Doomsday Bandits and Tramps

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"Huh, I'm full, I can't eat anymore."

Xiu touched his chubby belly, but couldn't move while propped against the table.

Seth also put down the knife and fork, half-slumped on the seat, with a look of lovelessness: "Not only can I not eat anymore, I feel that I don't need to eat in the next two or three days."

"Me too." Israel took a sip of his wine, frowned and looked at more than half of the meat left on the table. "To be honest, I never thought that one day I would feel sick to my stomach when I saw meat."

"I feel the same way." Ismail sighed, stood up with difficulty and pushed the milk out of his hand, "I don't want to touch the milk anymore, I've drank all the milk in my life these few days .”

Unlike everyone else, Kafka was still tirelessly clinking glasses with his aunt. The two were talking and laughing, but there was a feeling that a thousand glasses of wine are too few to meet a bosom friend.

"Doctor, please drink less," Ismail advised, "You have seriously exceeded the limit today, be careful to wake up with leg pain tomorrow."

Kafka waved his hand, he couldn't hold back the smile on his flushed face, and the corners of his mouth almost reached behind his ears: "Oh, last, last drink."

After speaking, he raised his glass to drink with the aunt, and poured another glass after drinking.

"Didn't you agree on the last drink?"

Ismail reached out to stop him, but was blocked by Kafka who smelled of alcohol: "Finally, it's really the last drink."

"Hmph, just drink it, and don't complain about the pain tomorrow."

Ismail turned his head away, and Kafka drank another glass, and was stopped by his aunt when he wanted to pour it again.

"Okay, okay, it's almost there, there will be a show later, big brother, don't get drunk."

"Hey, it's all right, I'm happy. I would like to toast you on behalf of the young people. Thank you for your meticulous care these days. We haven't been so comfortable for a long time."

Kafka coaxed and tricked the aunt for another drink, and the aunt put down the glass with a joyful smile on her face: "Hahaha, I haven't been this happy for a long time."

The aunt drank a lot of wine, but unlike the swaying Kafka, she was still very energetic and not drunk at all.

After the dinner, the villagers invited them to warm up by the bonfire. Israel helped Kafka go back to the house to rest, but Kafka insisted on having a complete Varwen Festival. He put on a cotton jacket and helped him to sit on the haystack beside the campfire.

Not long after they were seated, three young girls came up to them holding wooden blocks and paints. The girl handed them the wooden blocks, then pointed at the paints, then at the wooden blocks, making a painting gesture, and then Nodding to them with a smile, he continued to distribute wood blocks and paint to other villagers.

"This is also one of Walwin's traditions."

The aunt explained: "Use paint to draw your favorite pattern on the front of the wooden block, write your wish on the back, and throw it into the bonfire after writing, so that the wish you made will come true."

Seth looked at the round wooden block the size of a palm in his hand, and the wooden block was carefully wrapped with wire: "Write down your wish and throw it into the fire to make it come true?"

"That's right," the aunt said firmly, "the more carefully you draw on the front, the faster the wish written on the back will come true."

Ismail said, "It seems interesting."

"Burning a piece of wood with fire can make a wish come true?"

Seth leaned close to Xiu's ear and whispered, "Honey, do you think this is an opportunity to make money?"

"What?"

Xiu looked at Seth, but saw Seth with a wicked smile on his face.

"Have you forgotten your manhood?"

Seth snapped his fingers, and quietly lit a small flame on his fingertips: "Look, with me here, we can go and burn it wherever we go. We only charge them one gold coin for a wish, so it's a good deal."

Xiu rolled his eyes at him: "Then it's better to ask the people in the village to confess you, save the wood, and just throw gold coins on you."

Seth put his arms around Xiu, and quickly pecked him on the lips: "If I hurt from being smashed, you won't be so sorry."

Xiu Wuyu dipped some paint and scratched on Seth's face: "Be serious, what do you think about all day long, hurry up and paint, and we'll throw it into the fire together when we're done."

"As ordered."

Seth twitched and followed Xiu, and divided the paint on his face in half.

Xiu cursed softly, and seeing Seth's serious look, he couldn't help laughing again.

Everyone was painting seriously, and Kafka fell asleep halfway through the painting.

The aunt finished the drawing first, and Ismail glanced at it unintentionally, and could vaguely tell from the black outline that she was drawing a bear.

The aunt noticed Ismail's gaze and smiled generously: "At my age, I don't have any special wishes to come true. Except for making wishes, write down what you want to say to your deceased relatives on the back, and the flame can carry these words Give it to them. I wrote a few sentences casually, I don’t know if she can understand it.”

"Even if she doesn't understand, she will definitely understand what you mean."

The aunt nodded to Ismail, got up and threw the wood into the bonfire, then sat by the bonfire, closed her eyes, and prayed silently.

Other villagers finished their drawings one after another and threw the wooden blocks into the bonfire.

Ismail was the first among them to finish the painting. After finishing the painting, she didn't rush to throw the wood block into the bonfire, but looked at the devout villagers around the bonfire, and slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

"This world is really amazing. I didn't expect that in this corner of the mainland, there is a village where humans and alien beasts co-exist. But what does their performance mean? Is it the story before they co-existed with alien beasts?"

"No."

"Doctor, are you awake?"

Kafka yawned, completely oblivious to the fact that the paint got on his face when he dozed off, and now he also got up and painted on the wooden blocks.

"During the dinner, I asked my aunt, and she said that what they were performing was about 3000 years ago."

"3000 years? Isn't that from BC?"

Xiu looked at Kafka in disbelief, and the others were no less surprised than Xiu.

"Yes," said Kafka, "their performances must have been inspired by primitive animal worship. Long ago, I mean earlier than 3000 years ago, our ancestors—hominids—appeared in On this land, there were no strange beasts at that time, but wild beasts. The relationship between humans and beasts has evolved from hunting and being hunted to domestication and breeding. Since then, humans and animals have never been separated, even now .”

One stroke at a time, Kafka sketched a pattern on the wooden block. In the middle of the picture is a human, surrounded by birds, beasts and fish.

"With the development of human civilization, this kind of animal worship has gradually faded in human society and has become history. After the end of the world, alien beasts raged, but they regained this kind of animal worship. However, unlike the original animal worship, Their performances are more about letting go, reconciliation and acceptance, advocating symbiosis with alien animals, returning to nature, and being harmonious but different, rather than excluding dissidents and incompatibility. Perhaps this is the appearance that human beings should have."

"But is it really the right thing to do?"

Xiu painted the paint calmly, and sketched Nemo's appearance on the wooden block with some absent-mindedness: "I have been thinking these days, is the path of coexistence between humans and alien beasts really feasible? Albion is also the same, here That's right, humans and alien beasts can get along so well, but in the end, Albion was wiped out, and this village can only be hidden among the mountains and isolated from the world."

"build……"

Seth looked at Xiu distressedly, and Xiu remained expressionless, as if he was talking about something completely irrelevant to him.

"Are we wrong, should human beings part ways with alien beasts? If, if this had been the case earlier, would Nemo just..."

"build."

Kafka severely interrupted Xiu's words. He looked at Xiu's expression and couldn't bear to be responsible.

Xiu was the one who had the deepest bond with the strange beast among them. All his family members died unexpectedly, and the strange beast he had grown up with died in front of him again.

This kind of pain, Kafka couldn't pat his chest and tell Xiu, he understands, he understands, he feels the same.

But as an elder, and also as a scientist, he cannot watch the younger go astray, and cannot allow him to deny his past and his way of life.

Kafka put down the wooden block, sighed, and said slowly: "Xiu, I know that you are very sad because of the death of family members and friends. However, human beings, animals and nature complement each other. In the final analysis, human beings themselves It is also an animal. Humans evolved from apes. During the continuous evolution, they gradually mastered wisdom, learned to use tools, made tools, learned to use fire, and then invented words and created civilization. Humans are unique, but this uniqueness seems to make Human beings have gone astray. Perhaps, this doomsday is nature’s punishment for human beings. What we have to do is not only to contend with the doomsday, but more importantly, to find the cause of the doomsday, correct it, repair it, and make up for the mistakes humans have made. .”

"What if this last days has nothing to do with human beings?"

Xiu asked: "I mean, what if the last days were not caused by humans?"

"Then we try to accept it and learn to live with it."

Kafka said: "It's like Albion in the past, like this village hidden in the mountains. I can't guarantee what will happen in the future, but I'm sure that 200 years ago in the last days, alien beasts were rampant on the mainland. , human beings can survive tenaciously, which shows that human life should not be lost, and we still have a chance."

Kafka's old eyes are full of endless light, which is the longing for hope and future, and it is a firm and unshakable belief.

Perhaps, as the old man said, mankind still has a chance, and mankind can still see hope.

Xiu looked at the portrait of Nemo in his hand and held it tightly.

Suddenly, the villagers sitting around the campfire burst into cheers and applause. Seth followed the sound and immediately patted Xiu on the shoulder.

"Baby, look!"

"Look what, what happened again?"

"Auntie," Seth said excitedly and nervously, "your auntie is here."