Blade and Poetry

The surprise and uncertainty in his eyes seemed to indicate that his request was not due to the reliance of the catastrophe.But his tone was unexpectedly firm, as if he was afraid of repenting.

I originally planned to reject the request immediately, but then I thought about it, after all, I have to leave here later, and someone who was on the same road before may serve as a cover for each other and reduce some troubles caused by interrogation.

"Okay," I said, leading him out of Gray Lane.

He told me his name was Lindsay and I asked him to call me "Vi".We walked together for many days, walking slowly towards the wall.I am more and more sure that he has escaped from somewhere with some ill-planned plan; he is not even penniless—fortunately I still have some, which, after paying for the bus ticket, can barely feed us.

He was very vigilant at first, and resisted the food offered by others. He just squeezed the dry bread I handed over and stared at it for a long time.I hadn't seen him in a while, deliberately eating slowly in the process.When I turned to him again, I found that he had already buried his head in gnawing something, his hair was drooping, and he didn't know what was going on in his heart.

Linxi didn't communicate with me in the first few days, and kept a short distance from me.Even when he came to me, it was mostly when I was talking.In this way, I took him to the foot of the city wall, seemingly casually inquiring about the ticket sales situation, but I learned an unexpected news: the gate of the Ninth City has been restricted from entering and exiting, except for those holders of special certificates. No one in Ninetowns has been able to get a permit.

"This is a common thing." The city guard said, "It can be as short as three to five days."

But in fact, until the middle of June, I didn't hear any rumors of lifting the restrictions.I have distributed butterfly books to several friends with Linxi on my back, but perhaps because of the long distance, they often run out of magic power and shatter in the middle of the flight. reply.Due to the possibility of being intercepted, I did not dare to use carrier pigeons.The black box is still buried far away, so I'm not too worried about it being dug up; it's buried very deep, and the runes I made are still attached to it.

The weather gradually warmed up during the waiting, and the Ninth City added some spring and summer atmosphere.In order to maintain a simple livelihood, Linxi and I went to the black market to buy some odds and ends and sold them while walking.They tended to be small things like hair ties, fake beads—the kind of rough-carved gods actually sold well, but they had to be sold out of the sight of the patrolling guards.

Sometimes things sold out early one day, so I tried to do my job as a waif, playing and singing on the street with my piano in my arms.Lin Xi watched intently from the side, her face mixed with the crowd around her.After the song was over, he helped me hold the hat and walked around the people who stopped.

At first I only heard one piece that the vagabonds used to play, and then I sang the same piece over and over again in various places.Unexpectedly, within a few days, Lin Xi suddenly interrupted me during my practice and spoke to me for the first time.

"You... only know this song?" He said.

I admit it with some shame.He stretched out his hand and asked me silently for my piano.He also sat down against the wall at the corner of the street, plucked it on his lap, and sang softly:

"The bird in the woods takes the bone branch

Make a boat that sails into the swamp night

that happened a long time ago

......"

After I heard him sing a section, I couldn't help clapping my hands and applauding.

"I think you should sing instead, and I'm willing to wave my hat for you." I suggested, "If our income doubles, we may be able to live in a hotel soon-after staying in a hotel, we can stay at a fixed location. The show starts—after the show starts at a fixed location, there will be another star of the era rising—then we can live and sleep for the rest of our lives no matter what happened in the past. Is this sequence logical, let you take a look at it?"

He suddenly smiled, and raised his hand to wipe his dirty face.

"Very well," he said.

He returned the violin to me, and his smile didn't fade away quickly.His face was bathed in the clear sky of the moment, and he looked like a young student who had nothing to worry about and only occasionally had homework to worry about.

This was the first time I saw him smile, and it was also the first time I heard him make jokes.Since that day, his words have become more frequent, and he often pats the piano board lightly to teach me some local songs.He refuses to sing alone in front of everyone, and occasionally sits beside me to harmonize with my voice.I remember we sang a funny song in the form of a dialogue, and every few lines I sang he would say "yes" or "no" after it, which was very funny.As soon as he opened his mouth, he made the onlookers laugh.

I later found out that he could also draw.When we sheltered from the rain on rainy days, he dipped his fingers in water to draw portraits of passers-by for me.Whoever I point my finger to, he quickly paints a piece on the slate - always before the water dries completely, and it is lifelike.I praised him for his vivid details, so he stretched his legs and explained to me: "Look, eyes are the key to conveying a person's demeanor, and each pair of eyes is different." The old ones are stacked one on top of the other.

He may have noticed something through my unfamiliarity with Ninetowns, and I also found that he is not familiar with this area where we wander, but he knows a lot about some things that may not be well known.We didn't bother about each other's identities, and we got along very harmoniously.I only noticed that he once mentioned something about his own family, and he seemed very unhappy, saying that he was one of many children.

With all my plans, I have been in Puguo for nearly a month.The movement control order has not yet been lifted, and recent newspapers have reported that Puguo has joined an alliance led by India and Sha, and the political situation with Columbus has become faintly tense.I tried my best not to show my anxiety in front of Linxi, but I have already started to think of another way to return to China.The documents on the black market are too expensive for me, and the gates of the city are very guarded. It is said that the red leather car can't let the fare evaders get in - I took the risk to inquire about Lin Xi's affairs, but I didn't find anything useful ideas.He asked me: "What's wrong?" I could only answer by shaking my head.

At the end of June, we passed by a place where the inner and outer cities meet. Lin Xi called this place "Aling Palace at dusk" - the name is exaggerated in reality, but it is indeed a beautiful place.It just so happened that our sales ended early that day, and we sat under the pillars of the building, looking down at the long steps below.

"The hymn choir will be coming in a little while," Lindsey said. "They'll be playing on the steps, every month around this time."

"Are there going to be many people coming to see it?" I asked.

"It's definitely not as many as you think." Lindsey said, "They sing every day, but they come here at this time."

"I thought the whole city of believers would crowd this place to the brim."

"The whole city?" Lin Xi said, suddenly showing a little sneer.

"Isn't it?" I said, "I thought the New God religion was the religion of Puguo—the whole country."

"No." Lin Xi said, her brows seem to have darkened. "The homeless people in the outermost layer don't believe in God, and neither do the nobles who live quietly in the rich district. When it comes to the church, people from the Liyi Society don't believe in it at all." ——As for the Redemptionists, what does the executioner have to say? The richest and freest people don't believe in that set of neotheistic rhetoric, only the vast majority of the poor middle class believe in it. It can bring them better days."

I saw his sarcasm on his face, his words were extreme, and he looked around furtively for him: "Hey, watch out for the patrol guards coming over."

He tossed the blond hair back with his hands, and hung muffled about his neck.

At this moment, I thought of a question I have always been curious about: "So what kind of person is Bishop Galenno?"

Lin Xi twitched the corners of her lips, unable to tell whether it was disgust or admiration in her smile.

"I forgot to mention him." Lin Xi said, "He is the only one who truly believes in God among the group of people above. He is extremely capable, devout and indifferent, and he is clothed and vegetarian—"

My heart skipped a beat.

"I know he has a charity place on 28th Street." I said, Lin Xi was interrupted by me, and turned to look at me, "Does he also live nearby?"

"He doesn't live around here--I just happen to know that," Lindsey said, lowering her eyes. "He lives in the house at the point of charity."

I want to ask him more, but I see the choir is already coming here.

Lin Xi said, "Come on, let's sit on the opposite side of the road."

So we went down the steps, crossed another gravel road, and sat on the side of the road opposite the "Aling Palace".We looked up at the rows of teenagers and girls. They were wearing short gray burqas, but without hoods, showing their youthful features.They sang hymns one after another, with clear and moving voices, as if the melody could indeed rise from this mortal world that was about to fall into the night, all the way to the distant sky.The setting sun was blocked by Aling Palace, so it looked like Aling Palace was shining faintly.

There were many people coming and going behind and across from us, and some people stopped to watch.Occasionally I catch a part of the dialogue, so soft that it doesn't get into the sound of the hymn, just floats into my ears.I listened to many songs, and heard a few new footsteps, stopping behind me and Linxi.

"A hymn?" someone said. "You suddenly feel interested in hearing it?"

"Just enjoying the melody," said another, "since passing by."

At the same time as the latter's voice sounded, I couldn't move all over my body, it was as if an electric current poured from my celestial cap all the way to my spine, I just sat there stiffly;I almost forgot how to position my arms and legs.God knows how much I wanted to look back, but out of some timidity, I couldn't make any suspicious movements.Lin Xi didn't notice my abnormality either.The two behind them were still talking.

"Have you reached a consensus with those in the alliance?" said the man at first.

"I don't take credit for that," said the familiar voice, "I only made my presence known to those representatives."

"Extraordinary significance." At first the man said, "This is what the bishop wants to achieve."

The latter was silent for a moment.Those singing voices had time to flow into my ears again—sometimes I heard singing, sometimes I heard voices.When his voice fills in there, it sounds just like the music.

"I heard that you will go back to the second city overnight after you go to the inner city to hand in the report," the former said, "I thought you would stay for two more days. The ninth city is not bad—especially the inner city, what do you want? There are ways, and it’s safe.”

"No." The latter said, "The Ninth City is not where I stay."

The leader suggested that they go to the other side of the road and continue listening.In this way, it can be closer to Aling Palace and have a better view.Then the footsteps behind me sounded and went away. I quickly glanced at the crowd around me, but I couldn't catch their shadows for a while.

The hymn being sung by the choir was low and melancholy, and I suddenly felt as if its melody was familiar to me.I haven't heard the exact same ones, but I've certainly heard the similarities by heart.Then after sentence after sentence, after measure after measure, I finally got to the part that overlapped with my memory.

It was a four-bar song.It fit perfectly into the same paragraphs deep in my memory, which made the blood in my mind start to flow wantonly.

My eyes stopped on the opposite side of the road in a daze; two people passed through the sparse crowd, and they were standing on the side of the steps at this time.One of them had golden-red hair tied, and the tail of her hair was dyed with the sky reflected in the Aling Palace.

"And that superfluous love, makes me suffer

I know it's going to be a thousand times, and there will be no reward

Only mix my soul

sink my body deep..."

The man still didn't move.He may be just as dazed as I am.I've heard him play this passage -- disorganized and melancholy, repeating it in a dark concert hall.I can't see his eyes now, but I can still see his eyes in the past; why did he have those eyes then?Is it because when he opened the door of Yu Zhen's room after playing this passage, fate played a trick on him and ran into the person he loved?

I looked at Karajan's back, but he caught me off guard and turned around, and his eyes met me at that moment.

The boy and girl in gray clothes continued to sing: "I would like to cling to your door wall, sleep thirsty in the arms of truth, and pour out the fire of love..."

However, the spark of this moment is enough to make my heart beat faster, and no beautiful hymn can pass into my ears at this moment.I can't see him anymore.I stared at the ground instead, and it took me a while to remember that I should be staring at the choir.

Karajan probably didn't know that I was in the Ninth City right now - probably didn't know that I was right across from him.My wanted portraits were withdrawn from the avenues entering the city in mid-June, and only some dry side streets still retain the remnants of where they were posted.In any case, he probably thought he had the wrong person.

Sure enough, he didn't look this way anymore, and the wide stone road was still separated by his back and me sitting with our knees hugged.I turned my eyes back to his direction again, intending to pick out the changes in his appearance over the past few months.The singing was very good, and it made the short evening under the A-Ling Palace very wonderful.

"It's been a long time since I've seen someone who listens so intently like you." Lin Xi said beside me, "Does it sound good?"

"Very nice," I murmured.