Dark Star Field [Interstellar]

A person's inner spiritual realm is like a person's dreamland.This is a world full of symbols, and everything that appears in this place is meaningful.

Bai Yang's spiritual world is a forest on water.On the water as dark as the Styx, the white tree shadows are like a forest of knives.

According to Xue Yelai's experience, this maze-like forest is Bai Yang's confusion at the moment.As long as Bai Yang can be found among them and brought out smoothly, Bai Yang in reality will regain his sanity.

Xue Yelai began to search in the forest.Bai Yang does not necessarily appear here in his own image, he can be a tree, a stone, or an animal, and any distinctive form may be his self-reflection.That represented Bai Yang's perception of himself.Only after seeing that image, Xue Yelai can be sure how Bai Yang sees himself.

However, Xue Yelai searched every corner, and he couldn't see anything other than trees and water.All the trees are exactly the same, and their shadows are reflected on the black water like countless silent tombstones.

Xue Yelai was stunned for a moment. Such a thing as "self" does not seem to exist in Bai Yang's spiritual world.

But he immediately dismissed the idea.it's out of the question.A living and conscious person, no matter how much he deliberately reduces the existence of the "self", it is impossible to completely erase it.Otherwise, such a person is reduced to a walking dead, without any emotional response to the outside world, just an empty shell without a soul.But Bai Yang is obviously not the case.Although his feelings are inexplicable, they are there.

Xue Yelai concentrated his perception and continued to search.Bai Yang's "self" must be a very small thing, too small to grasp.It was somewhere deep in the waters and forests, like a frightened little animal.

—Is it below the surface?

Just thinking about it like this, the calm water suddenly fluctuated.The white tree shadow distorted its shape in the darkness, turning into an unrecognizable black vortex together with the water surface, crushing the surrounding space at a speed of destroying everything.

Xue Yelai's heart tightened.He used a gentle way of mental power invasion, but Bai Yang's resistance was unusual.This shows one thing: Bai Yang hates himself extremely.Even in his own spiritual world, he will hide himself deeply.

How much self-loathing does one have to have to do this?

In such an inner world, gentle intrusion methods do not work.Xue Yelai suddenly understood Bai Yang's strange behaviors before: he seemed to want to hurt Xue Yelai, but also wanted to protect Xue Yelai, he was vacillating between the two.In fact, rather than Bai Yang's desire to hurt him, it is better to say Bai Yang's desire to be hurt by him.The object of Bai Yang's hatred has always been the hidden self in his heart.

Xue Yelai quickly withdrew from Bai Yang's mental threshold and returned to the reality in front of him.

The upside-down in the spiritual world is only a short moment in reality.Bai Yang is still in the "empty" state, but his eyes are more lively than before.The phantom of a poplar tree stretched out behind him, within reach of Xue Yelai.

"Yelai, kill me." Bai Yang said in a low voice, unable to hear a trace of emotion, "I can't control myself, kill me." The emerald green light in his eyes became more and more fierce, like two dancing phosphorous fires .

Xue Yelai made a sudden move.The dazzling crabapple shot out like lightning, and turned into a faint blood-colored arc on the poplar tree.

Bai Yang's body stiffened and fell down.The situation at this moment is very similar to the scene when they first met, the only difference is that the murderous intent in Bai Yang's eyes at the first meeting turned into a relief at this moment, as if he had been looking forward to such a scene from the very beginning. time.

Before Bai Yang fell to the ground, Xue Yelai rushed over, hugged his body in his arms, and urgently checked the extent of his mental damage.

"Alas..." A long sigh came from behind the screen, and a voice said faintly: "Sure enough, only the moment of life and death can test human nature. You and your warrior have a special relationship. I was expecting that you would It's a different performance. It's a pity that at this time, what you did still let me down."

Xue Yelai stared blankly at Bai Yang in his arms, without saying a word.

"When he said 'kill me' to you, couldn't you hear that he was actually asking for your help? Of course you could, but you couldn't do anything. You are such a selfish, cowardly, useless person People, whether you heard your father was arrested, saw your soldiers begging for help, or saw your home destroyed, you are helpless, you just want to keep yourself."

"At least I'm better than you." Xue Yelai said coldly, "Hiding in the dark and making moves, it's really not honest. Do you dare to come out and talk to me face to face?"

There was no answer from behind the screen.

"Can I ask a question?" Xue Yelai put down Bai Yang and took two steps towards the screen. "Our house was raided because someone informed His Majesty that my father hid the relics of the Su family back then. I was thinking, Could this informer be you?"

"Why do you think so?"

"This whistleblower knew the secret 20 years ago. He should be an elder with a relatively high status in our family. Thinking in this direction, the three elders and the heads of the family are all suspects. I did doubt them, but no matter how I think about it, There is one thing that doesn't make sense. They knew about this 20 years ago, but they have been covering it up until now. Are they not afraid of being reprimanded by the emperor? With the precedent of the Su family, I don't think they dare to take such a risk lightly. Besides, the situation at that time was not so critical that they had to throw out this secret to protect themselves, and I couldn't see the reason for them to do so. Therefore, this line of thinking would not work.

"I changed the direction to guess, maybe this informer is someone who works next to the emperor, and is not interfered by the nobles and the Senate. In this way, there is only the Royal Gendarmerie. It is also related to the Xue family and the Royal Gendarmerie of people, as far as I know there is only one.

"However, these are just my guesses. I can neither confirm the identity of the informer nor your identity. But just now, you said something that should not be said. You said, I saw my home being The destruction was terrible. How did you know? After the accident at my house, I only visited it secretly once, and only met one person. If I remember correctly, that person is you, Xue Ruheng."

Xue Yelai kicked the screen away.As he thought, there was no one behind the screen, only a walkie-talkie.

From the moment the other party tried to provoke him, Xue Yelai had this suspicion.Although the opponent has a powerful weapon called a mental disruptor, the effect of mental disturbance is uncontrollable.As long as there is a short period of failure, Xue Yelai and Bai Yang can subdue each other, or even kill each other.

However, the other party seems to be confident, so the greatest possibility is that the other party's people are not here at all.The use of the screen and the voice changer is not only to cover up the identity, but also to cover up the fact that the other party is not actually present at the moment.

Xue Yelai went straight over and picked up the walkie-talkie, "You don't want to kill me, at least killing me is not your main purpose. Otherwise, you could have done it when Bai Yang and I just came here. So what are you doing?" What do you want from me, can you tell me directly? I don't want to play charades with anyone anymore."

# # #

Ten minutes later, Xue Yelai boarded the tram that brought them with Bai Yang on his back.

Now he already knew why there were no people everywhere in such a large dungeon.The strange thing is that when he heard the news, not only was he not surprised, but he felt a sense of relief that "it's finally here".

The tram wobbled along the tracks.Xue Yelai closed his eyes, recalling the last words Xue Ruheng said to him just now: Tell me, in your own opinion, are you a kind person?

He took Bai Yang and left without answering this question, lest Xue Ruheng change his mind.At that moment, however, his thoughts drifted elsewhere—someone had answered this question for him in advance many years ago.

There is an evening in my memory, the sky is deep and light purple.Xue Yelai was alone, walking aimlessly in the garden.He is almost twelve years old, and his father is building No.12 crabapple garden for him.

During the daytime, a small incident happened: Someone wrote a swear word with spray paint on the road outside Xue's mansion, the content was obscene and vulgar.Although he didn't name and scold Xue's family, the location of the handwriting is facing the gate of Xue's mansion, and the direction is obvious.

Xue Yelai's lungs were about to explode.Because the incident happened on the eve of his birthday, it is likely that a classmate in the school who doesn't like him is provocative.

However, after my father knew about it, he just said lightly, just wipe it off.

How could Xue Ye swallow this breath, and asked the security office to pull out all the surveillance videos around the mansion, and check them one by one, so that the bastard must be caught.

As a result, his father ordered the security department in front of him: delete all the surveillance video of the day, and no one is allowed to check it.If anyone secretly helps the young master check the surveillance, he will be fired immediately.

Xue Yelai was so angry that he went on hunger strike all day, and stayed alone in the garden to demonstrate to his father.He didn't understand why his father just refused to investigate who did it and punish the bastard severely.For the Xue family, this is obviously an easy task.

He remained in the garden until evening.The purple color of the sky was getting thicker and thicker, and when the last ray of sunlight was about to fade, familiar footsteps sounded behind him.He felt proud for a while, knowing that it was his father who came to persuade him to go home.

Before his father could speak, Xue Yelai covered his ears with his hands and yelled loudly: "Don't listen, don't listen! The old monk is chanting scriptures!"

But his father didn't speak to him, just strolled by the garden fence with his hands behind his back.The fence is not high, it is in the shape of a bamboo fence, reflecting the mountains, rocks and flowing water, creating an idyllic scenery.

Xue Yelai watched his father pace up and down, and finally couldn't hold back and asked, "What are you doing?"

Pointing to the bamboo fence, his father asked him, "Tell me, the fence is so low that you can step over it with one step. Why don't passers-by outside break into the garden?"

"Because this is our family's territory!" Xue Yelai replied without thinking, and immediately understood what his father was going to say next.

Sure enough, my father said: "That's right. The inside of the fence is our family's territory, but the outside of the fence is not. This fence is the boundary for us to deal with things. Someone wrote a sentence on the road outside, no matter how excessive the content, For us, it cannot be regarded as crossing the line. On the contrary, if it is written in our line, it is another matter, and those who do this will be punished accordingly.”

"What's inside and outside, you just let me be bullied!" Xue Yelai grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at the fence, still not relieved, and smashed it a second time, "How can people at school laugh at me behind my back? do you know?"

The sky was completely dark, and the light from the lamppost shone on his father, stretching his figure obliquely.The father's voice became very clear in the thin night: "Yelai, you are still young now, and there are some things you can't understand. In the future, you will understand, be a person who can keep the boundaries, and let others know this , will bring you much benefit."

At that time, Xue Yelai really couldn't understand that it was because of his father's boundaries that the Xue family never lost the reputation of "domineering" and "bullying".At that time, he would never have imagined that seven years later, the Xue family would still survive under the attack of the imperial power, and this boundary line would have nothing to do with it.

At that time, he just felt that his father was nagging and incompetent - thinking about it now, it should be the first time he associated his father with "incompetence".

"Do you know what people say about us in secret? They say we are hypocritical!" Xue Yelai angrily told the rumors heard in school, "It is because you always do nothing that others dare to be so bold! "

"Then let them talk. Even if it is hypocrisy, it is better than evil." The father was not angry at all, and sat down next to him, putting his shoulders on his shoulders like a brother. "Ye Lai, I often think that I have spoiled you. Boys can't be pampered, but your mother left early, and I don't want to let you be wronged, so I raised your young master's temper so much. But I And I have been insisting on doing one thing, so that my Xiao Yelai can grow into a kind-hearted person."

"Accustomed to kindness?"

"Yeah. Many people think that kindness is a kind of nature, but it is actually a habit. If kindness is a kind of nature, then people will pursue it like food and sex. But you know, it is not the case. Many times... "

"Here again, are you annoying?" Xue Yelai frowned and muttered, covering his ears again.

"Okay, let's not talk anymore." Father laughed, "In this way, I will hold a huge birthday party for you, which is more grand than the New Year's family gathering, and make everyone in the city envy you. I can compensate you Is it?"

Xue Yelai kept silent.His father hugged him and rubbed his head vigorously, "My little master~ What should I do with you?"

To this day, Xue Yelai suddenly wanted to know what the second half of the sentence that his father did not finish at that time was.If he was face to face with his father at this moment, what would his father say to him?

Maybe something like this:

In many cases, kindness is the first thing we have to give up, and that is something we can't help.So try to be kind when you can, and it doesn't matter if you're considered hypocritical.Make it a habit, a boundary in your heart.

It was dusk on the ground at this time.The twilight is all together, and the golden sunset slowly sinks into the rose red piled up on the horizon.

This coming night will be called "Starry Night" in the history of later generations.

On this night, for the first time, people on this planet saw countless high-altitude starlight in the sky, just like Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night".

However, that is not real starlight, but the light emitted by the nuclear fusion engine of the star warship.

This is a surprise attack across the universe.These long-distance warships bypassed the space cordon and assembled in orbit around the planet for the first and final assault.

On the street, those pedestrians who were rushing home because of the curfew stopped and looked up at the sky.At first the atmosphere was numb, and it took a long time before someone yelled out as if waking up from a dream: "... the galaxy is on the top!"