The snow cleared that morning. It was not just snow, nor was it just morning.

Small snow hills are on the flat ice field, and the white-cold sun hangs in the sky, providing no heat. The only use is the cold light, which can only illuminate the slanting backs of the children standing in front of the snow hills.

On the ice, every child was wrapped in warm cotton clothes and bearskin coats in front of the snow hill. They stood quietly in front of the snow hill. The two or three sobs that occasionally sounded set the sad tone for this morning.

The black tombstones and the white snow in the clearing of the snowfield form a contrast between black and white, as abrupt as a bird catching a glimpse of a breathable fish when it leaps over the sea. In this place in the Arctic, apart from white, black only means snowstorms and tombstones.

Although the two are quite different in expressive power, one is a natural phenomenon and the other is a man-made object, at least today they both represent the same thing - death.

The head nurse who was temporarily qualified as a pastor stood in an open space 300 meters east of the port, holding a 75-volume Bible in his hand, chanting the name of God, the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, praying that he would clear away the faint clouds and mist in the Arctic sky.

, take away the lost little lamb in the snowdrift.

Renata is not tall, but she is standing at the back of the crowd at the moment. She is wearing a bearskin hat embroidered with a red five-pointed star. Her ears are hidden in the hanging brim of the hat and she is holding her warm body. There is no foot support or crowding, just quiet.

He stood obediently, hugging the stuffed bear, looking through the gaps between people's arms, looking at the tombstones piled up in the ice and snow.

In 1990, it was midwinter in the Arctic. According to the calendar of that country in the south, this was the third cold day starting from the winter solstice on Ren Day. It was the coldest period of the year. During these thirty-nine days of severe cold,

Another child died in Nameless Port.

Alyosha was walking in the dead of night. It is said that the nurse found his body in the morning. He did not get up and wash up at the sound of the morning bell as usual. When the angry head nurse opened the door, Alyosha's body on the bed was already stiff.

He fell, lying on the cold bed, his whole body stiff, his closed eyes were covered with light frost, and his eyelashes were bent by the weight of the ice beads, hanging in an arc, just like his curled up body when he left.

Why were the eyes and eyelashes frozen? Maybe it was because Alyosha knew that he was not going to die soon, so he cried secretly for a while? Renata silently guessed what might have happened last night.

The seriously ill child was lying on the bed, feeling his body getting colder inch by inch. He knew that he was going to die, so he couldn't help crying. He was afraid of disturbing others, so he cried secretly. In the middle of crying, his eyes froze with tears.

Oh! Then came the eternal darkness. I couldn't open my eyes. I could only freeze and numb my whole body in the darkness until I lost consciousness. Then I couldn't even cry because my lips were frozen and my tongue was dripping in my mouth.

It wandered around, its eyes moved, and finally it couldn't move anymore, and then it completely left, disappeared into the darkness, and disappeared into their lives.

I heard that people who freeze to death will have the illusion of warmth at the end? Will Alyosha do the same? Maybe, after all, in the version Renata heard, the head nurse said that he had a smile on his face when he left.

Nata had not seen Alyosha's body. Although the children led by Khorkina swore that they had seen it, if they were asked to describe it in more detail, they could only hesitantly say that he was covered in blood.

It's hard, frosty, and scary. If you ask them to be more detailed, they'll blush and ask you if you think they're lying!

Renata didn't dare to choke with Khorkina, and none of the children at the port dared to choke with Khorkina, because those who choked with Khorkina would always have a bruised nose and face the next day. As for who

They were beaten so hard that they couldn't explain why, and even the nurse didn't find the 'murderer', so she could only give them a vicious warning over and over again not to fight in private and hastily end the matter.

The sun climbed into the sky, it was getting late, and the mourning had gone on long enough. The head nurse was obviously a little impatient, and she began to speed up the story of Alyosha's life. This section was very brief and almost passed by in a few words.

——Alyosha himself is only eight years old. What kind of life can an eight-year-old child have?

He grew up in the port day after day, never experienced adventures, never fell in love, and never left the Arctic to see the outside world. Therefore, the head nurse could only praise him as a pure person when summarizing.

A child. Because purity means cleanness, it means indifference, like a blank sheet of paper, and like the unchanging Arctic ice sheet. There is nothing wrong with it. After looking at it carefully for a long time, I feel bored, just like this mourning in the usual form.

.

Renata lowered her head quietly and yawned. This was a very rude thing at a funeral, but he was really not familiar with Alyosha. Among the children who cried, five of them were easily affected by mood swings.

The three girls are Alyosha's real playmates. They are still young. Although they do not understand the meaning of death, they know the cruelty of farewell - which means that they can no longer play ghosts and catch people.

My companions will lie under this snow hill for the rest of their lives, just like the other children who left them.

In a distant place, the same few snowy hills are standing there, with black tombstones inserted there, but some are shaky. The two latest ones are the two children who passed away last year, their names are Grigory and Mihai.

Hey, they are both clever children. One suffered from acute gastritis and ate the dirty things left in the kitchen, and the other suffered from a severe cold and even tried to take a cold bath during the coldest days... Alyosha who left last night seemed to be

Encephalitis caused by not wiping one's head after bathing. Getting this disease is undoubtedly a fatal thing in an Arctic port where medical standards are already inferior to those in the mainland of the country.

It seems that there have been more and more safety accidents in recent years. Renata is aware of this. Children are constantly leaving them. Alyosha is not a special case, and his stunts are not the last one. If she does not want to become a member of the snow dunes, she has to

Protect yourself well. It is not enough to have Zorro in your arms. Zorro can only save her from monsters, but what really takes away the children is the disease that invades quietly.

Renata vowed that from today on, she must strictly follow the new life safety guidelines issued by the doctor this morning, and never give her already delicate body the slightest chance to get sick... At least she must stop wetting the bed first! I heard that bedwetting is

It’s easiest to catch a cold. Mikhail had a bad cold and she didn’t want to be like him, who had a fever of 45 degrees and almost turned into a human-shaped heater (this is what Renata heard from Khorkina)

, the original version was Fifty Degrees, but I may have read the book later and changed it to Forty-five Degrees, but there is still a big discrepancy with the facts).

"It's not enough to just stop wetting the bed. Judging from the situation in recent years, it's difficult to think about being sick in this port sometimes. And when Mikhail's fever was at its worst, it only reached 40 degrees.

He wouldn't even be able to survive half an hour at 5 degrees Celsius. My bath water would be too hot to boil at 45 degrees Celsius." Behind Renata, a light voice suddenly came from far away from the crowd.

There was a joke in it that should never appear on this occasion.

But this is not what Renata cares about most. Even she yawned at Alyosha's funeral. Who has the right to accuse him of making fun of a person who has been dead for half a year? What she really cares about is this

The voice actually said what she was thinking at that moment, as if it had peeked into her brain and brought out the original words of the little person who was talking to her from the deepest part of her heart!

Renata turned back warily, took half a step back and bumped into the slender Yakov in the crowd behind her. Yakov turned back and glanced at Renata sullenly, seeming to blame her for ruining the solemn atmosphere during prayer. He was about to say

At some point, he suddenly stopped talking as if he had thought of something. The slight anger on his face faded like melting snow, and he turned back to look at the praying head nurse expressionlessly.

At this time, the head nurse also turned the pages of the Bible in her hand. Inside was the condolence written by the doctor that morning. She had already read the most exciting part. She cleared her throat and wanted to speak the next lines as solemnly and sacredly as possible. Children

She also tightened her face to show her remembrance of her companions, but at the back of the crowd, Renata's attention was completely attracted by the girl on the snow not far away.

The girl's hair is golden. The color is different from Renata's pale platinum like withered grass, and it is not the gold texture of Khorkina's. If she had to describe the golden color of her hair, Renata can only think of the words in the textbook.

I have seen the golden color of the wheat waves swaying in the wind in the wheat fields in autumn. It is the gold of sunshine, the gold of vitality, the gold that makes people feel the warmth with their eyes.

Renata didn't know this girl. She had never seen her among the 38 children in Black Swan Port, because if she had seen her, there was no way she would have forgotten the existence of such a beautiful child. She even stood up to Khorkina.

She would feel a little ashamed in front of her. But she appeared here so openly, blending into the funeral, squatting on the deserted snow behind everyone, humming a tune that no one could appreciate, wearing the same

They were all dressed up in the same style, wearing bearskin hats and cloth gloves and happily building snowmen.

"Renata, you know, Alyosha's biggest wish is to see the beach." The blond girl raised her head and naturally struck up a conversation with the alert Renata, her clear pale golden eyes filled with laughter.

The reflection of the ice floes on the Arctic sea and the shadow of the icebergs in the distance added a little bit of freezing white to her golden mood. "Alyosha longed for the distant summer and the sea, as well as the warm and continuous golden sand.

, if she was born in an inland city by the sea, then he would probably be an excellent trend maker, so I think he also wanted to be buried in the sea when he died, and now it seems that he got his wish."

"But this is not the sea." Renata hesitated for a long time, realizing that no one noticed that she and the blonde girl had left the funeral, and then she gradually bolded up to talk to the other party.

"This is the sea. At least hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago, the ice sheet under our feet was not an ice sheet, but an ocean. It wasn't until the weather got colder that the sea water froze and became the thick ice layer it is today. So...

Liao Sha was buried in the sea, just like his wish during his lifetime," the blond girl said.

“Are you an acquaintance of Alyosha? I’ve never seen you, what’s your name?” Renata couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, and even called the police to Zorro.

"I know Alyosha, but Alyosha doesn't know me, but that doesn't stop me from knowing him very well." The blond girl smiled and said, "A very good child, lively, smart and somewhat active, so the game he is best at is

Ghost Catcher, the role he plays best in this game is also the 'ghost', because he runs the fastest, very fast, and can catch his companions every time. If he grows up, he will definitely be this one

One of the fastest kids in the harbor!"

Renata seemed to have heard some things about Alyosha in the past, and indeed had the impression that this child was restless and restless during his lifetime, but this did not eliminate her doubts. She stared at the blonde girl and asked: "What about you? I have never been able to sit still.

Never seen you."

"It's just that you haven't met me, doctor, head nurse, Khorkina. Many people who should know me know me. Now you can also know me. You can call me Yelena." The blond girl stood up and took pictures.

Clapping her hands, the snowman she built was completed. Renata lowered her head and looked over. What even the cold wind couldn't do, the snowman on the ground did.

On the ground, a little boy curled up in a snowman lay quietly on his side, covering his chest with his hands. However, in front of him, a heart made of snow lay half a meter away, like

It was dug out alive, with a bright Arctic poppy stuck on it, so red that it was shocking.

The blond girl didn't pay attention to Renata's reaction. She just looked at the boy curled up on the ground quietly, then looked at the huge black port in the distance and said something. At this time, the head nurse in front of the tombstone also read out her condolences.

Renata heard the last sentence clearly. Whether it was the blond girl or the head nurse, they all seemed to have said the same sentence.
Chapter completed!