Chapter 3 Melissa

After confirming the plan, Zhou Mingrui suddenly had the main heart, and his fear, wandering and uneasiness were all curled up in the corner.

It was not until this time that he was in the mood to carefully examine the remnants of Crane's memory.

Zhou Mingrui habitually stood up, closed the pipe valve, and watched the wall lamp slowly dim until it went out. He sat down again. While unconsciously rubbing the brass wheel of the pistol, he pressed the side of his head and quietly "reminisce" in the crimson-dyed darkness, just like the most dedicated audience in the cinema.

Perhaps affected by the bullet passing through, Crane's memory is like broken glass, which not only loses coherence, but also obviously lacks content in many places, such as where the exquisitely crafted revolver comes from, whether it is suicide or he killed, and what does the sentence "everyone will die, including me" in the notebook mean? Two before the incident Did Tian participate in anything strange?

Not only have these specific memories become fragments and incomplete, but also the knowledge they have mastered. In the current state, Zhou Mingrui believes that if Crane returns to college, he may not be able to graduate, even if he has only actually left the campus for a few days and has not relaxed at all.

"Two days later, I will attend the interview of the Department of History of Tingen University..."

"The university of the Kingdom of Ruhn has a tradition that graduates do not stay directly... The tutor gave a letter of recommendation from Tingen University and Beckland University..."

...

In Zhou Mingrui's silent "watching", the red moon outside the window slanted to the west and gradually sank until there was a faint light in the east and the horizon was dyed golden.

At this time, there was movement in the room, and soon, footsteps leaned towards the isolation door.

"Melisa woke up... She is really punctual as always." Zhou Mingrui smiled slightly. Influenced by Crane's memory, he had a feeling of looking at his own sister to Melissa.

However, I didn't have my own sister... He immediately complained.

Melissa, unlike Benson and Crane, enlightenment education was not completed in the Sunday school of the Night Goddess Church. When she reached the age of study, the Rune Kingdom promulgated the Law on Primary Education, established a secondary and secondary education committee, and provided special funds to increase investment.

In just three years, under the premise of collecting many church schools, many public primary schools have been established, strictly maintaining the principle of religious neutrality, and not involving the strife of the Lord of the Storm, the Goddess of the Night and the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery.

Compared with Sunday schools that only use one penny a week, the tuition fee of three pence a week in public primary schools is quite expensive, but the former only studies one day a week on Sunday, while the latter has six days a week. Overall, it is low-priced to almost free.

Unlike most girls, Melissa has liked gears, wheels, bearings and other things since she was a child, and is determined to be a steam mechanic.

Benson, the eldest brother, who has suffered cultural losses and understands the importance of education, supports his sister's dream just like supporting Crane to go to college. After all, Tingen Technical School can only be regarded as secondary education, and there is no need to go to grammar school or public school for accumulation.

In July last year, 15-year-old Melissa passed the entrance examination and became a member of the Department of Steam and Machinery of Tingen Technical School as she wished, and the weekly tuition fee was increased to nine penny.

At the same time, the import and export company where Banson works is affected by the situation in the southern continent. Whether it is profit or business volume, it has shrunk significantly, and more than one-third of its staff has to be laid off. In order to keep his job and maintain his life, Benson can only accept more heavy tasks, often work overtime, or go to places with harsh environments. Business trip, just like these days.

It's not that Crane didn't want to help his brother bear the burden, but he was born as a commoner and was admitted to an ordinary grammar school. As soon as he entered the university, he strongly felt his own shortcomings. For example, the Gufsak language, which is the source language of all countries in the northern continent, has to be learned from an age for the children of the nobles and the rich class. Content, and he didn't come into contact with it for the first time until college.

There are many similar aspects. Crane exhausted almost all his strength and often stayed up late to get up early to barely catch up with others and graduated smoothly with intermediate grades.

The memory of his brother and sister jumped into Zhou Mingrui's mind. He turned his hand and opened the door of the room squeaked. He woke up and remembered that he was holding a revolver in his palm.

This is a semi-controlled item!

It will scare the children!

And the wound on my head!

Seeing that Melissa was about to come out, Zhou Mingrui held his temple, hurriedly pulled open the desk drawer, threw the revolver in, and slammed it.

"What happened?" Melissa heard the movement and looked over doubtfully.

She is in the most youthful stage. Even if she can't eat anything good, her face is thin and slightly pale, and her skin is still shiny, exuding the smell of a girl.

Seeing his sister's brown eyes looking at him, Zhou Mingrui pretended to calm down, picked up the thing close to his hand, and then calmly closed the drawer to cover up the existence of the revolver, and the touch of the other hand in the temple made him sure that the wound had healed!

He took out a silver-white pocket watch with vine branch patterns from the drawer. When he gently pressed the top, the lid bounced open.

It is the most valuable item left by the father of the three brothers and sisters, the Royal Army sergeant, but the second-hand goods are second-hand goods after all. In recent years, there have been problems from time to time, even if it has been repaired by a watch craftsman, which makes Benson, who likes to wear it to raise his identity, repeatedly embarrass and simply left it at home.

I have to say that Melissa may really have a mechanical talent. After mastering the theoretical knowledge, she began to tinker with the pocket watch with the help of the tools of the technical school, and recently claimed to have repaired it!

Zhou Mingrui watched the watch cover bounce open. When he saw that the second hand stopped, he subconsciously turned the top and planned to string the pocket watch.

However, he twisted a few times, but there was still no sound of the tense clockwork, and the second hand was still motionless.

"It seems to be broken again." He looked at his sister speechlessly.

Melissa glanced at him expressionlessly, walked over quickly and took away her pocket watch.

She stood in place and first pulled up the button at the top of her pocket watch. After just a few turns, the sound of the second hand moving came out.

Normally, shouldn't pulling up be an adjustment time... Zhou Mingrui's expression suddenly became dull.

At this moment, the bells of the cathedral in the distance came six times in a row, far away and ethereal.

After listening, Melissa pulled up the button at the top of her pocket watch, and then twisted it continuously to match the time.

"All right." She said briefly without any emotion, and then pressed back to the top and returned the pocket watch to Zhou Mingrui.

Zhou Mingrui smiled back awkwardly but politely.

Melissa took a deep look at her brother again, turned around and walked to the cabinet, took a toothbrush, towel and other things, pulled the door out, and went to the public washroom.

"Why did her expression just now have a smell of disgust and helplessness?"

"The eyes of caring for the mentally retarded brother?"

Zhou Mingrui shook his head and smiled, closed the watch cover with a snap, and pressed it open again.

Repeating such actions, he thought of a question in his mind.

Without a silencer, Crane committed suicide. Well, let's count it as suicide for the time being. The movement of his suicide was absolutely not small, and Melissa, who was separated by a wall, didn't notice it.

Did she sleep too soundly? Or is Crane's suicide itself full of strangeness?

Pop, open, snap, close... Melissa washed up and came back, and what she saw was the unconscious action of her brother's keep opening and closing the lid of her pocket watch.

Her eyes were helpless again, and she said sweetly:

"Clain, take out all the rest of the bread. Remember to buy new ones today, as well as meat and peas. You're about to attend the interview. I'll make stewed lamb with peas for you."

While talking, she moved the stove out of the corner, made a fire with the remaining charcoal, and boiled a pot of hot water.

Before the water was about to open, she opened the bottom drawer of the cabinet, took out a jar of inferior tea like a treasure, sprinkled more than a dozen pieces into the pot, pretending that it was real tea.

One person poured two cups, and Melissa and Zhou Mingrui shared two rye breads with tea.

There is no mixed wood chips, not much gluten, but it is still not delicious... Zhou Mingrui is now weak and hungry. Relying on tea, he forcibly swallows the bread while eating.

After a few minutes, Melissa finished eating, pulled the black hair hanging to the vest, looked at Zhou Mingrui and said:

"Remember to buy new bread, which only costs eight pounds. It's hot, and too much is easy to spoil. There are also lamb and peas, remember!"

Do you really care about the nerd brother? I want to emphasize it again... Zhou Mingrui nodded with a smile:

"Okay."

As for a pound of the Kingdom of Rune, Zhou Mingrui, based on Crane's meat test memory and his own comparison, thought it was close to his usual catty, that is, 0.5 kilograms.

Melissa didn't say any more. She got up and packed up, packed the last piece of bread for lunch, put on the worn-out gauze hat left by her mother, picked up the bag she had sewn for books and stationery, and was ready to go out.

Today is not Sunday. She has a whole day of classes.

It takes about 50 minutes to walk from this apartment to Tingen Technical School. There are public carriages, one pench per kilometer. The maximum limit in the city is 4 pencets, and 6 pence in the suburbs. In order to save money, Melissa always goes out in advance and walks there by herself.

As soon as she opened the door, she stopped again, half-turned around and said:

"Clain, don't buy too much lamb and peas. Benson may not be back until Sunday. Well, remember that the bread only costs eight pounds."

"Okay, okay." Zhou Mingrui had no choice but to answer.

At the same time, he meditated on the word "Sunday" several times in his heart.

In the Northern Continent, a year is also divided into twelve months, ranging from 365 days to 366 days a year, and there are also seven days in a week.

The front is the result of astronomy, which makes Zhou Mingrui suspect that this is a parallel world, and the latter comes from religion, because there are seven orthodox gods in the northern continent: the eternal sun, the Lord of the storm, the god of knowledge and wisdom, the goddess of the night, the god of the earth, the god of war, the god of steam and machinery.

After seeing his sister close the door and leave, Zhou Mingrui suddenly sighed and quickly moved his mind to the transshipment ceremony.

Sorry, I really want to go home...