Blade and Poetry

At the moment the rope broke, I didn't feel any fall.The scene in front of me suddenly changed, and I realized that I was lying flat in the boat, with an oar standing upright on my right hand.The small boat is going down the gurgling stream, the sparkling waves reflect the luster of the setting sun, and the barren and yellow grasslands are on both sides.

I thought everything was over at this moment, and I was about to sit up and drink a handful of water, but saw the boat being taken to a side road.On the left there is still a calm stream, but on the right it leads to a galloping waterfall.I hurriedly grabbed the oar, paddled backwards hard, and finally entered the waterway on the left without any danger before falling into the rapids.

Before I could see the landscape ahead clearly, I suddenly felt a shock in my head. The river, the boat, and the grass all disappeared.My whole body seemed to be out of my body, and I floated into the air from the perspective of a bystander, floating to a completely different place.

I was probably in someone's residence.The house is as simple as an ascetic's quiet room, but the interior layout is clean and beautiful, showing the appearance of being often taken care of.A man was sitting at a table, writing something.His falling beige hair obscured part of his profile, revealing only the tip of his pale nose, and a pair of thin round glasses resting on it.

"Floyd!" a child's voice called to him, "Floyd, Floyd!"

The child ran to him like the wind, stood on tiptoe, and looked over his shoulder at the table.

"Call me Teacher," said the writer, "or you may call me 'Wise One,' as others do."

"Okay, sir," the kid whispered reluctantly.But his sorrow was fleeting, and it didn't take long for him to get close to the wise man again, put his ten fingers on the edge of the table, and stayed quietly for a while.

"What are you up to, Freud?" The child stared at the paper in the hands of the desk clerk, and couldn't help asking, "Are those records from the laboratory?"

"Yes," said the wise man.

"Why do they always take up so much of your time?"

"Because they need me." The wise man explained patiently, "It's worth studying."

"'It'?" The child raised his head, "Will it make us have a very strong force and then become very powerful?"

"What do you want to do with force?" said the wise man.

"Other people can be beaten," said the boy, "if anyone doesn't like our country..."

The wise man hesitated to put down the pen in his hand, and stroked the hair of the child beside him.

"Every country is beautiful, and the poetry of distant lands has its own charm. Force is only a temporary solution. We should avoid the sacrifice of killing as much as possible." Said the wise man, "but the answer is yes-we will Because it becomes powerful. Once this technology is actually developed, it can benefit many people."

The child looked at him half-understood, his eyes full of curiosity, "Then what kind of future can you predict?"

"I can't see all the future," said the wise man. "I'm deified by what people say. I just live longer than ordinary people."

My soul seemed to be pulled back into my body at that moment.I feel so literally that I'm opening my eyes.I have probably never left my small boat, and what I see before my eyes is still the scene of the stream, as if the too clear scene just now exists only in fantasy.But the fork in the road came oncoming again, just like before, with a waterfall on the right.

My second selection to the left takes me again between unfamiliar scenes.

It's still the same plain house as last time, some small parts have been moved, but the overall change is not big.The wise man still sat on the old chair.This time he didn't write anything, just folded his hands, as if in deep thought.

A young man broke into the room—I recognized him at a glance as the child's grown-up appearance. He grew taller, his brown hair was pulled into a small ball at the back, and his facial features gradually lost their childishness.In contrast, although Freud has a pair of wise eyes that have been accumulated for a long time, his face seems to be stingy and baptized by the frost and snow of time.If you don't look at the subtle lines at the corners of his eyes, anyone will be sure that he still retains an appearance between his twenties and thirties.

"Teacher," the young man said in front of him, "do you want to take the order His Majesty gave you?"

The wise man motioned him to sit with his eyes, but he insisted on standing.

"Yes." The wise man said, "I need to be a general and lead our people to rush into the opponent's hinterland. Their army has already passed through the Land of Eternal Night when we were negligent, and is about to break through the barrier of the natural defense line. We are too late Deploying troops there can only be a surprise victory, making it impossible for them to take care of both the head and the tail."

"But why? You shouldn't be in charge of the army." The young man said, "You are a wise man, a prophet, a scientist, whom we all admire—you are not a soldier! I have never seen you kill anyone."

"I saw it coming," said the wise man. "This is His Majesty's order, and I obey him."

I saw the youth clenched his fists.

"But those people in the royal court are afraid of you..." said the young man, "they are afraid of your supreme power. They never want to think about what kind of situation the country has been driven into, and the marching supplies sent to you It's not enough at all...Those researches have just improved a little bit!"

He looked at the wise man's expression, and lowered his voice very consciously.

"It shouldn't be like this." The young man said, "It was just a misunderstanding. It was the remnants of foreign soldiers who accidentally passed through our Land of Eternal Night, and were killed by our guards who didn't know where they were. As our signal to declare war..."

"No long-term bloodshed has arisen from a simple misunderstanding," said the wise man. "There are reasons behind everything. The external causes of war are often complicated and difficult to discern, but the internal causes are always the same: greed, or revenge. Now it is us and them who covet each other."

The young man moved his lips, as if he wanted to say something.

"Don't dissuade me, Aishenthal," this is the first time I've heard a wise man call the youth by his full name, "I don't live for the scepter on the throne, it's just that my office of wise man makes me submit to it. I It's for all the people in the world."

"Then," the young man's voice trembled, "does this 'everyone' include me?"

"Yes," said the wise man. "including you."

I saw the flame of sorrow burning in the young man's smart eyes.

"Are you determined to follow me?" asked the wise man.

"Of course!" The young man said heavily, as if making an urgent promise.He seemed to realize that he was too impulsive, and took a step back at this moment, "I will always be with you."

My consciousness was quickly withdrawn from that environment.I didn't have time to think about the reason why I was brought into such an experience after leaving the exit, and the conversation I just heard was playing back in my mind.That seems to involve two different countries.Freud has the status of a "wise man" who can threaten the kingship, and his country has a "land of eternal night" that is difficult to pass through.Their enemy country seems to be provoking an excuse to launch a war against them; and Freud's king seems to be not a kind person, asking wise men to lead the army into the empty nest of the enemy country by reason of smacking east and west.

Was that conversation fictitious?I know it can't happen now, and everything is at peace now.If it is true, what era of history does it belong to?The golden age began in 733 of the new calendar, and for a long time since then, countries in the east and west continents have been fighting fiercely.I don't recall seeing any references to "The Wise Men" or "The Land of Evernight."

I held the oars, intending to repeat what I had done before at the third fork.But what is frightening is that all my actions this time suddenly failed. No matter how the oars splashed the water, the boat remained motionless on the established track.It was inevitably drawn into the whirlpool, pushed by the rapids and plunged into the waterfall.I felt the whole boat flip forward, and I was swept over my head by the rushing water and sank downward.

My consciousness flew out again.The location of the scene this time is not the old house, but the lakeside of Yikou Lake.The surface of the lake was clear and calm, and it was a very peaceful place, but the surrounding ground was sprinkled with some blood spots, which had already turned black under the sun.

The wise man's apprentice was unchanged from the last time I saw him—except for his torn clothes and thinner cheeks.But his body is still clean in general, only mud and dust are stained on it.The wise man opposite him was different.The wise man's robe was stained with dried blood, his eyes were pale blue with fatigue, and his lips were dry and pale.

"They want you to be a prisoner now," said the Wise Man's apprentice.His hands were wrapped around his back and trembling slightly, "How do they have the right to take you as a prisoner? They killed so many of us, destroyed our laboratory, and proudly proposed an armistice treaty—"

"Many of them died at our hands, too; we fought each other to this point. Our remnants were besieged for 30 days here at their unnamed lake, exhausted of all means of escape. I do not wish to see any more useless sacrifice," said the wise man. "Don't worry about me, Azenthal. They need my mind, not my life."

"Of course I firmly believe in you, wise man." I saw the young man holding his head and whispering in pain. "I just……"

"Don't call me a wise man anymore," Floyd said. "I passed on the identity of the wise man to you."

"...I just feel unwilling for you." The remaining words jumped out of the young man's throat in succession.He opened his eyes wide, just like his eyes full of doubts when he was a child, and complained blankly and unfairly, "Those warriors who are passive and sabotage, those who can't see the throne, what is the difference between living and dead! You have to do it for Their comfort sacrifices the rest of their lives. Teacher... why!"

"Because there are other people who are worthy of me. Dying brave people, starving old people, homeless children, our people," Floyd said, "I want to give their hearts. "

The young man remained silent.I saw him shed tears.

"Some of our scientific research results still exist in my manuscript. Aishenthal, you are our kindling, I need you to go back to China, find them, and preserve them." Freud said, "Our Hope will not be destroyed - the iron hoof of war will not stamp it out. Those researches will be carried forward one day."

He said good-bye and walked towards the other side of the lake, far away.The newborn sage stood precariously on the spot, trying to keep his body upright, as if enduring the pain of being stretched at that moment, and forced himself into the mold of an elder.

"You fulfilled their hearts," the young man roared at his back, "but yours, Freud—what about your heart?"

The beige-haired man turned around and smiled faintly.Some fine wrinkles in the corners of his eyes seemed to be erased at this moment, and even the vicissitudes of life that ran through his body did not leave any heavy traces.

I can vaguely distinguish his mouth shape from a distance, which is: "My heart has sunk to the bottom of this unnamed lake."

I felt my head submerge back into the current at that moment.I tried my best to hold my breath, but I still choked on two mouthfuls of water - but strangely, I didn't feel breathless, nor did I have any signs of struggling when drowning.I seem to have been thrown into the bottom of a certain lake by a waterfall, and I am lying on the stones at the bottom of the lake with my eyelids open.

I wanted to swim up to this inexplicable place as soon as possible, but something reflecting light among the stones suddenly caught my sight.I couldn't help but reach out to it, but the moment I touched it, my head spun.

I feel as I hold it and open my eyes in a patch of dry air.I was leaning against the black wall when I came, and in front of me was the familiar receptionist.

"Congratulations on passing, Vicente Shaw," he said to me, standing up and shaking my hand.He handed me a big bag and envelope, "This is the nameplate of the Vanguard Army. Water, food and clothes are in another bag. The first mission will be handed over to you after you graduate."

"I would like to ask one of my doubts." I asked him, "After taking the exit with eyes, will everyone be teleported here?"

"It's technically a secret, but it doesn't matter much to recruits," he said. "Yes, and everyone who has dictated my experiences to me has said so. Did you have any accidents? I can talk to the scientific Feedback from that group of people in the Ministry, and they may make changes.”

"No." I replied vaguely, "I just fainted when I was about to go out, and I don't remember how many miles I walked."

The man nodded, and then suggested that I go to the hospital on the left side of the building for a quick treatment before the wound worsens.Unlike Yu Zhen's experience, all the injuries I suffered during the test remained on my body.

I feel the thing I'm holding tight still pinching my palm.

"So there's any—er, specific prize for this test?" I probed.

The man escorted me to the door, and joked with me in a very kind tone: "You are probably talking about enlistment permit."

I was sitting in a room in the hospital, and the doctor, who seemed to be surprised by a tester like me who had gone through hardships, sighed sympathetically and went out to prepare the medicine for me.I slumped back on the seat, so sleepy that I almost wanted to fall asleep immediately.There is a small thing attached to me through a layer of fabric, the texture is obvious, it is the "extra gift" I got from the lake.

"If I can't bring out anything but my wounds—like I came out without a drop of water—" I thought, "what's the matter with what I got at the bottom of the lake?"

Thinking of this, I tested my mind, opened my eyes a little, and took it out of my pocket.

It was originally a silver stone, but now it is lying in the palm of my hand and changing its shape. The center is sunken, forming a gradually larger hole.It was finalized as a thin silver ring; if you look carefully, there is also a line of ancient characters engraved on the inner wall: "the mask of the soul".

I heard footsteps outside the door and could only glance at it once more before dropping it back where it belonged.

"I've been waiting for a long time." The doctor said enthusiastically and apologetically, and pushed some long-necked medicine bottles towards me. "A total of three gold coins and twelve silver coins."

I thanked him and took it, signed my billing address, and still pondered the meaning of that word in my heart.I tried it on quietly a few more times on the carriage ride back, but nothing special happened, so I fell into a deep sleep.