City of Burning Snow

Ever since Dostoevsky became aware of his gaffe, he never spoke to Gogol about his eyes again.He tried to negotiate with his spiritual body, but "punishment" is not a submissive existence that comes and goes when called.

From a certain point of view, Dostoevsky used to correct his behavior and thinking, hoping that there would be a mirror-like existence that would allow him to examine himself, and then he extracted the "punishment" completely in his spirit. . The refusal to obey the "punishment" also shows that Dostoevsky himself... His subconscious mind does not want to help Gogol regain the vision of his right eye.

—Is it true that somewhere in his heart, he has been holding a grudge for a long time, unable to understand Nikolai Gogol?

In this world, apart from Gogol, the last thing Dostoyevsky cannot fully understand is himself.He continues to think, while outwardly submitting to Gogol's wishes.He regained the harmonious mode of getting along with each other.

In the week since Dostoevsky woke up, his wounds had gradually healed, leaving only some deep gashes still scabbing over, causing a lot of itching.There was too much silence between him and Gogol. When he caught a glimpse of the other's white blindfold, he kept silent and quietly looked away.And when Gogol took off the gauze for him, lightly stroked the unrecognizable wounds that still left some traces, he pulled Dostoyevsky over, kissed his lips tenderly, Dostoyev Ski did not refuse him, nor catered to him. In his consistent, no longer candid smile, Dostoevsky avoided his eyes and threw the gauze into the trash can.

This was seen by Shibusawa Tatsuhiko.

He is very satisfied with the choice of the two - if there is any state that can make the two of them at his disposal without being too united to cause betrayal, it is the best state right now.One morning, when Gogol opened the heavy curtains and let the breeze into the bedroom through the crack of the window, Shibusawa's servants appeared outside their door, six of them in total, and one of them opened his stiff lips.

"It's time to go."

Gogol has a deep hostility towards these puppets.

Shibusawa Ryuhiko likes to collect dolls. In his large and empty mansion, apart from all kinds of classical paintings, the most interesting thing is these domestic servants.It is said to be a domestic servant, but it is actually a lifeless ball-jointed doll that spontaneously operates through some kind of forbidden technology after being forcibly injected with the blood of a guide or sentry.They are obedient to Shibusawa Tatsuhiko who gave them life, but the blood flowing in their bodies was originally under the jurisdiction of the Yokohama Tower.He did not mention this hostility to Dostoevsky, because if he did, he would have to mention the experience of being forcibly dragged out by these abominable things that day in the warehouse.He didn't understand why Shibusawa had been waiting for so long, but now he was suddenly absent.

Dostoevsky was not surprised.

——It’s someone’s memorial day in a few days, and he’s back to Japan.He said in synesthesia.

"Someone?"

This is the dialogue between Gogol and Dostoyevsky in a serious manner during their past few days.

Gogol asked aloud, and he also felt this sense of gap, his voice fell into silence, and the sense of incongruity caused both of them to pause for a long time.

Dostoevsky pretended not to be aware of this atmosphere, and sat on the bed, moving the breakfast tray stacked on his lap aside, so that he could take a closer look at the maps brought over by the doll's servant.

"There is no need to take this route. If you cut off the monitoring line from the end point, you can go directly to the east side and enter the reserve room..."

Dostoevsky held a piece of bread in his mouth, and seemed to be talking to himself at this moment.

Although the puppet is movable, it does not have self-awareness, and Nikolai Gogol, the only person in the room who can communicate with him, has shown no interest in Shibusawa's mission from beginning to end.He didn't come over, he was picking out the decorative pompoms to match today in the closet.

In the intermission of these days, he has already dyed many colors, and he chooses and chooses. He chooses the commonly used pink style, and pins it carefully to the golden chain on the cloak in front of the mirror.Dostoyevsky pricked him with the tentacle of thought, causing him to look away into the mirror.

But he kept a smile on his face.

——"Doesn't it look good?"

Dostoevsky looked at him coldly.

Didn't say it was good-looking, and didn't say it wasn't good-looking.

He does not shut down the synaesthesia for Gogol, but keeps it to a minimum.The other party still occasionally has visual impairments. For example, now, he pinned the pompom where it should be, and found the angle but couldn't fasten the pin.

Dostoevsky watched quietly, feeling pleasure in this small revenge.Gogol glanced at him, but did not make a request. Five minutes later, he pinned the pom-poms, and with a sore neck, he checked his braids one last time to make sure they were done properly.Dostoevsky had simply changed his uniform.

It was an ordinary white suit, the simplest outfit in Shibusawa Tatsuhiko's wardrobe.

He stepped into the leather shoes with his feet in gray thin socks and tapped the ground lightly.The Ukrainian youth who was looking in the mirror looked at him in the reflection, and said lightly, "It's snowing outside."

——Do you wear so little?

Dostoevsky took another thick black woolen cape with a fur collar from the wardrobe.

But still ignored him.

The task this time is actually very simple.

He has been preparing for a long time, and has spent several years in the tower to complete all the preparations.

This time, they need to sneak back to the headquarters of New Russia and steal some blood samples from a side scientific research department.Even if Belinsky and others have already laid a net there, the tower belongs to Dostoevsky's eyeliner, which is directly proportional to the number of people monitoring him-he went back to steal samples, just like taking one from his own house. It's as simple as that.As a price for taking care of him, he had to rush to Europe as soon as possible to steal the samples of the British Tower.It's not a good place where you can simply get in and get out. What's behind is the highlight.

Sitting in the silent car heading to the Novorussian Tower, both of them remembered the conversation not long ago.At that time Dostoevsky and Gogol had just met, and all the familiarity was mixed with strangeness.

The on-again, off-again conversation is so relaxing, and Dostoevsky's every smile and every move can affect Gogol's mood and sight at the right time.

Now Gogol is holding his lips, looking at the scenery outside the window boredly.If Dostoevsky wanted to, he could use synaesthesia to see which buildings the other party was looking at, and what weird things he was thinking about.But sitting beside Gogol, he has never lost his desire to probe people's hearts so much.He didn't want to hear those voices from the sentinel's heart again.

What protection, what camouflage.

As if to put him in a transparent box, add water and fertilize like a bouquet of roses, but don't intend to communicate with him in any real sense, and don't intend to put some essential things that make the two of them think. More and more distant problems are solved.

They walked into the courtyard of the tower. The weather was gloomy, but fortunately there was no snow falling.This means that they don't need to deliberately eliminate the impression of the people around them on the snow, saving a lot of trouble.If two sets of footprints suddenly appeared at the door of the scientific research team, and people found that the samples were missing shortly afterwards, anyone in the know would know that Dostoevsky had returned.

The access control of the scientific research building has double locks.One layer is a spiritual network remotely controlled by a guide, which has the same structure as an underground prison; the other layer is an electronic lock, which can be opened by entering a password.They wore Gogol's coat together, and the isolation suit played its good role, saving a lot of time for Dostoevsky to crack the spiritual network.

Electronic locks are more troublesome.He asked the scientific research team to hear that his members had changed the passwords in advance, that is, after he left the tower, when the tower replaced all the password strings, his people would change all the keys of the scientific research building one more time, replacing them with his own. The string arranged.This is not foolproof.In his original plan, he needed his sentry to use superhuman keen vision to distinguish the overlap of fingerprints on the password keys, so as to determine whether the password was changed as scheduled.

In the event of a wrong input and an alarm sounded, their whereabouts and purpose would be communicated prematurely to the Novorussian Tower.Once the news spread, it would be even more difficult for them to get close to any country's scientific research laboratory—all countries would clearly know that it was Dostoevsky who led his sentries to steal samples continuously.

Defenses will become increasingly targeted, and the risks will increase.

Gogol never questioned Dostoevsky's behavior from the beginning to the end.They are obviously doing something that betrays the country. They illegally took out the blood samples of the soldiers of New Russia, and then handed them over to a sentinel who was originally under the jurisdiction of the Yokohama Tower and now obeys their own orders. This can be seen from various angles It's shameful to watch.However, Gogol did not ask him why.

He just followed Dostoyevsky to the door. His interest was not in the soldier who was disturbed by the guide and was now falling asleep at the door, nor was he on the iron gate blocking the two of them. .He looked at the back of the man's head in front of him. Dostoevsky didn't wear a hat that day, his round head was exposed, and his short hair fluttered softly and slightly in the direction of his hair.

Gogol doesn't hide his smile at all.He knew what Dostoevsky was waiting for.

He raised his chin, crossed his waist, and looked like he was waiting for the other party to ask him for help.

Naturally, Dostoevsky would not beg him.

He had already experienced the other party's thoughts from the slightly magnified synaesthesia.His vengeance is strong.

They are in a state where they respect each other as guests, and occasionally get close as lovers, but they are separated from each other in their hearts.He simply focused on it, turned his synesthesia to the maximum, and before Gogol could react, he occupied the other person's body and walked to the door, commanding Nikolai Gogol's body like Shibusawa manipulated those spherical puppets Using his still-good left eye, he made out traces of fingerprints.Quickly press the right button.The door opened.

"--Hey!"

The momentary loss of self-awareness reminded the sentinel of the bad state when he ran away in the past.Provoked by Dostoyevsky's revenge, he jumped up, wanting to say something like a lion with frayed fur, but he couldn't express his opinion.Gogol's hypocritical smile faltered for a moment, and Dostoevsky saw it, and felt an indescribable joy in his heart.He is calm and breezy.

"You asked for it, Monsieur Nikolai."

The guide smiled faintly and walked into the open automatic door.Gogol stared at his back with mixed emotions, the synaesthesia was still connected.

This kind of small victory made him far more comfortable than Dostoevsky's success in finding the sample library.

The moment the guide stepped into the door, he released his thinking tentacles, which quickly disturbed the vision of many workers in the room. They walked into the monitoring range of the camera frankly, and the soldiers in the monitoring room had been dispatched by his subordinates.

Like picking some lemon juice from a supermarket freezer, he carefully sorted through the blood samples.

Gogol watched his guide rubbing his slightly scarred finger on his lips, and was noticed by the other party, so he had to see Dostoyevsky lift the broken hair in his left ear, and he saw The scar left between the opponent's neck and the base of the ear.

"...Let's pack it all up and take them away!" He turned his eyes away, "It's not like buying Christmas presents, just make up for that guy?"

"You're really impetuous, Nikolai. Are you still annoyed by what happened just now?"

"How is it possible, haha... You can just choose for the rest of your life, I can afford it."

Gogol sat down.

As soon as he sat down, Dostoevsky took out the whole basket of samples from the freezer, turned around and walked away with it in his hand.Gogol silently jumped up and followed, shaking the cloak that had fallen under his feet.

"..."

He really can't stand the other party's small revenge that is not painful but happens every day.

I thought that Dostoevsky was a particularly wonderful person, so nice that he worried that he would not eat fireworks.He has seen Dostoyevsky's attitude when facing others, the city is extremely deep, the manner is elegant, and the conversation is decent...

In his previous impression, Dostoevsky was not only the moonlight in his memory, but also a perfect existence like a god.

Now he felt that he finally understood why "punishment" was Dostoevsky's spiritual body.The difficulty of the two of them is almost the same.He wanted to frown, but he had to forcefully hide this embarrassment in a smile.Now if he is shaken by the naive revenge of the other party, it seems that he, Nikolai Gogol, will lose something instead. He can't figure out why this person, Fyodor Dosto, a well-known guide in Russia Yevsky, who was considerate in front of others, and occasionally cruel, turned into such an ordinary, even caring, hateful guy with him! ?

Sensing Gogol's unstoppable irritability, Dostoevsky left the scientific research building in a good mood.

The rabbit is finally popping out again, he thought.

It's not so easy to hide back, Nikolai Gogol.

In the next few days, they began to travel between train platforms, aviation buildings, and water transportation hubs leading to Western Europe.The war in the west is isolated by the trivial matters these days, and when they were in the terminal building in Frankfurt, waiting for the plane to Lisbon, a bomb landed outside the floor-to-ceiling glass window, pulling the reality back to Dostoy Vsky's side.

The crowd scattered in panic, and Gogol was still holding two cups of hot chocolate.His brain stopped "swish", and the paper cups slipped from his palm.He quickly ran in the direction of Dostoevsky's synaesthesia, grabbed the other's arm, and ran towards the exit while protecting him.The second bomb shattered the plane's engine, and the sound of the explosion was so exaggerated that Dostoevsky subconsciously shut down Gogol's hearing.He looked back at the past, and the flames in the sky were reflected in the color of purple gemstones.

They ran together with the crowd, and then the building exploded again, and someone cursed loudly in German, but Dostoevsky was so calm, he was used to the uncertainty of war when he was serving, He just murmured: "They're all aimed at flying equipment and towers—now we have to consider other routes of action. Using public transportation with civilians will cause delays in the plan, or go to the training base to mix up as a soldier..."

Gogol couldn't hear the sound of the outside world, he could only hear his guide whispering in his lips and in his heart. He didn't speak, but dragged the other party to run all the way until the guide couldn't run anymore. Dostoevsky I want to reassure him that it's okay, don't be so nervous.Gogol picked him up, to Dostoyevsky's surprise, he embraced him in his arms, and continued to walk blindly with the bewildered German people around him. Wherever the crowd went, Gogol followed where are they going.

Dostoevsky smiled faintly in his arms.

Based on the judgment of the opponent, if Herzen had insisted on letting Gogol go to the battlefield, Gogol might have been killed by the enemy within a year after entering the tower. Afterwards, he didn't want to laugh anymore.

——Why did Britain choose to bomb the Frankfurt airport, which should not have been aware of it, at this time?

New Russia has not disclosed their arrest to the world. It is conceivable that the people in the scientific research team have already discovered that the samples have disappeared, but the superiors have suppressed them, and there may be other considerations.The current front is shifting to the north, and the German people have already carried out several attacks.Under pressure back and forth, according to his observations in the past few days, standing still is far more conducive to Britain's strategic advantage than a surprise attack.Why blow up the route at this time... Although this is the most important transportation hub in Germany, it belongs to the civilian area and is not the key area of ​​the war between the towers.

Their flight was among the bombed planes.He inadvertently bit his nails.Could it be that the whereabouts were known in advance by the British Tower... But even so, such a big battle is a bit too unrealistic——

"Stop biting, Fedya."

Nikolai Gogol's voice came from above him.

The left eye glanced down at him quickly, and the sentinel's voice was muffled.

"If you bite again, you will bleed again. Are you a child?"

Dostoevsky immediately smiled.

"And you, aren't you completely frightened, my dear Mr. Sentinel?"

To be held in the arms of the other party without even thinking about it, without even having to walk the road by yourself, others must find it ridiculous.

It's just that now, like Gogol, most people are scared out of their wits by a gun. At this time, no one cares whether a strange man is held in his arms, and he doesn't come down.He listened to Gogol's heartbeat, and saw a bit of distress from the other's indifferent attitude.This is the Nikolai Gogol in his impression.The weak Gogol who bursts into tears immediately after hurting him.He closes his eyes.

"At the moment, you look more like a child than I do."

He smiled, and just as he said that, they had unknowingly returned to the urban area of ​​Frankfurt.

Panting lightly, Gogol put Dostoevsky back firmly on the ground.

His heart was still full of worries about Dostoevsky, but now the guide listened and no longer found it very annoying.

Perhaps the factors of the war were too complicated, and it was rare for him to recall Gogol's mentality of being a fool who simply wanted to be good for him, whether he lied to him or not.Gogol was in a complicated mood. He glanced at him. Beside them, many unsuspecting Germans were being driven away by the crowd who had fled back. It was dusk, and the street lamps came on one after another at this time. It's all lit up, it's almost Christmas, many shops are decorated with snowflake paper sculptures and colorful hanging balls, people carrying shopping bags and getting into their cars, the chaotic scene of the crowd is instantly familiar like an old movie.

"Don't go."

Against this backdrop, Nikolai Gogol looked him in the eye, serious for the first time in days.

"Don't plan to carry out Shibusawa's plan anymore. Fedya! Let's hide in Frankfurt for a while, taking advantage of the traffic chaos, we can just hide our names - replace two ordinary Germans, and then find a safe city to settle down! You are not the senior guide of New Russia now, and I am also wanted, and Shibusawa can't find us. I have thought about this for a long time. Let's go to Italy, where..."

Dostoevsky's smile gradually cooled in the other's words.

He lightly brushed away the palm of Gogol's hand that was holding his shoulder, and the vehicles buzzed beside them. They got out of the way and walked in the bustling commercial street but filled with the haze of war.Hymns praising the birth of Jesus came from distant shops, and small stalls selling sausages put up closing signs in advance.He looks at the sights, avoiding Gogol's trying fingers.

"Let's go to France, then, where I've arranged for acquaintances."

"...Great! You finally—"

"It's an old friend who belongs to the Free Mercenary Corps."

Dostoyevsky pretended not to see the other person's eyes getting colder. He walked under the neon lights of the commercial street and tightened his cashmere collar.

"I'm going to entrust him to help change the two identities. They just happen to be busy recently, and they need people everywhere..."

he said.The relationship that had just eased up a little bit just returned to the original point like this.

The sentinel followed him without saying a word.

A bombing drove away his inertia of the past few days in time.That's right... Now that the overall situation is at stake, he has more important missions to accomplish.Dostoevsky blinked, and raised his hand to straighten the hair that had slipped into the corner of his eye and put it beside his ear.He knew that before long, Gogol would be the same as before, doing things he didn't want to do, just to protect him in wishful thinking.

Stop honestly exchanging opinions with him.

That doesn't matter...it really doesn't matter, does it?He convinced himself.

Regardless of whether the sentinel wanted to hear it or not, or whether he was really listening, he clenched his mouth tightly, and sighed the rest of his words into the wind along with the white mist.

"...We will sneak into the battle line with the soldiers of the mercenary regiment. Nikolai, this is the easiest way to sneak into the formation of British soldiers. Do you agree?"

Gogol looks in the opposite direction.

——I don’t know what the other party is thinking.Dostoevsky did not develop this synaesthesia.

He doesn't need to know...he really doesn't need to know.

He followed Gogol's gaze, and there were two little dummies in the glass window of the shop.All dressed in children's clothes and cute Christmas hats.The faces on the cloth were expressionless, and the glass reflected their own faces.After a long time, Dostoevsky looked at himself reflected in the glass and nudged the sentry on the shoulder. His voice was not so cold, and Christmas Eve was coming soon.

"Let's go," he said softly.

tbc.