City of Burning Snow

The note withered into ashes, and Gogol stared at the black powder in his hand, feeling disgusted that it was attacking him from all directions like a virus.There was a nausea in his stomach, he no longer felt curious or happy, and the feeling of being watched returned to him. Someone was watching him, and the reason for the monitoring was related to Dostoevsky's current safety.He was restless, and from the words and sentences he read very explicit temptation and win over.

Dostoevsky may be in a situation where he is under attack.He understood why Dostoevsky took him to his side... If he were to be another sentry at random, it would be impossible for him to completely sneer at the temptation and wooing as he is now.

"AMCM..."

He racked his brains and failed to find the initials among the names of people he knew.Maybe it's shorthand for an institution.He returned to his makeshift bedroom.He couldn't sleep, so he dug out the suppressant that Dostoevsky had left for him from the bedside table. His physique was quite special, and the drug had a general soothing effect on him, but it was particularly hypnotic.If he had completely relaxed his nerves, and Dostoevsky suddenly needed his help at some point, he could not always keep himself awake.

Thinking of the guide's low-grade fever, the sentry gritted his teeth and put the needle back.

The remaining four days were the longest 96 hours in Gogol's life.If possible, he would never want to recall this past in his life.Four days later, when Dostoyevsky personally stood at the entrance of the lobby of the Novorussian Tower to greet him, the crowd attracted a lot of attention, and Gogol, who re-entered the building of the tower, was radiant, and he was no longer the Tibetan man. In the isolation suit, the prisoner with his ankle kicked.

Dostoevsky did not go directly to the dam to pick up the man.The one who accompanied Gogol in the car and returned was a spiritual body with the same form as him.He mobilized his mental body to observe the situation in advance, and found that Gogol basically did not use drugs in the past week.He was surprised that the spirit of the other party was still good, and his physical condition seemed to be within the normal range.Unlike ordinary animal mimicry, his mental body appears in human form, and it looks exactly like him, and his thinking is similar.After a few words from Remote, he was busy with business and let his spirit body act and think on its own, so what the two said in the car, even Dostoevsky himself did not know.

Gogol jumped out of the car, and the first thing he did was to make Dostoyevsky himself cry.

"Fei Jia, I beg you, don't ask this guy to contact me next time!"

Dostoevsky looked away.

"Punishment, what's going on?"

His mental body stood aside, raising his hands innocently at this moment.

"Don't look at me, isn't he missing an arm or a leg?"

"I want to ask him what he has done recently. He refuses to tell. I don't have your perception ability, if I have, I won't have these troubles. At least three hours of free time on the road, the time I can be summoned Add it up, it won't be ten times as much. Time is short. I offer to have a good time with him--"

In Dostoevsky's soul gaze, Gogol corrects the narrative: "He's talking about gambling! Just gambling! Don't get me wrong, Comrade Fedya—"

"—Yeah, gambling. I made a good bet with him, not a big one. The result is not known yet." He finished speaking with a big breath, and the mental body watched his master's expression playfully. "I will definitely win, so don't worry. The advantage is that it doesn't belong to you, sin. You can guess what we gambled to your heart's content."

Dostoevsky laughed, and turned to Gogol.

"I see. What did you bet with him?"

"I……"

"Once my spiritual body is taken back by me, the bet between you and him will be lost. You should know this, Nikolai."

"Knowing is knowing..."

Gogol scratched his head.

This is not his spiritual body, how would he know that the other party is so difficult?Dostoevsky's isomorphic mimicry has a stubborn personality and a very clever mind, and it is not at the same level as ordinary mimicry when dealing with it.The spiritual body wanted to say something else, obviously very satisfied with the psychological abuse along the way, Gogol quickly waved at this guy with a look of serious trouble, the spiritual body had no choice but to shrug.

"Don't worry, I won't talk. He won't ask me to provide this part of the memory. You won't ask me for the memory, sin?"

"No. I can't see it."

After being summoned by the master, the mischievous spiritual body "Punishment" gradually disappeared in front of the two of them.It blinked at Gogol before disappearing, and Dostoyevsky frowned, seeing the sentry blushing at his spiritual body, he rubbed his temples.

The brain cells that are exhausted by the work of the day are also relaxed a lot.They are more like twins or best friends than other people's relationship with spirit bodies.He knows the temperament of the "punishment" of the spiritual body, and Gogol probably has been messed up along the way.Sometimes he also feels that he is too indulgent with the other party, but he is not a person who likes to apologize.He avoided the important ones and pretended to continue questioning first.

"So, after I ended the call, what did you talk about again?"

"No, absolutely not. Certainly not, that's all its nonsense."

Gogol was eager to conceal something, and quickly changed the subject.

"Look how cold you are waiting here. I am so sorry! Is this suit you have for me again?"

"Yes."

"Need to put it on before entering the door?"

"Just change it later."

After staring intently at Gogol for a moment, Dostoevsky decided to let the poor fellow go for now.He handed him the clothes.Gogol took over a new outfit, which was already the second outfit given to him by the other party.

He thought in his heart that he should stop being stolen goods, and took a cursory look at the clothes in the bag: "Hey, this is quite similar to your clothes."

"Senior cadres other than the hierarchical level use this style, and they can customize their own badges. I didn't add any patterns for you. You can design it later, and let your subordinates make it up. If you don't like the light silver border, you can change it. In other words, today's set is only used to deal with a difficult old guy."

"Difficult?"

Gogol has little conception of a life with men.He was used to being free, and the idle lower class suddenly mixed into the upper class, and he didn't know where to put his hands and feet.Just as we were talking here, an elderly man dressed in a foreign costume came from a distance. Looking in Dostoevsky's direction, he obviously recognized the senior guide, and he walked slowly.

Dostoevsky shook his head amid Gogol's questioning gaze.

"It's not this one, you'll know about that person in a while...I'll go and have a word with this person."

Gogol put away his clothes happily.

This set was indeed a little more elegant for him, but it was given to him by Dostoevsky himself.Thinking that he was about to receive a new job and that he might be able to work with Dostoevsky for a while in the future, he rejoiced and stuffed the bag of clothes into his suitcase.

Inside the box was the isolation suit that was given to him earlier.For some consideration, after he read the mysterious letter, he spent half a day remodeling it with the white curtains from the dam factory.It was made into a wide magic cloak, covered with cloth inside and out, so that no one but himself knew it was still with him.

He buckled the buckle of the suitcase, and when he looked up, the sentry on the monitoring post was staring at him maliciously, and met his eyes.

"You still think this is a good thing?"

The long-haired sentry squinted his eyes and asked him for identification very rudely.The reason was that when he was packing up, he stayed in place for 5 minutes: "Anyone who stops in front of the square guards is suspected of committing a crime," Goncharov looked at the fruit like chewing gum stuck to the ground. Golly, "Show me the papers."

"I don't have time to talk nonsense with you." Gogol replied with a smile, and he flirted in Dostoyevsky's direction triumphantly, "Do I have an ID card? Doesn't he know it? I want to ask you Just ask him. Xiaogang, you are in a bad mood here, exposed to the wind and the sun, right?"

"It's none of your business," said Goncharov.

"What, did you hurt your head?"

Seeing the bandage wrapped around the other's head, he couldn't help asking.

The other party gave him another look.

"None of your business."

Ivan Goncharov's desire to serve as a senior guide is well known.Due to institutional reasons, none of the sentries had the opportunity to protect Dostoyevsky for more than a week. Gogol himself was not very clear about his work, but apparently, since he appeared at the gate of the tower, he was partly The hostility of the sentinel guessed the clue.If Dostoevsky invited him to be his personal bodyguard later, he would be more than happy.The only thing he doesn't know right now is why it's so mysterious to ask him to be a bodyguard.

Dostoyevsky was not far in front of them. Indeed, as Goncharov had expected, he had not yet given his papers to Gogol, so this guy waited outside the gate and did not pass directly. Gang stepped in the door.Gogol's calm look made Goncharov look very uncomfortable, and Gogol also couldn't understand the sentinel who was looking for opportunities to climb up.

Dostoyevsky was chatting with that foreign acquaintance, and he probably couldn’t hear clearly over there. Gogol responded to Goncharov in a low voice, and his satisfaction was beyond words.

"Xiao Gang, tell me, are you jealous of me?"

Goncharov immediately said coldly: "Friendship likes equality, and you two just happen to be not equal at all. Why should I be jealous of you? I'd rather be jealous of a blade of grass."

"Yo! Who says we're not equal."

"And do you know what your new job is?"

Gogol choked back.

"Anyway, I didn't let go of my mind and stood here to guard the goal." Gogol replied, "I, Gogol, have never guarded the goal. Maybe I will have a chance to shoot in the future! Let me tell you——"

Ivan was about to curse when Dostoevsky approached them both, talking with the foreigner.

They fell silent, and the strange man seemed to be about to leave the tower.

Dostoevsky smiled slightly: "What goal?"

"No no no no..."

Gogol looks at the stranger next to Dostoyevsky. "Who is this?"

Evidently Goncharov knew who this man was.He was appalled by Gogol's ignorance.The stranger who was questioned didn't think there was any problem. It seemed that Dostoevsky had already introduced Gogol to this person during the conversation just now.Gogol's new position may be of high stature.The grey-haired Asian had a stern smile, with his hands folded across his chest and thrust into the wide sleeve pockets of his kimono.He looked at it briefly, and nodded to Gogol.

"I'm sorry. So, even the European 'demons' have their so-called home. History is hard to predict."

"Huh?" Gogol couldn't understand Japanese very well, but Dostoyevsky seemed to have done the translation for him in advance, and he heard the voice of almost simultaneous translation in his head.Dazedly shaking hands with the other party, Gogol said carelessly, "Yeah... what destination?"

For some reason, the senior guide standing beside him stepped on him.He changed his mind.

"I mean, I find it hard to predict, too! I didn't know I was going to be promoted suddenly—"

Just as he was about to say "I will be promoted", he was kicked under the white robe again.The stranger looked under his eyes.

"If you two have time, you might as well go to Yokohama to enjoy the flower scenery. Unlike Moscow's harsh winter, our winter is more suitable for relaxing."

"Then, we will go when we feel relaxed, Fukuzawa-san. Shall I take you to the ferry port?"

"No need. Somebody is coming to get me."

Following his line of sight, a black car was parked not far away, and the sign on it was the embassy's special logo.

Gogol is not very clear about the specific friendship between the two men, but he has gradually become more confident in his ability to pretend to be a second-in-command.His toes were also aching, but it was better to be silent anyway.The car stopped in front of them, and Gogol obediently stood beside Dostoyevsky.Just as he and Dostoevsky were about to leave, Fuze called them back again.

"Nikolai Vasilyevich..."

"Huh?" Gogol pointed to himself, "It's me."

"I seem to have heard that name before."

"is it?"

Gogol was a little surprised that such a nobody like him had been heard of by foreigners.The elder cast a sharp glance at Dostoevsky, who was unmoved and only smiled slightly.

"Since it's my partner, it's not surprising that he must be well-known."

"Fyodor Dostoevsky, what are you planning? I have heard some rumors that playing tricks on the territory of other countries will only harm the original interests of New Russia."

"Rumors are just rumors after all. Even if I am, I can only do my best to do what is in front of me."

Gogol listened inexplicably, not knowing what charade the two were playing.

During the conversation with Fukuzawa, Dostoevsky's aura was completely different from usual.His calmness is refined, and he also has bottomless consideration when he smiles.And Fukuzawa Yukichi didn't feel any attributes on his body.This person is either an ordinary person, or he has taken precautions to prevent others from easily identifying him.Just when Director Gogol had nothing to do with himself and kept listening, Fukuzawa's eyes suddenly fell back on Gogol's face.

"Are you really a couple?"

"what?"

The bottom of the foot was stomped hard again.The Ukrainian accent leaked out. "Yes! If it's fake..."

Fukuzawa's expression became unfathomable.When his car finally disappeared on the street, Gogol turned around with difficulty, and the instigator pretended to admire the bright blue sky and white clouds.

Until he could no longer ignore his questioning gaze.Before explaining further, Dostoevsky coughed lightly: "Just do me a favor."

tbc.

The author has something to say:

Many plots were deleted before and after. In this update, [-] words were sent out, and [-] to [-] words were written in the front, and all the darker parts were moved to the back... Day is really training people. (spit soul)