curse

Chapter 31

After the torch illuminated the sweaty face
After the frosty silence in the garden

After the grief of the rocky terrain
shouting again
prison palace and chunlei's
The echo resounds over the distant mountains

He was alive and now he is dead
We were once alive and now we are dying
be patient
Luo Zhou sat on a chair and listened to this piece of "The Wasteland" quietly. In an instant, he also felt that, like the poem said, he was once alive, but now he is about to die.He breathed out slowly, and looked at Lan Yue who was sitting across from her. She was looking straight ahead, staring into Luo Zhou's eyes, and reciting the verses of "The Wasteland" in her seductive voice.She deliberately adjusted the light in the room to the dimmest level, but it was just enough for Luo Zhou to see her hazy face and eyes clearly. She was sitting about 1 meter away from Luo Zhou. Untouchable distance.He couldn't remember how late it was, but he only remembered that the waves of Suzhou Creek had long been shrouded in darkness. He was like a fisherman by the river who suddenly caught a beautiful koi fish from the river.Blue Moon's lips continued to move under the light, and the verses of "The Waste Land" flowed out slowly like a stream——

There is no water but rocks

rocks without water and a sandy road

The road detours in the mountains above

It's a mountain of rocks without water
If there is still water we will stop and drink

In the middle of rocks man can't stop or think
Sweat is dry feet buried in the sand
as long as there is water in the middle of the rock
The dead mountain's mouth is full of carious teeth, unable to spit out a drop of water
People here can neither stand nor lie down nor sit
There is not even silence on the mountain

Only dry thunder and no rain

There is not even loneliness on the mountain

Only the crimson gloomy face is sneering and roaring

Appears in the door of a mud-cracked house

Luo Zhou is actually very familiar with this passage. He was once horrified by the world described by Elliott, but when he thought about it carefully, isn’t the original world just like this?What people cover up, what people cover up, is not such a true true face.That being the case, there is nothing to be afraid of, only the red lips of the person reading the poem in front of him seem to suck him in while spitting out the poem.In fact, Luo Zhou's favorite is not "The Wasteland", but "Four Quartets", which is the one that won the Nobel Prize for Literature.Luo Zhou even wrote a novel about Eliot in the past, roughly modeled after Borges, in which Eliot traverses a maze that never ends, starting in the wasteland and ending in The wasteland ends.Just as he was immersed in the reverie of Elliott, Lan Yue continued to read for him——

as long as there is water
Without rocks

if there are rocks

There is also water

have water
Arizumi
small pool between rocks

If only the sound of water
I don't know
sing with withered grass

but the sound of water on rocks
Where the hummingbird thrush sings among the pines
bit by bit bit by bit

But there is no water

"Enough." Luo Zhou suddenly interrupted Lan Yue's recitation.He murmured the sentence - "but there is no water".Although there is a river with plenty of water downstairs, he still feels thirsty.He felt his throat suddenly hot, as if a fire was burning.

"But I haven't finished reading yet." Lan Yue said quietly.

"I know." Luo Zhou raised his head, approached her and said, "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but this is enough for me, and I don't need to finish reading. Otherwise, I won't be able to bear it. Also, you read It's been so long, you must be thirsty, let's drink something." He stood up and poured Lanyue a drink.

"Thank you, I'm not thirsty, I'm not afraid of thirst by nature." However, she still took a sip, maybe out of politeness, maybe she was really thirsty.

"You know? Why can't I stand it, because the paragraph from 'as long as there is water' to 'but there is no water' is a process from hope to complete despair. There is a word difference between water and no water, but But it is the boundary between life and death. I suddenly remembered our "Soul Breaks Loulan", didn't Loulan also die because of water shortage?"

"In our plot, the water cutoff in Loulan is due to a curse."

"Yes. But it seems to me that it's all the same. It's all a kind of despair. I guess Eliot may know about Loulan, and may even be interested in Loulan. "The Waste Land" was written in 1922, when Sven Hedin and Stein Books and reports on the civilization of the Western Regions have been circulating in the West for more than ten years. Many Westerners are interested in the ancient civilization of Xinjiang in China. Eliot may also be one of them. He may also have the desire to travel to Xinjiang, and even hopes to Have a chance to visit the ancient city of Loulan? Because of this desire, he wrote "The Wasteland". It seems that "The Wasteland" is all about the environment he lived in or his fantasy realm, but I think those All the artistic concepts point to the same place - Loulan. The desolation and death refer to the present of Loulan, while the real life and dialogues with characters he describes refer to the past of Loulan, that is, the era of Loulan's prosperous population. The demise of Loulan became a wasteland, which is in line with the death and destruction that Eliot wanted to symbolize."

The corners of Lanyue's mouth turned up slightly again, and her face appeared plump. She said: "You are really imaginative, maybe you are right."

"Forget it, it's all my wild imagination, maybe Elliott doesn't know the existence of Loulan at all." Luo Zhou smiled self-deprecatingly.

"I would rather believe that "The Wasteland" refers to Loulan." Lan Yue stood up, and she came to the window, looking at the lights from the high-rise buildings on the other side of the river. Suddenly, she opened the window, and a gust of wind blew in , Immediately brushed her hair high.

"Why open the window?" Luo Zhou shivered from the wind.

"The night is so beautiful." Lan Yue said softly, "Just like Loulan, the night of Loulan must have been very beautiful 2000 years ago, but how desolate Loulan will be after 2000 years. How beautiful is the night of this city today , and what will it look like after 2000? History should be fair.”

Luo Zhou felt that her words were a bit interesting, but he still said lightly: "We will not be here after 2000, and we don't need to worry about things at that time."

"However, maybe the Loulan people anticipated today 2000 years ago. And until today, we can still feel the existence and influence of Loulan."

"Who knows? All I care about is my script."

Lan Yue left the window, walked towards Luo Zhou's door, and said softly, "I'm leaving."

Looking at her body behind her, Luo Zhou suddenly had an impulse, he grabbed her hand and said, "Stay here, Lan Yue, just tonight, I need you."

Lan Yue stopped, she turned her head slowly, and looked at Luo Zhou with a strange look, that look was like a master looking at his slave, the window was still open, and the wind blew her hair away again She said quietly, "Luo Zhou, do you really want to keep me tonight?"

Luo Zhou nodded fiercely: "Stay here, as long as you want."

"Luo Zhou, you will regret your impulsiveness tonight."

"No, no matter what the ending is, I never regret it." Luo Zhou held her hand even tighter.

Lan Yue suddenly smiled helplessly and said: "Perhaps, this is all fate."

"Yes, it's fate."

Lanyue's body softened all of a sudden, she no longer resisted, and was gently embraced by Luo Zhou, like a smooth and beautiful fresh clam that had been stripped of its shell.The wind continued to blow in through the window, blowing away everything on them. Under the dim light, in this room, only two lonely souls were left panting.

On this autumn night, Luo Zhou began to step into a brand new "wasteland".

(End of this chapter)