Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Hearing my laughter, A Li crawled over from a nearby hole and asked, "What's going on? Did you find something?"
Suddenly, I thought of a brilliant example and teased A Li, "Have you noticed that old shop selling roasted chestnuts on our street?"
A Li pondered for a moment, and his eyes lit up. "I know! It's the one next to Noble Uncle's soup shop, right? We even went in there to catch chickens once, but the chestnut vendor's Aunt caught us and gave us a good scolding. We never went back after that."
A wave of childhood memories flooded back at A Li's words. Those carefree days spent playing with friends on the old street were some of the happiest times of my life.
However, this wasn't the time for nostalgia. I tucked away those memories and continued, "That's right! What I want isn't the Aunt but her chestnut roasting machine. Do you remember? The machine was homemade by the Aunt; its structure was quite simple—a flat-bottomed frying pan and a rectangular wooden board that could rotate mechanically. The board pushed the chestnuts toward the hot walls of the pan. As the chestnuts piled up, they would press against the walls and fall back down, only to be pushed up again by the board... This cycle continued, with the chestnuts constantly pressing against the walls and then falling back down to be stirred. Now, these stones are similar in principle."
As I spoke, I picked up a few pieces of rubble to demonstrate to A Li. "At first, we all thought these stones were carelessly discarded here while digging the cave, eventually piling up into a wall. In fact, it's quite the opposite. These stones were originally lying on the ground, but as the cave shrank and changed, they got compressed and pushed inward, just like this... However, during this process of movement, they encountered some resistance—similar to how my roasted chestnuts met the wall of the pan during their push. Now let's slow down this process."
"For convenience in description, I'll divide the chestnuts pushed by the board into four layers: near, middle, far. Initially, when the first layer of chestnuts encounters the wall's obstruction, they stick to it. Then, as the second layer pushes forward, it overtakes them and joins them on the wall to form a 'chestnut wall.' But when the third and fourth layers push through, they exert too much pressure on the first two layers, causing them to fall off the wall. At this point, the third and fourth layers take their place and reattach to the wall. The board has now completed its first cycle of work and returns to its starting point to begin again—like this... round after round in an infinite loop."
A Li quickly grasped my point. "I see what you're saying, Brother Qian Yi! You mean there's something like a 'baffle' hidden among these stones?"
"Smart!" I couldn't help but praise him. "If I'm not mistaken, our unusual emotional fluctuations must be related to this so-called 'baffle.'"
Our gazes instinctively turned toward the stone wall in front of us. Small rocks continued to tumble down with increasing frequency; it seemed that the cave's contraction was accelerating.
I said to A Li, "Time waits for no one! It looks like we won't have a chance to watch any roasted chestnuts; we need to help it by moving these stones. A Li, get ready! We don't know what this 'baffle' is—whether it's alive or dead or if it has any aggressive tendencies. Right now we have no protective gear at all; when we face it, we need to react quickly. If something feels off, we withdraw immediately!"
I looked around; the space here was truly limited, and there was nowhere to retreat. The only option was the passage we had come through, where I could temporarily hide. I called A Li to switch places with me, so I could be inside the cave while she stayed near the entrance, making it easier for her to evade danger. At first, A Li refused, but then, for some reason, she suddenly came around.
When we officially began moving the sealing stones, my heart raced uncontrollably, and my anxiety intensified. I wanted to ask A Li to wait in the side passage, but she stubbornly refused. As we bickered back and forth, I grew increasingly frustrated. In a moment of impatience, I forgot everything and snapped a few harsh words at her.
At that moment, A Li's expression changed. I vaguely realized I had made a mistake, but I couldn't control my temper. The more stones we moved, the closer we got to that 'barrier,' and my agitation grew. A nameless anger simmered within me, and I felt an overwhelming urge to vent it on anyone nearby.
Just then, A Li suddenly placed her hands on either side of my face, cradling my head. She leaned down in front of my eyes and kissed my lips.
Oh my… I can hardly describe what I felt at that moment; it was as if all the languages and words in the world were insufficient to convey even a fraction of it. It felt like I had forgotten everything—truly forgotten! My excitement peaked in an instant, and my mind went blank, like a television that suddenly lost signal, crackling with static… Oh right! There was also a current of electricity surging from my head to my toes, freezing me in place as if I couldn't do anything at all.
Even now as I write this, a jolt of electricity rushes through me again—tingling and numb—carrying with it A Li's unique fragrance.
I swear by Mao Zedong that this was my first kiss; it was my first kiss with a girl. No, more precisely, it was my first kiss with a girl wearing a gas mask.
Oh dear, let me calm myself for a moment…
After that kiss, I remained dazed for quite some time; I must have looked utterly foolish! It wasn't until A Li's shy voice gently broke through the silence: " Brother Qian Yi, I'll find another way to wake you up if you get angry again..."
In matters of love, girls tend to be braver than boys. A girl's love is passionate and proactive, while a boy's love is often tolerant and silent. Yet both are willing to make sacrifices for those they love; the only difference is that a girl's sacrifice may be for her lover's death while a boy's is for his lover's survival.
This would be profoundly validated by events that followed; however, the person for whom I sacrificed was not A Li.
Just then, there was a loud crash as the sealing stone wall we had dismantled on the second layer could no longer withstand the pressure and suddenly collapsed! What came into view was a thin layer of something glowing red that emitted a faint crackling sound.
As I carefully pasted it and took a closer look, my heart suddenly sank, and I broke out in a cold sweat. I couldn't believe that such a thing actually existed!
Comment 0 Comment Count