Qinghe District, one o'clock in the morning.
A very remote old tavern, with its plaque dim under the neon light.
An old man in a white suit, holding a purple wooden cane, slowly walked into the tavern. Perhaps due to its remote location, there was no one in the tavern when it was supposed to be open for business.
Zhou Jiren came to the bar, lit a cigarette, glanced inside the bar, and tapped the table.
"Dong dong."
The tremor is not loud.
But with two taps, the entire bar table, including the huge display cabinets and shelves behind it, seemed to be rippled.
If there are other guests in the tavern, they will see that the space is like a lake, and with two taps of their fingers, ripples with the same frequency will oscillate...
In the dark gloom inside the bar, someone suddenly opened his eyes.
A flash of light flashed in his eyes.
It's hard to believe that the sudden light came from a ragged old man. He was wearing a shirt as thin as a beggar's. Under the clothes, he was as skinny as a skeleton. His eyes were sunken and he looked like he hadn't woken up. He was holding hands tightly. Wine bottles with greasy surfaces.
The two old men stood in the light and darkness. Their clothes, figures, and spirits all formed an extremely sharp contrast.
"I didn't expect your business to be so bad... I'm not the only one here, am I?"
Mr. Shu slowly sat on the high stool and handed over the lit cigarette.
The ragged old man took it and took a deep breath. He laughed softly, his voice hoarse like a skeleton.
"Who would come to a pub like this to drink except you?"
He took out a goblet from the display case, mixed it skillfully under the counter, and brought it to Mr. Shu after a moment.
"Rum, lemon, ice, coffee, honey...well...the familiar taste of freedom, but a little weird." Zhou Jiren took a sip, frowned at the wine glass, and muttered: "You didn't secretly add any spices to me. Bar?"
"No money, can't afford coffee, honey."
The old man, who had finished a whole cigarette in two or three puffs, turned around and started to tidy up the display cabinet behind him. Due to the ripples just now, the positions of some wine bottles had changed, and some wine bottles had produced distortions that were difficult to detect with the naked eye. of cracks.
He stretched out a hand and slowly wiped it like a mirror.
Those dry palms seemed to possess incredible magic power. The lingering sound of the shock disappeared instantly, and the subtle ripples that were still trembling were all erased at this moment——
The slight buzzing noise was completely eliminated in an instant.
The tavern was so quiet that you could hear a needle drop.
"He is indeed a man who once defeated all the unbeatable men in Nagano. He has wasted twenty years practicing and is still a lion." Mr. Shu said calmly: "Baizhu, are you going to stay in a place like this for the rest of your life?"
"..."
The ragged old man named Baizhu smoothed away the ripples in the wine cabinet with his hands, sat back in the darkness, and said in a very soft voice: "It's just a joke to defeat the invincible hand in Nagano... If you practice for another hundred years, you won't be Gu Changzhi's opponent."
"If you think about it, Nagano Invincible without Gu Changzhi can still be regarded as Nagano Invincible. There is no need to compare with him."
Mr. Shu let out a long sigh.
"Moreover." He puffed out a puff of smoke and said leisurely: "I admire a hero like you who can bend and stretch. Look...how can those who burn themselves prematurely have a good ending? After Gu Changzhi came back from the outside, he is still I'm lying down sleeping. It's hard to tell whether I can wake up. If we fight now, you will definitely win."
"Get out!"
Bai Shu said coldly: "Zhou Jiren, if you are just here to humiliate me... you have already achieved your goal. You have finished drinking the wine, you can get out."
"Don't, don't, don't...speak slowly if you have something to say."
Zhou Jiren immediately gave up. He put on a flattering smile, took out a document bag on the counter table, and then handed out a box of cigars.
Bai Shu frowned.
He took the cigar without picking up the document bag.
"Alan Turing...A-009...The Ruler of Truth..."
Mr. Shu spoke in a low voice. He whispered secret words. After hearing some key words, Bai Shu narrowed his eyes, slowly pressed the document bag and dragged it in front of him.
He opened it expressionlessly and read it word by word.
During this process, Zhou Jiren kept staring at Bai Shu's face. He was observing the other person's expression. When he saw the confusion in Bai Shu's eyes as he expected, he grinned and said, "This file is quite interesting. Of...right?"
Bai Zhu closed the document.
"A somewhat interesting young man." He gave this evaluation, "A file that has nothing to do with me."
"I don't understand... What's the use of showing these to me?"
He looked at Mr. Shu blankly and said: "The world is developing too fast, and it has nothing to do with me, a remnant of the old era. I just want to live underground, and I am only worthy of living underground."
"You can go out and take a look. Young people are doing a good job, but this world still belongs to us old guys." Zhou Jiren shrugged and said with a smile: "It's just that one person's strength is weak after all. I haven't had any in these years. I didn't disrupt your life by looking for you, but after seeing this file, maybe you should change your mind."
"Don't ever come to me again."
Bai Shu didn't even hesitate for a second.
He said expressionlessly: "Zhou Jiren, you should know very well... If I wanted to go out into the outside world, if I still had the same personality as I did twenty years ago, you would not be able to step into this tavern safely today. I will take action as soon as you walk in the door."
"You used to be my friend, but now..."
Bai Shu slowly leaned back.
"What I hate the most...are the Parliament, the Tribunal, and people like you who know the truth but sacrifice your life for them."
Mr. Shu fell into silence.
After saying this, the tavern returned to a state of extreme silence.
Bai Zhu held down the document bag and returned it to the table.
He stopped talking and didn't even bother to open his eyes. He just waved his hands as if to ward off flies.
This time, I didn’t even bother to talk about getting out.
"..."
Mr. Shu took back the document bag, stood up, walked to the door of the tavern, stopped, and returned again.
Bai Shu, who was in the gloom, still had his eyes closed, frowning, showing an impatient expression.
"No matter what you say...I'm at least pursuing hope. Even if the hope is slim, even if she still won't recover in the end." Zhou Jiren said coldly: "And you? Lying in a shabby tavern, half-baked Buried in the soil, doing nothing but drinking and sleeping, are you prepared to fulfill the promise you made to her in your dream?"
Bai Zhu opened his eyes.
The fire of blazing rage bloomed in those eyes.
For a moment, something unfolded.
The entire underground tavern fell into absolute stagnation——
Including Mr. Tree.
And the next moment, all the fire went out.
Bai Shu closed his eyes.
There was no anger or sadness in his voice, just endless emptiness and numbness.
"idiot……"
"Stop chasing." He turned over and whispered in his sleep: "Hope is something that shouldn't exist."
