Chapter 1 Nordic Mythology, The Giant Shadow of Childhood

Author: Yuluo Evening Bell

Chapter 1 Nordic Mythology, The Giant Shadow of Childhood

Xia Mingwei fell asleep in the movie theater.

Close your eyes, accompanied by the long music of the movie, the roar of the big scene, the sporadic laughter and discussion, your consciousness slowly falls into sleep.

The world in the dream seemed to be very close at hand, but had nothing to do with him at all. It was as if an exquisite stage play was being staged in some ancient and distant village, and he was just an audience sitting far away.

He didn't sleep deeply.

These noisy sounds were like a hand, tugging and pulling his consciousness back and forth between dreams and reality.

He was in a fragile equilibrium point, but somehow his mind was very clear, as if he was overlooking his subconscious self from the sea, watching the dream work.

Relying on these tiny sounds, his subconscious weaves scenes that match them in his dreams.

Even though his eyes were closed, the faint light that seeped into his eyelids was still colorful but hazy and gray, like a beam of dim sunlight shining into the deep, silent sea.

The changing colors are like meandering yarns that gradually gather into a ball of yarn in the sea. As the lines become more and more numerous and messy, the knitted yarn ball becomes larger and larger.

Then, it dissipated in an instant, completely dispersing, as if thousands of feet of light fell together to the deepest part of the sea, swallowing up this vast ocean.

Suddenly there was a burning sensation in his neck, and he slowly raised his heavy eyelids.

Xia Mingwei woke up.

He cast his gaze forward, and the screen kept sliding out the list of producers. The movie ended, and it was time to end. The LED lights in the screening room were turned on, and the incandescent light pierced his eyelids, making him unable to help himself.

Narrowed his eyes.

"Dad, did you see it just now?" A girl whispered next to him, "When this big brother was sleeping, his neck suddenly lit up..."

"Hey, my good daughter, please stop making trouble. I don't want the popcorn before I finish it. Your mother will be cooking later."

Xia Mingwei propped up his swollen forehead with his hand and turned his head in a daze.

What came into view was a girl in school uniform. Her smart eyes were looking this way, and she was whispering something to the middle-aged man next to her.

After seeing Xia Mingwei wake up, the girl covered her face in fright, opened her eyes wide, and stared at him through the gap between her fingers:

"Ah...Dad, his neck suddenly stopped shining."

"I'm sorry, the little girl is ignorant." The middle-aged man smiled at Xia Mingwei, then picked up the briefcase, took the girl's immature hand, and the two quickly left the screening room.

…what’s wrong with my neck?

After watching the two people leave in confusion, Xia Mingwei stretched out his right hand and rubbed his neck. There was still a trace of the burning sensation just now, and his skin was ridiculously hot.

"Ding."

The phone vibrated and a beep sounded.

Xia Mingwei took out his mobile phone from his bag. The time was five o'clock in the afternoon, and a text message popped up from the top of the interface.

——[Boss: I have something to do today, come and look at the store for me.]

He picked up his schoolbag and left. His bony fingers quickly typed out the words and clicked send.

——[Xia Mingwei: I'll be right back.]

After Xia Mingwei sent the message, he slowly walked out of the empty screening hall. The hallway of the theater was illuminated with orange lights and filled with the smell of disinfectant, as if it had just been cleaned.

After walking out of the dull theater, fresh air hit his mouth and nose. He looked up at the sky. The setting sun was about to dip below the horizon and was slowly taking away the light that was shining on the earth. The distant airplane clouds passed through the ashes of the sunset.

People came and went on the pale yellow streets, and traffic flowed like a dragon. During the rush hour of getting off work and school, even the elevated corridors above the highway were crowded with people.

This city is Huanjing, the capital of China, and the flow of people is naturally unmatched by other places.

The person who sent me the message just now is the owner of a coffee shop.

Xia Mingwei is seventeen years old.

When he was fourteen years old, his boss adopted him without a father and mother, and let him live in the attic of a coffee shop. The place was a little rough, but the boss treated him well, and his life in the past few years was not bad.

After walking for a while, he passed through the bustling crowd and arrived at a coffee shop located in a remote corner of the city.

Stopping outside the store, I heard soothing piano music - the boss liked Bach very much, and the "Aria on the G String" that has remained unchanged for thousands of years is still playing in the store today.

Pushing open the wooden door with the "Open" sign, the afterglow of the setting sun fell into the store, illuminating the oil paintings framed in mahogany frames and the empty old wooden tables and chairs.

The boss is very particular about style. The shop door, chairs and tables in the shop are all made by himself.

Fortunately, there were no customers yet, so Xia Mingwei breathed a sigh of relief.

Turning his eyes away, the glass of the coffee grinder reflected his cheek. It was a delicate and beautiful face, but the indifference between his eyebrows and eyes gave him a sense of distance.

At this moment, the boss was wearing an apron and wiping cups with a towel behind the counter. He seemed to recognize Xia Mingwei just by the sound of footsteps. He didn't even raise his head and asked directly:

"Are you still getting used to the new school?"

"I'm still used to it." Xia Mingwei looked at the table at the end. The boss had already prepared dinner for him - curry rice with seasonings and a cup of steaming coffee.

He put down his schoolbag, sat on a chair, and took a sip of coffee.

"It's good if you can get used to it. Your grades have been good since you were a child. Don't relax when you get to the new school."

"Yes, I will."

The boss suddenly raised his head, saw Xia Mingwei's bandaged right hand, and asked angrily:

"What's wrong with your kid's right hand?"

"It's nothing, I just got scratched while cutting the fruit."

"You just scratched the back of your hand and put a bandage on it?"

"Uh...just to be conservative."

"You're more reliable than this when you say you didn't buy a band-aid." The boss sighed: "Anyway, don't fight about that in school in the future, and don't fight with others. You don't want to transfer to another school, right?"

As he spoke, he put the cleaned cup into the basket and scratched his black hair helplessly.

Originally, the boss's hair was almost white. Some time ago, Xia Mingwei worked a part-time job while going to school and earned some money, so he took him to the barber shop to dye his hair black.

Xia Mingwei took a sip of coffee and said softly: "It wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't transfer to another school. You worry too much."

"What kind of commotion happened before? You can't calm down when your classmates talk about it."

"I just discussed it with them."

"Then he got into a fight and ended up in the hospital?"

Xia Mingwei didn't speak, just lowered his eyes and ate his meal quietly.

"You kid is good at everything, but you just can't think about it." The boss pushed up his reading glasses and murmured:

"As I said, it was an earthquake. It's so big and yet..."

"Just an earthquake?" Xia Mingwei interrupted, "Then everyone in the town died, and I was the only one left?"

"There is nothing we can do about man-made disasters and natural disasters."

"I don't think so. That kind of rhetoric can only be used to deceive children."

Xia Mingwei put down the cup, losing all appetite.

In the winter eight years ago, a small village near Huanjing was hit by a natural disaster, and all the buildings were razed to the ground.

The official statement was that a local earthquake caused a mudslide. A nearby mountain happened to be on fire, and the mudslides and fire affected villages and towns.

And Xia Mingwei happened to be the only survivor of this disaster.

He was still young then, only nine years old.

To this day, he still deeply remembers the early morning of that day. The mountains and the earth showed a dim blue, as if intertwined with the pale snow to form an ethereal and transparent picture. The morning sun rose slowly, and the snow was cool under the sun.

The earth burned, the world faded from the dead dark blue, and the background color of the sky gradually turned white.

In that village and town surrounded by mountains and snow and fog, Xia Mingwei went to the market with his parents.

But suddenly, every stall and every face in the market was shrouded in shadows that covered the sky and the sun.

At that moment, all the sunlight falling on the town was swallowed up, just because the town encountered something higher than the mountain.

The young Xia Mingwei raised his head, widened his eyes, and stared blankly towards the other side of the mountain.

It was a giant with fire all over its body. It stood behind a mountain. Its huge body was obscured by the mountain fog, and only its head and broad shoulders were visible.

The giant stood condescendingly, overlooking the town with his scarlet eyes.

Its face with its back to the sun was shrouded in gloomy shadows, and its huge erected pupils shone brightly in the darkness. Its face was as ferocious as the king of evil spirits on the eighteenth floor of hell, and as aloof as the king who ruled the world, just like

Pangu, the creator of the world in Chinese mythology, Zeus, the supreme god who rules all things in the world, in Greek mythology, and Odin, the creator of the earth and mankind in Nordic mythology.

Its slightly raised shoulders were like a vast curtain, almost completely covering the sky of the town. The whole world was obscured by the sudden deep shadow, and not even a ray of light could penetrate. It seemed like day and night.

Suddenly changed.

It just moved its legs slightly, which was enough to set off a deafening sound of cracking in the air, and then the white mist and falling snow in the mountains were shaken. Even the sky trembled and the mountains cracked.

The scorching wind howled and swept across the land.
To be continued...