Ember Gun

   Chapter 731

As night fell, the world fell into endless darkness. It was not a beautiful night. The thick cumulus clouds covered all the stars. The boy looked out the window and saw only the deep darkness. The sky and the earth were connected. Together, the boundary is blurred.

  It seems that at a certain moment, the hut has been separated from the real world and dragged into a certain void and chaotic space.

  Retracted his gaze, the boy was not too much in the accidental world, no matter how dark and cold outside, this small hut was still warm and brightly lit.

Holmes moved the dining table over and leaned on the lower bunk bed. The boy and Watson sat together. Holmes brought in two more chairs. He sat down.

The aroma came to the face, and the boy couldn't help but drool. Holmes's cooking skills are very good. To the boy, it is like magic. Those dirty wild vegetables will always become delicious in his hands. Delicacy.

  Because there are guests, a pair of chopsticks is added to the dinner table, but this guy seems to be late, everyone can only endure hunger and wait for his arrival.

"The fence is almost ready. Cutting down some trees in the next few days should be enough." To pass the time, Holmes told about the current situation of the small family. "I got some seeds, so I can plant them. some vegetables."

"You'd better cut down more trees. Winter is coming soon. The forest should become very cold," Watson suggested. "I saved a small sum of money before. Do you see what you need and what to buy? ?"

   "Well, there should be no place to spend money at the moment, and basic food, clothing, housing and transportation can be guaranteed."

  Holmos thought about it seriously. Since stabilizing, Holmos has realized that they can't continue to wander on the streets. They can't live like that. They need to get on the right track and live upright.

  "New life..."

  Holmos sighed, his eyes softened.

  Not long ago, he was still hanging out on the streets of Feilengcui, and he was beaten to death with other people. In a blink of an eye, he also had a place that could be called home, although it was small, but at least it could shelter from wind and rain.

   "I thought this kind of life was very far away to me, but I didn't expect it to become so close again that I could touch it easily."

  Listening to Holmes' words, the boy didn't have much feeling. For him, nothing has changed. He is still with his friends, which is enough.

   "By the way, do you think about what to do after you think about it?"

  Holmos looked at the boy and suddenly asked him.

  "Do...what?" The boy didn't understand.

   "It's work and the like. People need to get busy, and they will be abandoned when they are free. What's more, we don't have idlers here,"

   Holmes explained to him.

   "I am now a qualified hunter, I can catch some prey every day, and some part-time jobs, I can make some small money."

   pointed to the shotgun hung on the wall. This is how the rabbit meat is on the dinner table today.

   Hearing this, Watson also said to the boy beside him.

   "Like Holmes, I found some part-time jobs in the city. Although I didn't earn much, it was enough to survive."

   "Huh? When did it happen?"

  Hearing this, the boy was surprised.

   "Just a few days ago, when I took you to Feilengcui." Watson recalled.

Hearing this, the boy also remembered what happened a few days ago. They lived a stable life. Hearing that Watson was going to the city, the boy also begged to let her take herself to face the boy’s pleading, no By the way, Watson could only take him.

Perhaps it was because of the priests. The few of them were a little worried about this familiar city, but they went here for life. The boy didn't know that Watson was going to find a job, but just heard that she had something to do. , Left the boy beside a garden.

  "We are no longer wanderers. We can no longer live a life of drifting with the flow like before. You need to have a goal and a direction to move forward."

Holmes suggested that once they might be able to **** the bread from the shops and plunder the only resources on the street with other vagrants, but now it is different. They want to live upright and use upright methods to survive. NS.

"I……"

  The boy’s voice was hesitant. He probably understood what Holmes meant, but if he really let him choose what to do, he couldn’t figure it out.

  For a long time, he felt that he was a very simple person, with an empty mind. In Watson's words, he was called naive, and in Holmes's words, he was stupid.

  The boy likes this. It’s easy to live this way. He doesn’t have to think about so many complicated things, he just needs to be next to these two people.

  A simple and small wish.

  "Can I...stay here for the rest of my life? What assistance can I give you? For example, erecting fences, cleaning up hygiene, cooking... etc.?"

  The boy asked tentatively.

  "You don’t want to leave this hut, nor do you want to leave this forest, do you?"

  Holmos was not angry, and continued to ask.

   "Think about it, for example, something you like, something you want to do. These are things that you need to leave here to do."

  The boy thought about it seriously, trying to remember what he liked. He remembered the day he went to Feilengcui with Watson and sat in the garden by himself.

  It is a garden close to the seminary. Among the flower beds, you can often see those smiling students and pastors. Most of them are about the same age as boys, talking and laughing, and walking past the boy's eyes.

  He also saw those swaying skirts, amidst the undulating chuckles, the beautiful ankles walked by in high heels...

  I have to say that at a certain moment, the boy felt a little difference. He was in prosperity, but he was out of tune with this prosperity. He could not integrate into it, nor did he have the opportunity to integrate into it.

  When he thought of Oscar, if he had another chance to choose, what kind of life would he lead?

  If he leaves with the priest, the boy will become the priest, and he will also become a part of this prosperity. Maybe he...maybe able to integrate into the world?

  But this would undoubtedly abandon the present. He looked at Holmes and Watson, shook his head, and said nothing.

  The longing in his heart only lasted for a moment and then disappeared, the boy said.

   "Well, I don't have anything that I like too much, and I don't have anything I want. If I must have something, I would like to be with everyone. I don't want to leave here, leave this hut, this forest."

  He said seriously.

The boy knows that leaving here will also encounter beautiful things, but correspondingly, he will also encounter troubles. He does not want to make his simple thoughts more complicated. If he can, he even hopes to be fixed as eternity right now. Sleeping in eternity seems to be nothing bad.

  Hearing the boy's answer, Holmes fell silent, and Watson stretched out his hand and rubbed the boy's face vigorously.

   "If you want to do this, it's okay, just be happy, right."

  She dotes on the boy and agrees with all his requirements. The boy is also happy to do this. He feels like a lazy turtle, just wanting to hide in his own shell for a lifetime.

The darkness outside the window became deeper and deeper, and the window was gradually covered with a thin layer of ice mist, as if winter was coming, but none of this had anything to do with the boy. He hid in the hut with his friends. , Enjoy the delicious food, feel the warmth of the fire.

   Knocking on the door sounded, and the conversation among several people stopped.

   "He should be here."

  Holmos got up and walked to the door, ready to open the door.

  At this time, the boy realized that he didn’t seem to know who would be visiting. Who was that mysterious guest? Does he not know, friend? But the boy's friends are already here?

While thinking, the door was opened, and the cold wind poured in, causing the boy to tremble, and then he saw the tall figure, he and Holmos talked and laughed, closed the door, took off his jacket, and hung it casually aside , And then sat in the position that Holmes had prepared for him.

  It was an old man with gray hair and a beard lunatic, almost connected together, like a lion’s mane, with an unstoppable smile on his face, his eyes narrowed when he laughed.

   "He... who is he?"

  The boy asked quietly.

"Oh, you don't know yet, this is Lorenzo and Mr. Lorenzo Medici," Watson introduced the boy, and then whispered in his ear, "The cabin we live in belongs to him. "

"what?"

  The boy was dumbfounded, and Lorenzo just laughed, "It’s okay, it’s okay."

   "Why... what's going on?"

  The boy was a little dizzy. He didn't understand why this place had become the property of the old man in front of him. He looked at other people as if asking for help.

  "This hunter's hut was built when I was young, but then I grew old and didn't have the energy to chase the prey, and my eyes were lost. I couldn't see the sight at all. Then I gave up hunting and it was deserted."

  The old man said slowly.

   "I almost forgot about this place, but I had a rise before, and I wanted to come back here to take a look, look back at my youth, and I found you."

  "Are you here to ask for these?" The boy was very alert.

  "How is it possible, I have become this old, I can't live this kind of life." The old man patted his thigh and laughed.

   "I invited Mr. Medici to come, after all, he built this place." Holmes said.

  The old man nodded, glanced at a few people, and said affectionately, “The abandoned land has been revived, and it is still a group of reliable young people. This seems to make people feel the beauty of life.”

  He noticed something, looked at the shotgun hung on the wall, and asked in surprise.

"Is that it?"

"Um."

  Holmos nodded affirmatively, got up and took the shotgun down and handed it to the old man's hand.

   "I really miss it... This is a shotgun given to me by a painter friend. I thought I lost it, but I didn't expect it to be left here."

  The old and muddy eyes were full of nostalgia for the past, and the big rough hand gently brushed the wooden butt.

   "It looks really good, I have become an old man, but it is still brand new."

   "I found it in a box, it was wrapped in cloth, except for some rust in some places, there is basically no problem." Holmes said.

  "Well, this gun is a few years old. My friend said that this is a good gun. In fact, he just bought it casually. He also deliberately painted some messy things, pretending to be expensive."

  The old man looked at the delicate lines portrayed on the gun body. They were tedious and extended, like snakes crawling on the gun body.

   "No way, he is a poor painter, but his skills are not bad."

  "Do you want to take it back?" Holmes asked.

  The old man stroked the gun body lightly, his eyes were deep, enjoying the reunion with his old friend, and then shook his head.

   "No, no, it's a gun. It should be hunted, not hung on the wall to rust. Keep it."

  Holmos respectfully took the shotgun and looked at the fine lines on it.

"Winchester."

  The old man said suddenly, Holmes was a little at a loss.

"what?"

   "Its name...probably, that's what my friend called it anyway."

  The old man muttered to himself, all of this was a long time ago, until the memory turns yellow and his face is blurred.

  "Young people, be enthusiastic forever, not like me, become a numb old man."

  The old man said sadly.

"I finally saw it again. I thought I would be very excited. No, I should be very excited. I cried with joy and so on, but my mood was calm, only numb. I know that this gun carries many beautiful memories. , That’s very important to me, but now that I see it, my heart doesn’t have a ripple, as if all this has nothing to do with me, it’s just another person’s experience."

  He sighed heavily.

   "It's really sad."

  As the old man said, the atmosphere in the house fell into a silence like stagnant water.

  The boy felt a little cold. He grabbed the bedding on the bed and wrapped it tightly around him. The fire shook slightly, and a slight noise could be heard, as if something was spreading. Then he saw the frozen window.

In an instant, the world seemed to be swallowed by disorderly madness, and even the seasons were unbalanced under this weird force. Winter arrived overnight, soaking the cold, leaving only this hut, which became the last pure land to resist. The evil intrusion.

  "How about you? My child, are you sure you want to do this?"

  The old man looked at the boy and said meaningfully.

  The boy didn't understand what he was talking about, but soon he felt that something was coming. In this dark night, another uninvited guest was coming.

  His eyes were panicked, and he looked at other people, but they seemed to feel nothing, with a smirk of nothingness on his face.

  The noisy knock on the door sounded, as if a monster was knocking on the door. With its impact, the whole cabin trembled violently. The darkness struck, and at the deep end, there were bursts of vague babbles.

  The boy couldn't hear the voice, but he knew instinctively what the voice was calling, it was calling a name, a name that had long been forgotten.

"no no……"

  The boy covered his head and muttered to himself. Watson at the side hugged him as well, bringing him the only warmth.

   "No, I don't want to leave."

  He muttered, like a naughty child, refusing to wake up from a dream.

  The dark night is extremely long, as if the golden tomorrow will never be ushered in.

  (End of this chapter)