Woman in the River

When they returned to the house, Da Huang was really dying.

"It's waiting for you," Jianlin said as he walked to the doghouse in his cloth shoes. He rubbed the dog's head with his rough hands. The dog stood up breathlessly. "It's been guarding our house for more than ten years. It's time to let the old friend go out for some fresh air."

It is indeed its daily exercise time from around dinner time in the afternoon to the early morning of the next day, but Yinsui knows that this exercise is not the same as the other one.

When some dogs in rural areas feel they are about to die, they will leave their owners' homes and find a remote place to lie quietly, waiting for their lives to end.

Jianlin carefully removed the collar and chain. The yellow dog shook itself, and loose hair and mud fell off like dots.

It passes through the artificial concrete ground and returns to nature. Its skinny body is like another piece of loess floating on the loess, and will sink into the ground and return to the loess.

Yinsui, wearing a blue jacket, chased after him, like the sky chasing the land, and finally chased him all the way to a cemetery covered with lush green bamboos.

Fearing that she might disturb its slumber, she stopped at a place where she could see its general outline. A tombstone happened to be standing behind her. The words on the tombstone were soaked by the wind and rain.

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

For the first time, she faced the death of her family member calmly.

The yellow dog itself was also very calm. It lay calmly in the chosen pit, its slightly bulging hair blending in with the surroundings. At this time, a light part of it still belonged to the wind, and it would move flexibly, and only when it decomposed more thoroughly would it return its entire body to eternal silence.

The sun gradually dimmed its light and the dusk grew thicker.

Although the outline in his eyes had already merged with the shadow of the tree and lost focus, Yinsui took root and continued to stay where he was, waiting for the second round, last time to welcome death and this time to welcome life.

Qiong Qing was worried, so she and Jianlin walked closer, swinging the flashlight in their hands around as they moved, sometimes splitting the sky and sometimes breaking the earth.

"Go home and have dinner. There's no point in waiting here. Let Da Huang rest on his own. Tomorrow your grandfather will dig a grave for Da Huang in the bamboo forest. He can't walk far, so you can visit him anytime."

"You guys eat first, no need to wait for me."

How can we not eat? The old man immediately asked with concern: "What's the matter?"

"Nothing, I just want to stay here for a while." In order to prove that he was determined, he took a step back and squatted down, as if he was ready to grow old and become a stubborn stone.

"It's not safe at night. Why don't you come back tomorrow morning?"

"I know, grandma, but I think it's night time, so you should just let me rest assured, just for a little while."

Alas, I can’t feel at ease at all.

Qiong Qing wanted to say something but hesitated. She wanted to stop her but knew her granddaughter's stubborn temper. She had never really stopped her, so she could only give up. "Then remember to eat dinner. Also, take the flashlight. If anything happens, call us and we'll come right away. Be careful at night."

"Of course. And grandma, please help me entertain the guests tonight. I may not be back tonight, so don't wait for me."

Ji Xunjin, who was standing silently at the entrance of the bamboo forest, knew as soon as he heard that he was going to be "entrusted" again. Without even saying anything, he went back with Qiong Qing.

He wondered why the old mute had been suffering so much recently, unable to catch anyone and even had his gun handed over to someone else.

Time passed minute by minute, and the world was adjusted to a certain state. The hills that were sometimes far and sometimes near suddenly rose, and the yellow dog's limbs pulled out of the pits, as if it had suddenly turned back into a majestic warrior with golden fur, galloping away in the armor of the night.

"Dahuang, Dahuang!" Yinsui called in a low voice.

But the soldier had an important mission and continued to run on his own, scurrying away like an arrow from a bow.

Without thinking too much, she hurriedly chased after him.

From the small path at the front door to the wide road, heading east until the first large intersection appeared on the road circling the village, the more Yinsui ran, the more he guessed where Dahuang was going, and his heart was filled with excitement.

Finally, we turned another corner and arrived at our expected destination - the disappeared Anping Bridge, but the dog was gone.

The gurgling water at Anping Bridge is snow water. They say it comes from the distant mountains. The section of the river in the village is just a small part of the entire river. Now that it is connected from beginning to end, it is also forced to curl up.

"Rhubarb, rhubarb."

Everything was silent, with only the rustling of the grass and trees responding reluctantly.

The flashlight I pocketed before leaving finally came in handy. I was so busy on the road that I had no time to take it out and use it.

On the silvery-white river surface, a beam of light cast from a height hovered, and when the edge of the fuzzy halo circled around strands of black, it suddenly stopped.

She tilted her wrist slightly and found more things that looked like seaweed.

My hometown's climate doesn't allow for the growth of algae, so the clumps of black strands on the river's surface can only be hair. The dead branches beside me began to sway, and the clatter of leaves against each other began with a rustling sound—a rustling sound—and eventually became the sharp sound of fingernails scraping against pottery.

He shrank his hands due to the cold, and a thin layer of sweat broke out on his back.

Inspired by the beam of light, a pale face slowly rose from the bottom of the water, its dull pupils looking towards the sky, empty but with long seaweed-like hair entwined around them. Its purple lips opened, revealing fine mother-of-pearl teeth, and an invisible, slippery spider silk glued her gaze to that inhuman face.

The compassionate expression does not appear ferocious, and the head seems to have been eroded by the water, but the plaster statue remains soft and delicate, swaying up and down with the undulations of the river.

The moon was dim at this time, and the face in the river was far more beautiful than it.

After a few seconds, Yin Sui regained his breath, and at the same time compared the face hidden by his messy hair with the villagers in his memory.

There was a girl from the other side of the village. I forgot her name, but I remember her surname was "Wei". She often ran to the open space to play with the neighbor's children who were a few years younger than her.

"Malan blooms twenty-one——"

Lin Pan stood aside, helping the child next to him stretch a rubber band. When he saw the little figure stop and look over, he greeted her enthusiastically, "Come here."

The girl faced them with her back to the light, her thin shadow leaning on the ground, like an abandoned mast, motionless.

Tiny noises floated in the stagnant air, and the vision in front of him was dim and bright. Lin Pan suspected that he had hypoglycemia, but since it was not serious enough to cause him to fall to the ground, he ignored it for the time being.

"Come and play."

Although it was clearly close at hand, the clear voice seemed to come from far away: "Can you please come to me?"

"I can't get up." She became anxious, not knowing why she had to say "can't get up".

His head buzzing, Lin Pan heard the waves of the village-protecting river crashing against the embankment a kilometer away, drowning out the surrounding laughter and making the scenery dark and unclear. "I can't go up, so you have to come down."

"Let's play a question-and-answer game first, like - how did you recognize me?"

The moment the words fell, the sun suddenly went out and Lin Pan woke up from the chaos.

Ah, the little girl who didn't even reach my chest has grown so big. I thought to myself, "It seems she was taller than me the last time we met."

"After my body dissolves into the water, the water vapor by the river also becomes a part of me. Through it, I can touch the people nearby. And only you will come."

He Zhong's voice suddenly became clear, and Yin Sui knew that she had just woken up.

"You've seen me come to the river before."

"Yeah, I remember the first time. You were wearing a gray sweater and a brown jacket, and the boots were really nice. The second time, you were wearing the same pair of boots and a red windbreaker. The third time, you were about the same height as me, wearing a gray sweater and a brown jacket. The fourth and last time, your mother was holding your hand as they tried to cross the bridge, but your grandparents took you away."

She remembers it all! ?

All his previous cognition was overturned. Yinsui could hear his heartbeat like a drum, and he was reluctant to give up the good opportunity to seize the rare opportunity to communicate smoothly with someone.

Lin Pan never refuses anything that comes his way.

Repeating the same day has nothing to do with time.

It was a dream.

Those who pretend to be asleep always dream the same dream, so what happens between sunrise and sunset never changes. If they dream of the night, the village will always be dark.

Although it is difficult to tell whether these answers are true or false, they still broaden our perspective on observing the truth.

As if knowing Yin Sui's remaining doubts, the gentle narration continued under the embankment: "If you wake up, there will be nothing left."

"There's nothing left," she murmured.

"Because I have nothing, I hide in the daydream of a peaceful life. The dream will last until it disappears."

"what is it?"

"I don't know either."

"What about you? What are you?"

I am a monster that lures people underwater, luring them closer and then drowning them. The bodies of my victims soak in the water and dissolve day by day.

"Daytime is a dream concocted by those pretending to sleep, and night is when madmen wander and hunt. I only appear at night."

"Just now you needed me to jump into the river..."

"No, I don't need it. I was just crazy before, and the words of a madman are always untrustworthy. The wind is strong by the river, let's go back, there's nothing fun here."

"I still have a lot of questions."

"They're not important," Yinsui pointed the flashlight at the sound of water as he heard the sound of water. His dark, grayish-white skin was half covered by the surging water. "As a survivor, it's best to hide as far away as possible. Let's go. There's no one here you want to see anymore."

The water shimmered, dazzlingly white. Occasionally, a night breeze blew by, and the light swayed on the surface. An invisible hand reached out from the darkness, crumpled the light, and then gently smoothed it out.

Lin Pan looked at the water flowing above his head; the only source of light was reluctant to leave for a long time.

The man on the shore called out, "One last question, where's my dog?"

"left--"

Lin Pan sank to the bottom of the water, realizing that she was unwilling to give up.

Infatuation piles up like a grave, bitter waters converge into a natural moat. This river is filled with corpses, other corpses swollen and finally dissolved. There is no way out on the surface, and no one in the water can be saved.

"The amaranth blooms on the 21st, 28th, 25th, 26th, 28th, 25th, 27th..."

Sunlight filtered through the gaps between the elm leaves, gilding the gravel road. A girl in a light yellow blouse emerged from the edge of the rapeseed field. She stopped as usual and stood aside.

I stood extra far away today.

Can you see clearly?

Lin Pan thought and waved over there: "Yin Sui, come here."

But the joy on the girl's face quickly faded, replaced by confusion and sadness. Instead of coming closer, she turned and left quickly. The sole of her shoe rolled over a cluster of fresh green grass leaves, and the halo shattered into glass all over the ground.

Why not indulge in such beautiful spring scenery?