Heartbreaker

The earth is so clean.

The shadow of death licked Vulture City like a giant's big tongue, and the once row upon row of huts collapsed into a mess of gray debris.I sat on the devastated land, drank the chili pepper smoke that Chichikov had just rolled for me, held my rag doll-like undead in my arms, and looked at the mountains shrouded in milky white fog in the distance.

The bleak cold wind blew up the crumbs on the surface of the snow field, and it rustled on my back, like naughty little hands.

"Luo, baby..." I stroked his damaged face.He stared at the two sharp eye holes, his limbs were as limp as octopus tentacles, and his skin was still cracking and peeling off.

Chirp - chirp -

Under the blood-red twilight, groups of man-eating eagles came together and landed on the ruined walls, looking for human corpses from the cracks in the stones.They fluttered their wings contentedly, and their pitch-black feathers seemed to be bleeding under the glow of the sunset.The cannibal eagle chewed on the carrion, making a soothing grunt from time to time.

"Come on. Now it's nothing to fetch water from the bamboo basket."

Not far behind me, Chichikov was slumped on a rock, sipping on his pipe, and watched Ammu, the broken arm, put the corpses of the lame Raig and the one-eyed Ior side by side, and cremated them.

"Brother... Aie..." Broken-arm Emu knelt on the ground, looked at the two corpses surrounded by blue flames, with a smile on his tired and desolate face, and said in a low voice, "I will cremate you, the ashes Take them back to our hometown and bury you in the land that belongs to our family."

"After everything is arranged, I will pay the funeral director in the village to take care of my funeral, and then I will commit suicide and leave with you... The three disabled brothers will never be separated. If you are dead, I will be meaningless to live."

The monk Popolo tried to persuade him, "Amu with a broken arm, I understand that you love your brother very much. But I think if they have a spirit in the sky, they definitely don't want you to commit suicide, but want you to have a new life. , live a happy and peaceful life..."

"What do you know?" Broken Arm Amu said coldly, "My elder brother will definitely be happy, he just likes me and Ai Er to accompany him."

Chichikov sucked his pipe, exhaled a cloud of gray smoke, and said, "I think what the monk said is right... Raig hopes that you and Aiur will break through the boundaries and stand with him, but that doesn't include the boundaries of life and death... …or he'll kill you the moment he realizes his life is dying."

The old man turned his face and said, "Your elder brother actually hopes that you and Aie can live well, Eminem."

Broken Arm Eminem ignored the others.He took out two wooden boxes from the package, and with tears in his eyes, he put the hot ashes of the two into each box one by one, sealed them, and fastened the bulging package firmly.

"Okay." He said calmly, "After we settle with that kid, I should go."

The broken-arm Emu clenched his fists, his eyes burst out with cruelty, and he yelled at a silent figure sitting on the rock, "Lymon Bone Spur!"

I only heard a deafening roar, turned my head slowly, and was hit by an iron fist in the next second, the whole person was sent flying, and Luo Ge was thrown to the side.

"Damn..."

I touched half of my swollen hot cheek, staring in my eyes, and stood up from the ground in a daze.With a bang, another punch hit my other half of the face, I fell to the ground, twitched a few times, stretched out my hand to grab my tattered undead, held it in my arms and gasped.

"My eldest brother and younger brother are dead!" In the dimness, I heard the roar of the broken arm Emu, "I'm dead, but since I'm still alive, I'm going to ask you—did you see them?" Are the two corpses not responding at all?"

I chuckled softly, "What do you want me to do?"

"You fucking——" Broken Arm Emu pulled Luo out of my arms like a red-eyed bullfighting bull, threw him viciously aside, and punched me in the face again with two furious punches!

"You fucking asked me?! You fucking asked me what would you do?!"

Broken-arm Amu snarled with red eyes while beating him, "I tell you! You should feel guilty, grieve, and shed your crocodile tears that can poison people! Our three brothers followed you and risked our lives. Kill them, to help you avenge—two of them are dead now, all because of you! You ignore their deaths, forget about them, and you can still laugh! What are we in your heart? Lemon · Bone spurs, raising a dog is more conscientious than you, are you a fucking human being?! We still work hard for people like you, even I don’t think it’s worth it for Big Brother and Ai Er!"

After he finished cursing, he picked me up and threw me out like an iron ball.I fell dizzy, curled up on the ground and coughed.Poporu screamed and ran towards me, while Chichikov was puffing on his pipe, reluctantly blocking Emu with the broken arm, and said, "Calm down, Eminem."

Broken Arm Em pointed at me and yelled, "Get out of the way, Chichikov! Today I want to know what that kid is, and see how cold-blooded he is! Lemon Bone Spur, you heartless You bastard, you bastard who can't afford it! You play tricks in front of people who are weaker than you, and you can't fart in front of the dog emperor! I'll scold you today, scold you cheap, scold you bad! Kill if you have the ability Kill me, kill me before the ghosts of Big Brother and Ai Er!"

Popolo was terrified, and persuaded me fearfully, "Prince Lemon, Eh-Mu is just grieving too much and speaks indiscriminately, please don't..."

"Broken Arm Eminem." I shrank my body, quietly watching an ant crawling out of a crack in the soil, and said, "You want me to cry, don't you?"

Broken-arm Amu said in a nasty voice, "It's cheap for you to just let you cry! If you don't cry, I'll fucking beat you to cry today!"

"Okay."

I slowly sat up on the ground, looked at him with dizzy eyes, and a sneer on my lips, "Then you tell me, as long as I cry, Reige and Ai Er can come back to life? You can wrap me The two boxes of ashes in it turned into living people?"

Broken-arm Eminem twisted a fierce face, "You..."

"Tell me, isn't that the case?" I widened my blood-red eyes, raised my hands, and the veins on my neck bulged.I jumped up from the ground, walked up to him like crazy, looked at him, and said, "Tell me, can I just cry?! If I cry, your elder brother and your younger brother will come back to life! I will cry, Vulture The city and those who died can be restored! I cried, the head of the dog emperor Elliot can fall off by itself! Or should I cry—”

My legs softened, I knelt down on the ground, punched the ground, and roared, "You can go back to the past! You three can stay away from me, a bug-like desperado, and live your chic life , and it won’t end in a tragic death! What do you think?! If all this can be achieved if I shed tears, it’s not just tears, I’ll just gouge out two fucking eyeballs for you!”

"Say it--!!"

Blood was dripping from my scarred hands again, and I beat the ground like crazy, as if I was beating my weak self.In the end, I was nothing but one of thousands of people who wanted to kill Elliott. As long as he moved his finger, he could be killed one in a thousand times.

This is my whole life of uselessness, and what is even more ridiculous is that this uselessness is purely self-inflicted.It was me who was bent on seeking revenge, and it was me who broke down and went crazy.Broken Arm Eminem is right, I'm a cheap and dirty piece of shit.

The sound of the wind faded away, and the land was silent.

Amu with the broken arm stood firmly in front of me, looking at my bloody fists, letting the cold wind linger between us.After a long time, he said, "I really think highly of you. You are so weak that you don't even have the courage to grieve. You are afraid that your tears will crush you, but you don't know that you have already been crushed by other things, and you can't even get up. .”

He turned around and walked a few steps, the sound of his footsteps was full of exhaustion and despair after experiencing the wind and rain.He carried the package on his back with the only remaining arm, and said indifferently, "I will no longer work for you. From now on, we will part ways and have nothing to do with each other."

"Okay." I heard my inorganic voice, "It doesn't matter anymore."

As he said that, the broken-arm E-Mu took weary steps, carrying the last trace of his brother's existence on his back, and his back was stretched very long by the sad sunset.His shadow dragging on the ground gradually disappeared from my field of vision, and I heard his footsteps of varying severity fade away, and the coldness that penetrated into my heart almost split every inch of my bones.Weeping blood at dusk, the cold wind whimpering, only I did not cry.

I can't cry.It's not easy to live in this world, and I'm tired of crying.

I didn't look up at him until Emu's back with the broken arm disappeared behind the rolling mountains.

I slowly propped up my bruised and bruised body, and said to Chichikov and Poporu, "What about now? If anyone of you regrets following me, let's disband here. Poporu, you were tricked by me, Now I will set you free. If you are not happy, hit me a few times..."

"No, Prince Lemon." The black-robed monk bowed solemnly to me, "No matter what you look like, you are the prince of the old country, and I will always follow you."

"That's right, thank you so much." I said, "Chichikov, are you sure you still want to follow me, this trash?"

Chichikov asked in a muffled voice, "What do you plan to do next?"

"Go straight to Twilight Empire." I said calmly, "Assassinate Elliott."

"Well, as long as you don't give up killing Elliott, I'll follow you." Chichikov shrugged, "Anyway, I'm not like those cripples who insist on making simple things quite complicated. Once I think It is meaningless to follow you, just find another person who seeks revenge."

****

Before leaving, I went to see Barbara.During the riots in Vulture City, she refused to join the parade and escaped from the city with the twenty-odd children from the poorhouse, along with the lame Reig and the broken-armed Eminem.

Later, Raig and Eminem insisted on going back to look for Eyre, so she found a temporary residence in a nearby small village and continued to take care of the children.

"Lymon..." She saw me, with a look of joy on her haggard face, "Great...you are safe..."

She looked down and saw the undead in my arms like a crumpled paper ball, and said in surprise, "Luo... Luo he..."

"I was killed."

"..." Barbara was silent for a while, then forced a smile, "Stop standing outside, come in first..."

"I'm not being polite to you, Barbara." I said, "Vulture City has been destroyed, I believe you know."

"Yeah." Barbara said with downcast eyes, "That night, there was really a big commotion."

I said, "Both the lame Raig and the one-eyed Aiur died in the turmoil."

She raised her head and stared at me suddenly, her eyes were full of surprise, fear and heavy sadness, as if she was about to cry in the next second.Look, Lemon Bone Spur, this is the reaction a normal person should have when he hears his companion die.

I took a deep breath and said, "But I still want to seek revenge from Elliott."

"You—" Barbara wiped her wet eyes in astonishment, "Lymon, you have already been played like this by him, why do you still insist on taking revenge? You are still very young, and you still have a long time to live in this world." Time. Why can't we let go of our hatred and spend the rest of the time in a peaceful way?"

"I knew you wouldn't understand." I said, "Barbara, I didn't come to you this time to argue with you about whether to seek revenge on Elliott. I ask you, are you still going with me?" ?”

"I--"

She spoke eagerly.For a moment, I even thought she would stand up, like the exhausted female dwarf, and resolutely say to go with me...

"Mom." At this time, a childish voice sounded, and the girl quietly hid behind the door and said, "Xidi has been crying, what should we do?"

"Oh, did he wake up?" Barbara said, "It might be because he's thirsty. Give him some water to drink. Help mom to coax him, and mom will be there later."

"it is good."

The girl nodded obediently and ran back to the house.I looked at Barbara with a half-smile, "They call you 'Mom'?"

"That's what they all call." Barbara sat on the stool in a daze, rubbing her cold hands.I sat stiffly across from her, letting the cold air wrap me.

Luo was very quiet in my arms, as quiet as a puppet branded "Lymon Bone Spur".I hugged him silently, as if I felt a bit of warmth from his peaceful, docile, and unresisting cold body.

After a while, Barbara spoke in a low voice, her voice full of bitterness, "I'm sorry...Lemon, I..."

"I know." I interrupted her, not wanting to hear her reasoning, "I understand. I just came to tell you..."

There was no need to stay any longer, I stood up, turned around and said, "I wish you and those children well, Barbara... although I feel that leaving me is the greatest luck. I am sorry that you lost many children in the famine. "

Barbara buried her face in her hands and sobbed, not knowing what she was crying for.I wanted to lift my foot to leave, but I felt that it was too shameful to leave when the woman was crying, so I waited patiently for her to calm down, and then said, "I'm leaving, Barbara."

Barbara quickly wiped away her sorrow, and said, "Where are you going next?"

"Go to the Bone Swamp first, let the Necromancer heal Luo." I said, "Then, I will go to the Twilight Empire to assassinate Elliott."

"Will the necromancer agree to treat Luo?"

"I don't know." I said numbly, "No matter what the cost, you have to try."

She was silent.I turned Luo upside down and said, "Let's go."

As soon as I stepped out of the threshold, I raised my head to take a last look at the frost-covered stars in the northern region, and heard her suddenly say from behind, "Lymon, I love you."

Stared blankly, I stopped in my tracks.She was behind me, at a distance of three arms, with a cry in her voice, but she pretended to have a relaxed smile, and said, "Don't get me wrong. I'm not interested in teenage boys. I said I love You, just because..."

Talking and talking, the ease of deliberately pretending to be defeated.She couldn't make a sound, and sobbed vaguely, "Because...you once saved me and became the unique light of fire in my dark life... Maybe the city of vultures is broken, your people hate you, your enemies play with you, your companion Leaving you, even you think you are a useless person..."

"But I want you to know...you saved at least one poor whore's life. If she hadn't seen you from the window back then, she might have been a mean dwarf for the rest of her life, hanged in a dark room on the beam of the house... But you appeared in the world outside the window, saved her, let her regain her strength, regained her hope, and restored her appearance and dignity..."

"Maybe you don't care about the love of a prostitute, but I still want to tell you..."

She said, in the fulfillment of a certain wish, weeping sadly and happily, "Thank you, Lemon, you will always be a fire in my life."