Zheng Qing was the last to leave the Sakura Tavern.
Before him, feeling the subtle atmosphere in the air, Xiao Xiao and Fatty Xin had already slipped away in advance by "washing hands" and left the trouble to their captain and the owner of the tavern.
Zheng Qing plans to work hard again.
"A few days ago, I had a very bad dream..."
He described his dream in detail—from the dry crows hanging on the eagle rack, to the crazy dancing prayers, to the huge claws falling from the sky, and his former magic biology teacher Gan Ning—until he recalled all this, he suddenly realized that everything in the dream was so vivid, as if it had happened a few minutes ago.
This made his heart sank slightly.
What the doctor once said suddenly flashed through my mind - the scene where he witnessed him in a dream may have been carefully disguised. Only false dreams can remember clearly after waking up.
“It’s a very interesting dream.”
Colma's voice brought the boy to his senses. He looked at the witch behind the bar in surprise, but found that she was tilting her head, staring at the glass in her hand and the apple juice swaying slightly in the cup.
When she noticed the witch's gaze, she did not look up, but raised her cup and changed her tone: "...But for the students of Jiuyou Academy, it is not uncommon to have bad dreams. The endless homework assigned by the professors and endless experiments are like a terrifying nightmare mountain, which will inevitably appear in everyone's dreams every night. What's more, as far as I know, you have taken thirty courses this semester. Tsk, if there were so many classes on my schedule back then, I would definitely have bad dreams every night."
"There are no thirty gates, only twenty-eight gates." Zheng Qing murmured and corrected in a low voice, but compared to before, his tone now seemed a little weak.
"When did you have a nightmare?" Colma seemed to be interested at this time.
Zheng Qing made a simple calculation in his heart: "Last Tuesday...the night I went back from you. Well, that's right, the next morning was a magic history, and our history class was Wednesday."
"Last Tuesday, that's the day when you drew the 'reverse tower'."
The witch murmured, as if she was feeling something. She suddenly turned her head and looked out the window. After a while, she spoke again: "The appearance of the reverse tower does not convey real destruction, but just the fear of destruction in our hearts. Fear comes from all aspects. For ordinary wizards, dreams are the most harmful, because many people cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality, the difference between false and truth. You think you see the future, but in fact you see hallucinations; you think you see the reality, but in fact you see falsehood; you think you are afraid of you... It is a very unhealthy choice to anchor cognition in dreams."
She withdrew her gaze, looked at the boy, and said seriously: "Even I don't dare to believe my eyes easily now. When I just became a great wizard, I felt that the whole world was so clear, the context was so obvious, and the truth was so within reach... It seems that as long as I go step by step in the order of things development, I can reach a bright future... But now, I won't be so confident."
"But you saved the North District Wizard and established the Fringe Academy!" Zheng Qing couldn't help but defend her in a low voice.
Colma had a strange smile on her face.
“Did I establish the Fringe Academy?”
She asked softly, her fingertips gently tapping on the glass wall, and the crisp sound echoed in the room, which contrasted with her slightly confused voice: "North District Wizard, do you need me to save them?"
Speaking of this, she simply put down the cup in her hand, raised her arm and drew a big circle in the air: "...Do you know how big the world is? Do you know how tall a real master is?
There are legends above the great wizards, existences outside the starry sky, and ancient people. Their figures spread from the distant eternity to the invisible future, and weaving countless possibilities with timelines.
We do not have the ability to see the truth.
Every possibility and every future we see is the aftermath of the fight between those big men, or the result of the compromise between the big men... When you are small, little by little, the whole world seems to be so kind; but when you grow up and start to try to be independent, the cold and realistic side of the world will slowly appear in front of you. The older you grow, the further you see, the more you can feel how great those great figures are, how deep those dark colors are... The more you see and the more you understand, the more you will be awe... Awe creates distance, distance makes people cold and indifferent, and makes you slowly begin to be indifferent."
This last passage made Zheng Qing feel breathless.
"Do you know those wizards in the North District will die?" His tone was filled with a hint of shock and confusion.
The witch looked at him calmly: "Everyone will die, sooner or later."
"Who killed them?" the boy asked.
“Is there any difference?”
After the witch asked back, she picked up the cup and drank the juice on her own: "... By the way, I'm not crazy about putting away all the things like Qingxin Talisman and Evil-Repelling Talisman you secretly took out."
At this point when the dialogue went on, Zheng Qing realized that today's visit was a mistake - in his impression, Colma was never a fatalist.
At least, she would never say such irresponsible words as ‘Does the wizard in the North need me to save it?’
Something must be wrong.
He stuffed the talisman he had just found into the gray cloth bag, stood up, seemed to remember something, and asked suddenly: "You turned around and looked outside... Did you see something?"
Colma raised her eyebrows slightly, with an unanimous expression on her face.
"Maybe."
She vaguely looked at the young wizard in front of her, and finally sighed: "What's the difference between seeing or not seeing it? Those who die will die in the end, and those who live will continue to live in the end. Sometimes, being too keen is not a good thing... and it doesn't make any sense."
Zheng Qing thought about it, silently pulled out Colt, stuffed the talisman bullets into the nest one by one, just in case, he pressed into the last one.
During this period, the owner of the Sakura Tavern kept looking at him quietly, neither laughing nor stopping him.
Before leaving the door.
Zheng Qing finally looked back at the owner of the tavern.
Colma sat behind the bar, her tall figure shrouded in the deep shadow of the wine kitchen, looking a little blurred and distorted. He burst into tears, subconsciously retracted his gaze, and hurriedly left the courtyard of No. 33 Gudiao Street.
There was something wrong with Colma, and it was the only thought in his mind.