At 8:15 on August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber dropped the first atomic bomb used in actual combat in human history over Hiroshima, Japan.
As the mushroom cloud rose, 70,000 people died...
A few days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, not far from Hiroshima. This time, tens of thousands of people were killed again.
Faced with the huge power of nuclear explosions, Japan finally decided to surrender unconditionally, thus ending World War II.
While the whole world was cheering for the end of World War II, one person sighed deeply.
This man is Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.
I have read a biography about "Oppenheimer". I can't remember the specific year and month it was written and who the author is. But I still remember that on the title page of the biography, next to Oppenheimer's black and white photo
Write a line of words.
That was an ancient Indian poem that Oppenheimer quoted after the atomic bombing.
The content of the poem is translated as "If a thousand suns shine together in the sky, mankind will perish, and I seem to become the god of death and the destroyer of all things in the world."
Although I don't know Oppenheimer's mood at that time, I can really feel that he was regretful, fearful and disappointed.
Today, mankind has already overcome the scientific difficulties of nuclear fusion, and has brought mankind into a new wireless era with the powerful energy supply of nuclear fusion.
In this era, not only the connections between people have become invisible, but also the connections between things.
But I can still feel that big net enveloping the whole world.
…
I don't quite remember what happened in the first chapter of the story.
The experience that night was so painful that I didn't even dare to think about it anymore.
As deserters, the two brothers of the Qingshui family finally found shelter in an ancient temple after being hunted by wolves all night.
The skinny old man seemed frail, but he could keep the beasts at bay. At this moment, I felt that what I had found was not only the possibility of survival, but a future that I might have never been exposed to or imagined.
…
"You don't have to be afraid. I am also Japanese. I followed the army to China about twenty years ago. We fought with the Germans and took this piece of meat from their mouths. But I personally hate war, so I and
You both became deserters. I always felt that I had no face to go back, so I lived in seclusion here. I didn't expect...after so many years, I would actually meet you two? What? Is the war not over yet?" Skinny
The ghost-like old man was wearing coarse cloth with his arms open. He looked like an old warrior. Although his figure seemed frail, his voice was loud and he looked very healthy.
"No, senior, your war has ended long ago, and our empire is the victorious party." My brother replied.
The old man was confused: "Since we have already won, why do we continue to wage war?"
"The great emperor believed that we should have a wider territory, so we launched a war again, and this time we joined forces with our former defeated generals. Our army planned to occupy the entire Asia, and Germany, they were already in
We have achieved brilliant results on the European battlefield." My brother's words did not seem to be so repulsive to the war.
The old man looked at him a few more times with some concern, and then looked at his brother again.
The elder brother knelt down and sat on the plate with a humble expression. He sighed softly: "Senior, don't mind. My younger brother has been influenced by militarism since elementary school. The war he understands has always been a glorified war, so..."
"Well...that's very strange. Why did you choose to escape? And why did your brother choose to follow you?" The old man interrupted before his brother could finish.
The younger brother was a little nervous, so he looked to his elder brother for help.
The elder brother explained: "My younger brother and I have been taken care of by our Japanese father and Chinese mother respectively since we were very young. My grandfather is a very famous painter, but he always felt that his father married
It was a shame for the family to marry a Chinese woman, so my mother brought me back to China when I was very young, while my younger brother was left in Japan... Later, my mother died of illness, and before her death
She wrote a letter to my father, and I returned to Japan... But I didn't expect that less than a year after returning to Japan, I was sent to the army by my grandfather and sent to the Chinese battlefield to participate in the war... As for my younger brother...
...Although my younger brother has been living in Japan, my grandfather has always disliked him and always wanted to change him and make him an upright man of the Shimizu family. But my younger brother is a person with his own ideas, although he does not have enough strength to do so.
Rebel against Grandpa, but he can decide whether to follow his brother and escape the war."
The old man laughed after hearing this: "I see... Then, what are you going to do next? Are you going to remain a deserter? Or are you going to find a way to return home?"
The brother was silent. He had not actually thought about what to do next. He was just fed up with being insulted by the officers and being forced to shoot at unarmed people. He felt that it was wrong and a shameless act, so he took
Taking advantage of the darkness, he and his brother fled into the mountains.
After entering the mountain, after the short-term excitement brought about by finally being freed dissipated, he became confused.
During the war, it was simply wishful thinking to find a place to stay... not to mention... there were already many guerrillas near where they were stationed.
Even if the elder brother can get by with his accented Chinese, the younger brother's identity may be exposed, and they may still be killed by then.
Therefore, the elder brother did not choose to take his younger brother to the mountains and forests where it looked like he had a better chance of survival. Instead, he pulled him deep into the darkest and weirdest forests.
Before they met the wolf, the younger brother had sprained his foot.
When carrying his younger brother forward, the younger brother asked his elder brother: "Can we still see our father?"
The brother didn't answer. He didn't even know whether his decision was right or wrong... In short, in the darkness, he couldn't see his fingers, and the only things he could feel were fear and his own breathing.
Finally, the beating heart of the prey attracted the bloodthirsty wolf.
They followed them all the way and attacked the brothers in an open area with no trees to serve as a safe haven.
Although the elder brother, who has been living with his mother, is obviously much stronger than his younger brother, when faced with the killing of wild wolves, the seemingly thin younger brother was the first to pick up a dagger and fight back.
The sharp dagger pierced into the flesh, and when the hot blood gushes out, the wild blood rushes towards his face.
The wolves did not retreat because of this, they became more and more crazy.
Seeing that the two brothers were about to become food for the wolves, the bells of the ancient temple came and rescued the two brothers.
…
"Senior! Please take us in!" The elder brother finally made the decision, and he took his younger brother to bow before the old man.
The flickering candlelight in the ancient temple reflected a hideous black shadow on the dilapidated Arhat statue covered with dust and cobwebs. Outside the ruins, there was a miserable wind and rain, and everything in the darkness seemed to have turned into a bloodthirsty demon.
The younger brother was not afraid when facing the hungry wolf, but when he heard the wind, he subconsciously hid away from his elder brother.
The old man looked at the two brothers in front of him silently, and waited until the wind and rain stopped, then he sighed and said: "Hey, that's all... Although I couldn't help myself, I shouldn't have harmed you two.
But if you really have no other place to go, then stay."
The elder brother was satisfied when he finally got the answer he wanted, but the younger brother heard the danger hidden in these words.
…
The next morning, after a night of wind and rain, the ancient temple no longer had the shadows in the late night. It shone brightly under the sunlight.
In the incense burner in front of the temple, I don't know when the incense was lit.
My younger brother was staring at the golden temple in a daze when he suddenly heard bursts of chanting.
He climbed up from the rotten hay, stumbled open the creaking wooden door, and was stunned by the sight in front of him.
I saw that last night, there were empty tombs and broken monuments everywhere in the temple, which looked like mass graves. At this time, there were green bricks everywhere, and the monks who came and went were all in high spirits, with Buddha's light on their faces.
The younger brother rubbed his eyes hastily, thinking he had seen it wrong.
But when a young novice came over to say hello with a smile, he suddenly woke up.
This is not a dream.
All of this is real before our eyes.
only……
Could it be that everything I experienced last night was fake?
When I was confused, my brother also woke up.
When he saw his brother standing in front of the door, he got up and walked over to ask, but was shocked by the sight in front of him.
Seeing this, my brother became even more sure that everything last night was not an illusion.
At this moment, a kind-hearted old monk wearing a white washed monk's robe walked over.
When the young novice monk saw him, he immediately ran over to greet him with a smile and said, "Uncle Takahashi."
"Hey! OK, OK! Xiaodouzi got up early today. Why didn't you wait for the sun to burn your butt before getting up?"
The little novice monk known as Xiaodouzi blushed: "Oh, Xiaodouzi sometimes gets up early. Besides, there were guests last night, so I must get up early to take a look."
"Oh, you're the one who's well-informed. Okay, okay, you go and help my uncle go to your uncle's place to see if there's any leftover food. We can't starve our guests."
Xiaodouzi nodded obediently when he heard this: "Yes!"
Seeing the cute little Douzi jumping away like a girl, my brother was a little lost.
The younger brother's focus was not on this. He had been carefully looking at everything in the temple and constantly comparing it with what he saw last night.
When the kind-hearted old man saw it, he came closer and said: "One flower, one world, one leaf, one bodhi. You two don't have to stick to appearances. If you want to live a stable life here, just accept it calmly."
The old man's words were like enlightenment. After hearing this, the two brothers couldn't help but calm down.
For a long time after that, the elder brother and younger brother lived as guests in this mysterious temple hidden in the mountains.
But slowly, the younger brother became more and more unable to control his curiosity, and his questions became more and more.
For example, what he most often mentioned to his brother was why he never saw monks walking out of the temple, but the incense in the temple never stopped? The monks chanted sutras during the day and meditated at night, but no one came to give alms.
What do so many people rely on for food? They heard the bells of the ancient temple and got shelter after they became deserters/they didn't go far into the mountains. Then why can't they hear the sound of artillery fire outside the mountains? What on earth is here?
place?
Whenever the younger brother asked these questions, the elder brother would ask: "What if you know the answer, but what if you don't know the answer? Do you have to understand it to live in peace of mind? Or? You don't believe that there is a paradise where you can escape the flames of war?"
"
The younger brother knows that deep down in his heart, his elder brother yearns for peace and stability. As long as he can settle down and be an ordinary person, it is a great blessing for him. He listens to the Buddha's message every day, and his heart has long been calm. Naturally, he does not want to cause trouble again.
So gradually, the younger brother stopped discussing with his elder brother.
But privately, his younger brother's exploration of the truth is getting deeper and deeper.
On this day, Xiaodouzi brought a bowl of vegetarian dumplings to the two brothers and said that the New Year was here.
My brother couldn't help but sigh that the time spent in the mountains and fields was so long that more than half a year had passed in the blink of an eye.
The younger brother didn't speak, he just stared at the dumplings on the plate in a daze.
My brother, who is used to eating vegetarian rice and pickles on weekdays, his eyes lit up after taking a bite of the dumplings. He hurriedly said to his brother: "Eat quickly, eat it! This is much more delicious than whole grain vegetarian food! If it is cold, it will not necessarily
Already."
The younger brother never moved his chopsticks, and even his expression when looking at the dumplings became more and more painful and disgusting.
The elder brother didn't understand why his younger brother didn't eat the dumplings, so he just thought he didn't like them and ate them all.
Xiaodouzi left with a clean plate, and when the two brothers were left, the younger brother suddenly asked the older brother: "Don't you feel sick?"
The elder brother looked at his younger brother strangely. He wiped his mouth with unsatisfied thoughts and said with a smile: "They are dumplings stuffed with chives. They smell a little bad. How can they be disgusting?"
The younger brother didn't say anything. He got up and walked to the bed and lay down with his back to his older brother.
My brother asked: "Aren't you going to see the scenery today?"
The younger brother said: "After watching it for so long, the scenery outside has not changed much, so I won't watch anymore."
The elder brother smiled: "Okay, you lie down here while I memorize the scriptures."
"Um……"
My brother is gone.
The younger brother turned around, his face full of horror.
The world in front of him had become mottled and decayed at some point, and even the place where his brother had eaten just now was stained with blood.
This place is not a peach blossom garden where the Buddha's light shines. It is clearly a place where beasts grow hair and drink blood.
In the eyes of his younger brother, the scene of the older brother eating dumplings showed that all he ate were minced meat stained with blood and ash. The little novice monk had no eyes, ears or nose, only a face full of tiny fangs.
Bloody mouth.
As soon as he recalled this scene, his brother couldn't help but retched.
And when he lowered his head, he saw a face that looked neither human nor ghost reflected in the puddle of water under the bed.
The younger brother who usually loves to be clean has become crazy like a savage. There are white flesh/worms in his messy fluffy hair. His lips are chapped and his skin is dark. He doesn't look like a human being at all.
The younger brother, who was frightened again, immediately sat up straight and backed away. The bed under him turned into cold stone, and the wet vegetation was mixed together, making it sticky to the touch and very disgusting.
But what was inexplicable was that even though the world in front of him, including himself, had become so miserable, what he could smell in his nose was still the strange fragrance of flowers.
The younger brother was leaning against the broken wall. He was so scared that his body curled up into a ball and kept shaking.
The cold wind howled outside the stone house, like a wailful spirit howling.
Faintly, my brother heard a voice calling...
"Come to me..."
That voice seemed to have some kind of magic power.
The younger brother could not resist his will. His eyes suddenly became dull stones, his body swayed from side to side, and his face sometimes showed a smile, sometimes it was in pain.
Just walking forward like this.
The world around me seems to be shrinking, and the colors are stretched into countless lines, which are intertwined and gathered into a spiral abyss.
The younger brother saw a pair of pale hands reaching out to him in the deep darkness. He subconsciously wanted to escape, but his body moved forward uncontrollably.
His ears were filled with sounds that were far and near, including children's laughter, women's cries, the sticky sound of food being chewed, and the cracking sound of knives and axes chopping, and they swarmed up noisily.
The younger brother collapsed! He covered his head in pain and screamed.
"ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
…
My brother, who was copying scriptures in the Nuan Pavilion of the Buddhist temple, turned around in horror when he heard the sound. Then he suddenly reacted, dropped the pen and paper and ran towards the house where his younger brother lived.
The other monks seemed to have heard it, but they were indifferent.
Only the old man and Xiaodouzi followed.
When the elder brother opened the door, he was no longer in the room, but the room was filled with unintelligible symbols written in blood at some point.
At this scene, my brother felt a chill in his heart and hurriedly asked the old man: "What's going on?! Where is my brother?"
The old man was also surprised. He looked at the blood books on the wall and on the floor. There seemed to be an extremely dirty and terrifying truth hidden behind those weird and twisted symbols.
He didn't answer, or he didn't dare to answer.
It wasn't until his brother asked again what happened that Xiaodouzi suddenly said: "Maybe it woke up and it wanted to communicate with us."
"Who? Who is it? Who is it?!" The brother asked, looking at Xiaodouzi with a strange smile.
Xiaodouzi pointed at the symbol and said: "This is what it said. It fell asleep in this place a long time ago, and has slept for many, many years... many, many years earlier than the mountains here..."
My brother's eyelids were twitching. He looked at these strange symbols and felt that they were like living creatures.
The old man walked to the window, where he saw three human fingers.
At this time, the fingers had been worn to a pulp, and it seemed that the tools for writing these strange symbols had been found.
When the brother saw this, he hurriedly came over. He snatched the finger from the old man's hand and knew at a glance that it belonged to his younger brother.
Because my brother's fingers are very special, his index finger and middle finger are almost the same length, but at this time they were separated from their owner...
"Where is my brother?!" my brother asked.
The old man said nothing, his eyes were full of heavyness.
"Speak! Where is my brother?!" The elder brother got angry. He grabbed the old man's clothes and asked.
Xiaodouzi smiled again and answered for the old man.