Text: Episode 27

1.

They were still in love.

Tucked away in a bustling street market, this small alley is more than 100 meters long and flanked by bars, pubs, cat cafes or maid cafes. There is a stout poplar tree at the mouth of the alley, which is said to be one or two hundred years old. In the summer, when I stand under the tree, the scorching sun is tightly covered, and it is cool under the tree.

18:33

At the entrance of the "ferry", the snow is lighter.

"He's here?" Zhao Shutong dusted off the snow on his shoulders.

The wooden door of the bar is closed, and the tiger head knocker is out of place with the surrounding buildings.

I nodded, opened the door, and lifted the cotton curtain to signal Zhao Shu to go in.

Zhao Shutong bowed his head and walked into the bar, and I followed.

The bar was dimly lit, playing folk songs, and the smell of wine mixed with incense and cigarettes, and the customers did not have as many as they imagined, with three or four tables.

I was about to look for him, but I heard a yell, "What the fuck do you want?" Do you know who Lao Tzu is? ”

A young man sitting at the bar stood up, wearing black-rimmed round glasses, a flat head, a cropped black leather jacket, and jeans, pointing at him.

"I don't care how you young people make little girls." He finished drinking the wine in the cup, "But isn't it authentic to use such a trivial method as 'making an appointment'?" ”

"How old are you? Does it have anything to do with you? She herself is willing! ”

"Yes, I want to, you don't care!"

The long-haired girl on the side chimed in.

"Okay, okay...... I'm nosy. He stood up, but was stopped.

"You want to go? It's not that easy! ”

"How?"

Before the words fell, three men and two women stood up at the adjacent table, and the men all picked up their wine bottles.

"What do you want?" He sat down again and looked up at the crowd.

"If you don't have money to drink, you can keep five thousand, or let you go out sideways."

Zhao Shutong stood at the door and looked at me.

"What do you want to do?" I understood and got straight to the point, "I'm going to call the police if I do this again!" ”

"Are you stupid? The police came, they ran early! She looked incredulous.

"What then?" I asked in a whisper.

The people in the bar all looked at me.

"What to do, you can do it yourself."

"How's that going to work! We're in a boat. I couldn't think of any other way for a while, so I subconsciously raised my hand and pulled my neck.

Just as they spoke, the sound of glass breaking woke everyone up.

The man with glasses squatted on the ground with his head covered, and he shook off the broken glass and ran in the direction we were, shouting as he ran, "What are you doing in a daze?" Come on! ”

I reacted immediately, took Zhao Shutong's hand and walked out of the door.

"Chase! Don't let them run away! ”

There was a noise behind him.

"Split up!" After Zhao Shutong finished speaking, he shook off my hand and got into the alley, and then looked at Liu Yinghong, who didn't care that his hand was still bleeding, and he turned around and disappeared at the intersection.

"And him! Hold him down! ”

The few people behind me said that it must be me, and before I had time to think about it, I rushed across the road, and the few people who came out recognized me and chased after me. It just so happened that a taxi was going to stop the guys, creating a few seconds for me.

I wiped my head and got into the alley across the street, and on my left hand side was a hot and sour noodle shop, and I couldn't see through the mist on the glass window. I looked back and thought to myself if I hid in the hot and sour noodle shop, they might not be able to see me.

Make up your mind not to stop, run a few steps and pull the door in.

The temperature was different indoors and outside, and my glasses were covered with frost.

"Welcome! What do you want to eat? ”

When I took off my glasses, the world in front of me was hazy and blurry, and I hurriedly used my hands to fool around twice.

"Let's have a bowl of hot and sour noodles with mixed sauce."

"Okay, just sit down."

As soon as I sat down, and before I could catch my breath, the door was suddenly pushed open, and a group of people rushed in.

"You're pretty good at hiding!"

I can't say anything anymore, what else can I say? What else can I reason with them? The most effective way is to pick up the hot and sour noodles on the table and throw them towards the door, and then ignore the screams of everyone in the store and run to the back kitchen. The boss shouted, and I ran past the waiter, got into the kitchen, and as soon as I found the back door, I was caught up again, and I raised my foot and kicked over the swill bucket on the floor, hoping to stop them for a moment.

The leader rushed over to live up to my expectations, and sat on the ground with a slippery foot.

Seeing this, he didn't have time to stay, so he opened the back door and went into the corridor. The damn voice-activated lights in the hallway were broken, and I hesitated a little to see the direction of the door.

"You kid has what it takes, don't run!" As soon as I left the door, the people in the residential building behind me were kicked away, and several of them rushed out of the back kitchen.

"Grab you and break your legs!"

I ran ahead.

They chase after them.

2.

I felt like my lungs were going to explode, staggering, slipping under my feet. Opening your mouth to breathe will also pour in snowflakes and cool air, and the pain is indescribable.

"Don't run!"

And these eighteen or nineteen-year-old guys are obviously physically better than me, they are getting closer and closer to me, and I am getting more and more powerless. Insisting, I muttered to myself, and after running forward and passing a small intersection, it was Liberty Avenue, which was a main road and full of traffic.

In the blink of an eye, I ran to the intersection, and the east-west direction was green, and a car was slowing down in the snow.

Without thinking, I rushed into the traffic, and the driver hurriedly avoided and honked his horn to warn.

"Are you looking for death?"

In the middle of the road is a one-meter-and-five-meter-high fence, and I ran to the front and held it with both hands, and I wanted to climb over, but I slipped under my feet and rushed down and planted it.

"Let you run!"

With the sound of car horns one after another, the three people behind him were about to chase closer.

Ignoring the pain, he wiped a handful of black slush on his face, got up and continued to run. As soon as I took a step, I fell to one knee when my left foot hurt, and a Jetta taxi would stop the car, and I couldn't open my eyes because the headlights were shaking.

Looking back, the three men chasing me were already in the middle of the road.

"You still want to run after hitting someone!?" One of them had already climbed over the fence.

It's been five or six minutes now, and with sweat oozing from my back, I pulled the collar of my down coat to breathe and stood up.

The person who was the first to climb over the fence had already rushed in front of me, and seeing the inertia of his forward rush, he waved sideways and punched.

I tried my best but missed, and he deftly dodged sideways, narrowly falling in the snow.

Since you didn't hit it, what are you waiting for?

If you want to stop, wipe yourself and run.

The taxi driver opened the door and got out of the car, "Want to die?" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he was punched in the face, and the two scuffled together.

The two people who came up from behind climbed over the guardrail, rushed up and knocked down the driver, and stepped heavily on the driver's head with their feet.

I breathed a sigh of relief, and then turned around and the three people put it down and chased after the driver again.

It's really persistent, and it seems that I won't give up until I get caught.

Zhao Shutong and Liu Yinghong ran away, but threw me down.

What happens if I don't run away?

The world isn't real?

I stopped, turned around and waited for them to come.

The moment I turned around, I saw one of them pull out a dagger and stab me hard. He must have chased red eyes.

I reflexively turned sideways, but the dagger still slashed my right arm, and there was a piercing pain.

No, I didn't design it, someone wanted to kill me.

Even in this world, if I die, then I will die in another story, just like Lao Tao.

I have to run.

I had to keep running.

Seeing his dagger stab again, I took a few steps backwards and slammed my back into a street tree, the snow hanging from the branches of which was falling down.

"I'll let you run again!"

Another dagger.

I dodged sideways, and the dagger stabbed into the trunk of the tree, more than an inch deeper.

I couldn't dwell on it anymore, and when I saw the pedestrians watching from afar, I didn't hesitate anymore and ran in the direction towards the crowd.

Seeing this, the crowd of onlookers shouted in surprise and dispersed, showing me a way.

The moment the crowd flickered, I saw a BYD F0 parked at the intersection, and the co-pilot rolled down the window to poke out Zhao Shutong's head, "Get in the car!" ”

3.

Zhao Shutong smiled when he saw my embarrassed appearance. Liu Yinghong, who was driving, looked at me in the rearview mirror and smiled. When I did, I laughed too. But the wound was still painful.

"You're hurt?" She asked.

I nodded.

The car stopped under the train track bridge on East Main Street, frozen river water, falling snowflakes.

"Let me see."

She sat in the back seat and treated my wounds.

"How do you have to happen every time you show up...... Hey, it hurts, it hurts. I gritted my teeth and stopped talking.

"You didn't write all this?" Liu Yinghong asked.

I took a deep breath, "It was at first, then it wasn't." ”

4.

The car didn't turn off and the air conditioning was on.

"I have an idea." I looked at the bandaged arm, but fortunately it was only scratched, and the wound was not deep.

Liu Yinghong and Zhao Shutong looked at me.

"Look around here......" I raised my hand to the window, the snow was flying, the lights were dim, "I created it." It's like the world we live in. He created me and Lao Tao in a self-absorbed manner, and as the plot develops, I and he can control our life and death. Then on the contrary, I can also influence his life and death. ”

"How is this possible?" Zhao Shutong looked surprised, "His world is real." ”

"How can you be sure that his world is necessarily real?" Liu Yinghong asked rhetorically.

"Let's not talk about it yet." I said, "I'll sort it out:

He wrote this novel in his world, and in the novel there is me, Lao Tao, and you;

Lao Tao and I wrote another novel called "Untitled" in the world created by his pen, and there are still me, Lao Tao and you in the novel;

Then, under his guidance, I wrote the old Tao and you in "Untitled" to death;

You really died in the world he created.

In that case, if we pull him into the novel, wouldn't it be possible to ......"

"Or let him die?" Zhao Shutong smiled slightly.

"Hmm...... I read it carefully from beginning to end, Lao Tao and I should have died: Lao Tao reaped the consequences of his own evil because of his distorted mentality, and I was because he was cowardly and fickle; But you have no reason to die at all, Liu Yinghong is diligent and diligent, has his own lover and children, you are pure and kind and have no quarrel with the world, you are real victims. Because of me and Lao Tao, I need you to die and lead to the death of me and Lao Tao......"

Zhao Shutong and Liu Yinghong didn't speak, as if they were thinking about something.

"So Liu Yinghong, you and Zhao Shu are special, and thanks to you, I can see all this clearly and give us the opportunity to overturn all this."

Liu Yinghong subconsciously fiddled with the lighter in his hand repeatedly.

"Well, if I'm right - we can give it a try." I say.

"It should work." She said.

"Reasonable?" Liu Yinghong thought for a while, "There is no other way...... I don't want to die again and again, and come back to life again and again. ”

"If you just die and come back to life, you can't do anything, but you can give it ...... Affection. Zhao Shutong's voice became lower and lower, and finally turned into a sigh.

"I know that, and I think the same as he thinks: a good writer, his characters are lifelike and emotional. But I, like him, don't have that kind of genius, we can only apply some emotions. ”

That's why every time you appear and you die, it's the same...... What rubbish! Zhao Shu said hatefully.

She's right, I'm just like him, just garbage, writing garbage, and living a life that is not as good as garbage.

"Garbage ......," I repeated.

Zhao Shutong may have seen my lost expression, "He...... This can be regarded as sticking to the dream...... It's just that the world he writes about is too cold and dirty. ”

"It's okay." I said, "It's not a dream, garbage is garbage, it doesn't deserve a dream." ”

"Okay, how do you digress?" Liu Yinghong interrupted me, "Tell me about your plan." ”

I nodded, "Okay." ”

5.

First of all, we need to find a secret place.

Drive to the southwest of Songbai City, out of the city is the Lotus Mountain, under the mountain is the rock reservoir, this area is forbidden to develop in order to protect the water quality, and because of the return of farmland to forest, the road along the forest is dense and deep, and the people are inaccessible.

Entering via the dirt road, we found an abandoned barnhouse, lit a fire to keep warm, and found a gasoline generator.

"I'm going to write a new story in Untitled, with you and me, and of course him." I said, "And in his novels he must not let me go, but in his novels you don't exist anymore." ”

"Hmm......" Liu Yinghong frowned, "what you want to say is that we are dead in the novel he wrote, and we are now existing in the "Untitled" written by you and Qiwu, and then you have to write another story in "Untitled", and this story includes you, us, and him...... Right? ”

"That's right, there's Tao Qiwu." I said.

One of them, I think both of them should have thought of as well, "I have to go back to his story, talk to him, and guide you through this story." If in his story I die, then everything is in vain. ”

"What?" Liu Yinghong rubbed his temples.

"You made him stunned." Zhao Shutong sighed, "You have to continue to create "Untitled" in his story, the purpose of this is so that we can write a new story in "Untitled" and then kill him in the new story. ”

"That's right." I nodded and said, "Of course, he can also manipulate the story of Untitled, so you must be careful here." ”

Liu Yinghong patted his forehead and said, "I understand, then what is the story we want to write?" ”

"It's called "Nightmare Floating Life", and since he likes dreams so much, then let's let him die in his dreams."

After I finished speaking, the three of them fell silent.

Text: Episode 27 -End-