Invade the World

  Xu Xiangyang dragged the suitcase and got off the bus in a dusty manner. As soon as he left the parking place, he saw a small vendor selling roasted sweet potatoes and roasted corn in front of him.

   "Excuse me, do you know this place?"

  He took out a ball of paper from his pocket and crumpled it. On it was written "Xu Jiaming's family in Baiyue Village, Xiangping County".

  Everyone said they didn’t know each other. He went to the street and asked several shops, and finally someone was local and pointed him in the direction of Baiyue Village.

  He grabbed the lever and walked slowly towards the village.

  …

  The season has just passed the early spring, and the city is full of warmth, but there is still a bit of chill in the wind in the suburban town.

  The reason why Xu Xiangyang came here is simple: shortly after the Spring Festival holiday, his sister Li Qinglian disappeared.

  Actually, when holding a New Year's party at home, he noticed that Sister Lian's mental state was not right, and originally planned to find an opportunity to ask about it later, but Li Qinglian had already left Tianhai City a few days later.

  The description of "disappearing" is not accurate. At present, only Xu Xiangyang and his two trusted lovers think so, and he is the only one who came here to check the situation.

  Because Li Qinglian had told people around her before leaving that there was a secret job to be carried out and she would not be able to come back for a while.

  The problem is that from a certain point in time, Xu Xiangyang found that he suddenly couldn't find the whereabouts of his sister—

  Although he can't care about everyone in this world, as long as they are the people around him, Xu Xiangyang has tied the "rope" with his psychic ability.

  Theoretically speaking, as long as the subject is still on this planet, he can lock its position. In the past ten years, his ability has grown to an unprecedented level among the psychic community.

  However, just a few days ago, my sister's reaction disappeared...or in other words, it was more like being shielded by someone using the same ability to deliberately cut off the rope.

   Maybe it was deliberately luring him over? But even so, it was impossible for him not to come because it was related to his sister. The way he chose was to come with great fanfare or to come silently.

  He immediately told his wives the news. Xingjie has always been indifferent, but Qingyue seems to be interested in the former, she has other plans.

  Finally, Xu Xiangyang decided to come alone.

  Of course, no matter where he is, it is not far away to God Media, and the ends of the earth are close at hand. This is the confidence for him to act.

  Xu Xiangyang called a taxi.

   On the way to Baiyue Village, he kept looking at the note in his hand.

   "Xu Jiaming, my father's name..."

   This is a note in Sister Lian's notebook, which is the address of the home he lived in when he was a child.

  For Xu Xiangyang, this is a somewhat unfamiliar concept.

  When he was a teenager, his impression of his parents was already very vague, and now he can't remember even a single bit of memory.

  He lived with his parents before elementary school. Children of this age cannot remember very clear content, not to mention that he experienced a tragedy in his childhood. The fire buried everything, which also caused his amnesia.

  …

  After arriving at Baiyue Village, he asked for directions again. When "Xu Jiaming's family" was mentioned, only a few elderly people would respond, and they would all look at him with strange eyes.

   "Here, it's the ruins at the end of the village, you can see them at a glance. Most people don't go in that direction, young man, what are you doing there?"

  Xu Xiangyang left the village and walked into the path leading to the forest from the back mountain. The house was really conspicuous and could be seen at a glance.

  For some reason, this place has never been demolished. The house had been burned to the point that only the skeleton was left, like the skeleton of a withered and dead monster, crouching in the continuous shadows of the branches and leaves, and the whole body was blackened by the fire.

  He stepped into the door with only broken bricks and tiles, and saw a figure in black squatting in the corner.

  The sky was getting darker, approaching evening, the ruins in the forest could not see the last ray of sunset light, and the surrounding light was gloomy. This person was dressed in black from head to toe, so inconspicuous in this environment that he almost blended into the nearby shadows.

  But Xu Xiangyang noticed her immediately. After decades of being together day and night, as long as she is nearby, he can feel her breath even with his eyes closed.

   "Sister! So you are here."

  He looked surprised and walked towards Li Qinglian.

   "... Xiaoyang, you are here."

  Sister Lian's voice was hoarse and deep. When she turned her head around, Xu Xiangyang couldn't help being surprised.

  The woman's cheeks were marked with tears, and she was as pale as a ghost floating in the ruins.

  My sister was wearing a black suit, which completely matched the image he remembered from the past.

  When he was a student, from elementary school, junior high school to high school, Li Qinglian always dressed in black, except at home, she always maintained a serious and formal dress in front of others, as if deliberately trying to keep a distance from everyone.

  But since graduating from high school, my sister seems to have figured out something, and she has become more cheerful, which is also reflected in her dress.

  Xu Xiangyang knew that Li Qinglian had been suppressing herself all the time, something heavy in her heart made it difficult for her to live like an ordinary person with peace of mind—until the world around her changed drastically and certain problems were no longer problems.

  But today, Sister Lian is obviously different. She changed back to the gloomy look before, and... put on black clothes.

  “When I was a policeman, people always asked me why I was always wearing formal clothes. Are you tired? In fact, they all made a mistake.” My sister said, “I always wear mourning clothes.”

   "Mourning clothes, whose?" Xu Xiangyang deliberately pretended not to understand, "Did anyone die in the village?"

  Li Qinglian did not speak, but pointed in front of her.

  He saw that in front of Sister Lian was a marigold with a blackened case, the embers left after the paper money was burned.

  In the two photos, there is a pair of men and women with gentle smiles.

  Xu Xiangyang couldn't recognize the appearance, but his instinct had already told him the answer.

  Thinking about it carefully, now I am not a few years away from this age, Xu Xiangyang said to himself in his heart, and their time has been frozen at this moment in advance.

   already looks like a stranger...

  But the moment I saw their faces, there was indeed something that had been forgotten deep in my heart welling up in one breath, and this emotion was real.

  There is a sour feeling flowing in the corner of the eye. He obviously thinks he is a mature and stable adult, but the impulse at this moment belongs to a child who is not deeply involved in the world.

  Xu Xiangyang was silent. He then squatted down and used a lighter to burn the unused paper money as a sacrifice.

  The ruins left by the fire were quiet, with the eerie evening wind blowing behind them.

   "Do you still remember that sudden coma when you were a sophomore in high school?"

  Li Qinglian watched him quietly from the sidelines, and suddenly asked a seemingly irrelevant question.

   "Huh?" Xu Xiangyang thought for a while, "Is it the time when we rescued Qingyue from the haunted house?"

   "Do you still remember what you saw before you fell into a coma that day?"

   "...I almost forgot about it myself. Could it be that my sister knows?"

"I'm not an insider, but I've been doubting to the point where I have to give up. In fact, I have given up for a long time. Compared with being suspicious, watching my dear brother grow up is obviously more valuable things..." Li Qinglian showed pain, took a deep breath, and tapped her temples with her curled fingers, "—until recently, that feeling started to become stronger again."

   "Xiaoyang, that's not the first time you fainted. The last time you passed out was when you were in elementary school..."

  Li Qinglian looked at him in a daze, as if caught in some kind of memory and couldn't extricate herself, her body began to shake.

  Xu Xiangyang frowned, he reached out and grabbed his sister's arm in time, helping her to avoid falling down.

   "My amnesia?"

   "Amnesia, and the fire that killed your parents."

  Li Qinglian's complexion became even paler. Xu Xiangyang noticed that her sister's fingernails had been firmly pinched into the flesh, and blood was flowing from between her fingers.

  He sighed lightly, stretched out his palm and gently wrapped his sister's tightly clenched fingers.

   "The reason why I wear mourning clothes is not to commemorate, but simply to never forget the events of that day. I am forcing myself..."

  The woman's ponytail was untied at some point, and most of the loose hair fell to her shoulders. When she spoke, her tone was like a dream.

   "I know that Sister Lian has a very good relationship with my parents."

  Xu Xiangyang responded in a low voice.

   "Yes, the couple treated me very well. But it's only one of the reasons, and the other... is because of you."

  Li Qinglian finally seemed unable to support her body, and fell softly into the man's arms. She pressed her forehead against his shoulder and forced a smile.

"I adopted you out of guilt. It was only later that I realized one thing: when I watched you grow up and realized that you were by my side no matter what happened, I I will never forget that guilt..."

  Xu Xiangyang just listened and didn't speak.

   In fact, right now he is feeling overwhelmed.

  Because, it was the first time for Xu Xiangyang to see Sister Lian in such a fragile manner.

  In the past, she made people feel at ease no matter when she was serious and serious, or when she was fighting and fighting without the majesty of an adult.

  "An adult worth relying on" is the best adjective for Sister Lian in Xu Xiangyang's mind, and it is also the first impression for the juniors who are close to her—Lin Xingjie and Zhu Qingyue.

  Since then, Li Qinglian's image has never changed in the eyes of the few of them. Even her appearance has not changed much. The passage of time seems to have never left traces on this woman.

  However, there are no eternal people and things in this world.

  Until this time, Xu Xiangyang realized that the reason why the "sister" in his eyes has not changed may be because he has never been able to see the real her...

  Li Qinglian's mental state is not very good, she is repeatedly saying the word "guilt"; but hearing Xu Xiangyang's ears, he only feels that the person who should feel guilty should be himself.

  No closeness, no touch, no...real understanding.

  The only thing Xu Xiangyang can do is to fold his arms and hug her tightly.

   Li Qinglian in her arms was trembling. She is no longer the reliable elder sister who used to support her small two-person family and shelter him from the wind and rain when his parents died when he was still young, but just a woman.

  A confused and vulnerable woman tormented by nightmares from her past.

   "Now that I think about it, I might have caused the fire that day... because I opened the door that day."

   "Sister, don't think so."

   "No, I have been lying to you... There is one more thing I haven't told you, Xiaoyang... In fact, the people who died in that fire were not only your parents... but also..."

Ok?

  Xu Xiangyang was stunned.

   "Wait, sister, what did you just say?"

But at this time, Li Qinglian obviously couldn't hear his words. She was lying in her brother's arms, holding his collar tightly with one hand. The woman's eyes were fixed on the sky, as if she was looking at someone who didn't exist, who didn't exist. who exists.

"That person...do you remember? The child you used to play with when you were a child, and you talked about her all day. I never met her, but I know, you were with her that afternoon together, but I failed to rescue her..."

"-Do you remember?"

  Xu Xiangyang didn't answer.

  The reason why he didn't answer is that he can't say a word at all now, and he only feels goosebumps all over his back.

Remember?

   What a joke, of course he doesn't remember anything!

  He took a deep breath to keep himself from losing his cool.

  He waited patiently until his sister's mood gradually returned to calm before asking the truth from her mouth.

  Xu Xiangyang's heart has been filled with curiosity and doubts.

  Since he awakened his ability in high school, he has always felt that there is a specialness in himself, and this "speciality" is related to the secret of the past. He didn't have any evidence, just his intuition drove him to think this way.

   Therefore, when he grew up, he looked through his files more than once, trying to find clues.

   With Zhu Qingyue and Lin Xingjie around, there was no secret about all this in front of him, but in the end, Xu Xiangyang couldn't find anything.

  And, my sister must have done the same thing, and started earlier than herself; and judging from what she said just now, she also gained nothing.

But.

But…!

   "It turns out that the secret really exists."

  Xu Xiangyang muttered to himself.

  Who is the "that person" that my sister said?

  Played with me when I was young, in other words, was it his childhood playmate, childhood sweetheart?

  If the other party was really a victim in the fire, his parents and family members would definitely come to him. Naturally, my sister would not be unaware of this matter, and it is impossible for him to find any clues.

  Even if the guess is a bit outrageous, the other party is an orphan in the mountains, and no one in the village has ever known her existence, so it is impossible not to leave traces on the scene——

  Besides, the only person Li Qinglian rescued from the fire was Xu Xiangyang.

  The more Xu Xiangyang thought about it, the more incredible he felt.

   At this time, the sky was completely dark. The house he used to live in, the place that was burned to ruins by the fire, was completely submerged in the dark ocean, and the surrounding environment became invisible.

  Only the strange sound of wind lingers in my ears.

  He narrowed his eyes and looked somewhere, and suddenly patted the shoulder of the woman in his arms.

   "Sister Lian, Sister Lian."

"Ok?"

  Li Qinglian seemed to have calmed down, but she was still curled up in his arms, as if she was nostalgic for the warmth in the man's arms, unwilling to get up.

   "Sister, can you let go of your hand?"

   "No, I don't want to get up... You just let me lean on for a while, can't you? It's really useless to raise you up..."

  She complained in a low voice, her tone could be said to be coquettish.

  Xu Xiangyang naturally doesn't mind hugging his sister all the time, but the problem is...

   "Sister, I'm sorry, I seem to see something strange."

   "..."

   "Sister, you said you once opened a door—"

   he whispered.

   "Is it this one?"

  …

  The body of the woman in her arms froze.

  Li Qinglian slowly, slowly, in an extremely stiff posture, turned her head and looked back.

  In the shadows, in the ruins of any buildings that could not have appeared, a door was established.

  As if some kind of "foreign object" is showing its sense of existence carelessly, this door has nothing to lean on, and it just stands majestically in the open space.

  Most of the red paint on the door has peeled off, there is no door handle, only a hole that looks like a keyhole, but the internal metal structure is gone, leaving only a hole.

"don't want…"

  Li Qinglian's breathing suddenly became rapid, and then, there was a cry from the depths of her heart:

   "Don't open...don't open that door!"

  —That day is back!

   returned to her side...

   Right in front of her eyes, right in front of her eyes!

Li Qinglian's consciousness once again fell into the fear of being overwhelmed. Her hands scratched in vain, and finally she could only hold on to the man's collar; Make a short inhalation sound of "ho ho", almost suffocating at this moment.

  The moment she saw this door, all the sleeping memories were awakened, and Li Qinglian almost thought that she had returned to that day again.

  …But this time, she wasn't alone.

  Xu Xiangyang patted his sister's trembling back gently and tenderly like coaxing a child.

   "Don't be afraid, sister. Don't be afraid."

   he whispered.

   "This time, I'm with you."