2052, Thirty Years Of Sleep

"mom."

"Xiao Xing? Why are you here?" Mrs. Liu's eyes showed surprise, and she quickly took the man's hand and pulled him into the house.

The sound of children reading aloud came from the backyard. Xing Xiuxian looked around the room and asked softly: "Where's Dad?"

"Your dad..."

There was a complicated look in Mrs. Liu's eyes. She was about to say something, but was interrupted by an old voice in the back room: "Ah? Xiao Xing is here too, that's great."

Old man Liu opened the door and walked out, with a smile on his old face: "I fell down on the way back from riding my motorcycle, and I was just changing clothes. By the way, why did you come to the village at this time? It's still early, it doesn't affect you. A job..."

"I have no intention of continuing this job for a long time. I will probably go to America later." Xing Xiuxian moved a chair and sat down. His hand subconsciously reached into his pocket, but his movements froze.

"If you want to smoke, just smoke. We won't live much longer?" Old Man Liu waved his hand nonchalantly.

Xing Xiuxian did not take out the cigarette case after all. After a moment of silence, he slowly said: "Actually, just leave it to me. You don't have to do this."

"No, we have to do this." Old man Liu's expression suddenly turned serious with a smile on his face.

"Xiao Xing, it's now time, so don't try to persuade us." Mrs. Liu also advised.

"Yeah." Xing Xiuxian felt a little bored inexplicably, and subconsciously wanted to take out a cigarette, but he put his hand down as soon as he raised it.

At this moment, a cry suddenly came from the front door of the house: "Doctor Liu! Is Dr. Liu at home? Uncle Ruan seems to be dying, please come and help!"

Old man Liu stood up quickly, quickly took out a cloth package from the cabinet, and then trotted to the backyard and brought out a thin black boy.

"I'll go first." As soon as he finished speaking, the person had disappeared at the door.

Xing Xiuxian was a little confused: "Is it necessary..."

Old Mrs. Liu said slowly: "Although Old Man Ruan's grandson is not a thing, he is not bad. He even persuaded the people in this village..."

"Yes." Xing Xiuxian nodded, and the atmosphere in the room became a little heavy.

I don’t know how long this silence lasted. Old Mrs. Liu seemed to have made up her mind and suddenly said: "Xiao Xing."

"Well, you say."

"I always feel... something is wrong with Lao Liu."

"Huh?" Xing Xiuxian's eyes instantly became alert: "Can you elaborate?"

"To be honest, I can't tell clearly." Old Mrs. Liu shook her head slightly: "From the first moment he walked in, I felt something was wrong. It seemed that the old Liu in front of me was not the real old Liu... But I And I can't tell what's wrong, because he is obviously Lao Liu..."

"I understand." Xing Xiuxian nodded slightly.

...

At dusk that day, while everyone was having dinner, Xing Xiuxian left the guest house silently.

On a dirt road, he met the person he was looking for.

"Xiao Xing? I was just going to find you." Old man Liu was a little surprised and waved to him.

"Hey." Xing Xiuxian responded, stepped forward and naturally supported the other person's arm.

"I haven't reached that age yet, and my legs and feet are flexible." Old man Liu chuckled, but he did not refuse and allowed the other party to help him walk up a small slope.

The two of them came to a field and sat down. Xing Xiuxian took out a cigarette case from his pocket and handed it over: "What did you say you were looking for me for?"

Old Man Liu took out a cigarette, held it in his mouth, then put a hand to his mouth and leaned over, asking the other party to light the cigarette for him: "I don't know what happened, but after falling off the motorcycle this morning... .I seem to have some strange memories in my mind.”

"What strange memory?" Xing Xiuxian himself took out a cigarette and lit it with a lighter.

His eyelids were half drooped, looking a little lazy, but the gaze hidden underneath was as sharp as a knife blade.

"I seemed to be soaked in a glass jar, surrounded by darkness, as if I was in a cave. I felt as if I was not a human at that time, but I was obviously a human. And I remember it very clearly, I have never experienced this before. What the hell, why do I have such a strange memory..."

Old Man Liu frowned and twisted his brows into the Chinese character "Sichuan": "It's really weird."

"Yes." Xing Xiuxian responded softly, with no expression on his face, but his heart had sunk to the bottom.

"Xiao Xing."

"Um."

"Tell me, is it possible that I am not actually me?"

"What?" Xing Xiuxian turned his head slightly, staring at the old man's profile with cold eyes.

"I mean..." Old Man Liu also tilted his head, his bright eyes that did not match his age were full of confusion: "Is it possible that I am the one soaking in the jar?"

Xing Xiuxian didn't answer any more, just sat there silently. Under the brown leather jacket, the muscles all over his body were as tight as rocks.

"I feel like... I am a different species?"

Old man Liu blew out a smoke ring in the air. The white smoke circle floated forward, getting bigger and lighter, and finally dissipated in the air.

"Am I?" He tilted his head, his bright eyes full of exploration.

Xing Xiuxian's tense muscles all over his body were a little loose. For some reason, he couldn't feel the slightest threat from the other party. It seemed as if the old man sitting next to him was still the same old man as before. He just had an extremely real dream and wanted to share it with him.

By some strange coincidence, Xing Xiuxian said the following: "If nothing else happens, you should have been eaten by a shape-shifter, and it gained your memory."

"Deformer?" Old Man Liu was slightly startled: "Deformer..."

"Yeah, shapeshifter." Xing Xiuxian put out the cigarette butt and threw it to the roadside.

"Give me another one too."

"good."

Old Man Liu took a last puff, threw the burned cigarette butt under his feet, stepped on it, and then took a new cigarette: "You mean, I was eaten by a monster, and that monster gained all my memories. So, now I am actually a monster with all Liu Jingguo’s memories?”

"Well, that should be it."

"But that's not how I feel."

"You say."

"I don't know why, but I feel like I'm still Liu Jingguo, but I just gained the ability of a monster."

Old Man Liu raised his head and squinted at the glowing duck egg yolk on the horizon: "I still want to kill them. After killing them, I will commit suicide with your mother."

Xing Xiuxian didn't answer, he just smoked cigarettes one after another.

"Xiao Xing."

"Um."

"If you think I'm dangerous, just get rid of me."

"What?" Xing Xiuxian looked sideways.

The old man was still looking at the sunset in the distance, his expression was very calm, but there was an inexplicable determination: "As long as you promise me, you will kill all those people."

Xing Xiuxian was silent.

Two men finished smoking a pack of cigarettes in the sunset.

"dad."

"Huh?" Old Man Liu was a little surprised, as if he didn't expect the other party to be willing to call him that.

"You and Mom both said that you should do this yourself." Xing Xiuxian stood up from the field ridge and patted the dust on the back of his pants.

Old Man Liu hesitated and said, "Aren't you worried about me?"

Xing Xiuxian did not answer the question, but simply said: "There are two young people traveling with me. You and your mother need to pay more attention. Especially one of the girls, you'd better not have contact with her, she can hear other people's voices. ."

Old Man Liu thought for a while and nodded slowly: "I'll go back and let your mother rest for the next two days and not teach the children... Then I'll prepare the sacrificial materials at home. It's not convenient to see people." ."