Although Leng Zongzheng had a residence in the college, the place Zhou Wen went to this time was not in the college, but in an unremarkable small courtyard in the old area of Luoyang City.
The small yard is very ordinary, because the surrounding area is very humid, moss grows on the base of the wall, and there are many creeper-like plants on the wall.
The house inside is also a red brick structure that was often seen in the past. Although it is cleaned very clean, it is hard to hide the traces of the years. Some of the bricks on the walls are already showing signs of weathering.
"Principal Leng, I'm Zhou Wen, are you home?" Zhou Wen knocked on the door.
"Come in." Leng Zongzheng's voice came from inside the room, and when Zhou Wen pushed the door to enter, Leng Zongzheng was just bringing out a pot of cactus from the room.
"Principal Leng, is this your home?" Zhou Wen seemed to look around the inside of the house, and saw that all the decorations inside were outdated, but not old, giving off a mediocre and shabby feeling.
This is very different from the feeling that Leng Zongzheng gave Zhou Wen. Leng Zongzheng is a bit of an aristocrat in terms of appearance and behavior, and his soul is something like the throne of the magic piano, so it always makes people I feel that Leng Zongzheng is a person who pays great attention to the quality of life and details, so he shouldn't live in such a mediocre home.
In this yard, Zhou Wen couldn't see anything special at all. No matter how you looked at it, it was just some household items, and there were even many street stalls.
"I lived here when I was a child. This is my grandfather's old house." Leng Zongzheng put the cactus beside him, patted the dust on his hands, and continued: "I didn't like this place very much before, I always felt that I must stand out , I must live in a beautiful big house, and I must live like a human being. But then I don’t know when, I suddenly felt that I was still comfortable living here, so I moved back again.”
"You should be back to basics, right?" Zhou Wen said.
Leng Zongzheng glanced at Zhou Wen, curled his lips and said, "What is returning to the basics? To put it bluntly, it means eating too much braised pork and wanting to eat green vegetables to relieve the greasy. I haven't reached that step yet. I still have a lot of good things. Haven't tasted it yet, and haven't gotten tired of it yet."
As he said that, Leng Zong sat down on the wooden stool in the yard, basking in the sun and continued: "I have also thought about why I want to move back. In terms of comfort, this place is definitely not as good as the one I have lived in before. In terms of convenience, this place is not convenient. If the environment is good and quiet, this place is far inferior to the villas I bought before. The neighbors here are good and humane. Actually, it is not the case, there are no people here. The old neighbors are long gone. Even if they are still there, I don't have a good impression of them, and I don't like them in my heart."
"Then why do you like living here?" Zhou Wen asked curiously.
"I have been thinking about this question for a long time, and then I decided that the reason why I like living here is because I am afraid." Leng Zongzheng said.
"Afraid?" Zhou Wen was even more puzzled.
In terms of security, this place is far worse than the academy. There are no defense measures at all. It is just a dilapidated old city. If you come to a fear-level casually, you can smash this place into ruins with one hand.
"Yes, fear." Leng Zongzheng said: "Everyone is afraid of death, but the degree is different. Some people rank the fear of death first, while some people rank the fear of death after some things. So when encountering certain things, he will appear not to be afraid of death. But in fact, no one is not afraid of death, but he has encountered some things that scare him more than death, so whether he dies or not is not so important."
As Leng Zong was talking, he took out a lighter and a cigarette from his arms, popped out a cigarette skillfully, put it in his mouth, lit the cigarette, then took a sip, closed his eyes, and seemed to enjoy it.
Zhou Wen stared blankly at Leng Zongzheng, which was far different from the impression Leng Zongzheng usually gave him. If you didn't know that this was Leng Zongzheng, looking at his appearance, you might think it was someone who liked to gamble and drink too much. The decadent middle-aged uncle.
After a while, Leng Zong was basking in the sun with his eyes closed and continued: "Later, I thought about it carefully, and my fear of death should be ranked third. Before death, there are two other things that rank death. Before, if I had to choose between those two things, I would rather choose death."
"The reason why you are here is because you are afraid of those two things happening?" Zhou Wen asked.
Who knew that Leng Zongzheng shook his head and said, "No, those two things have already happened."
Zhou Wen stared at Leng Zongzheng blankly, not knowing what he wanted to say.
Leng Zongzheng continued: "I used to be very afraid that I would become like my parents, but now, I am no different from them in essence. I used to be very afraid that my grandpa would leave me, and the world would be like this." I was left alone, but that day came anyway. I lived here because I was afraid of being alone, but in fact, I was alone all the time."
Zhou Wen didn't know what to say. He occasionally had some flashes of what Leng Zongzheng said, but it was not as clear as Leng Zongzheng thought.
But looking at Leng Zongzheng, Zhou Wen felt that Principal Leng was not as difficult to get along with as he had imagined.
Leng Zongzheng took another sip of the cigarette, pressed the remaining half of the cigarette on the cement flower bed next to him, extinguished the spark, and flicked it into the trash can.
"Living here will give me an inexplicable sense of security. I feel that this is my small world. As long as I hide here, I don't need to worry about anything, and I don't need to worry about anything. I just need to sleep. Anything bad will disappear by itself."
Speaking of this, Leng Zongzheng smiled self-deprecatingly: "But in fact, nothing can be solved, it's just a deception."
"It can't be said that, people need a pure land in their hearts, so that their souls can be cultivated and restored. Maybe there is no real help for you to solve problems here, but it can make your soul peaceful and enable you to It is very important to face those problems with a calm mind." Zhou Wenzheng said.
"You're right." As Leng Zong was speaking, he suddenly stretched out his palm and pressed it against the wall next to him. The entire courtyard and house collapsed in an instant, turning into fragments and rising up.
"You... what are you doing..." Standing among the ruins, with the rubble constantly rising around him, Zhou Wen looked at Leng Zongzheng blankly, not knowing why he would do this.
Among the shattered and rising fragments, Leng Zong was turning to leave, and said as he walked: "As you said, everyone has a pure land of self-escape in their hearts, which is a place of fear that is closer to the soul than death. If one day , you have met an enemy who does not put the fear of death first, then you should think about how to find the piece of pure land that belongs to him, killing people and killing one's heart, sometimes killing one's heart is more terrifying than killing people. You have everything Well, it’s too kind, and sometimes, kindness is also a sin.”
"Murder... Punishment..." Zhou Wen stood among the ruins, looking at Leng Zong's receding back, there seemed to be some kind of emotion surging in his heart.