under fern mountain

At two o'clock in the middle of the night, Shi Ran's breathing was long and calm, Pei Haojie sat up slowly, lifted the quilt and got out of bed.He was wearing cotton slippers, and his footsteps were very light, almost silent.He went to the game room, closed the door very carefully, made sure that there was no sound, turned on the light and opened the drawer, looking down at the CD-ROM drive and music reader in the drawer.

After a few seconds of silence in the dark, he finally made up his mind, started the computer, inserted the CD-ROM drive, and put on the spectrum reader.

He hasn't touched this thing since the end of the new year, and the feeling of familiarity and unfamiliarity made his scalp tingle.Consciousness gradually became chaotic, visual phantoms alternated with the real world in front of him, and eyelids became heavy... The next second, the paralyzed dizziness faded away like a tide, and the smell, sound, and perception began to become clear, enveloping his body.

Pei Haojie opened her eyes.

He is in a familiar room.The glare of the sun streamed into the house, and the clock on the wall was ticking, showing that it was 23:[-] in the afternoon—the time when he left the game for the last time.

Pei Haojie left the gaming chair, and still walked gently to the bedroom.There was a person arched on the bed, lying sideways under the quilt, breathing long and calmly, even the ups and downs of his shoulders were exactly the same as he remembered.

Pei Haojie sat by the bed and touched the person on the bed with her fingers.The man's breath came short, and he opened his eyes.

He wakes him up.

Pei Haojie watched Shi Ran yawn like any other time when he woke up, sat up lazily, and even rubbed his eyes.

"Come back?" Shi Ran smiled at him when he just woke up, "It always feels like I slept for a long time this time."

Pei Haojie didn't speak, there was fleeting hesitation in her eyes, and her eyes soon froze again: "I'm leaving!"

"Go? Where are you going?" Shi Ran showed a confused expression.

"It's not important, I'm here to say goodbye to you." Pei Haojie said softly, "This will be the last time I see you."

In the darkness, the minute hand on the computer clicked and jumped to 23:[-].

Pei Haojie suddenly took a quick breath and woke up from the game.First fingers, followed by sight, smell, hearing... He returned to the cold air in the early morning and smelled the cold smell of the new house.As if he hadn't gotten out of the emotion just now, his eyes were frozen, and an indescribable sense of emptiness surrounded him—in these few seconds, his insight was very weak.

So he didn't immediately notice Shi Ran who was standing silently at the door of the game room.

There are no lights in the room, the faint blue light of the screen mixed with the dim street lights outside the window, giving the silence at this moment a special atmosphere.Pei Haojie pulled the music reader off her head and threw it on the table, making the sound of sheet metal hitting.He thought to himself that it was all over.

He raised his eyes subconsciously, and unexpectedly met the eyes of the person at the door.

It took Shi Ran several seconds to find his own voice, which was dry and hoarse, like rough stones fighting each other: "Is this the sincerity you said?"

Pei Haojie was so shocked that she opened her mouth but was unable to speak.

Just now he got up very lightly, but Shi Ran didn't know why he couldn't fall into a deep sleep.In the confusion of consciousness, he heard the sound of footsteps that were pressed down very softly, and suddenly he felt palpitations. He lay half asleep for a while, and turned over uneasily, only to find that the surrounding was empty and cold.

When Shi Ran woke up completely, squinting his eyes and slowly groping for the faint light to come to the game room, what he saw was the scene of him pushing open the door countless times a few months ago.

He was not fully awake yet, his mind was in a daze, and he felt buzzing, as if everything was hallucinations and auditory hallucinations.For a moment, Shi Ran seemed to have returned to the illusion of a few months ago.

"If this is what you mean by being honest, what do you mean by not acting?" Every time Shi Ran pressed a question, it seemed that the air in his lungs was squeezed out a little, and it was so dull that it made people dizzy.As he approached step by step, he felt thousands of strong emotions tearing each other apart in his body... They were still sitting together watching TV at night, and Pei Haojie's sincere eyes when he promised to return the game were vivid in his eyes.His fingers began to tremble, and he unconsciously twisted the edge of his pajamas, rubbing the bloody blood, "...I have waited for so long! I suppressed all doubts, because you want me to trust you...Why? Why! Why do you never You want to hide it from me!?"

He got too close, accidentally knocked over the pen container at the corner of the table, all kinds of colored electronic pens were scattered all over the floor, Shi Ran squatted down with his shoulders in a daze: "I'm sorry, I don't want to do this... I'll be by myself for a while..."

Shi Ran's overreaction was completely unexpected by Pei Haojie, he quickly accepted the fact that Shi Ran saw him, but he was still shocked by what he saw.He almost immediately walked around the long table and squatted in front of Shi Ran, trying to hug him, "I didn't lie to you! Listen to me... Do you want to listen to me? Calm down, I'll tell you everything!" I don't know if it was because Shi Ran was too emotional just after waking up, several times he leaned over and was pushed away by the other party's resistance.

Shi Ran pushed him away for the last time: "I was still convincing myself this afternoon, I want to buy a gift for you again... You want a controller, I get goosebumps when I see this kind of thing... I told myself it's okay, you said It will be done when it arrives... If you are unwilling from the beginning, yes, you can tell me! But why lie to me?"

"This is my last login!" Shi Ran spoke so fast that Pei Haojie had to raise his voice to interrupt him, "I didn't lie to you! It's not easy for me, Shi Ran, I hope you understand..."

"I understand, I understand..." Shi Ran nodded, his whole body was still trembling, his whole body was tense and stiff like a stone, "I'm sorry, I overreacted, just leave me alone for a while..."

Pei Haojie hugged Shi Ran forcefully in her arms, feeling his cold and hard breath, and strangled him tightly to her chest.

The person in her arms gradually became weaker, and Pei Haojie's arms gradually lost strength.

"feelling better?"

Shi Ran nodded in his arms.

"Listen to me!" Pei Haojie raised his face, his face was obviously not very good-looking, "I said I haven't played this game since the New Year, and I didn't lie to you. This is the first time I have played this game since the New Year. Log in once, understand?"

Shi Ran nodded numbly again.

"Do you feel better?" Pei Haojie hesitated, "Did you have a nightmare?"

"This is my nightmare."

Pei Haojie's face became even uglier: "Of course!"

"I understand that you logged in for the last time, and now I am convincing myself that what you said is true!" Shi Ran broke free from his arms, sat on the floor and looked at him directly, "Why didn't you tell me? If it's the last time, why did you choose to get up secretly in the early morning... What's wrong with you, Pei Haojie? What in "Messiah" made you so dazed? Tell me! Can you tell me?"

Pei Haojie also sat slumped on the ground, scratching her hair in agony, her voice seemed to come out from a deep place in her throat: "You are still asking this, of course, you are still asking this! I can tell you, you ask Absolute confession, no secrets, no privacy... I can't do it, at least I can't do it now! You can stop blaming me for this, okay? I'm telling the truth...you Just know this..."

"I can't do it!" Shi Ran approached him on his knees, "I will repeat this result and question in my mind a thousand times and ten thousand times, you can't always tell me, don't ask..."

"I'm sorry for my question." Pei Haojie covered her forehead and stopped him with a hand.

Shi Ran was stunned for a moment, and approached him again: "No, it's my problem...it's my problem!"

"It's me who can't help it...it's me..." Pei Haojie suddenly grabbed the pen container that fell on the ground as if he had collapsed, and slammed it against the wall, "Fuck!"

During a period of silence, both of them looked at each other in unison, and at the same time felt the deadlock between them.At this moment, both of them had a vague premonition.

Adhesive, heavy silk threads are drawn between the two, making it hard to breathe.

They approached each other almost at the same time.Shi Ran squeezed herself into Pei Haojie's arms, and Pei Haojie pressed his head hard on his shoulders, stroked every angular bone of him with his cold and stiff palm, and pressed hard.None of them made a sound, but every movement seemed to be shouting.

It was past three o'clock when both of them lay peacefully on the bed.

They still maintained the posture of embracing each other on the bed, and the quilt was kicked aside, barely covering their stomachs.As if they had lost all desire to communicate, they just quietly leaned close to each other's skin to absorb some warmth, no one spoke first, no one moved first, and opened their eyes until dawn.

Shi Ran fell asleep around seven o'clock.He slept restlessly, as if having many mixed dreams, none of which he remembered.

Suddenly, a loud, mechanical sound sounded.

This sound was flat, piercing, piercing, and very uncomfortable—like the sound of a computer crashing—Shi Ran woke up instantly from such a sound.

The moment he stood up, he had a splitting headache. He hit the top of his head with the palm of his hand, and then forced himself to stand up, looking for the harsh sound source.Shi Ran came to the door of the game room almost instinctively, and then dully realized that Pei Haojie was not at home, and the time on the wall was almost twelve o'clock.

The flat electronic sound no longer continued, but became intermittent, and then turned into a beeping sound, and the rhythm became more and more rapid, as if deliberately urging Shi Ran.He walked towards the computer desk, and saw last night's pen holders and electronic pens scattered on the floor, and a small hole was smashed on the wall, which was not particularly obvious... The host computer was still running, buzzing, as if It didn't turn off after they left last night.

Sitting at the computer desk, Shi Ran touched the mouse, and the electronic screen immediately lit up.

On the desktop, the game in operation emits a faint orange light.It didn't know when it started operating, or Pei Haojie didn't come to close the program at all last night.

A black code box similar to a background terminal jumped out.

The cursor flickered on the first line, and then a line of words appeared!

—Want to talk?

The cursor keeps blinking behind the question mark, as if waiting for an answer.

Shi Ran looked at the interface as if in a dream, and finally, he put both hands on the keyboard:

--Who are you?

--Messiah!