Old-time musicians

The mountain col was eerily quiet.

In this season and temperature, there were not many insects chirping, but now there was only the rustling of boots on the soil and fallen leaves, and the sound of water.

The people were three in front, on both sides, and three in back. Their vigilant vision covered every direction as they walked.

"To be honest, my expectation is that I will be suddenly attacked by scary monsters or ghosts later, or, to take a step back, I will be attacked in panic when I go to bed in the middle of the night." The old priest Duerke shrugged, half-joking. Said something.

"Anyway, you really want to put the things in your hands and pockets to use at least once." There were several laughs in the team, and Bishop Tukville added.

The team members all understood what the two men meant.

After a few joking discussions about "defining a worse situation", the atmosphere did lighten up a bit.

"There's a pole there."

"Concentrate the beam and take a look."

A few minutes later, someone spotted a sign posted at the intersection of the camp.

"The combination of directional arrows should be a road sign, but what kind of text is this? A symbol?"

"What language has such complicated letters?" The team members who came closer carefully identified the distortion marks on the lead plate.

"Guchaniz language?" the well-informed Bishop Tukweil narrowed his eyes, "This is not a letter. It is said that the unit blocks that make up it are symbols that have independent semantics and can be combined. Its The original source is from the Abnormal Zone? But why do these former residents know the Guchaniz language? Is it because of changes that occurred later? "

We have known for a long time that abnormal areas will distort people's language thinking and cognition. Unexpectedly, the direction of distortion turned out to be this 'mysterious isolation language'! It seems that the people in the Special Patrol Office have concealed key information again.

"Master Lavoisier, do you have any knowledge about this language?"

"What does it mean? Does it indicate the functional names of each room in the camp?"

Seeing Fan Ning's frowning and thoughtful expression, several priests asked questions.

If he could understand some Guchanizi language, it would not only be useful for reading street signs, but he might also be able to decipher some information from the distorted text carriers he encountered later.

"I understand a little bit, but I don't understand." Fan Ning stared at the street sign.

This is indeed a "Chinese garbled code" with partially reversed word order and redundant radicals. It was automatically restored in my mind without much effort.

However, what he "saw" was these words:

“↑New friend’s porridge”

“←Do not use color”

"→In the extra time"

This was obviously a road sign that had been used to indicate a location, but the words that I saw now had nothing to do with the name of the place or the purpose of the barracks!

In fact, Fan Ning initially thought that this should still have some meaning and be somewhat related to the current situation, but he felt that it really had no meaning or connection.

His thoughts trying to decipher the "metaphorical meaning" of these words were like being washed away with a high-pressure water cannon attached to his brain.

“Keep looking elsewhere.”

Behind it is a tall and silent sentry tower. At the end of the left side is the barbed wire fence that we just got through. You can check it out in the other two directions.

There are relatively few houses on the right, with a few lonely black figures located outside the fence that seems to have been a planting area. Beyond it are the swamps and reed fields that connect to the lake.

"Squeak——" "Clang!"

In a small house over ten square meters, the weathered iron door was pulled open around its axis. When it reached a certain angle, it fell off and hit the ground due to the limit of endurance.

The air filled with the smell of decay and staleness flowed out of the room, but it was not an overly unpleasant smell.

Bishop Tucville stepped in first, and the sergeants with guns followed immediately.

"Bang." Where his eyes fell, several dusty oil lamps spontaneously ignited without fire.

There are no monsters.

The fire CD player dispersed the stagnant darkness. There were flowers and plants growing among the cracked bricks and stones of the hut. There were a few rotten wooden chairs and cabinets. There was a spacious taupe leather sofa leaning against the wall. The fabric had been festered and rolled up. Behind him The fabric hanging on the windows was also brittle.

And in front of the sofa, he was leaning against it quietly

"Cello? Not double bass?" Tukweil said in shock.

Putting yourself in his shoes, this scene is really out of line with common sense.

"Haha, when these southerners set up camp at the front of the former abnormal area, did they still have the thought to set up a few piano rooms?" Priest Jacob couldn't help but laugh a few times.

Fan Ning frowned and looked at the double bass, which was nearly as tall as an adult and stood almost upright.

Its workmanship is a bit rough and has a lot of mold spots, but the wood as a whole shows a soft light color under the light. The reddish-brown cardboard is light and transparent, and you can vaguely see the cyan texture inside. The bow Placed on the ground, one end of the black bow hair fell off and scattered to the other end.

"Have you ever felt that the circle of 'flowing colors' in your peripheral vision seems to have become more numerous?"

The next moment, Brigadier General Boles interrupted Fanning's contemplation with his surprised words.

Fan Ning immediately felt it carefully.

"No."

He confirmed that the circle of "soap film" still only occupied about 10% of his field of vision.

Then, Fan Ning glanced at the three priests, and they shook their heads. The other three sergeants hesitated for a long time and said, "Probably not."

The reason for the hesitation is that there were times when the field of vision was not very bright, and the circle of colors in the peripheral vision was not clearly visible due to the lack of a bright environment. As a result, there was a lack of continuous comparison. A slight increase cannot be ruled out.

"But I think it's more than 20% in my eyes." Brigadier General Boles stretched out his index finger uneasily and swiped it in front of his eyes for comparison.

"Perhaps everyone's situation is different, and it is related to the degree of fatigue?"

Bishop Tucville could only speculate, for Brigadier Boles was the oldest among the ignorant and less energetic, and indeed his drowsiness was more intense.

"It doesn't matter. Let's do some general investigation first and then find a place to rest. Maybe we can find the pattern after we regain our energy." Fan Ning could only say this.

"Okay." Brigadier General Boles nodded and worked together with everyone to check.

"No paper files were found, and the original use of this room cannot be determined." Everyone said this after a careful search.

"The purpose may be to use it as a lounge," Jacob said.

"Look at the next few rooms." Fan Ning took a step forward and motioned for everyone to go out first.

When people leave, the lights go out.

After walking dozens of steps around an abandoned fence covered with bushes outside, a few people stepped into a small house whose iron gate had long since disappeared.

It's still a similar layout, but a long sofa has been replaced by two desks facing each other.

"This is?"

Several beams of bright light illuminated a dark wall.

Fan Ning walked over quickly and stared at the thing in front of him for a long time.

The reaction on his face was very strange.

Maybe, this is a piano?

It has a soft-glossy bandstand, a row of staggered keys, a dark protrusion for music scores, and a complete weak pedal, soft pedal and sustaining pedal with all kinds of mold growing under its feet.

But inside, it was gone. Only on the wall above was a rusty frame with a mirror that was no longer there.

Yes, the "thickness" of this piano is less than 20 centimeters.

"Could it be that its body was built into the wall of the hut?"

Tucville was completely unable to understand what was happening in front of him.

What is the significance of this arrangement? Can the resonance of the music come out well?

Fan Ning, who was standing in front of him, hovered his fingers over the keys, trying to see if he could play it.

He was thinking about it but did not dare to make a decision. The next moment, the cook Ivan suddenly exclaimed:

"Wait a minute, why is Brigadier General Boles missing?"