Although the four of them took the city bus to the library, Lancy still had a parasol for the less than five-minute walk from the bus stop to the library. This slightly pretentious behavior was ridiculed and ridiculed by the three boys. Especially when Cotton compares Lancey to a bat that can't see the light of day, Lancey pounces with a fist. The two of them followed each other to the door of the library. Lu Hua put his index finger in front of his mouth and said, "Shhhh

As Cotton was about to reach out and push the glass door open, the heavy glass door was pulled open from the inside—and a boy about their age came out. The four of them were stunned for a moment with the boy - this boy was a classmate in their class, named Fumino, medium height, and his appearance was not noticeable.

"Hey, Fumino, such a coincidence?" Lu Hua greeted him happily, as if he had found his own kind. "You're also here to look up materials in the library?"

"Hmm." Fumino nodded, "In order to finish those few short essays on history and politics." ”

"Me too." Sean raised his head inward, "Are there any other students from our class in the library?" ”

"No more. At least I didn't see it. Okay, I'll go first, goodbye. Fumino waved at the four classmates and walked towards the outside of the library.

Lan Xi looked at the back of Wen Ye leaving, and whispered to Lu Hua: "Fortunately, you can call his name, if I meet him alone, I'm afraid I won't even be able to call out his surname." ”

"Won't it?" Lu Hua looked surprised, "Everyone has been a classmate for a year, and you still don't know what his name is?" ”

"I can't be blamed for this – it's that his presence in the class is too weak. It doesn't matter if he doesn't have any characteristics at all, he usually can't even hear him say a few words. Well, just like just now, the conversation didn't take more than three sentences and left in a hurry. Lancy pouted.

Kirton also looked at Fumino's back and said thoughtfully: "His personality is quite withdrawn, he sat behind me last semester, and I probably didn't hear him say more than twenty words in a whole semester." He usually refuses to ask him to play or anything - I really don't know what he's thinking all day long. ”

"I heard that his parents died in a car accident, and his background is quite pitiful." Lu Hua sighed, "Don't worry about others." Let's go inside. ”

It was an old library with a bit of history, and Lu Hua didn't know how many years it had been in the city, but he knew that it had been located here before he was even born. Compared to the city's new, five-storey, modern library, it looks small and old. But Lu Hua doesn't like the new library, but he likes it here. The attraction here is not only the books, but also the faint smell of book ink and the strong sense of history that Lu Hua is deeply attracted to – something that cannot be smelled in the electronic reading room of the new library. Another point is that he and the old librarian who has worked here for fifteen years have become familiar like relatives.

At this moment, the old administrator, who was sitting facing the door of the library, was listlessly half-lying on the table, supporting the wooden table with his elbows and holding up his shruggy head. The other hand is powerless to repel mosquitoes and boredom.

"Hi, Lao Luo." Lu Hua stepped forward and greeted the administrator familiarly, and the other three people also walked over.

When the old administrator saw Lu Hua, he lifted his spirits a little, and he straightened up: "Hey, boys—oh, there's a beautiful girl." ”

"Your mental condition looks terrible, old Luo." Lu Hua told him bluntly.

Lao Luo shook his head and said, "You can't have a good mental condition if you work in this kind of place. He complained, "I don't know if people don't go to the library anymore, or if they all go to the newly renovated electronic library—you see, there aren't even thirty people here in a day—and it's getting deserted faster than the cemetery in the suburbs." Alas, Lu Hua, there are really few people like you who love knowledge and learning now. ”

Lu Hua shrugged his shoulders helplessly, looked to the right, and found that there were several more bookshelves at the door of the reading room, which were piled up with various books. He asked, "How did these books get outside the reading room?" ”

Lao Luo said: "These are old books that the curator cleaned out and disposed of, some of them are a little damaged, and some of them have lost one or two pages. But in my opinion, most of them are intact, just a little older. ”

"So, these are all cleared out and sold?" Lu Hua asked, "How much is a copy?" ”

"The thick ones are three dollars a book, and the thin ones are one yuan."

"So cheap!" Lu Hua's eyes flashed. Kirton, Lancey, and Sean glanced at each other, knowing that Lu Hua's collecting addiction (especially books) had been committed again.

"Hey...... Do you hear that? Lu Hua turned to face his three companions, "These books are only two or three yuan a book, let's go over and choose!" ”

Kirton reminded, "Squad leader, you're the only one here excited about this kind of thing. ”

Lu Hua frowned slightly, didn't pay any attention to them, and walked straight to the bookshelves to pick up the books. The other three couldn't find anything else to do, so they had to follow.

After Lu Hua's hand touched the first book, he almost screamed out excitedly, he forcibly suppressed the ecstasy in his heart, and shouted: "Oh my God, this first edition of Faust in 1979 is actually only ...... Three yuan? ”

The three Cotton Trio apparently failed to see the value of the book. Lancy reminded in a whisper, "You'd better flip through and see if the book is out of the pages." ”

"No, you don't understand that the value and significance of this book goes far beyond its content." Lu Hua said with a red face, "It represents an era, and it is a symbol of the spirit and culture of that era!" ”

Kirton and Lancey shrugged their shoulders together, incomprehensible. A few people scattered to read different books.

"Ah, Red and Black, published in 1982!" "The Hound of the Baskervilles...... Original English version - thank God! Lu Hua continued to discover new continents, repeating surprises again and again. He piled the selected books at one end of the shelf, and before he knew it, there was already a large stack.

Kirton flipped through a science fiction book and thought it was good, leaning against the wall and looking at it with relish. And Lancy was bored and flipping through it, and she also found a book she liked - "How to Make 100 Little Desserts". While reading the steps of making the honey cake, she was glad that Lu Hua had forgotten the original purpose of bringing her here.

When several people were immersed in their own world, Sean, who was across a bookshelf from them, said, "What is this?" ”

Curton, who was leaning against the wall, looked up and found Sean with a puzzled face, he walked over and asked, "What did you find?" ”

Sean handed a worn, yellowed pamphlet to Kirton, "Well, look, what kind of book is this?" ”

Kirton cautiously took the thin booklet. The reason for this care is that the paper of the book looks as if it is hundreds of years old, and the paper is yellow and brittle, and it feels like it will crumble into powder when touched. At the same time, the musty smell of adult years rushed into his nostrils, making him nauseous. Kirton flipped the pamphlet up and down and found something that Sean found strange-

The book has no title, only a book called "Mars. Barthes", it seems that the author of the book. Other than that, the front and back covers are blank. What's even more bizarre is that basic information such as printing date, edition number, etc., cannot be found anywhere in the book. I opened the book, and on the first page there were two unintelligible sentences written in a foreign language. From the second page onwards, each page has a short poem in a foreign language.

Kirton asked Sean, who is fluent in both Chinese and English, "What is this book about?" ”

Sean shook his head: "I don't know, the text on this book is not in English. ”

The conversation between the two of them caught the attention of Lu Hua and Lan Xi, who walked around from the opposite side of the bookshelf. Lu Hua asked, "What are you talking about?" ”

Kirton handed him the book. "A strange collection of poetry in foreign languages, I don't know which Chinese language it is written in."

Lu Hua took his hand and looked at it twice, and said, "It's a collection of French poems." ”

Lan Qian poked her head and glanced at the heavenly words in the book, turned her head and asked Lu Hua, "You can still understand French?" ”

Lu Hua said: "I used to learn it hastily with interest, but it was impossible to understand the whole text - I could only understand some simple words and sentences - hey, why doesn't this book even have a name?" ”

Kirton shrugged his shoulders: "And there's no publishing information or anything - speaking of which, can a book like this be released?" ”

Lu Hua frowned: "I'm also thinking about this question." ”

Sean said with interest, "Look what it writes." ”

Lu Hua turned the first page of the book and saw two concise sentences in French:

“Interdire humanité lire

Cinq”

Lu Hua admits that some of the simple French he learned last summer with interest was really difficult for him to use at this time, and he struggled to spell out the words of the first sentence one by one with the help of his memory: "No...... Read...... Human ......"

After a few seconds, he read the meaning of the sentence:

"Forbidden for humans to read."

Reading this sentence, he was shocked in vain, raised his head, and his eyes collided with the other three people.

The four men looked at each other for a moment, and after a long moment, Kirton said, "Are you sure you didn't translate it wrong?" ”

Lu Hua lowered his head again and studied it carefully, his lips twitching slightly. After more than ten seconds, he raised his head and said categorically: "I'm sure that's what this sentence means." ”

"Forbidden for humans to read?" Lan Xi laughed, "And what is this book for—animals?" Plant? ”

Sean pointed to the word below the sentence and said, "What does this 'Cinq' mean?" ”

Lu Hua thought for a moment with his lips in his eyes: "It means 'five'." ”

"So this book is the fifth in this collection?" Sean asked.

"That's what it means."

Kirton felt that his curiosity had been completely ignited at this time, and he urged eagerly, "Look at what is written in it!" ”

Lu Hua hesitated for a moment, then turned to the next page, and after reading it for two minutes, he shook his head in frustration and said, "I can't understand these verses at my humble level of French—but when I go home, I will definitely be able to translate them by referring them to the French dictionary." ”

"Are you really going to buy this weird book that is 'forbidden for humans to read?'" Lancy asked.

Lu Hua nodded slightly: "I want to see what is strange about this book." ”

Kirton, who had been watching Lu Hua turn the page, noticed a new problem, he pointed to the page number of the book and said, "I'm not sure if you can read this book, Lu Hua - this book seems to be seriously missing pages." You see, you're turning to the second page, but the page number is printed with '13'. ”

Lu Hua realized the problem with the page numbering, and he roughly flipped the back, and said, "The book has probably been broken up and rebound, but it was put in the wrong order—oh, I found the first page—it seems that the first few pages have been loaded to the back." ”

"So the book isn't missing pages, it's complete?" Kirton said excitedly, "Great, Lu Hua, you can translate it tonight, and then tell us tomorrow what strange things are written in this book!" ”

Lu Hua smiled bitterly: "I'm afraid it's impossible." Do you think I'm something, French professor? You can translate a book in one night! I think it's good that I can translate a few songs in their entirety. ”

"That's fine, at least give us a general idea." Kirton said.

"Then it's settled." Sean was obviously also interested, "Come to my house tomorrow afternoon, and we'll listen to Lu Hua talk about the content of this poetry collection." ”

"Okay, that's it!" Kirton's acute temper came up again, "Let's go now, Lu Hua." Don't delay a minute when you get home, translate right away—I say, you've finished choosing the book you're going to buy, right? ”

Lu Hua actually wanted to choose for a while, but at this time, the question he was most concerned about was nothing more than the content of this mysterious poetry collection. He nodded at Kirton, "Okay, let's go." ”

Lu Hua walked up to the administrator with a thick stack of books, piled them on Lao Luo's table, and said, "I'll buy these, you can order them, Lao Luo, how many copies are there?" ”

Lao Luo waved his hand casually: "You can count it yourself, just report the number with me." ”

Lu Hua counted the books one by one, and then said, "Eleven thick ones, four thin ones." ”

"37 bucks." Lao Luo quickly reported the numbers.

Lu Hua took out a fifty piece from his pants pocket and handed it to Lao Luo, who asked while looking for change, "What were you guys discussing over there just now?" ”

Lu Hua felt that it was unwise to discuss French poetry collections with Lao Luo, who only had a primary school education, so he casually said perfunctorily: "Let's discuss which books to choose." ”

Lao Luo said "hmm", didn't ask anything more, he gave the change to Lu Hua, and then waved his hand at the four of them. "Come often."

After leaving the library, Lu Hua was full of heavy stacks of books and joy in his heart, and couldn't wait to take a taxi home. Before he got in the car, Kirton reminded him several times, asking him to translate more. Later, Kirton, Shaun, and Lancey walked together in the afterglow of the setting sun, and then went home.