Dream Guide

This is a newly built house, located on the side of the mulberry garden. The white walls blend in with the surrounding snow. The high horse head wall is also covered with snow, revealing the dark tiles and rafters, like a painting on white paper. The black line on the painting outlines a white drawing of Jiangnan folk houses with just a few strokes.

Aoki stood in the corridor on the second floor, looking at the scenery outside the corridor.

The snow is still falling on the ground, and the big and small trees have turned into dancing silver snakes. Only the lake is not covered with snow. It is as calm as a mirror, reflecting the gray sky. Once the snowflakes fall on it, it seems to be sucked by the mirror. It disappeared like entering.

Behind him is the familiar door, with the couplet "Only green wood can live in Shenwu" on the door. Inside the door is a small room with a desk, a sofa, a row of bookshelves and a birdstand. There is a pack of Paramount cigarettes, a box of matches and an ashtray on the table. There are some magazines piled up on the sofa and on the floor, all of which are the latest. The bird feed box contains sauced elbow meat, which is also fresh and smells fragrant.

Inside is a small room, surrounded by white walls and spotless. There is a bed against the wall, with a cloud silk quilt folded on it, which is also clean and neat.

Everything was the same as when he left. If it weren't for the changes in the exterior walls and location of the house, he would have thought he lived in it yesterday.

It’s hard to imagine I’ve been away for five years!

Liuying Lane has disappeared, the willow trees have become mulberry trees, and the old neighbors who once said hello have moved to other places. Although the mulberry garden is beautiful, it is too desolate. He thought of that woman, living here alone, her hair stained with frost, and suddenly felt a little painful in his heart.

This is a feeling he has never had before. For a dreamless lazy person, emotions are like ice picks hanging on the eaves of the corridor. They stay frozen when they should be frozen, and they will melt when they should melt, leaving nothing behind.

Aoki looked up, stretched out his hand, and gently broke off the long and thin piece of ice. It was cold at the beginning, and when he held it in his hand, the melted water overflowed from his fingers and soaked his skin. Later, he no longer felt the ice, but instead felt warm, and then a little burning, just like holding it. A soft flame.

The crow lay quietly on top of his head, neither calling nor making any fuss, just watching the snow outside, one by one, passing by in front of his eyes.

"It's time to eat!" Bi Shenghua's shout came from downstairs.

The restaurant is not big, with a square dining table against the wall, leaving three sides open. There were four dishes and one soup on the table: a braised pork elbow, a braised carp, half a white-cut chicken, a plate of braised cabbage, and a bowl of shredded radish meatball soup.

Aoki and Bishenghua sat down facing each other, while the crow stood alone, with the cut pork elbow in front of it.

Bi Shenghua said with a smile: "I didn't know that when you come back, there won't be much food prepared. It's New Year's Eve and the food markets are all closed."

Smelling the fragrant aroma, the crow exclaimed intoxicatedly: "Oh, Ruhua, I am already very satisfied! I feel alive again! Without you, life has lost its meaning! It is you who gave me rebirth and made the world Become beautiful!... Gua... um..."

Aoki picked up a piece of elbow meat with chopsticks and stuffed it into its mouth, blocked its poetic mood, and said with a smile: "For those who are celebrating the New Year, don't talk about life and death."

Life Flower took out a bottle of red wine and asked, "Drink a little?"

Aoki nodded and said, "Okay, drink a little."

Bi Shenghua opened the wine with a bottle opener and said, "This wine was given by Huang Ziqiang."

"Huang Ziqiang?" Qingmu thought for a long time before he remembered that it was Boss Huang from Xishan Hot Spring Villa.

"Yes, do you still remember that we drank the 1982 Lafite in his hot spring resort? It was more than five years ago!" Bi Shenghua said with emotion.

Aoki smiled and said: "Didn't you say that there is nothing special about the 1982 Lafite, it was just that the weather was good that year, and those who buy that kind of wine at high prices are all fools?"

Bi Shenghua said: "Later I thought that the bar had expanded and it would be good to buy some of this kind of wine to add to the brand, so I asked Huang Ziqiang if he had any stock and wanted to buy a few bottles from him. He said that Lafite was gone, but he gave it to me. Here comes a box of Romanée-Conti. I want to give him money, but he doesn’t want it. Looking at him like that, I’m afraid you’ll come back to settle the score with him.”

Aoki couldn't help but smile, wondering how could I be so stingy as to trouble someone just for a few bottles of wine, so he said, "This person didn't cause any trouble while I was away, did he?"

"That's not true. He has become very popular in the mall in the past few years and can be considered a figure. He has not forgotten you. He comes to ask about you every year and gives you a lot of things. I."

Bishenghua poured the wine into the decanter, and while she was sobering up, she told Aoki a lot about what had happened in the past few years. She talked about Professor Mei, Yao Jingjing and Hou Biao, Hu Xing and Shi Dazhuang, Poppy and Xia Tian... She just talked like that, without asking where Qingmu went or what he did.

Aoki listened silently and asked occasionally. He also wanted to tell her Ramla's story, but he didn't know what to say or where to start.

The savages who drank blood, the horror of the giant moon in the sky, the strangeness of three suns appearing simultaneously, the despair of the deep wells of time and space... These may be the most wonderful stories written in novels, but at this moment, he only felt that they were a disgrace.

"Everyone is very concerned about you. Logically, you should tell them as soon as you come back. But today is New Year's Eve and it's snowing heavily, so I won't scare people with your news. Tomorrow is the first day of the new year, otherwise..." Bi Sheng Hua hesitated and said, "Let me send you a message. Let's get together tomorrow?"

Aoki looked at Bishenghua's face and the silver light that occasionally reflected in her hair under the light. He was silent for a while and then said, "No need for now, I will stay with you these days."

Bishenghua was stunned for a moment, then she said "hmm" and lowered her head to shake the decanter in her hand.

The crow looked left and right, rolled his eyes and said, "Will I become Hou Biao?"

"What?" Aoki and Bi Shenghua asked at the same time.

The crow said: "The head is too bright, it's a natural light bulb!"

Bishenghua burst out laughing and said angrily: "You are dressed in black, and you will never hope to be a lightbulb in this life!"

Seeing that she was almost sober from the wine, she poured a glass for Aoki and herself. The crow jumped and cried: "I want it too, I want it too, croak!"

Bi Shenghua took a small glass for drinking liquor, poured a little into it, and said, "Drink slowly, don't get drunk!"

The crow was very dissatisfied when he saw how small the cup was. It lowered its head, drank up the wine in the glass in one gulp, smacked its lips and shouted:

"Ruhua, have another cup of gua, Ru-hua-, don't be so stingy gua!"

Life Flower had no choice but to pour it another glass. It drank the sauced elbow and finished it again, and shouted drunkenly and vaguely: "Ruhua, come again! Ru-hua-, little ladies, pour me some wine!"

Life Shenghua slapped the table: "What did you say!"

Crow staggered in fright, fell off the edge of the table, and fell onto a chair. It stretched its neck, put its head on the table, and opened its mouth carefully: "What, gua, what happened just now? Gua gua..."