Chapter 342 White Nights at the Border (Happy Birthday to the Protagonist)
There was only the sound of the wind blowing on the roof, and Jing Baiye stood there without moving.
He didn't know what Spiatus was going to do. When he heard this order, he stood there at a loss.
The distance between the two was not far, and Jing Baiye was enough to see Spiatus's expression clearly - he was still smiling, his expression and posture were quite relaxed, and there was no struggle or pain like jumping off a building to find the dead.
Reason also told him that there was no need for the boss to commit suicide.
Spiatus is mature, has no mental or psychological diseases, can communicate normally all the time, has enviable wealth and power, and does not age himself. This is something that many humans dream of?
But Jing Baiye just felt inexplicably scared.
Seeing the boss standing just one step away from death, he still felt an unknown fear.
He didn't dare to blink, because he was afraid that the next moment he blinked casually, the boss would fall back, and the whole person would disappear from in front of him...
"Come here," Spiatus repeated.
This time, Jing Baiye's legs moved on their own, as if some mysterious force directly drove his body.
He walked forward step by step, and when he came to his senses, he was already standing next to Spiatus.
Spiatus raised his hand to straighten his messy hair, his fingers touched the scar on his left eye, and then he turned around and stood facing outside.
"..."
Jing Baiye raised her head to look at him. Spiatus was still wearing the black suit he wore during the performance. His skin was so pale that it was almost transparent under the night sky, and his black hair was like the flapping black wings of a crow.
He is very good-looking, and even though his face is not as young as Belmod's, it is full of another mature and mysterious charm.
"...boss?"
"Don't be afraid, I just want you to take a look at the night here..."
As Spiatus spoke, he lowered his head and looked down from a high position.
His eyes were lowered, his hands hanging naturally by his sides, the hair on his forehead almost covering his crimson eyes, his tone was gentle, and there was no expression on his face.
"As expected...I still can't see anything..."
He murmured in a low voice. This was the first time Jing Baiye saw Spiatus looking so helpless.
Powerful. Elegant. Easy-going. Steady. These words are the most common adjectives for Spiatus. He is at a loss...why does he feel at a loss?
"Can you see it?" he asked softly.
Confused, Jing Baiye looked down along his gaze, and all he saw was boundless darkness.
The location is really too high, overlooking everything, with the whole city crawling beneath my feet. Plus it's dark, so even if I have good eyesight, I can see the street lights in the distance, but they are even smaller than the glow of fireflies.
Not to mention humans, they are as small as ants that can be trampled to death at will.
At this second, Jing Baiye seemed to understand the boss's mood - he had no emotion or interest in anything below him, and would find it troublesome to even step him to death.
"Can you see?" Spiatus asked.
Jing Baiye shook his head subconsciously, but soon, he nodded again.
"You can't see it from here, but I can walk down and see." He said, "As long as we stay at the same height as them, no matter who they are, they can see clearly."
This was his first reaction - if it's too high to see, then go down and be at the same height as the person you want to see.
His answer seemed to be beyond Spiatus's expectations, but also seemed to be within his expectations.
He heard him chuckle softly: "Really..."
"Yes."
Jing Baiye said firmly that this was his personal experience.
…
That was a long time ago.
At that time, Jing Baiye was not Jing Baiye, but just No. 44 - the number on the armband issued by the training camp. The foster caretakers and other children in the training camp called him this, and he would also call others the same.
No. 44 left the training camp at the age of ten. His luggage consisted of nutritional ointment in his pocket, a gun bag about the same height as a man, and several picture albums hidden inside. He was wearing the one-piece uniform from the training camp, and he still had the armband on his arm. .
At that time, he had no name or birthday.
His teacher was a silent but powerful man who taught him and further developed his sniper abilities. After burying his first cat, he received his first mission after leaving the training camp-to go to the far north. Searches near the border.
When the teacher was talking about the task, No. 44 held the picture album he brought from the training camp and stared at one page in a daze.
"What are you looking at?" The teacher was dissatisfied that he was distracted.
"The sky in the picture album is blue." No. 44 showed the picture album to the teacher, then raised his finger and pointed to the sky, "But the sky I see with my own eyes is always black, without any light."
"...because that's not the sky, it's the only remaining barrier set up by humans to resist the outside world."
"So what does the sky really look like?"
The teacher bent down, closed the picture album and returned it to him: "I will take you to see this mission... The northernmost border barrier is weak, and you can see the sky there."
No. 44 jumped up and down with joy.
The teacher looked at him, hesitantly raised his hand, put it on his head and rubbed it gently. No. 44 was even happier, because this was the first time the teacher had been so intimate with him since he left the training camp.
On the 44th, I packed my few luggage and set off on the journey with my teacher.
The further north you go, the colder the climate and the thicker the snow. No. 44 and the teacher took a snow transport for two days.
During this period, No. 44 was so obsessed with thinking about what the real sky looked like that he almost crashed into a nearby huge glacier. Fortunately, his teacher stabilized himself in time.
On the third day, they finally arrived at the northern border.
Gu Lian
Before completely crossing that line, the teacher asked No. 44 to put on a shielding suit to avoid being discovered by outside intelligent robots.
When putting on the shielding jacket, No. 44 felt uncomfortable all over. He felt that the skin all over his body was pricked by countless small needles, and he could hardly hold the things in his hands. He was a little worried about whether he could shoot well in this state, but he The teacher behaved normally.
No. 44 was thinking about the sky, and regardless of his strange physical discomfort, he happily climbed over the border fence.
The moment he climbed over the fence, he looked up expectantly, but what he saw was still a dark sky.
Unlike inside the barrier, the sky outside the border is not completely dark. There is a little light on the horizon, and the sky is not completely dark.
But No. 44 is still very disappointed.
What he was looking forward to was a warm and bright blue sky with white clouds floating and the sun setting in the picture album, not the half-dark look in front of him.
No. 44 looked at the surrounding glaciers with disappointment, and suddenly an idea flashed - if you can't see it on the ground, then climb to a higher place, where you might be able to see a brighter sky!
Climbing is an essential skill in the training camp. No. 44 took out his portable machine and scanned it, and found that the glacier in front of him was only 1,044 meters high. He was fully capable of climbing up with bare hands.
1044 meters is beyond the range of the shielding suit. He might be discovered by the robot if he goes all the way up, but... he wants to give it a try!
No. 44 threw down the gun bag, took out a climbing tool from it and fixed it on his wrist.
He twisted his wrist, and the iron hook popped out from the front end and stuck in. He grabbed it and tried to pull it. After making sure it was completely fixed, he pushed hard on the ice with his feet, jumped to the glacier wall, and climbed up quickly.
"Number 44!!!"
His teacher shouted to him from below, but No. 44 continued climbing.
I don’t know how long he climbed, but his movements slowly slowed down. It was not because he was tired, but because he hesitated. Because he continued to climb up, the sky was still half-dark but not dark.
The teacher taught him not to give up casually, but he also said not to waste your efforts in doing things, and not to try things that are destined to fail or have no results.
No. 44 wanted to ask the teacher what to do, but when he lowered his head, he found that he could not see anything but a faint black dot smaller than an ant.
He almost forgot that his teacher was left behind. He was the only one here and he had to make his own choice.
Should we continue to climb to the top of the glacier and take a gamble on whether we can see the real blue sky; or go down and return to the teacher and accept the sky that is not completely lit up?
Different choices will bring different endings.
No. 44 was at a loss. He felt that the stinging sensation caused by the shielding suit was getting smaller and smaller. He looked at the distance above, then at the teacher below who could no longer see him, and remembered the way the teacher rubbed his hair before setting off.
.
Sure enough...teachers are more important.
Compared with the pictures in the picture album, which I don’t know whether they are true or false, the teacher who taught him during this period is more important!
No. 44 made up his mind and loosened the iron hook fixed on top - he gave up the idea of going up and decided to go back down and return to the teacher's side.
When he was still more than twenty meters above the ground, No. 44 let go of his hand.
He still fell down by himself, and rolled skillfully to relieve his force the moment he landed. As soon as he stood firm, he was hugged tightly by the teacher who rushed up.
"teacher……"
No. 44 blinked and felt some liquid fall on his face.
"Why did you come back?"
"Because the teacher is more important! Maybe the drawing in the album is wrong. The real sky is originally dark and will never light up...so I feel there is no need to continue climbing up. It would be better to go back to the teacher."
"fool……"
The teacher finally let go of him and raised his hand to touch his cheek.
"The sky will light up - the sky you see now is a natural phenomenon in which day and night coexist, and you can see the dawn in the dark night." He explained, "This phenomenon is called 'white night'."
"White night...?" No. 44 repeated this new word.
The teacher arranged the protective clothing for him: "Yes, Bai Ye...isn't that a nice name?"
…
Thinking of the ending of the first border mission, Jing Baiye couldn't help but smile.
That mission was a success. After completing the mission, the teacher took him back to the glacier he had climbed.
——"It's not appropriate to always call you No. 44. You can consider giving yourself a name."
——"Teacher, can you get one for me?"
——"No, think for yourself."
——"Well, that, uh... I thought about it, how about calling it 'Jingbaiye'? This is the northern border. I saw the real sky for the first time here, and I also learned about the white night phenomenon with a nice name."
After that, the teacher will call him "Jing Baiye".
This name he randomly chose has followed him for three lifetimes.
Jing Baiye smiled as he recalled the past, while Spiatus beside him sighed softly.
"It's a pity that I don't want to go down. I never did in the past and I won't do it in the future."
Spiatus said nothing. He raised his head and glanced at the sky above.
The night was dark, and there was only a silver moon and a few stars in the darkness. This was a complete night sky that could not illuminate anyone.
"Boss..."
"Speaking of which, I haven't wished you a happy fourteenth birthday yet... Although something happened that delayed it, it's okay to make up for it now." Spiatus smiled.
The white night is silent.
If the Panno incident had not happened, Spiatus would have come to Paris a few days after his birthday to celebrate his birthday, and would have been willing to meet Panno.