Neverland

"No." Yan Cen said: "And..."

"And what?" Xu Muzhou asked curiously.

Yan Cen didn't answer, he fixed the window, reinforced the rusty latch on it, and closed the window.

The sound of crying and laughing outside the window suddenly became quieter, and was isolated from this small wooden window.

With cover, no matter how fragile it looks, it is a kind of comfort to people. Xu Muzhou rubbed his arms, feeling that it was not as cold as before.

Yan Cen looked at him, took a thick animal skin coat from the wall, and put it on Xu Muzhou's shoulders.

"Is it cold?" Yan Cen said, "This is the sea, and it's hard to recover when the weather is bad."

"It's okay." Xu Muzhou sniffled and looked down at his legs in embarrassment.

Although the shape of this nightdress is straight, the clothes are a bit skinny. Due to the size of the skirt, Xu Muzhou can only move in small steps even when walking, which is very uncomfortable.

"Any other pants?" Xu Muzhou asked.

Yan Cen quickly glanced at his exposed calf, couldn't help pressing the corners of his upturned lips, and said solemnly: "These are the clothes of the master of the castle. Your own set was torn to pieces in the shipwreck. , I guess I can't wear it anymore."

"Where do you want to go?" Yan Cen asked, "Shall I carry you away?"

Seeing that what he said seemed to be true, Xu Muzhou opened his hands and was about to come over, hurriedly gathered his clothes and took a step back, and refused vigilantly: "No, I'll just get used to it."

Just kidding, he is a young man with full body and limbs, what's the matter with being carried around, it's not embarrassing enough.

"...Wait, you just said you met the owner of the castle?" Xu Muzhou said, "How many people are in this castle?"

"You, me, and the target." Yan Cen took the kerosene lamp in his hand and said, "There are only three of us. The target is 19 years old and has been in this castle for ten years."

"Ten years?!" Xu Muzhou was taken aback: "Isn't it that you've been here since you were nine years old?"

Xu Muzhou still remembered that the task information clearly stated that it was "exile", which meant that this "witch" was probably alone, but a nine-year-old girl, with no one to take care of her, might Live in this precarious place for ten years?

"Yes, his life experience is explained in the mission information." Yan Cen said: "On the day the mission subject was born, many livestock died in the village for no reason. At that time, many people thought that the child was unknown and a symbol of the devil. His mother dedicated him to the church to be drowned, but she didn't agree-"

"I don't agree with changing me." Xu Muzhou commented pertinently.

"Normal ordinary people should not be very willing to part with their children." Yan Cen continued: "But when he was six years old, the bishop at that time was patrolling for their monarch, and he suddenly did something that night when he came to a certain duke's fief. I had a dream, saying that a witch appeared in the village, the incarnation of the devil, who would bring disaster to the king and the land, so—"

Before Yan Cen finished speaking, the lamp in his hand suddenly went out.

It was already dark outside, and now there was no only light source.Xu Muzhou's eyes suddenly changed from bright to dark, and he couldn't see anything for a few seconds. He subconsciously stretched out his hand to support the wall beside him, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Perhaps it was because his voice sounded a little nervous in an unfamiliar and unsafe environment.

"It's okay." Yan Cen said quickly: "The kerosene is burned out, you stand where you are and don't move."

As Yan Cen said, he put the kerosene lamp on the table, and found a small iron box from the corner of the room.He first filled the lamp with kerosene that had burned to the bottom, then lifted the lid of the box, put the sponge inside on the table, picked up the flint and iron piece in the box, and wiped them lightly together.

Sparks landed on the little piece of sponge, igniting the tinder.

Yan Cen re-lit the kerosene lamp with this small tinder, and the house was lit up again.There were still a few flames left on that piece of tinder. Yan Cen probably didn't want to waste the kindling, so he took out a crumpled paper roll from somewhere, and lit the little piece of tinder with the remaining sparks. The tinder was crushed and thrown on the table.

Xu Muzhou: "..."

"Where did you get the cigarettes?" Xu Muzhou asked in a daze.

Yan Cen pushed the kerosene lamp sideways into the table and said, "I found it in the castle."

The unrefined low-quality tobacco smelled very strong, he did not walk towards Xu Muzhou, but leaned against the wooden table and took two puffs.

"...The conditions for this exile are quite good." Xu Muzhou tugged at his clothes and complained, "Although the living environment is not very good, I really have what I want."

"That's what I want to talk about." Yan Cen said: "The bishop found the 'witch' who was said to destroy the kingdom in the 'prophecy', and then arrested him. He originally wanted to burn the child to death, but he did it again that night. Had a dream—"

"The bishop's salary is all based on dreams." Xu Muzhou complained and sat back on the bed. He was really uncomfortable being restrained by the hem of the skirt. Looking left and right, he was so cruel that he stretched out his hands to sew the sides of the nightdress It tore a little, and it didn't stop until it was more than ten centimeters above the knee.

Yan Cen: "..."

Xu Muzhou shook his legs, feeling much more relaxed, and then asked with satisfaction: "What happens after dreaming?"

"The second dream he had was to warn him not to kill the child. If he did so, he would offend the devil and cause the disaster to come early." Yan Cen said: "So the bishop thought of a way."

"Exile." Xu Muzhou said.

"Yes." Yan Cen said: "It took them three years to build this castle, and then locked the mission object in. This castle is on an isolated island in the sea, and the gate is firmly locked from the outside. , I went out and tried it while you were asleep, and it was locked tightly... But every two months, a ship will come in from outside to deliver the necessities of life."

"Understood." Xu Muzhou said.

Judging from the background and direction, this is indeed a case with a bit of metaphysics. Xu Muzhou thought about it for a while, and felt a little confused about the thinking of the task subject.Nine years old is an old age. This age has already been remembered, but the cognition of the world is very weak. Xu Muzhou can't imagine her life after living in this kind of prison for ten years. What will the obsession be.

--go home?Or revenge on those who imprisoned her?or something else?

Xu Muzhou didn't have a clue for a while, and felt that it was not surprising to have any obsessions in the mentality bred in this special environment.

"By the way." Xu Muzhou asked: "Have you read the mission record?"

Yan Cen has already finished smoking that cigarette. The hand-rolled tobacco does not have a sponge filter. You must stop smoking in the last third, otherwise you will burn your fingers.

Yan Cen crushed the cigarette butt on the wooden table and hummed.

"When did you watch it?" Xu Muzhou was a little strange.

The mission record was given to him by Zhong Lu, and Yan Cen didn't even have time to glance at it when he entered the door, so why does he seem more familiar than him now?

"You fainted last night... I watched it after you fell asleep." Yan Cen coughed dryly, and said, "I came here just after filling out my identity."

Xu Muzhou: "..."

It deserves it, Xu Muzhou gritted his teeth, and said to himself that if your old man could brake in time, he wouldn't have slept all night.

Xu Muzhou didn't want to continue this topic, so he stood up, pulled on his slippers, and prepared to go out to "explore" the mission map.

"Let's meet the task target first." Xu Muzhou said, "Otherwise, if you stay in the room, you will have no idea how to guess."

Yan Cen nodded indifferently, and reached out to pick up the kerosene lamp on the table.

To be honest, Xu Muzhou was still a little apprehensive about confronting that "witch". After all, he was a modern youth who was born under the red flag and grew up in the new era. After studying Marxism for so many years, he was essentially a materialist.

Although since coming to Neverland, this point of materialism has been almost broken, but whether it is a "person" like Yan Cen and Song Yan who has passed away, or a "rule" like Zhong Lu, they all seem to be similar to Normal people are no different, they eat and sleep as social animals, and I haven't seen anyone come up with any metaphysics of flying into the sky and escaping from the ground.

But this time the task object is different, Xu Muzhou thought, if it was an ordinary person who was wronged, there is a high probability that Neverland would not specifically mark the word "witch".

A little nervous, Mr. Xu thought.

He reached out and pushed open the creaking door, only to find that his room was on the first floor.

There was no light in the hall of the castle, so Yan Cen turned the kerosene lamp slightly behind him, so that Xu Muzhou's eyes could get used to the darkness and see the people in the hall clearly.

The hall of the castle has an area of ​​about thirty to forty square meters, but it is empty, without any decorations. There is only a huge black clock hanging above the gate, like a model of the bell tower with the main wall upside down.

"... What year is it now?" Xu Muzhou asked in a low voice, "Is it written in the information?"

"The seventeenth century." Yan Cen said, "The exact date is unknown."

Xu Muzhou's memory of history is not very clear, but fortunately, he remembers the history of architecture very well. He roughly calculated that from the [-]th century, religious buildings began to design clocks and clocks in order to remind people to pray. In the seventeenth century, the architectural model and use of the bell tower should have been very mature.

From this point of view, this clock should be used to remind the people in the castle, which is also correct. After all, the only person who can see this clock is a prisoner in name, so it seems more reasonable to install it indoors.

But a "witch", need a prayer?Xu Muzhou thought suspiciously.

The dial of this clock is divided into four parts, and the long second hand is moving forward rapidly. Xu Muzhou looked at it for a while, frowned, and felt that the clock seemed to go a little too fast.

Xu Muzhou wrote down this detail first, and then looked down.

——In the hall of the castle, a man in a white robe was sitting.

The man had beautiful blond hair, with slightly long tails hanging over his shoulders. He was wearing a delicate but old white robe and sat barefoot in the middle of the hall.

He half turned his back to Xu Muzhou, and seemed to be holding something in his arms.

Xu Muzhou didn't dare to rush forward, he stopped cautiously at the door of the room, stepped on the floor deliberately, made some noises, and waited for the other party's reaction first.

The people in the hall really heard his voice, and the other party stretched out his left hand to support the floor, and changed his posture to kneel on the ground.

There was a rustling sound from his clothes, and after a while, he stood up in a kneeling position, and turned around holding the dim crystal ball in his hand.

"You're awake." The other party bent his eyes and smiled very gently: "Guests from afar."

Xu Muzhou was taken aback.

— This is a young boy.