Extra chapter: Heresy (contributed by book friends)
A tour group moved forward slowly in the desolate wilderness. The tender green on the road was crushed by tires, leaving traces in the green space.
The thin snow on the wilderness has not dissipated. Apart from the evergreen grass, only dead branches and leaves are left. The evergreen grass is just the last embellishment given to this world by the majestic gods.
The cold winter is coming, business travel has stopped, and most of the work throughout the year can only be spent in a better winter, looking forward to the arrival of early spring.
This is a festival. We call it the "end of the year." It is also a day for blessings and praying to the gods. Those who are worried may either repent or be "heretics" who have abandoned the gods
Although the sun gradually sets and darkness gradually covers the earth, the gods also have the authority to control the night, and heretics and devils can only creep in the darkness in the dirty corners that cannot be explained by the night.
Finally, the brigade stopped and lit a fire at the edge of the forest to add dry grass and firewood.
A tour group that can travel through several cities amid the disasters of war and famine is certainly not an ordinary person, and there is probably no shortage of money.
"Bald man, when do you think this day will end! I can't even go home to celebrate the New Year, I'm hiccuping every day!"
The bald man rubbed the back of his head and said honestly: "My lord, why are you talking to me, a homeless person, about this? Aren't you shaking the dice?"
The middle-aged man looked at the pile of chips in front of him and was speechless, then patted his head.
"Why am I telling you this? I've already gambled enough to buy you a few bottles of good wine."
"Sir, why don't you treat me to a glass of fruit beer? Didn't you place a bet on who in the group would disappear next? The recent war and heresy being rampant is not a good thing."
The middle-aged man waved his hand: "Go, go, don't worry, take it yourself, and you guys in the group can relax. I have a holy relic of the Holy See, and no heretic can get close to it."<
/p>
"Hiccup!"
There was frequent applause next to another fire. The meat skewers on the fire were sizzling with oil, and the snow rabbit that had been torn down to its skeleton was wailing silently.
"Bald man, you are so generous. I will accept this drink and try again next time." Ryan laughed.
"The bet is on when that kid Cole will come back. Look, half a year later, this kid actually came back with the brigade. Baldhead, your gambling luck is not very good."
Cole is a young man. He had been missing for half a year and everyone in the group was shocked when he suddenly returned.
I have been searching for the missing place for a week and there is no trace. Now that I suddenly come back, everyone doesn’t want to dig into it. It’s okay.
After all, living is a good thing. The church is next door and there are no heretics. Those are the standards set by the pastors and grandpas, which are particularly effective.
The bald man looked at Ryan and looked at Cole sitting on a big rock in the distance, shrinking in pain and muttering to himself: "This is impossible, it's been half a year, how can we catch up if it's not abnormal."
"I don't know what happened to this kid Cole. He made a fortune and bought an earth dragon. He's catching up now." Meursault gnawed on the meat skewers.
After seeing Meursault, the bald man breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that everything was fine.
"We are making a bet on who can tell the best story this time, and we will use Cole's." Dick waved his hand and said.
Several people slowly told the story, but the protagonist of the story disappeared without knowing when. Only a girl wearing a black bun, a pleated skirt and white silk stockings was left, holding a bottle of wine and watching.
"Can I participate in a very good story? I also have an interesting story, so there is no need to tell Cole's story."
His manners are full of politeness and elegance, as well as a subtle hint of arrogance and disgust.
Cole was a little stunned and quickly agreed: "Okay, okay!" "This bottle of good wine is yours."
She pulled up her skirt and sat down without paying attention to the dust on the stool and began to tell her story.
"Before telling this story, I hope you can remember my name "Anna Sui" or Sue Anna."
There once was an ordinary and simple small village. That year, in the winter, the villagers dug up the bacon jars buried underground according to tradition.
Lanterns and colorful decorations were put up to celebrate the departure of the year. The people in the village were very happy. There had been no war for decades, and the harvest every year was enough for food and clothing.
The priest also often prays for the common people, but no matter how beautiful it is, some people will be interested in the outside world in the story, with birds and birds, flowers, wine and greenery.
Those who have not stepped into the outside world cannot understand the feeling of that situation. At the end of the year, a young man named Andren started his own adventure with half a basket of food hung by his mother.
This honest young man returned to his hometown more than ten years later, and experienced many ups and downs on the way, which also led to the birth of his quirk.
The bald man's pupils shrank slightly.
Perhaps it was the famine that lasted for several years, or the prolonged war that caused him to have an obsession with eating, whether it was bark, grass roots, stones, or corpses.
Especially corpses, they taste the best.
In fact, this kind of thing is nothing more than a common occurrence. As long as you confess in front of the priest and be healed by the gods, you will be able to return to the past, right? This is what Andren thinks.
However, if the story ends in such a hasty manner, it will end up being just a boring "ordinary story about yearning for life outside and being beaten up."
He didn't go to the priest to drive away the ghosts from the beginning. Was it because of fear or fear?
"That's enough, this story is good enough." The bald man said, covering the back of his head.
Su Anna smiled and said: "No, no, no, this is not enough. Mr. Andren, please forget all this. Fate will tell me everything."
"Heretic, you must be a heretic."
He still had moral concerns at first, and just secretly ate rotten meat from the cemetery and the wild, just like a ghoul.
From a sunny boy to a gloomy middle-aged man.
A funeral feast began, and two old men in Andren's family died. At that time, he did not have the courage to eat the two corpses that were rotting and infested with maggots in the ground.
However, how can a little bit of morality compare to a delicious corpse? The endless growth of desire can be higher than anything else.
"That's enough, stop talking, stop talking."
"You are a devil, you must be a heretic, you must be the witch that the devil sat on, right?"
First the examiner, then the cemetery administrator, this appetite is really amazing and disgusting.
"Mr. Andren, you seem to be remembering something. Don't worry, don't worry, this is just a story from thirty years ago."
The scene changed several times. Su Anna looked at the blood-red and burning village in the distance and gently closed her eyes.
"Don't worry, the sins of this story haven't been solved yet?"
Mr. Devil took a slight interest in this matter and sent a blessing, but it was just a casual touch from a superior person, and it didn't matter even if hundreds of millions died.
And Anderun thinks that he is a favored one by the gods, but does he think that he is a god? The belief of gluttony grows wantonly and devours all travelers coming and going from the village.
Year after year, no matter who investigates, nothing is achieved, and what is left instead of investigating?
Finally, his endless gluttony allowed him to devour the village, which had almost only a few dozen people left, whether they were close relatives or priests of great value.
Then there was a massacre of the city, followed by the army.
"Mr. Andren, you may not understand what you are saying, right? It's okay. Look, the mouth behind you is about to move. Does it want to eat something?"
She looked at the frantic Andren with disgust as he picked up a piece of broken iron and reflected it on Andren through the firelight: "Look at you, you are already so hungry."
The bald man looked at himself reflected in the iron sheet. He was as skinny as a stick, his whole body was in a black state, and his hair was scattered.
Like a famine victim.
This powerful heretic was named the Devil's Agent, and was equal to the high-blooded witch as a moving natural disaster, bringing gluttony.
Perhaps the following plot is too classic and cliche. Under the siege of the Holy See, he lost his memory and most of his strength. The devil lost interest because his toys were broken.
And there are very few things that this glutton remembers: his name, his appetite, and his experience of surviving in troubled times.
With a ferocious face, several big mouths popped out of Andren's body and pounced on Su Anna's body, and began to eat wantonly.
"Eat it, eat it, but do you still have a trace of conscience? Is it meaningless venting or repentance?"
The deep black pupils without a trace of emotion stared at him like an abyss: "Why hasn't it been so long to actually bite it off and separate it?"
"Is there any difference between me, Cole, and Ryan? Or maybe you, a person who lacks learning and education, finally realized it."
"Aren't you a state of believing in God, but a complete devil?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the bald man wailed in pain: "Stay away from me, I don't want to remember, I don't want to remember."
"Obviously all of this could not have happened. Maybe it was experience, the devil and gluttony that shaped you, but in the final analysis, isn't it just that you failed to suppress a trace of greed and fell?"
"No, no, there would be nothing without me." "The immortals are really sad. They will never die and will always be played as delicate toys. They will be abandoned when they lose their value."
"Do you want true salvation?"
The eyes of the bald man with the gap between his teeth became excited: "Salvation, real salvation, hurry up, tell me where the salvation is."
Su Anna looked at him peacefully and said, "Then read it with me?"
"Read together."
I am in charge of life, life and death.
"My command, my life, my life!"
The rotation of all things in life is my wish
"Fan, no, I can't tell you why? Why?"
Aging, disability, normality, and death are all recalled.
The mountain of flesh composed of countless mouths and teeth squirmed and let out bursts of painful whines.
Trust me and follow me.
Don’t forget to sing, don’t forget to pray, don’t forget to think, don’t forget to remember.
Look at the pieces of meat starting to disappear in large areas.
Seeing this scene, Su Anna frowned slightly and thought: "Remove all burdens and rest in my hands."
Because of your sins, your anointed body will be removed from eternity.
Look with pity on this sinful soul
There was not even ashes left in the piece of meat, and Su Anna sighed: "Another person who can't firmly believe at all, but this is natural, right?"
A purple-haired and golden-eyed loli came over and said coquettishly, "Mom Anna, that big monster just now was so scary, just like the long-haired big sister I saw last time."
After hearing this, Su Anna shook her head and said: "Little Liato, didn't you say you don't need to call me mom?"
Riato held his chin and said: "But mom said you can call me whatever you want. What crime has this uncle committed, mom Anna."
Su Anna took out a piece of gold leaf from the void and put it on the ground and prayed silently: "He is just an ordinary person who is gluttonous."
"Mom Anna, why can't they be good people? Why are there bad people?"
Little Riato started to pick up his fingers: "The match seller who was breathing out white air when the iron monster was buzzing, the forest sister who wanted to see grandma."
Suana hit Riato on the head with a bang and said seriously: "There will be bad guys after all."
She didn't want to ruin a little girl's understanding of the world, but if the answer would only make things worse, it would be better to just raise the topic.
Riato held his head with tears in his eyes and said weakly: "Anna's mother does this every time, it hurts so much."
Su Anna waved her hands helplessly and knelt down and said: "This one is also the most evil one I have ever seen on the road. The second one is a big sister who likes other people's looks. Does Little Liyato have any impressions?"
Riato thought for two seconds and bit his fingernails and asked: "Is she the big sister who likes to drink the blood of other sisters? I remember that she also likes to put on the skin of other sisters."
Su Anna Xu Yan said: "She thinks it will be more beautiful that way. Maybe what these bad people did is right for them?" "Riato doesn't understand."
Su Anna smiled and said: "Little Liyato will definitely know it in the future. Now, mother needs to find a safe place for little Liyato to settle down."
Riato was pitiful: "Sure enough, Anna's mother will abandon me in the end, bad guy, big bad guy."
"Anna's mother is a big liar, and she will definitely not come back to me in the end."
Su Anna put her face close to Riato's and said, "Yes, Anna's mother is a big liar, so in the future, little Riato must not be deceived by big bad people and big liars."
"Riyato knows, Anna, mother, are we going to set off again?" Riyato pointed into the distance with his little finger
Suana watched the golden leaves melt into the ground and turned around while holding Riato's little hand, "Yes?"
The illusionary space suddenly shattered.
In the morning, will anyone remember that there once was a seemingly honest cook here?
The cold wind blew through the mountains and rivers, bringing a refreshing chill to the heart. Su Anna stretched out her hand to pick up the slowly falling snowflakes in the sky.
Riato said happily: "It's snowing! Mama Anna."
Suana looked at the snow that was getting heavier and said: "The world after snow will become a strange beauty, little Liato."
Then he started to tremble: "It feels like there is a lot of snow, Anna's mother, many people will die in this way, right?"
Anna picked up Liato and looked at the clouds in the dark night: "Yes, it's snowing, it will be a blizzard."
Riato showed a hint of sleepiness: "How long will it rain, Mama Anna?"
Suana rubbed Riato's hair: "As long as you open your eyes when you fall asleep, it's over. Little Riato just sleeps well."
"My hair is all messed up. Anna's mother is so unreasonable."
The heavy snowfall lasted for several years.
The people are in dire straits, and heresies are everywhere.