Mage Joan

On the way, the atmosphere in the carriage was gloomy. The women of the Andersons kept crying, and Joan and the others had no intention of chatting, hoping that the carriage would go faster.

The carriage stopped near the military district, and across the street was the nursing home for disabled officers. Everyone got out of the carriage and explained their intentions to the guards on duty at the gate of the compound. The guards nodded sympathetically and took them to the funeral home attached to the sanatorium.

A listless little old man came out of the funeral home and heard the guards say that they were family members of Captain Anderson. He nodded suddenly, took his pipe, and beckoned everyone to follow him.

Passing through the hall of the funeral home, the bungalow made of bluestone in the backyard is the morgue, squarely like a coffin.

As soon as he walked to the door, Qiao An felt a cold breath seeping through the cracks in the doors and windows. After a little observation, it was found that the magic enchantment was constant inside the morgue, and the indoor temperature was always maintained near the freezing point, with the purpose of delaying the decay of the corpse.

When it came to the autopsy, Holden tried to persuade Mrs. Anderson to wait outside the door, and it was enough for her two daughters to go in and verify that they were right. The helpless old woman was very stubborn, she had to see the body with her own eyes, and inexplicably believed that this was probably a misunderstanding: in fact, his son Bob Anderson was still alive, and lying in the morgue was just someone with her son. Unlucky ghost with the same name and surname.

Qiao An accompanied Mrs. Anderson into the morgue. The gloomy hall was filled with spiritual beds, and it made people feel chilly in their eyes.

The little old man with a pipe in his mouth skillfully shuttled between the spiritual bed, sometimes lifting the white cloth covering the bed, checking the identity tag hanging on the corpse’s big toe, and finally stopped in front of the spiritual bed against the wall and was satisfied after checking. He vomited a ring of smoke, turned around and waved to Joan and the others.

"Come and take a look, this is the corpse."

Qiao An and Hailar left and right, supporting the trembling old woman, slowly moving to the bed.

The old man roughly lifted the white cloth covering the bed, revealing his body. Mrs. Anderson's two daughters glanced at them, and immediately wept bitterly.

Audrey sighed, raised her hand to hold the holy emblem, and whispered a prayer blessing the souls to rest in peace.

Qiao An helped the trembling old woman approach the spiritual bed, and saw a male corpse lying quietly on the bed, wearing a military uniform and a military cap, with his sunken cheeks losing the rosyness of the past. It was indeed Bob Anderson.

Qiao An couldn't bear to look more, turning his head to look at the pale wall. However, at this moment, he saw the brilliance in Mrs. Anderson's eyes suddenly dimmed, revealing the despair of disillusionment and heartbreak.

This touched his soul more than the cold corpse, making him recall the scene of his grandfather's death, as well as the haggard face of Master Rawls lying on the spiritual bed, and the disappearance of all the lives he had witnessed in the past ten years. , The faces of all the deceased, those images that had been blurred in memory, suddenly became clear at this moment, intertwined and overlapped before his eyes, and jointly demonstrated the destined destination of "death".

At the same time, the question that had caused Qiao An to suffer and seek but could not be answered, like a lingering nightmare, came to his mind again.

What is the meaning of life if you live forever and die?

Three years ago, he came to Midgard University in search of an answer to this question. Today, he has grown from that hillbilly from a small southern town to an academic star in people's eyes.

The young and promising Dr. Vader has achieved some so-called achievements, and sometimes even he himself is paralyzed by success, so that he feels naive to talk about the "meaning of life", and it is better to eat and drink every minute. Sleep, as long as you live full and comfortable, why bother about what happens after you die?

However, at this moment, once again witnessing the passing of a living life, and personally experiencing the invisible and omnipresent sense of death, Qiao An knew that he could no longer deceive himself like this.

All the time, no matter how many essays he wrote and how much magic he learned, he still couldn't answer the initial question, and he has realized that escape is useless, everyone must face the torture of life: if you don't want to waste this life , You must give an answer that makes you feel at ease.

The sudden cry in the ear interrupted Qiao'an's thoughts, and turned her head to see that Mrs. Anderson was out of control and rushed to the spiritual bed like crazy, picking up the corpse from the bed, crying "Bob, Bob ", trying to wake his son from his deep sleep.

Captain Anderson's body was shaken so hard by her, and the military cap on his head slipped off. Until then everyone discovered that his scalp had been stripped off by someone unknown, revealing a bloody, red-and-white mottled skull!

Mrs. Anderson stared straight at her son's bare skull, and the next second she collapsed in front of the spiritual bed and passed out.

Even Qiao An couldn't help being startled when he saw this shocking scene, holding his breath, and a dense layer of cold sweat instantly oozing from his back!

Mrs. Anderson was helped out of the morgue by her daughters and went to rest in the waiting room of the funeral home.

Qiao An didn't like the depressive atmosphere of the funeral home, so he took a walk in the yard, with the warm sun shining on him, but he still felt chills.

Sister Hailar and Zion comforted Sister Anderson a few words, and they all came out one after another.

"We have to deal with this matter to the end." Audrey said solemnly.

"What to care about, how to care about it?" Holden asked back.

"If Captain Anderson died in the war and was killed by the soldiers of the enemy country, it would not be innocent. After all, the fighting between the two armies has nothing to do with personal grievances, and it is difficult to say which one is good and which is evil. Since joining the army, you must be prepared to sacrifice. , I can't blame others even if I die, let alone revenge, but the reality is not like this!"

Audrey went on to say: "I just asked the people at the funeral home. Captain Anderson was ordered to perform official duties in the Vimur Valley to expel the Asa horse bandits who harassed the new immigrants. He was attacked by the bandit and was shot and killed. Later, he was scalped by a cruel horse bandit. What's even more annoying is that the murderer who killed him has not been caught yet!"

"It can be seen that this is a vicious public security incident. Captain Anderson was unfortunately killed while maintaining law and order. The law supports us to arrest the murderer and accept trial, so as to bring justice to Captain Anderson and his family."

Holden listened to his sister and shook his head with a wry smile.

"I can understand your feelings, and I also sympathize with Mrs. Anderson's misfortune. However, your seemingly high-sounding truth has loopholes and cannot justify it."

"What loophole?" Audrey looked at her brother displeased.