Chapter 22: The Past and the Future
The wind kicked up dust, and the neon world changed from the hazy darkness of the rain to the dim and muddy of the wind and sand. The small, cold sun was closing on the edge of the dome in the windswept sand.
After the young man asked, Siye was silent. The army of the human system stood still, and the higher-level bureaucrats in the hanging garden looked ugly.
Then the dragon looked up and exhaled:
"Is Ms. Zhan Lu here? Come and see me. β
It was a woman who was sitting in a stone building looking out the window. The moment she was called, Gu Chuan saw that her face was pale, and the two trembled. She walked away from the window, and when she went out to walk this way, Gu Chuan saw her glaring at her fiercely.
The young man was indifferent to this and only looked at her flatly.
And she had already walked in front of the dragon, her hands behind her back, twitching unconsciously.
Her hair was combed up, with six slender transistors inserted into it. The crystal tube glowed with six neon colors, illuminating her, her heavily layered clothes, and the skirt that dragged to the floor, which was a fashion of the era.
Ms. Zhanlu's face was as grim as a stone. But she forced a few laughs and said:
"In...... Elder. β
"Elder is a word of the past, and now you should call me Speaker. It doesn't hurt for people who don't know to talk about it, but if you know, you shouldn't call it wrong. β
The Black Elder Dragon said calmly.
There are several speakers of the National Assembly, and the Black Elder Dragon is one of them.
Ms. Zhan Lu lowered her head, and her voice trembled:
"Yes, Speaker."
"Well, it doesn't matter." The Black Elder Dragon leaned over the stone mountain, staring at the man about the size of its fingers, and continued, "This traveler is asking me if Bu Zi is fighting, and he says that he has been captured and put in a cell by an army mixed with the local people of Bu Zi...... Let me ask you, what's going on with Bu Zi now? Didn't you say at the General Assembly that Buzi's rebellion was over in its entirety? β
Ms. Zhan Lu pursed her lips and lowered her head, and no one could see her expression.
When Elder Black Long and Ms. Zhan Lu said this, the outsiders around them who originally knew nothing suddenly understood that they had inadvertently broken through the internal contradictions in the Hanging Garden, and as for the advance verification and confusion of the Foreign Affairs Department, the individual elimination suddenly became extremely clear.
Just because the travelers who were able to directly contact the Black Elder Dragon during the meeting were very likely to be unknown to the Black Elder Dragon, or even very important, but the bureaucracy did not want the Black Elder Dragon to know.
Immediately, the old man of the Foreign Affairs Department led the bureaucrats of the Foreign Affairs Department to get up and prepared to take these outsiders away. The sharp-minded outsider was only happy at this act, and wanted to leave the debunked set as soon as possible.
It's just that they haven't taken a few steps before the Black Elder Dragon turns his head sideways and flapps his wings. The wind surged under the wings, colliding with the natural gale in the sky, so that the visitors almost failed to stand still.
The old man of the Foreign Affairs Department hurriedly looked back, and heard the black elder dragon say:
"The exchange is still going on as normal, so you don't have to rush to take the guests away. Everyone can know what is happening at the border, I can know, and the guests can know about it, but it is just ordinary, not a secret. β
"This ......"
The old man of the Foreign Affairs Department did not dare to refute, but only dared to whisper left and right, and withdrew from the central flat with the accompanying officials.
The Black Elder Dragon's head turned back again. When two eyes larger than a human body look down on a person, it is as if he is standing on the edge of a large lake.
"Zhan Lu ......"
Before Elder Black Dragon's words fell, Lady Zhan Lu hurriedly raised her head. By this time there was no shadow on her face, and she had gotten rid of her sudden panic, and had become civilized, kind, calm and well-behaved:
"Speaker, there are still some details in Buzi's matter, and the people's incomprehension of the less important parts has not ended, our army is actively dealing with it, and the matter will be properly concluded soon."
"Really?"
"Yes."
After speaking, Ms. Zhan Lu still glanced sideways and glanced at Gu Chuan.
Her gaze was high, like a parent scolding a child for a prank. The young man folded his shoulders without regard to himself, and remained unwavering in the wind that was gradually rising.
The neon fell on the pure black body skin, as if sinking into the abyss.
The Black Elder Dragon said:
"But since it's not over, why don't I know about Bu Zi's situation?"
Ms. Zhan Lu smiled reservedly, one of her hands behind her back, and Gu Chuan saw that the hand was shaking separately. She said:
"It may be so, Speaker. Considering that you have a lot of things to deal with at every moment of the week, the reporter didn't think you needed to know about this little thing. The matter of Buzi Province is not so important, and the kingdom will be able to solve it sooner or later. Good news may already be on the way. β
Black Elder Long asked coldly:
"Who thinks I don't need to know this?"
Ms. Zhanlu's left hand behind her back shook even more, and she retracted her hand into her clothes. But her front was business as usual. She pursed her lips and smiled, looking a little naturally beautiful. She said:
"A lot of things come from intangible conventions. Perhaps, the report at the time didn't know if you needed to know about it. β
It was windier then. The flapping of wings caused the heavens and the earth to storm and blow up dust. And the elder dragon stood in the middle of it, staring at Zhan Lu coldly.
"Then you're wrongβ"
Then, a terrible roar exploded like thunder over the seventh island:
"I need to know everything! At the beginning of the birth of the parliament, there was an unwritten secret covenant, and all the war conflicts of more than 100 people, the speaker and the parliamentarians need to know! Now I need to know everything as soon as possible! Right away! Who's dealing with this! β
The young man stood aside and saw that Ms. Zhan Lu and the other internal and external bureaucrats were almost on their knees.
The innocent stranger covered his ears and leaned to the side. The soldiers remained unmoved, only their eyes shifted slightly, and the wind blew stronger.
The thunder died down, and the whirring wind hovered up and down the hanging garden. The continuous neon glow of the threads was covered with other colors in the wind and dust.
"Speaker, I understand, I will deal with it as soon as possible......"
Ms. Zhan Lu said.
Who knows that the black elder dragon said:
"I'm wrong about that. I don't want to get your documents to me right now, not as soon as possible, not right away. The original file does not require any tidying. β
Ms. Zhan Lu glanced at the bureaucracy behind her, and someone began to move.
Boxes of report papers were then delivered here.
"Rope."
After the Black Elder Dragon finished speaking, someone tied it up with a cable. The claws on its wings grabbed the bundle of boxes, while the other wing lay on the ground, and the claws on it lay flat on the ground against Gu Chuan, kicking up a little stone dust.
"Here's what to do......"
The young man already knew what the dragon meant, but he still pretended to be puzzled.
And his mind was weighing the pros and cons. He quickly remembered what Tian Liao had told him that the Black Elder Dragon was very interested in Death or Birth, and he had made up his mind and remained silent.
Ms. Zhan Lu said:
"Elder, this is a guest of the Foreign Affairs Department and needs to return to ......"
"No, I don't."
The Black Elder Dragon interrupted Zhan Lu's words. Zhan Lu was speechless. The Black Elder Dragon turned his head and looked at the young man, and his voice changed back to its original level:
"Guest, you are a victim of Buzi's rebellion, you must know something about Buzi's situation, transfer with me, inform me, and you will be grateful in the future."
"Walk to the paws......?"
He pretended not to know.
"Yes."
The Black Elder Dragon replied patiently.
The young man took two brisk steps and climbed to the winged claws.
"Sit down and grab my scales."
He did as he was told. Then the claws closed lightly, and the cold scales stuck into the outer edge of the suit, leaving a small gap. Then with a flap of his wings, the wind suddenly penetrated into the gaps in his claws, whirring and blowing from both sides of Gu Chuan's body, and no one fell on him.
And when he looked, he had flown into the air with the dragon.
The mountains, rivers and land, the iridescent light strips hanging on the land, and the suspension cables connected to each other between the land, are far away one by one. The people of the land have become tiny dots on the ground in the blink of an eye, and the elder dragon has already flown into the dome of the green underworld.
For young people, this is a different kind of flying experience. Yesterday, he still watched the dragon shadow fly outside the skylight, and today he sat in the sky.
In an instant, the dragon's strong legs stepped onto the dome. The moment he stepped on, gravity reversed, and the young man immediately realized that the umbrella-shaped dome was also bound by the laws of abnormal gravity in the hanging gardenβ
They were now standing on the inside of the dome, with countless hills above them.
It's an extraordinary perspective. It was as if all the land was floating above its head, and the land was like a staircase that rose all the way to the bottom of the earth. The background of everything, the earth, is like a terrible ceiling.
He exhaled, muttering gravity.
"What? Do you know what gravity means? β
Because of the presence of travelers from the rising sun, the Hanging Garden knows that the floating of the land is unique to the place where the sun rises. According to travelers, when the sun is in the sky, the earth is very stable and will never rise at will.
"One thing to know, in the Joanchu language, gravity refers to some kind of force that makes us stand on the ground, not float."
He said.
"That's true."
The dragon laid the young man down, and for the first time he set foot in a dome made of crystal and steel. The dome is underlit and barely illuminates the way to the center. There are triangular buildings, and at the top of the building is a well that runs through countless floating lands to the bottom of the earth.
At this time, the black elder dragon was pleasant, and he was like two people like the angry dragon just now.
It doesn't seem to care about the bureaucracy's concealment, or rather......
"Do you already know that they are hiding something about your Bu Zi? Elder, you don't seem to be very angry? β
He didn't expect the Black Elder Dragon to answer, but the Black Elder Dragon actually spoke:
"To be angry is to send a signal to them so that they will be serious. Now that the content is in hand, it's no longer necessary to get angry. I only knew a thing or two about Bu Zi before, and it was not good to have a seizure, so I borrowed your experience and asked them to present it all. β
Even the Black Elder Dragon wouldn't know that Gu Chuan had leaked it on purpose.
He follows the topic:
"But they lied to you......?"
"Yes, but it is not a sin to deceive, the sin is that they are not able to resolve the situation in a short time. It's not a problem to hide it, the problem is that their handling will plant a spark of instability under the hanging garden. β
For those who can understand, the Black Elder Dragon never hesitates to share and answer.
"If you want to tell me or not, you should do it as soon as possible. But if you don't do it beautifully, and you want to wrap up the flames, it's a foolishness that makes people really angry. β
The new kingdom was deceitful, and the old dynasty was no less. Even if there is a heart language, as long as you don't meet directly, you won't know.
In Elder Black's memory, in order to prevent the high-level of the human system from leaking some information when they met with Yilong, many low-level reporters would also hide the high-level of the human system, as if the boss wanted to learn the information from his subordinates, but his subordinates had already been deceived by his subordinates.
In modern times, when the human system mastered the method of anti-psychic language, things became complicated.
The Black Elder Dragon was silent, and they approached the central building of the triangle.
Gu Chuan once compared the well and the dome to an umbrella on the earth. Then the triangular building is like an umbrella stand inside. It's just that the umbrella stand is much thicker and faces more space, and it is plate-shaped, not bone-shaped, so it only leaks a few gaps.
And this gap is the natural opening of the door.
The elder dragon flew in with the young man, and soon gravity flipped along the dense mass again. They fell to the inside of the umbrella stand.
Unlike the periphery, which is made of crystals and metals, the inside of the building is paved with flat boulders. The stone is not cold at all, but conveys the warmth of the forest.
They seemed to be walking in a round, narrowed pipe.
"This is where I live."
The Black Elder Dragon crouched on the stone and said:
"I've been the only one for quite some time, and you're a new visitor."
Its gaze shifted downwards and fell heavily on the young man.
He saw many basement doors on the stones. Doors come in big and small. The black elder dragon in the gate said that it was where it stored its belongings, and he couldn't open it. There are also many small square doors, which lead to rooms carved into the stone. These rooms have cabinets, beds, mirrors, and even water outlets, and in some of them, it seems that people once lived there, leaving behind a lot of equipment and clothing.
"These are the dwellings of those who once served me, but now they are empty. You can choose one to stay for a day. When you're done, I'll take you back to Twenty-Three Islands. β
Black Elder Dragon said.
He's in the same room with the ancient creature.
Gu Chuan said:
"But when I talked about Bu Zi, did I offend those bureaucrats, and they won't embarrass me, right?"
"Although I don't know how you got past the inspection of the Foreign Affairs Department...... But they don't dare, on the contrary, you ...... when you go back" The Black Elder Dragon grinned widely, and smiled, its claws fell on the top of Gu Chuan's head, but he had no sense of danger at all, the little finger like a butcher's knife rested on his hair without any rashness, "You will be given preferential treatment, you will be flattered, and you will be taken care of by them carefully." I'm going to be scared of you, hehehe, will you fake my thoughts down there. β
The dragon chuckled lowly.
This ancient life was unexpectedly easy-going, and in its expression, Gu Chuan could not see any self-restraint. However, this may also be due to his lack of observation of aliens.
"Why?"
"Because in their minds, you're already mine."
The dragon withdrew and lay down on the stone, its huge wings covering a large area, as if the earth had suddenly been replaced. It has no extra claws, only claws on its wings, and that's where the deformity of the wings comes in. Its two wings folded in the middle as best they could.
A claw on one wing delicately cuts through the rope. The paw of the other wing grabbed the document inside, and it began to read.
I am afraid that the unorganized documents of the human system are not suitable for such a behemoth to read. The difference in volume is like an adult lying on the ground, carefully grabbing and observing ants. Generally speaking, the human system is first organized into a kind of glass book.
It reads attentively, and the young man is ignored by it.
He also thought about making a near, trying to see if he could rely on the power of this dragon to get close to the death or life number of the Treasure Division, so he yelled:
"Hey, hey, what am I going to do!"
The dragon looked sideways, looked down at the people below, and said:
"I'm going to read the document first, understand Bu Zi's situation, and then confirm each other from you, you can sleep first, or you can go find something to eat, but remember to sleep and eat, and let everything return to its original state and be clean."
He rolled his eyes and said:
"Isn't it troublesome for you to read it like this? Why don't I read it to you? I would also like to know about Bu Zi...... Because, in fact, I have a companion there! I'm worried about him. β
The Black Elder Dragon let out a few more low laughs:
"That's fine, you can read the important ones to me, or you can tell me what you have seen and heard, so that I can know."
It lifted its wings slightly, revealing the box that had been enclosed in its arms.
Gu Chuan stepped forward, picked up a pile of paper, and took a quick look at it, and read it out when he saw some circles and strokes, or things that felt like staged texts and important summary titles. And the Elder Dragon didn't put down the file, it was multitasking.
The dragon leaned over, the young man read the words, and the distant sunlight fell on the edge of the dome's crystallized edge, glowing. The dome was extremely high, and the dust could not blow here, and as soon as the building blocked it, it only leaked a little from the gaps, light and ethereal, like an autumn wind.
The hanging garden is lonely. The heavy rain of the previous days flowed into the water on the dome, rushed coldly on the stones, and fell into the pipe of the past with a single sound.