When Roger keeps his pace at a reasonable level, he can indeed drive well, and Imia has to admit it. Like a lot of things, it seemed like a no-brainer for him. He rarely looked at the road, but the tires never deviated from the middle of the path, not a centimeter. He drove the car with one hand, holding Imia's hand in the seat. Sometimes he would look up at Danyang, who was falling, and sometimes he would look at Imia - Imia's face, Imia's hair fluttering outside the open car window, their hands folded.

Roger turned on the radio, switched to an oldies radio station, and sang along with a song that Imia had never heard before. He knows every beat.

"You like music from the fifties?" Imia asked.

"The music of the fifties was great. It's better than the 60's, or the 70's, yo! He paused. The eighties were bearable. ”

"Are you going to tell me how old you are?" Imia asked tentatively, not wanting to break the humor he was experiencing.

"Does it matter?" To Imia's relief, Roger's smile was still bright.

"No, but I still want to know......" Imia grimaced. Nothing keeps you awake all night like an unsolved mystery. ”

"I doubt it's going to upset you." Roger's response was more like talking to himself. He looked at the sun, and the minutes passed.

"Let me try." Imia finally said.

Roger sighed, then looked into Imia's eyes, and for that moment he seemed to have completely forgotten about the road. Whatever he saw, it must have encouraged him. He looked at the sun—the glow of the falling orb shimmering on his skin, refracting a crimson shimmer—and spoke.

"I was born in Chicago in 1901." Roger paused and glanced at Imia out of the corner of his eye. Imia had a cautious look of no surprise on her face, and she waited patiently for what was to come.

Roger smiled faintly and continued. "In the summer of 1918, Peter found me in a hospital. I was only 17 years old and was dying from the Spanish flu. ”

Roger heard Imia gasp, though it was so small that only Imiah could hear it. He lowered his head and looked Imia in the eye again.

"I don't remember exactly—that was a long time ago, and human memories are always fading." Roger fell into deep thought, and after a moment, continued. "I do remember how Peter felt when he saved me. It's not an easy thing to do, it's not something you can easily forget. ”

"What about your parents?"

"They have all died in this plague. I was orphaned. That's why he chose me. In the chaos of the plague epidemic, no one will notice that I am gone. ”

"How is he...... Save you? ”

It was only a few minutes before Roger answered Imia's question. He seemed to be choosing the words carefully.

"It's difficult. Few of us have enough self-control to do this. But Peter was always the most humane and merciful of all of us...... I don't think you can find anyone comparable to him in the entire history of mankind. Roger paused. But for me, the whole process was just very, very painful. ”

Imia could tell from Roger's tone that he wouldn't say anything more on the subject.

Imia suppressed her curiosity, though it was far from stopping. Imia still had a lot to think about about this particular issue, and these things were just breaking into her mind.

There was no doubt that Roger's quick mind had comprehended every aspect that plagued Imia.

Roger's soft voice interrupted Imia's train of thought: "He did it out of loneliness. This is often the reason for his choice. I was the first to join Peter's family, although it wasn't long before he discovered Annis. She jumped off a cliff. People rushed her straight to the hospital but flat, although somehow, her heart was still beating. ”

"So you have to be in a near-death state before you can become a ......" they never said the word, and Imia didn't know how to describe it.

"No, that's just Peter's practice. As long as the man had another choice, he would never do it. "Whenever he mentioned his father, the respect in his words was always so deep." However, he said it would be easier. He continued. If the qi and blood are very weak. Roger looked at the now pitch-black road, and Imia could feel that the topic was over again.

"And then Dyson Card and Alice?"

Then Peter brought Alice into our family. It was much later that I learned that he wanted her to be with me, just like Annis was with him - he was careful and never thought about it around me. Roger rolled his eyes. But for me, she's just a sister. Just two years later, she found Dyson Card. She was hunting – we were living in the Allegheny Mountains at the time – and spotted a bear about to kill him. She ran more than 100 kilometers on his back and came back to Peter, and she was afraid that she would not be able to do it. I only now realize how difficult this journey has been for her. He glanced bluntly in Imia's direction, then took their hands, still clasped, and stroked Imia's cheek with the back of his hand.

"But she did." Imia encouraged, turning her face away from his eyes, which were too beautiful to bear.

"Yes," he murmured. "She saw something in his face, and it made her strong enough. They've been together ever since. Sometimes they don't live with us, like a married couple. But the younger we pretend, the longer we can stay in the chosen place. Victoria was good, so we both went to high school. Roger burst out laughing. I guess we'll have to go to their wedding again in a few years. ”

"Milani and Aekas?"

"Milani and Eccas are two very special individuals. They all developed the kind of morality that we appreciate, without any outside guidance. Ecas belongs to another ...... Family, a very different family. He became depressed and began to wander alone. Milani spotted him. Like me, she has a gift that is based on but goes beyond our personal qualities. ”

"Really?" Imia interrupted him, a little fascinated. "But you said you were the only one who could hear other people's thoughts."

"That's a fact. She knows something else. She could see things—things that might happen, things that were coming. But this is very subjective. The future is not static. Everything is changing and evolving. ”

Roger's jaw tightened as he said this, and his eyes glanced at Imia's face quickly and moved away. It was all so fast, Imia wasn't sure if it was her own imagination.

"What kind of things did she see?"

She saw Aekas and knew that Aekas was looking for her before Aekas knew she existed. She saw Peter and our family, so they came to us together. She knows the most about non-human things. She's always watching, for example, when another group of our kind approaches. And any threats they may pose. ”

"There are a lot of ...... Your kind? Imia was astonished and wondered, "How many of them walk among us without being noticed?" ”

"No, not a lot. But most will not settle down. Only those who, like us, have given up preying on you humans ......"—Roger glanced at Imia in shame—"...... I can live with humans more or less. We only found one family like ours who lived in a small village in Anchorage. We've lived together for a while, but it's so remarkable that so many of us live together. Those lifestyles and our ...... Very different kinds, tend to join forces. ”

"Who are the others?"

"Nomads, for the most part. That's how we live sometimes. It's boring, like anything else. But from time to time, we run into other people of our kind, because most of us prefer the north. ”

"Why is this happening?"

Now they parked the car in front of Imia's house, and he had turned off the truck's engine. It was very quiet outside, very dark and the moon didn't come out. The light on the porch was off, so Imia knew her dad hadn't arrived home yet.

"Didn't you open your eyes this afternoon?" Roger teased. "Do you think I can walk on a sunny street without causing any accidents? That's why we chose Thurston, which is almost the sunniest place in the world. It's great to be able to get outside during the day. You won't believe how tired you are of the night in all these 80 years. ”

"So that's where that legend comes from?"

"Quite possibly."

"And Milani comes from another family, just like Akkas?"

"No, it's all a mystery. Milani has no memory of her life as a human. She also doesn't know who created her. She woke up alone. The one who transformed her is gone. None of us can understand why, or how he could have done it. If she hadn't had a sixth sense, if she hadn't seen Ekas and Peter, and knew that she would one day be one of us, she might have become a thoroughly uncivilized primitive. ”

Imia has so much to think about and a lot of questions to ask. But, to her embarrassment, her stomach growled. Imia was so curious that she didn't even notice that she was hungry. Now she realized that she was starving.

"I'm sorry I didn't let you go to dinner."

"I'm fine, really."

"I've never spent so much time with someone who needs to eat. I forgot. ”

"I just want to stay with you." It's easier to say in the dark. When Imia spoke, she knew her voice would betray her, revealing her desperate infatuation to Roger.

"Can't I go in?" Roger asked.

"Would you like to?" Imia could not have imagined such a god-like figure sitting on her father's tattered dining chair.

"Yes, if you can." Imia heard the door on Roger's side close quietly, and almost at the same moment, Romia appeared outside the door on Imia's side and opened it for her.

"It's a lot like a human." Imia complimented Roger.

"It's just scratching the surface."

On this night, Roger walked quietly beside Imia, who was so quiet that Imia had to peek at him from time to time to make sure he was still there. In the dark, he looked more normal. Still pale, still handsome as a dream, but no longer the wonderfully glittering creature of their sunny afternoon.

Roger walked to the door before Imia and opened the door for Imiah. She was about to step into the doorframe, but stopped halfway through.

"The door is unlocked?"

"No, I'm using the key under the eaves."

Imia walked into the house, turned on the porch light, and then turned to look at Roger with an eyebrow raised. Imia was sure she had never used the key in front of him.

"I'm curious about you."

"You're spying on me?" But in any case, Imia could not fill her voice with the proper amount of anger. Imia was overly flattered.

Roger remained unrepentant. "Is there anything else to do at night?"

Imia put the topic aside for a moment, and walked through the antechamber to the kitchen. Roger was there before Imia and didn't need any guidance. He sat in the same chair that Imia had imagined in her mind. His handsomeness lit up the kitchen.