How to Feed an Abyss!

Lu Tinghan didn't know when he would come back.

Shi Yuan could only wait for him silently.

The next day was supposed to be the troupe's disbandment meal, but the level III warning came with great vigor, and they entered the refuge again.

The shelter is cramped and depressing, and the lights are only on for 6 hours a day.

Shi Yuan hid on the bed in the corner, holding the crystal and looking at the light.

The surface of the crystal is rugged, but it does not affect its transparency. The butterfly is clearly visible, beautiful and weird.

So when will Lu Tinghan come back?

How would Lu Tinghan react? Is it surprise or shock, is it the joy of reuniting with old friends, or the anger of hatred after finding out that you have been cheated?

Is his ability really useful for defending the city? What would he do if humans forced him to kill all the monsters?

Shi Yuan thought about these questions for several days, but still had no answer. In any case, in order to prevent Cheng Youwen from engraving a QR code on his grave, Shi Yuan still had to give it a try.

Step by step.

Gamble on Lu Tinghan's preference for him.

The earth shook at night, and the infected swarm roared in the distance. Shi Yuan fell asleep with his tail on his pillow.

He had another strange dream.

In the dream, the stage was bright, and the monster watched him silently from the audience, attracting everyone's attention. Same as last time, Shi Yuan didn't know what they were waiting for.

In the long dead silence, bright blue butterflies came flying. It flew from the end of the darkness, its scales were shimmering, and it flew gracefully around the time abyss.

Shi Yuan stretched out his hand, and the butterfly landed on his hand.

"And you, what do you want?" he asked.

Butterfly flutters its wings.

The sound of insect wings flapping came again, from far to near, deafening.

Butterfly flew away and disappeared into the darkness. Shi Yuan subconsciously wanted to chase after him, but the darkness overwhelmed him again. The performance came to an end, and the monsters once again hid in dreams.

【Don't tell him】

They murmur.

【You are our protagonist】

Three days later, they left the shelter.

The next day, Lu Tinghan still didn't come back, and Shi Yuan was going to the theater for a breakup meal.

You already need a pass to go out. Fortunately, this is the last day of the transition period, and the conditions are relatively relaxed. All members of the troupe have obtained a one-day pass. In the morning, Shi Yuan took out the crystal from under the pillow, put it in his pocket, zipped it up carefully, and got on the car to the theater.

Out of a certain intuition, he can only feel at ease if he carries the crystal with him.

Cheng Youwen arrived earlier than him. His stuff hasn't been confiscated yet, so he'll take this opportunity to clean it up.

Books and manuscripts piled up in his office. He leaned on crutches and tidied up while panting. Shi Yuan helped and packed a few boxes of books, but there was nothing missing in the whole room.

"I can't close it anymore, let's talk about it later." Cheng Youwen sat down panting, and wiped the thin sweat from his forehead, "Shi Yuan, go and rest first, if you are too tired, you won't be able to eat. "

Shi Yuan thought for a moment, took off the spike pendant and handed it to Cheng Youwen: "Here you are."

Cheng Youwen opened his eyes slightly: "...Didn't Lieutenant Xie give you this?"

"Yeah." Shi Yuan said, "But I think it should be left to you."

"How can that be?" Cheng Youwen waved his hand, "The thing I gave you is yours, I don't want it. I also have his gift, don't you remember? That gold-plated pen."

"Actually, I didn't tell you everything." Shi Yuan said, "Xie Qianming should... hate me."

"Huh?" Cheng Youwen opened his eyes wide, "What happened?"

Shi Yuan: "I can't tell you."

The memory went back to that night, the man trembled and said that you lied to me, you are also a **** monster.

He got this pendant with a wrong name. He once wanted to give it to Lu Tinghan who also knew Xie Qianming, but Lu Tinghan didn't want it either.

Shi Yuan said again: "He must have regretted giving me the pendant, so I want to give it to you. Aren't you good friends?"

Cheng Youwen just shook his head and said: "Yes, he is my only... confidant, I miss him very much, every time I perform, I wonder what would he say to me if he is still there? Will he praise me, or raise questions about the plot? Criticism, will he watch a lot of shows, and he can't forget it until he goes home... I imagined it so many times that I almost thought it was real hahahaha. Shiyuan, I don't know what happened to you, but you are Because he came to the troupe, right?"

"Yes." Shi Yuan nodded, "I promised him."

"That's enough. You performed very well, and no one else can act like you." Cheng Youwen put the crutches aside, "Although your performance in other roles is unimpressive, you have always been very serious and hardworking. I've seen it all." He paused, "Besides, you are a kind person."

"kind person".

Duan Mu also commented on him in this way, but Shi Yuan didn't quite understand.

Cheng Youwen continued: "If the lieutenant is still alive, I don't know how he will feel when he sees you—we will never know. Since he chose to give it to you, you are entitled to take it with you." He was unconscious Carefully rubbing the pen case on the table, "It doesn't matter if it's love or hate."

"...Okay." Shi Yuan said, and put the pendant back on.

They packed another box of books, and Shi Yuan suddenly remembered something: "By the way, if we can't get out of the city, can we not give the money to Ms. Isabella?"

"Huh? Oh, don't worry about that." Cheng Youwen said, "She—she's been in good condition recently, and besides, she can save money and transfer money, but it's a little troublesome." He scratched his head, "Wolfgang and I both If you don’t believe in the banking system, it might be gone one day, and the money you hold in your hand is the most real.”

Shi Yuan said again: "You said that you want to show her the most perfect performance."

"Isn't this unconditional?" Cheng Youwen scratched his head, "When the peak period is over, there is still a chance." He stuffed another book into Shi Yuan's hand: "This is for you."

It was a book of scripts called "Waiting for Godot".

Cheng Youwen said: "Look at it when you have time. This is my favorite drama. It's very interesting. The plot is that two homeless men are waiting for a man named Godot on the mound. They waited for a long time, but Godot finally failed." Appear."

"Who is Godot?" Shi Yuan asked.

"No one knows." Cheng Youwen said, "This is a fruitless wait. They don't know who Godot is, whether he will come, or why they wait. It's inexplicable and meaningless. But Reality is so absurd, isn't it? We always do things that don't make sense and never see results."

Before leaving, Shi Yuan turned his head and saw Cheng Youwen sitting among the mountains of books.

Those books are full of memories, some are classics, some are screenwriting books, and some introduce the development history of stage plays. Just looking at them gives a sense of depth, as if they have been read by people on countless nights with lights on. Cheng Youwen sat at the sandalwood table with a gold-plated pen in his hand, and a notebook was spread out on the table. He seemed to want to write something, but he couldn't write for a long time.

Finally, he said softly: "In this world, you and I are both martyrs."

This is the line from the last act of the play.

The protagonist dies, his friends grow old, and the savior never appears again.

Fortunately, thousands of years later, there are still legends about them in the world.

Before Shi Yuan went to the lounge, Tracy stopped him.

Tracy said: "Shiyuan! Why don't you take the cypress costume away!" She turned her ears, her eyes were cat-like cunning, "You like cypress very much, don't you?"

"Hmm." Shi Yuan was a little surprised, "Is it possible?"

"certainly!"

So, Shi Yuan shook the tip of his tail happily, and put the costume into his backpack in a bulging ball.

In the afternoon, everyone began to prepare for the breakup meal.

Outside restaurants are closed, they can only bring their own food. Cheng Youwen brought finger cakes, Wolfgang and Tracey took noodles and snacks stored before, popcorn and potato chips were piled together, even Qin Luoluo, who didn't cook, dragged a few from her balcony onion.

Shi Yuan was not good at cooking, so after asking Lu Tinghan, he brought eggs, tomatoes, potatoes, and half a piece of pork from the refrigerator.

And Xia Fang did not show up for a long time.

Wolfgang lived in the theater and built an independent small kitchen in the far corner, where he usually blanched vegetables and cooked noodles. Close the door, leaving a small space in the house, as if the peak period had never come, they all tacitly kept silent.

Everyone did it themselves, cooked rice, tomato and egg noodles, fried pancakes and potatoes, and made a delicious stir-fried pork with colored peppers.

Miscellaneous, but it is all they can come up with.

"Ah! The taste of meat!" Qin Luoluo sighed, "It's been a long time since I've seen so much meat! Come, come, let me sacrifice myself to taste the saltiness!"

She picked up the chopsticks and quickly picked up a piece, eating to her heart's content.

"If you want to steal something, don't talk so grandly, okay?" Cheng Youwen complained, "And what is that brat Xia Fang doing? He won't dove us!"

"I sent him a message, no reply to me," Wolfgang said.

"Maybe he's flirting with some man again, and he'll be here in a while." Qin Luoluo sighed, "It's true that I value **** over friends. I'm still waiting for two bottles of wine from him."

Now that there was no audience, they set up tables in the theater lobby and put meals and snacks on them. Wolfgang called Xia Fang, but he didn't answer. Everyone waited for him for another ten minutes. The food was getting cold, so they had to start eating first.

"I'm afraid it's because I met Slag Gong and couldn't get out of bed." Qin Luoluo said, "It's really the water thrown by the married Xia Fang."

Shi Yuan asked, "What is Slag Gong?"

Cheng Youwen covered his face in horror, while Qin Luoluo obviously didn't want to be the villain who brought Shiyuan down, so he forcibly changed the subject: "Hey, it's a bad person! It's a bad person! Hurry up and eat! It's getting cold!"

Shi Yuan:?

It turned out that Zha Gong meant bad guy, so he memorized this new word silently.

The lights come on and the food smells delicious.

The last time they had dinner, they were still celebrating the success of "Martyr", this time it was already a farewell.

Everyone is exceptionally talkative, chatting about the past.

Qin Luoluo couldn't stop laughing, talking about how she secretly learned makeup when she was a child, couldn't afford cosmetics, and was scolded by her mother for three days for putting beetroot juice on her face; Cheng Youwen scolded the newspaper editor for not being able to appreciate him Great work, can only make random comments; even Wolfgang talked a lot, talking about how he learned acting from Isabella when he was young, he was very nervous when he played for the first time, and almost lost the chain, he also said that he would prepare immediately Join the army and contribute to defending the city.

Shi Yuan and Tracy were eating potato chips, listening to a few people talking about the mountains.

In the middle of the speech, the theater door was pushed open.

Everyone was taken aback, only to see Xia Fang standing at the door, holding two bottles of wine in his hand, his eyes were very red.

"You, what's wrong with you?!" Qin Luoluo asked in surprise, "What happened?"

"...It's okay." Xia Fang said hoarsely, "It's okay, don't ask, I'm sorry I'm late."

He didn't want to talk about a word.

"It's good if you come, I thought you wouldn't come!" Tracy was pleasantly surprised, "Come and eat!"

Xia Fang sat down silently, picked up a piece of cold finger cake, and ate it hungrily. He swallowed too quickly, like that would suppress the churning emotion.

It wasn't until after dinner that Tracy went upstairs to rest and everyone started drinking that Xia Fang was willing to speak.

He said: "You also know that I have always wanted to make money, and I have always been stingy. The salary here is not high. It is far worse than me sleeping with men a few times in bars. I told Shi Yuan that you are very kind and stupid. This The art of the times is really taken advantage of, asking for trouble, I can't understand it at all."

With the beer sloshing in the glass, he held up the glass and looked around the crowd: "But there is one thing I haven't told you: I have thought and asked myself more than once, why don't I just quit my job here? Why bother?" Here, what about performing again and again? I’m just a small player in the play, with no fame or fortune.”

"Now, I know the answer." Xia Fang took a deep breath, "Because I like this place. The hypocrisy and excitement in the bar are all fake, all fake, no one really cares about me, no one really cares about me. Know who I am - they only care about how I look, how I listen and how I behave in bed. But working here and having you guys by my side makes me truly feel 'alive' of."

"On stage is a fictional character, offstage is the real me. Shi Yuan is right, I like this place as much as you do."

Qin Luoluo's eyes widened: "...you are suddenly so sensational, I can't get used to it."

"People are always cheap, and they can't look at their hearts until the last moment." Xia Fang smiled self-deprecatingly, "You only know how to cherish when you are about to lose."

He shook his head: "Stop talking about this, let's drink!"

The wine glasses collided, and the clear sound echoed.

"For the Wild Roses!" they said. "Art never dies. See you someday!"

Shi Yuan had never drunk alcohol before. After tasting the beer, he felt that the beer was bitter and not very tasty, but he still drank half of the glass in small sips.

Then slightly drunk.

When drunk, the world seems to be dizzy. Everyone talked more, he saw Cheng Youwen's face flushed, Qin Luoluo dancing, Wolfgang actually said a long series of words, and Xia Fang...

Through the hazy feeling of drinking, Shi Yuan saw that Xia Fang was smiling, but his face was full of tears.

"I like you all so much," he said, with tears streaming down his cheeks, dripping from his chin. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry... I, I really like you."

Why should I apologize?

— This was Shi Yuan's last thought before falling asleep.

His head was so dizzy after drinking, he tilted his head, leaned on the sofa and fell into a deep sleep.

Consciousness plunges into darkness.

After an unknown amount of time, someone called him: "... Shi Yuan."

Shi Yuan's eyelids were heavy and he couldn't open them.

"Shi Yuan." The man shouted again, stroking his cheek with his hand.

This feeling was very familiar, Shi Yuan rubbed that hand subconsciously, and made a vague and satisfying sound, snoring. He couldn't wake up, and the man was not in a hurry, sitting beside him, gently stroking his face and hair.

It was a very reassuring feeling.

He knew that no matter what, that person would be with him.

Consciousness is like this ups and downs—

A few minutes later, Shi Yuan opened his eyes.

Only the corner of the theater hall was lit. In the haze, Lu Tinghan sat beside him, holding his hand, his eyes were heavy, and there was some emotion flowing.

Lu Tinghan is back? How did he come to the theater?

Shi Yuan was stunned for a while, and finally he was completely awake, and sat up abruptly: "Ah, what time is it now?!"

He was still dizzy and wobbly.

"Twelve o'clock in the evening." Lu Tinghan said, "The curfew time has passed long ago."

He took the unstable Shi Yuan into his arms and let him lean on his chest.

Just as Shi Yuan was about to speak, he saw that everyone on the sofa and chairs was sleeping upside down. Wolfgang, Cheng Youwen... Qin Luoluo, who drank little, was about to wake up, rubbing her eyes, and mumbling why she had slept for so long.

"Oh, we're all drunk." Shi Yuan looked up at Lu Tinghan, the tip of his tail wagging unconsciously again, "But, you found me again!"

Lu Tinghan didn't speak for a long time. He held Shi Yuan in his arms, there seemed to be dark clouds gathering in his gray-blue eyes, and the dark tide was raging.

No one has seen Lu Tinghan like this.

He was really angry.

He said, "It's not that I'm drunk, it's that there are drugs in the wine."

Shi Yuan was dazed and didn't react.

"...Where's Xia Fang?" Qin Luoluo woke up at this time, looked around with his forehead, and asked in a daze, "Xia Fang, why didn't he call me when he went back?...Ah! Grass!"

She saw Lu Tinghan clearly, and was frightened away from the effects of the medicine and alcohol.

"Who brought these two bottles of wine?" Lu Tinghan said, "There are sleeping pills in it."

Qin Luoluo was stunned for half a minute, opened and closed her mouth, wanted to say something but couldn't say it, suddenly realized that something was wrong, jumped up and went to the second floor.

Shi Yuan stood up and followed crookedly, relying on his tail to keep his balance with Lu Tinghan.

On the second floor, the door at the end opened, and Qin Luoluo slowly sat on the floor.

Shi Yuan walked over.

In front of them, the door of the safe opened, and it was empty. Xia Fang took all the money given to Isabella.