Late at night, the sound of the ocean tide came from a distance.
The town was already silent, as if asleep, everything was still, the stars and moon hung high in the sky.
In the darkness, only the lighthouse was still shining on the coastline outside the town.
It has towered over the coastline since the town was founded. The Order built it using lost technology to guide ships passing through this rocky area.
For hundreds of years, the fire has been burning at the top of the lighthouse.
That flame burned by the power of ether, releasing a dazzling light.
Hundreds of mirrors are placed on complex frames, forming a dense matrix that envelopes the firelight.
After being refracted at carefully designed angles, those rays of light formed complex trajectories. After being amplified dozens of times, they were projected in all directions.
This mechanism of self-draining ether is almost semi-permanent and does not require any human management. As long as a specialist who is proficient in mechanics performs systematic maintenance on it every other month, all faults can be eliminated.
But what came here today was not the priest in black, but two teenagers... and a dog.
…
The big golden retriever dog covered in mud looked really ugly and ugly. It had been lying on the ground since it came up, showing no interest in everything and had fallen asleep with its eyes closed.
A mosquito flew into its nose and it sneezed. When he sneezes, his lips turn up, like a grin, revealing a row of jagged dog teeth.
Next to it, the blond boy was sitting on the ground with his back against the wall, tearing the chicken in his hands intently. The chicken was slowly torn into strips, then stuffed into the mouth and chewed carefully.
He ate slowly and seriously, but it made people think that he was not hungry at all, he just wanted to kill time.
He looks handsome, but when he smiles, people think he is a bad guy, because his green eyes always look like a wild beast when looking at people, looking for a place to ejaculate.
Beside him, half of the wine bottle was empty, and he drank it all.
"Yi Zi, you already know, right?"
After falling silent, he whispered: "The place to study in the Holy City was taken by the third child of the Thomas family."
"I know."
In the light of the matrix, a calm voice came.
"He also said a lot of nasty things."
"I know."
A hand stretched out from the dazzling light. On the index finger of the hand was a ring that looked like a coiled wire, which was particularly eye-catching. But the voice was still calm, and no emotion could be heard:
"Vito, give me the No. 8 wrench."
"Are you really listening to me? Ye Zi."
Vito's eyes seemed to be stung by the afterglow, and his pupils shrank: "You have waited so many years and paid so much for the opportunity to go to the Holy City for further study. Now, you are going to just watch it fall to that one person." In the hands of a loser who knows how to lift a maid's skirt?"
The big golden retriever dog was woken up, raised its head, and barked, as if it couldn't even stand it anymore.
"I said, give me the No. 8 wrench."
The hand in the matrix just shook, reminding Vito not to keep him waiting too long.
Vito took the wrench from the toolbox and placed it in his hand. The hand wanted to withdraw, but its wrist was grabbed by Vito and could not be withdrawn.
The hand paused in the air.
Vito stared at the dazzling light in the frame matrix, as if to see the boy's expression clearly. He was already a little drunk, so his eyes were angry, not for himself, but because of this silent friend.
"Did you hear that during the day?" He asked softly: "He said you were an Oriental bastard."
"I heard."
"He said the street boy should go back to the brothel to find his mother."
"I heard."
"So? Are you still going to pretend that nothing happened?"
A vein burst out in the palm of Vito's hand that was holding the wrench.
He looked directly at the matrix of the mirror and saw the blurry reflections in the matrix, but those reflections seemed to be petrified, silent, silent, just silent.
"Ye Qingxuan, if someone insults my parents, I swear, a whole hell of venomous snakes will pour into his room. If someone insults my friends, then the same thing."
Vito said coldly: "I know you don't want to cause trouble to the priest. But sometimes, if you back off, you will be regarded as weak. If you are weak, you will be insulted! Just like today... What are you doing? This town has done so much, but what’s the result? They don’t care! For so many years, your efforts have not been appreciated by those people, but taken for granted by them! Even if you build the lighthouse for another ten years, copy tens of thousands of notices, and give in again It doesn’t matter how many steps you take.”
"I didn't expect anyone to be grateful to me."
"No one will be grateful to you! Do you know why? Because in their opinion, letting a wandering beggar of unknown origin stay in this noble land is the greatest gift!"
"That's enough, Vito."
In the matrix, the boy's voice came. The light was too bright, making it difficult to see his expression clearly.
"Not enough! Do you remember what Thomas said?"
Vito's eyes were sharp, as if he was hiding a knife: "He said he deserves this spot! It can never fall to an Eastern bastard! Because this bastard has stolen enough things from our hands Yes! Ever since you came here five years ago, he has treated you as a thorn in his side. You spared him time and time again, but how did he treat you? Are you really willing? "
There was silence in the matrix.
After a long time, the matrix opened and the long mirror on the floor was pushed away.
A young man stepped out of the light.
…
As the matrices merged, the dazzling light dissipated, revealing the young man's figure.
He wears thick sunglasses on his face, which are necessary equipment for working in the matrix, otherwise the blazing light will blind people's eyes over time.
But the most eye-catching thing is not the sunglasses, but his hair.
Pure white, like flowing mercury, the long white hair seemed to blend into it in the light.
The silver-white hair unique to Easterners is his greatest feature and his greatest original sin... This is proof of being a bastard. Anyone can see that this is a mixed race, an alien who will not be regarded as a member of the same race, whether in the East or the West.
With such an identity, he is looked down upon even more than a beggar.
Since he came here, the criticism and attacks against him have never stopped.
After the priest adopted him and appointed him as a scribe in the church library, Thomas, who originally studied copying in the church, looked at him even more viciously.
In order to get rid of him, Thomas even hid the holy book in his room and falsely accused him of stealing the book.
If Ye Qingxuan hadn't recited and recited the holy scripture on the spot, proving that he didn't need to steal at all, he would have been driven out of the town long ago and would have no place to stay.
"Vito, don't get me started. You know that doesn't work."
Ye Qingxuan did not get angry or argue. He just picked up the wrench and returned to the matrix, with only sounds coming from inside.
"Everyone can say ugly things, but there is nothing to take advantage of. Even if I win the scolding, so what? The Thomas family has spent money, and the quota will not be given to me. So, it is better to save some effort."
Vito sneered and just sneered:
"What you mean by saving effort is running over in the middle of the night to repair the lighthouse and continue to contribute to the town?"
"At least I can make some money. If I don't come, the priest will have to make a trip in person. I don't want to cause any trouble to him. He has already put in a lot of effort to help me get that spot."
"He doesn't want you to go to the Holy City!"
Vito said coldly: "He wants to train you to be a little magician! Go and take over his class and let you stay with these cold iron lumps for the rest of your life! You will not be able to find them on this map until you die of old age. In a small town. All you have with you is this pile of junk."
"Actually, I don't think there's anything wrong with dealing with machines."
In the matrix, Ye Qingxuan said softly: "At least they won't lie, and they won't look down on you... Sometimes I like them better than people. As long as you understand them, they won't betray you."
Vito stopped talking. He withdrew his gaze and silently tore the chicken in his hands, swallowing them into his mouth bit by bit, chewing them into puree with his canine teeth.
The angry beast is eating.
"This matter will not be settled like this."
He whispered softly, not as if he was talking to Ye Qingxuan, but as if he was talking to himself.
…
…
This routine maintenance seemed to be unexpectedly long.
In the silence, there are only trivial sounds in the frame matrix. With the debugging of tools, the matrix is changing towards a new structure.
With the young man's skillful operation, this huge mechanical structure started to operate easily.
Hundreds of frames change positions along the copper rails, adjusting to new angles, like the leaves of a lotus opening and then closing in rotation. Complex light trajectories jumped in it and flew into the sky.
Until the end, the maintenance had come to an end. Ye Qingxuan walked out of the matrix, checked it one last time, and nodded.
"Vito, give me the screwdriver, this frame is a little off."
"If you're biased, you're biased. What's the use of being serious in such a useless place?"
Vito threw the screwdriver on the draft paper to him, "They still look down on you. They will only laugh at your stupidity, then rest on your achievements and continue to enjoy their lives."
Ye Qingxuan turned a deaf ear and just used a screwdriver to carefully adjust the scale on the frame. His hand holding the screwdriver was as steady as a rock: "Sometimes, a little difference can lead to completely different effects."
He paused and said softly in an Eastern language that Vito could not understand:
"—If you miss something, you will miss it a thousand miles."
…
As if in response to the boy's words, a strong sea breeze suddenly blew from a distance. They pour into the windows and pass through the lighthouse.
Without the screwdriver to hold it down, the stack of draft paper at the bottom of the tool box was blown up, as if it had wings, flying all over the sky. A piece of paper flew over and covered Vito's face, causing Vito to tear it off in a hurry.
He wanted to tear up the paper angrily, but when he saw the sketch on the paper, he was stunned and couldn't believe it.
On the white paper, the boy used a dip pen to draw a sketch of a frame matrix. The matrix in the sketch had deviated from its original structure and moved to an deviant place as the base rotated. The new light trajectory was marked, but compared with the original one... it was simply unrecognizable.
The inherent structure was shattered, and the priests' preset trajectory was completely disrupted... This complex and sophisticated system had completely collapsed during this debugging.
Simply, beyond recognition!
…
In silence, Vito looked at his friend as if he were a monster.
"Ye Zi, do you know what you are doing?"
"I know."
Ye Qingxuan's voice was still calm, just like before.
"You know what the heck!" Vito jumped up: "Do you know how long it took the Order to design this matrix?! How much it cost to maintain it!"
He lifted Ye Qingxuan's collar: "This is a reef area, Ye Zi! How many ships rely on it to guide the way every night. If something happens, you will be thrown into prison! Hurry up before anyone finds out. Change it back..."
"Nothing will happen, nothing will happen, nothing will change."
Ye Qingxuan said softly: "I just made a little 'adjustment'."
He waved his hand, and Lao Fei got up from the ground and ran down with a grin on his face.
"You must be crazy."
In the silence, Vito murmured softly and loosened his hands weakly.
…
"Vito, since when did you think I was a weak person?"
The white-haired boy picked up the wine bottle on the ground and walked to the window, overlooking the silent town below.
Facing the hearty sea breeze, he drank the remaining wine in one gulp, and then threw the empty wine bottle into the distance: "What's the use of talking about it? - At least let your efforts be seen by everyone. It’s only in your eyes.”
…
He turned around and pulled the hinge at his side.
In an instant, the complex hubs in the lighthouse began to move, as if awakening from a deep sleep and moving along a predetermined trajectory. Gears rivet, winches roll, mirrors shift, angles change.
The collision of steel and steel erupted with sparks and low reverberations. The thin sound of mechanical collision was like heavy breathing, echoing in the ears of the two people.
The originally stationary frame began to rotate crazily, like a wildly burning lotus in the dazzling light.
Vito stared blankly at the changing flashes, the sudden flashes of light that flashed away like an explosion.
Immediately afterwards, the lotus-like matrix closed again.
The light jumped in the air, like a tamed beast, and shot in all directions. Still the same as before.
Only one of them was thrown towards the dark town and landed on the mirror hung by Lao Fei in front of the nail. Following the young man's will, the light shuttled through the dark town, jumping one by one through the mirrors.
In the end, the hot and dazzling light shone on the largest house in the entire town.
It was like holy light falling from the sky.
…
Immediately afterwards, the big clock in the center of the town trembled, as if it was being struck angrily. Under it, a smiling dog was biting the rope and shaking hard.
A sharp and loud noise woke up the silent town.
People who were awakened from their sleep got up from their beds, threw themselves in front of the window in panic, and looked at the street.
There were no wild beasts that broke into the town, and there were no robbers that broke into the place. It seemed like nothing happened. Only the sound of sirens echoed, and a sacred light fell from the sky and fell on the Thomas house.
In the small town, there was a commotion among the awakened residents.
"What's going on?" someone shouted.
"What happened? Who can ring the bell?"
"Mom, I'm afraid."
"Hey, look at Thomas's house!"
"Thomas's house..."
As a result, the noisy town suddenly became incredibly quiet.
Under everyone's gaze, the rays of light falling from the sky intertwined and formed a line of writing. The handwriting is so clear, like a blessing from the gods from heaven.
There are only a few simple words, but the writing is smooth and flowing. It is a kind response from a young boy.
—Son of a bitch!