Spider thread

"I want to go back to Hong Kong once." Crow Reed folded the letter paper in his hand into thirds, put it in an envelope, left the study room, and walked out along the corridor.

"How to go back?" Ruberos followed behind him and asked casually, "By boat?"

"No, no." Craw hesitated for a moment, "The boat is too slow."

"Let's fly there." Yue said, "Use the magic of 'flying'."

"Yes," said Crow, "I think it would be better to send a letter to the family first, telling them that I will go back once." He turned to look at Yue and Kerubellos.The light blue bird rested on his shoulders, its slender wings folded on both sides of its body, and its ruby-like eyes looked at the letter in Kuro's hand. "I'm sorry to trouble you." He put the envelope close to the slender-necked bird. He held the letter in his mouth, spread his wings and flew out of the window, and disappeared under the blue sky after a while.

"Use him to deliver the letter..." Ruberos smacked his mouth.

"Can't you?" Kuro asked him back.

"No, I just thought it was quite strange." Ruberos said.

"Then, I'll put one thing in its proper place before he comes back." Craw turned back to the study again, and opened the lower drawer of the cabinet by the door.

Both Yue and Kerberos were a little puzzled.Craw took out a bell from the drawer, a bell with a certain peculiarity.The entire bell is copper-yellow, with the Chinese character "月" engraved in the center and patterns extending toward the end, and filled with golden yellow.On the handle of the bell is tied a long cloth belt in five colors of white, blue, yellow, red and black, which drags almost all the way to the ground.

"This is?" Moon asked.

"It's what the Yamashita Shrine needs. It is said that there is already a 'sun' side, but the 'moon' side is missing, so I made one for them." Kuro said, holding it up in front of his eyes again, and using another Holding those ribbons with one hand, "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"But for what purpose?" Ruberos asked.

"Probably something like prayer." Clow said, "Actually, I don't know much about the work in the shrine."

When Kuro returned from the Moon Peak Shrine, the light blue bird had been waiting on the windowsill for a long time.

"How long will it be?" Yue leaned against the door and asked.

"Just a few days, just go back and have a look." Clow said.

"I always feel that you will be boring without you." Ruberos stood at Kuro's feet.

"I'll be back soon." Crow knelt down and touched the side of Kerberos' ear.

When Kuro arrived in Hong Kong, he almost lost his way when he was looking for the Li family mansion. The light blue bird flew in front of him and showed him the way. "Is this right here?" Crow looked at the door in front of him and muttered to himself.The bird that had just landed on the shoulder twittered and disappeared.Crow knocked on the door.

It was one of his distant relatives who came to open the door - Kuro couldn't remember her name, and there was no overlapping face in his memory - she was surprised for a few seconds after seeing Kuro, and smiled after realizing it , said, "Is that Mr. Craw Reed?" It seemed difficult for her to say Craw's name, "please come with me, after receiving your letter, great-grandfather and grandmother would like to see you ’” She led Craw down the corridor.

"The honorific title is unnecessary." Ku Luo smiled, "I'm just an inconspicuous child with a foreign surname from the Li family."

"No, in Kowloon, Crow Reed's name resounds everywhere." She stopped and pushed open the door, "Great-grandfather is waiting for you inside."

Kuro walked in alone. Compared with his memory, the reception room can be said to have become much more magnificent, and there were paintings of landscapes or peonies on the walls. "Long time no see." He said, with a signature smile.

Then he was invited to the top guest seat, and the person called "great-grandfather" began to tell everyone about what happened to Kuro in his mind when he was a child. Kuro echoed, or made corrections, and at the same time wondering who he really is.Probably just one of the many relatives who once gave him cold eyes, Kuro thought, and sighed.

At this time, the great-grandfather had already talked about Clow's current magical attainments, and he pretended to be recalling the past, and started a new round of eloquence.Kuro looked around, there were other people sitting in the room, old and young, big and small, but the eyes they cast on him were surprisingly the same.

"Ah," Kuro interrupted him, lowering his eyes and taking a sip of tea slowly, "I remember when I was young, whether it was practicing Taoism or martial arts, I was always driven away That one." He slowly raised his eyes and looked at the relative, whose expression became a little strange, "Don't talk about studying, it seems that he doesn't even have the qualifications to watch." He narrowed his eyes again and smiled.The air in the room became frozen for a while, and Kuro added, "It's a pity, I still want to learn Taoism." The relative wanted to interrupt his words, Kuro pretended not to notice, and said without hesitation Go on, "It's a pity that learning Taoism in my current magic system will only cause conflicts."

After a moment of silence, another young man in the room spoke up. Kuro was sure that he did not know him, and with a dry laugh, he moved the topic to another direction.

After dinner, Kuro walked alone in the courtyard, thinking about what he had just experienced, he couldn't help but feel a little funny.He still remembers that when he was young, the time when he gathered for dinner every day was his least favorite time. Even if he was sitting at the end of the dining table, he wanted to try his best to blend himself into the corner of the wall, but now, he was invited to the most conspicuous place. guest of honor.

He saw a girl about five feet tall standing by the pool in the courtyard. At first, Crow thought she was looking at the reflection in the water or the moon at night. After approaching, he found a kite stuck on the branch. The girl seemed to be Thinking about how to get it off.

Kuro walked to the tree and got the kite with only a slight stretch of his hand.He handed it to the girl.

"Thank you." The girl who was less than ten years old looked up at him, "Are you... today's guest?"

"Although the name is a foreign name, I also have half of the Li family's blood." Ku Luo clarified with a smile, "It's a distant relative."

The girl took the kite and said nothing more.Before Ku Luo asked anything, someone automatically came over and explained to him, "This name is Li Yelan, she is my only daughter, and she has a few older brothers, but they are not very successful." Ku Luo recognized it. The person was the one who started the conversation in the living room in the afternoon.Through his seat at dinner, Clow thought that he should be the current head of the Li family. "I heard that Mr. Reed is proficient in Western magic. I wonder if I can give you some guidance."

"Magic," Kuro tilted his head, "as long as you continue to believe in what you believed in before. This is true for my magic and all Western magic. But I don't know much about Eastern Taoism, sorry .” Clow bowed.

"Where, where." He also hastily bowed to Kuro.

"Tomorrow," Kuro looked at the clear water in the pool, "I want to see my mother's grave." He looked at the reflection of the moon in the water, "Can you tell me where it is."

"Of course, it's not far away." He said, looking a little too attentive, "Of course I would like to accompany you, but unfortunately there are still family matters to deal with." He put his hand on the girl's shoulder, "Let Yelan take your place for me."

"That's really troublesome, my dear." Ku Luo squatted down, and then knelt down on one knee again, so that Yelan could look at her at the same level. "Please give me more advice, Miss Li." He said.

The next morning, the head of the family seemed to have prepared everything, but he still told Yelan a few worried words before letting her go out with Ku Luo.

After a while, when the magnificent Li family mansion was no longer visible when looking back, Ku Luo suddenly asked, "Miss Li, will your father or other members of the family mention me at home?"

"Sometimes." Li Yelan didn't understand why Kuro would ask this, but she answered it well.

"When?" Kuro continued.

"When it comes to things like magic, or when great-grandfather gets drunk once in a while," she said.

"So what did you say about me?" Crow asked as if he was very interested in this.

"It happened when I was a child, and when I worked as a fortune teller in Hong Kong for a while." She answered truthfully.

"I think most of them are fake, he made them up, or he thinks the truth is like this and regards the fake as the truth." Clow said, "After all, when I was young, except for my mother, No one else from the Li family is willing to talk to me seriously." He lowered his head.

"But, all the relatives said—" Li Yelan wanted to argue, but her voice weakened.

"I didn't live at home when I was doing divination for others in Hong Kong," Kuluo said to himself, "because it was too far away from home, and besides, I was still a child rejected by the Li family at that time." He raised his head , turned around and looked at Ye Lan again, "Let's go to the port."

"Aren't you going to the cemetery?" She was a little puzzled and couldn't respond.

"Mother's tomb does not exist in the current cemetery, I know that." Clow slowed down, "It was rebuilt after the war, right?"

"But, father said—" Yelan couldn't believe it.

"Excuse me, but I don't think he even knows my mother's name," Crow said, "I think my mother, like your grandmother or great-grandmother, died peacefully after a long life." .”

"I lost my mother when you were your age," Crow said. "It seems to be some lung problem. No one told me, but I guessed it from some words I heard. Neither my father nor I Knowing the truth, even—" he paused, "—was not allowed to attend her funeral." His voice was a little weak when he said this.

"Is that so? That's really true..." Li Yelan said, she found that some of the things and impressions about Crow Reed that she occasionally heard from her grandparents and parents were not correct, and could even be said to be completely wrong .She raised her head and was surprised to find that even when talking about these sad past events, Crow still had a gentle smile on his face.

"There is no need to grieve for the dead." When Kuro said this, they had already reached the port, and the air was already mixed with the salty smell of sea water, and the sound of waves could be faintly heard. "After a person dies, whether the soul will be reincarnated or not, whether it will enter heaven or hell, or dissipate directly into endless darkness, or according to other Western theories, after death, people will gradually rot into flowers, soil or trees. Part of it." He walked slowly, as if matching Li Yelan's pace, "What will happen depends on which theory you believe."

"Is that so?" She was still confused.

"And I believe that the dead are guarding us in another way, guarding the people who were important to us during their lifetime." Kuro smiled, "That's enough."

Li Yelan stopped and held on to the railing beside her.They are now located on the outside of the port, and they can see workers carrying goods near the ships from a bird's-eye view.The wind in winter is bitter, but near the beach, the wind becomes soft and gentle, reminiscent of spring or summer.

After a while, Ku Luo suddenly said: "Li Xiaolang." Li Yelan responded with a puzzled look. "I was wondering if I would get this name if I was an orthodox heir of the Li family," Kulo explained.

"Should, I will." Li Yelan said, her black hair tied up high on the back of her head was scattered by the wind, and some of it floated to the edge of her sight.

"Go back," Craw said.

Li Yelan nodded.

"Did the family mention my parents?" Crow asked again as he walked back.

"I mentioned it." Ye Lan said, "They said your father was a bad guy who took your mother away, and there were other things." She looked ahead, unwilling to imagine Ku Luo's expression.

"Really." Clow said, his tone was very flat. "In my opinion, both my father and my mother are very gentle people. My father will only marry my mother because he loves her, and my mother is willing to marry her." Father is only because of pure love, that's all." He turned his head and smiled at Li Yelan.

After returning home, Ku Luo immediately expressed his gratitude to the head of the Li family, but Ye Lan wanted to say something, but Ku Luo stopped him.He chuckled and put his left index finger in front of his mouth. Yelan nodded, but was still confused.

It was this afternoon when he left Hong Kong. Although the head of the house and other relatives tried to persuade him to stay, Clow still insisted on leaving. "Can I have a few more words with Ling'ai?" He asked the Patriarch, but in a declarative tone.

Ku Luo walked up to Ye Lan, squatted down, still kneeling on one knee, "Help me, can I keep some things?" Ku Luo handed several books and a compass to Li Ye Lan.

This move made other relatives of the Li family puzzled and happy, and the head of the family pushed Ye Lan to urge her to accept it quickly.

"Okay...Okay." Yelan said quickly.

"Thank you," Crow said.He stood up, turned and left the Li's house.

Next, let everything end, he thought softly in his heart.When looking forward, there is already more determination in the eyes.

——After that, I went to the port again, but I never found the gentle wind of that day again. The sea breeze mixed with a slight salt smell was as cold as usual.

——What kind of person is Clow Reid?This question seems to be unanswered.I can feel his strength and ease when facing others, and I can also feel his gentleness when facing me.I would like to believe that his parents are very gentle people, because I think only such gentle people can bring up Clow Reed who treats everything gently even though he is treated differently.Even though my family said he was a weirdo, I thought it was too soft.

——What kind of person is Clow Reid?When I became the head of the Li family, children in the family often asked me this question (perhaps because I read the manuscript of the book he left behind). "Crow Reed, is a very strong and gentle man." I would answer them like this.