Chapter 490, Going around in circles

In winter, the biting cold wind, accompanied by the crisp ringing of bells, broke the silence around.

While Zhuo Zheng was leisurely packing his schoolbag, the elementary school students downstairs had already rushed downstairs in a swarm.

The adults waiting at the school gate were anxiously looking for their children in the crowd. When most of the people downstairs had left, Zhuo slowly came downstairs and talked with his deskmate about how cold the weather was today.

Zhuo wrapped himself tightly in his down jacket, carried his empty schoolbag, and walked towards the school gate.

When I walked out of the school gate, the path next to the intersection was crowded with people. I knew without looking that there was a big pot with red and oily soup in it. Green, red and black peppers and Sichuan peppercorns were floating on the soup, and the bottom of the soup was filled with meat and vegetables of various sizes, all squeezed into the pot.

At the bottom of the pot is a simple small stove. It’s not really a stove, but just a large iron can filled with coal, burning red hot.

In northern Siberia, the most popular drinks are vodka and red oil.

The pot was bubbling with steam, and a group of children surrounded the place so tightly that there was no room for movement. The air from their mouths mixed with the steam from the pot rose into the sky. The foggy scene was very lively!
“*%……&……%……”

“%￥%…￥…%￥&”

"..."

They held up their little hands, holding light green or grass green rubles, and shouted words that Zhuo could not understand. They squeezed in with all their might, urging the aunt to collect money and take the skewers. Those who grabbed the skewers would leave and lower their heads to wolf down the food in a less crowded area outside. They grimaced and stamped their feet because of the heat!

Seeing so many people, Zhuo Ben wanted to leave, but his deskmate stopped him and said, "Let's wait a while! There will be fewer people soon, let them grab the food first. I heard that the food here is delicious!"

Zhuo touched his stomach, which was empty. He smelled the fragrance in the air, his saliva swirling back and forth in his mouth. Finally, he gave in: "Okay! Let's wait a while."

The peak period was actually only about two quarters of an hour, and people gradually dispersed. Zhuo and his table mate hurried forward and ordered two large skewers of mutton to satisfy their appetites. A family of four quietly walked out from the side, and the two people who were eating so happily didn't even notice where they came from.

The father didn't look very old, but his back was a little hunched, his black cotton jacket was covered in dust, and his hair was messy, probably because he often wore a hat - Zhuo thought so. On his feet were a pair of cotton shoes made by hands.

He slowly moved to the front of the pot, turned to look at the two children, and seemed to be hesitant to speak.

"Two skewers of greens please!"

The voice was soft and gentle, and indeed did not sound like that of a middle-aged man. Instead, it sounded very young.

And he could actually understand what he was saying. Zhuo thought that he was probably a refugee. But was it really appropriate to flee to the country closest to the North Pole?

The boss quickly took out two bunches of vegetables from the pot. The father took them carefully and looked at the child's mother.

Although she is said to be a mother, she will definitely be considered a daughter at first, right?

She was so small that even if the man was a little hunched, she could only reach his chin. Besides, unlike her father, her mother had a straight back. Zhuo had never seen a woman who could stand so beautifully, not to mention that she was almost the same height as him. So even if Zhuo made a mistake, there was nothing he could do.

Zhuo could only see the mother's back. She was wearing a headscarf, revealing a few wisps of hay-like golden hair. She was holding her two children's hands tightly.

The mother walked over with her two children, took a bunch of vegetables from the father's hand, and did not eat it for a long time.

"Give the kids two skewers, too."

The mother's voice was cold and indifferent, reminding Zhuo of the cold wind blowing in from the Arctic Ocean when he got up early in the morning and opened the window.

The cold wind blowing from the Arctic Ocean was naturally bone-chilling, so he received many complaints from his deskmates every day and was forced to get up together with them. Zhuo thought it was quite good, as in this remote place, such a cold wind could wake him up all of a sudden from his drowsiness, and he didn't feel cold.

Perhaps this analogy is not so appropriate. Zhuo feels that his mother's voice is different from the cold wind. It has a soft feeling, just like when the wind blows from the Arctic Ocean to the land, the ice and snow in the wind are removed...

The sound is really nice.

The father looked at the two children hesitantly and waved.

"Come over here, each of you pick one string."

The two children rushed to the pot like wild horses. The elder brother shouted, "I want meat! I want meat!" The younger sister stared at it with her big round eyes for a long time, then said slowly, "I just want a bunch of mushrooms."

The boy was very happy and started to eat happily; the girl was different from him, or rather, she was a bit like her mother, in that she was very quiet.

Especially the girl’s deep blue eyes and light golden hair…so pretty.

Maybe my mother was also this beautiful when she was young - that's what Zhuo thought.

The two children took the skewers and ate them with relish. The father gave them money silently and walked slowly forward with his family. He licked the juice off the bamboo sticks but did not throw them away, but just held them in his hands.

"Utsunomiya! Where are you going?"

"..."

Zhuo ignored his deskmate's pulling and followed them forward like a possessed person.

The vegetables in the mother's hand remained untouched.

After finishing his meal, my brother glanced at the vegetables in his mother's hand and quickly looked away without saying anything. But this did not escape his mother's eyes. She was helpless and relieved.

"Leave half for your sister."

His words were still so concise and to the point, and then he gave the vegetables in his hand to his brother.

It is cold in winter and the vegetables have already gone cold.

The elder brother was holding the vegetables in his hand and was about to eat them but suddenly calmed down and looked around as if he understood something. In the cold wind, the father who was walking in front against the wind, holding their mother and younger sister, looked so small and insignificant in the narrow alley.

He hurried to his father who was standing in the front and raised his hand high.

"Dad! Eat a bite!"

My father was stunned and didn't speak for a long time.

Time has stood still...

The father was stunned for a while before he came to his senses. He turned around to look at his mother who had been staring at his back, and took a small bite.

After seeing his father eat it, the brother ran to his mother and raised his hands high.

"Mom! Eat a bite!"

The mother looked at her brother in silence, then lowered her head and took a small bite.

Seeing that his mother and father had eaten it all, the brother gave the rest to his sister without hesitation.

The younger sister asked softly, "Brother! Don't you want to eat?" Her small face was full of confusion.

The brother pinched his sister's face and said, "I'm a man, so of course I have to give the delicious food to women!" After that, he proudly walked forward with his hands on his waist and a big piece of tape!

I walked in front of my father and imitated him, using my body to push against the wind and move forward.

The younger sister tilted her head and looked at her mother who was still calm, then she happily started eating one in each hand.

A family of four walked slowly forward, leaving only shallow footprints.

Zhuo, who was watching this scene, had already fallen into it. He didn't know how far he had followed them. The string of noodles in his hand had already gone cold. The classmate behind him kept shouting until there was no sound...

After coming to his senses, Zhuo hurriedly tried to chase after him, but raised his hand and then put it down again.

In such a friendship, is there really any way she can help?

Looking at the receding backs, Zhuo finally stopped at the call of his deskmate and walked in the opposite direction. The two pairs of backs faced each other and slowly disappeared from the sight.

"What are you doing? You scared me so much that I kept walking north. I thought you were drugged by them!?"

"Um, sorry - what happened to the north?" "There are no roads in the north. There are only glaciers and the Arctic Ocean. If you are not careful, you will get lost... I don't know why those people are so desperate. They must have suffered a lot."

"What do you mean?"

"Of course, they must have encountered insurmountable difficulties! Do you know that widowed penguins often leave the group after losing their partner and quietly walk to the glacier wasteland to die?"

"..."

Zhuo didn't know what to say, but couldn't find a reason to refute, so he had to choose to remain silent.

"I guess there's nothing I can do about it, otherwise I wouldn't have come here... I have a lot of bitterness in my heart, how much sweetness would it take to fill it~ Alas~"

"...You are wrong ghosts. People with a lot of bitterness in their hearts can be filled with a little bit of sweetness."

"Eh?"

"I think... I think it shouldn't be. In this world, everyone has their own snow, and everyone has their own darkness and brightness. We can't say whether they are suffering or not."

"Eh, eh, eh? ...So you think they're good like that?"

"...I didn't say that."

"What about the children? Will they feel happy? At least they are not lucky. When they see other children gathered around the Christmas tree by the fireplace, will they feel that the present is good?"

“…I never said that.”

"That mother could have made better choices. Didn't I say that the father didn't work hard enough? But this is the result. Even if you don't say it, you will feel guilty as a husband and a father."

"..."

“Everyone in the world likes to exaggerate the word love as if it is something great, as if one cannot live without loving someone or being loved. However, they often use this as a cover to cover up their arrogant desires and actually do harm.”

“…I don’t think so.”

"Not like that? Which point do you mean? The child or love? Okay, even if it's like you said... so what?"

Zhuo looked at his deskmate's light golden eyes with some frustration. Speaking of which, this deskmate was so handsome, but there were no girls around him. Could it be that Siberian girls don't like such cute boys?

Snapped--

Seeing his deskmate raise his left hand and snap his fingers, Zhuo was a little confused.

... "Hey Zhuo, is the meal ready? I'm starving, so starving, so starving—"

… “Alright alright…Yurina, where are the kids.”

…"I don't know. Go find it yourself. We agreed that I will only be responsible for giving birth. Everything else is yours."

... "Are you a pig? You are only responsible for giving birth!"

… “No matter what! Go quickly!”

……"pig--"

... "Oh no - it's going to storm outside, please come back soon, I'll be waiting for you at home -"

... "Really? This storm was so severe, it felt like the end of the world."

... "Hehe, then come back soon, and we must die together~"

Zhuo stared blankly at the three-story building. The woman who was sitting lazily and smiling on the sofa stood up, kissed the man on the cheek intimately, and then said some embarrassing words and sent her husband out.

The husband held up an umbrella and glanced at the gloomy sky worriedly; the wife behind the door seemed to have lost her energy in an instant, and returned to the sofa in boredom, repeatedly changing the programs on TV; on TV, the mayor of Tokyo was personally appearing to appease the public, but as he was speaking, he seemed to have lost his mind and yelled at the top of his voice like a drunkard, "A certain gentleman who calls himself the General, the terrorist General! Listen carefully! How do I call you? The terrorist General! You've gone too far! Don't expect me, Heiji Zenigata, to succumb to your tyranny! Don't even think about escaping the sanctions of the law! And don't even think about making conditions with me! I swear to send you to the gallows! I will wring your neck with my own hands--" The program was forcibly cut off.

The wife looked at the dark clouds outside the window worriedly and bit her lip silently.

Outside, beneath the dark clouds, a white object like an aurora streaked across the sky; if you looked closely, you could see a silver-white fighter plane circling around it, the two of them spinning like a double helix, rising higher and higher...

"Look, what's the result?"

When Zhuo was still in shock and disbelief, his deskmate's voice could not wait to wake him up again. Zhuo looked back at him, with a helpless expression on his pretty face that said "this is how the world is".

"The world is so ruthless. It doesn't matter who is missing. Kodak produced very good quality films until the day it went bankrupt. It's just that the world no longer needs it... Leaving sometimes doesn't mean you did something wrong, but that you are no longer needed."

"Lu Mingze?"

“Eh? You can call me that, but I’m not the real Lu Mingze. This is just your own fantasy. If you think I’m Lu Mingze, then I am~”

"..."

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not lying to you. After all, you've thought about these things, right? That's why you don't want to admit it... How wonderful this world is. You can marry the person you love the most, start a family, and immediately start a business. You can live an ordinary but extraordinary life... Look, it's just like this. If you change someone else, the result won't be much different."

"I think……"

"No one is irreplaceable. If you were to start over again, would the things you think are most important still be important? Would others still think you are important? You are just experiencing one of the countless branch lines now. Maybe one day someone will be unhappy and you will have to start all over again - Oh, by the way, I have a lot of if lines here. Do you want to take a look?"

“… a twisted theory.”

"If the shoes you like are out of stock, go to the store next door and buy a beautiful coat. If the person you like leaves, go to class and work hard to earn more money. There are countless ways to make yourself happy, and countless roads to the future... The things you are addicted to now will become dispensable pastimes. Nothing is irreplaceable, including zero, including you."

"..."

"Utsunomiya Shuo, how stubborn are you going to be?"

"I didn't, you are misleading me."

"Me? I'm just imagining. If you try to imagine me as anyone, I will become him/her, so you are avoiding me."

"…Who would believe that? They are all liars."

"Hmm--By the way, Utsunomiya Shuo, you must know a saying, a somewhat feudal old saying, which goes, "You are what you eat"? "

Zhuo suppressed the shock and panic that surged from the bottom of his heart, glared at Lu Mingze who was smiling mischievously, and warned him not to continue.

This old saying undoubtedly comes from "planting flowers". Zhuo doesn't think he will tell others that he is a time traveler or a reborn person. This is not out of any sense of superiority, but just because he doesn't want to be excluded, or he has thought it through and regards himself as living again without losing his memory. So rather than keeping it secret, it's better to say that he feels that there is no need to mention the past.

Lu Mingze, who could say such words, really didn't seem to be lying.

Seeing this, Lu Mingze deepened his smile, while Zhuo, on the other hand, blinked his eyes in disbelief. In the end, Zhuo could no longer bear it and turned away, allowing himself to escape from him.

"You are what you eat", in fact, it is not wrong, just like the saying "Be contented, help others, and be happy". Even if you suffer, you will choose to digest it silently. Don't you think it makes sense? Suffering will only make you cry more, right? Dr. Herzog said something quite right, this is a cannibalistic world, only by cannibalizing people can you become a superior person..."

"So long-winded! So long-winded! Such nonsense can only fool lost children..."

His/her voice seemed to still be in his/her ears. Seeing that he/she seemed to be talking to himself/herself, Zhuo tried his best to act natural and began to move away.

"Why do we always have to lose something in exchange for gaining something? It makes me sad just thinking about it..."

……

The collapse of the church cannot affect the frogmen's fire.

This was the moment they had been waiting for for a long time. The frogmen took out the weapons embedded in their bodies and slashed them at the kneeling figure. There was no spurt of blood or a series of flames, but the violence also forced the frogmen to take a step or half a step back. The arms embedded with weapons were twisted and deformed, but they quickly squirmed and recovered.

In this situation, they were unable to gain the upper hand.

(End of this chapter)