Ha ha

How long do we have to wait?The horses had been killed, and all the cats and dogs were eaten, and finally even the mice were gone.Boiled leather boots became a staple on the plate.

More people die every day inside the high walls.Those who died of starvation, those who died of disease, those who were killed for the last bit of food... The corpses all over the street are more like skeletons wrapped in a thin layer of skin, lying on the ground without anyone to bury them.The orphans of the deceased curled up next to the corpses, drinking and panting, or crawling slowly, with the last hope shining in their dying eyes-why didn't the British come to rescue us, as they promised?

The whole of La Rochelle fell into a dark nightmare that would never wake up.The old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled were expelled from the city gate, lying on their stomachs outside the wall and begging bitterly, digging out earthworms from the mud along the trench, and stuffing them into their mouths with the soil...

At sunset, a thin figure crawled on the ground with difficulty, and gradually approached the French defense line.Several soldiers immediately took a step forward, and the leader announced loudly: "No one is allowed to cross the king's line of defense, or they will be executed on the spot!"

The figure slowly raised its hand—a soft and slender hand—and passed a piece of paper into the soldier's hand.The soldier looked down, and immediately took a step back calmly: "Go quickly."

The figure stood up, quickly crossed the line of defense, walked through the French camp familiarly, and got into Father Joseph's dilapidated house.

"Leaflets have been posted in the city to incite the poor people who are still alive to rebel." The female spy revealed her face under the light and reported in a low voice to the bishop and priest.

"How many are still alive?" Richelieu asked.

"Less than half."

Richelieu's hands slowly clenched into fists: "But they are still not ready to surrender?"

The female spy lowered her head: "Anyone who surrenders will be immediately hanged for public display."

******

When Xu Chenchuan realized it, Xiao Jin who served coffee every day hadn't come for a whole week.

That day, he reached for the cup but found nothing. He blinked in place, and then thought about it carefully.Intuitively, I always feel that this matter has something to do with Bai Qi, but I quickly deny it.How could Bai Qi care about this kind of thing, it was probably because Xiao Jin had other expectations and gave up when he saw that he was not lucky.

Now he had to fend for himself.Xu Chenchuan walked through the large public office towards the coffee machine, shook his arms and stretched his muscles, thinking about getting a small coffee machine for himself when he was done with his work for a while.Miscellaneous thoughts were spinning in my mind, and a familiar figure suddenly flashed in front of my eyes.

Xu Chenchuan was startled, took a few steps out of the big office and chased to the corridor, and called out, "Uncle Shen?"

The person who just walked past turned around and raised his eyebrows in surprise: "Xiao Chenchuan, so your office is here."

Shen Ji has lost a lot of weight since the last time we met, and his clothes seem to be hanging on his body.But he seemed to be in good spirits, not as haggard and depressed as imagined.Xu Chenchuan walked up to him: "Uncle Shen, why are you here? Are you looking for my dad?"

"Well, yes." Shen Ji smiled, "Cheng Rong and your father have some joint investment... Now it's his inheritance, I just went to deal with it."

"Ah..." Xu Chenchuan felt sad for a while, but he didn't know how to express it so as not to hurt Shen Ji, so he unconsciously chose his words, "My office is actually there, do you want to come in and sit?"

Shen Ji thought for a while: "Is it bothering you too much?"

"Don't bother, don't bother, I'm about to pour water, what do you want to drink?"

All the staff in the big office turned their heads and peeked at the man who asked the manager to run quickly to pour tea.

Xu Chenchuan led Shen Ji to the other door, looked at him sideways, and couldn't help but worry and said: "You really lost a lot of weight. Are you still eating regularly?"

"The diet is fine," Shen Ji rubbed his nose, "it's just that I can't sleep well."

The pen in Bai Qi's hand was hanging on the paper, and it didn't fall down for a long while.

He raised his eyes and watched the two people outside walking into the opposite door one after the other.

"May I introduce a doctor to you for consultation? This kind of thing can't be delayed, in case it becomes serious..." Xu Chenchuan gently closed the door of his office with his backhand, and the rest of the words were lost.

Bai Qi started to write again, writing horizontally and vertically, slightly twisted and uneven.

Outside the clinic, Xu Chenchuan seemed to be excitedly running to buy clothes after answering the phone, and then he suddenly forcibly got in front of him again.

******

"Bang", a fist hit the table heavily.

The female spy watched the nose and the heart, and did not look at the master's gaffe.Joseph reached out and patted the bishop on the shoulder, signaling him to calm down.Richelieu's chest rose and fell, and he couldn't return to his relaxed manner after several attempts.

"Why isn't it open yet?"

No one answered the question.

"Why the hell didn't you open the door?!"

In the night-shrouded military camp, inside the deathly silent city walls, on the other side of the choppy strait, countless people were asking the same question in their hearts——

When exactly do we have to wait?

******

"It won't get serious, I'm slowly adjusting, and it will be fine after a while." Shen Ji sat down across the desk and smiled.

Xu Chenchuan tilted his head and looked at him, showing no expression of being persuaded at all.Shen Ji sighed lightly: "Don't worry, I will live seriously. How can I make him walk unsteadily?"

"Uncle Shen..."

Shen Ji lowered his head, took a sip of hot tea, and breathed a sigh of relief: "You may not believe it, but at that time I couldn't imagine how my life would be without him, but when this day came, I realized that it was just like this. .”

He didn't regard Xu Chenchuan as an outsider, but said in a strange tone of discussing issues with adults: "My parents finally stopped looking at me with supercilious eyes, and persuaded me that I'm still young anyway, and the road ahead will still be difficult." Long... I know they always want to find another one for me, even if it is a man, they are afraid that I will be old and have nowhere to go."

"Then will you find another one?" Xu Chenchuan asked suddenly, and then hurriedly said, "I don't mean now, maybe in ten or eight years, will you want a partner to spend the rest of your life with?"

Xu Chenchuan couldn't tell what he wanted to prove.

"Never again." Shen Ji sipped his tea and said flatly.

The more casually he spoke, the more it seemed that there was no room for turning back.

The faintly accumulated emotions during this period of time reached their peak at this moment, and Xu Chenchuan actually discerned the shocking feeling: "Half a lifetime, so long..."

"What?" Shen Ji looked at him.

"...is it really... worth it?"

Decades of time, day and night, is it necessary to sacrifice all to the people in the memory, just to complete the story that ended abruptly to the end, and the love is tragic to be considered complete?

The shadow puppet, which seemed to be full of flowers, tilted, revealing an unfathomable dark hole behind it.Xu Chenchuan, who had always longed for such a relationship, tasted fear for the first time.

Shen Ji laughed twice: "It's not whether it's worth it, but whether you want it or not. It used to be difficult for water—" He remembered a fake foreign devil sitting across from him, and changed the popular saying, "I've had enough white rice. You can’t taste the delicious food on the table, so why force yourself to eat it, and waste the food.”

"But..." Xu Chenchuan was still immersed in the sudden horror, imagining the loneliness and bitterness that Shen Ji was about to face, and only when he was on the verge of speaking did he realize that he was pouring salt on Shen Ji's wound, and he swallowed it back.

Shen Ji looked thoughtfully at the young man with a troubled expression, was silent for a while, and before Xu Chenchuan changed the subject, he said: "Xiao Chenchuan, don't be afraid."

Xu Chenchuan froze for a moment, then looked up at him.

"It's a sad thing to like someone. You don't get sad sooner or later. If you don't cry at the beginning, you have to cry at the end." Shen Ji said, his eyes were still dry, "But if it's for the right person , you will know what it means to be willing."

Xu Chenchuan slowly savored these words, unable to respond for a while.

This was far from what he had long believed.He once determined to find someone who would make him happy, no matter what happened, this goal has never changed.He has never considered whether the simplest happiness in the world also needs to pay a price.

It's not about whether it's worth it, but whether you're willing to...

"I still have something to do, so I'll go first." Shen Ji stood up and said.

Xu Chenchuan came back to his senses, hurriedly got up and followed him to the door.Shen Ji opened the door, turned around and said, "Come and sit at my house when you're free in the future."

"Okay. You have to take care..." Xu Chenchuan's chest was sore and he couldn't find the right words to express it, so he simply gave him a hug.

Shen Ji was taken aback, laughed, and raised his hand to rub his head vigorously twice.

Xu Chenchuan hugged him for a while before letting go, Shen Ji said: "Okay, don't send it off, see you next time."

There was a slight movement outside the door, and the two turned their heads to look at the same time.

Bai Qi held a few documents in his hand, the wheelchair stopped at the spot, and his gaze slowly shifted from Xu Chenchuan's arm to Shen Ji's face.

There seemed to be black waves surging in his eyes, making him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.As a senior gay man, Shen Ji is extremely sensitive to other people's eyes, and immediately realized that he had misunderstood something, and couldn't help blurting out:

"You listen to my explanation."

"..."

Bai Qi tilted his head, the coldness in his eyes continued unabated: "I would like to hear more about it."