All living beings in hell

Chapter 162 - The Ten Thousand Year Old Turtle
The lotus lantern at the entrance was lit up, and the office welcomed the 110th customer No. [-]

A smell of tropical rainforest drifted in from the door, the door was squeezed open a little, and then a little, a turtle head looked inside.

"Come in," I said.

The tortoise got permission, and slowly moved into the office step by step—this is a giant continental tortoise, with four legs as thick as an elephant, with layers of cuticles on the turtle's back, and fresh growths growing in the sunken places. Moss and fungi.Without its head and limbs, its shell is like a moving green island.

"Hey, hey, hello, hello." The tortoise opened his mouth slowly, with a little slurred articulation.

"Hello, what should I call you?"

"Wes, Wes."

The tortoise stopped not far from the wooden table, its limbs bent on the ground, and only one head was propped up to look at me.Its neck was very long, and its body was purple-black in the dim light, and some moss on its skin glowed blue-green.The glow floated on its skin and all over its body, reminding me of some turtles on the phone.

"Wes, why are you looking for me today?"

"I've lived a long, long, long time."

"How long have you lived?"

"Twenty-six thousand four hundred and forty-six years."

"That's really been a long time."

"I'm also surprised, how can I live for so long..."

"What's it like to live so long? Do you remember what happened during your lifetime?"

"What does it feel like? What does it feel like..."

Weiss speaks very slowly, and thinks even slower. Hours are like seconds to him, and centuries are like an instant.

"It feels like that's the way it is."

"That's how it went? What do you mean?"

"A lot of times, I thought I was going to make it through. In the end, if it wasn't, it would pass."

"Tell me specifically? For example, when?"

"It's been a long time... a long time... what happened in the past... I have to talk about it slowly."

"Then pick one thing and talk about it slowly."

Weiss narrowed his dark eyes, reopened the timeline of his long life, and wandered to read.

"Once, I was eating fruit in the rainforest, and I was caught by a hunter. A hunter with a big beard, bare upper body, and brown skin."

"and then?"

"The hunter put me in a bag full of fruits, I didn't know what would happen next, I just felt scared, all my limbs were shrunk in the shell and I dared not come out.

I don't know how long it has passed, but the hunter seems to have lost his way in the rainforest. "

"How did you know he was lost?"

"I could understand part of the human language, and he was yelling into the air. When the hunter stopped to rest at night, I looked out through the fabric of the bag and saw the hunter standing alone by the campfire looking at the stars, watching Seeing it, I shed tears.

When I am hungry, I eat the fruit in my pocket.The hunter also eats the fruit in the pocket, and he doesn't mind me eating the fruit in the pocket.He took me out of his pocket one night and said a lot to me.

He said he was homesick; he said he didn't know where he was and hoped the gods would show him; he said he was lonely and he was afraid he would die tonight...

He said a lot to me and put me on his lap.We had a campfire together, and I just listened to him.

He also said that he has always liked stars and felt that each star has its own life.He asked me how the stars survive in the universe, do they also need to pick wild fruits and hunt?He asked if Sagittarius was really a centaur?Are there lions, goats, and bears in the sky?
He also said, I have heard so many secrets from him, we are already good friends.If he gets so hungry and kills me to satisfy my hunger, will I blame him?
These questions, I listened in a cloud of fog, and I couldn't answer any of them, so I huddled in the turtle shell and listened silently.

After asking and asking, he hugged me and cried, tears sticking to my skin, it was so hot. "

"and then?"

"The hunter took me around the forest for a while. Sometimes he would hunt, catch rabbits or hunt birds to eat. One day after the hunter finished his lunch, he suddenly fell down. Maybe the mushrooms he ate at noon were poisonous. , maybe his body was too weak. After he fell down, he never got up again.

I saw a transparent human-shaped air mass rising from the hunter. The air mass looked at me, waved to me, and flew away.I know the hunter has set me free, and I can go back to the rainforest to eat fresh wild fruits again. "

"What did this incident make you feel?"

"In the days that followed, I would think of what the hunter said, that we were already friends. Thinking that I accompanied a human being through the last journey of his life, I felt that life is so fragile and short. If life is so short If that’s the case, I’d rather spend time in the rainforest by myself than being held in the hands of humans and chatting and feeding fruit.”

"How do you usually spend your time?"

"Time, you don't need to pass it on purpose. Find a shady place, lie on your stomach, and watch the shadow on the ground grow from long to short, and then from short to long. Time and this shadow are the same thing, they are both extended and compressed. of."

"Extension and compression? What does that mean?"

"Sometimes it feels like a day is so long, and I can't get through it no matter what. Sometimes, a day is very short, and a year is very short. Wow, it's gone in the blink of an eye."

"Well, yes, I also have a deep understanding of this."

"Well, there is a long way to live. Short, there is also a short way to live. I have lived for so long, it is impossible to always be fast or always slow."

"Can you be more specific?"

"My perception of time is not static. In fact, it is extremely sensitive. Even though I have lived a long, long life, in order to survive every day in the rainforest, I try to adjust my subjective perception of time to the minimum. Condition suitable for survival.

For example, today is a food day, and we must try to consume the most fruits within a certain period of time.Then I will try to slow down my perception of time, and try to collect as much information about foraging as possible in the shortest possible time.

If the stomach is not hungry, the scenery is just right, and there are no predators prowling nearby.Such a day couldn't be more comfortable, and I will speed up my perception of time and not think about it.Wow, one day has passed. "

"Are you worried about wasting time?"

"Wasting time? How can time be wasted?"

"Humans often say that they do nothing all day long, and feel that time is wasted by themselves, which is not worth it."

"Then what do humans think is worthwhile?"

"Maybe it's just doing things."

"Then why not do something?"

"Maybe I don't have the strength to do things."

"Human beings are weird."

"Human beings are weird..."

"Time does not belong to anyone. Whether it is a turtle or a human, we are all living in time. At the time when we should do things, do what we should do to ensure that we can survive in the rainforest. The rest of the time I want to do Do whatever you want, isn't that simple?"

"It sounds very simple, but it will be difficult to do."

"If everything that threatens existence is called difficulty, then where there is death, there will always be difficulty.

It would be easier if the threat could be forgotten for a moment.

Simple and difficult, just like how I feel about time, is not static. "

"Yes, it should be quite complicated."

"Even if it is so complicated, the life of more than 2 years, when I look back on it now, is like a long dream. Many things seem to have just happened, or haven't happened yet, and they are about to end."

"So where are you going to go next?"

"Plan, plan to do nothing."

"Speed ​​up the feeling of time?"

"I just want to lie on my stomach and recall this 2-year-old dream."

"Alright, alright."

"I want to lie down under this big tree. It's very cool here, and it's very hot in other places in hell."

"Okay, you lie down under the tree."

Wes bowed his neck in respect.

"I want to leave."

"Okay, I wish you a happy dream."

Wes turned around slowly, and the fluorescent spots on his body followed him, moving every step in the gap between minutes and seconds.I watched Wes's wobbly gait, lost in the stillness of time, almost forgetting to breathe.

(End of this chapter)