This winter seems particularly cold, with a cold wave hitting most areas north of the Tropic of Cancer, and even Amsterdam, which is usually mild, has experienced a rare heavy snowfall.
Vondelpark was covered in a blanket of white snow. The usually bustling lawns and open-air theater were now quiet and deserted, with only a few birds braving the cold to forage for food in the snow.
The towers of the central train station were covered in snow, and the dark red walls, like blood congealed in the Middle Ages, stubbornly radiated warmth in the cold white world.
The canal encircling the city has not yet frozen over, but the water flow has become slow and still due to the cold, losing its former warmth, like an old man suffering from arteriosclerosis in his lower limbs.
Emerging from the clock tower of the central train station, Huang Liang glanced at the empty streets, then pulled a slip of paper from his down jacket pocket. It contained an address—the place he was to go that day.
He tried entering the address into his phone's map app, but Google Maps couldn't find the street called Haihuanggua; it only recommended a few potentially related places. He checked them one by one and found they were all related to food. It seems Google's intelligent recommendation capabilities are now comparable to Baidu's.
Huang Liang stopped a man who had just come out of the train station like him and asked him if he knew where Sea Cucumber Street was. The man looked and shook his head, indicating that he had never heard of it.
He had no choice but to walk along the street, hoping to encounter street cleaners or elderly people Sun, as only these people would remember the old streets whose names had long been changed. He didn't want to ask the police for help, because given his current identity and the matters he needed to handle, it was best to avoid dealing with them.
After escaping from Wuzhong Prison, he came to Amsterdam with a new identity and stayed in a suburban hotel arranged for him by the organization.
Someone slipped this note under the door last night, and the person outside had already left by the time he found it. He knew the organization was currently in a state of high tension because the whole world was hunting down the alien parasites, although they were unlikely to catch them all. But it was never a good thing if someone suspected he had been parasitized. The organization's decision to go into hiding must have its reasons; supposedly, it was because the passage had been closed, and everyone was waiting for a new passage to open again.
Amsterdam was a very important base for the organization in Europe, but Huang Liang only contacted Howard and never attended any of the organization's gatherings.
He knew that the organization was protecting him, but also testing him.
Howard told him that because they had to fully absorb human memories, many comrades were suffering from human emotions, and some even committed suicide to escape the pain and return to their pre-parasitic state by breaking free from the parasitic body. If there were too many such people, it would have a huge negative impact on the organization. Currently, the organization is conducting an internal investigation, and they suspect that there has been a traitor within the organization.
Around a corner, Huang Liang saw a homeless man prying open the lid of a cold trash can and scavenging for scraps of food inside. His intuition told him that this kind of person might know something that ordinary people don't.
He went over and asked in the Netherlands, "Excuse me, could you help me find this place?"
The homeless man glanced at his hands, quickly turned away, and continued rummaging through his trash, "Get lost! Laozi 'm starving, I can't recognize anything except food!"
Huang Liang saw a bakery not far ahead, so he ran over and bought a bag of Tiger bread.
When he came out of the bakery, the homeless man was already staring at him. His eyes gleamed with an infinitely longing green light, like a hungry wild dog.
"Give it to me!" The homeless man's voice was hoarse, and his Adam's apple bobbed as it protruded from his tattered coat.
Seeing his overcoat and messy hair, Huang Liang was reminded of Qingmu. He didn't understand why, despite their similar appearance, Qingmu never gave the impression of a homeless person.
After careful comparison, he discovered that the differences in details were quite significant. Although Qingmu's clothes were also old, his hair was messy, and even his slippers were worse than the ripped leather boots on the homeless man's feet, Qingmu never gave off a dirty impression. There wasn't a single stain on his clothes, not a single blemish on his face, and not a single dandruff in his hair. His eyes were clear and deep, like an ancient well bubbling with fresh spring water.
Looking at the homeless man in front of me, he was filthy, his hair was sticky and matted together, his face and neck were black and oily as if he had been soaked in soy sauce, his eyes were cloudy and bloodshot, a few specks of eye boogers squeezed out of the corners of his eyes, and when he begged for bread, he revealed a set of teeth that were half yellow and half black.
"Tell me where this is?" Huang Liang asked, holding a piece of bread in one hand and a piece of paper in the other.
The homeless man glanced at it sideways, read the words on it, "Sea cucumber... hehe, hehehe, hehe..." and then laughed.
Huang Liang and the Tushu judged from his expression that he knew this place.
He handed over the bread, "Tell me!"
The homeless man snatched the bread, ran to a nearby bench, and, ignoring the still-snowy surface, plopped down and began to devour it, as if afraid that if he ate too slowly, someone would steal it from him.
Huang Liang watched him the whole time.
This is Amsterdam, Europe's largest trading city, and it seems some people here are also living unhappy lives!
Huang Liang could have simply hypnotized him and entered his subconscious to ask questions, which would have been much faster and wouldn't have wasted those few pieces of bread. He wasn't a philanthropist, and he hadn't come to Amsterdam to do charity work. Besides, he always believed that helping the homeless was the government's responsibility, not the people's obligation.
Since meeting Qingmu, he has witnessed the true power of the spirit. In the past, he had only heard that only powerful Lost Ancestor possessed such energy. But Lost Ancestor were just legends, and for a race like theirs without memories, their legends were even less reliable than Earthling myths.
Since forming a strategic partnership with Qingmu, his Mental Power has advanced by leaps and bounds. Especially his experience in another life, a complete one, allowed him to witness so much.
Yes, he was willing to use the word "strategy" to describe his cooperation with Qingmu. They were both confused about their past and future, they both felt that they were being manipulated by something that could be called fate, or perhaps a force beyond fate, and they were neither willing to compromise and live a mediocre life. They wanted to know the truth!
Qingmu taught him many methods of spiritual cultivation. The scalpel he used in his dream was becoming increasingly sharp and concealed. He believed that it wouldn't be long before the scalpel would become an invisible blade.
Now, he can easily hypnotize an ordinary person. But he doesn't want to use such methods on the streets of Amsterdam, one of the organization's largest strongholds, where a Mental Power parasite could appear at any time.
Huang Liang did not want to reveal his strength too early.
He preferred to use bread to gain the homeless man's trust, patiently waiting for him to tell him where Sea Cucumber Street was.