City of Burning Snow

Gogol was a little out of breath, and his fingers tightly grasped the hat on his chest, crumpling the hem.

His palm no longer lost strength, and his heart was filled with a rising desire to protect.

He is not such a strong person, nor does he have Dostoevsky's extraordinary will and ability.He only had such a chest emptied of faith, and Dostoevsky had always protected him like this, but never told him.The many pressures that should have been handled by himself, because of his slowness and innocence, are now all borne and handled by the other party, and the burden is seven years——

This is how he got his idleness and freedom. He spent seven years wandering in the management of the tower. He pushed open the door and accidentally saw that the back of the enemy belonged to Belinsky.He glanced away and breathed a sigh of relief that Dostoevsky across the desk was safe and sound.His chest was filled.

Dostoevsky lowered his head, folded his fingers to cover his eyes, and carefully peeked at him with half-hidden eyes.His eyes signaled Gogol to back away from the door, but Gogol pretended not to see him, and stepped into the room.Carelessly patted Belinsky on the shoulder.

"Isn't this Mr. Vessarion—you have something to do with my guide?"

What also broke his foot was his hesitation.

He bit the word "my family" very solemnly.

Belinsky put down the notebook.

The task Herzen gave him was very simple: to investigate the current situation of the senior guide's combination, and if Dostoevsky's report was true, then he must evacuate immediately to avoid a frontal conflict and being unable to control the situation.If the matter of the spouse was just a feint by Dostoevsky, he could safely erase Dostoevsky's position and arrest him directly.

He scribbled down the date of the day before the pen left his hand.His back muscles tensed a little, and an inexplicable murderous aura came from behind.

"Nikolai Vasilievich," he stood up, paused, and found that the other party had no intention of shaking his hand, and took it back imperceptibly, "don't be so nervous. I'm just doing routine business, and some things need Let me ask you, long time no see, which department did you serve in recently?"

You are also just routine.Dostoevsky blinked behind his back.Half of the anger in Moscow today was vented in my office by you.He saw Gogol poking his head, obviously wanting to talk to him, so he shook his head imperceptibly: he couldn't initiate thought hints in front of Belinsky, he had to pretend that there was a sympathy between the two of them status.

Gogol looked away.

"Haha, if there is a place in the tower where everyone else can enter, there must be a place for me, right Fedya?"

"Hmm." Dostoevsky tried to make himself more of an inconspicuous seat cushion. "You are still so humble. You don't need to make trouble with Savile, you came back so early, the coffee shop..."

He quickly observed Gogol's situation with several times his usual power of observation.

Cheeks are flushed, drunk.Gogol was in a bad mood when he first left the house, and he should have sat for a while longer.But the temperature in the open-air cafe is not high, he may not be able to stay.No……

His clear eyes moved slightly between the eyelashes.

The tower's cafe has been installed with thermal insulation facilities, otherwise it would not be able to operate all year round in Moscow's weather.It should be because someone interrupted him to drink alone.When Gogol was depressed, he would not pay attention to others easily, unless what the person said aroused his interest.

interest……

Smelling some subtle, expensive booze in the air, Dostoevsky had an answer in his mind.

"...It's really cold there. You two met by fate." He smiled as he pretended to have sympathy with Gogol, "The person who chatted with you just now is my old friend. Let's go to the house when we have time. Do you want to pay a visit?"

"No, no." Dostoevsky looked at him warily.I was afraid that the other party would say that person's name, but Gogol didn't say, "A chat lasts forever." Gogol's smile was contagious. "I think he's tired of talking too much."

Gogol looked back and forth between Belinsky and the senior guide.

"I remember that because Mr. Saryon was not in the headquarters before, your signature was missing when the medicine was delivered, which can delay a lot of things. You know the medical accident not long ago, it was just - so little medicine."

The awkward atmosphere that had just dissipated in the room reappeared.

Gogol's interrogation is not a question, but an accusation in disguise.

Belinsky raised his eyebrows slightly.He had always been the one who directed others, but this low-level guide tried to question him.

"Nikolai Vasilyevich. I think we'd better mind our own business."

"what's wrong with me."

"You had a prison entry record four days ago. The amazing thing is that it was the same as your previous records, and it was reported as a statistical error shortly after. Excuse me," Belinsky said word by word slowly interrogate him. "Were you in the basement at the time, or somewhere else?"

A smile hung on Gogol's face like the sun.

He opened his eyes wide with surprise.

"You asked me to retrieve the memory from four days ago? Isn't this a joke! Why don't you ask me what I did in the last second or ten seconds."

"Answer my question, soldier."

"You know how I'm always wheeled into the operating room, extracted by those messy tubes... what... what, Fedya?"

Dostoevsky did not answer him.In response, it will appear that the two are thinking differently.

Gogol asked and answered himself, and he clapped his hands: "Yes, it's a blood sample."

Belinsky scowled suddenly.

—Blood sample?

This kind of information is generally unknown to Sentinels.Only high-level personnel and the technical team know the secret of the soldier's identity.He glanced thoughtfully at the senior guide behind him.

Could it be that the two of them really maintain a mental link?

Gogol is unaware of the rich inner thoughts of these two men.But he opened the door, bowed and made a "please" gesture.Belinsky stopped suspicious, showing a clearly offended expression.

"What's the meaning."

Gogol scratched his head.

"I'm sorry, after all, such trivial things can't be blamed on our Fei Jia. You see, my guide is not in good health, and he has been busy all morning, so please do your best to work overtime and so on——Please go back Bar."

Dare I say.Dostoevsky hid a smile in the line of his lips.

Belinsky walks over, putting his stick between Gogol and the door.

As an "old guy" in the tower, even the senior guide Dostoevsky himself obviously respects him a little bit.But Gogol was so rude, he hit Gogol's calf with a straight stick, and knocked the opponent so that he made an exaggerated stagger.

"The tone is not small."

He looked at Gogol proudly. "In this case, I will ask directly. How long have you maintained this improper relationship?"

us?The sentinel was hopping on one foot and rubbing his legs, he froze for a moment.

"Our relationship has always been legitimate."

"You say you are legitimate, but the tower's system shows that the documents are insufficient."

"I'm his partner! What documents do I need?"

"I think so," said Belinsky indifferently, "and when did you two get married?"

Gogol glanced at Dostoevsky.

The latter had no expression on his face.

"Oh, I can't remember," said Gogol. "I don't have a good memory."

"Bad memory, Belinsky lifted the notebook and turned the notebook to the page marked with the ribbon." That's all right.Where did we go, Mr. Fyodor Dostoevsky, you don't have a bad memory either. "

Facing Belinsky's vindictive stare, Dostoevsky's smile is submissive and unreal.

"It was an accidental union."

said the guide, looking at Gogol.

"I just told you about our childhood, Nikolai. You probably didn't notice."

Cold sweat broke out under Gogol's smiling face.oh……

When he was young, when he was young, he was quite innocent. Apart from wanting to steal some bird eggs with Dostoevsky, he really didn't want to steal anyone... What was written in that little notebook?He probed his head, and Belinsky closed the book.

"Well, Monsieur Nikolai, please tell me now."

"No need! Fedya has finished talking, why don't we change the question—"

"Is there any reason why you can't answer directly? Or is it simply nonsense?"

"How come, where do you want to go?"

Belinsky twirled his cane, looking aggressively and unkindly.Questions were shot into the air like bullets and echoed empty.Belinsky stared suspiciously into Gogol's eyes, trying to find traces of lying. Seeing that Gogol didn't speak, he was even more sure that there was something tricky about it.

"Let's go back to the original question. You were imprisoned a few days ago, Mr. Nikolai Gogol. You were still waiting for the court-martial, but you ran back by yourself. This matter Always remember."

"Remember...do I remember?"

Dostoevsky scratched his neck.

"I don't remember," Gogol said seriously.

"You are answering my question, not the guide's. A sentry named Goncharov was recently replaced in the basement, and he sat in the seat that belonged to you. Do you have any thoughts on this?"

"The answer is...Xiao Gang is stupid, so he got lost."

"What about the thought traces of the senior guide who appeared in the corridor? Is he also lost?"

Belinsky looked at the two men in turn.

"Ask Fedya that, sir. Fedya is also free to get lost—"

"That's right. That's a good idea, so you two, please cheat as much as you want now."

Belinsky said immediately.

Dostoevsky moved.

The toe of Belinsky's leather shoes turned up, and he raised his hand as a gesture to dust off the dust in front of him.

"Mr. Guide, how about letting Mr. Nikolai tell me the answer directly? He doesn't know, you must know. But don't say it yourself, let him say it. You two have synesthesia."

Vissarion Belinsky...

Dostoevsky was silent.He stared at him like a scorpion's tail on a cunning ankle.Belinsky's sky-blue eyes were piercing, flashing across the ice-like coldness.

"Don't think of me that way. You can't blame me for being heartless now that you're trying to play me for an idiot."

He looks away.

"Soldier. Answer questions."

Gogol said nothing.

Dostoevsky cleared his throat.

Once the thought tentacles were activated, Belinsky would know that there was no stable synesthesia connection between them——

It shouldn't have been planned to drag Nikolai into the water.I can't go anymore.

Plead guilty first.First remove the suspicion of Gogol. "Visal, I..."

He stopped talking because he saw Gogol, who was silent, lowered his body, and suddenly lifted Belinsky's walking stick lightly from the end.There was a break in the tense air, and Gogol deftly drew his cane away. "Is this composite wood?"

Belinsky was a little surprised. "……Varied!"

Dostoevsky's eyes lit up, and he agreed in due course.

"That's right. That's Mr. Belinsky's traveling stick, Nikolai, which was given to him by his wife."

"Oh—wife."

"It's very precious. You must be careful not to damage it."

"Oh—precious."

The voice became more and more ominously excited.

"Million, ten thousand, ten thousand, not to be damaged——?"

"If you dare..."

Belinsky suddenly lost his momentum.

He panicked.He saw Gogol's posture of really wanting to break the cane from it, and he didn't care about the image. He rushed forward, but Gogol evaded his capture as nimbly as a dancing snow fox.

"Don't be so stingy. Mr. Belinsky! I just thought there was some kind of blade hidden in the middle of this walking stick. Don't ninjas and swordsmen like to carry such a good thing? It's like this—"

Gogol leans over smiling, bending over Belinsky's arm.

The white robe was raised like a big bird about to flap its wings, and he imitated the appearance of an oriental warrior drawing his sword.He pinched the staff by his waist, and suddenly twitched, the wind picked up the tip of Belinsky's nose.A few strands of hair fell down with the sound.

"—Ah," said Gogol, "I forgot the name of the trick I wanted to use."

Belinsky was furious: "What are you doing!"

The sentinel jumped in fright, "Just take a look."

Then, he looked at his empty palm, the cane was flying in a beautiful arc in the air, and Canxiao dramatically changed into panic: "Wow——Fei Jia, catch it!"

Gogol pointed in the direction of the cane, and his long braids danced happily in the air. He yelled and winked at Dostoyevsky.The other party understood, got up to pick it up, and then tripped himself next to the seat with poor acting skills.

"It's up to my waist..." said Dostoevsky.

The cane smashed through the glass windows and flew out of the tower, triggering the alarm network that Belinsky had previously ambushed.Thinking shot back through the broken glass window, the door was pulled open forcefully, and the reloaded sentries rushed in with explosion-proof shields.Alarm bells were ringing.

There was a sudden chaos in the office, and Belinsky rushed to the window in a daze.The wind gushed into his sleeves.He bent over the snowy clearing.It seemed that for a moment, he forgot all his missions, and just wanted to jump down and retrieve his cane.But at such a high place, it must have been...

With a soft "click", the real cane was placed back on the table unharmed.

Dostoevsky was gently pulled up by Gogol through his coat, and he had already successfully opened his thinking tentacles while taking advantage of Belinsky's absence.

"Today is the last time to tease you, Vissal. For the sake of the old days."

The illusion wrapped the two of them together, and they were no longer affected by any attacks. Before they completely disappeared into the void, he recalled the feeling of walking into the New Russia Tower the first day. He once thought that the Crystal Palace was nothing more than this.Dostoevsky closed his eyes regretfully.

"In the future, let's meet each other in battle."