Steel steam and flame

So, he spent almost no time sleeping. In the middle of the night, Cassia got up quietly, lit the gas lamp on the table, and took out the book he brought back from the military school to read. But the confusion in my head was so great that I couldn't read a single line of words, and there were only countless ghost images in my eyes. But he couldn't fall asleep no matter what. He saw the black box lying quietly beside the bed. After making sure that his mother and sister would not wake up, he gently opened the box and took out a handful of The short machine gun came out and was disassembled a dozen times with subtle sounds by the light of the gas lamp. Then he got bored, put it in the gift box again, changed to other firearms and repeated this meaningless thing. Now it seemed that only the cold feeling on these objects could cool his heated head. Only when it was almost dawn, he reluctantly took a rest.

The brain had not received a reasonable rest for such a long time, and the operator's body also had a bad reaction. He was groggy, and his temples felt as if they had been hit with a hammer, and there were bursts of pain following the beating of his heart. But he still woke up very early, and Cassia couldn't sleep at all.

The dark sky can be seen outside the window. The heating pipe has not been repaired for a long time. After the copper bell was replaced with a new one, it became the only sound in the house.

Mother has already gotten up and is making breakfast in the crowded kitchen with almost no spare space. The younger sister Lilia was still curled up in the quilt next to the stove, with only her little head exposed, her eyes closed tightly, and she had not yet woken up.

"You can eat in a moment." Mother heard Cassia's movements after getting up, and her voice came from the kitchen at this time.

Cassia said "Yeah", walked to the door, took off several good locks, and opened a gap in it.

It seemed like snow was starting to fall outside again, and the endless cold wind was trying desperately to get into the house. The road also turned white, and in the whistling wind, the collision sounds of large forging machines falling could be heard intermittently. The iconic black smoke pillars have also become curved, almost touching the severely corroded iron roof of the factory building.

After breakfast, the snow outside still hasn't stopped, and it looks like it will continue for a few days.

"When the snow stops, just leave here." Cassia said suddenly, and her mother didn't respond, because where she lived didn't seem to be important to her. You can somewhat feel the changes in Cassia, but they are all good. Years of fatigue accumulated on the body, and most of the senses were numb, and he was almost unaware of the changes in the core of Cassia's body.

Only Lilia could feel that Cassia seemed to be living far away from them. Even in her eyes, Cassia in front of her is a real existence that can be captured.

The toys that Cassia brought from Manoma made her happy for a long time, but during the snowy days, Lilia would still look confused for some time. Looking at Cassia's eyes seemed to be looking at a painting, and there was a feeling of reading a textbook. She feels that her brother is obviously by her side, but sometimes she feels that she will be separated from him the next moment.

The temperature can be clearly felt with the palms of the hands, and the breathing can be heard with the ears, but Lilia just feels that the brother beside her does not seem to live with her. It seems that there are two parallel Lilias in the world, and now this brother belongs to another Lilia. The brother who belongs to him even left by train and has not come back yet. She thought that when she went out to play in the past, she often looked in the direction of the station, expecting Cassia's shadow to appear around the corner.

Of course, Lilia doesn't have a detailed concept of parallelism in her head right now. She just felt that a "toy" like her brother had been replaced by another one without her knowing it.

A few days later, the snow that lasted for several days finally stopped, the sky became clear again, and new cumulus clouds were still brewing in the Lilac Mountains. When Cassia picked up the dusty shovel in the corner and went out to shovel the snow, she realized that several of the neighbors had changed. Life in the past has mostly remained unchanged. When a family settles down, they are usually prepared to live here until they are buried in a grave. But it seems that all the changes have been concentrated in one year. Many familiar people left, and the new neighbors were surprised when they saw Kasia coming out to shovel the snow.

There were also many old neighbors who worked in the same steam factory. They were surprised that Cassia came back so early and greeted each other. From them, Cassia also learned some recent news, whether it was about people or just about the small town.

Most of the dozens of people who took the heavy train to schools in various parts of the empire did not come back. Of course, the more than twenty people born into the minor nobility were no longer willing to return to this small town. Compared with the small cities in the empire's border areas and the cities outside, the gap cannot be described accurately. While enjoying a more convenient and luxurious life than in a small city, for them, it is also a gap that makes them feel hopeless, like the difference between the top of the cliff and the bottom of the cliff. The outside world is vast, and the new things that appear in front of them make them feel like they are being eliminated. The most important thing is that the aristocratic status in a small town no longer matters in front of other students in the big city. They have become the lowest, which is the most intolerable thing for them. They began to miss the life in the small town, where the use of electric lights was something that could be talked about proudly, and they could also accept the envious and jealous looks of others.

But I’m also afraid to go back. It was something that had been eliminated. When they returned to the small town again, they were afraid that they would no longer have the courage to leave there.

And like Luo Wei and Irene, who had the same status as Cassia and were both civilians, they also informed their families through letters that they would not be coming back for the holidays. Whether during summer vacation or winter vacation, I stayed in the city where the school was located.

Of course it's not that they don't want to come back. Like those noble children, they also feel how huge the gap between regions is, and they know that there are people with higher status than the noble children in the small town. If they don't come back, they won't have money, and the cost of retraining tickets is not a small amount. They were born as civilians, and living there has already been a drag on the whole family. There is no exact settlement of tuition and other fees for each year. Returning to the small town in the next year or two is still something to be planned. Not everyone is in Cassia's situation.

After shoveling the snow, Cassia looked at the bright sky and sighed.

In the afternoon, on the empty street, Cassia dragged her suitcase, and her mother held her sister Lilia's hand. She looked at the small house behind her that had just been newly painted with a parting look. Then we walked together to the only dilapidated train station in the small town.