Brunhild put the gilded teaspoon into the delicate Wedgwood bone china teacup in his hand, and gently shook the freshly poured milk in the black tea, and the faint mellow aroma immediately wafted from the teacup. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info Brünnhilde closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the aroma, which is the first thing she does every morning after waking up.

As usual, she then walked into the round shallow wooden table in the living room, sensing her approach, and the hologram system on the table automatically turned on. The morning sunlight shone through the window, and when it passed through the images on the table, it painted Hong Yuesheng's home a layer of golden yellow.

Brunhilde sat down at the table, squinting her emerald eyes at the old Yaning-style two-story attic: it hadn't changed significantly from when she had started monitoring the house a year earlier, and it was still surrounded by walls. Brunhilde has always been amazed at Hong's simplicity, or rather nonchalance, in his aspect of life, with only a bed, telephone, refrigerator and other basic household items in the attic. The only "luxury" - if it can be called a "luxury" - the holographic TV was still sent by Zhongjiu.

Brunhilde put the tea to her lips as she slid her other hand across the hologram, looking for a trace of Hong Yuesheng, the stereoscopic image of the house rotating with her movements—she received a message that Hong Yuesheng had returned to the mirage yesterday.

When her hand slid into the bedroom area, it happened that Hong Yuesheng only took a bath towel to cover her wet hair and walked out of the bathroom naked.

"Pounce!"

Unprepared to see a man's naked body, Brunhilde squirted out the black tea he had just sucked into his mouth.

"Fxxk ()!" She cursed, shielding her eyes with her hands, Hong Yuesheng's private parts were still indelible in her mind.

After a burst of warmth on her face, she couldn't help but glance at the screen through her fingers, but fortunately, at this time, Hong Yuesheng had already wrapped the bath towel around her waist, and only rummaged through the clothes in the closet with her bare body, and Brunhilde finally let out.

Through the hidden surveillance camera, she can see Hong Yuesheng's broad back, although it is far from burly, but the muscles are distinct, and the skin shows a healthy and natural brilliance in the sun, only the bullet hole scar that runs from the left front chest to the back is still vivid.

"I'm going to wear a formal suit today, little mouse." Brünnhilde glanced at the electronic clock, which read: November 17, 16th year of the American and Asian calendar. Although Hong Yuesheng is now the same as the skinny teenager a year ago, Brunhilde is still used to calling him "little mouse" in private.

Sure enough, Hong Yuesheng went to the closet to find the only black suit.

"Lisa?" Hong Yuesheng shouted while getting dressed: "Do you see my tie?" ”

A single-wheeled robot vacuum cleaner drove into the room with a "cooing" sound and a few pairs of socks.

"Alas, Lisa, it's not a tie!"

Hong Yuesheng lowered her head and sighed. "Lisa" used to be the central computer of the Devilray One, and when the main ship was destroyed a year ago, it was able to leave some of the program in Hong Yuesheng's artificial heart CPU, and use it as the core to connect with more other computers in close proximity through the network, so as to achieve the ability to remotely control other low-level devices.

But the remaining "Lisa" not only lost their ability to speak, but also greatly degraded their intelligence, often doing wrong things. Despite this, Hong Yuesheng insisted that she was unwilling to replace her through technical means.

"In the cupboard in the hallway." Brünnhilde said to himself.

The single-wheeled sweeping robot looked at Hong Yuesheng blankly, its eyes and head composed of a large camera opened and closed, as if it had finally remembered something, and then turned its head and drove out of the room, finally finding the tie in the cabinet in the corridor.

Brunhilde was not only a little proud of his small achievement of knowing the room environment better than the host.

"Goo." There are a total of three ties of different colors in the box in Lisa's hand, which Emily bought with Hong Yuesheng before. He reached for the black one—the simplest and laziest option.

"It's too dark to be all black, so choose the silver-gray one." Brunhilde closed his eyes as he spoke.

Hong Yuesheng paused slightly when he was about to get the black tie, and for some reason, there was a strange feeling that made him feel more comfortable looking silver-gray, so he moved his hand to the silver-gray tie, picked it up and tied it to the wardrobe mirror.

Brünnhilde opened his emerald eyes and smiled.

In the mirror, there was already a down-and-out young officer, Hong Yuesheng gritted his teeth in the mirror and smiled - he was still not used to this kind of public occasion, and then closed the wardrobe with a "bang".

Watching Hong Yuesheng walk out of the room, Brunhilde also got up and prepared to go. As she passed by the window, she was drawn to the bustling sound of people outside the window, and glanced out—the streets were filled with people dressed as the dead, roaming the streets, or standing on balconies waiting for the anniversary of the Confederate Day to begin. Due to the cover of the mask, people cannot see each other's race, class, or even rich or poor for the time being.

Brunhilde couldn't help but secretly admire his father, Governor William, for his clever move: the Confederate Japanese rebellion that had broken out a year earlier had been a concentrated outbreak of conflicts between different nationalities and beliefs between Yanin and Meda Busoya as occupants and invaders. And the first anniversary after the crackdown was a sensitive period with a strong smell of gunpowder, and there should have been layers of military control and a solemn atmosphere. However, Governor William did the opposite, using the traditional Yaning ceremony to mourn the fallen soldiers of the United States and Asia, and using the mestizo status of his second brother Zhongjiu as a bridge between the Asian and American peoples, which greatly diverted the contradictions, even if only for a brief moment, and the people of the mirage were more immersed in the mourning of the dead than in ethnic hatred.

Brunhilde pondered as he picked up his coat on the back of his chair and left the apartment.

————————

The huge undead extradilist man was dressed in a black robe, floating in the air with a dancing oar in his hand, and a green glow flashed in his deep eye sockets. Behind it is a giant "ferry" surrounded by hundreds of white ghosts dragging long streamers, the carved blood-yellow waves on the hull represent the ship sailing on the Santu River, and the deck of the boat is surrounded by chanting monks, and from time to time plum blossom petals are thrown under the boat: in the ancient legend of the Yaning people, the souls of those who died on the battlefield would be haunted by the earthly world, so they would remain aimlessly wandering in the world. While most of them have no ill will, these ghosts are inevitably unsettling to the living, and they can only be brought to rest by ferry, the Santu River, which divides life and death, through religious rituals and under the guidance of the extraditer.

The floating hull of the ship sprays mist as it walks, representing the fragrance of the Manzhu Sawa on the banks of the Santu River, which will make the deceased have a sweet dream about "the other" and "the shore", this dream contains the inextricable feelings of the deceased before his death, and after the dream has been made, he will also leave these emotions, expectations, or unwillingness, and anger in the living world.

The blood-red petals thrown by the monks flew from the ferryboat floating on the maglev engine to the noisy crowd below, one of which slid past the crowd watching the celebration on the balcony, and then through the procession of streets disguised as the dead, and finally flew into the window of Hong Yuesheng's car.

When the petals fell on his lap, Hong Yuesheng was sitting in the back seat of the car, looking thoughtfully at the crowd that blocked the wide Suzaku Street. No matter how the white tiger driving for him honked, there were always all kinds of "resentful spirits" in front of the car, and the speed of the car was like a turtle crawling.

Hong Yuesheng picked up the petals and watched them quietly, and suddenly some memories of the past came flooding back: it was also on such a cold winter day that he once picked a plum blossom with a good flower shape, and walked on the snow to the attic to bring the butterfly.

"Hey, buddy, give_me_some_food, please! Okay, buddy, let's enjoy the meal... A sound of begging brought Hong Yuesheng back to reality, and a limping beggar in front of his car was begging, he was wearing a shabby gray burlap coat and a large cloak blocking his face.

“Do_not_mourn_the_dead_only，look_at_the_live_right_in_front_of_you! I’m_starving… (You pay tribute to the dead, but you don't care about those who are still alive before you... I'm dying of hunger... The beggar said as he reached out to everyone or vehicle passing by, but passers-by either ignored his presence or stayed away. From the beggar's figure, Hong Yuesheng could tell that he should be a Yaning person, but Meda Busoya was very fluent in language, unlike an old city immigrant. From the way he moved, it is quite possible that he had a serious injury to his leg in the past.

"Hey, boss! Grab some money and sell some food! Seeing the limousine Hong Yuesheng was sitting in slowly driving over, the beggar staggered over, stretched out his hand from his dirty coat and grabbed the white tiger's shoulder through the window, that hand was not a living flesh and blood, but a prosthetic leg made of rusty black steel.

"Go, go, go, don't get in the way!" The white tiger stretched out his hand to push the beggar away and reprimanded loudly.

"It's okay, let him come over." Hong Yuesheng beckoned to the beggar, and at the same time reached into his jacket and took out his wallet, pulling out a few bills.

"Take it." He handed the money to the beggar outside the car window.

"Thank you, boss!" The beggar bowed his head and waved to him incessantly: "May the Buddha bless you." ”

This blessing is very similar to the common way of thanking the people in the old city where Hong Yuesheng has lived since he was a child, which made Hong not only pay attention to the face under the beggar's cloak: dust and oil stains almost blocked the entire face, but for some reason, Hong felt a little familiar.

"Have I seen you?" Hong Yuesheng held down the banknote that had already been handed to the beggar and asked.

The beggar also noticed Hong Yuesheng's eyes and turned his head sideways: "Boss, you are so expensive, you must have recognized the wrong person." ”

As he spoke, the crowd in front of him suddenly boiled.

"Emperor Yue!!" "Emperor Yue is here!!"

As the crowd shouted, a calm, powerful, rhythmic drum beat came from behind.

Boom! Bang bang! Boom!! ~

A convoy of giant floats slowly drove up from the corner of the street, each with drummers dressed in traditional costumes and wearing deathbringer masks, beating the giant drums vigorously. The float swept out a long pillar of light to the ground, and the crowd dispersed to make way for the pillar of light, and the light sprinkled on the road in front of the convoy, like a carpet of blood, echoing the plum blossom petals scattered in the sky. This is the Huangquan Road in front of the Santu River, and it is said that the Huangquan Road is full of large flowers on the other side of the river, and the blood is red like fire.

As soon as the blood-woven carpet was laid, the blue-blue flame illusion appeared on the ground, which was extremely weird, and the "float king" where the Yue Emperor was located was in the crowd, stepping on this "fire road" and driving over.

As a celebrity, although the influence of traditional art is diminishing in the new generation of mirage youth, the fame of the Yue Emperor is still not to be underestimated, as can be seen in the pomp and circumstance of the float queen and convoy she was invited to commemorate the anniversary of the League Day: nine robotic phoenixes flapping their colorful wings and dragging a magnificent giant float. The shape of the car is also like a closed flower, and the petals are slowly opening, and a silver pillar of light inside is pouring up like a waterfall, leading to the steel canopy in the sky.

A petite figure, wearing a white crown, wearing a knee-length solid white dress, the upper body is equipped with cloud shoulders, hanging jade belts, the lower body is tied with a red skirt, dragging a long skirt behind her, and the female servant with an elegant phoenix pattern embroidered with silver silk rose from the pillar of light.

As soon as she appeared, the drums and voices fell silent.

Emperor Yue seems to open his mouth slightly, but his voice is sometimes like the breeze in the valley, sometimes like the turbulent waves of the sea, sometimes like the first cracked ice mark on the spring ice field, although there is no lyrics, but the chanting is ethereal and dreamy, making people have a sense of detachment from the world, as if seeing those dead souls circling around the float, and then being sent to another world far away by the song, even Hong Yuesheng and the white tiger were stunned.

When Hong Yuesheng came back to his senses and wanted to look for the beggar just now, the beggar had disappeared without a trace.

At this time, the float approached Hong Yuesheng's car, and Emperor Yue also noticed him and smiled at him. The side door under the float stage opened, and Luo Lan, the maid of the Yue Emperor, poked her head out and waved her hand vigorously at him.

Hong Yuesheng glanced at the crowd around him, and indeed he couldn't find the beggar, he looked at his watch again, and shook his head: If it's too late, I'm going to miss Zhongjiu's speech and the Alliance Day celebration, so it's better to take a ride.

"Drive the car to the palace hill and wait for me." He explained to the white tiger, then opened the door and bypassed the hustle and bustle of the crowd, the guards on both sides of the float getting out of the way, and he boarded the float with agility.

"Thank you for giving me a ride." After sitting down in the float, Hong Yuesheng thanked Luo Lan.

Luo Lan giggled, and she quickly had a good impression of Hong Yuesheng: "Thank you to Emperor Yue!" If you wait here, you can go to Huanggong Mountain in the Year of the Monkey! Wait until it's dark! ”

"Yes." Hong Yuesheng smiled cooperatively.

"Don't go to your eldest brother when it's dark, why don't you come to me~" Since Hong Yuesheng refused the temptation in the middle of the night a year ago, Luo Lan teased Hong Liang from time to time every time they met.

"Okay Luo Lan, don't make fun of Captain Hong." At this time, the song ended, and the platform carrying her also fell back into the float. While teaching Luo Lan a soft voice, she turned to Hong Yuesheng, who was dressed in a suit and leather shoes: "Captain Hong, you are still so stylish." ”

"Got it, "Captain Hong"~" Luo Lan especially accentuated the pronunciation of the word "captain" and made a grimace.

"Emperor Yue." Hong Yuesheng immediately got up: "Excuse me, just call me by name." ”

Emperor Yue also smiled: "Then you don't need to call me Emperor Yue, just call Xiaoyue." ”

Hong Yuesheng laughed and rubbed her nose with her hand, as if she was back to the appearance of a child a year ago for a while.

As the float drove by, the people gathered back on the main road, and the beggar reappeared in the crowd of various images of the dead, looking at the back of the float and the palace hill it was heading to.