Crown of Silence

When Langdi woke up again, he was still on the bed that had been transformed into an operating table.

He couldn't feel his body, as if he was floating in the air, and an inexplicable feeling of happiness lingered in his brain. Although there is no pain, the feeling of nihilistic happiness is extremely confusing and unpleasant.

"Mandala?"

Wolf Flute murmured in a low voice: "Father, was the amount you injected me a little too large?"

"At least you are still sane and able to speak." In the candlelight, the priest, who was chanting with his head lowered, looked back at him. "When you were brought back, you were not as complete as you are now. In order to prevent you from dying of pain, I took the inventory All the mandalas are gone.”

"It's really hard work, but is this level of surgery really something that an ordinary priest should be able to do? And there shouldn't be surgical instruments and so many medicines in ordinary churches..."

The priest ignored him.

Langdi raised his head with difficulty and saw the dense surgical sutures on his chest. He sighed softly: "Since I am still alive, does it mean that the rainmaker is dead?"

"Isn't he right next to you?"

The priest's words made Langdi stunned. He turned his head to the other side, couldn't help but screamed, and almost rolled out of bed.

Right next to his pillow, there was a large glass vessel.

A shriveled, deformed corpse was soaked in the pungent embalming liquid.

It seemed as if all the water had been squeezed out, and the mutilated body was stooped and bent, like a large baby. But no baby is as scary as this devil.

"You don't need to retaliate against me like this, right? Father."

Langdi made a grimace: "Are you a headhunter? How did you turn him into this?"

"It became like this after he died." The priest reached out and took the bottle away, pretending to throw it away: "It seems that I am being pretentious. If you don't need it, I can throw it away."

"I was wrong! Please show your respect. Although this thing is ugly, you can still get a lot of money from the Musicians Guild."

Wolf Flute twisted his mouth and begged for mercy, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth, and looked extremely idiotic: "Otherwise, my instrument can't be repaired. Those dead goblins in the Cavendish Laboratory might not even be able to see the money." No one will let me in."

The priest lowered his head and stared at the remains in the bottle, and suddenly asked: "Isn't the support you promised the child also in it?"

"..."

Langdi was stunned for a moment: "You know everything?"

“I was outside listening when you were talking last night.

"...Since when?"

"From the very beginning, until you say, 'In order to compensate for the dangers he encounters as a bait, you are willing to fund his training as a musician.'"

"Aren't you curious about whether he agreed?"

The priest looked at him again, as if he were an idiot, and said nothing.

"Okay, he agreed."

Lang Di was helpless: "If it weren't for him this time, maybe I would really die."

The priest shook his head: "With that wolf king who can control the ether, you may not lose."

"Thanks to what the teacher gave me, and thanks to his foresight, I was able to bluff the rainmaker. But I didn't expect that the result would be a heavy price."

"Being alive is better than anything else. You should rest first."

Father Ben stood up,

As if he was about to leave, after a moment of silence he said softly: "There will be a carriage taking you away the day after tomorrow. I will take you to pick up that thing tomorrow."

It...is well preserved, and I hope you can use it properly. "

He gave Wolf Flute one last look, left the room, and closed the door.

In the silence, there is only the silent wolf whistle.

After a long time, he scratched his head and sighed softly:

"As long as that thing is used, it will never be called 'proper', right?"

-

-

Ye Qingxuan had another dream. He dreamed of the distant past, but it was not similar to what he remembered.

It was like someone's fantasy, and with the sound of rain, I came to my own dream.

He was once again on the streets of Avalon, bustling with traffic.

-

The familiar sound of the piano came from nowhere. It was a sound that had been echoing in my ears since I was ignorant. They were like palms, leading him deeper into his dream.

In the surging crowd, he saw the man carrying the piano case. He looked very young, so he must have been there many years ago.

His robes fluttered in the wind, flying like a crane.

The long silver-white hair was not tied into a hairpin like most Asians, but was simply tied up with a hairband, which looked weird and simple.

"...So the old men in the Holy City call me 'Yue Yin', probably because they think I am an expert in dealing with cultists. But no matter how you look at it, my son is a bit more genius than me, right?"

The man looked down at his son, who was just staring curiously at the surrounding scenery, looking here and there. The child's face was so familiar that it gave Ye Qingxuan a headache, but he couldn't remember who it was.

Ye Qingxuan stood in the crowd, staring at it, confused and confused.

"Dad, I want that..."

The child stretched out his hand and pointed at the balloon in the pedestrian's hand.

"Okay, okay, daddy will buy it for you secretly, don't tell mommy, okay?"

The man carrying the piano case was teasing his child and passed by Ye Qingxuan, who was bewildered.

He turned around and saw the carefree eyes of the child in the man's arms.

In the surging crowd, the child looked back at him, and the momentary eye contact seemed to open something. That look made Ye Qingxuan stagger back and fall to the ground, as if his whole body was hollowed out.

That child looked like himself in the past.

But when had he ever been so happy?

He wanted to laugh.

-

The ubiquitous sound of the piano came again, freezing the surging crowd on the street. The wind rose from the end of the dream and poured down from the sky, drowning and blowing away this city.

Ye Qingxuan struggled painfully in the wind, swaying.

At his fingertips, the string ring returned to a shining string, pulling him into the depths of the wind tunnel.

He floated in the wind.

"Ye Zi, have you ever dreamed?"

The man with the violin case asked softly in his ear. Ye Qingxuan looked around blankly and heard a childish voice answering for him: "Are those things that happen after falling asleep?"

"Maybe, but I also have dreams when I'm awake."

The man with the violin case laughed softly. His voice was soft and low, like the clear echo of jade colliding:

"Dreams in sleep can be forgotten as long as you wake up, but when the awake person falls asleep, it will continue, continuing in your dreams... The whole world becomes like a beautiful dream, how wonderful, right?"

Ye Qingxuan froze, turned around, and saw the man with the violin case. The pain from nowhere made him bend over. He held his head and felt waves of pain.

"This world is a nightmare, father!"

He roared hoarsely: "It's because of you that it's become like this... Can you still think of it as a beautiful dream? Mom is dead... Mom is dead because of you!"

The oriental man was stunned, as if he finally remembered, staring at him with blurred eyes, complicated and sad.

The continuous sound of the piano, like silk, was interrupted for a moment, as if a sharp blade cut the silk, cut it open, and the ground was in a mess.

The wind stopped, the sand and dust disappeared, the sun went out, the earth was broken, and everything collapsed.

The darkness enveloped everything, and he fell into the abyss.

But the broken piano sound was like a hand, holding him tightly.

The dream was changing drastically, sometimes like a city flooded by floods, sometimes a collapsing castle, and sometimes a raging sea, with dense jungles growing on the sea water and neon flashing at the end of the sky.

The next moment, they changed again and dimmed.

The endless fog rose and submerged everything.

-

The piano sounded again.

Like the moon singing, like clouds in the sky.

Ye Qingxuan walked in the mist, looking for the direction of the piano sound in a daze. The rugged mountain road under his feet gradually climbed up, extending to a higher place, and became narrower and more difficult to walk.

The disturbed mist wrapped him, as if countless eyes were watching him quietly, making him feel that he was not alone walking on such a road alone.

He walked on the mountain road, forward, forward, forward... until there was no way to go.

The next step was the abyss.

The sound of the piano came from the end of the sky, broken and firm, as if calling him to come. Ye Qingxuan quietly stared at the mist and stretched out, taking a step forward.

The abyss did not swallow him, because there was an invisible piano sound holding him up, he stepped on the wind, moved forward, and walked faster and faster.

Sometimes he looked around and stared at the dancing clouds. In the mist and the sea of ​​clouds, only the broken light of the stars was swimming, like fish in the mist. The light passed by him and disappeared.

So his mind was at peace, no longer anxious.

So, the sea of ​​clouds separated from him. Layers of fog and thick clouds retreated to both sides, revealing a line of night sky, above which the stars shone.

In front of the road to the sea of ​​clouds, a bright moon rose silently, shining in the direction of the end.

In the fragmented and quiet piano sound, countless lights jumped from the sea of ​​stars, fell, and rose to the sky again. The ethereal melody lingered in the sea of ​​clouds between heaven and earth, turning into a little bit of bright light.

In the moonlight, he saw the man who was waiting quietly.

The man stood in the unreachable distance, and Ye Qingxuan could not catch up with him. In the silent gaze, he saw Ye Qingxuan's shadow, smiled, and waved gently.

But when he waved, his body was turbulent and blurred, as if he was about to dissipate.

"How is it?" He looked at the boy: "Is this a good dream?"

"Is this also your trick, father?"

Ye Qingxuan stared at him: "But I don't think it's beautiful, .anhcomm I'm afraid of it."

"Ye Zi, this is your past dream, you just remember it again."

"I have forgotten it."

Ye Qingxuan turned his head away, not wanting to look again.

"Things that have been forgotten will not appear here."

The person in the moonlight whispered: "Things that cannot be forgotten will make people painful, but this is your dream, how can you forget it?"

Ye Qingxuan was stunned. He looked around the dream, the sea of ​​clouds and the moonlight, but suddenly felt confused and sad.

"Then...what should I do?"

In the silence, the man smiled, like moonlight.

"Aren't you moving forward?"

He said: "Just like now, not arrogantly floating up to the sky, nor falling down because of pain. It is forward, straight forward. Nothing in this world can stop you from moving forward.

Whether it leads to heaven or hell, I will go all the way to the end of the dream..."

The boy looked at the pair of black eyes that were the same as his own. There seemed to be thousands of words in those eyes, but they were not clear.

"So, don't forget, Ye Zi."

In the moonlight, he stared at the boy, sighing like sadness and complexity. Gradually, he melted in the moonlight, and only the wind brought the last whisper:

"I will wait for you there."