Shadow trail of the beautiful world

Chapter 1 Wedge Stories in the Dark Night

PS:

(Written before the story:

This wedge is used to connect with the plots of the first two books, and it is suitable for old readers who have followed along.New readers may be a little confused, but it doesn't matter. It is no problem to skip the wedge and read Chapter 1 directly... The story of the wedge will not affect the rhythm of the full text.

Oh, by the way, I buried a lot of clues in the plot of the first volume, you can try to find it... If you can find it all, then when it is put on the shelves, I will add 5 more chapters ~ that is 105 chapter!

Well, let's start the story! )

The world under the sun is always too straightforward, without many twists and turns, without sensibility and darkness, and without a trace of mystery.

Therefore, the starting point of most beautiful stories happened in a more tolerant night.

Under the wrapping of darkness, the hands that write the story write down the pen for the first time, the nib of the pen rustles in the darkness, and outlines the prototype of the story bit by bit.

Like, the first ray of light to illuminate the night...

"boom"

Under the calm night, accompanied by a sharp hiss, a terrifying sound wave exploded, and all the glass in the room shattered at this moment, as if being hit hard by an invisible fist.

Amidst the screams of men and women, frightening chaos descended.

The explosion was followed by flames.

The scorching flames rolled crazily amidst the vibrations of the ground, like released ghosts from hell.It howled and flooded the country house, drawing the unwary into flames, and the poor wretches howled in the flames, praying to all gods they could find, but to no avail.

Despair is spreading in the sea of ​​fire.

"Wilton, get up, get up."

Under the scorching firelight, a woman in pajamas with a baby in her arms was kneeling on the ground in a panic, trying to help her fallen husband up again.

But the collapsed masonry was pressing on the man, and the flames spread rapidly behind his back. His face was covered with sweat, and his eyes were filled with fear. He struggled frantically, trying to get out of this mortal misfortune.

He can't.

He's just an ordinary man, just a mortal.

"Let's go! May, let's go!"

The man supported the ground with his hands, and the heavy bricks and stones were pressing on him, getting heavier and heavier, as if hell had descended.In the room that was getting hotter and hotter, under the beating of the firelight, he already had a premonition of his own fate.

In the face of disaster, it is difficult for him to save himself, but he does not want to hurt his relatives.

The man felt the fire spreading rapidly behind him, his sweaty face became distorted, a flash of determination flashed in his eyes, and he shouted to the crying and helpless wife in front of him:

"Take the child and get out of here! Quick, I'm hopeless..."

"I..."

The woman looked at her husband desperately. She wanted to help him, but the baby in her arms was crying constantly.This newly born life also seemed to sense danger, and the child was instinctively calling for help.

The baby's cry woke the woman up, and she looked at her husband for the last time, then gritted her teeth, wiped the tears from her face, and staggered around.She protected the baby in her arms with her arms, and rushed into the aisle with her head down.

Behind her, her lover, the child's father, Wilton Riley, watched his wife and son leave the desperate situation. After more than ten seconds, this man who fulfilled the duties of husband and father at the last moment of his life, engulfed in flames.

"boom"

There was another explosion, and the wooden house was almost helpless under the raging flames. At the moment when the woman was about to rush out of the sea of ​​flames, the second floor of the room almost completely collapsed, pressing the running woman under the burning sparks.

But even at the moment of falling down, the maternal instinct still drove the woman to hold the baby tightly in her arms.

Even if the flames have set her clothes on fire, even if blood has ooze from the wound.

"No!"

The woman shook the sparks on her body, she screamed, her face was full of panic, but within sight, everything had already turned into a sea of ​​flames.

There is no hope.

There was no way for her and her child to escape.

"Who will save us! Please, save us."

She cried helplessly, she couldn't imagine why such a nightmare would happen to them, but the proud fate never bothered to explain anything to mortals.

But praying... maybe in times of despair, prayers are useful.

In the sea of ​​flames, Mrs. Riley's helpless prayer was finally answered at the moment when her consciousness was blurred.

A response from a higher will.

Mrs. Riley felt that she was hallucinating. In front of her eyes, the burning flame was being separated bit by bit, like a curtain being drawn.

An illusory shadow, stepping on the flames, approached her eyes step by step.

The man was wearing a crisp black suit with a white shirt with a collar turned up. He was wearing a blue gentleman's hat with a black border. Behind him, there was a wide blue cloak fluttering.

The flames danced around him, but they couldn't hurt him, not even get close.An invisible force suppressed the flames, causing them to recede, forming a blank arc around the two of them, like a shelter in a disaster.

This mysterious visitor stood in front of the injured woman, he looked down at him, and the woman also looked at this mysterious man, under the wide brim of the hat, she could see a face covered by darkness, and the sides of the cheeks, Sideburns like white hair.

"You... are you here to save us?"

The joy of being saved from a desperate situation made the woman weep.But in the face of her hopeful inquiry, the mysterious man shook his head and said in a magnetic voice:

"I can't save you, Mrs. Riley."

The mysterious man paused for a moment. He squatted down, stretched out his black gloved hand, and wiped the ashes from the face of the weak and painful woman in front of him. Amid the crying of the baby, he explained softly:

"You and your husband died in an accidental fire. This is fate, and I can't change it. But..."

The mysterious man's eyes fell on the crying baby in Mrs. Riley's arms, a gleam flashed in his eyes, and he said:

"Your child, Merlin Riley, is destined to play an important role in the future, and his life will not end tonight."

Mrs. Riley's eyes flashed with surprise at these words of the mysterious man.At this moment, she didn't care about her own fate. She stretched out her hands with great difficulty, enduring the torment of the flames with her hands that were severely burned by the flames. Her cheeks were twitching, but she still held the child in her arms, Handing it to the mysterious person in front of her, she begged:

"It's okay...it's okay, this is enough. Please, take my child, just take him away...save him."

The mysterious man looked at the hands covered with burn marks. He could imagine what kind of pain the woman in front of him was suffering, but he didn't express much emotion.

He took the swaddling baby with blood on it.

Strange to say, the crying baby stopped the moment he was hugged by the mysterious person, and he seemed to feel that the danger had passed.

"Take it easy, Mrs. Riley."

The mysterious man held the baby in one hand. He looked down at Mrs. Riley at his feet. He stretched out his fingers, and blue halos swayed on Mrs. Riley, isolating all painful senses.

He couldn't save her, but he could at least bring her back to death in peace.The mysterious man shook his arms slightly to make the baby in his arms more comfortable, and he said softly:

"I came here just for him, and I can guarantee that he will at least live to be 18 safely..."

"My child with Wilton, he, will he become a great person?"

Mrs. Riley couldn't feel the pain anymore, she felt very tired, she desperately wanted to sleep, and just before the sleepiness hit, she struggled to ask the last question.But then, as if asking and answering herself, she said to herself with a tired face:

"Yes, he will definitely become a great person. Otherwise, why would the angel come to save him on purpose...Merlin, my son, how much Mom and Dad want to be by your side..."

"But, it's time to say goodbye."

Standing in the flames, the mysterious man watched the mother in front of him close her eyes and enter her final dreamland.He did not puncture the poor woman's last sweet dream.

In fact, at the moment the child was born, the mission of the Rileys had already been completed.The mysterious man looked down at the baby in his arms, and the child also fell asleep.

"I'm not an angel."

The mysterious man looked around, waved his fingers, completely annihilated the surrounding flames, then squatted down, and put the child back into Mrs. Riley's arms.He stretched out his fingers and touched the child's head, as if saying goodbye.He raised his head and looked at the starry sky above his head. Among the twinkling stars, it seemed that there were countless pairs of eyes looking at this place, looking at the baby in his arms.

And there was a weird smile on his face shrouded in darkness.

"As for you, Merlin, will you...be great?"

"So many big shots watched you be born, so many big shots bet on you, what a magnificent life. But, how would you choose? I'm curious..."

Of course the sleeping child couldn't answer him, but the mysterious man didn't need to answer either. He stood up and took a step back. In the ruins of the Riley Manor that had been destroyed by fire, he was like ink that melted into the water like when he came. Usually, it quietly dissipated in the darkness.

In the flow of his blue cloak on his return to darkness, he whispered:

"Let's wait and see."

At the moment before it completely dissipated, he looked at the watch on his wrist, and he coughed lightly:

"It is midnight, August 1971, 8, and in my capacity as observer of both parties, I declare that..."

"game..."

"About to start!"

-----------------

A few days later, the Riley family home in Buffalo County, Wisconsin.

A little girl in a floral dress carefully hugged her cousin. The little girl winked at the baby in her arms, making the baby stretch out his hands and smile happily.

And on the sofa next to the little girl, a middle-aged woman wearing a black gauze sat there. She looked at the furniture and the house around her with sadness and nostalgia.

She is a distant branch of the Riley family, and also the cousin of Wilton Riley who died in a fire a few days ago. She married to New York a few years ago. She is the last relative that the Riley family can find.

After hearing about her cousin's tragedy, she immediately brought her daughter to her hometown from New York.

"Mommy mommy."

The little girl who was holding Xiao Meilin turned her head to look at her mother. While stroking her cousin's head, she begged in a low voice:

"Can't we really take Little Merlin home? I've always wanted a younger brother, please."

"Be nice."

Ms. Riley reached out and touched her daughter's hair, and she said to the little girl:

"May, I know you like Merlin very much, but we can't take him away. The situation in our family does not allow another child. I have to go to work, you have to go to school, and no one can take care of him. If you really like Merlin, I can allow you to come back once a year and see him."

"What about Merlin?"

The little girl Mei pouted, looking at her mother:

"Should we send him to an orphanage?"

"will not."

Ms. Riley shook her head with a smile. She looked at the time and said to her daughter:

"I've found a new home for little Merlin and I've contacted James, an old friend I and Wilton grew up with, a true gentleman, he's the best friend of Wilton and May , I believe that he will be willing to help take care of Little Merlin."

After finishing speaking, Ms. Riley raised her head and saw a red Chevrolet sports car slowly driving into the gate of Riley Manor. She stood up, straightened her clothes and the black veil on her arms, and said to her daughter:

"Look, here they come."

"May, you have to be polite and call him Uncle Coulson, understand?"

The little girl saw a kind-looking couple get out of the car and walk towards the house. She couldn't help but hold the baby tightly in her arms, because she didn't want to give her only cousin to someone else to raise.But what mother said was also reasonable, Little Merlin really couldn't go back to New York with them.

The little girl Mei looked down at the cousin in her arms. Although she was reluctant to part with her, she knew that perhaps it was the best choice to foster Merlin in Mr. Coulson's house.

She lowered her head, kissed her brother on the forehead, and said:

"Merlin, I will definitely come back to see you often."

"You little villain, don't forget me!"

(End of this chapter)