nightmare exec

Chapter 81 Rose Life

After the audience's questions, this episode of the talk show also came to a successful conclusion.

The guests at Yugutai finally returned to the waiting room after meeting the request of the staff and some audience members to take a group photo.The female executives who stepped down earlier couldn't wait to discuss whether to go to the executive club for a drink, or go to the food street to experience the recently very popular grilled crayfish.

Pika and Zhenzhe were also very interested, so they forced Mithril and Bison to join them.

However, Song Yin, who loves to join in the fun, shook her head this time: "You guys go, I have other things to do."

"Don't mind. It's almost twelve o'clock, and Cinderella's ball should be over. What else can you do?" Dahlia insisted, "If you go to meet your lover, just tell me, my sister, I can do it." Open the net."

"Where does this follow?"

Song Yin smiled, turned to look at Qi Zhengnan, and after confirming that there was no objection in the other party's eyes, he said: "There is no love, only wolves, wolves who are wolves - just now Team Fen said he wanted to buy me a drink, probably for the sake of going to bed." Apologize to me for the fight and the stabbing last time."

Then, he raised his eyebrows at Qi Zhengnan again, as if reminding him of the vanilla ice cream appointment.

"..." Qi Zhengnan didn't bother to explain, so he quietly watched the little lunatic continue talking nonsense.

Yu Gutai's teammates all showed tacit expressions at this time, and the female executives quickly read something from their expressions, giggling and no longer insisting.

So the two groups said goodbye in the waiting room.Song Yin and Qi Zhengnan agreed to meet again in Song Yin's lounge after 10 minutes, and then each went to change their clothes first.

Back in the lounge, as soon as he opened the door, Song Yin smelled the strong fragrance of roses again.

The exaggeratedly large bouquet was still placed beside the modeling table, which looked like a small flower bed from a distance.

Although I don't know where Qi Zhengnan is going to take him to eat ice cream, but holding such a large bouquet of flowers is quite ostentatious.Song Yin thought for a while, picked out the most beautiful flower in her hand, and then opened the mobile app to authorize the system to send the remaining bouquets back to her safe house.

In the few minutes left, he hurriedly changed back into his clothes and wiped off the on-camera makeup he had to put on to adapt to the bright lighting.When almost everything was done, there was a knock on the door of the lounge.

Qi Zhengnan, who also changed back to casual clothes, was a little more chic and lazy than the elite fan just now.

He didn't enter the door, but waited for Song Yin to come out at the door.But his eyes first found the dirty pink rose in Song Yin's hand.

"Where's the bouquet?"

"Sent it back."

"Then why are you still holding one?"

"It's the first time I received a gift from my boyfriend, so what if I take one with me?" Song Yin replied confidently.

Qi Zhengnan's lips moved, as if he wanted to refute that this was not the first time he gave Song Yin a gift.But he quickly recalled that the flower-giver was not him, but the shadow named Yun Shi.

"……move."

Once again, he left this "unknowingly tied knot, but it's not very important" lump behind his head, and focused on the young man with bright eyes in front of him.

"Where are you going?" Song Yin asked, "Don't be a club again. I suspect that the men's restroom on the fourth floor may not be repaired."

A first date, of course, is not a boring place.Qi Zhengnan shook his head and simply said three words: "Follow me."

----

The public space in Purgatory is a much wider area than Song Yin imagined.The area of ​​Executive Plaza where the club is located is just its central area.In addition, there are twelve radial streets extending from the square in different directions, each named after the twelve zodiac signs with strong local flavor.

The street where Purgatory TV Station is located is called Baima Avenue, and most of the surrounding areas are gymnasiums, swimming pools, cinemas, libraries and other scientific, educational and cultural facilities.Most of the buildings are not very popular in the middle of the night.But to be on the safe side, Qi Zhengnan led Song Yin to leave through the side door of the TV station.

The two walked through several back streets and alleys strung together with different zodiac signs, and walked side by side in bright or dark light and shadow.

The streets and alleys in Purgatory are uninhabited, so they are extraordinarily silent in the night.If they climbed up the high slopes in the street, they might be able to see the supper and food stalls on Jinzhu Avenue in the distance, but the bustle would not spread to their eyes.

Qi Zhengnan finally brought Song Yin to Qingyang Avenue.

Although named "Avenue", Qingyang District is the smallest of the twelve districts.In fact, it is just a small pedestrian street featuring handicrafts.

Looking around, the buildings here are all small brick-and-concrete buildings with a unified plan, and dotted flower borders and flower beds are arranged seamlessly, blooming like a brocade.

On both sides of the path paved with gravel, there are signboards designed and built by the merchants hanging on the red brick walls, and occasionally one or two exquisite night lights are lit.Although almost all the store signs in Purgatory are made by craftsmen in Qingyang District, the ones hanging on this street are undoubtedly the most unique and beautiful part.

It was nearly midnight, and the shops were already closed.A garland of pine cones, Christmas flowers, and holly branches hangs under a lonely night light, as if to remind the late-night passer-by that Christmas on earth is coming.

"Christmas..."

Song Yin shivered subconsciously, but there was no cold white vapor from his mouth.

This is not the first Christmas he has spent without the chill - many years ago, he followed Qi Zhengnan to New Zealand during the Christmas holiday.

It was hot summer in the southern hemisphere, and even Santa Claus was wearing board shorts and sweating under his big, shaggy white beard.They lay side by side on the soft green grass, enjoying drinks in ice buckets in the salty sea breeze.There are Christmas carols in my ears, a New Zealand Christmas tree that looks like a carmelized layer above my head, and not far away is the beach and the blue ocean.

At that time, Song Yin obviously never thought about it——after many years, he would recall all this in a dark, non-human alley.Only then would he realize with incomparable clarity how many precious and beautiful shared memories he and the man beside him had unknowingly shared.

There will be more in the future, definitely more.

Qi Zhengnan, who was leading the way, didn't realize where Song Yin's thoughts were flying, and he rarely even turned his head to check whether the people behind him were following him.

However, the sound of footsteps, the slowly fading figures following the street lights, and the faint scent of pink roses reminded him all the time that he was not alone at this moment.

At the end of the quiet street, a piece of golden and red light is slowly projected.

Song Yin gradually saw clearly that it was a shop standing at the end of the street.In the small red brick building on the second floor, the reflection of the white dining table and glass wine utensils on the bar can be vaguely seen through the quaint floor-to-ceiling wooden windows, which shows that this is not a handicraft store, and it is still quietly open in this deserted midnight. door.

"...Vanilla ice cream?" Even though she had already walked in front of Xiaolou, Song Yin couldn't help but have a little doubt.

Qi Zhengnan stopped and nodded: "You will like it here."

Not long after, this statement was quickly confirmed.

This is a cafe called "nightingale", which also sells desserts and light meals, and turns into a bar on nights when the owner is in a good mood.It has a long history and is quite famous among executives.

The scale of the cafe is very small, the business area only includes four square tables and a bar counter, otherwise even turning around would feel cramped.Maybe it was because it was late at night, and no one came to the cafe to kill time.There are no waiters or customers in the store, and there is no busy figure behind the bar.

For a moment, Song Yin even thought that Qi Zhengnan was going to open the partition on the bar himself, go in and dig out a big cup of ice cream for him from the freezer.

But Qi Zhengnan gave him an even bigger surprise.

The bar counter of the cafe is in the shape of a peninsula. They bypass the tall crystal wine cabinet and come to the back of the bar counter.Song Yin's gaze was immediately attracted by the scene in front of him.

There are only four seats on the back of the bar, and behind the seats is a large floor-to-ceiling window on the entire wall.Outside the glass window is neither a courtyard nor a street, but an endless sea of ​​flowers.

There are tens of thousands of roses, or even more, blooming in clusters on the vast and open plain, like a silent and tideless Red Sea.The night covered the roses with a layer of silver-blue veil, but it also added a layer of mystery, as if accidentally broke into someone's dream.

"This is the best place to enjoy the stunning scenery of Qingyangzuo Street." Qi Zhengnan revealed the answer to the mystery for him.

Although twelve main roads radiate out, the public part of Purgatory is still a limited space after all.In order to avoid the oppression and abruptness brought by the closure, at the end of Twelve Streets, instead of the black iron fence, there are twelve magnificent and insurmountable "superb views".At the end of Feilong Street is a large lake connected to a cliff waterfall; at the end of Silver Snake Street is a wetland swamp; Turkey Street is a volcano, in short, each has its own characteristics.

"But what is insurmountable in the sea of ​​roses?" Song Yin didn't understand, "If it were placed in the world, there would be such a tourist attraction, and you would be trampled to the ground and bald every minute."

"That's different."

A deeper, even somewhat hoarse voice suddenly joined the discussion: "What you see now are not ordinary roses. Their mother plants came from the dream of a Japanese writer. In that dream, roses and snakes were friends. , the soft petals are covered with scales, and the thorns have turned into fangs."

Song Yin followed the prestige and found a middle-aged man wearing a bartender uniform standing at the bar.His hair was gray, his beard was trimmed very delicately, and the sleeves of his arms were neatly rolled up in the crook of his arms.

"This is the owner of the cafe, Su Tie." Qi Zhengnan introduced the two parties, "Smorphobia, a 'new' friend."

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I watched the live broadcast of the super dungeon with the guests in the store a few days ago. Everyone was very impressed by the executive officer who crossed the dungeon. I didn't expect to see the deity so soon." Su Tie leaned over and stretched out his hand At the bar, he shook hands with Song Yin.

Seeing that the other party spoke decently, Song Yin couldn't help being polite: "I'm sorry to bother you at such a late hour."

"It's nothing. The fact that the store is open means that I'm in a good mood. It's like I've made more friends."

Su Tie didn't talk too much about the fact that Qi Zhengnan sent a message a few hours ago asking him to make an exception to open late at night, but just pushed the drink list in front of Song Yin: "It's not appropriate to drink coffee at night."

Looking at the various whiskeys and mixed wines on the water list, Song Yin suddenly got stuck, feeling that the five "vanilla ice cream" are like big white rabbit toffee in the mouth of a child, no matter what Come.

"Vanilla ice cream." Seeing that he couldn't say anything, Qi Zhengnan ordered the most important one for him, and asked thoughtfully, "Are you hungry?"

"My family's hot waffles are also delicious." Cycad recommended himself.

In the end, the two of them ordered two waffles, an ice cream, and two glasses of mixed wine-a very incongruous choice, but they were the only two of them in the whole shop anyway.

Before serving the wine, Cycad first gave them a few plates of snacks, such as crispy pork skin with sea salt, roasted almonds, and salt-and-pepper peanuts. Along with the snacks, there was also a long-necked glass bottle, but Song Yin didn't know how to look at it What's the use.

"Insert the flower you brought here for now."

Cycad calmly chiseled the old hockey puck in his hand, and his deep voice was pleasant to the ear under the dim light: "Although the flowers in purgatory will not wither, if they are not taken care of properly, they will die just like love."

------

Su Tie is a man with a story—this is Song Yin's first impression of this wonderful late-night cafe.

Two hand-chiseled pucks are placed into a stout highball glass, followed by whiskey.Song Yin's glass is bourbon, while Qi Zhengnan's is rye.

When the amber liquid gradually stabilized in the lower half of the glass, the addition of soda water created a new excitement.Cycad garnished Qi Zhengnan's glass with mint and fresh lemon slices; and in order to neutralize the extra sweetness of bourbon, two slices of lightly pickled salty lemon were ingeniously placed in Song Yin's glass.

Song Yin picked up the wine glass and took a sip. The sweetness of the bourbon soda and the sourness and saltiness brought by the lemon slices collided just right to create a rich layering, which became soft and harmless under the cooling of the ice puck.

"Delicious." This is his sincere evaluation.

"But also be careful, don't drink too fast." The cycad who had already started making waffles gave a timely warning, "Many mixed wines have a soft taste, and you won't find yourself drunk until the moment you stand up and prepare to leave. How outrageous."

Having said that, he raised his head and glanced at Qi Zhengnan: "Team Fen, you have to take care of the people you brought."

"Definitely." Qi Zhengnan nodded of course.

Holding the wine glass in one hand, he turned his head to look at Song Yin.The liquid in the light golden cup sparkled under the refraction of the crystal glass, but it was nothing compared to the look in his eyes.

Song Yin knew that his cheeks must have started to turn red again, but luckily he was holding the best excuse in his hand.

So he also raised his wine glass to his forehead, and stared directly at Qi Zhengnan through the glass, unscrupulously showing a wonderful emotion that could not be clearly expressed in words.

It's a pity that it didn't take long for Qi Zhengnan to lose the battle, and then looked away under the pretense of bowing his head to drink.

"Kala." Song Yin picked up a piece of fried pork skin and chewed it up angrily.

"It's so strange, I rarely meet friends like you who invite out for a drink but have nothing to say."

Su Tie didn't know whether he wanted to save the scene or sent it out of emotion. Generally speaking, ordinary bartenders or bosses would not take the initiative to intervene in the conversations of the guests, but Su Tie was very familiar with Qi Zhengnan, which was an exception.

"He and I are not very friends." Song Yin chewed on the pigskin, and couldn't help but started arguing again.

"...Could it be brothers or other family members?" Su Tie said surprisingly.

You mentioned us to him? ——Song Yin asked Qi Zhengnan a question by winking, and half a second later, Qi Zhengnan simply shook his head as a reply.

So he directly asked Su Tie: "Can't we be strangers? The kind of people who met for the first time and didn't say a few words."

"The stranger you are, the more you talk. The closer you are, the less you need to rely on language to get closer."

Cycad skillfully threw the peeled fresh peach meat into the boiling vanilla pod extract, and continued casually: "Besides, I know how to go on social networks anyway. I'm unfamiliar with these two words, you two In any case, you are not eligible."

"Haha, I really lost to you." Song Yin said haha ​​while trying to change the subject.

"You just said that these roses came from the dream of a Japanese writer?"

"You mean the kind of rose with scales in the night? That's just my guess, but even if it has nothing to do with the writer himself, it must have come from the dream of a human who is familiar with this script. I have no doubts about it. "

"But how can the things in other people's dreams appear in Purgatory? Isn't it said that the things you take in the dungeon will disappear when you leave the dungeon?"

"For executives, yes. But that's only because we don't have the qualifications and authority, just like humans don't have the right to decide which species should be wiped off the face of the earth."

Cycad turned on the waffle machine, and a strong sweet smell lingered over the bar: "In fact, not only roses, but the whole purgatory is like this—we live in purgatory, and we live in the safe house generated in our dreams. Clothes woven in dreams, and even the combat equipment of executive officers are born with the power of people's dreams, otherwise, how could it be similar and different from the technology in the real world?"

"...You mean, if I dream, the dreamed things may also be used in purgatory?" Song Yin's eyes sparkled under the lamp, "Then what if it's the person I dreamed of?"

"Only what is considered necessary will be put into purgatory after screening, which is very similar to the selection mechanism of the executive officer."

Cycad poured whipped cream and chocolate sauce on two freshly baked waffles, put several kinds of berries on it, and placed the plate in front of the two guests.

"Then please taste it, the butter waffle made from dreams."

For the next half a minute, there was only the sound of forks and plates colliding lightly in the midnight cafe.The hot aroma of buttery waffles wafts through the air.

"Ah." Digging out a spoonful of cream, Song Yin made a small discovery - a golden animal pattern was printed in the center of the white porcelain plate, resembling an elephant with small ears and a short nose.

"This is a nightmare-eating tapir, which is also the mascot of our store." Cycad explained, "The tapir is a mythical animal that wards off evil spirits in China. When it arrives in Japan, it has the ability to devour nightmares."

"A dream-eating monster? Doesn't that mean us?" Song Yin laughed, "It should be suggested that the mall buy a batch of tapir headgear, how meaningful."

"It is said that there are indeed similar products in Purgatory in Japan. If you have a chance, you can go and have a look."

"Hey, can people go abroad in purgatory?" Song Yin was a little surprised.

"Yes, but if the level is too low, you can't go, because the level of transnational dungeons is generally very high." Having said that, Su Tie pointed to Qi Zhengnan, "You should have met this one, right?"

Qi Zhengnan, who hadn't spoken much, was suddenly mentioned, and the wine glass in his hand paused: "...um."

"Tell me?!" Song Yin nudged him.

The wine in Qi Zhengnan's glass was almost spilled out, he frowned: "There's nothing to say, they're all copies. Even if you can't understand the language, there is an assistant officer to translate."

"Tch, boring." Song Yin took another sip of wine in disgust, looked down and found that there was still more than half of the waffle left on Qi Zhengnan's plate, picked up a fork and forked it.

"Why?" Qi Zhengnan discovered his plot in time, and the two forks were immediately put together, like a childish little war.

"If you don't eat, why don't you share some with me?"

"Who said that if I don't eat, I will die if I ask?"

"What's the point of asking about such a trivial matter, are you a cheapskate?"

"Snatching things and then calling others stingy, I think you deserve a beating."

"You want to fight again, don't you? Come on, maybe who will hit whom."

Although the words were raised and rushed, neither of them took it seriously.

But the cycad behind the bar laughed: "Do you know? People who fight on this street have a very special way of dealing with them. Everyone will drive them into the sea of ​​roses. While they are fighting, those The flower vines entangled them on one side, and finally entangled the two of them tightly. It is said that those who have been entangled will never quarrel again. Want to try it?"

"Let's go, I'm going crazy to be entangled with this guy."

Song Yin sneered, and saw Su Tie put a large ice cream cup on the bar counter.

Bright red raspberry jam wraps a milky ball of ice cream, with chunks of yellow peach flesh and crushed raspberries on the side, and a layer of golden caramel on top.In short, it was very different from the simple desserts he remembered.

"Is this vanilla ice cream? It's gorgeous!"

"This is our classic, peach melba. Not only the ice cream balls are vanilla-flavored, but the peach meat is also boiled in vanilla water." Cycad briefly introduced that this is a traditional dessert with a long history of more than 100 years. It is a dessert invented by a famous French chef to treat Australian soprano singer Melba.

"The lady on the $[-] note?"

The memory went round and round, and I went back to the winter vacation in Australia.Song Yin turned to Qi Zhengnan and whispered, "Brother Nan, Christmas is coming again."

Qi Zhengnan's eyes froze slightly, and he answered a little bluntly: "In China's purgatory, there is no official celebration of Christmas."

"There is nothing in the world. If you can't do it yourself, you can. Don't tell me that your majestic Yugutai team doesn't even have any holiday benefits."

Song Yin scooped a large spoonful of ice cream into his mouth, and stuck out his tongue to lick the raspberry syrup off his lips.

The slightly sour juice and the sweet ice cubes made him close his eyes and take two jitters. When he opened his eyes again, he happened to find that Qi Zhengnan was staring at him.

That line of sight did not meet his eyes, but fixedly landed on his lips.

Cycad went back to the back kitchen to organize things, and there were only the two of them left in the whole cafe.With the caramel-colored lights overhead and the boundless sea of ​​flowers behind, everything is just perfect.

Song Yin suddenly made a proactive and somewhat impulsive decision.

He scooped up a large spoonful of ice cream and brought it to Qi Zhengnan's mouth.

If Qi Zhengnan accepts this spoonful of sweetness.Then, no matter whether he admits that he is Yun Shi or not, Song Yin has decided to take advantage of the victory and pursue it, and not to play any boring vest games.

The spoon was already in front of Qi Zhengnan, and the sweet cold air from the ice cream touched his lips, as if Song Yin himself was blowing cold air on him.

Qi Zhengnan's eyes moved from Song Yin's lips to the silver spoon.He turned his head carefully, as if looking for the best angle, and swallowed this sudden temptation, together with the "fishhook" hidden inside.

But just at this moment, there was a soft bang in the back kitchen, as if Cycad accidentally dropped something like a cardboard box on the ground.

It wasn't a big noise at first, but Song Yin, who was guilty of a crime, was taken aback.With a flick of the wrist, the half-melted vanilla ice cream in the spoon was about to fall.

He raised his arm eagerly, but accidentally brushed Qi Zhengnan's cheek.

As a result, half of the big spoonful of ice cream got on Qi Zhengnan's face; the other half slid along the handle of the spoon onto the back of Song Yin's hand, then slid along the back of his hand, across his wrist, and got into his sleeve all the way. It made him tremble violently a few times.

How did such a good relationship become like this...

He and Qi Zhengnan were stunned at the same time.

The author has something to say: ①From: Yukio Mishima's "Marquise de Sade"