Chapter 962 Chapter Nine Hundred and Sixty · "Inyoureyes."

The white hair is fluttering in the biting cold wind, like fine snow gradually melting.

 In her last look—Don—she finally saw spring.

…But,

why?

 Why couldn’t even she survive? Why in order to preserve human history...why does even an old woman have to die in such pain?

He choked with sobs and hugged her headless body, sobbing uncontrollably. At that moment... he finally understood how much human beings had to pay in order to preserve an era.

 From then on, he put on a mask.

 Leaders do not need to show emotion. Everyone he cares about may become a prop used by his enemies to threaten him.

So - if the leader is cold and cold and becomes a cold stone statue that people praise, then no one will be hurt by him.

 One person passed by one after another, one torch after another.

　　Stepping over the bones of the predecessors, they fell in obscurity in the fire.

Tang has been standing among the bones, bearing a weight that can crush his spine, reciting their names and carrying the stories of their lives.

 —until we see the light of day.

Ms. Su Lixian's research progress is very fast. She has a fellow doctor named "Lin Yuzi". Under their leadership, specific medicines without side effects have begun to take shape.

 One night, Su Shize stood in front of Tang's room door.

Inside the door, Tang was leaning on his chair, tilting his head, and his right hand was still writing. In front of him were hundreds of marching records. He was wearing a mask and his eyes were closed, as if he suddenly fell asleep while writing.

 Until Su Shize walked in and covered him with a quilt. Tang Cai opened his eyes and continued writing tomorrow's military arrangements.

"Tang. You have been wearing a mask for too long." Su Shize looked at him.

Moonlight spilled from the window, outlining Tang's sharp-edged black mask. This mask is a ghost mask with ferocious horns, intended to scare those who are unconvinced.

Tang’s pen tip paused.

“I haven’t seen your face for a long time. Can you take off the mask and show it to me?” Su Shize said.

Tang hesitated and took off his mask.

Su Shize stared at Tang for a long time.

 As the leader of the Human Self-Salvation Alliance, Tang is not very old. His face still has the sluggishness of a young man, and his eyebrows are still determined, but these emotions will be hidden under the devil's mask and no one will see it.

 —He seems to have become a symbol of coldness. Or a flag. As for how shaken and painful his heart will be, no one can touch it.

It does not matter.

 For a lighthouse, people only care about whether its light is bright and whether the base is strong enough, but they don't care about whether it feels pain.

Su Shize just stared at Tang like this for a long time, tracing his eyebrows, nose bridge, and lips, as if to completely imprint this face that he would never show in front of others in his mind. Only then did Tang suddenly realize that he had a human face instead of a cold mask.

 He couldn't understand what Su Shize was looking at until he also met Su Shize's eyes.

 In Su Shize's eyes, Tang saw many things.

He thought he must be hallucinating—otherwise, how could he see so many clear images condensed in one person's pupils?

—Flying white birds, blooming flowers, timeless poems and paintings.

Too beautiful.

　　makes you want to cry.

He shifted his gaze slightly and saw rows of photos on the cabinet - those were the people he was very familiar with in the early days of the war, and he had retained all their images.

 Odis, Lawson, Michellelia, Martha…

"Do you want to continue?" Su Shize moved a chair and sat down with his back to him.

 Under the moonlight, the shadows of the two of them were very long.

"Um."

“Special medicine with no side effects will be available soon. By then, everyone will remember history…”

"Um."

"But that's not enough. If the gods can erase our history, they can erase it for the second time. We still have to fight until the Holy Alliance ceases to exist, until humans no longer submit to the gods, until...the gods take back their lives."

"Um."

"The road is blocked and long, Tang. The road is blocked and long..."

"yes."

"However, I know you will continue. When the day comes when you succeed - I want to go to your hometown with you to see the white morning flowers. I remember you said that your hometown is full of beautiful morning flowers. If you can find a white flower during the New Year, you will be safe and happy throughout your life."

"…good."

“When the time comes, let’s pick white morning flowers for everyone and place them in front of everyone’s tombs.”

"Will do."

"Tang. In fact, I really hope that day will come. My grandfather, grandmother, father, and mother all left during this war."

"I can't live up to their wishes before leaving. I have to walk into the spring..." Su Shize's voice became lower and lower.

　　　…”

Tang turned around and found that Su Shize had fallen asleep. The moonlight shone on his somewhat vicissitudes of life, and their brows and eyes looked similarly tired.

The chairs were facing away from each other, so it was difficult for Tang to touch Su Shize with his backhand. So he just looked back, without touching, for a long time, until the moonlight passed and a ray of morning light lit up from the distant mountains.

This place is close to the border of Longcheng and has high mountains.

The thermos cup with wolfberry soaked in it on the table was still hot. Tang opened the lid, looked at the dense steam, and drank it in one gulp.

 There was a faint pain in his throat, and he realized that the glass of water was very hot. His five senses were quite blurred, and he could not even tell the temperature of the water. He has carried the emotions and memories of forty-four people for too long. No fire bearer has ever lived for such a long time before. He clearly felt that his physical condition was getting worse and worse, and it was difficult to even walk smoothly.

　　　…”

He looked at Su Shize and could only see a blurry circle of moonlight in his field of vision.

 As if everything turned into moonlight.

He walked to a thermal cabinet and took out a white morning flower inside - it was the morning flower he left behind when the war spread to his hometown before it was destroyed.

He did not tell Su Shize a cruel truth - his hometown had actually been destroyed long ago, destroyed by the war they started by themselves - and there would no longer be white morning flowers.

He placed the last white morning flower on Su Shize's left breast pocket and fastened it with a "click" of the medal, as if handing over something. He breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed his eyebrows.

Then, in this war-scorched land, in this room filled with lists of the dead, in this beautiful soft moonlight—

Tang slowly showed a calm and soft smile.

 The smile was exactly the same as that of his grandmother Martha.

 Like moonlight.

 …

 The flowers are so beautiful.

 …Go and see it for me.

 …

 【No.46linkthefire(火者)·ShizeSu(苏世泽)】

 …

 The leader of the Human Self-Rescue Alliance died silently one morning.

 An ordinary morning.

The geese outside the window flew over Guanshan, the snow was falling, the thermos cup was still steaming, the march record on the table was still half-written, and a few drops of ink flowed from the tip of the pen, making people feel that Tang would pick up the pen again and write it down. Finished writing.

There are also several photos hanging on the wall, which are photos of him and his grandmother Martha traveling many years ago. In the garden full of morning flowers in the town, the old woman and the young man held hands and walked towards the sunny direction, as if he would continue walking.

 …But he did die.

 Whether it was the excessive pressure of leadership or the mental burden that overwhelmed his body, he was unable to open his eyes again.

　　When Su Shize saw Tang lying on the table, as if sleeping, there was nothing in his heart, and his eyes were so dry that there was not a single tear.

 He knew that this day would come sooner or later, and after Tang died, he would be the one to take over the fire.

Su Shize took over the memories and emotions of the first forty-five people.

 According to Tang's request during his lifetime, Su Shize did not disclose this matter to anyone. He buried Tang quietly in the backyard garden, surrounded by morning flowers, and no one saw the funeral. The leader of the alliance who was famous all over the world, no one knew the day he died.

For a person who was so soft in life, after death, only a cold wordless tombstone and a white morning flower that is about to wither will be left. Su Shize tried to talk to him, but Tang would not respond to him anymore.

Su Shize patted the tombstone, just like he patted Tang on the shoulder that day, saying that he would always stand by his best friend's side... It's the same now.

Those who are so eager to see spring still die on the way.

Su Shize calmed down his emotions and strengthened himself.

 The moment when I touched the white morning flower, it was at this moment.

Su Shize's breathing stopped for a moment.

 Subsequently, his eyes, which were so dry without a single tear, suddenly turned red. Tears suddenly rolled down, as if falling from an empty heart. He gritted his teeth, his whole body was shaking, and he could hardly utter a word.

　　　…”

Three lines of small characters are engraved on the petals.

 …

  【No need to feel sad that I failed to step into spring. 】

  【Actually, I have seen spring a long time ago. 】

  【—Inyoureyes.（In your eyes）】

 …

The wild geese are flying south, and the mountains are covered with snow.

Su Shize returned to the room and picked up the evil ghost mask on the table.

 He looked in the mirror.

  —Slowly, he placed it on his face.

 “...Su Shize.” Su Shize stood in an empty room and practiced his voice repeatedly.

"…spring."

　　… “…flowers.”

"…like."

 He kept reciting each word, adjusting his voice until it was equal to Tang's voice.

  The leader of the Human Self-Salvation Alliance cannot die, and countless people need this "lighthouse".

 So, "Tang" will not die.

His fingers pressed the edge of the mask, completely covering his face. He put on Tang's clothes and cut off his temple hair with scissors. He used Don's voice, imitating his accent and small movements.

 —The ideals that you have not yet fulfilled will be fulfilled by me.

 —The tomorrow you have not realized is created by me.

 Everything you have is inherited by me.

　　The cold moonlight of that night has passed away, and he is still getting older day by day, but Tang will always stay at his youngest age. The time of that young man full of idealism has been frozen, and he will not go down any further.

Su Shize recited ancient songs and poems to enable himself to step forward firmly, open the door, and face thousands of expectant eyes.

Then,

As the leader of the Human Self-Salvation Alliance, and as the deputy minister of the Department of Urban Protection—

Stand on the high platform, open your arms, open your mouth, and shout—

—You must hold high the torch of civilization and move forward against the wind.

 —You must hold high the stars of history in your hands and swim against the current.

Even if its hot tongue of fire will lick your hands, your body, and every flesh and blood on your body, it will burn you up.

It flows in your blood, and keeps flowing, until it flows to the next fire bearer, to every fire bearer—

Then they gather into the sea,

　　Gathered into the dawn.

 …

From today-

 You are my [waistcoat].

 I am your everything.

 …

 Actually, I have seen spring a long time ago.

 In your eyes.

 …

　　【No.47linkthefire(火者)·LixianSu(苏丽兴)】

 …

In the forty-seventh painting, a woman with black hair and shawl is holding a blue glass bottle in her hand, smiling and standing under the flower tree in the hall.

 Flower branches are lush and leafy, wintersweet-like flowers are dotted between the leaves, and the walls are covered with pale roses.

She sat in front of the harp and sang softly.

“The spark…the spark that once hid itself in the ebbing tide of Baghdad…”

“Am I required to sing the blood of revolutionaries?”

 “Let tyrants stop tormenting living beings in the future?”

“Shall I explore the tracks of savagery?”

 “So that our days and thoughts may become civilized?”

 “Why are you… silent…?”

Until a brown-haired woman walked up to her and whispered: "Mr. Li, the battle line has retreated. In order to ensure the safety of the special medicine, we have to escape with the special medicine."

Su Li first stopped playing the harp and smiled slightly: "Let's go, Yuzi."

　　When Su Shize died, the fire was handed over to Zurich. She is the most famous occultist in the world. Lin Yuzi is her doctor companion.

 The soldiers escorted the two of them out of the research institute. Su Lixian has always carried the memories of the first forty-six people. In order to preserve herself, she would practice painting and harp with Lin Yuzi in her free time, using love to always remember who she was. She survived longer than Tang and Su Shize, and she was Wait until the special medicine is born.

This research institute is filled with her paintings and flowers she planted, as well as a harp that Lin Yuzi gave her. Unfortunately, she can no longer take it with her.

 “Okko, we will walk into spring, right?”

During the escape, Su Li sat in the back seat and held Lin Yuzi's hand tightly. She smiled slightly, as bright as a flower. Her appearance is still young, her eyebrows are curved, and her love for the world is the best way to maintain her appearance.

"certainly."

Lin Yuzi held her hand tightly.

"My child...Su Wensheng. The moment I took over the glass bottle, I knew that I would never be able to get close to him or even communicate with him in this life." Su Lixian whispered: "Otherwise, the Holy Alliance Army will be suspicious , he became the next fire bearer. He is the safest only if I never meet him."

“Although it was to protect him, this is the most regretful thing in my life.”

 “I am...an unqualified mother.”

 She opened the compartment inside the necklace, and inside there was a photo of a little boy. She held up the necklace and kissed it slowly.

"You are a qualified hero." Lin Yuzi hugged her: "I also miss my Yi Zhongyu very much, he is only ten years old..."

In the escape car, the most famous occultist in the world held a glass bottle that was as bright as stars, and slowly embraced her best friend. They talked about their attachment and reluctance to their children, holding fire in their hands, trying to defeat the supreme with smallness.

 Carrying together the same heat, the same light weight, and the same burning. Bear the same consequences.

 “Grow up, grow up…”

 In the splendid flowerbed facing the wind, vehicles flew by, leaving all the fighting and chasing behind.

Zurizen's song floats like a free bird.

 “My child.”

 “You have to grow into a person that you can be proud of.”

 “You will grow up to be a free man.”

 “Shout to the white bird, you have grown into a very good person...”

 “My child, my child, please don’t go and never come back. Please don’t go and never come back.”

“I can’t live up to their wishes before they left. I have to walk into the spring...”

 …

 “Mom, how much I want to see you grow up…”

 “Grow up, grow up.”

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　″

She smiled, her voice choked up.

 …

 “Let her...walk into the spring.”

 …

 (End of this chapter)