It was a dense summer rain that splashed on the windows of the high compartments, and the atmosphere was high.

The sleepy Koop was awakened from his stupor, just in time to hear the host recite a few familiar words, and suddenly his eyes widened, and the entire main hall could be seen at a glance from the high overlook.

Crowds crowded the ladder of height and drop, and the space in the inner circle became more crowded, and scholars competed for the air heated by the baking. It's not that they like the environment, but because there's no other place closer to the lowest center. As a result, the most comfortable but distant high-rise rooms have been set aside.

When the frustrated venue arrangers heard that they were not asking for a closer view, they almost gratefully handed them the cubicle key.

"It's time." Koop saw a tall figure coming from the perimeter, carrying a large wooden box, "Do you want to come and see?" ”

"Hmm."

In order to observe his condition, Yvonne was also taken to the Rivers University residence. Since the second treatment, she has been in a state of sleepiness anytime and anywhere, and has not been able to attend several dinners, but her appetite has not decreased with her activities. Some of the snacks and drinks that Kraft had let Koop take with him had been eaten before he knew it.

Before Coop could remind her, she took three bites of pastry and made two bites into her mouth, leaning over the patio window, easily recognizing the next protagonist.

Everywhere the iconic floodlit hair color goes, the black-robed crowd automatically retreats to the sides, making way for them to pass through the walkway, like candles and torches to clear the dark tide.

Another thought, which she couldn't explain the source of, and which didn't match the doctor's usual image, grew in her mind, and felt that it was more like some kind of transparent giant thing squeezing through the crowd, and the wide size was as tall as a chandelier pendant.

The feeling was too strong to ignore or explain as a personal aura, and in a trance she even felt that she could see the form of the giant thing, which strode majestically through the doorway, its body through the crowd and the stairs, unstained in the crowded hall; Enthusiastic spectators admired and praised the gold oak leaf badge.

The crowd, including her and Koop, were like embers floating on the surface of the sea, and at most they were on the surface of the water, knowing nothing about the shadows underwater.

[Fear]

Fear of the wrong object. This cleared her mind a little, and Yvonne couldn't understand why she felt this emotion towards Kraft, as if it didn't come from rational sensibility at all, but from some thought that was connected to herself.

The inaudible whisper reappeared in her ears, and this time she seemed to understand the meaning, beyond the indirect transformation, expression, and re-understanding of spoken words and words, to the original meaning, to escape from this place, away from the figure who was carefully holding the glass container.

Of course not. She grabbed the edge of the window and bit the tip of her tongue, trying to break away from the feeling, but unexpectedly tasted a hint of blood and realized that she had bitten her tongue too hard.

"Here we go." Koop occupied the other side of the window, his hands unconsciously rubbing half of the biscuit, the crumbs falling off. There was no way to restrain the nervousness, and even though the same operation was repeated many times in Comfort Harbor, the patient came from the most familiar group - a dock worker who had been injured in an accident at work and had been dragged down by home remedies for too long.

The patient is ready, lie down in the prepared position.

The modified version of the inhaler is a two-valve glass bottle, which is relatively close to the earlier version of the ether nebulizer, in which the patient latches on to one of them to breathe, while the gas entering from the other valve atomizes it through the liquid in the round bottle and enters the mouth. This results in a smaller, more uniform dose and more time to complete the anesthesia.

The patient was surrounded by a crowd and inhaled with trepidation. The field was quiet, and in the focus of questioning and expectant eyes, he felt an irresistible sleepiness, and his eyes gradually closed and sank into a dream.

When the full set of metal utensils is spread out one by one, this silence reaches the extreme, and the slightest breath is held, waiting for the moment to come, the only small tongs on the field are the crisp jingle of the tinker on the wall of the alcohol cotton bottle, and then the blade of the knife is picked out from the instrument tray and touched the patient's skin. It's too far away to really see.

Yvonne had just suppressed the whisper in his heart, and another whisper appeared in his ear. This time it was the real voice, coming from a group of people closest to the operating table, spreading out into the outer ring.

"The anesthesia worked."

There is no need to see the wound, which has often been heard in the clinic of Comfort Harbor, which is the wonder of seeing the person who is still breathing and does not react to the pain of stripping flesh and bones, and instinctively lowers his voice in awe of such a scene, and whispers the shock that cannot be enjoyed alone.

Kraft lowered his head to concentrate on the maneuver, and his movements were quick and clean, which was a speed requirement that could not be avoided in the current conditions. He explained that under the premise of correct precision, the shorter the exposure time of the wound, the better, which will be directly related to healing.

But when watching, it still reminds people of him wielding a sword, and Koop looked enviously at the precise control of the human body, "I heard that this is a minor operation, as long as gangrene is removed, and most of it is confined to the vicinity of the distal phalanx." ”

"What?"

"Distal phalanx." Koop affirmed, spelling it out by the way. This is part of a recent teaching effort, and Kraft mentions the demo case, which just adds the relevant vocabulary to the learning scope.

Yvonne ignored him, and she didn't have the energy to think about what the word meant, why Coop had started learning things that weren't quite like normal progress again.

After the unexplained whispering ended, it was accompanied by a faint phantom pain, sometimes as if some part of the body with an unknown correspondence was being pulled, and sometimes it was concentrated on the back of the neck and shoulders.

Both hands gripped the window frame with more force, trying to deflect the pain, but to no avail. This kind of pain is not more or less relieved by pressing the pain points when you have headaches and abdominal pains in the past, but it sticks to the spirit like those voices and erodes into the soul.

Instinctively wanted to turn the pain into screaming and moaning, but her understanding of the importance of the party made her try to restrain herself, and the operation needed to go smoothly and had to go well.

Maybe the previous decision was really wrong, and you shouldn't have touched those things without permission. She couldn't remember what had happened after she drank the bottle, all she could remember was colorful dreams, dim moon rings, and something that responded to her strong desires, without the need to explain her ability to comprehend the meaning of transcendence.

[I don't regret it]

She doesn't want to be a meaningless ember point, to live the kind of life of being adrift and involuntary with force majeure that she has experienced in the past and witnessed the experiences of others, even if it may be a life of ignorance and happiness, and she still can't see what lies beneath the surface of the water until she dies.

What Coop was still talking about was about how delicate the sorcerer's technique was, and how it would be if he could learn it.

That is, to use tedious and sophisticated techniques to save the embers that are about to be extinguished, so that its pitiful and fragile and doomed short journey can be prolonged a little. The tall doctor bowed in front of the stage with a small instrument in hand.

In a blur of consciousness, the illusion of an invisible, transparent giant returned, and it seemed to stand up in a shrugged position on the difficult field, bending its waist unrestricted by angles, and looking down at the patient on the stage. Huge and tiny, the shadows under the surface of the water are contemplated by the embers, everything is incredibly absurd, and it is no longer destroyed in an instant.

The procedure was quick, and when she got used to the pain a little and looked up at the operating table, Kraft was already wrapping a cotton cloth around the affected area.

An old man with a white beard and an oak leaf badge on his chest walked up to the stage, held the healthy hand, and asked the patient who had opened his eyes:

"Do you feel any pain?"

He had apparently not yet figured out the situation, but Professor Fellman was still rocking his limbs, and after a moment he realized where he was, and asked rhetorically as if he had just woken up from a dream:

"No, is the operation about to begin?"

The negative word walked clearly through the hall and folded back from the wall for a second time for those who still couldn't believe it. The tumult drowned out the unfinished words, and the patient stared blankly at the tightly bandaged hand amid countless questions.

Koop let go of his hands in cheer and joined the maker of the sound, the cookie crumbs fell, and the scattered scholar leaned forward nonchalantly, standing on his chair and stepping past the crowd that obscured his view.

Yvonne finally didn't have to be silent, let go of the window, and patted away the debris that had been stained at some point.

The movement stopped abruptly, and she spread her palms in confusion, observing the things that were a little prickly, not quite like cookie crumbs.

Not baked crunchy grains. They are sharp and rough, coming from hardwood window frames, unscrewed and twisted in pieces.