl to pack takeout.
"How can you let high school students pay the bill?" Qin Qianbai scolded.
"I brought her here for free, she deserves a treat." Rei Shigure shook his sunglasses, "What do you think?"
Qin Qianbai looked at the bus stop on the roadside. The advertisement on the stop sign was the campaign propaganda of Gaius Optimus.
"Gaius created preconceived notions for people, and his target was young people who were easily incited." Qin Qianbai said coldly, "He used the church as a symbol of 'backwardness', holding up the banner of righteousness to provoke people He is cultivating a group of loyal supporters, which is a very bad thing.”
Rei Shigure took off his sunglasses and stared at her for half a minute: "Thank you, big politician, I'm asking the little girl."
"..." Qin Qianbai was speechless for a moment, "She is rebellious and naive, but not a bad child. She should have been deceived by the so-called pen pal."
"Oh~ you are smarter than I thought." Rei Shigure said lazily, "Who will come later?"
"Come on, Miss Shigure. I'm not good at communicating with naive children."
"That's for sure, because you are very naive yourself."
When Putana returned with four pies, the two adult women in front were swatting at each other with their paws like cats fighting.
They and Wawu continued on the road after eating the cake. Shigurei started a new topic after leaving the town: "So what are you going to do? Drive away the fog and return to the earth?"
"Are you interested in this event?" Putana said enthusiastically, "This is an emerging movement worthy of all our efforts. You know, most of the Mist State is shrouded in fog, and people can only live in the sky. . These nasty fogs have greatly hindered local development, but this is avoidable - as long as the government funds the construction of several large fog-repelling areas that interfere with the water cycle, we can return to live on the land."
"Sounds like no small project."
"The state government must have this money!" the girl swore as if she had seen the official account books. "They are just reluctant to use it. They always let the money go into the pockets of politicians and entrepreneurs without doing anything practical for the people. So we need to Went to protest and my pen pal said there were thousands of people in our ranks and it would surprise the state government.”
Rei Shigure nodded repeatedly, and his tone suddenly changed: "Why is such a big event held in a remote town?"
Putana was stunned: "This is because... I think it is because it is close to many participants..."
"Putana, you just said that many local towns only have a few hundred residents." Qin Qianbai said, "How hard does your pen pal have to work to mobilize thousands of people in these small towns where conservative ideas are dominant?" Where is a progressive person coming?”
"This is... he may have been bragging..." Putana said hesitantly, "Maybe there are only a few hundred of us..."
"Let me tell you, there are not even five people." Rei Shigure sneered, "One is recording, one is taking medicine, and the remaining three take turns to fight."
"You are so vicious, how can you think like this!" Putana protested excitedly, "This is our progressive activity! As a student, I have to -"
Rei Shigure stopped in the middle of the road, and the fog rushed into the car, making his vision blurry. She took off her sunglasses and turned to look at the girl in the back seat.
"If I were you, I would say that there is never anything I have to do in this world, only things I don't want to do." Rei Shigure smiled, "Let me guess. Your pen pal - probably a The man—he invited you to meet five times, but to no avail. This time he said he would cut off contact if he didn’t come again, so you hurriedly ran out of the mission school and hitchhiked all the way to the appointment."
Putana opened her mouth wide and hesitated for a while before saying: "It's not what you think. This is not just a personal matter, I did it out of a sense of responsibility."
Shigurei took out a short arrow from his waist and threw it to Qin Qianbai aside. The eldest lady threw the short arrow with slightly more force. The arrow sank into the wet ground and exploded into balls of mud-like soil. The depths of the arrow pit are filled with slimy brown, like a swamp in a tropical rainforest.
"The land in Charming Mist State has long been swampy due to fog, and it is difficult to build ordinary houses on the ground." Qin Qianbai said, "Your activities are impractical."
Putana stared blankly at the mud pit. She quickly got out of the car and touched the swampy land with her own hands, and then touched other lands with her own hands.
"How could it be possible?" When she returned to the car, Putana looked disappointed. "This is impossible."
"Why? Because your pen pal didn't say that?" Rei Shigure asked.
"I checked on the Internet!" Putana said angrily, as if she was seriously offended. Qin Qianbai is familiar with this emotion. She feels that her wisdom and ability to make independent judgments have been questioned, and she feels that she has been underestimated.
"I believe you have been searching on the Internet for a long time." Qin Qianbai said, "But you probably have not personally visited the fog, even once."
Putana stopped talking and sat sullenly in the back seat, Wawu patting her calves with her paws. The Weatherlight started moving again, and Rei Shigure whistled leisurely in the fog.
"By the way, braces girl. I remembered another thing. Do you hate the church so much because you have seen their evil deeds, or is it because you and your mother can't deal with each other?"
"This has nothing to do with my family!" Putana said angrily, "This is my political opinion! I am a ecumenical person, I have public figures that I support, and I hold the same views as them... "
"Or do you accept their point of view?" Rei Shigure said.
"I have really seen clergy who look like dogs. In the first half of the year, a priest was imprisoned for pedophilia." Putana tried her best to prove her point of view.
"Such people definitely exist." Qin Qianbai said, "I have also seen other clergy, including an old priest who fought hand-to-hand with robbers in a bank, and a part-time doctor who often went to emergency rooms for free and only received a small amount of money. "
"I..." The female high school student subconsciously wanted to continue arguing, but she realized from the calm expression of the girl in the front seat that there was no point in arguing when she was emotional. So she began to close her eyes and meditate, trying to calm down her emotions and persuade others as rationally as she did during group discussions.
"Don't worry, it's not a debate. There is no time limit for speaking." Rei Shigure held the steering wheel with one hand and adjusted the air conditioner in the car with the other hand. A white daffodil bloomed on the roof of the car, making her words There's magic in it. "Think about what you really want."
Qin Qianbai kept observing the girl's condition. At first, Putana was as dazed as if she had just woken up. After pondering in confusion for a long time, her eyes gradually became clear. She turned on her mobile phone and started to look back at the dense chat history. From this behavior, Qin Qianbai deduced that the girl's "pen pal" was probably a netizen she met on a social networking site, and she gave him a better name.
"...I'm sorry." Putana rubbed her head and said, "Can you come back a few more times? I want...to see more."
"It only takes a few times. She knows Imperial Kung Fu and will never get tired."
Qin Qianbai glared at the female driver: "She knows Zero Island Karate and is especially good at digging holes."
Putana listened to the bickering between them and laughed a few times. The Weatherlight left the regular highway and galloped across the muddy land. Qin Qianbai randomly threw short arrows in several directions, but without exception, they all responded like a swamp.
"I think only a small part of the land can lay special foundations." Qin Qianbai said, "They have all been built with tall mushroom-like houses, just like those small towns."
Putana looked quite disappointed. She huddled up in a ball in the back seat, her eyes filled with mist.
"What should I do?" she said helplessly, "I just realized today that I am even more stupid than the children I laughed at."
"Why are you asking me? I am a magical princess and not your mother." Rei Shigure curled his lips, "Ask your mother."
"She would laugh at me to death. She would drag my dad and my sister along to laugh at me."
"Compared to being laughed at loudly by your 'pen pal' after being cheated on, this sounds like a nightmare that you will never forget." Rei Shigure commented, "Is there anything worse?"
"Yes. In fact, we are human traffickers who abduct and traffic in missing children. We transport the girls to the small and backward countries in the Nanyang Islands every day." Qin Qianbai sang along.
"It's really scary. How much is the market price per pound over there?"
"About 300 kri."
"Prices are really high these days."
The two unscrupulous adult women laughed, and the high school girl in the back seat turned red with anger.
"That's too much of you!" she said, "Thank you."
"Just laugh at your good luck if you don't meet a real dealer."
After another thirty minutes of racing, they arrived at the next town (Jinhu Town). Putana got out of the car and hid in an alley to talk on the phone with her family. Judging from her expression, her conservative religious mother scolded her bloody. After being scolded, she wiped away her tears and handed the phone to Shigurei. The female voice on the phone spoke vigorously.
"My silly girl is taken care of by you. Give me your bank card number. The Supreme God will definitely bless you. As a mortal, I want to express some gratitude as a mother."
"That's not necessary. I was much stupider than her when I was a child." Rei Shigure told her, "It's just a sideshow during a self-driving trip."
They left Putana at the door of a small hotel in Jinhu Town. The female high school student was extremely confused when she said goodbye.
"What should I believe?" Putana sought their advice. "If my positions and concepts are false, should I really be a conservative and traditional person as the church school says?"
Qin Qianbai looked at this helpless girl, as if he saw himself when he first went to the Capital of the Sky. Young people in this period always have a similar melancholy temperament, as if they have fallen into an abyss from which they cannot escape, and their own thinking and concepts are the highest tasks that override all trivial matters. They are good at creating troubles and confusion for themselves.
Qin Qianbai couldn't help but laugh when he thought of the gray-haired boy's sermon. She seriously suggested: "Let's start by learning to think independently?"
Putana thought about this sentence, and felt certain in her heart. She felt that she really understood something. She waved eagerly, wanting to wish them a smooth trip, but found that the beautiful car had already gone away, driving into the fog with its equally beautiful passengers.
(End of chapter)
