man sanctified in death row vest

Chapter 321 Predecessors and Latters (4800 words)
This is an unfinished painting.

The paper is yellowing and the ink is fading.But this painting seems to have traveled through time and space, spanning 200 years of time and space, linking Gongsun Mo who lived 200 years ago with Zheng Xiu 200 years later.

With trembling fingers, Zheng Xiu carefully took the painting from Gongsun Dao.

He stroked lightly across the paper with his fingertips.

Feel the texture of the paper, and the mottled aging years on it.

In an instant, Zheng Xiu's mind was filled with question marks.

There seemed to be a voice in his heart that kept shouting: Impossible.

Zheng Xiu was sure that Gongsun Mo was not the same person as him.He is by no means Gongsun Mo, let alone some bloody past and present life, Gongsun Mo is Gongsun Mo, he is him.

But the "unfinished painting" that Gongsun Mo left behind when he returned to the West after a hundred years, the girl with curly hair who didn't have time to drop her eyes, ears, mouth and nose, was clearly for him to see.

Leave it to him to fill in the gaps above.

"I forgot someone."

Sometimes when a person remains in memory, what makes people feel the deepest is not the appearance of that person.Sometimes what is deeply imprinted in my heart and in my mind may be just a familiar scent of perfume, a familiar figure from the back, a plausible sentence, an object forgotten in a corner, a seemingly inconspicuous but surprising Little things that make people smile.

Zheng Xiu couldn't remember, and couldn't remember who that person was.But ever since he came to this world, with both parents, there is always such an inadvertent moment, a little touch, that Zheng Xiu will stop everything at hand no matter what, to rack his brains, thinking about the flash of inspiration , Thinking hard about what I forgot.

Even in the end, I can't remember it, the feeling of loss will deepen little by little, and accumulate drop by drop, until the solid imprisonment is broken, and Zheng Xiu comes here, to Sun Cicada Valley, to Longmen Inn, holding This unfinished painting.

"It's a monster!"

Holding Gongsun Mo's hundred-year-old painting in his hand, Zheng Xiu, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly woke up.

Because of the weird thing, because of the way, because of... the strange person.

The alien is the biggest "odd number" in this world!
No matter how unbelievable this idea is, Zheng Xiu finds it unbelievable.But after ruling out all the impossible, the remaining answer, he can only be the answer.

"Twist and turn, reach the end..."

Gongsun Mo came to the end of the doorway.

He pushed open the last door.

Behind the door, he saw today and Zheng Xiu's memory.

The ghost is like a kind of "intermediary" that cannot be explained by common sense, connecting two people who also have the "painter" ghost across time and space.Gongsun Moding saw something in the last door of the path, which made him leave this unfinished painting a hundred years ago, and left it to Zheng Xiu, who also walked the path of "painter".

The silent Zheng Xiu's eyes became brighter and brighter.

Gongsun Dao smiled slightly, drank a cup of wine, closed the door of the inn, and hung a sign on the door - closed today.

He went inside and pulled out a dusty box from under the bed.Open the box, the items inside the box look old, but they are well preserved.It is a set of four treasures of study with charm.

"This is the last relic left by Gongsun Mo to our family when he was in Richan Valley. Brother, don't look at us with such eyes. We are not giving you this set of relics. This set of relics is very valuable. At most, you can borrow it. You use it."

Gongsun Dao immediately pulled up a square table and set up the stools. He carefully placed the Four Treasures of the Study on the table, took a shiny black ink stick with a seal on it, dipped it in clean water, and rubbed the ink for Zheng Xiu in a strange way.

While studying ink, Gongsun Dao became more and more excited, muttering:

"I never expected that this painting has been passed down in our family for five generations, and today it's our generation, and I'm finally lucky enough to see it completed!"

Zheng Xiu spread the unfinished painting on the table.

In his hand, he was holding the paintbrush that Gongsun Mo had left behind.

Close your eyes and stay still.

Not long after, there was an exclamation from outside.

Qing Shisan and Yue Linglong ran out of the inn when they heard the sound, their expressions changed dramatically.

I don't know when, the sky was filled with seven-color glow.

The seven-color rays of light are like layers of gauze curtains, and as they swing, red and black cracks are revealed.

In the fissure, black light and shadow overflowed faintly, turning into green mountains and green waters for a while, and rare and exotic beasts walked in the air for a while.

All kinds of phantoms overflowed from the cracks, and before they were solidified, they turned into rays of light and dissipated in the blink of an eye.

The seven-color glow circulates and changes like this.

Such a magnificent spectacle has attracted merchants and local people to stop and be amazed.

Qing Shisan stared straight at the crack in the sunlight, he stretched his neck, and stretched his head to the sky little by little, his eyes were blurred, full of longing.

"Red lotus root."

Qing Shisan muttered to himself, looked at him, smiled, turned his head to look at Yue Linglong who was streaming down his face, and couldn't help but ask, "Ma'am, why are you crying?"

Yue Linglong shook her head lightly, with complicated emotions. After a long time, she wiped away her tears, and a big stone fell to the ground in her heart. She responded with a smile, completely relieved: "No wonder I have always dreamed of him all these years."

"Even if I've never seen him, I still dream of him. I remember his face, his voice, his insults to my concubine, and his indifference."

"But for some reason, the more I have these strange dreams, the more I can't forget him. I'm always curious about who is that person who always appears in my concubine's dreams."

"Until my father told me that when he was a child, he took over a marriage for my concubine. He was the son of Zheng Haoran, and his name was Zheng Xiu."

"There are countless wonders in the world, and these dreams cannot be speculated with common sense."

"My concubine thought that this is a kind of past life, this is fate, it is fate."

Yue Linglong smiled brightly, but her heart was full of sorrow, like swallowing medicine, she knew the bitterness, it was all in her heart, she closed her eyes: "So from the beginning, I should be with him for the rest of my life, listen to his joys and sorrows, and be with him. The one with the white head,"

"not me."

……

in the inn.

Gongsun Dao, who was elated because the long-cherished wish of his ancestors was fulfilled, looked at the back of the motionless guest not far away, and was about to step up to pat him, reminding him that it was time to write.

Unexpectedly, before he even stepped forward, his feet became weak and he fell to the side.A gentle grunt followed shortly afterwards.

Zheng Xiu fell into a state of extreme concentration. He looked at the beautiful figure on the yellowed scroll and the blank "face". He didn't even know that Gongsun Dao, who was in the same room, had already passed out.

Zheng Xiu wanted to bite his finger and drip blood, but when he put his finger to his mouth, Zheng Xiu stopped.

"It shouldn't be like this."

"It's not just 'blood' that can be used as a 'medium'."

The pen in his hand is not a strange object, nor is it a magic weapon. It is just an antique used by Gongsun Mo 200 years ago, an ordinary and valuable antique, nothing more.

He wasn't stained with blood either, but at this moment, Zheng Xiu clearly felt that his hands, the pen in his hand, and the paper under the pen, there was something invisible and intangible in them that was "connected".

"Not just blood,"

"There should be a purer 'medium'."

Zheng Xiu's finger left his mouth and did not bite down.

He entered a state of inner emptiness, his mind was empty, and the "answer" was in front of him. He didn't rack his brains like before, thinking about "who is she", "what did I forget", "what happened?" What?" Zheng Xiu let his brain empty, and even "thinking" was handed over to "intuition".

In other words, Zheng Xiu's current state is called "sudden enlightenment".

Or... "immersion".

puff.

A thought emerged from Zheng Xiu's mind out of thin air.

--"reason".

"The operation of the world, the cause and effect between people, the past and the future, there is a certain 'connection', a kind of...'reason'."

Reason, reason, axiom.

puff.

Zheng Xiu heard the sound of falling into the water.

He was still sitting there, but he fell on his back and sank into the "water".

The mountains were dyed with ink, and the blue and blue watercolors paved a road under Zheng Xiu's feet.

Zheng Xiu walked here in the [painter] doorway in the past, and when he opened the third door, there was no way ahead, only an abyss with no bottom.

But at this moment, when Zheng Xiu stepped on the path of [painter] again and reached the "Abyss", pieces of stones shrouded in ink-stained halo floated up from the bottom of the abyss and paved on the top of the abyss, forming a road.

"The road has always been there, I just didn't realize it."

"The last two thresholds of the Alien Path are difficult to say, not difficult to say, and not difficult at all."

"With thick accumulation and thin hair, success will come when conditions are ripe."

With a calm expression, Zheng Xiu stepped on the floating stone road and walked to the opposite side.

The second door was half-opened, and there was faint light and shadow seeping through the crack.

Zheng Xiu easily pushed open the second door.

"Thinking into a painting."

"Draw your heart come true."

Richan Town.

The vision in the sky closed silently.

In the hot valley, a pleasant breeze suddenly blew up.The breeze blew by, causing the immature flower bones in Richan Valley to bloom little by little, forming delicate and beautiful flower clusters.

Beside Moshan Waterfall, the rainbow twists into various strange shapes.One will become a "big" character, one will be a "person" character, one will be a "wood" character, and one will become a "heaven" character.

The whole town was dumbfounded.

The passers-by who were yelling because of all kinds of visions just now saw the outrageous spectacle of Moshan, they were completely silent, dumbfounded, froze in place, and squeezed their faces hard at the same time.

And in the doorway.

Zheng Xiu pushed open the second door.

The lights and shadows on both sides crowded towards Zheng Xiu.

Zheng Xiu smiled, and with a flick of his hand, the twist was straightened in an instant, and it became a broad road.

Zheng Xiu walked on the straight path, at the end of the path, there was only the last door left.

Every step he took, Zheng Xiu's eyes became brighter, and the blank face in his mind became clearer and clearer.

Every smile, every anger, every inch of skin, every blink of an eye.Fragments like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle are re-woven in Zheng Xiu's memory, filling in the blanks in Zheng Xiu's memory bit by bit, and recomposing that painting.

"Fengbei."

Zheng Xiu stood in front of the last door, smiling, with tears in the corners of his eyes.

"How could I forget Fengbei?"

"She was erased!"

Zheng Xiu finally remembered what happened that day at the end of the ancient battlefield.

In the ancient battlefield, ghosts were born, and when Zheng Haoran was about to be taken away by Chang An, Feng Bei tore open the dark tent and entered Chang An.

She looked back at Zheng Xiu and smiled, without saying a word, she turned around and punched Zheng Haoran.

Her hands are inherently ominous, and whoever touches them will destroy them. They are the hands of the "executioner", a pair of murderous hands.But at that time, when her palms, which everyone could hear, turned pale, when they were clenched into fists, they became a pair of "saving" hands.

Zheng Haoran was not turned into ashes by Fengbei's hand, Zheng Haoran was blown out of the mirror by Fengbei's punch in shock, and flew out of the junction.

The next moment, strange lights and shadows appeared around Fengbei, streams of black light that seemed to hide words rushed from top to bottom, and black palms gushed out of the mirror like locusts.

Each palm is dyed with an ominous blurred light, with intermittent halos like broken pictures.

The palm fell on Fengbei's body, and her body was "disintegrated" into pieces little by little.

……

"She was taken away!"

"She was taken away!"

……

In the revived memory, it was accompanied by Zheng Xiu's heart-piercing cry at that time.

Zheng Xiu savored the memories of that time.

What made him feel the most painful was not Fengbei's "disappearance", but that he watched Fengbei being taken away. With this phenomenon, all memories about "Fengbei" were erased, tampered with, Distorted, corrected, fragmented and reassembled, it became the world that Zheng Xiu sees now.

Rather than saying that this is a simple "amnesia" or "forgetting", it is better to say this "phenomenon", because Feng Bei was "taken away", and in order to maintain a certain balance, some force roughly reconnected all causal relationships .That's why Zheng Xiu felt discord everywhere, because those things didn't really happen.

Zheng Xiu figured everything out and stood in front of the last door.

The last door was not closed tightly, but like the previous door, a gap was gently opened.

Zheng Xiu pushed the door and entered. Behind the door was a pure and undefiled lake.

Ripples swayed under his feet, and Zheng Xiu walked on the lake.

As the ripples moved to the distance, they gradually calmed down. Not far away, Zheng Xiu saw a strange and vague figure from the back.

As Zheng Xiu approached, the figure suddenly became alarmed, and turned around, revealing a fair and gentle face.

"He" looked at Zheng Xiu who was also walking on the lake in surprise, and the two approached each other at the same time.

"Zheng Xiu."

"Gongsun Mo."

The two reached out to each other at the same time with a distance of several feet.Before they could touch each other, there seemed to be a thick wall between the two of them, and the ripples swayed here and stopped out of nowhere.The two looked down at the same time, and there was a lake about one person wide under their feet, smooth as a mirror, and eerily quiet.

Zheng Xiu and Gongsun Mo looked at each other's unfamiliar faces, were silent for a moment, and nodded at the same time.

Just as Zheng Xiu understood the other party's identity, Gongsun Mo also knew Zheng Xiu's identity.

Gongsun Mo is a "predecessor".

Zheng Xiu is a "latecomer".

Gongsun Mo slapped his hands and smiled wryly: "I see."

At the same time, Zheng Xiu nodded calmly: "I see."

The so-called weird thing is like a hard disk, which stores the "data" of every stranger who has gone to the end, or... perception.

It is also like a "key", a "link", connecting every "successor".

the end of the doorway,
It is "inheritance".

A hundred years ago, Gongsun Mo saw Zheng Xiu at the "end", so he drew this unfinished painting and hid the strange thing in it.

Today, Zheng Xiu came to the end of the [painter] doorway and saw Gongsun Mo.

bass.

Zheng Xiu suddenly opened his eyes.

Suddenly, that incomplete painting is already complete.

Feng Bei's cool and handsome face, indifferent face, and tender eyes were painted on the blank face.

In the next second, the surface of the painting distorted, a vortex appeared, and a translucent withered palm stretched out.

Snapped!
That bone-like palm grabbed Zheng Xiu's hand, squeezed Zheng Xiu's flesh little by little, and entered Zheng Xiu's body.

After the withered palm was squeezed into Zheng Xiu's body, the color of "Feng Bei" in the painting completely faded, and traces of streamers invisible to the naked eye wrapped around Zheng Xiu's little finger, leaving a circle of faint marks.

Whoosh whoosh.

The yellowed paper lost all its support, turned into dust as if weathered, and scattered all over the table.

Zheng Xiu raised his little finger and stared intently at the circle of marks, which looked like a ring of growth rings.

Staring at it, a faint thread stretched out from the "annual ring" of the little finger, extending in one direction, disappearing into the void.

Zheng Xiu became excited, he knew that this was the "reason" between him and Fengbei, and it was the only clue to find Fengbei.

Although Feng Bei was disintegrated by the black palm as if killed in front of Zheng Xiu in [Ancient Battlefield], Zheng Xiu stubbornly believed that Feng Bei was still alive.He ended up screaming "she was taken" instead of "she died" with a heart-rending cry.Fengbei's way of leaving seems a bit scary, but in fact he should have gone to another place in this way.

There are still many mysteries hidden in it that Zheng Xiu cannot understand, but with the "reason" wrapped around the little finger, Zheng Xiu believes that as long as he follows this trace, he can find Feng Bei.

"I advise you, don't act rashly."

suddenly.

The orange cat walked gracefully, and at some point it silently stepped into the inn, and let out a lazy tone that Zheng Xiu had never heard before.

Zheng Xiu's hairs exploded, and he turned around in shock.At this moment, what the orange cat said was not "meow meow", but the real "human language" that he could understand.

My cat can speak human language?

Zheng Xiu's mood fluctuated greatly, his pupils trembled, and he looked at the orange cat on the windowsill, lowering his head and sticking out his tongue to lick the hair between its paws as if nothing had happened.

"you……"

Zheng Xiu let out a grunt in his throat.

The shadow of the seemingly frail little orange cat magnified infinitely in Zheng Xiu's eyes.

It squatted on the window sill, and the pressure it brought to Zheng Xiu was like a mountain, a... colossal.

He has this feeling.

"Who are you?"

Zheng Xiu asked.

(End of this chapter)