At 12:20 in the morning, the handicraft apprentices of the mask shop were busy packing the shelves, preparing to end their day's work.
Just as the apprentice finished sorting the orders during the day one by one, the wind chime outside the store rang.
A gentle and handsome gentleman in his thirties walked into the mask shop.
The apprentice raised his head and met the gentleman's dark eyes. Before he spoke, he asked in a gentle manner, "Hello, can I still place an order now?"
The apprentice hurriedly showed a polite smile when he was entertaining guests: "Hello, sir, it's ok. Is there anything I can help you with?"
The apprentice secretly looked at the well-dressed gentleman who seemed to be from a wealthy family, and at this moment finally noticed that this gentleman was holding a painting wrapped in black cloth.
"I need to customize a mask, and completely reproduce it according to the appearance of the person in this painting. Can it be done?" "There must be no deviation in the details."
When the black cloth slipped completely and the apprentice saw the tearful boy in the painting, his breathing paused and his heart was beating inexplicably.
The moment he looked into the eyes of the green-eyed boy in the painting made him feel like his whole body was upside down, not fear, but a kind of divine shock and solemnity.
"Can it be done?" the picky-looking guest confirmed again.
The apprentice finally recovered from the overwhelming sense of sanctity, and dared to nod after a little thought: "Don't worry, sir, we are definitely the best mask shop in the world."
"...It's just that the price of such a finished product is relatively high," the apprentice gave a price that would make ordinary people drop their jaws, "Do you think that?"
The gentleman who didn't look bad for money smiled cheerfully: "It doesn't matter."
"But I have one condition," said the gentleman, "that this painting cannot leave my side, so I have to watch you finish it all the way."
The apprentice was stunned for a moment. After all, no customer has ever asked this kind of question: "Wait a minute, I'll ask my master."
The guest nodded patiently: "Okay, hard work."
The apprentice lifted the curtain and walked into the workshop behind the shop. No. 9, that is, the guest carefully wrapped the painting and held it in his arms.
Then he looked at a pair of face masks on the shelf that could be faked.
This shop is not an ordinary mask shop. The masks sold here are enough to turn one person into another person. The shop is also engaged in gray transactions. If they give enough money to customize services, they will also choose and hire suitable identity for customers. , wear a face mask to meet the needs of the guests.
Of course, No. 9 is obviously not within the scope of these guests who need to be satisfied. He absolutely cannot tolerate others playing Chi Nan. In his opinion, any form of acting is blasphemous.
Five minutes later, the apprentice walked out of the production room: "Sir, that's right, if you need to supervise the whole process, you must bring the paintings with you at a fixed time every day, and...the price is still more than the amount I told you before. Add it up."
"No problem." When it comes to price, No. 9 is always a snap.
After talking to the store owner, I brought this painting every afternoon on the 9th. The craftsmen of the mask shop made masks that fit the face according to the facial features of the tearful boy in the painting.
Face masks are extremely delicate and complex tasks that require repeated polishing over a long construction period.
Fortunately, the 9th has enough money and patience.
"Sir, is the boy in the picture your son?"
During the long production process, the apprentice suddenly chatted in order to pass the time.
No. 9 looked at Chi Nan who was still in the painting and asked with a smile, "Do I look so old?"
"Ah, I'm sorry, that's not what I meant," the apprentice who chatted to death did not dare to offend the rich guest, and explained in a panic, "Sir, you know that many people's children died in the war, and their parents would Let us craftsmen make masks, and then find a suitable mask model to provide the needed services, including taking care of guests at home every day, and restoring the time when a family of three still lived happily together."
"Although these are services that are paid for, they do provide spiritual comfort to the guests, don't they?" said the apprentice.
No. 9 still smiled gracefully: "In all, the person in the painting is much older than me."
The apprentice whispered: "Is this a portrait of him when he was young? It's so beautiful..."
No. 9: "It's understandable, but to be precise, he's always so young."
No. 9 said, there was a little light in the dark eyes.
The apprentice understood the guest's words as an exaggerated compliment: "This gentleman must be a very important person to you, right?"
No. 9 nodded: "Although we only met once, he is the most important person to me."
The guest's words aroused the interest of the curious apprentice. He said, "Can you tell me your story? If the mask is made with emotion, the work will be more vivid, and the emotion will give the mask a soul. "
"He was also my customer. At that time, I was still a down-and-out painter living on the streets. It was probably an ordinary afternoon with non-stop rain, and he appeared in front of me."
"He didn't bring any money, and I just didn't need him to pay," No. 9 smiled, "and he was stupid and asked him if we still had a chance to meet."
"Actually, I should have collected the money at the time and gave him an IOU, so that he would come back to see me in order to pay back the money."
Number 9 shrugged.
The apprentice said: "I'm not sure, maybe he doesn't want you to paint? Then you won't even have the chance to create this painting."
No. 9 smiled: "Maybe."
"I created this painting and watched him take it away. The rain that day was as heavy as it was tonight," No. 9 glanced at the misty water vapor on the window, paused thoughtfully for a moment, and continued. , "We never saw each other again after that."
The apprentice's face showed sad sympathy: "Have you gone to him?"
No. 9: "Of course, he told me that he would not leave the city, so I searched every street in the city, including the mass graves, but couldn't find him."
"Until one day, I met a strange and dangerous friend who came from far away. This friend seemed to know him and knew everything about him..." No. 9's eyes were attracted by the blurry rain and fog outside the window, "This friend also Know everything about me."
"He told me that the only way to find the boy in the painting is to wait, and wait indefinitely, just like the continuous rain during that time."
No. 9 withdrew his gaze from the rain and looked at the blades and molds in the hands of the apprentices: "I then accepted my friend's proposal and waited for a long time until I bought this painting from the black market again more than ten years later."
The apprentice was deeply attracted by the story of the guest, and raised his eyes again: "Black market? What happened?"
"The city we lived in before experienced a disaster. The continent collapsed and sank into the sea, completely disappearing from the map and people's memory."
"People gradually forget that the city exists, but I remember it all the time, and I can't tell if it's a good thing or a bad thing."
"This painting was salvaged from the bottom of the sea by sailors, and then fell into the hands of pirates. After several turns, it landed on the black market. After I got the news, I bought it again."
"It is rumored that this painting will bring disaster to the person who owns him. The pirate ship that once robbed him then sank to the bottom of the sea inexplicably. Several small black market traders who tried to resell it at a high price also encountered accidents one after another."
The apprentice's hand froze suddenly, and it was a little creepy: "Ah? It's so evil...Aren't you afraid?"
No. 9 laughs: "I'm not afraid of curses."
"And, it's those people who don't deserve it."
…
It was also a cloudy and rainy day. After the final payment was delivered on the 9th, the completed mask was retrieved from the store.
When he got back to the apartment, he hung the painting directly opposite the bed, and the mask on the nightstand by the mirror.
The rainy and humid evening is especially easy to get sleepy. After dinner on the 9th, I turned off the lights in the room, and tucked into the quilt and fell asleep.
Those bizarre scenes have occupied his dreams again. He has dreamed repeatedly over the years. The scenes in his dreams made him feel both unfamiliar and familiar, this vague and ethereal feeling, as if he had foreseen his future in a dream. .
In the dream, sometimes he and someone stood on the plywood of the sunset cruise ship, the distant sea horizon seemed to never be able to go ashore, the air was filled with a strong smell of blood, and the sea dyed red by the sunset was chilling and eerie.
Sometimes he came to a small town full of candlelight, and there was a huge shadow wall in the center of the town, pressing down on him darkly in the night when the candles were flickering.
At the end of this dream, he always gets a bullet pierced through the chest, blood sprays and splatters, but it doesn't hurt at all, because before he falls unconscious in someone's chest, he doesn't even Remember the taste of that person's tears.
Sometimes on snowy nights, the floor-to-ceiling windows isolate the cold from the outside, and the warmth of the house is like spring. The music continues, and he seems to be holding someone's hand on the dance floor until the bell rings at twelve o'clock in the morning.
On the desolate road, he leaned down lowly in the driver's seat and kissed the back of the tear-stained hand of someone in the co-pilot seat reverently.
And countless nights, when the roaring fire surrounded him and his paintings, and he opened his eyes from the choking smoke and the heat of burning skin...he became that 'someone'...
Every time I wake up from these bizarre dreams, the clock always points to 12:20.
This time point seems to be some kind of hint and metaphor.
And he could never see the appearance of this 'someone' in the dream, he only remembered that he had a pair of green eyes with two tear moles at the corners of his eyes, which looked unique and melancholy.
These eyes coincide with the boy in the painting.
Sometimes dreams confuse his memory, and he is even a little confused. He doesn't know whether these inexplicably familiar dreams came first and formed the cause and effect, so there was that rainy and sunny afternoon encounter.
Or because he sees things and thinks about people, he has grown these bizarre dreams for a long time.
12:20 midnight.
No. 9 woke up from the dream again.
The rain outside the window made the whole night look bright. He didn't light the lights, stood in front of the mirror on the bedside table, and carefully put the soft mask on his face.
He had a dream in which there was a pair of twin brothers who were crazy to the core. After killing the younger brother, the older brother fell into a pervasive sense of loneliness and confusion. Deformed thoughts took root in his blood and blood. The appearance of the younger brother, and then lived with this appearance in the abandoned house.
No. 9 covered his face with the mask of God, and behind him in the mirror image was the endless rain and night.
It was as if the whole painting had come to life.
After he bought paintings from the black market, he suddenly understood.
Chi Nan, who was born in Dream City, is the god in the Dawn Tower.
He had already completed the task given to him on the 10th, but the bad guy not only deceived him, but also deceived the pocket watch that Chi Nan gave him.
But he wasn't angry at all and even believed what the guy said until now.
He had a hunch that those dreams were real, and his re-encounter with Chi Nan was also real.
The pocket watch would be back in his hands, at 12:20.
He thinks any kind of acting is 'blasphemous' and he's doing it.
He even had an inexplicable premonition that one day, God would live in his body, just like in a mirror. The green eyes and the teary moles at the corners of his eyes floated on his face, and God and him completely overlapped. .
He didn't know where this strange premonition came from. Maybe it was his bizarre dreams, or some other energies and fields that even he couldn't tell.
If you were to say when...
He guessed that it might be time to return to the correct position at 12:20.
The author has something to say: I briefly wrote the story of No. 9 and the events after the destruction of Dream City.
The next chapter will be the daily life of the sweet squid.
Thanks for liking.