"When you leave this tower, what else do you want to see besides those just now?"
Jenkins asked again, the tower keeper did not answer immediately this time, but thought for a while before saying:
"I want to go abroad to see what foreign countries look like. Whether it is the snow-capped mountains of the Kingdom of Hampawo or the natural scenery of the Kingdom of Cheslan, you can't see these in Nolan. I will soon be too old to go. I’m moving, so I have to take advantage of this age to go outside and have a look. The world is so big, I shouldn’t be limited here.”
Nolan really couldn't see these things, and if it was to persuade the other party to read from the book, even Jenkins couldn't accept this kind of reason.
"Then it's the equivalent of traveling abroad."
Jenkins confirmed.
"Yes."
"Then do you intend to settle abroad?"
"I don't have this idea for the time being. After all, I don't understand foreign languages, and I don't have any relatives in foreign countries."
"Well, that is to say, all you're looking forward to is a trip. So why quit this job? Isn't the point of travel just to take a look outside your home and come back when you're satisfied? Since you don't If you plan to settle in a foreign country, then this is just a long-distance trip for several months, and you will have to come back sooner or later. Therefore, you don’t have to quit your job, you just need to report to the higher authorities and find someone to replace you temporarily. There are still familiar places waiting for you.”
What Jenkins said made sense, and the Tower Keeper couldn't find a hole in the words. But what he originally expected was to completely let go of everything now and go outside for a walk. When Jenkins said this, it turned into a simple trip. Although both can realize his idea, they seem to be very different...
"How is it? From what I have said, do you think that there is no need for you to resign from the clock tower job? What you expect can be realized in Nolan, and what Nolan can't achieve for the time being does not require you to completely You have to leave to get it."
"this… "
The tower keeper pondered, what Jenkins said really made sense.
"Besides, you've lived here for 30 years, are you really willing to leave? You said it yourself, this clock tower has been transformed into this little by little in the past 30 years. This is equivalent to, you are here to witness Without the growth of Nolan Clock Tower, are you willing to hand it over to others?"
If the words just said just shook the tower guard's heart, then this sentence completely changed his mind.
"You said that you stood on the clock tower and watched the changes of the times through this small window, but didn't you realize that? The clock tower itself is one of the products of the times. Don't try to see it, but feel it. The wheels of the times are coming, even if you can't hide, how can you think that you are outside this era?"
Jenkins said he pointed out the window again, but this time without a specific target:
"Look at everything, look at Nolan, look at these lit Wanjia lights. You stand here and look at all this, from thirty years ago to the present, and dare to say that you are out of time. Oh, Haven't you ever thought about how many people can be as lucky as you?"
"Lucky?"
The Tower Keeper doesn't quite understand this idea.
"Everything is changing. The familiar will become strange, and the strange will become even stranger. But few people can stop to see all this, and can witness the process of all this with their own eyes. People generally walk It’s too fast, so I don’t have time to look at the changes around me. By the time I occasionally raise my head, the world has become a look that none of us recognize.”
Listening to Jenkins' words, the Tower Keeper looked out with him. At this time, the sky was completely dark. Although there were no street lights, there were already lights in the large and small houses in front of me.
The eyes of the tower keeper are not as effective as Jenkins. He can't see the buildings clearly. He can only see clusters of lights floating in front of him, forming the outline of the city together.
"For all of us, coming, seeing, that's an experience in itself."
Those clusters of lights are civilization, human beings, a corner of this era, but they are also everything of this era.
"Life is too short. We should feel lucky when we come to this world. Take a good look at your own eyes and experience your own life. Even if your life is only a short year, you should feel happy that you came to this world."
"Sir, are you talking about me?"
The tower keeper asked, and Jenkins, who was holding the cat, smiled and shook his head at him:
"My view of life may not be the same as yours. For you, you have to experience a different life to experience it. But for me, it's enough to just stand there and watch. You see, I'm young and my life in this world is short, but I've hardly thought about leaving this city in the past. I'm happy here, I've enjoyed my life, I'm ecstatic about it all.
Walking through the streets and alleys, whether it is stopping in front of the street-facing apartment buildings that are full of steam pipes, or resting in front of the Westmins River shuttled by steam ships; Crowds, or watching the workers drag their tired bodies at the gate of the factory; whether it is breathing the choking air here, or accompanying noble girls to go out in the countryside... I like the life here, and I love everything here. It's been a short time, but I'm satisfied, even though it changed my life, even though it's a completely new place for me, but I like it here.
I'm probably the kind of person who goes with the flow... I hope you can understand this way of describing it. "
"Although I don't quite understand it, it's certainly not what was said to me."
"It's okay, this is what I told myself."
Jenkins looked at the lights outside the window and sighed, then asked the tower keeper:
"So, do you still want to leave now?"
The tower keeper lowered his eyes and rested his right hand on the edge of the window, but he didn't touch the bottle of wine again:
"Although there must be something wrong with your words, you are quite right. The exciting life I imagined is actually just my own imagination. After talking with you, I also understand that sometimes reality is completely different from imagination. It’s probably impossible to leave here completely.”
But the jewel hasn't surfaced yet, so the Tower Keeper must still have ideas. Then Jenkins said again:
"So after talking with me so much, are you still dissatisfied with your current life?"
"I am not a dissatisfied person, but I have guarded the tower here for 30 years, and I always feel that my life has been wasted. There is no color, no change, even if you persuade me to stay, this is one of the few Dissatisfied."
"But isn't everyone like this? Some people spend their whole lives paying off debts, and some people spend their whole lives working to survive. How many people can live a colorful life?"
"Those nobles, those factory owners."
The tower guard said realistically.
"Yes, their lives are 'colorful', but you are not them."
"So I have to accept my fate?"
"Accept fate? No, what is fate? You and I don't understand, and no one understands, so do your own thing, look up at the road ahead. Have time to read more, know your position, and know the meaning of your life , know what things you have to do... "
"I feel again that you are not talking to me."
The tower keeper said, and then smiled freely:
"Actually, it doesn't matter. At least I know what you said is very reasonable. In fact, I haven't made up my mind whether to leave. After all, I have been with this tower for so many years... Then I won't leave, I If you spend some time drinking and getting drunk, and go to Nolan to have a look, isn’t it also entering this era?”
"Yes, into this era, look at thousands of families, see joys and sorrows."
The tower keeper shook his head, picked up the wine glasses and bottles on the window sill, and prepared to go back to rest under the bell tower. Jenkins grabbed the newly-appeared jewel, and then stopped the tower keeper who turned around:
"About a year or so later, I will find a way to rebuild this kind of clock tower. Sorry, please wait a few more months in the cemetery."
"Sorry, I may not have heard clearly, what did you just say?"
The tower keeper asked in a daze, but this time it was Jenkins' turn to stop talking, and he just shook his head. So the tower guard did not continue to ask, but dragged his heavy steps into the darkness inside the clock tower, and left here along the ladder.
The moonlight shone through the small window on Jenkins' face and on his hand, making the tiny diamond shimmer. This is the seventh and the last one. It is the smallest of all the heart-shaped diamonds, which means that the tower guard does not have much meaning of being calm and indifferent.
If it was a normal treacherous land, the size of these diamonds would determine the value of the treasure Jenkins got when he left, but this is not important to him now.
"Sometimes I will perform some meaningless calculations, purely to test the limits of my calculation ability. For example, I am thinking, if Jenkins Redand Putt Williams did not become a benefactor, but became an ordinary person , then what will happen to the world.”
The gear man in the shadows spoke.
"I don't know about this kind of thing."
Jenkins looked at the Gearman standing in the shadow of the edge of the moonlight, because the windows of the clock tower were extremely small, so only a small area by the window could be illuminated.
"I thought you were going to say that there would be someone else without Jenkins."
"No, although history is full of inevitability, but for this idealistic world, I can only stand in this position."
The diamond was played with by him with one hand, reflecting the two-color moonlight, the light was extraordinarily bright.