With Il as the end point, this week's travel has brought Fangran and Ling to a place quite far from the border, and the border town in front of them is probably the last stop in Italy.
Starting from the bustling Milan, farther and farther away from civilization and prosperity, the passing towns and villages seemed to go back in time, but perhaps because it was located at the edge of the node, at least in Fangran's opinion, this town was quite big.
Lira, who paid a few copper coins, settled the two horses pulling the carriage, and put the carriage containing too many future creations into the black box. Fangran pulled the girl who was silent for some reason, and said with a smile:
"Don't be in a daze, let's go, let's find Ling your parents."
"Um."
The girl looked at him quietly and nodded. I don't know how many times, the figures of the two walked into an unfamiliar town.
About a year ago, a war suddenly broke out on the originally quiet and peaceful Italian border. Although the flames of war did not spread to the territory, some wars were inevitable.
And then that's when the village was overwhelmed by battle, and Ling was separated from her parents near Il when they fled on winter nights.
According to the girl's description, Fangran knew that Ling's mother was from China, and Ling's father was purely Italian, and also a fallen nobleman.
Even among Europeans, light blond hair and pupils are quite rare, and these characteristics of Ling are obviously inherited from her father. As for the outline of her face, she has the style of her mother's Chinese, with the delicacy of a mixed race. appearance.
Therefore, in Fangran's mind, it should be quite easy to find Ling's parents, because Italy, which is not as big as some provinces in China, has a small population in this era.
Light blond men and Chinese women should be fairly easy to spot.
but...
In the past week or so, there were no clues about such a person along the way.
What he and Ling didn't tell Ling was that not only after each question, he would send Haiji and Mullin to patrol again to prevent them from passing each other, but every night after she fell asleep, Fangran would also search for places nearby that she hadn't been to before. small town, village,
In other words, he has searched all the places around Italy starting from Il,
There is no trace of Ling's parents.
Including this town...
The figures of Hai Ji and Mu Lin slipped into his shadow in a flash, and the black eyes dissipated in an instant, Fang Ran blinked and smiled at Ling:
"Let's go, let's go to the church first."
...
… .
"I'm sorry, girl, but I haven't seen a couple like the one you're talking about, nor have I heard of anyone like that coming to town."
The priest in the small church in front of him shook his head, looked at the young man and girl in front of him very apologetically and replied.
"Yes, thank you."
There was a kind of silent disappointment, the young girl spoke in a low voice, but still politely bowed down to thank the priest.
Even though he couldn't understand the dialogue in this scene, Fangran still knew the result. He touched Ling's head, ready to smile to cheer her up.
Then the priest looked at the pair of well-dressed and upper-class young men and girls in front of him, he hesitated to speak, but finally he sighed and said:
"This town is not suitable for traveling. Recently, those troops have come more and more often. Leave as soon as you finish your work. May the Lord bless you all."
After finishing speaking, his old body closed the small wooden door, and it seemed that he didn't plan to open it again today.
"Fangran..."
The girl with her head down suddenly called Fangran's name, and Fangran held her soft little hand and said softly and peacefully:
"What's wrong?"
"Why can't I find it....Did Mom and Dad already...."
"Ling."
Before the girl could finish speaking, Fangran calmly interrupted her by calling her name.
Then he pulled her body, squatted in front of her, looked at the girl's sad face biting her lips, and said calmly and seriously:
"Before you set off, why did you think your parents were still alive?"
"Because... the big sister who saved me told me that she didn't see my parents. They must still..."
"Then they must be alive."
Fangran looked into her eyes and spoke softly.
"real... ?"
"Of course it's true. We only found a few places... Italy is so big, maybe your parents are somewhere else."
Ling Qianjin's big eyes burst into light again, she looked at Fangran tentatively and asked in a low voice, and then got the answer that Fangran's tone should have given.
Fangran smiled, then glanced at the church and asked curiously:
"By the way, what did that old man say just now?"
Hearing him ask this, Ling held Fangran's hand tightly, moved a little closer to him and said with some anxiety:
"The priest said... the army is coming... Let's leave quickly..."
"Ha, that's it, it's okay, Ling, if I'm in the army, you'll be giving them away, uh... since I taught Ling how to shoot last time, you should be able to deal with them yourself gone."
Fangran blinked at her and smiled, then halfway through the conversation, he remembered that one afternoon, he unbelievingly took out a handful of blue roses to teach Ling and said in shame,
So holding the girl's hand, he strode towards other places in the town to inquire about news, his exaggerated voice was like the captain of a stage play shouting slogans:
"Okay! It's two o'clock in the afternoon! Captain Fangran, attack!"
"Puchi..."
"Vice Captain Ling, why are you laughing at this time..."
"Fangran, you looked so stupid just now."
"It hurts me to say that..."
...
Contrary to the figure of the young man pulling the girl, at the other end of the town,
A group of people in military uniforms came in in a row with weapons in hand. Their military uniforms were dusty and dirty, their footsteps were weak and chaotic, and everyone's eyes were filled with cloudy and obscure tiredness.
Unfortunately, they failed again.
Even though the military strength was twice that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for a long time, after so long, they did not penetrate the opponent's defense line at all. After paying so much, they only advanced a few tens of kilometers.
How long will this day last
The commander of this team was sitting on a small motor vehicle with a gloomy face. The body with obviously bent tires was bouncing up and down. He was holding a saber and looking ahead with a cold expression.
On the street, people gave way one after another. Both men and women retreated to their houses, not daring to face these soldiers.
And this made the commander even more annoyed!
I and others are fighting hard on the battlefield, but these stupid people are not even willing to greet them!
Thinking of this thought, the repressed annoyance turned into a desire to vent, and then...
He saw the figure of a woman left on the side of the road.
He straightened his eyes all of a sudden, and even his lower body reacted directly.
It was a woman in a long black dress. The style of the dress was classic but also very revealing. Her thin and pale shoulders were directly exposed to the air. From the side angle, one could even see the faint curvature of her chest.
It is completely different from the yellow skin of the surrounding peasant women. There is a strong contrast between the sickly pale skin and the smooth black dress, which makes people intuitively unable to doubt what kind of smooth and soft it should be. ruled by her flirtatious and thrilling beauty.
It's just that at this moment, she was walking staggeringly along the street, looking a little absent-minded and abnormal.
But the commander didn't care about this at all, he just wanted to roughly tear off her black skirt, and then vent his desire on that pale and charming body!
With a wave of his hand, he called his adjutant, pointed at the figure that had taken away his soul with bright eyes, and lowered his voice...
...
...
This should be a great time.
In the world a hundred years ago, he took his young girl on a journey in a carriage by himself.
Along the way, from waking up in the morning to falling asleep at night,
Happy every minute.
At night in the frontier, in the hotel where the kerosene lamps were turned off, the young man fell asleep again with the girl who had been running for a day in his arms.
But in fact, behind the happy time, there are often some things that are deeply covered up, covered by a thick layer of time cocoon, like a fog, which cannot be detected or known...
The unawakened card moved the scene again, and looking into his eyes, what Fangran saw was the moment when he stood in the colorless 'familiar' world, his eyes widened,
In the dark night, what he saw was the wreckage of the battlefield wilderness.
Why did we come to this era
During the journey in the carriage, Fangran occasionally thought about this question.
On the hills near the Isonzo Plain, the figure that symbolizes light, who has not yet become the Queen of the Palace of Night to rule Europe, stares sadly at the plain of the battlefield,
The guns were set up there, the army was deployed, and the dignified atmosphere in the deep night represented that the war was about to start tonight, and it was about to start.
This is probably the worst of times,
As long as the lingering flames of the war touch a little bit, the originally happy and beautiful things can be shattered...
He had never seen such a cruel picture, never smelled such thick blood. Standing on the battlefield with only ashes left, Fangran looked at the remains of corpses and blood-stained weapons. The fear of dead people everywhere made his pupils Trembling wide open!
There is a glorious phantom in front of him, and a violent presence behind him,
The fog card suddenly appeared in his hand, flickering as if urging, Fang Ran looked down at it in astonishment.
judge the situation, decide the direction
Out of a certain intuition, or out of the reminder of the card that has not yet awakened, Fangran felt as if he had collected all the 'clues'... .
Came to the end of this journey.
In fact, he subconsciously is very unwilling to do that, he wants to spend every day carefree, he wants to drive the carriage lazily with his arms around the girl, he wants to stop in the forest or where there is water, fish, play in the water, bask in the sun, and Try it. He made a generator, but failed to connect to the bankrupt hot pot project...
Think this journey can have no end.
But he knew, no.
He still has things to do, waiting for him to go back.
Resisting the curiosity to look back at what it was, Fangran walked forward with a certain intuition, the fog card dissipated in his hands this time,
On the ground were soldiers who wanted to escape, panicked farmers, and men and women hugging each other. The disgust of each corpse stimulated Fangran's nerves, making him feel the horror of war in the most intuitive and inescapable way. with cruelty.
In the private house occupied by the army commander, the woman who was simply led here by the deputy with a few words, was still looking around with dazed eyes, not knowing what she was thinking.
Then, the moment she saw the commander's man pushing the door open and smiling lustfully at her, her violet-colored eyes finally came into focus, and there was a kind of fear and palpitation on her obviously enchanting face. smile!
Hidden in the abnormal tone, I don't know how many morbidly crazy, sinister and coquettish chuckles resounded in the night:
"Are... are you my puppet?"
Darkness and ominousness are erupting like a flood at the edge of the night at this moment! ! !
The dream ended at the moment when I passed by the wreck and corpse... I saw the back of a woman with white light and shadow in front of a small wooden house!
Fangran woke up from the dream suddenly, and suddenly turned around to see the young girl still sleeping peacefully.
What I just saw was... no...
Frowning and struggling in the inexplicable 'nightmare' he saw just now, Fangran told himself that now is not the time to think about that, he suddenly got up, looked out of the window in disbelief,
The energy fluctuation that woke him up suddenly was not an illusion. In the night without street lights, he could see with the vision of the participants that a terrifying wave of darkness suddenly spread from the other end of the town!