Welcome to Forge Town

Late last night, the blizzard that lasted for more than a month finally slowed down.

Early in the morning, Allen was awakened by the first light that slipped through the window.He jumped out of bed in disbelief, opened the floor-to-ceiling curtains facing the courtyard, and found that even the lingering fog had subsided a bit.The morning sun descends from thousands of miles away through the clouds and mist, like golden powder sprinkled on the snow-capped ground, with a hazy sense of holiness.

This time the wind and snow fell for nearly two months, so long that it could almost make people moldy.Especially in the past two weeks, as long as the thirty centimeters of snow has not been cleared to clear a road, it is almost impossible to move an inch.

Such a serious snow disaster is extremely rare in City A, so during this period of time, Allen missed the clear sight of the old residence and the temperature of the sun all the time.At this time, seeing the sunlight outside the window, he couldn't wait to wrap up his coat and step into the courtyard.

And it just so happened that his neighbor, Simon Pearson, who hadn't seen him for a long time, was also trying to shovel snow with a tool across a fence.

"Hey, today is a holiday, you got up really early." Simon raised his fur hat and greeted Allen with a smile.

In this morning of melting snow, the temperature was much lower than before.And Simon dropped the usual fancy accessories and only wore a relatively plain coat.And because he just finished working, he still looks a little tired, and his chin even has a little stubble.With a slumped appearance, he doesn't look like the always high-spirited him.

Allen also moved closer to the wall. "Yeah, the day's plan is in the morning." The height of the fence is only 1.5 meters high, which is useless for a tall man like Allen.He easily leaned his upper body on it and looked into Simon's courtyard. "My God, this is a huge project. Could it be that you woke up at four o'clock?" He looked at the two huge snowdrifts not far away and the dug up earth, and said in a surprised tone.

"Almost, almost five o'clock." Simon threw the rake into the snowdrift and let out a breath into his hands: "We haven't seen each other for a long time, how are you doing?" He smiled calmly asked, and took one out of the cigarette case and held it to his mouth.He didn't even light the fire, just leaning against the wall, standing five feet away from Allen.

And looking at Simon's back with a cigarette in his mouth, Alan couldn't help but twitch his mouth - after all, the atmosphere is too delicate now.He felt that the situation of the two of them was more like a pair of missed lovers than neighbors or colleagues.After being separated for many years, they met on a strange street, and the dialogue that resulted was both ambiguous and embarrassing.

However, according to his understanding, he and Simon shouldn't have such a complicated relationship.But if it's really just a normal work partner... It's only been two weeks since we haven't seen each other, so the relationship shouldn't have to be so serious!

Is it really possible... During that drunken night, what irreparable thing did I really do?Allen thought in horror.Indeed, it was only after that day that Simon thought about it this way, and his attitude changed, and he was obviously no longer as frivolous to himself as before.Thinking of this, Allen couldn't help but seriously consider this possibility.

However, before the matter has been verified, he thinks that he should try his best to respond normally: "It's good, but the weather is depressing. It's sunny today." Then he asked: "How about you? smoothly?"

"Oh, not so good," Simon responded instantly.

Allen raised his eyebrows, and he didn't expect to get a negative answer. After all, this was just an ordinary greeting, and it should have ended directly with "Very well, thank you"; I didn't expect that there would be a follow-up.

Then, Simon suddenly turned his body sideways and stared at him with a pair of ice blue eyes: "It's just that the love life is not going well." He narrowed his eyes and said in a low tone.

Allen was silent for a while.Then I thought comfortingly: Oh, it seems that Simon has probably returned to normal.

■

Today is Saturday.Without the arrangement of classes, teachers naturally do not have to go to work.

Unlike Simon, Allen has no hobby of spending a lot of time tidying up the yard.During most of his vacation time, he prefers to stay in his small study, lazily flipping through difficult and obscure books.

For some reason, staying in the sea of ​​books always allowed him to easily indulge in two full rest days.It is probably because he has been used to this kind of life without going out since he was a child, and he can always feel peaceful here.So it is the same today.Even if the sky cleared up, Alan didn't intend to find some physical work. Anyway, he didn't know anyone here, and no one cared how deserted the courtyard was. The study was still his best place.

But when he walked into the study, Allen discovered a big thing: the stack of books he brought from City A earlier was almost read!So, if he wants to borrow a new book, he has to go to the small town library...hopefully it's still there on Sunday, it's quite a distance to walk there.

But in fact, Allen was too worried.Because before he had time to walk out of the school gate, he saw the back of Jill Phelps in the bushes in the distance—it was the object he had failed to find yesterday, but was still concerned about at this moment.

In such cold weather, Alan still felt cold even though he was wearing a woolen sweater and overcoat.But Jill was only wearing a thin cotton coat, and sat on a stone chair with her knees bent and her back behind him.Even if he didn't touch the texture, Allen knew that the suit of clothes was not cold-proof.

Therefore, looking at the trembling humble figure, Allen felt a burst of sincere sadness, but then rose up full of anger.But Allen wasn't sure where his anger came from.Is it purely because Jill doesn't care about her body?Still blame Petty Hughes as a guardian but not caring enough.Or, just feel self-blame and bored for your powerlessness?

But first he tried his best to suppress this emotion and put on a calm face. "Jill, it's so cold today, why are you here?" Allen asked when he was ten feet away from Jill.

Jill flinched at the sound, like a startled puppy.Just when Allen thought that Jill was going to turn around and speak to herself, she suddenly stood up and ran into the depths of the woods without looking back.

Allen followed subconsciously, and stopped her with his hand. "Hey Jill, what's going on? What the hell are you hiding?"

Jill struggled. "It's all right, Mr. Walton. I just want to go back," she said nervously.However, while she was trying to break free, the hat that was originally on her head was torn off uncooperatively, so Alan saw Jill's current appearance.

——As Sandra said yesterday, Jill's condition is really bad.There was indeed a faint bruise on her face that hadn't faded, and a deep red scab on her lip.The half-length black hair was messy, lacking nutrition and hanging dry... And if Alan hadn't overlooked it, there seemed to be dark red scratches under those withered and yellow hairs that hadn't been there before.

It was the mark carved stroke by stroke on Jier's facial skin with a sharp object!

Allen gasped. "Damn it, God damn it..." He let go of Jill, stroked his forehead and shouted in disbelief, and it took a long time before he recovered his language organization ability. "Tell me, who did this? I'm definitely going to call the police." He said through gritted teeth.

"No." Jill bit her lower lip, "Mr. Walton, no one can save me."

Allen lowered his voice, "Take it easy. Tell me who did it." He tried to convince Jill.

"Mr. Walton, you don't understand..." Jill stepped back and took a deep breath. "It's God's will," she whispered persuasively.

Allen yelled, "Fuck God!" He threw off Jill's hat and said angrily, "You think I don't know? This must be Petty Hughes' masterpiece. You think you can cover her, Just for that ridiculous affection? Jill, no one can mutilate another's body like that. Even if she is the one who gave you life, she doesn't have the right. The human body, even the soul, is a gift from God. And only God Can handle it. What's more, she is not your biological mother!"

At this time, Allen finally knew why Petty always felt weird yesterday.Because earlier yesterday, Sandra clearly stated that Jill was called back by her family in the afternoon, so she left early and went home.At that time she had fresh wounds on her face.But in the afternoon, Patty said that Jill had to ask for leave because she had a cold.But if it is really a cold, why not let the school doctor Nicole watch it further?This obviously conflicts with common sense.As for the reason for lying, it must be very clear now, because those injuries were caused by Petty, and she just wanted to avoid talking about it.

But why does Jill always want to speak for Patty?For this reason, Allen felt unbelievable. He couldn't figure out what went wrong.

"I know," Jill replied. "Mr. Walton, I've always known that. I'm not trying to cover her up. I just want to atone, for Michael—if you want to know why, I'll tell you."

She lowered her eyebrows and answered Alan's inner question with the following words: "If you have heard it from others, you may know that I used to have an older brother named Michael Phelps. I love him very much. He is a good man, He also always fulfills his duties as an older brother. We used to have a very happy family. My parents treated us well and gave us everything children of the same age should have... until the car accident five years ago, which took away killed my parents and sent Michael, 12, and me, nine, to Ms Hughes."

Jill slowly picked up the hat on the ground and continued: "Ms. Hughes is my mother's sister. I didn't know what kind of emotional connection she had with my parents. But I can guess that she probably She likes my father. An almost morbid liking. Therefore, she has an incomparably great hatred for my mother, and also hates me who looks more and more like my mother."

"But I can bear the pain, no matter what she did to me, I think I can bear it. But what I still can't bear is what she did to my brother... In short, she forced him countless One night, having fun with her, and insisting that I watch from the sidelines. Let me watch Michael's painfully numb expression, and all the cruel ways she wants and wants of this broken family."

"So until last year, I couldn't take it anymore. I prepared an extremely detailed plan. For this, I also went to the library to look up information on how to start a natural fire! I want Patty to pay for it , so I plan to die with her when Michael goes out!"

At this moment, Jill changed her calm tone, and suddenly said tremblingly: "But I didn't expect that Michael would see through all of this... But he didn't alarm me, and he didn't hinder me. He just sent Petty ahead of time. Come on, replace Petty with yourself and give me a shocking education that I will never forget... so I can't forget the moment when the fire came and he covered me with flesh and blood. I asked him, Why? Because like you, Mr. Walton, I didn't understand at the time why we had to suffer what Patty did to us...but guess what Michael said?"

Jill took another deep breath, and then tried to pull a smile at Allen: "Michael said, in fact, it should have been my father and Patty who should have gotten married back then. At that time, Patty was pregnant and was discussing marriage with his father. She should have been the happiest bride ever, but my mother forcibly broke them up, accusing Pitty of having an unformed baby of someone else's offspring...and as we all know, Patty is now There is no child, so you can know that the poor fetus that was too late to form was just gone for no reason.”

"So, Michael asked me to let go and stop revenge. Not only because of the hardships Patty has suffered - after all, it was a matter of an earlier generation and has nothing to do with us. But he hopes that I will not do it for him, for this The family that has been broken has become a beast with only hatred in its heart. Because he loves me, I hope that I can live easily, not like Petty, who is bound by demons in the end, and my narrow heart can no longer tolerate any love And for this, he is willing to sacrifice everything..."

Standing in the snow, Jill stroked the scar on the left side of her face.Her back was bent due to inertia, but when Allen looked at her, he saw an extremely strong spirit in this body. It was mixed with Michael's expectations for her, so his posture was far taller than anyone else. .

Obviously, this is the past that Jill has never told anyone about, it is too private and unbearable.But today, she chose to tell herself that she was going to expose the scar that hurt the most in her heart to the world again.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked about this." Allen bowed his head and apologized remorsefully.If he had known about this past, he would rather he hadn't taken the step of chasing Jill.After waiting for the intense emotions to subside, he also remembered that Jill was still wearing thin clothes, so he quickly took off his coat and put it on for her.

"It's okay, it's much easier for me to say this." Jill accepted Alan's apology, pursed her lips and smiled.

She tightened her coat, feeling the warmth of the other person on it—indeed, she never expected that she, who was always so weak, would be able to calmly face her dead brother now when talking about it.This is a remarkable, and good growth.Because when I take this difficult first step, it symbolizes that half of my soul has successfully escaped from the shadow of the past.

However, on this seemingly peaceful night, Allen dreamed about a fire in Petit's pastry shop.

When he woke up in the middle of the night, Allen sat on the bed with his body propped up, feeling the cold sweat on his forehead, as if he could still smell the smoke remaining on the tip of his nose.Until dawn, he stared at the psychology books on the wall at the end of the bed in the dark room, bloodshot eyes.

"Since love crowns you, it must also crucify you." In the darkness, he murmured.To imitate Petty's tone in the dream is like a holy poem in the Bible.

#Note: Lovecrownsyousoshallhecrucifyyou.--"Wandering Bird Collection", written by Tagore.

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Whispered: Actually, when I was typing, I always confused Voltaire with Tagore...