Little Mushroom

"I am willing to take up arms for human security."

"I will try every fellow fairly."

"Although wrong, it is still correct."

Polly read the words slowly.

"The trial court vowed," he said.

Ann froze. He had heard the last word of this vow.

After spitting out the two blood, his body became lighter, his senses gradually became dull, and the strong winter wind blew on his face, but he no longer made him cold and trembling. It was an empty ethereal spirit, as if he would Dissipated in the wind. He supported his body again, leaning on the railing and looking down at the two badges.

The hexagonal badge is engraved with a pattern, and the trial court is marked by two crossed prismatic cross-shaped stars, like an icon indicating the direction on the map. The cross stars indicating north, south, west, and east are slightly larger, and the corners of the stars in the south are lower and longer, showing a shape similar to the cross. The northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest biased dorsal star is slightly smaller, hidden under the positive doji.

An Zhe has watched this angular shape more than once. The dark silver cold texture, sharp star corners, and straight lines all reveal the stunning killing and justice.

Polly's finger rubbed across the surface of Doji, and he may have traced its shape more than once. The emblem's pattern had deep marks of wear.

"Its artwork was drawn by a colleague of mine." In the howling cold wind, Polly looked at the distant night sky: "We hope that the cross star points the right direction for humanity."

"Are you ... not a fusion scientist?" He whispered.

"I am." Polly said.

His tone was very light, like a sigh: "I am the leader of the fusion faction and the founder of the trial court. The fusion faction is the predecessor of the trial court."

An Zhe suddenly remembered that in the long corridor of the trial court, the portrait of each generation of judges lined up with the date of birth and death, but the photo frame at the end was removed, and the name and date of birth and death were also scraped away. Only one vague letter "P" is left. It was the record of the first judge, but for no reason was erased by later people.

The northern base is a place of mixed races. He doesn't know which language is the transliteration of the two words Polly, but he can spell out the approximate word "polly" with letters.

However, in his impression, the beliefs of the fusion faction and the trial court were completely different. One hoped that humans and monsters could merge safely, while one mercilessly killed all fusion aliens who tried to enter the base. These two are completely different, he wondered to the point where he didn't know where to ask. Polly: "That was an accident."

An Zhe heard many people tell the history of the base. Those calm narratives were like limited-light lights. He held the lights to illuminate every corner of the dark room, so that he could piece together the whole picture of the room.

"It seems that whether you can keep your will after infection depends only on probability. But we still believe that everything in nature can be traced, but we have limited ability and have not seen the laws. Our research has been going on in that field Deeper and deeper and deeper, "said Polly, closing his eyes slightly, and looming pain appeared in his look:" An experimental body's body split into two halves for unexplainable reasons, But there was a unified consciousness. Half of them escaped from the laboratory and the other half remained in the observation room. Because it seemed to be there all the time, we did not find the anomaly in time-the escaped half caused terrible disaster. "

Anzhe knew the disaster, and a leech contaminated the water supply of the entire outer city.

"The outer city is fully exposed, and the base must identify aliens and humans and clear them in time. The fusion faction is the culprit of this disaster. However, it is us who are most familiar with the differences between monsters, aliens and humans when studying infection and mutation." Bo Lee Dao.

Suddenly, An Zhe understood that the Trial Chamber was not originally a military institution in the first place, it belonged to the lighthouse.

"All the experimental projects were suspended, the samples were destroyed, and the experimental bodies were killed, but the base still gave the fusion party a chance to redeem. We set up a trial court overnight, worked out the trial rules, and tried the entire city. In that ten days, we killed half of the base Population. "Polly slowly said," The infection was controlled, and the purity of human genes was preserved. Later-the trial system continued like this. The catastrophic disaster encountered at the Virginia base proved its correctness. . "

"I have been a ten-year integrationist and a four-year judge." Polly slowly said this sentence, and his face seemed to have a smile, but the smile was more like a silent cry: "My original intention It is for everyone to have a peaceful life, but they are killing their compatriots every day. Every day in these fourteen years, my sins are deeper. "

An Zhe said, "But you also protected the base."

"No." Polly said, "I kill innocent people every day."

An Zhe defended him: "You have made detailed rules and act in accordance with the rules, and you will not kill innocent people."

Polly's answer thundered in general.

"No trial rules," he said lightly.

An Zhe's expression was blank for a second. He couldn't digest the content of the sentence, and said hardly, "Didn't ...?"

"To be exact, there are no detailed rules for determining heterogeneity." Polly's voice was like sighing: "We use our life's research results to formulate the rules of trial, from all aspects-appearance, movement and thinking, through the difference of biological information to the outside world. Reflection can be used to determine its type, but it cannot be guaranteed to be absolutely correct. In fact, the detailed rules can only determine 80% of the alien species. The remaining 20% ​​can only rely on experience and intuition, and ... The scope of execution, rather than kill by mistake. "

"The first iron rule of true trial rules is that under no circumstances can it be disclosed to the outside world. We do not really follow the rules, and the trial court always leaves room for manslaughter for absolute security." Bo Lee's voice gradually diminished: "When I was stationed at the outer city gate, whenever I executed a life, 80% of it might be a true alien, and 20% knew that he was very likely to be a real human. However, for the sake of insurance, it was shot directly. And among those 80% of the aliens, one in 10,000 may have human consciousness, and 65.5% may be restored to human consciousness again after many years. "

His voice faded: "I can hardly recall those four years."

An Zhe imagined such a scene, he imagined that he would also become a judge.

He said, "So you left the base?"

"I can't compete with the pain in my heart. In the war between humans and aliens, I didn't hold on to the end." Polly looked up at the night sky, and after a long silence, he said: "At first, I was suffering because of killing my fellow men, and then later Even the death of different species made me unbearable. I spent too much time with them, knowing that every monster has its own life. I was covered with blood and was a guilty person. Later, I betrayed the base with several colleagues. I came to the Highland Institute to continue the research of the fusion school. We accepted the alien species and I have been atonement for myself all my life. It has been a hundred years now. "

a hundred years.

Ann stared at Polly with a doubtful expression.

Seeming to understand his doubts, Polly smiled: "I have lived too long."

"In the wild, the most inevitable thing is infection." Polly rolled up his sleeve corners, and there was a black messy pattern on the skin of his right arm: "I was infected by a member of the institute by accident. I left them before I lost consciousness. "

"But maybe I was awake because the person who infected me was awake, or maybe the probability visited me, and I woke up." Speaking here, Polly smiled: "I thought it had only passed a few seconds, but it has actually passed For decades, my consciousness seemed to travel through time and space in a moment. Can you guess where I am? "

Ann shook his head.

"I'm still in the research institute." Polly said, "They recovered me. Even though I was an unconscious monster at that time, they didn't give up. I once protected them, so they also protected me. Emotions between human beings That's it, you get what you give. In this age, trust between human beings is more precious than life, but I get it. "

An Zhe looked at Polly's eyes in a gentle and peaceful expression. Until then, he did not understand why there was such a deep relationship between Polly and the members of the institute.

"I don't regret leaving the base, but I can never forgive myself for escape and incompetence." Finally, Polly said.

An Zhe said, "Because of your high moral character."

After thinking about it, he said, "Because you are too kind."

Polly loved everyone so much that he felt that pain. If in peaceful times, he must be a man who would not even kill an ant-such a person would have to raise a gun at his fellow men.

"Kindness ... Kindness is the most significant weakness of human beings." Polly said: "Kindness to myself is the starting point of selfish desire, and kindness to others is the cause of shaken belief. Judge."

The words fell, and they remained silent for a long time.

Thinking of Polly, An Zhe frowned slightly, he remembered someone.

"But one of the judges said a word to me," An Zhe said softly. "The source of the judge's faith is not indifference, but kindness. It's not kindness to individuals, but kindness to the fate of humanity as a whole. If we firmly believe that human interests are above all else, we will not waver. "

Polly looked at him and said gently: "How can I believe unwaveringly?"

"If it wasn't for everyone," he said word by word, "how can we dedicate our lives to the benefit of humanity as a whole?"

An Zhe froze.

His fingers trembling slightly trembled, and he finally knew why every time he faced Polly, he always remembered Lu Yan, who was very different from Polly.

Polly closed his eyes, his voice hoarse: "This is the cause of all the suffering of the judge."

"Abandoning humanity, killing innocents indefinitely, and eventually being executed by the base. Or staying awake and finally going crazy because of unbearable pain. These are the only two destinations for the judge." Polly said slowly, "The" Details The moment the formulation is completed, they are destined to die. "

An Zhe couldn't describe his feeling at that moment, he couldn't breathe and looked at the cross star badge in his hand.

"If ... if there is a judge," he said, "for many years he has been awake and kept at the gate, and his judgment has never been wrong ..."

He suddenly understood something, his voice trembling: "No one doesn't hate him, because other judges only kill dozens of people every year, he has thousands of them. Actually ... it's not because he particularly likes shooting, because By shooting, he can minimize assassinations. "

He understood, he finally understood. He fought a cold war and asked Polly: "What kind of person would he be?"

Polly's answer was beyond his imagination.

"He's a lonely person," he said.

Something fell suddenly, and the boulder rolled down and hit Anzhe's heart.

He could not speak for a long time, until Polly asked, "What are you thinking?"

"I ..." The fog rose before An Zhe's eyes: "I was thinking ... I was thinking ..."

He was thinking about Lu Yan.

He used to think that Lu Yan was indifferent, and he once acknowledged that Lu Yan was firm. He knew that for the destiny of humanity, the colonel could give his life. He also knew that Lu Yan would suffer, and there would be loneliness, but until today he did not know what an unimaginable beast rooted in his heart.

He once said that he knew Lu Yan, but it wasn't until this moment—he was thousands of miles away from Lu Yan, and he would never meet again.

"I know who the judge you said is, Tang Lan mentioned it to me many times. If I can, I really want to see him." Polly said.

"He ..." Holding the badge firmly in his palm, Anzhe's tears finally fell. "He has been a judge for seven years and has killed many people ... everyone hates him."

"But he is good to me," he smiled, but his eyes were hot and his nose was red. "In fact, he is good to everyone."

"You say you're a downright monster," Polly said. "But as a judge, I haven't noticed the difference between you and humans. What about the judge?"

"He can't be sure." An Zhe's fingers trembled slightly, and he looked at the distant mountains. "When he first met, he let me go."

"Sir," he said, "if the judges let go of a alien for the first time, would they let it go for the second time?"

Polly just looked at him gently.

"He also let me go a second time, he let me go many times." An Zhe said, "Later, he knew I was a different species."

"But ..." What he wanted to say, but couldn't say anything, his heart was held tightly by one hand, and he wanted to get rid of this imprisonment that couldn't escape, but couldn't.

"I'm sorry ..." He confirmed that he couldn't say a complete sentence at all and said intermittently: "I ... want to think of him, I want to cry."

Polly held him in his arms: "Don't cry, boy."

"Live," he said, "you will meet him again."

"I won't meet him anymore," An Zhe grabbed Polly's arm, like grabbing the last life-saving straw on the stormy sea of ​​emotions. He couldn't stop his eyes from crying any more, and finally shivered and closed Put it on it and rest his forehead on Polly's shoulder: "I'd rather ... I'd never met him."

"why?"

An Zhe couldn't say anything.

"You can say anything to me, boy." Polly murmured, "You don't have to fool me, you don't have to fool yourself."

An Zhe choked his throat, and he cried even more. He didn't understand human kinship, but facing Polly, he seemed to understand it again. He looks like a kind father, a loving priest, or a tolerant God. He kneels in the temple of Jehovah, and can confess everything like any ordinary man. But he is not facing any other person or God. It is to himself.

"I ..." He opened his mouth, his body trembling with severe pain, his mind was blank, and he finally crossed the emotional barrier and blurted out: "I want to see him ..."

"I want to see him." He repeated the sentence almost arrogantly: "I want to see him, sir, I want to see him. I don't regret that I left him, but I ... I regret it."

"I know ... I know." Polly patted his back gently, comforting him.

"You don't know ..." An Zhe said, his words were contradictory, his emotions were torn into pieces, and the sorrow drowned his soul like the ocean. If the pain of this ubiquitous thought kills him, he No surprises.

"I've lived for decades more than you, boy." Polly said, "you are young and don't know too much."

"I ..." An Zhe looked up blankly, he could not refute, and had no intention of arguing, there was indeed something stagnating in his chest, and he couldn't grasp and couldn't see clearly, but he could not describe it.

He glanced over Polly's shoulder, looking at the endless night sky, and murmured, "I don't know ... what?"

Alas.

In the brief silence, Anzhe heard his heartbeat. He suddenly had a hunch, and what Polly would say next might change his life.

He heard Polly's breathing.

"You don't know." In the silence, Polly said, "You love him."

An Zhe opened her eyes wide.

As the sky changes, the aurora changes, and the dark green light resembles a rolling tide. It goes from the south to the north, dissipates, and then regenerates.

He shivered violently.

Strong intuition struck his soul like a meteor hit the ground, and the light reflected everything in this world. He didn't actually know what those three words meant, but he knew it was right.

He was completely dumbfounded, forgetting even his sadness, and stared at the aurora in the distance. Until Polly let him go and wiped the tears on his face with a handkerchief.

"But why am I doing this?" He murmured.

Before he could answer, he was embroiled in another more pressing question.

"So ... then will he love me?" He looked at Polly almost imploringly: "Does he also love me? I'm just ... a alien."

"Did he say anything to you?"

Ann shook his head, and the relationship between them was terrible for a short time. He said, "But he kissed me."

But he didn't know the meaning of that kiss. On that day, the power of words was too pale, and they could only do that.

"You're alive." Polly said, "Did he let you go?"

"I left him. He has always been a qualified judge. I know he won't let me go." An Zhe slowly said, "I just wanted to leave him and find a place to die. But his gun I fell in my backpack before I could return to the abyss. "

"His gun landed in your backpack?" Polly repeated the sentence.

An Zhe gave a slight "um" sound, and a faint smile appeared in his eyes: "His stuff likes to be left with me."

Polly Joan's hand stroked his hair slowly.

"You have to know, silly boy," Polly said, "the judge's firearm never leaves, this is the iron law that was established a hundred years ago."

An Zhe stared at him silently, and finally bit his own lips.

"I don't know," he said, "I really don't know."

"For whatever reason," Polly told him, "he must love you too."

"Will the judges like the alien?"

"I don't know," Polly said, "but I have also lived with many aliens for a hundred years-if you think I still qualify as a judge."

Looking at the gray-blue eyes that seemed to know everything, An Zhe thought, Polly must know the reason why Lu Yan liked him, but he didn't dare to ask, Polly didn't say, there must be his reason.

Heavy images emerged in front of his eyes. Inside the city gate, a woman who lost her husband cursed hoarsely. On the square of the supply station, the bullet penetrated Dusay's head backwards, but she fell forward towards him. . Countless silhouettes appeared before his eyes, those hoarse shouts, the fear of trembling, the infiltration of bone marrow. Countless dark shadows rose, and they swarmed together, stretched out their hands, piled up with love, hate, and hatred and fear that were known to each other, pushing him to the top of the mountain where the cold wind roared and let him look down This group of beings.

No one approached him, no one knew him, and those who admired him would rather use a full family to make a fake doll, and would not take the initiative to say even a word to him.

As for ... As for the pity and preference of the judge, it is something no one dares to expect, what kind of creepy fear and unimaginable honor?

As a xenophobia, he was antithetical to human beings, but faintly expected that. And he even got it.

At least, the moment Lu Lu put his gun in his backpack, in the time of billions of years, there was such a second-in that second, the judge had left his gun to a xenogeneous, he Betrayed the faith of a lifetime to love him.

Then, like the fairy tales in children's textbooks, the twelve o'clock bell rings, and some return to the abyss, and some return to the base.

Like a sandstorm that is gradually ending, in the bells, the dust settles, Anzhe's heartbeat returns to the ordinary frequency little by little, he receives unimaginable gifts, but he is completely calm instead.

He felt enough, everything was enough.

"If one day, humans are safe, you see him." He told Polly: "Please ... please don't tell him I've been here."

Polly said: "No one can lie to the judge."

"Then you said, I've been here and gone again." An Zhe said, "I've gone far. I may be anywhere in the world."

Polly looked at him softly and sadly.

"I really hope God will take care of you," he said.

An Zhe slowly shook her head.

"But I can't love him, nor can he love me." An Zhe said these words gently.

"Unless—unless it's the day when humans fall. But I hope it never will be that day." At this moment, calm calmed him.

In the gap between the aurora and the clouds, there are countless translucent white ice debris. They are falling down, and the quiet mountains and night are alive because of all these flying things, and it is snowing.

An Zhe stretched out his hand, the hexagonal snowflake fell on his finger, the beautiful shape gradually lost in the temperature of the skin, and gathered into a crystal clear waterdrop.

"I have only known you guys for three months," he said. "But this is my life."

The wind was louder, thousands of snowflakes blowing into the gray corridor, and catkins were raised like spring breeze. An Zhe looked up, thinking that everything he had forgotten in the past unfolded in front of him, drifting into shimmering fragments.

The stormy waves subsided, and the waves stopped flowing together with the dark tide. It was not sadness, not joy. He just thought the snow was beautiful.

The joy and sorrow of his life, the encounter and parting, and the birth and death of all tangible things in this world, are a fleeting snowflake.

"Cold?"

"It's not cold."

He remembered the shape of the snowflake, and it was eternal that second.

The aurora bored through the abyss.

In the laboratory, there was a sound of glass breaking.