chapter 20 Castle in the Sky 2

I stood on the guardrail against the wind and opened my eyes wide, trying to find the reflection of the "City in the Sky" on the flowing river, but all I could see was the glitz of the city under the flashing neon lights. After I woke up, I realized that I was so afraid of death and of being submerged in a bottomless moat. I looked back at Penelope, but she looked so indifferent. "Are you really not going to persuade me?" I frowned and asked Penelope. "Why should I advise you?" "But if I jump, I will really die." "It's you who died, not me."Penelope said with an expression of neither surprise nor surprise. I jumped off the guardrail and said angrily: "I'm not wrong about you at all. You are a vicious woman who will not hesitate to let others die in order to achieve your own goals." "I have no purpose. It was you who said you wanted to jump into the river."Penelope still said calmly. I became even more angry, pointed at Penelope and said: "Can you stop trying to kill me so calmly? I remember I called you to persuade me not to jump. According to the script I set, you can You shouldn’t act like this” "When I came here, you were lying like a dead person. You didn't know how to jump. Why did you bother to call me and make fun of me?"Penelope's words finally showed anger. I was a little frustrated. I was so impulsive that I could jump. Who knew I was destined to die? Suddenly, the alcohol hit me and made me fall asleep. I didn't know how to explain to Penelope and kept talking nonsense, saying: "I really want to jump off the moat. Before I jumped, I remembered that I still owed you more than 10,000 yuan and haven't paid it back. It doesn't matter if I die." But no one will repay you the money, so I didn’t flinch when I was cruel, because I am a person with a conscience and a moral bottom line, and I will never do such immoral things as not paying back debts.” "That's really tragic."Penelope looked at me and said with a half-smile. "Is it really tragic? You don't know how much I struggled at the time. On the one hand, I was relieved after death, and on the other hand, I was condemned by my conscience after not paying back my debts. It was difficult to choose. Of course, in the end, I made a difficult choice to keep my moral bottom line. , so I’m still alive.” I said with an exaggerated expression. Penelope seemed unwilling to listen to my nonsense anymore, so she stood up from the ground and prepared to leave. "Wait." I called out to Penelope. "What's wrong?"Penelope was already very impatient as she spoke and put on the coat she just put on me. "Have you been sitting here watching over me since this afternoon?" "I'm here to collect the body for you, not to persuade you, so I came here in the evening."Penelope said with her unique calmness. "Who are you bluffing? Come collect my body and cover me with your coat." I exposed Penelope's lie with a meaningful smile. Penelope looked back at me and said coldly: "The corpses are always covered with something to cover their remains. Don't you know?" I was speechless by what Penelope said, and I just stood there in a daze. My attention also jumped away from the bickering with Penelope, so the alcohol that had not been completely digested began to make waves in my body again, and I felt dizzy. , followed by a strong feeling of vomiting. I lay down on the guardrail and vomited into the moat as if I had hollowed myself out. I had drunk too much wine at noon. After vomiting, I collapsed and sat down against the guardrail. I closed my eyes and my consciousness became more and more clear. Then the scene I experienced at Wesley and Zoey’s wedding at noon reappeared in my mind, and then it was torn apart. Such pain filled my body. At that moment, Brian helped Emily put on the diamond crystal necklace that was a token of love. I desperately wanted to tell Emily: I want to go back to the past, the past where I was happy in silence, the past where there was love. But there is never a past that I can go back to. I lost Emily and can only watch her live happily in someone else's world. In the tearing pain, there was a warm feeling from the corner of my eyes, and I seemed to be crying It's definitely not me who's crying, it's the city in the sky who's using her tears to break down the sadness in my heart. "You're crying, wipe your tears." I opened my eyes, and it turned out that Penelope hadn't left yet, and she handed me a tissue. I didn't pick up the tissue. It was best to let the wind dry my tears so as not to leave any traces. Penelope knelt down and looked at me, and finally asked in a lighter tone: "Did what I just said be too harsh? I shouldn't laugh at you as a corpse." I was silent for a long time and whispered: "Actually, it has nothing to do with you. Even if it is really a corpse, it only hurts before death, but the pain of living is the heartbreaking feeling, do you understand?" Penelope shook her head and said, "I don't understand. All I think about now is when will you move out of my house." "Are you that annoying to me?" I asked with a smile, my tears seemed to have been dried. "Yes, your behavior really doesn't give me a good impression. You are an out-and-out bastard,"Penelope said bluntly. "Really? But you don't know that the bastard in your eyes who has done all the bad things once had a clean city in his heart." "I don't quite understand what you're talking about." "You don't need to understand because today this city has been separated from my body and has become a city in the sky that I can never touch." I lowered my head and groped for my pocket, but there was no cigarette left for me to burn away my melancholy and mend my broken soul. Penelope didn't say anything. She sat down next to me and leaned on the guardrail behind her in the same posture. The surroundings around us were getting quieter and quieter, as if we were isolated from the hustle and bustle of the city by the night. A gust of night wind blew by, It blows out the equality of all living beings and extinguishes the fireworks in the world. I saw a cigarette on the ground that I had only half smoked before stubbing it out. I picked it up, blew it and lit it again. The smell of tobacco filled the air again and dissipated under the dim light. I finally said to Penelope: "I know you want me to leave, I will move out, just tomorrow." "Is it true this time?" "Is it true that I have lost a city, do I still care about a house?" Penelope seemed a little curious that I always mentioned that city, and she asked me: "What does the city in the sky you mentioned look like?" I thought about it and said: "She is a city that is crystal clear but always silent. It has a kind of magic that makes people forget their worries, pain, and glitz. When you live in it, nothing matters anymore. Because you will transform into a crystal clear bird, breaking through all constraints and flying in the wind of freedom." "But the bird will eventually land. Will it still be crystal clear after landing?"Penelope looked at me and asked. "I don't know because I haven't thought about what it will be like after landing." Perhaps my pitiful appearance aroused Penelope's sympathy. That night, she did not abandon me alone by the river. I sat in her car and drove towards the bustling and somewhat illusory city, and I had already made up my mind. After this night, I will move out of that old house. Anyway, my life will not get any worse. It is better to help Mi Cai and give her peace. Along the way, we were silent. I understood this silence to mean that Penelope was still dissatisfied with the fact that I had deceived her several times today, and my current downfall and pity could not completely extinguish the flames of her anger and bring me back from the suburbs. It has been shown to be very humane. Back in the community where we lived, Penelope parked the car, and she and I walked toward the corridor entrance one after the other. Unexpectedly, we found Father Ban sitting on the stairs at the entrance of the corridor. Next to him was the already used dog. A vintage black briefcase that's been around for decades.