Zheng Xiu hugged the orange cat and went to a nearby town.

Ever since listening to Zheng Xiu talk about the recipe of "Fried Fish Cakes", it looked preoccupied, as if it was seriously thinking and reminiscing about the existence of the object that was once called "Fried Fish Cakes".

Zheng Xiu inquired about the news in the town.

After a few days of hard work, Zheng Xiu finally heard from an old street performer about the tragedy of Baili Village twenty years ago.

The townspeople said that the old man was a hunter twenty years ago and had gone to an unnamed village to exchange things.

He would always hum a song and come back with a carp with white flowers, and make soup to drink.

At first, when the old man heard the words "Baili Village", his face changed greatly, and he was no longer alive or dead. But in the end, he couldn't bear Zheng Xiu's soft grinding and hard bubbles, and for the sake of Zheng Xiu being so sensible and carrying a pot of soju, the old man finally spoke.

His voice was hoarse, as if he hadn't spoken in years, and like an old phlegm in his throat.

"The carp produced in that village is white and fat, and it is exceptionally delicious."

"Two hares, can be exchanged for ten white carp, one boiled soup, the taste is twice fresh!"

Zheng Xiu thought about it and decided not to tell the old man that those white carp grew up eating human flesh to be big and white.

The old man took a sip of soju and continued:

"It was a dark night,"

"Old decay is not mistaken, it will never be wrong, the forest was very dark that night, and I couldn't see my five fingers."

"Baili Village is over there, and there is a very strange sound."

Zheng Xiu: "Voice? ”

The old man nodded, and imitated it with his mouth: "Click-boom!" Click-boom! From here, from there, from there, from there, to this side! The old man thought that Baili Village had been attacked by bandits, so he ran away! ”

"The sound of a knife drawn?"

"Yes!" The old man suddenly realized: "It turns out that it is the sound of drawing a knife!" The question that had plagued the old man for twenty years suddenly found an answer, he slapped his thigh and laughed: "It's really a bad thief!" ”

No, it was the sound of the Treasure King drawing his sword from the south of the village to the north of the village. Zheng Xiu complained silently in his heart, but he didn't intend to tell the old man the answer, and asked, "What happened later?" ”

"Later, the old man ran and ran, and ran and ran, and ran to another mountain." The old man paused, gritted his teeth, and suddenly trembled, and the soju bottle in his hand splashed a lot because of the old man's hand trembling. After a while, the old man seemed to calm down from his memory, and he tried to tell the scene, his voice gradually changing to a dreamlike tone: "And then, all of them are gone, all of them are gone." ”

The old man's mental state was a little strange, and after Zheng Xiu noticed this, he was not reluctant, and arched his hand towards the old man, preparing to leave. At the end, Zheng Xiu remembered something and turned around and asked, "Old man, do you still remember how many families there were in Baili Village back then?" ”

"Twenty-six households."

"Twenty-six households?"

"Hee-hee-hee, twenty-six households, one household is not many, one household is many, neat and tidy, all gone!"

"Is there a family among them...... A family with the surname Feng? ”

"Feng ...... Feng ...... Phoenix? The old man grabbed his hair hard, pondering in distress, clutching and clawing, and a lot of dark red dandruff was picked out between his fingernails, and it fell down: "I remember! It's the butcher! That butcher! ”

Zheng Xiu's breath stagnated: "Does that butcher have a daughter?" The one with long hair, a stuffy one, and one who doesn't speak! ”

"Nope! No! No! The old man said loudly, his eyes did not look at Zheng Xiu, but looked at the "other" place: "No! The butcher had a son! It's called Feng Xiaoyi! ”

“！”

"Meow."

Anne made an orange cat sound.

Zheng Xiu looked at the old man's strange appearance, and his heart was inexplicably stunned, he looked at the old man and stepped back step by step.

I saw the old man bowing his head, talking to himself, his voice getting weaker and weaker:

"It's so dark, it's so black,"

"Like ink,"

"A big chunk, something darker than the night,"

"There were footsteps, there were cries, and there were women's voices,"

"A lot of people are crying, a lot of people are shouting,"

"It's just a black mess, wow! From afar, I saw that the village was being eaten. ”

"Yes, it's eating, it's definitely eating, it can't be wrong. It's like a mouth. ”

The old man gulped wine into his mouth, his facial features distorted, and became more and more hideous.

A dry and weird laugh suddenly came out of his mouth: "Yes! They were eaten, and they were ...... by the 'stuff' there," said the old man, bowing his head, and after a moment, suddenly lifting up.

Dark red tears flowed from the corners of the old man's eyes. His eyes were cracking, his eyes were densely filled with black roots, he looked at Zheng Xiu and grinned: "Yes!" ”

"That night,"

"It's so noisy—"

After speaking, the old man rolled his eyes, his head hung down, and he did not move.

The flask slipped to the ground, and it was empty.

Zheng Xiu looked at the motionless old man in front of him with his head lowered and motionless, and was stunned for a moment, even if he didn't step forward to check his snort, he could tell the ...... at a glance The old man died.

"It's me...... Killed him? ”

Zheng Xiu muttered to himself, and he couldn't help but feel a little self-blame in his heart.

"Not exactly." Master Anne patted Zheng Xiu's chin with a soft meat ball, it thought for a while, and said something that was a little comforting: "He should have died a long time ago." ”

“？”

"The more you understand, the more you imagine, the closer you get to 'us'." Lady Anne flipped her claws in front of Zheng Xiu, and the pink ball of flesh lit up, and it pointed at the ball with its other paw. This strange action made Zheng Xiu easily think of "Annie's jade feet", and he understood it instantly.

"You're saying that twenty years ago, he was too close to Chang Yan and should have died? Now that I'm here, let him remember the events of that night, and it's just gone? ”

Anne nodded, glanced at the old man's body, shook her head, and sneered, "Stupid human. ”

Zheng Xiu spent some silver to bury the old man.

The old man has no relatives and no reason, and he makes a living from his performances, and his belongings are only a small cart, and there are several sets of dirty costumes on the small cart. The people in the town were very surprised, how could the unrelated and unreasoned entertainer suddenly die, and someone else handled the funeral for him.

But no one seemed to care, and after the old man died, there was only a lonely grave on the barren hill outside the town.

Later, Zheng Xiu went to inquire again.

There were no dead people this time.

Many people say that the old man did not know what was wrong many years ago, and gradually went crazy and was silent all day long.

He hadn't spoken to anyone in years.

……

Sitting on the express called "Celebration Thirteen", I returned home.

As soon as he got home, Zheng Xiu saw an amazing scene.

Zheng Haoran trimmed the edges, shaved off his beard, tied up his long hair, although his body was still thin, but that posture and that blazing gaze made Zheng Xiu feel like he had seen General Zheng Haoran on the battlefield twenty years ago.

It's not amazing.

The point is.

"Ahh

Chun Tao shyly held a plum between her two fingers and stuffed it into Zheng Haoran's mouth.

"Sour?"

"Not sour." Zheng Haoran said with a smile: "As long as it is fed by Mrs., it is all sweet." Come, you take a bite too. ”

As soon as the spring peach was eaten, his face instantly squeezed into the word "rice".

"Phew! Acid to death......"

"Hahaha...... When you were pregnant with our son, I didn't say that. ”

Zheng Haoran laughed loudly.

Outside the yard.

Yue Linglong and Zheng Xiu, the newlyweds, were messy in the wind.

They all felt tons and tons of dog food smashing in their faces.

Who are the newlyweds?

Lord Anne tilted her head, curiously looking at the old husband and wife who were feeding each other plums in the yard, and sprinkling dog food alternately hot and cold around like the sun and the moon, couldn't help scratching her head, and asked in Zheng Xiu's ear: "Do you humans need to be like this when mating?" ”

They didn't even notice that Zheng Xiu and his wife were returning from a trip.

Affection and love at home.

I don't know how long this situation lasted.

Zheng Xiu didn't bother the two newlyweds, the first thing Zheng Xiu did was to lock himself in the room, lay a layer of paper, write and draw on the paper, and digest the income from this trip.

……

Lady Anne was left in the courtyard and stood stupidly for a moment.

"He, that's how he does things, how can he forget you."

Yue Linglong didn't know the bottom of the orange cat, the orange cat looked at the poor one, Yue Linglong was distressed, so she picked it up.

Unexpectedly, in the next second, the orange cat thought about it, and showed a showdown with Zheng Xiu's other lady without a little defense.

"Fish-lipped humans."

Anne's voice sounded majestic.

Yue Linglong was dumbfounded, the cat spit out words, what a grass, she was so frightened that she almost threw the orange cat into the sky.

Thankfully, I didn't lose it.

"I ask you,"

"Do you know how to make fish cakes?"

Yue Linglong's head tilted: =_=???

"It's okay," the noble, extraordinary, arrogant, and great Lord Anne instantly saw through Yue Linglong's thoughts, revealing a compassionate gaze, it stood on Yue Linglong's shoulder, and patted Yue Linglong's hair: "I'll teach you." ”

……

Fengbei "disappeared" very completely. Zheng Xiu stretched out his slap and looked at the "Li" wrapped around her little finger, she had never existed in this world. Feng Nantian has no daughter named Feng Bei, only a son named Feng Xiaoyi.

Is it so simple to erase the traces of a person's existence?

Fengbei cut off the connection with the world, transcended this world, and was so clean that even the matter of "birth" was erased.

This kind of strange thing happened around him, which made Zheng Xiu feel inexplicably afraid. His fear was unfounded, he didn't even know what he was afraid of, if anything, he was afraid of the existence of the place where he lived, called "the world".

As the flame heart on the candlestick stopped swaying, Zheng Xiu's mood gradually calmed down.

He drew a circle on the white paper and marked: Chang Yan.

In "Chang Yan", Zheng Xiu wrote the word "Annie". After a while, he wrote about the strangeness he had encountered over the years, such as "Wutong God", "Cotton Moult", "Mother Mantis", "Yuan Baby" and so on.

On the side of "Chang Yan", Zheng Xiu drew another circle: Chang Shi.

In the circle where Changshi was, Zheng Xiu set up another small circle. He thought for a moment and dropped the marker: "Dawn".

"Dawn World Line" means that the world line where he was originally located, Fengbei died, the candle was hidden in the world, a ritual once every hundred years, and the world was stable and comfortable.

"Well, a week."

Zheng Xiu smiled, and drew another small circle on the side of the Dawn World Line, in the Everlasting Circle.

After thinking about it for a while, Zheng Xiu solemnly put down his pen and wrote the mark: "Eternal Night".

The world line of eternal night, Fengbei survives, there is an institution called "Night Weiyang" in the world, there are frequent tricks, strangers are active, and strange people are numerous.

Zheng Xiu wrote a lot of names in the circle, and the thin annotations filled the circle densely.

Time passes imperceptibly.

In the blink of an eye, it was night.

Lady Anne entered the room at some point, squatted on the table, and quietly watched Zheng Xiu write and draw.

Master Anne didn't bother Zheng Xiu, and Zheng Xiu ignored it.

The smell of fish wafted through the room.

Zheng Xiu's nose fluttered, and he glanced up at the orange cat. The corners of the orange cat's mouth were still stained with golden crumbs, and he smiled and picked up the fried grains for the orange cat, and suddenly he prank, and he stretched out the crumbs to the orange cat's mouth.

The orange cat stretched out its pink tongue and sucked Zheng Xiu's fingers.

"Annie?"

Zheng Xiu was a little unsure.

"It's Lady Annie."

Dissatisfaction crossed Anne's face.

This stupid container is always neither big nor small.

"Yes, Annie." Zheng Xiu nodded and agreed, and asked, "What did you eat?" ”

"Fish cakes." Anne stuck out her tongue and licked it. Its tongue is so long and flexible that it licks the cat's whiskers. But when she spoke, there was obvious sullenness and unfinished in Anne's eyes. After these two diametrically opposed complex emotions were understood by Zheng Xiu, he couldn't grasp Annie's mood at the moment for a while.

"Stupid container," Anne sat up, clasped her paws around her chest, and glared at Zheng Xiu demonstratively, "It's not just Fengbei who makes fried fish cakes!" ”

Zheng Xiu thought about it and understood: "You asked Yue Linglong to do it." ”

"Hmph." The orange cat smirked.

"How does it taste?" Zheng Xiu was a little curious.

"Not really." Zheng Xiu's question made the orange cat lie down like a deflated ball: "The taste is different from 'before'." Stupid containers, hateful containers, you must be hiding something. ”

Zheng Xiu spread his hands, and said in his heart, didn't you say that it was not delicious and didn't want to eat it before, but he didn't slap Anne's face this time, although this guy's level is high, he is very stingy and can't afford to play, so he can't help but laugh, and deliberately shows a helpless expression: "That's what Fengbei told me before." Maybe ......" Zheng Xiu thought for a moment and gave an uncertain proposal: "Add green onions to it?" ”

When the orange cat heard this, his right paw snapped, and he smashed the meat ball of his left paw, and suddenly realized: "I see!" ”

It raised its tail excitedly, as if it wanted to try the new "fried fish cake" recipe immediately, it looked back at the handwriting on Zheng Xiu's paper, was silent for a while, and said:

"The more you understand, the more you see, the more you think, the closer you will get to us, the closer you will be there."

"But you seem to be close."

"A part of you, 'Xiang', seems to be hiding somewhere else."

"So, stupid container, for the sake of the fish cakes, I told you that it doesn't hurt to have more, don't blame me for being sucked in."

The orange cat endured the urge to make fried fish cakes, it existed like this, and its endurance was extraordinary, and it was very easy to endure it for a while or two. The orange cat showed a look of "Thanksgiving, grateful, thank me", and after saying the above words, he looked at Zheng Xiu quietly.

"Lady Anne, please speak."

Zheng Xiu looked at the furry face and somehow understood, only to realize later that it was because of his [foreign language] talent. His [foreign language] is more powerful than ordinary animals for these inhuman and strange beings—referring to the translation.

Anne pointed to the "Dawn World" and the "Eternal Night World", and then to the Changshi and Changyan, and said, "The reason why I came in is because I have observed that a new distortion has been born from the original distortion for no reason. ”

"Such a distortion is extraordinary."

"It stands to reason that this is impossible."

"The twist is fleeting, and it can't be so 'constant.'"

"Unless, something, anchors one of the artifacts."

Zheng Xiu was stunned when he heard it, obviously he understood every word Anne said, but it was even more inexplicable than a foreign language, and he tried to understand Anne's words, because he knew that this arrogant existence disdained to reinterpret his words. Zheng Xiu pointed to his face in surprise: "Me? ”

"Not all, it may be, it may be, it may be, it may be." Anne nodded, and shook her head again: "The newly born distortion is not because of you, but because it is your 'thing' in the first place. Your vessel-specific thing, yes, you call it 'Devil'. ”

When Zheng Xiu heard this, a tingling sensation surged up his scalp, and he stabbed like lightning: "You mean, this newly born world line is mine...... Ghosts? ”

"That's right," the orange cat's tail couldn't stop shaking, and his heart had already drifted to the fish cake, absentmindedly: "The distortion caused by your ghost snake is insignificant, but it covers the original ordinary world, and the distortion is unbelievably large." ”

"The junction of the two twisted paths strangely forms a point, a twisted but unusually stable 'point'."

"This point appears between the everlasting and the everyday, influencing the tidal 'intersection'."

"We all noticed it because ...... Without intersection, there are no lights. ”

"There, it's too dark."

The orange cat said slowly.

Since it has been said, it is not afraid that Zheng Xiu will die because of "understanding too much", in fact, it doesn't matter if Zheng Xiu dies or not, it's good that someone does things for it.

"I doubt ......" The orange cat lowered his head, as if remembering something, and shook his head again: "Forget it, you don't need to know. ”

The corners of Zheng Xiu's mouth twitched, and when he wanted to ask something, the orange cat was already like a puff of light smoke, sweeping out of the room.

?

After a while, the orange cat stood on the windowsill again: "By the way, there is one more thing. In addition to me, others also came in. ”

Zheng Xiu sat in the house, and the orange cat had been gone for a long time, but he still hadn't come back to his senses.

Is this his ghost?

He knows that Inhumans bring their own ghosts, and he has always wondered why his ghosts didn't spawn, but unexpectedly, once they were born, it was a big job.

The orange cat came in, and what did it mean, and "something else", that it also came in?

That's why orange cats are so good at talking?

Zheng Xiu gradually understood them and understood the reason why the orange cat appeared here.

With his eyes flickering, Zheng Xiu finally drew a small circle on the paper, between "dawn" and "eternal night".

Two words are written in it.

Red Point.

(End of chapter)