Dragon Tribe: Still Thinking Until Now

The cement balcony and green-painted wooden windows tell of the wind, frost, snow and rain that this building has experienced. No one can tell its age, but it is probably approaching the end of its ownership period. A slightly old, slightly dim incandescent lamp is hung under the gatehouse of the unit, creaking in the night wind.

Looking from the direction of the pavilion, the corridor of Unit 15 was only lit with dim yellow lights. There were no windows and it was pitch black. Every wall, including the security doors of the several households in the corridor on the first floor, was covered with various small advertisements, such as "Unblocking the sewer", "Unlocking security doors", "Home appliance recycling"...

It was not too late yet, Lu Mingfei stood in front of the pavilion, and the old ladies and old men ran past him, chasing the children who refused to go home. It was warm, but Lu Mingfei did not like it. The hustle and bustle only made him feel annoyed.

The air after the rain was filled with the smell of earth. Lu Mingfei walked past the old people and children who were chasing after each other, and passed by the middle-aged people who were returning home from get off work.

Lu Mingfei thought that maybe he should really say goodbye to the girl and go see where she lived.

He went up to the second floor. It was a very old blue wooden door with paint peeling off. The sign of Unit 15, 201, was hung on the door. Several rivets were still shining with brass light under the dim wall lamp. At the beginning of the year before last, the neighborhood committee forgot to install doorplates for each household in the old community. Because this room used to be a power distribution room, the neighborhood committee may not know that there was actually a little girl living in it. It was Xia Mi's birthday that day. Lu Mingfei bought a fruit cake and called Chu Zihang to give his junior sister a surprise in the evening, but he didn't find her at home. He asked the aunt next door and found out that Xia Mi was called away by the neighborhood committee.

The street management in 09 was a mess. The staff of the suburban neighborhood committees were of varying quality. The middle-aged women in charge were eating melon seeds with teacups, three or five uncles were playing chess together, and the neighborhood committee director, who had slicked his hair and looked rather wretched, was packing up to leave work. Chu Zihang went up to argue, but the slick-haired man ignored him and said that he couldn't record the door control without the house number. The girl could only stay here tonight. Anyway, the neighborhood committee had enough space for her to sleep. His tone was impatient and condescending, and Chu Zihang was so angry that veins on his forehead jumped.

Lu Mingfei turned around to look at the girl who was standing at the entrance of the neighborhood committee holding onto the corner of her clothes in the twilight.

There was a hint of mischief on her small, plain, white face, her black hair hung down to cover her slightly red eyes. The evening breeze, with a faint floral scent coming from nowhere, gently lifted her white skirt, like a blooming white tulip. Her taut calves under the skirt were straight and slender, and seemed to be flashing a flowing fluorescence in the afterglow.

But Lu Mingfei didn't remember that. He only remembered that there was a moment when the wind lifted Xia Mi's hair. She looked at him helplessly like a child, or like a panicked kitten. In fact, she was also a child at that time.

Rage immediately surged up, and the sound of whistling wind came from behind Chu Zihang. Before he could even stop him, Lu Mingfei knocked down the greasy-haired man who was picking up his briefcase and preparing to leave with one punch, and then took Xia Mi's hand and ran away amid the screams of "Murder, help!" by the middle-aged women.

To this day, Lu Mingfei still remembers how soft the evening was that day. When the last ray of sunlight disappeared, he turned around to look at Xia Mi. The light was slowly fading from Xia Mi's eyes. The clouds in the sky were the color of flames, and the girl's pupils were also the color of flames. The night was falling and could not be stopped, but those eyes, which were originally as alert as a cat, were brighter than ever before.

In fact, Lu Mingfei should have realized at that time that the bright light was a feeling called love. Perhaps that feeling had been slowly growing in his junior sister’s soul like vines entwined around an ancient tree since a long time ago.

——There are two keys to Xia Mi’s house, one is in her own hand, and the other has been with Lu Mingfei since a long time ago. He inserted the small metal thing into the keyhole and turned it slowly.

With a click, the lock tongue separated and the door creaked open. The scent of Xia Mi's shampoo and shower gel wafted in. The scent was so cool that it penetrated the bones, like a slowly rising tide, enveloping Lu Mingfei. When the door closed behind him, darkness enveloped him.

So lonely.

Lu Mingfei stood quietly in the darkness surrounded by the fragrance. For no reason, he thought of a sentence written by Marquez in "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

"The past is all fake, memories are a road with no return, all the past springs can never be restored, even the most passionate and loyal love is ultimately just a fleeting reality, only loneliness is eternal."

Yes, only loneliness is eternal.

The girl's death was inevitable, and at this moment he was just cherishing the traces of her existence.

Lu Mingfei groped his way through the small room. The furnishings inside were exactly the same as before, as if dragons were also nostalgic creatures, afraid that someone she cared about would walk in and no longer recognize this place.

He finally reached the window and opened the ivory curtains. The half-hidden moonlight poured in from the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, as if coating everything in silver.

Next to the floor-to-ceiling window was a standing clothes rack, on which hung the dark green school uniform of Kassel Academy that Xia Mi had brought back. It had probably just been hand-washed and ironed neatly, and it still smelled of lavender. Lu Mingfei stood silently in front of the clothes, looking at it for a long time until his eyes and nose became sore.

But what can we do? How can people fight against something like fate?

Not knowing when it started, Lu Mingfei realized that even he was defeated by the tide of fate.

The order in which people appear is really important. The person who drinks with you cannot take you home. Xia Mi drank a glass of mellow wine with him, but the person Lu Mingfei chose to take him home was not her.

He began to walk around the room expressionlessly, slowly walking across every tile that Xia Mi had walked on, feeling what the girl who had lived alone in this world for more than ten years had felt.

Until he saw the serious-looking Rilakkuma sitting at the corner of the big and comfortable bed. The last time he saw it, it still had the girl's sky blue stockings on its ears, but this time it was leaning against the head of the bed, leaning against the soft white pillow, with the soft quilt pulled up to cover its entire body, leaving only its big head exposed.

Lu Mingfei pulled back the quilt and wanted to take the bear away, but he suddenly froze. He could no longer hold back the sour liquid, which slowly flowed from the corners of his eyes.

There was a little bear lying next to the big bear. The little bear looked very familiar. Lu Mingfei also had one like it, which was given to him by his junior sister when he first entered the academy.

He turned it over with trembling hands, and for a moment it seemed as if the tranquility of the world had collapsed.

"Lu Mingfei and Xia Mi's, Rilakkuma."

Countless images overlapped in Lu Mingfei's mind and he felt a splitting headache because he had seen the same sticky note behind the little bear that Xia Mi gave him.

"Senior brother is so kind."

"Thank you, senior brother."

"Then, brother, will you always be so kind to me? Will you be corrupted by the honey of capitalism when you go to America and forget the pure revolutionary friendship between us?"

"What if one day I commit a serious crime? What if the FBI, CIA, MI6, Mossad and others all come to kill me? Will you still recognize me?"

"Lu Mingfei, you have heard me clearly now. I know you don't love me, but I love you. Whether you believe it or not, my love will last forever, until the end of human history. I will pursue you, I will accompany you, and one day you will fall in love with me, and we will be together until death."

……

Countless Xia Mis whispered in his ears, each of them looked as beautiful as a fairy when she smiled, and their whispers were ambiguous and charming, but every word was like a sharp knife piercing Lu Mingfei's heart.

Until the end, all the Xia Mis merged into one, and she said, "Lu Mingfei, remember, you are mine."

Lu Mingfei fell down on the bed, gasping for breath. His heart and head felt like they were being torn apart by pain.

The bewildered man slowly curled up, as if he wanted to wrap himself up with his body, using his muscles and bones to isolate himself from all the sadness.

The cold moonlight fell on him, like a child curled up in the darkness, and he held the little Rilakkuma tightly in his hand.

At this time, he saw the raw meat and vegetables in the shopping bags on the table that had not yet been taken out and processed, as well as a small pile of messy paper not far away, each piece of paper reflecting a glass-like light.

Lu Mingfei supported his body with trembling hands. He reached out to grab the papers. Each piece of paper was half cut out from a photo. Each piece showed Chu Zihang's paralyzed face.

But what about the other half?

Lu Mingfei realized something. He stumbled to his feet and knocked over the old wooden table in a trance. Photos of his senior brothers were scattered all over the floor. Each one had a blank expression, as if mocking someone's incompetence.

The chest of drawers in the corner was filled to the brim, with skirts of various styles neatly folded. Many of them were bought by Lu Mingfei and Xia Mi together. Probably because the seasons were about to change, the summer clothes were all in the opened storage box, while the spring and autumn shirts, thick coats, and down jackets were stored in other boxes. The white and black stockings and long socks seemed to still carry the girl's body temperature and fragrance, and were individually packed in a large transparent pocket. Next to the transparent bag were hairbands and bandages, as well as a very beautiful silver bracelet, thin and delicate, with a small silver maple leaf in its mouth, which was Lu Mingfei's birthday gift to Xia Mi last year.

He rummaged through all these things and finally found a thick envelope at the bottom of all the clothes.

The envelope was open, and Lu Mingfei poured out the contents. They were all photos, some of which had been cropped so that only half of them were left. These were the photos that Lu Mingfei had personally handed to Xia Mi the day before she went to Kassel Academy.

Lu Mingfei took a deep breath, and he suddenly really felt like he was about to lose Xia Mi. The huge grief seemed to have found a hole in his heart and finally poured out.

Each of those cropped photos was Lu Mingfei’s own face, either expressionless, mischievous, or smiling, as if each expression was exactly what someone liked, so that person carefully cropped each of his expressions and kept them in the cabinet used to hide her most precious things.

The man's fingers were trembling and he could hardly hold the photos. He turned them over and saw love poems from his lovers written in beautiful handwriting on the back of each photo.

Shakespeare's Sonnet, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

But you are lovelier and gentler than summer days."

Gerald's "I Have Not Spent Everything with You", "I have met countless creatures and seen countless beautiful scenery,

I didn't spend all this with you.

This will all be my loss;

I want to spend these things with you.

All this will be my reward.”

Simone de Beauvoir's "Love Letters Across the Ocean", "Our meeting is meaningful only when you also want to see me."

There are also "Like a moth to the stars, and like the night pursuing the dawn.", "I fell in love with you at first sight.", "He is my north and south, my east and west, my weekdays, my Sundays, my noons, my late nights, my words, my songs. I believe love can be immortal."...

There are many, many, and there is a small phrase behind each half of the photo. They are not all poems, some are lines from movies or operas. With Lu Mingfei's literary knowledge, he can only know a small part of them, but at the end of each phrase there is written in very small words "Lu Mingfei, I love you very much."

Lu Mingfei, I love you very much.

Just seven words, but they appear dozens, maybe a hundred times.

Lu Mingfei's fingers trembled even more violently. He sobbed silently, and the tears in the corners of his eyes were as hot as water droplets on a steam boiler, slowly boiling and turning into white mist rising upward.

He looked at the back of the photos one by one. Every line of poetry was filled with the girl's love for someone. She really liked him, to the bone, to the soul. Lu Mingfei flipped through the photos faster and faster, his eyes became more and more panicked. Finally, at a certain moment, he completely lost his strength, the envelope slipped to the ground, all the photos were scattered, and only the last one was left pinched in his fingertips.

It was the only complete photo in the envelope, and it was actually a very rare photo of Lu Mingfei and Xia Mi. Both of them were wearing the school uniform of Kassel Academy. They stood very close to each other, and the dim sunlight cast the shadow of the huge world tree statue in the background onto the entire campus. The girl stood on tiptoe to look up at the boy's face, but the boy turned his eyes away awkwardly and did not dare to look into those cat-like eyes.

Lu Mingfei remembered that this was the photo taken by Finkel at the end of a free day, but the clarity was not high and it was posted on the Night Watchman Forum for a long time.

Xia Mi probably asked someone to help her adjust the clarity, so it actually looked exceptionally bright.

What is written on the back of the photo is not a short poem.

"I'm afraid of the dark."

"But you said you would always be by my side, so I'm not afraid anymore."

"Brother, let's be together."

Just three short sentences made Lu Mingfei completely break down. He covered his face and seemed to be crying, but he was also making low, crazy laughing sounds. His shoulders kept shaking and his body gradually became shorter, until he finally knelt on the ground and couldn't get up. White steam seeped out from between his fingers as he covered his face.

A man's voice whispered in his ear.

"Even if you are against the whole world, I will stand by you."

It was his own voice.

Why make a promise if you can't do it? If you make a promise, you must do it.

But this is fate, who can resist fate?

What is fate? People like me are born to defy fate, right? Why shouldn't I resist?

Someone else whispered in his ear, saying, Lu Mingfei, don't do things that will make you regret, don't make those who love you sad, because in this world, there are indeed few people you love, and there will definitely not be many people who love you.

He let out a low roar, like the roar of a mad dragon suppressed between his lips and teeth.

Yes, yes, yes, Lu Mingfei, that’s it. If this world wants to hurt those who love you, then let’s burn this world down.

Suddenly, golden-red light tore through the darkness, and the light came out from between the man's fingers, like a group of unwilling snakes!

Lu Mingfei slowly put down his hands and looked up at the night sky outside the French window. He seemed calm, but there was a flame flowing in his pupils, and the flame spread out a gorgeous golden red light.

The man let out a long breath, as if to let out all his sadness and despair.

He then lowered his head, and the dense scales slowly tore through the skin and emerged from the body surface. The scales opened and closed, and each opening and closing released a large amount of steam from the bottom.

The golden-red light illuminated the man's already extremely hard facial bones like a river of fire flowing on the surface of his scales.

He laughed softly, and it seemed as if he was crying, because steam rose from the corners of his eyes.

Right, that's it.

Lu Mingfei, you have already made a mistake that is so irreparable that you cannot undo it. Do you want to make the same mistake again?

"Xia...Mi..." The man's voice was intermittent, breaking the dead silence.

Chapter 141 Miss Xia Mi's Final Strategy (3)

Gaojing Station on Line 101, numbered .

This is Xishan. In the night, the mountains look like the bodies of dead giants, majestically hidden in the thin mist.

This subway station was built according to war preparedness needs. Its structure is completely different from that of a passenger station. In the past, it was heavily guarded, dull and quiet.

The high dome, the simple white lime walls, the rough concrete floor, and the cold incandescent lights swept across the empty shadows again and again. The nearly one-kilometer-long concrete ramp climbed all the way to the exit on the ground, and it was as silent as a demon's lair.