The border between Kenya and Tanzania, the Great Rift Valley, and Lake Natron.

Kitahara and Kaede temporarily stayed in this place, sitting on the roof of the RV and drawing every day.

He painted the magnificent morning sky and the gorgeous lake water reflecting each other's light; he painted the burgundy lake bottom arranged in a hexagonal shape like a honeycomb; and he also painted large swaths of flamingos playing and flying in the lake.

Behind them is the sacred mountain called Gelay volcano. The top of the snow-white limestone is like the white snow, with a sanctity similar to heaven, hidden in the deep clouds.

He was not too surprised to find that Mimic stayed here temporarily. During this period, he got along well with him, and sometimes he even ran over to ask the other person if he wanted to help them draw some portraits.

This is a rare safe and comfortable place in Africa, which is very suitable for these escapees to take a short rest.

As the junction of the two countries, Lake Natron itself is an indefinable boundary. The difficult transportation also makes it even more difficult to enter here. The arrival of the flamingo breeding season basically prohibits official entry channels.

Let Mimic members have a place where they can go undetected and undisturbed by the sound of gunfire.

Although he said he would go north along the way he came, Najib has not left yet. He still walks around with his little elephant every day, taking the black cat with him.

Perhaps it’s because the lake water is too corrosive. Even though there are indeed tilapias surviving in Lake Natron, this black cat with a big temper still lacks interest and would rather go to the waterfall not far away to fish.

Scheherazade also liked to bathe in that place.

"Ah! Ah!"

The flamingo screamed noisily, then fluttered its wings and flew away, shaking off a large string of clear water splashes. Its snow-white wings, tinged with pink and bright red, spread out and flew towards the sky.

There are also several flamingos dancing gracefully, showing off their bright red feathers towards the female they like, stretching their long and beautiful necks straight, with an elegant and charming posture.

"What a beautiful and magical bunch of little guys, aren't they?"

Kitahara and Kaede used vermilion paint to color some of the flamingo's feathers in the painting little by little, and said with a smile: "Look, in this land of death for burning and petrified creatures

, in a place called the 'Lake of the Underworld', they breed new life, and then continue to sing here, flying across the sky like clouds..."

Gide listened silently and did not express any opinions. He just looked up at the flamingos flying up and down in the sky.

In the past few days, Kitahara and Feng have met each other several times. The mode of communication every time is basically him talking, and the other party is responsible for listening quietly. Occasionally, when they have to say something, they will briefly pop up a few words.

Vocabulary comes.

This Mimic leader is not a talkative person most of the time, and it seems that the silence that belongs to the army can be seen in him.

In the original work, what he said to Oda Tsukuru could probably use up his quota of words for a year.

Beihara and Feng glanced sideways, holding their chins in a funny way, thinking this.

He has no ill feelings toward the current Gide. After all, he has not yet reached the moment in the future when he starts killing innocent people indiscriminately for the sake of ending his destiny, and he will not judge others from a high position just because "it will happen in the future."

"In my hometown, the Kingdom of the Dead also has a Styx."

Kitahara and Kaede did not deliberately wait for each other's answer, but spoke to themselves in a laughing voice, their orange-gold eyes reflected the flamingos they had drawn stroke by stroke, and the paintbrush in their hands.

Carefully add texture to it:

"The world there is also fiery red, but the red ones are flowers... flowers that are as red as fire. Speaking of which, it seems that the color that matches the Styx must be red?"

The traveler finished talking to himself, and then continued to draw the red lake and the birds on it. At the same time, he was somewhat surprised to hear Gide's voice that seemed to come from the era of gunpowder smoke.

"Because the redness of blood makes people aware of death before anything else."

The Mimic leader said in a low voice: "Perhaps on the battlefield, you saw a man fall

You won’t be aware of his death yet, but that won’t be the case the moment the blood faints and splashes on your face.”

Beihara and Feng blinked, paused slightly with the brush in their hands, tilted their heads curiously, and looked under the RV, which made Gide feel a little uncomfortable.

The ghost, who was no longer a soldier, stood in a different posture, looking at Kitahara and Kaede with serious eyes, probably busy activating his supernatural powers.

"Sorry?" The traveler coughed with a smile and withdrew his gaze, "I'm just a little surprised that you... you actually took the initiative to answer the question."

Although he was only asked by Montesquieu to tell them that that country has not completely abandoned you, he still planned to chat with the other party as much as possible to avoid any overreaction from this group of people who were obviously already thinking too hard.

Kitahara and Kaede still remember the story of the fisherman and the devil in "One Thousand and One Nights":

In the first hundred years, the sealed devil made a wish that if someone saved him, he would give him glory and wealth; in the second hundred years, the devil made a wish that if someone saved him, he would help him open the door to the underground treasure; in the sixth hundred years, the devil would make a wish that if someone saved him, he would help him open the door to the underground treasure.

, the devil promised to give his rescuer three wishes; but in the end——

The devil only wants the person who saved him to die.

The traveler picked up the mineral bottle next to him and took a sip of water to calm down his shock. He felt that he needed to lay the groundwork for a while before informing him of this matter.

Perhaps for society, delayed justice is completely different from no justice, but for the parties concerned, sometimes delayed justice is indeed no different from no justice. If the other party is really angry, it seems not incomprehensible...

…

Gide glanced at it but said nothing, perhaps because he felt that the traveler's words were too boring and had no value in answering.

Kitahara and Kaede were very used to this, and continued to draw their own paintings. After roughly laying out the manuscript, they put away the easel and picked up the laptop from the side to code.

Not far away, the other members of Mimic seemed to be chatting about something, and there was still some sporadic liveliness. It didn't feel very like those ghosts, but more like living humans.

The wind blows endlessly in this season, and it seems that you can hear the singing of the Maasai people coming from the mountains. The flamingos make long calls similar to those of wild geese, as if they are starting a grand chorus.

Gide lit a cigarette, and after being looked at by Kitahara and Kaede, he extinguished it helplessly. He just watched the flamingos resting not far away.

"Okay, I know there are pregnant flamingos and their eggs here." He said this in a slightly helpless tone, and Kitahara and Kaede couldn't help laughing after hearing this.

There is always a kind of harmony and tacit understanding that does not require words when the traveler gets along with this ghost who left the battlefield. It may be attributed to the fact that they are both the kind of people who are too lazy to care, so they can accept insignificant changes and changes without any effort.

compromise.

Speaking of which, it seems that they have never mentioned their names to each other until now.

Of course, this is not important. Because they don't seem to need to address each other. Usually, as long as they say a sentence without any end, the other one will know whether it is meant for him or not.

For example, one day when Gide was reading the Bible, Kitahara and Kaede asked curiously as they passed by: "Are you reading the Bible?"

Gide didn't say anything, probably thinking that anyone with eyes could know this matter and there was no need to answer specifically.

"Well, what I mean is, I thought you were not a Christian." Kitahara and Kaede said, sitting by the lake with their unfinished paintings and easel, took out a pen and started painting.

He lowered his eyes and thought seriously about the color he needed to choose next. He seemed to know what Gide was thinking, and his voice sounded like a cloud floating on the Lenguei volcano: "I don't think you need God very much.

"

"Ghosts certainly don't need God."

Gide twitched the corners of his mouth, as if trying to make a smile. His voice was a little low, and seemed to contain some kind of sarcasm that he didn't know who he was targeting: "We are just controlled by the undead.

Soulless zombies... life to us is

hell."

This was the first time Gide described their current situation in such sharp and obvious terms.

Beiyuan and Feng raised their eyes silently, looking at the flamingos flying in the distance without looking back or even sighing.

Because he knew that what this army needed was not mercy or advice, and even any words to persuade them to live seemed too fragile and thin.

For those who are truly despondent, those who can only dryly say "the future will get better, and there is hope in life" are as useless as a sewer built in the wrong location.

So in the end he just smiled and said in a half-joking tone: "This is why you came to Lake Styx? This lake is indeed suitable for the undead."

But Gide nodded seriously.

"If you die, it would be a good choice to bury your bones here."

He stared at this gorgeous and colorful lake, and his voice seemed to suddenly calm down: "It's very quiet here, and the flamingos might build a nest on our ashes. It's time for us to finish..."

Death might mean the beginning of a better story.

Kitahara and Kaede suddenly remembered a sentence. It was a sentence in the Gospel of John in the Bible, and it was also the sentence Gide said in the mansion in the original book.

"If a grain of wheat falls into the ground, it will not die," he said softly, "it will still be a grain of wheat..."

"If it dies, it will produce many seeds." Gide accepted this sentence, closed the Bible in his hand, and raised his eyes to look at Beihara and Feng, "I didn't expect you to read this."

"Because I have many European friends."

Kitahara and Kaede shrugged and laughed: "I have traveled everywhere, from Moscow to Berlin to Florence, from Paris to Dublin to London."

He actually didn't say a word.

That is the sentence after this sentence:

Whoever loves his life will lose it; whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Paired with the ghosts of Mimic, it feels like a bitter irony.

Gide was silent for a while, wondering if the word Paris touched his inner memories, and finally seemed to murmur a few words in an undetectable voice.

At this moment, a crisp sound of a silver bell came over.

What followed was a clear voice belonging to a young man, with a cheerful tone: "Kitahara! I picked a lot of good flowers! Miss Xiao Hei is really amazing, she seems to know where the flowers should bloom naturally.

Eh!"

"Meow." The cat lying on the boy's shoulder raised its head and called simply, its tail raised disdainfully, as if to show that its mere ability was not enough to make a big noise.

"Phew! And Mr. Soldier! Are you a soldier? Anyway, you make me feel like a soldier - you also have flowers, I picked a lot of them!"

Najib had a cat lying on his shoulders, holding flowers that almost covered his face in his arms. He ran towards the lake panting, and looked up at the two adults with bright eyes.

The golden flowers are not as bright as the look in his eyes at this moment.
To be continued...