Journey to the Rose

The night fell, and thick darkness enveloped the surroundings.

In the past, it was dangerous to move at night because there was no control. Once the sun sets in Key City, the whole city will fall into silence, and it is rare for there to be too much noise.

But the time is different now. From the tree corridor in the dense forest to the wooden houses in the central city, there are people holding torches made of branches and rushing forward.

Wen Kai stopped several people who were on their way in a hurry, like pulling out a blind box, and asked several people in succession before finding the locals in Key City. Yes there is a rose garden.

The torches of the crowd flickered in the night.

Wen Kai fiddled with his golden hair, and hurried over from the place where the fire was shining.

There was no torch under the tree where Lu Zhenghe and the others were waiting, which happened to be able to cover Ruan Xi.And Ruan Xi had already lifted her mask, taking advantage of this break, exposed her mouth and nose, and breathed in fresh air.

Seeing Wen Kai running, Lu Zhenghe went up to him with a gun on his back.

The sound of the wind turned into a bone-scraping knife in the cold.

Lu Zhenghe's voice was hoarse, and he looked tired, as if he had caught a cold from the cold wind.After pinching his throat, he asked, "How are you?"

"It's okay! The further north you go, the temperature difference between day and night is indeed large, and it will be cold at night," Wen Kai ran over with arms folded, rubbing the clothes on his arms with his palms, gasping, and said in a trembling voice: "Young master, Rose I asked about the approximate location of the park, which is two or three kilometers southeast of us."

Wen Kai finished his report in a hurry, and Ruan Xi heard the content.

After thinking for a while, Ruan Xi gathered the brim of the black cloak, trotted over, and carefully pulled up the mask, revealing half of her face looming in the night.

He opened his eyes wide, and all the precious light sources in the night followed him.

He whispered: "Yes, I really feel it."

"You feel right this time."

Lu Zhenghe touched the back of Ruan Xi's neck, feeling soft and easy to pinch.He suddenly understood the reason why Li Shen was obsessed with omega, it was an innate attraction.

After being patted down, Ruan Xi felt a little more at ease.

He pointed to the southeast direction that Wen Kai mentioned, made a gesture, raised his eyebrows slightly, and said with great momentum, "That's fine, then I'll rush. I'll take a step first."

"Rush for what?"

Lu Zhenghe grabbed his collar and pulled him back to his side. He couldn't control his strength and almost took off his hat, "I'll accompany you."

Suddenly being carried back like a chicken, Ruan Xi widened her eyes and said, "Time is running out, let's split up. You go find your land."

"By the way, young master, haven't you felt where your 'land' refers to?" Wen Kai rarely gave support to anyone other than Lu Zhenghe.

"Ruan Xi drew a rose garden, so I guess..."

The person who was asked dragged out his voice, rubbed his hoarse voice with his fingertips, and said seriously: "I guess my key should be in a wine cellar in Key City."

Ruan Xi blushed a little.

wine cellar--

That must have something to do with your pheromones.

Grabbing the brim of his hat, he covered his face uncomfortably, and said, "But... inhabited cities often have many wine cellars, how do we find them?"

Wen Kai rubbed his chin and analyzed: "As far as I know, the permanent population of Key City is very small, and the people who move daily are basically passing traders, homeless, or adventurers. The wine cellars are usually rich enough. area, so there should not be many wine cellars that can be used, so let's find them separately."

"Go to the rose garden first," Lu Zhenghe adjusted his gun, and waved to his teammates who were resting under other trees, "All follow!"

·

Intense rose scent.

In the dark, on the road, Ruan Xi suddenly stopped, turned her head, squinted her eyes, and cast her doubtful eyes on Lu Zhenghe.The latter shook his head with innocent eyes, as if saying: It's not my smell.Ruan Xi understood, and said to Li Shen who was in charge of protection, "We should be almost there."

There are no roads for many people to walk near the Rose Garden, it is more like being in the countryside where no one cares.

No matter how ruthless the night is, there will be layers of watery atmosphere against the background of flowers.It seems that butterflies carrying glitter flakes are flying in the jungle. They shake their wings and sprinkle shimmering light on the gorgeous softness of each petal.

"Stop."

Turning on the flashlight, Ruan Xi shone the light of the flashlight around the rose garden, and did not find anyone else ambushing here for the time being.He pressed one hand on the handle of the Xiaoyan Ling knife, and held a flashlight in the other hand, calling out to his teammates who came behind him, and started searching from the first row of planted roses.

It's hard to say where a key can be hidden in a rose.

This is not Lu Zhenghe's home field.

He quietly retreated behind Ruan Xi, playing the role of a guardian seriously.

Regarding the legend of the "key" in Key City, he once heard it from a female omega who came to participate in an army fellowship.When introducing themselves on stage, they described sacred love as the relationship between a lock and a key, saying that everyone has their own unique key.They sing and ode to love, shed tears and dream for the one they love, as if they could touch it with their eyes closed.

Lu Zhenghe didn't know anything about love before, but now he gradually sees love in its outline.It was like Ruan Xi's silhouette under the moonlight, with the background of boundless roses, bright and rich.

Probably the people in Ablaze City are born with light. They have guarded the edge of the land for generations, their eyes are full of long and magnificent coasts, and they describe the sea and sunshine with the best everything.

Lu Zhenghe clenched the gun in his hand tightly.

He retracted his arms, and the "space-time mirror" in his inner pocket was giving off a cool feeling, tormenting him like a thorn that he couldn't swallow.

It seems that every time you look at the "space-time mirror", the mirror will present a different scene.Now, it is the only intuitive way for Lu Zhenghe to understand the past.

The light of the flashlight was very bright, and the outline of the rose garden was inspected over and over again, and the delicate and beautiful flowers were stripped out of the darkness.But there are too many flowers and complex categories, so looking for them next to each other is like finding a needle in a haystack.

"Or pick all the flowers?" Li Shen scratched his head.

"Ah, then you are a bit lacking in quality." Wen Kai said silently.

Wen Kai gave him a white look: "What else can we do? There is no way. This rose garden is so big and the roses are blooming so well. Where are we going to find the key?"

"Pick roses?" Ruan Xi frowned, disapproving, "Just push the flowers away."

Li Shen shook his head, thought about the hands that would turn red from the prick, and said, "It's all thorns."

Wen Kai: "Then what should I do?"

"Come and compare who can pick more." Li Shen slowly pulled out the dagger hanging on the gun, "Ruan Xi, your little wild goose feather knife is so handy, you can cut down a piece with one knife."

"Contest?"

Lu Zhenghe hesitated for a second, leaning against Ruan Xi, "Then I will definitely lose to you."

"Ah?" Ruan Xi was in a good mood when he heard that he was taking the initiative to show weakness, his brows and eyes were curved, and he smiled kindly, "Why?"

Lu Zhenghe said: "I want to leave one for you."

Hearing what he said, Ruan Xi subconsciously turned her head to look at Lu Zhenghe's expression.

The latter had a calm demeanor, sincere eyes, and his tough outline gradually softened under the moonlight. In the blink of an eye, Ruan Xi's heartbeat exploded like fireworks, and pieces of gold foil fell on the tip of Lu Zhenghe's nose.

"Ruan Xi, there is more than one kind of rose here. Which one will guide you?" With the light of Ruan Xi's flashlight, Wen Kai put down the binoculars.

"What?" Ruan Xi asked.

"I don't know the species, I only know the color. There are red roses, pink roses, and yellow roses... I also saw very dark blue roses, probably blue roses." Wen Kai said.

After listening to Wen Kai's words, Ruan Xi was slightly lost in thought.

He has always liked roses, so he naturally has a certain understanding of them——

In his impression, red roses represent passionate love, meaning "I love you", and are usually used to express strong love.Pink roses are relatively ambiguous, pure, and have the meaning of first love.On the contrary, the yellow rose is the lost love, which is inseparable from the lost love.In the end, the entire rose garden was left with what Wen Kai called "blue roses".

This kind of blue rose is relatively rare. The ones sold on the market are basically artificially dyed, and very few of them grow naturally.At that time, he wanted to plant in the back garden of Ruan's Manor, but he gave up because it was too precious and rare.

Lu Zhenghe saw that he was lost in thought, as if he was thinking, so he didn't interrupt him.After a while, Ruan Xi couldn't tell the result, so Lu Zhenghe walked over and asked softly, "What's wrong?"

"Blue roses...it represents mystery and preciousness, unobtainable love, and the occurrence of miracles," Ruan Xi said. "The number of this rose variety is very small, and it is very rare to see. The guidance of the key is bound by fate, So this tip is definitely related to my own experience."

Lu Zhenghe heard him emphatically emphasize "unobtainable", understood, and said, "Do you think the blue rose is more accurate?"

"Ok!"

"Why not red?" Lu Zhenghe remembered that the Ruan's Manor planted red roses.

"The meaning of the red rose is too good."

Shaking her head lightly, Ruan Xi had no expression when she said this, "It has the meaning of loving each other every day, and loving each other for a lifetime."

Without any further hesitation, Ruan Xi pushed aside the clumps of branches and leaves in front of her eyes, and went straight to the blue rose area in the center of the rose garden.

Probably because the location of Key City is not high or low, it just adapts to the cold and drought tolerance of roses. These roses grow very well, with dense branches and leaves, and the blue roses do not grow very well. It was dark and blended well with the night.

Looking around several times with a flashlight, Ruan Xicai caught a glimpse of something golden under a blue rose bush that was about to fail in bloom.The subtle luster is hidden in the dark, as if emanating from the metal.

Seeing that he was about to grab it with bare hands, Wen Kai stepped forward and warned: "Roses are densely covered with thorns, and one bud has many flowers. You must be careful."

"Okay." Ruan Xi nodded and squatted down carefully.

He observed that the key was being placed in the inner position of the rosebush.

At this time, he didn't care about his appearance, he didn't care about the dirt, he knelt down on the soil, pulled out the small goose feather knife behind him, and reached for it with the tip of the knife.The Xiaoyan Ling knife was long enough, and it was pushed in continuously until the tip of the knife obviously hit an equally hard object.

After moving the handle of the knife, fine sweat appeared on Ruan Xi's forehead.

He found it impossible to get it out with a knife.

Moreover, the thorns in the rose bush are dense, and the branches and leaves are too close to each other. The clothes on my body are too thick, and it is easy to knock down other flowers if I reach out and grab them.

Patting the plaster on his knees, Ruan Xi squatted up, and rolled the cuff of his right hand to the elbow, revealing a white and powerful arm.Before Wen Kai could stop her, Ruan Xi poked her arm into the bushes.

"Ruan Xi."

Lu Zhenghe didn't see clearly what he was doing until after he moved, and took a step forward to drag him out.Ruan Xi turned her head, didn't speak, but made a "shh" gesture to him to signal him to keep silent.

The sharp thorns slashed across the skin. Although Ruan Xi claimed to have "rough skin and thick flesh", she still felt obvious pain.He gritted his teeth, and kept probing forward along the soil with his fingertips, and finally touched some cold, hard metal object before his whole body was about to fall into it.

He hooked his fingertips, dragged the key back a little bit, then clasped his palm down, holding the key firmly in his hand.

It was difficult for his arm to go in, and it was also difficult to get out. Ruan Xi carefully retreated from the "route" he had opened up, and when he was completely backed out, his hand met the light from Wen Kai.The palm slowly opened, and there was a scratched key lying quietly inside.

Lu Zhenghe didn't have much interest in the key, he just held Ruan Xi's shoulder and led him towards him.Greeting Wen Kai, Lu Zhenghe saw clearly the scratch marks on Ruan Xi's hand through the light, frowned, and said, "Wen Kai."

"exist."

"Deal with it."

"No need..." Ruan Xi hurriedly tore off his sleeves to cover the scars. He didn't think he was chopped or shot, and now such minor injuries are not worth mentioning. "It will heal tomorrow."

Knowing that he couldn't hold him back, Lu Zhenghe had no choice but to dig into his pocket, grabbed out a row of band-aids that hadn't been removed, and tore open the package without saying a word, "Then stick the band-aids."

"Ok."

Ruan Xi obediently stretched out her hand, watching helplessly as Lu Zhenghe pasted his arm into a brown sugar rice dumpling with a crappy technique.

If someone who didn't know saw it, he would think he had been hacked several times.

Ruan Xi's key was found, and the group prepared to exit the rose garden.

Li Shen held a gun and was always on alert, looking as if he was going to shoot the attackers into a sieve at any time.He raised the muzzle of his gun, motioned for the exit of the rose garden, and told everyone to go this way.

Ruan Xi looked at some red roses shaking off the ground, and said regretfully, "Li Shen, would you like to pick up a flower and leave, it's so beautiful."

Li Shen looked confused: "What are you doing picking up flowers?"

"Give it away." Ruan Xi said.

"Who are you sending it to? Wen Kai?" Li Shen immediately covered his mouth with an exaggerated gesture, and said in a low voice, "If I send it to him, the relationship between me and him will warm up."

Ruan Xi: "...Huh?"

"Please, I beg you not to say such strange things to us Ruan Xi!" Wen Kai felt something buzzing in his mind that controlled reason, clenched his fists, and swung violently.

Li Shen said "Oh", and Le Cheng squinted his eyes: "Then you want me to give you roses?"

"Okay, it's time for us to separate. The property before marriage belongs to me, and the property after marriage belongs to me," Wen Kai murmured, "Your heart has run away with the flowers and butterflies outside. I don't want your roses. Wait. When you look back, I'm already someone else's mistress."

Before Li Shen could speak, Ruan Xi was the first to be surprised.He was taken aback by these two people, opened his mouth slightly, and couldn't see their relationship clearly for a moment, "Huh?"

"Don't look at them."

"Ok?"

"Look at me."

After finishing speaking, Lu Zhenghe secretly unbuttoned the cloak on Ruan Xi's chest in a place where no one else could see and where there was no light.His fingers passed Ruan Xi's side waist, came to the wrist, and finally, a soft and cold thing was stuffed into Ruan Xi's palm.

Ruan Xi lowered her head in surprise, put her hand into the cloak, and looked down from the gap in the neckline——

A rose blooms in the palm of the hand.

In the night, it showed a slightly intoxicated wine red, like a thin layer of light.

"Red is actually pretty accurate too."

When Lu Zhenghe whispers, the volume is always low, it is an intimate whisper between lovers.His breath is mixed with the fragrance of flowers, and the roses in his heart are blooming all over the world.

Key·60 "Hate lasts longer than love."