"No, it's still not right."

The table was moved to the window of the professor's room, and two small crystals were removed from the shelves by Kraft, wrapped in silk cloth, and placed in a small wooden box filled with cotton balls.

Two pieces of the same kind, which looked a little more "fat", were taken out and fixed on the stand. Dexterous fingers adjust their position at a slow, almost imperceptible pace.

The only thing that spoiled the harmony was the thin strip of cloth wrapped around the tips of two of the fingers.

Two thin crystals were sandwiched between a thin, translucent drop of red liquid, and the eyes behind the double lenses were facing it, a process that had been going on for half an afternoon.

Lucius lay bored in his chair, his back facing the sky, and a strip of cloth wrapped around one of his fingers. Ever since someone brought me these little things in the morning, Kraft has been out of order for half an afternoon.

As for why it wasn't an abnormal morning, it was simply because I missed a month and a half of class, and I was embarrassed to be absent for no reason.

Even so, most of the students could see that he was not focused on the course, and from time to time he came up with words such as "small room" and "micro", and announced before the end of class that everyone would soon have a new subject to learn.

The bad news made the students, including Lucius, look in indescribable shock. Even the most ardent admirers of him said afterwards that this was hardly good news.

As the closest student to Kraft, Lucius was promised a lot of benefits and sent in to find out.

Then, upon entering the door, Kraft, who was holding a needle and gesturing with a third finger, borrowed a drop of blood.

"What the hell is wrong?" Lucius probably guessed that the new content would have something to do with this rather expensive device, but he couldn't really tell anything from the side, "Aren't you really going to take a few days off?" After all, the matter in the salt tide area has just ended. ”

After painting the last few blackened maps, the incident in the salt tide area was finally calmed down, and after a month and a half of recovery period, the local residents basically returned to their normal sleep.

Only one of the two newly drilled wells had enough fresh water to enter, but it was sufficient.

This long and difficult visit made Lucius follow the road of the salt tide area, and also learned a lot of Kraft tips by the way, from physical examination to repositioning, bits and pieces add up a lot.

"I suddenly felt that time was actually quite short, and there might not be much opportunity left for me to finish the unfinished business." Kraft leaned over the lenses, only his fingers adjusting in imperceptible amplitude, like a sunlit plaster sculpture.

"Why does that sound so weird?" Straightening his sore neck, Lucius moved his chair to Kraft's side and watched him continue to fine-tune.

"Well, that's a bit off." Kraft whispered, as if he was afraid that if he was louder, he would distort the adjusted lenses. The lens in the near area was pushed by him into the blood droplet for a small part that could not be detected, and it was really too difficult for him to rely on manual adjustment.

The thing in the hand is more like a simple iron frame than any optical equipment, but the degree of activity is a little larger, the copper lens barrel is even more indescribable, and the range and accuracy of the distance adjustment by thread are not ideal, fortunately, when customizing, I thought of asking for a few different sizes.

"Lucius, do you think that our profession is sometimes a little dangerous?"

Lucius didn't quite understand this point of view, the doctors in the academy were different from those wild clinics and barbershops outside, they were more high-end and decent jobs, "Okay?" It's relatively safe, at least there are people to treat a sudden illness in the academy, isn't it? ”

"What if, I mean what if. What if it is really a disease that we encounter this time, even with a bird's beak mask, it is possible to catch it? ”

This "what if" is too terrible, and for a young man who has not yet obtained the qualification to practice medicine independently from college, there is no experience and no theoretical support to answer.

However, in front of acquaintances, especially lecturers, he replied, "It's the same."

"If the probability of death is unlikely." After a moment's thought, Lucius added, probably because he also felt that his answer was a bit dishonest, and put a qualifier on it.

He is the kind of person who recognizes the value of life and is willing to do what he can to help everyone. However, if his own life is at stake, in terms of current values, he cannot be blamed for evasion.

After all, no one has a moral or legal basis for being responsible for an epidemic, and even most people feel that the epidemic is a kind of heavenly punishment, which cannot be actively eliminated by mortals, but can only wait for the wrath of the gods to be extinguished.

Others turn a blind eye to and persecute those who have been punished by God because they have sinned and suffered divine punishment or are being tested.

"Well, that's what I thought, what do you say?"

Kraft kept staring at the lenses, not commenting on Lucius, leaving him unsure if he was too focused or dissatisfied with the answer.

"I don't know."

"Huh?" Lucius didn't expect Kraft's answer to be less confident than his own, and he thought that based on his usual impression, the answer would at least be "I'm definitely going", and maybe "I can solve it".

Kraft didn't look embarrassed, he said it calmly, took off the lenses, and replaced them with another lens barrel to fix them on the iron frame.

"I really don't know. I've recently found that I'm still scared of death, a bit of a nonsense, and the reasons are quite complicated, but that's how it turned out. ”

"But the point is not here, the point is that we may encounter some special circumstances, and this 'maybe' will continue to amplify over the course of a long career, becoming a 'certain', and I haven't even done this thing yet."

After turning the lens tube, Kraft still couldn't find the vision he wanted, and the polishing of the crystal slide was not perfect, and the small scratches would turn into a large rift when magnified.

Lucius understood what he meant, but didn't understand the ins and outs, "Why did you suddenly think of this?" ”

"Let's just think that the recent experience has made me a little nervous, realizing that life is fragile, and sometimes it almost ends halfway." Speaking of this, Kraft is still a little afraid.

When facing something, it is often not the time to be the most afraid, the spirit of concentration, the will to solve the problem will block these secondary feelings, and there is also the blind courage that bursts out from fear to the extreme.

In retrospect, I realized that I had brushed shoulders with death several times, and the Grim Reaper's scythe slashed through my neck, taking away a collar from me. I thought about it in a cold sweat, so I had a sense of urgency between life and death.

If you try it again, you may disappear without a trace one night, or you may continue the secret experiment without noticing.

"That's right." Lucius didn't know what Kraft had been through, but he thought of the silence of noon in the salt tide, and the feeling of being surrounded by disease rehearsed for him the horror of the legendary plague.

The two were silent for a moment, and Kraft continued to fiddle with his equipment, while Lucius got up and went to boil water on the small stove.

Rinse the teacups with a portion of the boiling water, then scoop a spoonful of barley into each of the two cups and pour in the boiling water. Watch the barley grains rise and fall in the water, and when most of them sink to the bottom, a good smell of burnt fragrance wafts out of the tea.

A small jar was pulled out, which was part of the "bribe" of the classmates, and a golden thick liquid flowed in it. Lucius added three teaspoons to the two cups, stirred well to add sweetness, and the full version of barley tea appeared.

"Honey, a cup?"

"Ah, it couldn't be better. Lucius, have you considered applying for angels in the past? Familiar with the warm temperature, Kraft took the cup and blew on the air, taking a sip, the sweetness mixed with the burnt aroma of barley, it was the happy water of the otherworldly soul here.

Taking advantage of the improvement in his mood, the person who had been selected to listen to the news finally remembered and had to ask about the new subject on the side.

"Speaking of which, the current matter is over, do you have any long-term arrangements for the future?" Pretend to be casual and ask questions, if there are new subjects in the next schedule, it will definitely take up a lot of time.

Of course, the new arrangement will crowd out the already close work, and as long as Kraft is willing to talk, there will always be something to be gained.

Regardless of whether to talk about it, Lucius almost guessed that the so-called new subject had something to do with the equipment on the table. Since the equipment is in the initial commissioning, it means that they do not have to worry about the increased burden in a few months.

Kraft didn't notice his intentions, or didn't care, put down the hot tea and continued, and replied casually, "I might want to go out for a walk?" ”

"Go out for a walk, where are you going?" Unexpected developments appeared, and this question led to strange news that made people scratch their heads.

"Not recently, but in a while, a month or so. The route is still being planned, tentatively going south and taking a boat along the coastline. ”

It seems that it was not a whim, but it has been planned for a long time. The southbound route is quite mature, and it is common to pass through multiple ports along the coast, stopping and stopping for a few days in each place to do business.

Many captains who seek stability take this line, and at the same time, it is also convenient to carry passengers and collect the money for the tailwind boat, and you can choose most of the southern ports to get off the ship when you get on a boat, which is very cost-effective.

As you head south to the middle of the Norse Kingdom, you will reach the mouth of the famous Tem River in your country, and you will go all the way to the interior of the kingdom from the great river with a steady flow to enter the main artery of water transportation that crosses half of the country.

Along the river, you can see the fruits of civilization fed by the most fertile land of the Norse Kingdom, an area where human life predates the founding of the kingdom.

Most of the famous locations, including Westminburg on the gold coin, are located along this line, and it is not an exaggeration to call it the birthplace of the kingdom.

Historically, higher population densities and town sizes, along with water transport, gave rise to more developed industries, which eventually led to academic progress—the demands of the new aristocracy and various forces were able to resist the pressure of the Church to form comprehensive universities that went beyond religious content.

One of the most famous is the pearl located in the core of the kingdom on this line, the alma mater of Professor Kallman, the dream of countless scholars, and the place he wanted to escape from for the first half of his life.

【Tunling University】

"You're going to Dunling?" This is the conclusion of Lucius after crossing this line in his mind, he wants to go out to study, with Kraft's financial resources and way of thinking, it is simply unreasonable not to go to Dunling.

"Well, it can be arranged, but it's only one of the goals. Mostly I want to look around. ”

No, of course Dunling was the main target, and Kraft had already thought about it. The Black Liquor Incident was snuffed out at the port of Wenden, and it is not known what happened at the source, and its output and specific composition are still a mystery.

"Black liquor is no longer available now, but abdominal surgery has proven to be feasible, and I want to go to the city over there, and it may not be necessary to be inspired."

Craft's repetition of the incident made Lucius muffled, and remembering that Professor Kalman had been shown to be directly related to the events in the Salt Tide Zone, he took two sips of barley tea to hide his emotions.

After a moment, he said, "If you really want to go, help me ask him why he did that." I know I've been judging for a long time, but I'd like to hear his own answer. ”

"Okay, I'll remember." Still drinking tea made by others, Craft agreed to the commission. Anyway, Dunling must be going, and the way he asked might be different from what Lucius thought.

He wanted to find out the ins and outs of the matter, including how Morrison refined the "black liquid", whether it was really classified in "Hydraulics" because it came from the human body, and the source of Kalman's method of contacting deep creatures.

After another moment of silence, Kraft took a sip of the sweet tea, chewed and swallowed a few grains of barley in his mouth, and then fine-tuned the position of the slide.

"Are you going alone?" Lucius was not reassured when he thought about it, as far as the professor described, the big city was much more complicated than the small port of Wendeng.

"Oh, of course not, isn't that just the right to get paid by the academy? So according to tradition, I took in a new servant. ”

It was new, and Kraft hadn't told him about it, and Lucius was curious: "Who?"

"As you may remember, it's that Coop."

Half a month later, Koop took the initiative to come to the academy to find Kraft, the loss of religious beliefs and the change of worldview made him no longer able to settle for his current life, and decided to follow the man who saved his life, and also to find something that could be called "meaning" for the confused life.

He woke up, out of the original world, but didn't know what to do.

Kraft originally thought that this young man who had not yet developed a mental disorder in the face of deep creatures was a little interesting, and his long-term labor on the docks had tempered his physical fitness, and he was a malleable talent with both mental and physical strength.

The point is that Koop is not married, and he has no worries in Wenden Harbour and can leave with Kraft at any time.

"That's about it, don't worry, I've thought it all out, what's the problem? Let's take a look at this. He got up and gave up his place for the afternoon, and the territory he had occupied all afternoon was given to Lucius.

"Don't touch that shelf, I've been debugging for a long time. Just look at it. ”

Lucius sat down at the table, withdrew his hand to touch the barrel, and pulled his eyes to the small crystal lens, a patch of red that took over his entire vision.

"Red, that's the color of blood, what else?"

"Look closely, the quality is too low, it's really difficult to distinguish, I've been shaken several times." Kraft rearranged the reflective silver plate for him, allowing brighter light to shine through the slide.

This time, Lucius saw that what looked like a mushy piece was actually a myriad of tiny red dots, existing in the drops of blood that had just been removed from his fingertips.

"What is this?"

"Future." Kraft took a large sip of warm barley tea, felt the liquid flow into his shriveled stomach that wasn't filled with lunch, and smiled comfortably for the first time Lucius had seen on his face in two months, "I mean, you're going to learn new subjects in the future." ”