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

In the long black corridor, huge pillars support the sky and the earth, and they are lined up one after another to the far end. The ice field outside the pillars seems to be the cracked and dry skin of a woman as she grows old, with a light white layer on top. Colorful cracks have carved out canyons one after another. The occasional wind brings ice particles down, and only after a long fall can they hit the underground river flowing at the bottom of the canyon.

Lin Nian stood next to the pillar in the corridor, gently holding the cold pillar with his left hand, looking at the boundless snowfield. The cold wind with snow blew across his face and brought a few strands of white into his hair.

Three iron chains were tied to his left arm, right arm and left leg in turn. The chains were as thick and heavy as mountains, and their length extended all the way to the invisible darkness at the end of the corridor.

Lin Nian came here before. The first time he came here, he got the 'Snap', and the second time he learned the 'Floating Life'. Every time there would be a blond girl making trouble here, wearing that white dress. The hospital gown was running around as if it was not afraid of the cold, like a child who has not grown up.

——She has never grown up. Judging from her appearance, she is at most thirteen or fourteen years old. She is so tender that she can squeeze out water. However, every time she appears, she carries the cold air of Siberia, as if she is in front of her. The tender waves under her skin were locked one by one, along with her freedom and life.

Lin Nian had never regarded the blonde girl as fake or non-existent.

After all, she is so vivid, with her own personality, interests, and even a bit naughty and surly. But it is precisely because of these ubiquitous details that she has created such a person. Lin Nian has always regarded her as a person. Look, it's not weird things like ghosts and gods.

Although there were many puzzles about her, Lin Nian seemed to have no answers now, and she disappeared.

Walking in the empty corridor, every time Lin Nian raised his hand or took a step, the chain on his body would rattle. If it were before, there would always be an unimaginable force on the other side of the chain that would push him to the ground. He was pulled back, like the white arm grabbing the cheek of Orpheus's wife, trying to drag him into the bottomless abyss behind him.

But today, Lin Nian felt very relaxed, unexpectedly relaxed. There was no force wrestling with him, and there was no fear rising from under the cerebral cortex. He walked in the corridor as if he were paying homage to the travelers in the Temple of Patron. There were only him and the porcelain green eternity outside the temple in the whole world. Immobile sky.

"Yelena."

This was not the first time that Lin Nian called the blond girl's name. His voice spread far in the corridor, but there was no echo. This meant that there was still a long way to go. He could only drag the chain forward. Walk a certain distance and shout like that, hoping that someone will suddenly pop out and shout: What are you making the noise about?

But the corridor has always been so quiet, so quiet that you can hear the cracks on the stone surface from the sound of iron chains rubbing against the ground, and the wind and snow melt into water on the boy's hair, and then turn into ice crystals when blown by the wind.

This corridor seemed to have no end, and the person Lin Nian was looking for seemed to have never appeared in this world. There was no trace in this world that could prove the existence of the blond girl, except for The memory of Lin Nian and a few people, but memory is always fragile. If one day even they forget about this girl, then what else proves that she really existed, instead of some people's whims? What about realistic fantasies?

Lin Nian stopped because he found a door on the right wall in front of him. It was iron-green, with the number 008 painted on it with red paint, and a heavy lock hung on it. He used to be a door like this. He had seen it before, and the blond girl opened it for him to see. There was not another real space behind it, but a memory.

Will the blonde girl be hiding inside?

Lin Nian dragged the chain over and walked over. He stood in front of the door and reached out to gently touch the lock. Unexpectedly, the door lock immediately opened. After he opened the door slightly, there was a flood of water pouring through the crack of the door. He heard the voice, and after completely pushing the door open, a wide hall and crowd appeared in front of him.

He recognized this place at a glance. Behind the door was the orphanage where he had stayed.

This is the hall of an orphanage. A group of half-grown children gathered together in a circle, flushed with excitement, waving their arms and jumping up and down, shouting "come on". There seemed to be a louder noise in the middle of the crowd, Lin Nian walked to the edge of the crowd and used his height advantage to look inside, and found that there were actually two children fighting inside.

One of the two children fighting was slightly older, and the other was slightly younger. The older one was about 12 or 3 years old, and the younger one was only 7 or 8 years old. There was a big gap in height and physique. The younger one was being crushed. The one below was beaten hard, and the big one was cursing and yelling. His emotions were extremely aroused, and every punch he punched was directed at the face of the child below him.

The first time he saw the child being beaten, Lin Nian remembered when this happened. When he was a child in the orphanage, he was not as 'excellent' as he will be in the future. On the contrary, he was still one of the inferior ones. This time, when the parents came to the orphanage to choose a suitable child to take home, he was the lowest among the three, six, or nine grades. He was the kind who would be crowded in a crowd and no one would notice him or fall in love with him. type.

There are also class differences among the children in the orphanage. The division of classes is naturally determined by the external conditions of the children's own talents. Beautiful, healthy, tall, slim, smart and outstanding children are only as good as outstanding ones. If you play with other children, you will look down on the inconspicuous children.

Although everyone is an abandoned orphan, who says that lower batches of remnants are not allowed to exist among orphans? As long as there are remnants inferior to themselves, they can always find some self-comfort in these people. , telling myself that I am not the worst, and there are many people who are worse than me, so as to gain confidence and face the next day with hope. Therefore, most of the children coming out of the orphanage are either extremely vicious, like wolf cubs, Either they have timidity and cowardice engraved in their bones and have a strong sense of self-protection.

Abnormal and wrong concepts, but they grow unchecked in an environment where they can easily breed.

So why did you get beaten this time?

Lin Nian looked at Xiao Lin Nian who was punched and punched, and recalled that he was not chosen by a wealthy couple because of the punch. At noon, he happened to queue up in front of him and received the last piece of butter bread. The other party was so strong. Chi wanted to order him to share half of the bread, but he finished the bread without giving him a bite and was beaten.

It's hard to distinguish right from wrong when it comes to children.

Lin Nian looked at the weak version of himself who had received no less than five punches, and reached out to touch his lips gently. He was recalling how the matter was resolved in the end. What happened when he was seven or eight years old was too ancient, even for him I don’t remember much clearly either. After all, he doesn't remember everything clearly in his head. Some unnecessary junk files have long since washed up on the beach with the sea and wiped away their traces. Naturally, he doesn't need to pay attention to such a small fight over a piece of bread. remember.

He couldn't recall it, but looking at himself being beaten, Lin Nian would probably feel a little frustrated. He looked at the little boy with a bruised nose and swollen face, sighed softly and couldn't help but whisper, "Get up."

No one can hear him, because he is completely a spectator in this memory and cannot change anything that has happened. Even if he insists on changing it, the changed memory will only be an edited version of himself. A little comfort movie that serves no real purpose.

This fight with a huge disparity in outcome quickly came to an end. Even Lin Nian, who was watching, was about to turn around and leave, but at this moment, a golden shadow suddenly ran past him!

When Lin Nian caught a glimpse of the other party from the corner of his eye, he immediately reached out to grab her shoulders, but he missed the opportunity and passed through the shadow. He immediately stopped and looked back, only to see the familiar blond girl hurriedly squeezed through the crowd, rushed into the crowd and pushed the big boy in the young version of himself to the ground with a "pop"!

The big boy was pushed and was a little dazed. He fell heavily to the ground and fell unconscious. Before he could get up, the blond girl on the side wordlessly helped Xiao Linnian, who was being beaten on the ground, to stand up. Seeing the violence, When the big boy stood up tremblingly, he went over and kicked the opponent's butt, causing him to stumble and fall to the ground again.

The crowd of onlookers suddenly burst into uproar and burst into laughter. Lin Nian watched blankly as he was helped up by the blond girl. He dusted himself off with concern, checked the injuries on his face, and gave another hand to the boy as he passed by. He touched up his butt, and encouraged Xiao Linnian to do the same. Then the children onlookers laughed even harder, and the shouts of the teachers at the orphanage were heard in the distance, and the group of talents turned into birds and dispersed. .

Lin Nian was forced to take a few steps back subconsciously by the scattered children, and retreated to the threshold. After another step, he walked out of this memory and returned to the huge empty corridor. The door in front of him also closed with a bang.

He stood in front of the door for a long time, looking at the number on it and thinking about it for a long time. Finally, he twitched the corners of his mouth, turned around and walked deeper into the corridor.

After a while, there was indeed another iron door in front, bronze in color, with the number 011 written in red paint on the door, and a heavy lock hanging on it.

Lin Nian stretched out his hand and gently banged it. Sure enough, the big lock fell and hit the ground, and the door quietly opened.

The orphanage was still there behind the door, but the time jumped to when Lin Nian was 11 or 2 years old. He was sitting alone in the corner of the lawn watching a group of people playing basketball in the distance, with the old basket and who-knows-what age. The combination of a basketball in hand and a group of children who have nowhere to vent their energy is the most carefree time in this orphanage. However, you also need qualifications to join this beautiful time.

His isolation and reluctance as a child meant that he never had many friends in the orphanage. Although he had always yearned for a game like basketball that required multiple people to negotiate together, he could only yearn for it. That year they saw on TV that Yao Ming joined the Houston Rockets to play in the NBA, so every boy dreamed of becoming a basketball star. He hoped that one day he would be discovered by a scout and taken out of this orphanage to have a new life.

Lin Nian was no exception. After he gradually entered puberty, his development began to speed up and he was no longer as weak as before. Many children did not dare to pick on him when they bullied others. Facts have proved that every time they provoke Lin Nian, they will give up their iron rice bowl. They stuffed the stuff in their mouths, and if they couldn't stuff it with their hands, they would step on it, which would knock out a few of the bully's teeth.

But becoming stronger and better does not mean being popular. On the contrary, what awaits Lin Nian is isolation. No one wants to play with him. The more isolated he is, the more alienated he is. It is a vicious circle. He is always alone during that time. Sitting in a daze in the corner of the lawn, imagining some unrealistic things in his head.

For example, he actually has parents, and his parents had to abandon him because they were tasked with saving the world. One day when the time is right, there will be a woman, or a couple, driving a beautiful car. The car parked outside the orphanage, and everyone stepped in with attention. The dean, who had always been a bit snobby, personally received and expressed condolences to them, pulling out each of the children to display them like treasures. However, he, who was not gregarious, was just ignored at this time, sitting alone in the corner of the lawn and watching them coldly. .

After looking at all the children, the couple just smiled and said that he was not the child we were looking for. Then by chance, they saw the boy in the corner of the lawn. They quietly walked up to him, knelt down, stretched out their hands to rub his hair, and said, "My child, you Do you think we look alike?

At that time, Lin Nian was not surprised at all, he just looked at them expressionlessly until they cried with joy and hugged him, saying that you are the child we are looking for, we have been looking for you for so long and finally found you. Under the watchful eyes of the orphanage, it was revealed that he was not unwanted, but had temporarily left him due to reasons. Now they finally came back to pick up their children.

Then everyone in the orphanage was shocked, looking at him in disbelief and speechless. The director stuttered and said, "When are you going to pick up your child?" The man and woman said: We are not in a hurry, let the child calm down and adapt first, accept the reality and be willing to go with us before we take him away. After that, we will visit him every day until he accepts us!

In this way, there would be a good car parked at the entrance of the orphanage every day, and the distinguished couple would stand at the door and cuddle up and look at him. Then the children who had been isolated from him would start to please him and take the initiative to ask: Lin Nian, Do you want to come and play basketball? At this time, he reluctantly nodded and joined the group of children playing basketball. When he showed off his great skills by watching NBA games, everyone would start to admire him and say that his basketball skills were so good that they had never been able to do it before. It's such a shame to play with you

With a bang, the basketball went into the basket.

The boy in the corner of the lawn suddenly raised his head and saw a dilapidated basketball court. Several boys gathered around the man who scored the goal and cheered for him. He was still alone on the lawn. There were no good cars in front of the orphanage. There were no men or women cuddling up to support him in front of the gate.

Lin Nian stood on the steps and looked at the boy in the corner quietly. He closed his eyes and smiled softly because he knew what happened next.

There was still a snap, but instead of the basketball entering the frame, the basketball hit the dazed boy's head.

The boy was about to get angry and turned around when he saw a blond girl wearing a basketball uniform looking at him, "What are you just looking at? Can you score a layup just by looking at her?"

Lin Nian on the stairs tilted his head and looked at the blond girl in this scene who was slightly different from his memory. He couldn't help but have a faint forced smile on his lips. The boy in the corner was naturally pulled by the blond girl. He grabbed his arm and forced him to run towards the basketball court.

When the boys on the basketball court saw the two of them and heard their request, they all showed hesitant expressions. However, after the blonde girl put her hands on her hips and showed an unhappy and indifferent expression, the boys in the group were scared. In fact, they all secretly liked her. This girl, so I could only follow her wishes and play with the boy behind her.

When Lin Nian saw this, he turned around and left. From the basketball court behind him came the sounds of goals, cheers, and girls' laughter and maybe boys' laughter, but it was too faint to hear clearly.

—

He returned to the huge corridor and continued to move along the huge pillars and deep roads. He once again encountered those bronze and iron doors one after another, each door hung with a big lock and a red Painted with numbers.

He opened the doors one by one, and inside each door were memories of the past, scene after scene, like a glass ball on a display shelf, with beauty like white smoke rising inside.

He made a mistake in a fight, and the blond girl rushed in front of him, stopping the dean and teachers to argue, you can't punish him corporally, he is still young, and the main fault is not his. If you want to punish him, punish me, blame me for not controlling him well. ! The dean said who do you think he is? Why should I punish you? She said, I am his sister, I admit it! But she’s also a sister! When he calls me sister, I will recognize him as his younger brother for life. If the younger brother does something wrong, of course he should be held accountable by his older sister!

The dean said with a dark face, "Then you will all be punished together. You will not be allowed to eat dinner and go to the hall to stand. Then they were made to stand all night. She told the boy stories all night, talking and laughing. They even made such a noise that the dean stuck his head out and scolded them, telling them to go back to bed and stop having story-telling sessions there!

On his birthday, everyone else forgot and didn't care, but the blond girl didn't forget. She didn't show up all day that day, but at night she suddenly came back from the orphanage with a cup in her hand. I got a 12-inch birthday cake from somewhere. All the children in the orphanage came over excitedly to share the cake. They didn't really care whose birthday it was. They only cared about having cake to eat. So under her instructions, they sang a song "Happy Birthday" to Lin Nian and celebrated it with Lin Nian. First birthday.

Afterwards, when the dean found out about this, he thought she had stolen something and scolded her. After taking her out to investigate, he discovered that she, a girl, had secretly gone to the construction site to move bricks for a day. The dean was so angry that he wanted to report it. The foreman of the black-hearted construction site was stopped by her on the grounds that if she did this, no one would be willing to hire her as a temporary worker. She wouldn't be able to sneak out to work and buy cakes for my brother's next birthday. I was so angry that I cursed you. Do you want to do it again? The blond girl just stared at him and said nothing. In the end, the matter was settled.

Too many, too many memories have been opened behind the door.

Lin Nian looked at each door one by one. The corridor seemed to have no end. As he walked forward, he would always find a new door. The protagonists inside were always him and the blonde girl. The stories were all trivial things in life. Some of the fragments are slightly sad, but they bring back a sense of warmth under the ice, like a flower emerging from the cold snow. Those bright colors are called warmth.

Finally, Lin Nian stopped in front of an iron door. This door was different from other numbers painted in red. Instead, it had a smiley face painted on it. There might be something special inside, so it was marked with such a mark. .

Lin Nian stretched out his hand and opened the door. When he looked inside, he was suddenly startled.

Inside was a small house. In the dining room of the small house, a boy sat there blankly, looking at the door in the distance.

The memory of this scene came to his mind, but he still walked in with gentle steps. After reliving the past in his memory, he retreated from the iron door.

He stood alone in the empty corridor in silence for a long time, as if thinking about something.

So he no longer walked forward, but walked back.

He took the initiative to walk towards the dark depths where the chains on his body were connected. This was something he had never dared to think about, because repeated experiences told him that there was a creature trapped at the end of the chains on his body that would choose people and devour them. The monster couldn't wait to pull him to the deepest point, peeling off his skin and twitching, drinking every drop of blood.

But he was eager to verify something, so he no longer had any worries and moved forward without hesitation.

Nothing happened today, no roaring, no terror, the wind and snow kept blowing outside the pillar, and the underground river flowed in the rift valley.

Lin Nian didn't know how long he walked, but he finally reached the end, the end of the dark abyss.

He stopped, and the chains on his body stretched upwards. In front of him was a huge bronze pillar that was as tall as the pillar, but several times thicker. The carvings on the pillar were as enchanting as a group of winding snakes. The times The traces left mottled marks on the surface of the column, which reminds people of the ancient and ancient earth. Perhaps at that time, there was such a huge pillar standing on the earth, supporting the sky and the earth.

The end of the chain on his body is connected to the top of the bronze pillar.

Lin Nian looked up and saw the slender, beautiful figure bound by chains on the giant pillar.

The three chains connected her and his arms, legs and feet, intertwining with each other like inextricable karma.

But today, she was sleeping on the copper pillar, no longer having the strength to roar to heaven and earth. She lowered her head quietly, letting her bright blond hair be pulled down by gravity, and her eyes behind her hair were gently closed, like It's a sweet dream.

Some questions have finally been answered now.

In the long corridor behind him, every room was filled with locked treasures, but the evil dragon guarding the treasures fell asleep, so he had the opportunity to spy on the things inside.

Every memory is real but false, they did happen in this world.

But in the real world, it was always another person who appeared in front of Lin Nian. That person had black hair instead of blond hair, and his name was Lin Xian instead of Yelena.

The girl on the bronze pillar also knew this, so she quietly locked up those memories, not wanting others to see the beautiful dreams she had tampered with. At least in those dreams, Lin Nian was always with her. She cleared everything for that boy, and the one who cared for him was the one she could truly embrace and give him love. It was her. It was all her, not another person whose hair color was different from hers.

But in fact she couldn't do it. She could only watch these stories happen, like an unrelated bystander.

The only thing she can do is to replace the heroines in those memories with herself in her own world, and then lock them up, perhaps watching them over and over again when no one is around, imagining what would happen if all this happened can become real.

"If you are playing a bad guy, why do you want to be the one who loves me most?" He looked at her and asked softly.

In the empty and dark corridor, no one answered him. The flowers on the ice field swayed in the wind, hanging down to kiss the cheeks in the snow.

—

—

In the ward, Lin Nian opened his eyes and turned to look at Kassel College outside the window. The moon hung high on the top of the castle, like a white sun in the dark sky, and its bright light poured from the eaves onto the window sill. A cool light is reflected on it.

The black-haired girl on the chair next to him was dozing quietly, folding her hands, lowering her head and closing her eyes.

He looked up at the clock in the dark ward. It was already five o'clock in the morning. The sky outside the window was still dark. The special care hospital was so quiet that he could hear the clear sound of water dripping to the ground in the boiling water room deep in the corridor.

Maybe it was because Lin Nian sat up too loudly, or maybe it was because the winter wind blowing against the window was too shrill. Lin Xian suddenly woke up in the chair, his whole body trembled slightly, and then he immediately slowed down his movements. , cautiously tilted his head to look at the bed. Then he realized that the boy who was afraid of being woken up was already sitting in front of the bed and staring at her sideways.

"Are you awake?" Lin Xian breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the boy's appearance, and reached out to rub his hair.

"Yeah, I had a dream."

"A nightmare? Don't hybrids have nightmares in which they hack demons and monsters to death?" Lin Xian smiled and whispered.

"It's not a nightmare, just a dream about some things from the past."

"What happened in the past? Are you talking about things in China?"

"Earlier, in the orphanage."

"At that time," Lin Xian leaned lightly on the chair and stretched out his hand to touch the soft quilt on the bed, "It was not easy to get through it."

"Remember when I got beaten?"

"Pfft. I thought you wouldn't mention those things in the future. Who knew that the 'S'-level handsome boy who was so famous in school would be pushed to the ground and beaten by those gangsters in the orphanage?" Lin Xian Ren could not help but shake his head, staring at the circle pattern on the ceiling of the dark ward.

"At that time, you often got scolded by the dean for helping me vent my anger." Lin Nian said, "You have always been so helpful to me before."

"You are my brother, who will I help if I don't help you? Are you waiting for others to help you?" Lin Xian tilted his head and looked at him, "If I don't help you, no one will help you. You will be Bullied to death.”

"But why?" Lin Nian said, "Why were you so partial to me at that time?"

"Favoritism?" Lin Xian sat on the chair, tapping his legs and hugging his knees, looking up as if recalling every detail of the past, "In my impression, you have always been much more sensible than those children, although you are bored. Yes, but you have always had a good mind, and I liked you so much at that time. It turns out that I was right. You were very sensible before, and you have always been sensible since. When others say bad things about me, you beat them up for me. Before Wasn't there a guy in the orphanage who liked me and insisted on holding my hand and asking me to be his girlfriend? When I refused, he came to grab my hand. You jumped on him and almost broke that guy's teeth. I almost stuffed my shoe into his throat."

"..." Lin Nian chuckled as if he remembered this incident, "Don't you think that one day you will suddenly stop liking my brother so much?"

"Don't mention it, it really is." Lin Xian raised his eyebrows.

"Oh? When? That time you helped me pay for it after I broke someone else's stuff?"

"Why did you think of that thing all of a sudden? It's not that big of a deal, it's just a piece of fish tank glass." Lin Xian smiled and shook his head, looking at the quiet night outside the window for a long time before saying, "Do you still remember that time?" I always come back very late from working outside, right?"

"Well, I'll get home around eleven o'clock in the evening."

"I came back even later that time. The store was short of manpower due to overtime work and some people asked for leave. I could only help with the night shift, so I got home at three in the morning." Lin Xian held his chin with his right hand, "It was already very dark when I came back. It was dark, there was no one on the road, and the road back to our house was also dark. I was actually a little scared, but there was nothing I could do. Wouldn’t I go home if I was afraid? I still had to go back. I was trembling all the way, and I couldn’t bear it. I kept mumbling, hey, if there wasn’t that brat in the house who had to go to school, I wouldn’t have to work so late!”

Lin Nian smiled lightly and said nothing. Lin Xian continued, "But when I went home and walked downstairs, I found that the lights in the room were still on. I became even more angry, thinking that if I don't go home, you will Stay up all night, right? So I wanted to ignore you even more, so I went upstairs angrily, ready to scold you. Then, then I opened the door and found that you had done nothing, not read any books, and Instead of watching TV, the kitchen lamp was lit in the room, and you sat alone at the dining table in the dining room, waiting for me, with a glass of milk in front of you."

"I asked you what you were doing and you said you were waiting for me. I didn't have a mobile phone at that time, so you couldn't find me. I didn't allow you to go out at night, so you had to stay at home and wait for me to come back. 12 I ordered some milk, but it was already cold by three o'clock, and there was a film on my face. They were still preparing to heat it up for me to drink, and I was relieved at that time."

"Then, I was about to drink the glass of milk and go back to the house to sleep. At this time, you suddenly said to me coldly: Sister, if you feel that you are really too tired at any time, you can also make me a glass of milk. Milk bar, you can secretly add something to it, and I will definitely drink it." Lin Xian said with a low chuckle.

Lin Nian grinned, but without saying anything, he looked at Lin Xian sitting on the chair and shook his head with a smile, "What else can I say? You said that. What else can I do? You throw it away? So it makes sense that I have been taking care of you, a little devil. If I don’t take care of you anymore, then who else in this world will take care of you?"

The ward was quiet for a long time, and until finally, Lin Xian couldn't help but laugh out loud, shook his head to try to get rid of the atmosphere, and changed the subject, "Let's not talk about the past. What did you dream about in your dream? "

"I dreamed of some good things." Lin Nian slowly raised his head and looked at the moonlight outside the window, "I dreamed that there are actually many people in this world who love me and are vying for love, but I never noticed it. .”

ps: Pretend to be three-in-one