If I don't have money to go to college, I can only go to slay the dragon.

The snow cleared that morning, and it wasn't just snow, it wasn't just the morning.

It was the middle of winter in the North Pole in 1990. According to the calendar of that country in the south, this was the third cold day since the winter solstice, which was the coldest period of the year.

During these thirty-nine days of severe cold, another child died in Wuming Port.

Small snow hills are on the flat ice field, and the white-cold sun hangs in the sky, providing no heat. The only use is the cold light, which can only illuminate the slanting backs of the children standing in front of the snow hills. On the ice. In front of the snow hill, every child was wrapped in warm cotton clothes and bearskin coats and stood quietly in front of the snow hill. The two or three sobs that occasionally sounded set the sad tone for this morning.

The black tombstones and the white snow in the clearing of the snowfield form a contrast between black and white, as abrupt as a bird catching a glimpse of a breathable fish when it leaps over the sea. In this place in the Arctic, apart from white, black only means snowstorms and tombstones. Although the two are quite different in expressive power, one is a natural phenomenon and the other is a man-made object, at least today they both represent the same thing - death.

The head nurse, who was temporarily qualified as a pastor, stood in an open space 300 meters east of the port, holding a 75-volume Bible in his hand, chanting the name of God, the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, praying that he would clear away the faint clouds and mist in the Arctic sky. , taking away the lost little lamb in the snowdrift.

Renata is not tall, but she is standing at the back of the crowd at the moment. She is wearing a bearskin hat embroidered with a red five-pointed star. Her ears are hidden in the hanging brim of the hat and she is holding her warm body. There is no foot support or crowding, just quiet. He stood obediently, hugging the stuffed bear, looking through the gaps between people's arms, looking at the tombstones piled up in the ice and snow.

Alyosha was walking in the dead of night. It is said that the nurse found his body in the morning. He did not get up and wash up at the sound of the morning bell as usual. When the angry head nurse opened the door, Alyosha's body on the bed was already stiff. It fell off, and he was lying on the cold bed, his whole body stiff, his closed eyes were covered with light frost, and his eyelashes were bent by the weight of the ice beads, hanging in an arc, just like his curled up body when he left.

Why do eyes and eyelashes freeze? Maybe it was because Alyosha knew that he was going to die soon before he died, so he cried secretly for a while? Renata silently guessed what might have happened last night. A child who was already seriously ill was lying on the bed, feeling his body getting colder inch by inch. She knew she was going to die, so she couldn't help crying. I was afraid of disturbing others, so I cried secretly. Halfway through crying, my eyes froze with tears! Then came the eternal darkness. I couldn't open my eyes. I could only freeze my whole body in the darkness and become numb until I lost consciousness. Then I couldn't even cry because my lips were frozen and my tongue was spinning in my mouth. , his eyes moved, and finally he could no longer move, and then he left completely, disappeared into the darkness, and disappeared into their lives.

I heard that people who freeze to death will have the illusion of warmth at the end? Will Alyosha do the same? Maybe, after all, in the version Renata heard, the head nurse said that he had a smile on his face when he left. Renata did not see Alyosha's body, although the ones headed by Khorkina The children swore that they had seen it, but if they were asked to describe it in more detail, they could only hesitantly say that it was hard, frosty, and scary. Blushing and asking you if you think they are lying!

Renata didn't dare to choke with Khorkina, and none of the children at the port dared to choke with Khorkina, because those who choked with Khorkina would always have a bruised nose and face the next day. As for who They were beaten so hard that they couldn't explain why, and even the nurse couldn't find the 'murderer', so they could only give them a vicious warning over and over again not to fight in private and hastily end the matter.

The sun climbed into the sky, it was getting late, and the mourning had gone on long enough. The head nurse was obviously a little impatient, and she began to speed up the story of Alyosha's life. This section was very brief, almost in a few words. ——Alyosha himself is only eight years old. What kind of life can an eight-year-old child have?

He grew up in the port day after day, never experienced adventures, never fell in love, and never left the Arctic to see the outside world. Therefore, the head nurse could only praise him as a pure person when summarizing. children. Because purity means clean, and clean also means bland, as bland as white paper, as white as the unchanging Arctic ice sheet. There is nothing wrong with it, but after looking at it carefully for a long time, I feel bored, just like this scene. form of mourning.

Renata lowered her head quietly and yawned. This was a very rude thing at a funeral, but he was really not familiar with Alyosha. Among the children who cried, five of them were easily affected by mood swings. The three girls are Alyosha's real playmates. They are still young. Although they do not understand the meaning of death, they know the cruelty of farewell - which means that they can no longer play ghosts and catch people. My companions will lie under this snow hill for the rest of their lives, just like the other children who left them.

In a distant place, the same few snowy hills are standing there, with black tombstones inserted there, but some are shaky. The two latest ones are the two children who passed away last year, their names are Grigory and Mihai. They are both clever children. One suffered from acute gastritis and ate the dirty things left in the kitchen. The other suffered from a severe cold and actually tried to take a cold bath during the coldest days. Alyosha left last night because he took a bath. Encephalitis caused by not wiping your head is undoubtedly a fatal disease in an Arctic port where the medical standards are already inferior to the mainland of the country.

It seems that there have been more and more safety accidents in recent years. Renata is aware of this. Children keep leaving them. Alyosha is not a special case, and his stunts are not the last one. If she does not want to become a member of the snow dunes, she has to Protect yourself well. It's not enough to have Zorro in your arms. Zorro can only save her from monsters, but what really takes away the children is the silently invading disease.

Renata vowed that from today on, she must strictly follow the new life safety guidelines issued by the doctor this morning, and never give her already delicate body the slightest chance to get sick. At least she must stop wetting the bed first! I heard that people who wet the bed are most likely to catch a cold. Mikhail died from a severe cold. She didn’t want to have a fever of forty-five degrees like him and almost turned into a human-shaped heater (this is what Renata learned from Khorkina’s mouth) I heard that the original version was Fifty Degrees. It may have been changed to Forty-five Degrees after consulting the books, but there is still a big discrepancy with the facts.)

"It's not enough to just stop wetting the bed. Judging from the situation in recent years, it's hard not to be sick sometimes in this port. And when Mikhail's fever was at its worst, it only reached 40 degrees. He wouldn't even be able to survive half an hour at five degrees, and my bath water would be too hot to boil at forty-five degrees." Behind Renata, a light voice suddenly came from far away from the crowd. There was a joke in it that should never appear on this occasion.

But this is not what Renata cares about the most. Even she yawned at Alyosha's funeral. Who has the right to accuse him of making fun of a person who has been dead for half a year? What she really cared about was that this voice actually said what she was thinking at that moment, as if it had peeked into her brain and brought out the original words of the little person talking to her from the deepest part of her heart!

Renata turned back warily, took half a step back and bumped into the slender Yakov in the crowd behind her. Yakov turned back and glanced at Renata sullenly, seeming to blame her for ruining the solemn atmosphere during prayer. He was about to say At some point, he suddenly stopped talking as if he had thought of something. The slight anger on his face faded like melting snow, and he turned back to look at the praying head nurse expressionlessly.

At this time, the head nurse also turned the pages of the Bible in her hand. Inside was the condolence written by the doctor that morning. She had already read the most exciting part. She cleared her throat and wanted to speak the next lines as solemnly and sacredly as possible. Children She also tightened her face to show her remembrance of her companions, but at the very back of the crowd, Renata's attention was completely attracted by the girl on the snow not far away.

The girl's hair is golden. The color is different from Renata's pale platinum like withered grass, and it is not the gold texture of Khorkina's. To describe the golden color of her hair, Renata can only think of the words in the textbook. I have seen the gold of the wheat waves swaying in the wind in the wheat fields in autumn. It is the gold of sunshine, the gold of vitality, the gold that makes people feel the warmth with their eyes.

Renata didn't know this girl. She had never seen her among the 38 children in Black Swan Port, because if she had seen her, there was no way she would have forgotten the existence of such a beautiful child. She even stood up to Khorkina. She would feel a little ashamed in front of her. But she appeared here so openly, blending into the funeral, squatting on the deserted snow behind everyone, humming a tune that no one could appreciate, wearing the same outfit as them. Wearing a bearskin hat and cloth gloves, he happily builds a snowman.

"Renata, you know, Alyosha's biggest wish is to see the beach." The blond girl raised her head and naturally struck up a conversation with the alert Renata. The reflection of the ice floes on the Arctic sea and the shadow of the icebergs in the distance added a little bit of freezing white to her golden mood. "Alyosha longed for the distant summer and the sea, as well as the warm and continuous golden sand. , if she was born in an inland city by the sea, he would probably be an excellent trend maker, so I think he also wanted to be buried in the sea when he died, and now it seems that he got his wish."

"But this is not the sea." Renata hesitated for a long time, and found that no one noticed that she and the blonde girl had deserted at the funeral, and then she gradually became brave enough to talk to the other party.

"This is the sea. At least hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago, the ice sheet under our feet was not an ice sheet, but an ocean. It wasn't until the weather got colder that the sea water froze and became the thick ice layer it is now. So... Liao Sha was buried in the sea, just like his wish during his lifetime," the blond girl said.

"Are you an acquaintance of Alyosha? I've never seen you before. What's your name?" Renata couldn't help but ask in a low voice, hugging Zorro even tighter.

"I know Alyosha, but Alyosha doesn't know me, but that doesn't stop me from knowing him very well." The blond girl smiled and said, "A very good child, lively, smart and somewhat active, so his best game is Ghost catching people, the role he plays best in this game is also the 'ghost', because he runs the fastest, very fast, and can catch his companions every time. If he grows up, he will definitely be this one One of the fastest kids in the harbor!"

Renata seemed to have heard some things about Alyosha in the past, and indeed had the impression that this child was restless and restless during his lifetime, but this did not eliminate her doubts. She stared at the blonde girl and asked: "What about you? I have never been Never seen you."

"It's just that you haven't met me. Doctors, head nurses, Khorkina, and many others who should know me know me. Now you can also know me. You can call me Yelena." The blond girl stood up and took pictures. Clapping her hands, the snowman she built was completed. Renata lowered her head and looked over. What even the cold wind couldn't do, the snowman on the ground did.

On the ground, a little boy curled up in a snowman lay quietly on his side, covering his chest with his hands. However, in front of him, a heart made of snow lay half a meter away, like It was dug out alive, with a bright Arctic poppy stuck on it. The flower that should have been white turned out to be shockingly red.

The blonde girl didn't pay attention to Renata's reaction. She just looked at the boy curled up on the ground quietly, then looked at the huge black port in the distance and said something. At this time, the head nurse in front of the tombstone also read the last words of condolence. Renata heard it clearly. Whether it was the blond girl or the head nurse, they all seemed to have said the same sentence.

They said, "Not coming back as scheduled is exactly the meaning of parting. Every time we say goodbye without saying goodbye, it is a long-planned journey of the soul."

ps: Next is a short story about Black Swan Port