Listening to the voice on the other end of the microphone, Asa unconsciously squeezed the phone receiver tightly, without confirming or denying it.
He didn't know how to open his mouth to explain to the other party.
Sid didn't get a response from Asa, and asked hesitantly, "Are you, Yuan?" The old voice had lost the excitement just now, and the voice was a little hoarse.
"Hello, Mr. Sid, my name is Asa." Asa's hand holding the microphone was dripping with sweat, "I think I know something about Yuan."
The old man on the opposite side obviously lost the interest just now, and said in a low voice, "Then you come up." He hung up the phone, his voice sounded very tired.
Asa held the phone without saying a word, and he didn't react until the nurse named Monty called him several times.
"Sorry." Asa returned the receiver with an apologetic face, "Which floor does Mr. Sid live on?"
The black nurse hung up the phone and handed Asa a visitor nameplate, "Sixth floor, you must leave before three o'clock in the afternoon."
Asa took the sign politely, thanked Gal and walked towards the elevator.
He still had a photo of Mr. Sheed in his pocket, and Asa kept flipping through it when he was sitting in the car. The old man in the photo made him feel familiar.
However, this sense of familiarity reached its apogee after hearing the other person's voice.
Asa stepped into the elevator at a faster pace, watching the rising numbers in the elevator, he felt nervous for the first time.
"Dad?" Cal tilted his head and kissed Asa's cheek, and said in a childlike voice, "With Cal here, don't be nervous, Dad."
Asa glanced sideways at Gal with a flat expression, hesitated and asked, "How do you know I'm nervous?"
Cal buried his head in Asa's neck and smiled mysteriously, "Daddy's ears are red~"
"..."
Asa turned his head and looked at the mirror in the elevator. The man in the mirror had dazzling blond hair, and his long hair was loosely tied behind his back with gold buckles. Naked! The slender neck exposed to the air, even the roots of the ears are a little light-colored and thin red—
Raising his eyebrows, Asa said calmly (and confidently), "It's because the elevator is too stuffy."
…
In front of Sid's room door, Asa stood blankly for a while, and after preparing his words in his mind, he raised his hand and knocked on the door.
"Come in, the door is open." Sid's voice came through the door, not very enthusiastic.
Asa pushed open the door, and the room was tidy.
The old man in the room was sitting in a wheelchair with his back to Asa, watering the potted plants by the window.
Asa looked at the back of the old man and stood there in a daze, some very sudden emotions swept his heart crazily, guilt, sadness, and an indescribable emotion accumulated and brewed in his heart, and then slowly Dizzy, spread to the whole body.
It's like a child who has suffered a lot of grievances outside. After seeing his elders, he has a lot of grievances to confide in. Obviously, in Asa's view, this kind of emotion appeared inexplicably, but he couldn't restrain the emergence of this kind of emotion.
He wanted to talk, but he just opened his mouth, because he didn't know how to say it, where to say it, and what to say.
Not even a word of the respectable words thought at the door could come out.
"Mr. Asa—"
Sid put the kettle on his knees, turned the wheelchair around, and when he saw Asa, his cloudy eyes suddenly lit up, and his body leaned forward excitedly, "Mr. Asa, are we meeting somewhere?" Pass?"
Asa stood in the porch with Cal in his arms, staring blankly at the old man in front of him. The age on the other party's profile was sixty-five years old, but his white hair and old face made it impossible to believe that the other party was only sixty-five years old. Fifteen.
A touch of bitterness quickly filled his heart, making Asa feel a little tight in his chest.
When Asa was in a daze, Sid in the wheelchair stared closely at Asa.
This young man who looked similar to his apprentice had a calm expression, but his eyes revealed the master's emotions unreservedly.
Sid was all too familiar with this emotion—
"You, do you know me, sir?" Sid asked with bright eyes, staring straight at Asa, "I mean have we met before?"
Asa looked at the old man, shook his head mechanically, and said in a hoarse voice, "This is our first meeting, sir."
Sid looked deeply at Asa, and said firmly, "Young man, you are lying." The electric wheelchair moved forward and approached Asa, "Your eyes tell me that you are lying, it's not about looking at a stranger people's eyes."
Asa looked at the old man who was close at hand, and wanted to deny that there was nothing he could do.
"Yes sir, I think I have seen you." Asa quickly restrained his emotions, and took out a newspaper clipping from Gal's baby backpack, "Sid White, Mu Yuan's master, yes I am Mu Yuan's friend."
Seeing the other party's calm pupils, Sid stepped back half a circle and said slowly, "What's the matter for you to come to me? Yuan has been dead for five years. Since it's about him, you should have Come find me."
Asa sat on the sofa with Gal in his arms, and he suppressed those inexplicable emotions to the deepest part of his heart, "In fact, something happened to me, and I couldn't come to you until recently, sir."
Sid nodded, returned to the window sill in a wheelchair, picked up the small watering can and continued to water the potted plants, "Please forgive my impoliteness. When I turned around just now, I almost thought it was Yuan who came back. You two look so much alike. Even the way they look at me is the same."
Asa raised his eyebrows and asked with interest, "Oh? How does he see you? Respect?"
The old man paused the hand holding the watering can, but did not answer Asa immediately, and the whole room fell into silence for a while.
After a long time, Sid slowly opened his mouth and said, "When he left me, he looked at me with this look." His tone was a little sad, "It's just that at that time, his eyes were full of attachment to dreams. , That is the look in my life that I will never forget."
Asa was stunned, he didn't expect Sid to say this to him, "Why did he leave you?" Although his tone was calm, his heart beat uncontrollably.
Sid laughed abruptly, with a bitter voice, "It's all my fault. If I didn't stop him from fulfilling his dream, I wouldn't have pushed him away. To be honest, I'm also responsible for his death."
Asa put Gal on the sofa and sat up straight unconsciously, "But, you taught him magic, why do you want to prevent him from fulfilling his dream?"
Sid put down the kettle, turned his back to Asa and looked out of the window, his mournful voice sounded a little low, "His dream is a bit different from what I thought, in fact, I hope he will be a close-up magician rather than follow him. Like me, be an escape magician."
Asa frowned, puzzled, "Mu Yuan is proficient in machinery, and it seems that he is not in the same school as close-up magic. Why do you want him to give up his proficiency and choose close-up?"
"Young man, you still have the clippings from the time of my accident in your hand. I don't know where you found such an old thing." Sid paused for a moment, put his hand on the truncation of his knee and said slowly, " If you know why I don't have a leg, then you know why I stopped Yuan from performing his escape trick."
Asa looked at the other's severed limbs and was stunned. He thought he understood why Sid stopped Mu Yuan from performing mechanical magic tricks.
What Sid said later confirmed Asa's guess, "Escape magic, escape is never a cold tool, but the heart."
The old man took a deep look at Asa, "What do you want to tell me is the strangeness of Mu Yuan's death? I know my apprentice, he will not choose a thin rope recklessly, nor will he ask the prop master to tie a knot , and will not forget to install an air valve on the organ door."
Asa opened his mouth, it turned out that the old man knew, "Then why did you accept Mu Yuan? I think he admires you very much, so he wants to be like you."
"He is a student of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his father is a well-known magician in China. He told me a lot of ideas when he came to find me." Sid's eyes became very kind, "To be honest, His ideas were something I hadn't thought of, so I made an exception and accepted him. But—”
Asa leaned on the sofa with his eyes closed, and said slowly, "Mu Yuan is much simpler than you imagined, and he trusts people easily if he is unsuspecting. This kind of person is not suitable for gaining a foothold in the dark and turbulent world of escape magic." , so you regret it and want him to transfer to the faction to perform close-up magic."
Sid looked up at Asa, nodded with a wry smile, "His reaction was more intense than I imagined, this always meek apprentice resisted me for the first time, and vowed to come back to me with the highest honor, to replace me I complete unfinished dreams." At the end, Sid's voice became very bitter.
"When he left, you guessed the result, right?" Asa's eyes under his eyelids began to sore, but he didn't dare to open them.
Everything is clear, Mu Yuan escaped from the cold machinery, but could not escape from the greedy hearts.
At this moment, a soft little hand was placed on the back of Asa's hand, stroking back and forth with a comforting nature.
Asa was taken aback, and realized that Cal, who had been listening quietly, was comforting him.
"I can't stop him, I can't even help him, my time has passed too long." Sid's emotions suddenly became very agitated, and his fingers tightly clasped the handle of the wheelchair, "I have regretted countless times why I accepted it." He, if I insist on not accepting apprentices, maybe Yuan is still alive!"
Asa calmed down his emotions and said calmly, "I believe Mu Yuan does not regret having you as his teacher."
Sid controlled the electric wheelchair and turned around slowly, turned his back to Asa and did not speak. After a while, he said in a low voice, "Sorry Mr. Asa, I want to rest."
Asa stood up from the sofa, bowed deeply with his back to the old man, picked up Gal and was about to leave.
"Please wait, Mr. Asa." Sid turned his head suddenly, "Are you the magician who performed "Lost in the Deep" a while ago?" The old man looked at Asa sharply.
"Yeah." Asa stopped and looked back at the other party, "Yes, I came to New York from Las Vegas to find you."
Sid stared at Asa with narrowed eyes, his eyes were very sharp, "Are you also a magician under Wells Company?"
"No, my employer is Fox." Asa smiled lightly, and said calmly, "The prop master Berg is fully responsible for Mu Yuan's matter, so why would I choose Wells? "
Sid stared at him closely, as if confirming the authenticity of Asa's words, and slowly loosened his frowning brows after a long while, "That man took away Mu Yuan's mechanical manuscript, and the magic he performed I am sure I've seen it all, it's all written by Mu Yuan."
While talking, Sid steered the wheelchair into the bedroom, and came out after a while, with a well-preserved thick folder on his knee.
"However," Sid sneered, "I have withheld many large magic manuscripts conceived by Mu Yuan, and I don't think he has had time to redraw them." Speaking of the latter, Sid's expression was a little sad, "I At the beginning, I thought that if Mu Yuan's most precious thing was withheld, he would give up escape magic."
The corners of Asa's eyes twitched slightly, "Sir, you are so naive."
"Yes, I underestimated his dreams, and it's just that they didn't fall into the hands of those people." Sid looked up at Asa, stroking the leather folder with his fingers, "I want to entrust you to use these to avenge him .My leg is broken and I am old. I don’t want the person who killed my apprentice to be at large when I die.”
Sid spoke very slowly, and an extremely sharp light shot out of his cloudy pupils, "Mu Yuan will tell you about me, which means that you have a good relationship, at least better than that Berg. You should come to me. You didn't listen to my story, did you?"
"Even if you don't tell me, I will punish those villains, sir." Asa looked down at the folder, and said slowly, "This folder contains all of Mu Yuan's painstaking efforts, and also embodies a magician's love for magic. all the beliefs in the world, and I don't think I'll live up to it."
Sid handed the folder to Asa, and smiled with relief, "Then, I'll wait for your good news, Mr. Asa."
He took a serious look at Asa, smiled and said, "I'm sure you're not him now, and your character is more suitable for this circle. But when you came in, your eyes really resembled him, even the guilt and respect in your eyes They are all very similar, and based on this alone, I am willing to hand over the manuscript to you."
Asa smiled, feeling that the folder in his hand was heavy.
"You go, I need to rest, don't be seen by those old men next door when you go out, they are your loyal fans." Sid said with a smile.
"..." Asa's smile froze for a moment, "Understood."
…
Asa sat on the bus back to town, Gal lay on his lap and yawned a little.
He casually took out a small document from the document file, and as soon as he opened the paper filled with the smell of ink, he froze...