What is life?

I've been thinking about this a lot.

The life I can think of has already dissipated with the wind like smoke and dust in the tempering of time. In this dull life, all I can think about is to try to live.

To be born, to live, for me, that's life.

My name is Lin Ling, and I am an orphan, and I am and still am, and I am still alone for more than 20 years. I don't have any big ambitions, I never talk about my ideals with anyone, and I don't have any friends, because as the years go by, everyone has drifted apart, and I have no lover, so I'm still alone......

No, I have, but she's already engaged and I can't give her the life she wants, so she accepts the love of others. I also accept the reality that everyone wants to be happy, and happiness is to have a good enough life. And I, just an ordinary and even mediocre person among all living beings, I am struggling in life and sinking in life.

For me now, life doesn't matter about passions, dreams, hopes, or beliefs......

Lin Ling stood at the intersection of busy traffic, the red light numbers on the opposite side of the zebra crossing kept flashing, and he stood in the crowd with a blank face, looking straight ahead with blank eyes.

The number on the red light was zero, the green light was on, Lin Ling followed the crowd step by step towards the other side of the road, just across the road, the street light above his head suddenly lit up, and it was already dark.

He had worked all day, in fact, he hadn't left work so early, but he had retired a few hours early today, at the cost of a few dozen dollars less in wages, in exchange for the peace of the short period before dark. Because today is his birthday, he wants to celebrate his birthday quietly by himself.

Lin Ling is an orphan, and he originally didn't have a birthday, but he regarded the day he was adopted as his birthday. He was adopted by an old couple who did not have children, Lin Ling has always called them grandparents, when he was in junior high school, his grandfather was found to have liver cancer, and he died not long after, since then he and his grandmother have depended on each other until a few years later, his grandmother also died in a car accident. The old couple left him an inheritance of more than 100,000 yuan and a house, and then passed away, and since then, he has lived alone to this day.

Lin Ling is not always lonely, the girl who was adopted on the same day as him lives in the opposite door, they have grown up together since childhood, and they are the people who are most familiar with each other. He liked her, and that affection continues to this day, even when she is marrying someone else next month.

As an adult, Lin Ling has been thinking about how to give the girl he likes the best life. Fortunately, after graduating from college, he joined a good company, he devoted himself to his work, he wanted to be promoted, he wanted to earn more money, and money could give her a good life. Originally, he thought that as long as he worked hard, he would definitely get the life he wanted, but fate played a joke on him that he couldn't afford - the company he worked for was not properly operated, the financing failed and went bankrupt, and he lost his job, and at the same time lost the ability to give his beloved girl a good life. It didn't take long for her to get engaged to someone else, and his life has lost its purpose ever since.

Lin Ling lived in a daze for a long time, until the money in his pocket was almost spent, he just found a job in a logistics company in order to make money to live, for him now, more money and less money is meaningless, the work is not decent and worthless, as long as he can earn some money to maintain his life, it is enough.

Lin Ling walked on the side of the street without hurrying, and people kept passing by him, and he didn't pay attention to all the people and things around him. He bought a bowl of beef noodles and a finger cake at a shop down the street, and for him, it was enough for his birthday.

Today is also her birthday......

Lin Ling walked past one street lamp after another, his shadow continued to shorten and elongate under the dim street lamp, he looked down at the road under his feet, staring at the road without squinting, all kinds of human legs walked in front of his eyes, and all kinds of street garbage, there were small packaging bags, empty mineral water bottles, wooden skewers dropped after eating fried skewers, fallen leaves rolling in the wind, crumpled paper towels and old books discarded by people on the side of the road......

Suddenly, the mobile phone in his trouser pocket rang, Lin Ling came back to his senses, stood on the side of the road and took out his mobile phone and glanced at the caller ID on the mobile phone screen, the three words "Wang Xiaoman" disturbed his heartbeat, he stretched out his finger and slid it on the screen, and answered the call.

"Hey ......"

"Happy Birthday, Zero!"

"Oh...... You too, happy birthday. ”

"I'm still busy with my fiancé's wedding, so I can't celebrate my birthday with you today. ”

"It's okay, it's important to get married, prepare well. ”

"You also have to prepare well, you agreed to be the best man, you must dress decently and handsomely when the time comes, maybe you will touch the heart of a girl~"

"No girl like me can look at it. ”

"You can't say that, turnip and cabbage, everyone has their own love, there will definitely be people like you, besides, you are not ugly, you must be confident. ”

"Don't talk about me, what's going on over there, how did you spend your birthday today?"

"I went to try on the wedding dress today, wow...... You really don't know how beautiful those wedding dresses are, and they all say that they want to make the girl have the idea of getting married, so you take her to the wedding dress shop, it's really not fake at all!

"Really, I'm looking forward to seeing you in your wedding dress at the wedding. ”

"Haha...... I went to the movies after trying on the wedding dress, and then I went to eat Western food, you know? He hid the birthday present he gave me, a star diamond necklace, in the cake, which was the kind of dessert cake that was not too big, and I took it in my hand and bit half of it, and I ended up knocking my teeth......

"Hah...... Are you okay?"

"It's okay, I'm fine, but I wasted that half of the cake, and I thought the kitchen had accidentally left something in the cake. By the way, how did you spend your birthday today?"

"Oh...... I...... Belch...... My colleague gave me a piece of cake, and I called them to come to my house for dinner, bought some braised vegetables, and planned to drink a few glasses of wine, blow out a candle and eat some cake or something. ”

"That's it, then you have some fun tonight~"

"Well, so be it, I'll go get ready, and we'll talk later. ”

"Okay, bye~"

"Bye-bye ......"

Lin Ling stuffed his phone back into his trouser pocket, then took out a pack of cigarettes from his other trouser pocket, he took out a cigarette and put it to his mouth, lit it with a lighter, and took a deep breath. He raised his head slightly, exhaled a long wisp of green smoke, his eyes were red from smoke, he closed his eyes tightly, and when he opened them, he looked at the traffic in front of him, standing on the side of the road and smoking the cigarette in his mouth silently.

He suddenly noticed a quarrelsome couple on the street across the road, the girl cried and pushed the boy away, covering her eyes and trot in the crowd, the boy chased after her and grabbed the girl and took her into her arms, the girl pushed a few times, and then hugged the boy and buried his head in each other's arms, and the two hugged each other as if no one was in the crowd.

Lin Ling finished the cigarette in his mouth, lowered his head and stepped on the cigarette butt that was thrown at his feet, he kicked away a book that had been discarded on the side of the road, and then continued to walk forward step by step along the street.

Lin Ling lives in the house left to him by his grandparents, the community is very old, the street lights are dim, and only a small piece of the ground can be illuminated in the night. Lin Ling walked on the side of the road in the community, smoking a cigarette while walking towards his house. He threw the cigarette butt at his feet after spitting out his cigarette, and when he looked down, he suddenly saw a book lying on the ground under the street lamp.

The book lying directly under the street lamp immediately attracted Lin Ling's attention, and he slowed down and walked over, lowering his head to carefully observe the book. It was an old-looking book, with a dark gold mystery pattern printed on the reddish-brown cover, which looked like a magic book.

Lin Ling didn't pick up the book, and after reading it a few times, he took a step and continued to walk home. He wondered why so many people liked to throw books lately, and he had just seen several books being thrown on the side of the road.

Lin Ling continued to walk casually along the road, and as he walked, he saw another book lying on the ground under the street lamp not far away. Lin Ling looked back, looked around a few more times, and found that there was no one around, he slowly walked under the street lamp and looked down at the book on the ground.

It's exactly the same as the book just now!! Could it be that someone was following him and deliberately leaving the book on his way home? Zero felt a little creepy, because there was no one around, not even the wind, and it was quiet and terrifying.

Lin Ling pretended not to see the book and continued to walk forward, but before he had walked a few steps, he saw the book lying under the street lamp again. Lin Ling stood there with a steady footstep, and turned his head to look at the street lamp that he had just passed by, only to find that the book that was lying there was missing. Lin Ling turned his head to look at the book lying on the ground in front of him with some horror, the light that was not too bright shone on the book from directly above, and the dark golden pattern reflected the faint light. A cold sweat broke out on Lin Ling's body, he ignored this strange book and hurriedly walked home.

Finally walked downstairs to his house, Lin Ling turned on his mobile phone to illuminate the corridor, and stepped on the stairs to the fifth floor. He walked upstairs in a hurry, panting down the stairs, and after walking for a long time he finally came to the door of his house. He pulled the key out of his pocket, and as soon as he opened the door, he felt something kick at his feet. Lin Ling turned on the light at the door of the room, and as soon as he looked down, he saw the book with a reddish-brown book.

"Damn!" Lin Ling scolded secretly. He gasped and stared at the book at his feet, hesitated for a moment, then bent down to pick it up.

Lin Ling walked into the house, turned on the light in the living room, and looked at the strange book in his hand, then he put the book on the coffee table, and then went into the kitchen and poured the bowl of beef noodles into a clean bowl. Smelling the pungent aroma, Lin Snack moved his fingers, picked up the chopsticks and began to gobble them up. Recently, he has been busy with work, and he is really hungry at the end of the day.

After eating the bowl of noodles in a few bites, he really didn't eat as much as he thought...... Lin Ling picked up the finger cake he had bought before, and just as he was about to move, he saw the book on the coffee table in the living room.

He looked at the book strangely, walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. From the outside, this book is nothing unusual, the reddish-brown book cover, the cover does not have any text, only the dark gold antique pattern, and the front and back of the book are exactly the same. Although the book cover may be different from a regular book, it is not surprising that many publishers nowadays design the written book in a novel way in order to sell the book.

Lin Ling took a bite of the finger cake and opened the book. As if it was his delusion, the book cover seemed to be resisted when he opened it, and the feeling was as if it was attracted by a magnet, and there seemed to be a glimmer of light at the moment of opening.

Lin Ling hurriedly closed the book, and he swallowed the chewing finger cake in his mouth. Looking at the book with a strange face. Was that a delusion on my part, or was it because I hadn't rested well lately?

At this moment, Lin Ling suddenly felt that someone was watching him, he looked out the window sharply, and a black shadow flashed!

"Who!"

Lin Ling's hairs stood on end all over his body, and his breathing became short. This is the fifth floor! How could something flash through the window? He got up cautiously and walked to the window and slowly stretched out his hand, then slammed open the screen window and poked his head out.

There was nothing abnormal, Lin Ling retracted his head and sighed, thinking that maybe it was really because he hadn't rested well in the past few days, and he was always suspicious......

He looked back at the book lying quietly on the coffee table, and felt strange in his heart. It seems that the book has been following him, but how can there be such nonsense in the world?

Lin Ling hurriedly walked over, feeling a little impatient. He opened the book, and this time there was nothing out of the ordinary. The first page has only one occult pattern in the same style as the one on the book cover. Lin Ling frowned and continued to look back.

After a while, Lin Ling's face became more and more ugly when he looked at the book, and a layer of fine sweat appeared on his forehead.

"How could this be?" Lin Ling put down the book with a pale face, and the light was projected, shining on the old pages, only to see that it was full of strange symbols.

None of these symbols, to be exact, were written before, whether it was oracle bone script, large seal, small seal, or scripts such as official script and cursive script, he had seen some of them when he was in school before. But the words on this book are completely different from those in memory. He'd never seen it before, but the strangest thing was that he could read it!

"Divine punishment, wrath of the gods, Kuisha, land of judgment, dark sun......" Lin Ling kept recalling the contents of the book in his mind, and his mood was very complicated.

There is a mythical story recorded in this book, a mythical story that he has never heard of.

Lin Ling continued to flip back, only to see that the paper behind him was no longer text, but a strange pattern. In the blood-red circle, the dark gold ancient arctic pattern is located in the center, occupying most of the area of the circle. As soon as this pattern appeared, it attracted his full attention, his eyes were fixed on the pattern on the paper and he did not move, and suddenly he felt a flower in front of him, and he hurriedly put down the book, and the scene in front of him changed abruptly.

At the beginning of chaos, God created all things, life appeared on the earth for the first time, and a large number of human beings with weak abilities could only be reduced to food for demonic beasts. When it was on the verge of extinction, the gods blessed humanity with the strength to survive on the earth, and humans were able to use the power given by the gods to finally live in peace on the earth. God is omniscient and omnipotent, and in order to oversee the exercise of human power on the right path, God has left his own blood on the earth, and these god's bloodlines monitor humanity on the one hand, and defend against the threat of the demon world to the earth on the other.

However, greedy and hypocritical human beings use God-given power to wage war and fight against each other for their own desires, and the earth is devastated by human wars. The Bloodline of God wants to take back the power that God has given to humans, but the ignorant humans choose to cooperate with the monsters in order to be able to use their powerful power for a long time, and they want to kill all the Bloodlines of God. Eventually, the bloodlines of the gods perished with the monsters before they perished. However, there are exceptions to everything, and there are several descendants of the gods who have survived the battle. Burdened with mission and hatred, they followed God's instructions and took revenge on humanity.

God bestows his bloodline with the most powerful divine soldiers, and the God's bloodline uses the great power given by God to fight against all mankind, and finally unleashes the divine punishment that nearly destroys the world in the Land of Judgment. The black sun shone on the earth, disaster struck, the heavens and the earth were colorless, the chaos was dull, the earth was filled with human wails, and hellish scenes appeared everywhere on the earth. God has finally brought down the punishment of greedy and cowardly human beings with His supreme power. Since then, the power of mankind has disappeared, the earth has been able to recuperate, and mankind has finally paid a terrible price for their ignorance and greed......

"Huhuhuhu......" Lin Ling relieved himself and gasped for breath. The scene around him returned to normal, and he was still sitting on the sofa in the living room. He looked at the book with a look of amazement, and the feeling he had just felt was still fresh in his memory, as if he had seen the mythical war of the ancient wilderness.

Lin Ling stretched out his hand and picked up the book with a slight tremble, and he decided to continue reading.

Flipping back, he felt strange. At the back of the book is not paper with words and patterns, but thickened cardboard, which on closer inspection accounts for most of the book's thickness, and in the center of each board is a groove of different shapes. These grooves, which can be seen by anyone with a discerning eye, seem to have been prepared to store badges and the like, and around the grooves are some ancient patterns of different colors.

Lin Ling frowned, and with a solemn expression, he turned over the cardboard and turned to the last page of the book.

At the top of the last page is a sentence that presumably asks the reader to place their palms on the pattern in the center of the page.

Lin Ling spread the book flat on the coffee table, swallowed and foamed, and slowly stretched his hand to the page.

Suddenly, he withdrew his hand and let out a long breath. The book gave him so much surprise that he didn't know what would happen to him the next second when he put his hand on it.

He got up and went to the bathroom to wash his face, then went back to lean back on the couch. He took out a cigarette, lit it, and smoked it while staring at the book. He pondered for a long time and thought back to many things. From elementary school, to junior high school, high school, to university, and later into society, many people and things echoed in his mind. After a long time, he took a long breath, stretched out his hand and slowly placed his palm on the page.

Lin Ling looked at his hands with a solemn face, and the surroundings were so quiet that only his own breathing could be heard. Just when Lin Ling felt that nothing had happened and wanted to withdraw his hand, suddenly a dazzling light emanated from his palm, and then he saw the glowing pattern extending from the paper in all directions, and the range soon exceeded the size of the page.

"What's going on?!" Lin Ling looked at the scene in front of him in surprise, the patterns kept stretching around, and soon they spread over his body, Lin Ling turned around, only to see that the patterns passed through his body unaffected and continued to extend around.

The whole house seemed to be affected by these glowing patterns, everything on the table was shaking, the overhead lamp flickered on and off as if it had been short-circuited, and the strong wind from nowhere made Lin Ling's hair and clothes messy......

Lin Ling felt bad and wanted to withdraw his hand, but his hand seemed to be sucked on the book, and even the book seemed to be firmly sucked on the coffee table.

He stood up in a panic, trying to separate his hand from the book, but in vain, he sweated profusely as the glowing lines filled almost the entire room, which at first glance looked like a huge circle.

Just as Lin Ling was panicking, he suddenly felt a huge force slapping all over his body. Then he felt a sharp pain in his head, and his eyes went dark, and his body was instantly hollowed out, and he collapsed limply on the sofa. At that moment, he seemed to feel the passage of life and the helpless grief......

The mysterious book flipped wildly in the darkness, and suddenly the book was closed, and it lay quietly in the darkness......