Chapter 12 end

Miss Hui returned home and received a call from Sheng Guangyun that night, excitedly saying that her seventh brother Sheng Guangzhe miraculously appeared at home, and they had already bought a boat ticket and secretly sent him to the Shanghai Concession to heal his injuries and avoid disaster.At that moment, Sheng Guangzhe's voice rang in Ms. Hui's ear through the noisy telephone line. That "Hui'er" made her cry, and what she thought of was that the person who disappeared forever called her "Miss Hui" politely from beginning to end. But no one can say the ordinary three words so sincerely. Even the voice of his reading aloud when he first started learning to read, I still think that every word has been congealed with painstaking efforts: "...I travel far alone, Not only is there no you, but there is no other shadow in the darkness. Only I am swallowed by the darkness, and the world belongs to me..."

Sheng Guangzhe, who escaped safely, didn't understand his adventure until a long time later, but what Ms. Hui waited in fear in Beijing was a news in a newspaper: Sheng Guangzhe, former editor-in-chief of Lincheng's "Zili Evening News", "collaboration with the enemy has certificates", has In the early morning of October 6, 15th year of the Republic of China, he was executed by shooting at Tianqiao Execution Ground in Beijing.Sadly, this news did not appear on the current affairs page, but it was regarded as anecdotal news and crowded with a bunch of lace news, because it is said that after Sheng Guangzhe was shot in the head, all the blood from his body turned into red clouds. The soldiers and workers who were present at the execution were all terrified.At dawn, the corpses that had not been restrained disappeared, and only a little dried blood remained in place, which condensed into ice crystals on the yellow sand.

In addition to this news, Ms. Hui later learned another piece of news from her parents' chat: Zhang Nianzu, a high-achieving student and nouveau riche, went crazy, and his property disappeared for some inexplicable reason. Sitting on the attic window sill of a slum in Nancheng, he desperately stretched out his arms into the distance, muttering five words: Aladdin's magic lamp. "It's a pity, I still wanted to match him and Hui'er..." Mrs. Wang sighed, continuing to knit her new-style sweater. Sheng Guangzhe hid in the Shanghai Concession for several years, until the National Government unified the north and the south, and the Zhifeng warlords also changed their banners and surrendered to the Nanjing government. Then he returned to Lincheng and was hired as a professor of Lincheng Agricultural College.Miss Hui also married Sheng Guangzhe after graduating from university, and lived in the renovated Qingyuntang house on Zhuangyuan Street for a long time.

"Actually, I have never been sure whether Brother Nian has returned to the original world or really died. After all, I have never felt his existence again for so many years." Grandma sat beside the mirabilis bushes in the yard Putting the blanket from Huang Ma on the bed, he said slowly, "Of course, I would rather believe that he has returned to the original world, and now he is standing on the ice tower looking at the fire beast..." Grandma's voice was very calm, but it revealed the determination that had been accumulated over the decades: "From the second year after he disappeared, I began to collect information, trying to figure out who he was. The created world only vaguely found a shadow of Plato’s Utopia. Later, I gave up this effort and started to create a new world, and the blueprint of that world, I chose the "Ten Continents" in the ancient literature .”

"Because there are also fire beasts in "Ten Continents"?" I asked. "Yeah, I want to create a world he likes for him." Grandma said slowly, "It's a pity that when I first started writing, wars came. The Central Plains War, the War of Resistance Against Japan, the War of Liberation...everything is protracted. , made our lives turbulent, and my writing could only be intermittent. When the Cultural Revolution came, I hid the manuscripts I had accumulated for many years in the cracks in the wall, but they were still searched out and burned as poisonous weeds... At that time I can no longer write, I can only think and think in my head, praying that this kind of meditation will also be effective. After the Cultural Revolution is over, I can’t wait to write out all the thoughts of more than ten years, and I have saved them until now. That's what you see."

"Does grandfather know about this?" I couldn't help but ask. "I know, he has always supported me." Grandma replied, "Until he died in the Cultural Revolution, he still worked hard to collect materials for my fantasy world." I didn't say anything else, thinking that the behavior of my grandparents might be just to seek a kind of psychological comfort for myself. After all, what Brother Nian said before he disappeared may not be taken seriously. "Do you remember the sound of the doorbell of this house?" Grandma smiled quietly, "I specially asked someone to record it, and it was composed of a variety of modern instruments. It sounded like reading my brother's name... I just I hope that if one day he can come to our world again, he can find me as soon as he hears this ringtone..."

I stood up, ran to the door, stretched out my hand and rang the doorbell again.There was the sound of ice hitting, which seemed chaotic and orderly, ding ding dong dong like sweet springs jumping in the mountain stream, refreshing the hot summer day.While the bell was ringing, I walked towards my grandmother. She was sitting by the flowers, her expression was as peaceful as a wave of disaster. Not long after the new semester started, I received a call from my father, saying that my grandmother had passed away, and that he would leave everything in Qingyun Hall to me in his last words.The father also said something in surprise: when the grandmother was dying, they heard a crisp knocking sound, which was cool and ethereal, refreshing.At first they thought someone had rang the doorbell, but there was no one at the door.But this voice awakened the unconscious grandmother. She looked up into the sky with an eternal smile on her face.

After reading my grandmother's manuscript, I am determined to write down her unfinished story. This is a fantasy world that I have never set foot in before.Regardless of whether Nian Geer has been accompanied by the Flame Beast with the help of his grandmother, I still believe that as long as a new world is created, some lonely souls can be comforted.