Chapter 38 Cemetery

"What do you want" Albert Greengrass calmed down faster than she imagined. It only takes a few seconds to transform from an anxious father to a shrewd and cold businessman. "The friendship between you and Xiao Di is not enough for you to give out such valuable things." His

love for Astoria can't wear away his vigilance . and reason.

"A place to stay," Mu Yu's suspicion was completely unexpected, and she lowered her voice, "I don't believe he is dead, you know, that person."

Even if the name Albert Greengra was not mentioned Si also trembled. The way he looked at Mu Yu didn't look like he was looking at a child.

"Grandpa hopes that I can live in peace, and I have no intention of getting involved in those things because of my mother." Mu Yu calmly welcomed his inspection, "So I also want to take the escape route you arranged for Xiao Di and Leah."

" How do you know..."

She clicked on the photo before Albert Greengrass could continue, and the former fell silent when she touched the photo.

"There are enemies of the Mu family in Kyushu. I can't go back." Before Albert Greengrass could ask any questions, she relieved all his concerns. "This condition is really not difficult for you."

She said it very sincerely, as if It's really a helpless orphan trying to find shelter with her remaining chips. Even she didn't notice that she was turning the ring over and over as she said this.

The diary lay in it along with countless precious materials, like a truly dead thing.

Grandpa's last wish is destined to be nothing but a last wish.

Albert Greengrass held his chin up. He was not in a hurry to give an answer right away, but he didn't know that what Mu Yu lacked was never patience.

Astoria's life, which seemed to be hanging on the edge of a cliff, did not allow him much time to test.

Unless...

Mu Yu hid the amusement in his eyes as he lowered his head to drink tea.

Unless his so-called love for Astoria is just self-deception.

The large and falling snowflakes have stopped, and there is not even a sound of wind outside. The room that was still steaming before was cooled by the cold air that penetrated.

As if he had weighed it for long enough and didn't know what he thought of, Albert Greengrass curled his lips and said with gloating: "Ah, if you are really her daughter, you will be in trouble in the future."

He said it like he was It was as if he knew more things, but before Mu Yu could ask, he waved his wand, and an old blank parchment appeared between them: "Add a little more chips, if that time comes, as long as you do your best to let Leah Live in good health, and I guarantee that at least you will be safe in France."

As he spoke, the corresponding text automatically appeared on the parchment.

Mu Yu pressed his hands on the paper. The paper felt smooth and not as rough as it looked.

"Contract, you still have this thing," a quill floated between the two of them. She did not rush to sign it, "Can I ask what the consequences of violating it are?"

"Death," he did not even ask in detail. How will she save Astoria? She is obviously extremely confident in the effectiveness of this contract. "Unbreakable vows are more popular now, but..."

"We need a witness. You don't want your family to know the relationship between you and me." "Trade," Mu Yu accepted it naturally, "Using your life as collateral is a very precious weight."

When she mentioned her life, she downplayed it as if it was just a gold galleon.

"Is it worth it?" She ignored the increasingly weird and probing looks from the other side, and picked up a pen to read the terms of the contract word for word. "I only need to provide the medicine that can cure Astoria, and if you can't do it..."

she said crookedly . He tilted his head, really curious, what kind of strong love can make a person willing to blindly mortgage his life into a contract.

The weak light inside the house only reflected the white snow outside. The snow was so thick that the bare garden might have been buried long ago.

It better be this way.

She didn't like to be dominated by this emotion - waves of nausea extended to the infinity like snow spreading all over the sky, and barbs sprouted from the sky, hooking one by one in her heart.

"I don't want to wait in vain again and again, and I'm tired of waiting." Albert pushed the contract towards her again, "Leah and Xiaodi don't need to wait with me."

He put All his hard work was given to his two daughters, and the remaining body was extremely indifferent to others and even to himself.

Mu Yu unconsciously thought of Mu Yi, her nominal father. Not only did he sacrifice his heart and soul to a shadow, he also thought about using her heart to fill the shadow's flesh and blood.

"Leah is almost twelve years old, and the treatment will be very long. I will do my best to restore her health," brand new handwriting flew on the paper, "As long as you agree to my request."

She signed directly on the paper. He picked up his name and pushed it back.

"I'll only wait a year." Albert Greengrass signed his name after adding the last clause.

When he stopped writing, the parchment and the quill emitted a faint golden light. When the golden light faded, the two disappeared, as if they had never existed.

I wonder if Daphne has ever seen her father like this.

Crazy enough to be desperate.

She didn't believe at all that a layer of blood could carry heavy emotions.

After the deal was finalized, the two of them had nothing more to say. Albert Greengrass stood up and opened the door for her in a gentlemanly manner: "Your room is at the end of the corridor, good night."

As soon as he opened the door, Mu Yu saw Daphne and Astoria's mother standing at the door. The dimly lit corridor made her look lifeless. She hesitated when Mu Yu walked out. Mu Yu pretended that he didn't notice anything unusual about her, smiled at her and walked towards the room.

The study door closed inch by inch behind her, and the slender light reflected two shadows, hugging each other and squeezing into the reflection of the door frame.

The door was completely closed, and all the images shattered, leaving her alone in the empty and dark corridor.

She walked slowly along the darkness, step by step, as if crossing a tightrope on a cliff.

She hugged the diary tightly in her arms, as if talking to herself or talking to others: "He is so stupid." She was too stupid

to notice the loopholes in the contract, too stupid to notice that she was not aware of the loopholes in the contract. I have already stepped into the ideal trap.

No response.

She hugged the diary tighter and pushed open the door with one hand. The creak of the door echoed over and over in the corridor.

The fireplace in the house didn't stay lit for long, and even the cold air didn't completely dissipate.

For the first time, she missed the Slytherin common room so much.

She left early the next morning without even eating breakfast. The whole house was rejecting her, and she had no intention of staying with the Greengrass family for Christmas.

It would take a long distance to get from Greengrass' home to Godric's Hollow without relying on any magic. London's gray and murky winters made the distance even more distant.

When Mu Yu stood in front of this narrow alley, he felt alive again.

Along the way, she never let go of the diary.

It was already dusk by then, and the snow that had fallen all day had stopped at this time, and there was still a little sunshine, which is rare in winter. The sunset gradually turned red in the sky above, and the colorfully decorated Christmas trees shone through the glass of every house. Clear Christmas carols came from the middle of the village.

She looked up at the sunset and did not go any further.

"Tom," she called softly, "come out, I can't find the house."

The diary seemed to have really become a dead thing.

She stopped insisting and walked along the narrow alley toward the center of the village.

There was only one last ray of sunset left, and the children took advantage of the last moment to run wildly on the snow and have a snowball fight. A snowball hit her with a snap, and the snowflakes scattered. She took a few steps back almost out of reflex, almost falling.

The narrow alley seemed to twist into a dark and deep corridor from which there was no way to escape.

A group of children laughed and ran past her: "Merry Christmas!"

She moved her fingers. It was actually very simple, too simple...

The increasingly louder carols in the chapel brought her back to her senses.

There was a small square in the center of the village. From a distance, it was still a war monument standing in the middle. But when she got closer, she found that the monument had turned into statues of three people. A man with disheveled hair and glasses, a woman with long hair, beautiful and kind appearance, and a baby boy sitting in his mother's arms.

As we got to the center, more and more people gathered around the statue, each holding a bouquet of flowers in their hands. They consciously lined up and placed the flowers under the statue one by one.

The surrounding villagers seemed not to be surprised by this. They should be used to seeing strangely dressed people come to pay homage to what they saw as a war monument at different times of the year.

Mu Yu did not join in. She stood outside the circle and looked up at the sculpture. The diary in her arms was no different from a piece of ice.

"Tell me, are they paying tribute to their great sacrifice, or are they celebrating their survival?" The noise of the nearby pub and the bells of the church covered up her whispers. She looked at the statue and wanted to say something, but she didn't know how to say it.

As long as the will is not destroyed, hatred and resistance will always continue.

She was not in a hurry to go to the ruins to find a wand, but more like she was here for sightseeing.

A soul so similar to hers once came here, but it collapsed due to love.

She is somewhat morbidly persistent about this, stubbornly wanting to repeat a similar path, looking for traces diluted by time in the changes in things and people, as if this can prove everything in the past, whether it is misty London or a narrow and dark room. , all really existed.

She had almost forgotten the hug from last Christmas.

The stained glass in the church projects onto the cemetery behind, making the gray tombstones colorful.

She pushed open the narrow door leading to the cemetery and walked silently between the tombstones.

It was completely dark, and only the church and the bar were brightly lit in the entire village. Mu Yu walked through it like a black ghost. In the quiet cemetery, the only sound left was the sound of robes dragging on the snow.

She seemed to be specifically looking for a specific tombstone, or she seemed to be wandering aimlessly.

"Not in this direction."

When she heard the voice, she stopped directly in front of a tombstone.

The light casts on the mottled stone tablet, and the two names are faintly visible.

James Potter. Lily Potter.

"Let's go."

Tom Riddle stood further away, unwilling to look at the tombstone.

He is unwilling, or simply afraid, to look back on his past humiliation.

The tombstone is carved from white marble, and the inscriptions on it can be read clearly even in the dark without bending down. However, Mu Yu still half-knelt in front of the tombstone and gently brushed away the snowflakes on it.

The bustle in front of the statue in the square made the silence in front of the tomb even more stark.

"The last enemy to be destroyed is death," she read out the last line of the inscription word by word, "an interesting epitaph."

A fiery red Bianhua flower suddenly appeared in her hand, its slender petals shivering in the cold wind. .

"It is customary to place flowers in front of the tomb, and I only have this one left." She seemed to be talking to herself to the tomb.

"You put a bouquet of flowers in front of their graves." Tom Riddle was still unwilling to look here, but this did not hinder the sharpness and anger in his words, "Put a bouquet of flowers in front of my enemies." "

Why not?" She maintained the same posture and stared at the last line of inscription, "It's just a bouquet of flowers with the same meaning placed in front of an empty shell."

She pointed to the center of the square in the direction of the statue: "The real body is there. , they are always alive there."

A trace of confusion flashed in his eyes, and his voice was cold and hard to cover up the confusion: "They are dead and will never be able to live again. Kill James Potter and his lowly Muggle. A woman is as easy as crushing an ant."

When he touched the girl's peaceful and gentle gaze, all the anger, unwillingness, and violence were like water droplets melting into the sea, and could no longer be traced.

"The last enemy to be destroyed is death," Mu Yu repeated the epitaph, her tone of voice softer than Snow, "It is not the pursuit of immortality, but the pursuit of death as an enemy to conquer. When death can no longer stop Eternity is the transmission of will."

She looked up at the night sky, and there was no star on it: "That statue and the countless people who are grateful to the Boy Who Lived are the survival of their will. , never died. "

The surroundings were completely quiet, and a gust of wind whined across the cemetery, making the cemetery even more terrifying.

"Only when you are not afraid of life and death can you transcend life and death." He took a few steps closer. If it weren't for the cold breath, Mu Yu wouldn't have noticed that he was approaching. "This is...transcendence."

He always remembered her words from before.

"Both will and ideals can be covered," Mu Yu wiped the white snow off the marble tombstone over and over again, "Only will can be competed on the chessboard."

No one spoke anymore, and the strong wind continued to erode the empty cemetery. The flowers on the other shore rolled up in front of the tomb and floated in an unknown direction. The Christmas carols rang out in the village were becoming more and more distant.

It started to snow again.

"Let's go."

He said again when snowflakes fell on her shoulders. Mu Yu found that he had been standing beside her at some point, staring at the tombstone in front of her with her.

But that's not what she cared about.

"We"

"Yes, we." He smiled at her, and only she knew how much hypocrisy was contained in such a smile.

They are so similar, they also like to pretend, and they can even use their own emotions to achieve their goals.

"Okay." She stood up and patted the snow on her body.

A memory and a person who was little better than a ghost walked through the dead cemetery, and the lights in the church occasionally hit the tombstones.

Mu Yu was sure that about half of them were his handiwork. She moved through them as she passed through his sins. No words are needed. The thick and pale tombstone has brought back to life those years that originally only existed in books.

She listened silently to his sin.

When she was about to leave the cemetery, an old man happened to go out at the same time as her. They seemed to be coming from the same direction.

She didn't even notice her just now.

The old man was thin and staggered, walking extremely slowly. She must be very old.

A wizard.

Mu Yu turned sideways to let her pass first. The old witch only glanced at her before looking away and continued walking forward.

When the two of them were separated, a photo fell from the witch's body, and was blown by the wind to Mu Yu's feet.

Through the light, she could clearly see the figure in the photo.

A handsome blond boy was perched on the windowsill, smiling broadly.