Journal of the Wandering Traveler

Early in the morning, the lairs of the bandits exuded a smell of bread and butter.

"Morning, are you used to sleeping here on the first day?" David asked as soon as he saw Milan and Margaret returning to the lair after biting the bread.

Margaret scratched her long hair, which was not yet braided, and replied, "We slept very well last night."

David pointed to the three big dining tables behind him, "Come and have breakfast first, if you don't eat, we will eat your share!" Milan looked and found that the dining tables were full of more than [-] people. A man, and there is a large plate of bread and a large bowl containing dozens of boiled eggs on each table. Seeing her disappointed expression, David added, "Although it is a bit shabby, it is still very interesting. Nutritious and all fresh!"

"Don't listen to the mayor, we have kept your share! You are the taller Milan, and... the younger one is Margarita, right?" It was the thin man who was guarding the gate yesterday who was sitting At the table in the middle, and sitting opposite him is the fat man.

The fat man nodded and indicated with his eyes the vacant seat next to their left hand, "That's your seat, come and eat."

"Hmm!" Margaret stepped forward to step over the bench and sat next to the thin man. Before Milan could pick up a slice of noodles and ate them, she said as she ate, "I'm starving to death!"

"Eat slowly, and be careful not to choke on it." Milan exhorted angrily, and Milan sat next to the fat man by the way.

Seeing that everyone had also sat down, David also sat down next to Milan, "Madam usually wakes up very late, so go and deliver food to her after eating!"

Milan tore a small piece of bread into his mouth and found that the bread was still warm and very soft. It was obviously freshly baked bread. "Is this bread freshly baked? Is there a kitchen here?"

"That's right." David replied proudly, "And there are other women here besides Madam. You can see her when you go to the kitchen to get Madam's breakfast."

Seeing that no one was talking, Milan felt that this was a good opportunity to ask David about yesterday's question, "David, actually, why did Miss Mandala become like this? Is it because of her sister or..."

David was frightened by this sudden question, and even dropped the bread in his hand on the ground, but his surprise immediately turned into anger, and he slapped the table, "That's not what you should know, shut up Eat your food with your mouth!"

Margaret and Milan were also so frightened that they shrank, not even daring to breathe.The fat and thin people swallowed, sweating for the two girls who had just arrived.It was a bit embarrassing to eat this meal, I am afraid that everyone present can't refute this sentence, right?They also passed the whole meal in chewing and silence.

"Uh...we're delivering meals to Miss Mandala, where is the kitchen?" Milan only ate a piece of bread and drank a glass of water, and she didn't stand up until Margaret finished eating the fourth boiled egg Said.Although she spoke calmly, if you look carefully, Milan didn't look at David's face and said, but looked at his chest and spoke to him.

Margaret looked at the eggshells on the table, and awkwardly played with the hairpin on her head, "Yes, yes, it's time to deliver breakfast to Miss Mandala. It's almost noon now, right?"

"I'm sorry, I was a bit harsh just now... The guy in the kitchen doesn't like me so much, so I'll take you outside the door to the kitchen." After finishing speaking, he patted his thigh and stood up.After making sure that Milan and Margaret were also following him, he raised his feet and went to the depths of the cafeteria.He stopped before a small tunnel on the left, "Just go through it."

Feeling a little uneasy, Milan followed Marguerite through the narrow alley, at the end of which was another white cloth, which they lifted up in a familiar way, and at first glance they saw a stone oven and a The girl working in front of the stove; she didn't know that Milan and the others were behind her, humming a song while adding firewood to the stone stove, and the golden mushroom head swayed to the beat.

"Cough cough."

Milan coughed to signal to the girl that there was someone behind her, and the other party turned her head and looked over in surprise, "Ah! You are new here!" She closed the trap door of the stone furnace with her foot, revealing that it did not match her appearance. With a mature smile, "I'm Primrose, I've heard other people mention you. The one with shorter brown hair is Margaret, and the one with taller blond hair is Milan, right?"

"Correct."

"Yes." The two replied in unison.

Primrose skillfully clamped the pancakes that were being baked on the stone oven onto the plate, then tiptoed to remove the milk bottle from the shelf, and handed the plate and milk to Milan, who was standing closest to her, "So you are now Mandala's servant?"

"To be precise, we are here to make her laugh." Margaret has always been gentle with children, she is half squatting and talking to Primrose, "David said that Miss Mandala hasn't smiled for a long time, and She is often unhappy, so in addition to serving her, we have to make her laugh as before."

"First of all, don't treat me like a child, I'm already 15 years old! It's just that I'm shorter than average." Primrose retorted, puffing up her cheeks dissatisfied.Margaret touched her nose, smiled awkwardly, and stopped talking.

"Then, Mandala, it's a ghost that she can still laugh after going through that incident."

"That matter?" Maybe this girl named Primrose will know something!This thought flashed through Milan's mind, so he asked without thinking about it.After asking, she regretted it a little. She had asked this question twice, and both times had bad results.

Primrose hesitated for a while, then passed through Milan and Margaret behind her, glanced at the back of the white cloth, made sure that no one was around, then turned back seriously, "Then what do you want to know?" What?"

"We want to prescribe the right medicine, we just want to know why the mandala can't laugh."

"Mandala has a daughter, and her name is Mantianxing." Primrose leaned against the wall, found a comfortable movement, hugged her arms and said.

"Daughter? I don't think she looks like someone who has given birth to a child." Milan asked in surprise. At the same time, she glanced at Margaret, who was looking at herself with "I just said it" eyes.

Primrose shrugged, "Is it her natural beauty? She should be only three years younger than David, I really don't know how she takes care of it. The point is, Man Tianxing was killed by bandits when they robbed Greenleaf City last month. Right in front of Mandala's eyes. After that, Mandala was so heartbroken that she couldn't even eat until she moved here."

The fact that a bandit was also robbed by a bandit was unheard of and unseen, so Margaret no longer remained silent, "What bandit?"

"Ah? You really don't know anything!" Primrose shook her head helplessly, and sighed, "That's right, how could David, an overprotective idiot, tell you... Alas! All of us here They are all residents who lived in Yelu City before, and David is the mayor of Luye City. Last month, a large group of bandits built a fortress on a nearby mountain. It didn’t take long for them to attack the city and kill A lot of people and children..."

"Including Mandala's daughter." Milan interrupted Primrose, "Then you are all victims of this incident?"

"Yes, although some survivors moved to the nearby Moon City, many people followed David to become bandits here. So, you can see that we are not real bandits." Primrose smiled disdainfully and continued: "David simply learned from his enemy, and he didn't even tell Mandala where he buried his daughter. His head is definitely broken."

Milan immediately heard the contradiction in the other party's words, "Then why don't you follow the others to Moon City?"

Primrose sighed lightly, and said, "I think so too, but I'm..."

"Hello──Are you all right? Ma'am is up!" At this moment, David's call came from outside.

Primrose suddenly pushed Milan and Margaret out of the kitchen, reminding them in a low voice: "Don't tell David that I told you this!"

Margaret patted her heart and assured: "Of course not!"

"Miss Mandala, this is your breakfast." After Milan finished speaking, he put the plate and milk on the coffee table by the bed.

Mandala was wearing a white loose nightdress, and after Zheng Wei took care of her long hair, she sat up and ate cakes on the bed.Margaret didn't expect such a dignified and imposing woman to eat in bed, but she didn't think much of it, focusing on the surrounding decorations.

"Hey!" Margaret screamed strangely as if she had discovered something.

The other two people in the room looked at her, and Milan asked, "What's wrong?"

"No, no, nothing." She frantically waved her hands in denial.Mandala stared at Margaret for a while before continuing to eat the pancake she hadn't finished. It was this character of staring at people without saying a word that made her uneasy and even a little afraid of Mandala.

After swallowing everything on the coffee table, Mandala just said "hmm" and told them to take the plates away, and then fell asleep again.

When Milan and Margaret came out, David took the plate and said that he would dispose of it, and told Margaret and the others to go back to their room so that they could appear in time when Mandala called them.

"So Mrs. Mandala's heart knot is her daughter, right? My daughter was killed by bandits, and I became a member of bandits." As soon as Milan returned to the room, he sorted out what they knew now, " And Mandala never had a chance to go to her daughter's grave, because David didn't want her to think of her daughter? The person who untied the bell had to tie the bell. I think as long as I take her to her daughter's grave and let her mourn, sooner or later she will also Laughing."

"Sooner or later..." Margaret frowned, combing her long hair with her fingers uneasily, "The dandelions will probably have gone far by then."

"Uh... that's right." Milan sighed helplessly. She knew she couldn't force the other party to stay with her. After all, Margaret also had her own work to complete. "Leave this task to me alone. Anyway, then It's just my business, so when are you going to leave?"

Margaret shook her head vigorously and said, "No, this is my idea, let's come together! Dandelion has a specific route, so we can deduce her location based on this route."

"us?"

She laughed brightly, her eyes squinted so Milan couldn't see what was going on in her mind, or had Margaret already set this up?Fu Fu, Milan smiled wryly, "I really don't know if you made a plan to find Dandelion with me, so you helped me."

"What do you think?" Margaret showed her beautiful white teeth and looked at Milan with a smile.

"Why does Dandelion say you are a shy child..." Seeing this smile for the second time, Milan said the same sentence again, "By the way, you seem to have found something in Datura's room just now? I see You look like you have discovered a shocking secret."

The smile disappeared from her face and was replaced by caution. Margaret said, "Didn't Miss Mandala mention the Big Dipper before? I just found out that one of the sundries is placed in a row of seven spoons." Maybe the arrangement inside the room is not random, but arranged according to the actual star map?"

"She also said something like 'teaching her to watch the stars', probably referring to her daughter Man's Gypsophila? So arranging things into a star map is how she misses Man's Gypsophila?" Milan rubbed his chin, like Asking Margaret is like talking to himself.

"So what should we do?"

The starry sky is dazzling, and under the shining stars, the black-haired girl is running in a sea of ​​stars and flowers, and is gradually moving away from the picture.The girl was wearing a white bubble skirt and wrapped around a cute fountain head. She went to the distance and pointed to the sky, "Mom, is this the North Star?"

"Yes, and the next one is..."

Before she finished speaking, the girl rushed to say: "That's the Big Dipper constellation Ursa Major!"

"Correct, don't go too far, come back to mom."

The girl shook her head, "Mom, I'll be waiting for you at Ursa Major. I will be your mother's guide. Don't forget me."

"No──I won't forget you, come back, let's watch the stars together again?"

The girl shook her head again, but this time she didn't answer.A beam of light from the North Star enveloped her, and suddenly her face became grim with pain, and she struggled in the light in pain, "Mom—I'm in pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain. , why?──”

He stretched out his hand to grab the girl, but his hand passed through the light. After the light disappeared, there was a spoon-shaped necklace made of a few twigs and rubber bands lying in the palm of his hand.

"Gypsophila──No! Daughter! No──"

Suddenly, a scream came from the room next to Milan and the others, "No—"

After looking at each other, Margaret and Milan stood up tacitly and ran to Mandala's room, opened the white curtain, and saw Mandala sitting on the bed sweating profusely and panting.

"Miss Mandala, are you all right?" Margaret asked.

When Mandala was about to answer, David ran in with his belly outstretched, wagging his tail and lying on the side of the bed and asked worriedly, "Honey! Are you alright?"

"I dreamed of Mantian Xing, our daughter. She seems to be in pain..." Her tone was a little weak at this moment, her originally lifeless eyes became more hollow, and her soul seemed to have disappeared with her daughter.

"We don't have any daughters at all, it's just me and you." David stepped forward and put his arms around Datura, repeating these two sentences in her ear, "We don't have daughters, it's just me and you; we don't have daughters, Just you and me; we have no daughters, just you and me..."

Leaning in David's arms, she has aged a lot for some time, with wrinkles around her eyes and fine lines on her forehead; her dry lips have also lost their original color.Under the influence of love, people who seem so indifferent sometimes lose control of their emotions.David caressed his lover's face with heartache, and turned his head to order Margaret and the others to say, "Go to the kitchen and ask someone to make a cup of black tea for Madam to rest!"

"Yes." After answering briefly, they walked out of the room.

Margaret was playing with the twisted braids she didn't know when, and asked puzzledly: "Why did he say that they don't have daughters and that Gypsophila doesn't exist?"

"Or was that David's way of forgetting his pain, and he imposed that on the mandala?"

"If so, Miss Mandala is quite pitiful."

Before they had gone far, they heard Mandala's voice: "Mantianxing, my daughter...she exists, I want to see her!"

Milan and Margaret couldn't hear what she said next. Originally, they wanted to eavesdrop outside for a while, but there was only Mandala's sobbing in the room, and they left after staying for a while.

When they walked to the path leading to the kitchen, Primrose was already waiting for them outside, with a worry that didn't match her age on her young face, "I heard Datura's call just now, she Are you having nightmares again? I don’t know how she is now..."

Milan didn't mean to comfort Primrose at all, and went straight to the point, "David is comforting her, she should be fine. But I heard David keep telling Mandala that they don't have a daughter, what's going on?"

"Tsk." Primrose put on a disdainful face and snorted, "When Gypsophila just died, Mandala would only cry and talk to her relics, and refused to eat; Things burned and moved here again, and Mandala started to eat. After that...David thought that brainwashing Mandala and making her believe that her daughter did not exist would stop her from being sad. So Mandala Luo became what he is now, often having nightmares, and kept saying that he wanted to see the stars in the sky."

"By the way, our previous conversation is not over yet, and I haven't said why I'm here. You guys are here to get black tea, right? Come into the kitchen and I'll continue talking while making tea..."

"No need, I have a plan!" Margaret, who had been silent all this time, interrupted Primrose's words, and pulled Milan back, leaving Primrose behind without a word.

Puffing up her cheeks, Primrose muttered dissatisfiedly, "Why don't everyone let me finish my sentence..."

"Plan? What's your idea?" Milan let Marie pull her away.

With a smile, Margaret didn't answer her question directly, "You will know then."

"Ah──" Two female voices came from the same cave within one morning. Today is really an uneasy day.As the screams approached, David could see a light-colored figure breaking in, followed by a yellow, yellow and red figure. He was stunned for a moment before realizing that the former was Margaret and the latter was Milan.

Margaret looked at David in horror, and said, "I, we saw it just now! I saw a ghost!"

"Yes, that's a little girl. Just now she cried outside the room and said she wanted to see her mother, and said she was lonely." Milan added a sentence, Milan is not very good at lying, but sometimes she just needs to keep her usual calm You can deceive others.

"What?" After David's comfort just now, Mandala has already returned to normal, but as a mother, when she heard the news about her daughter, the lake in her heart began to ripple again and again, "Then The girl was about seven years old, with black fountain hair?"

"Ah... yes, and she called herself Gypsophila." Margaret saw the other half step into the trap, resisting the urge to laugh, "She also said that if she saw her mother, she would be able to go to heaven with peace of mind." gone."

Mandala's eyes were half closed, and a guilty expression appeared on her face, "Could it be because I didn't send her off for the last time..."

"No, don't...don't be joking, how is it possible!" David blushed, stepped forward and forced Margaret and Milan out of the room.Although his expression was very firm, his slightly trembling voice betrayed him, "You, ghosts don't exist! There is no such thing as Mantianxing! You, don't talk nonsense! Give me a good day today. Stay in the room, don't come out!"

Margaret, who was sent back to the room, was not indecisive at all, instead of being angry, she smiled, "My plan has succeeded!"

"It's the first step of your plan." Milan corrected.She was skeptical about this plan, but she just had a mentality that it would be okay to try, "But this plan is only to let Mandala see her daughter's tomb, not to revive her daughter...so I don't know if it will be successful until the end of."

"It will definitely succeed! Didn't you say that as long as Mandala goes to mourn her daughter's tomb, she will laugh? So she will definitely laugh!" Margaret's eyes shone with confidence. .

This was completely opposite to her attitude towards Datura. Milan began to wonder if there were two souls in Margaret's body, one was the confident and somewhat treacherous Margaret; Shy Margaret.She shook her head helplessly, "I mean she will laugh sooner or later, I really don't know where your confidence comes from..."

"My wife, I'll leave for a while." In the evening, David finally left the room where Datura was. He looked around secretly, and after making sure no one was paying attention to him, he left the lair, but he didn't notice. There were three figures following him closely behind him.

It was getting dark when he reached the mouth of the coal mine, so David decided to take a torch.He has been walking downstream along the river. On the way, he squatted on the ground and picked a few small flowers before continuing on the road.Until he came to the side of a big lake, which was much bigger than the one in the north.Next to the lake is not a mountain, but a small meadow; the lake is not calm and deserted, but there is a breeze blowing from time to time, which makes people feel comfortable.

David went to the river, stuck his torch in the ground, sat down, and did nothing.

One of them secretly followed David, ignoring the obstruction of the other two, and rushed forward, "David!"

"You, you, why are you here?" David was frightened by the sudden voice, his eyes widened, and he covered the things behind him with his body guiltily, "Mandala, don't you It should appear here, go back quickly!"

"David, I was devastated when my daughter died. Thank you so much for being by my side. But you and I both know that forgetting the pain doesn't mean denying the existence of that person?" Datura walked up to David step by step. "Yes, I'm still very sad, I don't want to talk, laugh, or eat. But... I definitely don't want to forget her."

"This..." David wanted to refute, but he finally gave up.His wife was stronger than he thought, "I thought it would be better for you if the gypsophila disappeared, so I burned all the evidence of her existence."

"I don't blame you, but let's move back to Yelu City? Don't be a bandit just because of a word from your enemy."

"So you know..."

"of course."

When the two of them were communicating, the other two figures approached them secretly and peeped at them.The two figures were stretching their necks and waiting for that moment.

The sun has long gone, only the moonlight is scattered among the clouds, and the sky is so cloudy that people can't see the starry sky.

David moved a step to the left so that Datura could see his back, which was a cross made of two pieces of wood crossed horizontally and vertically.A necklace was hooked on it, and she stepped forward to take it off, and saw that it was the spoon-shaped necklace she had dreamed about many times in her dreams.Mandala still remembered that it was a gift from Mantianxing, and she held the Big Dipper tightly, "Mantianxing, thank you for coming to this world... rest in peace."

"It's full of flowers here when the stars are gone." David looked at the sky, but couldn't see a single star because of the clouds.

Mandala put the necklace on her neck, she closed her eyes, suppressed the urge to cry, and rolled her lips, "In this way, you can become my North Star and my guide."

"She laughed! The plan was successful!" Suddenly, a girl's voice came from the grass, "I can put the car in that room..."

"啪──" interrupted the girl's words.

"Why did you hit me on the head?"

David could tell who the owner of that voice was, "Milan? Are you Milan?"

Knowing that he lost his mind and spoiled the atmosphere because he was too excited, Milan responded shyly: "Yes, I'm sorry, we are peeking from the side."

"Well...you know everything?" David asked embarrassingly stroking his beard.

Margaret nodded while touching her braids, "Yes, and I'm sorry we eavesdropped on your conversation."

At this moment, Mandala wiped away the tears in his eyes with the back of his hand, and smiled, "Thank you, because of you, Mantianhua can go to heaven now."

Seeing Mandala's smile, Margaret and Milan instantly gave up the idea of ​​telling the truth.

At some point, the clouds in the sky had drifted away. When Mandala looked up, he found that today's Polaris is particularly bright.

"We will move back to Yelu City in a few days and rebuild our homeland. Our destination is the same. Are you really not going with us?" David stood outside the cave, sweating profusely, following the scorching sun. Milan on the carriage spoke.

While confirming the goods in the carriage, Milan replied: "Yes, we are women who are going to be bandits, so we have to start the journey immediately."

"Then are you only going to take the carriage and such a little thing?" David originally thought that the woman in front of him would hit hard, but he didn't know that, which made him very curious.

Shaking her head, Milan didn't want to give up the treasure in the room, but she hated bandit robbery. If she took the former bandit's things, what was the difference from running to rob others?So she finally decided to give up, "No, you can return it to others? Or use it to help others."

"You are such good people, why do you want to become bandits?"

At this time, Margaret was walking out of the cave, leading two horses and carrying an exaggeratedly large backpack, "Hey, what are you talking about?"

"Ah, just asking why you two sisters want to become bandits."

Milan shook his hand, "Huh? No, no, we are not sisters."

"Seeing that you are so close, I thought you were sisters." Opening his mouth in surprise, David said with an unbelievable expression.

Margaret didn't hear what they said, so she approached them with a smirk, "David, I swapped one of your horses with Milan's black horse. The black horse seems to like one of the horses in your manger." , so I don’t want to go.”

"Oh, no problem." David waved his hands boldly, "I don't mind."

Taking a closer look, Milan found that the brown horse was the one she had been snatched from, which surprised her. Of course, she still didn't express her feelings.

"Ha...ha, Mandala! We've caught up!" A small figure ran out of the cave again, and the figure following behind it walked forward at a relaxed pace.

"Milan, Marguerite! We made something for you to eat on the way!"

Seeing that the small figure was Primrose, she ran to Milan and stepped on the steps of the carriage, handed her the wicker basket in her hand, and then ran back to Mandala.

"Yes, the drinking water inside is enough for you to go to Yelucheng." It was Mandala who spoke, and her face was more ruddy than before, and the emptiness in her eyes was swept away.

"Thank you, it's time for us to leave." Milan put the rattan basket into the carriage, and jumped over the front seat to the ground.She took the reins from Marguerite, and yoked the two horses to the carriage.

Martha stepped forward to touch Primrose's head, and said with a smile, "Primrose, you need to grow taller quickly."

"Tsk, you don't need to tell me." The other party pushed her hand away ungratefully.

"Margaret, you don't seem to be afraid of me anymore?"

Mandala's sudden conversation did not disturb Margaret. She smiled brightly and replied truthfully: "Yes, because your eyes have become warmer."

"You have a nice smile, let's go, Milan is waiting for you!"

"Thank you, Miss Mandala." After nodding, Margaret turned and walked in the direction of Milan.After throwing her backpack casually into the carriage, she unceremoniously sat on the left seat of the carriage.

After confirming the condition of the carriage, Milan sat on Margaret's right hand side, "Goodbye everyone!"

After waving the whip, they rode in the carriage and left this place without looking back.