Lu Li's nod was lost in the bumps of the carriage. He turned his head and looked at Barton, who seemed like nothing had happened before: "Is there anything you want to remind me about the Elm Forest?"
"Have respect for the forests," Barton said. "They hate people who don't respect them."
"They're probably dead."
Patton continued: "This principle applies to any field."
"What about other than that?"
Barton added: "Be careful not to fall. There is no place for you to change clothes."
It seemed that he couldn't think of anything else to remind Lu Li.
Half an hour later, the carriage arrived at Elm Street.
With the ancient books taken away, the street has returned to its previous appearance, with few passers-by under the rain. There are only a few houses with warning cordons outside, and there are people vaguely guarding them behind the shop windows opposite or behind the windows of the houses.
These sealed houses are those that Lu Li determined to be infected, and they have not been dealt with yet.
Barton was also looking at the street outside the car window, even though the wind and rain that came in wetted his thin clothes.
Soon, the carriage stopped at the end of the street.
Lu Li, who put on his raincoat, paid the fare, opened his umbrella and stepped out of the carriage.
Behind him, Barton, who was also wearing a raincoat, was helped down by the groom. The wooden stick under his right trouser leg was stuck on the bluestone road. He looked at the street in the rain and sighed: "The last time I came here was seven or eight years ago."
Jojo told him on the phone that Barton retired at that time - because of losing his right leg.
"That means you haven't been here since you became disabled."
Lu Li's words were a bit harsh in the freezing rain, but Barton didn't think it was a big deal. After all, everyone in his "Snake Love" neighborhood called him Lame Barton.
The word disability sounds milder than lameness.
"You have been suffering in one place for more than twenty years, and then you lost a leg there. Will you suddenly think at a certain moment, 'I want to go back there and have a look'?" Barton sneered, sarcastically.
Walking towards the end of the street more than ten meters away. "But there are still some good memories here."
Snap——
The ground was no longer a smooth bluestone road, but a muddy dirt road mixed with rainwater replaced the former. Barton, who was not paying attention, staggered under his feet. After standing firm, he raised his hand and said to the indifferent Lu Li behind him: "Don't help me...here.
I've walked every road hundreds of times, it's just an accident."
But Barton did not fall or slip again after that. He did know this forest well. Even if the heavy rain reduced the visibility to only a few dozen meters and the muddy ground made it difficult to tell where was the dirt road and where was the wilderness, he could still find it.
A relatively gentle road allowed the two of them to smoothly enter the forest ahead.
After walking behind Barton for a certain distance, Lu Li began to see the shadows of trees around him.
Like those seen in other places, their appearance is like dead trees that have lost their green leaves and are spending the winter, with no life left and only bare branches on the trunks.
The looming shadows of trees in the surrounding rain curtain began to increase. Lu Li stopped and looked back. The rainwater pouring between the sky and the earth blocked the way they came.
At some point, Lu Li began to feel some uncomfortable emotions filling his heart.
Barton, who was walking in front, suddenly changed direction. He turned at a right angle and walked to an elm tree with thick roots under Lu Li's gaze.
It was taller and stronger than the elm trees Lu Li had seen along the way, but it didn't have a single leaf, and its brown-gray trunk bore the twilight of the end of life.
Barton stopped when he was seven or eight meters away from the tree king. He stood in the rain and felt something, and murmured: "They are mourning in despair because their lives are irretrievably lost..."
The scene where an old woodcutter becomes like a magician and talks inexplicably makes people laugh, but when Lu Li feels the same way, it is no longer a joke.
Sadness permeated the entire forest. This emotion was so pure that it seemed that people could fall into irresistible sadness.
There is no malice, no unspeakable depression, and no cold breath. Just like Barton said, this forest will only show its emotions.
"I feel a little uncomfortable..." Anna whispered in Lu Li's ear, and he felt something gently tugging at the corner of his clothes.
"Because this forest is sad." Lu Li replied.
He truly understood why Barton was so determined that this forest contained only emotions, not consciousness.
It never wanted to hurt people, it just gave emotional feedback to everything in the outside world. Those woodcutters and lumberjacks who died were just because fragile humans could not bear the pain and sorrow that the forest erupted at that moment.
Barton stepped back, his grooved cheeks stained with tears, or maybe it was just raindrops: "The mood of the forest is not right... Follow me, and don't get close to those tree kings."
"What will happen if you get close to them?" Lu Li asked.
He wants to know all the dangers that may exist here.
"It depends on your willpower. If your willpower is weak, you might be like that unlucky guy."
Barton pouted not far away in the other direction.
There is also a tree king growing there, with a pile of scattered skeletons piled next to its trunk, and a suspender belt hanging from the tree branch above.
The skeletal skull was half-buried in the mud, looking hollowly at the sky.
Corresponding to this, the tree king's trunk carries an ax carved into the tree body.
A long time ago, this unlucky lumberjack was infected by the emotion of the forest while cutting down the King of Trees, and committed suicide by hanging on the tree with the sling on his work clothes.
They have no intention of harming humans, but humans die because of their own weakness.
Thinking of such a sentence in his mind, Lu Li fell into deep thought. He couldn't help but continue to think along this sentence.
Maybe there are some weird things and existences that are not malicious to humans, but fragile people cannot bear those existences themselves, and even trying to understand them will drive them into madness?
Lu Li felt that he was approaching some kind of indescribable reality.
Barton was still leading the way, sometimes stopping to identify the direction and then continue walking.
There were more and more shadows of trees around, and they had truly entered the elm forest.
The hurricane some time ago also devastated this forest, and fallen dead trees could be seen everywhere, making the already muddy mountain road even more difficult to walk.
Twenty minutes later, Lu Li asked Barton, who changed directions again: "How far is the cliff from Elm Street?"
"About twelve or three miles. At this speed, we will have to walk for almost two hours." Barton replied, panting slightly.
He seemed fine, and the physical labor he had done in his youth gave him a lot of energy to squander.
Lu Li nodded and continued to follow Barton silently, walking in the silent elm forest with only the sound of rain.
