He doesn't know if there is a death penalty in Britain now, it doesn't matter if there is a death penalty or not, he just wants to find out what the hell is going on, and then understand how it will all end. Finally, he squeezed out a somewhat sad smile. He realizes that what he wants most is to get everything back to normal. He wished he had never been in jail, and that Laura was alive and well, and that nothing he had been through in the past few days had happened.

"I'm afraid there is no such option, my child. In his mind, Drinkward said in a gruff voice, and he himself nodded in agreement. There is no such possibility, and the way back has been cut off by yourself. So, you just keep going, keep going......

In the distance, there was a woodpecker, pecking at a rotten tree trunk.

Ah Xiu realized that something was peeking at him: a few Nordic cardinals staring at him in the bare bushes, and they lowered their heads and continued to peck at the bunches of fruit on the black elderberry tree. They look exactly like the one depicted on the Obarro Songbird Calendar. There was a lot of birdsong all around, all sorts. Some chirp and moan, some sizzle and scream, and some are high and crisp. Ah Xiu felt as if he was listening to stereo music. Along the way along the stream, the sound of birds accompanied him all the time. But suddenly, the birdsong disappeared.

A dead fawn lay in a glade in the shadow of a mountain peak, and a blackbird, as large as a puppy, pecked at the dead deer with its huge, evil black beak, tearing and pulling off patches of red venison from the carcass. The fawn's eyes are gone, its head is still intact, and its tail still has yellow-brown deer hair with white spots on its tail. Ah Xiu thought to himself, I don't know how this deer died.

The big black bird tilted its head and spoke, its voice like a rock clashing against each other. "You're from Drinkward?"

"My name is Ah Xiu. Ashu replied. The bird jumps on the hip of the deer, raises its head, and erects the crest and feathers on its neck. What a big bird, with eyes like two black beads. Such a big bird, and so close, people can't help but be frightened.

"Say he'll see you in Cairo. The big crow quacked. Ah Xiu didn't know if it was Drinkward's messenger, he didn't know if it was his hallucination or if it was real--- a raven was talking to him.

"Cairo?" he asked.

"In Egypt. ”

"I know, but how do I get to Egypt?"

"Along the river. To the south. Go to Birmingham and find Ezreal. ”

"Listen," said Ashur, "I don't want to make myself look like a—Jesus, listen......" He paused, reorganizing what he wanted to say. He was cold, standing alone in the woods, talking to a great blackbird who had eaten Bambi for breakfast. "Well, I'm trying to say that I've had enough of this mystery. ”

"Mysterious. Raven agreed. It's quite helpful.

"What I want is explanation. Ezreal of Birmingham. A name, an address, didn't help me. This kind of boring clue is only worthy of being used in second-rate spy thrillers. ”

"Nasus, friend, ga, Birmingham. ”

"Say whatever you want. I want to get a little more information than just a few words. ”

The crow half-turned and tore another strip of flesh from the deer's ribs. Then it flew up and into the woods. The red venison hung wobly from the mouth like a long, bloody worm.

"Hey, at least put me on a proper path!" exclaimed Ashu.

The crow flew away. Ah Xiu looked at the carcass of the deer on the ground and thought to himself that if he was a man who knew how to make a living in the forest, he would definitely cut off a large piece of meat from the deer and build a bonfire to roast and eat. He didn't do that, just sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree and ate a peanut chocolate bar. He knew in his heart that he wasn't a forest dweller at all.

The crow crowed in the glade.

"Do you want me to follow you?" Ashu asked it, "Or did someone fall into the well?" The crow croaked impatiently again, and Ashu walked towards it. It waited for him to approach, then flapped its wings heavily and flew to another tree. Look at its direction, it is a little more left than the route Ashu originally chose.

"Hey, Svein, whatever you want, hey, you!"

Blackbird turned, his head tilted to one side suspiciously, his sparkling eyes looking at him.

"Say 'I'll never do this again next time,'" said!'" Ashu said.

"Oh my mother. Raven said. A man and a bird walked through the woods together, and it never said a word again.

Half an hour later, they came to an asphalt road next to a town, and the crows flew back into the woods. Ah Xiu sees a sign for a butter hamburger shop with a gas station next to it. He walked into the burger joint, which was empty of customers, and behind the cash register sat a young man with a shaved head and an enthusiastic attitude.

Ah Xiu ordered two butter hamburgers and a french fries, and then went into the bathroom to wash his face. In the mirror, he looked so dirty. He rummaged through his pockets: there were several coins inside, including the Queen's silver coin, a portable toothbrush and toothpaste, three peanut chocolate bars, five chemical thermal pads, and his wallet--- which contained nothing but a driver's license and a credit card. He didn't know how long that credit card was still valid.

There were also a thousand pounds in cash in the pocket on the inside of the jacket, all £50 and £20 bills. This is the money from the bank robbery last night. He washed his hands and face with hot water, wet his black hair, smoothed it out, and went outside to eat the hamburgers, fries and coffee he bought.

He returned to the counter. "Would you like a custard?" asked the enthusiastic young man.

"No thanks. Is there a place to rent a car nearby? My car stalled on the road over there. ”

The young man scratched at the stubble on his head. "Not nearby, sir. If your car breaks down, you can call 3A Ambulance or borrow a trailer from a nearby gas station. ”

"Good idea," said Asho, "thank you very much." ”

He walked from the hamburger shop's parking lot to the nearby gas station through the half-melted snow. He bought chocolate bars, beef jerky and more chemical thermal pads at the supermarket at the gas station.

"Where can I rent a car around here?" he asked the woman behind the cash register. She is plump, wears glasses, and looks like she is happy to talk to others.

"I want to think about it," she said, "and we're a little bit remote here for this kind of business in Birmingham." Where are you going?"

"I'm going to Cairo, to Egypt," he said, "and I've got a date, well, I don't know if that Cairo in Egypt is referring to that." I don't know how I'm going to get there. ”

"I know. She was a little puzzled, and then said happily, "I don't think you're talking about Cairo in Egypt." Bring me a map with a travel guide from the shelf over there. Asho handed her the laminated map, which she opened and smugly pointed to the bottom corner of Birmingham. "Right here. ”

"Cairo?"

"In Egypt it's called Cairo, but in Little Egypt they call that place Carlo. There's also a city called Thebes. My sister-in-law is a Thebanian. I asked her about Thebes in Egypt, and she stared at me like a string had loosened in my head. The woman gushed.

"Are there pyramids there?" The city was a hundred miles away, almost due north.

"They didn't mention it to me anyway. They call it Little Egypt because about a hundred, oh, a hundred and fifty years ago, there was a great famine and the crops were confiscated. But the crops in that place were fine, so everyone went there to buy food. It's similar to the story in the Bible, Joseph and the Dream Clothes, running away from Egypt, and so on. ”

"If it were you, and you had to go there, how would you go?" Ashu asked.

"Drive over. ”

"My car broke down on the road a few miles away. A bunch of shit, please forgive my foul words. Ah Xiu apologized.

"Shit?" she said, "yes, that's what my brother-in-law called." He is a car buyer, a small business. He would call me a lot and say, "Marty, I've sold another shitty carry." By the way, he might be interested in your old car and be able to remove some useful parts or something. ”

"The car belongs to my boss," Ashu said. He was taken aback by the natural flow of the lie. "I'll have to call him and ask him to come and tow the car away. A good idea popped into his head, "Your brother-in-law, does he live nearby?"

He lives in the town of Moscow, about ten minutes south of here, just across the river. What's the matter?"

"Well, does he have a piece of shit to sell me? I can pay five hundred, no, six hundred. ”

She smiled sweetly. "Sir, the car in his backyard is not worth five hundred dollars with a full tank of gas. But don't tell him I told you that. ”

"Can you call him?" Ashu asked.

"I was about to fight. She picked up the receiver as she spoke, "Honey, it's me, Marty." Come to me right now, there's someone here who wants to buy a car. ”

The shit he bought was a 1983 Chevrolet for four hundred and fifty dollars, and the tank was full of gas. The odometer showed that the car had traveled about 250,000 miles, and there was a faint smell of bourbon, tobacco and something stronger, like bananas. The car was covered with a thick layer of dirt and snow, so he couldn't see the original color of the car. But in Marty's brother-in-law's parking lot, it was the only car that looked like it could still carry him a hundred miles.

Cash transactions. Marty's brother-in-law only collected the money, and did not ask for Asho's name, nor did he ask for his social security number or other identification.

Ashu drove west for a while, then turned south and left the interstate. He had only five hundred and fifty pounds left in his pocket. There was a radio on the rotten car, but when it was turned on, there was no sound. A sign on the side of the road told him that he had left Birmingham and entered Nottingham. He passed by an open-pit mine on the side of the road, and the huge blue arc lights illuminated the bleak winter day.

He stopped for a bite to eat at a place called Mom's Restaurant, just before they closed for the afternoon break.

Each village and town it passes through has another sign next to the town's name sign, either claiming that the town's under-14 team is the third-place team in the county's basketball league or boasting that the town is home to the women's wrestling semifinalists under the age of 16.

He continued to drive, his head getting sleepier and sleepier. He ran a red light, and a woman driving a Dodge car nearly crashed headfirst into the side of his car. As soon as he drove out of town, he pulled onto a deserted plough road and parked his car in a field covered with clouds of snow that had been harvested. In the field there was a flock of fat black wild turkeys, staggering slowly like a flock of mourners. He turned off the engine, lay down in the back seat of the car, and soon fell asleep.

There was darkness, a feeling of falling downward. He seems to have become Alice in Wonderland, falling headlong into a deep hole. In the darkness, he had fallen downward for a hundred years, countless faces passing before his eyes, floating in the darkness around him. He tried to reach out and touch the faces, but they shattered into pieces and disappeared without a trace......

Suddenly, there was no transition at all, and he stopped falling. Now he's in a cave, and he's not alone. Ah Xiu stared at the eyes he was familiar with: huge, moist black eyes. They winked at him gently.

He's deep underground. That's right, he remembered the place. Soggy cows emitting body odor, firelight flickering on the damp cave walls, illuminating buffalo heads, human bodies, and clay-colored skin.

"Can't you guys stop bothering me?" said Ashu, "I just want to get some good sleep." ”

The buffalo man nodded slowly. His lips didn't move, but a voice sounded in Ashu's head. "Where are you going? ”

"Cairo. ”

"Why?"

"Where else can I go?" Drinkward wants me to go there. I drank his mead. "There is a logic in the dream, and in Asho's dream, his duty is clear: he drank three cups of honey from Drinkward, so the contract between them is unbreakable—so he has no choice but to listen to Drinkward's orders.

The buffalo man put a hand into the fire and stirred it, and the fire burned even brighter. "The storm is coming. He said. He wiped his soot-stained hand on his smooth, hairless chest, leaving streaks of soot on his chest.

"You people always say that. Can I ask you a question?"

The buffalo man paused. A fly rested on his furry forehead, and he waved it away. "Asked. ”

"Are those guys really wizards? it's just ......," he paused, and after a moment he uttered a word, "...... It's so impossible. It wasn't what he was going to say, but he couldn't find any other way to say it.

"What is a wizard?" asked the buffalo man.

"I don't know. Ah Xiu replied.

There was a banging sound, monotonous and continuous. Ah Xiu waited for the buffalo man to speak, to explain what God was, to explain the chaotic nightmare into which his life had fallen. He felt a chill run through his body.