doll city

In November 1975, I finally became a widow.

It's a pity that my husband didn't die from marijuana, which he loved, but from a fight in a casino—his skull was beaten to a bloody mess when I arrived, and I couldn't see his dying expression clearly.

None of his mistresses came to see him at the funeral, and I politely accepted the compensation, which was just enough to go home, and took the three children on board the boat back home.

The two daughters are anxious and looking forward to the hometown they have never met, and only the youngest son is crying and unwilling to say goodbye to his amusement park.

"Mom...Sorry." The daughter corrected her address to me, "Mom, we sold the trading company, what can we do when we go back?"

What can I do when I go back?

I don't know, but I must go back.

I smiled and told them to go back and knead mud for them to study. The daughters also laughed. The frail elder daughter said that she wanted to study medicine to become stronger. The second daughter said that she wanted to study accounting and came back to help me in business.

The girls are pretty self-reliant, but I mean it.

For so many years, my porcelain-making skills are still mediocre compared with the masters of my grandfather's generation. At best, I am just a strange woman who likes to knead mud.

But even if I can only squeeze mud, I hope that what I hold is the soil of my hometown.

After half a month of ups and downs, I finally set foot on the land of Ciling.

But at this time, Ciling was different from what he remembered.

After I left that year, the place was bombed beyond recognition by enemy bombers. The former Shili kiln farm is now full of verdant greenery and has become a terraced field.

"Mom, where is the porcelain kiln you mentioned that feeds Ciling?"

"In people's stomachs."

Soil is everything. It is only now that I understand what my grandfather taught me back then.

The residents of Old Porcelain Street vaguely remember the appearance of the past. The war has caused them to lose a lot, and they cherish my weather-beaten old acquaintance even more.

Life is still its original indifferent appearance.

The eldest daughter left early, the second daughter was busy with his career, and the youngest son, who had achieved nothing, was looking forward to separation every day.

The rest of my life was filled with family, and I didn't know the passage of time,

The only consolation is that the children of the grandchildren are doing well.

Little granddaughter keeps turning my old dress inside out, wishing I could wear it...but I am, very, very old.

For some reason, the older I got, the clearer my childhood experiences became. Gradually, I no longer remembered my husband's hideous appearance, and I no longer remembered my life in a foreign country with blonde hair and blue eyes.

My son-in-law tries to persuade me to leave this old house several times a year, but I don't want to.

...what am I waiting for?

Or, who am I waiting for?

Old, confused... I have to think more, think more...

……

Theater of the Mind.

"...I heard a bell ringing in your heart."

"You grieve for me because you already know my story."

"I can hear the voices of all spirits, but I can't hear the past related to me."

"My story is about your blood, isn't it?"

Yan Ge heard Luka's voice in his mind, and he really wanted to know the answer in his heart.

But he couldn't say it.

Just like he couldn't give Alice even a little hope, he couldn't let Luca get "eternity".

"Okay." Luca had read his response, "Then, I'll find you."

At the same time as his final note fell, Yan Ge's theater shattered like a mirror.

"This way." Leon cut off the connection between them, pulled him out of a certain parallel structure space, and entered Ciling's living puppet master world.

What came into my eyes was a night like a burning cloud, which was the light of people holding flashlights and torches.

The noisy people stood on the street, looking for the thirteen thieves like hyenas.

"Are you nervous?" Leon asked.

"No, I was relieved instead. Luca told me 'he will find me', indicating that he can't find me at least at this moment, which indirectly shows that our previous strategy of besieging the Puppet King is effective."

Yan Ge had an intuition that with Alice's demise, the living puppets would no longer be able to spatially locate and accurately distinguish people, that is to say, even if such a game of hunting thieves was not played this week, they would No need to go through the hunting grounds again.

However, looking at the worst, Luca may also take advantage of this week to collect Alice's power about "manipulating space", so that their space coordinates for the next week will be invisible to Luca.

"...That's what I guessed. The time limit is only one week. As long as I don't take the initiative to establish contact with him, he won't be able to find me beyond the limitation of space."

"So have you challenged his secret case?"

Yan Ge pondered for a while, and said: "Just like dealing with Alice, we must destroy him in both physical and spiritual senses before we can hope to succeed... For this reason, what I can do is to find the loopholes in his mind .”

Leon: "It seems that you already have the answer."

A flash of hesitation flashed in Yan Ge's eyes, and then he calmed down immediately: "I want to go back to Old Porcelain Street to end this nightmare."

"Okay, but thanks to you, I was also targeted, so..." Leon took off his top hat, "Farewell, your ending sounds very exciting, and I will definitely not be absent."

……

At three o'clock in the middle of the night, Old China Street.

As the key leader of Xianggu, Ma Zhaojun attached great importance to this place, and sent two to 300 people here to guard and investigate.

"That brat has been missing for three days... Look at Boss Ma's face, it's too much for us."

"A lot of veterans from the former president's side in the meeting are particularly dissatisfied with Boss Ma's arbitrariness. If the remnants of M82 haven't been dealt with, they would have fallen out long ago."

"It's because of our group of migrant workers, the thirteen places can only smell the smell of meat but can't eat it..."

From Ma Zhaojun's restless nephew to the recent inexplicable earthquakes in Ciling, when the conversation was in full swing, a man with a cigarette wandered from the end of the dark alley.

"Brother, borrow a fire."

"Old Hong? You are so lazy every day, why did you hand in your shift so early today?"

Lao Hong said: "Manpower is tight, and Boss Ma told me to come here early."

The other guards lit cigarettes for him and nodded again and again: "That's fine, brothers and I will leave now, you should patrol well."

"Ah."

After the people had finished walking, Yan Ge took the unsmoked cigarette from his mouth and threw it to the corner of the wall, wandered to another blind spot, changed his face again, and approached the old house on Old China Street.

The door god painting has been broken in two. It is obvious that Xianggu used the crowd tactics, but judging from the code written in the corner of the small blackboard in the yard, they should have evacuated in advance.

Consistent with the previous information, Yan Ge felt a little relieved, looked around, and walked into the backyard.

There were still people in the main house in the yard, and after going around twice, Yan Ge removed the pottery jar in the backyard to expose the cellar opening, and jumped in lightly and deftly.

The cellar was pitch black, and Yan Ge pinched the bridge of his nose. Three to five seconds later, the temperament around him changed again, and the scene in front of him became much clearer. He bowed slightly like a well-trained soldier, and started to move against the bunker.

Knowing the layout of the cellar well, he quickly touched the workbench in the corner.

The warm orange light came on, and Yan Ge saw a glass picture frame on the wall, inside which hung a white gauze dress embroidered with pearls.

"Sure enough..." He gave the wedding dress to Alice, but now it's back here.

Yan Ge put his hand on the skirt and felt a familiar wave.

Although the subject is unknown, this skirt... has become an orphaned part of the doll.

It's back here, waiting for something.

After being silent for a long time, Yan Ge gently took it off and put it away, turned off the light and was about to leave the cellar. When he was walking up the stairs at the exit of the cellar, his eyes froze and he rolled to the side suddenly.

At the same time, the rain of bullets directly smashed the cover of the cellar, and under the dim light of the sky, Yan Ge heard Ma Zhaojun's voice.

"Old Hong has disappeared a long time ago! The one who went in must be a fake, and if the fake can be confused with the real one, it's the kid named Yan!!!"

Gee.

Yan Ge's heart sank. He was very confident in his ability as a servant, but the problem was that Ma Zhaojun's own skill was "connoisseur", and he specialized in meticulous observation, so he might not be able to hide it face to face. over him.

Outside, Ma Zhaojun's anger in the past few days has completely vented. His precious niece, grandson, and subordinates in the house all disappeared inexplicably. The only suspect is a missing Yan Ge.

Not only that, but he also lost an orphaned part... That is not an ordinary living doll, it is a part of the Red Dead King!

He took it for granted that it was in Yan Ge's hands to take the thing, but he didn't dare to say it out loud, for fear that others would preempt him.

"Come out and hand over my grandson! I'll keep your whole body! If you don't come out again, I'll burn this place!"

There was silence in the cellar. Ma Zhaojun waved his hand, and someone behind him came carrying a barrel of gasoline. Just as he was about to pour it into the cellar, a cry of a child came from the cellar.

"Boss Ma...then, there seems to be the cry of the young master."

In the cellar, following the sound of footsteps, a figure of a little boy covering his face appeared at the cellar entrance. Ma Zhaojun lost his voice and said, "Xu Xu...that's not right!"

The connoisseur's eyesight immediately noticed something was wrong, but at the same time, Yan Ge had used his momentary absence to change his image again - this time, he became a man wearing a leather jacket and holding a short sniper in each hand. tall woman.

"Diana..."

When the red dot fell on the eyebrows of everyone at the scene, everyone was so frightened that their bodies went numb.

Ma Zhaojun confronted "Diana", and he was the first to react, and said sharply: "This is fake, you all saw him transform! Shoot!!!"

But no one dared to move, because each of them did have Diana's sniper red spot between their eyebrows.

Diana's bullets were aimed at the critical point of everyone's life. People of their rank did not need a second shot.

The subordinates hesitated and said: "Boss Ma, I don't dare... I heard that there is a painter in Diana's group, who can also change the appearance of people. What if it is true?"

There are many lives, but next time you come in and start practicing from the novice account, who can stand it?

Ma Zhaojun was so angry that his hands shook: "He is an actor, and what you see is all his performances! If it was really Diana, we would be dead by now!"

"Indeed, you know me quite well."

The Chinese with a strange accent was uploaded from the wall. When everyone looked at it, there was a sudden "snap" on the forehead, and something pierced through it.

The vacuum created by the bullet churns the tissue of the brain into a bowl of gruel, and in just a split second, everyone is down.

Yan Ge didn't say much, just climbed over the high wall, saw the people lying on the ground behind the wall, knew that it was Diana who solved it, ran all the way to the end of the street, got into a double Flash car.

"Yange!"

Yi Ziang and Xiao Yi in the back seat rushed over together, especially Xiao Yi, who cried like a cat.

"I knew you were still alive. Where did Lao Li die? Why wasn't he with you?"

"He... hasn't contacted you?"

"No."

At this time, the gunshots at the end of the alley ended. Obviously, Diana had finished sweeping the tail, returned to the car from the dark with the gun in her hand, and took out her mobile phone.

"Huh?" Seeing Yan Ge's strange expression, she said, "You turn on the wifi, the password is 19940401, and you can connect to the Internet."

Yan Ge was stunned for a moment, took out the cell phone that had not been used for a long time, and was surprised to find that it was really able to connect to the Internet. After thinking about it, he immediately asked: "This is my birthday...Did my dad come here?"

"Here he is, he left quickly. Let's talk about this matter when we go back."

After receiving the news, Diana said, "Since everyone is here, we will start working immediately."

"What kind of work?"

The leader who had lost many comrades in arms took a deep breath and looked at Yan Ge with blue eyes.

"My uncle said that Luka is looking for you now. What I worry about is that there is no suitable bait... Now that he can determine his course of action, it is not too late. We will hunt the last one, the King of Puppets tonight. "