Merit Book·Xinghai

When Semilian woke up again, it seemed like a lifetime away.

Excessively intense emotions, venting the long-held resentment, and fearing in the face of death, all of these seem to have overdrawn his physical strength, making him exhausted from body to soul, even though his consciousness has recovered. But he didn't even have the desire to open his eyes.

——It must have been locked up, right?That last behavior is really embarrassing... If my father sees it, maybe he doesn't want to recognize me as a son, right?

He covered his eyes, and his tall body couldn't help curling up. He sobbed suppressedly at first, and soon turned into crying bitterly.

Compared with the disappointment of unsuccessful revenge or the despair of the enemy's capture and imprisonment, it was the last scene that made him feel more humiliated.He has never realized more clearly than at this moment that he is not as brave as he thought before, and he is not even so righteous!

In the past, Semilian hid in the shadow of Landia and stirred up the situation, watching countless high-ranking figures in the empire being toyed and applauded by him, watching those people lose money, status, and life. All kinds of ugliness filled Semilian's heart with contempt and ridicule.But now, he discovered that he was the same, and would scream and cry like a frightened little girl under the threat of death.

But in the depths of his heart, what made him unwilling to admit and face it even more was that at the moment when he thought he was on the verge of death, he realized that his hatred for Rong Yuan was so vain, like a tree in the clouds. A tree that takes root thinks it is luxuriant and deeply rooted, but if a gust of wind blows away the clouds, it immediately falls with nothing to support it, and smashes itself to pieces on the thick earth.

For decades, he hated Rong Yuan deeply, and regarded revenge on Rong Yuan as the most important goal in his life.But in fact, it was just because he couldn't bear the bitter cry of losing his family, so he chose to transfer all his negative emotions to an object that could be hated.

——Who made you so strong?

You are responsible for all misfortunes!

—Who made you survive?

You should repent to all the dead!

So he lost most of his life, mastering conspiracies, performing ghost tricks, even abandoning his loved ones, betraying trust, and letting his hands be stained with blood, but struggling to justify himself with the pain in his heart, thinking that he was sacrificing himself, It is to move forward with heavy burdens and to fight against evil, but in the end, it is discovered that all these are just castles in the air!

"What have you been doing all your life?"

Semilian asked himself, tears rolling down his face.

After a long, long time, when his tears had dried up and his heart was numb, he suddenly felt something soft touch his face.

After a few seconds, Semilian opened his eyes slowly, and saw a dark shadow rushing out in front of him.

He blinked and took a closer look. It turned out that this was a cave, and the shadow was a dirty child with only a piece of animal skin around his waist.The child had disheveled hair, bare feet, and the animal skin on his body was so dirty that the original color could not be seen. He held a sharp and long animal tooth in one hand full of vigilance, and looked at it with fear and curiosity in his swarthy eyes. Looking at him, he let out a high-pitched cry.

Semilian was still in a daze, when he heard the howling of wild animals getting closer, and then several adults who looked like the dirty kid, but were more burly and fierce rushed in, holding Holding "weapons" such as wooden sticks, wooden spears or stones, staring and looking like fierce beasts that want to eat people, but they didn't hurt him, but danced in front of him, sending out all kinds of monsters. Call.

Semilian speculated that this might be their way of communicating, but he had no interest in finding out, nor did he want to communicate with them.

At this moment, his heart was completely filled with shock, he was dumbfounded, unable to say a word for a long time.

what is this?

What is this place?

Where did these primitive people come from?

Not to mention the Landia Empire where Semilian was born, which is considered a super powerful country even in the Milky Way. A race with no traces of civilization.

Semilian pushed away the primitive people surrounding the cave entrance, and rushed out in a few steps.

Outside the cave, there is green grass, but it is full of livestock manure.

Twenty or thirty primitive people who only wore animal skins and didn't even wear anything turned their heads, pointed at him curiously, and uttered strange syllables that he couldn't understand.

In the distance, the trees are like the sea, vast and ancient, and some animals can be vaguely seen looming among the trees, and even a few beasts with bodies as large as hills can be seen slowly walking through the forest, and occasionally one of them looks up. With a cry, it was like blowing a long and loud horn.

Not a single plant was familiar to him.

There wasn't a single animal he knew.

Semilian raised his head slowly. The color of the sky was slightly yellowish. Even under the scorching sun at noon, he could see three huge satellites floating in the distant sky. shadow.

It wasn't any planet he had ever seen, or knew of.

——This is not the Interstellar Alliance, it should be the Dark Star Field, a shadowy place where the light of technology and civilization has not yet shone.

——No, think about Zhong Wuxing!This might not even be the Milky Way!It's a small, lonely star system hanging between galaxies.

Semilian thought desperately.

Suddenly, he started running crazily along the hillside, shouting while running: "Rong Yuan, come out!"

"You come out!"

"What the hell kind of place is this!"

"Send me back! You bastard!"

"I want to go back!"

"You can't leave me here alone!"

When Semilian first rushed out, the primitive people around were still a little nervous.But when they saw that he was just running and screaming on the hillside, everyone seemed to understand something, pointing to their heads, waving their hands, and there was a look of pity in their eyes.

However, Semilian didn't care what those primitive people thought of him at all. In his eyes, these people were similar to wild animals, savage creatures without intelligence and unable to communicate.The arrogance from a high-level civilization has long been integrated into his flesh and blood, so-does human beings need to consider the views of ants around them when they do something?

However, no matter how hoarsely he shouted, cursed, insulted, threatened, and begged, he still couldn't get the slightest response.Until the night fell, the cold dew wet his pants, and his running legs fell to his knees due to soreness and weakness. Semilian finally realized soberly and desperately——

Rong Yuan won't respond to him anymore!

Maybe that person returned to Zhongwu Star after throwing him down, and only exiled him in this primitive land forever as punishment for what he had done.

Semilian is no longer too lazy to think about what kind of ability it is to easily cross the space distance in units of light years. He knelt on the ground exhausted, and shouted with all his strength in a hoarse voice:

"Ah ah ah ah ah--"

The adult men among the several primitive people followed him with weapons and protected him from a distance. Even though the two sides could not speak the language, they could feel the loneliness and despair emanating from that strange young man. , is straightforward pity and concern.

A gust of wind blew by, and the leaves made a rustling sound.On the hillside, the blades of grass lie low, and the insects hidden in them make high and low chirping sounds.

The first ray of light in the morning came through the darkness, drawing long shadows behind them and blending together, as if they were going to extend to the end of the world.

..................................................................

The golden sun is neither cold nor blazing, and the breeze carries the smell of earth and grass, softly curling butterflies and dancing in the air, a big tree is stretching its branches and leaves, and the colorful light spots and shadows under the tree are interlaced and moving.

This is the perfect weather for sleeping in.The black-haired young man lay under the tree, relaxed and soundly asleep.On his chest, a little man the size of a fist was lying with his face sideways and his limbs spread out close to his heart, as if he was also sleeping very peacefully.

At this time, intermittent, hoarse and mournful cries came from not far away, like a beginner playing an erhu with poor sound quality.That ugly cry was not violent, but it seemed to be filled with all the misery in the world, so bitter that those who heard it felt that their eyes and mouth were full of bitterness.

The black-haired young man sleeping under the tree twitched his brows, endured for a moment, and suddenly opened his eyes. His handsome and young face was full of dissatisfaction!

The little boy lying on him had already sat up, listened for a moment, and said: "That, Rong Yuan..."

"Don't say it, I won't listen!" Rong Yuan said angrily, "There are so many miserable people in the world, even if the light of the Holy Mother shines on the world, it can't control so many. What's more, I'm not the Holy Mother!"

He half sat up, and raised his voice: "Hey, over there, you disturbed people's sleep, can you cry in another place?"

Pea nervously clenched its small fists—it knew that the civilization level of this planet was not high, and its individual quality was also limited, so Rong Yuan would definitely not lose in a fight, but it just couldn't help being nervous.

—Maybe it's because... this time it thinks they don't make sense, right?

The crying over there stagnated, and after a while it didn't start again, Rong Yuan nodded in satisfaction, yawned, lay down and fell asleep again.

In the summer afternoon, even a light sleep is extremely comfortable.If it wasn't for the sound of rustling footsteps getting closer, Rong Yuan could have slept longer.

He half-opened one eye, squinted and saw a man covered in black with a weathered face slowly walking towards him, holding a long sword full of scarlet blood in his hand.His appearance seemed to make the bright sunshine become cold, and Pea couldn't help holding his breath because of the evil spirit and bloody smell all over his body, but looking at his expression, it felt like seeing a capitalized subtitle——

"Why do I live so hard", "My life is full of tragedies", "I'm so desperate", "It's better to die".

Rong Yuan glanced at the merit points on this person's head, didn't bother to pay attention to him, closed his eyes and continued to sleep.

But the man seemed to be aiming at him.He walked straight over, and finally sat in a position not too far from Rong Yuan, holding the sword with both hands, and his body was as straight as the sword in his hand, but it gave off a feeling of being crumbling and about to collapse at any time .

He is like a beast expelled from the population. Although he still looks tenacious and even fierce on the surface, he actually exudes uncontrollable sadness and helplessness all over his body. He is unconsciously looking for a home, yearning for light and warmth. , like a drowning person looking for a floating straw, but it seems that half of his foot has stepped into the bottomless abyss.

This is clearly a man with a story.When Rong Yuan just left his home planet to venture around, he would be very happy to hear this person's story.But now, his own stories were plentiful and bizarre enough, and he was not really interested in other people's stories.

All he wanted was a good night's sleep.

But the man didn't care whether he wanted to hear it or not, and asked himself: "You said...why do people live?"

"Because I don't want to die." Rong Yuan said casually in a drowsy state.

"Then... people who want to die... should die?" The man looked at the sword in his hand and said softly.

His appearance, as if as long as Rong Yuan said "yes", he could immediately wipe his neck.

Rong Yuan sighed - do I look like a bosom brother?

He was actually really sleepy, and wanted to say "please die away", but if a person's death was caused by him pushing the back one last time, it would also make him feel unacceptable.

Especially the look in this person's eyes always reminded him of a friend, the chubby little girl who once stood on the roof of the teaching building and was about to jump off.Although the two are actually very different, the pervasive loneliness and despair are the same.

So he got a little more serious, turned over, put his hands behind his head and looked at the leaves above his head that reflected a single green color into thousands of gestures, thought for a moment and said: "Generally speaking, I think that if a person wants to die , because the world he sees is too small."

The man was a little surprised and turned to look at him.

"Look, a teenage girl might jump off a building because she doesn't want to cut her hair."

"But when she is in her 20s, she can cut her hair freely, but she will jump off a building because of a broken relationship."

"By the time she is 40 or [-] years old, she will probably find that love is just a bubble, tea, rice, oil and salt are the true meaning of life, and then she will jump off the building because of losing her wealth."

"If she can live to be 70 or [-] years old, there are not many things in the world that can make her jump off a building... Even if her family is broken, her relatives are separated, she is alone, or even the end of the world, she will continue to endure until the cold reality forces her to die till the end."

"Of course, it's just a high probability, and individual phenomena cannot be ruled out."

"However... after experiencing a lot and seeing a wider world, I will naturally feel that the things that made me miserable in the past may be just an insignificant bubble in the long river of life. As long as I live, I can always encounter more and better things."

The man was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked: "Why do you always jump off the building?"

This question is not unreasonable, but because this world is relatively primitive, and the level of architecture is not high. Even in big cities, most of the floors are relatively short.So unless your head is down, you won't die by jumping off the building, most likely you just break your leg.

Rong Yuan also knew about this situation. Although he had no intention of publicizing his identity as an alien visitor, he was too lazy to cover it up with lies, so he lazily said: "In our place, there are many tall buildings."

The man glanced at him with complicated eyes, and said: "It seems that you come from a very good place, more prosperous and peaceful than here." After a pause, he said: "And...you must have never lost Important things, loved ones."

Rong Yuan glanced at him, snorted, and said to himself, who said I didn't?It's just that you don't know my experience.But he was too lazy to argue, so he let him think so.

The man stood up and looked into the distance.

As far as the eye can see, there are grasslands as vast as the sea, fields as vertical and horizontal as a chessboard, the sky is as blue as washing, and the clouds are as white as brocade. Looking around, it is all peaceful and beautiful.

But he knew very well that such a beautiful and peaceful scene was just an appearance.Outside this quiet and remote valley, there are years of wars, countless exorbitant taxes, and the greed and exploitation of noble officials. Even the little people struggling at the bottom do not have the simplicity, blood or Sincerity, there is only the viciousness of slandering, deceiving, betraying, using, and tearing flesh and blood from people who are suffering the same.

This is a corrupt world.Even if he could cut down the world with his sword, he still couldn't cut down the endless evil thoughts in people's hearts.

The people here have learned to plunder and lose since they could not walk or speak.There will never be girls in their teens and 20s who will seek life and death because of their hair or love, because they must have been used to more and more cruel realities.

Such a world sounds too gentle, too beautiful and too fragile, just like the random fabrication of this strange young man after he had a daydream.But for some reason, the man believed it naturally, without any doubts.

He turned his head to look at Rong Yuan.Even if this young man is just lying on the ground leisurely, he still reveals something that is incompatible with this world from the bottom of his heart. Perhaps this is the reason why he chooses to believe.

Those eyes, without calculations, without haze, are full of vigor and hope that are almost overflowing, full of vigor and high spirits!

Seeing such eyes, such a person, and hearing that there is such a beautiful world, even his almost cold and dying soul trembled a little.He was silent for a long time, and suddenly asked: "Do you think... I can see a wider world?"

After a pause, he asked again: "...can I?"

There was humility and trembling in his tone that he couldn't even detect.

Rong Yuan was startled, glanced at him, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began to think seriously.

Since entering the interstellar, his ship has only occasionally taken temporary rescuers, but has never had any other regular crew except Emerald.

On the one hand, he has many secrets of his own, which even Emerida doesn't know.But if there are too many people around, it will inevitably be exposed.

On the other hand, he himself is not very lively, or in other words, he hates noise and crowds, and he subconsciously does not want a tragedy like Paco to happen to someone he is familiar with.

One of the costs of being a contractor of the "Book of Merit" is that evil thoughts and misfortunes are more likely to gather around him. Therefore, the possibility of danger for those who stay with him for a long time will greatly increase.

But at this moment, Rong Yuan felt unable to refuse.

Maybe it's because two or three people's interstellar voyage is still too lonely, even the quiet and shy Emerald often shows a desire for social interaction;

Maybe it's because even if the person in front of him saw Peas, even if he heard something that seemed like a lie, he didn't question, question, or even take a second look. He had unreserved trust in every word he said and seriously think.Therefore, although he exudes negative energy all over his body, he will not pass this emotion on to other people, and getting along with him will not make people feel burdened, but it is very relaxed and comfortable;

Maybe it's because he also understands in his heart that it must be an extremely painful experience for a man like this to be unable to suppress his tears. He doesn't want to ask, but it's not that he doesn't understand, and he can't bear to cut off his hopes and prayers;

More likely, it was because of his eyes—it was as if he had chosen to walk into a rotten swamp, quietly watching himself being swallowed up bit by bit, but when he was about to sink, he stretched out his eyes to the bystanders by the swamp. Get it!

Rong Yuan felt that he would never forget that kind of unconscious struggle and calling for help, that kind of silent desperate cry.

He hesitated for a moment, let out a breath as if giving up, and said, "I hate cooking, and I'm too lazy to learn. If you can cook... Well, I still need a cook on my boat."

The man's eyes lit up, and he said with a bit of joy and relaxation: "I can only do a few simple ones, but I can learn."

"En." Rong Yuan nodded, stood up, squinted his eyes slightly, with a bit of deterrence, and said slowly: "When you get on my boat, you are mine. I can still give you a chance to regret it now, But if you betray me later... trust me, you won't want to know the consequences."

"There won't be such a day." The man said firmly: "By the way, my name is Barabi, little brother, what's your name?"

"Rong Yuan. But you have to call me Captain."

"Yes, Captain, please give me your advice." Barabbi threw the sword that was once regarded as life on the ground freely. From then on, his hands can only hold pots and shovels.

"By the way, Captain." Barabbi seemed to be infected with some vitality. He asked curiously: "Is our ship big? Is it a two-masted sailing ship? Is the captain's hometown on the other side of the sea?"

"Believe me, the world you are about to see is much wider than you imagined. As for our ship..." He grinned a little bit maliciously, "Ha, you'll know it when you see it. "

......................................................

"Rong Yuan, Rong Yuan!"

Rong Yuan opened his eyes and saw Pea sitting on his shoulder shaking him, her little face was full of worry.

"Huh?" Rong Yuan made a questioning nasal sound.

"What's the matter with you? Are... are you thinking about what Semilian said before?" Pea asked cautiously and tentatively.

"No." Rong Yuan said, "It was just a dream."

Pea leaned forward, touched the corner of his brow with her small hand, and asked softly, "Is it a sad dream?"

"Hmm..." Rong Yuan looked sideways at the sunlight outside the window and smiled lightly.

"No, it was a very good dream."