What Granny Ding handed to Yan Yueming was something that looked very much like a Wenwan walnut, but it was different from the common Wenwan walnut. It was jade-white, but its texture looked like it had been polished very smoothly... bones?
Yan Yueming was surprised at first. He had never seen his aunt play with this thing before, until Granny Ding told him that the walnut could be opened. He twisted it and found that it could indeed be opened.
Inside the opened walnut, there is a small brown particle.
"This is... a seed?" Yan Yueming was confused.
"It looks very similar, but I can't be sure. I don't know where she got this thing from or what it is. It was a few days before she left Yihong Ship. The ship was anchored in the gap and we met at the ferry. . She temporarily left her things here and entrusted me to keep them, and then went back to the boat. As you know what happened later, the boat capsized, and the search and rescue department took her out of the gap." Granny Ding explained everything. Dao Lai said, "Now I'll hand it over to you. Maybe you can figure out what its purpose is."
Yan Yueming couldn't help but look at Li Zheng.
Li Zheng played with the small tea cup in his hand and said, "The ferry you are talking about is Zhaoying Ferry?"
"Boss Li is indeed a regular visitor in the gap. I can't hide anything from you." Granny Ding respectfully addressed Boss Li verbally, but her attitude was still relaxed and leisurely. "When the search and rescue department showed up, Boss Li was also there?"
Li Zheng answered the question inappropriately: "Perhaps those of you who are leaving the meeting still remember the captain of the Yihong Ship at that time?"
Grandma Ding was slightly startled, then frowned, "I have never actually been on the boat, but I have heard about it. After the Yihong boat capsized, it did not reappear for a long time. When it reappeared later, the captain seemed to have changed. Are you here?"
Li Zheng raised his eyes, "It's not a replacement, it's an iteration."
Iteration?
Yan Yueming immediately thought of the setting of the gap he had learned. The gap was always changing. The people who died in the gap eventually became part of the gap, forming this strange and unpredictable world. The captain iteration means that someone else died on the ship, so the captain, the NPC, incorporates new settings?
Li Zheng met his doubtful gaze and explained: "Since your aunt's time, the Yihong boat has capsized twice. After each capsize, the hull was damaged and needed to be repaired. Just like this time, the cracks changed drastically. Likewise, the repair of the Yihong Ship is an iterative process. Certain changes have taken place on the ship, and the captain's personality has also changed."
Yan Yueming nodded thoughtfully.
Granny Ding: "What does this have to do with Tang Qiao?"
Li Zheng: "I suspect that this walnut comes from the captain."
Yan Yueming opened her eyes slightly, "Auntie stole it from the captain? So you have to get the walnuts off the ship quickly and give them to Grandma Ding for safekeeping, right?"
Grandma Ding couldn't help laughing when she heard that he restored Tang Qiao's criminal mind so naturally. She didn't ask how Li Zheng guessed the captain. Everyone had secrets, so there was no need to ask too much.
"This is indeed something that Tang Qiao would do." Granny Ding commented.
Yan Yueming touched her nose and said, "In other words, my aunt still, still... maybe she picked it up."
Li Zheng put down the tea cup slowly, "Whether it's picked up or stolen, Tang Qiao gave this to you, maybe he was planning something for a rainy day. I also
After getting on the ship, there happened to be a commotion on the ship. It seemed that the captain had lost something. "
It's just that the situation was chaotic at the time, and Li Zheng was still young and couldn't connect everything in his mind. Li Heping got into trouble again and was being chased by a dog.
Oh, that dog is Rhubarb.
The whole Yihong boat was in a state of ecstasy.
Granny Ding lit another cigarette for herself, "Anyway, I've given the things to you. It's up to you what you do with them."
Li Zheng looked at her calmly, "Didn't Granny Ding show this thing to the people leaving the meeting?"
"No." Granny Ding smiled, "Since it was left by Tang Qiao, of course it must be returned to her hands, or the hands of her most important people. It's over now, but the words are tight."
Yan Yueming quickly said, "Thank you, mother-in-law."
Granny Ding: "Don't thank me, I'm just being loyal."
This mother-in-law is a different kind of mother-in-law. Yan Yueming felt it when he saw her outside the hospital for the first time. She doesn't like to be coaxed by her junior like other elders, but she is more willing to tease him.
"It's a rare visit to the flower field. Young man, why don't you pick a few flowers? You've already taken your things and stay here with me, an old woman. I have nothing more to tell you."
Yan Yueming blushed. It was the first time for him to be teased by his elders about dating. He wanted to ask Granny Ding about his former aunt, but after he said it, Granny Ding refused.
"It's better to wait until you find your aunt and let her tell you about the past. She's not dead yet. She's still young. It's a little early for me, an old lady, to recall her past."
Yan Yueming could only give up with regret.
Li Zheng took him away, and the two of them walked a certain distance. Yan Yueming turned back to see Granny Ding in the grass pavilion. Granny Ding had already turned around and looked at the reeds by the lake again, like a person in a painting. The wind blew up her gray hair and the smoke between her fingers, and the world became hazy.
Yan Yueming felt that she must be a person with a lot of stories, but maybe it wasn't time to share them yet.
The flower field is on the other side. After walking along the cobblestone road and passing through a small forest planted with fruit trees, Yan Yueming also saw a few big white geese. The big white goose was not afraid of strangers, but Yan Yueming subconsciously hid beside Li Zheng, his fear was very real.
Li Zheng turned back to look at him, raising his eyebrows slightly.
It was difficult for Yan Yueming to explain. He had been pecked on the buttocks by a big white goose when he was a child. It was too embarrassing whether he told his seniors or his boyfriend. He could only drag Li Zheng away without any money, and then deliberately changed the subject, pointing to the strange wooden shelves in the distance and asking Li Zheng, "What are those?"
There were a few big words written clearly in his eyes - Don't expose me.
Li Zheng said nothing.
Yan Yueming blinked.
The big white goose that was walking away stretched its neck and looked at the humans over there who were flirting and making secret glances. Because it felt too bored, it flapped its wings a few times and then squawked towards the reeds by the lake.
The reeds swayed, and Li Zheng finally couldn't help laughing as he answered his question, "That's the flower stand made by the boss himself."
Since Yan Yueming opened this topic, he had no choice but to continue talking, "Are you familiar with the boss?"
Li Zheng: "That's right."
Yan Yueming: "Really?"
Li Zheng: "The first time I saw him was in the gap (),
?[((),
I have forgotten all those things. "
Yan Yueming was really curious this time and asked him what was going on. He vaguely felt that most of the things that happened in the gap were tragic, and he regretted asking.
Li Zheng said calmly: "Did Wen Renjing tell you why I keep spinning in the gaps?"
Yan Yueming nodded.
Li Zheng: "Did he mean that I was searching for the unknown truth in the cracks?"
Yan Yueming nodded again, Wen Renjing indeed said that. Because of the nature of forgetting, too many truths have been buried in the gaps and traces of too many people's existence have been erased. Looking for the truth and recording existence in the gaps, Yan Yueming finds it a difficult and romantic thing.
"That's right." Li Zheng met his admiring gaze and looked at the flower field in the distance again. The boss was working in the fields, weeding and loosening the soil, and he didn't even raise his head for a long time. He was focused and serious about his work.
"I was born in a gap and am a gangster. As a person with no records in the real world, the first problem I face is nothingness." Li Zheng spoke slowly while holding Yan Yueming's hand. The hand continues to move forward.
The early summer sun had begun to heat up, so he naturally moved to the other side of Yan Yueming to block the sun for him.
Yan Yueming walked in his shadow and listened to him continue to tell stories about the past.
What is nothingness?
It is confusion and confusion about where one comes from and where one should go, a lack of understanding of the absurd world, and a doubt about one's own existence.
"Do you know what it feels like when everyone starts to forget, but you are the only one who still remembers?" Li Zheng suddenly asked again.
Lonely. This word suddenly popped into Yan Yueming's mind. Although it seems to have more memories than others, it leads to greater loneliness.
Why do seniors remember it?
Is it because he was born in a gap, and the influence here has been too deep for him?
Yan Yueming subconsciously squeezed Li Zheng's hand, and was about to blurt out words of comfort, but the next second, it changed to: "Then senior, will you always remember me?"
can you? Li Zheng's lips curved slightly, "Yes."
Yan Yueming laughed and pulled Li Zheng to walk under the tree. You can get some shade under the tree, but don’t expose your senior too much, otherwise he won’t be handsome if he gets tanned.
Li Zheng: "The first time I realized this problem was when I was in school. The breakfast stall I frequented disappeared. The boss disappeared and everyone began to forget about it. Only I still remember it and am still looking for it."
Why?
Because Li Zheng is picky enough.
He endured Li Heping's junk food and his poisonous dishes, and finally found a breakfast stall that he liked. Within a few months, everyone was gone.
The consciousness of the world was against him, there was no doubt about it.
"The boss of the breakfast stall fell into the gap by mistake and can't come back?" Yan Yueming asked.
"No." Li Zheng replied.
"No?" Yan Yueming was surprised.
"He was originally a fugitive, and his deeds were exposed, so he escaped into a gap." Li Zheng spoke calmly, as if the price of goods sold earlier today had increased by fifty cents.
Yan Yueming opened her eyes slightly in shock, not expecting this answer at all. He thought that the senior's past was full of twists and turns, but he didn't expect that a breakfast stall owner could have such a story.
"Did you find him later?" He couldn't help but ask.
Li Zheng: "He became an NPC, or in other words, became a part of a certain NPC. And this NPC inherited his craftsmanship, so I started going to the gap to have breakfast every day."
Yan Yueming: "Ah..."!
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