Why it never ends

In the mountains in the afternoon, on the driving car, Hesta glanced to the side from time to time.

Beside her, there was a bruise on Su Lei's forehead, and she folded her arms, her face ashen.

At this time, the number of passengers in the carriage was reduced by half, and the girls who had been traveling with them before had also got off together. They left a large bag of food for Su Lei and the others, which was both a gift and an apology.

"I'm sorry," Hesta said again, "I really shouldn't be booing like that, I was wrong."

"Is there any need, I will ask you, what is the need?"

"...I didn't expect them to really hurt you."

"That was my mistake!?"

"It was me, it was my fault," whispered Hesta, "all my fault, Inspector."

"Why do you insist on revealing your identity when you come up? Is it fun to watch other people fight?"

"I feel like that has a big chance of winning," Hesta replied.

"Odds to win... A game must be fought violently to win? You have to go to—"

"Other ways of playing are only possible in theory, and it is very difficult to implement," Hesta thought, "For example, as the youngest daughter, I ran for the elders—but that is not winning, it is just realizing self-preservation. I can't eliminate any player from the opposing faction, otherwise I will be out. The game can only continue indefinitely at this point. At that time, there must be a new game, or there will be hidden rules that we didn't know at the time. "

Just as Su Lei was about to say something, Hesta continued, "Paka is the same, and even Paka's situation will be worse. Every time when Paka goes to hide stones in the night link, the people standing near her If you can hear the movement, then when the new elder is elected the next day, Paka will be the first to be excluded from the candidates.

"The only way to reduce the pressure may be to play first and eliminate more than two hostile players, so that when the final duel comes, the 'elders' will not be able to find helpers—but that requires more strategic requirements. High, it's not as simple and clear as a direct confrontation."

Su Lei sneered twice: "...you are quick to react!"

"Not at all." Hesta waved his hand, "Isn't this the same as choosing an adjudicator on a ship? Some people can't keep their positions even if they become adjudicators... It's not that there is something wrong with people, it's the rules Intentionally so."

Si Lei didn't speak anymore, she looked ahead without saying a word.

……

At midnight, the car stopped at the terminal.Su Lei and Hesta got out wrapped in rented overcoats—they were the last two passengers in the car.

As the girls had said in the morning, it really started snowing in the mountains, and the temperature outside was beyond expectation. The two walked forward in the wind with difficulty. When they finally arrived at the target hut, both of them were freezing. Not light.Without these two rented coats, I'm afraid I wouldn't even be able to get out of the car.

The two pushed open the door, and the cold wind from outside blew into the inner room, making everyone inside shiver.

"Close the door, close the door!"

Several people stepped forward to help, and took Hesta and Su Lei to a corner of the room to sit down.

This is a hut in the forest with an area of ​​only about 30 square meters. There is a fire in the middle of the house, and a large pot is hung on the fire. There are backpackers sitting on all sides. This is the only place where you can stay here, 25 Luo It's better than being able to stay all night, and even take care of dinner and supper.

Hesta and Si Lei greeted the people around them.The two asked around, only to find that most of the people here seemed to be here for skiing and mountaineering, only the two of them came for the monument. When they learned their destination, many people clicked their tongues in surprise.

The room is very lively, and most people are waiting for a bowl of soup before going to bed.Some people were reading, some were in a daze, and some people were sitting around, exclaiming and laughing from time to time. Hesta asked Lasley curiously, "...what are those people doing?"

"They are telling fortunes," the old man sitting beside Hesta replied in a low voice, "it seems to be quite accurate."

Hesta looked at the old man with some surprise—among the young and middle-aged tourists, the only white-haired tourist seemed very special.

"Can you understand me?" asked Hesta.

"Understandable." The old man replied, "I teach the literature appreciation class in the third district."

Hesta laughed, "So you are a teacher... Are you also here to climb the mountain?"

"I'm not going to climb this year, so I'll go for a walk by the lake," the old man sighed. "In the past, it's spring at this time. This year's weather is really bad..."

On the side, Si Lei had already rearranged her various luggage. She got up and pointed to the stewpot with the smell in front of her eyes, "Which friend made the soup here, can we share a bowl too?"

"Okay," the man sitting not far away laughed, "Eat it if you're not afraid!"

"...Why are you afraid?"

"This is widow soup, if you eat it, you will become a widow, hahahahahaha!"

The man laughed, obviously pleased with his one-liner.

"Don't listen to his nonsense!" The woman next to the man hit him, then turned her head and smiled at Si Lei, "Of course, you're welcome, this is the supper included in the accommodation fee, you two each have a bowl, enough. "

"...Thank you." Su Lei ignored the man's words, and she took out the package from the girls in the morning, which contained a lot of red sausage, "I have some food here, see if you want to add it."

The woman sitting across from her helped cut the ingredients into slices and put them in the pot. After a while, she began to fill the bowls.

"It's time to drink soup!" The woman put the bowls on the flat ground beside her, and the people sitting next to her began to pass the bowls out one by one.Whenever the soup is delivered to the young girls, the men will lean over and make fun of the name "widow's soup".

"Teacher!" A girl walked up to Hesta with soup, and Hesta suddenly thought she was talking to him. It wasn't until she sat down that Hesta realized that she was calling the old man beside her.

"Is this soup really called widow's soup?"

"Some people call it that," the old man replied softly. "In the past, some families didn't want to distribute food to their daughters, but they were afraid that the children would steal it, so they would give the food some strange names and come up with some unreasonable arguments—— "

The man on the side hissed, "Some things are better to be believed than not to be believed. Now that children are difficult to control, they are not in awe of what has been passed down."

The girl sneered: "Then why do you drink widow's soup as a man?"

The man touched his belly, and said proudly, "It's okay for a man to drink, which man is afraid of widows—hey, some people who are weak are really afraid—"

"Enough." Si Lei looked at him coldly, "There are so many young people here, what are you talking about?"

The originally lively hut suddenly fell silent.

Hesta looked around and couldn't help feeling a little anxious—seeing that people on both sides seemed to be fighting for some reason, she still didn't understand what happened.

The woman who was helping everyone serve the soup was a little embarrassed, she quickly got up and drove the man aside, "It's almost you, don't help me here!"

The man didn't dare to stare at Si Lei, but he gave a few female students a gouged look, and then sat back in his seat angrily.

The woman put on a smiling face: "He's just cheap, don't worry about it."

Several young people did not speak.

The old man glanced at his students and said with a smile, "Have you finished asking, what is the result of the calculation?"

"Excellent!" One of them said, "The master said that the second half of the year is very suitable for me to go out of town, and it is easy to have affairs with noble people!"

"Then you don't have to worry about your internship in the second half of the year."

"Hahahahaha, I still have to worry about it," the young man beamed with joy, "I'm just happy."

Several students took turns to talk about their results. At this moment, a woman sitting on the edge also got up to get the soup. Si Lei couldn't help but look over there a few more times—that was the "master" that the girls called , she looks in her 40s, but her temperament is very ordinary, without any "fairy spirit".

The master noticed Si Lei's gaze and looked over, "...do you have anything else you want to settle?"

Su Lei shook his head, "Thank you, I don't believe this."

"What about the little friend next to you?"

Hesta keenly sensed that the topic was turning to her, and looked at Su Lei expectantly—she had been bored for a long time, and now someone suddenly appeared who seemed to want to talk to her, and she wished for it.

Su Lei explained it helplessly, and Hesta immediately agreed, "Yes, how do you calculate it?"

The master couldn't understand Hesta's words, so he also asked Su Lei with his eyes, but before Su Lei could speak, the girl beside him took the initiative to explain to Hesta in the language of the third district: "I need your birthday, accurate to the hour The kind, and then you ask the question you want to ask, and the master will give you a very clear answer."

"That's a bit difficult," Hesta shook his head, "I don't know my exact date of birth."

"Why didn't you know?" The girl was very surprised, "Didn't your parents tell you?"

Si Lei looked at Grandmaster, "She can't count, she doesn't know her own birthday."

"No birthday is needed," the master replied. "If this little friend does the math, she just needs to write me a word. If she can't write, she can just draw a symbol."

Hesta thought for a moment after listening to Slei's report, then picked up the iron tongs used to poke charcoal, and wrote a "one" in the ashes.

"Now, I have some special wishes that I want to achieve," Hesta looked at the master, "but I don't know where to go to achieve them more easily. Do you have any suggestions?"

The master looked at the ashes and listened to Si Lei's report, with a slight smile on his face.

"Your current job is a very dangerous one, right?" the master said softly.

"Yes." Hesta looked at the crutch beside him, "Did you see it from my hands and feet?"

Su Lei was stunned for a moment, feeling that Hesta's words were a little too straightforward, so he changed the question, "...how did you see it?"

"One is the end of life and the beginning of death. Therefore, one is between life and death, and there is a state of life hanging by a thread."

"What do you mean?" Hesta looked at Si Lei.

Su Lei picked up a piece of raw charcoal, wrote the words "life and death" on the ground, and said softly, "The one you wrote is the last stroke of the word 'life' and the first stroke of the word 'death'. Means 'between life and death', so she guesses your day job is dangerous."

Hesta's eyes showed a bit of surprise when he heard it, "How can I explain it like this..."

"The ashes of the furnace have been burned out. Even if you have a lot of effort, you can't spark a spark. No matter what you wish, it's too early to talk about it. But the ashes don't just mean death, like the North The firebird in the fourteenth district, according to the myth, when she is about to die, she will burn with flames, swoop down from the highest snow mountain, fall on the oldest cedar tree in the forest and turn into ashes, and then, the newborn firebird Born from the ashes - this is the cycle of the firebird, and the cycle of death and life.

"So, since you want to ask where it is easier to realize your wish, the answer is obvious. You want to go to a place where life and death are on the line, to a place of danger that ordinary people can't avoid, to go between reality and nothingness... You can neither indulge in life nor indulge in death. Between death and life is your blessed land.

"...Probably, that's it."

The whole room was silent. Although Hesta couldn't understand what the other party was saying, she realized from the reactions of everyone that the woman in front of her must have said something very powerful. She kept tapping on Su Lei's thigh and blinked curiously. Eye.

However, this long sentence really made Si Lei a little at a loss. She uttered a few difficult "uh..." and couldn't find the right word to start.

The old man laughed, and she raised her hand to touch Hesta's right arm, "Let me tell you what she said."

Hesta turned his head sideways, "You speak, but I'm listening."

"She said," the old man said with a smile, "you will be a person who will do great things in the future, so when that time comes, you will go to the place where you will do great things."