East of Eden

"Only those dreamers who dream when they are waking, call back through the sparse web the phantoms of the past."

——IB Singh

As early as 7:30, Edgar Allan Poe Bar.

In the morning, there were no customers in the bar, the tables and chairs were neatly arranged, and the glass was dotted with the pattering rain.Xing held a snow-white kitten the size of a palm, and carefully put it into his pocket.The kitten poked its head out, shook its ears, and let out a coquettish cry. It looked at the world with its big watery eyes.

"Have you raised a cat?" Long was cleaning the bar, and immediately raised his mobile phone to take a picture when he saw this scene: "The cruel killer carries a little milk cat with him, the visual effect is quite shocking."

Xing explained: "It belongs to Dr. Shanmu's family."

"His cat is black."

"Its cubs, Yun'an called me yesterday to ask me to go to a pet home to adopt them, and they are lack of care now."

Speaking of which, it has been more than a month since they returned to Haven City, and they have been assigned new jobs by the headquarters.Long continued to run his Edgar Allan Poe Bar, and developed a coffee business along the way, and Xing served as a delivery man.Every morning, Xing would come to the bar, take the packaged coffee, and deliver each cup of coffee to customers on a newly bought red-shell scooter.

"This morning's order, fifteen cups." A cold voice sounded from behind the bar. A woman in a black waiter dress put a stack of coffee in front of Xing. The woman's eyes were gray, and her short hair was covered with silver. Guang, she is very beautiful, but she always looks indifferent to things.

"Su An, you have to be a little gentler towards the guests in the future." Long followed the temptation.

The woman removed the tray, glanced at him sideways, with the expression "I know you very well", and then walked straight into the back kitchen, leaving behind only the sound of a string of high heels.

"I didn't expect you to hire her." Xing watched Su An leave, and knocked the motorcycle key on the bar.The Weaver party has gained a lot this time, not only recovering the holy relic, but also bringing back two Sakuwas—Suan and Shano.They followed voluntarily and expressed their intention to cooperate with the Weaver Party. Therefore, it is not surprising that Su An appeared in Edgar Allan Poe's bar at this time.

"Isn't it cool to change your career to be a barista? I found that she is also very talented in bartending, and she has no shortcomings except that she doesn't like to talk." Long Tanshou: "Sakuwa has lived in seclusion all year round, and she is a bit out of touch with modern society. I can understand. Just like you."

"I?"

"You're no better than her, Ranger, so can you laugh?"

Xing Xiao didn't laugh, he snorted, stood up, put on his helmet and was ready to go.

"Hey, hey - really don't you laugh -" Long patted the table.

Xing brought up the delivery coffee and touched the head of the fluffy kitten in his pocket. The guy said "meow~~" without hesitation, raised his head and yawned, and smacked his little pink mouth.

"Let's go." Xing turned around and waved.

Thanks for listening to FM.82.99, the following is the song that Mr. Zhou ordered for Ms. Su, "Let'sstaytogether", from the black singer Al Green, for everyone.

I~~I'm so in love with you

I love you so much

Whatever you want to do

whatever you want to do

Isallrightwithme

I can accompany you

'Cause you make me feel so brand new

because you make me feel new

And I want to spend my life with you

i want to spend my life with you

I don't know when Xing also got into the habit of listening to songs, tapping the rhythm lightly with his fingers.The motorcycle passed the viaduct, and the wind and rain rushed head-on. After the day, even the day was dark, and the orange street lamps passed by one by one, and the light spots on the helmet flowed.

"There are still 200 meters to the destination, please drive on the left."

He turned the front of the car, stepped on the accelerator, and the taillight of the motorcycle drove down the elevated road quickly with two red lights.The coffee business of Edgar Allan Poe Bar mainly serves the residents of District D. There is no choice of styles. There is only one classic charcoal roasted coffee, which costs [-] yuan a cup. It attracts many customers because of its cheap price and high-quality taste.

District D is a poor area, the road surface has become uneven, the motorcycle almost ran aground when it drove into the alley, Xing had to slow down.The early morning in the slums is extremely lively, the air is filled with the sticky aroma of pancakes, grilled sausages and old fritters, the roadside stalls are full of people, men and women walk out of the love hotel, and the students who play games all night wear dark circles on their backs. Putting on their schoolbags, children in ragged clothes chase and fight with bare feet.

The first customer was a group of high school students. They were waiting for the tram by the railway tracks at 7:50 in the morning. The tram tracks in District D have a sense of desolation, the weeds are surprisingly green, stretching wantonly towards the sky, the track is flooded by accumulated water, and the tram seems to be driving on the water.The students wore bright yellow school uniforms and held colorful umbrellas. Some looked sleepy, while others chatted endlessly. The girl twirled the handle of the umbrella in her hand, and tied an acrylic pendant on her schoolbag.

Xing rode his bike over, and students who knew him well surrounded him.They take the still-warm coffee and say "thank you" with a polite smile.Teenagers and girls study in a high school in the eastern suburbs of District D. Some of them dream of being admitted to Saint Sophia University. For the bottom class, studying seems to be the only way out.

"Poe Coffee, your daily companion. Phone: XXXXXXXX," read the weather-faded cartoon sticker.The small red-shelled motorcycle beeped and started, with a charging duck wearing sunglasses sitting on the handlebar, and two white stripes on the body, it was a motorcycle that looked very law-abiding and gentle.And its rider was all in black, a few strands of black hair that couldn't be suppressed by the helmet fluttered in the wind, and there was a small white cat in his pocket.

Xing felt that he had gradually adapted to life in the new world: a widowed woman, a blind man, a watchmaker, a gunman, a down-and-out novelist, one after another strangers took coffee from him and called each other. Greet and leave.Haven City is like a huge machine, it operates as smoothly as the EID energy field under its feet, never deviates, Xing let himself throw himself into the streets and alleys.

"Xing, are you there?" Dragon's voice sounded in the headset: "Don't forget the meeting at three o'clock this afternoon."

"Almost forgot." He said casually.

"Please, please, this time is very important, people from the headquarters are here, remember to wear better clothes to attend."

"There are no better clothes."

"I, Tofranka, sent you a suit, prepare for a surprise." After finishing speaking, Long hung up the phone.

Xing delivered the last coffee and pulled over to the side of the road to catch his breath.He shook off the raindrops on his hair, picked up the cigarette skillfully, and exhaled a slowly rising white mist against the wall.

He is an indispensable protagonist in every meeting of the Weaver Party, but he doesn't like meetings, and he doesn't like suits.Under the influence of nicotine, Xing narrowed his eyes slightly, scanning the crowd aimlessly through the dense smoke.People come and go, everyone is holding an umbrella and walking in a hurry.

At this time, he seemed to see a person standing across the road, holding the only red umbrella, with long blond hair and golden eyes, looking back at him.Umbrellas staggered, leaving a gap between them, and then closed, just like a phantom, the traffic lights alternated, disappeared, and a group of white pigeons flew into the sky.

At 1:00 p.m., Xing finished his boxed lunch at a roadside stall and returned to his rental house in District C.The house was arranged by Long, not far from Edgar Allan Poe Bar, above a nightclub called Daytime Fireworks, when waiting for the elevator, women and men with heavy makeup can often be seen coming down the stairs.

On the third floor, the fifth room on the right, Xing stretched out his hand to open the door, only to find that the door lock had been tampered with, and there was a leisurely humming sound from inside the room.A slit was opened, and a blond woman in a dark purple dress stood in the middle of the slit, holding two pieces of clothing, gestured to the air, and hummed a ditty very briskly.

Xing walked in, and the woman smiled brightly when she saw him, and waved: "Hey, I brought you a suit."

"Franka?" He breathed a sigh of relief, let the kitten in his pocket jump off, and went straight to the saucer of milk.Franka is Long's friend and an old member of the Weaver Party. Xing has no idea how she got into his house. Maybe Long gave her a spare key.

"Don't look unhappy, are you so unhappy seeing me?" Franka held up two suits, one black and one dark brown: "Which one do you like?"

"Whatever." Xing took off his coat and flushed his face by the pool.

"I guess you like black." Franke put the black suit on the hanger, put the rest back in the bag, stood a little far away and looked at it: "It is indeed Linton's suit, it is handmade, just looking at it is very beautiful It has texture, and I spent a lot of money ordering a suit for you this time."

"Don't worry about it."

"Really..."

Franka was dissatisfied with Xing's indifferent attitude, curled her lips, and suddenly walked straight in front of the man, pressed his shoulders without him being prepared, pushed him onto the sofa, and then straddled him thigh.Xing subconsciously turned her face to the side, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and slid a little under him, letting the scent of perfume fill the surrounding air.

"Dragon really bothered, and specially introduced me to accompany you." Franka stroked the scar on the man's face: "I heard that you have a special obsession with blond hair, is it true?"

Franke was blond, in big golden waves, a regal color.Xing's eyes changed slightly, and he just took the woman's hand down.

She patted his cheek: "You should pay me, I spent the night here the day before yesterday."

"Eat my food and sleep in my bed, let me pay you?"

"You wasted my whole night and continued to waste my time. No way, who told me to like you, I have never tried with the ancients 3000 years ago." Her breasts almost touched the tip of the man's nose up.

"Get out of the way." Xing finally pushed her down to get the suit on the hanger.

Franka lowered her head and straightened her skirt: "Xing, you deserve to be single forever."

The man didn't care, and changed his clothes in front of the mirror.He was not as thin as before, and he pulled off his jumper, revealing the tight and smooth muscles of his back.He has a good figure, not the exaggerated muscles of the cover model, but straight and neat, and every inch is useful on the battlefield.

Shirts, ties, leather shoes, combs with a little water and scraped hair.Xing's hair has not been taken care of for a long time, and it has a unique sense of art in it. Now he tries to smooth it out and put it behind his ears.

Franka stared at it for a while, then lit a cigarette: "Youlookgoodinblack. Shall I drive you to the meeting?"

"No, I'll go by myself."

"That's too shabby, we can't neglect to take care of you just because Dr. Shanmu is not here."

Hoshi straightened his tie and walked up to Franka.The woman took a step back, while the man's hand slid over her waist, took out a bunch of keys from her pocket, picked them up and shook them: "Dragon gave it to you?"

The woman looks at him while biting a cigarette.

"Don't come to my house again." Xing Yang spread the smoke with his hand: "And don't smoke in my house, there are cats now."

After a long silence, Franka stomped on his leather shoes: "Damn man, I promise you will never see me again."

The meeting place was in a dilapidated factory building on the outskirts of Haven City, where Xing first woke up, and Yun An raised his leopards.

"Leopards like to eat canned herring." I don't know why Cang Xing still remembers this sentence.

On the fifth basement floor of the factory building, there is a circular conference room that can accommodate 30 people. There are no other furnishings except for the necessary tables, chairs, and fluorescent lamps.Although modern technology allows them to hold teleconferences via holographic projections, the Weavers prefer this ancient model.There were 12 people present at the meeting, mostly unfamiliar faces, dressed in suits solemnly.

Shano was also among them, with long silver-white hair tied in a bunch, his knife was placed beside the chair, and a glass of juice was placed on the table, although he hadn't drunk it from beginning to end.From time to time, his eyes glanced at Xing, and Xing looked at him without avoiding it. The atmosphere between the two of them was delicate.

Dr. Sophia, the successor of Tetsuro Sugi, presided over the meeting today.Sophia means "wisdom", a common feminine name.The female doctor should be no more than forty years old, with straight bangs, chestnut curly hair, light blue eyes, and a pair of delicate red-rimmed glasses.

Until now, the star's "guardian" has been changed three times.It was Wen Luo at the beginning, and after Wen Luo committed suicide, he was replaced by Shan Mu, and after Shan Mu was this Sophia.However, Sophia's enthusiasm for Xing is not high. She prefers to study Shano's Sakuva, and she has "interrogated" Shano many times in the past month.

"Ding dong."

Then Star's cell phone rang.Shano, who was sitting across from him, sent him a text message: "Wait for me when it's over." Xing raised his head and found that the silver-haired man was quietly spinning a ballpoint pen.

Sophia projected the map in the air, and said: "Our meeting today aims to reconfirm some key issues, discuss the rationality of Wenlo's conjecture, and make a simple plan for finding the next holy object. The following is the information we have, these The information has been confirmed by Shano. I think there are countless possibilities in the world, and we are not far from the day when Yin Qi civilization will be recalled."