Embers of Embers

Chapter 730 The Good Life
The sky is blue, the ground is green, the breeze is blowing, and there is the sound of rustling music in the woods. You can see the flowers swaying, and birds passing by. They sail in groups and sail into the distance.
The boy raised his head and stared blankly at all this. He was held by Watson, and the two were one behind the other. The golden sunlight rendered them into dark and hazy silhouettes. The grass and turned soil walked towards the golden hut amid the crisp chirping of insects.
His eyes fell. The cabin was not big. It was made of wood and bricks. It was hidden in the dense forest, like a forgotten hunter's cabin.
Bursts of smoke rose from the chimney, and the windows reflected golden light. It was difficult to see clearly what was inside, but the boy could vaguely feel someone moving around inside. He hurriedly prepared dinner to greet the dusty guests.
"I...I seem to remember this."
The boy muttered, and one memory after another emerged from his mind. He didn't know whether the memory was true or false, but it was indeed explaining everything in front of him.
Watson smiled slightly and didn't say much. He just continued to hold the boy's hand and led him towards the small house.
As he got closer, the boy remembered more. A psychedelic trance enveloped him, making it difficult for him to see reality. A feeling of fatigue came to his mind, making it difficult for him to continue thinking.
"How are those people doing now?"
Watson let go of his hand, put his hands behind his back, stepped on the stones, and jumped around like a lively deer.
"Ah?" The boy was a little panicked. He didn't know what Watson was asking, but the next second memories came flooding back, and he said hesitantly, "Maybe... he's living a good life."
"The church takes care of food and housing. I heard that they will become pastors and be respected by others."
Speaking of this, the boy yearned for it. In Feilengcui, the clergy were always the most respected people. Before, everyone was still the meanest beggar on the street. In a blink of an eye, they turned into priests who were illuminated by the light. Such a huge change was very surprising. It's hard not to be envious.
"That sounds pretty good," Watson smiled, and then asked, "Then do you regret it? You regret running out with us."
The boy affirmed directly without hesitation.
"No regrets."
"Why? You're obviously quite used to your current life, aren't you?"
Watson laughed as he spoke, "I'm very busy every day. I need to go hunting and pack things. It's not like I used to just take things as they come... Follow the priests and you will live a better life."
In her eyes, the boy was not suitable for such a life. He was too fragile and too naive. Watson was extremely curious about why he would abandon such a beautiful life and choose to face this unknown future with them. .
Hearing this, the boy fell silent.
Indeed, his life would have changed dramatically, but before that decision, he chose another path.
It was an ordinary day, no different from the past days. As always, they ran along the river that passed through the city, but on this day, a priest in white robes was waiting there and stretched out his hand to them.
Some beggars were tempted by the priest's promise and left with the priest, while others, like the boys, chose to leave instead of holding the priest's hand.
The boy and the Watsons fled to the dense woods in the countryside together, and found the abandoned cabin here. It seemed that it was left by a hunter. No one had visited it for many years. The windows were broken and the door collapsed. , the wood is covered with green moss.
They spent a long time cleaning up the place, and for the first time in so many years, they had a place they could call home.
After thinking for a while, the boy answered.
"Because I like you all and I want to be with you. No matter where we are, if you don't abandon me, I can't abandon you either."
Watson smiled, was silent for two seconds, and rubbed the boy's head.
"What an innocent answer."
After saying that, she took the boy's hand and walked towards the golden cabin together.
Feeling the intoxicating peace and beauty, feeling the softness and warmth in his hands, the boy looked at Watson's back, and something else was stirring in his mind.
He faintly felt that when he rejected the priest and fled with Watson, someone was screaming, he was screaming, and berating himself.
That unknown existence seemed to be cursing himself, saying that he had made the wrong choice.
In fact, the boy also knew this. When he followed Watson to escape, he realized that he seemed to have missed something, but unfortunately, no one knew what he had missed.
Yes, no one knows what they are missing.
This is a curse full of tragedy. When the boy was wandering on the streets, he once talked about this with a bookstore owner named Oscar Wilde. He was a kind old man with gray hair and he was as old as a dead tree.
He was very kind. Even though the boy was a beggar, he was kind to him and taught him how to read. He seemed to have always maintained that kind smile. But one night, the boy saw the old man crying.
"You know? My father once gave me a choice."
The old man wiped his tears and tried his best to smile.
"What choice?"
The boy didn't understand. He didn't know why the old man was crying.
"I inherited this bookstore from my father, but I have always hated books since I was a child. I think these things are boring. Rather than reading books, I would rather travel and see the bigger world.
I got into an argument with my father about this, and he gave me a choice to either inherit this place or leave forever. "
"What is your choice?"
"Of course I left. This place can't restrain me, a bird who wants to fly in the sky." The old man smiled, "I have been to many places in my life, including Gaulnaro, Yin Erweg, and the Viking countries. …My footprints are all there.”
"Unfortunately, one day I got up and suddenly felt very tired. The mountains that I could easily conquer before almost made me stay there forever. I lowered my head and looked at the water, but what I saw was an unfamiliar landscape. An old face.
I was getting old... everyone was like that, and I thought it was time to return. "
The old man sighed and looked towards the starry night.
"When I came back, my father had become an old man. He didn't say much. It was as if the quarrel between us had been smoothed over by the years. He and I were like close strangers who could give everything to each other. , but usually no conversation for the entire day.
He left the bookstore to me. A few years later, he passed away, and I was the only one left here. "
Stretching out his hand, the old man gently rubbed the boy's face.
"I am incompatible with this place, child. There are no people or things I am familiar with here, and the people and things I know have long been wasted in the long journey.
Time will not wait for anyone, it will only run over every life mercilessly.
I stay here, as if I am living another person's life, accepting everything strange... Can you understand this? "
The boy thought for a while and realized that if he broke away from everything he was familiar with, said goodbye to all the friends he knew, and came to an absolutely unfamiliar place...
"Probably, but I don't want to leave my friends, I want to stay with them."
The more he thought about it, the more frightened he felt.
"It's like living it all over again, leaving everything behind and starting a new life."
"Yes, but not everyone has the courage to start a new life," the old man smiled. "After my father passed away, I was wondering whether to set sail again, even if I would die on the road this time, but I I also feel that I was already an asshole when I was young, and now that I am old, I still have to take some responsibility, at least to keep this bookstore open."
"I started trying a new life, it was hard, at first I was in pain, I was overwhelmed, I was thinking I must not adapt to this new life, I will die here.
But soon I hardened and spent many nights trying to adapt.
Maybe it's because I'm old. I can calm down. As passionate as I was when I was young, I became so silent when I got old. In order to kill the boring time, I started reading. "
"Read a book?"
"That's right, reading. Since I can't leave here, then let's listen to what others say, listen to their stories, and through words, go see the places I haven't touched... Do you know what happened next?" The old man said mysteriously.
The boy shook his head, "I don't know."
"Then? Then I fell in love with reading. I read many, many books every day, sometimes even staying up all night. I never imagined that I would become like this. Looking back, I even feel that the person who hated all this at the beginning was not I, myself, am just another intimate stranger.
Then I found that my desire was hard to fill, and I became extremely excited. I felt... I felt that I must do something. "
The old man took a deep breath, tried to calm his emotions, and then spoke slowly.
"I started writing, and I wrote out the story in my mind. Boy, it was a joy I had never felt before. As the characters beat, I felt my heart and mind also rise and fall. I like this new life. , although a little lonely, but I think I have found my meaning."
"That's good!" the boy said happily. "It sounds like a good thing."
The old man just smiled bitterly and said with melancholy.
"Yes, this is really wonderful, but I'm too old, I'm going to die, my child, my time is running out, and this kind of beauty is just a short moment to me.
So sometimes I wonder, what if I had made another choice before?Did I choose to stay?I may not have such a thrilling and adventurous career, but I think, I may know more about my father, I may start to read books, and I may devote myself to creation a long, long time ago..."
The old man's eyes were downcast, like decaying trees, he sighed.
"No one knows what they have missed. What is even sadder is that at some point, you realize what you have missed, and you begin to doubt whether you will live the life you desire more if you make another choice. .
Sadly, all this has been finalized and there is no possibility of recovery. "
After speaking, the old man looked at the boy and spoke to him very seriously.
"Make every choice carefully, and more importantly, don't let yourself regret it. Regret is the most terrible emotion. It will torture you for the rest of your life, lingering in your ears, until you step into soil."
At that time, the boy could not understand these words. It was too profound and to him, it was more like the complaints of an old man. But even so, the boy still remembered these words deeply in his heart.
He didn't want to regret it. Although a good life was tempting, he couldn't give up everything he had now.
The boy walked out of his memories, Watson opened the door, and bursts of aroma wafted from the house.
The room was not big, in fact it was pitifully small. There was a bed with bunk beds on one side, and quilts piled on the floor on the other side. It looked like someone would make a bunk bed here at night.
The space is small, and all kinds of messy things are stacked together, making the room a bit bloated, but the boy likes this, as if he has everything in his hands.
He sat on the lower bunk to avoid blocking Watson's movements. She walked towards the kitchen, and bursts of laughter came from the white mist.
"Wait a moment, it will be ready soon."
A male voice came from the mist, and the boy could see a tall figure busy in front of the stove, raising a kitchen knife to chop open the wild vegetables that Watson dug.
"I had a dream at noon today."
He walked out of the mist, revealing a familiar face. This was a boy who was a few years older than the boy. He looked mature and stable.
"What dream? Holmes." the boy asked.
"A somewhat bad dream, about the time we left together with the priest."
Holmes sat down beside the boy and had been busy all afternoon, and now that Watson took his place, he could finally rest.
"What? Have we become priests?"
There was light in the boy's eyes. After all, he was a holy priest. Everyone would have some expectations at any time.
"Of course, we not only became priests, we also became Templars," Holmes said with a smile.
"Wow!"
The boy shouted, that was a Templar Knight, whose status was far higher than that of a priest. It was an existence that he dared not even think about. He looked excited, but after realizing that it was just a dream, the boy calmed down.
All this was seen by Holmes, who smiled and then continued.
"Rights and responsibilities correspond to each other. I dreamed that we not only became Templar Knights, but also became someone...I can't say what it was, anyway, we became something like the Pope's bodyguard."
"Pope! Guards!" the boy continued to shout, "but how can such a dream be considered bad?"
Holmes thought for a moment, his voice a bit chilly.
"Because we saw the real world, fighting a group of unknown monsters. It was a nightmare, with dead people everywhere and corpses everywhere."
Hearing the boy's voice made him even more excited, it reminded him of the chases and fights in the streets.
"Killing monsters, do we count as heroes?"
"Of course, of course we are heroes," Holmes smiled, "It's just... being a hero also comes with a price."
"what happened?"
The boy noticed Holmes's change in mood and asked quietly.
"It's nothing, as a hero, you will inevitably get hurt..." Holmes looked at Watson who was busy in the mist, and said helplessly, "I dreamed that both Watson and I died, at the hands of monsters. "
The boy was stunned. He looked at Holmes, who was smiling, and then at Watson. His eyes were filled with panic and confusion. He wanted to say something, but his voice seemed to be stuck in his throat and he couldn't speak. After a long pause, he reluctantly made a sound.
"Then...then don't be a hero," he murmured. "There's nothing wrong with spending your life in this hut."
Yes, there is nothing wrong with this choice. No one will die. Everyone will stay here happily and spend their short life.
The boy deceived himself like this, but in a daze he heard knocks on the door, as if someone was banging on the door, trying to break in from the darkness.
He looked outside and saw that the setting sun had gone and the world had fallen into endless darkness, leaving only the light and warmth in the hut.
(End of this chapter)