Secret: The years I served as a foreign aid for the Aurora Club

927
"Your friend has a terminal illness. It's incurable."

The fortune-teller acted as if he didn't see the ugly expressions and clenched fists of Xiao Wu and me. He shook his head and even continued with a bit of gloating: "Young man, look at it more positively. You all still have a bright future. Don't lose your composure because of temporary grief."

He started talking in a weird way again at this time, which made me very uncomfortable.

But Xiao Wu was still a young man after all. Facing such an old man who was pushing his luck and didn't even know how to say nice things to customers, Xiao Wu actually remained polite and asked in a steady voice:

"As long as the method is appropriate, terminal illness is not completely incurable. Is there any way to temporarily prolong his life?"

I was shocked. I looked up at this young colleague who was almost as tall as me when he stood up. I couldn't believe that he would pin his terminally ill friend's hope of survival on an old fortune-teller whose hobby was gloating over other people's misfortunes.

As a successor of socialism and inheritor of historical materialism, I regard these mysterious things as entertainment. I really want to tell Xiao Wu that even if you are a foreigner or a mixed-race person, you should know that these mystical sciences and beliefs cannot save people. Holy water and prayers are psychological comfort for the living and the sick. After all, only a few people can overcome terminal illnesses by relying on faith, otherwise it would not be reported in newspapers and magazines. The vast majority of people are still defeated by the disease. You might as well ask the doctor for treatment plans instead of asking him.

And you don't know the routine of fortune tellers, right? When they meet you, they first tell you that you have a blood disaster, then scare you and then put on airs, and after a few excuses, they reluctantly say that they will help you resolve it if you pay them. This little combo is so smooth! You are a foreigner, don't foreign fortune tellers do the same?
But I kept thinking these words over and over in my mind, but I couldn't say a word.

For a moment, I felt extremely uncomfortable in my heart, as if I had also experienced some separation of life and death, or was about to experience more separation of life and death. The indigestible sadness and endless regrets weighed heavily on my heart.

It was as if I also knew the friend he was talking about.

I was infected by Xiao Wu's emotions. I turned around and asked the old man seriously:

"Is there any way?"

I looked at the old man expectantly, and Xiao Wu also looked at the old man expectantly. The old man was stared at by the two of us and smiled calmly.

"You and I are old friends."

For some reason, my first reaction when I heard this was that he would ask me to pay more.

The old man also leisurely took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, then took out a box of matches.

With a soft "click" sound, the match burned after a heavy strike. He leisurely lit a cigarette for himself, took a puff of smoke and exhaled slowly, then threw the still burning match into the rain outside without asking Xiao Wu, who also wanted a match, if he wanted a light.

It's coming. As soon as I saw his attitude, I knew he was going to start fooling people.

A long time ago, when the trust between us had not completely disappeared, he often started to deceive people by calculating, saying that I had a good face and would definitely be ranked in the immortal class and cultivate the road to immortality. It was obvious that I would do great things in the future, but I would inevitably be alone and homeless. He said a lot of classic online literature routines. I joked back and said that you wouldn't ask me to learn the Sunflower Manual and the Nine Yin Manual, and it would be five yuan per copy, no more. He also laughed and said that I had to pay more, no matter how much money was enough, because the price was your life.

My smile and the friendly relationship maintained by ten dollars disappeared on the spot.

To be honest, it is extremely rare for a fortune teller who makes a living by reading people's faces to be so dumb and live to this age.

I winked at Xiao Wu, signaling him to be careful and not believe everything the old man said, but he was thinking about his friend and didn't pay any attention to me. I heard the sound of rain outside the shed getting louder and louder, and the rain flowed freely on the ground, forming a rushing river in every low depression. It was dark, and the sound of rain was overwhelming, blocking out all other sounds.

"We are old acquaintances, and we will have plenty of time to spend together in the future."

The old man exhaled another puff of green smoke, looking light-headed.

This scene might have been better if he had been given a big pipe to smoke, so that I could expect him to die of lung cancer sooner rather than later.

Sometimes I wonder if I have too much malice towards this old man, as if he has done something to me. But his words and actions always manage to dispel the occasional conscience in my heart, telling me that my malice is not big enough.

"Actually, if you want to save him, it's not impossible, but, as you know, it's a terminal illness."

"If a disease can be cured, it is not considered a terminal illness."

You're just holding on... Are you going to start your money-swindling trick now? I almost lost my temper again, but when I saw that Xiao Wu didn't react, I calmed down and waited to see what other ideas he had.

“…Is there no hope?”

"It can be saved, but it's bound to leave a permanent lesion that you'll never be able to get rid of. Maybe it's better to die than to die."

"..."

Xiao Wu was obviously silent. I saw that his lips were tightly pursed, as if he had lost his mind for a moment. The fortune teller had no intention of saying a few words to comfort his client. I looked left and right, opened my mouth, and finally said carefully:

"What kind of aftereffects?"

"Well, he might get schizophrenia, hemiplegia or something like that." The old man threw a few chips without even looking at the result and said casually, "Anyway, there are only these few symptoms. Besides, you will have to make sacrifices to cure his illness."

I didn't know what to say now, so I asked Xiao Wu, "Does the patient have a strong will to live?"

Xiao Wu was also silent. After a long while, he said:

"Based on my understanding of him, he probably wouldn't want to die in such a miserable way, and this probably isn't just my wishful thinking."

After the old man finished speaking, he lit up the little black cigarette in his hand:
"Then you should know what to do."

Xiao Wu's expression was serious: "But I don't have the ability to intervene at the moment."

The old man smiled, flicked the tobacco with his fingers, and began to gloat again:
"If you don't have it, then go find a way. Can you pick up strength by just sitting here and waiting? Oh, you really can, but today is different from the past. If you miss this opportunity, you will never get it again. If you stand there and do nothing, the opportunity will be taken away by others, and your friend will be doomed."

Xiao Wu glanced at me and said, "Is there any other way?"

"Think about it yourself. There are many sources of power. It depends on whether you have the courage." The old man spread his hands and pointed the cigarette butt upwards. "I am just a fortune teller. I don't have the power to help you realize your wish. If you can't do it, then this is your fate and his. Try your best and then die. There is nothing to complain about if you gain power that you have never had before."

"How did you talk?"

I really don't think these words are worth ten dollars, but Xiao Wu doesn't seem to think so. These strange words seem to have really inspired him. He didn't notice my expression at all and asked again:

"Then is there any other way to prolong his life?"

"If I don't do something, he might not be able to wait until I regain my strength to save him."

Didn't he just say terminal illness? Why did he say rescue now? I was confused for a moment, but subconsciously I felt that he was right.

"There is no way."

"what?"

“There’s no other way.” The old man stretched out his tone, and combined with his upturned mouth corners and malicious smile, he looked even more asking for a beating. “You want to save people and you want them to live longer, where in the world can you find such a good thing? Whether you save him or not, he can only live that long. If you go too late, you’ll lose both your life and your money. You’d better worry about whether you can afford the medical expenses.” After he said this, none of the three of us spoke. For a moment, it was so quiet that only the sound of rain falling was left.

Is the rain a little too heavy?
……

"Why should I die with those civilians?"

A young man with an aristocratic appearance and wearing gold jewelry complained in a low voice: "Even if my mausoleum has not been built yet, I should not die at home like a commoner, not to mention that my burial objects are not ready yet."

"Why doesn't the high priest allow me to wait for death in my grandfather's mausoleum? He didn't choose us as the lucky ones to go to the gods during the project. As nobles, descendants of the great death god, we should die earlier or later than the common people, at least not at the same time. Otherwise, what is the difference between us and the common people?"

"My parents can go to the mausoleum. They are middle-sequence Beyonders. I can only stay at home and treat my home as a mausoleum..."

But even though he complained, he still had to accept the inherent meaning of "all beings are equal in death". He said goodbye to his parents who were heading to their own mausoleum, and returned to his room alone.

With the help of servants and undead creatures, he took off all the gold and silver jewelry on his body and put them aside, placed the bones and keepsakes of important people around him, lay down quietly on his bed, closed his eyes, and prepared to sleep forever.

After letting the young nobleman fall asleep, the living servants returned to their rooms one after another.

The manor house soon became quiet, with only the cats and dogs kept in the manor still running around in the garden, looking for people.

There were no pedestrians on the streets, and even the homeless had basically found a place to sleep. Even though death itself was not scary in their culture, the living still had an instinctive fear of death and wanted to use sleep to escape the moment of death.

Some people are also running away, running away desperately, running out of the city, running away to far away places.

They don't want to die for various reasons, but they can't find a way to live.

As members of the Church of Death prepared to stand their last shift, the vast majority of them were awake, some even standing on high places, eager to witness the moment when the gods descended and the River Styx flowed out of the spirit world.

The respected high priest returned to the bottom of his inverted mausoleum and spread "peace of mind" and "sweet dreams" so that all those who wanted to escape death by sleeping could quietly fall into a dark sleep without dreams, instead of being unable to fall asleep in tension and tossing and turning. This old man who has lived for thousands of years witnessed the most prosperous moment of the Balam Empire, and also witnessed the country that was trampled and shattered regain its legal status. In the end, these two hundred years of struggle turned into a dream bubble with the disappearance of the gods, and there was only one road waiting ahead.

"It's over."

At this moment, with a relieved smile on his old face, he was quietly waiting for the moment of silence to come.

it's dark.

……

it's dark.

Anderson looked up and stared at the sky in amazement, unable to look away for a long time.

Black was like black ink dripping into clear water, spreading rapidly from in front of Anderson to the horizon, dyeing the entire sky a deep black. He witnessed the moment when the whole world skipped dusk and evening and welcomed darkness at the same time, and also witnessed the starlight that followed. There was no moon in the sky, maybe it was not time for the moon to come out yet, or maybe the moon was also covered by the inky black sky. Countless stars twinkled in the night sky, most of them were silver-white, and a small part were other colors, like eyes watching the earth.

In the dark sky, the outline of another world could be vaguely seen. The huge ship made up of countless human skeletons was deeply imprinted in Anderson's mind.

He vaguely saw a figure darker than the night standing on the boat, but he could not see the other person clearly no matter what. He only saw endless undead creatures surrounding the ship and the figure like mosquitoes in summer - although he knew that he could not use the word "mosquitoes" to describe these creatures, each of which was stronger than himself, the density was the only word that made him think of it.

It was not until he took a deep breath that he realized he had not been breathing at all.

Anderson breathed heavily, trembling all over, and fell to the ground with his legs weakened. He no longer dared to look up at the sky. After regaining his sanity, he suddenly felt boundless fear. Even for a sea explorer who lived on the brink of life and death, this scene that seemed like a mythical world had destroyed all his courage and will in an instant, and destroyed his idea of ​​escaping.

He suddenly was able to accept death.

No, or not being able to accept it, but he finally realized that in this situation, he could not run away. Anderson grabbed his hair hard, making his blond hair as messy as a bird's nest, and he laughed so hard that he couldn't breathe.

"Hahaha!"

"Haha! I actually, I actually——"

“I actually thought I could escape…”

Anderson's chest rose and fell violently. He completely lost the courage to look up, but it was not his style to just look at the soil under his feet and wait for death. He tried to use the "Roselle Dream Technique" again with a dying struggle, and it was not surprising to find that there was still no signal. - It was not that he failed to contact, but he didn't even send his message, because he clearly felt that his spirituality was strongly suppressed when he arranged the ceremony - Anderson could understand that he was too close to the place where the myth descended. At this point, he had no hope of survival.

"I can't escape. I can't escape at all!"

He grabbed a handful of his hair, his expression more ferocious and brutal than ever before, but such pain could not divert his attention, nor calm his fear of impending death and the end of his own life.

As a famous adventurer and sea hunter, Anderson could accept the possibility of dying in danger during an expedition, but it was difficult for him to accept waiting for death without any resistance. Even though the former was more painful and torturous, it was psychologically difficult for him to accept the latter.

His emotions became agitated, and the fear of powerlessness finally turned into restlessness and anger that had nowhere to vent.

Anderson's hands trembled violently and his teeth chattered in the bone-chilling cold. He pressed his fists against his forehead, not caring about which god corresponded to which prayer gesture, because prayer could not dispel his fear.

"Great, God of Mysteries..."

"You are the embodiment of number and essence..."

"A fool who does not belong to this era..."

He chanted the names of all the gods he knew, but he was not saved physically or spiritually. Anderson himself found it funny that a man without faith still placed his hope in faith at the last moment of his life, and even hoped that his limited prayer could be saved - no matter if it was an evil god or any other existence, as long as it could keep him alive, he was willing to accept it.

At this moment, he was actually a little glad that Edwina didn't come.

Because if I came, I would just die with him.

TBC
------

The door of heaven opened.

The night poured down on the earth like water, and the huge ship revealed its hem in the darkness. The god carved on the bow had the features of a feathered serpent, which was wrapped around the ram of the giant ship, like a sculpture, or a complete skeleton wrapped around the entire ship.

The distant chanting sound slowly echoes across the land along with the night, like an unknown requiem, quietly singing at this moment.

The sky was pitch black, and the starlight could not illuminate the earth.

At some point, the sound of flowing water appeared in the empty river.