winter in greenland

When August woke up again, he was in a trance for a moment, as if he didn't realize where he was. The antibiotics he had taken earlier made him feel a little dizzy. After sitting for a few seconds, he slowly remembered what happened the day before. thing.The reaction of the brain was still slow. When he raised his hand and touched the table beside him, Dan's green leather notebook fell out from nowhere. He rubbed his fingers on it for a while, as if he remembered something interesting. His eyes softened.

Sitting in the dark for a while, he suddenly heard a faint sound of music floating not far away.At first he suspected that it was his hallucination, he listened intently for a while, until he could distinguish the familiar melody with some nostalgia, his shoulders suddenly relaxed, and he said to himself: "Silent night... so it is almost Christmas It's..."

Dan didn't think too much when he started playing, he chose the song "Silentnight" completely subconsciously, and he didn't put down the harmonica until the end of the first verse. The metal edge has become smooth and round due to years of touching. Gadgets in the house, but the thoughts drifted to the distance.

Mia is a graduate student majoring in cello at the Conservatory of Music. After graduation, she stayed at the school to teach. In addition to teaching students in the university, she also gave private cello lessons outside.Probably because of her meticulousness and patience, most of the children who come to her for classes are elementary school children.Dan had some piano background before. In order to carry out the task, the people in their team unanimously suggested that he pretend to be an amateur interested in the cello, so that he could have a legitimate reason to approach Mia. After he protested to no avail, he also They had no choice but to compromise. On the second day after the team arrived in Belfast, they went to a second-hand piano store to buy a cello, and knocked on Mia's door.

Mia is a very patient teacher, coupled with her easy-going and gentle personality, she soon became friends with Dan.Dan himself has a bit of talent in music. After studying for more than half a year, Mia asked him if he was interested in going to a charity performance. He was a little curious, so he agreed to go with her.

It was a school for the disabled in the suburbs, not only children and teenagers, but also some adults.Dan heard from the person in charge of the school that Mia is a frequent visitor here, coming almost every month.It's a performance, but it's actually more like a communication between musicians and the audience. She will teach children some basic music theory knowledge, and arrange some common repertoire with people who play other instruments.

When they were about to leave that afternoon, an 8-year-old girl with flaxen hair kept grabbing Mia by the hem of her clothes to prevent her from leaving.The little girl named Jenny lost her right leg in a car accident and had just arrived at this school.After everyone was helpless with her stubbornness, Mia took out a harmonica from the cello case and gave it to Jenny as if by magic, taught her a simple piece of music for half an hour, and made an appointment with her next week After practicing, the little girl burst into tears.That song is Silent Night.

After he sent Mia back to the residence that day, he asked her half-jokingly: "Is there any musical instrument that you don't know?"

Mia pretended to think seriously for a while: "Probably...the organ? You know, I've always wanted to learn that."

He almost choked, and Mia patted him on the back while suppressing a smile to help him: "Actually, besides the cello, I can only play and sing a little basic piano. I learned the harmonica from my brother when I was young. I remember that At that time, I was in the third grade of elementary school. Every day when I came home from school, other students could play outside, but I had to be locked up in the study to practice the piano. At that time, the school just opened musical instrument classes. I was very fond of the harmonica. I am particularly interested in musical instruments, but my mother insisted that I continue to practice the cello. Finally one day I couldn't take it anymore and had a big fight with my mother and almost dropped the piano. Later, my brother came in to comfort me and said he was with me He learned the piano to accompany me, so I agreed to continue learning. That Christmas, my brother gave me a harmonica as a gift. He said he would teach me so that my mother would not say anything. From that day on, after my cello practice every day, I would set aside half an hour to play some simple harmonica pieces with my brother. It's just..." She paused and didn't continue.

Dan looked at her carefully for a while, with a gentle smile in his eyes: "Then, Ms. Mia, would you like to accept another harmonica student?"

Mia hastily raised a hand to wipe her eyes, and also smiled: "Student, it seems that your ambition is really not small."

Dan put one hand on his chest and bowed: "It's all because my teacher is too good at enlightenment. I don't know if she is willing to teach this student one more class?"

Mia nodded with a smile.

August, in fact, long before you knew of my existence, I already knew and gradually got to know you.

……

Dan sighed, put away the harmonica, patted the snow on his trouser legs, and was about to stand up——

"Today is Advent." August's voice came from behind him.

Dan was startled: "Are you awake?"

August nodded: "Why don't you blow it?"

Dan was inexplicably embarrassed that a primary school student was caught by his parents for doing bad things, so he turned his head unnaturally: "I just pass the time."

August looked at him carefully for a few seconds, his eyes flashed: "I'm sorry about the day's affairs."

Dan was a little surprised: "What?"

Now the person who sighed turned into August: "I admit that my approach to Arthur's matter was a bit extreme. What you said...was Heath asking you to convey it? I have nothing against anyone. Meaning. Anyway...sorry."

"It's okay, it's the way I speak that offends." Dan stood in the dark, August couldn't see his eyes clearly, and couldn't hear any emotion from his tone.

It was rare for August to have some emotions that could be called helplessness. The two stood silently for a while, and Dan spoke first: "Go back, let me check the wound for you."

The two walked one after the other on the snowy ground. Not far away, they could see some dim fires in the camp. On the right were low rolling snow-white hills, and on the left was an endless ice shelf connected to the sea.

The sky did not know when fine snowflakes began to float, and when they were about to fall to the ground, they were gently rolled up by the wind and slapped on the person's calf.

Dan didn't wear a scarf or a hat. Although the collar of his winter jacket was turned up, he could still see a section of his snow-white neck exposed to the air.The hair that hasn't been cut in the past three months has grown a lot. His hair has some natural curls. Snowflakes fall on the ends of his hair like twinkling stars.

He was walking ahead in silence with his head bowed, but suddenly he heard August's voice coming from behind him: "Hey, Dan."

He turned around: "Major?"

August had already untied his scarf, walked up to him and wrapped it around his neck awkwardly: "I found that you really don't have the habit of keeping warm."

The softness with the man's body temperature wrapped around the neck, and immediately dispelled the chill behind the ears, and there was a faint smell of tobacco at the end of the nose.Dan was a little dazed, and stood there without speaking or moving.

Seeing his expression, August unconsciously showed a smile on his face, raised his hand and waved in front of his eyes: "What, are you stupid?"

Dan snapped back to his senses and shook his head: "No."

August tilted his head towards him, and took two steps forward: "Let's go. I remember I brought some things with me when I came out. Anyway, it's Advent, so there must be a festive atmosphere."

Dan landed about two or three steps behind him, with half of his face buried in the scarf, leaving only a pair of eyes staring at the back in front of him.There are thousands of thoughts in my heart, but I don't know what to say.

After returning to the camp, August got into the pile of supplies, rummaged and picked for a long time with one arm hanging, and asked Dan to help him. After searching for about 10 minutes, he finally took out a brown one with a triumphant face. Small parcel.

Dan opened it and saw that there were four simple white candle ends, and the bottom was wrapped with tin iron casually, which looked like a candlestick anyway.

“I carry this every year on patrol. We have a family tradition of lighting one candle every Advent and then a second, third, fourth on the same day every week and then Christmas " August said, took out one of them, approached the flame of the alcohol stove and lit it.

Dan raised his eyebrows: "Unexpectedly, you are still a...romantic person."

August laughed: "It has nothing to do with the bloody romance. It was my sister's habit at first, and then she went to other places, and we hardly saw each other. Sometimes when I think of her, I will also light a candle. , right to celebrate the festival with her."

"You must love your sister very much."

August was silent for a while, staring at the candlelight in his hand and sighing: "Actually, I'm not a competent brother."

Dan heard other meanings in his tone, and looked up at him: "Actually, I've wanted to ask a question for a long time, if you don't feel offended..."

August guessed what he was going to say: "You want to say that I also have a vacation, why don't you go to see her?"

Dan nodded.

August put the small candlestick on the table, and stared at the small flames with gray-blue eyes: "You all know that Sirius patrols every year, guarding this coastline near the edge of the world. , to defend the integrity of the territory, but few people know that Sirius actually has detailed exploration data on the terrain and resource distribution of the entire Greenland. The data at the headquarters is just a backup, but the truly complete modeling data is all stored in the base, and the key to decrypt the authority It is divided into two parts, one half is in the headquarters, and the other half is in the hands of the previous captains of Sirius. This is why they asked Arthur to come here, Arthur's talent in the computer field is beyond the reach of all other students in the same period." His voice paused Paused, as if thinking about something.

Dan looked into his eyes without interrupting.

"My father... died five years ago. It was announced that his cause of death was a sudden heart attack, but only the headquarters and I know that he was assassinated because of me and my duties."

He stared at his left hand which was placed on the side of the candlestick, the fingertips of the five fingers with the fingertips exposed were trembling slightly, and there was suppressed pain in his voice.

The author says:

Tomorrow I will probably ask for leave for a day off, and if there is an update, it will probably be at night... um (not sure...)

See you on Wednesday at noon~