Kai couldn't believe at all that he had eaten so many grapes while sleeping, but the fact was right in front of him. The next day, Jett came to see him with the grapes, and in front of Jett and Fiona, he ate them all up in no time. The grapes didn't taste too good, but he didn't have any unusual reactions after eating them, and that was enough to make him ecstatic. But when he thought that he would have to eat grapes in the future, he was both excited and somewhat gloomy.
So he thought there must be something in the world that he could eat, but he just didn't discover it.
Early that morning, he went with Fiona to see Jett. Jett was stuffing a few change of clothes into a large travel bag when he saw Fiona and Kai come in and let them sit down without looking up. Fiona paced up to him and asked, "Old Sha, are you going home?" Jett shook his head and zipped up his travel bag: "You've come just in time. I have a question for you. Have you met online friends?" Fiona and Kai glared at him together: "Old Sha, you're in an online relationship?" Jett blushed: "Stop talking nonsense, does meeting online friends necessarily mean online romance? What kind of logic is this?" Fiona said, "If you don't have an online romance, why do you meet online friends?" "I can't tell you clearly, so I'll ask you if you've met online friends. If you have met, that's fine. You have experience. Come with me to meet one this afternoon. If you haven't met, that's fine. Come with me to have a look." Fiona's interest: "Old Sha, you have to make it clear exactly who you are meeting." Jett knew the kids were shrewd, and if he didn't say everything, they might be whispering behind his back.
In fact, I don't even know if the person I want to meet is a man or a woman. Here's what happened. I searched online last night and saw a self-guided travel post on the city's information harbor forum. The initiator is Cyrus. He wanted to travel somewhere but didn't want to go alone, so he wanted a few companions." Fiona laughed: "So, Old Sha, you want to go ona trip. I thought you were having an online romance. I'm just happy for you." "It's not certain that Cyrus might be a pretty girl. We've been with her all the way, and it's probably not impossible for us to get her." Kai also made a joke about Jett.
Jett smiled and did not bicker with the kids: "Now you know what it is, don't talk nonsense to me outside." He looked at Fiona, then at Kai, and slapped Kai on the shoulder. "You've eaten some grapes, you look much better." "I've eaten less grapes in my life than I've eaten these two days," Kai said with a bitter smile. Jett and Fiona smiled at each other and Jett said, "You two don't do anything this afternoon. Come with me to meet online friends." Kai and Fiona said in unison, "We'd love it."
The keyword Jett searched online was "Cold Moon Village". The famous google search engine suddenly popped up more than 300 pieces of information related to Cold Moon Village, but more than half of them were about the American director Tim. Burton, according to Washington. The film "Cold Moon Village" based on Owen's novel "The Legend of Cold Moon Village". Jett browsed through one item at a time, and finally, on the verge of total disappointment, saw the entry for the self-guided tour.
Opening the content, it was a post on the forum. The post doesn't have much text. It simply states that the destination is a small town called Cold Moon Village and gives a brief introduction to the town, including its location, local customs and the unique primitive scenery, and finally the travel time and contact information.
Jett had only intended to search for some information about Cold Moon Village online, but this request for a travel companion caught his attention all at once. The trip was in the middle of the month, during the school break. If the destination is indeed the town where the forget-your-worries grass is located, then he will be able to meet the town girl who is as unworldly as the town.
The idea came to him and he couldn't hold it back.
Cold Moon Village. Forgetful grass. The two names were on Jett's mind all night long. Forget-your-worries hadn't been online for a long time. After that night, she vanished completely from the Internet. Such a story is really too dramatic and too forced. Jett has seen a lot of such stories online, and disappearance is an essential part of them. Jett felt a great sense of helplessness that such a thing could happen to him. But the dizziness and the black flames in his dreams left him puzzled, not knowing exactly what those flames meant in reality.
Then go to the Cold Moon Village, to see the quaint and beautiful town and the beautiful town girl.
Cyrus left an email address in that post, and Jett sent him an email that night, leaving his contact information. Early this morning, Jett went to the audio-visual center and received a reply from Cyrus. The reply set a time to meet in the afternoon and discuss the details of the trip then.
The security of the Internet has become increasingly questionable. Jett called Kai and Fiona along, not because he was worried about his own safety, but because he knew he lacked experience in dealing with strangers.
The Central bar is well-known in the city's network, and many netizens use it as a regular meeting place. Anyone who shows up here could be a big shrimp on the Internet.
Jett brought Kai Fiona here to meet Cyrus, a man in his early thirties, plain in appearance, of medium height, rather thin, with a small crew cut, and wrinkles at the corners of his eyes when he frowned or smiled. No matter how you look at him, he's a man who can't be picked out from a crowd.
When Cyrus came over to shake hands with Jett, Jett was already at ease.
A plain-looking person has a unique affability that makes one let down one's guard at first sight.
Cyrus describes himself as a reporter for an evening newspaper and has recently taken a long vacation to shoot a set of primitive pictures for a publishing house. By chance, I heard a friend mention Cold Moon Village and had the idea of traveling there. But no one around knew about Cold Moon Village, and there was no travel agency in the city that had a tour route to Cold Moon Village, so he thought of Posting on an online forum to ask for travel companions.
The reason was so good and reasonable that anyone would have nothing to say about it.
Jett asked about the exact time of the trip. Cyrus waved his hand and smiled, saying, "Don't rush yet. Two more friends are also going to Cold Moon Village with us. They should arrive soon." About twenty minutes later, a man and a woman walked into the bar, stood by the door and looked around. Cyrus, with sharp eyes, saw the woman holding a magazine they had agreed to use as a marker. Cyrus quickly stood up and waved to the two, and they came over together.
The man who came over, though not tall, appeared unusually sturdy, with arms as thick as a bowl's mouth, and walked with his head slightly forward and his arms extended outward. He caught Kai's attention as soon as he came. Kai felt that he was walking in a somewhat familiar manner, and his mind raced and remembered. The man walked in the same way as Tyson, Lewis, Holyfield and the others, and Tyson and the others were all professional boxers, so Kai immediately decided that this man was definitely a boxing expert.
The woman walked in front of the man, looking weak and delicate, wearing a beige suit dress that was beautiful and elegant, and it was obvious that she was a girl from an office building.
As they approached, the man stared blankly, as if he had an unresolkable knot in his heart, but the woman was graceful and nodded to the people present, then introduced herself: "I'm Luna, he's my boyfriend, Rowan." Cyrus also introduced herself to Jett and the others in turn.
Rowan sat down, still staring blankly at an unknown spot in the corner of the bar, as if he had no intention of speaking to the people present. His mood was so overwhelming that even Kai and Fiona sat there in silence. When she went back, Fiona told Kai that the moment Rowan came in, she sensed a murderous aura from him.
In the bar that day, Cyrus specifically told everyone about his trip three days later, and everyone had no objection to Cyrus' plan. The members of the self-guided tour will first take the train to the capital city of a southwestern province, then continue westward to the capital of a minority autonomous state, from where they will transfer by car to the north, which will take about a day to reach Cold Moon Village.
Cyrus spoke of the itinerary, Jett Rowan and Luna had no expression, Fiona and Kai had a pitiful look. Fiona whispered in Kai's ear, "These guys are crazy. They can't go anywhere for a trip. It's such a long distance. Just the car ride will drive people crazy. And the name of the place they're going to sounds sinister." Kai grabbed Fiona's hand below: "I think these people are all a bit abnormal. Maybe they went to Cold Moon Village not just for tourism." Fiona moved her hand, gesturing for Kai to speak somewhere else. The two of them got up and sat down at the bar. "What did you think of again?" said Fiona. "You think of our old Sha. We've never heard him talk about Cold Moon Village before. Now he wakes up one night and suddenly wants to go so far away. If there's no reason, he must be possessed." "That's right. Then what about Cyrus?" "Cyrus said he was a journalist and was going to take pictures of the original look for the publishing house. But there are many famous primitive areas in the country, such as Shennongjia, Lop Nur, ancient Loulan, where can't he take pictures? Besides, even if he really wanted to take pictures of places that no one else had taken pictures of, it seemed there was no need to go so far. Can a journalist have such a long vacation to travel around the world?" Fiona thought for a moment and then put away the smile on her face.
"And Rowan and Luna, these two are even more sinister. Look at Rowan. Such people don't have the time to think about traveling at all. They look like they're going to escape something." "What are you trying to escape?" "Fiona asked casually.
"I don't know about that, but I do know that when these guys get together and go out, there's bound to be some fun. What else could happen?" Fiona immediately became interested. It was the happiest thing for her to have fun. She rolled her eyes and leaned closer to Kai: "How about we join this tour group too? I heard from Old Sha that there are vineyards on both sides of the small town called Cold Moon Village, and it's grape harvest season now." Kai fell silent, and Fiona's words stirred his heart. After Jett left, there were few people in the school, and it wasn't interesting for the two of them to stay there all the time. And he really wanted to be away for a while so that he could forget something.
- Cold Moon Village. Is that a place to let memories sleep?
Kai and Fiona decided to go back and think about it. Anyway, there were still three days before they set off.
It seemed that Cyrus and the others had almost finished speaking over there, and Rowan and Luna got up to take their leave. Fiona watched the two of them go out and their figures flash away behind a street-facing glass window. Suddenly Fiona patted Kai on the shoulder, and Kai looked in the direction she was pointing and just saw a skinny man in black standing by the window. The man in black was so thin that even though he was dressed in loose clothes, at first glance, one could see his body wrapped in the clothes like a hemp stick.
Fiona laughed, "There's such a thin man in the world." Kai became worried and said, "I don't know if I'll end up like him one day if I keep eating like this." Fiona shuddered in her heart and felt a bit of fear in her heart.
The whole city was shaking again in the middle of the night. Many people woke up and realized that the earthquake had happened again. But this time people were not as panicked as last time, and many had already sensed that the earthquake that night was just like last time, a very minor one, you could feel, but it was not enough to cause damage to the city. Besides, so many people have been away from home for such a long time, living in some shabby earthquake-resistant sheds, waiting for an earthquake, aren't they? Now it has come as expected, satisfying many people's expectations.
Nevertheless, panic has inevitably descended upon the city.
Jett and Kai Fiona sat in the stands on the west side of the playground after the earthquake. From the stands, the entire playground could be clearly seen. The earthquake-resistant sheds were now in an uproar, with children crying, women screaming, men yelling at their families, and some pet dogs that had left their owners during the earthquake, running around and barking non-stop.
The shaking of the city had come to an end, but the three of them were completely awake. An old cat suddenly darted past them, and Fiona screamed in terror and shrank into Kai's arms. Kai's gaze fell on Jett, who was sitting alone on one side. Jett had his hands on his knees, his head drooping, in a low mood.
"Jett." Kai called Jett softly, "What are you thinking? So deep." "I wonder what would happen if I died in this earthquake tonight." Jett said in a deep voice.
"Jett, stop daydreaming. Aren't you sitting here right now? It's the dead of night. Don't scare us with death or not." "Fiona said.
"In fact, death is everywhere in life. Countless people die every day in this world. Death is just an instant thing, so we actually live on the verge of death every day." "Sometimes you simply can't tell the line between being alive and being dead," Jett continued. Jett thought of dizziness and the black flame in his sleep. The flames burned in the vineyard, and eyes moved rapidly. What are you fleeing from? What to look for? What is hidden behind those flames?
Fiona was not convinced by Jett's words, but Kai shuddered slightly at that moment. Fiona felt it and pulled even tighter into his arms. Fiona thought Kai was cold, but she didn't know that at this moment, because of Jett's words, Kai was causing a deep pain in his heart. He could only let those pains lie dormant in his heart, so he had to bear them all by himself. But at this moment, on the night of the earthquake, when death was at hand, he suddenly found himself in a state of extreme bewilderment.
Just then he thought, could it be that his inability to eat anything but grapes was also related to the hidden pain in his heart? Thinking of this, some strange feelings arose again. He hurriedly pushed Fiona away, got up and ran a few steps away, crouched down and made a sound of retching.
Over there, Fiona and Jett rushed over, and Fiona hugged Kai from behind. Kai was reching so painfully that although he didn't really spit anything out, the reching had already made him weep and his face was distorted.
In his blurred vision of tears, he saw a man emerging from the darkness. A pale face, like wet lime, with bulging features and hair covered in frost. His mouth was slightly open, but his eyes were wide open. There was no more vitality in those dull eyes, as if the gaze had been frozen in the middle of its shot. He was an old man, and his face was full of wrinkles, which had now turned to the color of wet lime.
Kai remembered that this man was his father. His deceased father.
Kai couldn't help retching again, and this time he finally spat out something - a pool of bitter water and some grape skins and seeds. There was also some undigested grape flesh, which had now turned into a green paste mixed in the bitter water.
Kai's eyes were spinning, and vomiting had drained him of all his strength.
- That father frozen with frost, that father as pale as wet lime, is that you?