Ni Ji was walking on the way back to the dormitory.
The street lights were dim at night, the ground was cold and damp, and from time to time, ragged pedestrians would walk hurriedly along the roadside, hunched over with their hands in their sleeves.
Even though this is the capital of the empire, except for the special circle around the White Tower, most places are in a dilapidated state.
In this world, most sentinels and guides have a hard life, and ordinary people have an even harder time.
A cart carrying coal briquettes was parked downstairs of the dormitory. A white-haired old man and his skinny granddaughter were carrying a heavy box of honeycomb coal together and bringing it upstairs with great effort.
The old man bent over and coughed as he walked, and a little girl of seven or eight years old tried to raise her arms to help her elderly grandfather share some of the weight.
Ni Ji walked past the narrow stairs, picked up the dark coal box with one hand, and took a few steps with his long legs to carry the box upstairs.
The old man followed Ni Ji upstairs and stretched out his black hands to thank him, but when he saw that his hands were covered in coal dust, he shyly drew his hands back.
Ni Ji didn't show any disgust and reached out to shake his hand.
The old man's finger joints were swollen and covered with curled plasters, and his palms were rough.
"Thank you, thank you. I trouble you every time." The coal delivery old man smiled and thanked Ni Ji.
Ni Ji looked down at the palm of his hand. The touch of the handshake was still there, and his fingers were left with black coal ash and the warmth of human skin.
"She shook a lot of people's hands, except for me."
The young and handsome sentry looked down at his hands for a long time and suddenly said something incomprehensible.
The old people and children who were unloading coal briquettes in the corridor looked up at him in confusion.
Ni Ji entered his single dormitory, which was the room Cao Junmin had arranged for him when he first returned to Kyoto.
Later, when he was promoted, he did not change his place. It didn't matter to him where he lived. He would rather live in a shabby and remote place than live with the royal guards in the White Tower.
The house is not big, it is straight in shape, with a separate bathroom and a balcony where you can cook.
Apart from a bed, a wardrobe and some training equipment, the room was clean and deserted, with not a single piece of clutter to be seen.
After several tough battles today, Ni Ji was extremely exhausted, but he still followed his usual habit and did half an hour of high-intensity strength training and then took a shower.
He came out of the bathroom, sat on the bed and wiped his dripping hair. At this moment, his body was exhausted to the limit, but he still couldn't do it. The song seemed to be faintly ringing in his ears.
At that time, standing outside the door to say goodbye, a little singing came from the courtyard. It was a girl's voice, gentle and sweet.
It was clearly not a strong mental attack, there was no flame or abyss, no sharp knives or blades. It was just a simple girl singing softly.
But I don’t know why, under that moonlight and light, and in the glass-like eyes of the person in front of me, the song went all the way into my heart and touched his heartstrings.
Suddenly, many things that were weighing on my heart floated up, my heart became empty, and chaotic thoughts rolled back and forth in my mind, difficult to suppress.
Even after he had walked all the way home, finished everything, and sat down on the edge of the bed, those confused thoughts were still disturbing his mind.
Ni Ji stood up again, put on an apron, picked up a bucket of water and started cleaning.
The house was originally very clean and free of clutter, and it hardly looked like a space where living people lived.
But he wiped every corner carefully again, kneeling on the ground, lowering his head and cleaning the floor with a wet rag.
She shook hands with many people except me.
She gave the unicorn spiritual counseling.
She seems to like furry things very much.
Ni Ji knew that he was ridiculous. He felt like a child who was making trouble for no reason. It was all because of that song that came from nowhere.
He wiped all the fitness equipment twice, and the floor was so shiny that it could reflect light, but he was still stuck in a confused dilemma.
Ni Ji threw away the rag, sat by the bed in silence for a long time, took off her apron, put on her coat, reopened the door and walked into the night.
Lin Yuan sat in the restaurant, eating dinner with Xiaosuo and Xunhua around the dining table.
Xunhua never eats. Every day during mealtime, she just holds a glass of water and sits at the dining table to keep everyone company.
Xiaosuo had a big appetite, and most of the time she only ate raw seafood and fruits. She sat at the other end of the dining table, with a large crystal bowl filled with food in front of her. She behaved politely, but the food disappeared abnormally quickly. I don't know how she did it.
Lin Yuan didn't know why, but he felt a little listless. He even ate his favorite food without much energy.
She talked to Xunhua and Xiaosuo about what she had seen and heard in the White Tower today, briefly mentioning Her Majesty the Queen, the commander of the Royal Guard, and the game.
"In our time, the ruler was a king, and it was rare for a queen to rule." Xunhua held his golden water cup and recalled the world hundreds of years ago. "It seems that during my last time, I vaguely heard that a queen was about to ascend the throne."
Lin Yuan hummed and said that she saw the spirit bodies of the panda and the unicorn.
"So both sentinels tried their best and were injured. But you only provided spiritual counseling to one of them?" Xunhua gently put down the water cup and glanced at Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan exclaimed, she had never thought about this.
Of course, she had many reasons, such as the unicorn's mental state had reached a very serious level. For example, he had been tortured and abused for a long time and was very pitiful. For example, Ni Ji... was one of her own.
But she couldn't explain such complicated emotions, so she had to block her mouth with a piece of tender beef ribs.
"You may not know this, but when Ni Ji was in the contaminated area and fell into the illusion of the scarlet egg, he was also mentally traumatized." Xun Hua tapped her heart with her white-gloved finger. "After returning all the way, he didn't seem to receive any counseling from the guide. I feel like his world is also very tired."
Lin Yuan's tentacles twisted and turned behind him, and his main body could no longer speak.
Xunhua stood up, pushed the dining chair back to its original position, nodded slightly, left the dining table and went back to his courtyard.
He sighed beside the evening primrose planting area and watered the newly planted flowers.
This job as a gardener is really not easy, there are so many things to worry about.
But with so many things to do and so many people to worry about, he felt that the days of survival were not as difficult as he had imagined.
My body has grown back and I am busy every day. In my free time, I listen to Windsor's songs and play with the groundhog in the tree hole.
Although I am not a human being, it seems that I can still survive in the sun.
Xiaoxun, I hope you can live well and live in the sunshine.
Long after dinner was over, Lin Yuan, who was sitting in the living room reading a book, heard the doorbell ring outside the door.
Xunhua didn't know where she went, and Xiaosuo seemed to have fallen asleep. The yard was quiet, and no one answered.
Lin Yuan had no choice but to go open the door himself. As he walked through the shadowy courtyard, the tentacles followed him, leaping and dancing with joy as if they had obtained some treasure.
The door opened, and Lin Yuan saw Ni Ji, who was a little out of breath after running all the way.
"I..." Ni Ji took a breath and steadied his breathing. "I would like to trouble you, can you also help me sort out my mind?"
He was originally very embarrassed, but when he saw Lin Yuan's stunned face sticking out from the gate, he spoke out his words in one go. All the tangled thoughts in his heart were cleared up.
"If it's not too hard." He laughed. He felt that he was ridiculous. But he was in a good mood, a rare feeling of comfort.
Lin Yuan was stunned for a moment, then she felt happy. She had been a guide for so many years, and almost no sentinel would take the initiative to ask her for a second spiritual counseling, except for her fiancé, whose memory was already vague.
This was the first time someone knocked on her door at night, asking for her help.
Of course she should be happy, it's a good thing.
It’s just that this feeling of happiness in my heart seems a little too much.
She took Ni Ji home, almost humming a tune as she walked through the courtyard.
I seemed to have vaguely heard the song that Windsor had sung in the yard just now.
It was a song sung by a gentle girl under the moonlight, to the moon in her heart.
Lin Yuan, wearing a white guide skirt, led the way through the grass with messy branches and leaves. Her steps were light and she even jumped a few steps happily occasionally.
The tentacles followed happily behind, and one of them boldly took the sentry's hand and walked into the lighted house.
Ni Ji sat on the sofa in Lin Yuan's house.
This is the second time I've come in.
I didn't know where the other people in the house had gone, and all I could hear was the chirping of night insects in the courtyard.
The entrance of the living room was filled with shoes and umbrellas, there were snacks on the coffee table, a few flipped books in the corner, and a few roses cut from the garden in the vase.
The room was filled with a faint scent of flowers.
There are traces of life everywhere, like a real home. Sitting here seems to allow people to temporarily forget everything outside, forget the cold world, and not think about the difficult journey that is about to begin.
At least for now, I can relax and feel at ease.
Although they knew that their lives had not changed at all, they were about to set off to the land without pupils.
It was a dangerous and strange world. They not only went to the periphery of the contaminated area, but also went deep into the center of the dark world.
Going to a place like that, no matter how strong you are, death could come at any time. No one can guarantee that they can return safely.
The more this happens, the more precious the peace and warmth of this moment seem.
At this point, Ni Ji would no longer want to dissuade Lin Yuan. He knew that the guide had things he wanted to do and had to do, just like him.
He was very happy that he was the one accompanying Lin Yuan into the contaminated area.
Together they can face whatever comes in the darkness.
That's enough, better than anything else.
Lin Yuan sat beside him, stretched out his hand, and slowly covered his eyebrows.
Before his vision was completely blocked, he was sure to see the corners of the girl's mouth slightly curved up, revealing a rare smile.
It seemed as if all the dangers and sufferings disappeared temporarily, and fatigue and exhaustion surged into his heart like a tide. This place made him feel relaxed and at ease.
He seemed no longer a qualified warrior. The perseverance and self-denial he once prided himself on melted in this warm living room, in the hands of this guide.
His body became very light and he floated down in the sea. He did not feel uneasy because he knew that he would eventually fall into a soft place.
The sound of sea bubbles rang in my ears.
A familiar breath invaded the sea and sneaked into his world.
Ni Ji tried hard to stay awake during this process, so as not to fall asleep in front of Lin Yuan like he did last time.
But he heard a voice saying to him, "Rest, it's okay."
Then consciousness can no longer be concentrated.
It seems like something fills the broken heart, making people feel particularly at ease.
Yes, I remember now.
I can sleep peacefully when she is around.
When Ni Ji woke up, he found himself lying on the long sofa. It was late at night, he had no idea what time it was, and everything around him was silent.
The lights in the room were dimmed, and he was covered with a thick blanket.
He seldom slept so deeply.
The sentinel's keen five senses allowed him to smell a familiar scent, a familiar person.
He realized who was beside him.
Lin Yuan did not leave. She sat on a single sofa near him, flipping through a paper book by the light of a reading lamp next to the armrest.
She sat in a very relaxed and casual posture, with her legs crossed on the sofa, her body tilted and leaning against the wide armrest of the sofa, one hand supporting her chin, her dark eyes staring at the pages of the book with relish under the light.
The tentacles turned a page of the book for her, and the sound of flipping pages was heard in the air.
None of this matters. What makes Ni Ji suffocate the most is that her other hand is resting on the back of a little killer whale next to her.
The white fingers were slowly stroking the black back.
Ni Ji closed his eyes and maintained a steady breathing, not daring to let Lin Yuan know that he was awake.
When he was receiving counseling and fell into a deep sleep, his spirit body - the killer whale, ran out at some point.
The shameless guy shrunk himself into a round pillow and squeezed onto the same single sofa with Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan's fingers were stroking its back from time to time.
There is a high probability that Lin Yuan cannot remember it. For other sentinels and guides, everything the spirit body experiences will be conveyed to the real body intactly.
Her spirit body is huge and has many tentacles, so even the slightest touch is too scattered for her to detect. With so many tentacles exploring the world every day, she often overlooks many things.
So she didn't quite understand that the transmission of that kind of spiritual connection was not limited to the severe pain of broken limbs on the battlefield, but also included all the slightest touches, touches and stimulations.
Lin Yuan read her book, occasionally letting the tentacles help her turn a page, her fingertips gently slid down along the skin of the killer whale's back. Ni Ji held his breath.
The movement of the fingertips and the touch of the nails are so clear. Wherever they go, they cause tremors along the way.
The hand went up along the killer whale's back and touched its head, rubbing and kneading it very gently. The sentry on the sofa felt the warmth of the palm of the hand, and fingers reached into his hair and touched his head soothingly. It was like comforting a child who had been hurt a lot and had nowhere to go.
Ni Ji closed his eyes tightly. He should let Lin Yuan know that he was awake.
The feeling of touch went down along the black back of the big fish, and the sentinel on the sofa tensed the strong muscles of his back.
When he reached the thinnest part of the tail fin, he pinched it in his palm and played with it repeatedly, not wanting to let go for a long time.
Ni Ji clenched his teeth. The little killer whale purred in comfort and turned over its soft white belly.
Lin Yuan looked at the book and started to move his finger back along the tail.
Move upwards, close to the junction of the black and white stripes.
The sentry, unable to bear it any longer, jumped up from the sofa, his face flushed, and snatched his own spirit body back.
Lin Yuan's book fell to the ground. He looked up and saw the sentry who had just woken up with an innocent look on his face.
What's going on here
Ni Ji fell asleep in the middle of the counseling. She was bored and read a book. The little killer whale took the initiative to get close to her, and she seemed to just stroke it.
What kind of emotion is Ni Ji expressing at this moment
But thinking back - Lin Yuan quietly twisted her fingers, the killer whale's skin is so good, so smooth and elastic, and its call is also pleasant.
It makes people feel happy, no wonder the tentacles like to stroke killer whales to prolong their lives.
(End of this chapter)