[Rogue One] A Blue Robin's Tale

2,

"Who is that?"

Baze took another sip of apple juice, and seeing that Saw didn't respond for a long time, he stretched out his left hand and pointed to the busy black figure in the soup kitchen not far away.

The elder Xuehun narrowed his eyes and observed for a while, then let out a short laugh from his mouth.

"ChirrutImwe. When I came here last time, he was a bigger brat with a more stubborn temper than you. I really didn't expect to live to be a priest."

Chirrut in Baze's field of vision was facing him with his back. He had just picked up four or five empty plates from the table, and nimbly turned sideways to avoid a few children running past. When he turned around again, he happened to have that kind of expression on his face. Merry smile.For a split second he stopped, and Baze knew the blind priest couldn't detect his gaze, but he did notice that the smile lingered a little longer, like it was on purpose.

Baze pointlessly turned his head the other way, taking a gulp of the liquid in his glass.

Saw was still talking to himself. "You know, that kid doesn't know what he's happy about all day long. He kept dogs and birds under the bed in the monastery, and they punished him to clean the toilet for a month, but he still went his own way. Later his dog He was run over by a military vehicle, and he was sad for a long time, and then he just kept birds. He gave the birds..."

Now Chirrut was half leaning against the wooden frame, with his hands folded across his chest.The afternoon sun found a gap between the layers of tarpaulins, and happened to fall into the pair of eyes that should have been as beautiful as sapphires.The light flowed down from the white Roman collar, passed through the front, and then to the waist. The faint halo wetted his warm black robe and wrapped his whole body.

The rare peace was broken by two birds chasing each other.The priest stretched out one hand, the smaller one occupied the "VIP seat" first, and the other fluttered its wings in dissatisfaction.

Baze tried to take another sip of apple juice, but unfortunately the glass was already empty.

"Is he really blind?" Baze didn't know he interrupted Saw, but he wasn't really looking for an answer either.In fact, he was busy remembering what the name of one of the birds was, and Chirrut had indeed introduced him to it with great pomp.

In the next second, he heard the sound of a wine glass being placed heavily on the iron table.

"What did you say?" Saw Gerrera glared at Baze.If it wasn't for the slight trembling from shock, Baze would have thought he had been cast with some kind of petrification spell.

"Is he blind?"

■

Chirrut sent Baze back to the hotel the night before.There was an unspoken agreement between them not to tell anyone that Baze had gone to Jada's soup kitchen to get a drink and realized he had forgotten his wallet.

Baze followed the blind priest on the empty streets, and everywhere there was only the echo of the blind stick hitting the floor tiles. Except for the occasional passing night patrol soldiers and young people returning late, nothing could disturb them.Even so, Baze is glad that this is Jada and not other places. In the cities he has been to, the curfew starts early at [-] o'clock in the evening-the residents there must worry about going from a certain alley or a certain place. Horrible monsters rushed from behind the ruins, sucked their blood dry, devoured their flesh, or turned them into the same dark creatures.

Baze wondered whether the priest was really blind all the way.He was walking so fast, and yet he could take each step with determination, boldly stepping from one darkness to another, as if someone was leading him on.And this made the petite blue figure appear in front of his eyes.

"I know what you're thinking."

The priest's brisk voice came from not far in front.

"You're thinking 'Is this guy really blind?'" He croaked to imitate Baze's voice when he said it, and amused himself when he finished.

"How did you know?"

"The Lord told me."

The priest slowed down so he could line up with Baze.

"Everyone asks that," he whispered. "If you worry about me falling, you can hold my hand."

He held out a hand as he spoke.

Baze watched as his cane was placed precisely on each brick, without pulling the hand.The other party didn't get a response, so he shrugged and withdrew his hand.

"You are a blood hunter." The priest said abruptly.

Both fell silent.Three or four white trucks with high beams on passed in a line, beams of light flashed like searchlights, and soon the silence and darkness returned.

Baze knew that the other party was waiting for a question, so he asked cooperatively: "Who did you listen to?"

"That's what the Lord told me."

"So your master can be anyone?" Baze smirked. "Everyone asks that, so you know what I'm thinking. The two ladies who passed by just now recognized my armband, so you know my In the end, your career was told by God?"

Unexpectedly, the priest frowned this time.

"No, my friend. There is only one God, but He can communicate His will through other things."

"Okay. Then why didn't your Lord tell you what my name is?"

The priest stopped the car abruptly. Baze thought he was angry, but turned around to find him standing under the street lamp with a pensive look on his face.

"Come here," he said.

Baze walked over, and it took a few seconds before he realized that the other person's hand was on his face.He felt the cold touch, and remembered the same feeling when the kitten he raised as a child gently touched the back of his hand with the cold and wet nose.The hands traced his cheekbones, down the bridge of his nose to his lips, and finally lingered for a moment on his stubbled chin.During this period, Baze held his breath unconsciously. He looked into the pair of eyes covered with mist, while the other party raised his head slightly, and the corner of his mouth curled into an arc.Because one of them couldn't see anything, this long-term eye contact did not cause embarrassment to either party.

Fortunately, the priest ended his groping before he could sense the temperature change on the surface of Baze's skin.

"Does that happen to every bloodhunter you meet from New York?"

"I'm remembering your face." To Baze's relief, the smile returned to the priest's face, "The Lord will give me the answer soon."

Saying that, he went back.

"Where are you going?" Baze subconsciously followed.

"Bring someone with an empty pocket back to his hotel." The priest's voice sounded from the other side of the corner, "We walked two more streets!"

The next morning Baze was sitting on the first floor of the hotel drinking apple juice.

He had just learned from the innkeeper that not everyone loves cider, but because there is only cider here.Of course, according to normal logic, people can filter stream water or rainwater, but as far as Baze knows, those who have done so have been centrally incinerated.

Saw woke up early, took a few other rookies to the nearest communication point outside the wall, and tried to get in touch with the New York Blood Hunters Union.The network signal in the east has been weak since the war, so the Anglican Church has developed a radio communication system. Although it is extremely troublesome, news can always be conveyed.

Baze refused to go with him on the grounds of staying on standby. Saw has long been used to this, and they agreed to meet at the church before nightfall.Although Baze repeatedly stated that he found the way, he still received a few worried eyes.

Reports of reconstruction in Washington were being broadcast on television.Behind the female reporter was a convenience store with smashed windows, hidden in the shadow of the building.Two soldiers in white chemical protective suits were dragging something out of it. After they dragged it out, Baze realized that it was a corpse. It belonged to a white male, but the parts below the knees of both legs were missing. up.The camera focuses on the female reporter.One of the soldiers took off his helmet and turned around to retch, and the corpse bounced off the ground, roaring and onto his back.The camera shakes twice, and then the whole scene is flipped over. The screams of soldiers and a few scattered gunshots can be heard in the background.

The TV screen went black.

The bald innkeeper put the remote control back into the counter, glanced at Baze with an indifferent expression, and then continued to count the thick stack of green bills in his hands with his head dipped in his saliva.

Baze could only cast his eyes out of the window.Apparently no one had cleaned the window for a long time, so he found a crumpled old newspaper from the ground and wiped off the thick layer of dust.People still looked hurried, and the soldiers never stopped to apologize to the ladies who were roughly pushed aside.A silver-gray SUV was parked across the road, and a young couple was stuffing large and small suitcases into it.Beside them was a blond boy of seven or eight, with a baby in his arms crying uncontrollably.

"The apocalypse is coming!" A dark face suddenly threw itself on the window, causing Baze to spill apple juice all over him in fright.It was a doomsman that can be seen everywhere in New York, with horrible cardboard hanging on his body, and he was crazy from morning to night.

"Jeda is doomed! The sky will turn blood red, the ground will be scorched, no one will survive, and everyone will be judged..."

A truncheon fell solidly on the madman's head, and he suddenly became very still, limp like some inanimate object.Two policemen ran over quickly, each carrying him away with one arm.The couple across the road were arguing next to the wide open car door as their son tried to calm the crying baby in his arms.When the hostess slammed the car door shut, the boy also cried.

Then Baze heard a small voice coming from under the window.He followed the sound and found a blue bird struggling to tap the glass with its beak in the corner.After finding that he finally got the attention of the blood hunter, it happily flew around in place for a few times. Baze opened the window to let the bird in, the little blue bird rubbed against his palm, and suddenly flew into the air again.

Baze drank the last sip of apple juice and quickly chased after him.

"I thought you got lost again."

Baze found the priest on the stone steps in front of the church, who was stroking the bird in his palm. Baze looked up at the one leading the way, but only saw a blue afterimage, swooping down like a crossbow arrow.The one in the palm of the hand obviously sensed the danger and dodged it smartly.The previous one croaked angrily because it flew into the air, and immediately flew into the air to chase its little enemy.

"Are they all your birds?" Baze sat down not far from the priest.

"They're not my birds, they're my friends."

"It seems that both of your friends like you very much."

A strange look appeared on the priest's face: "Two?"

He whistled, and soon there was a loud, clear song of a bird from somewhere far away.Immediately there was a sound of flapping wings, Baze turned his head, and had to lower his head again.Dozens of birds with the same blue feathers swooped over like fighter jets, and their tiny wings whipped up an incredible gust of wind.

"They're all my friends." Birds soon filled the steps beside the priest, and a few even jumped up and down on his lap and shoulders.

Baze felt like he had one on his head too.

"What breed are they?" he asked.

"Bluebird." The priest smiled proudly.

"Bluebird?"

"It's a species of robin." The priest turned his head suddenly, and put on a sly smile.

"My dear Baze."

■

"Yes, he's blind." Baze watched as Chirrut took out a booklet with a black cover from his arms, moving his fingers slowly on it.

"Why are you so surprised?"

"Nothing." Saw sat back and drank apple juice.

Baze also turned around, facing the hand-drawn map on the table.Across the table, the three bloodhunters from Boston were discussing tactics in low voices, surrounded by a circle of rookies who managed to make it to Jada alive, including Baze's teammates.

Four bloodhunting teams from different cities decided to launch a raid tonight--this was obviously not Saw's decision, and none of them had enough rest yet.But the plan can never keep up with the changes, and the news of the bloodbath of the communication point lingers in all Jedah's minds like an air defense siren.The defenders refused to help, and none of them was sure of calling on Jada's church for backup.

Baze pre-checked the ammo for all of his weapons, including the revolver, which always had one bullet.

"Get through tonight so we can go home," he heard Saw say.

TBC.