What happened to Isaac?

"I've never met a shrewder man."

Xavier played with the silver cross collar clip he took out from the trash can, and threw it away angrily: "Just with a worthless little thing, he wants me to raise his illegitimate daughter to adulthood."

Isaac reached out and caught the gadget: "Will you refuse?"

Xavier glanced at him, raised his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, and rang the bell for Daisy to bring a cup of tea.

"I should have noticed, I just didn't pay attention," Xavier said. "That was after the funeral."

It rained heavily on the day of Isaac's burial, and cumulonimbus clouds spread to the suburbs.In the evening, the sky was getting darker, Xavier did not go home, and sat at a table for two outside the cafe.

On the opposite chair is a copy of "The Signature of Corinthians" in Chapter 13, and a long paragraph is marked with a pencil: Love is long-suffering... Love never fails.

Xavier flipped through the scripture book that no one knew who left it behind, and put it back as it was, and took a sip of coffee—it was sour and bitter.

There was a slow sound of crutches behind him, and a person walked over, and the chair in front of him was pulled away.Xavier raised his head, and Li Qiming, who was dressed in black, sat across from him. Although he didn't smile, he still had an amiable expression: "I saw you from a long distance."

Xavier touched his face subconsciously.

"It's your eyes that look particularly melancholy today. If you don't mind..." Li Qiming said as he sat down with his cane leaning against his legs, "Sorry, Langdon."

Xavier shook his head. "It's not all about the funeral."

"Ok?"

"Can you imagine? Some guys look like idiots, but they will lead people by the nose."

"It's really a sweet burden," Li Qiming said, "but how can you be sure that it's not one willing to fight and the other willing to suffer?"

"God, how is this possible?"

Xavier said: "To be honest, you guys usually treat those wives like this."

"Haha, aren't you the same as me? But I don't mean to be perfunctory. I've always been the one who troubles you. It's rare to hear you complain. Of course, you should listen carefully."

"There's no trouble between friends."

"I hope there is no trouble... By the way, Langdon, I realized that you have always called me by my last name."

Li Qiming said it was very roundabout, but Xavier still understood, and he smiled awkwardly.There is no way, after all, Chinese is more complicated than magic spells, and when Li Qiming opened his notebook and wrote it in scribbled handwriting, it looked more like mysterious symbols.

"In our place, Venus is called 'Qiming' in the morning and 'Changgeng' in the evening. They have completely different meanings. The former is much better than the latter," Li Qiming said with a smile, "However, in ancient times, some people believed that Venus is a god."

"Venus?"

"No. We usually think it's an old man."

"That's so boring."

……

"In fact, he always knew that I couldn't pronounce his name. Why did he suddenly mention it that day? I just found out today." Xavier spread the piece of paper brought by Sally on the table. "The orbit of Venus relative to the earth is Pentagram."

**

After the girl Sally arrived, Xavier became visibly weird.

He treated her with the utmost benevolence: in the first few days, he either went out to meet friends from all walks of life, or wrote letters one after another in the study, and dealt with the difficult and irresponsible relatives of Sally's mother. Turn Sally Lee into Sally Xavier, and then get her the best governess in London.

But at the same time, Xavier hides from Sally as much as he can, and more and more often shuts himself in a room by himself, sometimes not even Isaac.If it weren't for Sally's living in the guest room, maybe Xavier would ask to sleep in separate rooms during this time.

At night, Isaac was often lying in bed alone, and Xavier wandered around the backyard, walking up and down all night, and occasionally Isaac would hear the rustling of grass and trees.

Daisy told Isaac privately that Xavier had taken a lot more medicine recently than before.

"God, those pills aren't all for stomach problems," she whispered to Isaac, "I don't know exactly, but how can a person take so many pills in a day? Mr. Xavier is getting weaker and weaker. I really don't know." Fear……"

"Don't worry too much, Daisy," Isaac patted her on the shoulder, "I'll go check the situation."

Isaac just held the doorknob, and Xavier in the room said, "Please don't come in!" But Isaac pushed the door and entered.

Xavier was sitting on the bed, jumped up almost all of a sudden, stuffed a letter into his pocket, and said angrily: "Can't you hear me? Get out, Isaac!"

His voice was so loud that he startled himself.

Xavier stood blankly for a while, and when Isaac turned to leave, he showed a flustered expression. He followed up in three steps and two steps, and stretched out his hand to catch Isaac's hand.After being thrown away, he simply closed the door first, Isaac turned around blankly, and Xavier apologized in a low voice.

"What's wrong with you?" Isaac asked.

Xavier shook his head silently.The next second, he was suddenly pulled into his arms by Isaac and hugged him tightly.Xavier was not very used to such intimate contact, and he hesitated for a while before putting his arms around Isaac's back.

"I guess you know what I'm doing," Isaac asked again.

Xavier did know.Isaac took out the letter he had hastily hidden from his pocket. It was a reply letter from the detective agency, saying that Li Qiming had written to resign last week because he wanted to bury his mother back to his ancestral grave and decided to return to China to work.The letter of resignation attached to the letter is in Li Qiming's own handwriting.

But he had only recently located a new cemetery with Xavier's help, and has already been reburied.

"The bouquet under his mother's tombstone isn't dead yet," Xavier said, "but...these are peaceful times, aren't they?"

He sounded like he needed an answer, so Isaac said yes.

Then they chattered about something else, and at dinner, Xavier appeared at the table, looking much more peaceful.Daisy casts admiring glances at Isaac, who just shrugs noncommittally.After dinner, Daisy was going to take Sally out for a walk, and Isaac and Xavier were sitting on the doorstep smoking the same cigarette.

Little Sally hurried over: "Uncle Isaac!"

"What's wrong?" Isaac asked.Sally said she wanted to whisper to him, but she hesitated and kept staring at Xavier's face next to her.

Xavier sat a little further away, and Sally said in a low voice: "Mr. Xavier said that Dad will pick me up after a while. When will he come? Can you write to him and ask him to come earlier? Reading It's so annoying."

Isaac was silent for a moment, then leaned into her ear and whispered, "I also think reading is annoying! Then find an opportunity in a few days to ask for you."

After hearing this, Sally was overjoyed, and ran away bouncing around, holding Daisy's hand, and the gardener walked slowly behind them.

Isaac turned his head and saw Xavier's face was normal, the hand holding the cigarette rested on his knee, and the ash fell on the toe of his shoe.Isaac swept him away with the tip of his tail calmly, and Xavier didn't respond.

The setting sun sank to the horizon, spread out a piece of gold, and even the grass was dyed yellow.The new spring grass is not yet swaying in the wind, but Xavier's blond hair sometimes brushes against Isaac's cheek.They didn't know when they got so close that Desaac could hear Xavier's whispering narration:

"In 1916, I came back to London from the Somme. At least one of London and I was completely different. I was like an outsider, suddenly tired of things everyone liked, and nervous when I was in a crowd .Can you imagine? At that time, I got into fights with other people more than once. If you don’t take medicine, it will be very unseemly.”

Isaac nodded without showing mercy, but just listened quietly.

"I remember when the news came that the war was over, there was no cheering. It was like a bomb had exploded not far away causing a collective tinnitus, and everyone was in a kind of dizzy shock.

"I've never been to the front lines. In fact, for a long time I didn't know exactly what the battle was like, but there were always some people who were sent to me, and I knew that some were not."

Too many soldiers died, lost like sand in the wind.

"I was initially angry about everything."

Xavier remembered that he secretly wiped it with his sleeve when he turned his back to the wounded soldiers to take medicine, and the continuous war wiped away the redundant emotions.Those British soldiers in agony, the hand clutching his wrist before dying... Doctor Xavier could take it with equanimity.After all, it is his duty to pay attention to every patient, not to shed tears.

He had seen some scenes and left them behind: some people shouted hysterically before dying: "My God! My God!" From the corner of the corpse's eye.

It would be much later, when the war was over and back in peaceful England, that these memories would come flooding back, but no one around him could understand or help him.

"What I remember most is an ordinary man, not the son of any gentleman, maybe not yet twenty years old. When he was brought back, I knew he was dead when I saw him, and I think he realized it faintly. at this point.

"He said to me: 'Doctor, I'm an orphan and no one will remember me.' I took his hand and told him I would remember. How long? Until I die. He cried and told I asked for his name, where he lived before the war, and what he believed in. Jesus, as if he had completed his mission, his eyes stopped shining as soon as he finished speaking.

"But details like this, I can't remember now, how long can he stay in my mind? I don't know. I know I'm lying.

"Every day...almost every day I tell all kinds of lies to my fellow men. I tell a wounded man who is unlikely to heal that he will get better; make a soldier believe that his extra dose of morphine didn't cause him to die The comrades-in-arms got it over there.

"At the end of life, not everyone trusts the priest, but they trust the doctor, and I have to say something... the hundreds of lies scare me so much. They don't know the truth, it's just me I know. And I'm going to live forever.

"I can't do anything... Mom."

Xavier bowed his head deeply, caged himself under his wings like a chick.

Isaac felt that there was something soft on Xavier, what was it?He couldn't tell.But maybe only human beings are like this. They believe in God all their lives, but they can't help calling for their mothers when they are most helpless.

"Li Qiming——I have persuaded this desperate guy a long time ago. I really have no interest in this matter, and I don't even want to think about it," Xavier said. "I will take care of his children with my heart, and I will Remember to visit his mother's grave, and take his share too. For a foreigner, an ordinary friend, I'm good enough, right?"

Because Isaac didn't speak, Xavier looked up and asked again.

Isaac had nothing to say.He just looked down, pressed his lips to Xavier's eyelids, felt the quiver in the eyeballs beneath.

"Then forget it," said Isaac.

**

That night, Isaac saw Xavier in bed.

"You're not a savage anymore?" Isaac asked.

Xavier laughed and sat Isaac on his lap.They only did it once, lying on the bed afterwards with Xavier wrapping his index finger around Isaac's tail.

Then Isaac said, "You're not happy, Xavier."

"No, I'm too happy," Xavier said. "Why can I live so happily knowing that a person has been murdered?"

Isaac said nothing.The moonlight outside the window has no answer either.

Xavier had a dream.

A paperboy, he's a paperboy, stops men who might buy the papers.

The man shoved him, and Xavier fell to the road with a wallet tucked into the back of his trousers.He wiped his face with the back of his hand and stood up. At this moment, a carriage was speeding up—he knew he wanted to run, but for some reason, his feet could not move as if they were nailed to the ground.He was petrified, this is how many wild animals die.

"boom!"

Xavier was hugged and hit the road, the newspapers were flying, the wheels ran over his hat, and drove away without stopping.

"Why didn't you die?" A man with turtledove gray wings stood in front of Xavier, showing a confused look.He turned his head to look at the passing pedestrians, and Xavier followed his gaze. One of them had two pairs of white wings growing on his back.

"Who is that?" Xavier asked. "Who are you?"

"Can you see me?" said the gray-winged man. "I'm Mastema, the angel of death, the last person you'll see in your life. As for that guy... maybe a mighty angel."

Mostima held out his hand to Xavier, who hesitated for a moment, took his hand and stood up, murmured thank you.

"See you next time." Mostima bent down and picked up the wallet that fell on the ground, and put it in Xavier's palm. "Don't forget your wallet."

Xavier blushed, clutched the wallet in his hand, and burst into tears belatedly.The passer-by glanced at him and walked away silently.

Does this Mastema know that his purse was stolen, and what about the other angel?Does he know who he is saving?

**

Isaac woke up the next day and saw Xavier fully dressed, sitting on the sofa, looking out the window in a daze.

Isaac said: "Morning." Xavier told him that he planned to go out, then left, and did not come back until noon.

"I'm going to that monastery to see what's going on."

Xavier broke the news to Isaac upon his return.

"That's good," Isaac was not surprised when he heard that, "Shall we go now? I heard that no matter what human beings do, they need a certificate."

"It's not difficult." Xavier opened his wallet and showed him a white card tucked inside.

"Is this just blank paper?" Isaac said.

"Are you sure?" Xavier asked.

Isaac rubbed his eyes hesitantly, and suddenly there was content on the white paper: "Oh, is it an investigation order?"

"No, it's just blank paper," Xavier laughed. "It's what you want it to be."

"Where did you get it?"

"Given to me by a doctor."

"Which doctor?"

"Which doctor."

"Don't answer questions with questions, you bastard!" Isaac grabbed Xavier's collar angrily, and the angel leaned forward to kiss the tip of his nose instead.

"Actually, you don't need to know who each alien is. But if you still have the impression, the weird police booth you accidentally walked into last time is the doctor's thing," Xavier said, "If you To be with me, you have to change your clothes now."

"Then wait for me." Isaac tilted his head and thought for a while, then quickly ran back to the room.

"Hey, Langdon," a moment later, Isaac, who was fully dressed, knocked on Xavier's window, "It's eleven o'clock, let's go after eating."

"We are going to handle a big case, how can we have such no sense of urgency?"

"Daisy fried the tuna."

"..."

"I can smell it from afar."

Sitting in the driver's seat, Xavier straightened his collar: "Tell Daisy that I drink Earl Gray tea."

*Which doctor: Doctor? Who, from the science fiction drama "Doctor Who" of the same name, here is a paraphrase according to the context.After all, Isaac didn't know who this person was, and the literal translation of "doctor who" sounds very inhuman.

*Mostima, Angel of Death: It can be understood as a character like the God of Death.Here, the dream is linked to "Suicide Investigator" by my friend Dried Deep Sea Sweet Fish ← In the article, Mostima is the victim