Chapter 56

Zhou Yue returned to the villa. It seemed that no one was there. It was quiet and there was no sound at all. Liao Jie handcuffed her hands and feet, wrapped the chain around her bedpost several times, and said, "Madam, have a good rest." Then he disappeared without a trace.

That night Zhou Yue had a very long dream. To be exact, she didn’t know whether she had only slept for one night, because the dream was so long.

In her dream, Dai Yan returned home, carrying vegetables and meat. As soon as she entered the house, she threw the key into a metal box filled with utility bills. "Tsk, where's your dad?" she frowned and cursed. "That bastard came home and did nothing. He didn't even pay the water bill!" She lowered her head and was silent for a moment, then looked up at Zhou Yue. "Did he go out fooling around again?"

Dai Yan was still the same, with big wavy hair, sparkling green eyeshadow, a leopard print skirt and a pair of bright red patent leather high heels. She was wrinkle-free and rushed into the house without waiting for Zhou Yue to reply. She tied her hair up neatly as she walked and rushed into the kitchen, making a lot of noise. She asked her to turn the faucet to the maximum, and the sound of water was splashing.

"Huh?" She was stunned for a moment, then raised the corner of her mouth and smiled charmingly, "I handed it over! Fine, I was wrong about blaming him!"

"Your dad told me!" she said loudly while picking vegetables in a basket. "He won't go to Guangzhou this time when he comes back. He's old and has made enough money. He'll wait for you later..." She poked her head out of the kitchen and laughed gossipingly, "When you give birth, we'll be at home taking care of the baby for you."

Zhou Yue looked down in surprise, seeing her bulging belly beneath her loose blue dress. Then she heard Dai Yan's giggling voice from the kitchen. "It's just that your brother's status is so difficult to deal with. The police station insisted that your father produce that adoption certificate! You said it happened twenty years ago, where can we find it? Hey, but then again, what era is it now? A marriage certificate is just a piece of paper! The three of you being together and doing well is more important than anything else."

"Speaking of which, I have to talk about your brother again!" Dai Yan picked the vegetables and stewed the meat in the pressure cooker. In the blink of an eye, she brought out a large basin of clothes from the bathroom. Zhou Yue tried to take it, but she dodged it. "Go away, go away! Why are you working with a big belly?"

Dai Yan frowned and scolded her daughter as she walked across the living room to the balcony. She picked up a blue police uniform shirt and shook it, shaking out the fragrance of laundry detergent.

"How much money can you make as a police officer?" She hung the clothes on the clothesline with an annoyed look on her face, muttering to herself, "Hmph, you still have to put your head on your belt, and bullets don't have eyes. If anything happens to him, what will you and Tiantian do?" After saying that, she slapped herself on the mouth, "Pah, pah, pah! Look at me, what are you talking about?" The water on her fingers splashed.

Zhou Yue smiled, and she smiled too, looking up at the clothes hanging on the clothesline. The bright sunlight poured in from the window. Even standing behind her, Zhou Yue could see the corners of her lips curled up. She seemed immersed in happiness, but also in sadness. She shook her body gently, "Your father and I are old, how long can we take care of you?"

"I've made so many mistakes in my life." She turned her back to Zhou Yue and whispered, "I shouldn't have liked your father, I shouldn't have married him, I shouldn't have hit that girl and aborted her child, and the worst thing was how I treated Xingxing. Xingxing, such a good child, it's hard to find even with a lantern..."

"I just have hatred in my heart, but I have no place to vent that hatred, because the person I hate the most is myself."

"But among all these mistakes, there is one thing I did right." She turned her head and smiled, her eyes full of tenderness and sadness. "I have you, Yueyue. It's a pity that I realized it too late."

The sunlight gradually disappeared and the sky became dark in an instant.

"Mom! Mom!" Zhou Yue screamed and cried as she rushed towards Dai Yan, but in the blink of an eye everything was gone, the balcony, the living room, the kitchen... all gone. She lay on the bed with her eyes open, vaguely seeing the familiar sofa and the green tourmaline table lamp in the darkness. Jiang Huai had just been sitting there, and there was dried blood on the carpet.

The door was open, and she saw a head sticking out of the door. It was Dai Yan, who walked in with her hands behind her back and a gentle smile. This time she was wearing a white nightgown and no makeup. Her eyes were soft without the green eyeshadow, and tears were flowing in the moonlight, her eyes full of reluctance and nostalgia.

This time she didn't say anything. She sat next to Zhou Yue, looked at her for a long time, and finally kissed her gently on the forehead. The kiss had a real fragrance, the scent of her mother, and then she got up and walked out.

Zhou Yue watched her back and saw Zhou Tiancheng at the door.

He was wearing a black shirt and black trousers. He stood with his hands behind his back and tilted his head to look at Zhou Yue. His peach blossom eyes were full of smiles, just like the smile when he taught her to ride a bicycle when they were little. Zhou Yue didn't even notice when he let go of his hand. When she looked back, he was already far away, standing under the locust tree in the distance, smiling and waving at her:

"Don't be afraid, Yueyue. Ride forward and don't look back."

Dai Yan walked over and took the hand Zhou Tiancheng extended to her. They smiled and looked at Zhou Yue for the last time before leaving. There was even a trace of their shadows on the wall at the door, which gradually faded and disappeared...

Zhou Yue opened her eyes and stood up. It was daybreak, but the sunlight was cold. It was a cloudy day, and the window behind her was covered with dark clouds.

The door was really open, and Aunt Xu's light footsteps and the sound of her trouser legs rubbing against each other came closer and closer.

"Oh, Madam, you're finally awake. You've been sleepy for over a week!" She whispered anxiously, "It was so scary." As she handed Zhou Yue some water, she stood by the bed and carefully observed her face. "You've lost so much weight."

Zhou Yue looked down at her body. She was wearing a clean nightgown with a few small pieces of gauze on her knees and elbows. The bed and the floor were also clean. The bloodstains had disappeared and the carpet had been replaced with a new one.

"Aunt Xu, is Tiantian okay?"

"Good! Good!" Aunt Xu smiled. "She had her milk this morning, and now it's time to play." She stood aside, her hands clenched until they turned white, her mouth opening and closing. She leaned over to Zhou Yue and whispered, "Madam, the old lady is gone. It happened last night." She paused, lowered her waist even lower, and said in a softer voice, "Don't worry. The doctor said she didn't suffer at all. She passed away in her sleep."

Zhou Yue looked down without saying a word. The scar that ran through the palm of her hand cut off all the lines and also cut off all ways of survival.

"Aunt Xu, I want to see Mr. Jiang."

"What?" Aunt Xu looked confused.

"I said I want to see Mr. Jiang."

But Jiang Huai can't be seen whenever he wants, because he is sick.

"Tetanus?" Zhou Yue asked as she sat in front of the mirror. Her hair had grown longer, reaching her collarbone, and the roots were unevenly white. Aunt Xu used a wooden comb to comb her hair bit by bit. The doors and windows of the bedroom were open, and the breeze was filled with the fragrance of sandalwood, which was the smell of hair dye.

"I don't have tetanus," Aunt Xu said softly. She dipped a small brush into the hair dye, rinsed it in a celadon basin with clean water, and then applied it to Zhou Yue's roots. "After all, she's in her forties, and her health isn't great. The exertion, coupled with the knife wound, brought all the symptoms out." She glanced at Zhou Yue in the mirror and lifted a lock of her hair to cover her silver metal skeleton. "It's heartbreaking, too."

"Sad." Zhou Yue tilted her head to look in the mirror and blinked slowly. Aunt Xu smiled, but said nothing. She combed her hair carefully from root to tip with a wooden comb before speaking: "No matter how you look at it, you are still a human being. People always have feelings."

"Yeah." Zhou Yue also smiled and turned her head gently to examine herself. The roots of her hair had turned black again, there were no wrinkles, and her skull was well covered. Her flying fox eyes were still beautiful, but some things were just so hard to describe. The breath of time and withering was all engraved in her eyes, and there was no way of escaping it for even a minute or a second. Not only could she not compare to the teenage girls outside, she could not even compare to her own teenage years.

"His little bit of affection is really useful." Zhou Yue looked up at the gloomy sky outside the window, thinking for a long time. After looking back, she smiled and joked, "I didn't expect that in the end, I still have to rely on a man's affection to survive."

Aunt Xu glanced at her without saying a word. She tied her hair into a low bun and used a pointed comb to comb her hair bit by bit, highlighting her round and full skull. She bent down to look at the person in the mirror, her eyebrows curved in a smile, "You look good."

Zhou Yue also smiled and looked down at the driveway downstairs. A black Bentley drove out of the dense woods and stopped silently in front of the door. It didn't honk, but just waited there quietly.

Looking deeper into the dense forest, the mountain road that the car drove up was obscured by the shadows of trees, and the visible section of the road was covered with bushes as tall as a person. The overgrown branches and leaves turned black in the gloomy sunlight, like a roadblock, motionless in the ominous and sultry air, but this was the only way down the mountain.

"It seems that Mr. Jiang has agreed to meet me." Zhou Yue said.

Jiang Huai didn't want to stay in the hospital. As soon as he felt a little better, he asked to go home. Although Zhou Yue remembered that he was always sick, he rarely really got sick. This time, he was seriously ill.

There were ventilators and oxygen meters plugged into the bedroom on the second floor. The dripping sound and the smell of rotten medicine filled out from the crack of the door and spread to the living room on the first floor. You could smell it as soon as you entered the door.

Zhou Yue walked in. The curtains in the bedroom were drawn tightly, revealing only a corner of the intricately carved Roman columns and the decaying mildew attached to this luxurious and gorgeous scene. There was an oil painting hanging on the wall at the head of the bed. This painting was an extra one. Zhou Yue had never seen it before. Unfortunately, the light was too dim, and only the retro golden frame with intricate patterns could be vaguely seen.

The cool air was filled with the scent of Chinese medicine and a very faint smell of blood.

It's really in vain, Zhou Yue thought as she stood at the door.

She heard his breathing in the dim light, and when her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw him, sunken into the pillow. In just a few days, he had become as thin as a skeleton. He was looking at her. It was really scary.

She walked over, his eyeballs moving slowly in his sunken sockets as she moved. She pulled a chair over to the bed and sat down, her eyes completely adjusted to the darkness. She saw him smiling, his haggard face and bulging eyes made his smile look particularly hideous. She said nothing, nor did she hide. She just watched him tremblingly pick up the water cup on the bedside and smash it on her head. Blood slid down his forehead and hit the quilt with a thud.

The respirator beeped wildly, and his thin chest rose and fell rapidly. She looked at him for a while, and when the bleeding stopped, she stood up and walked out.

Zhou Yue walked down the spiral staircase. Before she reached the first floor, she heard a loud clanging noise coming from the second floor. The noise was so loud that the stairs and walls were shaking, and dust was falling from the ceiling. She tilted her head back and waited until the hanging crystal chandelier stopped shaking before she went down. This thing weighed hundreds of pounds, and it would be a big deal if it fell.

The weather got a little better, and she saw the painting again when she passed the corner of the stairs. The sunlight poured in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the crystal chandelier reflected colorful light, swaying on the face of the woman in the painting, like tears.

Maybe one day she would die like Jiang Huai's mother, surrounded by swarms of leeches and flies. Who knows? Zhou Yue thought so and turned to go downstairs, but she heard footsteps coming down from upstairs, accompanied by a man's clear voice: "Madam, please stay."

Liao Jie must have just started work today and was in a good mood. He stood in front of her with a bright smile, handed her a handkerchief, and looked up at the building. "Look at you, Mr. Jiang has the energy to smash things."

Zhou Yue smiled and wiped the blood from her head. "I'll come see him when he calms down. It's not good for him to be so angry."

Liao Jie smiled and said helplessly, "You should go up and see him."

The bedroom had been smashed to pieces by Jiang Huai. Broken glass covered the floor, and black medicine residue splattered on the wall. Zhou Yue walked around the mess, still sitting in the same chair, looking down at him. He had a nasal cannula in his nose, breathing heavily. He smiled faintly as he looked at her face. "You don't want to kill me?" He panted again and again, "Go ahead."

She was silent.

"Is this what your mother taught you? Kill your husband and your father." He smiled and raised his hand to slap her in the face, but he couldn't exert much strength. He only grabbed her hair that was covering her temples, revealing her cold mechanical skull.

Zhou Yue drooped her eyes in surprise for a moment, then chuckled, "You know quite a lot." She caressed his bony hand with a charming smile and whispered, "Why, being my husband isn't enough, you want to be my father too?"

"Well, you know what, they really do look alike." She held his tense hand and kneaded it a little, interlocking her fingers with his. She looked at the thick, light-blocking curtains and sighed, "But compared to you, my dad is still too human."

"Killed my husband, killed my father..." She leaned close to him, carefully examined his eyebrows and eyes, pecked his lips lightly, and whispered sweetly, "You did the same, didn't you? Don't think I don't know that your previous wife didn't die of SARS at all. You killed your wife, your father, and your brother. You are even more like an animal than I am."

He laughed, his rapid breathing as sharp as scraping the bottom of a pot, "So I helped you, helped you kill your brother."

She smiled and stared at him intently, her eyes wide and sparkling. She held his hand and sighed lovingly, "Isn't it? No matter how much money you make, you can't save your sister from starving to death. We are all powerless wastes. It's even! Hahaha!"

She smiled with her mouth open, and when she had laughed enough, she glanced at his bloodshot eyes and said with a click of the tongue, "Okay, don't be angry. It was just a joke. Don't get really angry later. What will happen to me and my son?"

As she spoke, she fell headfirst onto his pillow, looking closely at his temples and ears, sniffing his neck, and brushing her fingertips over the fine lines at the corners of his eyes. He didn't hit or scold her anymore, but just stared at the ceiling in a daze.

"An old guy!" She sighed with a smile. "When I first saw you, you were twenty-three, right? I could see the baby fat on your face on TV. I even told my brother that you were a handsome brother, like that guy in Sailor Moon..." She frowned and thought carefully, her eyes lit up, "Yes! Nephrite!"

"Ah..." She propped up her head with one hand and looked at him. "I was young then, I just pointed and said it casually. I never thought of what would happen later, and I never thought we would be entangled for so many years."

He turned around and looked at her with a malicious smile, "Are you possessed by a ghost?"

"No, no, no," she shook her head like a rattle. "I finally woke up from this sleep. I came here today just to ask you a question," she said calmly.

"What?"

"I won't kill you, but you have to be nice to my son, okay?"

"Ha! You won't kill me." He laughed breathlessly. "You're so awesome! I have to kowtow to you to express my gratitude, right?"

Zhou Yue stopped smiling and leaned on his shoulder, saying earnestly, "If you hold a grudge against me and don't want to see me anymore, I'll leave now. But you know my problems. I'm just like your mother. I can die any day. If I have to raise my son alone without anyone to entrust him to, how can I let him live?" She hugged his neck, "Brother, please forgive me this time."

"It's really pitiful how pitiful the parents in the world are..." His breath was hot, and he slapped her face twice, making her face numb. "Wouldn't it be better if I sent you three downstairs to reunite?"

After hearing this, she sat up and stopped talking, just staring at the curtains. After a moment of dead silence, he smiled, "Let's not talk about what happened twenty years ago. You're really a sellout. You turned your back on me when the price fell through."

She remained silent, her scattered hair blowing in the cold air. He raised his hand again, but it only grazed her jaw, leaving a bloody mark. Or he would pull her hair, but she remained silent from beginning to end, until he tore off her black skirt and reached under her, gasping and cursing, "You're dressed like a crow, are you here for my funeral?" Only then did she lower her eyes and look at him coldly, taking in his scarlet eyes on his pale face. Hatred made his dry eyes watery, shining in the dim light. "It's easy for me to forgive you. The elder said that if anyone could kowtow all the way from the first step of the temple to the last, I would be healed. Are you willing to do that for me? It would be worthy of the little bastard you gave birth to, and also of the twenty years between you and me."