The Haunted

There is no concept of time in eternity, but Chi Yan can make "fake time".He uses the time unit of his original world as the standard, and uses a computer to "time the time" - the time displayed by the computer is fake and does not actually pass, but it can be used to measure the time Chi Yan spent psychologically. for how long.It is the timer in the house.

The first ten years were actually quite pleasant and laid-back.

Without cooking, Chi Yan can taste all kinds of delicacies; he nestles in his own house, comfortably warm and cold, leisurely watching the books and movies he has always wanted to watch, and playing the games he wants to play.He cannot communicate with other creatures in any form, but he can browse and obtain the achievements of their civilization.Roughly speaking, it takes three to five days to clear a large-scale stand-alone game, and one day to finish a book or a movie series. The "time" is not difficult.

Not to mention that he has other recreational activities, such as going to sea.

At that time Chi Yan was very hesitant, and anxiously asked the voice: "Can I ask for more places?" In fact, his area of ​​activity is already very large, with mountains, lakes, and forests—living beings are not disturbed. It is allowed to exist, but fortunately, some worlds have developed a virtual forest with a degree of realism close to [-]% that has the effect of a real forest. Chi Yan only needs to make this virtual forest and trees appear in his own area.

The voice was not angry or dissatisfied because of his greed, but still asked calmly: "What do you want to do?"

"I want to have a sea." Chi Yan whispered.

As soon as he finished speaking, when he looked out from the window of the house, a piece of blue appeared as far as he could see——his area expanded.The voice didn't speak any more, but silently fulfilled his request.

Chi Yan said thank you softly.

After that, he soon owned a yacht and a cruise ship for him to go out to sea for leisure and fun.There are no creatures in the sea, but it is enough to just look at the sea water and let your mind blow the sea breeze.He also arranged a simulated marine ecosystem composed of simulated fish and corals in the shallow sea near the land, and occasionally dived into the sea to play.

Everything seemed perfect except for the lack of social activity.

He installed two state-of-the-art artificial intelligence robots in the house, which can help to take care of everything in the house, but they still cannot replace real, conscious "human beings".They cannot meet Chi Yan's social and emotional needs.

As the "time" on the timer passed, Chi Yan felt more and more lonely, and nothing could fill this emptiness.

He asked the voice, "Has it been just you all this time? Just you?"

"Yes." The voice replied calmly, as if this was a normal and unimportant thing.

"Don't you feel... lonely?"

"What is loneliness?" the voice asked him back.

"It's just a person, very lonely, very lonely."

"No." The voice said, "I don't know what this feeling is, and I don't have this feeling."

As an eternal being, He exists here eternally, does not know loneliness, does not understand loneliness.Time cannot describe His existence, nor can it constrain His existence.In the infinity before Chi Yan appeared, He had always been like this.

Chi Yan didn't know how to answer.He just suddenly had the urge to hug each other.Although as a lonely and insignificant human being, it seems a bit ridiculous to feel sorry for the heartless and supreme eternity wishfully - just like the morning bacteria who don't know the dark, but feel sorry for the loneliness of the tree.

But in this day-to-day life, he began to realize one thing clearly-his longing to communicate with that voice, and this longing grew day by day.

He couldn't describe how it felt, but he knew that the longing wasn't just about loneliness.

That day when Chi Yan closed the book and looked up at the void, a thought suddenly popped up in his mind, and this thought was so strong that he couldn't wait to put it into action immediately.He called the voice, and said in a seemingly casual tone to his landlord, his only neighbor and companion: "I haven't asked you yet, what is your name? Can I call you your name later?" Initial After the horror and panic passed, he began to desperately want to know more about the voice.

The other party seemed to pause, and then told him: "I don't have a name."

The answer was both unexpected and expected.If he has always existed alone, then he only needs self-awareness and does not need a "name".

"Can I give you a name?" Chi Yan asked the other party cautiously.

"Yes." Maybe it was Chi Yan's illusion, he felt that the voice was much lighter when he answered.

Hearing this answer, he couldn't help showing a smile: "Your name is Ye Yingzhi, okay? My name is Chi Yan, and your name is Ye Yingzhi. Ye Yan Chi Yingzhi." His own name comes from the last sentence of.It was a very proud line in a poem written by Grandpa Chi Yan when he was young. It happened that his own surname was Chi, so he picked another word from it and used it as his grandson's name.

In fact, Chi Yan couldn't appreciate his grandfather's "poetry", but his own name was derived from it, so he secretly wanted to connect the name of that voice with himself.Totally secretive and selfish thoughts.

"Chi Yan...Ye Yingzhi..." The voice murmured twice before saying, "Okay. Your name is Chi Yan, and my name is Ye Yingzhi."

His voice is still flat, but he is the only consciousness higher than eternity in this eternity, and what he officially says will become the rule of the entire eternity.

Chi Yan didn't know, but following that voice, no matter which world he went to in the future, he would call him Chi Yan, and the other party would call him Ye Yingzhi.At that time, he was just sitting on the virtual grass in front of the house, smiling unconsciously, lost in thought, and suddenly remembered that he had also forgotten to tell the other party his name all along.

*****

The time on the timer has passed 100 years.If Chi Yan was still in his original world, his life in this life should have come to an end.

The various knowledge and creations in worlds similar or close to his original world could no longer meet his needs, and he began to explore the wisdom and civilization in other richer and more diverse worlds.

Religion, science, philosophy... He has seen countless blatant and magnificent systems, and countless creatures have passed on various systems in various ways, trying to rely on their persistence and wisdom to explore the essence and true meaning of the world.Chi Yan is often shocked by the firm persistence shown in such a history of civilization development.Every creature is so insignificant in the world they live in, even the seemingly mysterious and magnificent whole world is insignificant in front of eternity.However, the tiny, autonomous and intelligent beings have created innumerable and ineffable great existences one after another in their limited existence time.

Every world may be differentiated into many different worlds due to different branch points at every moment, so that even if the original world is destroyed, those creations can survive and continue in the branch world; and the branch world is relative to its own subworld It is another original world——just like this, the civilization created in the world river is difficult to completely disappear and destroy. All living beings, as long as they have contributed to the development of world civilization, no matter how big or small, even if the individual living being itself disappears, its imprint will remain forever. will not be obliterated.

While chatting with that voice, Chi Yan looked at the civilization creations of various worlds, and he didn't even realize that eternity was long and endless.Unknowingly, the time on the timer has passed a thousand years, and if it is in the human world, it has already been reincarnated in ten generations.

Until one day, Chi Yan called that voice as usual: "Ye Yingzhi, Ye Yingzhi—" but the other party didn't respond to him as before.Chi Yan didn't take it seriously at first, because there were times when Ye Yingzhi didn't respond to him immediately.He didn't know the limit and end of this field, and he didn't know where the other party lived and what he was doing.

However, one day, two days, three days...a year, two years, ten years...the voice never responded.

Chi Yan started to panic, wondering where the other party went and what happened.In his area, everything is as usual, and the area that does not belong to him is still dark.Chi Yan trudged in the dark for a long time, calling out the other person's name while walking, and finally collapsed on the ground, with tears dripping from the corners of his eyes unconsciously, but found nothing.He slumped back to his own area, there was nothing he could do here, except to wait, there was nothing he could do.

When this time of no response is extended to 100 years, 500 years, 1000 years... panic begins to turn into prayer and expectation, and hope gradually degenerates into longing, and longing seems too long, sad and hopeless.

After another millennium slowly crawled away from the timer, the voice finally responded: "I seem to hear you calling me?"

Chi Yan didn't know what to say. In fact, he couldn't speak at all at that moment, as if he had lost the ability to speak. Fortunately, in eternity, these abilities will not really degenerate.

He closed his eyes, and opened them slowly after a long time: "Where have you been? Why are you ignoring me?" His voice was calm, and those strong emotions that had been surging had been slowly smoothed out during the too long wait.He shows up again, which is fine.

This time Ye Yingzhi paused for a long time before telling him softly: "I'm sorry, I was distracted."

In fact, it was just a small distraction for him. Before Chi Yan appeared, he always lost his mind more frequently and for a longer period of time. How many batches—when he was distracted, how many worlds had been destroyed, and how many worlds were born from the source.

But Chi Yan seemed to be very concerned about his distraction.

Then I promise I won't be distracted in the future.He thought so in his heart, but he didn't say it.

What he said was: "Sorry, as compensation, I can grant you one wish."

He didn't know why he said that.In fact, after Chi Yan's arrival, he fulfilled every wish he had.Even now, no matter what Chi Yan asks of him, he will try his best to achieve it.But he could vaguely feel that for creatures like humans, this kind of promise has special meaning.

Sure enough, the human opened his pure black eyes, clenched his left hand into a fist, looked at the void with some hesitation and anxiety, and made a wish that sounded different from usual: "You can become a human and accompany me for a while?"

"...Sorry, I can't do it." Ye Yingzhi said.

"I can't become a human. Human is a kind of neutral creature, but I am evil. Even if I enter the world river and devote myself to the concrete world, I can't really become human. I can only die early and become a ghost for human beings." , or born as a demon.”

"It's fine as long as you appear in human form." Chi Yan looked at the void and begged, "Isn't that also possible? Become a human being and stay by my side. Just for a while."

Just a moment. 5 minutes.

He pointed to the timer on the table to his invisible friend: "Look, this number here, jump from zero to five, and that's it."

Ye Yingzhi has no concept of time.He also didn't understand the meaning of Chi Yan's request.He couldn't imagine himself having an entity like a human.

But he looked into the black eyes of the other party and agreed, "Okay."

What finally appeared in front of Chi Yan was just a phantom with the outline of a human being, translucent, even the facial features could not be seen clearly.Just like that voice, just standing calmly in front of Chi Yan.No expression, no movement, no mood swings of any kind.

Chi Yan already felt satisfied.

Looking at the phantom that appeared out of thin air, he slightly raised the corners of his mouth and half closed his eyes.

He looked at each other and walked up with open arms.He gently and tentatively put his arms around the other's neck, raised his head, closed his eyes, and pressed a kiss as soft as a breeze on the other's lips.

Ye Yingzhi didn't respond and just stood there quietly.

After a while, he opened his eyes, took a step back, and looked at Ye Yingzhi: "Do you feel anything?"

"I don't know." Ye Yingzhi said, the phantom he formed disappeared in an instant, and his tone was calm, "Should I feel something?"

Chi Yan lowered his head, smiled, and raised his head again to look in the direction where the phantom disappeared, without saying anything.

Watching Tagore's Birds and Fishes when I was young, I thought it was a hopeless feeling.But he never thought that one day, he would fall in love with eternity in eternity.